Chapter 68 – Introspection

Adam made his way away from the ominous energies – he felt ill-equipped and out of his depth.

He sat down in the quiet of an alcove in one of the corridors - at least, he had time to think, but all that he could think of was how he had yet again failed those he was trying to protect. This new world weighed heavy on his shoulders.

As he could not go back to Binyon right now as those faction guys were no doubt still hanging around, waiting for him – he did not think for a moment that the fake body would have fooled them.

He decided to explore some more of the structure – hopefully, he wouldn’t kill himself in the process. At least the larger part of the place – what exactly was it anyway? Underground dungeon? City? Temple? He had no idea, but they had spent a lot of care and attention on the place, even if this part was now a bit shabby – though still very stately looking.

Libby was keen for Adam to explore every inch – anything found he could have possible value or give them clues to the bigger picture of what Elios was up to. So she kept on poking at him to check out every corridor.

Adam had found nothing. There just seemed to be endless rooms and corridors. Would Elios have left anything of value here?

Then finally, they came to a new area; it seemed like an inner sanctum – which Libby confirmed; the structure seemed to be symmetrical, allowing her to presume that this was a central part of the structure.

Adam would never have gone this far if he hadn’t had the time to spend and no possibility of getting lost.

The new area had steps leading up to a massive entrance with carved animals figures on either side – the intricately carved stone door was covered with the magic script, but he needed not bother Libby about this – there was a gaping hole in the door, easily big enough for him to fit through.

Possibly there had been something of value here at one time, as the place had clearly been broken into millennia ago.

Still, it was a distraction from the previous endless corridors.

Entering, he found a large domed chamber with massive columns surrounding a central set of statues, to some famous figure or owner presumably – there were two passageways leading off. There was a large amount of residual energy around the statue, as could be seen by my spiritual sight. Maybe it was not just a statue, after all? Or it had protection on it that had stopped it from being destroyed long ago by the pilferers of this place.

There was not even any magic script here or language to look at, so we moved on from this chamber and explored the passageway that was first on the right.

We were greeted by a long corridor lit by lanterns line of some kind. Thoroughly searching this section, we were rewarded by finding an unbroken locked doorway. However, my and Libby’s efforts failed to open it.

Disheartened, we left the place, but at least there was the prospect of finding something.

An hour later, I was back outside the city – I decided to call the place a city as it was so goddam big.

I again overlooked the wide canyon below, the sun now high in the sky. I had been able to run back using Libby’s impressive tracking, making it back in only twenty minutes or so.

Looking for a change of pace, I decided to see if I could climb up to the other side of the canyon. I practically fell down this side. Fortunately, my reinforced body was fine at taking the fair amount of knocks I got as I raced down the side of the canyon wall.

At the bottom, I thought about whether I should follow the river’s path instead. Rivers led to settlements, right?

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Knowing that my strength stat was shit and not having my shadow jump to rely on, I plumbed for following the river – it was fairly wide, allowing me to even have a bit of a swim.

After a couple of hours of swimming, walking, and running, I noticed a structure on an outcropping ahead. It looked like the entrance to something – another city, I thought maybe.

I rolled my neck and prepared for the biggest climb of my life. It took me a whole hour or so to get up to the entrance – I was panting and sweating like a pig by the time I got there.

I felt like I seriously needed another bath in that river; never mind, I would reward myself with that on the way back.

Inside was cool from the heat of the day. As I walked down the dark corridor, I was surprised again to see lit lanterns – that was some handy source of energy to still be working thousands of years later, I presumed.

Then I found it wasn’t quite thousands – as I saw a figure deep in thought reading a book standing just inside the next part of the corridor. What the hell!?

He then raised his head and stared at me in just as much disbelief. Then his face took on a pained expression as if he were straining to do something – perhaps indigestion.

“Who and what may you be?” said the surprised man. He was then joined by another I had not seen, who clasped his arm lightly.

“You must forgive my learned friend. We do not often get visitors. No, actually, we never get visitors. So I agree with the original question. Who are you?” said the man with strong features, who looked human to all appearances.

“I’m Adam. I got lost, and after wandering for a long time, I found myself here. I must admit I was curious to look at the architecture of this place.” Said Adam looking around as he walked closer to the two men.

They eyed him as he approached, but as he seemed unarmed, they did not reproach him.

“And where are you from, Adam?” said the first man.

“I’m from a small place called Binyon; it’s just a tiny little village, really.” Said Adam truthfully.

“Ah. I see.” Said Rafelus, not seeing at all where this traveler could have come from.

“Well, we of the order of Karto welcome you as is our tradition. You will be given the hospitality of a guest. Come with us to meet our highest official.” Said Rafelus.

“Oh, and I’m Rafelus, by the way, and this is Keevlos,” he said, gesturing to the man, still holding his book open.

They took Adam through quite a few twists and turns until they reached an area open to the sky above, where a few people sat around a central fountain – there were plants here, Adam noticed, and even a fruit tree or two.

Rafelus left him waiting with Karto while he went over to speak to one of the men seated at the fountain. They were all wearing none descript white robes, and they were all men, Adam noted.

The man spoken to went red in the face and did something kind of predictable – shouted for Adam to be restrained, then approached him as to men held him by the arms.

Again he seemed to have indigestion as he came close to Adam and looked at him with that same pained expression.

Adam was led away and, after some more twists and turns, was put into the best equivalent to a prison cell they could manage – he was bound and tied to a wall in a small room and left there with one person whom he could sense watching over him.

All of his possessions had been taken away, which might have been worrying if it weren’t for the fact that the only important things his PDs were magi-scripted to him personally – also, any person who was not very skilled would not be able to ascertain they were keys to PDs.

Ok, a change of scene is always nice, thought Adam - amused at the turn of events; at least they hadn’t immediately tried to kill him.

“You know they didn’t have indigestion. They were all trying to read your mind. But your very high mental resistance thwarted all of them. They are very angry right now and are wondering what to do with you.” said Libby; it seemed her audio filtering allowed her to hear supremely better than him. He could not hear a thing.

“This place is great!” she went on; it’s practically a library on mentalism – there are at least fifty discarded books in the room to our left and….another about seventy in the room to our right.” She went on excitedly.

“The book Keevlos had looked interesting too. So as you have nothing better to do, it’s time for you to do some studying, Adam,” said Libby.

Adam was jolted awake by this revelation - Study? Previously Libby had done all the leg work where this was concerned.

“Yes, Adam, this is the one area I cannot help with directly, as I cannot affect your mental realm. Well, not yet, anyway.” Sais Libby, flatly.

“But they might come and kill me at any moment,” Adam tried lamely.

“I heard them say they were going to let you starve and see if that would loosen your tongue into talking. I don’t see them as experts in physical torture – mental maybe.” Said Libby, not to be put off.

Libby created a PD from stone from the floor and fitted it snuggled inside it just underneath the skin of Adam’s shoulder. They would never spot it there, and it was very, very small, so not even Adam would probably notice. She then created a small PD – mimicking a small study with an adjoining bathroom – presumably; the waste would be directed onto the leader of the orders head, thought Adam.