Kings Game

Chapter 75 - The Archives

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Nul spun a shroud around themself as they walked. What had once been an impossible task was now a minor effort, one performed almost as an afterthought. With just a few twitches of their fingers, extra-fine threads of gossamer slipped around their body and they melted from sight, vanishing into thin air.

From Nul's perspective, little changed. The biggest difference was that they now had to be careful not to bump into people as they walked. Most people wouldn't be able to see, hear, or smell Nul, requiring them to dodge and weave between the clueless occupants of the ballroom.

Sarah didn't have the same difficulties. Despite being invisible to everyone but Nul, people seemed to avoid walking into Sarah. They moved slightly away as she passed, some part of their subconscious mind telling them to get out of the way, to avoid her. Despite her only manifesting a simple image, one only Nul could see, her presence left an impact in the world. Death walked among the people and they could feel it, whether they knew it or not.

Sarah led Nul out of the ballroom, across the arena, and back into the maze of hallways that spanned the circuitous structure of the colosseum. Sarah took a sharp turn into a dark hallway, away from the hustle and bustle of the well marked paths the guests were supposed to stay on, and began weaving in and out of the corridors.

Nul had researched the King's Arena earlier, going with both Roran and Sarah to find the entrances that would lead them down into the audience chamber and the archives below. Nul had probed and prodded the barriers in place, slowly picking them apart and reverse engineering them. They had scribbled together two whole notebooks worth of comments, diagrams, and theories on the barrier, and decided that it was simultaneously one of the best barriers Nul had ever encountered, and utterly underwhelming.

After the eighteenth turn, because Nul always counted such things, they asked, "Are you sure we're going the right direction?"

"Not so loudly," said Sarah. "I can hear you no matter how softly you speak."

Then, speaking under their breath, Nul said, "We went a different way last time, did they already rearrange the hallways?"

"Yes, everything is completely different. They didn't just rearrange the place, they reworked it entirely, all of the hallways lead back towards the main thoroughfare. They really don't want guests wandering through the arena unescorted."

"Is there any security?"

"Little, and I'm navigating us around them. Your biggest concern will be the barrier. Any idea on how to break it?"

"Several," said Nul.

Sarah took a sharp turn and led them down a hallway that seemed to curve in on itself. After a short distance, the hallway ended in a brick wall. Sarah pointed at it.

"Through here, it's not very thick, only a few inches. You'll need to close it up behind you."

Nul adjusted their etchings, the spiderwebs along their forearms expanding and growing as symbols realigned themselves and runes came crawling out of the webwork. With a swipe of their hand, the wall split and shifted, folding in on itself until it made a neat little hole for Nul to step through. Nul repeated the motion and the wall folded itself shut behind them.

The trip after that was short and easy. Whoever designed the layout of the arena clearly hadn't planned on stopping people capable of walking through walls. Sarah stopped in front of a plain looking door recessed into a dark hallway. They were standing in total darkness, though that wasn't a problem for Sarah, whose existence filled the space around them, or for Nul, who had etchings to see perfectly in the dark.