Rhua waved, beckoning us over and as we got close, she pointed at the ground. “I’m confident we can get into the Manor if we enter from the sewers, I noticed this earlier after the little merchant meeting; get in, I’ll close the lid afterwards.”

  “Thanks for the invite” Lucy said with a sarcastic tone. I jumped in first, though in hindsight that was stupid as my foot was screaming when I landed.

  “What you going to score me judges?” I said trying to distract from the pain but Wardi being Wardi had already sent me a Soothing salve down fixing up my little booboo.

  “I’m surprised it’s so lit up in here, and it doesn’t smell at all… is this actually a sewer?” Lucy said with concern. “It’s 2048, the terra lot did a great job modernising the Maliterr towns and cities after the merge, lighting standards went up, drink quality, sanitation a lot of things, I’m certain you can swim in this” Rhua said pointing at the water. Horace shook his head in disagreement, and I saw what he meant.

  Throwing in a broken dagger I had in my possession and standing there with great interest for what may happen next, as it bubbled in the green tinted water, then levitated out swishing around in the air. “Ignis!” Lucy shouted pointing her wand towards the dagger and melting it down with the intense flames it spewed out.

  “What was that all about?” Rhua said looking surprised. “Let’s keep going, I have a hunch and I’m hoping it’s right; I think it’s Larry, he’s been down here or still is, I’m sure of it.” Lucy hastily continued, her words drowning out the further she got, though we’re all much faster, so it only took three or four large lunges to catch up to her.

  As we hurried along the sides of the sewer, the colour of the water was noticeably greener as we travelled along it. I’m hoping that it doesn’t mean anything, we’re in unfamiliar territory both physically and in general, we haven’t ventured that far yet still, especially not those marked out on maps. the thoughts grew in my head making me weary. I noticed Wardi has pulled out the new piece of tech he’s acquired; getting frustrated trying to figure out how it works. Horace flicks a switch on the device, and it pulses out in front of us, and we all stop.

  “WARDI, let me manage it, this is MY JAM after all” Wardi gladly gifts it to Horace who doesn’t take long to figure out that there’s another trap ahead based on the weird red flickering dot on the screen that seems to be moving closer. He tells us to go to the other side and Wardi without hesitation darts across with ease, pulls out a rope and hammers it in the wall using his sword like a nail. Not before throwing his other sword back across with the rope attached.

  "Hammer it in on that side then hurry over" he shouts. Using her shield, Rhua embeds a spare old sword she had been keeping hold of and bashes it in the wall on our side, and we start to shimmy across when it’s fixed in place.

  Lucy being a lightweight gets thrown clean over to place less stress on the rope. As we get halfway across an exceptionally large piece of lumber shoots across and into the water. Luckily, this time it doesn’t suddenly levitate and start swinging, that’s a big piece and I don’t think I can do the dodge dance well with us all jammed in so close.

  “DRITT, it’s stopped working” Horace piped up throwing it back to Wardi “Well that was fun while it lasted, he said sarcastically yet with a undertone.

  “I’ll take the lead again stay behind me all” Rhua now stood with her shield in front of her and pressed on ready for what could lurk ahead, reinforced by an enhancing shell effect granted by Horace’s artillerist ability.

  Minor traps were waiting for us as we continued, good thing they are mere low elemental projectiles, things Rhua could take head on with ease. We finally reached the end of the sewers, and an oddly dressed man was hovering perfectly still in the air. "

  It’s Larry!" Lucy said, "I’d recognise that custom made robe anywhere, it’s the Scrollitorium uniform." Lucy conjured up green arts with the words “Depetrifi, Groundus, Soothus.” The use of several arts in succession, caused ‘Lùth glow’ to occur, and she began to emit pleasant karamel brown and skoi blue glows around her person, the typical sign that channelling Arts without rest has occurred.

  Slowly the man recovered from the wounds that been covering his face and he returned to the ground being able to move like a normal person again.

  “Thank the bloody stars you, lot, turned up I’ve been like this for over a week; look at me, I’m wasting away from not eating! woe is me woe is me!” Larry said dramatically. “Your tougher than that Larry, everyone in your family is” Wardi said whilst laughing.

  “Yeah, I know, my acting is notably bad too, but I was hoping for a little sympathy heh, I imagine you lot are trying to figure out what’s been happening at the manor? I’ll let you in on a secret: I’ve no idea myself; I was down here investigating how to get into the manor, so I set up a few safety measures as I went along as you know and which you bravely overcame heh he said in one long stretch without taking a pause to stop.

  “I reached this point when suddenly the lid up there opened” Larry said pointed to the unremarkable lid above us, odd that it opened of its own accord, seems everyone else agrees judging by their looks thinking to myself. “And a white flash came through and I ended up like this!” he finished with.

  “We are getting ourselves into something potentially troubling, we can resolve it together though; I’m sure of it! Larry may not be as adept as his cousin, but now that he’s free and with us I think we can manage what’s in store” Wardi says with a determined look on his face.

  “Pick yourselves up, I’ll take the lead again, going all out on defence here, throw all your enhancements you can muster on me you two!” Rhua says with determination to Lucy and Horace. Lucy responds in return with quick casting of spells stacking up, lighting up the area with the various earth elemental support Arts: ‘Petriskin,’ ‘Golem’s ward’ she says whilst Horace shouts “SHIELD IN THE HOLE! And a shell quietly pops out at and covers us in an earthy smelling mist that hardens on our skin as the vapours touch us.

  “Be ready to aid Rhua anyway you can, I have a theory this trap will burn itself out as long we can outlast it’s casting.” Lucy says with a brave face covering with her wand out in front of her. Rhua climbs the ladder and attempts to lift the lid off but, it lifts by itself catching her off guard and a searing white light hammers down on the shield, with the sound like a blowtorch attached to a megaphone.

  “UGHH this hurts A LOT, keep those spells coming Lucy, Horace try another one of your other enhancement shells before I cook to death!” Horace in a greater panic than he already was, says “Overdrive!” his turret to turn gradually increases even bigger than it was and loads it with a shell that I’ve not seen before: Putrid yellow, large, and round with a spiral at the tip with what appeared to be a propellor at the back of it, I’m curious and concerned because this thing has been made by himself and his DIY projects aren’t known for been helpful.

  He quickly yells for everyone to watch out prematurely, a roaring BOOM occurs, and a screeching begins echoing throughout the sewers as the projectile quickly starts tearing through the brickwork, interestingly this thing is sealing its own route as it goes and as I notice, I shout to Horace.

  “What the bloody hell have you used here lad; this looks more like something Barry would cook up!?” and without pause “THAT’S because this is one of HIS ideas!” he piped up in response.

  “Horace if this kills us, I’ll seek your soul in the afterlife and take your soul out to Pasteur with a 12gauge crossbow!” Rhua says angrily and scared in her tone. The shell had already made its way to the surface, and we heard a voice countdown from “10, 9 8, DETONATION HAVE A NICE DAY.”

  The light has stopped and an Intense wave of flame rages through the room above us, Rhua drinks what appears to be an orange potion and pushes her way up, whatever it was she drank she’s fairing far better than she was previously.

  “Rare to find holy resistance gear like the initial blast, fire resistance on the other hand is a dime a dozen, I’ll be good from here, deactivate everything and let yourselves recover a bit” She shouts down to us.

  Rhua disappearing up into the room above us, taking the lid with her as she does. The fire’s died off a fair bit and Lucy conjured water avatar up to help weaken it further before starting her recovery process. After a few minutes, the smokes largely disappeared, and we’re signalled to climb up by Rhua.

  The room seemed to be some sort of pantry or cellar, I think, it’s hard to tell with rich folk, because a pantry or cellar for the less well-off tends to be on the smaller side. Whilst on the rich, tends to be the size of a small house.

  “Cheers to Barry for whatever that mad little project of his was, did you get any more of those from him Horace?” Wardi said, dusting himself of the konkret off his chest. “NEGATIVE but that was AMAZING I’ll need to get a recipe from him AFTER ALL THIS” Horace piped up. “Well, if you do, remind me to be nowhere near it then the next time it goes off, my ears are still hurting meanie!” Lucy said but not before giving Horace a gentle slapping causing him to cower and sob quietly.

  After she finishes with Horace, Lucy walked over to Rhua to discuss something, Wardi and I are looking around the room after picking up Horace and giving Larry the green light to come up too.

  “Ahh, I see I see, it was as I thought: A powered multi parchment-like trap. One that triggers an exceptionally high-powered light art that when one burns out, the next trap activates. They keep blasting in the direction it faces until it’s all gone or until it’s forcibly destroyed. Seems that this whole room itself is like a battery for it, continuously absorbing energy. Look, over there, ley lines connecting the bottles on that shelf to the parchment.

  Rhua walked over to examine but found herself examining a bottle that had smashed onto the floor, hundreds of spent crystalline elemental shards fractured and scattered nearby to it. “The blast must have knocked this one off, they’re not the usual shards im used to seeing” Rhua said, examining what appeared to be a spent lightning shards with the feint purple colour associated with it.

  “These are not cheap, they’re Luzori tier at least, whomever set this up, they didn’t want anyone getting any further that’s for sure; there’s hundreds of them down here, it’s at least 20000HFC for a single piece of these types of shards” Lucy said with a fear in her voice.

  “Damn” Wardi commented, and I nodded in approval. “Do we go further, or should we inform the guild at this point? this is a lot of effort to keep out outsiders” said Wardi following up

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  “WE can only go forward” Horace piped up, pointing downwards and the realisation hit’s all of us, that the sewer entrance has sealed itself up and runes of various gods are covering it.

  “Is that the mark of Serilia? Larry said with shock in his voice. A marking of what appeared to be an oak like tree that had many branches dangling many orbs adorned with very many different wings behind it.

  “It is her mark, why would that be here of all places, I’ve heard it only appears during a Chasm, are we in a Chasm now!?” Lucy said.

  “Ok… now I think we may have stumbled into something a little dangerous, brace yourselves everyone I think a fight could happen here” Wardi said, and noticed he shook for a moment from the anxiety of the situation.

  Rhua stood up and used a rallying cry to amp everyone up: “TOGETHER WE GO” she shouted, and runes appeared in the air covering us with the various symbols needed to form the enhancement.

  So, I suppose you’re wondering again, “He’s not a sentient… how does he know what all these items and character things do? Bit of a plot hole much!? I’ve got this little notebook to learn about classes, what everyone’s abilities and arts do, every time they level, I ask if there’s anything new or an upgrade or if we come across an unfamiliar item, I write it down in this little pad here, never know if someone else also wants to not be in the system down the line. So, for example, ‘Together we go’ does this:

  *Increases movement speed, melee defence and Art defence by 15% for 120 minutes- note, stacks with other abilities and arts. Attack damage up enhancements, override and negates all the previous enhancements*

  “If this is the end, better to die alongside friends than some poor sod that wastes his life in the tavern” Rhua said “That was so deep hun” I quickly responded, wiping away a fake tear from my eyes and causing Rhua to give me the death stare in response and barged past me as she did.

  With a wave of her hand, she beckoned us to follow behind her and we slowly wandered up the stairs.

  The house was warm and welcoming, yet nobody seemed to be here to greet us in a friendly or a deathly sort of way. As we exited the stairs and into the kitchen, surprised by Horace who somehow got here before we did until he pointed at the device that lifted things from the cellar and to the kitchen then receiving a fierce tap by Lucy for going off on his own without telling anyone.

  There was an artal device on the wall, and it rotated different images of the Von family periodically into view. I point at it and call over to Wardi and Rhua “Hey look remember foto’s from the old world? been a while since we’ve come across them” I whispered in excitement.

  “We did have some cool tastes back on terra, I used to take a lot of foto’s when I went away to new places, I miss being able to do that, think of all the cool places we’ve been to since the merger happened, I’d have made like, a tusen different albums by now!” she whispered a laugh to hide a sad smile. Wardi smiled and touched the image.

  “You miss the old life, don’t you? I said putting a hand on his shoulder for support”

  “Yeah, I do, we must keep pressing on though, life doesn’t wait, and neither should we” Wardi whispered whilst giving me a slight elbow.

  “When you’re done reminiscing about some old days that I’m not familiar with perhaps you could focus on the task at hand, we’re currently stuck in this bloody place until further notice so let’s not get too distracted ey, especially when I’m hearing some weird sounds in the air, I think it’s chanting, but I can’t tell where it’s coming from.” Larry said clearly annoyed by the mystery ahead.

  “Hush you idiot we don’t know if anyone else is here, at least use a bloody dampener potion if you’re going to talk so we don’t wake the neighbours oh and, don’t forget we just rescued your arse, you would have snuffed it without us remember that you deviant little arsehat” Rhua angrily whispered to him. Larry pulled out a colourless liquid filled vial and drank it. “I apologise for nothing, Larry said, his voice now not audible to anyone beyond our distance causing Rhua to shake her head in disbelief.

  “I think we should stay on this floor and until we’ve checked out everything, besides maybe there’s some compensation in the form of a item or two after I was mentally cooked earlier” Rhua says “Rhua! we’re not criminals how could you think of doing something so illegal! Lucy said angrily.

  “You both are making compelling arguments to be fair but I’m going to have to go with shorty over here, we did TECHNICALLY break into someone’s home, so I guess we are the baddies here” Wardi says whilst pocketing things when Lucy and Larry are both looking away, whilst Rhua, Horace and I look at Wardi and wink in approval. Damn right we are taking some compensation for this, I hope he gets something good I thought to myself.

  We proceeded through the hallways, examining the rooms one by one, what was likely some sort of maid’s room was the only place with any signs that someone had been there; a candle still faintly burning but we continued and ending up coming full circle back to the stairs.

  “This floor was a bust, so that leave’s the second floor and the entrance room” Wardi said showing off some spoils he’s earned along the way to the four of us, Lucy and Larry were oblivious to this house Looking forward to take a look at the goods but we’ll have to wait until we get out of here, I thought gleefully.

  The second floor greeted us less favourably, a smell was in the air., intoxicating in all the wrong ways.

  “I definitely smell BACCO, you can’t mistake the LUNGBURN, there’s another smell to… it could be SEEDAR lumber though I can’t say FOR CERTAIN” Horace piped up. “You should all know, the voices have quieted as we got higher, so this is probably away from where questionable things are happening” Larry says being careful of his tone this time.

  The smell of the bacco becomes increasingly apparent as we reach a room at the end of the first hallway section. We also start to see the grey fumes of smoke passing under the rosa coloured door. Rhua doesn’t wait and opens it, the smoke is very apparent and coming from a bacco roll up burning away in the ashtray. “Yuck, I can’t stand this stuff, it’s burning everything, my eyes, my throat, my wungs!” Lucy said choking away.

  “Brings back memories this stuff” as I take a big inhalation, the buzz hits me, and I remember the smoking rooms of the office back on Terra. Just one more rollie man! Wardi says to me as I think back to the last time we worked in the office, always have time for another heh, won’t be the same when they start recording our breaks electronically though ey.” thinking back to my old workdays.

  “Oi, wake up” Larry says to me with a little shake just to make sure I’m back in the room. I’m certainly feeling the buzz now, and a little rough. damn it’s been years since I felt it.

  “This damn system is a pain in my side, it’s given me an increase to reaction times and energy output whilst dealing continuous poison damage from all the bacco smoke” said Larrry, causing Lucy to use an art to try to help the situation: ‘Ventum cito movebam’! Lucy shouted and the wind blew away the smoke out of the room and elsewhere into the manor.

  We quickly saw a man beaten and carved up, the blood had covered much of the floor, and he wasn’t breathing. The smell of seedar was strong in the air now that the smoke was blown away.

  “UH, loading The Green RAINER” Horace piped up and a shell burst into the air sprinkling green water over us, negating the poison and regenerating our health back. “The effect won’t LAST that long and more IMPORTANTLY what the HELL IS HAPPENING DOES THIS GUY SEEM OK?! Horace… I think shouted for real that time.

  “I don’t recognise this man, he’s not part of the family, I know the lot of them, this man is far too under dressed to be anything more than a butler, I know Hans Uwe though, did they replace him perhaps for someone younger? Larry said with his rapid speaking.

  “You can really smell the seedar wood on him now, it’s a bit overpowering, like something a teenager would spray vigorously to have a quick shower… only less sporty more lumber ha!” Nobody laughed at Rhua’s joke; she needs to go and think about what’s she done I thought. I used a soothing salve on the man, but it wasn’t activating I shook my head looking at the others. Larry used a scroll of greater reveal, and a silvery wave of energy pulsed out and wide across the manor diminishing as it moved further from the scroll itself.

  “It didn’t do anything, there must be some sort of spell or device active that’s blocking item use properly.” Larry said worryingly, Lucy in response tried a healing spell and an anti-arts sigil appeared, which was never around us before and it is reducing the effect of the healing spell. The man’s wounds recovered but just barely he’s still lost a lot of blood, but he should live I thought.

  “Now what would be going on for someone of his calibre getting a high tier barrier spell? This mystery is just getting weirder” I said,

  “You have to get out.” a feeble voice came from the man on the floor. “They…they’re cra-zy, go, please …not…saf-.” his voice fell silent. “He’s just passed out; I’ll hide him in a different room and … gods! He’s heavy for a small guy” complained Larry to the rest of us.

  The rest of the floor was empty until we reached what looked like the bedrooms of the von family members. The first room was clearly Skankerella Von’s, the room was a baby blue with trees painted on the walls, and what looked like sandy beaches in the sun, she did always enjoy a hotter climate over doing any sort of work I thought to myself.

  Scattered clothing strewn about, and various fine ornaments lay broken in pieces on the tables and stands. “Guessing they left in a hurry” Rhua said “Well, we can’t be sure, there’s still a powerful barrier in place, it’s likely they never left.” Says Lucy the fear in her breath building up since we got here, becoming so much more noticeable now and Wardi wraps his arm around her giving the sign of ‘It’s going to be alright we got this.’

  The Master bedroom… its cleanliness bordered on the point of being sterile. Thinking to myself as I looked around: I don’t think the parents have been here in a while look at this place, there’s no dust or anything. Rhua clipped a lamp on the table and suddenly a book falls out from under it. The front of it has a marking of Serilia, it’s not artal in the slightest though Lucy says as I tried to inspect it.

  When she opens it up it’s filled with various diary entries that all seem normal up until a month ago. Suddenly the style of the writing becomes less neat, fancy as if someone else has wrote it. and the tone was darker.

  Augtem 6th 2048

  Business has been well since we met the Yar Family, they had such marvellous trinkets from the old world and in such a phenomenal condition as well. I think if we play our cards right, we can marry Dilis off with Rella before the month ends and merge the two families into a mighty force in the industry. Hans informed me that Master Hollow had arranged to visit and would be bringing guests. I’ll ensure the cellar is well stocked, one can never have too many refreshments and delights when entertaining guests of this eloquence. I must remind Hans to take myself and the wife clothes shopping, I’m certain the tailcoat no longer fits and it’s best I leave an impression.

  Augtember 7th 2048

  I was glad to have met Master Hollow and his associates this evening, for Hollow to welcome me into the society was a joyous occasion. Sharing of the chalice was delightful and watching the sacrifices squirm as we gifted them sweet release is something I could watch over and over! Gifts shall spread throughout the manor; we can’t have any unwanted visitors now can we Calder Grey? “Absolutely not sir, I am grateful you included me in the festivities he said, I will live up to your expectations and more for the greater good!” He said to me so gleefully.

  18 204

  These BLOODY CRETINS, shut up I say, SHUT…UP I’m tired of hearing you screech and moan. They deserved to face the God Burn, I hope nobody noticed the manor when I used it, we do not need any troubles now. And Calder you’re a useless bastard I keep having to say it, step up or you’ll be gone, I’m growing tired of constantly beating him over his mistakes.

  25 48

  YOU VILE WHENCHES YOU BELONG TO ME AND ME ALONE I WILL END YOU, PAINFULLY AND FROLLICK IN YOUR DYING BREATHS

  I gymdeithas y wawr sy'n codi.

  “I don’t recognize this language… can anyone else make sense of it?” Larry and Horace walked over to the book and shook their head. “Is that supposed to be a language?” Horace said scratching his head. The rest of us walked over to have a look.

  “Wow, that’s Valisisk!” Rhua said with a surprise tone. “Oh wow, that’s a rare one to see, did any of you study it at school, I didn’t.” Wardi said laughing. I shook my head, Rhua did too “I only know this word ‘Mae’n,’ it roughly means ‘It is or its’ if you translate it to common tongue but everything else is beyond what I know.

  “Great so, now we have someone speaking a language that hasn’t been around for 1000 odd years give or take” Rhua said, who begins to rub her stomach to help with the knots forming in it.

  “Lucy, make a note of those diary entries and then let’s clear out of this place, we just have the entrance hall left to explore now.” Wardi says, quickly exiting the room and heading towards the entrance. Lucy recorded the journal entries using some spare parchment she had stored in her inventory and then we tried to catch up to Wardi’s rather speedy leave us all behind exit.

  We reached the entrance hall and were surprised the front door slightly open, no air was coming from the outside, however. Larry noted that there was a faint trace of art here and he looked around confused, he just could not tell where the voices if they were real were coming from. He grumbled slapping his head repeatedly. “Let’s check in here it looks like the dining room” I spoke pointing to the room on the left that noticed.