Chapter 4: Fear of Blood

Not a word was said when the group arrived at a large metal fortified structure in the middle of the Basia Desert. With one swipe of a card, Doctor Savas walked into the building, the doors closing behind him before the trio could walk inside. Cairo had heard that the place was built by the Government a long time ago, and the doctor used to come out here for research quite a bit, but he’d never think he’d hear the doctor would live out here. There was a breeze of cold air that flew at Cairo’s face as soon as the doors had opened; at the very least there was air conditioning along with state of the art technology in there or he wouldn’t still be researching here.

“Don’t lean against that,” Cairo said.

Cane’s eyes flew open. His body shook as he tried to pull himself away from the metal walls of the research facility he was about to rest against. “Huh?”

“The metal’s heated from the sun. It’ll burn you if you stick to it too long.”

“Oh.”

A man in a labcoat walked out of the door with another woman behind him. Like him, she was dressed in the same pure white uniform. In her hands was a single clip board with a mountain of papers that were attached. She flipped through them with ease, lazily swinging one of her fingers to the area where the sand camels were before flipping through more pages. The man hurried off behind the facility with the sand camels, and when he was gone, the woman sighed, looking up at the trio. She nodded her head to Cairo.

“We’ll be walking from here on out. I don’t want any buried artifacts that could be shifted to the surface ruined if one of the sand camels stepped on them. It’s a mile and a half walk, by the way.”

There was no talking except for the idle chit chat of Cane and Cairo. Sometimes Aerie would make a few comments every now and then, but for the most part she stayed quiet and mapped out the location as Cairo had ordered her to do as they walked. When the ruins were in sight, Cairo pulled Aerie back to him. He walked slower as the woman led them closer.

“Go scout out the runes and see what you can find out from just looking. Wait until she leaves to come back.”

Aerie nodded as she ran off to the side. While her strides were smaller than a man’s her speed was still faster, and within minutes of running, she was completely out of sight. The woman turned around when she was standing on the first step to the ruins. Her eyes stayed on Cairo as she looked around him.

“I thought there were three of you,” she said. “A girl... did she get separated from us? We should head back now if we want to find her in case she wanders. It's easy to get lost.”

“This place looks rather old,” Cairo said, giving Cane a pat on the shoulder as he walked up the stairs, the woman following right behind him. “I’d interested to know what the name is. It’s like a place full of history. At some point I’d like to come back here and really take my time to study the history here.”

“These ruins don’t have a name,” she said, leading the two boys through the ruined remains. “We assume the city that was once here was a small town that didn’t have a name"even if it did, though, such a miniscule place isn’t important. Around here we call them the Basian Ruins, for scientific purposes we sometimes we’ll refer to them as the Ruined Ruins as well. Though there are many other ruins in Basia, these are by far the biggest and most famous.”

Cane touched one of the half standing pillars that was left in the sandy desert city. “But in a sense all ruins are ruined, aren’t they?”

“It’s the place itself we reference. Once, in the beginning, there were more pieces and parts, but time, weather, and vandalism played their roles to destroy this place. We’ve tried, but there isn’t much we could do. It’s here.” She pointed to the largest structure"a large, circular mound at the outskirts of the ruins. “Many of the structures here we were unable to identify what they were or their purpose. Being one of the last standing structures, it’s been explored many times by officials. From what we’ve heard, there are tunnel-like systems that were dug throughout the ground. It’s very easy to get lost, and once you start getting deeper down, the air becomes much harder to breath in. I suggest finding the Ruby Jade as fast as you can and getting out without delay, or you might not make it back.”

“Once we get it?” Cairo asked, leaning against the fortified outer brick.

She rummaged through her coat pocket, pulling out a slender see-through card. The words IMPORTANT PERSONNEL USE ONLY could be seen if held against the sun. “Use this card to get into the lab. Someone will be there to escort you.” With her message delivered, she bowed her head, signaling her goodbye to head back to her work in the lab.

Cairo yawned, flipping the card with his fingertips. “This will be a pain.”

“Why?” Cane asked, walking up to touch the firm brick wall.

“I had Aerie survey the surrounding area while she was talking. There’s no other exit besides this one, and it’s sealed tight. The little wrench tricked us by not saying how to open this.”

“Then we can’t get in?”

“No, in fact, it’s rather easy to get in as Aerie mentioned.”

“How so?” Cane moved closer to the mound-like building as a shadow draped on the ground. Aerie landed only a few centimeters off from where Cane was previously standing.

“She never said how to get in, and if I had to speculate, I’d say it was on purpose. Her only flaw was she talked too much. Remember when she first pointed this out, she said ‘officials,’ meaning the Government has their paws here. She also never said ‘gathered,’ but ‘heard,’ meaning that not only does the Government have their paws here, they’re not letting anyone who isn’t with the Government in"even further with what Doctor Savas said, only a selected few even within the Government.” Cairo smiled, shoving the card into his pocket.

Cane pushed off the wall, staring Cairo straight in they eyes. His skepticism was plainly visible in the way he looked at his friend. “That’s a good theory and all, but how do you know that the government actually owns this place.”

“Now! I never said ‘own.’”

Aerie walked up to Cane. In one swift motion she swung her hand to the back of Cane’s neck, pushing his head down parallel to the ground. There were a series of light markings that ran all along the desert sand. “Those markings, they’re the Fire Mage’s emblem. I told you about them before we got here.”

“Exactly!” Cairo said, exaggerating the swing of his arm. “If not even Government officials, only Fire Mages, can get in here, it definitely means there’s something in here besides just the Ruby Jade or it’d have been taken by now. But lucky us.”

“Lucky us,” Cane retorted in deadpan.

“Step back and watch how we Fire Mages do this.”

“What a show off.”

Both Aerie and Cairo stood on the markings, placing one hand down along the lines, which glowed a thick neon red before bursting through the ground with swirling air, the glow from the lines tinting the air a reddish pink color. It swirled around like a tornado would start, but nothing aside from what was inside the markings’ radius was effected.

“Cairo Bareilles. Number Seven-hundred forty-eight. Open!”

The air that swirled above them lifted off of the ground, then turned slamming straight into the doors of the ruins, sending them bursting crashing against the sides of the inside wall. Dusting off his hands, Cairo walked casually into the ruins, Aerie following straight behind him. Cane stood in the same spot he did when he watched them open the doors, but this time he was looking at the sky. He watched the faded image of the crescent moon taint red. Whispering a good luck when the doors closed, he gripped the straps of his traveling pack, heading in the direction of Doctor Savas’ lab, trying to ignore with everything he had the sinking feeling in his stomach.

.

“They don’t look very sturdy do they?” Cairo asked, hitting the bare walls with his knuckles. “I feel like they’ll cave in at any second.”

While the walls were made of nothing but raw dirt, the pathway was paved with stone. Aerie pressed her hand flat on the wall, then held out her palm to Cairo. “They look like that, but they’re fortified with a strong magic that keeps the dirt bound and in place. The walls won’t be caving in until the source that’s feeding this whole place magic stops.”

“What’s the source"a Kleptos or a person?”   

Aerie shook her head. “It’s not my domain, so there’s no way of telling unless extensive analyzing is done on the shield. I don’t have the equipment or knowledge to do that at present.”

“Hm, so they’re covering it up. A lot of work for some old ruins, if you ask me.” Cairo slowly turned his head, looking all around him at the fortified dirt walls. There was a feeling of claustrophobia suffocating the air. “The thing that’s putting me off is that it doesn’t look touched. If an exploration team did come here, they’d take samples"there’d be holes"or some kind of left over remains likes footprints or marks in the dust, but there isn’t. There’s nothing. It’s like the exploration team didn’t even make it this far. Like…”

“Something stopped them,” Aerie finished. “Lean against the wall.”

Cairo leaned his back against the wall. There was a pulse behind him that sent him jumping away, every hair on his body standing up. “It’s alive!”

“I retract my previous statement: It’s not a magic to keep the walls from caving in, it’s a magic to keep whatever’s behind them, in the walls. There’s something controlling this place. It’s either a monster or a Kleptos, and there’s only one way to find out.”

“Do it.” Cairo pulled Aerie’s card out, bringing it to his lips. Aerie’s eyes glowed red as the card illuminated. “Red card.”

A spiral of flame erupted from Aerie’s hands, scorching the stone path it touched black. Her hair blasted backwards, staining its famous red-orange color. She turned towards the wall, her hands crackling fire. With one breath, she pushed her hands forward, fire spewing from them, deflecting from the wall on all sides. The fire only grew in heat and in size as she pushed against the magic barrier. The dirt underneath glowed yellowed, turning into nothing but soft sand behind the barrier that was cracking everywhere like splintered glass. Then it burst into tiny, sparkling pieces of magic, dissolving into nothing. The sand still glowed yellow after the inferno of fire had stopped. Aerie stepped back, her hand moving toward Cairo.

“It’s a Kleptos,” she said, calmly. “I can feel it now. The Desert Kleptos, Master of Sands.”

Just as Aerie finished, the walls burst with a neon yellow color. Both Cairo’s and Aerie’s head snapped in it’s direction.  

“Burn it!” Cairo yelled to Aerie.

She thrust her hand forward, engulfing her arm in a spiral flame that shot forward to the wall. She pushed again, the fire becoming more wild. The sand started to glow red from the heat until it finally gave way and melted, searing a hole through the wall that was just bigger than the Kleptos. Aerie let out a breath before looking to her Pyrroh. He was examining the hole from a safe distance.

“It stopped,” he commented, placing a hand on the walls. “Looks like they’re back to being dirt now. We should keep moving. I doubt the Kleptos is all the way at the bottom. He’s somewhere near here, somewhere close.”

As Cairo took a step forward, the dirt pulsed green. It continued to pulse over and over again. The pulses became so fast, they looked like a steady color almost.

“It’s healing itself,” Aerie screamed, pointing to the hole in the wall that was steadily decreasing in size. “Run!”

Aerie and Cairo both lunged for the hole. Cairo was able to jump in and pull his foot out just before the hole closed. He flew to the ground, his leg scratching along the sandpaper like surface of the ground. As a pain pricked his leg, he looked down. It was scrapped almost to the bone, bleeding from the open wound. The blood was thick and fast, causing a wave of dizziness to wash over Cairo. It slowed down within seconds of getting air, but some blood still drizzled out.

Reaching for his ankle, he flinched as he touched the swelling mass just below the bleeding wound. “This isn’t good. I think I broke it, or sprained it damned well. I can’t walk on it like this.”

His eyes snapped to Aerie. She was standing there with her mouth parted slightly open, her eyes strangely focused on his bloody leg. She didn’t move or blink as she stared. Cairo called her name, but she didn’t respond. He tried again, only to have the same result. Then she blinked, stepping back. Her breathing was ragged, sweat starting to drip down her face, her eyes darting back and forth as if something was in the room she couldn’t see. She screamed, grabbing her head, her sharpened nails digging into her skull.

It was pounding. There were static images flashing in her mind.

Blood. Lots of blood. It poured on the floor like a river. All she could make out was an arm, soaked in red, fingers that barely moved as blood continued on.

Pain. Everywhere. There wasn’t a part of her body that didn’t hurt, like it was being pulled, expanded and contrasted in flat seconds, over and over again. Something crawling through her body, her veins, like a constant itch, like a parasite.

And Fire. Fire that exploded, popped, and burst. Fire that killed people, burned flesh. Hit the walls only to bounce off again to start another rampage on unsuspecting victims. There was so much fire…

“Aerie!”

The Kleptos’ eyes snapped open. She had fallen to her knees, her body hunched over itself. Her chest felt like there was some kind of weight on it that made rising to her feet impossible and breathing difficult at best. She reached her shaking hand up, touching Cairo’s face. There was a moment that Cairo could have sworn that he saw relief in her eyes, but Kleptos had no emotions.

“Cover it up.” Her words were spaced, forced out of her mouth with the last will she had. “The blood. I can’t look anymore. Cover it up.”

Cairo quickly lifted his shirt over his shoulders, throwing the white fabric over his leg. He reached for Aerie’s back, letting his hand slide up and down as she regained her breath.

“What happened?” he asked.

“I felt fear.”