Guardians: Dark Stars

Chapter 11: Dawn Break Sonata

Cain sauntered into the luxurious study. The sun was beginning to peak out from under the Nox treeline. Yet, the room he stepped into remained eerily dark save for the piercing morning light dispersing the shadows by way of the open slits in the skylight curtains. It was high time he actually started looking for the ancient Wurzberg account. There were many old books mixed into the impressive collection Ava Wurzberg inherited; all of them were organized into a coiling maze of shelves that reached a high ceiling. The snaky path lead him to an open space in the middle of what seemed to be the largest room in the mansion. Even with so many articles stacked together, the center of the study still had a wide open space in which readers could relax in. 

Had he wandered in there without the slightest clue where his objective might be, Cain knew it would had taken him far too long to go through the thousands of books before him. Luckily, he had scouted this place before raiding it with Emily. What he was looking for was hidden at the heart of the study. An undaunted smile falling on his lips, Cain approached what he estimated to be the dead center. He dropped to his knees, revealing a hammer in the soft light, and struck the floor furiously. The wooden boards caved in after a short struggle. Morning light, falling from above, illuminated the pitch black interior of a treasure filled cove.

Most of the house was constructed of strong stone in order to survive the hundreds of years it stood against the elements. However, the library had been an extension added years after Adelaide Wurzberg passed away. Here, the walls were made of stone in order to match with the rest of the house but the floor was laid down as rich, dark maple wood. In the dead center, the heart of the study, there was a small square area where odd winds were born to blow comforting air through the cozy room. Since there were no windows in the study that could be opened, Cain knew it to be a secret cellar. 

He broke apart the floorboards until he left behind a Cain-sized hole for him to step into. At first glance, the hidden storage didn't seem very large. Cain, upon lowering himself in, could still find the top half of his body above his hips free above ground. Somehow, however, Cain felt as if the storage had to be much bigger then it seemed. He was standing atop a mountain full of artifacts buried there hundreds of years prior. If it had been him wanting to preserve that piece of the past during the turbulent times the cellar had been made, he would have buried every valuable he had. 

"Okay," he murmured to himself, "please, don't let there be bugs."

Laying on his stomach, Cain began to crawl across the underground storage box. It was dark and stuffy as his back painfully scrapped against the splintered floor above him. Every few paces, he took his hammer and broke a hole in the floor so as to allow some revealing light inside. He continued this slow process until all four corners of the cellar were identified and his forehead was dripping with work induced sweat. When, at last, he had enough light to scan the walls of the underground structure, Cain heard a loud crash echo through the mansion above. He gulped down his nerves, he knew exactly what had stumbled onto the Wurzberg's front steps. He had ran out of time.

He frantically pulled himself around the tight bunker which he counted to be a perfect square, a little over, four meters from one side to the next. After about five minutes, he found his mark on the wall directly behind his entry way. It was nearly overcome by clutter but he could feel the slight breeze brushing against his burning cheeks.

"In the secret underground bunker, there is a buried door which leads to another world beneath our own," Wyatt had told him just before Cain had decided to defect from his old master.

Above him, there was no denying the screeching wails; the heavy boots sending tremors across the weakened floor; the clanking of swords undoubtedly sending violent sparks into the light blue, dawn sky; all the instruments of battle rose and fell in harmony. Cain bit back his growing exhaustion. He began to dig. Through the dim light, he pushed back as much paraphernalia as he could. In the back of his focused mind, he distantly minded the things he was recklessly throwing behind him.