Ignite the Sun
Chapter 62: Fool’s tomb (1)

Chapter 62: Fool’s tomb (1)

Just like Alison said, Maya joined them few minutes later.

"Not that I’m complaining about ditching the desk work, but why did you call me?"

The captain produced the runestone, and her subordinate took out an exact copy - they put the rocks next to each other, causing the light of the rune to go out.

"I have to keep guarding this place, but I need someone to take these two to the Fool’s tomb to clear it out."

Based on what Cassian learned about the place, Maya’s reaction wasn’t quite what he expected:

"Oooh sounds fun, can I go in with them?"

"Sure, but you’ll have to fill the reports anyway." Alison agreed in a stern voice, knowing full well that it was just a ploy to get out of work - mostly because that’s exactly what she did herself.

"Don’t worry about it, Gilly already agreed to do everything for me!" The deputy announced in a cheerful voice.

Alison brows shot up.

"And how on earth is she going to do that? She works the reception desk, and her field experience is exactly zero, someone like that can’t possibly forge a good mission report."

Maya shrugged.

"Her reports fooled you for the past half a year, so she clearly knows what she’s doing."

"Sun almighty give me strength..." Alison pinched the bridge of her nose. "No, you know what? I don’t want to deal with that, I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that, and you’re going to go back to writing your own reports like the good little guard you are."

"But I don’t wanna..." The deputy pouted.

"I’m not going to repeat myself, now take them and go do your job."

***

For all the dressing-down Alison has given her, Maya was still exceptionally chipper on their way to the catacombs.

"Maybe it’s not my place to ask, but why don’t you just write those reports?" Elira queried.

"Because it’s pointless." Maya said matter-of-factly. "The only person who can read them is Ally, and I know for a fact that she doesn’t do it."

"How?"

"One time I doodled on one of the reports, but I didn’t want to rewrite it so I just turned it in - I expect a reprimand, or at least a snarky comment from my darling boss, but nothing of the sort happened. That was when it occurred to me that she might be not reading the stuff, since she’s with me on most missions anyway."

"You stopped writing them because of a single incident?" Cassian sounded slightly surprised.

"Oh no, I wanted to test my theory first, to do that I started writing idiotic comments for every paragraph or adding really bad illustrations on the margin. Since that didn’t get any reaction, I got really creative with it, just to be sure."

"How creative are we talking?" Elira looked amused by the story.

"I have copied a page from a spicy novel and submitted it as a report, written several love poems, and practiced my terrible drawing skills - once I’ve just written the word ’report’ in huge letters on the page turned it in, and guess what: not a peep from Alison."

"Do you know what the person you roped into writing them for you puts in them?"

"I believe Gilly uses them to practice writing quickly, so it’s usually just random stuff like copies of other documents, fragments of books, stuff like that."

"Now that I think about it, Alison mentioned that she doesn’t think Sylara reads her reports."

"Yeah, to be honest I’m kinda shocked she haven’t asked Lady Sylara whether she can stop doing that. It’s not like she needs them anyway."

Cassian frowned.

"What do you mean?"

"Lady Sylara can see anything happening within the city walls, making reports for her is literally just a waste of paper."

"So she could be watching us right now?"

"I’m almost positive she is doing it, unless there’s some kind of emergency happening somewhere else in the city."

Cassian suddenly felt the overwhelming sensation of being watched, and it didn’t feel particularly great.

"Don’t worry though, she won’t be able to see us once we enter the tomb." Maya obviously noticed his discomfort.

"Why? I thought the catacombs are a part of the city, are they not?"

"Fool’s protection - it’s not only the traps, but also a powerful barrier surrounding the entire complex, preventing even Lady Sylara from interfering, or at least that’s what she says."

"You don’t believe her."

"Of course not, you haven’t seen her full power yet, but if you did you would be saying the same thing - a woman with strength like that wouldn’t be stopped by a simple barrier." Maya sighed. "Anyway we’ll be there in a few minutes, double check if you have everythingbefore we go underground."

***

The entrance to the catacombs was apparently hidden inside a large statue depicting a hooded man with a jester mask sitting on a simple chair in a contemplative position - the Fool himself.

"So how do we get in?" Cassian eyed the marble figure.

Maya smiled and recited:

"Fool, oh fool - what was your final joke?"

The words on the statue describing the archmage shimmered and changed to something else:

I do not remember the set up, but the punchline was death.

When the words disappeared the figure shook slightly, and a vertical slit appeared in its base, slowly growing larger to reveal an entrance.

"A passkey?" Cassian asked, looking into the dark staircase below.

"No, the statue is enchanted and will actually answer many questions, this just happens to be a one that opens the catacombs."

"It seems like this Fool guy was a very powerful archmage, how did he die?" He asked taking out his sword.

"Nobody knows, but a according to the statue the answer is somewhere in the catacombs." Maya took a lantern hanging nearby. "Maybe we’ll be the ones to find out."

Armed with light and blades, they descended underground.

***

The crypt was unusually quiet for a place that was supposed to be crawling with undead.

"These catacombs are huge, it would be a miracle to see more than one risen at once." Maya explained.

"What are we supposed to do then? Searching this entire place would take weeks, especially since we have no idea how many of them there are in here." Cassian wished they had planned this thing ahead of time instead of rushing it.

"I think the most sensible course of action would be finding the magic leak and fixing it - it would make the undead return to their eternal slumber in just a few hours - once we’re done with that we can go look for the Fool’s final resting place."

"Can we even fix that leak without a mage?" Elira questioned.

"Yeah, we’re calling it a leak but I’m reality there’s no such thing, it’s actually more akin to something pulling the magic through the walls, filling tunnels with it."

"Something? You don’t know what it is?"

"Well yeah, the thing is somewhere in the lower levels, and no one has ever gone so deep, so we can only speculate based on the results."

"Great." Cassian sighed. "In that case we should be vigilant-"

"Stop!" Elira yelled suddenly.

Cassian and Maya immediately froze in place.

"What is it?" The deputy whispered, her eyes darting around the dark corridor.

"There’s a trap here."

The alchemist pointed at a stone about four steps in front of them - it had small symbol carved into it.

"What does it do?" Cassian asked.

"Well, the symbol is ’extract’ so it most likely sends you to the entrance."

"Can we disarm it?"

"No, but we can trick it - these types of traps are designed to be activated only once an hour, as they aim to dispose of the intruders one by one."

Elira looked around a room and picked up a piece of loose stone, then threw it directly into a trap.

Instead of the sound of stone hitting against stone, there was a silent ’pop!’ and the chunk of rock got trapped in a small bubble that floated lazily back to the entrance.

"It should be safe now, I think."

To confirm her theory Elita carefully stepped on the symbol, when nothing happened she exhaled in relief.

"Okay let’s go-"

Suddenly something in fron of her exploded with confetti and sparkles - floating in front of her was a jester’s mask frozen in a joyous grin. It’s empty eyes were lit up by a bright pink smoke surrounding the false face.

"What the hell is that?" Maya gasped in surprise.

"You mean nothing like that happened when others tried exploring the catacombs?!" Elira sounded a bit alarmed."

"Of course not, you think I wouldn’t have mentioned a ghost-mask if I knew it was in here?!"

Out of nowhere the mask spoke:

"Welcome, esteemed guests! It’s so good to finally find someone willing to play my game."

The porcelain face wobbled happily.

"Excuse me, but who are you?" Elira tried to not freak out.

Despite the fact that the mask couldn’t change its expression, it appeared to be shocked by the question.

"Me? Well, I’m the Fool of course!"