War of Dark Ages: A Unicorn's Journey
Chapter 5

“Durdley’s mansion is past the hill outside the North Gate. This way.” Riley turns and strides towards the North Gate. Upon reaching it, he waves to the soldiers and continues forward with the gate disappearing. A few green hills ahead with a forest to the right as they continue walking. To the left and north are a few mountain ranges.

The mansion in the distance can be seen. It stands two stories high with two large pillars in front of the door. On the outside, there is a row of flowers on each side of the steps below the door and the wall itself is decorated with a red burgundy color. Eight rows of windows are on each side. One set below and another above.

They reach the beginning lane to the entrance, and twenty soldiers and ten rangers are outside looking for a way inside besides the main entrance.

Still quite a few feet from the mansion, the silver-haired creature stops sensing another dangerous presence from the mansion. The evil aura surrounding it is vaguely familiar as it gives off a stench of death from the War of Dark Ages.

Both Ragnar and Riley stop and look at her.

Ragner starts to ask a question.

Riley gives him a motion with his hand telling him no.

Reverting her gaze from the mansion to the two men in front, “Neither one of you can see that can you?”

Ragnar looks back at the mansion.

Riley raises his eyebrows. “No, we cannot. What are you seeing?”

“Seems there is an item here from the old world I am from.” The silver-haired creature starts forward to the mansion and stops before the door.

The other two follow right behind her with Ragnar casting a questioning glance at Riley.

She opens the door and cautiously looks around for the item in question as the aura doesn’t change. Stepping through the threshold to look around the room, two pillars stand near the entranceway with a huge staircase in front leading upstairs. On each side of the staircase is a hallway leading to another hallway and more rooms.

Rangar again looks at Riley who just shakes his head and continues to watch her.

The stench is coming from all around this mansion and the silver-haired creature proceeds to the staircase, walking up the stairs. At the top of the stairs, one side goes left and another goes right. A thought pierces her mind, this is going to take a bit longer to figure out where the item or items are being kept. “The stench is too strong. I can’t determine which direction it is coming from. I will need to explore the mansion.” She glances down at Riley for a second before gazing at a large and ugly picture of Mr. Durdley. Sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ (ꜰind)ɴʘvel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

Riley stands below her a few steps, “I had hoped you could sense it; I wonder if they sealed it away.”

“No, it was not sealed away, for the stench to be this pungent. This particular item has been here for quite some time but never used.”

Ragnar stands beside Riley, “You can determine that all at once? Surely it would be logical to assume they have used it.”

The silver-haired creature turns around with a look of bewilderment crosses her face. “If they had used it, you would see destruction on a much larger scale than what you are seeing here. The stench would be seen by all as well as the death it would bring.”

Ragnar gives a perplexed look at Riley for confirmation.

Riley continues his gaze at her as he places a hand on his hip, “Take the men through the mansion and look in every nook and cranny.”

With a groan, Ragnar places his hand on his face giving a disgruntled look to Riley before turning around and heading back down the stairs. From the distance, you can hear him calling to the other men.

To the right is a hallway with a bookcase holding a lot of different-sized books with strange documents. She skims through the books and a particular book called Mr. Durdley’s Adventures catches her attention as it is an odd book. The book is a bit larger with a distasteful design to it. Reaching out to pick it up, the silver-haired creature pauses sensing something about it, and gives Riley a questionable glance, “Are there sometimes books you carry that have a spell over them? Perhaps to hide something or reveal something?”

Riley crosses his arms. “Yes there are, I will need to get Ragnar to see if he can dispel it.” As her eyebrow arches at him, “As good as I am with a weapon and gathering information. I can’t use magic. Ragnar can so he can figure out what is needed to dispel the book.”

Forgetting Riley can’t use any magic makes a mental note to try and keep this in the back of her mind. As something tells her they will be working together a bit.

Riley turns and walks to the rail down the hallway. “Ragnar, come here.”

Ragnar suddenly appears before Riley as if he teleported directly to Riley. “Yes Sir.”

Riley walks to the bookshelf and she steps back a couple of feet. He waves his hand in front of the book, “Can you see if there is anything hidden in that book and perhaps dispel it?”

Ragnar picks up the book in his hands and examines the front of the cover closely. He opens the book and starts to read the pages. After a few pages, he closes the book. “I can dispel it, there is a lock on it. I will need a few moments to figure that out.”

Riley walks to the other side of the hallway standing against the wall, bracing his back against it. He looks in her direction when she walks past him, giving off the presence of a lazy cat studying his prey.

Keeping her body posture unchanging as the silver-haired creature continues walking and enters the room beside the bookshelf. Three large sofas with a table in the middle face her direction and a cabinet with trinkets inside is on the left. The presence and smell in this room hasn’t changed. She walks out of the room, and turns right to continue down the hallway when a click rings behind her.

The book starts to glow and change colors. From the print upon the book, the letters of the title float upwards disappearing and the book suddenly looks misshapen and distorted. As the misshapen book cracks, what appears is a large book containing several documents.

Ragnar turns towards Riley and holds the book out to him.

Riley shakes his head and nods his head in her direction.

Ragnar walks towards her and hands the book out to her.

The silver-haired creature raises her eyebrow at Riley as he says, “You were the one that found it, so it should be yours to read first.”

As the book opens, words come to life. The first three documents before turning the fourth page are a lot of currency transactions. She sits on the floor in the hallway, skimming through the book. More currency transactions appear on the pages with the Kingdom of Saluden and there are no transactions of him selling anything to the Temple of Dierie. Reaching the end of the pages, a symbol from her time is shown. It tells of requests for items to ensure they could make this device. In the reading, it was described as an enslavement chain. And this particular transaction was directly from the Temple of Dierie. It seems this chain was incomplete and required different structures that could only be found in the Cave of Solace or the Cave of the Forgotten Ones north of here in the mountains. Closing the book and standing up, walks over to Riley and hands it over. “I think here, you will find transactions from the Kingdom of Saluden that you were looking for.”

Riley passes the book to Rangar and orders it to be taken to the Barracks for further examination.

Ragnar grabs the book, turns around, and disappears out of sight.

Down the passage are two more doors, another closer to the left of her while the other on the right was a little bit further down. The silver-haired creature walks down the hallway and stops at the door to the left. Upon opening it and stepping inside the room, it is strangely familiar to the room beside it. In fact, it is so identical, wonder if they have a reason for doing this. Casting a glance at Riley, “Is there a reason why he would have two identical rooms next to each other.”

“There is actually, quite a clever technique. Can I ask you to sit on that sofa over there for a few minutes?”

She nods and walks over to the sofa to sit down.

Riley closes the door and moves down the hallway a bit.

Upon hearing him open the other door on the other side of the hallway, glances at her surroundings. All the wood and furniture is blue and it was an interesting shade of blue for it wasn’t bold like the sky or deep like the ocean. It is a pale blue coloring that almost looks slightly dirty. Sitting here in this room makes her a bit irritated.

Riley suddenly opens the door, “Follow me.”

Standing up, for a second, the room looks fuzzy for a moment but realizes that the colors in this room started colliding together. Following Riley outside the room walking down the hallway to the door that is open, they walk inside the room.

The silver-haired creature stops in her tracks as the room suddenly shifts and looks as if another dimension displays knowing it had not. She blinks a few times, realizing what had happened, the color of this room causes everything to spin around her, which makes you feel as if you stepped somewhere else. Everything from the furniture to the fabric and floors is a dark blood-red color. She steps out into the hallway and takes a deep breath to refocus her sight.

Riley follows behind, “It’s a pretty good illusion trick on the eyes. Not using any magic or sensory allows you to weaken whoever you are questioning. By doing this, they can obtain information quite easily from another person.”

“Is this legal by your terms?”

“Because there are no devices that can be seen, they can use any type of color scheme they want in their living arrangements. Even if we have complaints that say they are using it for their own ends. Not having any proof they are using this against the town or kingdom prevents us from doing much.”

“Mm.. . . There are two rooms of the lighter color,” the silver-haired creature turns to face him. “Surely it would be beneficial to have two rooms of the same color?”

“They do, it’s further down the hallway.” Riley points down the hallway.

A frown rests on her brow looking down the hallway. From what she can see, the blue rooms stand next to each other. The red rooms on the other hand have quite a bit more distance between them.

“What is it?”

Asking a rhetorical question, “If the rooms on the other side are identical even to their shape, these rooms should also follow that pattern would you not agree?”

Riley walks down the hallway a few feet before stopping. He turns right and looks around, checking his surroundings, and walks towards the wall bending downward, feeling the floor. His hands skim the wall downward leading up and pauses in a couple of areas. A smile crosses his face when a click is heard and takes a few steps backward, as the wall parts to reveal a secret passage. Riley waves his hand in front giving a deep and sarcastic bow, “After you.”

Raising her eyebrow, she walks past him stepping inside the passageway stopping a few feet inside as Riley passes her. On both sides of the wall are two mirrors on each side. They are encircled by a silver metal frame with gems below the mirror attached to the wall.

“Well now, it seems they were using this to spy and record anything. It looks as if they were using it to see if anyone was lying or telling the truth.” Riley smirks and places a hand on his hip with the other hand on his chin. “Seems we have a lot more information on them now.”

As if noticing a presence, both look towards the passageway entrance seeing Ragnar there. As Ragnar comes forward, passing her with his footsteps casting a hint of annoyance. “Looks like you found something else for us to use against them.” His voice drips in sarcasm and gives Riley an irritated glance.

Riley smirks at him and places his other hand on his hip. “Seems that way.”

Not sensing anything useful, the silver-haired creature starts her way back to the hallway and turns around after passing the mirror to observe Ragnar kneeling in front of the second mirror.

Ragnar presses his hand against the gem, and a click sounds.

Riley looks up and before anyone can say anything a green gas form flies directly into Ragnar’s face.

Ragnar coughs and steps back a couple of steps. As the dust clears, Ragnar’s face is green with his Tattoos emitting an eerie yellow glow.

Riley twists his lips and continues to watch Ragnar. “You know better than to do that Ragnar, I’m surprised you set off the trap.”

Ragnar blinks a couple of times and gives Riley a disgusted look coughing a couple more times. “Well, excuse me for having a lot to do.”

The silver-haired creature instantly notices something disgusting, it smells far worse than anything she smelled before. Her face forms a revolted expression and continues to look at Ragnar placing her fingers over her nose. She takes a few steps backward.

Riley looks at her in surprise followed by Ragnar. Ragnar raises his hand as a hideous odor reaches his nose. “Oh, Hell NO!” He pales and races past her fleeing down the hallway.

A thump sounds behind her followed by a few odd sounds with laughter that echoes along the passageway. Looking back towards Riley she raises her eyebrow.

Riley is bent over and laughing very hard. He sinks to his knees and keeps laughing. It seems these creatures have a very strange sense of humor. Streaming tears run down his face as he laughs for a good minute or two. He suddenly stops and takes a few deep breaths while trying to regain his composure.

Streaming tears run down his face as Riley laughs for a good minute or two. He suddenly stops and takes a few deep breaths while trying to regain his composure.

“Him smelling awful is funny to your kind?”

Riley grins and rises off the floor. “Something like that. Ragnar is good at finding traps, so it was really funny he set off one that smells bad.”

A huge sound of thunder rolls in their direction clashing against the building. The sound of heavy rain resounding on the roof calms her down.

Riley watches her, “I think we should finish exploring. At least get some of it done before he comes back.”

They leave the passageway and her hands leave her nose as the smell becomes a lot less.

“Let’s look at these remaining rooms.” Riley gestures to the end of the hallway.

They enter a very large room to her left with a huge table in the middle surrounded by twelve chairs. The room has several decorations on the walls, lamps, and other items. Yet there is nothing noticeable that attracts her attention. Her gaze follows Riley standing on the other side of the room looking at a picture on the wall. “There is this room and one other we have not touched?”

Riley, still looking at the painting, “There are two other rooms. One is across the hallway connected to that red room. That room is a storage area. We have investigated it and still found nothing in there that was connected to any investigation we did. Mostly piles of trinkets with hordes of dust on them.” He is still gazing at the picture.

The silver-haired creature walks over to look at the picture.

He continues, “The other room is on the other side of the red room closer to the staircase. It’s the same room as this one with different pictures.”

The picture looks like a creature with different snake heads biting off the creature’s parts below.

Casting a glance at Riley, she moves to the door leading out of the room.

Riley follows, “Would you like to explore more here?”

Not sensing any change in the presence around the area, shakes of her head and walks forward to the staircase, “What is on the other side?”

Riley pauses a couple of feet behind her and looks towards the area on the other side. “Those are the kitchens to make food. We have looked up and down that hall, but we have not seen anything that could be useful.”

Her hand rests on her chin and walks down the path toward the other side pausing at the giant picture. A huge gust of wind with a clash of lightning throws the doors open below. Suddenly, the scent became slightly stronger in the direction of the kitchen, however, unsure if it came from above or below.

A few men close the door dripping wet.

The silver-haired creature walks down the hallway to the kitchen area noticing a lot of open doors.

Riley follows right behind her.

The first entry down the hall on the right and left are kitchens on either side. Not sensing anything, she marches down the hallway at a steady pace, never pausing at any other open doors. At the end of the hall is a closed door. Opening the door, the scent doesn’t change so it must have come from downstairs. The silver-haired creature turns around and walks out of the room down the hallway to the staircase at a hurried yet graceful pace.

Riley is in pursuit behind her and keeps casting a glance in her direction noticing the change in her pace.

As the descent down the staircase starts, a swearing Ragnar causes her to halt on the steps.

Ragnar is marching up the steps with a displeasing look on his face.

Riley coughs.

Ragnar stops and looks up scowling. “You better not tell a damn soul about this Sir.”

Riley, and even though the voice he used was calm, the gleam in his eyes betrayed his thoughts. “You have my word; I will not tell a single soul of what transpired in there.”

Ragnar swears and shakes his head. “Not fair! You’re damned drunk and I’m the one that had to get gassed by a friggin trap!” He grumbles and turns around heading down the staircase. They follow down.

Riley puts his hand to his mouth chuckling all the way.

The silver-haired creature stops at the landing and the pressure shifts with the stench slightly higher to the right. Pressing onward down the hallway with Riley and Ragnar following her trail, She passes the two doors on the right side, stops at the third door. Raising her hand, and closing her eyes, The wall slightly past the fourth door gives off a strange aura. Opening her eyes, she walks down the hall and stops a foot before the fifth door. There is a passage leading to a lower chamber. Remember what happened to Ragnar, steps backward and points to the wall in front of her. “There is a passage here.”

Riley says, “Rangar, find a way to open it. If you would Miss, we can stand over here while we wait for him to do his work.” Moving to stand beside Riley, they watch Ragnar perform his art.

Ragnar examines the wall, sniffing and listening to it. He kneels at the bottom of the wall and suddenly looks up at the lamp above him. After the examination of the lamp, walks past the door to the other side where a bookcase stands, and grabs a small book on the lower left shelf, slightly pulling it out and pushing it back in. Two shelves above it, he moves over five books and then presses two buttons simultaneously on each side of the bookcase. The middle shelf disappears revealing another book with it lying flat on the surface. He takes the front cover and slowly opens it to the other side. Upon laying the cover down the wall disappears and reveals another hidden passage.

Riley smiles ever so slightly at Ragnar.

Ragnar swears and shoots Riley with a disgusted look. They move towards the passage entering and Ragnar raises his hand drawing forth a light spell dispelling any shadows descending the spiral staircase. As they enter the room, they stop to see a lot of boxes with both relics and weapons to the left and right in this impossibly large room.

“Get Commander Kail and the men and bring them down here. Seems we have a lot of work to do.” As Ragnar leaves to go up the passage, Riley looks at her, “Is the item you were feeling down here?”

Not casting a glance in his direction, the presence did change. The scent was fresh but the item itself could not be determined upon glancing in the room as the dark miasma spread across everything. “Give me a moment.” Stepping slightly forward, she kneels and places her hand on the floor. With her eyes closed, she focuses her magic on the area and the item causing her hair to stand up in waves behind her. A circle appears beneath her spreading over every item in the room.

Riley raises his eyebrows and watches the beautiful magic spread across in a silver light touching everything in the room including the walls.

After the magic touches everything, the silver-haired creature stands up walking forward to the other side of the room. Looking up at the wall is an ornament in an odd jagged circular shape with wires leading from the outside to the inside where a gem rests in chains.

Riley stands a few feet behind her, “I take this is the item from your time? An odd piece.”

After glancing in his direction, becomes aware he is talking about the whole structure. Reaching forward and grabbing the gem causes the wires to break as it is removed. “This gem with the chain around it, is an item of the old world.” The gem lies in her hand. Wiping the dust in one sweep of her hand causes the gem to emit a dirty and awful green color.

“What does this do?” Riley bends towards the device. After not receiving an answer, he looks up with a look of contempt and remembers the agreement. “Right, no questions asked. I forgot about that, My apologizes.”

The silver-haired creature gazes at him for a minute before looking back down at the gem.

Riley turns around and looks around the room, “I was hoping this wouldn’t take long but with this much here, what was that Durdley fellow up to?” Riley walks down a few steps pausing to investigate a box on a desk.

“Probably has more to do with the Temple of Dierie, but some of these items are also from the Kingdom of Saluden.” She raises the gem slightly higher examining it.

“From the Kingdom of Saluden!” Riley exclaims and turns around staring at her in complete astonishment.

“Yes, it was in a book I handed to you to copy. From the transcripts I saw, there was more from the Temple of Dierie than the Kingdom of Saluden.”

Riley grows quiet with his hand on his chin. “This might work more in our favor. If we can prove that some of these items are from the Kingdom of Saluden, we might be able to permanently close relations with the Temple of Dierie until further investigation.”

“The temple is connected to Saluden?”

Riley replies, “The temple is in Saluden Territory and therefore one of its places of worship. In other words, they work for the Kingdom of Saluden.”

The Kingdom of Saluden was on the list of places to visit, as they knew about the trees but nothing from her time. Still thought to be certain an investigation might be necessary. Seems her list of exploring areas was piling high. She glances down at the gem, “I will need to destroy this.”

“Destroy it?” Commander Kail came down with Ragnar and a few men.

“Yes, as it holds the same scent of those trees and the wall. I’m sure you wouldn’t want anyone activating by accident and suffering unbearable torture?”

Commander Kail crosses his arms and frowns. “A torture device. Can you destroy it without harming anyone?” After a short nod. “As much as I would like to know more, the agreement we have still stands. Is there a way to seal the device to ensure no one can use it?”

“No, this device holds tainted magic. Something that can’t be sealed even by me. I can destroy it, but I will need to do it outside.”

Commander Kail walks forward standing in front of her placing his hand on the gem, “Very well, I shall trust your judgment. From the look on your face, this item brings you a bit of pain.”

The silver-haired creature looks up at him remembering how he calmed her down. She nods and moves her hand away walking to the passageway leading upstairs.

Both Riley and Ragnar give him an annoyed look.

Commander Kail orders his men to stay and transfer the items from this room to the Barracks Storehouse.

Riley orders his men and Ragnar to do the same as they both turn and leave the room heading back upstairs. As they leave the building, the storm has already passed leaving a wet mist low to the ground. To the left past the mansion where the silver-haired creature stands holding the gem up in her hands. They walk past the mansion as the gem in her hands rises in the air.

A clear globe-like prism surrounds the gem as blue lines spread across forming a cage. Drawing in a deep breath, and closing her eyes a small dark circle appears slightly above the gem emitting a dark aura. The dark circle disappears as an incredible explosion occurs inside the gem casting a dark bright light for a few seconds blinding almost everyone. The dark circle fades as they both look towards the hills. Dust is falling to the ground as the sphere is nowhere to be seen. Her hands lower, sigh in relief, turns around and walks back towards Commander Kail. “There, it is destroyed. That spell you saw is a smaller version of the spell I will need to cast.”

Commander Kail looks at her with discerning eyes before looking at Riley.

Riley stands in shock staring at the hill and looks at her with a startled expression across his face.

“Since there is nothing more here requiring my attention, I shall take my leave. I would like to right to speak with this Mr. Rysen as he interests me.” The silver-haired creature says to Commander Kail.

Commander Kail nods, “Give me till tomorrow. There is a lot to do and me and my men will be tired. From what I have heard, you require no sleep but creatures like us need our sleep.”

“As it is getting late, would I still be allowed to search the Temple?”

Without looking in her direction Commander Kail replies, “Yes. I will send one of my soldiers over there to let them know.”

The silver-haired creature walks towards the North Gate.

Behind her Commander Kail and Riley are still standing where she left them. Riley grabs Kail, and he is saying something to him. Kail grabs Riley’s hands and says something back to him that calms him down.

Looking forward, the sun is setting in the distance. The gate draws near, and the guards don’t stop her as the gate isn’t present. She decides it is time to return to the tavern to take another sponge bath and clean this filth that is on her.

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