Author's notes: Jeez. I am really, really late with this chapter. Sorry to those who were reading and have been waiting. Truely, I am. Well, since that's out of the way, begin reading the newest chapter!
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The Light and the Dark: Chapter 4
The cavern was dark, musky, and admittedly quite a bit frightening, considering the inhabitants. The hiss of a torch lighting sounded as Moose ignited one. The walls of the cave were made of a reflective black rock which danced around as the light from the torch reached them.
A stench of decay permeated the air. Sarah held the arm cloth of her robe against her nose. The smell was horrific.
Nicholas handed her a torch. "Stay together."
"Let's get this party started." Wil said with a forced laugh. Either to give the rest of the group courage, or himself, Sarah couldn't tell. Nicholas led the pack.
---------------------
"Is it just me or am I about to barf?" Wil said as he obviously held back the urge to spew breakfast onto the ground.
They had been traveling these tunnels for seemingly forever. The maze of twists and turns held them within it's grasps at all times.
The sound of distant groans and howls were constantly filling the air. Mournful cries begging something, anything to bring an end to an unwanted suffering. As they went, they would occasionally see areas where something had scratched deep grooves into the black stone. Possibly scraped in by the cursed souls condemned within the cavern.
The poor people. Ripped from life and light to take the life of others for the dark. Trapped in a rotting corpse for the rest of eternity. Every moment of consciousness brings with it the realization that whatever skin on the body is slowly decaying, hanging off bones and becoming puss like more every day. Humanity seeping away with each passing second. The only remaining instinct is to hunt, kill and feast on the newly dead. Sarah shuddered at the thought, pulling her robes tighter around her in protective embrace.
Every moment spent in the muggy darkness was like a darker version of some form of hell.The heat from the torch, along with the constant fear of something inhuman in the darkness around them kept her senses docked in a lake of fear.
Her mind occasionally broke free of fear and paranoia and drifted along. Her brain would skip from subject to subject. Morgan's lessons, spells, what she ate that morning, the way leaves blew in the wind, what slimes could possibly eat. Just a strange set of thoughts connected in some unexplainable way. Or maybe she was just trying to get her mind off the calls of the dead.
Or maybe it was the Suspicion that constantly intruded everytime she looked at Nicholas. She had always been told stories about how deceitful Dark Dragons could be. How they lie to get what they want. She subconsciously cursed herself for trusted someone so blindly.
Stories she'd heard weren't her only reason for doubting, however. It seemed the farther they delved into the caves, the further he got from the rest of them. He would barely speak, his movements were irregular and he seemed to get a nervous twitch in his green eyes every time the group stopped to rest.
She noticed Wil was beginning to feel the same way about him. He seemed increasingly cautious towards the dark priest.
She couldn't tell anything about Moose, however. The giant hadn't changed his expression since the moment they entered the accursed place.
The tension was always getting higher, and a little voice in the back of her head always seemed to whisper with the utmost softness "Go back". But she didn't listen.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The murmur of hundreds of chattering priests filled the air. Dark and Light dragons commerced in the large commune section of the church. The tiles below glittered in a checkered pattern of marble. Brilliant pillars of similar marble stretched out from the tiles to the grey domed ceiling.
The light from the midday sun streamed in through colored glass which depicted dragons and scenes from the Book of Ladon.
She walked through the busy crowd. Her white robes fluttered and wisped as she zig and zagged past stationary groups of arguing priests. Her silver hair glistened as she passed one of the gleaming windows.
She stopped in front of sentry mages guarding a large, thick looking brown door. They stood rigid, one in white robes and one in black. Each's garments were pressed and cleaned until not a speck of dirt was visible. Their lifeless white eyes stared blankly into space. Well groomed white beards covered their wrinkled, stone-like faces.
Such lifeless fools, she thought. "I am Lady Claire, Priestess of the white talon order. I'm here to see a prisoner."
The guards' glassy eyes shifted over her, then returned to their spaced out stare. After a moment, the large brown door behind them opened. She entered.
"Dead beats." She whispered to herself as she descended down the brick stairs.
The dungeon was rank with a moldy, unclean smell. Lighting was poor, the balls of magic light flickered and waned from their positions on the ceiling. their magic apparently almost gone.
Clair passed cell after cell. The dungeon housed all forms of scum, from heretics to stupid thieves who got caught trying to pilfer from the church. They were 'purified' daily. It composed of burning them every morning with a holy spell. The damage wasn't permanent. Most of the time.
But Clair wasn't here to see these scum.
She stopped at the last enclosure. The cell was near pitch black, only the faint sight of a barely moving figure could be made out by her piercing gold eyes.
Clair raised a hand, creating a ball of light. It illuminated the darkness.
Inside cowered a young woman, her hands chained and cuffed to the wall, wrists black and blue from hanging for days. Once soft and clean black robes were now scorched and ripped. Her head hung low, lengthy dirty blonde hair lay straggled over it, hiding her face. The girl's white skin was covered in dirt and grim.
Clair waved a hand over the locking mechanism, causing it to unlock. "Are you awake?" She asked as she paced in.
The girl shuddered a little and made an attempt to lift her head, but it proved futile.
Clair kneeled down in front of her and lifted her head to face her own. She pulled away the strands of dirt filled hair. Weak jade green eyes fought to stay open as the hair was pulled away and light shown in. A once fair young face was now covered in bruises.
Clair gave a half smiled. "Oh, you're not looking too good today, Ashley." She took a portion of cloth and wiped away some of the grim on the girl's face.
A tear rolled down Ashley's face, followed by the low moan of sorrow. She tried to open her mouth to speak but couldn't find the strength to form words.
Claire made a sympathetic face and shhhh'd the girl. "Don't worry now." She wiped another tear from the girl's face. "If your brother comes through you'll be out of here and back home."
"You're giving the girl too much hope, Claire." Came a soft, male voice from behind. Claire glanced back.
His thin body leaned against the doorway, white robed arms crossed in a lackluster form. Short blue hair stood clean and well groomed, two long bangs seeming to defy gravity as they hung at a high arc over his Blue eyes.
"With all that hope you're giving her, if she dies, she'll become a wraith. And that would cause quite a stir."
"Brad." Claire stood up and faced him. "There's nothing wrong with at least telling her there's a chance."
He snickered. "You're getting a little soft."
"A little compassion can do you some good."
He eyed her with a hint of amusement. "So, how fares the boy?"
"He's found a Light Dragon Priestess, so things should be going smoothly."
He smiled in satisfaction. "Excellent."
Claire glanced at the girl. "Don't you think we should get her out of here? She looks like death itself."
Brad gazed at the prisoner. "Yes. We can't let her die. Not yet anyway." He nodded in agreement. "Guards!"
The two sentry mages quickly rushed to the cell. "Take this prisoner to the Gardor tower section. Clean her up and get those wounds attended to." The silent sentinels nodded and went about carrying out their order.
Brad's eyes connected with Claire's. "Come to my room. We have some things to...discuss."
She nodded in response as he began to walk away. Claire glanced back at the girl as the metal cuffs were unhinged. The guards picked up her limp body and began to carry her away.
"Ni...chol...as...." The girl rasped out as they took her away.
Claire shook her head and headed out of the cell.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Nicholas came to a halt. They had reached a new area. Black and vast, stalactites pointed down from above. Wil walked in a bit and spread his torch light in front of them.
Corpses. Skeletons. Rotting bodies. And flies, so many flies gorging themselves on the all you can eat dinner.
Sarah struggled to keep herself from vomiting at the sight.
Wil took a nervous step back. "This can only mean trouble."
A small movement caught Sarah's eye. One of the bodies...did it move? The sound of a rattling bone came from somewhere deeper in.
Wil slowly reached for his thin silver sword, grasping it and pulling it out of the sheath carefully. As the blade finished, one of the still rotting corpses stood. The upper half of it's body hung to a side, struggling to keep balance. Old, purple skin infected with maggots hung loosely off it's bones. Another body began to stir, and another.
Nicholas took a step forward from the party, outstretched a hand and began muttering the words of magic. He looked back at the other three and nodded. They understood.
In a flash of red light, a flaming inferno consumed the nearest group of rots. They writhed in agony, or perhaps a motion of freedom, as their rotten skin and bones burned to ash.
Wil dashed forward, jumping in a nimble fashion between a pair of skeletons. One side slash to the spinal cord with the blunt side of his blade shattered the skeleton to the right and a spinning kick destroyed the bleached skull of the second. He had agility Sarah hadn't given him credit for.
A corpse she hadn't detected caught the light dragon off guard. She barely had time to move before Moose's massive steel hammer crushed the thing to pulp with a single downward pound. The Smith snorted, slung the hammer over his shoulder and casually walked towards his next set of enemies, destroying groups in single swings.
Three undead began to walk to Sarah, slunking at a snail's pace.
She placed her hands together and began muttering her own magic. A bright flash of white light lit the entirety of the cave. Although she only intended to destroy the three in front, nearly every other creature of the night was defeated as well. Their bodies slumped to the ground and wisps of their stagnant souls floated away.
Sarah blinked in suprise as the glow faded.
Wil smiled, walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Now that was impressive."
"I've never..." She stopped for a moment. "Actually used that spell to harm anything before."
Wil let out a hardy laugh. "Well, it made our job a lot easier!" He looked over to Nicholas. "I guess our jobs done then, eh?"
Nicholas stared away from Wil towards the other end of the cave vacantly.
Wil approached the dark priest. "Hello? Nicholas? You ain't taking a vacation in there without us are you?"
Nicholas shook his head, coming back to his senses. "No. We still have farther in to go."
Wil cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talkin' about? This was the undead horde right here. I mean, we freakin' wasted them."
Nicholas nodded and responded with both calm and determination. "Yes, this was the horde. But the source of the disturbance is further ahead." He looked at Wil with a stern gaze. "So we're going on, do you understand me?" He said with a deep, commanding voice.
Wil looked back at him, his normally carefree gaze turned series. He nodded grimly. "Fine."
The tension in the air was getting thick. The word 'scared' aptly describes Sarah's feelings at the time. She was confused. Why was she here? Should she even continue on? What plans did Nicholas have in store?
This much was certain: Nicholas was no longer the person she had met the night before.
"We're going." Nicholas said, stepping off towards the other side of the room.
Wil noticed Sarah's conflicted face. "Hey." He said. "Don't worry. Anything happens, i'll protect you." He smiled warmly at her.
She smiled back weakly. "That's alright. I'll be fine."
He nodded in understanding. "We can't let him get too far ahead of us. He might get so uptight he'll fall over dead."
Sarah giggled, nodded, and followed him as they tried to catch up.
They continued on for a few more minutes, passing through a suprisingly cool passageway. For some peculiar reason, the sound of water could be faintly heard echoing around. The answer to that mystery was quickly solved.
Sarah stared wide eyed as they entered a new area. Not a cave, but something more akin to an ancient temple.
Before them stretched a long, cracked stone path which, as seen from a distance, led to a old, rusted metal gate. The walls stretched up reaching some twenty feet above them, connecting to the stone ceiling of the cave. Pillars stood up out of clear blue water at both sides of the path, supporting the top of the area. Some were broken in half from seemingly age. The entire area was lighted by some light source under the water, stretching out the shadows of the deep rippling pools across everything in the room.
Wil and Sarah took in the entire scene, scanning everything from the ground up. Even Moose was wide eyed.
"Where are we...?" Sarah asked in wonder as she gazed at the incredible scene.
Nicholas said nothing, taking slow, soundless steps towards the gate.
The eyes of Sarah ceased their wander lust as they came upon a mural on one of the broken pillars.
It was ancient and most of it was worn away, nigh understandable. There were some key features of attention. From what she could see, it showed two spheres of some kind giving off a type of light, and two humanoid figures underneath with their arms raised to them, almost like they were worshipping them. She figured they must have been depicting the sun and the moon, seeing as most cultures worshiped the two.
The next set of murals depicted two dragons locked in what appeared to be combat. Whatever was after that had long ago fallen into the watery depths below however.
The voice of Nicholas broke her fixation with whatever story the mural held. "Moose. Come here and get this out of the way." He said, referring to the rusted gate. The smith nodded, made his way there, and with what seemed like very little effort, ripped the gate off it's hinges and tossed it aside.
Wil tried to peer inside, but Nicholas blocked his vision. "This isn't for your eyes." He said coldly.
Wil sneered and backed off. "I don't want to see whatever the hell is in there anyway!"
Nicholas shrugged off the hostility and brought his attention to Sarah. "Sarah. If we are to end the source of this evil, we must enter." He said with as much kindness as he had shown the night they met. He offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly. "You two stay here."
Wil was about to protest but stopped as Sarah shook her head in the negative to him. Whatever was going on, she was going to find out.
-----------------------------------------------------
The Light and the Dark: Chapter 4
The cavern was dark, musky, and admittedly quite a bit frightening, considering the inhabitants. The hiss of a torch lighting sounded as Moose ignited one. The walls of the cave were made of a reflective black rock which danced around as the light from the torch reached them.
A stench of decay permeated the air. Sarah held the arm cloth of her robe against her nose. The smell was horrific.
Nicholas handed her a torch. "Stay together."
"Let's get this party started." Wil said with a forced laugh. Either to give the rest of the group courage, or himself, Sarah couldn't tell. Nicholas led the pack.
---------------------
"Is it just me or am I about to barf?" Wil said as he obviously held back the urge to spew breakfast onto the ground.
They had been traveling these tunnels for seemingly forever. The maze of twists and turns held them within it's grasps at all times.
The sound of distant groans and howls were constantly filling the air. Mournful cries begging something, anything to bring an end to an unwanted suffering. As they went, they would occasionally see areas where something had scratched deep grooves into the black stone. Possibly scraped in by the cursed souls condemned within the cavern.
The poor people. Ripped from life and light to take the life of others for the dark. Trapped in a rotting corpse for the rest of eternity. Every moment of consciousness brings with it the realization that whatever skin on the body is slowly decaying, hanging off bones and becoming puss like more every day. Humanity seeping away with each passing second. The only remaining instinct is to hunt, kill and feast on the newly dead. Sarah shuddered at the thought, pulling her robes tighter around her in protective embrace.
Every moment spent in the muggy darkness was like a darker version of some form of hell.The heat from the torch, along with the constant fear of something inhuman in the darkness around them kept her senses docked in a lake of fear.
Her mind occasionally broke free of fear and paranoia and drifted along. Her brain would skip from subject to subject. Morgan's lessons, spells, what she ate that morning, the way leaves blew in the wind, what slimes could possibly eat. Just a strange set of thoughts connected in some unexplainable way. Or maybe she was just trying to get her mind off the calls of the dead.
Or maybe it was the Suspicion that constantly intruded everytime she looked at Nicholas. She had always been told stories about how deceitful Dark Dragons could be. How they lie to get what they want. She subconsciously cursed herself for trusted someone so blindly.
Stories she'd heard weren't her only reason for doubting, however. It seemed the farther they delved into the caves, the further he got from the rest of them. He would barely speak, his movements were irregular and he seemed to get a nervous twitch in his green eyes every time the group stopped to rest.
She noticed Wil was beginning to feel the same way about him. He seemed increasingly cautious towards the dark priest.
She couldn't tell anything about Moose, however. The giant hadn't changed his expression since the moment they entered the accursed place.
The tension was always getting higher, and a little voice in the back of her head always seemed to whisper with the utmost softness "Go back". But she didn't listen.
---------------------------------------------------------------
The murmur of hundreds of chattering priests filled the air. Dark and Light dragons commerced in the large commune section of the church. The tiles below glittered in a checkered pattern of marble. Brilliant pillars of similar marble stretched out from the tiles to the grey domed ceiling.
The light from the midday sun streamed in through colored glass which depicted dragons and scenes from the Book of Ladon.
She walked through the busy crowd. Her white robes fluttered and wisped as she zig and zagged past stationary groups of arguing priests. Her silver hair glistened as she passed one of the gleaming windows.
She stopped in front of sentry mages guarding a large, thick looking brown door. They stood rigid, one in white robes and one in black. Each's garments were pressed and cleaned until not a speck of dirt was visible. Their lifeless white eyes stared blankly into space. Well groomed white beards covered their wrinkled, stone-like faces.
Such lifeless fools, she thought. "I am Lady Claire, Priestess of the white talon order. I'm here to see a prisoner."
The guards' glassy eyes shifted over her, then returned to their spaced out stare. After a moment, the large brown door behind them opened. She entered.
"Dead beats." She whispered to herself as she descended down the brick stairs.
The dungeon was rank with a moldy, unclean smell. Lighting was poor, the balls of magic light flickered and waned from their positions on the ceiling. their magic apparently almost gone.
Clair passed cell after cell. The dungeon housed all forms of scum, from heretics to stupid thieves who got caught trying to pilfer from the church. They were 'purified' daily. It composed of burning them every morning with a holy spell. The damage wasn't permanent. Most of the time.
But Clair wasn't here to see these scum.
She stopped at the last enclosure. The cell was near pitch black, only the faint sight of a barely moving figure could be made out by her piercing gold eyes.
Clair raised a hand, creating a ball of light. It illuminated the darkness.
Inside cowered a young woman, her hands chained and cuffed to the wall, wrists black and blue from hanging for days. Once soft and clean black robes were now scorched and ripped. Her head hung low, lengthy dirty blonde hair lay straggled over it, hiding her face. The girl's white skin was covered in dirt and grim.
Clair waved a hand over the locking mechanism, causing it to unlock. "Are you awake?" She asked as she paced in.
The girl shuddered a little and made an attempt to lift her head, but it proved futile.
Clair kneeled down in front of her and lifted her head to face her own. She pulled away the strands of dirt filled hair. Weak jade green eyes fought to stay open as the hair was pulled away and light shown in. A once fair young face was now covered in bruises.
Clair gave a half smiled. "Oh, you're not looking too good today, Ashley." She took a portion of cloth and wiped away some of the grim on the girl's face.
A tear rolled down Ashley's face, followed by the low moan of sorrow. She tried to open her mouth to speak but couldn't find the strength to form words.
Claire made a sympathetic face and shhhh'd the girl. "Don't worry now." She wiped another tear from the girl's face. "If your brother comes through you'll be out of here and back home."
"You're giving the girl too much hope, Claire." Came a soft, male voice from behind. Claire glanced back.
His thin body leaned against the doorway, white robed arms crossed in a lackluster form. Short blue hair stood clean and well groomed, two long bangs seeming to defy gravity as they hung at a high arc over his Blue eyes.
"With all that hope you're giving her, if she dies, she'll become a wraith. And that would cause quite a stir."
"Brad." Claire stood up and faced him. "There's nothing wrong with at least telling her there's a chance."
He snickered. "You're getting a little soft."
"A little compassion can do you some good."
He eyed her with a hint of amusement. "So, how fares the boy?"
"He's found a Light Dragon Priestess, so things should be going smoothly."
He smiled in satisfaction. "Excellent."
Claire glanced at the girl. "Don't you think we should get her out of here? She looks like death itself."
Brad gazed at the prisoner. "Yes. We can't let her die. Not yet anyway." He nodded in agreement. "Guards!"
The two sentry mages quickly rushed to the cell. "Take this prisoner to the Gardor tower section. Clean her up and get those wounds attended to." The silent sentinels nodded and went about carrying out their order.
Brad's eyes connected with Claire's. "Come to my room. We have some things to...discuss."
She nodded in response as he began to walk away. Claire glanced back at the girl as the metal cuffs were unhinged. The guards picked up her limp body and began to carry her away.
"Ni...chol...as...." The girl rasped out as they took her away.
Claire shook her head and headed out of the cell.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Nicholas came to a halt. They had reached a new area. Black and vast, stalactites pointed down from above. Wil walked in a bit and spread his torch light in front of them.
Corpses. Skeletons. Rotting bodies. And flies, so many flies gorging themselves on the all you can eat dinner.
Sarah struggled to keep herself from vomiting at the sight.
Wil took a nervous step back. "This can only mean trouble."
A small movement caught Sarah's eye. One of the bodies...did it move? The sound of a rattling bone came from somewhere deeper in.
Wil slowly reached for his thin silver sword, grasping it and pulling it out of the sheath carefully. As the blade finished, one of the still rotting corpses stood. The upper half of it's body hung to a side, struggling to keep balance. Old, purple skin infected with maggots hung loosely off it's bones. Another body began to stir, and another.
Nicholas took a step forward from the party, outstretched a hand and began muttering the words of magic. He looked back at the other three and nodded. They understood.
In a flash of red light, a flaming inferno consumed the nearest group of rots. They writhed in agony, or perhaps a motion of freedom, as their rotten skin and bones burned to ash.
Wil dashed forward, jumping in a nimble fashion between a pair of skeletons. One side slash to the spinal cord with the blunt side of his blade shattered the skeleton to the right and a spinning kick destroyed the bleached skull of the second. He had agility Sarah hadn't given him credit for.
A corpse she hadn't detected caught the light dragon off guard. She barely had time to move before Moose's massive steel hammer crushed the thing to pulp with a single downward pound. The Smith snorted, slung the hammer over his shoulder and casually walked towards his next set of enemies, destroying groups in single swings.
Three undead began to walk to Sarah, slunking at a snail's pace.
She placed her hands together and began muttering her own magic. A bright flash of white light lit the entirety of the cave. Although she only intended to destroy the three in front, nearly every other creature of the night was defeated as well. Their bodies slumped to the ground and wisps of their stagnant souls floated away.
Sarah blinked in suprise as the glow faded.
Wil smiled, walked over and patted her on the shoulder. "Now that was impressive."
"I've never..." She stopped for a moment. "Actually used that spell to harm anything before."
Wil let out a hardy laugh. "Well, it made our job a lot easier!" He looked over to Nicholas. "I guess our jobs done then, eh?"
Nicholas stared away from Wil towards the other end of the cave vacantly.
Wil approached the dark priest. "Hello? Nicholas? You ain't taking a vacation in there without us are you?"
Nicholas shook his head, coming back to his senses. "No. We still have farther in to go."
Wil cocked an eyebrow. "What are you talkin' about? This was the undead horde right here. I mean, we freakin' wasted them."
Nicholas nodded and responded with both calm and determination. "Yes, this was the horde. But the source of the disturbance is further ahead." He looked at Wil with a stern gaze. "So we're going on, do you understand me?" He said with a deep, commanding voice.
Wil looked back at him, his normally carefree gaze turned series. He nodded grimly. "Fine."
The tension in the air was getting thick. The word 'scared' aptly describes Sarah's feelings at the time. She was confused. Why was she here? Should she even continue on? What plans did Nicholas have in store?
This much was certain: Nicholas was no longer the person she had met the night before.
"We're going." Nicholas said, stepping off towards the other side of the room.
Wil noticed Sarah's conflicted face. "Hey." He said. "Don't worry. Anything happens, i'll protect you." He smiled warmly at her.
She smiled back weakly. "That's alright. I'll be fine."
He nodded in understanding. "We can't let him get too far ahead of us. He might get so uptight he'll fall over dead."
Sarah giggled, nodded, and followed him as they tried to catch up.
They continued on for a few more minutes, passing through a suprisingly cool passageway. For some peculiar reason, the sound of water could be faintly heard echoing around. The answer to that mystery was quickly solved.
Sarah stared wide eyed as they entered a new area. Not a cave, but something more akin to an ancient temple.
Before them stretched a long, cracked stone path which, as seen from a distance, led to a old, rusted metal gate. The walls stretched up reaching some twenty feet above them, connecting to the stone ceiling of the cave. Pillars stood up out of clear blue water at both sides of the path, supporting the top of the area. Some were broken in half from seemingly age. The entire area was lighted by some light source under the water, stretching out the shadows of the deep rippling pools across everything in the room.
Wil and Sarah took in the entire scene, scanning everything from the ground up. Even Moose was wide eyed.
"Where are we...?" Sarah asked in wonder as she gazed at the incredible scene.
Nicholas said nothing, taking slow, soundless steps towards the gate.
The eyes of Sarah ceased their wander lust as they came upon a mural on one of the broken pillars.
It was ancient and most of it was worn away, nigh understandable. There were some key features of attention. From what she could see, it showed two spheres of some kind giving off a type of light, and two humanoid figures underneath with their arms raised to them, almost like they were worshipping them. She figured they must have been depicting the sun and the moon, seeing as most cultures worshiped the two.
The next set of murals depicted two dragons locked in what appeared to be combat. Whatever was after that had long ago fallen into the watery depths below however.
The voice of Nicholas broke her fixation with whatever story the mural held. "Moose. Come here and get this out of the way." He said, referring to the rusted gate. The smith nodded, made his way there, and with what seemed like very little effort, ripped the gate off it's hinges and tossed it aside.
Wil tried to peer inside, but Nicholas blocked his vision. "This isn't for your eyes." He said coldly.
Wil sneered and backed off. "I don't want to see whatever the hell is in there anyway!"
Nicholas shrugged off the hostility and brought his attention to Sarah. "Sarah. If we are to end the source of this evil, we must enter." He said with as much kindness as he had shown the night they met. He offered her his hand. She took it hesitantly. "You two stay here."
Wil was about to protest but stopped as Sarah shook her head in the negative to him. Whatever was going on, she was going to find out.