Waking up to the wonderful sound of birds chirping I opened my eyes. other than the bird that somehow managed to get in everything was normal. Then again wildlife breaking in was bound to become normal at this point, I could guarantee that half the new windows weren’t that sound.
I hopped out of bed and got ready before venturing out off my room. I was greeted with a dark corridor, but I didn’t have any Iark. The entire barony seemed to have a shortage which was strange. The barony should be the one that imports it since it is resource restricted by the crown. Our reserves shouldn’t have run out before winter hit.
Deciding that It wasn’t worthwhile to look for a lamp I carried on in the dark corridor until I found a room. pushing open the door I was welcomed by a slightly less dark room. there were hardly any windows in this room, but I could see so that was good enough.
There was a bed far too grand for a servant and furniture. There were a few chairs and a couch with gilding on them though. I was a bit surprised that mother hadn’t sold it all off yet. Then again she probably hadn’t even realised it to be there.
I went to the next room, there I found several looms and an unending pile of dust. There wasn’t any fabric left as that would have been transferred to the mannor. The annex made some of the more tedious but cheap items and the main building held the true artisans.
Compared to the furniture in the other room the items in this one were worth far less. I decide to check for secret doors or compartments to amuse myself. I didn’t find anything, but hopefully the next room would satisfy.
It did not.
I walked to the end of the corridor where I found the final door I felt like exploring. The other three had been rather lacklustre. This unimportant annex really felt like an unimportant annex.
I pushed open the door to find an office. It wasn’t as grand as the barons, but it was definitely something. there was a large desk at the back of the room and I headed over to it. the dust in this room was far thicker than any other in the manor. this room most likely hadn’t even been cleaned when It still had staff.
“if there’s going to be secret rooms, they are going to be here.”
I dusted off the desk to find nothing. It was expected, but I had hopes. I went behind it and checked the drawers. Each and every one was locked, but a little brute force never hurt…
As I was tugging on the drawers I realised as the very technical owner of the annex I had all the keys.
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A short trip to my room later I came back and flipped through a pile of keys until they popped open. How I had never used these keys and just started using this office bewildered me.
Most of the drawers were empty, but one held contents. I picked up the contents and plopped them on the table. It mostly looked like letters, but they looked interesting enough to read.
Taking the top one off the pile I used my finger to rip it open.
Within was what felt like a piece of paper, but it was different. I knew that parchment was cheaper than paper, but this felt somehow even more premium than paper.
I unfolded the letter and looked at the contents. It was ineligible.
I did what only an idiot would do and held the paper in different directions. Eventually I got it just right and three big words appeared.
“Beware the eye.”
Reading that the rest of the letter became clearer to me.
“We watch, we watch with our eyes, but the eye is different. The guardians are dead, I fear that I shall be next. The eye, it sees past our plans, you know what it’s planning. I beseech you captain, take the child far from here, far from the eye’s reach. We made a mistake; HE made a mistake. I dread to think that this letter will not get to you, the eye, it surely knows what I am writing.”
Again, I made a bad decision.
I opened the next letter anyway.
“Observations log: is this truly our hope? We have lost so many of our brothers on the hopes that one will save the many. But without the many what will the one save? Anyway, everything is progressing as planned, the subject of observation is still unaware.”
That wasn’t a log, it was just confirming that the person hadn’t noticed. I grabbed another letter hoping for one with substance this time. I reached down into the bottom and grabbed a letter; it was damaged and barely within the envelope.
“We are the watchers, we are not the eye, we delude ourselves by thinking we are better than the eye. In truth we are dead, if not then we will soon be dead. The one we put our hopes on has ceased all noteworthy movements. reports will continue but following rule c-172 we will be assigning resources elsewhere. May the heavens have mercy on our salvation and restore the divinity of hope to their place in the sky.”
Again, it returns to the topic of the divine. I gave a sigh only to find that a figure holding a lamp was in front of me. it was the caretaker, but I had thought that he would be amongst those fired.
“The watchers are dead, we are dead, our salvation lives on, but is it truly salvation if there’s nothing left to save?”
The caretaker’s message was similar to some of the letters, but something was off. The caretaker’s lamp suddenly went out. The caretaker began to turn to dust, first went his flesh and skin until his bones fell to the floor. The cloud that grew from the dust of his corpse formed into figure.
The figure however looked towards the main building. It didn’t look at me for some reason, but it spoke, three words that was it.
“The eye’s lies.”
It was only after it said that that I realised it was pointing at something. the cloud of dust wasn’t the caretaker, but it seemed to say a similar message to the letters again. The letters, it was pointing at the letters… the letters that had turned to dust.
“I need to move out.”