IV.
"Are you alright, Master!?" Rider, obvious concern in his voice, held out his hand to Louise who was laying on her back in the dirt, gasping from the pain of the long fall. The fallen Master gladly accepted her Servant's assistance in righting herself.
Perhaps if she hadn't been so preoccupied with trying to escape the maddened citizens who had chased them she would have been better prepared for the sheer distance of the drop. The thought crossed her mind though that she had only found the weak wall because of the harried pursuit, and may not have stumbled upon the hidden entrance otherwise. Whatever the case was, her and Rider were both here now and, it seemed at least, no longer being pursued by whatever those people were.
"I could have easily dispatched those foes, Master. Their magical energies were incredibly low." Rider was examining the way they had come while he spoke.
"That's just the thing though." Louise was stretching her limbs and back, making sure nothing was damaged to an extent that would incapacitate her. "Their low magical energies, the way they moved and behaved, they seemed very much like real humans under some sort of spell."
"Hypnosis again?" Rider was becoming increasing wearied by that particular branch of magic.
"It's possible. But something seemed different. At least different from the Saint-Hermine family style of hypnosis."
"How so?"
"Well, generally when we hypnotize an individual it is through a method of imprinting an idea in their mind, or overriding basic memories of concepts. The individual will act normal in all regards except those affected by the parameters of the hypnosis spell." Louise, satisfied that nothing had been broken or sprained, conjured a floating light spell and began to take in their current surroundings herself. "But those people, it didn't seem like there was any real sense of self. They didn't have any basis for declaring us 'heretics' like that, and their eyes seemed so dead and far away, as if seeing the world completely differently."
"I think it's safe to say that we have in fact found ourselves in a Servant's den, so I would say it is also a safe assumption to make that those people may be under the influence of a Noble Phantasm of some sort. That could explain the exceptional nature of it." Rider, satisfied with the unclimbable nature of the sheer rock wall that stood between them and a guaranteed exit, followed his Master's lead and looked at the rest of the cavern.
The orb of magical light illuminated the rough-hewn, but clearly man-made, walls around them. Marks and cuts made by ancient pick-axes and shovels covered nearly all the visible surfaces, some even stretching up along the higher parts of the wall that led to where they had fallen through. The chamber they were in now was clearly part of the old mines the ossuary had been built out of, but unlike the chambers and tunnels that were classified as 'The Catacombs', had been walled off and forgotten. Before being sealed and abandoned, the portal they had fallen through had been used as a sort of shortcut through which workers and supplies could be lowered into the deeper reaches of the mine, so in a sense had affected its old purpose for the Master and Servant. There were two different pathways on either side of the chamber, both of which had low, tool-cut ceilings, the minimal amount of work put into making them a clear portal for passage and little else.
"Well we've two ways to choose from and little indication of which is the better choice." Louise said casting an inquisitive gaze on Rider.
"Not necessarily." Rider responded haughtily.
"Oh? And I suppose you are going to reveal now that you are some expert tracker?"
"Expert? No, not quite at that level. But unlike my book-learned mage Master, I know some things to look for in situations like these." Rider began to closely inspect the ground around both tunnels, also casting pointed glances on the walls around them as well. After inspecting both entrances closely the Servant shot into an upright position, poised to make his declaration. "This way!" He said confidently, pointing to the portal to Louise's right. Before she could ask at all about what had led to her Servant's decisive declaration, Rider was striding down his chosen path. Louise merely sighed and followed behind her self-assured partner.
"Oh, one moment, Rider." Louise pulled the paper bird, whose partner she had given to Zoe, from her jacket pocket, spoke a few words to it, and let it free to fly off and find its other. In Louise's mind they had come through a rather exceptional path and, fully trustworthy or not, it would be best for their partner investigator to at least know where they were.
If nothing else, the path Rider had chosen proved to be a simple choice. Though they walked for some distance, they never met any branching pathways that forced them to make further deductions about the correct direction. Louise also felt it likely they might be heading in the proper direction due to the fact that she continuously felt the path dip downwards, indicating that they were moving deeper into the mines. It would stand to reason, Louise figured, that if a Master and Servant were going to make their workshop within the confines of the old mining tunnels, they would want to be as far in as possible so as to dissuade anyone attempting to infiltrate their lair. It would also allow more chances to set up any defenses.
This last thought proved a portentous one, as Louise and Rider were both suddenly hit with a wave of magical energy. Louise immediately crumpled to the ground, nausea and pain wracking her whole body. Rider, due to his Servant status, was faring slightly better and knelt down to help Louise to her feet. Louise attempted to stand, but the entire tunnel was rotating around her, the ceiling became the floor, but only moments later returned to its initial position above her. The mage tried to close her eye to shut out the nauseating illusion, but her head itself was spinning on some unknown axis, twisting in on itself. Louise could feel herself losing consciousness, her body quaking and on the verge of regurgitation. She needed a way to right her body's sense of equilibrium, to bring her back to a world that wasn't spinning.
Louise, all the willpower she had being used to stay cognizant, put her hands up in front of her closed eye. She knew she was only going to have one chance, and the moment she opened her eye, she would either succeed, or completely succumb to the magical attack that was assailing her. Louise began the chant as early as she could before exposing herself to the spinning nature of the tunnel again. As she opened her one eye Louise perceived the tunnel that lay ahead. What had once been a slightly sloping shaft of unevenly cut stone and dirt, was now a jumbled mess of nonsensical patterns and shapes, twisting and bending in on itself further with each passing moment, the whole of the world breaking and rearranging into an impossible to comprehend landscape. Just as the shapeless and tumultuous nature of the scenery was about to overcome Louise she finished chanting the activation words for the hypnosis spell and uttered a simple command to herself. "You see the tunnel as it was."
Instantaneously the twisting and warped world around Louise violently reset itself. The mental shock was enough to knock her down, and Louise found herself lying on the ground again, but conscious, and now everything felt stable.
"Master, I am quite glad you were able to right yourself." Rider, strained and sweating profusely, was speaking through clenched teeth. Servant though he was, the magical trap was still having some effect on him. "If it is at all within your ability, perhaps you could see fit to assist me as well?"
Louise, though still badly shaken and uneven, stumbled to her feet and over to her faltering Servant. She was able to quickly cast the same hypnosis spell on him, which negated the curse for Rider just as abruptly as she had lifted it from herself.
The pair took a few moments to gather themselves, both of their equilibrium still recovering from the mind-bending magic that had afflicted them. After taking several deep breaths, stretching his limbs, and making sure he was fully back to normal, Rider turned to Louise with a nonchalant half-smile on his face. "Shall we continue?"
Louise could not help smiling at his attempted bravado, and nodded in agreement. "We're definitely on the right track it would seem."
"A comforting thought to be sure." Rider answered.
"Sorry, I should have noticed that bounded field before we passed through it."
"Is that something that's a concern? I was under the impression that the entire point of a magical trap was to sit unseen until it was sprung." Rider was confused by Louise's feeling of responsibility.
"This one was cleaner than their others, but I noted several other bounded fields as we moved deeper into the caverns. I wasn't quite able to detect or discern the functions of the others, but they were definitely there."
"Why did you not mention them before now then?"
"Zoe was there when we passed through the first one. Surely he must have detected it as well and said nothing, I was concerned with seeming jumpy or frightened in front of him." Louise didn't like admitting it, but her pride as a Saint-Hermine was still interfering with her partnership with Rider. Zoe was a member of a family that served her own, she couldn't bring herself to show weakness before him.
"And the second one?" Rider asked incredulously.
"We were very distracted fleeing from those berserk people. There was no time to analyze anything too in-depth."
"That one is fair and I shall allow it to pass. Please remember though, foolish pride will do us no good." Rider hoped Louise didn't know enough about his past to call him out on the hypocrisy of the statement.
Louise decided it was not prudent to call Rider out on the hypocrisy of his statement at this time and focused on moving forward. She could see the tunnel came to a sudden sharp turn several dozen feet ahead. A more important detail she noticed though was that there was an extremely faint light that was visible from around the bend. Louise immediately doused her own light source. Rider also noted the light up ahead, and the Master and Servant spent a good minute completely still, having silently agreed on how to proceed. After they were completely assured that no one had noticed their presence, Rider faded into spirit form and moved ahead through the tunnel. Louise waited patiently, though nervously to hear from her Servant about what lay ahead.
Despite how difficult he was to detect in spirit form Rider still approached the situation with extreme caution. Now, in his eyes, was not the time to make mistakes. As he slowly peered around the corner of the path's curvature he was greeted by the first physical signs of the mage's presence in the catacombs.
The chamber ahead was massive, especially by the standards of every other cave and tunnel they had spent the last several hours in. The smoother, more even texture of the walls implied that much of the room had likely been modified by its current resident from its original size and quality. What was once a small chamber that had connected several other shafts was now a grandiose dome shaped workshop. The lighting was poor, the entire room, perhaps three hundred feet in diameter, was only illuminated by a dozen torches, burning with magical purple flames, and the whole area was lent an unsettling air by the dark, cool light.
Another thing that made Rider uneasy about the room was that, apart from the one he currently occupied, there were three other tunnels leading out and away from the foreboding space. While this was undoubtedly the workshop of the mage they were seeking, Rider didn't like the idea that they could quickly become surprised and surrounded if they chose to investigate further, which was something Louise would undoubtedly want to do. The last detail the Servant was able to make out was a large, low stone dais or altar of some kind in the center of the room, and noted it was the only thing really present in the extensive space.
Just as Louise was beginning to grow concerned, Rider reappeared at her side. "Well? How worried should I be?" Louise accompanied the question with an anxious, searching look.
"Hard to say at this juncture." Rider replied before describing the room. "It is undoubtedly the workshop, but I see no sign of anyone actually occupying it. Perhaps we caught them while they were out?"
"We could only be so lucky." Louise didn't bother trying to hide her sarcasm. "We'll move in and I'll see what I can find. There have to be at least some traces of whatever it is this mage is trying to accomplish in there. You stay in spirit form and only make yourself known if it looks to be getting too dangerous. We need the element of surprise on our side as much as possible."
"Be careful, Master. There are four tunnels and I can watch all of them only so effectively."
"In and out. Simple."