Brian Pratt - The mists of sorrow

No sooner does Miko, who’s the last to reach the building, presses himself against its side than the expected guard makes his appearance further to their right. Emerging from between two of the smaller buildings, he turns and walks along the face of the one to his right. Then he disappears a few seconds later as he rounds the corner and begins working his way back.

Run and wait. Once it’s clear, they run again. Step by step they make it closer to the temple’s entrance. They possibly could have done this without the diagram, but they would have left a wake of dead guards behind them. And with that many gone, it would have been almost impossible for someone not to notice.

Once they’ve made it to the corner of the building directly across from the double doors which are the temple’s entrance, Jiron gathers them close. “A guard will appear in one minute from around the left side,” he explains. “He’ll move across the front of the temple toward the left then turn and go around to the back. Once he disappears around the corner, we have less than a minute to get to those doors and through before two other guards will appear from there,” he says as he points to the building on their right, “and there,” he concludes, pointing behind them.

Waiting there for the guard to appear, James feels the prickling sensation continue to gradually increase. Whatever they are doing entails quite a bit of magic.

Finally the guard makes his appearance. Six pairs of eyes watch him as he turns and crosses in front of the temple. Then, when he reaches the corner and turns to follow the other side of the temple, Jiron says, “Now.”

Even before the guard completely disappears from sight, they are racing across to the doors. Taking the steps two at a time, Jiron reaches the top and pauses before the doors. He turns back and scans the temple grounds. Not seeing anyone else moving about, he takes the handle of the right door. Giving it a slight shove, he begins pushing the door open.

From within the murmur of voices comes to them. It sounds as if many men are chanting. Peering inside, he finds a large room with a vaulted ceiling. Lit torches line the walls at ten foot intervals giving off plenty of light. Besides the way they came in, there are four other exits leading from the room. Two are doors, both of which stand closed. The other two are the beginnings of hallways that extend further into the temple.

Not seeing anyone, they move inside quickly and close the doors.

James begins to pull out the diagram of the temple given to them by the Slavemaster but Jiron shakes his head. “I have it memorized,” he asserts.

“You sure?” asks James.

“Definitely,” replies Jiron. “We take the hallway to the right.” He points to the hallway off to their right that runs along the inside of the outer temple wall.

Glancing to the diagram, James sees that Jiron is indeed correct. “Okay, let’s go,” he says. Moving along the side of the hall, they make for the opening of the hallway. James refers back to the diagram again and sees that the first of the areas with annotations is the room at the end of this hallway.

He shows the diagram and the annotations to Jiron as they reach the hallway. Jiron nods then scans the hallway. The right side has no openings as it’s the temple’s outer wall. The left wall has two openings before they reach the end. At that point the hallway opens up onto the room with the annotations. Just what the annotations mean they have yet to decipher.

Jiron has the others move just within the hallway then wait there while he hurries forward to check the two openings on the left. He moves down to the first one and finds another corridor branching off. Fortunately it’s currently empty. At the second opening he finds a dark room, just an alcove really. Like the corridor before it, it’s empty as well. He then returns back to the branching corridor and makes sure it’s clear before signaling the others to hurry past and join him.

Then with the others following close, he moves down to the end of the hallway. The chanting they heard upon first entering the temple pervades the corridors. It doesn’t sound very close, in fact it’s hard to tell just where it is coming from. One thing’s for sure, it isn’t coming from the room ahead of them.

The room they’re approaching is well lit and they can easily see within it long before they reach it. From their vantage point within the corridor, the room looks deserted. He has the others wait while he moves to the end of the corridor. Peering into the room, he finds it empty.

It’s a room that stretches about forty feet away from the corridor and is close to thirty feet wide. The walls are plain and unadorned. Another corridor exits the room through the wall to their left. In the middle of the room sits a pedestal, roughly four foot high. Sitting upon the top of it is a statue of a bent and gnarled humanoid form. The statue stands two feet in height and its back is to Jiron so he’s unable to get a good look at the face of it from his vantage point.

Other than the corridor wherein he’s standing, the only exit from the room is the corridor to his left. There’s something about this room that bothers him, then realization hits him. He waves for the others to come forward and when they join him he points to the other corridor on the left and says, “I don’t think we are supposed to go that way.”

James brings forth the diagram and looks at it. “You’re right,” he says. “According to this there should be another way directly across from where we’re standing.” He shows the diagram to the others.

“Then that means we know what those annotations on the diagram mean now,” Miko observes. When the others look to him he clarifies, “They probably tell us how to locate and activate a secret door.”

James nods his head. “I think you’re right,” he says.

“Okay then,” Jiron says as he glances to the others. “Scar, Potbelly.” Pointing to the other corridor leading from the room he says, “You two keep an eye down that corridor over there.” As they cross the room to get into position, Jiron says to James, “I’ll keep watch here while you find that secret door and get it open.”

James nods his head. “Right.”

“Ahhh!” Miko suddenly exclaims as his knees almost buckle.

James turns to him. “What happened?” he asks concerned.

Miko turns sorrow filled eyes toward him and says, “I think they’ve begun killing the slaves Jiron saw them bring in here.” Then again he feels a life ending prematurely.

“You going to be okay?” he asks as he sees the pain again in his face.

“No,” he replies. “But what choice is there?”

To Brother Willim James says, “Stay with him.” After he receives a nod from him, he moves into the room and crosses over to where according to the map the secret door has to be. On the way over he passes by the statue and notices that it is looking directly at the place the secret door must lay.

The visage of the creature is truly demonic, even down to the two small horns sprouting from its forehead. Only giving it a cursory glance, he hurries to the wall. Once there, he begins a quick search for any loose stones or sections that might activate the triggering mechanism. After several minutes of fruitless searching, he comes to the conclusion that it must be elsewhere.

Turning back to the pedestal and statue, he gives it a quick once over. He runs his hands first over the pedestal, then when he finds nothing, turns his attention to the statue.

“Someone’s coming,” Scar says from where he’s watching the other corridor. He and Potbelly move to either side of the opening and flatten themselves against the wall.

From his vantage point in the middle of the room, James can see two of the temple guards making their way down the corridor toward the room. Moving quickly, he moves to the side of the room out of the view of the approaching guards, and quickly makes his way next to Potbelly.