Beyond the Void

Chapter 35, Monolith

ANDREW

One moon and two tens since the Mark of the Other One blossomed.

Startled, Andrew spun around on the spot and he saw Anna on her behind scurrying away from several chests that had appeared out of nowhere.

Andrew realised he had drawn the blood-red blade. He scowled and let it clatter on the floor.

"Holy crap. Holy fucking crap!"

"What happened?" Andrew strolled over to where Anna was sitting.

"They jumped out of the fucking scroll!" Anna grabbed Andrew's right arm and tried to pull herself upright. He nearly fell over. "I am so sorry! I forgot!" She was on her knees, still clutching her chest.

"Out of the scroll? What did you do?"

"I don't know! I picked one up, and it electrified me, and then this happened!"

A scroll was lying on the ground under four heavy chests. Andrew rubbed his eyes. The sight hurt his brain. He saw the chests, but as he looked down on the surface of the scroll, he could see the chests being formed out of the lines and patterns covering the scroll.

It was bizarre. Now that he thought about it, there was no reason not to expect something like this happening. He was staring at a chest that had been built out of ink on paper.

Inside three of the chests were precious stones. Gems of all colour and sizes. The chests were not large, but the total value there should have been enough to buy an island. The fourth one was full of smaller scrolls, crystals, and strange writing tools.

"If we can bring this along..." Andrew muttered.

"What good are gems?"

"If we can reach civilisation, we will need the money. I doubt we can survive on the kindness of others. We could take so much useful stuff with us." An unwanted thought pushed itself into his mind. "Think of what we could have bought with this."

"Like what? It's all useful, but we need to run. You said it yourself. We don't really have the time to spare for luxury."

"Whatever. I am taking this with me." Andrew looked at the scroll, trying to find a way to manipulate it. Soon the core of the scroll caught his attention. On one end he could see a familiar pattern of five dots surrounded by a swirling pattern of lines and vines.

"There are some more chests open here. Clothes. And armour." Anna called over from rear of the cathedral. "The others must have been here."

The scrolls worked as everything else had. Place the fingers of your left hand over the markings and watch the magic happen. Andrew had considered taking more than one scroll, but they were cumbersome enough to become a nuisance. He had found a belt that attached to either end of the scroll core.

And he had found a change of clothes and armour. He was now wearing a black cloak with silvery leaves and vines all over it, some sort of armoured red sash and a body armour made of leather reinforced with chain mail. Inside the armour were four silvery daggers.

After a lot of convincing, Anna had agreed to take a small round shield with a short sword. All of Andrew's belongings were now either inside or belted to the scrolls.

They had found proper gloves and woollen clothes from a series of rooms close to the scroll vault. Both of them were especially happy about clean underwear. The mood had improved, but two major problems still needed solving. First, they needed to understand where the others had gone.