Odd jobs

     Closing the door behind me, I joined the others at the table, and sat in silence. I gathered that despite the lack of knowing who we had just buried, it had struck an emotional chord within us all. But we had to push on, push past this, and get on with bringing HoN Co. down! AMPHIS stood up and went over to his bag, removing all of the books held within, and sat back down in front of a piece of paper and a pencil. He kicked everyone else into gear by doing this, and THEROS followed suit next; retrieving the map, he began to use the already translated coordinates and plotted them individually in their respective locations. From the list he had, we were a long way off finishing just yet, but it meant we were remaining active, to distract ourselves from the current issues. Myself and UOPETA had nothing really to do at this point as we couldn't use the map until THEROS was finished. We needed enough points on the map first before heading out, otherwise it wouldn't be worth it...

"How many portal locations am I putting on before we can go ahead?"

"Well there's no point in heading out today. Just get as many as you can, and then we can start tomorrow. AMPHIS can continue with the translations, hopefully finding more portals for us to locate and destroy."

"Fair enough. What are you two going to do in the meantime?"

"That's a good question. Is there anything you need doing?"

"Actually, yes. It's another link to SERVERE, but I was wondering if it is possible for you and Syeonyx to go through some of the books within the library and try to find any link between these ones we found in the wooden shack, and SERVERE's...?"

"I think we can manage that!"

I followed UOPETA down into the basement, to begin searching through the books. AMPHIS says that there could be a link between SERVERE's books, and the ones he's translating, but even if there wasn't we might learn something anyway. Passing over the lava trench, I felt the apprehension leave me as I crossed over to the other side. Stepping onto the pressure pads, I looked into the room, and at shelf after shelf of books. We had a lot of reading ahead of us...

     We had been going through the books for a long time. Without natural light, or windows to look out at the sun through, it was hard to determine how long, but judging from the pile of books we had gone through, we'd been a few hours at least. UOPETA is a stickler for order, so we both started on opposite sides of the room, and worked from right to left, top to bottom. It was time consuming, but it was so much easier tracking our own progress. After a large portion of the shelves were empty, and getting nowhere in finding anything that might help us, I suggested we go up and check on AMPHIS and THEROS.

"Yeah why not. Can't hurt to have a rest and something to eat. I think we've earned it."

We headed back out into the passage, and over the lava trench, before going up the ladder into the house. AMPHIS and THEROS seemed to be still hard at work, and didn't even notice us entering the house from the basement.

"Made much progress in our absence?"

"Have a look for yourselves. I think that will keep us busy for sometime. Meanwhile, AMPHIS can find more of the portals and write out the coordinates."

There were quite a few points now on the map, and with them all being spread out quite far, I could guarantee that would keep us going for some time. UOPETA began to go through the bags to find something to cook, whilst I looked at the map. I noticed a portal location to the East of the house and pointed this out to the others. I had been here before, and to the East was a small mine which SERVERE had obviously opened up and found a portal. I had found it and destroyed it though, so that one could be removed immediately.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. I was one hundred per cent sure! It had been enclosed in a mossy walled chamber, with a small set of steps leading up to it. I think it was the first portal I had used the Solus stone on. It was then that I realised that the stone works by glowing brighter the nearer it is to a portal activated with thermal energy rather than lightning. UOPETA finished off cooking the meal, and we all sat down to eat, laughing and joking, as though a large time scale had passed from this morning, and the unfortunate thing we had to do.

     Finishing off the meal, we sat around talking for a little while longer. We discussed many things, including what OROTHO was likely to be doing, joking that he was probably annoying Amie, THEXIS, Joe and COLUS with his "antics"! After a while, we got up, getting ready to go back down into the hidden library, when the front door burst open! Immediately we all jumped to attention; I held my pickaxe in hand, whilst everyone else had gone for their blowpipe! Standing motionless for a few moments, we wondered how that had happened. But seeing the door flap back and forth slightly, we assumed it must have been from a strong gust of wind!

"That scared the life out of me! I suppose that's one thing you have to get used to living in the middle of an open field... No protection from strong winds."

That was true, but it had never done that before... Lowering our offensive stances, me and UOPETA headed down to the library beneath the house. Reaching the end of the trench, I stopped and stared. That wasn't right... UOPETA came across, and looked at me puzzled.

"Syeonyx? You all right?"

I didn't respond. I just stood there, and pointed towards the far end of the passage, where the sliding shelves stood open, exposing the library within...

"What the..."

Syeonyx signing off