Darkness had faded again, thanks to god. Now a lifeless corpse slept atop the table, given as a gift from the devil.
Kane saw a face, cold, empty, eyes as black as tar and hair wet, dropping unsynchronized; Drip…Drip..Drip it sounded. As if the drops were falling into a far dug well.
Darkness faded to reality, he gasped in distress, Kane jumped out of his chair in a sudden shock.
“Who the fuck is that!?” He unsheathed his sword Schiing. “Don't know…she..she..she appeared from out of nowhere.” answered Nicholas.
He cleared his throat.
“Thi’s the workings of the four eyed.” said Martin in disbelief over what he looked at.
Nicholas' mind wandered to horrible places, it felt dull in his head. Maybe he couldn't take what he's witnessing.
Was he really that weak? He felt disgusted by himself, feeling like he needed to prove that he's just not some weak guy from the streets of Silvia.
“Who is she?” Asked Nicholas. He strode carefully towards the body laying on the table.
Her limbs were crooked, broken-like, they went in all directions, fingers broken, legs broken, arms broken and her head twisted like a dead bird.
It reminded Nicholas of how you would break a stick in half….Lastly her twisted head hung off the table edge, mouth open,
teeth rotten from pre-death illnesses that you'd only attract if you were a street-whore or a low life.
Nicholas lightly poked the woman with the opposite end of the sword.
“I don't think she's going to wake, Nicholas. There's no need to poke her.” said Martin. His voice calm.
Kane rubbed his eyes and stepped over to Nicholas saying, “I think it's better if we leave her alone and keep going.”
“Yeah you're probably right.” answered Nicholas. He leveled himself with Kane and Martin again. Fixing his backpack in place.
It would always slide halfway off the shoulder when you moved around. That's what you get though when you buy a cheap backpack, Nicholas thought.
“Are you boys sure that we should keep on going?” asked Martin.
“Yeah I don't see a reason not to, and we have promised the king to fulfill this mission haven't we?” replied Kane. Martin scratched his head. “I guess we have promised him.”
“And if we desert the mission our king will surely hang us for disobeying.” uttered Nicholas.
Kane pointed at Nicholas saying “The kids right, we'll be killed if we leave.” Then he approached the candle by the corpse, grabbing it by the lower handle.
Taking in a deep breath in order to calm his galloping heart. Nicholas feared what might or might not lurk in the dark so as needed he also took one candle and so did Martin.
They passed the right hand corner, now leaving the library behind them.
…
Cracks in the walls after leaving the first floor became more prevalent as they climbed stairwell after stairwell.
Passing floor after floor. Oddly enough the temperature drastically changed by every floor as-well. It went from a mild-warm temperature to a skin crawling cold.
Nicholas' breath created this mist every time he would yawn or speak. annoyingly enough was his hand freezing from the cold. Holding his sword in one hand and the candle in the other.
“What floor are we on now? Haven't we passed like twenty floors or so?” he asked. Kane and Martin were a few steps ahead.
They’d walked along this spiral staircase for about an hour now. Kane stopped, turned around and peered down at Nicholas.
His armor creating a Clink sound as he moved. Nicholas could barely see Kane's face from his position. He tried squinting but it didn't help.
“My best answer right now is that, I don't really know. Do you know Martin?” Replied Kane.
The answerer traveled all the way down the spiral, repeating itself until it faded away. Martin close to the staircase edge looking up responded with “We've for certain passed about forty floors.
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After that I don't know. I lost count thereafter.” His voice echoed as well. Nicholas had grown tired after the last hour or so.
In denial he shook his head. “Are we at least close to another floor?” he asked them. Kane changed his gaze upwards, raising his candle to see a little better.
“It looks like we're close, yeah.” Kane answered. Well that's good Nicholas thought while whipping off the sweat from his forehead.
With a nice sway of the shoulders he fixed his backpack again. And on they went.
…
Kane had sheathed his sword, before entering whatever floor they were on. Nicholas heard how the old wooden door creaked from above while he slowly made his way up.
If there was anybody there they’d definitely heard Kane enter. His footsteps had become louder as he’d walked further in.
It sounded very much like a cave. But it wasn't a cave, it was a room, a room in a tower, a very cold tower and a very tall one at that.
Kane paced slowly, stretching his arm far in front him. The candle lit enough of the room for him to see something.
A man-made creation of some sort. Nicholas and Martin had started to see it now as well. There was actually a thing there.
To Nicholas it looked much like a slab of stone, very old stone. And Martin he’d instantly recognised what it was, his history lessons had paid off.
all those days when he was young, sitting there in his grandma's house reading history books, they paid off.
“Kane! Don't take another step.” yelled Martin. Kane instantly stopped as if he were a marionette.
“Don't yell! And why do I need to stop!?” whispered Kane. “You're standing in front of a very old king's grave. If you're not careful enough, then you might die from poisoning.
You see old Cascan kings' graves used to have traps around them or inside them, with the means to kill any thieves who dared an attempt at robbing their graves in the afterlife.” replied Martin.
“Well then what should I do?” said Kane.
“Just come back here to us, and I'll handle the trap.” Martin crouched down, heaving off his backpack.
scrambling through its contents Martin couldn't find what he searched for so he asked Nicholas “Can I borrow your knife?”
Nicholas bent over and stuck his hand down the leather boot pulling out a small knife. “Here you go,” he said. Handing over the knife to Martin.
“Thanks.” replied Martin. The king's grave looked very much like a slab of stone but on its top someone had carved a king. A king that Martin didn't recognize from his books.
Which meant that the grave indeed was very old. He placed the candle on top of the grave lid, sticking his fingers in between the crack and pushing it as hard as he could manage.
Moving it a few centimeters Martin stared death in the eyes.
A glass bottle filled with poisonous gas hung by threads holding on to a weak clasp.
If a person were to move the grave's lid off, then the clasp would fall and the glass bottle would break, releasing a toxic gas.
Martin without saying anything proceeded to remove the trap. He took deep breaths and slowly stuck his hand into the grave.
Barely touching the corpse inside. First he had to feel where the wire was because he couldn't see it. Then he needed to feel out where the bottle had been placed.
Once he knew these positions, then he was ready to go. Grabbing hold of his knife he swiftly cut the string of rope attached to the clasp, releasing the bottle.
Before it breaks, Martin in one continuous motion grabbed hold of the bottle. “There we go.” exclaimed Martin. It had been a long time since he felt this kind of stress.
Managing through such a situation also proved that he was skilled at things and that he could keep his cool. Even though he himself really didn't believe it. “You got it?” asked Nicholas and Kane.
Martin turned around holding a skinny string of rope in his right hand and the glass bottle in his left. “Yeah I got it.” he answered.
“Well done my friend.” Said Kane as he walked over to take a quick look. Martin placed the items in one of the corners in the room. He handed Nicholas his knife back.
“Is there a body in there?” asked Nicholas. “Yeah there is,” replied Kane. Nicholas strode over to him.
When looking down the grave there laid a body wrapped in old cloth. It reminded him of how you would wrap bacon around meat sometimes.
But now it had been done to a human. “This must have been here for more than a hundred years, right?” asked Nicholas, unsure if he actually was right or not.
His knowledge of history proved very weak. “Your right. By how the grave looks and how the body is preserved I would think it's from the forgotten age. The age of old Casca.” said Kane.
Nicholas, interested by the contents of the grave, looked deeper inside to see all its details. Peculiar it appeared to him, all this history.
Then he happened to see something by accident. A gold necklace in which he grabbed hold of, to inspect further. “What is this doing here?” he said.
Kane and Martin's interest had peaked. Upon inspecting the necklace closer Nicholas witnessed an initial in the medallion details, it said V.
“Wait a minute is that a V, etched in gold into that medallion?” asked Kane.
“Yeah it is.” responded Martin.
“But how can that be?” said Kane.
“Well we have definitely found a king's grave.” said Martin.
“What does it mean? I don't get it.” said Nicholas.
Kane cleared his throat. “You see in old songs they used to sing about the old kings and their necklaces.
It was one of the many ways to identify a king. Kings nowadays don't really use necklaces anymore; it's an old tradition.” he explained.
“So we should take the necklace with us? To give to the king?” asked Nicholas.
“Yeah, and more.” responded Kane.
“What do you mean and more?” asked Nicholas.
“He means the body too.” Said Martin.