Danton and Xera meanwhile had retraced their steps back
towards Xera's lab. On their initial visit, they had been focused on the
interior of the lab and not the outside. Around the corner and behind the
building itself, there were remnants of an intense fire, although the building
itself had not been licked by the flames. This was definitely Eryn. There were
a few tiny dots of blood on the grass, as well as a metal support pole that had
bent in half, with the upper section seemingly ripped off. On closer inspection of area, there was more
of the purple dust that they had found inside, which now glittered in the dying
light of the day. The specks of it trailed away across the grass, past the pond,
towards the road. They had little else to go on, and without Raneaux able to
contribute to the investigation, followed the breadcrumbs.
The monks of the Oraea were finalising the decorations and
the stalls, with most now relaxing and taking part in the festivities. They had
taken over the central part of village and it soon became obvious that the
trail lead away from prying eyes, to an abandoned house at the south side of
the village, next to the road towards Auspar. Like most of the buildings in
Darkperch, the residents had never returned and regardless of Eryn making sure
of the security of the empty houses, some had been broken into much like Xera's
new lab. This one was also on the brink of being an empty shell. There was no
bed, no chair, no comfort or semblance of a home. There were only two things
that had been left, a desk and a belt that hung on the wall.
As Xera walked in and saw the belt, it started to shake and
vibrate before a trinket that had been attached to it fell to the floor and
grew in size till Valma appeared, confused and dazed. Danton was shocked, not
by the sudden appearance of the creature but by the blood that had dried in the
intricate designs on it's metallic faces. Instead of being questioned by the
two, Valma started its own tirade of inquiry, desperate to find out where Eryn
was. It professed to having no knowledge of where it had been, where Eryn was,
or why the biological matter on its surface was human blood. It had thought it
had been playing a game of 'hide and seek' but as it tried to access its
memories, it found them corrupted along with a recent implementation of a code
in its system, that caused it to be forcefully shut down. Without any answers coming from either Xera
or Danton, the creature was soon stuck in a loop of desperation, confusion and
anger, relentlessly talking to itself and
at the two that had discovered it.
The desk to the Valma's side had been cracked in the middle,
as if punched in frustration. The open drawer of it contained torn up scraps of
paper, with the scribbling of words upon it. Xera tried to keep Valma quiet while
Danton tried to figure out what the parchment used to be, and if at all, what
it could tell them. Each piece was
contaminated with the crystal dust and was soon reformed into what appeared to
be a letter. Valma's conversation flitted between the topic of Eryn and responding to another voice, although
the latter was dismissed as Valma's rambling .
The letter was addressed to a woman known as Talia and from
what was still legible, it was a love letter or a pledge of fealty to a lover,
by a man known as Lord Rossley. Danton knew that name somehow. He thought back
to Qi, trying to block out Valma. Lord Rossley was known for his interest in
devices and artefacts that stored immense energies, in fact, he was one of the foremost
experts of the subject in Qi. From what Danton could remember however, that
before he had left Qi only a couple of short weeks ago, Lord Rossley was a bachelor
and never intended to marry. His words however showed utter dedication and
devotion to the woman to the point where Danton had to stop reading. Lord Rossley confessed he would lay down his life
for her and wanted her to return to the city before he took his own life.
The only thing they
could do now was return back to Xera's lab, in hopes that Valma could somehow
reconstruct its memories based on the remnants of what had happened. As they
crossed back towards the lab across the village, Valma became increasingly
distracted by the festivities, pleading with Xera and Danton to let it join in
on the games the Oraea monks were playing. Xera knew how that might end. If
Valma deemed them losers, like the others that had lost to it, they would be
harmed, or even killed. He hurriedly ushered Valma away from any further
distractions, although it constantly protested .
Valma's conversations soon drifted way from addressing Xera
and Danton when they arrived, into a fragmented dialogue with what appeared to
be the air itself. Valma's aura was
shifting violently, hues were no longer blended together but were instantly
replaced. It's natural spinning kept changing directions and erratically
stopping before a metallic scream echoed from within its being. It's voice was
no longer childish and demanding, it now had a degree of maturity and with it
the tone of disbelief and grief. It's memories had in part recompiled and in
doing so, revealed fleeting stills to Valma. Eryn had been attacked by two
women. One had been a plump middle aged
woman carrying sacks of dust that Valma had conversed with. The dust, that
contained the voice with familiar crystalline tones, the voice it had heard
inside of Chloe. The other woman was instantly recognisable, the woman that had
delved inside of Valma and had irrevocable changed it, Neave.
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