CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: SANCTUM

PeyPey scolded Fawkes with a low bark and jumped down the steps inside the sarcophagus. With the scrabble of claws on stone, he continued out of sight then let out a happy bark. It was safe.

Fawkes moved to climb in then ducked as Kipess flew over him and down the steps. Huffing out a breath, Fawkes turned to Krysala.

"You feeling the need to get ahead of me too?"

She shook her head and laughed.

Fawkes followed the steps. The orb drifted with him, revealing a square room the same size as the crypt above.  A sturdy lever sat in the floor while a lone archway tempted them to go farther.

Krysala came halfway down the steps. She said nothing but watched as Fawkes moved to the lever and pulled. There was the grinding rumble again but here it was much louder.

Krysala went back up the steps.

"The door is open."

"We have the way out then. Let's see what that poison was protecting."

The archway led into a stone corridor that turned a corner. It did so a second time and then a third like it was wrapping around the room in an ever-widening spiral. The corridor continued past a large alcove where two tables were set against the back wall flanking a throne. Four piles of ash and cracked bone formed a line between the throne and the corridor.

A throne in a laboratory? Sure it was fancy carved wood but why amongst the achemy?

Fawkes moved to one of the tables. It was covered with glassware of all shapes and sizes. They were mostly broken and covered with char that spread to the walls.

Kipess moved to the other table and started digging through the mess of glassware that was in the same sad state as the ones on Fawkes' table. He made disgusted noises as he found nothing shiny.

Krysala knelt near one of the piles of ash and bone. She poked at it with a dagger.

"Oh, this is bad." She walked to the throne. She studied it close, taking care not to touch it.  "Terrible, indeed."

"How so?" Fawkes left his table of junk glass to peer at the throne.

"I do believe this was the sanctum of restless dead."

"Restless dead?" Restless dead were rare. They were individuals so consumed by some singular emotion or purpose that drove them to defy the natural cycle of life and death. They were very dangerous. Some funeral rite performed on the body of the newly dead before they can rise prevented this. A glance at PeyPey reassured Fawkes that such a thing was not close. "Maybe these were simply animated bodies?"

"Oh, that's what those were." Krysala pointed to the piles of ash and bone. She glanced at both tables. "And someone destroyed them with mage fire. But not the one who sat here. The one who most likely animated them."

"Musst eatss livers sso dead stayss dead," Kipess advised as he joined them to stare at the throne.

Fawkes shivered, but not at the reminder of the nissling's habit. The kind of restless dead that could animate other dead were the fell kind. The ones who had learned magics and how to exist beyond the natural lifespan or death of whatever kind of folk they had once been. Oh, Boki! I pray she is wrong! Fawkes tapped a finger to each of his eyes.

"A-are you sure?"

"I am certain of it. I see no funerary remains in ... that." She waved at the tables. "Let's see what else we can find."

Did that damn wizard make some awful deal with a fell-dead to hide Garzio here? The elf seems confident in facing one. I really hope she can. Fawkes gripped the hilt of his dagger but did not draw it. What good is a dagger against one of the fell-dead? Why didn't I bring my wand?! Swallowing hard, he followed her with Kipess skipping along beside him.

PeyPey moved ahead of Krysala and led them down the corridor that spiraled around one more turn before ending in a room. Fawkes huffed out a breath and relaxed his grip on his dagger as no one new, alive or dead, was in the room.

The floor was scrubbed clean of every speck of dust, dirt, and ash that still covered the filthy walls. One great scorch mark nearly covered a whole wall save for a blank spot in the shape of a person with their arms sprawled out.

"Someone removed the restless one but I don't see anything here that suggests they are truly gone."

Fawkes frowned about the room. "Both are gone."

"I meant the restless one is gone .. for now." She waved at the outline charred on the wall.

"Gone to where?" He had just started studying the fell-dead, dark mages, and demons when Grandfather got murdered. Since then, he had been too consumed with getting Garzio to continue. His cheeks reddened. It was more than time he saw to his own studies without Grandfather. And first on that list would be finding out just who this Lira Blueridge was and why she had the lair of a fell-dead inside her sarcophagus.

Fawkes took a deep breath. Time to get back to finding Garzio.

He studied the floor. It was clean but not bare. Carved an inch deep into the stone was a ten-foot-wide circle. Inside, many symbols spiraled around and around until they ended at a two-foot-wide inner ring.

 A traveling circle! Ancient magic the High Guild spent centuries trying to destroy.

He glanced at Krysala who was studying the circle as intently as he did. "H-how many people know of this place, Krysala? Someone other than you did and burned all the dead. At least who did that," he nodded at the wall while pretending he had no idea what the traveling circle was, "didn't make it his sanctum. A-and that hand wizard knows of this place but didn't, either."

Krysala looked at Fawkes and cocked a brow. "You don't know who he is," she said with a smirk.

"I know he is returning very shortly to some family estate he suddenly has." She cocked the other brow at him and he flushed. "But no, I don't know his name."

"His name changes too much to be important, but just how many wizards do you think are about Blackstone? He obviously is the one who got rid of the restless one. And from the state of this floor I would say within the last two moons. Maybe three. Cleansing this deeply is easy magic but it takes a lot of time."

"So he made this." He nodded at the circle.

"Hardly. The making of this is a long-lost art, even to us." She tilted her head a bit as her eyes twinkled. "You know what this is." She was not asking.

"Y --," Fawkes squeaked then cleared his throat. "Yes. It's a -- ."

 The sudden clatter of falling stones came from a corner of the room. Fawkes whirled around.

Kipess and PeyPey were busy pulling more loose stones out of the wall until PeyPey could stick in his head. The big dog backed up, pulling something out of the niche. He was holding the sack covered in sigils by its one remaining strap. Garzio!

"Lootss ssack!" Kipess almost drooled over the colorful sigils that were now glowing visibly to everyone, not just to magic-sight. 

Fawkes ran over then blinked when he realized Krysala appeared there, ahead of him.

"My, but he was too confident hiding that here," she laughed but did not try to take the sack.

"We worked hard to find it."

"Yes you did, Fairchild." Her voice soothed as though he were a child making him flush. Again. "What I meant was he broke his attuning bond to it, obviously confident he had it well hidden."

Fawkes frowned. All this time he was worried that the wizard would have noticed his search magic and the damn bastard was no longer attuned to it?!

"Ssack iss mine!"

"I don't want the sack, Kipess. I want what's in it."

"We ssplitss." Kipess held out his hand and they clasped forearms.

"Very good, boys." Krysala laughed then turned to Kipess with a smile. "Rub your own blood on this sigil here and only you can open it."

"Not until I empty it, though." Fawkes grabbed the sack and opened it. He reached in and pulled out the magical book, Garzio. He blinked back tears that tried to leave his eyes. Finally, finally, Grandfather's book was coming home. It was bound closed by a locked silver chain that gleamed blue in the orb's light. Magically locked. I will take care of that later.

Hugging the book tight to his chest, he let go of the sack.

"I-it's yours now, Kipess."

PeyPey spat out the strap.

Kipess ripped off the handkerchief and snatched up his loot sack with a wide, toothy grin. He nibbled a finger until it bled then vigorously rubbed blood on the sigil Krysala pointed out. The sigil flared for a moment then faded back to plain-looking embroidery. The other sigils did the same, though they now held that soft glow only those who saw magic could see. Kipess pouted.

"Shinies gone."

"It means the magic is working," Fawkes explained even as he turned to the elf. "I have what I came for. I—"

"And here is where we part ways, boys."

"Whatss?" Kipess cocked his head to one side as he looked up at the elf.

"I have found my ...  secret." She waved towards the corridor. "Off you go, then."

"But the restless one and—"

"You are very clever, Fairchild, but some things should not be toyed with. At least not until you're older and wiser." She waved at the corridor again. "Goodbye, boys."

Whatever her reasoning, she's letting us go. Even Garzio.

"You, too," Krysala said to PeyPey. "I mean no ill will to your ... boy."

Fawkes felt the color drain from his face. She knows of my dogs! He stared at her. Before he could find words to say, she flashed him a slight smile then touched a finger to one eye then the other, and winked. For a very brief moment, the sigil of an open eye gleamed on both her eyelids then faded out of 'sight'. Fawkes returned the gesture. He stepped into the corridor, herding the nissling along as he struggled with this new revelation.

She's Enlightened! The Enlightened were the non-human followers of Boki, much like acolytes. Does she know about the Oddes Shoppe? I bet she's been staying in the Cellar as a secret guest of Father Burnyrd! Without Grandfather, I know nothing of what The Brethren have been up to lately!

PeyPey nodded to the elf and left the room. He trotted to get ahead of Fawkes and Kipess, leading the way back to the steps. In the crypt, they could hear the rain. Fawkes ran a hand gently down the cover of the book. You'll be home soon, Garzio. He gently placed Garzio into his pack. He put away the orb and adjusted his mask so he could once again see in the dark. 

"Ahhh." With a sigh, Kipess put away his headband then stepped outside after Fawkes.

He looked at Fawkes. "What'ss elfss ssecret?"

"That circle on the floor."

"Funny rock artss not good ssecret."

Fawkes just smiled. Best Kipess not understand what it really is. "Keep the magic of your loot sack a secret."

"Yess. Goodss secret." He slipped the one strap over his head so it rest on his right shoulder and the bag hung at his left hip. A bit of rearranging his crossbow over the strap then back between his wings and the nissling sighed with a smile. "Timess to goess home."

"Hope your tribe recovers from the Hand attack. It was fun working with you, Kipess. Perhaps we can do so again sometime."

"Yess. Musst againss. Byess." The nissling jumped up into the air, flapping his wings fast. In moments he was gone.

"This has been a very strange night, PeyPey," Fawkes patted the dog's wet head. "But we have Garzio. Let's go home and see about getting this chain off him."

PeyPey barked in agreement and led the way home.