Redemption

Chapter 8

"I believe we agreed we would stop at my house. This isn't the way to my house, and I think you know that." Azalea said, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings.

"We will make one stop before," Acrux replied, striding ahead.

"Care to tell me where. I thought this was your first tie here in Antares," she said.

"The last time I was in this city was two hundred years ago. To answer-"

"Two hundred years, you are old." she interrupted.

Glowering at her, he continued. "To answer your question, we are going to a library."

"A library, and what are you gonna do there? The city has changed in the past century. And why didn't you think of it earlier? Are you always this slow?"

"The city may have changed, but the temples haven't. Iram's temple has stood there longer than the others. Back then, your people prayed to Iram, and the temple was always filled with allocates. But now, no one cares about death; they all believe they will prevail."

Azalea's jaw tightened, recalling Inferis, the Obitus, Gehenna, and Iram.

At one point, she would have agreed but now. Fools, they are fools, and so was she.

Acrux said, "The library is under the temple; it will have the information we need."

Faking a yawn, she said. "You could have just said that instead of giving a whole speech of how we are all fools and you, the ever-loyal soldier, reminiscing when your God was in power."

They walked in silence after that.

Azalea and Acrux stood in front of the temple doors. This was the closest she had ever stood to the temple in all her nineteen years of living. Acrux gripped the door open; cobwebs fell as the heavy black door creaked open with age. The sanctum was dark and empty. A familiar feeling washed over her. It felt like Iram's palace in Inferis, vacant and soulless.

Coughing from the dust, she asked. "Why is it empty? Are there no more allocates? I thought there would be furniture or anything." waving her hand around.

"Allocates have not been here for over a century; not many are willing to serve the God of death for all their lifetime. There is nothing inside; everything must have been looted long ago. People have no respect." Curling his lip in disdain.

Their eyes adjusting to the dark, they walked through, making their way through a dark hallway. It twisted downwards, going deeper underground. Azalea's neck prickled multiple times, thinking that someone or something was watching them, but there was nothing every time she looked back. Brushing it off as paranoia, she and Acrux came to a stop. A blocked doorway stood in their way.

"Great idea, the door's blocked," she said dryly.

Ignoring her, Acfux placed his hands flat on the door, muttering in a language foreign to Azalea's ears. Raising her brows, she watched as his hands left a glowing imprint. Groaning, it slid open, revealing a darkly lit library with towering shelves. Moving forward, she stepped through and was immediately thrown back, a barrier between them.

"Fuck" she cursed.

"Wait, we need to be granted entry," Acrux said.

Opening her mouth to replay, it was quickly snapped shut as she stared, her eyes bulging out. An enormous black anaconda that would squeeze her to death slithered toward them. It moved to Acrux first, wrapping around its leg as it moved to its arm, fangs extending, biting down, excreting its venom. Bowing his head in respect, he moved through the barrier freely.The anaconda snaked towards Azalea.