As Rep bonded with the Blade of Harmony, the voices of the other swords quieted. Silver nodded. "Harmony. I suspected as much." ************************************************************* "Would have been nice," Nightshade acknowledged. "But there's no way Cannonball would have let a new mom come with us." Cannonball nodded. "She's right. I would have told Shady to stay home, too, but I know she'd never forgive me."
"There's nothing happening we can't handle," Navaja half-boasted before taking his spot with Azrael on the lift going up. "In the future wear something warm on the Polo Norte."
Nightshade took a brief moment to augment her vision, and studied the tower that rose from the cavern floor and met the ceiling high above. "The door's on the north side. Looks pretty secure. Can you get it open, Navaja?"
As they drew close, the lock came into view. At first glance, it looked like a basic pin-tumblr setup, with an obvious hidden keyhole behind a loose stone in the wall. In reality, there was actually an immensely complex booby trap hidden behind the wall. If the lock was activated without first pulling a nearby lever concealed with a magic cloaking field, it would trigger a chain reaction that would cause the tower to collapse, and bring the roof of the cavern down with it. Honestly, it was a pretty flawed design. More than one ancient wizard had been crushed by his own tower after coming home drunk and forgetting the lever.
"Alright, this looks pretty easy. Just let me--" Azrael stopped Navaja from getting any closer to the lock by forcefully holding him still with his hoof. "No. Magic is in the air here. And not in the nice way. Nightshade, do you know anything about these old towers? Was advanced security likely?"
Nightshade shook her head. "Not much. I know that the old wizards liked booby traps, though, so there's probably more to this than meets the eye."
Figured as much? If I may, why? Hold on, ow, ouch. (Getting a headache before it passes) That kinda hurt. My manifestation that is with Architect, needs to know, what information do you have about Architect? And if they can have a copy of it?
Navaja quickly squirmed out of Azrael's grasp. "That hurts, zombie." Azrael nodded. "So would a booby trap. If I had souls, I could probably better sense whatever this is. Certainly more than we can see."
"I don't know where to get souls," Nightshade said. "We're all kind of using ours at the moment. Did those things... those wraiths... have any soul left in them?"
Azrael shook his head. "No. Nothing I could drain anything from. They've become too corrupt over the years."
Silver nodded. "We collected what information we could about the Architect. Known abilities, presumed weaknesses, potential allies. The basics. I believe you could get a copy from the Guard archivist. I will let her know to give it to you." *********************************************************************************************** Nightshade swore. "Dammit, I wasn't expecting to run into problems this quickly." She kicked a loose stone, which flew through the air and, by sheer dumb luck, right into the cloaking field of the lever. The field shimmered for a split second, revealing the hidden mechanism, then returned to the way it was.
Nightshade nodded. "Probably." A quick examination of the surrounding area revealed the source of the cloaking field; a small enchanted jewel. She popped it loose from its setting, then pulled the now-visible lever. "Alright, that should do it. I think it's safe to pick the lock now."
"Magnifico." Navaja trotted up to the lock, flicked a tiny pick from his gauntlet, and picked his way through after about ten seconds. "Done, now I hope we don't die."
Silver shrugged. "Let me make a call." He stepped outside, and a few minutes later Blackout teleported in carrying a stack of documents. "Is there a 'Representative' here?" ******************************************************************************************************************************** The first level of the tower seemed to be little more than a mud room. Very little had survived the years, save for a few dozen scattered coins that had likely once been inside long-disintegrated pockets, and the rusted remains of gardening tools. Nightshade shrugged, heading for the stone staircase in the center of the room.
Azrael followed Nightshade up the stairs, followed soon by Navaja, after he finished stuffing a few coins into his pockets. "Don't need these anymore," Navaja whispered.
Blackout gave Rep the papers. "The documents you requested. The Commander asked me to give them to you." ****************************************************************************************************** The next level appeared to have once been a storage room. Rusty, useless tools and long-rotted miscellanea littered the area, but nothing of value caught the eye. Nightshade shrugged. "Moving on, then?" "Indeed," agreed Galahad, walking up the steps. "You missed fifteen coins," he scolded, jingling a small bag. "That's nearly five thousand bits left lying on the floor."
