Changing course, the Forneus glider flew in the direction of Crystalline City, where Eamon and the remaining Children of Deimos were held up in their mysterious Warehouse.
With the glider, transportation was only A few hours.
They landed on a road on the outskirts of the city, surrounded by a brush of trees for protection. As they gathered their things, Lyra went back to the room Bella was resting in, but when she opened the door, the bed was unkempt, the window was smashed, and nobody was inside.
When the girl had escaped, Lyra didn't know, but a part of her worried that through processing her trauma, she would end up back with the children of Deimos.
At least, she prayed to Lumos that she wouldn't make that decision. All she could hope for was that she would eventually find what she was looking for.
“If you keep heading north, you'll be near the city,” Jude said when everyone was present outside the glider–Lyra was last to disembark. She pointed in the direction they needed to go. “Probably best to stay off the main roads, though. We saw a bunch of military personnel below us.”
Thanking her and her family one last time, they departed off the glider as it flew up into the sky.
Their destination needed to take them as close to the Crystalline City as possible, but an abandoned building may be close to the city, but it wouldn't be on the main road.
“We have to go deeper into the forest, “Tierney told them.
It was safe to say that everyone was surprised by her response.
“How do you know that?” Lyra asked.
Tierney shook her head. “I don't know, but since I talked with Eamon, it almost feels like he gave me coordinates from when we last spoke.”
Seeing the situation at hand, Sly nodded, taking the lead. “Then let's follow that connection before it gets cut off.”
They were walking deeper into the forest, further away from the main road. They finally came upon a warehouse building in the middle of an open field. The building was boarded up and looked like it hadn't been occupied for several years.
“They're in there. I can feel it.” Tierney confirmed.
Aurora, too, nodded. “Me too, it feels like really, really bad energy.”
Lyra had assumed that it was because Aurora's homunculus abilities made her sense what was beyond the walls.
“Okay,” Lyra faced her group. Determination filled her, giving her the strength that she needed. “Let's devise a plan.”
•†•
“Good. Everything is completed as necessary. Well done, Blackthorn.”
Walking up the steps, Blackthorn met with Walsh at a podium altar where he was preparing the final ritual to complete the Astral contract.
“As promised, I've brought the Ash Bourne Demon and your old partner, Ludwig Klause.”
Blackthorn tossed a tied-up Ludwig to the floor. The man grunted from the hard toss, but his eyes were directed to the one person he thought he would never see again.
“Hello again, old friend,” Walsh greeted his old science partner. “It's been a while.”
Klause grunted. He spat on the ground. “Friend " wouldn't be the word I use, but it has been a while, Walsh. What do you want?”
Walsh grinned at his old friend and partner. “I think you know, Ludwig. We didn't spend decades working on it and deciphering ancient texts for nothing.”
Ludwig pursed his lips. “The Homunculus DNA to create indestructible weapons. The Empire wanted us to make them but never trusted them, so I eventually left. But why do you still work for them?”
“Unfortunately, friend, I work for someone else now, and they've given me a far better offer than anything the Empire could ever give.”
It only took a moment for Klause to realize this. His eyes widened, vibrating with fear.
“No… How is that possible… You actually did it. You've managed to find a way to summon Deimos?”
Walsh clapped. “You're half correct. The person whom I found to help me is the Master, the Arbiter. And you? Will assist us with a bit of knowledge.”
“What do you even want with me?” Klause tried to back up. “Whatever knowledge I know is what you know.”
Walsh tsked. Shaking his finger in the air. “Now, now, there's no need for lies. We're all friends here,” he reached into his lab coat and pulled out a book. “Only one of us is skilled in operative surgery. You'll be completing the task we started all those years ago with this.”
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Tossing the leather-bound book to the floor, it was embroidered in gold string along its binding. The front cover read: Radiant Codex. This is the same Codex that belonged to Saint Lumos, the same text that created the Astral Contract.
Ludwig gritted his teeth. “And what do you expect me to do with this?”
“Is it not simple? You'll extract the Dormant from Blackthorn and create more Homunculus with the Codex.”
Ludwig shook his head. Appalled by what came out of his old friend's mouth. “What you're doing is a mistake, Walsh. Having this kind of power goes against Lumos herself. You're playing with the creation of life and using it for nefarious purposes.”
Walsh shrugged. “All for the love of science, as you used to say. It didn't stop you then. Now, get to work or see if you can handle taking on Sovran’s.”
He snapped his fingers, and one by one, the figures of Finnian, Maxwell Croger, Raelina, and the newly recruited Ash-Born Demon appeared from the shadows.
Ludwig had no choice but to comply.
•†•
From the outside, infiltrating the warehouse had been easy, but Lyra and everyone knew that inside, traps would prevent them from reaching their primary goal.
“How about if we go through the air duct?” Lyra pointed out the grate on the side of the building.
“It'll be far too small for most of us,” Sly confirmed. “Perhaps only Lyra, Aurora, and Tierney shall go? They’ll look for Eamon, and the four of us will infiltrate from the front, remove any guards, and meet up at the final threshing.”
Alivier hummed a lyrical tune that vibrated along his lips. “Make that three. In case Lyra needs extra assistance,”
Lyra narrowed her brows at Alivier. “And suddenly, I can't handle myself? I think it was at least twice I saved you.”
“Take no offense, Lyra,” Malakyh said, grinning his head. “He's feeling lazy and doesn't want to do the work.”
Alivier feigned hurt. Placing his hand on his chest and staggered as if his words wounded him.
“How uncouth of you, but very true. You do happen to know me so well, Malakyh. And to think I once thought of you as an enemy.”
“Yeah, you make it very hard not to know you, Alivier.”
“Right?!” Lyra exclaimed in agreement with Malakyh.
“Can we focus on what is in front of us?” Cassandra interrupted—her attention on Tierney. “Be safe. I want to make sure you come back alive.”
Tierney nodded. “You, too.”
Once the two had hugged, and Alivier had possessed Lyra’s sword again–Riftbreaker glowed brightly from beyond its sheathe–the three peeled open the grate and crawled through, Lyra first, Aurora, and Tierney. Sly, Cassandra, and Malakyh entered from the front and entered through the laden trap warehouse of the Children of Deimos.
Lyra and her accompanying party would be directed right where they needed to be—in the infirmary, where the scientist and Doctor Ludwig Klause would start his operation on removing the dormant soul from Eamon's body so that only Blackthorn remained.
Then, recreate the process all over again with the newly created Homunculus—not the perfect weapons as the Empire wanted, but the perfect followers for Deimos when he returned.
“It's down this hall!” Tierney shouted once they pulled themselves from the grate. “I can sense that same aura sensation, like when I saw him before.”
Lyra lifted Aurora out of the grate and placed her down. They followed Tierney down the marble white halls and toward a set of two double doors.
Lyra brandished her sword, glowing brightly in the dim area, and ushered the two girls behind her. She slammed her hand on the door in time to see a man in a white lab coat standing over a metal table: on top of the table was the unconscious body of Eamon.
“Eamon!” Lyra exclaimed. Her eyes snapped to the long, dark brown hair. His green eyes snapped open with his hands raised in surrender. “Put the surgical tool down now!”
The doctor dropped the tool from his hand.
“Wait! You're a Locksmith, are you not?” The man looked at the emblem on her jacket. “This is a misunderstanding. You have to believe me. I was forced to do this.”
Lyra frowned. Squaring her eyes at the man, her blade pointed directly at him. “Right. You expect me to believe that you aren't a part of the Children of Deimos and not performing heinous experiments on unwilling participants? Yeah, sounds like a flaming pile of Veilspawn dung.”
“Yes, I swear to Lumos.” The man pleaded. “My name is Ludwig Klause. I was a former Scientist for the Empire and then quit, retiring as a doctor until I was forced out of my practice and became a journalist for the resistance ‘The Dawn Coalition.’”
A tug pulled Lyra’s attention down to Aurora, who was looking intently at the man Ludwig Klause.
“He's telling the truth. I think I can sense it.”
Lyra slowly dropped her sword. “Are you sure, Aurora?”
She bobbed her head. “Yeah, I can see something in his aura. It doesn't feel hostile like Veilspawn or Fiends.”
“I can't sense anything better,” Tierney confirmed. “He's telling the truth.”
Lyra twisted her lip, deciding what to do next. Eventually, she sheathed her sword. “Okay, well, if you aren't on their side, then you won't mind telling me what you were doing.”
He nodded. His shoulders relaxed now that he wasn't in any danger. “Yes, of course. You see, Walsh and I worked together years ago, and we studied the creation of Homunculus to be made into weapons for the Empire. I left, but Walsh remained until he was taken in by someone named ‘The Arbiter,’ the true master of the Children of Deimos.”
Lyra wrinkled her nose. “And to think Walsh was the brains of this operation. Now we have to find the main perpetrator in charge of this.” She walked over to the table where Eamon’s body was laid. His white hair was sprawled out, and the parts of his bangs fell in his face.
Lyra gently moved the hair away from his forehead. She thinly smiled.
“He's still alive,” Klause spoke, pulling Lyra’s attention to him on the other side of the table. “I assume you're here for the other version of him. The one called Blackthorn is the Dormant, who was silenced while ‘Eamon’ was awake. However, when Walsh woke the Dormant up, Eamon became the dormant.”
Lyra pursed her lips. She nodded. “That's the long and short of it, yeah. What were you going to do with that?”
“The same thing you want. I sensed there was something good about him. But there were two souls–if you will–fighting for supremacy. It wasn't hard to distinguish who the original person was even if he was created as the Homunculus.”
“So, you can get Eamon back?” Aurora exclaimed. She stood at the table beside Lyra, gripping onto the edge of the metal.
“I can try, but removing any Dormant is tricky, especially the sleeper, Blackthorn, who has had time to adjust to the body. Eamon will have to become stronger than Blackthorn and fight him off while I do the soul removal. Do you know if he is willing to cooperate?”
Lyra parted her lips but shut them at the same. Did she know? This journey was partly to rescue Eamon, but did he truly want to return? Yes, Blackthorn intervened, but Lyra didn't want to project her feelings onto him.
A hand touched Lyra’s. She looked down to see Tierney taking her hand. “Don't think like that. He needs you, just like you need him. But being there will help.”
She grabbed Eamon's hand and, like before, transported Lyra into Eamon’s mind state.