Midnight Chimes

Prologue

   Drip. Drop. Drip. Drop.

   "I hate this place," I mutter, pulling my cloak around me tighter.

   "Shh," Nicodemus hisses from his watch post at the cave mouth. "Do you want them to find us?"

   I scowl and hunker down, rubbing my nose when water splatters from above. 

   "If you're getting antsy," Levi scooches closer. "Just write in that notebook you have. It's not like we're going to have any use for it other than tinder."

   "Might as well," I whisper back, pulling the small leather-bound book from my pouch. "Then you can tell my story if I die of pneumonia." Levi smiles softly in response and removes his coat, holding it over our heads to stop the incessant dripping of water.

   "Or to remind everyone not to talk when we have a pack of wild Kreacs on our trail?! Now, shush!" Nicodemus snaps again.

   We wince as from far off, a howl rings out, quickly followed by several more.

   "Sorry, Niko," I murmur before putting pencil to paper.

   The cave is dark and murky, dripping water everywhere. We've been-

   Levi stills my hand. "Maybe you should do something more personal than that."

   I chuckle and nod, scribbling the previous sentence out before starting again.

   'Do not ask for whom the bell tolls. Or for whom the choirs sing. Just know that a great man has left this world, and gone to the next.' Or... At least that's what Everard Kadwell always told me.

   Before he disappeared without a trace, leaving me to care for the Archive. But on the day that Mister Everard vanished, so did the Codex Requiem... 

   I stop and look out at the sky. I guess I'm getting ahead of myself. I should probably start at the beginning. It was three months before this stupid cave that I'm currently sulking in, when I was just returning from a small errand Mister Everard had sent me on...