“That does not help us. We were sent here to find the Magister Prime and protect the Repository,” Gharland huffed.
“Landry here told me that you that came under attack from some strange beasts? I think that the same creatures that attacked your squad attacked the Magisters, captain,” Lynn said.
“All the Magisters we have found so far are dead,” Gharland said coldly.
Lynn nodded. “Their screams stopped days ago.”
“Why?” Smiling John shouted. His burned face remained too ghastly to even look at. “Where did these things come from anyway?! Why attack here? Why attack us?”
Lynn choked on her words, shrugging.
Landry stepped forward. “Ser, I feel we need to tell you. We found Lynn in the basement, surrounded by… well, there’s a dungeon down there full of dead children.”
The men went silent and appeared shocked. They then anxiously whispered amongst themselves.
Gharland glared at Lynn with raised brows. “What the fuck is going on in this place? You will tell me now, or we will leave you here by yourself to rot, girl!”
Lynn clutched at the black vial around her neck, holding it tightly. “Please, ser, I am not a Magister, I am a Disciple. I had nothing to do with what was done-”
Gharland stormed forward and struck the girl in the stomach so hard that she doubled over. Her hat fell to the ground.
“Enough! Half my men are dead, I nearly lost an arm to one of those beasts, and now I’m halfway up a freezing mountain and all I’m getting are piss-weak answers!”
Lynn gasped on the ground, clutching at her stomach. Tomas had to look away; he did not like watching anyone suffer.
But he did not step in, either. Why should he help?
Ref crawled over to the girl, smiling like a ravenous dog. He ran his twitching fingers through her dangling red hair before taking a strand and sniffing it. “Gimme ten minutes with this bitch, ser. I’ll make ‘er talk.”
Lynn, still in pain, froze up as Ref slithered closer to her on his hands and knees.
Tomas stepped forward; it was there he drew the line. “Back the fuck off.”
Ref, still crawling, peered up at Tomas. He smirked, revealing those foul, rotten teeth.
Come on, you animal. Say something smart. Tell everyone what you did to Rilan.
Ref took a second to say anything back. “And what’re you gonna do ‘bout it, Tommy?”
Styna, built like a boulder, approached the girl. Smiling John, standing by Ref, laughed sinisterly with a lick of his lips.
Tomas could only imagine what they’d want to do to Lynn. He thought back to Winterglade and how they had treated Hila. He remembered when they had attacked Rilan in the woods. He knew what the right thing to do was, yet a dark part of him questioned if she deserved it.
Rilan died for her.
But despite his rage, Tomas knew it was the right thing to do. He charged at Ref, pushing him away from Lynn. Ref fell backwards, landing awkwardly on his side. Styna, in retaliation, shoved Tomas back.
“You fuckin’ cunt, I’m gonna rip your insides out!” Ref shouted, climbing back up to his feet and snarling.
Landry, followed by the captain, ran into the mix, pushing them apart before a fight broke out.
“Cut it out, all of you!” Gharland commanded, placing himself in-between Tomas and Ref. “Stand up, girl, now.”
Lynn nervously got to her feet, not moving from Tomas’s side after having him defend her. She adjusted her tricorn hat atop her red hair.
“One last chance- you will tell us what the hell is going on or I’ll be leaving you to this lot,” Gharland threatened. His face never emoted as he spoke so coldly.
Lynn nodded, before considering her words and taking a deep breath. “I was taken to the Imperium when I was twelve. They took me from my home, claiming I had a ‘gift’ because of my intelligence and my ability to remember things that most people couldn’t. I became Magister Aymeir’s Disciple, studying biology and sociology.”
Tomas remembered the stories he had grown up hearing about the Magisters snatching children from their families. Perhaps there was some merit to them after all.
Lynn continued. “Many of the other children the Magisters brought to the Repository were… not so lucky.”
“The ones we found in the cell?” Landry said.
Lynn nodded, staring down at her shoes. “They are some, yes. The Magister Prime, long before I ever came to this place, had his Magisters find children across the kingdoms and bring them back to the Repository. Some like myself, who were talented and had something to offer, were given placements and training. The others were used for his experiments.”
Gharland grimaced, distraught by the notion of such dark actions taking place in the Repository, the supposed beacon of knowledge and science in Alyria. “What kind of experiments?”
“The sort that had to be kept secret, lest the kingdoms of Alyria abolish the Imperium,” Lynn said. “Magister Prime Impatus discovered an ancient text many years ago about the Cataclysm of Old and used this book to guide his experiments.”
“The ‘Cataclysm of Old’? What is that?” Tomas asked. He recognised the name, perhaps from old stories or myths? He couldn’t remember.
“It was a time of great devastation that occurred while our world was still young, when the fabric of the Dimensional Plains was ripped open. It nearly decimated all the peoples of Eos.”
“But those are just fables,” Landry said. “Stories that my mother told me growing up.”
“Like how you thought the stories about the Magisters stealing children were fictional, too?” Tomas said.
Landry drew his lips to a straight line, acknowledging Tomas’ point.
Gharland shook his head in dismay. “None of this explains the dead children, Miss Jhono.”
“One of the experiments that Impatus had the Magisters carry out had to do
