Merlose continued in the ancient pathway, though she no longer required her lamp to get by. Lamps fueled by the latent mana in the air illuminated everything iridescently. Her high-heeled boots clacked on the floor alongside her shillelagh. She had long been used to skulking about the ancient and dark places of the world, but rarely was she alone with her thoughts
This wasn’t like the other times over in the old continent, not with them on a clock. It pained her, especially when she had seen Aya in the city.
They broke her heart, she knew that. Merlose didn’t need the Dark to help her read those eyes or that weary face.
“You still call me ‘Professor.’” Merlose muttered under her breath, a thin grin on her face. It was an encouraging thought.
She came to a fork in the path, both branches staying level. Leave it to her luck to be forced to choose.
Merlose let her shillelagh stand and let it go. The head of it landed left. She went further into the odd, underground metropolis.
This path was far better cared after than what she, Ashley, and Sephiroth had been going through the past few days. The tunnels were far larger, enough to accommodate two lanes of carriages. Just how old was this place anyway? She swore she had been through several architectural eras recently. Best exemplified by what stood before her.
“Oh dear.” She cocked an eyebrow at the structure.
Old hedges, now overtaking the ground next to them, were somehow growing in the undergrounds, likely a result of lamps emulating sunlight. A fountain filled with stagnant water was flanked on either side by marble staircases. Merlose didn’t care whether or not this was a diversion, her scholarly interest was piqued.
She practically hopped up the stairs and went through the front entrance. Ancient doors creaked open and she stepped inside. The entrance hall was grand, opulent even with high-vaulted ceilings and pillars of marble. She strolled through the halls and soaked in the atmosphere.
She went to the second floor and saw what this place was, to her delight: a library Stacks upon stacks of tomes were lined in the room even if there was wear and tear. The dust was thick, enough to coat her fingers when she touched it. It was so intriguing.
“The College of Magickal Studies back in Eagrose would blush at this.” She said to herself. She took a tome and flipped through it, seeing the text was Kildean. “And by my luck, I yanked a cookbook off the shelf.”
As she put it back, she suddenly felt a twitch. The Dark.
Twin lances of deep black struck at her, impaling the shelf in front of her. However, Merlose was gone.
The woman’s assailant, a shadowy facsimile of a person, looked quizzically before adjusted the wide-brimmed hat it wore. It was the last action it did as the end of Merlose’s shillelagh impaled it through the head.
“Show some respect for knowledge.” She sighed as the creature faded. And with that it was like she had thrown chum into the water as she could feel other presences scuttling about.
She fled, the building as she could hear the rumbling behind her. She leapt from a second-story window and cushioned her fall with a wind spell before going into a mad dash, not daring to look over her shoulder. There was a back gate thankfully open. She kept running, her pursuers getting closer and closer.
Eventually the path stopped, coming to a massive staircase that plunged deeper into the earth. She leapt forward.
“Quetzalli!” In an instant a bird the size of an eagle materialized, took her hand in its talons, and helped her glide downward. She managed to catch of glimpse of what had been chasing her. Dark forms, some wielding weapons. A large figure, one that made bangaa look petite seemed to be leading them.
That was all she needed as she reached the bottom. She was at a bridge spanning a massive chasm, at least a hundred meters wide. She couldn’t see the bottom. At the finish line, she crossed the bridge and tapped her walking stick on it as she fled.
She only looked back when she was at the other side, lizardmen leaping at her as the Earth spell she cast split the bridge down the middle. The entire structure collapsed and fell into the abyss.
“Bloody hell…” She finally allowed herself to catch a breath, her familiar perched on her shillelagh. The avian creature gave a cry, alerting Merlose to the other side.
There was practically a brigade on the other side. Lizardmen, elementals, all manner of creatures found in the dark places of the world. But among them, there was one figure that stood out.
It was nearly five meters tall, dwarfing any race Merlose had seen in her life. It had a massive blade that made Sephiroth’s nodachi look like a toothpick, even wielding it in one hand. It wore armor that was primitive, but enough. The horns on its head made its race clear and beneath the war mask it had burned a pair of intense yellow eyes.
“Ogre…” Of course the Ogre Battle wasn’t mere myth. Merlose had made the right choice fleeing.
It looked at her, eyes boring into her soul. After a few minutes it turned its back and the rest of its group followed. It would not be the last time she saw it.
“Well then, let’s get back on track.” Quetzalli nodded before returning to Merlose’s shillelagh until she was summoned again.
She went down the nearest path, hearing that bellow from earlier except now it was far, far closer. Hopefully this time her path would be more straightforward.
Mon Oct 07 04:26:24 2019
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