Come to think of it, if Athanis foresaw some corrupt fae leader who's going to take things too far and pose a threat to the sleepers…it's probably that guy.
"You will aid me in keeping my oath to protect my friend, will you not?" Athanis demands near me, floating through one of the other fae. "He will become of great importance to you, as well. This I have seen."
Everett is finally unfreezing Brahm. Everyone else is distracted with that, so I nod as subtly as I can. Of course, I'll do what I can to free an innocent and prevent them from getting hurt.
"All right. Preservation charms at the ready," Noah says, preparing a spell that glows around his fingers.
The other fae excavators prepare their own spells until the tunnel is filled with the multicolored glow of the casters about to unbury an ancient mystery. Silas is the last to prepare his spell as Everett and I step back, and then the metal door is ripped open with magic.
The entry of the ancient fae laboratory is full of skeletons.
According to Silas and the other fae examining the scene, some remains were obviously left from a brutal fight. In contrast, others seem to have starved to death or died of slow wounds sometime after this laboratory was magically buried underground. Some of the excavators have been making nonstop guesses about the fates of the skeletons scatteredthroughout the long entry and the two adjoining rooms we've ventured into.
Me? I don't have to guess because Athanis has decided he's talking to me, whether I acknowledge him in front of the others or not.
"This was Cornellus, another of the researchers who fell to the Entity's fiends before this laboratory was spelled to hide far below the danger," he tells me as I pass yet another skeleton on the ground. "Cornellus was old and wise but smelled terribly. His teeth were filled with rot."
"Why do I always hear about people's bad hygiene?" I grumble under my breath.
"Picking up on anything?" Noah calls over to me from nearby.
I go back to ignoring the fae priest haunting me and try to focus on the dreamers' emotions. They get even stronger as I turn down the next vaulted, cold stone hall, lit dimly by hovering mage lights that the excavators cast in here when we first entered.
"This way, I think."
The excavation party moves forward, following me until I step into a huge hexagonal room that must be the heart of this ancient laboratory, and?—
Oh, wow.
There areso manyscrolls in here.
I stare in open-mouthed awe at the thousands of scrolls covering the walls from floor to ceiling, tucked into carved niches like a honeycomb. More shelves are arranged along the room's perimeter, loaded with stoppered vials, cloudy jars, and bowls of dried herbs. A broken, domed ceiling curves overhead, fragments of it littering the ground etched with faint fae sigils. I don't know how to describe it, but the air in here smellsold, the way museums always do to me.
And then I spot three beautiful sarcophagi on the ground.
My heart flips, and I'm suddenly breathless. I'm still sensing the sleepers' urgent, hopeful, desperate emotions drifting in this stale air—but whatever we're about to discover, my inner animal is suddenly wide awake.
Is that a sign that she thinks we're in danger? I can't tell.
"There they are," I manage.
Everyone follows where I'm looking and gathers around the sarcophagi.
"Yes, and there I am," Athanis sighs, looking down at a purple-enrobed skeleton lying near the leftmost of the sarcophagi. "It is not a pleasant thing, seeing oneself decompose."
"How did you die?" I ask under my breath, unable to help myself. "And why are you so much clearer and more coherent than the other ghosts down here?"
Athanis looks around this ancient laboratory affectionately, as if he's seeing it thousands of years ago. "I fell alongside my brethren at the hands of the great evil, yet as with any soul who pleads for the well-being of another in its final moments, I became a guardian spirit to ensure my friend met with the fate intended for him. Guardian spirits do not wane as others do, only passing into the Beyond once those they watch over have found peace and safety."
A guardian spirit?
Wait. Is that why Jessica has been sticking around, too? Was she telling the truth about it being her job to watch over me?
I'm suddenly trying not to tear up in this ancient fae lab as I once again thank the gods for my best friend. I'm going to make more butterscotch chocolate chip oatmeal cookies for her anytime she asks.
"My warrior friend rests in suspended magic there," Athanis tells me, unaware of my epiphany as he points at the leftmostsarcophagi. "Once these searchers have taken him to the surface, you must ensure they do not keep him."
Is he saying I need to set his warrior friend free? Isn't that dangerous?
