The door wouldn't budge, and Strix with a slight confusing on her face wonder if the door wouldn't move because it was heavy, too old or if something was stopping it from actually moving. Putting more weight behind it she tried again, pushing and pulling to see if anything would budge. Nothing. Even if it was locked or loose it would shake a bit, but it was as if something had forced it to stop moving. Dirt and dust had covered the door, giving it a thick coating and brushing it away, even knowing that it wouldn't make much different to her strength she tried to remove it all. As she did, she began to see signs of writing, words that were written into the door itself, finely cut than the carvings she had seen on the wall prior. Brushing the rest of the dirt and dust away, revealed a large ornate carving of a humanoid creature, stood on top of a hill that was surrounded by many smaller humanoids, looking to be bowing in worship. Behind him was a Sun, shining like a halo, a typical angelic like carving praising this creature. The words that Strix had spied originally were written around the edge, like a verse that bordered the entire carving itself written all the way around the door.
It took a few minutes for Strix to properly decipher the written words, this language was old, older than anything she had seen before, but there were some parallels that she could match up. eventually after an hour she had managed to make out a message that was written.
Praise be to Marduk, our Father and Protector
Divinity absolute, for he is ours
Break our chains and protect us from Life
We carry on His legacy, forever sharing
Our Children will know his name
Praise be to Marduk, our Father and Protector
The message was at times confusing, something that was hard to interpret at least without the cipher to understand where it all came from. Strix wandered back to the carvings she had seen earlier, and looked at the connections. It seemed that this creature, the angelic carving had the same armour, or body perhaps to the one was that one of the bigger creatures in the carvings. Was he a leader, or a king? Father and Protector, so someone who looked after everyone? Marduk, at least she had a name. The word itself had no other translations or came close to any other word that could be translated. It had to be a name. the next line, Divinity absolute, was he religious, some figure? Perhaps a power figure? Strix had more and more questions the further she read on. The carvings on the previous wall had this Marduk character shooting some kind of lightning or
something towards the largest figure, did he have divine power? There was no way he could be a God.... right?
It was the next line that interested Strix the most, Break our chains and protect us from life, the entire premise was confusing. The smaller figures, which she had come to assume were just every other people, or ordinary humans, served this figure. "Break our chains" were they enslaved? Did they serve Marduk out of force rather than choice? Upon closer inspection to the Carvings Strix saw several of the humans, had strings that connected to the largest creature, something like a puppet string. Was this the 'Break our chains' that it describes? But Protect us from life? Why protect from life, who wanted protection from life, the thing that everybody needs. More and More questions.
Strix had no idea how to interpret the stone carvings and how to make any sense of them, with such limited information to go on. Even though Strix had read volumes on history, the further back you go the less history there is. The very first information starts at year 0.
"We carry on His legacy, forever sharing"
We this was no help at all, there was no mention of Marduk in anything Strix had ever read, so why was this line here. Who was sharing, and did they fail their job? 'Our Children will know his name' Again, Strix shook her head every line being just as confusing as the last.
Taking out her books she began sketching and writing down everything that she saw, documenting what was around her. This site had been undisturbed, and she perhaps could have been the first person to actually be entering the Tomb since its creation.
Some history for Strix. After being infected from a fog that was found on Tobuseki, Strix slowly went insane, or at least she thought she was. What had happened is the past lives of Strix had all surfaced and instead of usually guiding her and giving her advice one at a time, the link had been severed that kept them in check, and they were able to all speak at once.
The voices in Strix head suddenly began speaking, all panicked and rushing her.
Leave. Now.
Whether paranoia from them or a premonition, Strix decided to heed their advice and began to leave. There was something about this place that interested Strix. She wanted to know more, even if the voices wanted her to leave, and she slowly walked to where she came from. It was only a few minutes walks through the tunnels and through a couple doors, but Strix felt a tug at her curiosity to stay.
LEAVE. NOW.
They grew louder urging her to leave. Strix reached the main entrance, a large circular room with a large orb hanging from the ceiling, and she brushed it off once again as decoration of the Tomb. As she reached the centre of the room, there was a powerful wind, suddenly blowing from the entrance of the tomb pushing her back into the depths of the Tomb. Strix pushed against it, its strength incredible, was it unnatural, the whole place gave off unnatural vibes from the strange mud, to the brick work and carvings. Then suddenly the entrance itself sealed, twin doors erupting from either side of the walls sliding shut, cutting off the wind and trapping Strix in the darkness of the room.
The darkness was a semi comfort for Strix, letting it wash over her, with her senses fine tuning themselves to give her a sense of where she was in the room. She could have produced some bio-luminescence, a skill she learned from her fireflies, but sometimes it was easier for Strix to work in the dark. Taking a moment, she slowly calmly began walking to where the door was and gave it a push and tried to pull. Nothing. Same as the other door back behind her down the tunnel. Well she was now stuck and trapped in here.
Rolling her head on her neck, Strix forcefully quietened the voices in her head, something she was still able to do at the most vital times. They fell silent letting her think. Walking back to the middle of the room, Strix sat down, taking her bag off and sitting it down next to her as she closed her eyes, visualising the room and the landscape around her. She could remember the paths leading up, the tunnel and walls and door that lead back behind her, taking it all and building a 3D map in her minds eye. Strix began to meditate creating options of what was the best course of action for her, to potentially at least getting her out alive. There were fates much worse than death that could be had.