It had been several years since Kya had done the high crawl.
This always surprised people, she found. Almost every film involving the army and basic training made it a point to show the obstacle course. Soldiers turning slowly from random joes into comrades, and of course, low crawling under barbed wire through the mud.
That was another thing that surprised people. There were different types. There was the low crawl, where you turned your head to the side, put your cheek in the dirt, and drag yourself along the ground, staying… well, as low as possible.
Then there was the high crawl. This was similar, but faster and easier. This is where you're slightly higher up, using your elbows and hands to move faster through the terrain while still remaining relatively hidden, with a small silhouette.
However, outside of basic, and a couple times at her branch training afterwards, she hadn’t really done it since. And in the intervening time, several things had changed. It had been a couple of years for one, and she’d also become a demigod or whatever she was now, able to move faster and exert greater strength than ever before in her life.
One thing remained absolutely constant, however: High crawling and low crawling were miserable experiences. Effective, absolutely. But miserable.
In only a couple of minutes, she made it up to the same porch steps she’d descended hours earlier. As far as Kya could tell, she hadn't been seen the house's occupants. She had decided to keep the quest timer pulled up and off to the corner of her eye where she could just see it if she focused, simplified down to just the name and time remaining. It had taken one final dip after she finished the last of the ritual sites on the exterior of the farm, but now remained steadily ticking down.
- - - - -
Quest - Closeted Cultists:
- Time Remaining: 3h:11m:38s
- - - - -
A little over three hours, and one way or another, this whole absurd series of events would be over. Kya was determined that, if nothing else, she would figure out what was happening before that timer finished. She wasn’t sure about stopping some grand dark ritual, as that may be slightly above her current pay grade, but she would at least know something before returning to tell the powers that be.
Silently as could be, she picked herself up, and crept forward one stair at a time. Remembering how smoothly and silently the door had swung earlier, she knew if she could just get inside, she’d be-
The door was locked, of course.
Kya sighed. Of course, it wouldn’t be that easy. Not sure what exactly she was going to do now, she briefly considered trying to scale the porch exterior and enter through a second story window or something dumb like that, when she had a much, much better idea. At least in theory.
Still crouching low in front of the door, she placed her palm against the lock as she closed her eyes. With only her aura, she focused and reached out, feeling the mechanisms of the lock itself, the pins, and the bolt. She had watched a lot of this one guy on YouTube who just picked locks, any and every lock. She’d never once managed to pick a lock herself but had found this guy's videos oddly calming. So, as she explored the construction and mechanisms in the lock, she was actually able to recognize several of the parts. New world, similar lock design she mused.
The next part was the tricky part, and it would require finesse she wasn’t sure she had. Her idea was simple, she could push and pull on most any objects not enchanted, so could she just pull the bolt back and open the door?
Concentrating solely on the bolt holding the door in place, she gave the smallest, barest pull she could manage.
Instantly, Kya was reminded of a time when she was a young girl, maybe ten or eleven years old, she couldn’t remember anymore. She’d woken up around 4 a.m. on a Saturday after her first week of middle school. It had been a stressful week, and she’d been feeling overwhelmed, or at least that’s what she told herself when recalling the event in the years since. Not realizing it was a Saturday, or what time it was, she started her morning routine to get ready for school, going into the kitchen to get a bowl of cereal. She’d poured out the cheerios or whatever it was, put a spoon in the bowl, and walked over to the fridge to get the milk. She’d assumed it was still full. It had been the day earlier, or at least mostly full. What she hadn’t been aware of was that after Kya had gone to sleep, her older sister decided to make some stew or soup or something, the details were fuzzy on what exactly she’d done, but the result was a nearly empty carton of milk. Not realizing this, young Kya had picked up the milk with the force one would need to lift a full gallon, meaning it rocketed up much faster and more easily than she’d been ready for. And of course, though she’d denied it in the years following, Kya maintained that the cap on the milk was not put back on. So, when the milk sloshed out of the top as it hit the shelf above, Kya fully woke up and let out a shrill squeak in startlement… dropping the jug onto the floor, spilling the rest of the milk everywhere.
That entire event, and the exact feelings it inspired in Kya, were now replicated somewhat. As she tried to pull back the bolt, she quickly found that finesse and subtly were not quite hers yet with the new abilities. The wooden door splintered, with small shards of wood loudly cracking off as the bolt moved not out of the way, but was bent out of place, dragging the door itself with it.
In the cricket-filled night, or whatever this world had instead of crickets, the sounds of the door breaking open was like a bomb going off. She sat, dumbfounded, staring at the now open door, and let out a simple curse.
“Well… Fuck.”
Not sure what else to do, Kya bolted inside the darkened home and bounded up the first flight of stairs she saw.
She could hear the unmistakably heavy steps of the dwarven servants moving quickly towards the door and wanted to be out of sight as quickly as possible. She knew in the back of her mind that she had to descend, not ascend, but in the heat of the moment, she simply took the first available route to try and get out of dodge.
Just as she dove around the corner, she heard the rasping, grating sound of the dwarf’s voice call out “Who’s there!?! Show yourself!”
Peaking around the wall until she could just barely see, Kya took in the mangled door hanging open, and the dwarf, quickly identified as Taln Eight, looking sharply in each direction, before sharply and forcefully returning the door to an approximation of being closed. The dwarf plucked a rope from a pouch at its waist and tied the door handles to keep them affixed, before beginning trudging off in another direction than the one from which he’d come.
Her heart in her throat, her pulse a roaring ocean in her ears, Kya took several deep breaths, The timer remained where it was, ticking down with just over three hours remaining. Despite her botched entry into the home, and the dwarf discovering her entrance, it didn’t seem to have changed the ritual or whatever Arthur was doing.
Deciding against following after the dwarf immediately, Kya figured she could learn more about what was happening in the area if she did some classic snooping around. So, feeling very much like her younger self, stealing from her sister's room in revenge for the milk debacle, she began to slowly creep down the upstairs hall, before picking a door at random and walking in.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Kya guessed she’d just walked into a guest bedroom. There was a simple bed, a fuzzy brown blanket neatly made and a single fluffed pillow. Polished light brown wood frame, and a chest-of-drawers against a wall, made from the same wood as the bed. A full-length mirror stood in the corner, and large windows let in light from the brilliant starry sky. It was remarkably unremarkable, feeling like a generic hotel room, complete with a random painting of a flower hanging on the wall.
Going further down the hall, she skipped a door, before heading into another room.
This one was… surreal. The room was clearly that of a teenage boy, or a rough approximation of one. There was a candle holder in a small dish sitting next to the large bed, navy blue quilt laying at an odd angle. The wall was covered with posters that moved around in a loop, like gifs printed on paper. They were pretty standard stuff, Elves and weird scaly snake women in revealing outfits, blowing kisses out, before covering their mouths in silent giggles, and then repeating.
There was a small desk in one corner of the room, an embedded glowstone that was so dim, she almost didn’t notice its sickly yellow light. Two smaller windows facing out towards the front of the house, with one larger one next to the bed.
There were pieces of clothing scattered across the floor, covering the large area rug, and a towel hanging across the chair to the desk. It was all so normal, apart from the moving posters, this might be straight from her world.
However, the longer she spent looking around, the more odd the room became. Not that it seemed inauthentic, this was unquestionably the room of a young man, but the fact that it was so untidy seemed out of place. The kitchen, for all the weirdness of the evening, had been immaculate. Due in no small part to the servants, she was sure.
So, in a house with at least a couple of regular servants to do the cleaning, why would the room be in such a state? It was at this point, Kya noticed the thick layer of dust covering the surface of the bed, and turning to look around, saw that it was covering everything, the rug, the clothes, the desk, all of it.
She remembered that Arthur said his son had moved away some time ago and presumed this to be the room of the boy. But still, it pricked at her mind like an itch she couldn’t scratch. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a strong feeling that this room truly shouldn’t be like this.
Taking one last look around, she slowly backed out of the room, noting the footprints she’d made in the dust.
Picking the double doors at the opposite end of the hall, she crept as silently as she could past the stairs, before cracking open the doors and slipping inside.
This was, without a doubt, Arthurs room. Probably? I was somewhere in between the other two, neatly made, clean and tidy getting obvious attention from the servants. Yet, there was still a feeling of emptiness to the room. The floral-patterned comforter was tucked in, a slight depression on the left side of the bed making it sink lower than on the right. The large carpet seemed like some sort of animal skin, its dark gray pelt softening the polished hardwood floors. She paid special attention to the rug not because of anything it told her about Arthur or the house, but simply the sheer size of it. She hoped it was multiple animals sewn together or something like that because otherwise… this thing when alive, even at a conservative estimate, would make a bear look like a chihuahua.
For a couple of minutes, she poked around the room, finding small trinkets and keepsakes. A collection of letters, photographs, clothes, and more. The compilation of a lifetime. She, shamelessly, took any coins she found. Mostly ferens and curens, but a couple of agrens made the snooping more than worth it.
The whole time she’d been walking around, looking at all the objects she found and the random assortment of objects, she couldn’t shake this odd feeling. She didn’t know why, again feeling strongly that there was something wrong with the room but being unable to say exactly why. It was like, even with regular cleaning from servants, there still should have been… something more? More… stuff or more mess or more… something.
At this point, Kya shook her head, rubbing the bridge of her nose. She wasn’t even making sense to herself anymore. She had been relying so heavily on instinct for so long, the notion that she might be overthinking this had only just occurred to her. This was an odd creepy room, belonging to an odd creepy old man.
Sighing, and rubbing the back of her neck, she walked over and picked up the framed portrait of a family on the nightstand by the bed. This was one of the moving ones, showing three people caught mid laugh. It was a much younger Arthur, receding dark hair only touched with streaks of gray was bent over, silently heaving for breath from laughter. Beside him, a woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties was cracking up laughing while struggling to hold onto a toddler trying his best to squirm out of her grasp.
It was wholesome, and humanizing. Arthur, no matter how strange he was in the present day, had been a warm and happy man in his younger years. Had been.
Kya knew from experience that any number of things could have happened since then, especially the death of his wife. That alone could turn what was a bright young man into a dour, even cruel elder. Trauma did that. It was like a crack in your foundation, sometimes leading to immediate and drastic changes, sometimes taking years to fully make itself known.
Putting the photo back down, Kya took one final look around at the off-putting, shadowy room, before slowly making her way back out again, it was time to get into the basement or cellar or whatever.
The heavy footsteps of Taln pounded by as Kya waited just up the stairs. She counted to ten in her head before peeking out again, and with as much grace as she could muster, made her way down. The second to last step, one that she’d bounded past in her haste earlier, creaked loudly as she stepped down.
Biting back a curse, she bolted to the left, the opposite direction she now heard steps coming from. She passed by a study with large bookshelves, a den with comfortable looking furniture and a wood burning fireplace, before finally, after turning a corner, saw a door.
Dashing inside, she gently closed the door behind her, heart pounding, pulse thumping, and physically controlling her lungs lest her very breath give her away. She waited in the pitch-black darkness, hand held firmly to the door handle, taking long, slow, deep breaths. Her breathing was so loud, each one like heaving billows. She would be caught, she’d have to fight, she didn’t want to, but she’d have to. Switching to holding the door with her left hand, she quickly readied her venomous dagger in her right.
There it was, the clomping and stomping that belied the dwarf's diminutive size. He was coming, he would try and push open the door any second, and she would have to stab him, to fight. She’d killed beasts and monsters, but this was a thinking, feeling being. This was different. She felt sick to her stomach as she waited, muscles taught, a nerve spasming in her jaw.
The footsteps… receded? More than that, she could feel him leave through her aura, she felt his presence as he both entered and exited her senses.
This was a trick, he was sneaking back to surprise her, catch her off guard. She glanced at the timer in the corner of her vision, how the fuck had she only been standing here for thirty seconds? She waited, and waited, but the push against the door never came. For several long moments after her heart had given up on pumping adrenaline, and after her lungs had decided to stop heaving and bellowing, she still stood, pressed against the door, sweat beading down her face. It was only after the fifth minute came and went that she finally, hesitantly, let go of the door. Still in utter darkness, she took a few steps back from the door just in case-
She almost pissed herself as her back foot dropped down.
Slapping her left hand to her face, she bit down on a finger before she let out a scream. They were stairs, there were stairs here, just… just stairs.
Her heart belatedly removed itself from her stomach, as she looked down seeing nothing in the almost absolute darkness of the stairway. But undoubtedly, this was what she had been looking for: the basement of the house. The final rituals should be down here, and with that, the completion of the quest.
Stowing away her dagger, and taking several deep breaths, Kya cautiously proceeded forward. She pushed any thoughts about what had just happened away for now. This wasn't the time to dwell on what she'd been preparing to do, or the reluctance around it. Those were later thoughts. She took each stair one at a time, eyes closed, aura out. She had a little over two and a half hours to resolve whatever was happening down here, and there was a lot more she wanted to figure out than just “what the hell was going on with the rituals”.
She stopped abruptly when, after only a few minutes of her slow descent, she suddenly hit flat ground. Snapping open her eyes, she saw there was a dim, ruddy red light ahead at the end of a dark tunnel from a single glowstone affixed to the wall. Turning back, she glanced up at the complete darkness from which she’d come, deciding that she had gone far deeper than simply to the base of the hill. She was, well and truly, underground.
Stepping forward with the poise of a dancer, and the trepidation of a scared rabbit, Kya approached the light of the glowstone, and the heavy black metal door it illuminated. For better or worse, this would all come to end on the other side. Reaching out, she gently pushed.