Page 116 of Vasmora

“Yes, pleased to meet you.” Dolion cleared his throat, not intending to sound so dismissive, but the clerk must’ve caught on, as he turned back toward Allura.

“So, what brings you to the Archives?”

“Oh, just some research on osteoporotic metaphyseal fracture in bones from the Agregorian age.”

A moment of silence stretched between them, quickly broken when Thaddeus smiled and let out a small laugh. “Right, right. Do you have your credentials with you?”

“I do.” Allura pulled out the scroll Dolion had given her and laid it on the countertop, hand steady as an oak. “How’s your mother?”

He broke the seal and unrolled the scroll. “She’s well! Always fretting over me, as–” His brows pinched to a frown, the sight of his expression stirring Dolion’s unease.

“Is everything okay?” Allura asked.

He glanced between her and Dolion then leaned in. “This request is dated for today,” he whispered.

Allura slid her gaze toward Dolion and back. “Yes.”

He stared for a few uncomfortable seconds. “Chairman Valois passed away just last week, of a rather tragic accident.”

Dolion’s mouth fell open. A burlap sack could’ve been stuffed down his throat for as dry as it suddenly was.

Thaddeus slid the paper back toward the two of them, his movements slow and deliberate, clearly not wanting to draw attention to the guards at their back. “I’m afraid I can’t grant you access. Our security has been especially tight since we began renovations. Tunnels beneath the archives. Guarded in shifts along the east wall.”

Dolion quickly caught onto the details and gave a slow nod. “We understand.”

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more assistance. It’s nearly supper time for all of us staff. Nearly time to change shifts.”

Allura smiled, subtly crumpling the scroll in her hand. “Good luck with your studies, Thaddeus. It was wonderful to see you.”

“You, as well.”

The two of them turned for the stairwell, Dolion noticing one of the guards eyeing them warily. They slipped out of the small room, and only once they were out of earshot did Allura whisper yell, “Dolion! Truly! Had that been anyone else, we’d have been–”

“I know. My sincere apologies. I had no idea.”

She stomped up the stairs toward the main lobby, tracing their steps from earlier. “So, the guards are due to exchange soon. How does that help? Guards that swap are still guards, and I’m guessing they don’t leave it unsupervised for any length of time.” The quick snip of her words told him she was still angry.

“I don’t know yet. My mind is still reeling a bit.”

“Well, unreel it. I’d like not to be kicked out of my study program.”

They exited the building and rounded it to the east wall, as Thaddeus had directed them, where they found two guards slumped over beneath a nearby tree.

Napping.

“Ask the gods for a miracle, and ye shall receive,” Dolion whispered, as he crossed the courtyard toward a pile of stones where a wide opening had been made into the wall of the building. Tiptoeing toward it with Allura at his rear, he kept his eyes on the guards.

One of the men stretched out his legs, and Dolion froze in place. It wasn’t until the guard settled back against the tree that the mage once more hustled toward the opening. He and Allura slipped inside to a much darker corridor that was lit only by flickering sconces. The air turned bitterly cold, the tunnel brimming with an aura that raised the hair on Dolion’s neck.

“I’ve never been down here before,” Allura whispered. “There was a story of a student who went missing in these tunnels. It’s supposedly quite haunted.” She glanced around at the dark, stone walls that seemed to swallow them, the deeper they ventured.

“In the earlier centuries, Lunasier mages were hunted by both Solassions and Eremicians, as their moon powers were thought to be associated with the darker magic. They were forced underground, in a literal sense, and it was in these tunnels that they studied and honed their magic in secret.” Dolion glanced around, noting the ancient tectuns, Vespyrian letters known to have divine properties carved into the stone. Prayers, mostly. “During the Centrasian Epoch Siege, Solassions found these tunnels, their studies, and set it all aflame, destroying everything and trapping over two hundred Lunasier mages inside, where they burned alive. Only one survived. The tunnels were sealed off, but there are miles of archives and studies still buried and off limits.” He shook his head, stepping over crumbled rubble piled on the floor. “What I wouldn’t give to stumble upon them. I can’t imagine how much history and knowledge of early magic is rotting in these tunnels.”

“Why wouldn’t they retrieve them?” Allura paused to run her finger over one of the tectun drawings etched into the stone. Nosdefendt. Protect us. “It seems like a treasure trove.”

“Because I think our own Lunasier have been indoctrinated to believe the claims of dark magic, they fear it.”

In the distance, pounding and hammering alerted them to the workers, and as Dolion rounded a corner, he observed a number of them chipping away at a colossal stone seal, weathered by tool marks and water leaks, with a carving of what appeared to be Magekae. Like a massive stone coin blocking off the miles of passages beyond it. As they toiled away, the workers didn’t seem to notice the two of them.