Chapter Twenty-One

The city I saw from a distance the night before, came into view as we rounded a bend in the path.

We all marveled at the buildings and the architecture they displayed.

Moss and vines covered most of the golden colored structures. The landscape entering into what used to be streets and alleyways throughout the city. I stared down into deeper levels of the paths and noted grates along the walls, as if water had once run through these parts of the city.

Sasha ran her hand over the first building we came close to, her eyes widening.

"It's smooth," she gasped as her fingers ran along the edges. "And it's metal! ."

Aurora walked up next to her and ran her hand along the building as well. "What city is this?"

Baer and I looked around as I shrugged in answer.

"There are several cities that it could be. Camelot, Atlantis, Shangri-La," I said. "And there are possible cities that even myths and legends forgot."

Sasha walked on as her hand dragged over the stone. I watched as she looked around with interest at the city, her gaze taking in every stone left of the streets and pillars that adorned the roads.

"Wouldn't it be amazing if this was one of those places. That the lost cities were right here in the Forgotten Realm all this time, and we found them."

I smiled and closed in the space between us. "It would certainly be extraordinary." I looked to my left and right and noticed some signs marking the roads, though their letters were now faded from time. "Why don't we explore and see if we can't find a sign of what this place is? From what I can tell all the roads lead right back to the main path, and we were planning to make camp here."

I looked back at Baer and Aurora, who both smiled and nodded.

"That sounds interesting. I'd love to try and figure out what this place is like as well. Any information we learn here, we can take back and share with the other covens and packs. This place holds our shared history after all."

I frowned for only a moment at the idea of sharing information with the Crete witches. It hadn't been long since they refused to share information with my family that likely could have helped both sides with this quest we were all on together now. But as I looked over at Sasha, that hesitation subsided.

"That's a great idea," I said as I took Sasha's hand. "This road has the least faded sign that I've seen so far. Maybe it will lead us to some town center with better hints of what the city is."

We turned right and crossed the road to the next path. The growth of the wilds subsided deeper into the city as we went. It became less and less aged by time and seemed to be completely frozen in place. As if time didn't come this deep within the city's limits.

"What language is this?" Aurora asked from behind us.

Sasha and I both paused and looked to find Aurora and Baer staring into what appeared to be a storefront. We took a step back and checked out the view with them.

The symbols and letters were familiar to me, though their combination was strange to see.

In my studies of my family's diaries throughout the ages, I had to learn several ancient languages in order to read the untranslated tombs. I learned quickly that some of my ancestors took to learning ancient languages to keep their words hidden from those outside of the family. Their idea of a secret code to hide their words during times of witch trials and hunts.

"This symbol here is Phoenician," I said as I pointed to the first symbol. "So, is this one here. But this is Greek here."

Sasha pointed to the shape of a bird printed next to the mixture of symbols. "That's a hieroglyph of an ibis."

I looked back at her with equal shock and admiration. "How did you know that?"

She shrugged, though I caught the slight hint of a blush as a wave of embarrassment swept through the bond. "I saw you reading a book that was clearly old and the language just as old. I thought you were trying to outdo me with some language skills, so I found a book on ancient Egypt and started to study it. As it turned out, I really enjoyed learning about their language and history."

I smirked at her as she cleared her throat. "So, what does the ibis mean then?"

"Well," Sasha said confidently. "Ibis are often associated with Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge." She gave a frown at the sign. "Whatever the sign is saying, it has to do with learning."

I nodded then and pointed back to the mix-matched symbols. "If I take these and translate them as best I can, they all have to do with knowledge as well."

A loud crash made us both leap back and look at the dust as if wafted through the air.

Baer stood beside a now open door and peered inside with a wide grin on his face.

"Looks like a bookstore," he laughed. "Guess that's what they meant by knowledge."

He grabbed Aurora's hand and pointed to another storefront across the street. "That looks promising to me. Maybe it's an old grocery store."

I watched as the two of them ran off to explore the next store, the same crash of the door flying off its hinges, reaching my ears as Baer made it across the road.

"That's not a bad idea," Sasha said then.

"What's not?"

"Looking for food. Or anything really. We've been living off the land for a while now. But maybe there is some store house or something with food that's still good."

She was right. It wasn't a bad idea. This part of the city was completely frozen in time. Not even a single shingle out of place on the rooftops. It was likely that the food found here could still be good.

I took a look around and got a feel for the place. My feet were planted to the ground as I found roots growing beneath the stone of the roads. I mapped out the area in my mind, checking for any sign of life aside from us within the city. When I found it to be monster free, I nodded to Sasha.

"It's safe here if you want to explore the buildings. We can split up and meet back in a little bit. Over there at that fountain."

I pointed up the road where the street opened into a courtyard with a large fountain at its center, the water still flowing from the vase held in a beautiful woman's arms.

Sasha nodded. "I'll call through the bond if I find anything."

I smiled, knowing that we now had that connection. That she thought of it as if it were the most natural thing.

"Yeah," I said. "I'm going to check out the bookstore here first. Maybe I can find something that will tell us what the city is."

She nodded and continued on, peering through windows as she went to the next building. I watched her disappear into one before entering the bookstore, carefully stepping over the broken-down door with a grimace at the splintered wood.

It was a shame that such a well-preserved piece of history had been torn down so carelessly by the other alpha, but what was done was done.

I took in the room with interest, my eyes finding a lever beside the doorway. After testing the directions of the lever for potential traps, I pulled it.

The sounds of gears turning startled me more, my faith in my power wavering until light suddenly illuminated the room around me. I turned towards the high ceiling and found a large mirror reflecting light down at me. Its angle pointed towards a gap in the wall as a beam of light came through.

I ran through the rows of shelves filled with dust covered books to the door at the end, eagerly opening it to find an even larger space than the room I had first entered.

"It's a library," I whispered to myself, my wolf lifting his head with curiosity at our discovery.

The ceiling sparkled with a crystal-like chandelier, the sunlight beaming through a glass ceiling above.

The crystals reflected the sun's light in different mirrors, each aimed at another and the soft sound of more gears turning. At a closer inspection of the mirror next to me, I discovered they seemed to be moving in the same direction as the sun passing through the sky.

I had often heard of the mysterious technology of the ancient world. The idea that Alexandria had once had a supposed death ray invented by Archimedes that was powered by the sun. But never in all my wildest dreams did I think I would ever see proof that such an invention could even be possible.

I stepped down the marbled staircase into the sunken room, taking in the brightly lit walls. My gaze moved back to the crystal chandelier on more than one occasion, wondering how the room might be lit after the sun went down. Did the crystals collect and store the light energy like modern day solar panels? Or did the light fade with the sun and keep the world of those who lived here dependent on the sun?

Something told me that the answer would be the latter.

At the very center of the room, there were several desks with small lamp-like objects made from the same crystals as the chandelier. Their light was slightly dimmer, yet still bright enough to illuminate the space of the desk for reading and writing.

A map was rolled out on one of the closer desks and I felt my heart skip at the prospect of possibly getting an answer as to what this city could be. However, the map was written in the same mix match of different ancient symbols, and the map didn't quite match that of any modern maps I've studied.

‘The maps were hand drawn,'my wolf reminded me. ‘There might still be some similarities to what you've seen before.'

I nodded and leaned in for a closer look, taking up the seat at the desk to study the map.

The map marked the location as an island set between two other islands. One to the east and west and then two larger masses to the north and south. The land mass below held more hieroglyphic symbols. I noticed the ones to the north had ancient Greek letters. Just enough for me to make out the name of the city but the symbols on the island to the west bear a stronger resemblance to the ancient Minoan Language. I didn't know much of it due to the lack of resources to learn it, but I recognized it from some of the oldest journals in my family's library.

"Crete," I smirked. "Sasha's family's namesake island. Then up here is Greece." I said to myself. "And down here with the hieroglyphs must be Egypt. But there isn't an island this close to Crete."

‘Because the island was lost to history,'my wolf inserted.

"Right," I said. "Well, I think we can count out Camelot then."

Startled by a thud of a fallen book that grabbed my attention, my magic rushing out in search of a presence in the library with me that could have caused the book to fall.

"The hell?" My magic found no one in the building with me, my guard rising as I walked towards the tome on the floor.

The book was bound in leather, the pages' edges appearing to be well worn from constant turning. As I picked it up and flipped through the pages, I was shocked to find it completely translated. The symbols of the area's strange language were there, but beneath it, in fresh ink, were the words in modern English.

"Hello?" I called as I turned in full circle to see who might have been near.

Only my echo responded, not even a trickle of magic hanging in the air.

‘Ayden,'Sasha's voice came to my mind. ‘We found food. We have more than enough to keep us going. Come meet us at the fountain.'

‘On my way,'I responded as I gave the library one last quick look around.

I tucked the book under my arm as I left, not willing to leave behind something that could prove to be useful after all. I couldn't explain the certainty that it was there for our benefit, but I felt not even a glimmer of doubt that whoever sent it was a friend.

I joined the others quickly by the fountain, the beautiful woman dressed in a long gown that hung from one shoulder. After seeing the map in the library, I held a newfound appreciation for the chiseled work of art.

"What did you find?" Baer asked as he nodded to the book under my arm.

I shrugged. "A book that I think might help me translate the language we are seeing here. Better still, there was a map back there. This place was once in the Mediterranean Ocean, smack between Greece and Egypt. I think that's why we are seeing a mixture of the two different languages here."

"Did you see the name of this place then?" Aurora asked curiously.

"I still couldn't read it," I admitted. "The best I can see is where this place had been before it was forgotten. I'm not even certain why it was forgotten to begin with. Especially given the technology these people had had. Did you all see the lighting in the buildings?"

Sasha nodded. "The crystals? Yeah, they seem to be solar powered. There was a sunroof in every building, and mirrors that reflected light from the larger crystal around the building."

"Yeah," Baer said with a shrug. "We saw that too. The mechanics behind it don't seem all that ancient, although, not as advanced as what we have back home."

"No," I agreed. "But it sure as hell was more advanced than anything else from the time that it was in our world. It would have been an extraordinary place for its time. Hard to believe it was ever forgotten."

"Sometimes," Aurora whispered. "The world forgets things they've deemed a threat, and then they chop them up to myths and legends as if they had never existed at all."

I nodded to that, about to respond, when the sound of an enormous bird's call echoed through the city. All our gazes turned upward to the sky, a shadow of a gigantic creature circling the town square as it let out another loud squawk that echoed around us.

"What the hell is that?" Baer gasped as he pulled Aurora to his side and shifted his weight evenly.

I reached over for Sasha at the same moment, my mind speaking the creature's name just as it dove directly for us.

"A griffin!"