Both of us just stood motionless, staring at the parted bookshelves before us... How was that possible...? They only worked if someone stood upon on the pressure plates, either on the inside or the outside. But there we were, standing and looking at the inside of the library, with no-one standing on either of the two pressure plates...
"Do you think there's a fault with the wiring or something?"
I honestly didn't know... All I knew was that those doors should not be open. Slowly an carefully, I approached the doors, squinting at the floor where the pressure plates were, to see if there was anything resting atop any of them. My first had been that we had possibly dropped a bone whilst transferring the remains to the house. But as I got closer to the door, I couldn't see anything on the floor at all... There was nothing close to the pressure plates on the inside or the outside, so there wasn't anything actually resting against them... Puzzled, I stood up straighter, still looking at the floor, whilst UOPETA came and stood beside me.
"Can you see anything unus..."
UOPETA never finished his sentence. Right in front of our eyes, the two sides of the bookshelves slammed forcefully shut, causing me and UOPETA to jump back in fear! There was a distant clicking sound, and then there was silence once more! After a few moments, I exhaled my held breath, quickly followed by UOPETA. We looked at each other, terror evident on both of our faces.
"What... The hell... Was that?"
I didn't know, and I didn't want to know! Was it possible that the wiring was faulty, causing the doors to open randomly, appearing glitched...? If that was the case, then this might also be true for the walkway that was suspended above the lava trench. This could also be dangerously faulty, which could end up with one of our deaths! After a few moments of silence aside from laboured breathing, trying to determine what could be the cause in our heads, UOPETA stepped forward towards the doors, and stepped onto the pressure plate. The bookshelves slid aside slowly and noiselessly. UOPETA then stepped back off them, and strangely enough, they met together in the middle, with no force or sound at all. Odd... Why hadn't it slammed shut just then...? Actually, that was its normal action, so the real question was why had it slammed shut a minute ago? UOPETA seemed as equally freaked out as me, and stepped back onto the pressure plate. This time he stepped inside the library, and I followed close behind him. Looking in, there was no-one here... Except...
"Erm... Syeonyx? What's this?"
UOPETA pointed to a now open entrance way that led into a small room. I hadn't told them about this before, and obviously it had surprised him, but what surprised me was why was it open! I was the only one who knew how to open it, and I was the last to leave the library, so I would have known if it was open or not... I quickly explained to UOPETA that I found this room when I had first arrived at SERVERE's house under the instructions of THEROS. I pointed out that in the chest before him was the diary of the supposedly last moments of SERVERE which was why I had assumed that the skeleton was that of SERVERE's. He seemed to accept this, until I told him that only I knew of it, and it was closed before we had come in here...
"What about AMPHIS or THEROS? Did they know of it?"
I think THEROS may have been aware of it through what I had said, but there was no way that he would know how to open it. And even if he had, what would he gain from inside here...? Only SERVERE's diary was in here, and there was little in that everyone didn't already know... Reaching into the chest, UOPETA pulled out the diary, and began reading at a random page... It sounded as though it was before HoN Co. had found him.
"Day 343... The time is coming... It has been foretold, and we must, as a group, put a stop to the evil that is causing such an event to unfold. If they succeed, all that we know, all that we love and hold dear, will perish in a maelstrom of evil and corruption. We have but one chance to stop them, and there is nothing of higher stakes than this. They must be stopped... He must be stopped... Before it is too late..."
UOPETA looked at me puzzled slightly, before looking back at the book again...
"Who is 'he' supposed to be...?"
Puzzled, I asked what he meant; UOPETA read out a small extract that seemed familiar, before reading more with references to an specific person. I shrugged... It seemed that SERVERE might have known more than the rest of the Lone 7. What also puzzled me was that during the incident with the Creepers, SERVERE mentions "their house"... I was led to believe that the base was already established at this point...
"It had, but it served as a greater deterrent for HoN Co. to think we were all spread out across the place. The wouldn't use so many guards to explore a single region, therefore making it easier for us to defend ourselves. Fortunately, it never came to that; they never found us, and to this day they still haven't... I hope..."
UOPETA was still missing the point though. This secret room was open when no-one else knew how to open it aside from me... Leaving UOPETA alone, I went back through the passage and asked AMPHIS and THEROS. They didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I led them down to where UOPETA was, and with the room still open, THEROS seemed to recognise what I meant.
"Oh yes, I remember you mentioning this. There's a lever somewhere, isn't there...?"
Reaching up above the entrance, I flicked the lever, and a bookshelf slid into place, closing UOPETA within. Flicking it back, we were greeted with an upset-looking UOPETA.
"So it only opens from the outside...? How odd..."
I then told them about the doors opening without anyone stepping on the pressure plates.
"Well look at the incident with the front door; this place is old, so there are likely to be a few issues with some of the things here..."
Yes, but a suddenly opening door, pressure plate-operated doors remaining open with no operator and now an open secret room which no-one knew about! Something was wrong here!
"It's like THEROS says, it's probably the age of the place. The wiring is likely to be old, so it can't be relied upon..."
I still wasn't sure, and judging from the look on AMPHIS's face, he wasn't either. Glad to see I wasn't alone in this...
Syeonyx signing off
No comments:
Post a Comment