Dragon Quest - I - Chapter 2, Part 4

Darkness? Yes, darkness. (pp71-78)

4 - Garai’s Grave

At the tip of the expansive cape stood a giant pyramid that served as Garai’s gravesite.

A grand stone gateway at the top of a flight of steps served as the entrance to the pyramid. A fanciful fractal pattern was engraved into the door. Aleph pushed against the door, but it wouldn’t budge. He also tried ramming against it with his entire body to similar effect.

Aleph sighed and looked over the engraving.

“You must not approach the grave!” he heard from behind him, in a hoarse voice.

Aleph turned to see an old woman wrapped in a black cloak, standing with a fierce expression behind him. Her face was cracked with wrinkles and her cheeks drooped with age. Her fingers and hands were nothing but bones, but her eyes were still sharp and strong.

Behind the old woman stood a worried-looking Cecille. Her hemp-brown hair and long green dress flitted back and forth in the snowy wind. She had ran straight to the old woman, without even grabbing a cloak, after Aleph had dashed out of the inn.

“I am the village fortune-teller, and the protector of this gravesite! Don’t you dare think of anything foolish like breaking the seal!

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Only Loto’s descendant is capable of opening those doors!”

“But I am his descendant!”

“What!?” The crone gaped at Aleph. Behind her, Cecille looked at Aleph as if seeing him again for the first time.

“You, carry the blood of the hero? What foolishness is this? Ha, hahaha! Someone like you, a descendant?”

“I am! I came to Garai trying to find a means of crossing over to the Dragonlord’s island! I mean to open the seal on Garai’s grave!”

“You expect us to believe that?”

“It’s true!” Aleph insisted, and explained everything that happened at Radatome Castle.

“Even if it is as you say,” the fortune-teller began, but stopped and shook her head.

Cecille didn’t know what to think. Seeing Aleph’s attitude and his serious gaze, he didn’t look at all like someone telling a lie.

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“If you are a true descendant, then you would know the special ritual to open those doors!”

“Special ritual?”

“That’s right! A special ritual known only to the hero!”

“But I don’t…” Aleph hesitated.

“There, you see! Descendant of Loto my foot! Nitwit! Don’t come here again!”

Aleph was about to shout back, but instead bit his lip.

“Besides, I very much doubt there’s any clues about how to reach the island hidden in the grave.”

“What? Why?”

“Do you even know why his grave was sealed? His silver harp lies within!”

“His harp?”

“Indeed, the silver harp that Garai kept with him until his dying day!”

Aleph met eyes with Cecille, who looked just as surprised as he did.

“That silver harp was originally created by the fae folk in order to protect themselves from monsters. After Garai traveled to their home, deep within the mountains, and after proving to them his bardic talents, the queen of the faeries entrusted the harp to him.

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When played by Garai or other faeries, the harp has the power to seal away monsters. Garai had sealed away many monsters in such a way with the harp, but when played by ordinary humans, the opposite happens, and monsters are drawn near. That’s why, after Garai’s death, the silver harp was buried along with him and his grave was sealed. It’s said that when people come here, the silver harp grows angry and brings calamity to the town. So stay away from this grave!”

“Then how am I supposed to find any clues about how to defeat the Dragonlord? Where am I supposed to go!?”

The old woman stared at Aleph. “You still mean to insist you’re a descendant of the hero?”

“I am!”

“Then I will give you a prediction. I may be old, but my fortune-telling is accurate,” she said, smiling strangely and showing the gaps in her teeth.

“Now leave this place! And don’t come near the grave again!”

She pulled Aleph down the steps by his arm then turned on her heels, heading back to the village.

Aleph sighed and looked back up at the grave. A strong wind picked up and blew more snow across the ground.

“I’m sorry,” Cecille said in apology as she looked into Aleph’s face, hunching her shoulders against the cold. “I didn’t know your reasons…”

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Her lips were quivering in the cold. Small bits of snow were stuck to her hair and shoulders.

“Don’t worry about it. Thanks to you, now I know that I need some kind of ritual to open the grave,” Aleph said with a smile, and wrapped his cloak around Cecille.

That night, Cecille showed Aleph to the fortune-teller’s house. It wasn’t far from the inn, in the back of an alley, and was dusky, built slightly underground.

In the back room, the smell of wet mould and burning incense mingled together. Candles burned in candlesticks. In front of their flames sat the old woman. She looked up at Aleph as he entered.

“Three hundred gold in advance,” she requested.

“Three hundred!?” That was nearly ten days rent at the inn. “You can’t bring that down a little?”

“Standard fee. If I give you a discount I won’t be very inclined to give you a good reading. Would you be okay with that?”

Giving up, Aleph paid three hundred gold from his purse.

“There’s a good lad.”

The fortune-teller grinned and pulled out her prayer beads, then focused intently on chanting a spell.

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She eventually folded her hands in front of her eyes, and with them still closed, began to speak.

“Stars… I see stars,” she mumbled.

“Stars?”

“I see a star brightly shining, to the southeast…”

“The southeast?”

“Fifty,” the old woman said, opening one eye and sticking her open palm in front of Aleph’s nose, requesting additional payment.

“What? No way!”

“If you’re not on board, we can just stop now,” the fortune-teller said, beginning to stand.

“Fine, fine, I’ll pay,” Aleph replied, as he pulled fifty more gold from his purse. The old woman closed both of her eyes again and resumed chanting her spell.

“A desert, I see a desert…”
“A desert?”

The fortune teller opened one eye and held out her hand again.

“What? Again!?”

“If you want to give up that’s fine with me.”

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Reluctantly, Aleph counted out fifty more gold pieces. The crone smiled again, closed her eyes, and resumed the spell.

“Darkness… I see a darkness,” she continued.

“Darkness?”
“Yes, darkness. And that’s as far as I can go.”

“There’s one more thing I’d like for you to read,” Aleph said.

“The princess Laura, yes?”

Aleph again paid the three hundred gold, wishing to know if she were alive or dead.

She began her spell once again. Suddenly she stopped, stretched her neck, and tried again. Finally, exhausted, she shook her head darkly.

“Nothing,” said the fortune teller. “I can see nothing.”

‘A star that shines in the southeast’, a ‘desert’, and ‘darkness’. The ‘star’ likely referred to the star in the southeastern tip of the constellation known as the Goddess-of-Eight, which could be seen almost precisely forty-five degrees southeast of Garai. That star was also known as the Goddess’ Eye, or the Goddess’ Jewel. The ‘desert’ was also almost certainly the desert to the southeast.

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But ‘darkness’ - what could that indicate? What did it mean?

After returning to the inn, Aleph pored over the old map trying to figure it out, but he couldn’t find a thing.

“There’s no use staring at this thing… This map is too old to be of any use here,” Aleph said to himself as he threw it in his sack with a deep sigh, recalling the face of the young man who made fun of him for using it.

Aleph couldn’t have known the secret that the ancient map held within. He also couldn’t have known that coincidentally, it would only be a few days before he found it out.