Board 8 > The Notes of Cain, Topic 3 [CYOA]

(+) Yeah! (+)

Up.
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Go up.
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storm hasn't ended yet but I think the dangerous part is over at least for where I live. now I'm just dealing with a lot of rain for the next few days as I wait for the outer bands of florence to finish rotating past here.
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bumpity
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alright sorry for the delay. hopefully 'natural disaster' is a suitable excuse! I'm planning on at least starting the next update later today. I don't want to rush it too much or anything but at the same time I feel like it's already been over a week since the last update so I don't want to take too long either.
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Good luck.
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okay I did not get as much written as I would have liked. finding it really hard to focus honestly and sleeping a lot. going to try and go for a walk tomorrow. been stuck inside for too long and I think it's making me lethargic.
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That's a good idea, yeah. I know that feeling very well, believe me. Just be careful walkin' around, okay? Don't think I need to tell you that, but on the extreme off chance...
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nah, I'll just avoid any of the roads that have been flooded. unless you meant something else dangerous about walking around.
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Just take your time.
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If the story ends with a hurricane coming out of nowhere and wiping out the house and everyone (and everything) inside I won't blame you.
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Hurricane end best end
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MariaTaylor posted...

nah, I'll just avoid any of the roads that have been flooded. unless you meant something else dangerous about walking around.

Just meant the roads and floodin', yeh. Don't know enough about NC to guess at other dangers. ^_^'
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you know I think I realized what at least two of the main contributing factors are, aside from just hurricane fatigue that took a while to recover from

1. when I was prepping for the hurricane I took my electronic clock and put it away somewhere. I haven't taken it back out of storage yet and I noticed that since my room actually gets A LOT darker when the lights are off I have a much easier time sleeping. this is kind of tough because I really do like having the clock but at the same time sleeping issues have always been huge for me and this feels to be a very simple fix that will improve my quality of life once the adjustment period is over. the issue is, right now, that adjustment period. I'm recovering from like 8 years of sleep deprivation and I swear I just want to sleep all day long every day and it's actually REALLY easy for me to do that now by simply turning the lights off and not having a light shining in the corner of my room.

2. I've been getting cramps in my legs while sitting. I do think my inability to focus on stuff for long is partially responsible for me having a tough time making much headway on this last update. buuutttt... I really think the leg pains thing is more serious. it's not just that I get distracted but if I stay sitting down for more than like 20 minutes my leg starts to hurt, which makes me want to get up and go walk around. since I have to sit down while writing it means I haven't been getting much writing done the last few days.

anyway aside from those cool insights I'm getting ready to go lay down on the couch with my laptop and try writing that way, instead of sitting in my chair and writing as usual. this might help with the leg cramps, at least, and I did just take a nap so I doubt I'll start feeling tired too immediately. chapter is about 60% done so there's a good chance that I manage to finish the rest fairly quickly and post something within the next few hours.

Maniac64 posted...

If the story ends with a hurricane coming out of nowhere and wiping out the house and everyone (and everything) inside I won't blame you.

Pirateking2000 posted...

Hurricane end best end

lol trust me I'm done with hurricanes. if I was going to do that sort of ending I'd AT LEAST have the gods swoop down and destroy the world or something.

IhatethisCPU posted...

Just meant the roads and floodin', yeh. Don't know enough about NC to guess at other dangers. ^_^'

ah yeah, nothing too dangerous here I would say. I do live near a sort of high crime area but I've never had problems with the locals in the entire 3ish years I lived in this city. usually if I'm walking around outside and I see random people I'll at least wave, say hello, or talk to them depending on the circumstances (do we stop in the same place, or are we walking in the same direction, etc.)
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Entry 24: Breaking the Surface

Leone, standing on the brink of an inescapable illusion, had somehow found an anchor that held him tightly in place. His legs were fixed against the flat and comfortable floor of reality. The pain in his body was real. He had definitely fallen out of that tree, just as he suspected.

The knife was in his hand now but, to her surprise, he didn't hold it in an aggressive manner. He swiped it to the side, lowering the blade. If he had a free hand he would have brought it to his face, but he remembered that there was nothing there anymore. "Just... just hold on... give me a minute to think..." he pleaded.

He knew that his will had almost been exhausted. And, if he was sent back to the mental prison, he wouldn't have the strength to keep fighting. That would have been his end.

The woman's antennae twitched but, to his surprise, she didn't behold him with an aggressive demeanor. She tilted her head, almost curiously, and stared down at him. She was just a bit taller than Leone but that wasn't too unusual. He was closer to short on the scale of average height.

"Who are you?" she asked. "You... remind me of someone I once knew."

"Leone," he replied, and quickly. There was sweat on his face now as he realized just how dangerous his position was. He had missed his chance to lunge forward and kill her. Now, above all things, he understood that he needed to keep her talking.

'I am fully at your mercy,' he was thinking.

"I'm Stella," she seemed to tell him. "I come from a place far to the north."

"Brendwell," Leone observed. He could tell that much just from her accent, even if she hadn't given such specific hints. Hendrake had all manner of folk from different parts of the world. Brendwell well no exception to that, especially when it came to Abnormal refugees. "I'm a Hendrake local. It's not far from here."

"Yes. I've been there," Stella observed. She began to slowly walk around the area. Streaming light began to drip down the space between the gaps in the trees, running like paint along a wall that had just received a fresh coat. "You don't seem like a Fisher."

"No, I'm more like-" Leone hesitated, then shook his head. "Well, I'm just a normal person." That wasn't exactly true but it wasn't like she could tell that he was lying.

"You're lying," she said. "I can sense that much, you know."

Ah, of course. She was inside of his brain after all. There was a crackling sound at his feet. Leone glanced over at her but she seemed to be gone. Then, when he looked forward, she was standing in front of him again.

Stella was leaning against one of the trees which had just caught fire. "Are you afraid of what I'll think if I know... you must a Thief, right? You're with the Thieves Guild."

Whether she could see the information directly or had just inferred it didn't seem to matter much. Leone just nodded. "Well, did you like it in Hendrake? Not everyone does, but... I guess it was better than Brendwell." He had to imagine that was the case.

"I liked it better here," Stella said. "Hendrake wasn't as bad as..."

Brendwell had an administrative policy that had been enacted by the Ritual Masters, a political faction that was supposedly aligned with the God of Darkness. Abnormals there were treated as non-civilians and possessed no inherent rights. They were heavily persecuted. More often than not, when one was discovered, they were either killed or imprisoned.

Leone had heard stories of Abnormals being locked away in state-sponsored prisons until the ritual masters had a use for them, at which point they'd be sent off on suicide missions for the government. Well, more jarring was the thought of the stories he didn't hear.
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The ones who were locked away in some cell and died there without ever seeing the light of day.... Leone figured people generally didn't hear about those cases. They simply disappeared into a fate worse than death, which eventually ended with a painful and lonely end. It almost seemed like an execution was preferable to that. "No," Leone said. "Brendwell isn't a good place."

Not for people like her, certainly, but he couldn't bring himself to say it was a good place at all. A country that would treat their own citizens that way wasn't one he could respect. For all of their flaws... Hendrake wasn't nearly that bad.

The forest around Leone was quietly burning, now, but he knew that wasn't true. And she was at least kind enough that there was no heat to these flames. Or maybe it was because his brain knew it was an illusion that he didn't feel the heat. "So," Leone asked, "Are you going to kill me?"

"I..." Stella hesitated. "I was told that I shouldn't trust anyone who comes here. I was told that I should protect myself, and not let anyone get close."

"An interesting outlook," Leone replied, not giving his own specific comments on that.

"But now it's been so long and I don't know that I can stay here like this forever." Stella looked quite sad in that moment. "I don't think... I don't think he had a plan for what would happen after he died. Or maybe his plan didn't work."

He? Plan? Whoever it was, the guy was already dead, it sounded like.

"Are you talking about the guy who brought you to Hendrake?" Leone looked around. He tried imagining the mansion. The laboratory and the secret rooms upstairs. "What was he doing in Cain's estate, anyway? I found strange things here."

Stella shook her head. "I don't understand it all."

"Explain the parts you know," Leone offered.

"I know Cainas was looking for a Devil. But they wanted to invent a way to trap it and prevent it from using its power," Stella explained. Despite her supposed lack of knowledge, she went into a surprising amount of detail on some of the things that had happened here. Things which lacked explanation but began to make more sense in the proper context.

Apparently the method for trapping the Devil required three separate components. The first was the ability to contact a Devil, which would be most enticing if the user was offering to make a contract. Of course, rather than making one, Cainas and Avel had plotted to use this as a mere bait and then trap the creature.

The second component involved some kind of special gates or portals that connected one space to another. This would be useful in creating a space that could trap the devil and would cut it off from the outside world. Apparently the results of these experiments had some unintended side effects, such as creating a portal which led to a sunken den of monsters. This had been the reason for the flooding of the eastern hall, and the wetlands which were the result of the ground in and around the estate being flooded.

This, naturally, arose the suspicion of the locals.
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Coincidentally the third component would be a method for keeping a creature in a stasis. By this point monsters had already been discovered in the dig sites below the estate --these had first enticed Cainas with the prospect of otherworldly powers, and they provided the incentive for Avel to be brought here. It was the perfect meeting of needing an expert to decipher what was going on in those temples below the earth, while also enticing the expert to come and investigate things which had never been discovered before.

In addition to the monsters that had been brought here through the portal later, the land had already become far more dangerous and the townsfolk were quite suspicious. Avel had a plan to deal with the more cunning villagers by using them as experimental subjects for the stasis project. Unfortunately... he hadn't ever made much headway with this. The best he could accomplish was preserving corpses or petrifying victims. Neither condition could be reversed.

Monsters had already slaughtered the remaining humans in and around the estate, leaving only the old man, the insane Cainas, and Stella herself (she was something of an assistant to Avel, but Leone sensed that their relationship was more complicated than that. By the time they managed to capture a devil and trap it in the portal-sealed temple below, the two had a fallout and had parted ways.

"Before they could reconcile," Stella explained, "Avel eventually grew old and sick. He passed away without... without making things clear..."

"I'd say you've made things quite clear already," Leone muttered. Though he still didn't understand how the thieves guild factored into this, there was no doubt that he had just learned quite a bit of information. Now it was his duty to survive long enough to make sure that he shared it with the others.

It was strange, knowing all of this now, it almost felt as if he could have figured out some of these details on his own based on glimpses of knowledge they had uncovered so far on their journey. Yet, at the same time, having it all explained at once made it very easy to digest. And, in addition to that, it confirmed with a level of certainty that couldn't be guaranteed with speculation.

Assuming Stella was a trustworthy source, which she seemed to be, Leone had taken great strides in solving the mystery here. It was only a shame that Cain himself had never known what was going on here, and what his son had been up to. So much could have been avoided... or... perhaps... just knowing the truth before dying would have been better.

"Let me ask you, again, what you are doing here," Stella said. "I feel like I've already told you many things... without even meaning to." She almost looked as if she didn't understand how Leone had charmed her into revealing so much information. Well, that was the point of manipulating people. They didn't even realize until it was too late.

Not that he had done it intentionally or maliciously, per se, but rather this woman seemed relatively naive and it was exceptionally easy to derail the conversation and learn what he wanted to learn. To that end he supposed it was only fair to repay in kind. "Well, to be honest, I came here with a group that was supposed to clean up these lands and make it safe again." Leone frowned, biting his lip slightly. "But I'm starting to wonder if that's even possible."

Between the monster infestation, portals to monster dens that might still be open, as well as whatever was waiting for them down below, it seemed like a problem that couldn't actually be fixed. Perhaps then... "I guess I would say my goal is to find out more about what's going on here and... I don't know... if I want to feel like a good person maybe I'd try to interfere with anything that was too dangerous, if I felt like I could stop it."
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"You mean like finding Cainas?" Stella asked.

"Do you think he's still alive?" Leone inquired.

Stella nodded. "Oh, for certain, he is still alive. The lower levels are infested with his minions, though, and it's not a place that I want to go."

"You know... I really think you'd feel much better if you just went back to Hendrake," Leone offered her. "Though you'd have to be careful not to hurt anyone there. But I don't think you seem like someone who wants to hurt people."

"I just..." Her eyes looked wide now, and distant, like she was seeing a distant plane that was no longer there. Snow seemed to fall into the space between them, as if trying to smother the flames that had taken over the grove, but then as it began to pile up it became clear that it was salt falling down as a waterfall. "I don't think I can be around people anymore. It's too hard. I feel like I'm in danger no matter what."

"It's hard to tell what other people are going to do, that's true," Leone agreed. Then, he figured, it was time to bring this conversation back full circle. "Well, it sounds like Avel taught you not to trust anyone so that you could take care of yourself, so that you wouldn't be taken advantage of."

"But... I think... when you make that kind of decision, you're choosing to live a very lonely life." Leone sighed. "And, you know, the world out there isn't so bad. It's not really so dangerous. I think if something wanted to hurt you that you could protect yourself. And if you didn't go around causing harm then most people wouldn't even look twice in your direction."

Well, that much probably wasn't true. She was fairly attractive and, for those who didn't mind the fact that she was clearly an Abornmal, there would be people who looked her way. But this wasn't a lie. It was just too complicated to explain the difference between what he was talking about and what she was thinking about. "I definitely can't promise that you'll never be hurt, but I'm just saying... if you want to live a normal life that means you'll have to accept that sometimes things won't go your way. But it's not so bad either."

"A normal life...?" Stella seemed confused.

"Ah, you know, it's like..." Leone hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure if he knew what a normal life was, or how he could best explain it. There was a lot of variance when it came to that sort of thing. One person's normal could be considered deviance by their own neighbor. And that wasn't even getting into the difference between cultures, politics, and lifestyle choices.

Then, as he looked up, he saw the scenery around him fade. And the woman who had been standing there moments ago was gone as well.

Leone heard shouting from above and behind him.

"Hey! Hey, Leone, are you alright?!" It was Aaron. The heavily armored man wasn't wasting any time trying to find a way down from the balcony and into the indoor grove. The collapsed ceiling seemed to be shining with real light now, not artificial light.

How long ago had she...?

Leone glanced back up at them and saw that the rest of the group had gotten here safely as well. It was a relief to know that none of them had gotten killed along the way. Stella must have been worried about what would happen if she had been caught in the open by the entire group.

So the reason she had manifested that illusion during their conversation wasn't to attack him. It was to create a veil which would protect herself. Since he didn't know where she was now, or where she had gone, it was easy for her to escape without letting the others find her.
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"Hey," Aaron asked, running over. "Where did that old man go? Did you get him...?"

Leone was still somewhat lost in thought. For some reason there was a weird feeling in his chest. It was like he had just been holding a glass full of water, but now it was empty. "She left," he explained in a half-hearted manner.

"She?" Aaron shook his head. "What are you talking about?"

"Sorry." Leone looked up at Aaron.

"There's a lot to explain."

[End]

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24. Who will find the book?
A. Torin
B. Enoch
C. Jen

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Valter, the Chained Knight - decider

Lancer Aaron - FB
Torin Gemmason - Mana
Jamison, Inspector - maniac

Enoch the Wanderer - crazy
Owen the Coward - stan
Beastkin Zephyr - ermine

Leone the Cat - CPU
Jen Lowell - pk2k
Gunslinger Kidd - drak
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Nice.

B

Also, glad that you're ok.
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B

Hey, a good thing!
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B.

Friendship achieved? Well at least stabbing wasn't the answer.
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Glad you're okay!

B

This seems like an Enoch answer to me.
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...I am concerned about this eight years of sleep deprivation, but...

...I'm a bit hesitant here, but B.

Also yey for not-stabby working! :D
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Haven't read the update yet but you should get a clock that only lights up when you hit a button. That way you can have a clock in the room without the ambient light.
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B sounds good yeah
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B
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Guess I'll toss another vote for B
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That went surprisingly really well, awesome.

B.

On the topic of your sleep, why not just wear a watch that has a button to press that lights up whenever you need? I didn't even know you had problems sleeping. A few things that help me is having white noise in the background, a fan blowing in my case. It just drowns out the excessive noise. Also, I wear a face mask to block out any light coming in, I can't sleep with somewhat bright lights on either.

I used to be on strong sleep meds that slowed your heartbeat but I decided to wing off those.
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As far as light goes I used to put a hand towel in front of the clock in order to block the light.
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I'm sad to say I had a Zephyr subplot planned for this chapter but I ended up needing to cut it because so much text was already required for the main conversation

also toyed with the idea of having Aaron show up and chuck his lance at Stella immediately, but then I figured there was no way she'd be dumb enough to let that happen
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Man that would have been something
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oh ya
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\\---\\//---//
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Going with B.
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Ah-buh-buh-bump
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big update probably on monday
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https://imgur.com/JBnTF4L

(actually posting a preview image before the new chapter, what has the world come to)
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about halfway done. might finish the rest tonight or it might not be till tomorrow-ish!
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Up
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Entry 25: The Book of Promises

For those who had made it this far there was almost an air of surprise and disbelief mixed in with their sense of relief. Presuming that Leone had obtained useful, relevant, and truthful information they had certainly learned a lot about what was going on here. Yet, at the same time, after all that happened... it felt strange. They almost thought, deep in their hearts, that they would all die pointlessly before learning how this story was supposed to end.

Was it really okay for them to be the ones standing right now? Wasn't there anyone else who deserved to survive until this point? For Torrin, especially, these kinds of feelings were weighing down on him. He had struggled with his weakness as a leader but also how useless he had been on the mission so far. It wasn't like he had taken matters into his own hands or accomplished anything. All he'd been doing till now was relying on others and, along the way, led many of them to their deaths.

Did such a person deserve to stay here in a position of authority?

It was probably true that he deserved to already be-... No, that way of thinking wouldn't help anyway. Some people had lost it all, but life wasn't fair. There wasn't anything he could do to change what had happened. The best thing to do now was to lead the group to the best of his ability.

What else was left? There wasn't anyone else who could do it.

Torrin decided to have the group split up, fan out, and secure the rest of the hallways on the balcony and ground floors. From that position, once they knew the manor was safe, they could think about planning an expedition into the space below. For that task he decided to keep Owen and Jamison with himself.

Jamison was tinkering with the frames of his glasses. Those had been broken yesterday but it seemed likely he could repair the frames. Whether the lenses could be salvaged was another matter entirely. But maybe it helped him to find something to do, something to keep his mind busy.

Owen, meanwhile, came over to join Torrin. The heavy, short man looked a bit more assertive and dangerous than he had yesterday. It seemed with each passing hour he was gaining more confidence and more power, and losing a bit of his humanity.

Maybe Torrin was reading too much into it. Maybe he saw things that weren't there.

Being paranoid wasn't very helpful... as they had already learned. Owen had definitely been vital in saving their lives when that other woman attacked them. Although it was hard to conceptualize that it was actually a young woman controlling those illusions, since she had first manifested an illusion of Avel to engage them.

Learning that Avel de Contelard was already dead made the situation feel strangely empty and hopeless. Torrin had been thinking for some time that Avel was likely the cause of all this misery. There was a part of his being which believed this; If we find Avel and kill him then we can resolve this situation.

Well, it was true Avel had made this mess.

But it was definitely misguided to believe it would be so easy to clean it up.

Owen turned his head, studying Torrin. "You seem concerned about things."

"I am," Torrin admitted.

"Do you feel guilty about keeping me here with you?" Owen inquired. "Maybe you think that if I'm nearby that you'll be more safe. But then you have to think that you're sending other people away from where it's safe, and keeping the most powerful shield for yourself."
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Torrin hadn't been thinking that... but he was now. He frowned. "For whatever reason they have chosen to believe in my judgement. I think they know they are being sent into a dangerous place."

"Don't worry," Owen said. "Nobody else is going to die."

There was no way that he could know that. But he said it with a strange confidence that almost made Torrin able to believe it. "When did you become so reliable?" Torrin asked. It was both comforting but also a bit scary.

Owen, at that time, was probably thinking that it was Captain Punch that was giving him confidence. Punch had always been confident, it was true, but he was also the type who was more stoic. He preferred to lead with his body language rather than spouting empty words to try and make people feel better. Owen didn't realize that it was Tristan, the optimist, who was making him talk this way.

Having the memories and ideas of three people living inside of him had been strange at first, on top of whatever else the Moth had given to him. Yet, as more time passed, he began to feel less like himself and more like a blending of all three of them. Or was it all four? Either way, it was nice that he didn't have to be alone anymore. Even when he was by himself... he wasn't...

The eastern wing of the manor was sitting on and above the demonic portal which led to the wetlands and the realm of terrible beasts. Zephyr found his nose twitching with anxiety and a bit of fear. The place smelled like soaked grass and soiled water. The doors, windows, and even walls had been broken down in more than a few places -- and spiderwebs clung to the corners and crevices at what seemed like every turn.

Between the fading light and the dew which clung to them, these webbed ropes seemed wet - they glistened in the light - and yet they gave a feeling of discomfort just by looking at them. It wasn't a fear of spiders or anything like that. Rather, you looked at those webs and you thought 'if I touch those they are going to be all gross and wet and they'll get stuck to me.' It wasn't something you wanted to happen.

Torrin had sent him and Kidd to investigate these two hallways as well as the stairwells leading back downstairs. It wasn't long before they found the broken ceiling and floor section which led down into the flooded corridor below. There was a strange sense of post trauma that rose within Zephyr, being near that place again. "We probably don't need to search below again," Zephyr concluded. "Since we were already down there."

"Hm." Kidd investigated the hole a bit closely. Even while crouching and standing back up he seemed to move slowly now, as if his pain and injuries had begun to dim his physical abilities. Kidd wasn't thinking about what was down in that hole. Or, rather, he was thinking of something else far away from here. And that informed his decision. "Eh, you're probably right. Most of the place down there is flooded, aside from the side rooms we already checked."

That was more or less true, and even if they missed one or two things it wouldn't be the end of the world. Kidd was beginning to think, more and more, that a place like this couldn't be cleaned up so easily with just their small group. Hell, at the end of the day, there was no way that they could expect this estate to be worth anything.

Even if they inherited this place... nobody would want to live on or near a ruined place built half on top of a swamp, over a portal that kept producing monsters. The entire mission was starting to feel pointless. Then, at the same time, Kidd felt like he couldn't just walk away and wait for the Knights to come and sweep the place.
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"What's wrong?" Kidd asked, looking down at Zephyr as they backed away from the hole. "You seem distracted."

"Oh. Er..." Zephyr just smiled weakly and moved to the adjoining corridor. Once he was looking away he dropped the fake smile, but continued to speak as if nothing was wrong. "Yeah, there's a lot of strong smells here. It's messing with me."

"Don't worry about it too much." Kidd limped over and then leaned against the wall, pressing his elbow against the wood. He leaned there for a moment to catch his breath. "I'm sure you'll watch my back."

Zephyr felt his heard trembling as a strange pain was burning on the inside of his skull.

Had he watched Seth's back? Had he watched Matsuda's back? How many people did Zephyr need to fail before someone would start blaming him? He opened his mouth... but he couldn't think about what he should say in that moment. He doubted his ability to really keep Kidd safe. Still, he had already determined that he needed to try and do his best. "Okay. Let's go, then."

The remaining monsters on the estate floor were all emaciated and sick. In addition to being few and far between, this made it rather easy to clean up the rest of the mess here. Having all of the threats frontloaded had caused more than a fair share of grief; but it made the remaining period oddly simplistic and almost underwhelming.

Aaron had split his lance twice while exploring the passages, but Leone had gone along with him to cover his flank. They were also carrying spare supplies for this very reason. Using the technique which Enoch had taught him they were able to repair the lance as needed after their various skirmishes.

Whether it was ironic or even funny, Zephyr and Kidd hadn't actually run into any other monsters by the time they met up with this group. Though Kidd had accidentally walked underneath some kind of strange fungal colony that produced a strange goo. His hair was stick and matted but it thankfully hadn't caused any serious damage or even pain.

"Are you your hair? Or are you your own person? Jeez." Aaron roughly helped Kidd hack away at the pieces of hair which were now so tangled together and soaked with a glue-like agent that it probably wouldn't have even been possible to wash it out.

Kidd didn't seem to happy about having parts of his hair cut off with a utility knife. But it was even worse when he realized that his head now looked uneven. In the end they were forced to spend a few extra minutes cutting away at the rest of his shaggy mane, until he had a normal short and close cropped style. It didn't look very neat or professionally done but it looked fine for a quick amateur job on short notice. And it was better than having tree sap stuck to the side of his skull.

Keeping it there long enough and it might have actually started hurting when it was pulling on the roots.

The group joined up with Enoch and Jen, who had patrolled the northern halls, and went back to the wagon where Torrin was waiting. The manor felt strangely empty. Devoid of threats, devoid of sounds. It was almost more frightening now.

Before they had been thinking this: What will be waiting behind the next door?

Now, a different sort of dread crept up on them: Did we miss anything? If there was some hidden threat still stalking these halls it might stab them in the back at any moment, and yet this couldn't be reconciled with the idea that the manor was now 'safe' and they had cleared it of all the monsters... at least on these floors. Such a simple way of viewing the world didn't work so effectively when it came to reality.
---

With all that being said, those gathered here had only made it this far because their confidence allowed them to keep going. Even the ones who had thought about giving up... hadn't. They set their watches, decided to rest for the remainder of the day, and prepared to delve into the depths below the estate on the following morning.

The sun rose just shortly after Aaron and Enoch uncovered the door leading into the lower hall. It had been slightly blocked off by some fallen rubble but, having discovered it during the scouting on the previous day, they had plenty of time to go over there and open up the route.

Beneath there was a square chamber with plenty of room for the entire group to enter and move about freely. Though it wouldn't be possible to bring the wagon down into these lower passages they could easily send people back and forth between the adventuring party and the supply station.

"We should do it slowly and safely, as much as possible," Torrin reminded the others. But he was also telling it to himself. Giving thoughts a voice made it less likely that he'd make a simple mistake later. He couldn't let even one thing escape his attention.

Following the route forward led them into the next passage. This was set into the lower wall on the western edge of the estate. And, unsurprisingly, they found the area where the wall had been excavated from the outside. It looked like this had been the point of entry for Dismas, Maria, and the others.

Torrin found himself seized by curiosity. Had those ones made it back safely and escaped with a share of the treasure? Had they met a tragic fate down below? Or were they still struggling down there against fiends. Without knowing what was the best possible course of action he reminded himself there was no intrinsic value in rushing down there just to save people who might not be in any danger.

"Look at the people around, you, Torrin," he muttered to himself. "Keep them safe. That's a certainty."

Enoch, who seemed to have overheard the man talking to himself, looked to Torrin. He nodded slightly and smiled before walking ahead. It seemed Enoch was prepared to go first and bring the group into what would be the next chamber.

Down here they found a second study hall which was somewhat similar to the one found above. Leone had a suspicion that there might be a secret room or adjoining closet in this laboratory as well. And, seeing no particular signs of danger, he set about searching the room and looking for secret doors. All the while, Jen Lowell followed him around and looked ready to jump on top of any monsters that might be hiding behind a bookshelf or under a table.

Kidd sat down on one of those tables and surveyed the room with quiet eyes. He looked well rested for the first time in two days. "Let the enthusiastic ones handle the search, then," he concluded out loud. For some reason he felt much older than Leone and Jen. Although, looking at them, they seemed to be fairly close in age.

Thinking about that, he found himself studying Enoch. Just how old was that guy...? He was supposed to be some kind of wanderer, so he must have been on his own for some time now. He had also visited this estate and been friends with the original Cain at some point.

However... Avel, or at least the illusion created by Stella, didn't seem to recognize Enoch when she saw him. Just what did -THAT- mean? Kidd wasn't doubting Enoch's story, or that he was who he said who he was, it simply created more interesting questions with regards to the timeline.
---

How long ago had Stella and Avel come here exactly? Enoch must have both visited here, befriended Cain, and left before Stella arrived. At the very least he and Avel needed to be here at different times, even if Avel was coming and going. But it also meant that Enoch would have needed to be an experienced traveler as early as a few years ago.

The issue was that Enoch didn't particularly look much older than him, or Jen, or Leone. He was clean shaved, but not in the way of a grown man who looked clean but mature. He seemed more like the kind of guy who could grow a beard to make himself look older but he was clearly still a young adult.

No, he looked like-

"Hey, I found something," Leone announced.

While Leone had been searching, Zephyr had helped Torrin go through the material supplies in the alchemy workstation. Some of them had been pilfered already but there were a few things left behind. Combining that with the magical and alchemical items the group had found so far made for some interesting potential. Those objects were set aside for now as Leone drew the attention of those in the room.

Though Kidd didn't rise from the table where he was sitting he did lean forward and peer in the direction the others were going.

What they found in this secret chamber was evidence that Cainas and Avel had both been up to similarly gruesome experiments. If the upstairs lab had belonged to Avel, and this one had belonged to Cainas, it elucidated quite a great deal about the former.

Cainas victims had been completely drained of blood in some kind of bizarre, medically induced slow death. Both of the bodies found hidden in the secret chamber showed evidence that they had been kept alive... but it was hard to guess what the purpose was. They didn't show direct signs of torture or mutilation beyond this bizarre treatment.

Kidd found himself studying those pale, drained faces with a grim thought about what his own future might hold.

"You know something I was thinking," Kidd suddenly blurted out. Hell, he might not be the only one who had thought about this already. Someone needed to say it. "There's no way we're actually going to be rewarded at the end of all this, right?"

Jamison crossed his arms. No one said anything for a moment. This caused the inspector to feel like he was the most qualified person to respond. "You're talking about the state of this place. Honestly... looking around... Yeah, what we were promised by Cain is certainly no fitting reward for the task at hand."

"So then... I don't know...." Kidd looked down at his hands. Could he say the rest? Was it possible for anyone to say the thing that needed to be said right now? Or would they keep their heads down and keep quietly pressing forward out of a sense of obligation.

"Do you think he knew it when he made that promise? That he would entice people here with the promise of a reward just to try and get them to... to do what.... clean up this den of monsters?" Leone shook his head. "And then, I don't know, even after that it's just a ruined keep that is half flooded and impossible to repair. It does seem odd."

"I don't know if Cain was really that manipulative," Enoch commented. "I never thought of him that way."

"Well, if you knew him, what do you think those letters were about?" Leone asked.
---

"If I had to say, I think he was probably being sincere." Enoch shrugged. "Maybe he didn't realize that the place would be in such bad condition by the time we got here. Maybe he thought that it would still be valuable to own the land here... or that there might be people who'd be motivated to kill the monsters just to make this place safe again."

"Oh. Oh, that's right..." Owen suddenly rummaged through the things which he'd been carrying in his personal belongings for some time. It was the land deeds that Punch and Tristan had discovered while exploring the farm on the edge of town.

Looking over those materials it seemed as if someone had taken some of the official documents, including some that should have definitely been kept in the estate, and transferred them to a safe location away from where most of the monsters were.

To put it bluntly, at some point, after the Notes of Cain were written... after that promise was made, that the people who saved this place and made it safe for humans would inherit these lands... someone had the sense to make sure that the land deeds and other official documents had been moved out of the estate. And while this did include things like this rotted, broken down keep, it also included the fertile farmlands and bountiful forests to the east. It included what remained of the village and the undeveloped lands that could be built upon later.

Maybe they'd have to make their own fortune by selling the treasures they found here, but it would definitely be possible to develop these lands and build a life here if the monsters were eradicated. And maybe, in a few generations, the castle could be torn down... repaired... or even rebuilt in a more safe location.

Kidd looked down at his hands and remained silent as the others discussed this. He had never found the ability to say the thing he wanted to say; 'We aren't going to be rewarded, right? So should we really keep going?'

All that was waiting ahead of him now was a dark hole filled with mystery and death. He found himself, curiously, staring at the open door frame that led into the space below. And, he got a strange sense of deja vu. It was like he wasn't the first person to ever do this.

No, staring into that black space, he was sure he wasn't imagining it.

It wasn't that he was afraid of the dark. Rather, instead... there was a mystery and a sense of unease about what was waiting through there. If the door was closed he might imagine ways to think about threats that might or might not be waiting on the other side. But with only an open portal of darkness to survey it was all left up to his wildest fears and his deepest sense of dreaded imagination.

It was the manifestation of the fear of the unknown.

Foolishly, in spire of his better judgment, in spite of being the only one to observe how foolish this situation was... or at least nobody was saying it out loud (nor had Kidd himself, for that matter)... he found himself following the others. Before long he found himself in a room that showed clear signs of death and battle.

Zephyr sallied forth to check the bodies and make sure none of the monsters were getting back up to fight. Meanwhile, Torrin and Leone went in search of any signs of how Dismas and the others might have fared here. There were no signs of that group. Thankfully, it seemed as if they had won this battle and moved forward safely.

"And look at these signs, here," Jamison pointed out. "It looks as if someone used some kind of aerosolized chemical agent against the monsters. We can probably make a safe guess as to who was using the alchemy lab back in the other room."
---

Jamison rubbed some of the chemical residue, staining his thumb with it. "And what they were making. It's a stunning agent." His fingers and hand started to feel numb even from checking the crime scene.

Kidd glanced over at Enoch who had come with him to investigate the western side of the room. Some of the bookshelves and workstations had been knocked over, burning, cleaved in half, blown to bits, or destroyed. However, here of all places, was a book sitting along on a dusty shelf.

Of all the old and crumbled books that looked as if they might fall apart just from being picked up, or surely if you opened the pages, one of them stood out. Or, to put it another way, one book in particular stood out because it didn't look anything like the others. It looked as if it had not been affected by the time or the weathering of this damp cellar.

Enoch smiled a strange smile and reached for it, running his hand across the cover. "Now this is something I hadn't thought to find so casually," he muttered to himself. His eyes were glimmering with a strange greed that didn't fit the personality he had shown to the others at any time before now.

Kidd, mildly curious, and maybe a bit concerned, tried to glean some more information. "What is that exactly? You know about it?"

"I asked Cain about it more than a few times, but he always deflected my requests without giving a straight answer." Enoch picked up the book but hadn't opened it yet. He almost seemed to be embracing it in a strange way, like some kind of lover who had long been separated from him. Or maybe it was love at first sight, if he'd never been granted access to the book until now.

"To think," Enoch continued, "That the book was here all along. Cainas must have taken control of it at some point and brought it down here. I wonder if that was before or after...?"

"Oh, jeez." Kidd frowned. "You don't think he killed his father to get that book, do you?"

Leone, who was standing clear on the other side of the room, glanced their way. No. It wasn't just that. Leone was staring at them. Kidd didn't say anything, and Enoch hadn't seemed to notice, but this didn't escape Kidd's attention. Could Leone hear them? From all the way over there...?

"Have you ever wondered what lies within the edge of a mirror?" Enoch inquired, rather than answering the question. "When you look dead on you see an entire world reflected in that space. Some alternate version of yourself, maybe someone capable of doing things that you could never do..."

Kidd just hesitated for a moment. He wasn't sure how to answer such a strange question, especially when it had been followed up without waiting for a reply. However, given this brief pause in the conversation he found the time to at least speak. "Um... No?"

Enoch just shook his head, seeming annoyed. "There, in that tiny space, lies an entire world. Not a fake illusion, not a reflection of our reality. No, I'm sure of it. If we could somehow see into that narrow space, or get inside of there, we'd find it waiting for us."

"You know..." Kidd shuffled his weight a bit, giving Enoch a serious look. "Do you really think it's a good idea to mess with these sorts of things?" Kidd examined the book as best as he could, although it was held tightly in Enoch's grasp.

So tightly that Kidd could barely read the cover. "Book of Communion."

"Also known as the Book of Promises," Enoch elaborated. "This contains a record of all the deals made between Gods and Mortals. At least, all of the ones that were known about and collected by the eastern scholars before... well, you know..."
---

He was of course referring to the time when the great eastern empire was completely sacked by those same Gods. "Ah. Yeah." Kidd made a strange face. It was a matter of history but some doubted if those events were really true or not. It had been enough centuries that no one could personally vouch for what had happened. They only had old stories to go on. "That complicated relationship between humans and gods ended in a genocidal fashion. And you're interested in that kind of stuff?"

Kidd wondered how the book had escaped the calamity and made it all the way here, hundreds of years later.

"It's been a long time since the last Communion," Enoch pointed out. "Even the Angels can barely remember what it was like when the Goddess of Light still gave them warmth. It's been a long time since those promises were made, or even since they were broken."

"Mhm..." Kidd was growing more uncomfortable.

"Don't you think it might be worth it to try again?" Enoch inquired.

"Are you thinking that you can make the world a better place with the help of the Gods or something?" Kidd asked. For some reason he didn't really like the sound of that. Just what the hell was this guy up to, anyway. "Aren't you worried that book might hold some kind of evil power?"

There was a brief moment of silence that became a long moment of silence. Then, Enoch turned away from Kidd and held the book in front of him. It was hard to see the expression on his face from this angle, but Enoch must have held a rather rapturous face in that moment.

"I don't have time to worry about what is right or what is wrong." Enoch turned the book over. There was a sad look on his face. The cover, the front and back, the bindings. The pages inside and the letters on those pages. The words formed by those letters. All of them held a supernatural weight in his heart. His usual calculated charisma had been replaced by bitter and brutal honesty. "Horror stories don't usually have a happy ending."

"..." Kidd looked over at Leone.

Leone, still watching intently, began to wonder about Enoch. Was that how he viewed this? Some kind of horror story? Funny, because he had always pretended to be a kind and charismatic hero. Though, thinking back, Leone's sense of danger and unease always flared up whenever Enoch tried to get close to others.

Had his instincts been right all this time?

Even if he could have somehow emoted with just his eyes and conveyed some message it was hard to know what he would say to Kidd about this situation. This was beyond his understanding. Only one thought was in his mind right now:

Just... what the hell...?

[...]

.

25. What will happen to the Book of Promises?
A. Someone will take it away from Enoch quickly.
B. Leone will tell Torrin and the others what he heard.
C. Aaron will take matters into his own hands.

(Fun fact: if you check most of the scenes where Leone and Enoch are together you'll see Leone always behaves strangely, often cutting into the conversation and trying to put a wedge between Enoch and others)
---

Took long enough.

B
---