Chapter 12:
A/N Nope, don't own them. More Sex, Drugs, and Rock 'n Roll … oops, no, wrong story. Long chapter, sorry. Scripting thanks this time goes to gutterfiend for Shadow Hearts. And for the record: A little Yuri/Koudelka Lemony stuff. There, you've been warned.
James shook his head and pushed open the door, seeing Yuri backed up to the fireplace and Koudelka confronting him. He looked confused, a bit forlorn and, for all James could tell, totally lost in his own mind.
'Is he even seeing us anymore?' he wondered. "Koudelka," he said.
"Now is not a good time, James," Koudelka said quietly.
"It will never be a good time, not for him," James said and crossing the room, took Koudelka by the arm and pulled her back. "Don't you see? He's mad; he is not in this time or place anymore. He doesn't know who you are – who I am."
Koudelka looked up and saw Yuri looking around the room, his eyes appearing focused but she could see then the traces of his madness, his confusion. Sighing she agreed.
"I guess you're right. I – I knew he would possibly lose his way; the things he said, the mess he made. I was hoping it would be after all this," and she gestured at the laboratory. "He's at the center of a great storm, James."
"I think you need to know, Koudelka; he loves you," James said.
"He loves me?" Koudelka laughed. "Yes, and this Alice person he thinks I am."
Yuri turned at mention of Alice's name and looked at James and Koudelka, his eyes shifting from amber back to brown.
"Alice is … not here," he said, his voice hesitant.
"No, she's not," Koudelka said.
"I need to save her though; and save… oh," he blinked and shook his head, clearing away cobwebs, scattering the fragments that were gyrating in his memory. 'What was I doing just now?' He looked around the room and frowned. "Where the hell are we?"
Both Koudelka and James looked up at the confused fusionist and sighed.
"He's back with us," James commented.
"Did I go somewhere?" Yuri asked and scratched his head. "Weren't we yakkin' with Old Rog?" he asked looking from James to Koudelka and back.
"Never mind Yuri. We need to find a way to the church," James said. "Roger said we will find the cauldron in the Sanctuary."
"Oh, well that's no problem," Yuri said with a grin. "We go in through the front door, like we did earlier," Yuri started then suddenly looked surprised. "Oh, no, that wouldn't work. He's there."
"The gargoyle," Koudelka stated
"Yeah, him too. I'll have to take care of him before too long. But," and Yuri brightened. "I know we get in."
James sighed. "How?"
"I dunno," Yuri said and turned back to the fireplace. Unlike the one in the bedroom, this one was dark and had neither firewood nor coal, just a large metal plate in the floor with a handle. "How about down here?" and he kicked the handle with his boot.
Koudelka crossed the room and knelt at the fireplace, pulling on the handle. After a moment, the metal plate moved back revealing it to be a hatchway with a ladder descending into the dark below. Looking up at Yuri, Koudelka grinned.
"How do you do that?" and she descended the ladder.
A minute later all three were at the bottom, a small room with only one other door and it was locked. Yuri scowled.
"This locked door shit is getting annoying," he said and pulled on the door handle again.
"Maybe it's a special lock, requiring something," James offered.
"I've got its something special. Move back," Yuri said and both James and Koudelka moved back toward the ladder, fully expecting to see one of Yuri's monsters manifest. Instead, Yuri himself backed up, hunkering down to bunch up muscles, then suddenly leaping at the door in the narrow confines of the room and slamming feet first into the door; with a loud bang, the door flew off its hinges and skidded on the floor into the next room.
"Ha!" Yuri crowed and walked through; it was a small outside passage leading from Patrick's mansion to the main church and Yuri used the door as a bridge across a watercourse that flowed quickly toward the sea from under the building. There was yet another door ahead and this he pushed open with no resistance.
Koudelka and James exchanged looks but said nothing, following behind the fighter as he entered and then explored what was obviously a vestry. He wandered around while Koudelka and James investigated the vestry and when he came to another set of doors, he pushed these open and stopped.
"Hey, Koudelka! James, check this out!" he called and wandered up a long isle. He paused at the center, looking at a huge metal double door, closed and bolted with thick iron bands crossing both doors. The room itself, more a hallway than vestry room, was richly decorated with gold and indigo and the iron railings had all been polished and scrubbed clean of rust. James was walking slowly up the isle, admiring the accumulation of wealth and Koudelka stopped at Yuri's shoulder.
"Well, there's the main door to the Sanctuary," she said. "Any idea how to open it?"
"Not my feet, that's for damned sure," Yuri said. He approached the door and gave it a good, hard bang with his fist. It rang with a solid sound and Yuri looked back James. "We'd need explosives. Too bad Maggie isn't here."
James ignored Yuri's inane comment and considered their options. The only other entrance that they knew of was blocked by the gargoyle; not an enemy they would willingly face. So they had to have explosives to get though this door.
"You know," he said, "if I had some acid, I know I could use some of the chemicals I saw in Patrick's laboratory to mix up some nitroglycerine."
"Nito-whatsie?" Yuri queried and Koudelka waived him off.
"The septic tank still had some acid, and I saw an empty bottle upstairs in the lab; we could use that."
"Tell you brains what," Yuri interrupted, you wait here, or better yet, in the lab, and I'll get the bottle and the acid. I'll take the shortcut." Koudelka and James both looked at him with puzzled expressions. He laughed. "I'll use that arbor to get there."
"But Yuri, the door from the arbor is broken; you couldn't get through before."
"Well," he chuckled, "not with you inside I couldn't. Trust me, I'll get out and be back in a flash. You just stay here and be safe," he said and approaching her, touched her cheek gently with one finger, curling it down around her chin, before barreling off.
Koudelka blinked a moment and then sighed. 'It's like harnessing a whirlwind.'
Yuri scrambled back up the ladder and, stopping only long enough to grab the small glass laboratory bottle from the nearby shelf, made quick time down the grand staircase to the mansion's front door. He threw back the bolt and rushed out onto the inner grounds of the monastery, and stopped for only a moment to get his bearings. Above, the sky was still thick with dark clouds obscuring the full moon. To his left, a marble statue stood in darkness and to his right the entrance to the church and the gargoyle. He smirked, knowing he'd get that thing later and quickly looked around to make sure he hadn't arrived yet. Ahead, with its grated iron door was the arbor, and Yuri sprinted across the grounds, pushing inside quickly before letting the grate bang shut behind him.
Inside, the arbor was an abattoir. A chopping block was set in the corner with severed rope ties for hands and feet. Wheels on the block table showed it could be rolled up to the guillotine set conveniently for killing, and at the foot of the machine lay two corpses, the caretakers Ogden and Bessy. Ogden had been shot in the back of the head, while Bessy... Yuri snorted.
"She blew her own head off. How tacky," he said and climbed over the dead bodies to the hatchway behind the guillotine. A trail of blood trickled across the floor and down a drain, while blood still spattered the floor and top rungs of the ladder descending to the basement level where they had found Koudelka. This small room too was a charnel pit of blood and gore; a dissection table was set up in the center with remains still clinging to winch and cinch and blood dripped from the ceiling and into a reservoir. Yuri shook his head and crossed the small open space to the broken door. The huge doors were metal, bronze and iron turning green with age, and carved with runes that Yuri had not noticed on the other side. The center of the doors, where the two panels met, was deeply dented and bent back as if someone had used a crowbar to try to open them. This same bend in the metal Yuri used to reach in and caress Koudelka when they met up again and he paused, feeling a warm glow in his chest looking at the spot.
"Ah come on, you've got work ta do," he grumbled to himself and stepped back, summoning Forron. He knew fire would not bother the doors, fire having scorched those doors once before to little effect. However, Forron, like all his fire souls, loved to brawl and Yuri felt like beating on something; the doors would do nicely. With his first strike, Forron dented the center door panel even further, cracking the metal in places and sending little flakes of copper and iron filings into the air. The next blow punched through the door and Forron howled in joy, pounding again and again with all his might at the huge metal doors. In less than five minutes, he had reduced one of the doors to a pummeled heap, and ripped the other door off its hinges.
Releasing the fusion, Yuri climbed over the mess he had made and sprinted to the septic tank at the far side of the underground cavern. When he was finished, he stopped at the underground shrine for a quick drink of water and then climbed back into the arbor's basement room. That's when he spotted the far doors - the one's Koudelka said she had taken to escape. Curious, he opened them, entering a short corridor and, with a shrug, following it through the double doors at the end. There he arrived at another shrine, this one bigger than all the others; a great circle was inscribed on the floor plate and around the circle, runes had been incised. At the far end of the shrine, a waterfall cascaded down from some underground natural source and beyond the falls, two doors. Without thinking, he crossed the shrine and took the right hand door, pulling on it; but it would not budge. He scratched his head, puzzled and then tried again.
When nothing happened again, he leaned against the doors and listened, the backwash of cascading water a thunder in the metal of the doors.
"Hmm, well this is quite a place," he muttered. "Hard to believe the basement contains all this." He closed his eyes and listened to the water behind him. "It's enough to make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight."
"The spirits in this place are very different from any other place…" Alice's voice, soft and feminine, echoed in the open space of the shrine. "They're just nothingness that floats around."
"Alice?"
"I've been expecting you."
"Albert old buddy, where ya been hidin' yerself these days?"
"I'm right above you. Please come on up."
"You just sit tight! We'll be there before you know it!"
Yuri leaning against the door, his forehead to the cold metal, sighed. He turned back to the waterfall shrine and headed back the way he came, climbing up to the arbor and out into the inner monastery grounds. Looking up at the moon, briefly clear of the scudding clouds, Yuri thought back to that long ago afternoon they had fought Albert Simon in the bowels of the Monastery, and a small smile quirked his lips.
"Ya thought ya had me then, didn't ya," he said quietly. "But I beat ya, and yer god, and I saved the world." He looked around the grounds, scanning for enemies before taking off at a quick sprint for the mansion. "And now I gotta do it again, this time against me."
James and Koudelka had stayed in the first floor vestry for about fifteen minutes waiting for Yuri, James pacing while Koudelka explored. She found a small, ornately decorated chapel off to the side and once she lit the candles, revealed it to be a splendid lady's chapel. Above the small altar something flashed in the candle light and she looked around before climbing up to investigate. In the shadows behind the altar and along the line of the windows lay a sword; the blade was long and squarish in shape with a pronounced bloodline and stains on the blade itself, while out from the haft came two viciously sharp tines. The entire weapon reeked of violent death and she removed it cautiously, taking it to show James.
James had wandered further into the vestry, stopping at the far doors in sheer boredom. He heard Koudelka's call and waited for her, one hand on the door handle.
"What did you find?" he asked, and his eyes grew narrow at sight of the nasty sword.
"It's heavy; and it's got a feeling about it," Koudelka said, showing it to James. "It's not evil, but it seems to deal with death in some way."
James chuckled, a nasty sound in the empty vestry. "All weapons deal in death. I wonder what it does that it would be here - in this church?"
"Cursed no doubt," she answered and set it down, leaning it against the doors. "Where were you going?"
"Just wandering," he said "and wondering how long that idiot will be."
"He's not an idiot; he's just… I don't know, confused I suppose," Koudelka said and looked back down the vestry hall toward the doors. She listened for a moment for his footsteps then turned back to James.
"Yes, as you said before, touched by the hand of madness," James continued. "But I wonder Koudelka, and I worry; for he seems attached to you, and I think, I don't know for sure, but I think you are involved in this mess he's trying to fix."
Koudelka ran a hand through her hair, pulling free a tangle, and holding on to the end of her ponytail in contemplation.
"All I know is he is at the center of this energy he's experiencing; it's like he is existing in more than one place and more than one time. I don't know how to explain it."
"Yes, I have that feeling as well. But is that possible?"
Koudelka shrugged. "Too often he's known things he shouldn't have; for example the cauldron and the experiments to resurrect the dead. He said something similar earlier. How does he know?"
Yuri scrambled in the front door of Patrick's mansion just ahead of a pair of razor sporting headless monsters. He could have taken them on his own and he knew it, but with James and Koudelka waiting, and him already having spent too much time wandering around below, he didn't feel like taking the time. He raced up the stairs, through the bedroom and into the lab then slid down the ladder to the vestry entrance and kicked open the door, yelling.
"I'm back – hey! Where is everybody?" Looking around he saw he was alone in the dreary candlelit vestry and he sighed. "You'd think they'd wait or something," he muttered and walked up the isle to the next door where he paused, hearing James and Koudelka speaking.
"Well I doubt he's a prophet," James was saying. "He doesn't have the faith."
"You can be a prophet without believing in your God, James. No, it's not that. I know he's drawn to me, and…" Koudelka looked down at her boots, poking a toe into the corner of the carpet runner. "And I feel something for him to, I admit it. But whatever this thing is that he has to fix, whatever it is he's doing, that is what is driving him. He may not even remember what he is doing or why, if I understand the currents around him, but at the same time, I cannot interfere. Nor can you."
"Koudelka, I think you are the one he…" James hesitated, thinking about what he wanted to tell her. Should he reveal his speculations? That's all they were really, as hard evidence was not to be found for this or for that matter anything that had happened in this monastery. "He's always protecting you," he began again. "He's always looking out for you."
"And you, don't forget. He promised to protect both of us."
"More you than me," James said with a smile. "But it's always you. Why? I think it's because the one he killed, is you."
Koudelka looked up at James in shock and then shook her head, "You're imagining things."
Yuri had heard enough. It was one thing to be talked about, and another thing to spread bad stories. James was not to interfere, not now, not when it was so close. He pushed open the doors and stepped in, crossing the vestry with a few quick steps. He handed James the bottle of acid.
"I'm back; and you talk too much, priest," he said.
James' expression remained stoic as he took the bottle. "I'll go to Patrick's lab and get working on this."
Yuri nodded and looked at Koudelka. "You wanna wait here? Or upstairs where there's a fire?"
Koudelka picked up the strange sword and handed it to Yuri. "Upstairs is fine. And… and we need to talk," she said and followed James out of the vestry.
Yuri held the odd sword and watched as Koudelka left the vestry, leaving him standing in the near dark.
"What's with that alla sudden?" he asked no one in particular and then with a shrug, shouldered the menacing blade and followed. Koudelka was waiting in Patrick's bedroom and James firmly closed the laboratory door after shooing him away.
"Leave me be, Yuri; this is dangerous and in order to blow that door, I'll need a full flask." James had looked at Yuri with an odd twinkle in his eyes. "If I drop that flask I'll be knocking on heaven's door; you wouldn't want that now, would you?"
Yuri opened his mouth to retort than closed it with a grin.
"He's in a good mood," he said to Koudelka only to find she had left the room. In a panic, Yuri ran out to the landing only to stop at the door when Koudelka appeared with a basket of food and a couple of bottles of wine. "I thought…" he said.
"I thought you might be hungry. Here," she said and handed him some bread and cheese. "Go give these to James before he gets too far along." Yuri took the food and knocked on the laboratory door, and silently weathered James' deep scowl at the interruption, although he took the food and closed the door again with a resounding thud.
"Ingrate," Yuri muttered and returned to Koudelka. She had set the basket on the hearth by the fire and was poking the logs into a bright and cheery blaze. Yuri set the sword down on the floor and flopped down, stretching his shoulders a little to ease the armored vest. "I'm hungry; I don't suppose there are any meat pasties in there?"
Koudelka, sitting down next to him, laughed. "I doubt that; bread and cheese from our good friend Roger Bacon. The wine is from Patrick's private stores," she picked up a bottle and squinted at the label. "It's at least five years old," she said with a grin.
"Oh, ancient stuff then," Yuri also broke into a grin and popped open the cork on his bottle, offering it to her.
Koudelka accepted the bottle and exchanged it for her own, sitting back near the firedogs, the heat of the crackling blaze warming her and removing the gloom that had filled her since she first climbed up the northwest wall of the monastery. She watched as Yuri ate a few bites of the food and pulled deeply on the wine, the headiness making him stop and cough a bit.
"Wow, good shit," he said around his cough and looked up at Koudelka's giggle.
"You are a big oaf, aren't you?" she asked and couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled to the surface on the wine's bouquet.
Yuri grinned, leaning forward to offer her a bit of the bread. "I have heard that, yes. Along with uncultured heathen, ignorant ass, stupid country bumpkin, and bakiinfu-kun, but that last one earned the guy a broken jaw and a bloody face."
Koudelka looked at him and shook her head, puzzled. "A what?"
"Ah," Yuri laughed, "never mind. It's a bad thing to say anyway. So, what do people call you? Besides beautiful, sexy, vivacious, and tempting."
Koudelka felt a blush rising up to her already heat flushed cheeks. "You are an ass, aren't you? Do you ever take anything seriously?" as soon as she'd said it Koudelka instantly knew that was the wrong tack to take with him. She watched as dark brown eyes shifted to amber and he grew quiet, taking another long pull on his bottle of wine.
"Yeah, I take some things seriously," he replied. "Fighting monsters, rescuing damsels in distress and sex."
"Not necessarily in that order," Koudelka supplied and had the satisfaction of watching his smile bloom into a wide, toothy grin.
"So how 'bout yerself," he asked. "What kinda life did you have? Any family?"
Koudelka took a long pull on her bottle of wine and shook her head. "No, I've been alone since I was a child; my father died and my mother abandoned me."
"Just like you told Charlotte? Really? That's the pits."
"That's all right; I'm used to it now," she paused, the wine beginning to do more than warm her insides. "I am a dirty, ignorant woman; but as a child, living alone, selling my body to escape the cold winter nights…" she paused again and stared vacant eyed into the fire. "When I was a child I predicted the exact time and method of my father's death; imagine that. My mother hated me; the village I was born in feared me. I did what I could to survive but I wouldn't wish this on anyone."
"Yer psychic stuff?"
"Yes, my psychic stuff," Koudelka looked back at him. "Can you imagine what that was like for me? Even a little?"
Yuri nodded, "Yeah, I can. Being alone myself, yeah," he nodded and scooted closer to her, leaning down on one elbow at the fireplace. "I guess we both had hard childhoods; I don't think much back on that, living from hand to mouth, doin' what needed ta be done. I – my memories are really fucked up right now," he said with a laugh, "but I know I did some horrible things to live. Stealin' and bustin' jaws was just the start of it."
Koudelka nodded, remaining silent in her own memories for a few minutes then, "Tell me what happened Yuri; what happened to bring you here?"
Yuri shrugged, one shoulder slouching inelegantly and he took another swig of his wine, letting its warmth relax him and blur the edges of his mind.
"Hard for me to remember straight an' the wine ain't helpin' any," he said evasively.
"Try. I – I need to know."
Yuri, his eyes beginning to blur around the edges, looked at the beautiful gypsy half reclining next to him. She was alluring in a mysterious and dark fashion. He found himself mesmerized by her oddly colored eyes and wondered if that's what others felt when they saw his. He took another drink, letting the rich red wine flow down his throat and settle like a warm fire in his stomach.
"I was told that something happened to get it all started… the confusion in my life. I suddenly didn't have a wife, although I remembered her." He frowned, staring at the crackling blaze for a moment, his mind trying to recapture… was it only yesterday? "I found myself with a family that wasn't mine, but yet... was. I didn't have the wife I married an', and nothing was making any sense. I came to Nemeton to see Roger, but then somethin' happened and here I am; only I made it worse."
"By killing someone important?"
"Yeah, but not on purpose. I – interfered at the wrong time," he said softly, his deep voice nearly a whisper. "I shoulda kept my mouth shut but all I saw was a woman in danger and didn't think."
'A woman in danger,' Koudelka thought, hearing the words reverberate in her mind and she felt a sudden tightness in her chest. 'James was right.'
"Yuri…" she tried to speak, but the tightness was clutching at her and she suddenly couldn't breath, her heart laboring and she dropped the wine bottle, spilling the remains onto the hearth, her hand reaching up to her throat as if she were choking.
Yuri looked up and saw her look of horror and fear, and instantly regretted saying anything. He sat up and pulled her into his arms, holding her close, stroking her hair.
"I'm sorry; me an' my big mouth," he said. "I think I've had enough wine if I'm sayin' things I shouldn't."
"No, no it's all right, Yuri," Koudelka gasped quietly, her voice weak. "I asked."
"You know don't you; you know who it was I killed," he said, speaking softly, making it a statement.
Koudelka, her head leaning on his broad armored chest nodded, her hair pulling free from her ponytail and falling around her shoulders.
"I know."
"I have to fix it; by protecting you, and preventing what happened from happening. I know," he said and his voice lowered to a throaty whisper again and it sounded deep to Koudelka whose head rested yet on his chest. "I know what I have to do – stop myself. I'll be here … shortly. Just about dawn. I'll be in the church, fighting the gargoyle and then, following the fighting up to the roof. That's when it happened – and I will stop myself. I will, I promise you. An' you will come out of this alive." He punctuated that last by putting a finger under her chin and lifting her face, bending slightly, and pressing his lips to hers.
Her lips parted invitingly at his kiss and the warm pool of the wine suddenly ignited and he felt himself wanting her again, wanting to do more than just hold her, wanting to caress her, love her, make love to her. Koudelka's arms came up around his neck as she shifted next to him, her fingers snaking through his shaggy hair and she pursued him, her lips kissing along his jaw, nipping at his ear, her tongue stroking a line of fire along the lobe. Yuri found his hands sliding up her back inside her jacket and vest, tugging on the laces of her black camisole and slipping inside to caress her bare flesh.
Koudelka pushed back from him, allowing his hands to move up and remove her clothing over her head, baring her breasts to his amber gaze. She climbed onto his lap facing him, her hands pulling at the lacings of his armored vest while they both kissed, lips gently sucking, tongues caressing, tasting, exploring each other. One hand caressed a breast, another hand pulled open buttons; one hand slid down panties, and another slid inside trousers. Breaths were coming rapidly and Yuri moved his lips down to nip at Koudelka's neck, following down to the point of her shoulders, his fingers caressing and exploring Koudelka's warm recesses. Koudelka herself was torn between desire and caution, her body responding to Yuri's advances, her heart to his trust but her mind to where they were.
"W-what about James?" she stammered, shuddering as Yuri removed her panties.
"Let him find his own woman," was the fusionist's husky reply and Koudelka's hand, inside his trousers and working up and down his shaft had him wanting her more than life itself right now. She pushed down the trousers and brought him out, her hands moving in time to her rapid breathing.
"K-Koudelka…" he gasped and then his mind snapped. He rolled over, pushing her to the floor, covering her, his aching need dictating the direction he would take and he plunged in, all unknowing, all uncaring, his mind seeing Koudelka writhing beneath him, her white-blonde hair falling down around the bed and her ice blue eyes burning with passion. Fair arms wrapped around his neck, a soft voice whispered in his ear as he plunged again and again into the love that was his wife, the caress that was the woman he married, the passion that was …
"Alice…" Yuri moaned as his climax brought him back to reality with the slamming of a door behind him.
"Can't you two wait until this is over?" James asked from the doorway.
Koudelka grabbed her clothing as Yuri moved off and James returned to wait in the laboratory. She was still riding the tide of their passion, but wondered again, who exactly was Alice. He said her name. He said her name while making love to me, so she must be his wife, the one who carried their baby, the one who died. Curiosity warred with disappointment and she pulled on her clothes in silence.
Yuri waited at the laboratory door, watching as Koudelka put on her shoes and straighten her hair back into its ponytail. He watched her with an affectionate eye, wishing they'd had more time, but he had hopes they would have time enough when this night was finally over. Outside the sky was beginning to show the first signs of dawn in the east and little streams of yellow light were coming in the windows. They had to hurry; he was coming too and, in the pit of his stomach, Yuri knew what he had to do.
"You ready?" he asked holding the door for her.
"Yes." Koudelka passed into the laboratory and climbed back down the ladder to the vestry; James, having gone ahead, was waiting at the vestry door.
"If we place this against the door and shoot it, it should open a nice hole for us," he said, avoiding looking at Koudelka and staring intently at Yuri.
Yuri frowned. "What?" he exclaimed. "You were busy."
"Now is not the time," James said and led the way into the vestry.
The great grey doors of the Sanctuary entrance, with their black iron studs and bars, loomed above them and James placed the flask of nitroglycerin on the floor next to them and walked back.
"We need to shoot the bottle then," he said and looked at Yuri. "I guess I should do it."
"I'm probably a better shot than you any day buddy," Yuri said, remembering James's shots at the monster in the underground tunnel.
James stared at the young fusionist, refusing to relinquish the rifle when Koudelka took the double action pistol from her pouch and fired. The resulting explosion deafened them, and the force of the blast shook the ground. Plaster and molding fell from the ceiling and smoke billowed as the doors crashed open and flew into the Sanctuary. Yuri had knelt when the blast pushed smoke and debris back into the vestry and he stood looking into the church.
"Holy fucking shit," he muttered, and stepped through the doors into the Sanctuary. The church was huge, with a large stained glass window facing the east and next to that an altar. To his upper right rose a lectern and just above that a pipe organ, its pipes dingy and brown with age. In the center of the room was a stone crypt with a statue lying in state of Saint Daniel Scotius. And throughout the Sanctuary, climbing up from below and bursting forth near the altar, climbing up into the choir loft and spreading like a cancer, was a huge vine-plant, its roots as big as a man with thorns the size of a knife blade.
"Yuri, please, refrain within God's house," James said but Yuri shook his head.
"Look at this damned plant James; look at it! It's huge!" and he pointed to where it reached to the ceiling.
James looked. "That does not excuse you," he answered. "Where do we find this cauldron Roger Bacon was talking about?" he asked and took a few cautious steps inside.
"Whoa there! Watch yerself!" Yuri shouted and grabbed James by the collar, pulling him back just as a thorny root moved, snaking toward him. "It's big; probably below here somewhere," Yuri said with one arm sweeping the Sanctuary area, the floor now a writhing mass of thorny roots.
Koudelka looked up at the pulpit and then tapped Yuri's shoulder. "This way." She crossed the floor quickly, jumping over one root that was as big around as a barrel, and quickly climbed the stairs. Up and around and up again, stopping at the pulpit to stare out over the sanctuary and at the huge twisting tree-like trunk that grew from the floor and then up through the floor of the choir loft. Beyond were the stained glass windows and the early morning light sending yellow shafts piercing the clouds and thrusting down through the glass to illuminate the root infested floor. Shuddering, she turned to climb up to the organ, another flight of stairs above her.
The organ was actually not much more than a stand with control pegs, but the pipes themselves made up the entire wall, starting at floor level and climbing in long straight lines to the ceiling. Koudelka looked at the control board and hesitated. She studied the keyboard to the right and found that the buttons had been locked in place, as had the buttons on the left but four buttons were loose and they all had markings, runes like she had seen in the Sub-Hall Shrine when she had been separated from the others; those same runes had been on the marble statues on the inner grounds and throughout the monastery. She pulled her pouch around and removed the letter she had found pinned to the teddy bear earlier that evening. She read it again.
"He performed the Secret experiment to forget the Pain of love. May all People be saved by God's divine Lights," she read aloud.
"What's that?" Yuri asked, leaning on the stair railing below her.
"It's a note I found; there are words written here and a rune after each word," she said and looked up at the keyboard and then smiled. "And they match the keys that move on the board."
"So, push 'em," Yuri said and stretched.
Koudelka did just that, following the words in the letter, pressing first the rune for Secret then Pain, followed by People and Light. Almost immediately, a deep thrumming note was sounded from the pipes, a discordant sound that rumbled through the walls and an answering rumble from below. James, standing at the foot of the stairs called out.
"The crypt opened!"
"Hmph," Yuri snorted, "can't say much for his taste in music." He headed back to the ground floor taking the steps two at a time and jumping over the railing six feet from the floor. "Now, for the crypt."
Rubbing his hands together Yuri headed back across the Sanctuary toward the crypt, jumping over one large root as it writhed in his direction. James, waiting for Koudelka to descend, shook his head.
"Idiot," he said quietly.
"I heard that James," Yuri called with a laugh and quickly descended the stairs below the crypt, for the platform had slid back revealing a stone stairway descending beneath the crypt and into the basement of the church. At the bottom, Yuri faced a room overgrown with dry and withered root stems, dark and dirty and musty smelling, and full of memories. No sooner had he stepped onto the stone slabs of the floor than he felt an overwhelming sense of returning. In an alcove stood the cauldron, its bowl black with grime and age. At the base, wrapped around in root fibers was a mummy, its dry and desiccated face still wearing eyeglasses. And in the cauldron, growing from it and spiraling up through the shattered ceiling was a tree, and Yuri suddenly felt dizzy, falling to his knees and listening.
"Wh-what is this place? It's full of evil spirits…" Alice said, collapsing to her knees, panting. Yuri knelt down beside her and gently touched her shoulder.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
The old man, Roger Bacon, had paused and turned to look at the three of them, Alice, Yuri and Zhuzhen, and he was grinning in amusement.
"Can you sense the atmosphere of curse and chaos that remains here? I'm proud of you. Koudelka's power sealed him, but his spirit remains… It makes me shiver to even think of him."
Alice rose to her feet and Yuri stayed close, protectively, while Zhuzhen moved past them to look at the unrecognizable mess in the middle of the underground room.
"What is that?" he asked, tapping its sides with his staff; it made a hollow thunking sound.
"The large pot was used to create a human who shouldn't have existed," Roger explained, pointing at the cauldron, its top bent, warped, and showing signs of fire damage as well. "Elaine's body, without her soul, turned into an inhuman entity - Patrick didn't intend for that…" Roger sighed. "Since ancient times, this place has been called Neam. It contains a mysterious power. There are other places like this as well and all of those places are situated upon the Earth's 'nerve points'."
"Earth's nerve points?" Yuri asked. "You mean like in acupuncture?" he said, trying hard to understand.
"Exactly. And it's where a certain something was sealed in place." He shuffled across the room to doors set in the far wall; they were ornate and heavily carved with symbols. "This door was made in ancient times to seal the ruins. You've seen this seal before, haven't you?"
Yuri looked up at the symbols on the door, the same symbols he'd seen in the sub-hall shrine earlier that night and he looked at Roger with narrowed eyes.
"You really are a space alien aren't ya?" he said, and the room suddenly jerked, twisting and folding upon itself. Dizzy he fell to one knee, his eyes seeing row after row of crosses lining the long staircase that went up and up and up into the darkness of the cavern, leading up to a platform, another symbol filled circle, Albert Simon and…
"Koudelka…" Yuri whispered.
"I'm here," she said and touched his shoulder, bringing him back suddenly to the dark chamber beneath the crypt. "Are you all right Yuri; you seem distracted again."
Yuri, his eyes wide, rose to his feet and rubbed his face with his hands, trying to control the slight trembling he felt. "Yeah - just memories."