Alcingeria

Chapter Twenty Nine: The Secret of the Ruins

Chapter Twenty Nine The Secret Of The Ruins:

Sunday June 27th 1690

We were met with more blackness, and it struck me that we really should have brought lanterns down with us.

As Walden flew forward with his light, Tabatha spoke up.

"Be on your guard. The presence of dark magic doesn't herald anything good."

Walden slowly led us into the dark recesses of the room. We all looked around, expecting to see a vampire or something else jump out at us.

"I can sense the magic, we're getting closer."

"Everyone, weapons ready." Robert ordered.

We appeared to be in a single, large room. There were no intersections of corridors or anything. Walden's fireball illuminated the room to an extent, but it was hard to tell how big the room really was. I caught a glimpse of one of the walls in the flickering light, and saw that it had many small gemstones embedded in it, and the stone appeared to be coated in gold, likely that had once been molten and had hardened to form a casing.

"The magic is very, very close."

"Are we sure we want to do this?" Stella asked. "I mean, what if it's dangerous?"

"A little too late for that," Ceberus said grimly. "The Queen knows the key has some significance, she'll send men after us eventually to see how the search is going. She's thorough like that. When that happens and they see we haven't made progress, she'll just widen her search net, assuming we're incapable of handling he matter. As you can understand, that would be very dangerous for William and I. This isn't something that will just blow over. If she has any reason to suspect that we've crossed her, we'll hang."

In front of us at the edge of Walden's firelight, we saw wooden crates that were rotten and falling apart. There were six of them in total, they were all rectangular, strewn across the floor. The contents remained inside.

"This is it," Tabatha said, pointing to the crates with her staff, "this is definitely where the dark magic is coming from."

Walden flew forward first, lighting the way. I was right behind him, everyone else trailed behind.

"I'll open them," Tabatha stepped forward. "In case they're trapped."
She easily flicked off the rotting lids, and nothing happened.

I peered over the edge of one of them and I couldn't believe what I saw. It was jewelry. I'm serious. Jewelry. Rings, necklaces, earrings, everything.

"Hey!" I called over my shoulder, "you guys might want to see this."

"Holy-" Tabatha choked.

Walden whistled.

"I don't suppose this'd be a great thing for our favorite tyrant to get her hands on."

"All of this is imbued with dark magic, just like Walden's ring," her brow furrowed, her anxiety growing as she turned to Ceberus and William. "She didn't say anything to you about this before? You're sure?"

"No, not specifically anyhow. She kept referring to something being out this way, she was awfully cagey with the details. Come to think of it, I think we've been played."

"You think?" William asked pointedly. "That woman trusts no one completely."

"Regardless, she can't do anything without a dark magic user. She doesn't have one, does she?"