Theo dived in with aplomb, digging through piles of materials and pushing brooms to the side.
Francis cleared his throat behind him, clearing it a second time before Theo reacted.
Theo paused in his excavation, and turned around to see him sorting out the mess that he had just made. In that short span of time, the space up to their ankles had become filled. With a sheepish grin, he slowed down, treating the piles more gingerly.
After the initial chaos had been cleared up, they went to work, carefully sorting through everything. Unfortunately, nothing chest-shaped was in the piles.
---
“Are we sure that the chest will be here? Could it have potentially been moved? Should we check that other room instead?” It had been an hour, and Theo saw Francis’ point. He wasn’t sure if those were rhetorical questions, but they were good questions nonetheless.
He knew that the coins weren’t pointing at the other room, but even still he was tempted to go look. Stacks of ancient bandages were not the most interesting thing to examine.
Theo sighed, then coughed as a cloud of dust rose up and filled the air. Stacks of ancient bandages were also not the cleanest thing to examine.
He sent a prayer off to Gilth for some fresh air, and was surprised when something happened. Not only did a spark of mana leave him and float upwards, but the air felt a little cleaner as he breathed. Francis looked at him with a degree of scrutiny he wasn’t used to. Francis shook his head, and Theo let go of a breath he’d been holding. A breath of clean, non-dusty air.
---
“Still no luck?” Francis had stopped responding to that question half an hour ago. It echoed through the corridor.
Theo had gotten bored and moved onto whatever was behind the heavy stone door. Francis had stayed behind to sift through the alcove, partially because that was what the coins indicated, and partially because the stone door had been too heavy for him to open, and he didn’t want to get stuck or trapped.
It was too weighty for most. If Theo did not have the internal magic he did, then he would surely be in the same category, failing to budge it at all instead of merely struggling like he was trying to open a wine bottle with a too-tight cork.
Either way, it eventually opened after much cajoling. The ground near Theo’s feet was covered in a fine layer of sand that had crumbled off the edge of the door.
And his reward for moving such an obstacle…was equally old medical supplies. Slightly less dusty due to the seal of stone around them, but still old bandages and such.
Still, this way, between the two of them they had to find the chest.
Right?
---
“Theo?” Francis called out twice, after not hearing a response. He came over to find Theo leaning against the wall of the stone room, head lolling forward, trying to stay awake with slowly closing eyelids.
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He sighed. “I cannot believe you would act this way.” Francis grabbed his arm, and started to pull him up.
Theo groaned back into the world of wakefulness. “What’s happening?” He sat up, saw what was around him and Francis standing there, and sighed. “How long was I out for?”
The stern look on Francis’ face melted away, transitioning into a tired smile. Theo was puzzled for a moment, before realisation dawned.
He smiled back.
---
Right there, in the ground, was a curved lid.
It stuck out like a seashell from the sand, but Theo could imagine that before everything had been removed, that it would have been hard to tell amongst the piles and piles of items.
The object of their focus was finally there in front of them. Francis gestured to Theo, moving to the side.
Theo put his hand on the chest, and with a click it opened.
As it did, he started to wonder why every chest was mostly written documents. They’d all been very useful so far, but he wouldn’t mind if they had something different. It would be difficult to preserve much else in those chests, as the herbs in The Woods had proven, and the space was limited, so it was understandable why this was the most effective thing to store.
As Theo wondered, he was proven right once more. It was again, mostly a collection of writings.
If patterns held, this chest would contain documents from Libera the Kind. As he skimmed through pages of notes that would certainly be interesting to someone else, he was disappointed. “Damn, no second letter.”
“Second letter? As in, you received a letter from this per- from Libera the Kind already?” Francis looked over his shoulder, quickly coming to the same conclusions Theo had.
Theo scratched the back of his head. “Yes, that’s what started this whole thing. The first chest we found had her letter, and that went into the prophecy and all that. Sorry, must have forgotten to mention that.”
Francis looked at him like he’d just admitted to murder (or cannibalism. Or eating someone he’d just murdered). He spoke slowly. “You have had a letter, from the founder of the College of Prayer, and never thought to tell anyone?”
Theo paused. “Well, when you put it like that…” He laughed sheepishly. “We know what’s written on it, so I’ll pass it on to the College I swear.”
Francis was mollified, shaking his head. “We’ll address that later. For now, let me see what is written on those pages.”
Theo, unable to really understand much of what was written, gladly passed the sheaf to Francis, who spent the next ten minutes pouring over each sheet, getting more interested and almost gluing them to his face.
Between Chrys last week and Francis this week, he was starting to worry about people’s reactions (and a small voice in his head wondered if it was because he was the one that he should worry about instead).
Eventually he cracked. “What did you find?”
Now, it was Theo’s turn to repeat himself, Francis too drawn in to register his question the first time round.
“Oh, texts on the Gods, Godhood, the nature of the Gods, botany, and anything else they thought about. It’s not entirely clear sometimes, and seems to be offhand notes she made.” Theo thought back to the notes left by Alexandra the Wise. “They are however very insightful, and could be useful. What do you plan to do with these?”
Francis tore his eyes away from the pages long enough to look at him.
Theo once again thought about the notes he left with Chrys. More importantly, he thought about how he felt alone when Sparrow left, and how he wanted to carry less of this burden by himself.
Francis would not only know what to do with the papers, but it would be a show of trust to someone who wasn’t a teacher or some similar position of responsibility. This would be a decision made entirely by him.
“I think…that you would know better than I do how to best use these. Think of it as an apology for not mentioning that first letter sooner.” Theo smiled as Francis stood there, eyes almost as wide open as his mouth.
After a minute of silence (and Theo trying to not audibly chuckle), Francis’ brain finally caught up. “Are you sure?” he sounded like someone who just heard they won the lottery and didn’t believe it yet.
Theo’s smile turned cheeky. “Well, I can’t let you do nothing if you’re going to be in this mess with me. Think of it as taking on responsibility, or doing me a favour.”
Before Francis could respond further, they were interrupted as a student (or at least, Theo assumed from his boyish face that he was) came into the alcove.
“What’s going on here? Ah, Francis. There have been reports of noise. Why are you in this old alcove?”
Francis looked at Theo, smiled, and faced the newcomer. “Michael, I have good news.”