When the door opened, what appeared before the group was what looked like a laboratory. There standing in the middle, giving off a threatening presence was a figure cloaked in black. The closer the group got to the figure, the heavier the presence felt. The figure was working with various lab equipment to perform its experiments. Some things that appeared on the benches and tables of equipment were weapons that weren't finished, mechanical objects of fantastic design.
A small mechanical golem that reminded Evren of a robot moved from behind one of the tables and brought a tool to the hooded figure. When the figure grabbed the tool, a skeletal hand was seen. The golem then went back around behind the table for some other tasks. With a voice that seemed hollow, as if speaking into a well, the figure said, "It said you would come."
"It?" Evren asked.
"Mmm, the dungeon." Came the reply "It doesn't really speak with words, but a combination of memories. It remembers the conversation you had with Sergei. It passed it on to me. It was a nice thought. So unlike a vampire."
The figure moved to another station of the lab and began working on something else. Evren said, "He seemed concerned for you."
"That was another memory passed on to me," the figure said, "you seemed equally concerned. Such a strange thought from a human, to care about the feelings of a monster. In all honesty, the dragons and dracoliches were worse off than anyone else."
The hooded figure's head turned towards Evren, only darkness seen under the hood. "You've done your good deed. You needn't worry about me, or those who follow. We're not the type to lose our focus."
"You wouldn't want to be reset?" Evren said.
It raised its hands gesturing to the experiments on the tables around him. "Why would I want to lose the knowledge I've gained so far? I've so many experiments left to conduct." It returned to its work and said, "I have not the weaknesses of the lesser liches. There is very little that could threaten me. To include yourself."
The figure kept working quietly to itself without regard for the others. Evren and the others uncomfortable with the silence or being ignored as they were.
"I am Nhagir, the lich. I have your 'key.' Would you like to know what it is?" it said.
Evren nodded, "I don't know anymore. I've been told that the monsters of the dungeon would help me, but also that they may just help themselves and use me."
The lich laughed loudly and for a few minutes. "That's perfect, just perfect!" it said. "You shouldn't trust us. How much have you heard so far that you wish to be true? How much do you hope is a lie?" It laughed some more before calming down.
It pointed to a book that sat on a table. "The key is there. Take it with you when you leave."
Evren walked over to the table and picked up the book. As he flipped through the pages, he found spells on each one of them. Almost thirty pages of spells.
"Those aren't all of the spells I know, but it is all you will get, for now." It said without looking up from it's work.
"Ah, well thank you." Evren said. After an uncomfortably long period of time, Evren said, "So, about getting out of here. Well, I've heard that there's only one way for me to get out of here."
The lich stopped what it was doing and turned to Evren. It slowly walked his way. It stopped before Evren and asked, "What if there were another way?"
Without backing down Evren said, "If there were another choice, I'd take it."
The lich asked, "What if that choice led to your death?"
Evren shrugged, "That wouldn't be leaving."
After staring at the top of the lich's hood, Evren heard a noise at the far side of the room. The door leading to the exit had opened. Evren looked up and then back at the rest of the group. With his head he gestured towards the door. He looked back Nhagir and bowed his head, "Thank you." He said, "If there's ever something I can do for you in return…"
Nhagir paused for a moment before saying, "Return to me in three days, I'll make a list of supplies I require."
Evren nodded with a smile. He then said, "Of course. I'll be back in three days."
"You better hurry, you wouldn't want to have the door close on you." Nhagir said.
Evren turned around and headed to the door. He took one last look at the lich as he worked before passing through the doorway. Once on the other side and the door closed, they headed up to Anbuton to discuss their plans. They gathered up Harley's parents at Joseph's house and sat down for their talk.
Evren started, "I haven't asked anyone this before, but now that I've spoken to the lich, I want to go out and stop Grandia now."
"Ok, when do we leave?" Walter asked with everyone else nodding.
"You'll join me?" Evren asked.
"Of course, we all thought that was the case from the beginning." Walter said.
"Thank you." Evren said with a smile.
"When do we leave?" Fletcher asked.
"In three days, I'm to return to the lich, it has asked us to retrieve supplies for it. I'm not sure how long that will take to get them all, but after that we should depart." Evren replied.
"Fortunately, we still have supplies for 60 days that we didn't use. Whatever won't fit into my backpack we can put on the wagon." Evren said.
"Do we really need to bring the wagon?" Walter asked, "I think it would just slow us down."
"Well…" Evren began and then thought more about it, "I guess we don't really. I bet if we run, we can make even better time."
"Boo." Isobel said, "I'm not running all the time."
Evren smiled, "I was only kidding."
Walter said, "No you weren't."
Evren looked away and said, "No I wasn't."
After a moment of guilty reflection, Evren said, "Well, that's all I gathered everyone for. Does anyone else have anything to add?"
Three days later, Evren was on the 151st floor and entering the lich's chamber.
"Nhagir." Evren said as a greeting. The lich gestured with its head to the table where he had gotten the book from. There was a note folded and laying on the corner of the table. "Did you want your spell book back?"
The lich shook its head, so Evren opened the list and browsed through it. He shrugged and set his backpack on the table and opened it. From there he started pulling material ingredients out. The lich looked up at Evren as he was setting items down on the table and approached the table curiously.
"Why do you have all of this?" the lich asked.
"I found a book on alchemy and was going to try my hand at it, but everything looked a bit confusing, so I just gathered up the components in case I changed my mind." Evren replied.
"Did you change your mind?" the lich asked.
"Nope. Still confusing." Evren said with a chuckle.
The lich took a few steps forward and picked up one of the items Evren had set down, "You even have holy silver? And this amount!"
"Oh, yeah that's not all of it, I use it myself, so I just gave you what was on the list." Evren smiled.
"Eyebright, foxglove, hawthorne…" the lich said as it looked at everything on the table.
"Ok, that should be everything. We're going to be heading out to head towards Grandia in a couple of days, so I won't be able to bring anything else. With this are you good for a while?" Evren asked as he slung his backpack over his shoulder.
"Honestly I didn't think you'd find everything, and you were just doing this to humor me." It said.
Evren shrugged and said, "I try to do the things I say I'm going to do."
Evren headed to the exit door and turned around waiting for it to open as he said to the lich, "Goodbye Nhagir."
"Come to me when you've returned, Evren of man." It replied.
The exit door opened and turned around, leaving the room behind.