{-Llewel-}
They kept checking rooms, but they didn’t come across any other artifacts. Now, to be fair, they had really only checked a few more; it felt like a lot, given his worries had yet to leave his mind, and every time he looked down the hallway it seemed like there were more doors.
“You two haven’t really said anything about your memories in a while,” Reynneak remarked, mostly to fill in the silence. “Are you still having those dreams?”
“It’s mostly been the same couple of scenes. Everything that isn’t related to those is still mostly a blur,” Llewel mumbled back.
“What were they about, if you don’t mind me asking?”
“What we did in Anthalas. Bits and pieces of what we did with Shemle, what happened after… Casrane and I danced during the party. It would’ve been better if she’d really answered my question.” Noticing Reynneak’s expression but, really, simply willing to discuss it, Llewel continued. “I asked if she’d really always be back. She practically said that she couldn’t make any promises and didn’t tell me anything else.”
Reynneak was quiet for a moment before prompting, “Do you remembered anything about beyond Anthalas yet?”
Llewel shook his head. “I barely remember all of what happened there, let alone anywhere else. Just a bunch of weird feelings I don’t have enough memories to understand yet…” He glanced at his taller companion. “Is there a specific reason you’re bringing all of this up now? I’m kind of getting tired of feeling like everyone knows more than I do.”
“How have you been feeling about those things you heard in the hall of mirrors?” Reynneak instead asked, pushing open another one of the doors and walking inside.
“You mean the stuff about our mother?” Llewel sighed. “I meant what I said. The only thing it really did was put an identity to the woman Duuzlo had a picture of in his office. If he ever told us about it, I don’t remember—and there really wasn’t a lot of time to casually look around when I was there. He doesn’t like having people in his office when he’s not there…”
“You said you’d heard about it by recordings, right? Not by talking to him?”
Llewel slowly nodded. “That’s the part of the whole thing that I don’t want to think about. He’s helped us so much in the two years since the game’s release—and probably more than that, once I can remember everything we did together with Casrane. But there’s only so many reasons why someone would be allowed in his office without him…”
“Is there a chance that he was busy and let you go in without him..?”
“He keeps the key with him and, even if it was the hero, he wouldn’t give it to them without good reason. You… you haven’t played the story, have you?”
“Zetai more or less told me to buy the game and didn’t let me do anything related to the story. She said it was easier to reach max level in co-op and then try to do it. With everything that’s been going on here, I haven’t had the time to actually do any of it.” Reynneak shrugged. “But whatever you’re worried about, you can always ask Zetai. Her brother played the game, so she might know something.”
“I don’t even know if I want the answer…” It was one thing to consider the possibility. It was another entirely to be faced with the truth of it… even if it may not have meant much, since they were all here now.
“I’m just making sure you’re really as fine as you say you are,” Reynneak mumbled. “I feel like the two of you have found out a lot of things over the past month and not really enough time to think it over. And I have a feeling that it’s about time you learn something else, too.”
“You know what this ‘something’ is, don’t you?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“Do you remember when Tinath came to us and mentioned Cassidy? Then later when Zetai did a terrible job at dodging your questions about what we know about her?” He sighed. “I should really wait to tell it to both of you. Let’s just say this: how would you feel if you found out that there was someone else close to you that died?”
Llewel was silent for a moment, before finally asking, “How do you—”
Reynneak shook his head. “I told Zetai we’d all be together when we explained that part. I promise I’ll get her to talk about it once we get out of here, though. Both of you deserve answers and, maybe, it’ll be easier coming from friends.” He stepped back and gave the room one last glance. “I don’t think what we want is in here, either. Let’s go check another—”
“Cleaning duty,” someone grumbled from the hallway. “Cleaning duty! We’re in a game! Why do I need to clean if we’re in a game? Make one of the coders do it! They can just delete all the trash data and, tadah, problem solved! But no, let’s make Jacob do it! Some way to treat one of your better writers…”
Llewel cautiously poked his head back into the hallway once it sounded like the person walked away. When he saw no one, he glanced back at Reynneak. “I guess there isn’t much of a chance that it was one of the scholars, is there..?”
“For the sake of us both, let’s pretend that it is,” Reynneak decided. “Keep that coat on and don’t pull the hood down. We have a reasonable excuse to be here if it’s not the scholars—we’re just here for a quest and that’s it. Hopefully we don’t come across anyone else.”
“Shouldn’t we check in on the girls?”
“If they haven’t seen anything, Zetai would probably shrug it off and tell us to find the other artifact. We shouldn’t be seen by anyone, so it should be fine to meet up normally.”
But when Reynneak gestured for Llewel to join him back on the hallway, he hesitated.
“The sooner we get this done, the sooner we’ll be able to check on them,” Reynneak reasoned. “It still doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of people here. I don’t want to be here any longer than we have to, either, but this is our quickest way out.”
Llewel, partially against his better judgment, nodded and followed Reynneak to the next unlocked room. A creeping sense of dread kept Llewel from helping, though; he spent his time figuring out what it was and what it meant. There were so many things he felt but didn’t have all the memories needed to understand them. He hoped that, if he concentrated enough on this, that at least he might know if it meant anything more than him being paranoid.
Not like he particularly enjoyed the silence he had while he was thinking about it.
After a moment, Reynneak stopped looking around and actually took something. “This is the other artifact that we need. We can just go straight to where the hallways come back together—Zetai and Myr probably already have both of theirs, too. If they didn’t get impatient and started looking around for the fifth.” He started to walk back towards the door but stopped when Llewel grabbed his sleeve.
“Can we stay here for a minute?”
Though doing nothing to hide his confusion and slight concern, Reynneak nodded. “Just tell me when you’re ready to go.”
Llewel stepped forward and glanced around the room. There was something familiar about all of them—and not just because they were more or less the same thing. Maybe he’d be able to figure it out if he stayed a little longer.
It was with the footsteps of some other person in the hallway that he remembered something.
“I’ve been here before.”
“I… don’t suppose it’s the ‘I’ve done this quest with Casrane’ kind of ‘I’ve been here before,’ is it..?”
“All the locked rooms—they’re still identical to these, but Nankohm uses them. There’s places like these all over Masylm to help them monitor everything that’s going on. We’ve been to one of those places before.” He stopped. “Tinath must’ve known that they were here—that’s why she said it was dangerous.”
“I guess that throws any chance of interpretation about what this place is out the window.” Reynneak gestured towards the door. “Come on, let’s go meet up with the others. There’s not really any reason to try to deny it now.”
Llewel followed right behind him, though they didn’t get very far. Three people stood in their way and were definitely not scholars.
“I thought I heard someone else!” It was the person that had complained about cleaning. “You’re not in nearly as much trouble as you look like you’re going to be… assuming you come up with the right answers. How’d you two get in here? Answer wisely—we’ve already gotten ahold of your friends.”