Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

733 - Shrine On Me

The Shrine of the Starless Sky wasn’t what Lex had expected it to be.

His interrogation of Akna a day earlier had focused purely on pragmatic matters regarding the Shrine and the Rite, ignoring aesthetics completely. As such, when Akna had told him that the entire Shrine was underground, Lex had pictured the place as being little more than a cavern with a series of satellite caves radiating out from it, much like the den that Solvei and her family lived in.

That had been compounded by what Mystaria had said about it being an “antenoctem” temple, apparently dating it prior to some reformation of the Night Mare’s religion. While Equestria had stood still for a millennium, the same couldn’t be said for Everglow; its current level of development – while still primitive in every regard compared to his homeland, save only for magic – was something that had been achieved only since the founding of the Pony Empire. As such, Lex had been prepared for the Shrine to be a crude and unsophisticated affair.

But looking at it now, Lex could see that the Shrine was anything but.

In his youth, Lex had given engineering – like most other physical sciences – only a cursory overview before having lost interest in it, finding conceptual pursuits far more intellectually stimulating. But even with the malaise hanging over him now, he could appreciate that he was looking at a truly impressive feat of construction.

The chamber that he, Akna, and Valor had exited had been lacking in furnishings or ornamentations, but its walls had been smooth and its ceiling level. But passing through its only doorway and into a large open area, Lex could see that it had been given only cursory treatment compared to the central feature of the Shrine.

Across from them – carved into the back wall of the cavern – was what could only be described as a cathedral. But unlike the ornate basilicas which dominated the skyline of Viljatown, this one lacked windows or steeples. Instead, it was a single tower rising up from the ground, extending nearly to the top of the cave, where it split into four smaller protrusions which finished the climb up the ceiling, leaving a small viewing platform between them.

By itself, that would have been a daunting sight, but the original builders hadn’t been content to leave their work undecorated.

Instead, they had fashioned the exterior of the tower to look as though it were a giant limb that had thrust up through the ground. Even from his current distance, Lex could make out how the exterior had been sculpted to look as though it were covered in a fine layer of fur, not dissimilar from that of a pony. But instead of ending in a hoof, the four extensions jutting up from the top of the tower were instead carved to resemble claws, the viewing platform sitting in the open palm.

The most notable feature by far, however, were the lines of thorns draped up and down the tower’s length. Carved out of the same stone as the tower, they spread back and forth across almost all of it before terminating just below where the tower split off into its smaller extensions. Even at a glance, Lex found it impossible to miss the resemblance between them and the barbed wire that was wrapped around his foreleg.

Nor had Akna overlooked that resemblance either, he knew. It was how she’d known of his connection to the Night Mare the instant she’d laid eyes on him.

The central building wasn’t the only part of the cavern that was decorated, however. In the black-and-white view of his darkvision, the cathedral, surrounding buildings, and floor were all a pale grey. But the walls and ceiling of the massive subterrane were pitch black, causing them to stand out in stark contrast to the rest of the place, making the gigantic stone claw look as though it were reaching upward into a featureless nighttime atmosphere.

No one seeing it would have needed to ask how the Shrine of the Starless Sky got its name

Still, Lex couldn’t help but peer closer at the surrounding walls, puzzled. The cathedral and the other buildings were all built into the sides of the cavern. The coloration of the rest of the place shouldn’t have been so different...but a moment’s investigation revealed the cause: the upper portions of the cave were covered in black crystals.

For the briefest instant, Lex’s heartbeat sped up, thinking that they were the same substance that he conjured with his dark magic. But having been raised by a mother who had worked as a lapidary, a moment’s examination was all Lex needed to put the lie to that theory, recognizing them as being onyx.

But that made the display only marginally less impressive. There had to be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of onyx gems decorating the cavern. They were present in all shapes and sizes, fitted together in a byzantine arrangement that saw them squeezed so tightly against each other that a pin couldn’t have been pushed between them, clustered so as to make a cohesive image of a pitch-black sky. A fraction of them would have been a fortune sufficient to buy a palatial estate, fully furnished and with the servants’ salaries paid for a decade. All of them together would have been enough to buy even a prosperous kingdom.

And that still wasn’t the full extent of what the cavern held. Compared to the cathedral and ceiling, the remaining buildings were far less impressive. Like the upward-reaching claw, they were all built into the back wall of the cavern, though none were anywhere near as high. Instead, they were small one- and two-story buildings, windowless and flat-roofed.

But while not given the artistic flair of the cavern’s central features, the other buildings weren’t without adornment. Instead, each one had the statue of a beast crouched atop their roof, all gazing upward at the massive stone claw with their jaws open in silent howls. None of them were ordinary creatures, however; looking around slowly, Lex could see a lion with scales and leathery wings, a huge reptile with over a dozen pairs of legs, a gorilla with protruding tusks and four arms, a bear with the head of an owl, and numerous other monstrous creatures.

A glance back showed that there was one of them on the ceiling of the squat, single-story building they’d just exited too: an unnaturally large wolf with two heads. Like the others, it was turned toward the massive, thorn-wrapped claw, mouths open as though roaring at the huge limb.

The sight made Lex uneasy, certain that it had been no coincidence that he and the others had been put in that particular building to recuperate. But before he could ask Akna about it, Valor made her thoughts about the place known.

“Makwa preserve us,” muttered the earth mare as she looked around, her eyes wide. “This is incredible!”

“I was stunned when I first saw it too,” admitted Akna. “It’s a tribute to the Night Mare’s majesty, reminding us that even the mightiest creatures of the world pay homage to her power. Of course, lately I’ve been wondering if it symbolizes something different,” she finished, glancing at Lex out of the corner of her eye.

She wasn’t the only one, with Valor swallowing as she looked at the stone beasts, the dark crystals hanging above them, and the central claw with its thorns before looking back at Lex. “Yeah...I see what you mean.”

But while Lex wasn’t blind to the parallels they were alluding to – for all that he lacked the ability to perceive unspoken implications in the words of others, there was no way he could miss the obvious symbolism all around him – it wasn’t foremost on his mind at the moment. The Shrine was an extraordinary monument to his goddess, but now that his surprise at its grandeur was wearing off, Lex’s interest in the place was already fading in favor of the more immediate concern that had taken hold of him. “This is a waste of time. Where is Solvei’s body?”

For a moment Akna looked like she wanted to protest his changing the subject, but she seemed to think better of it. “This way.”

Padding silently across the open courtyard between the smaller buildings, she made her way toward the opposite side of the cavern. Valor fell in behind them, her head still twisting to and fro as she took in the splendor surrounding them on all sides.

...or rather, almost on all sides. Out of his peripheral vision, Lex could see that there was one area that hadn’t been given nearly as much treatment as the rest of the place.

Directly opposite the cathedral was a huge tunnel, one which – unlike the entrance he’d opened from the river alcove – sat open. Large enough that an elephant could have walked through it unhindered, Lex knew from having interrogated Akna previously that it led down into the catacombs beneath the Shrine, eventually leading into a network of tunnels that wound their way deep underground. Of course, to hear her tell it, they were also guarded just as heavily as the river entrance – the only path from the surface that connected to the Shrine – was.

Nor was that the only thing that caught his attention as they crossed the courtyard.

“Even the ground is unusual,” murmured Valor, taking a moment to sweep her gaze over the surface they were walking on. “It’s like it’s a single piece of flat stone.”

Although Lex didn’t say anything, that hadn’t escaped his notice either. The way the ground had been smoothed and leveled wouldn’t have been unusual back in Equestria, where pavement was considered normal. But Everglow didn’t have that level of development; all of the roads here were either made of cobblestones or were simply dirt. The only way that the ground could have been made this way was with magic.

But whoever had done so hadn’t stopped with the ground.

While Valor apparently hadn’t noticed yet, all of the surrounding buildings were similarly smooth in their construction. There were no visible mortar joints connecting bricks, nor gaps where interlocking pieces of stone had been fit together. Each building was made from a single, continuous piece of stone. Even with magic shaping them, Lex could barely imagine the effort that had gone into the spellwork necessary to create so many buildings with such intricate decorations.

Of course, that didn’t necessarily mean that was the case for the statues atop the surrounding buildings. While it was probable that they were simply exceptionally lifelike carvings, Lex couldn’t bring himself to entirely trust that idea. After all, petrification wasn’t unknown even in Equestria; the Royal Sisters had used exactly that method to defeat the monster that called itself Discord, even if they’d needed the Elements of Harmony to perform such a feat. Here on Everglow, with its greater level of magical development, such artifacts weren’t necessary to turn something to stone.

Which meant that, if he was right, the traps guarding the various entrances to this place weren’t the only method of protecting it. Presuming a canny defender had the magic necessary to do so, unpetrifying all of these creatures would immediately give the Shrine an ample array of powerful defenders.

Fortunately, that’s not the case for that gigantic claw, Lex knew. Akna had been inside it before, confirming that it was a building rather than the petrified limb of some colossal creature.

“She’s right over there.”

Akna’s comment drew Lex’s full attention, looking at the two-story building with a statue of a ten-headed hydra on its roof that she’d indicated. “I placed her near the back,” continued the adlet. “I hope you’re not upset that I put her here. I just didn’t want her dead body to be the first thing you saw when you woke up.”

“Which turned out to be a wise decision,” added Valor. “Lex, are you sure you want to do this? When I lost my father, I wasn’t-”

Lex, however, didn’t bother listening. Instead, he broke into a gallop as he pushed past Akna, racing ahead through the building entrance, ignoring everything else as he burst into the interior of the place...and came to a halt.

Solvei’s body was nowhere to be found.

Author's Note:

Lex goes looking for Solvei's body, only to find that it's not where Akna said!

What happened to the winter wolf? And why does the Shrine seem to reflect Lex's nature so strongly?

Comments

[Not so New Brony]

If I had to guess, Solvei didn't spontaneously come back to life and wandered off. My best guess is the Keeper carrying out it's duties, one of which likely includes maintaining the shrine's condition which would involve disposal of bodies though if the Keeper is a giant arachnid like I had thought, then Lex will be livid at this and cause conflict between him and the Keeper.

[Booster Spice]

Im wondering if due to the interaction beteween Lex use of Divine Authority on a Companion, in the Shrine, that Solvei has been reclassified as an Eidolon or other summons, or even Lex has a chance to upgrade her to one of the Nightmares own, like a subsidiary to Severance?

[Firefoxino]

If some ghoul took the body to eat it there will be hell to pay!

[harts fire]

giggle giggle.

Solvei’s body was nowhere to be found.

hum wonder what is going on here??

[Alzrius]

11291294 Given that Lex probably would have been aware of it if Solvei had suddenly come back to life (though it's unclear if that would restore their bond or not), we can tentatively rule that out. Of course, that means that someone else did something to her body, in which case Lex's anger is likely to be apocalyptic in scope, all the more so since he's still only barely recovered enough to the point of no longer being quite literally mad with grief. If someone's defiled Solvei's body, I suspect he'll lose all sense of reason and go on another rampage.

[Alzrius]

11291339 Interesting ideas, but at this point it's too soon to tell. Certainly, being in an area that's consecrated to the Night Mare likely means something significant, particularly with the rather suggestive imagery of the Shrine itself, but at this point we can only speculate about the specifics.

[Alzrius]

11291341 In that case, I would expect Lex to bring the entire cavern down in a fit of rage.

[Alzrius]

11291605 No doubt we'll find out shortly, because there's no way Lex is letting this go.

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

And why does the Shrine seem to reflect Lex's nature so strongly?

I am pretty sure from past information, Lex's nature coincide the Nightmare's one. So the Shrine reflect the Nightmare's nature rather than Lex's but due to similarities between Lex and the Nightmare both are correct.

[Alzrius]

11292126 That's certainly a valid interpretation. It doesn't seem likely that Lex is the first to wear barbed wire (or thorns, for cultures that hadn't invented that level of metalworking) around their foreleg, nor is he the first to have the greater blessing of divine authority. Although the use of onyx does resemble his black crystals pretty strongly, but that might be just a coincidence.