Rituals, Regrets, and Really Dumb People

Chapter 13: Ash, Part 4

The facility's hallways were long and wide, clear of any semblance of life. White tiles on the floors looked like they'd never been touched by a hint of dust, everything so pristine and clean yet haunting with the lack of life. We walked straight, onwards, looking into the vast amounts of rooms that held digital terminals and stations for work and study. It was interesting, if it really was the case that these were the Ancient's facilities, as they seemed rather modernized. Or, maybe, they were us before we were.

Deeper inside the building was no different; the further we went in, past the restricted zones and doorways forced open by, presumably, Typhous and Ishmael, the odder the scene became. There were less terminals and more vats filled with various liquids, containers that held experiments, and other things. They were all rather inactive, empty, and clear. Well, all but one.

"Mathias," Lilly said. "Look here."

The room to our left, far down the hall, was the only one that had any form of activity inside. The terminals were beeping and churning with information, the tall vats standing filled with brackish fluid that bubbled. We all walked inside, looking about the whole of the room. It was a lab, I suppose. It had to be with all this bizarre equipment.

"Hey, Mathias," Corbin said. "Come here."

"What is it?" I asked. "We shouldn't linger—"

I stopped talking as I noticed the screen Corbin was pointing at. I got in closer to look at the imagery, to find the scientific jargon littering the screen around a picture of the Seal. More aptly, she was called the 'base template.' Template of what? I couldn't understand the mix of Britannian and script characters illuminating from the screen in blocky, green text. There were a few more photos as I managed to scroll down, showing the vats and talking here and there of genetic manipulation.

A cold chill went down my spine as I read on further and further. I could understand little of it, but whatever it was, it was of no good. In the simplest terms, it seemed that Ishmael or Typhous—maybe both—were looking to use the Seal's DNA to enact some sort of change. Some sort of genetical experiment or test. I couldn't make the whole of it out—and that wasn't just because I couldn't understand the geneticist lingo.

The kid was more important than some component for some vaguely defined ritual, yet I did not know for what or for why.

"I'll be damned," Geraldine said, peeking at the screen over my shoulder. "You've been right all along."

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "Did you think with all we've been through that this would be the key to me being honest?"

Geraldine gave me a scornful look and a smack across the back of my head.

"Hey, where's Thimble?" Lilly asked, interrupting our roughhousing.

I turned my head and looked up when she said that. Thimble wasn't here. I could only guesstimate where he was as we heard a loud pop and the sound effects that came with magic scorching the air. It sounded like it was pretty close by.

We ran out of the room and further down the hall, to the left where there were steps that went down. We followed the sounds until we came to the centerpiece of the facility, a little ways down in the basement. The whole of the room was cylinder in shape, a center platform floating above an endless pit and only attached to the hall we were in by a mechanical bridge. The platform floated with either the aid of magic or some technology unknown to us, distant from the walls which held the vats filled with tawny liquids, and distant from us.

On this center platform stood Ishmael, Meredith, and Typhous—with my staff—all near a computer terminal and a tubular-shaped chamber, just big enough for an adult to lay in. In front of them was Thimble, who was kneeling near the tubular bed chamber. He was bleeding, his blood pooling on the floor and all over the shiny metal of the bedding he was clutching. Damn fool had rushed on in.