Eight Intertwined

109 - Next

"How intriguing..."

Cyrus and Ophilia sat together in a corner of the Victors Hollow library far from the eyes of the other visitors. It wasn't as if there were many other visitors to hide from to begin with; the building was almost completely empty. The library was a fairly small thing, and most of its records were from past tournaments whether they be the year's largest tourneys or anything in between the annual bloodbath. There wasn't much of note to find in a place like this aside from peace and quiet, but luckily, that was exactly what Cyrus and Ophilia were looking for. 

When the rest of the group split up, the two made the impromptu decision to redouble their efforts in searching for where the next shrine could be found. Barham's map had been marked all over since the group first set out from Noblecourt, and each shrine the group had visited had been checked off alongside the name of the god that had been found there. Now that the group was up to eight discovered shrines with seven of them visited, Cyrus had more to dig through, and Ophilia had opted to join him in his endeavor. 

At the moment, both of their gazes were locked to one particular corner of the page. To be more specific, they were looking at the area around Duskbarrow. There were two markers there to show intense magical power in the last few years, and they were currently the biggest issue for the travelers when it came to figuring out their next step. Those two markers had to mean something, but Cyrus somehow doubted both of them were shrines. After all, there had never been any two shrines that close together before. There must have been some other explanation for it, but Cyrus couldn't figure it out for the life of him. 

Ophilia had no idea either, and she had one hand grasped firmly around her chin as she stared down at the page. She had learned a lot about magic since joining the group thanks to Cyrus' tutelage and the power of the gods, but all the knowledge in the world still couldn't do much to unravel this mystery. She glanced over in Cyrus' direction, a light frown on her face. "Do you think we should go there next?" she questioned. "We haven't exactly mapped out our next destination, so it wouldn't hurt for us to head to Duskbarrow after we've finished up here in Victors Hollow."

"I believe that would be in our best interests," Cyrus nodded. "I have no doubt at least one of these is a shrine, and we need to investigate as soon as possible. One of these markers appears to be within the boundaries of the town, and while no shrines have made themselves known in towns before..."

"We don't want to miss it by skipping over that location," Ophilia finished for him. "Maybe it would help if we checked out the one on the way first and then went to see what was in the town even if it wound up being completely unrelated. After all, there has to be some reason for the strange marker in Duskbarrow."

"No other town has another indicator like this," Cyrus murmured. "The only other settlement that seems to hold something directly is Hornburg, and not only is that impressively far away from every other location we've traveled to thus far, but the civilization collapsed years ago. I doubt we would be able to get there easily even if we wanted to go."

"We should make Hornburg our last resort if we can't find the other shrines," Ophilia agreed. "I hope it won't come to that, but I suppose we'll simply have to see. We can tell the rest of the group about our plan to head for Duskbarrow after this."

"Even if we find nothing in the boundaries of the town, it wouldn't hurt for us to take a look around," Cyrus said. "After all, if we go there once, it should activate the Warp Staff so we can return at a later point if the need arises."

"Given how much magic seems to be there, it wouldn't surprise me if there was something there to be found," Ophilia remarked. "We may end up needing to go to Duskbarrow later on... Though it is strange that there would be something there in the first place."