The rooms were small, holding a bed or two with a desk. The faint scent of herbs filled the air, slightly calming Colton with the aroma.
But none of them had anything special, acting as rooms for patients.
Walking further into the dark hallway, Calliope could partially see another door at the end, obscured in black.
Upon getting closer, she slowly pushed it open. In front of them was a staircase, on the right, a window. Shining lunar light in.
"Once we finish checking the floor above, we will return here. The map said there is a hatch or secret compartment going down." She whispered, the two nodded their heads in response.
The stairs led up to another wooden door. Colton noticed the scent of the herbs became stronger while they were near the door.
The door felt heavier than the ones downstairs, beyond it, a single large room.
"Wah, so much stuff…" The group briefly stopped sneaking and explored the room in wonder.
Herbs hung from the roof, glasses, cups, bowls filled with different liquids sat on a single table in the middle of the room.
On the sides, shelves and chests full of bottles and other containers. But one thing caught Calliope's eye. A door on the opposite side.
Quill and Colton continued walking around the room before stopping next to Calliope, handing it to Calliope while she stood in front of the closed door. It was heavily reinforced and had a keyhole.
"We need a key for this." She grunted.
"This?" Calliope's frustration was short lived as Quill handed a key to her.
"Must say, they aren't so good at hiding stuff." With the key, Calliope slowly walked to the door.
Quill and Colton readied their weapons, expecting someone to come out.
The door screeched open, Calliope leaned on the side while using her arm to push it further open. But nothing emerged.
Instead, they found a smaller room, seemingly the room of a leader as the room was decorated with paper strung to the walls depicting different herbs or magic, none of which Colton could understand.
A single wooden desk stood in the room with a chair behind it. A small stack of books were placed on the side of it with a few scattered pieces of paper and ink quills.
"Hopefully these ones have a marking." Calliope approached the table and began checking the books one by one.
Her face slowly changed to frustration. Dropping the last book onto the desk.
"None of these are marked." In her frustration, she spotted something on the desk, an amulet. The annoyance partially went away after spotting it.
"I suppose the rest are in a secret compartment, like what the map said. Let's go."
They all started leaving the rooms, shutting the doors behind them.
Back in the first room, they wasted no time trying to search the area.
Looking under beds, behind shelves, their search went on.
Suddenly they heard a loud wooden thump. Quill stood up, looking at something behind the counter.
Colton walked towards her, and after glancing, he felt relieved. The secret hatch.
The hatch was heavy, but opened to a dark hole with a wooden ladder to descend down.
"Well, who goes down first?" Quill asked. Without responding, Calliope immediately entered through the hatch and climbed down.
The descent took awhile, Colton was the second to enter, he felt his body push against itself as the passageway was cramped. The weapon on his back barely fit.
Deeper down, Colton could see a glimmer of orange light below.
After a minute, his feet landed onto stone flooring.
They stood inside a large cellar filled to the brim with chests, drawers, among other large containers. A storage room of sorts.
"That's a bunch of medicine."
"Start searching this entire room, find the books." Calliope ordered. Everyone started hastily rummaging through all the containers, slowly finding more books.
The scent of the herbs was powerful. Nearly overwhelming their senses and giving a calming feeling.
They opened every container they could find, managing to find a few books placed next to medicine bottles and other herbs or tools.
Colton kept searching, already holding four books on his arm. Their presence in the cellar made him more weary, hastening his speed in searching.
After a few minutes, they fully searched the area. They managed to find nine books in total. Calliope examined each one before sending them to her storage. She flashed a quick smirk once done.
"Those books will aid us greatly. I will discuss it further. We have everything we need. Let's go." With the area fully searched, the three started climbing back up.
At the top, the place was still silent, quiet enough for Colton to hear his own breath.
Once everyone got up, they started to make their way out, but suddenly stopped after looking at the window.
A squad of guards were standing outside, the light of their torches illuminated the inside of the apothecary, forcing them to hide.
"Stay still, make sure they can't see you." Calliope quietly ordered.
The guards split up and searched the different homes in the street.
Colton only hoped that they wouldn't enter.
One of the soldiers walked closer to the window, moving his torch around to try and see the whole room.
Their fears started to lower as the guard moved away, and started walking away. But as Quill started emerging from the side of a shelf, a glass bottle fell over and smashed into pieces on the ground.
Almost instantly, Quill retreated back into place as the soldier turned his head to investigate.
"What the?" They could hear his voice through the window.
'Damnit.' Colton silently cursed, his fear rose as the guard looked further.
"What's wrong?" Another soldier asked, walking near the window.
"Thought i heard something."
"Probably just the wind."
"Sounded like glass, sorry, just on edge after that rooftop thing and the other recent news." The group realized they were talking about them.
"If it makes you feel any better, we can just check inside, it's open anyway. Come on."
'Piss' Colton braced himself and slowly started reaching for his weapon while still hiding. The other two followed, ready to fight back.
As the door slowly opened, they suddenly heard the sound of the soldiers fighting for a moment, followed by two thuds on hard ground.
Colton peeked up to investigate, Marcus was standing outside.
Once they all saw him, they emerged.
"I was gonna let em pass. They shoulda just kept walking. Dumb of em to leave the main group." He remarked after everyone went back outside.
They began climbing to the roofs, quickly leaving the apothecary.
They soon reunited, Calliope stood in front of all of them, ready to discuss what they found.
"The books we managed to find were a mix of magic healing and oddly, resistances."
"Resistance?" Celestine asked, confused.
"In easy words. It helps strengthen someone against the 4 attacks I spoke of before." Celestine nodded at her response, understanding what she meant.
"Along with this, we managed to find the amulet for Myo."
"You did?" Calliope turned around, Myo was walking to them with his hands behind his back.
"Indeed." Calliope tossed the amulet, Myo caught it effortlessly with a single hand. After a glance, he looked back to Calliope.
"You actually did it. Well, I gotta do my end of the deal." He tossed a rolled up map at Calliope.
Unrolling it, Calliope saw their next destination.
"The barracks."
The map contained details of a large barracks comprising four buildings, in the center was a training area while the outer area was heavily defended.
"Those guards are tightening things up so going inside will be hard. But I heard they contained some books and perhaps other things." Myo explained.
"I guess that's all, good luck. Oh, I almost forgot again." He stopped for a brief moment before continuing. "If you could, can you also search for a certain dagger? It's heavily decorated and has a gold hilt. I saw the head of the barracks carrying it." After talking, he turned around.
"Well that's all. Best of luck, maybe we'll go to a bigger place like that cathedral if things are going greatly." With that, Myo started running off, hopping roof after roof till he could no longer be seen.
"It says here the barracks lies west of here, we will observe the area then assign tasks afterwards." Done talking, she started heading for the barracks, expecting everyone from behind to follow her.
They made their way across the city, the lights from the torches of patrols became more common as they continued on, acting like beacons for the group and lights for the streets below.
Colton's body slowly became weaker, hopping over roofs for the past hour. But he continued on, hoping it would end and they arrived at the barracks already.
'Wonder if there's a book for stuff like this. My feet are killing me.' He thought to himself.