"Are you sure this is a good idea, Your Excellency?"
A mage treaded a few steps away from Vedial, his superior. He shivered from the cold assaulting him from all sides and clutched his staff tighter.
Vedial's eyes scanned the barred doors as he navigated the musty hallway of the Grand Lysis's underground prison. A few prisoners let out hoarse grunts, some begging for mercy. He paid no attention to it.
"Of course it isn't." He let out a gentle huff before finally stopping in front of one of the barred cells at the end of the corridor. It was noticeably more heavily guarded compared to the rest.
Sprawled inside was an almost lifeless prisoner, covered in grime and filth. His limbs were chained to the wall, head drooping and lightless eyes. He was no different from a corpse.
Vedial gulped. They were esteemed mages from the Danalith Confederation, ones highly regarded in their fields. And here they were at the lowest parts of the dungeons, investigating against the will of the Grand Lysis.
"Even if you're the son of the Headmaster, if we get caught—"
"We won't if you stand guard." The mage shrank upon meeting Vedial's eyes.
Vedial gripped the iron bars, leaning in until his breath fogged the air between them.
This prisoner he was trying to meet was a Decanus of a once mighty empire. Now he was nothing more than an empty husk rotting in another nation. He was attractive for a man in his late thirties, nonetheless.
"You there."
The prisoner did not respond.
"You there, Vendalian." The prisoner shifted slightly. His mouth opened slowly, chapped lips trembling as if struggling to utter a single syllable.
Vedial moved his ear closer in hopes to hear him better.
"I have..." His dry throat created a grating sound before continuing.
"...no words for you...scholar."
Vedial suppressed the urge to sigh. It was still a relief that he can talk coherently. He rummaged his mantle and tossed a metal flask in front of the prisoner.
"I come with peace...and a few questions."
He gestured him to drink, and the latter slowly reached out after a few seconds of scrutiny. Water dripped down the prisoner's chin as he greedily gobbled it.
"Whatever...you're planning to ask...I have nilly the idea—"
"A few weeks ago," he cut in, "a small group of mages had successfully ventured deep into Zethil to investigate the emergence of Corruption. It took a few couple of batches of scouts and dozens of corpses that could not be retrieved."
"Still they succeeded. They came back with a strange report of black ice. It jutted out in jagged spikes around the fortress walls, growing denser and more chaotic the closer it reached the heart."
"This 'heart' is a large crystal monolith pulsating with Soren. Divine energy."
Vedial's grip on the iron bar tightened.
"Godhood."
Evander's eyes lit up for a significant moment before returning to it dull sheen, and Vedial did not miss it.
"What do you think, decanus? Have I piqued your interest?"
The prisoner grunted.
"Evander. It's...Evander Lursein, mage of Danalith."
"Very well, sir Lursein. Tell me, does this monolith hold a significant secret? One that your oh-so-glorious empire tried so hard to hide."
Evander cracked up a hoarse laugh.
"You're barking up the wrong tree. Vendalius—it has fallen alongside the Imperator. Its royalty replaced, the empire is now reduced to a few vassal dukedoms trying so hard to unify itself into one. I do not—"
'Oh, look how this man barely speaking just a while ago now forming cohesive sentences.'
"And yet even after its fall, Vendalius remains as the strongest bastion of humanity. Why do you think that is?" Vedial answered in Evander's stead.
"Because the Imperator's militia still stands strong. Even without a leader."
Lursein drank the last drops of water from the flask before tossing it back to Vedial.
"For what reason...would a mage from Danalith be asking a northern man about matters you've found all the way from the south?"
"You know very well why I'm asking you, a mere decanus, of this matter. Because you belonged to a very special centurion."
'I know who you truly are, Lursein, so quit the bravado.'
Evander's eye twitched.
"What...are you planning? No. Whatever it is that you're willing to do for that curiosity, cease it at once."
"I'm afraid I cannot."
The chains rattled. Prisoners on nearby cells flinched from the sudden burst of aura.
"Know your place, you pompous fool!"
'Impressive, even with suppressing chains...'
The mage's pace quickened as he circled around his superior.
"Sir, the-the guards...they're coming." Vedial exhaled sharply, pressing his head onto the prison bars, trying to clear his mind. He did not have time.
Lursein is shaken, but stubborn. And he did not have the luxury to wait.
"I am not scheming anything. I fear that the Grand Lysis is incapable of sealing it—whatever it is—from the world. And for that, I beg that you answer me properly, Decanus Lursein." He knew this was futile. Even if he was given an answer, what can a mere scholar even do? His situation wasn't any better than the prisoner across him.
Still, he had to confirm it.
"What is trapped inside that black monolith?"
Evander's eyes quivered. There's another reason that's compelling him to evade the questions. Vedial knew it wasn't out of sheer loyalty to his motherland, but something else more primal. So he chose to show sincerity. Yet this primal feeling was seeping onto him like an infection.
What if what he'd always feared turned out to be right?
What if the Grand Lysis was wrong, this time?
Lursein shifted, adjusting his chains to sit a little more upright. His gunmetal eyes were clearer than ever. His tone had shifted.
"Are you worried that the same reason that ruined two empires will repeat on Danalith?"
Vedial bit his lip.
"Danalith...is a land of scholars. It had not been once or twice that we'd been associated with the divine forces. But this is different. We had never dealt with something this foreign."
"Even so?"
"Even so, I am a scholar. I seek knowledge. I, too, wish to satiate my curiosity. But not at the price of biting something I can't chew."
"You are brutally honest. Naively so, but it's not such a bad thing." He broke into fits of cough, throwing up blood mixed with phlegm.
"I get that you're swayed by the ecstasy of witnessing an actual deity that empires bow over. Even if it's one who only has a fraction of their blood, demigods are as much of a force of nature as the gods themselves."
"But that is where your curiosity ends. You have no need to worry either. Sooner or later, they will come for it."
'They?...'
Boom!
Just as Vedial was about to retort, a loud explosion interrupted them. The ground quaked and the walls vibrated from the impact. Shadows danced as the torch fire swayed from left to right.
"It will return to where it belongs."
Incoherent noises and yells spread from above as another series of explosion resounded. Thankfully, the guard post were still vacant. They must have ascended back to confirm the situation.
Vedial looked up and recognized where the direction of the sound came from.
'The Grand Lysis grounds...!'
"We have to go, Your Excellency!" The mage dragged him to the flights of stairs to escort him out of the dungeon. He stopped midway with a frown.
The sound seemed to have came from the most populated part of the Grand Lysis's tower, the central square. But why? There were no valuables in the central square. It would have made sense if the goal was to cause casualties, but Grand Lysis mages would not die from a few explosions. All of them were capable enough to protect themselves, even if it were infused with soren.
'Who in their right mind would cause a futile scene in...huh. I see.'
He glanced back to Evander, who's coughing fits became increasingly dire.
'To where it belongs...'
He was crazy to think about it in this situation.
'I need to reach the laboratory before they do! Before they realize that the explosion was a distraction!' Unfortunately, idiots here were rare, and he didn't have much time before they catch on.
They will realize soon enough that the true target was that large hunk of black ice.
"Check the situation outside. I have somewhere to be."
Before the mage could retort, he had already broken away, heading to the direction of the secret chamber that connected the dungeons to the Grand Lysis's underground laboratories. Only the dead could wonder about this tunnel's true purpose.
The first thing he noticed wasn't the winding silence, however, but the sky above Grand Lysis's tower—as seen through the arched glass ceiling—looking strangely dark and ominous.
A murder of crows circled and perched around the highest spikes, looking down at them with eerie crimson eyes. They cawed in dissonant hymn like they smelled death from a mile away. This alone unsettled Vedial and planted horror onto his skin.
He navigated the maze-like hallways with ease. Despite the explosion, the structures were immediately salvaged by the defense mechanisms from collapsing completely. Luckily, the damage was considered minimal.
'They will come for it.'
Who were 'they'?
Vedial had never stepped foot in the lower floors of the Grand Lysis. Not truly.
He had clearance, of course. Rank, recognition, the usual academic excuses. But this far down wasn't made for scholars. It was a grave, a vault, sealed off by layers of protective runes more ancient than his forefathers.
But with it dismantled, he could freely enter without a hindrance.
His boots clicked against the marble stairs as he descended. They echoed too loud.
Then they didn't echo at all.
The room's temperature felt rather peculiar. It felt cold enough to send shivers down his spine, but the air was hot enough to make his lungs hurt with every breath.
But it wasn't what threw him off the most.
'Ash?'
Why was it raining ash in the underground laboratory?
'Have they burnt all the documents?'
As soon as he felt like he stepped on something soft, he bent down to inspect what it was. It was a burnt piece of cloth in the shade of teal. It matched the color of his mantle perfectly. More ash landed on his sleeves.
Vedial stopped breathing for a second.
Right. The Grand Lysis. The bespoke tower of mages...does not store documents in paper. It was too old fashioned a method.
No wonder the hall felt so empty when there were more than a hundred researchers safeguarding the underground labs.