Once inside both Neave and Styenbeck confessed that they had
not been in the Tangent Bank for quite some time, and it was more than likely
that the tower would have reshuffled and changed doorways. The octagonal room
had but only two features, each wall was a mirror, and the floor below and the ceiling
above were made from white marble. The room was illuminated in various hues of
gold to white, with each individual's movements somehow changing the colour.
Neave told the group that it was possible that these mirrors were the new
doors, or perhaps even the floor. Styenbeck unhelpfully added that it could
even be that the rooms were linked by the light, the laws of the world outside
were nothing in here. Both Lily and Eryn took to opposite mirrors. Lily pushed
her blade through, with a corresponding angry shout from Eryn on the other side.
Three out of the eight mirrors lead to another room, four more lead back
inwards, while the last being solid glass. Styenbeck mentioned that there was
usually a guide to take them to the top, a notion concurred by Neave. The fact
they had no conceivable direction was starting to leave them both visibly
slightly panicked. This unsettled Eryn who saw both of them as the only
protection against the city. Shroud walked around the edge of the room, tossing
his ingot into the air. His attention was drawn to the way it shone in the
light, almost like a mirror in itself. He mentioned that perhaps they keys were
the clue to the right direction, everyone remarked that the metal was
plain as can be. That was apart from Lily, who noticed a pattern in the
reflections of her's. She didn't know if what she saw were just scrambled
letters, a code, or perhaps words she had not learned but she tried to read
them to the group. N SEW NESE SE NW. After
she had repeated them aloud the light from the ingot blinded her eyes. She stumbled
backwards, dropping the ingot and Zarik's ashes onto the floor.
The remains of Mephisto's brother crawled like mites across
the floor to form a line pointing at the mirror next to Styenbeck. He reminded
them that this mirror lead to another room, and before they could react, passed
through. The surface of the mirror turned to liquid as he passed through, like
a drop of water on a puddle. This
process of Zarik's ashes was repeated again. This time however, the mirror that
the ashes pointed to, lead back into the room they were wanting to leave. Eryn walked back through
the previous mirror and was relieved to see the markings on the floor. When he
returned, he mentioned that perhaps the ashes did not provide a direction, but
rather a point of reference. He remembered that the Iron Wind was caused, at
least in part, by a unknown force that could attract certain metals. Perhaps
the floor had the same property, attracting the ashes. With no sense of
direction he told the group that the 'N' should be taken as where the ashes
pointed at. The rest were subsequent directions, presumably a form of magnetic direction. Styenbeck sighed with relief,
mentioning that he was on the edge of breaking down due to a fear of being
trapped.
Eryn had worked out, by luck according to Lily, that the
code was in fact a set of eight directions. The fourth from last leading them
to a room with a metallic obelisk in the middle. Lily could smell the distinct
aroma of decay and ventured over. The surface of the object was covered in tiny
mechanical insects; worm like, with countless legs. They seemed to be dragging
metal from other rooms and attaching it to the obelisk. She reached out to
touch it, a golden spark jumped from her to it and it started to light up with
glowing veins across its surface. Styenbeck, followed quickly by the rest of
the group, ran the next two rooms. They were greeted in the penultimate room by
more of the insects , a group effort, carrying the metallic end and stopper to
a quill and ink pot. As the group passed through the final mirror Styenbeck
proclaimed, quite loudly, that he had found it easy to reach the reception of
the famous Tangent Bank. The receptionist, a demure and unfashionably dressed
woman, hurried over to apologise for the lack of service. She offered him food
and drink before turning to the group and unfortunately realising that she was going to be serving more than
just one pot of tea.
She asked for them to sit down while she found a fellow
member of the bank and their refreshments.
She disappeared into the mirror to the left of her desk, which was set
back from the centre of the room. From
the right a tailored gentleman, with thick rimmed glasses and slicked back,
black hair, walked into the room and at once recognised Styenbeck. He referred
to him as his favourite doctor, before they both laughed. The man put his arm
around Styenbeck's shoulders before they both walked through the mirror he had
just come from. The receptionist, followed by another similarly dressed girl
appeared with a small, but amicable spread of breads, cheeses, dried meats and
tea. The girl, upon noticing Neave immediately sat down with her and both ended
up in incomprehensibly fast dialogue, much to the exclusion of Shroud.
Styenbeck returned moments later with his back hunched forward and his hands in
his pockets. He mentioned that if he was going to be of any use to them, his
debts would need to be cleared, and perhaps a little silver would help. Eryn,
upon realising his true intent thumbed over the remaining two coins from the
Silver Palm. With only a few seconds to deliberate, he tossed over a coin,
commenting on how many packs of cigarettes this was worth. Almost surprised,
Styenbeck hopped back through the mirror.
Neave chirped up, after finally coming to the end of what
Shroud perceived to be an exhausting conversation. She offered the potential of
getting into the Mirror Vaults, if Styenbeck failed them, by using Valma as a
deposit. This idea was instantly shot down by Lily who demanded why she would
even want to take Valma. The air was starting to become heated. Shroud, hoping
to fix the situation interrupted, offering the artefact he had got from Dehart.
Perhaps, if Neave was convincing enough, the bank might believe it was valuable
and that she was still working for one of her former employers. With a little coercion
to Neave's apparent friend, she accompanied her
through the mirror in the same direction as Styenbeck. Before she had
left, Shroud had placed a mental link on both Eryn and herself in case they
were to be separated and the plan was to go awry. Shroud was comforted by her
humming, something she did in the real world, and as well as in her head. A
couple of minutes passed with nothing of interest. Eryn's thoughts were a
little harder to suppress than Shroud had realised, and in trying to block
those thoughts out, he heard Neave scream. Eryn shot up like a bolt and Shroud
ran for the mirror. Lily was left there clueless as both men disappeared.
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