The Keystone - Chapter 1

The pitter-patter of raindrops falling through the trees to the ground echoed through the forest, the sound of the tropical birds and the monkeys made the whole forest seem like nothing but a dream. A tall tanned man with long black hair and blue tribal tattoos covering his face and muscular torso was running through the forest, wearing a peridot pendant around his neck,that looked like some kind of protective charm. As the man ran, he tripped and tumbled down a steep hill before he reached a narrow path along a cliff. He stood up and started to run again, like a young, frightened gazelle running from a bolting cheetah. He tripped on the tangling roots of an enormous tree and the stone flew away from his body into a seemingly bottomless chasm. He leapt up, quick as a bolt of lightning, and jumped into the endless abyss, reaching for the stone as he fell. His hands found only empty space as he plummeted into nothingness, accepting that he would die for the precious stone.


Dr. Jared Ramsey was a history professor at Oxford, he was fairly tall; roughly 6"2', had short, dark brown hair, green eyes and a permanent 5 o'clock shadow. He always wore a white shirt, a tweed jacket with leather elbow patches and dark brown trousers. He had just finished his last lecture of the day and was about to make his way to his homely cottage in the countryside, when an old man, wearing a navy blue robe, with long grey hair and a thin beard, ran up to him and shouted, "When your father bit the dust, you hid it away to let it rust. With a key you must find, what your father left behind."

He then ran into the distance and vanished behind a bus passing by.

"Well that was strange," he said with a confused look on his face.

After his extremely strange experience, he drove home in his green 4x4. When he arrived home he thought about what the man had said. "When your father bit the dust, you hid it away to let it rust. With a key you must find, what your father left behind?" he thought to himself, "What could he possibly he mean by that?"

Then he remembered, the small metal box his father left him when he died. This was the only thing his father left him, being the middle child and only son of 5, he was always treated like an outsider, which is why he assumed the box his father left him was a worthless hunk of junk, however, for some strange reason he could never part with it.

He walked up his spiral staircase all the way to his dusty attic, opened the old, oak door and looked around the cobweb filled room. He looked at the big set of shelves, containing all sorts of old relics and books from his days as a child, and found the metal box. The box was originally clean and polished, but was now a dull grey colour. The embossed pattern of a pentagram was still visible on the rusted lid. It had a small golden lock that, unlike the rest of the box, was still glistening. "With a key you must find? What key?" he said aloud before realising that nobody was around to hear him. He couldn't think of any keys that his father had ever had nor talked about before he died.

Then he felt some markings on the bottom of the box, so he turned the box upside down and noticed that the markings were an engraved map. "Maybe this map leads to the key," he thought, the first point on the map was a local cemetery. It was getting dark, and he was tired, after the confusing day he just had who wouldn't be. "It's Saturday tomorrow," he mumbled, "I'll go then seeing as I don't have to go to work." He walked up to his bedroom, collapsed onto his bed and fell asleep.

The next day he woke up and had a shower. After his shower he opened the bathroom door letting out a big cloud of steam before he walked to his bedroom to get dressed. As it was not a working day and he was going to a cemetery in the middle of the summer, he decided to wear a dark green t-shirt, beige cargo shorts, and a beige trilby hat with a light brown ribbon around it's base. He grabbed a bottle of water from his tall fridge, an energy bar from a cupboard and a pair of sunglasses off the cherry wood coffee table, before walking out the front door and getting into his big car.

It was a short drive to the cemetery, even with all the traffic, so he was there by about 8:50am; being a teacher he often woke up around 6:00am, and today was no exception. When he arrived at the cemetery he walked up to the large, open, cast-iron gate. It was now very light outside and extremely hot. He walked around the cemetery looking for some kind of clue to what he was looking for. After a couple of hours he still had no luck but just as he was about to give up he saw a huge mausoleum. "That's odd?" he thought, "What's a mausoleum of this size doing in this kind of cemetery?" Then he noticed the symbol just above the door. It was the same symbol as on the box lid. He approached the great, stone structure with caution, and pushed at the solid metal door. It wouldn't budge. He searched the door and the surrounding areas for some clue as to opening the door. After some careful examination he found a small button hidden behind a patch of ivy. He pushed the button into the stone wall and the door opened. He entered the dark room and, as if from nowhere, a torch caught fire, illuminating it with a dim glow.

"This day just keeps getting weirder." He continued into the immense, cold, stone room and the door closed behind him. He jumped around and pounded his fist into the door. After that accomplished nothing he searched the room for an exit or some clue as to why he was there. In the middle of the chamber there was a stone table with a golden handled dagger, and an old, dusty book. In the middle of the table was a thin slit; similar to a coin slot, only slightly larger.

As he approached the table he picked up the book and blew the dust off the cover. The cover read 'οι πέντε βασιλιάδες των φυσικών στοιχείων' which roughly translates to 'The Five Kings of the Natural Elements'. He opened the book and began to read; luckily he was well versed in many languages, including Greek. The book talked about five members of a secret order called 'Custódes Absconde' They each ruled a different part of the world where they guarded the secret of a hidden world. Each king had a key, when all five keys were inserted into the keystone it would create a portal that would lead to a world full of wonder and treasure. As the kings grew old they had to hide their keys and each key was to be protected by a different mythical creature.

It was growing late and Jared had still not found a way out of the mausoleum, so he skipped to the back of the book to see if there were any answers as how to escape from the darkening chamber. In the back was an engraving of the dagger, the stone table and the word 'αίμα' which is Greek for blood. The engraving showed a drop of blood falling from the dagger above the slit on the table.

After a few moments of thinking, he picked up the dagger and cut the palm of his hand with it. Then he slotted the dagger into the slit on the table, the room began to shake and the table began to slide towards the back of the room. After a few seconds the table stopped moving, it had revealed a staircase leading under the mausoleum. Torches down the staircase lit up and the blade of the dagger vanished leaving only the handle behind. Jared grabbed the handle and book, and descended down the creepy stairway.

As he reached the end of the stairway, he entered a large, stone room lined with torches. In the middle of the room there was a large, stone tablet. The stone caught fire and the flames formed the shape of a pentagram inside of a circle. Jared carefully walked towards the tablet, as he did, the flames blasted upwards and then suddenly died out. He placed the book and handle in his pocket and began to examine the tablet in more detail. It had five words engraved into the sides: Ignis, Terra, Aqua, Aer and Spiritus. As he ran his fingers over the engravings, the doorway he had entered through closed itself, and two more doors appeared on the opposite side of the room with some engravings located in the middle.

Jared stopped what he was doing and rushed over to the new additions to the room. He studied the engravings and read them aloud to himself. "Iustae et verae viae eligere," he pondered the meaning of the words then realised what they said, "choose the way that is just and true," again he had to think for a while. Riddles were not his strong suit, they were more his sisters' thing. While he was studying ancient languages and deciphering codes during his holidays as a child, his sisters would be cracking puzzles and solving riddles. After a while he was ready to give up, but then it struck him. The way that is just and true, is the right way. Therefore he must take the door on the right.

He reached out and grabbed the door knob on the right. He twisted the handle and pulled the door open. Behind was a small box perched on a small wooden table. He picked up the box and closed the door. Both doors and the engraving vanished and the original entrance was once again open. He took the box over to the tablet and lifted off the lid. Inside was a shiny gold key and a small piece of parchment. He unfolded the parchment and on it was the word Spiritus. He then took the box from his attic, inserted the key into the lock and turned it. The lid popped open and inside was a pendant with a small white crystal hanging from it. He studied the rock and determined that it was made from moonstone.

He placed the pendant on the table and moved both boxes onto the floor. The pentagram engraving on the tablet began to glow a bright white colour, the word Spiritus followed shortly after. The pendant levitated into the centre of the pentagram and glowed. Finally it descended back towards the tablet and everything returned to how it was.

Any other person at this point would have fled the cavern and convinced themselves that it was all just a bad dream; but Jared wanted to continue. He knew, from the book, that there were four more pendants similar to the one he currently had. He also knew that retrieving them would not be an easy task and he would not be able to do it alone. The only person he could think of to help him was his sister, Tessa. She was intuitive, brave and one of the best riddle solvers he knew. He looked down at his watch and was shocked by how fast time had flown by, somehow it was already 4:20pm. He decided that the book required further investigation but he should probably spend as little time as possible in the cave, so he grabbed everything he could and walked back up the stairs. He closed the door to the mausoleum, so that nobody else would accidentally stumble upon the mystical cavern, and climbed into his car.


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