Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 32: Madelyn

I cast an Alear glyph that took us to Cordinshire, and as soon as we stepped through it, we immediately sensed the immense aura of light from the many Ilentia living in the city. They couldn't have known about the Necronomicon being hidden in the same city they were living in. It wasn't them we were after, though. From what Doctor Ekhart told Morgan and Connor, Chloe Faye wasn't that well known in Cordinshire. Not by the Regulars or Military Police, anyway. She did an excellent job of keeping her identity hidden, it would seem. The shadier people in the city would probably be who she would have collaborated with the most. I suggested talking to them first, but I quickly realized that it wouldn't be necessary. Along with the many Ilentia's aura, we could also feel an aura of darkness near where my Alear glyph landed us. The Necronomicon was near. Connor and Ruth accompanied Morgan and I to Cordinshire, and we began to follow this aura of darkness to its source. It led to a small, wooden shack that was just below the wall.

"Mom kept a Necronomicon in there?" asked Morgan.

"Well, it's isolated, unmarked, and practically invisible," said Connor. "No one would think to look here for something as powerful as a Necronomicon."

"Hopefully," Ruth whispered.

"I'll make sure it's clear before we enter," I declared, and I ran a thermal and motion scan of the small structure. Both scans turned up nothing. There weren't any people or Turned.

"It's clear," I reported. Connor went and turned the doorknob, and the door immediately fell forward, falling to pieces when it hit the floor.

"Oooookay," said Ruth. "This place is pretty old, then."

"Judging by... everything, this building is approximately fifty-four years old," I calculated, as Connor and Ruth spread out.

"But my mother hid the Necronomicon here at the end of the Third Great War," Morgan reminded. "That wasn't fifty years ago."

"Then it is likely that..."

"Found something!" Ruth suddenly shouted. She was standing over a wooden hatch in the ground. She opened it, and all four of us looked inside of it. Under the shack was a dark passage built from brick. Ancient bricks.

"This has to be thousands of years old," I estimated. "An aqueduct, perhaps."

"Old enough to have been built during the War of Light and Dark?" Connor guessed.

"Older," I guessed. "Between that and the Ancient War."

"Well, let's see where this leads," Connor suggested, and he jumped down. A loud "clang" echoed throughout the tunnel when his greaves hit the ground. Connor looked back up at us with his eyes widened, and his teeth gritted.

"I don't know if anyone heard that or not," Ruth whispered, and she warped down with Connor, then Morgan. I hovered down with my thruster pads, landing between the others. The visibility in the tunnel was too low for their eyes to see, and mine without my night vision. I turned it on so I could see more clearly, then formed my aura blades.

"I will take point," I suggested. The others formed their aura blades as I led them forward. None of us even said a word as we slowly walked through the darkness. I could sense a feeling of dread from Morgan, Ruth, and Connor as we went further down the tunnel. There was nothing more terrifying to a Guardian than sensing that you were in a dark place with something even darker, and not being able to see it if it were about to attack them. I didn't feel that fear myself, but I understood it, at least, especially as the tunnel went on and on even longer, with more time passing since we entered it. Eventually, I could indicate a faint light in the distance. I walked faster towards it, eventually finding that it was an electronic torch, being held by a man in a miner's outfit. I switched off my night vision to see more clearly, and when the miner turned around and saw us, he dropped his light and began to run away. Ruth quickly erupted a wall of ice in his way so he wouldn't escape, and we surrounded him as quickly as we could.