Nobody moved. Nobody wanted to be the first to step down and be killed by a trap, or be the one to set off a trap to kill all of them. They knew that without a doubt the first person to move would be the first to die, so they all stayed as still as statue, despite the tantalising call of the simple metal hammer that sat quietly mere meters away from them. Yveth desperately wanted to take the first step, but she vividly remembered her first foray into this cathedral of pain and destruction upon trespassers. She had been the first person within the building, and the first to set off the traps. If not for her incredible reactions gifted to her by the bones embedded within her flesh then she would be just as dead as her former peons that spattered the floor of the hallway behind them.
“We’re going forwards as a group,” she said finally, after waiting for far too long for her own tastes. She grabbed Samul and hoisted him in the air, removing any chance of agency that the soldier would have liked. Despite Dayel’s words, the soldiers around her were still simply weapons for her to use as she willed. Until she was in a situation where there was not the threat of imminent death looming over them, she would continue to use her tools like tools. As Samul kicked and wriggled under her grasp, she leaned forwards and whispered, “Don’t move so much, and we all might get out of here alive. When we get into the middle of the depression you grab the hammer and we’ll leave alive. Don’t drop it, and definitely don’t try to be smart. Smart will get us all killed”.
Immediately the young man nodded and stopped kicking as much, but the grip upon his Book only intensified. Slowly, they moved forward in unison, carefully testing each tile below them before stepping down firmly. The descent was slow, but short, and only served to increase the concern of the group. Their nerves were coiled as taut as a spring as Samul reached out and made contact with the hammer but nothing happened even as he grabbed hold of it properly.
He pulled the hammer away from the plinth, and almost immediately the room began to shake. There was a crunch and several clanks as the doorway they came in from sealed itself shut and mechanisms began working behind the scenes. Almost imperceptibly at first, light began glowing on the floor, spreading over the wall and slowly formed a sentence in the common tongue. Frauds and thieves will be crushed to death, a true Hephaistian can solve this trap in moments.
Yveth growled in anger and looked up at the ceiling as it began to sink down upon them. The door was shut and despite their best efforts channelling their Gi, it seemed to be ineffectual against the mana sealed within the device around them. She glanced around at her companions as their doom hung over their heads and smiled as she watched Dayel work. Even in such stressful times, he was calm and meticulously ordered their squad to look for anything that could help. He ordered Samul to flick through the Book and see if anything was there about the building, kept a group of soldiers at attempts to break the door and had the rest search every nook and cranny for something that did not belong, however none of his plans seemed to be bearing fruit fast enough.
“Dayel, love, that direction should bypass the camp we set up right?” She asked, pointing just to the left of the doorway they had come in from.
“What? Yes but... oh, OH!” He gasped as the slots fell into place. “Are you sure? I mean the reverse impact is catastrophic...” Yveth simply nodded and grinned, her cheeks flush with excitement. “MEN! PULL BACK BEHIND THE PRINCESS. KEEP CLEAR AND COVER YOUR EARS, THIS IS ABOUT TO GET VERY LOUD!”
The roof continued to clank and whirr as it sank lower and lower, but Yveth no longer paid attention. Her essence, which had swelled beyond belief due to all the essence she had taken from others, began to pump into her spine before cycling through her body. One after the other, excess piercings began shattering and her naturally gaunt frame became fleshy and full of life. Her skin tore and repaired itself thousands of times in an instant, covering her in white scars that were barely visible to the naked eye. Slowly she made her way to the wall that she had pointed to and pulled her fist back before slamming it into the wall. There was a crumpling and tearing screech that followed the crack and rumble of the sound barrier breaking several times. The force of the strike broke the wall apart with ease, but also tore the ground in front of Yveth up in its wake and formed a cone shaped gorge that stretched for several hundred metres.
After the strike, Yveth breathed out deeply and walked through the hole she had made. Dayel was next and his men followed suit moments after, but none of them took their eyes off the woman in front of them. Her fleshy, voluptuous form was gone, but her insane gauntness was no more either. With the loss of her piercings she seemed to have put on some healthy weight and returned to normalcy, however she was still covered with scars and holes that would require filling. She turned and gave the soldiers a cold smile before walking over to Samul and taking the hammer from him.
“If someone traps you in a box with no exits, then your only way to escape the box is to break it”.
The group nodded quietly and returned to their camp to rest and recuperate before moving on. The soldiers all sat by the campfire and chatted as Dayel and Yveth lay in bed in her extravagantly decorated tent. Yveth just laid back and felt her soldier run his hands all over her and rub her muscles, his hands covered in an Avalonian mixture to promote healing.
“So what now?” He asked.
“Well we have the first statuette, but I still have no idea if that building was the cathedral, crypt or family. I mean there were no corpses, so that rules out the crypt, but the other two? Sure the building is fancy enough, but it was also obviously a test for their clansman”.
“Then this sounds like a dead end...”
“Don't say that,” Yveth replied, “I'm still basking in my victory and my first seal being removed”.
“Fine then, how many are left before you're stronger than your father?”
“Two, and then my body will have filled with the Gi it was supposed to have”. She pushed Dayel’s hands away and sat up before grunting in disgust. “I hate to admit it, but I need to see the auger again”.
“Again? But she said your next visit would be the last time you came to see her for direction”.
“I know, and I have to wonder if why she said that is because of our success, or because of our doom catching up to us. I have a feeling that I’m just going to end up with more questions at the end of the meeting, and I hate it”.
“It’s the reason why everyone hates prophets. They’re obnoxious, and they love hiding stuff from you”.
Grabbing a full body cloak, Yveth wrapped herself up before striding outside and looked around at the men chatting, eating and sleeping in the nearby vicinity. “Rest up,” she said, “We’ll be moving in the morning. We’re going back to the auger”
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