Two weeks had passed since the goblins. Loki counted them roughly, because he stopped counting days accurately after the fourth day of healing, when he realized that counting doesn’t make time pass faster.
He had cut about half the way toward the depth of the forest, according to the map at least, whose edges had begun to tear from humidity and use. His arm had healed in a way that satisfied him, a long scar still red, but it only hurts when the weather gets cold at night.
He stopped at a narrow river to fill his waterskin, and while doing so, he noticed something among the trees on the opposite bank. A stone. It was smoother than it should be, and its edge was straight in a way he didn’t like.
He crossed the river at a shallow point, and his feet got wet up to the knee, so he cursed the sudden cold, then climbed the other bank.
It was a stone pillar. Broken from the top, but clear, carved with zigzag lines that seemed to him like inscriptions he didn’t understand. Behind it, other pillars, some completely fallen, some still standing stubbornly amid wild grasses.
Remains of a temple.
Loki stood there for a minute, doing nothing but looking. He didn’t feel great novelistic enthusiasm, just simple practical curiosity. Old ruins sometimes mean treasure, sometimes a trap, and both possibilities are almost equal in their likelihood.
"Okay." He said in a low voice. "Let’s see."
He walked among the pillars, avoiding scattered stones that might break his ankle if he tripped over them. He found a low entrance, half buried in dirt and roots, but an opening enough for a bent person to pass through.
He thought for a second about going back. He didn’t have a torch, nor a rope, nor anything resembling real exploration equipment. All he had was a knife and a waterskin and cheese he ate two days ago.
He went in anyway.
Inside was colder than he expected, and damp, with a smell of ancient stone mixed with something else he couldn’t identify. Walls carved with the same strange inscriptions, some eroded to the point of disappearance, and a narrow corridor extending into darkness.
He walked slowly, his hand touching the wall to guide him, until he reached a wider hall. A faint, pale blue light was seeping from cracks in the ceiling, barely enough to see the features of the room.
In the middle, a small stone platform, and above it something shining.
He approached. It was a metal piece, the size of his palm, engraved with symbols similar to those on the walls, but it was pulsating with a faint light from within, as if something alive inhabited it.
He extended his hand to touch it.
He stopped at the last moment.
"No." He said to himself. "Maybe this is a bad idea."
He remained standing there, his hands hanging in the air, arguing with himself for long seconds. Caution says stay away. Curiosity, and hunger, and months of feeling absolute weakness, say the exact opposite.
He touched it.
Nothing happened for a full second. Then the piece suddenly lit up with stronger light, and the ground under his feet trembled slightly, and he heard a sound like stone rubbing against stone coming from behind him.
He turned quickly.
The door he had entered from was closing. Slowly, but with an unstoppable steadiness, a stone mass sliding from above to block the opening.
"No, no, no—" He ran toward it, tried to push it with his hands, with his shoulder, with all his weight. The stone didn’t move an inch. It closed completely with a final dry sound.
Loki remained standing in the darkness, breathing with difficulty, his hands still on the cold stone.
"Okay." He said in a voice louder than necessary, trying to sound calm to himself more than he actually was. "Okay, it’s fine, I’ll find another way."
He searched in the darkness for any other exit, for any crack through which light or at least air could enter. He didn’t find anything worth mentioning except those small cracks in the ceiling that had been the source of the blue light from the beginning.
He returned to the metal piece on the platform, still glowing, lighter than before now.
"Did you do this?" He asked it, and felt foolish as soon as the words left his mouth, because of course it didn’t answer.
He sat on the cold floor, his back to the wall, and looked at the glowing piece for a long time without doing anything else.
He summoned the window, without real hope that it would help him.
[Warning: Isolated field active.]
[Exit unavailable until condition is completed.]
[Condition: Unknown.]
He stared at the words. "Unknown." He repeated in a low voice. "Of course."