Daring Do smiled at that and commented, “We shall indeed return to documenting those ruins. They have waited for possibly as much as two thousand years. It will not harm them to wait a few more minutes, I hope.
“I do believe that your assorted antelopes do share a liking for tea? We have brought a package of what is known in Equestria as Rom black tea. It is much favored in my homeland, if you would not mind taking the time to share a cup in friendship?”
Honorly smiled in delight! “Most unexpected and therefore most welcome! Together we shall share this moment of chaos and the friendship that it has brought!”
Daring Do proffered the package to him. He carefully opened it and sniffed the aroma of the contents. He used a measure to place some into a tea pot along with water from a jug. He placed the pot over the fire on a grille that, though carefully level, was uneven in the placement of its bars.
While the tea was heating, Honorly asked, “You stated that you have met Eris in person. What can you share of that?”
“Of that meeting, I can only say that she set me this task and sent me here. However, I have had occasion to speak with both she and Princess Luna over the Magic Net and that call confirmed that she once did marry a mortal and loves him to this day. Our call interrupted her while she was in Memorial Meditation. She was dressed in the royal robes of the ancient first dynasty of X'ibia. On the wall behind her was the original Weeping Dragon scroll eulogy to Im Farst, the first emperor of ancient X'ibia. Before the scroll, on a small table, were offerings of incense and tea. For nearly four thousand years, she has loved and mourned the loss of him.”
Honorly nodded gravely, his horns making arcs as he thought. At last he asked, “Pardon my ignorance, but what sort of being was this Im Farst?”
Daring Do smiled and replied, “Without the admission of ignorance, learning is impossible. Im Farst was a dromedary, as were most of the beings of ancient X'ibia. Eris was the famous Dragon Queen of X'ibia. In their written language, her name was Wisdom.”
“I see by your face, Doctor Do, that there is some small but amusing thing yet to learn.”
“Indeed. In the ancient language of X'ibia gender played no part except in names of persons. For a female’s name, it was indicated by a silent character called a shi. This character was added to a female name character by a strict rule. The Dragon Queen was no exception. However, adding a shi to her name had the coincidence of creating the character word Wisdom. Without the shi, her name character is the word for Chaos or Discord!”
Honorly’s face lit with delight! “That was most amusing and indeed shows that our Eris possessed and still does possess both a sense of humor and Wisdom! Thank you, Doctor Do.”
As they made their way back to the ruins, in the afternoon light, Meridian and Morail were chatting cheerfuly. Morail told him of the ending of Daring Do’s adventure in X'ibia!
He nearly stumbled, he laughed so hard! “A counterfeit Heart of Discord for the thieves and it got stolen from them by none other than Carmen Pondiego herself! How wonderful!”
Finally, back to the ruins, their work resumed. It was dull, but a first survey with proper scaled images was necessary as a foundation to all of the work that would come. The ruin was, fortunately, not too extensive. Their first rough imaged survey was done before afternoon tea of the next day.
The evening campfire lit the scene of Daring Do carefully sorting their many images while the others watched. They could easily see her excitement rising with each image bearing the marks of ancient carved characters.
“See this? This is Nil Eya Heiratiac writing that was later used only for day to day use! You can see some of the development of the Hieroglyphic writing for monumental works showing here! Even though this is not the exact root, this clearly predates any of the Nil Eya civilization!”
Morail gloated, “And being here, we have proof that it did not start down by the Forgotten River!”
Withers quietly wondered, “Who was it that did build this place and later, found the Nil Eya civilization? I found some badly weathered wall paintings. Some look like they might have had zebras in them.”
Daring Do advised, “Patience, my friend. We have not gone into any of these structures or carved rooms. Those will be better for preserving such things as wall paintings or frescoes. In the images that we have, I count twenty two different doorways of varying importance, based on whether they are large enough for processional events or other large gatherings.”
It was Meridian who pointed out, “I am most curious about those smaller dooways. They are too small for most zebras or many kinds of antelopes.”
Daring Do nodded, “Me too, Meridian. Those smaller doorways show up in some Nil Eya buildings too. We have no solid clue to why they are there at all.
“There is one other thing that bothers me a great deal. Several of these ordinary sized doorways show some signs of recent use.”
Morail added another stir to the developing stew by pointing out, “These are a whole lot like the ruins that I played in as a filly. They aren’t those, however. There are more of these complexes to find.”
She paused before adding, “We might want to break early for lunch tomorrow.” She grinned, “Nils Downitall is holding a big military parade down Central Way in Al Swana. Lots of tanks, self propelled guns and other such hardware. It could be interesting to watch!”
“We will make it a point to do that, Morail, but just now, I need to sort out all of these carved texts that we have found.”
The next morning Daring Do took care to examine the entrance to one of the smaller doorways that were such a mystery. While the others looked on, she nodded and carefully marked a paving stone just inside with a soft bag filled with chalk dust. She suddenly chuckled and marked two more stones just beyond the larger one! She wandered on into the chamber beyond it.
Her voice called out cheerfully, “Come on in, the Ruin is fine! Just hopscotch past the marked trap stones! We have something really interesting in here!”
As the others hopped past the old trap stones, Morail asked, “How likely are those old traps to still be working after all these ages?”
Daring Do answered, “That is something that we will assess later and with great care. Some old traps have simply been ruined by age and rot or corrosion. Some of them remain working with deadly efficiency. Until we know which is which, we treat them all as dangerous.”
The others were now looking at ancient wall paintings surrounding a moderately large altar with old but stout looking bronze shackles.
Sucking in his breath, Withers shuddered slightly as he said, “I think that we may have found them. If I am seeing this correctly, these are the ancient masters of the zebra slaves.”
Before Daring Do could speak, an arrogant voice from the entrance snapped in Zebra, “That is impossible! Only Zebras created the ancient civilization of Nil Eya! Nils Downitall has proclaimed it true!”