BXBX NOVEL Chapter 280 - The Old Puppet
Olpi looked off into space for a moment before shaking her head. "Let's just do what you are going to do and talk later. Instructor Jersin is just aching for a reason to beat me, or any Demi."
'Get on with it,' Larque insisted. 'You're not going to make friends in a day.' Cerlius splayed his and Olpi's maps onto the ground. Olpi lit a torch so they could see. Cerlius pointed to the lower regions of the Academy, which neither his nor Olpi's map depicted. "There is a certain room somewhere in this maze. If we find it, we can go back. I won't ask you to do anything else."
Olpi frowned. "Searching through this place could take us a week or more. Tell me what you're looking for and maybe I know where it-" She leaned in, her gaze affixing to a line that read: jar room. "By the goddess. You're looking for the Recruitment chamber? That…they don't even tell us about it." She kept looking around Mage's Shadow, as if something would leap out if they would let their guard down. "If we get caught-"
Cerlius stuffed the maps into his pocket. "We won't. You'll make sure of that, won't you?" He put a hand on her shaking shoulder. "It is interesting: you seem to both know and not know of these things. How?"
"Someone let it slip," Olpi blurted out as she took a step away from him. "Sorry, I am freaking out. You've only been here for less than a week. How did you find out? Are you really a student?"
Cerlius took the torch and walked ahead. "Let's say that I had a dream." He stopped at a fork at the end of the hallway and closed his eyes. In a few breath's time, he once again felt the black thread.
"Let's save the torch," Olpi suggested. "Right now, it's just in the way." Cerlius nodded and handed the torch back.
They went right, left, up some stairs, and down even stairs, through broken rubble and splintered wood. The only light came from shattered bits of flickering light crystal. The further into the maze they went, the more the darkness encroached upon them. Without much light, the cold, black void had free rein. Shadows danced by, vanishing with but a glance, but always returned. Cerlius and Olpi stepped quietly yet there were sounds, unintelligible whispers from just over their shoulders.
"Do you hear that?" Cerlius asked as he turned to see a pale half-Elf.
"I hear a lot of things," Olpi whispered back. "But mostly from over by you. It's like they're attracted to you."
"Well I'm flattered," Cerlius gave a nervous chuckle, and a faint smile flashed across Olpi's face.
"We should be getting back now," Olpi cautioned. "The students' room are routinely checked."
"Just a little further." Cerlius insisted, picking up his pace. The thread strengthened and thickened. He could sense the jar just around a corner. Just a few more turns and he found…an obsidian door. No keyhole, no hinge, just an empty slot for an instructor's Allpass. He cursed and struck the door with a bit of blue mist around his clenched fist. Pain shot through his arm but the door was untouched.
'Larque, know anything?' Cerlius felt the demon shake his head.
"By the goddess," Olpi ran her hand along the door. "You actually found it, and so quick too."
"Do you know how to open it?" Cerlius asked but to his dismay the half Elf shook her head. Both of them stared at the door in quiet contemplation. They even lit the torch again and felt along the indent but there were no hidden levers. Cerlius recorded the designs and tried to focus, but no memories surfaced.
"No one has ever escaped." Olpi said. "We won't be any different. The instructors Allpasses are made by the head mage himself. You can't steal them either, as they only react to the instructors' mana."
"What about making one?" Cerlius asked.
"After a few decades maybe," Olpi shrugged. "but I don't think that will be worth it. You can do whatever you want but I think this is just a waste of time. This is a dangerous place and we gathered as much information as we could."
Cerlius scrunched up his lips and stared at the door. "Is there a spell that can get us through here?"
"Probably," Olpi said. "But then the instructors will know that we casted a spell down here. They'll stop us before we even make it through the doorway. I don't even know the extent of their defensive measures."
"Just a bit more time," Cerlius huffed as he delved into his own mind. A powerful Lich must have something, anything. The torch finally flickered out. As the smoke drifted into the air, the surrounding space darkened, and all was quiet. His frustrated sighs repeated one after the other until a distant crunch turned them into a singular, sharp inhale.
Olpi's eyes went wide and she crept through doorway. Cerlius reached for his spear but there was no such weapon. A single set of creaking steps echoed from up a wooden stairwell as a Watchman descended. Its old, worn stone figure was devoid of any features. Cerlius crept over to Olpi, who had crouched behind a half-destroyed counter.
The creaking subsided, replaced by the clank of stone feet against stone floor. Olpi covered her own mouth. Wood splintered as the still smoking torch shattered in the Watchman's grasp. Cerlius got right next to Olpi's ear as he breathed out the words. "I thought that the Watchmen weren't on this floor."
"They're not supposed to be," Olpi breathed back before covering her mouth again. The Watchmen turned towards the room they were in. Cerlius crouched lower, nearly hugging Olpi in an attempt to make both of them as small as possible.
The Watchman drew closer, stepping into the destroyed classroom. Desks and clutter were moved to the side as it made a straight path to the broken counter. Its featureless face was not a depiction of any person but more doll-like and emotionless. The creaking of old stone came to a stop and it peered over the counter, directly at Cerlius. Even without a mouth, it spoke: "Cerlius. Cerlius Draken."