1.8 From the Wall

 

The Order of the Resolute Fist sends Flora to the Scholar's Garden to train in martial arts. 

 

She isn't sure how long she's here. Time seems to lose meaning.

 

 

 

When they are satisfied with her beginner's skill, they send her into a maze beneath The Temple of Heaven, on a search for an artifact that will speak to her. 

 

The temple's underbelly is filled with chasms into unfathomable abysses and winding corridors to get lost in. Flora pays her respects to many shrines and opens many chests, finding glittering gems, piles of coins, and interesting jade carvings, but none of these speak to her, so she leaves them. 

Maybe the speaking object is metaphorical? Is she supposed to find something she just... fancies? Or do these tunnels go on forever, and the true test is knowing when to give up? Or maybe, she just isn't the person the temple is meant to yield its secrets to at all?

 

Take me from the wall, a voice whispers. 

"What?" Flora is so startled she releases the lid of the box she was looking into. It falls onto her fingers, pinching them, causing her to whimper in ways a chosen one probably shouldn't.

Take me from the wall, the voice repeats, and use my power to reshape the world.

Flora looks at the walls. The temple is decorated with many beautiful paintings, and sometimes the odd ceremonial sword. She's looked into every nook and cranny, she thought, for little cubby holes that hide switch-offs for traps...

 

 

The axe. When Flora looks at it, it glows. She takes it from the wall, underestimating its heaviness. She stumbles under the weight. It crackles with energy and lightning that does not harm her. Then it vanishes into thin air, but in a strange way, she can still feel its presence. 

 

Uneasily, she continues through the maze...

...and when a boulder blocks her path, the axe inexplicably reappears in her hands...

 

...granting her the power to smash the boulder.

 

In truth, Flora was lost in that maze, and is relieved to have the axe's help in finding a quick way back above ground. She bikes to the Resolute Fist Retreat to report her success.

She has no axe to show them, as it has inconveniently vanished, but when she describes the object the masters immediately know of the item. 

"Pangu's Axe," one tells her, "is one of the many objects of power within the temple, invisible to most eyes."

"Pangu was the first being, a primordial being," another explains. "He separated the Earth and sky, and sculpted our mountains."

"That's just a story though. If you really want to know about how the mountains formed, I teach a geology class," a third master pipes up.

The second master turns to glare at the third.

 

"Well, the axe is real," the eldest master huffs. "Every chosen one has found the axe."

"Um, it seems haunted or something," Flora says.

 

Pangu is not my name, the axe's voice says to her, but I can sculpt mountains. My power was feared and so I was murdered before I could mature with that power. This fragment, this thing you perceive as an axe, is all that remains of my soul.

 

"Super haunted," Flora says, though it seems none of the masters can hear the voice she hears.

Flora and Alexandria spend their last night in Shang Simla camping. Their visas expire tomorrow, and the potionsmith has taught Alexandria all they care to about the secrets of alchemy.

 

"She told me this Chosen One thing happens a lot," Alexandria explains. "The Resolute Fist isn't interested in hurting you, but the way before the Chosen Ones is 'perilous'."

"Do they really need my help?"

"She believes so..."

 

Before heading home to Sunlit Tides, the pair are sent to an all expenses paid trip to a dig site outside Al Simhara, as per the wishes of the Resolute Fist. Flora is being offered too much money to refuse.

 

This time, Alexandria follows her daughter into the tombs, to personally assess their dangers.

Unfortunately they come across too many chambers designed to allow only one person entry.

"The tomb didn't kill you?! Most excellent!" Mahmud Taymur is Flora's contact in this Al Simhara, and despite his ties to Resolute Fist, he is not one of them nor does he have much respect for their ways. "They told you not to loot, did they? Fools. All the magical treasures here respawn, after a time. The tombs are as cursed as the people here, but they won't harm you."

"I don't understand."

"Al Simhara, Shang Simla and Champs Les Sims form the Sims Triangle. Things are lost here, and things are found here. All things come undone and all things are reborn."

Flora pouts. "I'm bad with riddles."

"There is no riddle, Flora. Events flow differently here. I am not an immortal man, yet somehow I will find myself walking these sands again when the next 'Chosen One' requires my presence, generations from now. You don't believe a word of this, though, and you'll forget the details before you return to wherever it is you're from."

Flora doesn't know what to say to any of that. "Do you know how to seal Dong Huo away?"

"No. If you are the Resolute Fist's champion, truly, then you will figure it out and save us from being overrun by mummies again. If they fail to find a champion, we'll probably be consumed by the evil."

"Could you not call the, uh, military? Or the Ghostbusters?"

"Consumed by the evil," Mahmud repeats.

Flore frowns at him. "So... why me?"

"I have no idea," he answers. He has seen many adventurers, sometimes simple looters and thieves, sometimes potentials of the Resolute Fist. Some are able to find their way into the deepest parts of the tombs, while others aren't, and Taymur has been unable to determine any linking factors between the successful.

 

Alexandria finds more enjoyment camping under these huge palm trees than she would staying in a luxury resort. She and her eldest child roast veggies over a fire and swim in the river to cool down, treating this like a vacation instead of a job, at least for a little while.

"Taymur said I should go into the Pyramid of the Burning Sands alone," Flora says cautiously. "I know you don't like the idea of some strange man telling me to go to a remote place all alone, but I'm scared it's trapped to punish me if I try to bring help."

"You're almost an adult, and I've seen you break boards with your bare hands," Alex mutters. "You'll always be my baby and there will always be bad people and I will always worry, but I can't control your life. If you want to join a cult and get rich..."

 

Alex cringes, feeling like a terrible mother.

 

Flora laughs. "I do want to get rich. It's not like I joined their religion or whatever though. Their chosen one is supposed to be an outsider." 

The next day, Flora investigates the Pyramid of the Burning Sands on her own. 

 

That tiny speck is her.

Resolute Fist gave her some instruction on how to decipher hieroglyphs.

Before long, she's in, and more dive wells await her.

 

 

 Part of Flora's mission is to gather magical fruits. They have alchemical uses, so she makes sure to pick extra, for her mother.

 

When she comes across a sarcophagus, she figures she'd better look inside, to make sure there aren't any of these mummies she's been warned about. 

All she finds is a large pile of dried food. It's still good.

 

"Oh no! I'm about to die and become a ghost! Mom's gonna be so mad!"

 

Back into the dive well!

Many hours of adventuring later, Flora encounters her first mummy.

It shambles towards her, giving her quite the evil eye.

Flora was told never to throw the first punch, so she ignores the undead King Raymundo for now.

Are... are you still robbing my grave even though I'm RIGHT HERE? 

 

What audacity!

 

King Raymundo is in love.

______________________________________________________________

Etc.: Vampires, plant-sims who aren't, visions about a creepy psychic child, and now mummies and a haunted axe. This family just can't stay out of trouble no matter which branch of it I'm playing.

 

Flora is officially locked in as heir. I wanted to wait until she was an adult to have her start her rolled career, but adventuring is so lucrative and the household was struggling financially, so I gave in to the temptation to start plundering tombs early. 

 

Alex's single parent income was going slow since she had to restart her career (military → fortune teller), and constantly paying babysitters set things back as well. I wouldn't have minded the tight budget, as it can be a fun challenge to work with so little, but I have very specific decorative ideas for the house and I knew I'd never get to them in a timely manner if something didn't change.