Neither of them were particularly interested in why they had built the tunnel—that was the business of the University archaeologist—or anything else for that matter. The only important thing was that the pay kept coming and that they could collect the granite to sell. It wasn't that there was much to spend money on this close to the pole other than alcohol and women, but there was always the dream of moving to one of the great cities to the south. They had both spent their entire lives in the nearby and rather prosaically-named town of Lith.
The next blow sounded oddly hollow and the blow following sent a spray of stone through a newly-formed hole. The men paused, uncertain of what to do. They hadn't been prepared for a cavern here. Relanther suggested that they take the current load to the surface and bring the archaeologist down. Hioshan just shrugged in agreement and the two hitched their lenna to the sledges to haul the granite out.
Hioshan affectionately patted the lead female's horn nubs and clicked loudly with his tongue, sending the whole procession up the sloped tunnel. As the men walked, granite daps sloughed from their coats, masks, and helmets giving the impression of statues waking to life. Half a kilometer later, they were free of stone and in the shed that had been built at the entrance to the shaft.
In the far corner, Tutor Whet was holding pottery shards, turning them over and over in between his fingers surrounded by journals. He turned, squinting at the rumble of the sledges and bleats of the animals.
"Have you encountered anything... odd?" he asked, attempting to diguise his hope.
"Yeah. You should come down and see for yourself."
He trotted down the tunnel as the laborers thudded heavily behind him, hefting their mining hammers over their shoulders. By the light of the laterns hanging at the end of the tunnel, the stone rivulets framing the pitch dark of the opening was visible. Excitedly Whet fumbled with his amber lantern and adjusted the aperture to shine light through to the other side. He squealed with delight at what he saw.
A large room stood partially filled with rubble. A frame on one wall held the rotten remains of an ancient wooden door. scattered around the room were three badly-decayed corpses, all of which showed signs of skull trauma but were draped the remains of elegant robes. A number of metal shapes sat in the corner and gleamed with glyphs in the light. The tutor turned to the men behind him.
"Do you realize what we've found?"
The pair looked at each other and then blankly back at Whet.
He sputtered on, ignoring their disinterest. "This is possible evidence of a civilization predating our own! Several of the writings of the first Prophets speak of a most sacred temple located far to the north that was lost to an earthquake as it was being sacked. This must be it! These artifacts are beyond priceless." At that, Hioshan and Relanther both perked up. "Of course we must catalog and remove them for study at the University."
As the archaeologist turned back to the discovery, fawning over it, Hioshan looked to Relanther and raised his eyebrows. He tilted his head towards the pair of mining hammers that lay against the tunnel wall. Relanther followed his gaze and immediately understood.
Grasping the sturdy wooden shaft, he lifted the pair of iron heads bearing the two halves of the grammatical phrase. Relanther's swing was true and they connected with Whet's back. The raised edges of the glyphs cut into the tutor's skin, and the grammar took immediate effect. Whet's limbs and head went tumbling as his torso splashed against the rock and into the next room, rapidly coagulating back into fragments of tissue.
The University would be told that an unfortunate accident had occurred and that the expedition had been a failure. Hioshan and Relanther would live quite comfortably from now on.
Yes, prosaically, and, more importantly, aptly named. :D
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