Chapter 30: Traps and Switches

A few hours later Sorey fell asleep reading and everyone else left for some other business.

"Okay how are you still opposed to him becoming your squire?" Dezel asked Rose. "His hopes and dreams are so sincere that you can't pick up any malevolence from him! It's adorable!"

"One, he could stab me in the back, and two his health will cause setbacks unless we find something that prevents fevers and coughing spells that leave him bed ridden." Said Rose.

"Okay while I can't argue about the health because yeah there's nothing we can do about that." Said Mikleo. "However if he wanted to stab you in the back or if Muse wanted you dead they would've done it by now."

"You're not arguing the health." Said Rose. "We all know it's going to be something that will set us back. So just on the sheer frequency of him getting sick we're not bringing him."

"But …" Mikleo tried to speak up.

"No." Said Rose. "I don't care how competent he is, how sincere his dreams are, how in line he can put me, or how honest he is. I'm not making him my squire."

"Then what the hell are you gonna do? Try to get Sergei back?" Asked Dezel.

"No, we all remember what happened with him, as it was just a few days ago." Said Edna.

"That still doesn't answer my what would Rose do question." Said Dezel.

"Look I don't know! All I know is that I'm not going to make Sorey my squire." Said Rose. "We're probably gonna stay here for another week so after that we can go look for a different squire in Rolance or try to get one of the other Scatter Sparks -."

"Scatter Sparks?" Dezel interrupted.

"The nickname I have for the Scattered Bones and Light Sparks." Said Rose. "They're the same thing so why not just mash the names together!"

"Just as long as you don't call them that to their faces or in public." Said Edna.

"What do you take me for?" Said Rose.

"A moron." Said Edna.

"Hey!" Rose snapped.

The next day Rose found Sorey, now in an outfit that Rose hadn't seen him in before which was a black shirt with a white hoodie thing under a blue jacket with black pants, permanently dirt stained white boots, and for some reason belts around his boots and across his chest and waist, infront of a strange looking sealed door.

"What'cha doin'?" She asked.

"Hm … trying to find a way to open this door. We've been here for months and I haven't found anything." Said Sorey. Mikleo came out of Rose and started looking around.

"Think it might be triggered by a switch of some sorts?" Mikleo asked.

"Well that's the problem there's no switch next to it." Said Sorey.

"Sorey." Said Zenrus getting his attention. "Do you remember what I said about Pre Asgardian ruins?"

"Yeah, switches tend not to be obvious and end up being in other place-Oh!" Sorey exclaimed. "Mikleo! Let's try looking for something that could function as a switch around here!"

"… All right …" Said Mikleo "… Why me?"

"You're the only one here that likes ruins and has read the Celestial Record." Said Sorey.

"Okay, I'll help." Said Mikleo. So the two went around searching for for a switch. Around the time Muse came back to Rose with a cleaned out cloak.

"Before you do something, I just want to give this back to you." Said Muse. Rose looked at the cloak but she had a hard time knowing there was a bloodstain on it.

"Thanks." Said Rose.

"Don't worry too much about it." Said Muse. "The least I could do if you're not going to take Sorey with you."

"You're still at it?" Rose asked.

"Yes." Said Muse bluntly.

"I could come and watch over him if you'd like." Said Zenrus.

"And what can you do old man?" Rose asked.

"Be respectful or I'll make due on Muse's idea for regaining your resonance." Said Zenrus. Rose stiffened and shivered.

"Yes sir." She said quickly.

"I'm a centuries old seraph that has a domain that is not so easily overpowered by any hellion." Said Zenrus. "Plus I have control over lightning and judging from a recent find it could help."

"How so?" Rose asked. Zenrus pulled out a plain white cloak with a gold lining around it.

"This is a divine artifact that Sorey managed to find a couple months ago. It's lightning affiliated and something like this is very rare as seraphim with elements outside of earth, fire, water, and wind are very few and far between making it very unlikely to get into a pact with them, much less a sub lord pact. And we don't know of a lightning armatus ever existing in history so it would be interesting to test out." Said Zenrus. "Granted if it isn't unstable and could kill us."

"Okay the lightning armatus stuff sounds really damn cool, but I thought you were opposed to having Sorey come along." Said Rose.

"I am. On his own, however if I were to come along I could keep an eye on him and his health to prevent any set backs." Said Zenrus.

"But what happens when he inevitably does get sick?" Rose asked.

"You go ahead. We'll find you and catch up." Said Zenrus.

"I don't like that prospect." Said Rose. "And it just lost my interest in changing my mind so I'm still not doing it."

"… Worth a shot." Said Zenrus with a shrug and just as he said it the door opened and Sorey and Mikleo came running back.

"Oh my god it worked." Said Mikleo.

"Oh my god it worked!" Sorey repeated in a more cheerful tone. "Thank you Mikleo!"

"It's nothing." Said Mikleo.

"Hey you saw the thing sticking out of the ground." Said Sorey.

"Well you're the one that pressed it." Said Mikleo.

"Can we stop talking and do your nerd thing now?" Rose asked.

"Uh … you're coming?" Sorey questioned.

"Hey, someone has to bail you out if you run into a hellion or something." Said Rose.

"Right! Let's go!" Cheered Sorey as Enda and Dezel went back into her body. They walked into the ruins with Zenrus.

"Have fun!" Muse called as Rose ended up running ahead. She saw a leaver sticking out of the wall and against her better judgement she went up to it and jumped on it.

"Rose! Don't touch everything you see!" Sorey tried to warn her but her weight pulled down the leaver causing her to fall back closing the door behind her. "Okay … can you try pushing that leaver back up so the door can open?" Sorey asked. Rose started trying to push the leaver up to no avail.

"Dezel can you help me with this?" She asked. Dezel gave a frustrated sigh and got out of her helped her push up the leaver with no success. "Uh … Sorey … I think this thing is stuck."

"And I'm not finding a keyhole either." Said Sorey.

"Woops." Said Rose.

"Oh don't you 'woops' me!" Sorey snapped.

"Well hey look on the bright side, this place would've lead to a dead end if I haven't pulled that leaver." Said Rose with a shrug. She heard a very long and very drawn out sigh from the other side of the door.

"What am I going to do?" He groaned.

"Well I'm gonna check out what's there, sit tight!" She said while walking off.

"What else would I do?!" Sorey shouted.

"Think he's mad?" Edna asked in a very sarcastic fashion.

"Whatever yould make you think that?" Rose asked as she and Dezel wandered into a separate chamber. There she saw a corridor that lead to a room next to the chamber Sorey was stuck in. Rose could see him, Mikleo and Zenrus from small windows in wall, nearby there was a wall full of various buttons and switches.

"Oh what do these do?" Rose mused to herself. "Hey Edna can you do what Dezel does and sense where these levers and buttons go to?" Rose then asked.

"So that's why this room feels a bit weird." Dezel muttered.

"Dezel couldn't 'see' those buttons what makes you think I could detect shit that could be underground or in the walls?" Said Edna.

"… What does this thing do?" She said reaching out for a leaver.

"Should you really-?" Dezel started before she pulled a leaver.

"Gah! What the?!" They heard Sorey shout.

"Hellions!" They also heard Mikleo shout simultaneously.

"Wait what? What happened?" Said Dezel.

"Oh a bunch of snakes fell in on them … Well Mikleo is purifying them, Zenrus is doing nothing while Sorey … Gah!" She said before backing away from the small window as a snake head and spine flew through the small window. Enda came out and started poking at the snake carnage.

"Oh god! Sorry! … Sorry!" They heard Sorey cry.

"… Ew." She said. Rose then peeked back in.

"You all right in there?" She asked.

"Let's see … a bunch of snakes fell from the ceiling and tried to kill us. What do you think?" Sorey growled.

"Fantastic." Said Rose. "I'll go pull more switches and press more buttons until you're free."

"You suck!" Sorey shouted.

"I know!" Rose shouted back. She then pressed another button, and then another one, but she heard no reaction from the buttons she pressed. "I don't hear any screaming, are you guys okay in there?"

"Fine!" They heard Zenrus call.

"Okay!" She called. She then pulled another switch.

"Hey! What the?!" They heard Mikleo shout.

"Wha- Smoke?! Crap!" Sorey shouted.

"There are switches on the ground." Said Zenrus calmly. And shortly later they heard coughing.

"Sorey!" They heard Zenrus shout.

"Shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" Rose said through her teeth frantically pushing buttons and pulling switches. Until they heard a click. However Sorey was still violently coughing.

"It's all right." They heard Mikleo say. "The smoke's gone it's all right now." They heard the coughing slowly transistion to heavy breathing.

"Thanks." Panted Sorey. Rose waited for a bit before pulling more switches until she heard a click and a door opening. She peeked through the small window to see the trapped three, in the room then looking behind them to see the open door.

"Are you doing all right Sorey?" Zenrus asked.

"Yeah … yeah I'm fine." Said Sorey. "But … can we rest a bit?"

"Okay, but we're going back right after." Said Zenrus.

"What?" Sorey exclaimed.

"Your coughing fit." Said Zenrus. "It could've killed you if Mikleo hadn't stopped the smoke and used healing artes on you."

"But Gramps, I'm fine …" Sorey tried to argue.

"No you're not." Said Zenrus. "You've been saying things like that since you were a little and you never ended up being fine."

"But-…" Sorey started.

"I don't want to have this conversation again, after you take a breather we're going back to the hideout." Said Zenrus. Mikleo stayed quiet the whole time then went back to Rose.

"About damn time." Said Rose.

"Eh, didn't really want to come back while we were having fun in what we assume to be an experiment chamber." Said Mikleo.

"Well I think we had enough fun for today, let's head back." Said Rose. She then stepped on something which caused the floor to come out from under her and spat her out in a different room, she screamed as she fell then landed on her face. "Okay what the hell." Then she felt a malevolent domain and a giant lizard man hellion jumped out of nowhere. "Oh come on!" She screamed.

Will Sorey become a squire next chapter? Though the more accurate question is what the hell would the Lightning armatus that I pulled out of my ass because why the hell not do? And is it more feasible than the goddamn rainbow armatus? Or would it be very viable in the game? Wait till the next chapter comes out ... whenever.