Going down the basement stairs a second time was one of the most difficult things I had ever done. The last time, whatever was down there had very nearly gotten its hooks into me, and would have if not for Athena's timely intervention. Even then, it had befuddled Athena's senses so completely that, had she not managed to restore my calm, we might have been trapped by whatever was down there.

That was one of the reasons I was bringing Artemis this time.

For a number of reasons, animal minds - even an Elevated familiar's mind - are harder to influence and fool than the human mind. Their senses are often sharper than ours, for example, and their brains handle the information differently. Or so I was taught.

Come to think of it, that should have told me something about how profoundly Athena's transformation had affected her. The spirits in the basement had managed to fool her senses of sight, hearing and smell just like they'd fooled mine. But where that confusion had provided the spirits with a channel into my mind, it had simply befuddled Athena's senses.

Huh. That was worth filing away for later investigation. Athena might be naturally more resistant to the various forms of mind magic than even a highly trained Mage.

As during our previous descent into the basement, I called magelight to the tip of my staff, brightening it and shaping it into a beam as we made our way down the stairs. Artemis went first, with Athena following behind me. The darkness was still deep and pervasive, more so than it should have been. It was clearly unnatural.

"Both of you stay close to me," I said softly. "I don't want to risk our getting separated down here." With a quick glance around, I oriented us towards the wall that had been put up to divide this part of the basement from the larger portion of it. "The wall we want is over that way. Artemis, keep us on a straight line to it."

<>

"Good idea," Athena murmured. "Since they befuddled both of us last time."

I shot Athena an amused look. "Befuddled?"

"Did I use it wrong?" She asked anxiously.

"No, not at all. I was just surprised." I smiled warmly. "I was just thinking the same thing a moment ago."

"While you were asleep, Mister Ellister explained that I'll know a lot of what you knew when you Elevated me," she explained as we followed Artemis through the strange darkness and past the crates and boxes I'd seen earlier. "But it's going to take a few weeks to...to percolate?" She smiled sheepishly. "I didn't understand that part."

"It makes sense to me," I said with a nod. "I poured a lot of myself into you to Elevate you," I reached back and took her hand. "You're very much a part of me now. Just like your sister, but quite a bit more profoundly."

<> Artemis said, drawing our attention to where we were walking. <>

Athena stepped up beside her and flared her nostrils, taking a deep breath. Then she sneezed. "All I smell is basement mildew. A lot of it."

<> Artemis fired at her cheerfully. <>

Athena rolled her eyes, then both of them turned and looked to me for direction.

I stared at the wall for a few moments, mentally comparing the basement as we'd seen it to what was on the blueprints. There was no question that the square footage of the basement we were in - in spite of not being able to see all of it, or even most of it, at one time - was significantly less than what was shown on the old blueprints.

"Okay," I said finally. "I'm going to try a sounding spell my master taught me. Step back from the wall."

They both did, Athena moving to stand beside me as Artemis turned to watch our backs. "A sounding spell, Mistress?"

"Mmhm," I said, rummaging in my bag. "It's kind of like active sonar. Hit the wall with a sound wave and see what it gives back. If it's empty space on the other side, it should have a different acoustic signature than if they filled it in."

"Ah," she said, clearly not completely understanding.

I smiled. "You'll see. Ah, here it is." I pulled out a tuning fork and closed my bag again. "I'm sorry if this makes your ears hurt."

Artemis sighed and flattened her ears, as Athena covered hers with her hands. I considered the wall for a moment, then the tuning fork, all the while recalling the details of the spell. Finally, I murmured a few words in Gaelic about spreading and returning sound, struck the tuning fork against my staff to make it chime, and touched it to the wall.

A few feet to our left, the wall began to glow and hum softly. I swore under my breath and pulled the tuning fork away from the wall, stuffing it back into my bag. "I was hoping they'd filled it in."

"What does that mean?" Athena asked.

"It means that there's an open space on the other side of the wall there. Probably the corridor we were looking at on the blueprints." I walked down the wall to the spot that was still glowing faintly and frowned at it.

Artemis and Athena followed me, Artemis asking, <>

"Yeah, we have to," I said thoughtfully. "I suppose I could use a bit of geomancy...see if I can shape a hole. It works with stone, it ought to work on bricks."

I touched the glowing tip of my staff to the wall and began to murmur the words of my spell. In Gaelic, I spoke to the bricks, gently but firmly encouraging them to wake and change, to flow away from the spot I wanted cleared. At the same time, I poured Anima into the spell, running it through my staff and into the wall.

It had worked with stone in the past, causing it to almost liquefy and flow away from the spot I wanted cleared. I had even been able to shape it into specific forms.

The brick was quite a bit more stubborn than rock - being man-made for a specific purpose rather than naturally formed - but after a couple of minutes it seemed to shimmer and ripple. Then, in a single fluid movement it flowed outwards, forming a rough archway that opened on a pitch black corridor.

I released the spell and let the brick solidify again (for lack of a better term), then shone the magelight at the tip of my staff into the hallway. Unlike the brick wall I'd just opened, the walls beyond were made of cut stone. The light from my staff just barely revealed doors on both sides of a long, unlit corridor. It seemed to go on forever, past the edge of my magelight's beam.

Which, granted, wasn't really that far. Like the part of the basement we'd already explored, the darkness that inhabited the hallway that lay before us was unnatural. It swallowed up light and seemed to loom over us with sinister intent.

I shivered, and felt Athena shiver beside me.

<> Artemis said teasingly and prowled forward cautiously, hackles raised and the fur of her tail bristled out.

I shared an amused look with Athena. Artemis had struck precisely the right note to shake us both out of our immobility. Shaking my head a little, I followed Artemis into the hallway, and Athena came behind me.

Unsurprisingly, the first two doors we came to - on opposite sides of the hallway from one another - were either locked or rusted shut. I was leaning towards locked because the doors themselves, solid-looking things made of iron-banded wood, were by all appearances in perfect condition. The wood looked well-seasoned and strong, the iron bands clean of rust and the hinges seemingly in working condition.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

With a bit of concentration, I could sense the enchantments that had been laid on them. Both doors radiated the faint sensations I had come to associate with spells designed to preserve materials - both organic and inorganic - against time and the elements. I felt the protective, secretive feelings that often came with spells constructed to seal a portal and keep it closed up tight.

"Someone really didn't want people getting into these rooms," I said absently, running my fingers over the hinges of one of them. "And wanted to make sure that the doors would remain intact as long as the enchantments that kept them sealed."

Athena had crouched down and was examining the lock curiously. "Mistress, this lock is weird. It's not like the ones I saw upstairs and at Mr. Hollis' house."

"What do you mean?" I asked, crouching down beside her. It looked like an old-fashioned deadbolt lock to me, but I freely admit I don't know much about their construction.

By way of demonstration, Athena tapped one claw against the metal plate around the keyhole. It thunked softly rather than making the lighter sound metal with space behind it would usually make. "It's solid. Like there's no mechanism inside it."

I rose, resting my hand on her shoulder for a moment and smiling down at her. "Well spotted."

She smiled up at me in return.

<> Artemis said from the other side of the hallway. <>

I turned to see her hunkered down, sniffing at the slim gap that ran along the bottom of the door. "What do you mean, pet?"

As I moved to stand beside her, Athena following, Artemis pressed her nose against the base of the door and sniffed. <> She pawed at the door for a moment. <>

"No airflow?" Athena asked, speaking aloud the question I had been thinking. She really had absorbed more of me than I'd realized. I made another mental note to speak to Hollis about it later.

Mind you, it didn't worry me at all. Quite the contrary. I felt it would be both useful and probably a lot of fun. But I was curious as to how common such a thing was, and what the extent of it might be.

"That's probably the case," I said thoughtfully, answering Athena's question, crouching down and stroking Artemis' neck and back. "I imagine the spells on these doors are keeping anything from going in or out, including air. Though why they'd be keeping you from smelling them," I said to Artemis, "I have no idea."

"Can you look more closely at the spells?" Athena asked, once again speaking my mind for me.

I patted Artemis' shoulder warmly before rising, and she rubbed against my leg in response, purring contentedly. "I can," I said thoughtfully. "And we might learn something valuable in doing so. Watch my back, girls."

Athena nodded and turned to face one way, while Artemis set herself to watch in the other direction.

The spell I cast then was pretty much the same spell I cast outside the building in order to read its aura. Even the verbal and physical components were nearly identical, but the intent was subtly different.

Magic is funny that way. Really skilled spellcasters rarely bother using verbal foci at all, and only use the most basic physical ones, when molding and shaping their spells. I'd already gotten pretty proficient at doing that with some combat magic, but the subtle things...well, I still needed practice and experience.

I finished casting , and in the wake of the spell the door seemed to become coated in a swirl of multi-colored energy - the spell's manifestation of the enchantments placed on the door. I examined it curiously, reaching out to brush the fingers of my left hand through the sheen of energy, sampling its texture and getting a feel for their effects.

"This," I said finally, "Is an interesting mix of spells."

"How so?" Athena asked, perhaps sensing my desire to use her as a sounding board. Or maybe she was just curious. More likely, a mix of the two.

"The reds and yellows," I replied, "Are sealing and locking spells, not just holding the door shut but preventing even air from passing in or out. The pale blues and greens are even more curious - they're preservation spells, like what people used to use to preserve food before refrigerators became common. They appear to extend beyond the edges of the door and into the walls, so I'm guessing the whole room is wrapped in them."

<> Artemis asked.

"Maybe," I said slowly. "It seems kind of unlikely, though. Why leave it here during the construction?" I turned to look down the hallway, shining my magelight at the other visible doors. "And why do it to so many rooms? From the spacing of the doors, and from the blueprints, I'd say these aren't small rooms. Certainly not of a size for pantries, even large ones. At a glance, I'd say all of the doors have the same - or at least similar - enchantments on them."

"What do we do?" Athena asked.

I flashed her a quick smile. "We open one, of course."

She returned my smile, perhaps a bit wryly. "Of course. I don't know what I was thinking, Mistress."

"Oh, stop," I teased, returning my attention to the door. It felt good to joke with her...it kept away some of the feeling of being watched.

After examining the door for a few silent minutes, I began casting spells. I could have torn the enchantments apart with ease. They weren't overly sophisticated, and while designed to last for a very long time, they wouldn't stand up to much abuse. But I wanted to keep them intact, in case I needed to seal the room back up afterwards.

Why have to redo work that had already been done?

So instead I wove my spells with subtlety, carefully inserting the metaphysical equivalent of lock picks into the enchantments and slowly prying them open. It didn't take me very long, maybe five minutes. In the end, I managed to convince the spells to release the physical door without disrupting their integrity and to magically pop the lock open almost silently. But when the door started to swing silently open, the air of malevolence seemed to constrict around us, causing Athena and Artemis to press closer to me.

I understood why a few moments later. The room was most assuredly for storage of perishables, but not for food.

It was part of a morgue. Rows upon rows of cold-storage lockers just the right height and width to slide a body into lined the walls. My jaw dropped open just a little and I breathed out an almost silent curse. This was not good.

But this was my job. So I steeled my nerves and moved forward into the room, intending to examine the lockers. If all of them had bodies in them, perhaps preserved for later experimentation and/or postmortem examination, it could indicate a large number of deaths on the premises. Worse, if all of the lockers had inhabitants (so to speak) and all of the other rooms were like this one, we might have a very serious problem on our hands.

"Mistress?" Athena whispered from behind me. As she spoke, I suddenly felt a sharp spike of fear that wasn't my own.

"What is it, pet?"

"It's...look." Her voice was quavery and had an edge to it that made me turn.

She and Artemis were both backing into the room, tails lashing with agitation. Artemis has her fangs bared and was growling deep in her throat. So I turned to look.

For a moment, I was certain my heart had stopped. Then it sped up to a frantic, near panic pace.

The hallway was packed to bursting with people. So many that they couldn't move, they were so tightly crowded together. They were mostly male, and most of them were wearing what looked like old-fashioned hospital scrubs...canvas pants and short-sleeved pullover shirts.

For a moment, I wondered in absolutely bewildered silence how they could have possibly sneaked up behind us without our hearing them. Then I realized that I could see the opposite wall and door through them.

"They just appeared," Athena whispered, answering my unspoken question. "Right after you stepped into the room."

<> Artemis added uneasily. <>

I looked more closely at the people in the hallway. Many of them had their hair cropped close to their heads or shaved off entirely. None were wearing jewelry of any kind and quite a few had visible scars or tattoos, or both. And finally, most of them appeared to have numbers on the right breast of their shirts. The numbers seemed to stand out with special intensity and greater solidity.

As if the numbers were how the spirits identified themselves.

These, I decided, were the inmates of the old asylum. The ones who had died on-site. The expressions on their faces ranged from absent indifference to focused, outright anger. But all of their eyes - leeched of color by their spectral nature and seeming to reflect my magelight with unnatural clarity - were fixed on me and my familiars.

The spirits suddenly crowded forward, pressing towards the doorway and causing Athena and Artemis to retreat further into the room. They stopped on either side of me, and a moment later the spirits stopped as well, clustered against the open doorway so tightly that they actually overlapped in some places.

But they didn't enter the room. A moment later, I realized that they probably couldn't. I had opened the door, but the preservation spells remained intact. Air had come in with us and flowed freely through the doorway because of how I had opened it, but the room itself was still designed to keep things in and out. They couldn't cross its threshold.

It was a small reprieve, but it let my heart slow back down to a less frantic pace and gave me a chance to think clearly. I wasn't sure that we were actually in any real danger yet. They were, after all, incorporeal beings, and while they could - it probably took several of them working together - affect their surroundings, there was little down here for them to make use of.

I took a few steps forward to the doorway, causing the spirits to fall back slightly. "We mean you no harm," I said in as quiet and reassuring voice a voice as I could muster. "We're here to release you from this trap." I gestured around me. Most likely it was the preservation spells as much as the trauma and madness that had lingered here which kept them from moving on.

I didn't realize I had actually reached the doorway until one of them croaked in an almost inaudible voice, "This place is ours," and took a swipe at me.

I flinched back automatically and felt a thin sliver of pain on my cheek, which caused me to jump back in surprise.

Athena caught me, trembling with a mixture of adrenaline-response and fear. "Mistress, your cheek..."

I raised my hand to my left cheek, which stung a bit, and felt wetness. When I drew my hand away again, I saw a bit of blood on my fingertips.

The spirit had not only made contact with me, it had been able to hurt me, however slightly. Which it absolutely should not have been able to do.

"I think," I said very quietly, trying not to let my fear come across in my voice, "We're in over our heads."