In the Ruins

Jacob grew up in the great city of Ninev, a bustling metropolis counting nearly eight thousand inhabitants within its walls. His aunt raised him on fables and fairy-tales; stories of the Dragon of Presh, the Lamb and the Ewes, and the Three Heroes of Kvatch were among his favorites. At the age of twelve, he began his apprenticeship to the most important leather-tanner in the city; a fate which he found not particularly pleasant, but which was forced upon him by his parents. Happily for Jacob, and rather unhappily for most of the citizens of Ninev, it was in the same year that Jacob's apprenticeship began that the Korinians broke King Ahriman's armies and, thus unimpeded, put Ninev to the torch. The Korinian army, under the Duc Soloi, slaughtered over half of the populace and took all surviving men and women of fit bodies to serve as slaves. Jacob was not entirely happy with this; but, he fully realized, freed him forever from the threat of a lifetime spent dipping animal hides in vats of urine.


Jacob was marched north with the triumphant Korinian army to Soloi itself, where he was sold into the household of a rich merchant, who owned many slaves. Another of these slaves, in Jacob's second month of slavery, told Jacob a secret: far to the east, beyond all the lands inhabited by mortal men, an ancient ruin of green stone stood on atop a barren plateau. This slave claimed that the ruins showed an example of the power of the one god, Ahura Mazda, who cast down the towers which sought to challenge Heaven itself; but Jacob knew better. His aunt had once told him the tale of such ruins - though she knew not where they rested - fallen merely to the ravages of time, but holding great treasure within. Jacob resolved that he must seek such wonders - for, if others were deterred by fear of God's fury, then the treasures must remain intact for someone as brave as he to claim!

In half the moon's cycle after Jacob was told of the ruins, the merchant who owned him saw fit to expire. Jacob escaped in the confusion, stealing a mule and riding east along the Evros River. Dissatisfied with the slow pace of such travel, Jacob found passage working aboard first a cargo raft on the Evros, and then as an overseer on the galley Fair Wind on the Kythican sea. Months flowed by as did the miles. From the port of Samothrace, Jacob rode his mule east (ever east!) along the Thyme Road, where he was ambushed by bandits and robbed quite literally naked. In this state, starving and unclothed, a patrol from the nearby city-state of Patmos came upon Jacob and promptly conscripted him. Jacob was thus forced into the third Ipthic War, fighting bravely if without great skill in the battle at Karpathos, and later at Naxos Mountain against the Delian League. When the commander of the Patmos army fell short of payroll, however, the officers mutinied and the army dissolved into chaos; never having lost a battle. Jacob, having no stake in the affair, resumed his journey, fording the Kasos River and at last leaving the lands of men.

Jacob traveled the White Road; straight as an arrow, cutting through hills and bridging rivers and gorges alike. Even overgrown, it was a wonder to behold, especially for Jacob, grown as he was in a land not overly favoured with engineers. The wilderness in which Jacob traveled was a cold and harsh land, but nonetheless one with ample game and wild fruit to sustain a single traveler. Jacob walked for two moons' turning before he saw the great plateau of which he had been told. At last, his destination was within reach! The White Road zig-zagged evenly up the slope of the plateau; overgrown with trees and shrubbery, Jacob walked onward without clear vision. At long last, though, two years after the sack of Ninev, Jacob crested the last rise and set eyes upon the ruins he had long sought.

The ruins were built with blocks of green stone, pitted now from long exposure. Five towers there were, linked with soaring bridges of perfect regularity, criss-crossing across a pentagonal complex below. Complex designs were worked around the outside, swirling lines pulling the eye upward to the rounded dome at the ruins' peak. Time had wreaked great damage on the magnificent design - two towers had fallen altogether, and holes gave the three remaining a patchwork feel - but enough of the high bridges and fine stonework remained to imply all the magnificence that had been. It was a building - no - a work of art - unlike any Jacob had ever seen, or even conceived of.


Jacob stopped and stared for a while; marveling, wondering, examining. Then, the lure of treasure to match the architecture drawing him, he entered the ruins.

The lower building was utterly ruined. Falling stonework had crushed the arches and pillars, destroyed the fountains and gardens which once stood between the five towers. Hoping that the treasure was not secured there, Jacob set his gaze at the dome above the towers, and began to climb. The stairs in the three remaining towers were largely intact; only once did a stair threaten to collapse under Jacob's weight, and by traveling along the wall Jacob averted such disaster. The man-sized holes in the walls, as well as the intentional windows, gave Jacob ample view of the great distance between him and the ground. Twice, he had to stop as vertigo overcame him.

At last, Jacob came to a dead-end. The stairway above Jacob had crumbled entirely, just short of the dome. Reluctantly, Jacob ventured down the last stairs he had climbed and traveled along a bridge he had previously noted; thankfully, to an tower yet standing. The bridge seemed too thin to be real; the stones almost seemed to shift under Jacob's weight, the unsupported arch defying Jacob's comprehension. When at last he finished the crossing and climbed to the dome, it was a great deal of relief.

The dome shone with light; Jacob was blinded at first, and his eyes took long seconds to adjust. When they did, Jacob shouted with joy. The source of the light was a disk of stone, the point of the dome, studded with precious stones. Each refracted the light through itself, turning the small room into a kaliedascope of colour. The jewels in the point of the dome were worth a king's ransom - most certainly the treasure of which Jacob's aunt had told him. Jacob reached for the disk eagerly; and then he looked down.

Below the disk was a hole, giving a clear view of the entire ruins. The light shining through the dome's cap gave the complex a beauty even surpassing that which Jacob observed before; and, as Jacob looked once more to the stone disk, he realized the true purpose of the stone. It did not only light the room; it was the entire complex's keystone. If Jacob removed the stone, the towers would fall. Not immediately; not within minutes, or even hours; but, within days, the dome would crumble, and what of the ruins yet remained would fall into a pile of shattered stone, leaving nothing but dust where a wonder once stood. Jacob looked at the vast wealth within
his reach. Jacob looked down at the ruins. Then, a little sadly, Jacob turned and walked away.

Author's note: Credit where credit is due: My earlier story Sun's Grave and the excellent Shadow of the Colossus were both inspirations for this story. It was intended to be a little shorter and, now that I have come to the end, a little more focused, but... I am satisfied enough. Perhaps I will try to re-write it some day.