A half cry, half gasp signaled Juliana passing the first of the alcoves. Growling reprimands came from her master a moment after.
Eva didn’t mind the bones themselves. Under different circumstances, she might borrow a few to spruce up the prison. It wasn’t like the old owners would mind.
What really bothered her was the sheer number. There were far more bones making up each wall than the amount of skulls facing out on top. Even if the town had been ten times as large as the remaining buildings during its heyday, this number shouldn’t be possible.
Eva stopped at one alcove. Its wall was shorter than the rest, though still capped with skulls. Eva peeked over the top.
Rib cages, feet, hands, hips, collarbones, and several more skulls were unceremoniously tossed behind the bone wall. The rest of the skeletons were piled up as high as the front wall with no order or respect.
The rest of the alcoves were probably the same.
She left another light hovering over the mangled remains and moved on.
After creeping past no less than thirty of the crypts, Eva came up to a stopped Arachne.
They looked out over a much larger cavern.
Carved stairs complete with a thin metal railing led downwards, splitting off in two at the first step. They circled around a large pool of murky green water. The cavern extended back into a cave maybe half as large as the chapel above.
Magical lights, more permanent than the one dancing around Eva’s fingertips, kept the cave well-lit. Pews sat to either side of a small aisle, all facing towards the pool of water and the stairs.
Six cages hung from the ceiling on the outside edge of the benches. Each held a single corpse in varying degrees of decay. Most were barely more than skeletons.
The two descended the staircase. Eva sent balls of light scanning every nook of the cave for anything that might jump out. Arachne checked under and behind each pew.
By the time they finished, Juliana and Devon had entered the main room. The blond made a straight beeline to Eva.
“You alright?” Juliana quietly asked.
Eva looked up from the small alcove in the wall. One not filled with bones, just a handful of spiders. Juliana looked sick. She had a wand gripped tightly in each hand as well as her two finger rings on. “Yeah, I’m good,” Eva said. “Are you?”
“Peachy.”
Eva gave the girl a sad smile. “I’m sure it will be fine. There aren’t even any necromancers around right now.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Devon said as he and Arachne marched over. He held a finger up to the ceiling.
Six skeletons all gazed down at the group. They were still slumped over in their cages, unmoving. Just their skulls pointed empty eye sockets at them.
Juliana clicked her tongue and readied her wand. “Do we destroy them?”
“Probably too late at this point. Someone knows we are here. I doubt they matter.” He glanced around. “There should be another room here. I wasn’t told it would be hidden. Damn vanth.” He grumbled more profanity under his breath and set to inspecting the walls.
Eva sent orbs of light crashing against spots around the room. If an illusionary wall existed, the light would simply pass through it rather than splash against the wall. She wasn’t having much success after ten minutes, and started searching the walls with her hands as her master had done.
“Here,” Juliana called. “This bit of the wall is metal, not earth.”
Eva moved over to the blond. She was standing with her wand out in front of a section of the wall that Eva couldn’t tell was any different from the section next to it. Devon and Arachne joined a moment later.
Rather than thank her or praise her, Eva’s master just grunted. “Let’s find out how to open it then.”
“I could just destroy it, if you want.”
“Fine.”
Juliana flicked her wrist. Bits of rock fell from what now looked like a rusted sheet of metal. She tapped her fingers on the sheet. Metal turned to liquid and flowed up the sleeve on her shirt as her fingers moved.
The last of the panel disappeared, causing Eva to wonder just how much of Juliana’s body was covered in metal at the moment. Not a drop had been discarded.
Devon held no such wonders or if he did, he didn’t show it. He marched through the opening and opened a regular wooden door.
The room beyond was tiny in comparison to the cave. It had a modern cot from any sports store and a few blankets. There was a desk and a short bookcase.
Devon moved in and started snooping around the desk.
Eva leaned over to Juliana. “Do you have that shrinking suitcase on you?” she whispered.
The blond just shook her head.
Sighing, Eva moved over to the bookcase. Her small satchel for potions might be able to fit two or three tomes. Five if they were small enough. She grabbed a few with the most interesting titles and tucked them into her satchel. She handed another five to Juliana to do the same with her own backpack.
