Firewind

Chapter 31-Diero

Rhea led us back up the stairs out of the "interrogation room". I had to lean on one of the black-clothed followers because of my leg. I guess I hadn't felt the pain because I was running on adrenaline. She led us out of the small building, which happened to be a small dress shop, and into the alley beside it. Our footsteps echoed on the empty cobblestone streets. Apparently, no one else in this town liked waking up with the dawn to a slightly foggy, dew-covered morning.

At the back of the alley, there was nothing but a solid stone wall and a circular metal plate disrupting the pattern of the cobblestones. I was shocked when two of the obscures came up and moved the plate aside to reveal a hole with a metal rung staircase heading down into the gloom.

"We're going down there?" I asked.

"Well we couldn't very well have headquarters in an obvious place now could we?" Dyeanee answered, she was now eating a hearty looking sandwich overflowing with slices of thick-cut meat, lettuce and tomato. Does she ever stop eating?

Rhea climbed down the ladder first followed by several others. I tried to gracefully descend but ended up falling awkwardly, to which Po snickered. I landed in a long corridor with stone walls and a stone roof. The roof was a half circle with paths on either side of the hall and a raging underground river ran through the center.

"This used to be an escape route during the Spirit Wars. It runs all under Nuala," Dyeanee explained. "You can get anywhere without being seen. You could hide whole armies down here without anyone knowing."

The obscures lit torches and led us along the corridor. It opened into a tall cavern and the river rushed on into an opening in the wall. In the cavern itself, there were long tables with cloths over them and a blazing fire on one end of the hall. There were three men working at a forge, pulling red hot blades out of the flames and hitting them against an anvil. There was the smell of baking bread. Over a small section of the fire, a large pot was bubbling with the aroma of potato stew.

"So have you guys been here long?" Amora asked Rhea.

"About half a year," she answered. "Ever since they started experimenting."

"After who started experimenting on what?" Ronan asked.

"We don't know," Dyeanee said through a mouthful of chicken. She had a bowl of chicken stew and was gulping it down enthusiastically. "Everyone here in the Obscures are survivors of the Shadow Expirements. We escaped from Golinix and the prisons in that village. We have no idea who's been conducting those expirements nor what purposes they served but almost everyone here has different symptoms such as vivid nightmares, wierd deformations and transformations. Some turn into vicious creatures at night."

"Some just have strange shadow marks," Po continued. "But the most common thing is that we have many, many wodasheus attacks."

"Golinix?" I asked. "That's my home town..."

"You don't think.... Para had anything to do with this?" Leshanna asked. "Do you?"

"I don't think so. I hope not. Maybe this is linked to the ritskilionoso attack?" I asked.

"Possibly. I feel like everything that is going to happen is somehow related," Ronan said. "I don't know how yet. But none of this is a coincidence."

"Anyways, who wants some grub?" Dyeanee asked. "I'm starving!"

"You just ate!" Amora said incredulously. "How can you possibly still be hungry? You just had three cakes, a sandwich and a bowl of stew!"

"She's like that sometimes," Rhea said flatly.

"Or all of the time," Po muttered.

"Hey, just because I can eat whatever I want without gaining weight doesn't mean I'm doing it to be mean," Dyeanee replied, grabbing a roll. "Besides, I just really enjoy eating."

"Where does it all go?" Amora asked, glancing Dyeanee's slim waist.

"We still haven't figured it out," Rhea answered.

"I could eat," I said.

"Aisha's dishing out the stew over there," Dyeanee said, eyeing the pies on the table at which she was sitting.

Po led us over with a bounce in his step. Aisha looked very similar to Po except with darker olive skin and curlier hair. She smiled as she scooped the stew into a bowl for an elderly lady. It was the same goofy smile as Po with a softer twinkle in her amber eyes. In the torch light, it looked like liquid honey was captured in her irises.

"Meet my beautiful daughter, Aisha!" He kissed her on the cheek to which she gave an embarrassed smile. "Chapi, meet Diero, Ronan and others!"

"Pleased to meet you," she said. "Para, don't you think I'm too old to be called chapi?"

"Of course not!" he exclaimed. "To me, you will always be my little angel."

Beside her was a little boy who looked around five years old. He looked exactly like Po.

"This is my son Norym," Aisha said. "Say hello Norym."

"Hello Norym," he said with a frown.

"Don't mind him..." she said with a grimace. "Would you like some stew?"

"No," said Dyeanee. "But do you know where the cake is?"

Aisha rolled her eyes and pointed towards a door off to the left of the large hall. Dyeanee rushed off.

"I don't think I've ever seen someone move so quickly to get cake," Amora grabbed a bowl of stew.

We sat down near the fire. Po settled across from me and ate his stew almost as enthusiastically as Dyeanee. I sighed and pushed my bowl away. For the first time in a while, I had no appetite. What had been going on in Golinix? I had lived there my whole life and never once suspected anything dark or mysterious was going on under the surface. And worst of all, I had the sinking suspicion that my Para had something to do with all of this.

"How did you know my father?" I asked, turning to Po.