Page 26 of Captive

Chapter 6

Novikke’s eyes were on the ground as they walked, so she didn’t notice that their surroundings had changed until a flat, white, square stone appeared under her foot.

The trees had thinned out, and before them were the ruins of what might have once been a city square. The soft bluish light of the moons lit it up in the night.

A patchy floor of smooth stone and blue, green, and violet overgrowth stretched in every direction. Broken structures, crumbling and laced with moss and lichen, rose up like ghosts all around them. Most were collapsed, but a few towers remained, standing out like pale trees in the dark forest. Dotted between the remaining buildings were jumbled piles of stone blocks.

In the center of the square was an enormous obelisk. It was the only part of the place that was fully intact, despite the plants crawling over its surface. Flowering vines and moss had climbed nearly to the top of it.

If she looked closely, Novikke could almost see a pattern of greenery radiating around the obelisk, as if the plants were being drawn to it.

Or, as if they were coming out of it.

It was a ruin from the Auren-Li civilization—the ancient elves who had once occupied all of modern Ardani and Ysura. They’d disappeared thousands of years ago, but the remains of their cities were scattered all across the continent.

She had only ever seen one other Auren-Li ruin: the Galanis ruins just south of Valtos. But that one had long ago been picked apart, divested of all artifacts of value and of any potential dangers, and turned into little more than a lifeless tourist attraction.

Running into an Auren-Li ruin alone in the wild was a different matter entirely. Without the oversight of a team of mages, archaeologists, and fighters, they were impressive but dangerous places.

Magic energy was always present in higher-than-usual concentrations in these places. Whether it was because the Auren-Li built their cities on top of places where magic naturally gathered, or if the earth had been contaminated with it by the elves themselves, no one was certain.

A mage would be able to sense the magic there and draw power from it. Novikke had never had any sensitivity to magic. She felt nothing except a vague feeling of unease and curiosity.

She was not particularly worried about the ruin itself. It was the things it attracted that you had to look out for. Mundane animals stayed away from Auren-Li ruins, but supernatural creatures were drawn to their magic.

For a long few moments Novikke just stared at it all, awestruck.

Aruna stepped up beside her. He gave a rare smile, looking almost proud. Novikke tried to ignore the fluttering in her chest the expression caused.

He took the notebook out of his pocket. “The work of my ancestors,” he wrote.

Novikke raised an eyebrow. She took the notebook from him. “I thought only sun elves were descended from the Auren-Li.”

“Did an Ysuran tell you that?” He gave a sarcastic flourish as he wrote it. Novikke shrugged. He continued, “All elves are descended from the original elves, the great Auren-Li.”

“And now you all hate each other.”

She couldn’t tell if he was more annoyed or amused. “History is complicated,” he wrote. “Please stay close. Dryads and—” He paused, as if trying to remember the Dreioni word for whatever he was thinking of, then gave up. “—and other creatures have been sighted here. And the stonework is unstable. Many people have come into this place and never come out.”

She nodded, looking into the dark corners in the shadows of arches and alleyways. She guessed he was exaggerating to scare her into compliance, but she was reluctant to test that theory.

They crossed the square in eerie quiet. Novikke’s footsteps tapped softly against the stone floor and echoed against the nearby buildings. Aruna’s were silent. There was no rustling or chirping of animals. She couldn’t decide if the silence was peaceful or unnerving.

She paused to study a remarkably lifelike statue of a winged woman wearing a suit of plate armor. Her head and arms had long ago broken off and lay in pieces at her feet. Aruna stopped beside her, scribbling in the notebook.

“It’s the goddess Vahan. You call her Volkan.”

Volkan. One of the five gods. The goddess of battle and fury.

“The Auren-Li worshiped Volkan?” she wrote, surprised.

“Did you think humans were the first to note her presence?”

She looked down at the statue’s head on the ground. Framing the woman’s beautiful, fearsome face was a pair of pointed ears.

“They’ve made her an elf,” she wrote. “She’s human in Ardani.”

“Of course. Humans make everything about themselves.”

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