Ch.5
Once they were gone, Alara and I began to examine some of the manuscripts and journals strewn across a warped wooden table that lay in the center of the room. They were filled with hand-drawn diagrams, cryptic equations, and notations written in a hurried scrawl. As we skimmed through the contents, a chilling narrative began to take shape—experiments that crossed ethical lines, ancient summoning rituals, and what could only be dark oaths sworn to forgotten deities. What else could (X+Y^2)/2A=7 mean? Putting letters in math, sacrilege I tell you. In all honesty I couldn’t make heads or tails of this nonsense.
Alara's once slender fingers, now scarred and calussed, ruffled through the papers on her side like a parched man in search of water. I may not have known what was going on here but, she must have recognised something. How could our simple hunting mission have gone so wrong.
Her gaze caught a particular slip of paper, its edges worn, I watched as her eyes slightly widened in some form lof recognition. With an urgency underscored by the subtlety of her movements, she secreted the paper away into the folds of her cloak, a look of solemnity etching itself deeper into her features. I looked away quickly avoiding the inevitable confrontation. I could ask about it later.
Beside the scattered manuscripts, a strange contraption hummed with the frequency as the lights of the mysterious lights above. It must be a cooling box of some sort but, not one that I’d ever seen before. Alara, with a swift glance that conveyed an understanding of the contents inside, retrieved a vial from within its confines. It contained a substance that shimmered with a light that was not entirely its own—an echo of the room's ominous aura.
"Quickly now," she urged, while stashing away the vile in the same place as the manuscript. "We must descend further to get out."
I cast a final sweeping glance over the room, the weight of countless questions pressing upon my chest like a physical force but, they could wait. Then, following Alara's silent command, I strode toward the hatch from which the wheel protruded, the cold metal biting into my palms as we turned it with concerted effort. A cacophony of grating and clanking filled the void as the hatch gave way, revealing a tunnel that descended into the bowels of the earth.
The passage was narrow, forcing us to proceed in a single file, with Alara leading the way.The air grew denser, the weight of the earth above us a constant reminder of the depths to which we had ventured.
Our journey was halted abruptly by the sight of cages, lining each side of the wall. Crafted from a material that drank in the dim light, they rods loomed out of the darkness like sentinels of the abyss. Within these prisons paced creatures that resembled the shadow we faced earlier but somehow more physical in nature, their forms shifting and flowing like smoke, their eyes like coals smoldering with a fire that was not of this world.
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We slowly moved around the edge of the room, our every step cautious, every breath measured. Until I made a mistake. I slipped on a small rock I hadn’t seen in the poor lighting kicking it across the room as the crack of the pebble bouncing along the floor woke the beasts. We ran, we ran as fast as we could without waiting to see the beasts move. A primal fear clawed at the edges of my resolve, a fear that been buried away a long time ago and I refused to let it stop me now.
Wind rushed past as a frantic feeling crept up behind me. Spotting the exit with a barred door left open at the end of the hallway I sprinted the last leg right on Alara’s heels.
At last, we reached the exit of the prison slammiong the door shut behind me to find nothing following us. I cautiously backed away from the room to bump into Alara who was staring into this newest room filled with an array of what could only be nests of some sort filled with eggs the size of my arm. The hatchery that lay beyond was a chamber vast and dome-like, its walls lined with those same greasy black cables that led to the cooling box.
In the breadth of that hatchery room, the air hung dense and still, the silence punctured only by the sound of our cautious steps, with each footfall seeming like an echo through time. I lagged a step behind Alara, her posture firm, her step never faltering, past the pulsing nests whose occupants lay hopefully undisturbed. She held her head high, a commander unshaken by the grotesque array of creation's shadows, while my heart, a frantic drummer, kept its rhythm in a chest tight with dread. I could only think of the kind of creature that could possibly make a nest like this.
As we emerged on the chamber's far side, a vision of stark corridors wide, the air shifted with a tension drawn tight. It was here, amidst cables and darkness, that Darian emerged from another room his talisman torn with Lucan and Elysia following shortly behind gasping for breath similar to Alara and I.
“Would you look at that, even in this grotesque place you still can’t keep yourself from following in my footsteps.” Darian immediately says obviously having prepared it the whole time as a come back for my sick wordplay earlier. Havoc seems to break loose as words began to fly, barbed and quick, between Darian and I, each a verbal jab great proportions.
Darian's words were like darts dipped in spite, "Here is buried the fool who thinks his wit might," he started, his tone dripping with derision and gall.
"Look upon the place where I care for your opinions and see it is empty." I finished, a smirk on my lips, eager to best him with verbal quips which is…. strange considering the situation we are in.
He snorted, a sound filled with scorn, "You're just a clown existing for our entertainment."
I take a deep breath, readying myself to end this mans whole existence. “Your mom-”
But before another word could be hurled, a soundless flash occurred, a phenomenon unworlded. Tegen, as fine as the sands of time, cascaded around us in a silent chime. It filled the space with a shimmering veil, a sight that made our petty squabble pale.
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My eyes snap open to an unfamiliar room filled with all of my stuff and pictures of people I don’t recognise. Wait why does my calender say september, isn’t it June?