Woke up in a sea of fog

16th of Shar 358

"Rise, travelers." Those words have been ringing in my head since I woke up in that sea of fog. It was so cold, so dense, so chilling that it made my skin ache and turn numb. As I looked up, I saw a giant wall with a massive door, just barely visible through the fog. Then those words rang out. "Rise, travelers. Seekers of the unknown. Your journey is only beginning… you can't die here. So get up. Find what you came here for. I'll be waiting."

After these words, I started to notice other figures in this fog with me. The fog was too thick for me to determine how they looked then, but I saw them, one by one, start to get up and move toward the door. Following these figures' directions, I slowly got up from the ground and made my way toward the door. Next to the door stood a statue, which piqued my curiosity. I reach out to touch the statue, feeling its cold, worn down exterior. The statue towered over me; it was like twice my height! It seems like the statue didn't only peek my interest. A tall person with a mask covering their face and a large coat touched the statue as well, examining the sword it was holding. They ask me if they could try to take the sword, and I allow them to. He was not able to take the sword from the statue. A second figure approached, saying that this statue may be the key to opening the door. This figure wore a white cloak and appeared to be made up of stars; I'd never seen anyone like them before. They noted the gears on the top of the door, which I had not seen before.

The bitter cold felt like it was eating away at my skin. Whatever is behind this door must be the way out of this place, if not at least somewhere warmer. As the person with the mask pushed on the statue, the gears above the door started to turn. Around this time, a third figure appeared. This figure seemed to be an elf, with short buzzed hair and covered in what seemed to be bandages. They took out a dagger and stuck it into the lock of the door, my guess being in an attempt to pick the lock. The lock closed around the dagger, crushing it with a loud noise. It was after this that the others suggested we all touch the statue to see if that might open the door. The elf put their hand on the statue, and the gears above the door turned more. Then the statue started to move! I had never seen a golem before, the only thought I had at the time was "I should climb it." but I refrained. Getting out of this fog was more important.

The golem moved in front of the door, trying to lift up its sword into the keyhole. The masked figure and the starry figure helped the golem lift the sword, guiding it to the keyhole. As the sword entered the keyhole, the gears above the door began to rotate in the other direction. The lock clamped around the sword, I was worried it would break it. The golem kneeled to the door, and one by one, we all got down on our knees in front of the door on the cold ground. As the last of us kneeled, I felt a great weight on my shoulders, pushing me down onto my knee. The door slowly started to open, and as it did, I felt a wave of warm air blow against my face. When the door was finally open, the weight was off my shoulders, and we all headed inside.

When we stepped inside, we were greeted by a grand hall. It was much warmer in here, almost painfully so in comparison to the fog. The hall was covered in dead overgrowth, and at the end of the hall stood a large statue, holding two runes in each hand, seemingly to indicate what was along each stairwell. I could not make sense of what the runes said, but the elf said the one on the left said "Vault of Cadence" and the one on the right said "Scribe of Dragons." For some reason, it felt like this place was somewhere I have been looking for, though I am not sure why. I took out my journal to rummage through my notes and found the most recent four pages torn out. My entry on my arrival to Zetsubou was torn out, and that was the last I remember. Who or what could have torn out those pages? I felt uneasy, worried that someone may have tampered with my notes, so I rummaged through all of them to make sure. Luckily, it seems like only those four pages were torn out.

After I finished rummaging through my notebook, I put it back into my bag and looked around for the others. They seemed torn on which way to check first; they wanted to get out of here just as much as I did. Initially, we wanted to split up, with two of us going to the vault and two going to the scribe, but we decided against that and we all first went to the vault. As we walked up the stairs, I noticed how old the stone felt. It felt like it was hundreds of years old. The hallway leading to the vault seemed to go past the wall of which the door was on. When we finally arrived to the vault, we found the door slightly ajar, and we all one by one peeked inside.

Inside the Vault of Cadence, we found bookshelves filled with books. A soft golden light bathed the room, peppered with silvery sparkles. In the center of the room were two very thin braids, seemingly the source of the light. One golden, one silver. We entered the room, and the masked figure and I looked through the books, but we found them to be completely empty. (cont.)

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