Once past the gateway the darkness that had obscured the room slowly vanished. As if awakened by something treading the long unused pathway awoke something dormant and clumps of moss and lichen that clung to the walls and ceiling started to gently glow. Their bioluminescent shapes bathing the chamber in a soft and gentle light. Xavier and the others carefully made their way across the smooth floor to the center of the room. Ahead of them stood another archway, closed and secured against passage. They gathered around the only other feature within the chamber, a small plinth rose up from the floor. The top of it bore a slight depression in the rough shape of a handprint. The three companions exchanged glances while inspecting the object. It bore no traps that any of them could detect. Xavier especially spent several long minutes examining every exposed inch of the stone and surrounding area until he was satisfied that it was nothing more than what was presented. The question on all of their minds was what would happen if the handprint was filled.

  Scowling slightly Xavier broke the silence. “This is clearly the way forward. I have no doubt that the doorway will not open without this being triggered.” He set his torch down, the light of the moss more than enough to illuminate the surrounding area.

  Ella caught his arm as he moved to place his hand on the plinth. “Wait, one of us should do it. Not you. You are too important to lose again.”

  Xavier shook his head and gently removed her hand from his arm. “The quest to wake the lines is mine. I should be the one to activate them. It might not react to anyone else. Besides you are both here to make sure I am safe.”

  Ella grimaced and looked to Lianna for support. The Iskari simply shook her head, Xavier was right, he should be the one to proceed if any of them were to do so. Clearly unhappy with the idea Ella took her hand back from Xavier’s grip and shifted so her back was to the group, eyes facing outward to watch the room and hide the slight shimmer of unshed tears building in her eyes.

  Xavier took a long slow breath then lifted his hand placing it into the depression so that his whole hand lined up with the vague impression at the bottom. As soon as his hand fully covered the mark the room shifted. A deep vibrational thrum resonated through the plinth, up into Xavier’s arm and through his body. As it reached his feet the wave passed into the room and the whole chamber reverberated with its passage.

  A weight slammed into everyone in the room. Not just the pull of gravity increasing but it felt as if the stone above was crushing down upon their meager frames as if the weight of the very world was upon their shoulders. Xavier collapsed to a knee beneath the pressure. Lianna’s shoulders bent into a severe hunch, only her Animari resilience allowing her to remain as upright as she did. Ella’s bow dug into the ground as she used its length to help support her as she strived to resist the pressure. Frostclaw and Valkra both were driven to the ground, their yowls of discomfort echoed through the chamber before even those were crushed beneath the weight.

  Xavier’s awareness of the room collapsed into itself, he lost sight of his companions and the two felines as he struggled just to maintain his own position and not be ground into the stone he was upon. Slowly, as he struggled, he began to feel more than just the pressure. The initial vibration had masked the continuous rising and falling vibration that resonated within his very bones. As he became aware of the new feeling it reminded him of how he could feel distant thunder or the rumble of collapsing stones in the mountains when he was hiking back on earth.

  Seeking anything but the overwhelming crushing feeling his consciousness latched onto the new sensation using it to drown out the sensation of weight. Gradually, as he gave into the bone-deep vibration he became aware of a soft whisper, not words, but more the impression of something observing, something ancient and vast. It spoke without speaking and Xavier reveled in the language of earth and time.

  As he became less aware of the pressure he fought to rise to his feet once again. In response the whispers he heard deepened, became rougher, its tone ground against his senses oppressively and lost any sense of meaning. It threatened to crush his very consciousness as if it were in a great mortar and pestle. The more he struggled to rise the worse the sensation became until the strain caused small trickles of crimson to leak from ears, the corners of his eyes, and from one nostril. The pain threatening to sap his sanity caused him to relax, the less he struggled the less the whispers ground upon his essence. Relaxing slowly, he felt the whispers grow clearer, slower, and more inviting. Though there were no words, no riddles, no commands he could feel its presence both patient and unmoving.

  He slowed his breathing and leaned into the whisper. Fighting his own instinct to resist and struggle against the weight bearing down from above and the pull of gravity from below. The more he relaxed and yielded to the pressure the easier became to bear it. A slow realization built within as he became one with the whispers.

  “The mountain does not move for the wind, nor does it need to. The river does not fear the stone, nor does it break against it.”

  That realization was a dam break, and he became aware of a soft glow building beneath himself. Faint emerald light thrummed in time to the vibration within his bones, with each beat it spread further out through the chamber tracing ancient unseen runes embedded in the very stone beneath their feet. Xavier’s sense of awareness spread with the glow, not seeing as much as feeling the changes. The runes were not magical, nor were they controlling, they were solid, balanced, structured. They were representations of the essence of the stone itself.

  Xavier marveled that he was only just now becoming aware of the runes and the pulse of the glowing power. The weight from before had been so oppressive all aspects of the chamber had been driven from his mind. His own essence reached out into the glow beneath him and his consciousness blossomed, not leaving his body but expanding dramatically. He felt grounded, a part of the stone beneath his body, and sank into the very bones of Arath itself. He felt, so much as knew, the mountains rise and fall over the eons of time. His awareness spreading over the crumbling ruins of ancient civilizations long buried and forgotten. He felt the soft tickle of roots slowly burrowing through his presence as they wrapped around those lost structures and wormed their way deeper into the supporting strength of the stone. As the nature of the earth was to remember everything, so too did Xavier exist at that moment, at one with the timelessness of the deep core of the world.

  The light within the runes on the floor grew brighter with each pulse the more Xavier yielded to the earth. A soft grinding noise filled the chamber as figures coalesced in the surrounding stone. Humanoid shapes made of rock and crystal seemed to flow out of the walls and walk slowly towards the group. Their presence was not threatening nor aggressive but observant. They had witnessed countless individuals undergo the trial, most to be crushed beneath its unyielding presence struggling to the end to try and overcome the inevitability of earth. Some few, like Xander coming to understand, embracing and becoming one with it. One of the figures reached out a hand towards Xavier, as if offering to help him to his feet. Unseeing, Xavier took the hand. As he did the remaining pressure and overwhelming gravity vanished and he heard the grinding whispers once again.

  “You have stepped into the flow. Now, you are part of it.”

  Rising to his feet with the assistance of the figure the room around him began to vanish, dissolving but not being destroyed, instead it gave way to new perception. As if a scene out of some sci-fi movie the walls warped out away from him giving way to an endless horizon of stone and sky. He had fully melded with Arath itself. His being no longer the individual but the stone, the weight, the ley pulse, the very essence of the Earth Ley Line. The enormity threatened to overwhelm his conscious mind. Then, as suddenly as it had happened it was gone. Xavier paused, his mind his own once again but more. A slow smile spread on his lips as he realized it wasn’t truly gone but more a part of him now. He was aware, just as he had become of life and death energies, of the earth around him. The figures melted slowly down into the ground leaving Xavier standing physically unchanged but forever altered in his understanding of the world.

  As the last of the figures vanished into the stone floor the weight and pressure on the others vanished as well. Unaware of anything that had happened in Xavier’s perception the two women and two beasts only knew the crushing weight and then relief.

  “What happened,” Ella gasped the easing of the pressure causing her to nearly overcorrect and stumbled. “Gods that was horrible.”

  Lianna regained her posture with greater ease and grace, but her eyes were narrowed as well. She turned her gaze upon Xavier who despite the fact she had seen him nearly collapse was now standing tall and proud. “You did something did you not?”

  Each of the women moved to comfort the felines as they were also able to rise again finally. All eyes on Xavier he took several long breaths considering what he had experienced.

  “The earth does not fight. It does not yield. It simply is. To stand with it is to be upheld. To fight it is to be buried,” Xavier said speculatively. “The weight was never really there but was our perception of it. Or more my perception of it. Now that I have accepted it the Earth Ley Line has accepted me. This part of the trial is passed.” As he spoke a deep chime resounded through the chamber the doors at the far end of the chamber slowly began to part and open. “Let’s go there is more to do before we can fully wake the line.” He began walking towards the door and the next trial.

  Ella and Lianna looked askance at each other. Neither sure how nor happy with the fact that it was Xavier’s perception that had impacted them so much. Ella, already bound to the man to her very core, was the first to be able to accept the explanation quickly followed behind him. Lianna was only a few steps behind, her mind struggling with the concept still. Behind the Iskari woman the two felines padded silently: Frostclaw watching his mistress and Valkra’s eyes speculatively on Xavier’s back the intelligence in the orbs even more curious about the human than previously.

  The archway gave way to another chamber that unfurled before them, its vast expanse of stone and silent power, the very air surrounding them thrummed with a presence older than kingdoms, older than memory. The silence gave way to deep, rhythmic vibrations that coursed through the ground feeling less like sound and more like the breathing of the world itself, slow and inexorable.

  Looking down at the sensation the group realized that beneath their feet, the floor was a vast mechanism of concentric stone rings, each etched with glowing runes that pulsed counterpoint to the breathing sensation like a slumbering heart, their steady rhythm disrupted by an unseen flaw. Along the edges, towering monoliths of black basalt, streaked with veins of emerald ley-line energy, loom like ancient sentinels. However, unlike sentinels they were not still, each one tilted, rotated, and shifted, moving in a deliberate yet fractured cadence, as if caught in a song missing its ending measure and leaving it in an eternal loop. The earth quivered beneath them, not in chaos, but in a controlled, measured tremor, a harmony thrown into a discordance. At the very center of it all, a solitary pedestal, carved from primal stone, stood unmoved by time or disturbance, waiting. As Xavier approached, its surface shuddered, and from nothingness, an inscription carved itself into existence, its glow quiet but certain, as though it had always been there, simply waiting to be seen. Xavier did not know the language, nor did his talent translate it yet somehow he knew what the words meant.

  "To move the earth, one must know its rhythm. Align the song or be buried in silence."

  As the words were read the room shuddered aggressively and the monoliths became more unsteady, movements increasing in speed and variation, their glow fluctuating wildly.

  Lianna, her ears flicking much the same as the two great cats, narrowed her eyes in discomfort. “The stones… sing, but out of key and out of sync. It is uncomfortable to listen to. Not quite painful but discordant.”

  Ella nodded slowly, he had pulled an arrow and was holding it up watching as its fletching shifted with the variations of the air in the chamber. “The stones are not moving on their own. They are reacting, something’s throwing them off. I get the feeling if we mess this up the whole chamber would collapse.”

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Xavier felt it all, his new understanding of earth feeding the sensations into his body in a way that was suddenly instinctive as much as conscious. Closing his eyes he let his resonance sink into the energy of the ley line beneath his feet. The song bloomed within him, its harmony missing and discordant as Lianna had observed. The underlying melody was fractured as though something was disrupting it. As the song of the earth filled his being Xavier became aware of each of the monoliths representing a note in the music. Their movements were not random but nor were they structured. They were a song disrupted. He allowed his awareness to flow over the rings within the floor, feeling their position in relation to each other and to the monoliths themselves. It was there that he found the true discordance. The rings were misaligned and that caused the monoliths to react to each other in the wrong cadence.

  Xavier reached out and placed his hand on the stationary pedestal. His eyes remained closed as he let the music flow into himself, through himself, and back into the stone. The truth of stone being unyielding echoing in unconscious mind reminding him to not try and force change upon the music but to gently guide it. His hand shifted on the pedestal, and he pointed to a spot on the floor indicating a specific ring.

  Ella followed his gesture and saw where the ring could be moved, she quickly crouched and adjusted the stone the way he indicated. In response the monoliths movements shifted slightly. Some spinning slower, some faster, and some tilting in a different angle. Lianna’s eyes widened as the discomfort of what she was hearing lessened slightly and she moved opposite of Ella to be ready for any indication from Xavier for that side.

  Seconds extended into minutes into hours it seemed. The group lost track of time as they worked in harmony. Xavier patient and waiting, guiding the others to the exact moment to make an adjustment to the measure of the music. As they worked the erratic movements slowed, the discordant sound lessened, and the glowing runes came more into harmony. Finally, after an unknown length of time, the monoliths stood in perfect unison, their runes matched their pulsing glow in time with the thrum of the glowing ley lines beneath their feet. As the air stilled the song of the earth filled the chamber. It was not a melody that could be heard with mortal ears, nor a tune shaped by instruments. It was a vibration, a resonance, a truth woven into the very bones of the world itself. It moved slowly, deeply, unshaken by time, its rhythm measured in the shifting of mountains, the patient growth of roots through stone, the steady cycle of land rising and falling across eons. It was wholly unlike the other elements, not chaotic like fire, nor fleeting like wind. It did not flow as water does, but instead held, cradled, and endured. Its pulse was steady, a low, thunderous hum that thrummed beneath the feet of those who were present, not a sound, but a sensation, a whisper of stone pressing against flesh, of the weight of the world neither crushing nor yielding, but simply existing.

  Xavier opened his eyes as the music settled in his very soul. Everyone present could feel the shift and knew they were changed by it. The universe agreed with that understanding and all three received prompts indicating that their endurance and constitution both received a permanent +4 enhancement. New health and stamina flowed into their bodies ad they shifted fundamentally to reflect the change in their attributes.

  A deep, resounding tone filled the chamber, a soundless sound, one felt in the bones rather than heard with ears. As it faded the ley line responded. The pedestal next to Xavier sank into the earth, the monoliths stood still but to the party it felt as if they were watching and waiting for their next action, a script appeared hanging in the air where the over where the pedestal had been. Like before the language was unknown but Xavier and the others all knew the meaning as if it had been etched into their very souls.

  “He who walks with the earth need not move mountains. He need only know where they will stand.”

  The deep resonance of the ley line pulsed through the chamber, steady and unshaken, as the final monolith locked into place. The once-chaotic sequence of floating stone slabs now stood in perfect harmony, their ley-infused glyphs aligned in an ancient, forgotten pattern. The low hum of power swelled, filling the cavern with an unspoken acknowledgment, the trial was not over, but it had shifted. As the echoes of the last movement faded, the far end of the chamber, a space previously obscured by the ever-shifting monoliths, began to stir. The ley pulse deepened, rolling through the ground like the weight of a mountain settling into place. A fracture split the stone, not with the violence of collapse, but with the precision of something shifting, and awakening. Stone peeled away, not crumbling, but moving with purpose, layers shifting aside as though the cavern itself was making way for something greater. From the newly revealed recess in the rock, a colossal figure emerged, its massive bulk composed of living stone, molten ley veins, and deep-rooted vines that coiled around its shifting form.

  In what was becoming second nature Xavier triggered insight and learned about the newest monstrous being standing opposition. His scowl deepened as he noticed the details of the construct’s information.

  Verkhaz rose with deliberate finality, each movement sending small tremors rippling outward. His helm-like head, carved with faintly shifting runes, tilted slightly, as if observing them not just with sight, but through the ley itself. His arms, four in total, rested at his sides in perfect stillness, it was not an idle stance, but an invitation, a test unspoken. Then, the cavern rumbled again, no longer from movement, but from the voice of stone itself.

  “You have walked the remnants of a Grey Road, endured the earth’s weight, and moved with its rhythm. But to wield its power, you must stand against its might.”

  Ella eyed the construct before glancing towards Xavier, “You always take me to the most interesting of locations and get me involved in the most interesting of situations. You do know that I did not have to face down titanic stone golems prior to meeting you right?”

  Xavier shrugged as he hefted Vaeltheris. “Who says it’s me? I blame the Iskari.”

  Lianna rolled her eyes at the exchange. She was rapidly becoming accustomed to the oddity of this human and his uniquely bonded companion. “No, I agree with her. It is all you Xavier. Makes me worry about what we will find in the wildlands. If this,” She gestured towards Verkhaz, “is any indication my money is on a kingdom of wyverns if not dragons.”

  Xavier sighed as the two teamed up on him. “Let’s deal with this first then we can worry about the future.” His eyes traversed the nearly three-story monstrosity. “This is likely to hurt, a lot.”

  Verkhaz did not shift at all for the length of the discussion. It merely watched, waited, and judged. Any indication of its thoughts was unknown however, its nearly featureless helm hiding all usual methods of facial expressions. Xavier turned to study the construct for a moment then impulsively rushed towards it.

  The soft emerald light of the ley line that was illuminating the cavern glinted off the blade. Though not a master of the weapon Xavier was growing more skilled with it, and he moved with deliberate precision. Though the golem like creature did not move the room filled with the sound of metal clanging against stone while Xavier struck at each of the joints that he could reach as quickly as he possibly could. The enchanted blade struck true but had met stone that did not break. Verkhaz weathered the blows for several minutes, unmoving, unfaltering until it simply shifted, motion as inevitable as the weathering of mountains or the erosion of time. A single backhand came across the conflict. Xavier barely registered the movement before nothing less than a wall of stone caught him preempting his ability to block and flung him away. His battered body struck the floor, the impact driving the air from his lungs before rolling and then skidding across the floor coming to rest against the feet of Ella and Lianna who crouched down to check on him. In the back of his mind, he realized this was not a battle that could be won through power alone.

  Xavier shook his head, his vision swimming and ears ringing from the power of the blow. Coughing he spat dust and the taste of stone from his mouth. As his focus returned, he could see that the single strike took more than half of his life away. With a frantic worry he struggled to his feet only to see that the guardian remained stationary where it had been when he was knocked to the ground.

  Fully upright, though unsteady still, he felt the earth around him shuddering in slow paces, almost like the beat of a heart. The very same heartbeat he had felt previously in the trials. Aware of it now, he realized it was not just raw power that thrummed through the veins of the earth but a distinct rhythm. There was a distinguishable flow there as old as the very world itself. Words from before echoed dimly in his mind.

  "To move the earth, one must know its rhythm. He who walks with the earth need not move mountains. He need only know where they will stand.”

  The Earth Ley Line was not something to be conquered. It was not his enemy or something that he needed to break. Nor was it something he could simply impose his will upon. In the same way that the Life and Death Ley Lines were balance to each other Earth was balance, eternal and unwavering.

  Dimly he could hear the yells and roars of his companions and the great cats as they danced around the legs of the construct, arrows and claws rebounding from the stone harmlessly while their agility was enough to keep them from the slower strikes of the stone creation.

  “Get back,” Xavier yelled. He shifted his stance, steadying himself as he let his movements sync with the rhythm of the ley pulse’s natural cadence. “It can’t be hurt like that. I have an idea.”

  Xavier’s eyes closed, his breathing deepening as it also attained a sync with the earth’s resonance. Varkhaz surged forward like an avalanche, its movements knocking everyone else out of its path causing them to collapse or rebound off the cavern walls. Xavier stood immobile a small tree in the path of crashing doom. However, when the massive strike of the guardian fell, he did not attempt to block it head on. Instead, he shifted the way the guardian did. The song of the earth aligned his movements, his body turned enough for the force of the blow to slide along his blade and past his body. He did not clash with Varkhaz’s implacable strength, he redirected it. He did not struggle against the inevitable nature of earth; he flowed with it. In that moment the battle changed.

  Where previously the motions from the guardian were seemingly unstoppable, they now acted as a guide to the man standing before it not overpowering but supplementing. Xavier moved in tandem with the guardian as if anticipating the next movement and shift of the stone being before it happened. To Ella and Lianna it was as if it was one of the most graceful and incredibly choreographed displays they had ever experienced, and steel met stone in a dance of unison instead of defiance.

  In what seemed like an eternity but was in reality only a matter of moments the fight drew on until a sudden final blow. Xavier, blade in hand, lunged forward the tip of Vaeltheris striking the center of Varkhaz’s chest, but not in a devastating blow but a tap, an acceptance, acknowledging the power of the element not dominating it. With that tap Varkhaz stopped moving completely. The tremors of the cavern slowed; the air grew heavy with potence.

  And Varkhaz knelt.

  The heavy thudding of the ley pulse steadied as the earth settled back to a natural peace. Xavier had passed the final trial of the Ley Line. He stepped slowly back and sheathed Vaeltheris. Varkhaz rose ponderously to its feet, its presence no longer overwhelming but welcoming and approving. Its massive form began to sink back into the ground, its eternal watch to resume. As it vanished though the resonant voice filled the chamber once again, now clearly coming from the construct.

  “You have felt the weight of the earth and moved with its song. The path ahead will test more than your strength, it will test your foundation. Do not forget the patience of stone, nor the wisdom of roots. Go forward, knowing the earth will always remember."

  With those final words the guardian’s head merged with the stone floor once again and it was gone.

  Ella, having recovered her feet, rolled her shoulders to push away the ache. “Why does it feel like we just got lectured by a pile of rocks?”

  Lianna shook her head and checked on Frostclaw. “I hope not all piles of rocks are like that. I certainly will not be taking what looks to be solid stone for granted again.”

  Ella grinned to the Iskari, “It was not as hard as it seemed it would be.”

  “I seem to remember you collapsing during the first trial.” Lianna rejoined.

  “And yet, here I am still standing, so… success!” Came the response.

  Xavier stared at the two, bemused at their exchange. “We all came through it intact, so I have to agree with Ella, it’s a success.”

  At the center of the chamber where the construct had vanished, the earth parted, revealing a massive crystal of emerald ley energy, pulsing like a living heart that rose up on a pillar similar to the ones that held the cores of life and death. Xavier stepped closer and placed a hand upon it, a wave of energy surged through him, and he felt the acceptance and awakening of the Earth Ley Line.

  Quest updated. “Sleeping Lines 3.” You have gained the understanding of Earth. It is not a power to bend and control but one to embrace and guide. Return to the Syr’Vailen to complete the quest and finalize the awakening of the Ley Line below Rynthavael.

  The opening where the construct had appeared in the far wall remained, now that they were not distracted by its presence, they could see that it was the way forward deeper into the depths. Now was not the time to continue that direction however, it was time to go back home and then forward into the wildlands.