Alba moved through a single-track tunnel of circular cross-section, stepping over sleepers. The torches were replaced one after another, illuminating the small space around them. In their light, it was clear that some of the walls were cracked due to improper laying of concrete, and in some places, water was running down from cracks, forming small puddles. The carbon steel rails didn't rust and looked like new. Several more inquisitors followed behind Alba.
"How long?" Alba asked one of them.
The Inquisitor looked at the rusty sign on the wall that read thirty-five.
"About five kilometers."
They walked on in silence and suspense. Alba was overcome by thoughts of not knowing the purpose for which he and his friends, comrades-in-arms were fighting. He tried to think, but there was no answer, and then he tried to put it out of his mind, because he knew that there was no point in thinking about something that could not be understood anyway. After a while, he saw a mass of extinguished torches and darkness, the same darkness that a blind wanderer sees in this world of riddles and metovis.
"Who has the fire element?" he asked.
"I have."
Alba asked the metentis of the fire to lead the way and light the road, and the metentis did so. With every new kilometer, the water level under his feet rose higher. Walking became more and more labored and unpleasant. Alba had not wanted to go down to this place, fearing another ambush, but this was the least of his problems, and the most annoying thing was that he was constantly tripping over sleepers, rails, or all sorts of small stones, and his mood dropped to zero.
The sound of inter-layer water flowing down from the collapsed tunnel grew louder, as if they were approaching a massive waterfall near the mountain. After a few minutes, they stopped. The water was already knee-deep, with broken, half-burned sleepers floating on its surface; there were bent rails underfoot, and sharp little pieces of concrete that bit into the Inquisitors' soles like blades.
"There should be a locomotive under the rockslide. Go ahead."
Next to the fire metentis stood another one with the earth element. He raised his hands, cast a spell, and the heavy, wet earth began to rise back up. A minute later, they saw the destroyed locomotive and the rest of the armored combat train.
Alba ordered the metentis of fire to move with him and illuminate the site of the accident. He examined the locomotive; saw the bloodied and crushed bodies of the driver and his assistants, their faces frozen in horror, they moved on. Two wagons later, the bodies of dead soldiers floated on the water.
"What a sight they have," the Inquisitor said.
"Yeah."
"What do you think, Sir Alba?"
"I don't know yet, but I don't like it."
"What exactly don't you like?"
"That I haven't understood anything for the last couple of years."
They walked up to the wagons, which were made of laminated steel. All of them were bent or simply torn, like paper with a firecracker. Alba hit something underwater with his foot. Then he bent down and looked closely, and the inquisitor illuminated the spot for him.
"This is the muzzle of our artillery."
"How did it happen that the rockslide destroyed not only the locomotive, but also everything else. It's all destroyed, sir, like after a bombing."
"Like after the bombing… You're right about that."
"But if someone had blown up the tunnel, they wouldn't have left here unnoticed."
"You're right about that too."
"So, what happened? Maybe someone made a special tunnel from above, with the help of metovis, and then with the help of metovis hid it?"
"It's possible."
"But you don't believe it."
"I only believe what I see."
"Yes, sir. What we'll do next?"
"I wish I knew the answer to that question. For now, we're going back."
They walked toward the rest of the inquisitor squad, stepping over and around the wrecked wagons, dead bodies, and pieces of artillery. The heavy air, mixed with smoke and high humidity, made it difficult for Alba to breathe normally, he was constantly coughing and angry. When they got back, one of the inquisitors asked:
"What are we going to do?"
Alba looked at this dark figure a few meters away, paused for a few more seconds, and said:
"Do you know the coordinates?"
"Yes, I've identified the location."
"Then clean up everything here."
"Yes, sir. What about you? What you gonna do next?"
"I'll try to get out of here as fast as I can. I feel more comfortable on the ground than under it."
Alba walked back across the tunnel into the darkness. The Inquisitors exchanged glances and went about their business.
***
Egon, Homer, and Guillotine heard the voice:
"Who's there?"
They stopped pushing their stagecoach and froze. There was silence.
"Who are you?"
Homer quickly took the train schedule out of Egon's pocket, looked it up and down, spat, walked around the stagecoach, and saw a small, strange dwarf in a working miner's uniform, with a long beard and eyes that shone like gold.
"We've been ordered to take this stagecoach to the depot train. The train will leave soon. We are in a hurry, but the fire crystal stopped working at the most inopportune moment."
The dwarf laughed, walked over to Guillotine and Egon, who didn't know what to say, greeted each of them, and continued to laugh.
"Well, inquisitors, well, weirdos! I can tell you that for sure. They give you a stagecoach, damn me anathema gold, the latest model! I'll bet you anything that those misers in the black sleeping bags put a fire crystal of the first rank here, right?"
Egon nodded his head.
"These idiots save on everything, even on wages. This crystal is total garbage, boy. Oh... my mother told me to stay in the mountains, but I didn't believe her."
The dwarf began to reach into his pockets and search for something, then pulled out a rank 4 fire crystal and handed it to Homer.
"Do you know how to install it?"
"I know," Egon said.
"Here you go, boy. Only all train services were canceled today. They had something broken on the way there once again, so they shouldn't have come. The Inquisitors, as usual, wanted to shit on everyone, but forgot to take off their pants."
The dwarf burst out laughing again while trying to finish his next sentence: "So you'll have to go back."
"Oh, shit!" Guillotine swore so stupidly and absurdly that the others were surprised how the dwarf actually believed it.
"We'll go back through the underground tunnel, so it'll be faster." Egon answered.
"Okay, I've got to get to work, good luck to you boys."
"Thank you," Egon and Homer said.
"Be healthy!" Guillotine said, and got an elbow in the side from Egon.
When the dwarf had gone up the tunnel, leaving friends alone, Guillotine said:
"Why did you hit me, you moron?"
"If you don't know how to pretend, you'd better keep quiet."
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Egon climbed back into the stagecoach, changed the fire crystal, pulled the lever, and the water began to evaporate again.
"Get in, what are you waiting for?"
They returned to the underground tunnel, drove to the next intersection, turned right, and this time came out into a green clearing surrounded by a small number of coniferous trees. They looked around, enjoying the feeling of freedom, and relaxed. Homer lay down on the grass. Egon did the same. Their clothes were immediately soaked by the morning dew, but they didn't care, they didn't pay attention to anything but the fresh air and the blue sky.
"What a thrill!" said Homer. "I wish I could stay like this for the rest of the day."
"What are we going to do, Egon?" Guillotine asked.
"Lying down and having fun after all the shit that we had to go through today. At least ten minutes."
Guillotine sat down on the small threshold for getting into the stagecoach and raised his head. Five green-colored airships flew through the sky, making a deafening sound of their engines running. Egon watched them go until they disappeared behind thick white clouds. The sun was rising again, warming the air and the ground beneath his feet with its warm rays. Homer continued to lie there until he heard someone move a few meters away. He and Egon got up and saw a strange boy about fifteen or sixteen years old.
"I've never seen such a race, who do you think is it?"
"No idea."
Egon looked closer. Branches grew out of the boy's head, coiling around his shoulders and arms. His skin was white, and his eyes were kind of blue, but not just blue, as Egon was used to seeing, but literally azure, as if each of his eyes held a small universe after the big bang. The boy was wearing only a strange greenish-colored robe and brown goggles. They looked at each other and then the boy ran away.
"At least he didn't want to kill us."
"It's true. Well, we should get back to the city."
"And where are we going to put the stagecoach?"
"I'll drive a few meters away and leave it near that thicket over there."
"And the kid?"
"What about him?"
"He saw us."
"He doesn't look like the type to steal money from us."
"Ofir will be furious."
"He'll be furious when he finds out you gave two of his chests to the 'Grandfather'. By the way, go to Roderick's house and check how’s he doing, and I'll find Metyr. If everything will be fine, then we'll come to the warehouse before lunch, if we won't be there, then something went wrong. Have you understood everything?"
“Yeah.”
Egon got behind the wheel of the stagecoach, drove it to the spot, and covered it a little with some branches, so that it would not be so conspicuous. Then he began to survey the unfamiliar terrain. He thought that since they were traveling north through the tunnel, they must be somewhere outside the walls of the forbidden city, and if they went east, they could return to Agernox through the gate most often used by traveling merchants. The friends did so. They walked only half an hour until they reached the gate, said good-bye to each other, and parted ways. Egon looked at the time. 7:31.
He walked to the initial stop of the steam tram, sat down in the back seat as usual, made himself comfortable, felt fatigue prevail in his body, his eyes were closed, he wanted to sleep. He shouted to the driver to stop him at the right stop. A man in his sixties got out of the driver's seat, looked at Egon, and nodded in agreement. Egon fell asleep.
In his dream, Egon moved across the yellow, scorched earth, partially covered with sand. He was constantly tripping over the red-colored cobblestones scattered everywhere, but over time, the cobblestones were replaced by the bones of unknown animals, of the same color. Egon didn't know where he was going, but he knew he was heading in the right direction. Birds were flying through the dark yellow sky, which was streaked with pitch-black clouds of strange appearance and size. On the horizon, uncomfortably low, a bright yellow crescent moon glowed, only with the upper part darkened. A strong east wind barely knocked Egon off his feet. He heard someone creeping towards him, turned to his right and saw a strange creature with no eyes, no nose, its head completely bandaged with a strange red line in the middle. It moved on all fours, shifting its frail arms and legs, which showed no muscles or tendons, only thin bones. The body of this creature was completely black, without any clothes. Egon tried to run away from it, but his feet were pinned to the ground. He turned away, and in front of him suddenly appeared a huge tree of gigantic size. Its trunk split in two. The first part went far to the north, beyond the very horizon, and was directly perpendicular to this lifeless mortal land. The branches of the tree shot up and bent under the gusts of wind to the west side. The second part was no different from the first, only going somewhere to the west. Egon saw a strange red bone under his feet, something like a crescent moon on the horizon. The creature, meanwhile, ran up to Egon and stopped. He could not hear its breathing, only the sounds of the endless wind, as if it represented the unearthly flow of time in this area. And then he heard the strange voice of the creature, which said:
“Gennox.”
Egon opened his eyes and saw the driver in front of him.
"You slept for a while, kid," he said. "You look like you've had a nightmare."
"Yeah..."
"I know a little about dreams, I used to be a teacher at a local university, I studied the brain, until I realized that drivers are paid more. I can try to help you."
Egon examined the steam tram, but there was no one inside. He told the driver what he had dreamed, and the man in his sixties started to think about it.
"Gennox, right?"
"Yeah. It's not the first time I've heard this word in my dreams, but I don't understand what it means."
"I don't know either. But whatever it is, such dreams are a bad sign. After all, dreams are a mixture of our imagination and reality. And this means only one thing: your subconsciousness wants to tell you something."
"And what does my mind want to tell me?"
"How should I know? I'm just a driver."
"Okay, thanks for listening."
"It's not a burden to me. Good luck to you, kid."
"Good luck to you too."
Egon walked toward the house where Metyr lives. On the way, he met several bards who were packing up their musical instruments in anticipation of the rain. Down the street, he saw the prophet with a white greyhound sitting submissively at his feet. He preached to the local onlookers:
"Ask me, where is our civilization going? I'll answer you: into the darkness. After all, darkness is corporeal and disembodied, but they are interrelated. Disembodied darkness overwhelms our consciousness, tries to destroy it, like a pack of merciless locusts, devours us from within, making us part of the darkness that I call corporeal. The Inquisitors, in whose views most of you believe, preach the wrong path, the path of falling into the deep bowels of hell, yes, yes, yes, the very deep bowels of hell that drags us into desert oblivion, into nothingness and emptiness, where there is nothing, only your hollow souls doomed to forever regret the earthly life. They lie to us in their temples, they lie in their scriptures, they lie to us by burning innocent people at the stakes. Lying became such a natural process that we started lying to ourselves. We go to a job we don't like, telling ourselves we like it, and then we go home, sit on a broken chair that lies to us that it will serve for a few more years, some of us even lie to their own families! This way our consciousness feels more comfortable, it likes to swallow this lie, becoming part of the disembodied darkness. Stop, go back to the time and place you came from, and start again with the knowledge you have now. The darkness has always been attracted by the light that shines in bright flames in your little hearts. It wants to get all of it, but it can't, so, it makes your light a part of itself and goes on."
Egon had already passed by when two boys ran out of the crowd of onlookers and ran towards him. They were Autolycus and Astafius. They wrinkled their little evil faces and said:
"You tricked us, Keeper, it was you who stole the diamonds along with Metyr!"
"What makes you think that?" Egon asked.
"Everyone will know about it soon, and the papers will be out this afternoon. They caught Metyr less than an hour ago, and now they're hunting you."
"What nonsense is this?"
"Nonsense or not, the Inquisition already knows about both of you, be careful."
Egon took out two gold coins and said:
"Here you go. You deserve it. There's a house across the street, number forty-six. Go past it and check if there is no Inquisition, in case there is no Inquisition, knock on the door and check who is at home."
Autolycus and Astafius nodded and ran away. Egon watched as not only the common people, but also the police and priests gathered around the prophet. He didn't pay any attention to them and kept saying something about the holy war, about how the world was mired in darkness and lies, but Egon didn't care. He did not linger, wasting his time on the ramblings of a crazy man with a very strange dog next to him, and reached the street where Metyr's house was located and waited around the corner.
Twenty minutes later, the children approached Egon. He immediately noticed their frightened faces.
"What happened?"
"Nothing," Autolycus said.
"There's no one there," Astafius said.
"What about your faces? It's like you’ve met the devil."
"We didn't meet anyone. Um ... we have to go."
The children ran to the side where the prophet was speaking. Egon had a strange feeling that danger lurked somewhere nearby. All of a sudden, the prophet's greyhound swooped down on him and bit into his pant leg, trying to pull him back. Egon tried to get away, but it wouldn't let him out of its teeth. Then he swung, and hit it, and threw it away. The dog whined and ran away.
"The hell is going on!" He swore.
Egon walked along the curb, staying in the shadows of the houses. He was surrounded by a lot of people, wandering around with and without a reason. Everyone hurried along, preoccupied with their own affairs. He passed a large tower house, at the very top of which the clock was ticking. He looked up and saw that it was 9: 12. On a spire of tower house was a flag fluttering in the wind of an unknown symbol. Egon went on and accidentally bumped into a woman in a cone-shaped hat, goggles and half-iron half-rag clothes, hung with various mechanical clocks. She didn't say anything to him, just looked him in the eyes, turned around, and left.
Egon stopped at number forty-two. A couple of inches away, a door opened wide and a man in an iron mask and a prosthetic leg came out. He leaned on his cane, walked proudly, paying no attention to anyone. Several more steam trams passed along the road, one of which was followed by a local eccentric inventor in his makeshift car (which looked more like a strange wheel with a steam engine and a seat).
Egon waited for a few minutes, looking at each passer-by. Everything was as usual. But he was in no hurry to go in, remembering the children's faces and wondering what had frightened them. Then he looked at the unusual bridge that had been constructed between houses number forty-eight and forty-seven - on the opposite side of the street. Metal gears spun on the beams, setting in motion a passenger conveyor, on which people got up and drove themselves from one house to another.
A flying ship hung in the air above the bridge, anchored by thick cables on either side. Egon could see the cheerful and carefree faces of the local rich looking out of the windows of the cabins, and on the second floor they built a local cafe with the loud name "Floating in the Sky".
In the end, Egon did not dare to go into the house and walked past on the other side of the street. He examined the windows, the door, and there were no signs of forced entry. Then he walked a few meters forward, to a traveling mask dealer who was hiding his face with his own work of art, and was dressed in a strange ragged cloth. Egon looked at the different masks: on the first shelf were white masks with different emotions: one sad, one neutral, one smiling; just above the masks with animal heads, and even higher - foreign masks. Egon thought a little and bought a plague doctor mask, put it on, and headed to his warehouse.
A moment later, the face of the smiling merchant appeared before his eyes like lightning. He turned, and the merchant was gone. He already turned to run, but when he turned back, he saw Thomas standing in front of him, and a terrifying inquisitor knocking him out with a single blow. Egon fell on the brick tiles of the road, covered in dust and dirt; he hurt his head a little, and his nose bled. Thomas stared at him in silence until the coach with the sign of the Inquisition arrived. People immediately began to run away. Atilla got out of the coach, tossed Thomas a black cloak with the red and white sign on it, and he immediately put it on, then threw Egon in, but before he went in himself, he looked at his watch. 9:41. He smiled, went inside, and they drove away.