章 5: Chapter 3: Piagrado, A Step Forward I suppose
1
The sun had set and the night had come. Genevieve opened her eyes and got up from her bed. As if it was a normal routine, as if she had not just woken up, she started stretching gracefully. She had always wondered why she was unable to do such things when she wakes up in the morning, but she push such useless thoughts aside.
She took a long bath, enjoying her time soaking in it. When her watch made a loud ticking noise meant for an alarm, she finally left the bath and dried herself. She always bring a compact mirror with her, but luckily the inn has a mirror that she could use.
With the graceful motions of her fingers, not unlike a pianist's, she moved her doll to take care of her hair. "Shall we change the style tonight, dearest sister?" She stared towards the vacant inanimate eyes in the mirror. "You're right, having some familiarity in an unfamiliar world would be better."
Her doll, Eve, dried her hair meticulously. Then she combed it gently before moving on to dress herself up. While she enjoyed wearing her usual dresses, she had to confess that it was a bad idea to walk around in it.
She wore a white and blue bodice with a white shirt underneath. While she enjoyed wearing a skirt of any kind, she had to wear a tight fitting pants that was flexible and durable. To put her outfit together, she was wearing high boots where she tucked in her pants and a dark blue shoulder cape. She will always, under any and all circumstances, wear a cape of some kind.
After judging her own outfit in the mirror, she gave an affirming nod. "As beautiful as always. Though, nothing could come close to you, dearest sister." She noticed a patch of dirt on the doll's skirt. "Though I suppose, you can't be eternally perfect. At least not yet."
The two left the room and made their way to the patio of the building. She pulled out a small box, not bigger than a ring box and opened it. Inside the box was a single needle that acted as if it was a compass, but it wasn't.
As if this item was a gift by the Grand Clockwork, it worked wonders. Genevieve did not know the specifics of this item, all that she knew is that it was made of a collaborative work.
The needle was made by a Forger. The box's design was created by a Virtuoso. The scales, rulers and baseplate, designed and made by both Artisan and Virtuoso. And its mechanism, was made by way of Magicks.
Its needle floated above the baseplate with each part seemingly to assemble every time you needed it. The needle spun in its place before trying to stop itself in a certain direction. Genevieve followed the needle, seeing it spinning repeatedly.
She looked up from the compass and realized it was pointing towards Eve. "Ah, I see. If that's how it works…" Genevieve started to fiddle with the contraption.
Her knowledge regarding Magicks were basic, maybe even less. She knew how to imbue and control but that was about it. There was a whole world of Magicks that she didn't particularly care for.
Like changing the gears of a watch or any other opus, she used what little she knows of Magicks to get inside the contraption. Magicks and Wizards work in an intuitive level. Where a Forger or an Artisan would have a technical skill gap, Wizards and Virtuosos leans towards experience.
No two Wizards would have the same experiences. How Magicks are molded depends on the Wizard trying to mold them, there is always a baseline anyone could try but not everyone could use. Others just lack the sensitivity to use it or they require a different method that's unique to them or a group of people.
For Genevieve, anything comes intuitively. Even when she's working on an opus, she doesn't follow strict guidelines, choosing instead to bend them. To her, Magicks and opuses are the exact same process.
In her mind, she could see the how the Magick works and how they're interconnected. As if it was a line of gears or even circuits, she traced the line back to one another and makes a mental note in her mind.
For any basic Wizards, they would need time to scan the contraption. To understand how they work and how to manipulate them. Luckily, she is not any normal human.
It took her around five minutes for her to finally understand how to use it, though she didn't care how it works. With some delicate motion of her fingers, she changed how the compass work.
"There!" She said happily. "Now, it will point towards the second thing one most wanted, which should be the Nachash." She gestured towards Eve playfully.
After changing the target of the compass, she raised it aloft. The needle spun violently, as if it had no idea where to point. It spun quicker and quicker as Genevieve's brows narrowed. In her annoyance, she smacked it a couple of times and rattled it as if it was malfunctioning.
"Work, Cogdammit!" She closed it and opened it again.
The needle didn't stop its motion, filling her heart with a little bit of doubt. "Come on then, show me what I need!" She growled.
As if the needle heard her words, it spun slower and slower until it slowly stopped and pointed towards a direction. Genevieve stared at it for a moment, wondering if it was lying to her. "There…much better." She took a deep breath to regain her composure.
Genevieve examined Eve, wondering if she wanted to be carried by her again. "I would want you to restrain from using up your energy, so I suppose we'll use a velocipede service." Eve, of course, did not expend energy, it was another one of her delusions.
With that decided, the two made their way to the main street. Genevieve surveyed the street until her eyes landed on a single driver. She was a woman who seemed around thirty with her bang closing one eye. She was smoking a cigarette while leaning against her velocipede.
Genevieve saw that the velocipede had some sort of small attachment to the side of it. It was like a box that had a seat in it, which meant the velocipede could carry three people at maximum. It was perfect, thought Genevieve.
She walked up to the woman with Eve following her. Seeing the two, the woman narrowed her one visible eye. Genevieve gave a curtsy to the woman. "Good evening, good madam. I require your services. You are able to carry the two of us, yes?" She asked as gentle as her tone could go.
The woman huffed and puffed her smoke, making sure to look away from her. "Yeah, where do you need to go?"
Genevieve pulled out her compass and presented the needle to the woman. "Forgive me, good madam, but I do not particularly know where it is pointing exactly. Would it be fine for you to drive me until it becomes clear?"
The woman raised her eyebrow while staring at the compass. "Doesn't that just point towards north?" Then she herself pulled out her own compass to compare.
Her compass's needle was pointing a different direction from Genevieve's own compass. "I guess not." She put her compass away. "Fine, but the pay's going to be dependent on how far we go."
"That's quite all right, money's no trouble for me." Genevieve shrugged. "Incidentally, where do you think this might be pointing?"
The woman got on her velocipede and looked at the compass once more. "My best guess, the mines."
"The mines?" Genevieve asked while motioning her hands to place Eve in the attachment.
"Yeah, it's pretty far outside of the town but a lot of people would go there."
"Why? Besides the mining of course?" She asked as she got on the velocipede.
The woman wind the velocipede, starting a sound of ticking from inside the opus. "You ready?"
"Yes." Genevieve answered as her eyes wandered to Eve.
Unlike the velocipede from yesterday, this one seemed pale in comparison. Genevieve didn't want to waste her time examining the opus so she pulled out the compass.
"Regarding your previous question." The woman said while not taking her eyes off the street. "Miners go to mine, yes. However, well, you seem familiar with walking in the dead of the night."
"Oh, I see. The ones who sell ores in the market would buy them directly from the miners, yes?"
Genevieve couldn't see the woman's face, but she had a feeling that the woman was making some kind of acknowledging face. "Yeah, but there are some who goes there who try to get the ores themselves."
"Is it not regulated?"
"You can pay a fee to enter the mine yourself. You can rent tools and other things, but most people brought their own tools." The woman explained.
Genevieve can understand her words, but there was something that she didn't understand. "Is it dangerous? From the marketplace, there seems to be some kind of shortage on ores among other things. Also, I cannot help but think of the limited quantity of said resources."
The woman chuckled, "You're a sharp one kid. Yeah, the resources are limited, and the early levels are mostly dried out."
"Levels? Like in Modrata or just depth?"
"Somewhere in between. The early levels are quite populated, so most people decided to set up shops and other things. It looks like a small underground city."
"I can understand the need for it, but you didn't answer my other question; is it dangerous?"
The woman went silent for a moment. "Not in the early levels. The mines have luminous rocks, those things wards off monsters. The problem is that; the deeper you go, the less luminous stones there are."
"Monsters?"
"What, don't tell me you've never seen one, kid?"
"I'm quite embarrassed to say, no, I have not. I have heard of them though, if limited." Genevieve could feel her heart beating louder and quicker, though she didn't know if that was fear or excitement.
"Well, Modrata is one of those rich folks city. I doubt most of them even knew monsters existed."
"You…may not be wrong there… So, monsters exist within the mines. Why not have a Guardian deal with them? I understand it would be costly, but shouldn't the government help with it?"
"That's not the problem. The deepest level of the mines is still unreachable. Miners have made it to the twenty-first level at the deepest, and that's only the ones that have made it back to report. Whereas the deepest level you could go that's still considered safe is the fifth level."
"I'm guessing that monsters have no end beyond that level then?"
"They reproduce much quicker than the Guardians could deal with them. Since the sixth level and onward have no luminous rocks, they would wander whichever level suits them."
Genevieve gave an acknowledging hum before continuing, "Which level is the tourist spot?"
"The third level."
"I see…" Genevieve thought about the mines for a moment, then she wondered if that's where she was heading. Speaking of, she finally understood why there weren't any Mozium when Lizbeth was searching for it.
Both Genevieve and the woman went silent after exhausting their conversation of the mines. Genevieve's own focus was, after all, towards the Nachash. Her eyes were glued to the needle of the compass, hoping that it would lead to what she was searching for.
As they kept going on their journey, the needle of the compass was shifting ever so slightly. "Forgive me, but it seems we need to take the right road in the fork up ahead." She instructed loudly without even looking up.
"The right? That's towards the mines, is that where you need to go?"
"Forgive me, good madam, I do not know. This compass is the only clue I have to finding what I needed. Sadly…it's a compass. They're very limited in their abilities to guide."
"Yes, I understand how compasses work." The woman sighed. "I'll take you to the mines, tell me if we need to change destinations!" With that, the woman sped up the velocipede, knowing full well where she needed to go.
Genevieve notes the roads and the scenery in her mind. Piagrado looked something along the lines of a village, with its wooden and stone structures and minimal opuses safe for the velocipede.
The roads outside the town were surprisingly the opposite. The roads were made of stone bricks, similar to Modrata with light fixtures lining them. There were obviously less velocipedes, but the traffic lights that are placed all over told of how crowded these roads could be.
Alongside the road, sometimes there are buildings, shops or otherwise. Whichever they are, they aren't made of the same stone and wood as the ones in town. Instead, they are made of bricks, stones, and even cement and steel – similar to Modrata.
As more of these houses passes her by, Genevieve wondered why Piagrado is the way that it is. "The mines are there." The driver's voice stopped Genevieve's idle curiosity and to pull out the compass.
The driver stopped the velocipede on the side of the road, next to a path devoid of grass from the constant stomping. The needle pointed towards and beyond the path, meaning that it led to the mine. Genevieve's mouth curled unpleasantly at the fact.
"It seems…you are right. I need to go to the mines. I only wish I knew which level it was." As if responding to her plight, the needle pointed downwards. "…Hopefully that's not a lie."
Genevieve got off the velocipede and motioned so that Eve also disembark. "Thank you very much for your service."
"…Are you sure?" She voiced her concern. "Monsters exists and no Guardian would want to help you at this time of the night."
"It's no matter. Is there a weapon's shop here?"
"Down on the fifth level."
"Then that shall suffice. Pray that I may be able to see the light of sun again." Genevieve curtsied as she started to walk away.
"Hey kid!" The driver called out.
"Yes? If you try to stop me out of concern, it will be futile."
"Not that." She raised her open palm to her. "Don't think you can get away without paying."
Without changing her expression, Genevieve took an annoyed deep breath. "I was hoping you'd forget about that." Any copper she could save, she would, even if she doesn't need to.
2
The entrance to the mines were not as empty as Genevieve had first thought. There was a small box where a man was sitting, reading a book underneath a light fixture. Genevieve walked up to him and asked if that was where she needed to pay for admittance to which he confirmed.
"Like an opera house huh, dear sister?" She looked at Eve which caused the man to question her sanity silently.
While he did explain that she only needed to pay for her own fee, Genevieve was adamant on paying the fee for two people's worth. For a moment, the man thought he might've accidentally accepted a psychopath into the mines.
Genevieve entered the mines and noted that it was much bigger than it seemed. When the driver said it was like an underground city, she wasn't wrong.
Massive expanse of caves were within the first level of the mines. There were light fixtures stuck along the walls to make it easier to see, even the ceiling of the caves had luminous rocks.
The caves and even passageways were all being held up by steel and metal, there were even gears along some of them, probably for power. The caves themselves felt more like Modrata than Piagrado did.
Genevieve made her way down the levels, feeling familiarity with each level. There were elevators placed at the end of each levels to go further down. While some of the elevators were capable of taking her to the fifth or even sixth level, she wanted to check each level.
The first level of the mines looked exactly how one would imagine a mine. It was quite barebones with a lot of luminous stones scattered about the place. Nothing out of the ordinary.
When she went down to the second level, she couldn't find any difference from the first at a glance. However, after walking around for a bit, she noticed that it was still filled in with ores and materials. While the first level was barren, the second level was less so.
Genevieve went down the third level with a different elevator and turned to Eve. "I must say, the air isn't as bad as I thought it'd be." She shrugged.
When she arrived in the third level, she immediately understood why it was the tourist spot. It was much bigger than the first two levels, the luminous stones were mostly stuck on the ceiling, making it brighter as they were stars in the sky.
Genevieve kept walking until she saw small buildings in the third level. They were shops and restaurants that were closed at the moment, but they certainly still have people maintaining it. Genevieve even walked up to one of the restaurant and they explained that they were preparing to open the shop.
After getting on another elevator, she looked at her watch and saw that it was already three in the morning. She didn't know what time does the mine gets crowded, she just hoped that she wouldn't have to deal with it later.
Entering the fourth level, she could see that it had even more ores than the first three levels. None of them were the ones that Lizbeth was looking for, but it was obvious that it didn't have a lack of common resources.
There were still some mining equipment here and there, either broken or abandoned, but Genevieve simply ignored them. A few rusted sword and spears did cause her to raise an eyebrow.
After ending up in the fifth level, she opened her compass to see that it was still aiming below. With an annoyed look, she kept going towards the elevator. To her surprise, there was no elevator, just a row of shops before a cave filled with luminous stones.
None of the shops were closed and some of them even had patrons. A quick glance revealed that a few of them were weapons and armor shop. The rest were restaurants and inns.
Genevieve walked up to the first weapons shop and asked, "Do you sell guns?"
"No, sorry. It's dangerous to use explosives since the mines have a history of cave-ins." Said a man reading a newspaper.
"I see, what do your patrons usually use?" Genevieve walked towards a rack of weapons.
The Keeper placed his newspaper down and stared at Genevieve for a moment. "How old are you, kid?"
Genevieve was surprised this was the first time she was asked ever since she left Modrata. "I'm sixteen."
"Just barely legal…"
"Not to sound crude, but the way you said that was almost criminal." Genevieve gave a disgusted look.
The man scratched his head, "There's a lot of Guardians and miners who'd go down the lower levels. Some of them don't make it back." Hearing the concern in his words made Genevieve understood his words.
"Don't worry, I'm not some kind of child who's running to their deaths. I'm an Artisan, trying to finish her Magnum Opus." She walked up to the desk. "And you know we Artisans don't give up, not until we're done." She gave a confident smile.
"Artisan, huh?" The man scratched his beard. "Can I see your license?"
"I don't have it. I'm not officially an Artisan." Genevieve answered with the same confidence.
"No license? You know we call that Counter-" Genevieve glared at him before he finished his sentence.
"I understand what you're saying, but can you please not say such things? It's insulting." She motioned for Eve to walk next to her. She then took a deep breath and continued, "Forgive me, that's a sore spot. What does your patron usually use?"
The man looked annoyed but he gave a sigh and continued on, "Well, most Guardian would pick sword and shield or spear and shield."
Genevieve hummed. "What kind of monsters exists?"
The man thought for a moment before answering, "Some wolves…a couple of rock golems…ghouls and wights…that's about it… I have heard rumors of some kind of lich."
"I know the others, but what is a lich?"
"Wights who used to be Wizards. They can use Magicks and are dangerous."
Genevieve didn't particularly care about it but it was nice to know. "Shouldn't Guardians take hammers or something of the like if stone golems exists?"
"They're quite rare. You must be extremely unlucky to encounter them."
Genevieve walked towards the rack once more. "Still…it can't hurt to have… I'll take a spear, a shield, and a warhammer, please good sir."
She paid for her weapons which she had Eve carried. Then, Genevieve went to the armor shop to buy a chainmail only before going to the general store. She was able to find some basic and common items to use and some food and drinks.
Before going down the levels, Genevieve used what she bought to upgrade Eve. The weapons were stuck to her limbs so that she could ready them easily. Her body and joints were made to be sturdier which in turn made her slower and stiffer. All in all, Eve was ready for combat in confined spaces. One last thing, Genevieve put a small sack of flour on Eve's waist, just in case.
Then, the two went to the entrance of the lower level with Eve in the front. Genevieve had her compass out and started to get annoyed at the prospect of trying to find the Nachash.
3
Genevieve found her way to the seventh level without any trouble. Of course, she still couldn't find what it was she was looking for, but she kept going regardless.
Genevieve kept going until the ninth level, once more, there was no trouble or problem. She had even thought that she wasted her money by buying the equipment for Eve. However, she'll soon find it wasn't.
When she made it to the tenth floor, she could hear an animal-like growl in the dark. She motioned for Genevieve to pull out her spear and shield. In the dark of the cave, on the edge of their portable lights, were two black wolves.
Genevieve had never once fought monsters or hunt before, but she wasn't worried. She was still calm and could make choices logically. She herself was confused why she wasn't more worried but pushed those thoughts aside.
When the wolves made it clear that they won't back down, Genevieve made the first move. She motioned her hands to move Eve swiftly. While Eve was able to move quickly, it wasn't as quick as she usually moved which caused Genevieve to frown.
The spear within Eve's hand pierced the wolf, skewering it as if it was grilled fish. Seeing its friend got murdered in front of it, the other wolf jumped towards Eve. With a motion, the shield on her opposing arm swung at the wolf, causing it to whimper as it was sent flying.
Before the wolf could even get up from the ground, Eve pulled her spear out and threw it at the wolf. With the strength of her throw, the wolf was pierced on its side and pinned to the ground. For a moment, Genevieve wondered if the spear's tip is broken.
With a few more motion from her hands, Eve's heavy footsteps hit the ground rapidly before punching the wolf and crushing its skull before cracking the stone ground. Looking at her doll, Genevieve wondered if that was too aggressive.
She had Eve retrieve the spear with the thread that connected it to Eve's limb, then she examined the scene of battle. The area where Eve charged at the first wolf had indents from Eve's feet. The spear was still fine, but she worried that it'll break if she kept doing the same thing.
"Dearest sister, it seems you're too strong for your own good, huh?" She rested her cheek in her hand.
While she expected Eve to be sturdy and strong enough to survive and even do aggressive attacks, she did not expect her to be so stiff and sturdy. Her movements were less graceful, she was covered in blood, and if she keeps doing it like this, Eve will break.
"Oh well, I suppose we simply have to be more careful, dearest sister." She caressed Eve's hair.
The two continued on their journey after leaving the wolf corpses. They had found another group of wolves and dealt with it accordingly. On one hand, Genevieve was able to not push Eve's limbs or the spear to its limit. On the other hand, she knows how it looks to smash a wolves head in with a warhammmer.
Her progress had significantly dropped ever since she got to the tenth floor. There were a myriad of packs of wolves which caused her to stop moving so she could focus on dealing with them. With each pack defeated more packs would come to find her.
When she saw the entrance to the eleventh level, that's when she saw it. There were two wights standing in front of it, holding weapons. From a glance, it was clear that they used to be Guardians with their equipment.
Genevieve did not want to bother with annoyance so she had Eve threw her spear as hard as she could to one of them. The wight that got hit was carried by the momentum causing him to hit the ground hard.
The other wight spotted the two quickly and moved almost as quickly as Eve would. Genevieve had heard that wights could move quicker than living beings, but she didn't realize it was that quick.
In her panic, she made Eve move in front of her and raised her shield. The impact of her shield against his sword caused some dust to fall on them. Even glancing at Eve, Genevieve saw that her legs were getting pushed along the ground, leaving marks.
With no room for error, she motioned for the spear to be pulled back with the thread connecting it to Eve. She thought that maybe she was able to hit the wight while pulling the spear, but the most she could do was using the handle to hit it.
She tried to make Eve swing her spear but was finding it hard to get a proper hit in. While hitting the wight with the handle was doable, he just shrugged it off as it was patting it to the side. Genevieve started to understand why some would choose swords instead.
While Eve was blocking each impact of the wight, which made Genevieve's heart to beat in sync, she made Eve hold the spear near the tip. When the wight attacked Eve's shield one last time, Genevieve made her swing her shield to parry his attack. With the opening, she made Eve swung the spear's tip to his neck.
Genevieve had thought he might've stayed dead like his friend, but when she saw him twitch, she made Eve kicked him as hard as she could. The wight's head was cut off thanks to the momentum of Eve's kick and the spear tip in his neck.
However, the spear was effectively broken now and she was already far deep enough to not want to go back. "Well, this is a pickle isn't it, dearest sister?" She chuckled.
Walking towards the two wights, she stared at their swords and gave a sigh. "I suppose this is better than nothing." She picked the two swords up and went to working on Eve.
The spear was useless now so she had to disconnect it and switched it with a sword. She then had the bright idea of connecting the other sword to her arm. After a bit of trial and error, she was able to connect and control the sword on the arm. Now, if Eve threw her first sword, she could ready the second sword on her arm, or even extend it as a sharp edge – like a lethal tonfa.
She continued down to the eleventh level while looking at her watch. It was already five in the morning which explains her hunger. Not wanting to slow down, she opened a wrapper of sandwich and downed it as she walked through the eleventh level.
Luckily, there was nothing too dangerous on the eleventh level. Just a bunch more wolves that luckily goes down easily thanks to Eve's brute strength. However, it was clear she was slowly reaching a limit.
She found the entrance to the twelfth level about as quickly as she did with the eleventh level. Luckily, there's no wights guarding it so she can continue easily.
When she got to the twelfth level, she already felt exhausted and slightly nervous. If what she was looking for is actually here, she might not be able to retrieve it. Worse, she might end up dead before she could actually find the damned thing
Still, Genevieve is a stubborn girl who might actually rather end up dead than not trying at all. So, she pulled her compass out and checked its needle. When she realized the needle was not at an angle and was pointing to something on this level, her eyes widened before smiling madly.
"Come, dearest sister! Our destiny awaits."
Without regards for her safety, Genevieve rushed through the caves with Eve in front of her. While her own footsteps were dainty and quiet, at least by comparison, her doll's was not. Eve's footsteps sounded like small earthquakes that was happening much too frequent.
The sounds of Eve's stomping attracted a lot of wights to their location, which Genevieve tried to take out quickly by repeatedly throwing the sword at them. Sometimes they get taken out in one hit, other times they weren't. Genevieve was in a fever pitch, so she just passed by the ones that are alive but immobile.
After she got into a big clearing within the caves, her fatigue finally caught up to her. She had to stop to catch her breath, which she used to pull up her compass. It was close, she was getting closer. She followed the compass until…there was a wall.
She stared at the wall, heaving and smiling. She looked at her compass and rattled it, but nothing happened. Genevieve blinked a few times wondering what this had meant. For a moment, for a single, small, quick moment, she had thought there was nothing.
"Dearest sister!" She called out, burying the miniscule hesitation she felt. "The pickaxe!"
With a somewhat renewed vigor, she motioned for Eve to start mining through the wall. Each rock, ores, and minerals were ignored as she kept mining through the wall. A few times as she did so, she was able to spot Mozium amongst other things. Every time she did, a flash of blue passed her mind.
Without stopping Eve's motion, she would grab some of the Mozium and put them in her pouch. She kept mining the wall and each time she was able to make way, she doubt herself. Each time, she wondered if the Nachash is real. Had she made a mistake?
After fully doubting herself, she looked behind her and saw that she had dug far inside. The hole she had made was already dark and the only light came from her portable light. She pulled out her watch and saw that it was almost seven.
Genevieve shook her head to forget her uncertainty and pulled out her compass. The needle however, was pointing towards behind her. With a confused look on her face, she walked back to where she came and saw the needle pointed the opposite way.
After walking back again, she realized that she was on top of whatever it was the compass was pointing to. With a motion, she made Eve dig and was able to see an ornate box. Looking at her compass one last time, she saw that it was pointing towards the box.
With excitement in her eyes, she grabbed the box and opened it, revealing a key. "Well…this is unexpected." She said with a slight chuckle. "I suppose I need to find where this fits." And again, she pulls out her compass.
Genevieve gave a sigh of relief when she realized the needle was pointing upwards, which meant that she could finally leave this dusty mines. She thought herself lucky for not going deeper since she was starting to have trouble breathing.
When Genevieve left the small hole she had made, she had a bad feeling. However, not wanting to lower her excitement, she pushed the feeling aside and continued onward. She knew where she came from so she knew where to go, all the more so because it was lit up.
Genevieve was exhausted at this point, which is why she didn't question why the way she came from was lit up. As she was making her way there with Eve behind her, the first thing she saw, was the glint of a blade.
With her reflex, Genevieve moved backwards but it was far enough. The blade hit her but got caught on her chainmail. The force of it caused her to stumble backwards and she quickly motioned for Eve to catch her.
The two fell to a lower elevation with Eve cushioning the fall just a bit. "Get up, dearest sister!" Not having a clue what had happened, Genevieve prepared for a fight.
A wight had jumped unto Eve in an attempt to attack the doll. While Eve's body could withstand it, Genevieve could tell her limbs were starting to reach their limits.
She motioned for Eve to move the wight away before decapitating it, killing it. Then, Genevieve looked at where she was standing before. She couldn't get a handle on the situation as more wights were jumping down at her.
Her hands moved quickly so Eve could grab her and toss her away from the location. While in flight, she made Eve move erratically to distract or disorient the wights. However, she did not calculate for her fall.
Her body dragged and bounced along the floor, scraping and bruising all over. Genevieve used whatever adrenaline existed within her to push her head and looked at Eve. She wasn't even fully off the ground when she motioned for Eve to deflect and kill the two Wights.
While she was on one knee and heaving heavily, she looked up to where the wights came from. There, behind two more wights, was a specter with a melted face, revealing their skull. They were covered in an aura of dark nauseous green. Without any other clues, Genevieve knew what it was.
"A lich, I presume?" The creature did not answer and Genevieve motioned for Eve to get to her side.
The lich raised its finger and pointed towards Genevieve. "Theeee…Na…cha….sh…." It's voice a combination of female and male, of old and young, of dead and living – sending a shiver down Genevieve's spine.
With a slight smile, as if her last bit of sanity had faded away, Genevieve answered, "You can certainly try, you hideous abomination!"
With a grunt of its voice, the two wights charged in. Unlike the previous wights she had been fighting, these two were more agile. As she ordered Eve to attack, the wights dodged, jumping, spinning, and ducking amongst themselves. Fortunately, Genevieve was able to block or deflect any counterattack they tried to do towards Eve.
The manipulation of Eve, the reading of the wights movement, and the fact that she hadn't taken rest yet, all of this piles up. Genevieve was slowly but sure becoming tired, she was having problem just watching their actions.
She was so tired, she almost didn't notice the ball of energy the lich was creating. She made Eve gain distance from the wights and moved to block the ball. The lich's attack hits Eve shield, causing her to get launched towards Genevieve but she was able to jump out of the way.
Eve hit the ground as hard as she could, causing a small earthquake. Genevieve couldn't even get a good look at the doll before she had to start running from the wights.
At this point, she didn't have the same look on her face anymore. She was wincing in pain, she was furious, and she wanted to get out of here. She ran as fast as she could from the jumping wights, dodging some attacks while hoping the chainmail would catch the rest.
When she stumbled and felt like one of the wight was going to jump at her, she moved her hands. From the small crater where Eve was located, a single sword went flying and cutting the wigth in half.
Genevieve moved the heavy corpse away from her and motioned for Eve to come out and kick the last attacking wight. If she was a second late, she would've lost her head there.
She saw that Eve only had one arm left, she still had the other sword in her arm and she could bring back the other sword. Thinking there was nothing else to do, Genevieve made a gamble.
It was a bad move but everything as happening much too quickly. She couldn't even get her bearing, so she might as well just go for broke. She stood up and stared at the lich, behind it was the exit, and there was still one wight.
She prepared as best as she could and started running with Eve next to her. Eve retracted the thrown sword and threw it at the lich, stopping his charging. Then, she readied the other sword and swung at the wight who blocked it, but the impact caused it to fall backwards.
Genevieve grabbed the sack of flour on Eve's waist and threw it at the two. She then motioned for Eve to grab her and carry her on the doll's shoulder. She jumped off of Eve by the entrance of the cave then motioned for her to turn around.
Eve was made of multiple metal. After losing one arm, there were notches on some of the doll's body. All she had to do, was to motion to retract the sword and struck it against the notches.
All of that, Genevieve had to do as quickly as she could before the wight and lich try to attack her again. Luckily, she was successful. The next thing she heard was an explosion then, everything went black.
4
Genevieve opened her eyes to see the cold ceiling. She pushed herself from the hard ground and saw Eve still in the same position after creating a spark. She chuckled a bit before saying, "That was fortunate."
The cave she found the box was mostly buried under the rocks. She was lucky it didn't fall on top of her but she did feel a headache from it. Deciding that she was out of energy, she took a rest for an hour or so.
The earlier explosion must've scared most creatures as none would come her way in the hour. After she decided she had enough rest, she motioned for Eve to help carry her. She had no energy left to stand, let alone walk. And so, she was getting carried by Eve on the doll's shoulder towards the higher level.
It was already almost nine when they tried to leave, which meant that more people were coming in. While there weren't anyone in the twelfth level, there were some people on the eleventh, and a crowd on the tenth.
"Forgive me, but can you please take me to the surface? I will compensate you sufficiently." She whispered with a hoarse voice to the first people she saw.
Seeing her state, the group of three agreed but they denied the rewards. With their help and others who were visiting the mines at the time, Genevieve was able to leave safely. She kept her consciousness so that she could make Eve follow her to the clinic, she refuses to let anyone touch the doll.
Once she was on the bed with Eve sitting next to her, she closed her eyes and fell asleep. She was happy that she was a step closer.
Genevieve woke up a day later. The doctor that was there told her that she was simply fatigued and had minor bruises. She had to thank her lucky stars that such a thing was even possible. Considering the things that did happen, she was expecting a broken rib or two.
She thought about the moment the lich shot that ball of energy and wondered how Guardians are supposed to handle those things. "Excuse me, good doctor, I have a question." She asked as the doctor gave her a porridge for her meal.
"What is it?"
"How does one deal with a lich? As in, how does a Guardian typically handle them?" She started to eat after giving a small prayer to the Grand Clockwork.
The doctor hummed for a bit. "A lich, huh? Most guardians need the help of a Wizard or a Guardian who's adept with Magicks. They would weaken the lich with a catalyst and then they take it down. Why? Did you see a lich down there?"
"See it? I had to escape it. I didn't have any other ideas so I just buried the abomination under some rubble." Genevieve answered off-handedly as she took a few more bites of her porridge.
Genevieve failed to notice the surprised look of the doctor as she was eating. "Forgive me, miss…?"
"Gen is fine, good doctor."
"Gen, are you telling me you saw a lich and buried it under rubbles?"
"Something to that effect. I didn't see it after causing the explosion, so that was the conclusion I came to."
"Explosion!?" The doctor stood in amazement which alerted Genevieve. "How? Did you bring explosives?"
"N-no, good doctor. I had a sack of flour that was enough to cause a dust explosion."
The doctor stared at her face as if trying to gauge for some kind of lie, but she couldn't find anything. "I-I suppose you didn't…." She took a deep breath. "Don't tell anyone about this, you'll get into trouble."
"…I will keep that in mind, thank you." Genevieve gave a small bow.
Genevieve felt fully recovered and wanted to leave to figure out where the key is supposed to go into, but the doctor decided otherwise. After meeting a lich, blowing up the caves, and dealing with a myriad of wights and wolves, it was a wonder she survived with minimal wounds.
Seeing how Genevieve is not the type to disregard or disobeyed a doctor, she followed the instruction given to her. However, she did request for a map and a compass to help her.
Seeing as she had the key already, the compass is pointing towards a different location already. Cross-referencing the map, her compass, and a normal compass, she had a good idea where it was pointing towards.
From Piagrado, the compass was aiming towards the city of Larghist or perhaps the next city over, Ielot. She has never been nor has she heard of either. For now, she'll rest before gathering information on the cities.
Another day of rest and Genevieve was discharged from the clinic. She made her way back to Piagrado after renting the services of a Velocipede. After studying the map all day, she started to think it might be wise to get a velocipede.
In Piagrado, she had to both fix Eve and to get the ticket to leave for Larghist. While one didn't take much time, the other was much, much more time consuming. As much as she wanted to leave now, she couldn't do so.
Her first decision in Piagrado was to go back to the inn she went to earlier and rented a room once more. She placed Eve in one chair within the room and let out a sigh. "Forgive me, dearest sister. I was much too rough on you." She said regretfully.
"Don't worry, I will fix you up like new. Wait for me, dear sister." She hugged the doll lovingly, much more than she does with her own little sister.
Genevieve took the day to remove the upgrades she had placed on Eve. While it wasn't hard, some of the parts were bent so much, they refuse to budge. She had to carefully disassemble Eve, lest she wants to damage some of her parts.
When the night comes, she was exhausted but left for the marketplace nonetheless. Sadly, there was nothing that she could get from the marketplace, at least, not that she needed.
"Hey kid!" A familiar voice called out to her.
She looked towards the voice and it was the same woman that gave her the compass. "Good evening, good madam. What is it you require of me?"
Seeing her slightly despondent made the Keeper felt just a little bit bad. "I was just wondering…where's your…'sister'?" She asked carefully.
Genevieve placed her hand on her cheek in distress. "Sadly, she is in a bad shape. Our expedition in the mines were quite….dire."
The woman's eyes widened for a moment. "The compass brought you there? To the mines?"
"Yes, until the twelfth floor apparently. We had a run-in with a lich."
"A lich!? Did you survive?" Genevieve stared at the woman, not knowing how to answer the question. "Sorry, I meant…what happened?"
"Well, this and that, I suppose. Forgive me, I'm not in the mood to talk of such things. What do you have in your wares tonight, good madam?" Genevieve asked, changing the topic.
"We haven't gotten anything new. There was a lich that was causing problem in the mines." The woman answered, trying to goad an answer from her.
"That's a shame. I suppose I'll check in the morning then." Genevieve gave a shrug, then her eyes were stuck on something. "What is that?"
The woman raised a small ear clasp that looked like a small wing. "This is an ear clasp, you've never seen it before?"
"No, not in Modrata."
"You're from there, huh?" The woman raised the ear clasp. "Modratans don't really use accessories, right?"
"I'd like to think we do. Only on special occasions."
The woman chuckled, "In Larghist, everyone would wear whatever accessories they want at any day. They don't really have a party wear, everything is a party wear for them."
"Is that so?"
"If you give it a visit, there's not a soul there without some kind of accessories like this."
"Interesting, indeed. Why, I can't wait to see what it's like. Perhaps I'll buy this then."
"Thank y0u for your patronage."
With the ear clasp in her hand, Genevieve left the woman and thought about sending a letter to Melody. She thought that the clasp would make a wonderful gift for her. She also thought about sending the Mozium that Lizbeth needed. She had a lot of things to do before she could leave Piagrado. And so, for now, she'll go to sleep once more.
As the woman watched Genevieve left the night market, she wondered if the compass really did lead her into the mines. She herself wasn't sure if it does work as intended or not. She herself had tried to use it, at the time, she had to find her long lost brother. All the compass did, was spin around endlessly.
Perhaps it did work for her, perhaps the compass did show what she wanted to find. At least, that's what she hoped.
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