Apollo and Kyra came up with a plan to search the dungeon below the school during a weekend, when no one else was supposed to be around. They had dug through map after map of the school but none of them showed anything about a secret dungeon with maze-like corridors and flight after flight of stairs. The dungeon had to go at least a couple hundred feet below and yet according to the school's history books and such no place existed, not that they expected to find all the answers just laying around in the library but they at least hoped there would be something of note. Nope, so now both of them had to do it the hard way.
The hard way being to just go in there willy-nilly and map it out themselves. Gods only knew what kinds of traps laid around to stop people from just wandering in, but the two had studied up on the most likely traps they thought could be in there. So they came up with a bunch of counter measures on the off chance that they ran into them and hopped onto Kyra's broom and zoomed over to the school. It was late evening now, the full moon clear and big as the sky turned from a deep blue to a dark purple and finally to black. Little dots of stars poked out from behind the dark sky, twinkling nicely.
The view of the sky was obscured quickly as they sneaked inside the building and to the wall that now had a magical barrier over it, the barrier wasn't obvious to someone just walking past it to get to class but Apollo and Kyra knew that it was likely that there would be one now. They searched the floor carefully for any kind of inscriptions or markings to indicate if there was a barrier and they both whispered an "Aha" when they found it. Kyra held out a spell book, she recited an unlocking spell from memory while Apollo read along, not nearly as gracefully. Both of them held their hands out and repeated the spell three times until the inscription on the ground fluttered up into the air and then vanished. Apollo closed the spell book and held it against his chest along with a scroll of empty paper. They both then opened the wall and dipped inside.
Once they were inside Kyra said a light spell and a small dove fluttered around them, illuminating the area five or so feet in front of them. The dove followed along with them as they moved, Apollo shuffled behind as he unrolled the scroll and began mapping out the area from the entrance. Once they got out into the giant room filled with dozens of staircases the two paused as Kyra pulled out a seemingly endless red string, when Apollo raised a brow she explained.
"The halls or staircases could shift, don't want to get lost in here. This string never runs out, so we'll be able to find our way back no matter how far we go."
She then tied the string to Apollo's wrist and they both looked at the three pathways before them, left, right, and straight down.
"Where do you think we should start?"
"Left?"
"Left it is."
The dove fluttered in-between the two and in front of them so they could see. This stairway went along the wall and there were four doors in total along it before it forked off as well. The two started the slow process of searching every room for anything suspicious or out of the ordinary, more out of the ordinary than you would expect at a magic academy. For the first dozen empty rooms, with only occasional clutter they were curious and filled with mystery but as another dozen came along, and another, suddenly that childish sense of adventure dissipated. They opened another door, they were about fifty feet below the entrance now and the further they went down the more the stairway forked into more stairway and the more nearly empty rooms they ran into.
"This is gonna take forever. Why don't you just go speeding around and tell me what you find?"
Apollo said half-jokingly.
"That would be easier, but just speeding in and out of rooms could be dangerous. I could run straight into a trap, so slow it is.
The two grew silent for a moment before Kyra continued.
"Honestly we should have expected this; maybe Ms. Alby was just doing the rounds?"
"In the dungeon? And if there really was nothing here why did she bother writing an inscription to make sure we didn't come back?"
"So that we wouldn't get lost in here, or stuck in the Upside Down World like someone."
"I suppose that's true... but you honestly think she was strutting around in here for no reason? I don't know, I think there's something more going on here."
Kyra nodded.
"Me too, but this is definitely going to be longer than a single night kind of job. There's just too many rooms to search."
"Agreed."
They sighed as they opened another door, but this time there was more than just dusty cobwebs and old furniture. The two moved into the room and kneeled down, the dove landing gently on the stone right next to what appeared to be large rusted chains. And by large, Apollo meant large, they looked like they were meant to handcuff a giant. But once they touched them they crumbled, they appeared to be quite old and brittle. The two furrowed their brows as they looked at one another worriedly, basically thinking the same thing 'what is down here that needs chains as big as these?' Kyra grabbed the dove and moved it in front of the chains, there appeared to be writing carved into the sides. They tilted their heads in unison as they attempted to read what was there and not broken off or turned to dust.
Apollo didn't really know why he even bothered attempting to read it, he had only been here for a little while and only picked up a few words. He was like a toddler learning to read and write for the first time, he was just lucky they spoke English here. Kyra took the scroll from Apollo's hands and copied the carvings on the back, she then held the dove above the paper to re-read what she had wrote, as if she wasn't quite sure what she had read.
"What is it? What's it say?"
"Xoiza. He who makes the ground crack and the thunder rumble. He who brings winter wherever he goes, beware for he is a frozen threat who destroys everything in his path."
"Who's Xoiza?"
Kyra shook her head.
"I have no idea, I've never heard that name before."
"He who brings winter wherever he goes? None of it sounds familiar?"
"Not at all."
"Hmmm."
Apollo pursed his lips, grabbing the dove and looking around the room further. There appeared to be nothing else in the room so the two exited and descended further into the abyss. The process continued, but the further the duo went into the maze the more decrepit everything became. There were sections of stairs that crumbled away at the slightest touch, parts that they had to physically jump over, doors that fell off their hinges. Vines also started appearing, a few here or there at first but now they were everywhere, even covering the broken stairs.
At one point Kyra held her arm out to stop Apollo, he obeyed and looked at her confused. She pulled out a pencil from her bag and threw it down the stair they were walking, after being in the air for a few seconds the pencil was promptly cut in half. Apollo's eyes went wide as Kyra kneeled down to look for an inscription.
"Jesus, that was close. Thanks for that."
"No problem."
Once she found the inscription she said the spell to dissipate it and then threw another pencil, this one hit the stairs and rolled down them unharmed, once she was sure the spell was lifted they continued. Finally the stairs came to an end, they had to be hundreds of feet below the school now and the stone was covered in these weird black vines. Kyra stopped and pulled out two clothes, wrapped one around her face covering her nose and mouth and handed the other to Apollo.
"These vines could be Dream Vines, careful where you walk if you step on one they released a gas that knocks you out. These magical cloths will help with the gas, but try to watch where you step."
Apollo nodded as they looked around the large room they were in. There were four long endless hallways to choose from, none looking particularly appealing. As they were deciding Apollo shivered, rubbing his arms as he felt a cold breeze hit his skin. He moved over to another hallway to find that there wasn't a cold breeze. He moved back to the cold hallway and repeated this process again, just to make sure.
"Hey Kyra, the chains said something about winter right?"
"Yeah, why?"
He motioned for her to come closer and she stood there looking at him like he was dumb.
"What? Am I supposed to be seeing something?"
Apollo furrowed his brows and asked.
"Don't you feel how much colder it is here compared to over there?"
"No, I'm a vampire I don't feel temperature. Especially if it's cold, I'm undead dummy. Feel me."
She held out a hand and sure enough when Apollo felt her palm it was ice cold.
"Oh, well it's colder over here. So I think this is the hallway we should go down."
"Down the creepy dark corridor we go then."
And onward they went and the further they ventured the more Apollo shivered, from more than just the cold and the heavier his stomach felt. Apollo's throat was unusually dry and his natural instinct of getting the hell out of there was kicking in. He grabbed onto Kyra's hand which was like holding a block of ice but it still comforted him when her fingers wrapped around his. Apollo jumped straight into Kyra when he heard scurrying and she protectively wrapped her arms around him. She rubbed his back and whispered.
"It's ok, it's probably just a rat."
Apollo gulped and nodded, he didn't want to be here. His knees were wobbling each step he took, he held onto Kyra in case he collapsed randomly. Either the dove was dimming or the hallway was getting darker the further they went in and this was not helping Apollo's nerves.
"Kyra, I think we should leave."
"But we haven't even reached the end yet, we still don't know who Xoiza is."
"I'm not sure I want to know."
"It's alright Apollo, if anything happens I'll zoom us out of here real quick."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
That's when he heard it, something off in the distance in the darkness. A soft, soothing melody that instantly warmed Apollo up in the below freezing hallway. As if his body was on auto pilot Apollo stepped forward, his mind going hazy as he subconsciously let go of Kyra.
"Apollo? Apollo, where are you going? Wait!"
Kyra's voice was getting drowned out more and more, all that consumed his mind was finding out what was making that music. It was so pretty, almost angelic. Apollo was sure whoever was singing was beyond beautiful. He grinned, giggling like a school girl as he picked up the pace, his heart thrumming out of his chest. The song was getting louder, filling up his ears and leading him, begging him to come find it. It made his heart swell, the cold and fear he felt previously completely gone as he was now full on sprinting towards the music.
Then he was knocked to the ground, Kyra had his side in an iron grip. This infuriated Apollo, he wanted the music, he wanted to see who was making such a beautiful song, he had to know. He was sure he would die from curiosity if he didn't.
He kicked and scratched at Kyra, yelling at her but even his own voice was muffled in his ears. The only thing that mattered was the music. Then the music was gone and he was suddenly cold again. He hadn't realized it but he was crying, no full on sobbing. He blinked through his tears and wiped his eyes as he sat up, looking around to see him and Kyra were now in a big bubble.
"What the hell was that?"
"A siren song, you idiot. Look."
Kyra pushed Apollo's head to the side where a large body of water was waiting for him, if he had taken even one more step forward he would of been choking on water. Beneath the waves, in the shadows he saw a glimmer of emerald scales. Then a face rose from the water, the face shifted and changed, not settling on one person or feature. The siren was still singing but none of the song came through anymore. Once the siren realized this it's face settled to a terrifying paper pale face with shark-like teeth and sharp green eyes, long slimy black hair settled down it's back and into the water, stretching like dark tendrils. It screamed and jumped out of the water onto the bubble, popping it with it's sharp talons. It's scream was like a thousand nails on chalkboards as more heads surfaced from the waves.
It grabbed onto Apollo and tried to drag him into the water, Apollo screamed which was inaudible considering the circumstances and kicked at the siren as best he could. Pain seared in his left leg, he could feel it's talons sinking into his skin as Kyra kicked it so hard it hit the wall across from them and it fell back into the water. Dozens of sirens came leaping out of the water like salmon swimming upstream, their claws and teeth waiting to dig into Apollo. Kyra wasted no time in grabbing the boy by the middle and speeding out of there just as a siren was about to chomp down on Apollo's shoulder.
In a few blinks Kyra stopped and Apollo saw they were now at the entrance once more. Through his panting Apollo asked.
"Why didn't the song affect you?"
"Vampire, duh. Sirens are a type of Charmer, so are vampires. Charmers can't be affected by other Charmers."
"Charmers?"
"People who can coerce or manipulate other people."
Apollo winced and turned his attention to his leg. He moved the dove closer to him and pulled up his pant leg to examine the damage. He was certainly bleeding alright and there were four long, far too deep for his liking gashes in his calf. Apollo looked over at Kyra who said rather jokingly.
"Call it a day?"