AS they delved deeper underground, Ryan was filled with a growing sense of dread and foreboding, like he was trespassing somewhere he shouldn't. The entire tunnel was carved from rock, with tall ceiling and perfectly formed steps leading downwards, illuminated by glowing stones embedded in the walls.
When they finally reached the end of the tunnel, they find a vault door made of dull white metal. The door was circular with a diameter of twelve feet, and had an overly complicated locking mechanism.
Ryan knocked on the door, then whistles, "Damn, that's a really big door."
"This must be your family vault." Jasmine surmised, "All old magus noble houses have a treasure-trove of artifacts they have collected over the centuries. Keeping the family secrets safe is the duty of the head of the family."
"And your dad was the last known head of the Reins house." Mac said
"Still, to hide your vault inside a book, I'd never expect it." Jasmine commented
"So, how do we open it?" Mac asked, "I mean, it's too bad you lost your wand, we might've been able to open it."
"Yeah," Ryan said, "wait, I do have my wand." Ryan said fishing it out of his jacket pocket.
"How?" Jasmine said, "I thought it fell off the city?"
"I found it near where I crashed, lucky huh?" Ryan said tapping it against his hand, "Had to fight a swamp monster for it. What has the mean, mean monster done to you?" he said to the wand as he tried to figure out what was wrong.
When it finally starts working, Ryan scanned the door then checks the readings, "Damn, this thing is solid, it's got built-in anti-magik countermeasures. I didn't know that was possible."
"As expected," Jasmine said, "this is supposed to protect your family secrets, of course it would be have a system that incorporates nullstone, it'll negate basically any magik."
"Do we really need to get in?" Mac asked, "I mean, what if inside, there are unstoppable vampire zombie robots? Or a living poison cloud? Or even a giant, monstrous, magik-eating evil super-baby!"
"Super-baby?" Ryan asked with a raised eyebrow, "Really?"
"Hey, you never know with these noble families." Mac said, "And anyway, it's obvious that we don't have access, so I guess we'll never know."
Ryan drew Draxonn and rested the blade on his shoulder, "Well, I guess I have to destroy it. Don't tell Simon, I don't think he'd ever forgive me."
"What?" Jasmine asked, "How?"
"Well, this door is designed to negate most magik founded on the ten basic natures. So I figure it isn't designed to handle my nature."
Electricity started crackling around the blade of the sword as Ryan channeled his magik through it.
A blue glyph circle glowed around the blade,
"Lightning type; Thunder Clap!"
Ryan swung Draxonn at the door and a massive bolt of lightning shot at the door with an audible boom, every fuse in the door blew and when it was done, the door smoked. Then Ryan pulled on the handle and the door limply swung open.
"Wow Ryan," Jasmine said walking over to the doorway, "When did you come up with that?"
When she turned back to face Ryan, he was down on one knee propped up by his sword, sweating and breathing hard, "guess I… still need a bit… more practice on… that one." He panted
"Are you alright?" Mac asked
"Yeah… just give me a… minute to catch my… breath."
"Jasmine, he really tired himself out with that cast," Mac said going over to Jasmine
"I know, the idiot still doesn't know how to control the amount of magik he channels." Jasmine said, "He'll get himself killed soon if he keeps acting like that."
"You don't mean that, do you?" Mac asked
Jasmine didn't answer, she just continued looking around.
Mac was so focused on Jasmine, she almost jumped out of her skin when Ryan put his hand on her shoulder,
"Aaahhhh!" she screamed, punching Ryan in the gut and sending him down, "Ohmigod, Ryan, I am so sorry. You should've warned me."
"I was trying." Ryan groaned, "That's why I tapped you on the shoulder, there's a spider on your head."
Mac froze as she felt something skittering over her scalp, she then screamed again, "IIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I HATE SPIDERS! GET IT OFF ME!!!!!!!"
Ryan recovered and stood, and with a serious face told Mac, "Stay completely still."
She did as he asked, more petrified than a stone statue [if that was even possible], she glanced over at Ryan, and saw him rest Draxonn on the top of her head, then slide it in farther, then, with a flick of his wrist, he bounced the blade of the top of her head. A few feet away, the spider landed from having been flung and crawled away, "there," Ryan said.
Mac glared at him, "What were you thinking, using your sword? What if you had missed?"
"Then you would have a bald spot at the top of your head." Ryan answered.
Ryan wasn't sure what he was expecting from the vault of a noble house, maybe a huge room with a mountain of gold coins and treasure just sitting in the middle? But this place looked more like a library and a safe had a baby, with large shelves full of all sorts of items; from books and scrolls arranged on shelves, to a deck of cards sitting on a table, for some reason.
"Hey guys," Jasmine called, "over here,"
They find her standing in front of a pedestal encased in a tube of light, in front of her, resting on the pedestal is a book, a thick black leather-bound tome. A simple buckle clasp kept it closed and on the cover was no name, no title, just a blood red symbol glowing against the black cover,
"What is that?" Mac asked approaching the pedestal,
"Mac wait…" Jasmine warns,
Then, Mac stop, "Hey, what gives? I can't move." Mac declared in shock
"Yeah," Jasmine says, "neither can I. it's some sort of trap."
With her aurum oculus, Jasmine can see thin threads of magik, surrounding the pedestal and wrapping around Mac and her like they were caught in a web, preventing them from moving even an inch. This was some high level security for just this one book.
Ryan walks up to them, "Why are you guys just standing around like that?" he asked
"Ryan, you dolt, don't come here or you'll be—" Jasmine paused, realizing that he wasn't caught. "Ryan, listen to me carefully,"
"Man you're all over the place," Ryan teased, "One moment, it's stay away, the next its listen closely,"
"Shut up." Jasmine snaps, "Now, Mac and I are completely immobilized, we can't move."
Ryan smirked, "So, what you're saying is that you are stuck like this, completely at my mercy and unable to move a muscle?"
Jasmine glared, "Don't you dare, or I swear to god; you will be sorry at the end."
Ryan drew Draxonn and snickered, "I was just thinking about drawing on your face and taking funny pictures, what gutter was your mind in? Man, if I wasn't such a gentleman, the two of you would be in so much trouble."
"Yeah, yeah," Mac said, "Now cut us free."
"I'll tell you the right strings to cut—" Jasmine started, but Ryan began swinging his sword wildly around them. Several times, Jasmine thought he'd slash through them, but his blade control was surprisingly impressive, slicing every single string with graceful techniques, all without touching either one of them.
When they were free, Jasmine rubbed her wrist, "Your swordplay's getting better."
"Thanks," Ryan said, he walked into the tube of light and grabbed the book.
"What is it?" Jasmine asked
"It's a book." Ryan said pointedly
"Open it." Mac clarified.
Ryan unbuckles the clasp and flips the cover over, breathing in the musty scent of the old tome, and on the front page is a blank sheet.
"Well, that was anticlimactic." Mac said.
Ryan runs his hand down the side, pricking his thumb on the edge of the page, "Ow, paper cut."
The blood from the cut seeps into the blank page then, black ink starts to spread across the page.
"Something's happening!" Max noted
The ink flows across the page fluidly, trying to take solid form.
"This is interesting" Ryan comments
The ink shifts between different formations, trying to arrange itself into a decipherable language.
Ryan squints, "Hmm, I think… I think I see a pattern here."
"This makes sense to you?" Mac asks, "Because all I see is gibberish."
"It doesn't make sense exactly, but I can see this pattern forming every time it shifts." Ryan explained
"Okay, so what does it say?" Jasmine asked, with a hint of skepticism.
"Hmm, I think I can make out what it says…" Ryan said, before translating; "'Within these pages, lie secrets so ancient they have long since been forgotten. Secrets so powerful, they can rewrite fate. If you are able to decode this cypher and read this warning, then you are one of the exiles. You must safeguard these secrets, protect this Grimoire from falling into the wrong hands. Knowledge is Power, and power is dangerous. Beware the Sydnecasci!'."
"Whoa, ominous," Mac said
Jasmine examined the book with her aurum oculus, the entire book, the pages and in and everything else, was soaked in wild magik. It was unlike anything she had ever sensed.
Ryan flipped through the pages, "Hmm, look at this."
On the page he stopped at, there was a collection of symbols arranged in a strange and random formation.
"Can you read this, too?" Mac asked
"This is really weird," Ryan said, "can't you feel that? Coming from the symbols?"
"Feel what?" Jasmine asked, curiously, she couldn't sense anything herself.
"There's this… I don't know… force on each of page, and each cypher feels unique." Ryan explained as he ran his hand across the page, the symbols shifted to a different set of characters and a different formation.
"Whoa," Ryan said, "This part right here says something like 'Storm' or maybe 'Rage."
Ryan's eyes widened when he sees something about 'controlling lightning'.
"I think we should put it back." Jasmine said, "I don't like the sound of that warning." In the back of her mind, she also remembered her sisters warning.
"No way," Ryan said, "there's info on lightning magik in here. Where else am I going to find a godsend like this?"
"I'm with Ryan," Mac said, "the book looks interesting."
"I don't think it's a good idea," Jasmine warns
"Well I think we should put it to a vote," Ryan said, "All in favor?"
Both he and Mac raised their hands,
"Looks like you've been overruled by majority. Don't you just love democracy?" Ryan said, as he takes the book, eager to discover what it holds.
… )]≥( …
After they left the vault, they walked back up the stairs to the study. As they entered the study, the staircase vanished and the entire house trembled.
"What's going on?" Mac asked as the house only began to shake worse
Jasmine activated her aurum oculus and looked around.
Of course, how could she have not realized?
"It's a booby trap!" Jasmine said
"But why didn't it recognize me? I'm a Reins aren't I?" Ryan asked as they ran out of the study
"You also blew apart the vault door, which must've armed it." Jasmine said, "This must be a failsafe system for if the vault was ever compromised."
They ran down the corridor as magik glyphs began to write themselves on the walls.
The characters had already covered the main entrance by the time they got there and the door was sealed shut.
"It's stuck, we're trapped." Mac panicked.
His mind racing, Ryan looked around his surroundings; the door was probably the first thing to be sealed since it would be the main the exit, the back door would probably be the second to be sealed. The writing was slower in some areas; starting at all the obvious entrances and working its way inwards, then… god knows.
"Back to the study," Ryan said
"What?" Jasmine demanded, trying to find her own way out.
"No time to argue, just go," Ryan grabbed both their hands and ran as fast as he could towards the study.
Inside the study, the writing had only just started to appear on the walls but it hadn't reached the window behind his dad's desk yet. Good.
Using all the might he could muster and his momentum, he threw his dad's office chair at the window, blasting it with magik for extra force. The chair crashed through the glass window, then the three of them leapt through right after it. As they jumped, the writing began to seal the area around it. The rolled to a stop on the ground and looked up to see the entire house covered in the glowing writing, wild energy surging through the building.
"C'mon." Jasmine said as she helped him up and they ran into the woods as the characters began to glow brighter and brighter. Before they left, Ryan looked back to catch a last glimpse of the house before it was engulfed in a blinding white light followed by a deafening boom. Then the house was gone, leaving only a scorched crater in its place.
… )]≥( …
After barely escaping the house disappearing, they wandered around before they make sanctum for the night. Whilst the others slept, he crept away to read from the grimoire.
He stayed up for hours looking through all the different codes. After decoding a page, Ryan discovered information on lightning-type magik and formulas for several lightning casts.
He was deep into his reading, when he sensed a presence was watching them.
He took a deep breath, closing the grimoire before he held out his hand and summoned a glyph circle,
"Lightning type; Super Shock!"
He shot a bolt of electricity into the bushes and then the bolt exploded with a loud bang. The resulting commotion woke up Jasmine and Mac.
"Wha…?" Jasmine slurred groggily
"Wha's happening?" Mac asked, wiping the drool from her lip as she looked up,
"We've got company," Ryan said, "get ready."
He ran after their stalker whilst the girls gathered their wits. Once Ryan had the intruder in his sights, he slammed his hand onto the ground as a new glyph circle appeared,
"Lightning type; Electric Fence!"
Ahead of the intruder, large metal rods shot out of the ground in a line, then, electricity crackled from between each rod, forming a solid wall of electrical energy.
The intruder jump over the wall, then Ryan quickly changed the cast, "Electric Cage!"
Once the intruder landed, four more rods shot out around him and the electric energy closed him into a box of lightning.
The first rods receded back into the ground as Ryan approached the cage.
Jasmine and Mac caught up with Ryan, "Ryan. You better have a damned good reason for waking me up, or I swear I'm gonna…" Jasmine stopped when she saw who was in the cage.
The guy looked at least in his early twenties, he had long sandy blond hair with tan skin, he had a surfers build and she could see his muscles from his sleeves. He wore a simple grey shirt with dark trousers and muddy boots under a dusty brown jacket and wore fingerless gloves. Strapped to his back was an ivory white sword and he had a scarf around his neck and visors around his forehead.
Just looking at him was enough to make her heart pound against her chest. Jasmine had never felt this way before, so self-conscious and demure. Was this what people called 'love at first sight'?
"Mate," he said in what sounded like an Australian accent, "you mind letting me out?"
"Nope," Ryan said, "Not until you tell me why you were stalking us."
"Let him out." Jasmine said
"What?" Ryan asked, "But he-"
"Let him out." Jasmine ordered
Ryan sighed, "Fine." Then he snapped his fingers and the rod descended after losing their charge.
"Thanks." He said to Jasmine,
She blushed, registering the compliment, "Uh, I-it was nothing, really."
"Are you feeling alright?" Ryan asked
"Shut it." Jasmine snapped back
"So anyway," Mac asked the stranger, "Who are you?"
"I'm Rhydian Nollis, but everyone calls my Ryd."
"Hi Ryd, I'm Jasmine, these are Mac and Ryan." Jasmine said instantly
"Just give him all our names, why don't ya?" Ryan said
"So," Jasmine said, ignoring Ryan's comment, "What brings you here?"
"I'm travelling," Ryd said, "You?"
"Same," Ryan replied, "at least until we got lost."
"Shaddap," Jasmine hissed at Ryan.
"Hmmm." Ryd said
"What they mean is, could you help us find our way?" Mac said, "We seem to have lost our map."
Ryd shrugged, "Sure, there's a native settlement that has a relay tower not too far off."
"That's where we're going," Jasmine said, "what are the chances of a coincidence like that?"
"Pretty lucky, huh?" Ryd says as he glances at the grimoire which Ryan dropped earlier, "What's that?"
"Nothing." Ryan said picking it up, "You don't need to worry about it."
"Here, Ryan," Mac said, "You can put it in my bag."
"Thanks." Ryan said, since he was without his bag,
"Alright, we should get going," Jasmine said grabbing Ryd's arm, "c'mon Ryd, let's take lead."
"Uh, okay." Ryd said as they started walking, leaving Mac and Ryan behind.
"What the hell is up with her?" Ryan asked Mac as they watched the two walk off.
"Why?" Mac teased, grinning, "You jealous?"
"Of course not, why would I be jealous of that guy?" Ryan asked genuinely confused
"Oh, I don't know," Mac giggled, rolling her eyes.
"Huh?" Ryan asked raising an eyebrow as she walked ahead of him, "Okay, what the hell is up with you?"
"Nothing," Mac giggled, boys are so clueless, she thought.
Ryan huffed as he walked behind, girls are so weird, he thought