Return to Yefrtil (Caveman Chronicles)

The Index -|-

Zara followed her da through the enormous front door to the Grand Yefrtil Administrative Center. They had been here before, wandering the seemingly endless halls full of ancient beauty. This time, a nervous energy tickled her scalp. “I hope we can actually find the Xih,” she said quietly.

Kpleeb turned , his footsteps echoing between the smooth marble floor and the high ceiling overhead that glowed with a pale green light. “What did you say, Zara?” His brow furrowed in question.

“I said,” Zara started, “I hope-“

A case clattered to the floor as Viinox lost its grip on the handle.

Zara grimaced. at the interruption “I said, I hope we can actually find the Xih. This place is huge. It’s possible the clues we have are only a stepping stone to the next thing.” She raised her hands. “This could be an endless search here on Yefrtil and on any number of other orbs.”

Kpleeb nodded. “We need to do one thing at a time and that thing is Yefrtil right now.” He pointed toward Viinox and Kanta walking toward the triangular structures in the distance. “Let’s get settled, set up, and run our scans.”

Zara nodded and began to follow him. Her da’s legs were much longer, and soon she fell behind. The halls in the Grand Yefrtil administrative Center were deceptively long, and by the time she arrived, Kanta and Viinox had completed their integration with the Xi library systems.

“Well, hello there, short stuff,” Kpleeb said with a grin. “Where have you been?”

Zara grinned back at him. “I stopped for a nap, da, and dinner too. Is the scan equipment ready? I’d really love to get started.” She waved at the group of Ganix warriors that stalked nearby like lions in tall grass.

Viinox and Kanta reached into their cases and handed each warrior a yellow rod the length of their forearm. Viinox pointed at the glossy, black tip. “You must keep the black end above your head at all times. You should traverse each hallway as fast as you please and come back here when you have seen every available space.”

The Ganix warriors turned the rods over in their hands and stood stiffly as if waiting for more instructions.”

“You may go now,” said Zara waving the back of her hand at them. “Make sure you enter every space.”

The warriors bounded away like jackrabbits, sprinting into the distance and soon disappearing from sight.

Kanta was pushing buttons on her console. “The feeds are already coming in,” she bubbled. With a flipper, she tabbed through a series of indistinct black and white images filled with lines. “I love how fast these Ganix are.” The images disappeared and symbols began to flow into the data cloud that hovered above her visual device.

Zara leaned in. “It’s working, we just need more. I wonder how long it will take for the Ganix to finish? The end of the main hall is about a day’s travel for most people.” She turned to look down the hallway. The end of it was invisible behind an atmospheric fog that obscured every feature.

Kanta waddled over to a pile of soft bags that had contained some of the equipment and flopped down. “Time for a nap.” Her big eyes closed immediately as soon as her head laid back, and her gills fluttered softly within her water-helmet.

“I’m a bit jealous that she can do that so quickly,” said Kpleeb. He grabbed his bag and lightning spear. “I’m going back to the Greki to talk to Daert. Let me know if we find anything, okay?”

Zara nodded. “I’ll be here watching the reports. Hoping for a match to one of our clues.” She watched Kpleeb walk out the door and then turned back to the cloud of data. The whole cloud flickered as patterns, symbols, and lines flashed incredibly fast, each one appearing for a fraction of a second. After a few moments, she turned to one of the Xi library devices. Carefully, she copied the symbol that they had found on Nidix and issued a search. She had already searched from the command center on the Hsstak, but it was connected with the Xi knowledge base in a limited way and had returned nothing. The Xi library held the complete repository of Xi knowledge as far as Zara knew.

The library search displayed a silvery triangle with lines that extended and retracted from each point in a repeating pattern. It was mesmerizing, but after a few moments, Kanta’s data cloud flickered red for a second and emitted a quiet noise.

Zara swiveled her head and waved her hand excitedly toward Kanta and Viinox. “We found the symbol! Look, it is located about a quarter of the way along the structure in one of the nooks.”

Viinox analyzed the display momentarily before lifting its chin. “This is the same as what we saw on Nidix, but the analysis is not complete. We must scout this location.”

“I’ll stay here,” bubbled Kanta. “We may need immediate access to the Xi library.”

They packed with the efficiency of people who had done this many times before. The Ganix fell into formation without being ordered. Zara stood and slipped her arms into her back pack slings before tapping her necklace. “Da, we found the symbol. I’m sending the location.”

Kpleeb replied over the communication device. “Take the warriors and check it out. I’ll come to you soon.”

###

Archon Nikert took a full forty-nine breaths to analyze the cor and hear the acolyte speak with its hidden voice. The acolyte nearly succeeded in concealing its thoughts, but Nikert could sense the faint, quivering whiff of its telepathic emissions, and the tuning of it exuded distress. The Archon’s lower slits twitched in pleasure knowing that the acolyte before it suffered. Nikert waited longer now, asserting dominance, increasing pain, before finally looking up from the scroll. “Acolyte? Present.”

Acolyte Sen-Afuek presented its fingers in the modified taw that was befitting its station and then straightened slowly, its cor whispering a terrified lament.

Nikert felt the delicious shiver of the acolyte’s pain vibrate in the air. An acolyte would remain bent for any amount of time required of course, but Archon Nikert’s previous experiment had been far too expensive, the senior acolyte too great a loss.

The acolyte still presented its taw, all three fingers on each hand pressed tip-to-tip in a delightful and fitting homage to the communion of the Xih’s glorious past. Its rough brown robes were snug, with a low collar that did not hide its gently fluttering neck slits.

The Archon lifted its chin ever so slightly. “Begin.”

“Greatest Archon, Nidix has missed the assigned check in.” The acolyte’s face was perfectly void of emotion, a stone wall of indifference. “A vessel has been dispatched to obtain a first hand report, which is expected within the next twenty days.”

The last time the slaves failed to check in was after the disruption of the aji. The prior was the rebellion of Ixant nine. Without facts the seven cannot convene. Nikert glanced down at the scroll on the wooden surface, yet did not read the ancient text. “Depart from me until the required report is complete.”

The gossamer veil closed silently behind the acolyte, and the Archon’s neck slits palpitated twice in a dramatic sigh. It placed its fingers gently on the scroll and twisted it closed, the delicate, metal shell settling in place with a quiet snik.

###

Zara stood staring intently at the wall. “Here it is,” she stated under her breath. The symbol was cut into the stone and collected shadow. She placed her fingertips on the carved pattern and traced the lines with deliberate pressure. The carving was perfect—no irregularities, no tool marks visible to the naked eye. Surrounding the symbol were others that appeared to be from the same family. “Can you translate this, Viinox?” she asked.

Viinox tilted its chin downward. “Not yet. Until now, I have assumed that this was a marker, not a word. Architectural markers usually indicate access points,” Its voice carried no emphasis, as though it were reading from a manual. “Or containment boundaries. The grand administrative center was initially designed to house sensitive materials. If this symbol appears in both locations, it suggests a connection between Nidix’s operations and whatever the Xi or the Xih considered worth protecting here.”

Zara opened her senses into the aji realm and saw the web of faint luminescence that traced the architecture in lines of soft blue-white light. Active energy signatures and patterns flickered through the entire batch of symbols, and the primary symbol blazed with the culmination of their aji. It appeared as no mixing of aji that she had ever seen. Beneath the symbol—or within it—something else took shape. A door, maybe. Not merely a physical aperture in the stone, but a discontinuity in the aji field, a threshold marked by the same symbol rendered in light rather than carved lines. It hovered at the surface, waiting. “It’s not just a marker,” she said. “It’s something else, maybe a button or a lock., and you wouldn’t see it without enhanced perception.”

“A perceptual lock. Rare, even for imperial security,” Viinox stated “Active locks aren’t carved into walls without reason. What we’re looking for has ancient value and is well-hidden. Value demands protection.” It connected with Kanta who was located at the Xi library terminal. “Kanta, I am sending you an image. Please translate this as soon as possible.”

“I will,” replied Kanta. “The Builder is on his way to your location.”

Zara slowly made a circuit of the short hallway and alcove. The walls were covered in beautiful patterns and murals unlike any she had seen except for here in this expansive structure. Scroll work, filigree, and silvery abstract symbols surrounded by greenery and majestic landscapes covered almost every surface. There was, of course, the majestic figure that was a common feature in each of the alcoves. A Xi, tall and proud was dressed in ornate silver armor with a small, tricorn helmet on its head that glinted with a red light. On the armor’s chest was etched a heptagon with each of its seven sides emitting a single line that faded a short distance from the starting point.

“I found a very old key document written around the time the grand Yefrtil administrative center was built.” Kanta paused and then read the translation. “I am not forged in fire, yet I hold an edge. I am not alive, yet I answer the hand that knows me. Walls are built to keep me out, and still I slip through. Speak my name, and I remember my maker.”

Zara repeated the riddle and then again. It was specific and every word carried weight. It wanted not just any word, but the right one—a name that matched the description with the exactness that imperial systems demanded. Not forged in fire, yet holds an edge. Not alive, yet answers the hand. Empires build walls, but it slips through. Knowledge, then. Or a tool. she thought. Something that cut without being a blade. She tested the first obvious answer immediately. “Aji.”

Nothing happened. The symbol’s aji aspect pulsing at its steady, indifferent rhythm.

Zara shrugged. “Xih. Kerflk. Yefrtil. Nidix.” She turned to Viinox. “Any suggestions?”

“Kerflk would be my first guess, but if that’s not it, perhaps we should look in the library.”

Kanta’s voice bubbled through the communicator. “I’ll start compiling a list of possible matches.”

Just then, Kpleeb arrived. “Greetings, my dear,” he said with a smile. “Have you found the symbol?”

Zara squeezed her da’s arm excitedly. “There is a lock or something.” She read the riddle again. “What do you think it means?”

Kpleeb grinned widely as he stood back and looked at the wall. “You know I’m not great with these weird Xi languages and word games.” He paused for a minute and twisted his face. “Try every word you can think of. Can we bring in a device that will speak Xi words directly from the library?”

Zara frowned. “That’s actually brilliant, da. Maybe we can.” She tapped her necklace. “Kanta, can you ask the library interface to speak entire records one word at a time?”

“Starting from which record?” replied Kanta’s voice.

“Anything really, but perhaps the most useful will be older records.” Zara nodded at Viinox. “We can just leave the receiver here, right? The words can trigger the lock.”

Viinox lifted its chin a notch. “Unless we are here, how will we know if the lock is opened?”

“I plan on staying here with the Ganix warriors..” She turned to Kpleeb. “Da, you can stay as well, right?”

Kpleeb shrugged noncommittally. “I suppose. We’ll need to get sleeping mats and some food and water. It could be days!”

Viinox spoke up. “This, I can arrange, and I will go to the library and conduct additional searches. I have a feeling this word is very old.” It turned to leave. “Expect your supplies to be delivered soon.”

Zara waved. “Thank you, Viinox.” She turned to her da. “We’ll find the word, da. I’m sure of it.”