"So… dead people were talking to you?" Everyone stares at Juniper with wide eyes.
"I know what I heard." Juniper scowls, but her face quickly softens. "I just don't know who said it or where it came from."
"Guess it's a mystery that will never be solved," Sam says, wringing his hands. "Why don't we leave here and get back to the safe, no-dead-bodies-present, surface?"
Fred snickers. "Are you afraid they're going to come back to life?"
"No, that's ridiculous. Nothing can bring back the dead." Sam pushes his glasses up his nose and crosses his arms. "I'm afraid of the traps in place to protect them. People bury their loved ones with valuable possessions, and if the surface is covered with traps to protect the city, then their catacombs probably aren't any different. Grave robbers would love a place like this."
"We've made it this far without running into any traps. This might actually be the safer route." Tessa holds her hands up higher, further illuminating the room. "One of these has to lead to the temple. Probably. What parts have you explored, Juniper?"
Juniper straightens, as if she's a top-ranked agent about to give a report to the president and not her twelve-year-old friend. "I only went into the first room. That's where I found the tombs. I have no idea what's in these other rooms, but one of them could be a path to the temple. It's likely these catacombs were also used as an emergency escape route."
Joe focuses on each of the archways. There are six in total, including the one they just came in through. Several unlit torches line the walls. He snatches the one closest to him and holds it out to Tessa. "Can you light this?"
She raises her brow at him. "I manipulate space and aether energy. I can't create fire."
Joe shrugs and continues to hold out the torch to her. Something in his gut told him this would work. He felt intimately connected to this city despite having never been here before. He knew everything here was graced by magic. "You may not need fire. It's a magic city, who's to say these torches can't be lit by any kind of magic?"
Tessa purses her lips, tentatively reaching out with one of her glowing hands and softly touches the top of the torch. A purple flame bursts into existence, brightly illuminating the chamber.
Joe's mouth splits into a wide grin. "See? Never doubt magic."
"All right, bunny, don't get too excited."
His grin vanishes. His new nickname was wearing thin. "Let's split up," he says and grabs more torches off the walls, giving one to everyone. Tessa follows behind, lighting each one. "If anyone finds anything, just call it out, and we'll all meet up to investigate."
Juniper immediately takes off and disappears into one of the rooms, muttering to herself about finding the source of the voices. Arwen presses her lips together and follows behind her friend.
Sam hovers near Joe and Fred. He waits for one of them to make a decision, too scared to wander off into one of the exits by himself. "So, where should we go first, guys? Should we try the creepy doorway? Or maybe the ominous looking one?"
Fred rolls his eyes. "I want to follow the girls."
Joe frowns. "The whole point was for us to split up and cover more ground."
"Yeah, but I want to know if that chick is crazy or not. She was hearing voices no one else heard."
Tessa scoffs. "Juniper just has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. She'd do anything to learn something new. She isn't crazy." Her face pinches together in thought. "At least, I don't think she is."
She moves around the room, continuing to use her hand to light the way rather than use a torch. Ancient symbols and murals line the walls of the room. She studies each one and pauses in front of two glyphs. "This city was home to all kinds of magic. Maybe there's something here that speaks to her that the rest of us are deaf to."
Joe walks over to join her and stares at the two symbols that have caught Tessa's attention. They both look familiar to Joe, but he can't remember where he's seen them before.
She glances at him out of the corner of her eye. She holds her hand under the first symbol. It's a collection of purple geometric shapes, a square inside a diamond inside a circle. A cross overlays the symbol, connecting all the shapes together. "Aethermancy. Space."
She moves her hand under the second glyph. It's similar to the first one, except this one is green, and the order of shapes is slightly altered. In this one, a diamond rests inside a square inside a circle. Like the first symbol, all the shapes are connected by an overlaying cross. "And temporamancy. Time." She points to several other symbols along the walls. "Elemancy, necromancy, mundumancy... I don't recognize these other symbols, but they probably represent other areas of magic."
"Are there others like us?" Joe reaches out and traces the time symbol. He remembers where he'd seen it before. These symbols were part of the sigil on the front door of Horae Manor. It made sense if they represented space and time. What did the other two symbols on the door represent? His eyes quickly scan the other symbols on the wall but don't see the other ones from the door anywhere. If they weren't associated with magic, then what were they?
"According to Ro and Cas, yeah," Tessa answers his question. "Just not as powerful or important as us. But I've never met any of them, so I can't say for sure."
"Important?"
"Yeah." Tessa puts on a small smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. "Turns out magic isn't all fun and games. We actually have a responsibility to live up to. You and I are responsible for maintaining order and peace throughout the entire space-time continuum. Or at least, we will be once Rowena and Cassius retire."
A cold sweat runs down Joe's chest and arms. "Oh."
She playfully nudges him in the side and tosses him a wink. "Doesn't mean we can't have some fun along the way. I bet we have years to go before we actually have to do anything that important."
Joe scratches the back of his neck, considering Tessa's words. He wanted to believe her, but his gut feeling told him otherwise. Rowena and Cassius did seem like they were rushing things. He'd barely gotten his stuff unpacked before he was sent off to be "awakened". He still wasn't a hundred percent sure what that even entailed.
He glances over his shoulder. Unsurprisingly, Fred and Sam had vanished. Fred had probably dragged Sam off to spy on Juniper and Arwen. Joe sighs. "We should probably try finding a path to the temple. Since no one else is." He grumbles the last sentence under his breath and swiftly moves towards one of the unexplored areas.
Tessa hears him anyway and follows closely behind. "Wow, your friends weren't kidding. You really are grumpy. Let's hope Cas is right, and that goes away after you're awakened. I do not want my lifetime warp partner to be a grouch."
"I'm not a grouch," Joe says a little too quickly. "I just have a lot going on in my life right now."
"Like what?"
He blinks. "Like stuff I don't want to talk about with someone I just met."
She shrugs in response, but Joe catches the hurt look in her eyes. "I just figured since we're going to be working together for a long time. Getting to know each other early on could make things easier down the road. Keeping secrets isn't going to benefit either of us."
Joe's face falls, and he looks away. There's no reason he shouldn't open up to Tessa. She had a point. They were going to be partners for the rest of their lives. The least he could do would be to open up a little more with her. But he couldn't bring himself to do it, not yet. She wouldn't understand anyway.
Juniper strides into the room, following the pulling sensation coming from her head. This was where the voices were coming from. She was sure of it.
But the room is silent.
Like the rest of the underground tunnels, the room is lined with shelves. Unlike the other areas, these shelves are full of books and vials filled with mysterious substances. A large, circular, stone table sits in the middle of the room. It's covered with black and red stains, and strange shapes are carved into the surface.
Juniper walks over to the table. The symbols are foreign to her, but if she concentrates hard enough…
"Are you okay?"
Juniper jumps as Arwen enters the room. "I'm fine."
Arwen puts a hand on her hip. "You're hearing voices, June. That's not fine. Don't lie to me. We've known each other too long for that."
"I can't explain it, Ari. When I was standing above that hole Fred made, I felt this pulling in my head. Then, I started to hear the faintest whispers. You know me, I couldn't experience something like that and not investigate it further."
Arwen shakes her head. "I'm just worried about my best friend. You could have been hurt."
Juniper looks away, looking like a scolded child. Her eyes drift to the shelves and all the books laying on them. None of the titles are in English and several covers feature designs similar to the ones carved into the table. She walks over to them and starts to flip through the pages. A few images catch her eye.
She closes the book she's holding and grabs a few more.
"What are you doing with those?"
Juniper narrows her eyes. "These could be useful."
"Oh! Are we tomb raiders now?" A new voice suddenly speaks out.
Arwen and Juniper spin on their heels and face the doorway. Sam sheepishly grins at them as he stands beside Fred, who is eager to see what Juniper is holding. He grimaces when he realizes it's just a bunch of books.
"I thought we were supposed to split up," Arwen huffs, sending a glare in Fred's direction.
"Yeah, but you two clearly picked the most interesting room. Were you going to keep all this… stuff to yourselves?"
"Yes."
"You're just going to steal those?" Sam speaks up, clearly disapproving of Juniper's actions.
"It's not like they're using them." She gestures towards the room with the corpses. "Who knows what kind of hidden knowledge could be written in here."
"And how do you plan on obtaining that knowledge? You can't-" Arwen begins, but Juniper cuts her off with a sharp glare.
"I'm taking them."
Arwen holds her hands up defensively, not wanting to argue. Juniper fills her arms with as much as she can carry, and the four of them head out of the chamber.
Tessa and Joe are standing in the middle of the main room. They both give Juniper a wide-eyed look.
"I see you did some shopping," says Joe.
"Are those books?" Tessa glances at Arwen, hoping for some sort of explanation.
Arwen just shrugs. She tried to reason with June, but she was determined to take the books out of here with her.
Joe shakes his head. "Well, while you guys were grave robbing-"
"I think tomb raiding is more appropriate here."
He pinches the bridge of his nose and sighs. "While you were tomb raiding, Tessa and I found a path that will hopefully lead to the temple."
"After going through too many rooms with corpses." Tessa wraps her arms around herself and shivers. "I think they have half the city's inhabitants down here. We should get going. I don't like the feel of this place."
Joe nods in agreement. "The path is through that opening over there." He gestures with his torch to one of the archways. "Let's move."
The tunnel they leave through is as narrow as the one they came in through. But this tunnel was much worse.
"Why is it so wet?" Fred groans and wrings out the bottom of his shirt.
The walls around them were dripping water, and in the narrow passageway, the gang had no option but to rub against it, getting all their clothes wet. About an inch of water had built up on the floor, soaking everyone's shoes and socks as well.
"We're probably under the river that runs through the city," Juniper explains, trying desperately to keep her new books dry.
"As long as we keep moving forward, we'll be out of here soon. Hopefully, this leads to the temple, so we don't have to backtrack." Tessa says from the front of the pack, lighting the way as always.
Joe looks behind them. He stands at the back of the group with a torch. Even with this light source, he can only see a few feet behind himself. They'd been walking for a while. The thought of having to go all the way back through the wet tunnel is not enjoyable.
"Is that light up ahead?"
Joe whips his head back forward. Up ahead, a faint light glows, inviting them closer. A heavy weight settles in the pit of his stomach. Even without seeing it, he knows it is the temple. The All Father is just ahead, ready to awaken Joe.
The crew keeps pushing ahead. The path starts to bend upward, leading them to the surface. Gradually, the walls become dryer, and the water on the ground drains away.
Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief as they emerge from the tunnel into an open, sunlit chamber. The room is round and lays under a high dome ceiling. Five marble columns hold up one side of the room, leading directly outside to the streets of Cealus. The back side of the room has two exits. The one the group just came through is a collapsed bit of wall, not even an actual doorway. Maybe a secret door had once stood there, leading into the catacombs. Now however, it's just a jagged hole in the wall.
The other exit is a wide opening that leads to a staircase. Despite the decay and erosion of the city and the room around them, the stairs appear to be in pristine condition, as if they were built yesterday. Even the walls lining the stairs are smooth and polished.
"Sunlight?" Sam peers outside. "It was nighttime when we entered the catacombs. We weren't down there that long. How is this possible?"
Juniper adjusts her glasses. "You really don't understand magic, do you?"
"This is it?" Fred scoffs and crosses his arms. "I figured some dude named the All Father would have nice digs than this. Who builds a place that's just stairs?" He saunters over to the staircase, puts his foot on the first step-
And gets zapped by a purple lightning bolt. Fred yelps, clutching his foot, and moves back to where everyone else is standing. A barrier appears over the entrance to the staircase. Swirls of purple and green mist obscure what lies beyond.
"This is it for you. That wall won't let anyone non-magical in," Tessa chuckles.
"A warning would have been nice," Fred grumbles.
Arwen shrugs, but can't hide the smirk on her face. "We had to learn the hard way. Only fair you did too."
Tessa looks at Joe. "We, however, are not done yet. The All Father waits at the top of the stairs. Ready, bunny?"