Bonia was a short, little girl, and completely different from the Witch of Fire Hao Ren had imagined. She had long brown hair, braided with colored silk threads, and was wearing a dark-red robe that was too large for her size. The little girl hid behind the adults as she watched Vivian and Hao Ren’s actions with her big, shiny eyes. When Gezer called her out, she greeted Vivian. She was not at all like the saintess one would imagine.
“Bonia was chosen as saintess last year,” the elder of Fire tribe, a strong middle-aged man who looked like a warrior, explained a little embarrassedly. “The last saintess died suddenly, so Bonia did not even have time to learn the knowledge of the mantra and the ritual and was rushed to take the role. However, she has no problem in the belief of the Goddess and her talents as a saintess. She will be able to be your guide.”
Vivian looked curiously at the shy little girl. The little girl’s eyes met her eyes, and then the little girl said with a soft voice, “Goddess, praise… praise to you, your coming to the earth… the earth fears…”
She almost like crying out already.
“Take us to the witch’s burial site,” Vivian said directly, not letting the little girl continue to be nervous. “The others need not follow.”
No one objected to Vivian’s order. Gezer retreated with the warriors of Fire tribe. Hao Ren overheard the tribal people’s conversations as they left, talking about the coming of the goddess and how Gezer arrived here instantaneously from Wind tribal settlement. The tribal men left Bonia alone here. She looked at Vivian nervously and raised her finger pointing at the root of the Heaven’s Pillar. “There. It’s far. You must enter the Pillar of Eternity.”
The Heaven’s Pillar was so huge that an aerial root was as large as a mountain range, and a small hole in the trunk was as large as a tunnel. Fire tribe lived at the foot of this giant tree, but relatively speaking, their territory was no wider than an ant colony under a tree. The ‘temple’ that Bonia referred to was a sacred place of the tribe in the center of Heaven’s Pillar. How far was it from the nearest root to the center of the trunk?
Not very far, just a dozen kilometers.
The miracle plants that the First Born created were so magnificent and amazing.
Hao Ren took Bonia and drove directly towards the sacred place.
This Heaven’s Pillar was similar to the one they passed through earlier; it was hollow. They entered through a triangular opening in the root of the trunk, wherein it was a vast, dark space. But the difference was that there were human activities here because it was the base of the Fire tribe. There were torches placed on the ground inside the giant tree, and a path that led straight to the center of the trunk. At the end of the track, Hao Ren could already see the so-called ‘temple.’ Unlike the other temples he had seen, the construction before his eyes was much more basic than imagined. It was a house of worship of wood and stones, mimicking the Dorasil’s pyramids, not magnificent, not even stylish.
Of course, even then, it was still much better than the tribal yurts outside.
“The witch and the saintess of four hundred years ago were buried behind the temple.” Bonia seemed to feel a lot more at ease here. She began to show Vivian around. “It is quiet here. The warriors only come here during the ceremony.”
Lily looked up at the darkness above; she was sure the surface of the planet Inferno was right above her head. “Wouldn’t things fall from above hit the temple down here?”
Bonia paused for a while and then whispered, “Sometimes… things will fall here.”
Lily almost broke out in a cold sweat. “Isn’t that dangerous?”
Bonia did not turn a hair, as if she had never thought about this problem. “Goddess is looking after us. No problem.”
Lily felt it incredible. “What if it hit you? You could have died!”
“That… will be the will of the Goddess. If I die, then I would be with the Goddess,” Bonia said. She quickly glanced up at Vivian. “Is it?”
Vivian had already freaked out looking at the darkness hanging above her head, let alone protecting other. But before Bonia, she could only nod her head and said, “I will look after you. But I still suggest that you don’t come into the trunk anymore. If you must, you can hold the ritual outside. This pillar leads to the surface. If something falls, it won’t just as simple as making a bump on your head.”
Bonia just nodded her head repeatedly, but it made people wonder whether she had understood what Vivian said. Bonia later took them to see the witch’s grave.
The grave was a large space surrounded by round stones behind the ‘temple.’ There were piles of rocks neatly arranged on the ground. There was nothing special about the rocks, but each pile had a stone column erected on top as a headstone. The headstone had simple information such as the name of the deceased written in hieroglyphic symbols. The body of the witch from Earth who had explored the inside layer of Inferno and an extraordinary life was resting in this graveyard. Her grave was sharing the space with others, and there was nothing special about it.
Bonia pointed to the grave of the witch, where there was only a simple sentence on the headstone: witch, friends, foreigners who are sleeping here; may your soul return to your hometown in your dream.
“That’s it,” Bonia said, bending slightly over in front of the headstone and making some complicated and strange gestures with her hands to perform a simple prayer.
Vivian looked curiously at the graves around her. “Do all these graves belong to the saintesses of Fire tribe?”
Bonia nodded her head. “Yup.”
“Your tribe allowed a foreigner, possibly a ‘cursed’ foreigner, buried in the same graveyard with the saintesses?” Hessiana cut in. “Your people don’t see it as a taboo?”
“The saintess back then allowed it. Legend has it that the saintess and the witch were good friends. They were curing the black-spot plague together,” said Bonia who suddenly glanced at Vivian nervously. “Is… is it not right?”
Vivian quickly waved her hand. “Oh no, no. It’s fine, it’s fine.”
“Besides the grave, what else did the witch leave behind?” Hao Ren was not satisfied with just seeing a grave. “Any relics, messages, or legends? Or did you guys bury everything together with her?”
As he spoke, he glanced at Lily instinctively, as if he was telling her that if the relics of the witch were in the grave, then she had better get ready to dig. After all, she was a tunneling expert. Lily understood what that glance meant, she tucked away her claws and hid behind Nangong Wuyue. “Don’t you look at me! Digging a hole isn’t the same as digging a grave!”
Fortunately, it turned out that the relics were not in the grave. As Hao Ren expected, people who fell into this place would invariably want to leave behind something so that those who came after them would be able to find their bodies. The witch had left behind many things and entrusted them to her tribal friends.
Bonia brought them into the temple, which mainly was just a stone building. She found some old parchment scrolls and slates with inscriptions, and other bits and pieces from an old stone box. “These are what the witch left behind.”
It was a treasure; these things were what Hao Ren after. Vivian could not wait to examine the relics. She saw the scrolls and scraps of paper made of black goatskin, ritual knives carved from obsidian, glass bottles that used to contain potions, some pieces of cloth, and a pair of old, special gloves that witches wore when they made herbal soups. These things were undoubtedly from Earth. She even found a coin from eight centuries ago. Her eyes were out on stalk staring at this rusted little piece of metal coin. “It has been ten thousand years; this is the first time I ever found money in a grave…”
Hao Ren smacked the coin off Vivian’s hand. “Knock it off; it’s not something that you found on the street, it’s a relic.”
“It means almost the same thing,” Vivian said. “I used to dig graves but had never found money.”
“*Cough cough*,” Hao Ren quickly stayed away from the topic by saying, “Hey, let’s look at these parchments.”