Melanie squeezed Carwen's hand as she stepped down after him into the dust and darkness of the Crypt of Mephais.
"Check it out, Mels." Carwen's flashlight beam swiveled around the ancient room over carved symbols and a dozen doorless archways. The secret passage they left behind them and the labyrinth of rooms before them were still thought mere myth or lost to time by most respected archaeologists. That they now stood in the halls of the Mephai Brotherhood was no small feat, and though Carwen would gladly take credit if given the chance, it was Melanie's quiet, bookish curiosity that had provided this lofty goal to his hunger for adventure. Carwen grinned and adjusted his knapsack while Melanie pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. The true nature of the secret society that had built this half-buried ruin had never been discovered. What sort of writings or artifacts they might have left behind in here remained for the pair to investigate.
Melanie turned her own flashlight to the tiles at her feet and held her breath as Carwen stepped away to survey the layout of the connecting passages. The floor of the entrance hall was decorated in round mosaics of black roses, and the top of every doorway was marked with a stylized pattern of buds or blooms. Few records of the Mephai Brotherhood still existed from their own time besides some cryptic writings, but the rose motif had remained their trademark through the ages in every tall tale and conspiracy spun with their name. Melanie glanced at the vaulted ceiling, where three huge flowers inlaid with some gleaming, dark stone remained partially intact. The rose's significance had not been underestimated.
"Looks like each of these doors branch off further into a system of passages that ends up underground." Carwen pulled a few packages of light sticks out of his bag and handed some to Melanie. Then he snapped one, flicked it hard, and threw it toward the center of the room. The greenish glow gave the roses a sickly tint. "If we split up, we'll cover more ground. Just mark your path with those so we can meet back here."
"I'm still not sure this is a good idea..." Melanie fidgeted and looked over her shoulder. "We don't know what's down here. There's no map, and they could've left traps–"
"We talked about this, Mels! You gotta focus!" Carwen patted her shoulder and flashed his indelible smile. "There's gotta treasure, and we'll find it. Forget working the check-out desk, you can buy your own library!"
"I hope so."
"Nothing bad's gonna happen! Look, if you panic, just come back here and wait for me. I'll be fine, I promise!"
"All right..."
"I'm going down that first doorway to start – the one with one rosebud. Do you want to go opposite me, down the last one?"
"No, I'll take the one in the middle. It's the only room I found anything about in my research."
"Oh yeah?"
Melanie pulled a dog-eared sheet of looseleaf from her stack of notebooks. "'The nature of the rose lies at the center.' The context implies secret information on the Brotherhood may have been stored there."
"Hunh, leave it to you! Maybe you'll find some stuff for that new library." Carwen stepped over to the first archway and gave Melanie a wave before entering. "See you later!"
The sound of Carwen's footsteps faded quickly, leaving Melanie to the middle door, above which a single black rose with white leaves was depicted in full bloom. After taking a deep breath, she forced herself inside and down a winding hall with small, doorless rooms off to either side every fifteen feet or so. Most were empty. A few held only well-worn furniture or cracked pottery. Melanie dropped a glowstick as she turned out of sight of the entrance doorway and continued down the hall slowly, clutching her satchel and fighting the knot in her stomach. The last few rooms were also empty, though the tattered remains of a book were scattered near them; the scrawled writing was badly faded but seemed illegible regardless. Then, the last stretch of hallway widened, ending in a tall arched opening that led into an enormous circular chamber. Melanie stared as she shuffled toward it. A ray of light poured from a crack in the high, domed ceiling, revealing the carved writing that covered the broad walls and illuminating a single object growing from a squat pedestal in the center of the room – a large, black rose.
