It took about an hour to successfully purify all the ambient...whatever it was, and then do the same through the hatch. Luckily, brass doesn't exactly insulate heat, so Chelsea was actually able to leak the flames through the metal by superheating it. It took probably four times as long as it should have because of that, but eventually my overlay informed of a gold arrow, and after sending through a shadow clone, Callie confirmed it was safe.

Once that was done, we turned the hatch (took a few minutes for me to figure out the combination, thank you Eye of Revelation) and then we climbed out into...something.

A room. Round and flowing with green muck. At least, the outer ring was green. In the center, a waterfall of black liquid poured into a massive tank, under which hung a hugely complicated array of spellworked tubes and vessels. The tubes ran the liquid through various glowing filters and enchanted sieves, condensing and refining it until it came out in the form of thirteen taps, each dripping a few drops into ANOTHER tank, which dripped even more densely different colored drops onto a glowing green skull.

The skull was pulsing with a sullen rhythm, and as the liquid hit, steam leapt up, siphoned from the air into a series of tubes that further refined it, all that vapor being collected yet another series of arrays and tubes that seemed to lead out of the room.

All the excess liquid that didn't steam ran off in rivulets into an empty pipe below the skull, and it glowed a familiar and toxic looking green. The runoff after all was said and done looked to be very nearly the same amount that was going in, somehow. Whatever was being extracted didn't effect the physical amount of liquid used, and whatever that runoff was it was dangerous.

"Come on." Grimaced Chelsea. Her hands were alight with white flame. "We can't be in here. My flame isn't able to keep purifying whatever THAT is. That skull is a horrible thing and we need to get away from it."

Nodding, we helped her to the door at the far end of the chamber, under where the tubes let out. It took me a minute to get the thing open, but once we were out, it slammed shut on its own and my sister slumped against me, exhausted. "Alright, well that was...weird." I said. "As far as I can tell, that's some sort of...reactor? Experiment chamber? Is that the vault the guy mentioned? Because the only thing in there is that skull."

"Speaking of, what IS that skull?" Asked Benny. "And what the hell was it doing. Every one of those filters was made of a rare and expensive mystical material, and the enchantments on those things were DENSE. The process that stuff is undergoing is incredibly complicated and I couldn't BEGIN to follow that level of sophistication, but whatever they're making, it's got to be expensive and dangerous."

I shrugged. "Look around this place. Maybe we can figure it out." Outside the 'vault' was a normal looking office. Well, mostly. Along the ceiling hidden tubes could barely be made out coming from the chamber with the skull. The tubes were woven into a large and complicated spellwork diagram, all of it concentrated on a brass cone shaped device the came down at the very center of the room.

The vapor from the room was collected, run through the device and condensed into liquid, and finally, about every ten minutes or so, a single drop would fall from the needle tip of it into a black shining chalice on a plinth in the middle of the room.

Around it though, were bookshelves, and a desk and a bunch of odds and ends that looked headmaster-y. We all split up, looking through the bookshelves and the desk, though Callie went over them with her trap Skill and Chelsea and Nat checked them for enchantments first. I also used my overlay to direct people toward the most relevant places rather than just blindly checking.

Finally, we got lucky. "Got something." Said Chelsea excitedly as she pushed up on the bottom of an extended drawer on the desk. When she did, a panel slid back, revealing a neat little stack of papers and books in a cubby that was too small for them. Pulling one out, she opened it, grinning in triumph. "Hah! This is Avarian. I can read this." She frowned. "Well I can read Cersik, which is a derivative of Avarian, albeit influenced by Rallish. But I'll muddle through."

"How many languages do you KNOW, exactly?" I said, impressed at the depth of her studies. It really MUST be boring in the Holy Dominion.

She shrugged. "I'm fluent in forty seven, conversational in another sixty. There's enough crossover that learning new ones is usually easy with the knowledge base I've got. Grandpa has an absurdly broad library, but almost none of the books are in universal common. I had to learn to translate or get pigeonholed to a tiny section of the library, and the librarian is a sweet old man who likes to lecture."

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Damn." I said with a whistle. "Your Focus must be pretty high. I had you pegged for a Might focus, given the flames."

"Understandable." She said with a smile. "And my stats do lean that way. I'm kind of an even split of Might and Focus. I also have a few research Skills that boost my learning and studying efficiency. Miles the librarian is chock full of those, and he's taught me more than a few."

I gestured to the book. "So, since you can read it, what does it say? I'm not sure what it is we need to take. I'm leaning toward the cup, but the skull might also be the target. I'd say we should take both, but I REALLY don't want to touch any part of that ritual before we know what it does, especially not the part that seems to be poisoning the entire countryside somehow."

Nodding, my sister gestured for Callen to drag over a chair and sat down as we continued to comb the room for...anything. When I couldn't find shit, I called everyone over to give Chelsea a chance to work while we had a meeting about what the hell was going on.

"So..." I asked lamely. "Anyone have any fucking idea what this place is? Aside from a nightmare."

Nat shook her head. "Nope. I had Valk do a battery of wish questions, just to see if we could dredge anything up, while you and Chelsea were purifying the space in that room so we could get through. Pretty much just yes or no on some random shit. Yes the thing they want is here, yes they know what it is. More misses than hits. I still have a few left in case of emergency, since SOMEONE didn't save any."

My cousin's glare rolled right off me. I just shrugged. "That's why we have two of us right? Besides, I made sure to use them all for important things. Never enough wishes in the day."

Benny rolled his eyes. "Oh boo hoo, my nearly omnipotent wishgranting power has too many limitations. Why don't assholes try life without the cheatcodes and see if you're still complaining. I'll take limited wishes over nothing any day of the week."

"I DID try that. Ass." I sneered. "Why don't you try not being a dumbass."

"Why don't YOU try shutting the fuck up?" He sniped back. But was interrupted by Abel smacking us upside the head one at a time.

He rolled his eyes when we both shot him our glares. "Why don't you both shut up, and anyone who has productive ideas can talk. I'm getting a headache listening to your squabbling. You're like a pair of crying babies, the both of you."

"Abacus is right." Said Bethy seriously. "We need to focus on what's happening."

Abel whirled on her. "That one isn't even a NAME!" He shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. "And I don't see you contributing."

She shrugged. "I got us here didn't I? Luggage was our guide, and now we're standing in the center of it all, before anyone else." Her face pinched in worry. "But...I wonder where Gabe is. He's all alone out there, and who knows who he's run into."

"He'll be fine." Said Callie firmly. "He's the toughest person in the whole group. The faster we figure out what's going on, the faster we can track him down and make sure he's safe." She turned to call over. "Chelsea, any idea what those books are yet?"

My sister looked annoyed, but not at Callie. She didn't look up as she called back. "Yes! They're research notes, but I'm having a lot of trouble with the Avarian. Turns out while it IS a Cersik proto language, they completely changed the syntax. I know what these words MEAN, but not what order they're supposed to be in. Just from the first few pages though, I've picked out a few words."

"Such as?" I asked hopefully. Maybe there were directions to what we needed, or even a fucking description.

"Nothing good." She said with a grimace. "Mostly just really obscure notation protocols, but there were a few disturbing little tidbits. The word vivisection comes up several times, for instance. Like I said, still sorting context, but to be fair, I don't think I've ever seen vivisection pop up in any story with a happy ending. Plus the ominous green skull with the horrific mutating aura of toxic death seems like a red flag."

I nodded. "Alright, keep at it, we just need to finish bef-" And of COURSE, before I even finished that sentence, something massive and powerful hit the door. Everyone's heads jerked up, and we all got into position in front of Chelsea, preparing for whatever was coming.

There was another crash and the door to the room was smashed open (on closer examination they'd just rattled the crossbar out from in front of it, the actual door seemed to be made of pretty tough material) and a fucking SEA of robed figures poured in.

Drawing my staff, I shifted into Belial, while everyone else got ready to fight. From beyond the robed figures I heard a rhythmic clack. The BMP assholes moved aside, revealing a limping Felix, with one leg missing and using a cane to get around. His face was as blank and neutral as ever as he approached, stopping in front of us. "Well. Good to see you all again. It seems you've beaten us here."

"Yes." I said gravely. "We've already gotten our hands on...that chair." I pointed at Chelsea. "It's got unmatched lumbar support. Truly a fearsome weapon. We're willing to give it to you if you show us how to leave."

That actually got a smile. "Ah, I see you're hoping I'll monologue and reveal our master plan to you."

I shrugged. "I mean, I figure I have a decent chance. You murdery types love to talk. That Billy guy didn't shut the hell up. So, you going to give me the play by play? Tell me how you plan to bring back Hatescream? That is your plan right? Raise up your crazy murder god?"

Felix stared at me in confusion, tilting his head. I expected a villainous gloating session. Instead he just looked perplexed. "Raise up Hatescream? You think we had to come all the way here, to risk so much just to resurrect a dead god?" He smiled at me gently. "You've misunderstood Shane. We aren't here to resurrect Hatescream. Or to get something that will allow us to do so. We're here to acquire something that will let us raise a half DOZEN of them." I blinked. That...was way worse than I was expecting.