Chapter 11: Pallbearer

Eleanor Deveena

The Harpocrates’ buildings stood tall and vast, even up close. Their noble domineering appearance would’ve struck Eleanor speechless if it wasn’t for her missing crew. She wanted to stroke the reddish runes across the smooth silver plates of each building, smell the corridors of the most scientifically advanced research facility, and see for her own eyes the fruits of the Demon race’s advanced research.

Now she just saw it as a massive grave. They were wholly unprepared for the attack, and when Eleanor finally found the place of her dreams, she felt empty.

As if on cue, the slide doors opened so smoothly, like it had never been abandoned at all. The corridors were well-lit and still maintained a sense of silver purity. Along the corridors though were red etchings in the form of runes. Eleanor walked through while holding Veronica’s hand.

The doors closed behind them with a thud. Eleanor felt her bones jump out of her skin. Frightened like an exposed kitten, the redhead felt her heart beating against her chest.

She felt Veronica tighten her hand. A tug later, the mage followed her exotic-haired friend, hand pulled forward in a gentle manner.

Eleanor’s auburn-crimson hair bounced as she passed each door through the hallway. She noticed signs - runes, more specifically in the demon language, on each. From what she could sparse, each door in the hallway they were currently in belonged to individual scientists; individual offices, more specifically.

Her nose itched. This place smelled surprisingly like roses and vanilla. Although the smell was subtle, it had enough presence for Eleanor to smell it.

It didn’t take long for the two mages to reach an impasse. The long and wide hallway split in two, like the shape of the letter Y.

Left or right.

A simple decision.

Really, simple in retrospect.

Eleanor felt a strange tick of anxiety prick at her heart. The two routes looked exactly the same. Both were well-lit, had the same amount of doors on each wall, and were both painted stainless silver.

Eleanor prided herself in both wits and guts, and right now, it told her that the route she took would decide her future. That terrified her.

She felt a hand land on her waist. Veronica drew closer to her. The auburn redhead felt her breath on her ear. “It’s okay. We’ll go left. How’s that?”

Veronica was acting strangely kind, and while that would normally have weirded Eleanor out in regular circumstances, she took great comfort in it now.

She has been that way since the siren attack, Eleanor thought, blushing as her whole body focused on Veronica’s touch. The way Veronica’s hand lightly squeezed against Eleanor’s bare skin felt intense. It was like Veronica’s hand melted against Eleanor’s waist like soft pudding.She nodded slowly, not wanting to let the exotic-haired classmate look at her face.

A part of her kept herself from fully enjoying the experience, however. Was this Veronica’s way of compensating for her father’s disappearance?

Shaking her head out of that dangerous rut, the noble girl looked over the doors and the etchings on the walls.

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The names of demons, Eleanor thought, as her hand brushed against the runes by the doors of each office.

“Poima Harpocrates,” the short-stack muttered. Something led her here. She felt it in her bones. There was that smell of roses and vanilla again.

“Poima?” Veronica asked, confused.

“That’s the name etched on this office. Poima. I wonder who that is,” Eleanor said, slightly curious. This demon had the same lineage name as the Harpocrates’ Caverns. Was Poima one of its founders?

The office seemed a bit too small for it to belong to a founder, though. Maybe a younger family member? Possibly a daughter?

Each office had a keypad by the door. It had number symbols that Eleanor recognized, but Veronica stared blankly at them, confused. From the context, she figured they were numbers, but unlike Eleanor, didn’t know how to read the rest of the runes.

Eleanor clicked on random buttons on the keypad, trying to see if she can score lucky opening the door. Apparently, the keypad accepted only four digit codes. Fortunately, it had only numbers 0-9, albeit written in demon runes.

She clicked three, five, seven, zero. Burr Burr.

No luck? Eleanor thought to herself. “Yeah, I don’t think we can enter any of these doors,” Eleanor said, almost forgetting how close Veronica was to her.

“Here, let me give it a try,” Veronica said, placing her free hand on the keyboard, a silver hue of mana emanated from her hand and spread to the keypad. Direct contact with an object made it easier to manipulate with mana, even without a wand.

“H-hey, what if you trigger the security system?!” Eleanor hissed, only for Veronica to blink, her fluffy snow-white and soft black eyebrows scrunching up slightly.

“The security systems are off,” She said, “It’s why I’m even trying this out.”

Eleanor raised an eyebrow, “Are you seriously going to try to bruteforce the password?” How does she even know about the security systems?

“Yep.” Veronica said smugly.

There were ten thousand possible combinations in a four digit code. Veronica spread mana to press each key quickly. Like lightning speed, Eleanor saw a bundle of lights beeping and clicking against metal and plastic.

After about two minutes, the door in front of them clicked and slid open. Through the door was something that could only be explained as ‘outside’.

The space through the door was surrounded by trees. Their leaves were

Like stepping out of the future and into the past, Poima’s office was surrounded by nature itself. Greenery grew out of the courtyard; overgrown vines surrounded the loggias.

“This is insane...spacial magic...I’ve only ever heard of it in the King’s Castle,” Eleanor breathed. “This is beautiful. The door connected two completely different spaces into one.”

Eleanor thought back on the Sage’s own version of spacial magic at the Castle. This was clearly on a whole different level. Unlike the Sage’s own spacial magic that both required a constant stream of mana and could only at most switch two floors around, this one uses an actual wormhole that connects two very far away places.

The redhead figured by how the green shrubbery was almost forest-like, that the courtyard was nowhere near the beach location of the Caverns.

It definitely wasn’t a greenhouse either. It was far too much of a wide open space for that.

This place was beautiful. Eleanor could tell Poima had a taste for nature. Although the common consensus was that demons were monstrous creatures that needed to be put down, the auburn-haired noble could tell that was not the case, at least not with Poima.

She felt at ease in this courtyard. It served as a distraction from her missing people. From the debilitating guilt that gnawed at her. From the missing Elsie.

She felt a tug again and noticed Veronica staring at her. Eleanor noticed it was an expression of worry. They both sat by the bench in the middle of the courtyard, but Eleanor quickly stood back up when something caught her eye.

It was a small crystal ball. A Memory Recording? She thought, her hand hovering over it. The crystal ball had a slight blue hue to it, with ripples flowing through it, making it look like a tiny ocean.

She was so close to touching it, to experience a memory from these Caverns when a hand stopped her from going further.

“I think maybe you should let me look through it first,” Veronica said, holding Eleanor’s hand tightly.

“Maybe,” She said, “But I brought us here. My curiosity led us through so much hurt. I can’t even begin to imagine how you’re feeling, with Professor Leylon missing.”

“Hrk-”

“Even more so, I need to do this. To make things right.”

She touched the Memory Fragment. The world swirled in as her consciousness merged with the orb like an object that crossed the event horizon of a black hole. It was violent, nauseating, and bright.

Bright like the stars.

That’s how she felt.

As Poima Harpocrates.