Chapter 146: Chapter 142: An Escort Explores a Vault.

 

As she had encountered odd spatial tricks before in the place beneath her basement, Brandy was unsurprised by the weird tunnel created by this floating stone plate that had turned into a floating stone ring. It was still making a low grinding noise that made her hair stand on edge as the circles within the tunnel kept on spinning. Still the stone plate was quite the sight, and she was glad that so far everything had gone well. Granted she did have to deal with that prick Mark groping her up, but she had to deal with that ever since she started selling her body. The man smelled like alcohol, clearly having drunk a good deal that day.

Right now Brandy was currently walking around waiting for Eric to give the all clear when he had verified there were no traps. She had gone to the edge of the floating plate giving her an odd view. Within the stone portal the tunnel went on for at least twenty feet. Yet from the outside it did she could see the edge of the plate was only a foot thick. In fact she could see the back of the stone plate which was surprisingly flat. Rubbing her hand along the back, it felt like it had been polished as well. The stone felt like nothing she had ever touched before. Even using Examine on it didn't bring up much information other then it was made out of granite.

She made her way back up the staircase and saw Eric coming back down the tunnel. He was nodding to himself as he walked. The catkin then said to the both of them "Well the door does not appear to be booby trapped, but it is locked and none of the keys on the keyring work."

Edwards said "Damn. The key is probably on the Earl, which makes sense now that I think about it. Are you able to get it open?"

"Yeah it's not an overly complicated lock so I should be able to get the door open. However to do so I'm going to have to break the lock as this one has a special feature to tell if a lock has been picked. Now originally it would have made the lock unworkable and barred the door from opening again. But I can get around that by destroying the pins in a specific way." Eric said.

"Well no helping it. Not like they won't know they were robbed when they can't find the crystal." Edwards said, shrugging.

Eric nodded, and they followed him to the doorway. He reached into his clothes and brought out several tools and began to work on the door. While he was doing that Brandy looked at the Viscount and asked "So how big is this crystal anyway? I hope it's not too big otherwise we won't be able to move it."

"It's not terribly large. The crystal is about a foot long and half as wide. You will recognize it by it's deep red ruby color, the control mechanism that surrounds it looks like a cage. Despite its small size it's actually pretty heavy. It weighs at least eighty pounds, so I might need some help moving it to my spatial bag." Edwards said, patting a bag on his side. "If you want, I can fit a lot of loot in my bag. If you see something you want just let me know and I can store it for you."

At that moment there was a sharp clicking sound from the door. Eric stood up and pushed open the door to the vault. Nodding in satisfaction "Okay the door is open." Eric said to them.

"Good." Edwards said and reached into his spatial bag and put down a thin sheet onto the ground. Once it was down, it seemed to melt into the stone and disappear.

"What was that?" Brandy asked.

"It's a sensor to let me know if anyone comes into the vault while we are in there." He gave a demonstration by steeping and a green light coming on the bracelet he was wearing. "No one should come down here, but just in case they do I would like a heads up."

"They can't shut us in the vault right?" Eric said.

"No, as long as the vault detects active minds within the vault it will not close." Edwards said.

Brandy nodded in satisfaction and was the first to go through the vault door. Her jaw dropped at the sight and she said "Well finding your crystal looks like it's going to be far harder than we thought."

The room they had entered was massive and was built in an octagonal shape. On all the sides were hallways that curved off blocking sight and a grand staircase rose up to all three floors of the room. If Brandy had to say just one word about the room, it would be rich. This room held enough wealth to make a King feel like a pauper. The walls were panelled in a rich red wood that looked like it had freshly polished. Several gold designs were mixed into the walls as well. Ornamental stone reliefs were plastered above the various hallways that were clearly made out of marble. Even the vaulted ceiling was made out of gold and a silver metal.

In the center of the room were several large planters with small shrubs and trees growing out of them. Brandy could not place what they were, only that they looked exotic. In the center of this garden was a massive sculpture of a woman whose arms were wings, she was clad in gold. In her mouth was a pitcher from which a stream of water was flowing down into a pool. Throughout the room were other sculptures of people in various poses, even a few animal sculptures could be seen. Some were made out of marble while others were casted from bronze.

Even the floor was expensive, being made out of black and white marble interspaced by gold edging. When the pieces came together, a jewel was implanted into the ground. Stepping out into the room gawking, Brandy said "This place looks massive. There is no way we can search all of this place before dawn, hell we would need at least a few days." Brandy turned back to the others and asked "Should we split up to cover more ground?"

Eric quickly shot that down by saying "Just because I haven't spotted any traps yet does not mean there are none. I don't know if they implanted traps in the vault but given what I know about bastards like the Earl I wouldn't put it past them."

"You really think they would put traps inside a vault that was already pretty secure?" Brandy asked.

"I do." Eric nodded. "The complex method to get into this vault in the first place tells me that the Earl is a paranoid man. As such it would be a good idea to stick together for safety."

"Eric is right." Edwards said, frowning. "This place is massive, far more than I had anticipated. Still I do have a backup plan just in case we are unable to find it. But time is wasting so we should get going."

Viscount Edwards chose to go down the first hallway and Brandy followed him. As she walked down this hallway, she took a look at the stone reliefs as they walked. As she had no real formal learning, it was hard to say but she felt the relief showed various scenes of history. One portion appeared to show the founding of Keston. "This place looks incredibly expensive. How exactly did the Earl afford to make this Vault?"

"I'm unsure if he paid for it or his mother did. Either way the Earl, despite the appearance of the mansion, is actually quite rich. He acquired his wealth through a lot of dirty business. But he didn't exactly make this vault. By creating the pendant, you actually create the vault itself. In the process of creating the pendant, you offer an obscene amount of gold to create the size of the vault you want.”

“However, you also have to pay a price to maintain access to the vault. Should you lapse in payments for the upkeep of the vault the door to it will no longer open until you pay off your debt. The owner then only has three years before they lose complete access to the vault. After which whatever was in the vault becomes the property of whoever made the stone plate."

"I have to say this sounds a lot like a bank." Brandy said.

"It should, as far as I can tell the stone plates were part of a central banking system that the old kingdom had. It was however not for everyone as the minimum payment for a pendant is about two thousand big gold coins."

The hallway they walked through led them into a big room with dozens of rows of tall wooden shelves lined with wooden boxes. Going up to one she pulled it out and found the inside was filled with some kind of dried up leaves. There were hundreds of similar boxes each labeled with strange sounding names. Eric said "My god this would be an apothecary's dream. What is he doing with so much herb and the like?"

Edwards said "Most likely for his health. Even with the aid of magic, the Earl has chronic conditions that need to be treated often. In addition part of this is likely to deal with his side business. He sells drugs to some of the lower-class nobles who then sell it within their lands. In any case I do not believe the crystal to be here, so we should move on."

Eric nodded, and they continued on through the room. As she was walking past Brandy took the chance and grabbed some of the boxes placing them into her inventory. She did not know the true value of most of these plants, but they should be worth something. Plus it was worth getting in contact with a healer for her brothel. After going through another short hallway, they came to a large room encased in glass. A light was coming through providing for the plants that were growing inside. Brandy realized they were in a giant greenhouse.

"Hmm I'm beginning to think this isn't the right path." Eric said. "This particular hallway doesn't seem to deal with any artifacts. I'm thinking we should head back."

Edwards sighed and said "I think you are right Eric. Let's quickly head back to the main hall and try going down another hall."

The three of them quickly backtracked to the hallway with stone reliefs. But before they could enter the hallway back to the main room Eric stopped them. He bent down and looked down the hallway. "I think something has changed about this hallway." He said after a bit.

"What exactly are you seeing?" Brandy asked.

Eric was silent for a moment then pointed at one of the walls of the hallway. "Do you see that hole next to the carving of a man playing a drum?"

She could see it and now that she was paying closer attention spotted several more holes. "Yeah, I take it those holes weren't there before?"

"Yeah, I'm certain of it. I'm guessing it's part of a trap. Based on the size either darts or arrows would shoot out. I would also suggest fire, but given the proximity to dried herbs and the wooden shelves that would not be a good trap to use. Most likely if you were to walk down that hallway, a quarter of the way, the trap would activate killing you."

"What if the thieves wore armor?" Brandy asked.

"If it's darts, probably won't get through the armor, but most thieves don't wear full armor. If it's arrows, with such close range it probably could punch through plate steel given enough force. Either way it's not something I want to test." Eric said.

"What caused it to activate now?" Brandy said.

"Most likely when you took those boxes of plants. It's a trap to catch someone who has put down their guard and is walking out. They think they are safe because they didn't find a trap and then bam struck dead." Eric said.

Brandy frowned and said "Then to deactivate the trap, do I have to put these boxes back?"

"You could, but I don't think you need you to do so. I'm pretty sure the Earl must have a way to shut off in the case he needed to bring out something. The mechanism to turn it off should be nearby to be easy to access and because this trap is not too complex looking. Take a look around for anything out of place" Eric said.

Brandy nodded and began to look around the entranceway. While she was looking, she came across a marble statue that had been carved to appear to be emerging halfway out of the wall. It was of a woman holding out what appeared to be an apple. Something struck her as odd about the apple and she realized that the arm was not in the right position. Looking closer she saw a very thin line around the elbow making it look as though the arm itself could be moved. "I think I might have found something." Brandy said to Eric who was on the other side of the entrance.

He came over and took a look at the arm she was pointing at. "Hmm." He hummed for a bit and knocked on the statue while also putting his ear to it as well. Then he nodded. "I think this is it. Good job finding it Brandy. You two stand back while I move this arm."

Brandy and Edwards took a few steps back, and they watched as Eric began to wiggle the arm back and forth. "Looks like it has a combination, shouldn't be too difficult to figure out." Eric said as he twisted the arm while listening to the statue.

There was a strange clicking sound occurring and Brandy looked around for the source of it and was startled to find a series of spikes were beginning to lower down from the ceiling. Startled Brandy said "You might want to hurry up Eric, cause we are about to get a few piercings more than we bargained for."

"Yeah I know. That wasn't me. Something flipped a switch somewhere." Eric grunted as he moved the arm around and got it into the correct place. The Spikes made a squealing sound and then began to retract back up into the ceiling and the holes in the hallway closed back up. Eric turned to them and said "I'm pretty sure someone triggered that secondary trap on us while I was messing with the arm."

"Are you certain it wasn't because of you moving that arm?" Edwards said.

"I'm positive." Eric said. "That arm can only deactivate, not activate."

Brandy frowned as they carefully made their way back through the hallway. She asked Edwards "Could someone else be in here? I know you said the door to the vault could not close with someone inside, but is there truly no way? I mean those plants in the greenhouse looked alive. Plus some of those hallways look like they might have animals down them."

Edwards looked lost in thought for a moment and then shook his head. "Anything with an active mind of sufficient intelligence will force the vault to remain open as long as they are inside. If there is someone in here when it was opened they are either dead or effectively brain dead."

When they arrived back into the main hall Brandy took a moment to look at the entrance to the hall they had just exited. Above the doorway was a marble relief of a man in the process of putting something into a bowl and grinding it up. Another statue next to it was in the process of picking a plant. "Take a look at that marble relief. I thought it was just decoration, but after we saw what was in that tunnel maybe these reliefs are meant to hint at what lies within the hallways. Using them, we might be able to narrow down which hallway has the crystal."

Edwards nodded, and they split up to inspect the reliefs over each hallway. Unfortunately, most of the reliefs were completely cryptic with a few exceptions like the one they went into first and one of a boat fishing. However, they did eventually narrow down their options to four hallways. Given the timeframe they were working with, it would be a tight squeeze to search all four of them so hopefully they would find it fast. Brandy was getting a dreadful sense about this place the longer she was in here.

The next hallway they chose to go down was one where the relief showed people to digging in a pit and then showing what they dug up to various other people. Like the first they passed through another passage with more of those reliefs showing past events. Now that she knew what to look for, Brandy could spot the locations on the wall where holes would open up. The room this passage lead to was one with dozens of stone pillars at chest height. On each of them were various objects with a glass case over them. There were also plaques detailing the object inside. Along the walls were pieces of what appeared to be walls with murals on them.

Edwards took a closer look at one of the objects. "Most of these appear to be various historical objects recovered from various places around the continent. Some appear to have some connection to the Well. For instance like the Stone mural hanging on that wall. If I had to guess it was created about two hundred years ago honoring the monks who first swore service to the Well."

Brandy took a long look at the mural he was pointing at. It showed a group of men wearing robes forging giant rings and then lowering a cage into a massive pit of fire. Nearby on a large rock was a massive monk that towered over everyone else. "Who is the big monk?"

"Most likely that is supposed to be Lord Adarnas. He was once a King who gave it all up in service to the Well of Purification. He was incredibly popular at the time and led several wars against corruption cults that had sprung up after the Goblin Wars. It was at one of the last wars that Lord Adarnas would disappear never to be seen again. It is rumored that he ascended to serve one of the gods, though none of the divines have admitted as such. His followers afterwards built a tomb for him near the Well in honor of his service, though the location of it was lost. I'm unsure how the Earl got this mural here. Especially if word ever got back to the monks, he would have been visited by the Order of Purity."

"What is the Order of Purity?" Brandy asked.

"The monks at the well do various different tasks around the well. Each of them is housed under different orders, such as the Order of Pilgrims who help those who come to be purified. The Order of Purity monks, however, act as both their guards and soldiers. They train intensely to take down anything and everything with corruption. They only accept the best of the best within their ranks. It is said that not even the Empire soldiers would be able to stand against should the Order ever decide to march upon the capital of the Empire. Though it is also said that the Emperor would only simply need to wave his hand to crush them. So who knows." Edwards said, shrugging.

"Then should we inform them then about this?" Brandy asked.

"That would not be a good idea for any of us. If they found out that I was holding onto that crystal, my fate would be far worse then the Earls. For helping me you two would face just as bad punishments. The Order of Purity will drag you off and do who knows what. You might have to serve them for the rest of your life, so it's best that we don't alert them." Edwards said.

"If they are so powerful, won't they be the best people to protect the crystal?" Eric asked. He was looking at a few of the pillars, like he was seeing if there were any alarms on the pedestal.

Edwards shook his head. "I once considered them, but as I dug into them I found that they are incredibly secretive about their Orders. From the actions they have taken I get the feeling they are a bit power mad. Giving them access to such a powerful weapon is not a smart move in my opinion. If they were more open maybe. At the moment they are too zealous for my liking. I've seen the folly men can do when they become too sucked up into their beliefs."

They continued to search the room for a bit for the crystal, but they did not find it. So they continued onwards to the next room which was similar to the previous one. Though the artifacts held in the glass cases were in much better condition. Brandy stopped in front of one pillar on which an incredibly gorgeous Emerald Necklace was placed. It made her think of royalty and looking at the plaque she saw why. It was identified as having once belonged to the Queen of Esmatada.

"Where is Esmatada?" Brandy said confused as she was familiar with most kingdoms on the continent but had never heard of that place.

"Before Keston became the Kingdom it is now, it was actually split into three smaller kingdoms. The King of Keston eventually conquered all of them. Honestly, it doesn't surprise you haven't heard of them, because they did not last very long. The thing to note however is that Esmatada held the location of the Well of Purification. It was also the Kingdom that Lord Adarnas gave up, so this necklace belongs to his wife. This must have been taken from her tomb."

"I see. It is beautiful, though, and a shame that it's kept here." Brandy said.

Eric came over to them and said "Do you want me to get it out for you?"

"Could you? I just think keeping it here away from the sight of everyone is a shame. At least if I had it, I would wear it around. This was meant to be worn not kept like some historical artifact." Brandy said.

"I can do that. Just give me a moment." Eric said, pulling out some tools. He carefully removed the plaque and reached inside the stone pillar, and Brandy heard a loud click. Nodding in satisfaction Eric pulled out another tool and began to cut the glass container. It took a few minutes, but he eventually cut a hole within the glass. Being careful he then reached in and grabbed the necklace. He held it out for Brandy to take and said "Here you are. I think it will look great on you."

"Why thank you." Brandy said smiling at him.

They looked again through this room yet did not find the crystal. Continuing onto the next, they found yet another similar setup to the previous one and the Viscount looked over the artifacts present. He shook his head and said "I do not think that this is the right hallway. The artifacts are getting younger the further we go. Most of these are not more than a hundred years old."

"If that's the case, there is little point going farther along this hallway. We should quickly head back and try another." Brandy said.

As Brandy turned around, she spotted Eric taking an interest in one of the items. "Just a second. I want to get this." She got closer and saw on the pillar was a set of finely made black leather straps attached to a large golden glassy rod.

Blinking as she came closer, she said "Wait a moment, is that what I think it is?"

Eric nodded, smirking. "Yep It's a golden strapon dildo. I want this. It won't take me long to get." He quickly removed the plaque and fiddled with the interior of the pillar.

Brandy let out a chuckle and said "Okay, why does the Earl have a strapon?" She picked up the plaque and took a look at it. It said the strapon belonged to the wife of the Duke of Wynjest. So even sex toys could be considered artifacts Brandy thought to herself. "Why are you getting it?"

"Well first off, because it's gold. It's a stupid idea, but man is it well crafted. It's the shape and size I would want, though I would want mine to be made of flesh of course. Plus do you know how funny it would be to fuck a guy up the ass with a golden dildo?" Eric chuckled.

Brandy simply nodded as she didn't really have anything to comment on that. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that the Viscount was looking off to the side with a trace of a blush on his face. She smirked and a few minutes later Eric managed to get the strapon out. Soon they were on their way back to the main room. As they entered the first pillar room, Brandy was startled when she saw something move in the corner of her eye. She quickly looked over but failed to see anything.

She stopped moving and said "Wait a second. I thought I saw something moving."

Frowning Eric said "It might be another trap that has been activated. I will go forward to keep a lookout. Be careful and stick close to me."

Brandy nervously nodded and got close behind him as they made their way into the room. The bright lights overhead suddenly went dim cloaking the room in shadows and darkness. Brandy heard sounds of something skittering on either side of them. But she didn't see what was making the sounds other than a flash of bronze here and there. Halfway across the room, something small suddenly leapt at them from atop one of the pillars. She barely managed to dodge it, and she felt a spike of fear as a blade came perilously close to her eyes as it passed her by.

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It did a landing roll not too far from them and she got a look at what it was. A small, not even a half a foot high little bronze man. In each of its hands were wicked looking blades and it hissed at them before rolling behind a pillar and then being lost to her sight. "Holy fuck what was that?" Brandy said shocked.

"That looked like some kind of metal golem." Edwards said.

Eric grunted and said "I fucking hate golems." He pulled out his blade and then said "Stay here, I will go out and deal with them."

With that Eric slipped into the darkness. While Brandy could tell which direction he went, he for all intents just disappeared. Edwards opened his spatial bag and pulled out a large hammer. He saw her looking at him and said "Brought it in case we needed to bust down a wall to get the crystal."

The both of them kept a lookout in the now silent room. There was an occasional metallic sound, but it happened at random. She kept glancing up to make sure that the golems weren't jumping down at them. Which is how she caught sight of a pair of golems jumping through the air towards them. Edwards got in the way of one slamming his hammer into the side of one and basically smashing into pieces. The other one managed to get a good slash on Edwards arm as it fell past and Brandy saw a splash of blood.

He grunted in pain and the golem grabbed onto him and was about to stab Edward again when Brandy smacked it off of Edwards. It fell and was moving to hide into the shadows when a clawed hand came out and swatted it. There was a metal tearing sound and the golem fell apart. Eric stepped out and the lights came back on. Turning her attention she found Edwards had set down his hammer and was now bandaging his arm. She took a moment to help him out while Eric looked over the remains of the golems.

Eric grunted and said "That's not good. We might have a big problem here."

"What is it?" Brandy said finished securing the bandage on Viscount's arm. She then went over to Eric, and he pointed at the golem. Confused, she examined the Golems.

 

 

Startled, she said "Someone was controlling these golems to attack us."

Eric frowned when she said that and checked his bracelet. "No one has come into the vault."

"In that case someone or something was in the vault somehow when we came in." Brandy said. "You said active mind, what if they were asleep?"

Eric thought for a moment and said "It would have to be a deep sleep where nothing was going on. That's not something a person could wake themselves from."

"Maybe the trap we activated woke them up?" Brandy suggested.

Not finding any more information they continued onwards back to the main hallway. However, Brandy got the sensation that they were being watched which unnerved her. Whether it was simply paranoia on her part, or there was actually someone watching she did not now. Either way they kept their guard up and moved to the next hallway. This one had a relief of men crafting things from rock, and man bathing in fire.

When they emerged into the first room of this hallway, Brandy saw that it was filled with tables. Filling these tables was a bunch of unsorted stuff, some of which on first glance looked like junk. There were, however, jewels, some jewelry, even a few weapons mixed in as well. Unlike the previous rooms which at least had some sort of order, this was a complete mess.

Eric said "Perhaps this is meant to be short-term storage until they figure out what these are and make a place to put them."

Edwards nodded and went to one of the tables and picked up a red crystal from the table. "This is a Purification stone. It came from the surrounding of the Well. Given its size it's at least two hundred years of age." Putting it back down he looked at the rest of the other things on the table "Some of these definitely came from the tomb I overwatched. In which case it's likely the Crystal is down this hallway."

As they passed through the table room Brandy was sure to pick up some of the more interesting looking things and tossed them into her inventory. They continued onwards into the next room which did not look like any of the other rooms. Gone were the artistic elements. Rather the walls were completely bare and shaped like a pentagon. In the center of the room was a raised dais on which a stone chair in front of a pedestal sat. Hanging from the ceiling were various mirrors with symbols painted onto them. Other than that this place was pretty bare. There was no other exit either, and she did not see the crystal.

Edwards frowned and went to the pedestal and took a closer look on it rubbing his hands on top of it. "I'm pretty sure this pedestal had the crystal linked up to it."

"How do you know that?" Brandy asked him.

"I have been around it long enough to recognize the aura it leaves behind. This pedestal definitely looks to have been modified to interact with the controls of the crystal. Yet the crystal is missing." Edwards said.

"Damn." Eric said and took a look around. "Looks like something dragged something heavy to this wall. There is some kind of trap door here, but I can't open it. From what I can see it looks like a few of those golems took it."

"Then the person who's controlling them must have it." Brandy said.

There was a high-pitched whining noise for a second and then a feminine voice spoke into the room. "That is correct. I was listening to you, so when you spoke of a crystal, it was quite obvious just which one you were looking for."

Brandy looked around and found where the voice was coming from. Several holes in the wall were casting her voice into the room making it sound echoey. "Who are you and what do you want?" Brandy asked.

"I am someone who has an offer you can't refuse. See I'm currently stuck in this vault, and I need some help to leave it. You're going to do so if you want to get the crystal."

"Or what?" Eric said responding to the implicit threat in the voice's tone.

"Or I will cause your deaths. I can't control the traps in the vault on a whim, but I can activate all of them at the same time. While I'm sure, your little thief might be able to shut down a few, but not all of them. In the room you are standing in has ten and there are hundreds between you and the exit. So yes do as I say or die, your choice."

Edwards let out a grunt and said "If we die, that would also mean that you are trapped still."

The voice let out a chuckle and said "Yes I would be trapped still. At least for the moment, as you are not here with permission, someone will come to the vault soon. It might be a while, but someone will come, and then I will have another chance to escape. Help me now or perish, either way, I get what I want eventually."

Brandy frowned and looked at the others who looked less than pleased. "Fine, we will help you."

"Great, now return to the main area and I will guide you to my location from there. Do not tally or I might activate a few of these traps. I have yet to see some of them in action, and I would really like to see if they are as fun as they sound."

With that threat hanging over them, the room went silent for a few moments. Edwards, who looked really pissed, looked at Brandy and Eric and said "I apologize, I failed to foresee this as a possibility."

"Now is not the time for blaming." Brandy shook her head. "We need to get to the main room before this overseer of ours gets annoyed."

The three of them then quickly backtracked through the rooms. While they were doing so, Brandy opened up her system's messenger service and sent a message to Eric. "I do not like playing into the hand of this woman. I'm letting you know I'm going to be on the lookout to sabotage this person, I ask you to do the same. She does not strike me as an innocent person who was captured and sealed in the vault. No, there is a reason she is in here, and I would prefer she remain here."

Eric responded several moments later and said "Will do so."

They had to only stop once on the way for Eric to disable one of the automatic traps that triggered. When they entered this main room, the voice came back again and said "Good you here. I was getting bored waiting for you. Now I am trapped in a room underneath this room. The way into my cell is hidden underneath the fountain. It is not connected to my network, so I can't open it, but as far as I can tell it does not require a key. You just need to solve the puzzle. After you do that it will reveal a set of stairs and lead you down to a room in which a golem stands guard. I can't control this golem, so you will have to destroy it. After that you will find me trapped."

Brandy went to the front of the fountain, where she found a row of spinnable letters that were made out of brass. Above the letters was a riddle written in script. "The Past as you use me constantly changes. The Present is shaped by your use of me. The Future will cause me to change. Through me you see all, yet also none of what you truly see. The world can turn forwards and backwards depending on how you use me. As there are no two alike so do no two people use me the same. What am I?"

"I am not a fan of riddles," Edwards said. He took a closer look at it and said "It looks like the answer might be an eleven word answer, though it might have multiple words."

"Do you happen to know the answer?" Brandy called out to the voice.

"No, I haven't the foggiest clue." The Voice said irritation clear in her voice. "My patience is running out. Figure it out, or I will kill you and find someone who can solve it."

Eric ran his hand along the riddle and said "I am all that you see..." He ran his hands on his chin and said "I think I have it." Eric said, going up to the letters and began to flip through the letters. Several seconds later there was a loud clicking sound and Brandy saw the fountain began to drain out. When it was empty a panel moved aside revealing a set of stairs that led down.

"Looks like you have some brains in you." The voice said sarcastically.

"What was it?" Brandy asked.

"Perspective." Eric said.

Making their way down the stairs with Edwards keeping in front with the hammer at the ready. As they descended, they could hear liquids moving about and they entered a chamber with a large metal door at the end. The sounds of liquids were coming from the various tubes that ran the length of the room. In front of the door was a slightly tall bronze golem that was well crafted. It stood about a few inches over Edwards and was holding a pair of swords. When they entered it raised its head towards them but did not move forward.

Edwards frowned and said "Alright I will attack it first. Eric I'll need you to back me up on this. Keep back and only strike if you see an opportunity Brandy."

He stepped forward, and the Golem eyes flashed red and said "Halt and present your Identification on the command of Earl Lamant. Failure to do so will result in your death."

Seeing no other option Edward continued with the hammer raised. The Golem charged with surprising speed towards Edwards. He dodged the swing of its blades and managed to slam the hammer into its side. The impact caved in a good portion of its chest but it did not stop the golem from continuing to move. Edwards blocked several of the blows with the hammer, but was quickly being overwhelmed by its speed. Eric circled around in an attempt to help, but the golem used the second blade to press Eric back.

After dodging several of the swings, Eric stepped forward and jammed his blade into the shoulder joint of the golem. He must have hit something critical as the left arm of the golem stopped working falling limply to its side. Now that it was down an arm, Edwards pressed his attack and with a great grunting roar swung the hammer and completely knocked off the golem's head.

Even though it had lost its head, it did not stop the golem. If anything it seemed to fight harder as it's wild swings became unpredictable. Soon Edwards got a few nasty slices across his chest. Eric managed to get behind it again and with a savage strike to it's side cut through the dented area and into its interior and ripped out several objects. The golem wobbled and then they fell down.

Brandy went over to Edwards who had fallen to his knee and asked "Are you alright?"

Edwards nodded and said "Thank you. I don't think it got me too deep."

Lifting up his shirt, Brandy took a look. "You should be fine. Here let me wrap them up." She carefully wrapped his wounds and when that was done they went up to the massive metal door.

The lock on the door was not overly complicated and only took Eric a few moments to get unlocked. It opened with a small hiss, and they went inside. The room beyond that door was nothing like the rooms above. Everything was made out of a dark metal, and the light was harsh to the eyes. Grates lined the floor hidden underneath a mist covering the floor in the room, and the room was distinctly cool, almost chilly. Liquids were being pumped around letting out audible hisses and glugs every few seconds.

While Brandy was looking around, she spotted a strange looking device on the back wall. It was a mix of metal panels that had an oily sheen to them and several steel plates were attached awkwardly to it. On the front of it was a glass case that held a murky green liquid inside of it. A light came on in the tank, and she could see that someone was floating within the tank. Or rather what had once been someone. Chunks of flesh were missing, rotting away exposing bone and muscle. The face however was still mostly intact and horrified Brandy was that it was a duplicate of her current face.

Eric gawked at it for a moment and said "What is this doing here?"

"What is it?" Brandy asked still unnerved by the body that must be Lady Lamant's.

"It is or rather was a Modipod. I saw several in the empire, though I can't say I ever saw one that was as heavily modified as this one looks to be." Eric said. "Where is the person we are looking to free?"

The Voice called out. "You're looking at her. I would greet you, but as you can see that is a bit difficult for me." Brandy shivered in realization that this dead thing had been the one speaking to them.

With horror creeping into his voice Eric asked "How are you alive?"

"Am I alive? The body has died and yet the mind remains." The voice turned angry at the end. "I had this modipod constructed, as I determined that the children from my loins were hardly worthy to bear the Lamant name. So fucking useless one is and the other one is a fool, at least I thought he was. No, I had determined that I needed to create a new child, one that was worthy to take on the mantle of the Lamants. One that would be worthy of being the bearer of my will."

"Yet before I could enact my plan, my damn son killed me. He knew what I was up too and killed me while I was in the pod and left me to rot. Hah still a fool because he failed to realize that my mind was still active and saved in the system. Still I was sleeping until you woke me up. Now you will set me free, so I can deal with that fool and take back the name of Lamant."

Edwards said "Before we do that, where is the crystal?"

The voice was silent for a moment and said "Here." A compartment in a side wall opened up revealing a large red crystal in a cage being held by a large golem. Edwards stepped towards it and the voice said "Not just yet. While I do enjoy the thought of pissing off the fool by letting you take it from the vault you still need to help free me."

"How do we do that when you are dead? I don't think we could carry that pod out of here." Brandy said.

Another light lit up on the opposite end revealing an empty pod that opened. "Simple. One of you will get into that pod and then I will transfer my mind over to them and take over their body, thus freeing me from this decaying prison of a body."

"What?!" Edwards said. "That is outrageous!"

"You still think you have a choice in the matter? You should be gracious that I'm allowing you to even choose which one of you will become my new body. To be honest I find all of you lacking. There is a man who's not a man, a woman that mockingly looks almost like me, and a man who has nothing to remark upon. I don't even need you to choose, I could simply gas this room knocking you all out and pick from that. I'll give you three minutes to choose, or I will choose for you. If you try to run, I will act."

The three of them huddled together and Edwards said "This is my fault, I should have been more careful. As such I will enter the pod."

"Wait a sec, let's not get ahead of ourselves here. We need to think this through, if you become her we are not getting paid." Eric sounded mercurial but at that moment Brandy got a message from him. "I have an idea. But in order to pull it off I need Edwards to remain outside. Which means I must ask you to take his place. I won't let anything happen to you."

Brandy nodded and said "That's right. In actuality this is my own fault. I should be the one to take the place."

Edwards looked ready to argue when a look of pain crossed his face and Brandy saw Eric step on his foot. Edwards seemed to get the hint and shut up. The voice said "So you settled on her? Fine. Before you get into the pod I want to see your original form, because you sure as shit don't truly look like me."

Brandy frowned and released her hold on the form. It was always as if something snapped when she changed back. It was as if her body wanted to turn back as fast as it could. Within seconds she had resumed her original form. The voice said "Well it's better than what I feared. Do be a dear and get naked. The procedure works best that way."

She gritted her teeth and did as it asked and then made her way to the empty Modipod. Eric followed closely behind her and pressed a button to open the modipod. Upon doing so Eric then helped her into the modipod. As she laid back into the surprisingly comfy cushion Eric sent her a message "Keep calm, You will be okay."

Then Eric hit a button, and the glass cover came back down over the pod. Eric looked at Edwards and nodded at him, and Brandy was startled to realize a cold liquid was starting to fill the tank. A mask lowered itself from overhead and attached to her face. A tube of some sort forced its way into her mouth and it was lucky she didn't have a gag reflex as it pushed it's way down her throat.

What was more uncomfortable were two small tubes also went up into her nose, it made her want to sneeze and it made her chest itch as the thin tubes entered into her lungs and the thick tube entered her stomach. While this was occuring the cold liquid was still filling the tank. It was not clear and it stung her skin. Several clamps suddenly locked her into place as the liquid reached her neck and she saw a goopy slime begin to slide down the main tube into her mouth.

Eric looked at her and he nodded, and then the liquid rose over and she could not longer see anything but the liquid and it burned her eyes.

 

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