A Professor's Work

The inside of the building was pitch black, and the air seemed almost colder. A chill immediately went up Devotion's spine. That mortal feeling of danger returned to him, covering his entire body.

"Someone got a light?" Victor asked.

"Got it." Alex replied, snapping her fingers. A floating, white ball of light appeared in her palm, illuminating the room. All around the three of them were overturned shelves once lined with products, rotted floorboards, and what looked like it used to be a shop keeper's desk. It was barely intact, cracked all around. Behind that desk was a door, most likely to a storage room.

"If there's a basement that someone would hide a study in, it's probably in that back room. Let's be careful. We have no idea what could be back there." Devotion once more reminded the group of the danger they could be in. He wasn't sure why, but he really didn't like this.

He swore he could hear something skittering behind him. He whipped around, summoning the staff form of Ghostwhisper, but was greeted with air.

"I didn't know you had a staff magical weapon." Alex said.

"Shh! We all have our secrets, I thought I heard something." Devotion whispered. "And goddamn, stop being so snarky for once in your life."

Alex didn't reply. Victor had to hold in a chuckle. Had they not been in a tense situation, he would have laughed. Devotion stood on alert for a full minute, before the feeling of danger faded.

"Listen, there's something alive down there. We need to be extra careful. I can sense some form of danger, I'm not sure what." Devotion explained his actions.

"You weren't kidding when you said you had secrets. Now I'm supposed to believe you have some built-in, hyper sensitive danger radar in your mind?" Alex questioned.

"Holy shit, would it kill you to not judge everything a man says? My god." Devotion snapped, walking away, towards the back room door.

"I'm just saying, if we're supposed to be on a mission together, we should really know what everyone is capable of. How am I supposed to plan if I don't even know what you can do? What's next, you're going to tell me you have some form of soul-link with that fox of yours and it came to you in a dream with a great prophecy or something?" Alex retorted, slightly pissed off.

"And what if I told you that it did?" Devotion was inspecting the door for any traps. It seemed to be mostly normal, but the metal handle was unnaturally cold.

"I would take that staff of yours and shove it so far up your-"

"Guys! Can we calm down a bit? We really need to work together before one of us gets killed." Victor interrupted.

"Fine. But when this is done, we need to have a talk."

"Fine with me." Devotion said. "Listen, back to business. The handle on this door is incredibly cold, almost painful to touch. There has to be some reason that this entire room has been giving us all chills. Alexia, did your research tell you at all what this professor was researching?"

"No. He was secretive about everything. Only said that the papers he had here were important to his research, and he needed them back." Alex replied. "And call me Alex, I despise full names."

Devotion ignored her. "Alright. I'm going to open this door, and peek in very slowly. I'll raise my left hand if it's clear, and my right if there's something in there and we need to sneak in. If I raise neither hand and start screaming, it's probably still alive and trying to kill us."

"Seems like a solid enough plan." Victor agreed. Alex rolled her eyes.

Devotion creaked the door open. Peering his head inside, he saw another pitch black room. "Alex, can you send the light over here?"

Alex pointed with her hand, and the light floated above Devotion's head. He surveyed the entire room. While the air there was much colder than before, it seemed empty. There was a trapdoor in the back left corner. Devotion raised his left hand, and stepped through the door. Victor and Alex followed close behind.

"If I were a betting man, I'd say it's in that trapdoor." Devotion said as they walked in.

"No shit."

Devotion rolled his eyes. She was really starting to get on his nerves. He pushed that aside, for now. He'd yell at her later.

Alex walked to the trapdoor and yanked on the handle. It didn't budge.

"Any of you know how to pick a lock?" Alex asked.

"Me." Victor replied.

"You do?" Devotion was shocked. Victor seemed so innocent, he was the last person Devotion expected to know how to pick locks.

"Yeah. You have to do what you have to do to survive." Victor explained, pulling a lockpick from his robes. He walked over to the trapdoor and began to work on it. Alex silently stepped aside.

"Oh, so when he surprises us, it's ok, but when I do it, it's a big deal." Devotion said to Alex.

"There's a difference between someone that grew up on the streets knowing how to pick a lock and some guy I met yesterday having a magic staff and inherent danger sense." Alex replied.

"Fair enough." Devotion didn't feel like arguing.

"Got it." Victor said as a satisfying 'click' sound came from the lock.

"I'll do that honors." Devotion volunteered. "I can summon defensive barriers from the Earth, and Ysmir will drag me away if something tries to kill me." He stepped over the trapdoor.

As he put his hand on the door, he felt an intense feeling of danger, even worse than he had been feeling before. Devotion yanked on the handle of the door.

It swung open, and more cold air blasted him in the face. He involuntarily shivered, both from the temperature and the chills of fear going down his spine. Looking down, there was a ladder going down a thin tunnel. It was too dark to see the bottom.

"Here goes nothing." Devotion said, starting to climb down. "Follow me a little bit, and I'll scream really loudly if something comes at me. At least you guys will be able to get away."

Devotion climbed down the ladder, with Victor directly above him and Alex close behind. When he reached the bottom, he put his foot down and noticed the floor was soft. It was made up of loose dirt. Devotion turned around, taking in the surroundings.

They were within an immense cavern, much larger than they imagined. The walls were covered in thin scratches, and frost caked the ceiling. On the other side was another corridor. Thick spiderwebs draped from the walls, some of them hanging thick cocoons.

"What the fuck?" Devotion murmured under his breath. This was not at all what he expected to be down here. He did not want to know how long those cocoons had been hanging there.

"Victor, how long did you say this mission was posted on the board?" Devotion asked.

"Uh, the attendant said a couple people had tried it and never succeeded, so a few months. Why?" Victor replied.

"I think I know why. This might be a trap." The feeling of mortal danger crept up Devotion's spine, even more intense than ever before.

"Very perceptive, my boy." A male voice boomed from the opposite corridor. "You three are just what I needed to finish my research. Go get them, my sweet!" It called. As it said that, a skittering sound came from the ceiling. Something was climbing down the wall behind them.

"Run!" Devotion shouted, but it was too late. The door slammed shut behind them. Whatever was climbing down the walls, they were trapped in there with it. It was either fight or die!