"That's not ominous at all," Spatch gulped.
The darkhouse towered above them, it's menacing silhouette appearing almost like the bow of a ship breaking through fog.
"How tall you reckon it is?" Quin asked.
"Over a hundred meters, easy. I don't think I've ever seen a normal lighthouse before, let alone its dark twisted cousin," Fischer replied. He couldn't help but feel slightly nauseous looking up at it.
The group began heading towards the base of the enormous structure. One thing was on all their minds though.
"So what now? You found the tower," Tonner stated, folding his arms.
It was only then that Fischer realised they had no real objectives here. Ko's visions had told them about the darkhouse, but nothing about what would happen when they actually arrived. The air suddenly filled with a sense of worry as several sets of eye found themselves resting on Ko.
"Uh. . . I-I. . . I d-don't. . . know. They d-didn't tell me what we h-had to do after we got here," she muttered, dragging her feet in the dirt.
"Well that's just great," Tonner huffed, throwing his arms in the air and turning his back on them.
"There's gotta be something here. We're in the middle of an ancient city built by the angels. There's no way there's nothing here. Why don't we split up and have a look around? We can cover more area that way," Spatch asked.
Quin scoffed and folded her arms. "Pfft. Yea, because that will end well. I'm making an executive decision right now, we are not splitting up."
"The carcan's right. Splitting up is a bad idea. We have no idea where we are and no idea what could be waiting for us-"
A sudden spine-chilling growl interrupted Tonner and the group immediately spun on their heels.
"Uhh. . . what. . . what was that?" Fischer asked, immediately taking a step closer to Ko.
"No clue. I don't think I wanna know," Spatch replied, fiddling around with some holographic buttons on his arm device.
The air went eerily silent once more. The sound dissipated into the air leaving the five of them clueless and on edge.
"We should get to somewhere safer," Quin exclaimed through gritted teeth.
"Sure, how safe do you want? The broken buildings that belong to dead people? Or the large as fuck tower that sticks out like a sore thumb?" Spatch hissed in reply.
"You got any better ideas?" Tonner replied while constantly switching his aim from building to building.
Spatch shrugged his shoulders and hastily turned to the rest of them. "Fair point. Darkhouse, let's go!"
With haste, they all turned and made a break for the huge silhouette of the darkhouse, around two hundred or so meters away up a small incline. Tonner made sure to be last, keeping his aim trained on the city below.
The base of the dark house was covered in what looked to be old stone walls. They didn't seem to have any apparent reason for being there, almost like they were once part of a much larger structure that had long since been lost to time. The walls were crumbled and cracked, clearly having been standing for a long time. However they didn't seem to be too badly damaged all things considered. It was still possible to make out what once looked to be a house of some sort, possibly a small castle.
"What the hell happened here?" Spatch silently queried. His tone had shifted to one of anxiousness and uncertainty.
"Nothing good," Ko whimpered.
"Tonner, you should keep watch. We don't need whatever it was that made that sound to come back and you're probably the best shot here," Quin stated.
"Hey!" Spatch exclaimed.
"Guys! Look here!" Fischer suddenly called.
He stood by a piece of wall that had a strange shape of colour splashed on the side. It didn't resemble either of the symbols they had seen on the chalk drawing, and it didn't appear to be of anything in particular.
"What is it?" Quin asked.
"I don't know. But this is definitely not natural. It's a deep purple. The rest of these walls are grey and white. This was put here for a reason," he said as he ran his finger across the wall.
"Hey. There's more over here," Tonner called. Sure enough, next to him stood a wall with bits of purple all over the sides. Behind them stood a small bit of wall that was almost entirely purple.
Suddenly Ko had a realisation. As she took a few steps backwards, she noticed the walls began to create somewhat of a pattern. The purple patterns began to align together as she moved back, forming what looked to be some sort of logo or insignia.
"Guys? Hey, come look at this," she beckoned.
Fischer was quick to stand by her side and watched as she pointed towards the mass of stone.
"Look. Here, see? The purple lines up. It makes a pattern."
Fischer's eyes widened as he began to make out what she was talking about.
"Yea. . . yea it does!" He exclaimed.
"Good eyes Bluey," Quin jested.
The group had a clear view of what the pattern was. Parts of the walls were missing, however it was unmistakable what the purple was.
"Two triangles? Well that's great and all, but what exactly does it mean?" Spatch queried. Two purple triangles pointing down, one on top of the other were now staring back at them.
"No clue. I didn't see anything about triangles in the temple. Did the lantern say anything about them?" Quin asked.
Fischer shook his head. He noticed Quin's eyes droop slightly at the mention of the temple.
The triangles seemed to stare at them with an empty gaze. There was something sinister about them that he couldn't quite put his finger on. But along with the roar that they heard earlier, he wasn't quite sure he wanted to find out.
He racked his brains, trying to think of anything that the symbol could be trying to tell them. Anything at all. Two triangles pointing down. It sounded strangely familiar.
"God, now we're solving puzzles sketched onto the wall. Why the hell not?" Tonner scolded as he flung his arms into the air. His brow was lowered and his temper short.
"You got any better ideas? You're more than welcome to go back to the ship!" Spatch exclaimed.
"Don't you give me fucking attitude. This was your crazy idea in the first place-"
"Wait, Spatch what did you just say?" Fisher quickly asked, his finger pointed in Spatch's direction. A figurative light bulb just lit up in his head.
"Uhh. . . You can go back to the ship?"
Fischer nodded hastily, his mind running at a thousand miles an hour. He quickly turned to Ko who held a rather confused look on her snout.
"Ko, do you remember what that riddle said? The one the lantern gave us?" He clicked his fingers in excitement.
She rubbed her horn as her mind ran through everything she'd seen so far. "Uhh. . .I beckoned, you came. Y-you walk the path of phoenix flame, uhh. . . one task fulfilled, a great legend to build. . . Agaron's prize is at the end of the night, his fight begins at the first of new days. A darkness that cuts through a blinding light, t-two knots down, point. . . the. . ." her eyes lit up as she realised just what he was getting at.
"Two knots down point the way!" They both said towards the other.
"That's the symbol! It's pointing the way!" He stated.
The group turned towards symbol, a frown on Spatch's face. "I mean, that's all well and good, but what does going back to the ship have to do with it?"
Fischer quickly moved to the front of the group, his heart beating like a drum. His senses were tingling.
"Ship, ship ship ship. Two knots down point the way. . . two knots. . ."
"Uhh Fisch? You ok there?" Quin asked.
"Two knots down point the way. This symbol is showing us where to go," he pointed, his eyes still wandering all over the stone.
"Uh, yea. We know that. But where exactly is it pointing? Underground?"
"And uhh, what exactly is a knot? I don't see how tying some rope is going to help us here" Spatch jested.
"No no no, a different type of knot. Ok back on Earth right, we have ships and all that. Vessels that travel on the water. We use the term 'knots' as a measurement of distance across the water and in the air. Nautical miles, knots," he explained.
"Ok? How does that help us? I don't know if you've noticed but there isn't exactly any water here," Tonner stated. He folded his arms and raised his brow.
"Two knots could be referring to that measurement. I don't know what else it could be. And there's another thing, on the ocean we have these things called cardinal signs. They're basically like road signs for the ocean, but they point in the directions of a compass,"
"And?"
"The symbol for south is two triangles pointing downwards. Two knots pointing down! We have to head south for two knots!"
The rest of the group gave him skeptical looks. It seemed like a bit of a stretch to be sure.
"That's. . . certainly an interesting theory. . ." Quin began.
"Look, you got a better plan? After whatever it was that made that roar sound I don't think I wanna stay here much longer and find out."
She shrugged in agreement, "Fair point. But which way is south?"
"That way," Spatch said, pointing to their right. On his left arm just above his gauntlet was a holographic compass with multiple different dials and wheels on it.
"Woah, that's cool," Fischer said.
Spatch winked at him gleefully.
"Well, we better start moving then. I don't wanna be here any longer. What are we looking for?" Tonner asked.
"Uh. . . no clue. But I guess we'll know it when we find it." Fischer replied.
Quin let out a disheartened sigh. "I hope so. This is going to be a long walk."