Outside the Mirage

#32: The Right Staircase

Forsythe looked around, unsure of what exactly what happening. Behind him, Jordan and Chilcott stood, both tense. They were standing in a narrow hallway, but they could hear a strange rumbling.

"What do we think that noise is?" Jordan asked.

"Nothing good," Chilcott said, tightening her grasp on her staff. "Rumbling is never good."

"It's coming from the door at the end," Forsythe said. "It's being reinforced magically. I don't know why, though."

"Should we open it?"

"I don't know," Forsythe said. "It seems risky."

"But what if one of them are in there?" Chilcott said. "We can't let them leave here with their freedom."

"I know," Forsythe said. He looked around the narrow hallway. "Jordan, what're you best doing?"

"What do you mean?" 

"Magic, what kind of magic do you specialize in?"

"It's a grabbag," he admitted. "I just have a small arsenal of spells I'm good with."

"Any long distance spells?"

"A couple."

"Good. Get ready. I'm gonna go open the door. You two stay here. Don't let anything get past you."

The two nodded and Forsythe made his way to the door. Arriving at the door, Forsythe took a deep breath and held his hand up to the door, absorbing the magic that was sealing it closed. As soon as he was finished, the door slammed open, throwing Forsythe against the wall as a horde of dirty, skeletal humans went running out of the room.

Chilcott began to use her staff to wack each of the people as they rushed towards her, knocking them out. Jordan clapped his hands together and created a small ball of light. The ball of light floated in the air for just a moment before darting forward and hitting one of the horde in the face, seemingly putting it to sleep. Between the two of them, they were able to contain the horde in just a few minutes, stepping over the unconscious bodies to get to Forsythe.

"You're going to take on two guys by yourself?" Chilcott asked, offering him a hand.

"That's the plan," Forsythe said, taking her hand. "I wasn't expecting a pack of dunclers."

"Who are they?" Jordan asked.

"I think Wyvern used his aura quirk to influence them," Forsythe replied. "They all seem like they've been enchanted in some way. He did something similar when he attacked Merlyn at his home. But these guys have been here for a little while, like he's kept them penned in this room to assault us."

"What if we never came?" Jordan asked.

"They would've starved," Chilcott said. "We'd be opening a room of corpses."

"Let's carry on," Forsythe said. The three of them started to go down the other end of the hallway, where it forked into two different paths. Forsythe looked at the small fork. "One goes down and one goes up," he observed.

"Which do you want?" Jordan said.

"Is splitting up a good idea?" Chilcott asked.

"I'll be fine," Forsythe said. "It's you two who need to worry." With that, he took the stairs that led downwards.

Chilcott rolled her eyes. "I kinda hate him."

"Yeah, he's a bit much," Jordan agreed. "Guess we're going up?"

"Guess so," Chilcott said, starting up the stairs.

The two of them crept up the stairs until they found themselves in a strange looking room. The ceiling was a dome, with several large telescopes set up, pointed at the stars. Paintings of the night sky and it's many constellations were plastered on the walls.