2.7 Eyes of Horus

The sound of seagulls. Flora can't escape it. Though to the untrained eye the birds are identical to the ones that soar over her home in Sunlit Tides, these seagulls are native to Al Simhara's riverbanks.

 

The Sanctuary of Horus supposedly hides inside this temple. The structure bears a striking resemblance to the Abu Simbel temples, and has been thoroughly explored and catalogued since its discovery ages ago. No one has found this Sanctuary of Horus. Yet the Resolute Fist is certain it exists.

Flora, with her ability to zeneport, must conduct her own search...

 

She zeneports directly into a fire trap. A fantastic start!

Days of exploring the temple yield no sign of this Sanctuary of Horus.

 

Flora sits down and sighs.

Use my power to reshape the world, she hears a whisper she hasn't heard in a while.

Getting to her feet, she causes Pangu's Axe to appear in her hands, and... she swings.

She just swings at the air.

And it works.

You've made a cut in reality itself. Carved a new path.

The eyes of Horus are waiting for her to take them.

Of course, Flora has to go through an evil undead priest first.

 

 

Ho Sung Kim greets Flora warmly upon her arrival in Shang Simla, but there is worry in his eyes. She informs him she has procured the eyes of Horus, and he nods, telling her all the pieces are in place. The only thing to do now is go to the Temple of Heaven, place the Eyes, and unlock the mouth of the Dragon Cave. 

"Seems a bit counter-productive, if we want him sealed in there."

"The current seals will be no barrier to him once he is at full strength. Your slaying of his henchmen has weakened his potential, but even now he draws power from his surroundings and grows stronger. Soon he will be too powerful to defeat. We have no time to train another Chosen One. You must be the person to stop him, Flora."

"I'll do everything I can," she promises.

 

"Master Xi Yuan had a vision about you." Ho Sung looks down at his feet. "I think you should speak with her."

 

 

A vision? As a brave-trait sim, Flora is more intrigued than scared, even after seeing Ho Sung seem so troubled. On her way to speak to Master Yuan the sky darkens considerably, as if it were dusk, though it's only noon.

 

"Chosen One." Xi Yuan bows in greeting. "I've had a terrible vision. As you near to the completion of your task, you will be taken from us, locked in a realm away from us. You will be beyond our reach, beyond our help. I'm not sure what this means... perhaps you fall victim to a poison trap, fall into a deep sleep of unreality? Or Shen Yu is onto something, and you have angered a spirit. There are stories of mortals being taken into realms normally known only to spirits."

 

"What do you want me to do, Master Yuan?"

 

"Fight. Fight to escape. It will not be a physical fight, but a test of the mind."

"You mean a puzzle?" Flora has seen plenty of puzzles in the tombs so far.

"There is a man in this realm of my vision... someone else trapped? Or someone you know? He can help lead you back to us before it's too late."

 

Flora pictures Ariel, guiding her out of a poison-induced sleep. "I'll try to avoid the trap, Master."

"You can't. There is no longer a path that leads away from it."

"Then I'll fight," Flora promises.

"May you be guided and protected, Chosen One."

As Flora approaches the Temple of Heaven, the air only grows colder. The rain becomes heavy snow.

 

But once she's inside, things are as heated as ever....

 

...until she has to jump into an ice cold dive well.

A cowardly mummy tries to slip by Flora as she's checking the sarcophagi!

 

He's so going down.

 

 

 Flora screws up an arrow trap. This is it, she thinks, this is the poison that knocks me unconscious.

But time has dulled the arrows' potency, and Flora is able to pluck each arrow out of her skin, one by one, only getting a little woozy.

She takes a while to mentally recover, and then presses on.

At least some rooms are beautiful.

Flora correctly expects searching this hole in the wall will reveal something helpful, like a switch that lowers the stairways. She finds a switch, but her fingers also brush against something she recognizes as a crystal ball cut turquoise, when she moves it slightly into the light. She's found many like this before. She's looted a few, mostly from Al Simhara. She decides to leave this one alone.

She takes her hand away from the hole and turns away from the wall, but she isn't where she was before.

 

 

She isn't in Shang Simla at all.

 

 

 

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Etc.: I failed to take enough interesting pictures, because I was so focused on having fun with the tombs, so I've been attributing some screenshots to tombs they don't belong in. Flora's run on the Temple of Heaven there included shots from other tombs, such as Halls of the Lost Army.

 

WARNING: the next update contains spoilers for the interior of tombs in the player-created world Mermaidia.

HOWEVER, some of them will look a lot more green and leafy than they are supposed to, because I forgot to reload the game after traveling there sometimes. I was in a lot of pain when I was playing through this and taking the screenshots; it distracted me enough that I seriously just didn't notice that there was anything wrong. I hope the creators will forgive me; I am still going to include some of the "wrong" screenshots because I just don't have the willpower to replay all the tombs with Flora, who is as of this writing not even a young adult sim anymore in my game.

For the best look at Mermaidia, download it yourself. It's worth it.