29: Secrets of the Church
Phantasia waited a few moments while the purple-haired nature-lover traced her light over the decomposed remnants of empty wooden coffins and shattered alters, then urged the group over to where the first of the formally-sealed doors was located.
“This certainly weren’t here last time,” said Ceres.
“Secret entrance,” said Phantasia, “You just gotta know what to look for,”
“This is so awesome,” said Korrigan, “We’re like vagrants exploring the uncharted reaches of a lost civilisation!”
“Hundreds of years ago this place might have been flooded,” said Ceres, her voice filled with wonder, “Maybe even frozen. It’s amazing to think what the world has been through. About all the environmental changes and the way people have adapted to them. There’s so much history in these walls…”
“Torsten was flooded,” said Horatio in a rare moment of speech, “You can see the water line on the stone,”
“All I see are bugs,” said Hermia with a grimace.
The stairway turned into the long crypt. A few rats had scurried down here in the past day or so, but for the most part it was how Phantasia left it. The air wasn’t fresh but it wasn’t the stench from the ruined crypt above, and the humans found themselves able to breathe freely again. Ceres and Korrigan danced into the nearest alcove to examine its tomb, while Hermia and Horatio lingered around in the open, torchlight swooping across the majestic columns and architecture that had slept inside the earth for centuries. Korrigan, as usual, was the one to break the silence.
“Ceres, what’s wrong? Have you found something scary?”
Hermia and Horatio froze, their light fixated on the two girls dwarfed by the large tomb. Ceres was straining to read the markings that adorned the side of the monument.
“It’s nothing,” she said, “Just…legends…” Her voice trailed off as she ran her fingertips along the stone plaque. “I heard about the founding of Torsten from my tribe’s elders. The legends say this land was overrun with demons until a brave warrior tribe drove them back into Hell. The warriors sealed themselves away underground, along with the demonic gateway, leaving Torsten to their descendants.”
“You always have to bring silly things into it, don’t you?” said Hermia, “The land was plagued by animals and mutants, left behind by the Old World, aren’t I right, Horatio?”
He nodded. “The end of the ancient civilisations left deep scars on the planet. People fled into the cities to survive, but those who remained outside were corrupted by the world that remained. After hundreds of years, people left the cities to explore the outside world again, and that’s when they came into conflict with the mutated descendants of those left behind.”
Phantasia knew of Horatio’s gift for history from their lessons with Mr Haan, though he rarely spoke in class. After he finished his short lecture he backed down, a sheepish grin on his face. Whether his version of history or Ceres’s – or John’s or Mr Haan’s or anyone’s for that matter – was the correct story or not, no one could tell. Phantasia knew what the faeries had taught her about the Primordial Darkness, Erebus, but spending time with humans had taught her there were many different answers – and no one could agree on the truth.
