Magic of the Past

The Orb

It's 9 in the morning as I wake up. As usual, Kateryna already got up way before me. When I walk into the living room, I notice that John is sitting at the table with Kateryna reading some notes we took yesterday. She looks at me and almost shouts "quickly, get over here, you won't believe this!". Of course, I am still half asleep so it isn't really what i was hoping for. However, I decide to ignore my own grumpyness and sit with her and John."I got up a little earlier today to figure out what was written in these notes and you will never believe this!", Kateryna says. "All these notes, they don't make much sense on their own. However, they keep talking about this orb. Maybe that has something to do with everything happening lately." I am still surprised she is this smart, considering the fact she let us break in just one day ago. "Also, if you look on the backs of all the papers, they seem to be parts of some kind of map." Of course maps are my thing so I decide to take a look at them. It's not a map of the city as I know, since the pathways on the map do not match the roads in the city. As I take a better look at it I find out that it could possibly be a map of the underground tunnels we got stuck in earlier. One of the pieces of the map has a tiny spot, looking like it is just some dirt. But how could a paper that's been written in a house and locked away possibly be dirty? Might it have something to do with the orb the king talks about in those letters? 

After a long time of discussing about what the tiny dot on the map could be, Kateryna and John both agreed that it could be the location of the orb. The only question that doesn't seem to leave my mind is why the orb would possibly be in the dangerous tunnels under the city. Could it be possible that someone from inside the tunnels stole it? Is it possible to live inside the tunnels at all? With all these questions in mind I skip lunch, since I am not that hungry. I always seem to eat less when I have a lot on my mind. John looks a little worried. He knows me like nobody else does. He knows something is up when I skip a meal. However, he doesn't say anything about it and continues planning with Kateryna to visit the dangerous tunnels of Kremsted. 

When John and Kateryna seem to be done planning, I finally decide to speak of my worries. "Isn't it really unsafe to just walk in there without having any understanding of what lies within those tunnels?" I ask. "Good point you have there", John says. Kateryna looks a bit disappointed at us both. "Are you adventurers or farmers?", she asks with an annoyed tone. "It isn't that I do not like adventure, the thing is that I don't feel like dying today", I answer. I honestly have to admit though, that I am a little scared after our first encounter with the creatures inside the tunnels. "Do you think I haven't been in there before?" Kateryna shouts. I feel like saying what i think, but I don't. I simply do not want any fights so I ignore the question. As I do this, she walks away, mumbling some insults directed towards me. When she is out of the room, John comes sitting next to me and hugs me saying everything will be alright. I honestly really needed that, no matter how pathetic it sounds. I've never liked it when people shouted at me. 

After everything calmed down, we decided we will take a look at the tunnels through another entrance which doesn't have guards in front of it. To do this we just need to do a little bit of preparational work. That is the only condition I came with. Before we go, we should at least be ready for it so we decide to wait until tomorrow to get to the tunnels. This gives us plenty of time to collect some tools, weapons and other important things to increase our chances of survival. It also includes looking at the notes together to find more clues on what to do against those creatures. I mean, every creature has it's weaknesses right? This shouldn't be any different. It can't be that these creatures are completely invulnerable. At least we already found out they do not crawl through fire. Knowing this, we set up an emergency plan where we simply light the ground of fire, run towards the exit and if necessary, light some more fires on the way out. To make sure we won't run out of fuel and lanterns, we will each bring 2 lanterns and a full flask of fuel, together with some wood. However, the tunnels seem to be pretty long so we might need to make sure there is a way to sleep in there if we get too deep. This calls for another important question. When we need to sleep or get lost, how can we protect ourselves from those creatures? Nobody really seems to know an answer for this yet, but I'm sure one of us will think of something.