Tales of Pristinia: The Six Sacred Gems

Silent Strength

The party continued on their way inside the cave. It was dark so they had a difficult time finding their way. Suddenly, the sacred gem of Terra glowed. It emitted a strong bright light that purged the night inside the cave. The shining gem surprised them. With the gem’s light, they could finally see inside the dark gloomy cave.

                 “How did you know that there was a cave in here Viethra?” Maisur asked.

                 “I didn’t,” Viethra answered. “I trusted Selena for that.”

                 “Me?”

                 “Yes, you. The elder said that the gem could be found in a place where merpeople songs are sung without sound. In the merpeople that were in the village, you are the only one who cannot sing.”

                 “But how did you know that playing my harp would open the cave?”

                 “Because you are here,” Viethra replied. “Merpeople songs calm the soul and heal the heart, that is the song that you are singing without your voice. It is the song inside of your soul, the reason why you are here because you want to help your friend. Like all other merpeople songs, the unsung song inside you seeks to comfort those who need comfort.”

                 “I never thought of it like that,” Selena smiled.

                 “The song inside your soul. I knew you were special, not because you can’t sing but because of something else and your golden tail of course.”

                 “Golden tail?” Mae and Myles reacted in unison.

                 “Yes, I have a golden tail, unlike other mermaids.”

                 The deeper they went inside the cave, the stronger the gem’s light got. They eventually arrive at an underground lake inside the cave. From where they stood, they could see a faint blue light from underwater. Maisur and Selena took the lead and jumped on the water.

                 Once they were in the water, their legs turned to tails. Maisur has a blue tail while Selena has a golden one. The two swam towards the point where the faint blue light originated. They got closer and closer and found out that it came from a gem inside a clam.  The clam had blue flowers growing all around it. Selena thought that these must be the flowers that could cure Sera. She got some of the flowers and wanted to go back. However, Maisur wondered why the gem was glowing and even thought that it was similar to Mae’s gem.

                 Maisur grabbed the gem from the clam. The moment the gem was removed from the clam. The clam closed shut and the whole cave shook. The two got out of the water and the shaking eventually ceased. Suddenly, the cave shook again but this time sounds like banging drums came from underwater.

                 A giant pincer got out of the water and hit the ceiling of the passage causing debris to fall which blocked the exit. A giant crab then revealed itself. It had eyes redder than blood, a bright orange shell that had barnacles and coral growing from them, and two humongous pincers whose sheer size could destroy anything.

                 The gem that Maisur got from underwater was the sacred gem of Suilihn. The sacred gems glowed and resonated with one another. Maisur and Mae raised the gems high. The sheer bright light temporarily blinded the sight of the giant crab.

                 With their exit completely blocked, the party has no other choice but to fight the giant crab. They took the chance the gems provided to do a pre-emptive strike on the crab. Maisur jumped on the crab’s back and tried to pierce it. However, its shell was as hard as steel that Maisur’s trident was only able to scratch it. Maisur jumped back to where the rest of the party was and told them of the crab’s steel-hard armor.

                 Viethra cast Nature Bind on one of its pincers to disable it. Mae jumped on the pincer that Viethra bound and tried to strike between the armor, but the intervals were too thin that she was still not able to damage it. Repeatedly striking a single point, Myles tried to penetrate the armor. He drew power from the sword raising it high and pierced it at the point. However, all he did was cracking the armor a little bit. The pain removed the crab from its blinding trance and it rampaged with its unbound pincer.

                 The giant crab slammed at the party, but they were able to dodge in time. The impact, however, threw Viethra into the water. Maisur jumped to rescue her while the others distracted the crab. However, the crab swung its pincer across blowing all of them away. Maisur successfully rescued Viethra, but Viethra fell unconscious.

                 Selena, the only remaining support, played her harp as much as she could. She remained at a safe distance away from the crab. This time she played a melody that boosts the speed of the entire party. With Selena’s music increasing their speed, they were all able to dodge whenever the giant crab would smash and swing its pincer. However, their offenses remained fangless as the crab’s armor was too tough for them to penetrate.

                 The battle remained a stalemate with the party evading the crab’s attacks and them not being able to land a single successful blow on the crab. The balance of the scale, however, was broken when the party started to feel tired. They started to become slower even if Selena’s melody was still playing. There were times when they just barely evaded the attack. The imbalance further tipped when Viethra’s spell wore off. Now the party had to take care of two pincers from crushing them.

                 Finally, Viethra regained her consciousness. She slowly regained her grasp of the battle. She looked closely as to how the crab’s eyes seem to have no armor. She shouted at the three telling them to strike at the crab’s eyes. She then cast Nature Render to hold the eyes and to prevent them from moving. Mae closed in on the left eye and successfully slashed it completely.

                 The crab roared and rampaged hitting the ceiling of the cave causing debris to fall off. The debris almost crushed Viethra, but Myles was able to save her in the nick of time. Mae and Maisur retreated from a safe distance. The crab continued its rampage.

                 Suddenly the two sacred gems glowed ever bright. The sight of the light made the crab feel fright. It eventually submerged and the battle ended with both sides suffering heavy casualties.

                 Viethra healed the whole party restoring their strength. The whole cave returned to its silence. The light of the sacred gems was weakening depriving them of sight inside the dark cave. The whole party started searching for another way out. Myles, Mae, and Viethra searched the surroundings, while Selena and Maisur searched underwater.

                 The crab was nowhere to be seen underwater. They focused on their search while sticking close in case something might happen. The underwater lake was larger and deeper than they thought. Suddenly, Selena heard something underwater so he bade Maisur be silent for a while. She heard a sound that was coming off from a distance. She played her harp to respond to the sound which caused the sound to become louder.

                 “It’s a whale!” Selena said to Maisur. “That is a whale’s sound.”

                 “A whale? But how can a whale reach all the way here?”

                 “A whale could not possibly reach here. If that sound is there, then that means there is a passage that leads to the outside of this cave.”

                 The two then quickly resurfaced to tell them what they found. However, they also told him that the way leading outside is long which means that only merpeople could survive the journey. Viethra then got a tome from her rucksack. She chanted a certain spell from the tome. She then told the two that they were ready to go to the underwater path that they found. Selena and Maisur were surprised but they trusted Viethra’s judgment.

                 They went on towards the underwater path. The two merpeople helped the rest of the party to swim fast. They held hands while heading towards where the whale sound came from. The journey was long which made Mae, Myles, and Viethra feel fatigued from swimming. Maisur and Selena had to pull them. After a long time of swimming, they finally saw a light which meant that they were almost out of the cave.

                 They finally resurfaced and the sacred gem of Suilihn finally sparkled under the sweet radiance of sunlight. It was mid-afternoon when they made it out. To their surprise, they saw a ship from the direction of the island. The three recognized as it was their ship. They used the ship and sailed towards the other end of the island, to the village, where Sera was waiting.

                 When they got close, Selena jumped off the water and swam towards the lagoon. She had the flowers with her and gave it to the elder. The elder then made a tonic and made Sera drink it. Moments later, Sera woke up and the symptoms of poison disappeared from her body.