Silas made his way down the steps, one after another.
The lantern's glow lit only a small patch of ground. Candle sconces lined the walls on either side, but the flames burning in them were faint, as though they might gutter out into the darkness at any moment.
Beyond the reach of the light, in the pure black, an intangible dread seemed to spread outward, that instinctive human awe of the unknown, like the loneliness a child feels on a lightless night.
Silas, though, remained unmoved.
Shff...
Beneath his feet, an equally dense darkness swayed along with the lantern light. That shadow born darkness was not pure.
Quite the opposite: it was thick with chaotic, turbulent emotion. It was the wailing of countless dead, it was corrupt and filthy curses.
This alien "darkness" wrapped around him, forming a powerful line of defense against the erosion pressing in from all sides.
The steps finally came to an end, and level ground opened up before him. He had reached the second level, where the sealed items were kept.
Silas lifted his head.
His eyes cut through the darkness to see that the second level was divided by walls of different materials, brick, steel, packed earth, silver. These walls formed a series of separate zones, some rooms sealed shut, others left completely open.
Each room held a single sealed item.
He closed his eyes and let himself sense the space for a moment.
Black threads of silk filled the darkness. Nearly all the sealed items within the rooms were suppressed beneath them, utterly still. Only a small handful remained untouched, flickering freely with a spiritual radiance.
From the looks of it, most of the sealed items here were Level 2 or below, with far fewer at Level 1 or Level 0.
So then, which zone would hold the Antigonus family's notes?
Silas thought it over briefly, then decided to head first toward the direction with the greatest concentration of spiritual light.
Shadows swayed beneath his feet as he pressed forward, lantern in hand, deeper into the level.
Strange rooms lined the passage on both sides as he went. Some had their doors shut completely, yet blinding white light leaked out through the cracks, carrying with it an unbearable wave of heat.
Some rooms stood wide open, a self playing music box sitting at the very center, though it was encased in a transparent cover that let not a single note of sound escape.
One room held a steel bathtub, a pit dug out beneath it and piled high with burning smokeless coal and firewood.
And down at the bottom of that bubbling, boiling tub soaked a suit of silver white armor, dark red bloodstains splashed across its plates.
Oh right, this armor... I ran into it during that encounter with the devil that assassinated Duke Niergen. Whatever was inside it nearly cut me down that time...
Silas thought to himself, quickening his pace to put distance between himself and the armor.
He still hadn't found the Antigonus family's notes, but he wasn't in any hurry. There was plenty of time to spare, and it wouldn't hurt to look over the other sealed items along the way.
Just then, a powerful surge of spiritual energy rippled out ahead of him.
The space along one side of the passage suddenly opened wide, revealing a broad chamber several times larger than the other zones.
Silas looked out across it: the empty room was lit in a dim, hazy blue, the glow along the walls casting light onto the presence seated at its very center.
A woman's silhouette.
"!?"
The moment he made out her features clearly, Silas's pupils contracted slightly, and a bone deep chill ran through him.
She was a young woman of striking beauty, smooth black hair spilling out from beneath a classical hooded robe.
She sat at peace in her chair, leaning back against it, eyes closed, head tipped slightly forward, as though she were merely napping and might wake at any moment.
The dim light traced a faint blue outline around her. Her beauty was extraordinary, beautiful enough to stir a fear that reached down to the soul.
This isn't, this isn't the...
Staring at that face, one that had already grown somewhat familiar, Silas held his breath without meaning to.
When the great fog storm broke and he'd run into Ouroboros, he had glimpsed this very same young woman then too. And now, he already knew who she was. The Witch...
"Don't stare too long."
Someone spoke gently from off to the side.
"!"
Silas snapped fully alert and spun around at once. A few meters away, Archbishop Anthony stood watching him with quiet composure.
"My apologies. I didn't mean to startle you."
The Sequence 3 archbishop wore black robes, his face clean shaven, his gaze deep and unreadable. His presence blended so seamlessly into the underground surroundings that if he hadn't spoken up, Silas doubted he would have noticed him at all.
"It's only that you'd gotten a bit too close. That can be dangerous."
"Your Grace."
Silas traced the Red Moon sigil over his chest with one hand, and following the archbishop's warning, put more distance between himself and the figure in the room.
"Praise the Goddess."
Anthony returned the gesture with quiet devotion, then said to Silas, "Anyone or anything that gets too close to her over there disappears completely, without a trace.
The range expands unpredictably. So far, more than seventy researchers have met with misfortune because of it."
"...Thank you for the warning, Your Grace."
Silas instinctively edged back a few more steps.
"So then,"
the black robed archbishop said, turning to look at him, "what brings you down here, Deacon Ishmael?"
His voice was calm and quiet, his deep set eyes settling on Silas.
Silas met his gaze without flinching.
"I've come to retrieve the sealed items confiscated from the bloodline clan," he answered. "And while I'm here on the second level, I thought I'd take the opportunity to learn more about what sealed items the Church keeps. All in service of the work, of course, the better to spread the Goddess's glory."
"Ah, I see."
Anthony smiled and nodded. "Though you needn't have come down here yourself, you know. The cathedral keeps paper records of all the sealed items.
With your clearance, you can access the exact storage location of every one of them, along with the detailed records for every Level 1 sealed item and below, as well as a portion of the Level 0 ones. In other words, only a very small number of the Level 0 items are off limits to you."
"What about this one, then..."
Silas ventured to ask.
"As it happens, this one is among that small handful,"
Anthony answered with a smile. "Even I, once I'm transferred out of this parish, will have the corresponding memories wiped clean."
Managed that tightly, is it...
Silas found his gaze drifting back to the beautiful woman without meaning to.
The chair beneath her was carved entirely from stone, rough and unadorned, blending seamlessly into the stone floor beneath it.
And yet she slept so peacefully, leaning against that cold, hard chair back, a few strands of hair falling loose, as though utterly lost in some sweet dream.
But she would still wake, eventually.
"Well then, I won't waste any more time here, Your Grace."
Silas turned back and offered Anthony a parting nod.
Standing in this dark place alongside a Sequence 3 was no small strain.
He decided to head back up to the first level, take the bloodline clan's confiscated items with him, and then use his own clearance to track down the notebook's location and condition.
Anthony returned the gesture with a smile, watching Silas go, and only turned back once the sound of his footsteps had faded up the ascending stairs. He turned his gaze once more to the sleeping figure within the chamber.
He stood there, gazing at her, for a very long time.
۞۞۞۞
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