September 25th, 2025 - continuation of This.


Their arrival in the large open area under the earth, er, Cybele, was met with mixed reactions - Hierapolis with pride and excitement to share this place with his brothers, Marks with mild, for him anyway, panic, and Recks with critical alarm.

Before them was a long wooden table that had some warping and wear from weather and age, but it and the chairs around it seemed sturdy enough - which was good because Marks really needed to take a seat.

The long firepit in front of them provided much light and warmth as the flames flickered, and set a mood of ancient and rustic timelessness. Marks in particular found some comfort in the medieval feel - this whole place was a visual blending of Greek and medieval fantasy!Europe in architecture. And he would know!

The place looked like much effort had gone in to cleaning it up, although the wear of abandonment still shone. It was, however, notably much better than when Hierapolis had first discovered it. More effort had been put in to cleanup than further exploration, but he figured it was better to work on what he already had on his hands than to make that task any bigger and more daunting.

"This," Hierapolis said with a wide gesture to their surroundings, "is my wonder - the place I am sworn to protect as a knight. It hasn't seen use in at least a thousand years, and has many secrets that I'm trying to unravel, but more importantly, I am trying to figure out it's future - what this place will become."

At this, Recks stopped him and asked for further explanation on, well, everything.

Thus began a long night of explanations. He divulged as best he could what he knew. Hierapolis, being someone who loved lore, had sought out as much as he could from other fellow members of Order he encountered when out patrolling, and he thought he had a pretty good grasp on things. As well as anyone could, really.

Given what they were seeing, his brothers had no choice but to believe him, but it was a tough cookie to swallow. Trying to process everything, they explored, and as they ventured in to one of the off-shoot alcove/rooms, Hierapolis turned to Marks;

"This room in particular I would love your help - there are many fragile relics in this place that I would like to display and preserve. I would like this room to be and ode to this place's unknown past - a little museum."

He gestured to some things that were carefully laid out - weapons, armor and raiment, as well as a tapestry that looked to be in better shape than most things here - the tapestry that he had received from Almadel that bore the symbol of the organization that that once called this place home - the Iseirá.

When Hierapolis mentioned the name, a breath hitched in both brothers as if hit with something forbidden and familiar, yet neither had ever heard the word before.

All that aside, Marks was now in full Museum tech and curator mode, and as he and his brother talked fervently about what they could do to make his idea a reality, Recks wondered off on his own, eventually wondering in to the atrium-like room where the light from hundreds of feet above filtered in to the room, encapsulating an old tree who's limbs seemed to be stuck in perpetual bud, yet no leaves dared emerge yet.

Around the middle of the tree where a great gash had been made shined a bright light. Hierapolis had wrapped a circular bird cage around the trunk, and the door of that cage sat in front of that light, and it was locked. Recks dare not to touch it though. Something deep in him knew that this tree demanded a kind of sacred reverence that made him tremble inside. That was to say nothing of the piece of The Code that now called the hollow gash inside of the tree home.

Soon enough the brothers found him there, and in silence the stood and stared at the tree. No words were needed to understand that this entire place was here because of the tree. The how or why was neither here nor there.

After a while Hierapolis broke the silence - "Would you like to see the baths?"

Compelled with the idea of the warm and steamy ancient-Greek style baths, they turned and made their way.

Between the baths and the kitchen, much the rest of the night was spent with brothers being brothers. It was a lovely 'bachelor party' once the revelation of magic and ancient wars was stamped down to the back of their minds, and maybe, just maybe, the wonder of Hierapolis healed just a little bit more that night.


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