P-Mousoleum Chapter 33

Read Table of Content | +Kyla Scurchio
=======================================================================  I stared at my shiny new trap. The moon was nearly down and dawn would be upon me soon. I just sat back relaxing, listening to everything around me. The Mousoleum had been very quiet most the night. The Acolytes had put fear into anything living.
My trap sent a tingle through my hand as I touched it to place it on the base. It was a beacon of blinding light, standing taller than any of my regular traps. I used many different forgotten spells to forge the scraps into something usable. And even more spells to project the beads power out onto the
surrounding area. The trap had a mysterious feel about it, an arcane feel. I favored it completely, and already was contemplating upgrades.
The second trap I managed to forge was actually very simple. I placed a little headstone on my base and found the spell in the book that Z had used for our pockets; the Bottomless Grave I called it. The mice dropped off the little platform into the depths of the trap. They were only retrievable if the hunter reached in to get them; just as the pockets on my pants now were.
I had to redo the traps a couple times to get them right but I was proud of what I had accomplished. I set the arcane trap aside and baited my shadow trap. I took the time to organize my thoughts while I still had the chance.
The spellbook Z had left me had many clues of where he could have ended up. I trusted he was not in the kingdom for he would have found me by now. There was only brief mention of islands just off the coast of Gnawnia; a place where Zugzwang had stopped and found new cheese, and new mice. Tribes he called them. I had to start somewhere and after I checked in at Digby I would have to head out. If he ended up in the west I feared for his life, nothing but empty blistering deserts were in that direction. A set of islands had to be better than that.
I also had to figure, if he didn’t want me to find him, why would he vanish to just somewhere else inside the kingdom? He would have to go somewhere far enough away he’d not be found but also a place that he knew, right? My head started to hurt as I thought of Zugzwang. We had a hard enough time surviving together. My thoughts drifted to my stab wound on my side. I should have been dead.
I waited for the sun to rise high enough into the sky that I would be able to see it through the mist. The Mousoleum was gloomy no matter the time of day. I just wanted to see daylight one last time before I vanished into the Catacombs. My stomach gave a strange twinge as I stood to face the mouth of the Cats, and the stone steps that would take me to their depths.
The sun beamed on my back briefly. With a sigh I grabbed up my trap, cheese still intact. The Acolytes had scared everything away. A good sign I probably shouldn’t do what I was going to do. It didn’t matter though, and I took the steps two at a time.