TSC - Chapter 7: Shattered (5) - The Heist (4)

Eryn tensed for a moment before Chloe returned to a normal chatter. The unusual thing was not her but what was lying next to the body of Lily; the corpse of a Neave clone although decapitated. Eryn's reaction to Lily's death may have been cold to most but he, like Xera, knew the dangers of working with the Whisper Network. Something had always felt off after he discovered that he was being followed by a Whisper Network spy and had the fact that that spy had been unusually hasty is divulging who he had worked for. One day Lily was a pawn, and the then after a nights sleep she had power. He knew that it couldn't have been right, she had obviously died because she abused her position without thinking though the consequences. He had been content in deriving this conclusion of her demise all the while ignoring Valma. She had suddenly awaked and jumped form his belt and had extended her aura around an object on the shelf . It was a pale gold, one that Eryn associated with Neave and suddenly noticed the object on the shelf was a talking Neave head. Valma seemed to be responding to it as if taking down a list of sorts. Xera, not knowing any better had let this continue while he had been lighting the room and in Eryn's eyes now partially to blame for whatever the consequences were to be.

Eryn quickly forced Xera out of the room while he lit up his halo. He grabbed fistfuls of fire and hurled them at the head of the shelf. Bottles smashed and liquid hissed. The wooden shelving cracked and splintered leaving the head to tumble down onto the floor. Eryn freely pummelled it with fire. The searing flesh and burning hair made Xera's and Xera's alone, eyes water. After a few moments of the assault the head had finally stopped moving. The flesh around its face had melted off, leaving only a few clumps of hair on the scalp. The metallic skeleton was partially covered in the now fused metal webbing. Valma had somehow been able to retain her aura connection to the head until it had stopped moving. As it was silenced, Valma sparked all over, spinning faster and faster on its point until it tumbled over and crashed into a bookshelf which then collapsed on top of it. Eryn quickly set about setting Valma free but was hindered a little by Xera's interest in what he was being passed rather than actually helping.

Downstairs Chloe had discovered a vast chamber a with few statues and a similar number braziers. There was just enough light to show that the room was far bigger than what she could see. It was silent down here, much how like her thoughts used to be. It was almost peaceful, until she discovered the Nychthemeron floating in the dark. Her scream as it floated out of the shadows seemed to wake the creature. The size of it reduced to her to feeling like she had in prison, insignificant and small. Xera had forgotten to show the creature's depiction to Chloe and was poised to send a bolt of amethyst into its direction until it stopped her and started asking her questions. This action disarmed her, and with now the familiarity of trying to relate on some level with unique voices, tried to answer it. Every question was followed by another, it never replied to any of her enquiries. It knew nothing of her family and of why she was called 'the shattered child'. Chloe was becoming frustrated and neither the two voices inside her head would answer her. After the creature had seemed to exhaust its line of enquiry it asked for more data.  It, at this point, refused to even ask any more questions unless it received further data. Chloe yelled for Eryn.

He had been examining the metal skull while Chloe had been discussing with the creature. He had noticed that the metal was scratched with thin lines and punctured with almost invisible holes.  This didn't feel right to Eryn and as he was called brought the head with him. Xera volunteered to stay up with the research. It was only after a few steps that the initial impression of the creature could be seen from the staircase. Eryn looked on in disbelief as Chloe was happily conversing with the creature he now saw. He shouted in low tones to Xera, who took a few repetitions of his name to arouse him from the pages he was reading. He then quickly moved over to the staircase. As they both walked down they both felt a little unsteady, as if the ground had moved beneath them. Neither man wished to acknowledge their minor slip and didn't mention it each other. Xera decided to stay next to the open arch of the staircase while Eryn cautiously approached Chloe and the creature.

The Ncythemeron asked if he was working for Silas, which made his hand freeze as he passed over the skull to Chloe. Now as a statue in shock, Chloe had kept gesturing to hand him over the skull. A few awkward moments passed before she yanked it from his grasp. He was then seemingly able to reply to the creature. He tried to cover up their existence here by saying they were the precursor to his arrival. The creature rebuked this fact, mentioning that Silas was already in the room. As the creature mentioned this fact Chloe sensed something behind her, an actual physical presence and with instinctive reflexes dropped to her knees and swiped her leg at the dark behind her. It was indeed Silas, he groaned as he tried to reposition his stout body on the stone floor. Chloe was taken aback. Her luck had never proven to be as much as she had hoped it to be but this, to her at least, showed signs of better things to come.  He grumbled to his feet, rubbing his back and neck. He straightened down his jacket while Eryn bombarded questions at him. After he had composed himself, Silas tried to hush Eryn but he would not cease. Silas resorted to having to shout at the top of his lungs, the words echoed in the chamber. We do not have time for this! Eryn scoffed, there was no way Silas was going to be in control. As a few seconds of silence passed after Silas' declaration, the ground started to shake, this time far more violently. There was the sound of smashing wood and stone from above.  A split second of cacophony. Then something huge crashed down in the stairwell.  Xera was sent flying across the room,  and hit his head on the stone brick wall in a cloud of brown dust.