Chapter 679 - 678: Amber
Upon hearing Pittmanâs words, Amber instinctively glanced at Gawain, who said proactively, "I can leaveâif you donât want others to hear this."
"No, I donât mind," Amber shook her head, "You have a sharp mind and always provide unexpected insights. I want you here, and you can also look at this notebook."
Gawain silently glanced at Amber, without refusing, he just nodded slightly.
The fountain wasnât suitable for unearthing these hidden memories, so the three left the overly bustling courtyard and entered a lounge on the first floor of the Silver Castle. Amber solemnly placed the notebook on the table, carefully opening its worn and fragile cover in front of Gawain and Pittman.
There were no patterns or crests on the pages, none of the usual decorations found in most handwritten books of this eraâs nobilityâjust a plain, simple line on the yellowed paper:
"To my daughterâhoping when you see this, you have grown up happy and safe."
"Still so much nonsense..." Amber pursed her lips, but her actions became even more cautious as she slowly turned to the first page.
This is a diary, written under special circumstances:
"...The third day after entering the Shadow Fortress.
As a royal shadow guard, I shouldnât leave any written records during a confidential mission, as itâs against the confidentiality rules, but the current situation is special. I might not exit here safely, so to leave warnings and experiences for successors, Iâve decided to document part of my journey.
My name is Sali Randolph, a royal shadow guard. I was ordered to the Dark Mountain Range in the southern borders to find ancient legacies on this forsaken land by both man and god.
Unfortunately, Iâm trapped in this place called the âShadow Fortressâ. I believe this is the hiding place of ancient legacies...
...According to the information I had, the Shadow Fortress is not located in the real world we know. Itâs a territory created by the ancient Gondor Empire using advanced lost technology, floating outside the real world, without a stable connection to the shadow realm. Itâs a free-floating space that can only be entered through specific doors and rituals...
Some of my information was correctâthe Dark Mountain Range indeed has a spatial node leading to the Shadow Fortress. I performed the initiation ritual at this node and entered successfully, but the error was in the Shadow Seal Ring used to open the doorâitâs a one-time use only, or I canât find a way to recharge it.
The King gave me one of the two rings he had. Obviously, he didnât expect it to be a single-use item when opening the Shadow Fortress.
Having just read these few passages, Amber couldnât help but lift her head, exchanging glances with Gawain, who also looked up.
"The Ring of Shadow Seal..." Amber instinctively grasped the thin chain around her neck, from which hung two old-fashioned ringsâone still glimmering with magical brilliance, the other dim and lifeless.
The ring retaining magical brilliance was obtained from Francis II, while the dim one had been with Amber since childhood. Now, the origins of these two rings were finally explained.
She lowered her head and continued reading the subsequent contents of the diary:
...Even though Iâm trapped here, I must admire the ancient Gondor Empireâs advanced technology. The Shadow Fortress is an incredible placeâthe entry process is also astounding. Standing at the right confluence of magic in the Dark Mountain Range, all I had to do was inject magic into the ring to open a door to the shadow realm in normal spacetime. I suspect the ring simply sent a signal during this process, and the actual door-opening was done by a facility within the Shadow Fortress, yet I havenât found any clues...
This magnificent structure is cast from some artificial material, stronger than rock, floating in a void with no land connections. There are no luminous celestial bodies in the sky, consistent with descriptions in writings about the shadow realm...
My current location should be at the forecourt of this ancient facility. I can see a large door, outside of which is pure void darkness, making one doubt the doorâs purposeâyet Iâve found some curious pillars on the limited platform in front of the door. I suspect they were used to anchor some form of transportation or mounts capable of traversing the shadow realm. The ancients of Gondor might have had the capability to explore that void darkness, for they were, after all, the omnipotent Gondorians...
The other end of the courtyard is the main structure itself, a vast palace or fortress. Iâve explored a small portion of its entrance, and its size overwhelms me. There are countless corridors and rooms, as well as empty halls and storerooms... I canât fathom how many used to work and live within this facility located in the Otherworld... Its size is so enormous that I suspect many could live here for a lifetimeâand if a newborn were to be born here, without anyone instilling the right knowledge, he might not even know of the outside worldâs existence...
Ah, my rich imagination is only useful for amusement and doesnât help me escape this damned place.
Amber flipped the pages, and for a moment, only the sound of rustling paper and the threeâs even breathing filled the quiet lounge.
...The fourth day being trapped.
Over the previous three days, I pondered whether to delve deeper into the fortressâs depths, which could mean additional risks: ancient facility defenses might still be operational, and dormant relic guardians could be awakened by my intrusion.
Itâs said that the Violet Kingdomâs magic puppet guards can operate for six hundred years after their masterâs death, and those legendary Gondor Iron Soldiers might last even longer...
But maybe I should take some risksâIâve searched the courtyard and outer corridors for three days, and thereâs no device to open a spatial door, while my food and water are in a dangerously precarious situation. Between dying of thirst or hunger and having my head chopped off by ancient guardians, the latter might be more merciful.
Iâm going to enter the inner corridors.
The sixth day, still trapped.
Damn this fortressâwhy is it so massive!! How many corridors are there, how many rooms, how many halls! Did the Gondorians throw a cityâs worth of people into the shadow realm?
How advanced Gondor Empireâs technology isâthey could construct such a fortress in the shadow realm, enable thousands to live in this Otherworld long-term, yet I, a royal shadow guard from centuries later, can only wander about this ancient facility without any clues, which is truly a mocking situation.
By the way, my water is finished, and my food is also depleted.
The seventh day, I discovered an empty room, which might have been some sort of research facility previously. I saw platforms with magic symbols and inconspicuous pipes and containers, sadly all devoid of water.
I must begin considering my remaining affairs.
The eighth day, todayâs keyword is moss.
Yes, moss! In this isolated fortress for centuries, moss exists! In such a place like the shadow realm, moss actually exists!
They grow in what seems like a laboratory room, with large, tube-shaped containers fixed to the ground, all empty, yet one containerâs outer wall, the nearby wall, and floor were filled with these cute little plants. As with other things in the shadow realm, these mosses appear in shades of gray and black, almost mistaken for ordinary stains at firstâthank heaven, I lingered in this room for a bit...
The presence of moss indicates moisture, and moisture means water.
The moss tastes somewhat bitter, with a strange, almost gelatinous texture, possibly detrimental to my health, but at this point, I can afford little concern. Without them, I might never again worry about my health in just a few days.
"The moss restored some of my strength, and the moisture within them was enough to boost my spirit, but this little moisture is clearly not enough to sustain long-term survival. I collected all the moss from a nearby pipe, squeezing the juice into my canteen. With this small supply, I intend to start exploring the surrounding rooms centered around this chamber.
"On the ninth day, I didnât find water, but I... saw a human figure!
"I canât put into words the shock I felt at that moment. I saw a human figure, but it flashed by a corner of the room... Iâm not sure if it was real.
"Could it be that the moss contains hallucinogenic components? But I must rely on them to survive...
"On the tenth day, I found water! In a place that looked like a dining area for several people, one of the pipes actually still had water flowing from it! And it was clean water! I think I can survive here for a long time now!
"The appearance of this clean waterâdoes it mean that some purification devices are still operational here? Are more devices still running?"
Amber focused intently on every line of text recorded above, unconsciously biting her lip, as if she were witnessing her foster father painstakingly exploring in such an isolated ancient fortress to maintain survival. When she saw Sali Randolph finally finding a water source, she couldnât help but softly exhale: "He might have found a cafeteria still in use..."
Gawain nodded slightly beside her, speaking in a low voice: "Iâm more curious about what the shadow he saw was."
"He mentioned it hereâ" Amber turned to another page, glanced over it, then pointed at the content above:
"...I saw the shadow again, and more than one this time. I can confirm it wasnât a hallucination, but what followed left me even more shocked and confused.
"Those shadows are âShadow Inhabitantsâ.
"They are just like whatâs described in the treatises; they appear ghost-like with no form, wrapped into human shapes by some tattered âshroudâ, traversing freely in the shadow realm, and clearly noticed me, the uninvited guest that intruded.
"I prepared for battle, but it didnât happenâall academic records state that shadow inhabitants would attack all material beings that enter the shadow realm, yet those shadow inhabitants merely observed me coldly. I can affirm they were observing, even though behind those âshroudsâ was only hollow darkness...
"After an unbearably tense standoff, the shadow inhabitants left, with no communication between us.
"I have no idea what happened."
Amber furrowed her brow, and she too found the shadow inhabitants her foster father encountered somewhat peculiar but couldnât explain them; she had to press those doubts in her heart and continue reading onâ
On the new page, Sali Randolphâs writings continued to record his experiences in the Shadow Fortress:
"...On the fourteenth day, I discovered a room where some devices... are still running.
"I struggle to precisely describe what I witnessed; those things are indeed beyond my realm of knowledgeâaround a massive pillar, I saw numerous pale yellow, semi-transparent egg-shaped containers fixed on stands. The size of these egg-shaped containers is roughly equivalent to a fully-grown cow...
"Many pipes extended from that large pillar, connecting to the surrounding egg-shaped containers.
"Nearly all containers are damaged, cracked, tilted, fallen to the ground, with their contents dried up, and inside those broken containers, I saw many small skeletons.
"This sent chills down my spineâas a royal shadow guard, Iâve seen many tragic scenes, seen many death scenes, but the small skeletons within those containers were stranger and more terrifying than anything Iâve ever witnessed, making me question what the Gondor people were doing here back then.
"With shock and tension, I examined this room and then discovered her.
"The only complete container, the only living individual.
"She curled up in some liquid, floating inside a semi-transparent crystal container, all of which looked like a piece of amber.
"I canât describe my feelings at this moment, and what made me even more at a loss was that these crystal containers match entirely with the target items described in the mission, which means... the âthingâ inside the container is the âancient heritageâ I am to bring back.
"My mission can be completed, but only if I manage to find a way out, and also carry this unwieldy container outâif I rashly open it, will the little girl inside die immediately? This is a tricky situation."
Amberâs eyes were fixed on the paper in front of her; even after reading the content on this page, she didnât turn to the next page until a minute later when Gawain gently tapped her shoulder.
Amber snapped out of her trance, took a deep breath, and flipped the pageâ
"...On the fifteenth day, I have yet to figure out what to do, but suddenly I realized that it makes no sense for me to ponder: Iâm still trapped here.
"A person who canât even manage to live out canât be thinking about fulfilling a task; itâs overly wishful thinking.
"Iâll put aside the currently unresolvable issues for now and refocus on finding a way out.
"Considering that probably for a long time to come, the only company I will have is this little one inside the amber, Iâve given her a name, Amber.
"But I guess she must have had another nameâevery base of the egg-shaped containers here is inscribed with a line of letters; each containerâs letters vary slightly. Perhaps they are the real names (though I also suspect if the Gondor scholars working here at the time truly named a batch of experimental products). But those are writings from Gondor a thousand years ago, which are quite different from todayâs standard alphabet, and my ancient linguistic skills happen to be a weak point.
"I can only replicate those letters; maybe one day if I actually get out alive, perhaps the scholars in the royal capital could decrypt my doubts, could let me understand this little oneâs real name, or at least let me know how the Gondor people called her back then."
At the bottom of this page, Sali Randolph left a large blank space, where he wrote a line of letters in bold, a sequence nearly no one in this era can comprehend.
Amber stared at those letters, lifting her head moments later to look into Gawainâs eyes: "What do these letters mean? What was I originally called?"
Gawain withdrew his gaze from the letters, silently looking at Amber for four or five seconds before softly sighing and slowly speaking:
"Artificial Human No. 36."
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