Finn followed the guard down the stairs. They seemed to go on quite a while before leveling off into a long, fairly narrow hallway. She didn't mind small spaces usually, but the darkness combined with the tight quarters left her breathing a little shallowly.
"Are you all right?" The guard asked over his shoulder.
"I'm fine, thank you. Is it much further?" She tried to put a smile into her voice but it came out strained.
"I don't believe so." He said, a bit uncertainly. "I haven't been down here before, myself."
Her confidence in her guide fell sharply, and she bit back a reply. She'd found him, it wasn't his fault she'd chosen poorly. Taking a deep breath, she just continued forward, eyes focused on the guard's back. If she didn't look at the walls, maybe they wouldn't seem to close in on her as much.
The end of the hallway opened up into a blessedly large room. It was well lit with high ceilings that made Finn breathe a bit more easily. Two guards stood against the walls, gazing at Finn and her guide curiously. They would not have been let in without orders, however, so there was no concern in their faces.
Her guide handed the orders to one of them, saluted, and turned to go. She supposed responsibility to see her to her final destination had been passed to these men. She stared between them, and the one holding the orders looked her up and down, read the orders, and turned to walk down another hallway.
"This way," He said over his shoulder. She lurched forward to follow him. Thankfully none of the other hallways were as narrow or ill-lit as the one she'd entered through. She and her new guide wound through several smaller chambers and halls before she heard the sounds of other people talking.
They passed one or two side rooms, which she peeked into briefly as they walked. They were dark, and contained crates and other storage, sometimes furniture. Nothing that looked terribly rare or interesting from what she could tell.
The voices became more clear, and less echoing as they came to the next chamber. The guard walking with her handed her back the orders, gestured her into the room, and then moved past her to leave.
"Thank you--" She said to his retreating form. Apparently he was a soldier of few words.
Walking into the room, she saw three men in Peacekeeping uniforms sorting through piles of artifacts. They commented here and there about odd things they found, staying focused on the task at hand. One lifted a crude straw pillow and bedroll from a crate and held it closer to the lamp.
"What was that thing about sleep?" He asked. "In the poem, the curse had something about sleep..."
"The curse of darkness has its hold until you find eternal sleep," provided Finn, causing all three to turn, startled, and stare at her.
"Who are you?"
"Why are you here?"
"How did you get down here?"
All three shot questions at her simultaneously, and she looked from man to man, cautiously holding out the General's orders for one of them to examine.
The central man stepped forward. After her interactions with Peacekeeping officers in the jail, she wanted to cringe backward away from him, but forced herself to stand her ground and make eye contact with him.
He eyed her noncommittally and then took the orders, scanning them casually.
"I see. You can get to work on that corner. We've already been through it, so you won't mess up any clues." He pointed next to the man who'd held up the bedroll.
"If I'm to help, shouldn't I search things that haven't been looked at yet? Or are you implying that you've missed something, so I should double check?" Finn challenged. The man's dismissive attitude was irksome in the extreme.
He sighed like a father having to explain something to a child. "We are attempting to find clues that could save our city from attack. It's very important that you do not get in our way."
"I'll do my best," She curtsied sarcastically. The man probably would miss something with that prideful attitude, so she'd better make sure everything was properly looked at.
The men were silent for a time as they continued searching. She opened a box and began looking through some very old pottery. It didn't seem relevant whatsoever to the prophecy, and after examining them for etchings or other script, she put everything back the way she'd found it and moved on to the next box.
After a while, the peacekeeping officers resumed their idle pondering, with the condescending man putting down the ideas of the others as childish or unbecoming of true detectives.
"Are you sure there was nothing about sleep?" Apparently the one man, called Joe, was highly focused on that part of the prophecy as he sorted through some blankets.
"Eternal sleep," Finn said, "It's a way of saying there are only two ways out of the curse: dying, or breaking it. Given that the Rhone forces are expansive and possess magic, it seems much more logical to find a way to break the curse than to try to kill them all."
The little speech earned her stares from the officers, which she ignored as she continued sorting through another box. It contained what seemed like excess military uniforms of an older style which was likely put down here for storage when they fell out of usage. It seemed that nothing of interest would be found here.
"Who are you, again?" The arrogant one asked. "You seem to have strong opinions about this."
"It would take too long to explain," She sighed. "Just call me Finn."
"And if not sleep, what part of the prophecy should we focus on, Finn?" Joe asked, a little more humbly than his counterpart.
"I think anything related to the Sorcerer or his will would be extremely helpful," Finn's eyebrows drew together, "Or anything about roots in the mountain. I would also be very interested in anything 'left behind' by the Rhone when they were driven out hundreds of years ago."
"That's exactly what I told you, Joe. You just never listen."
Finn bit back a grin and turned back to her work.
Hours passed with minimal chatter. They finished searching the chamber they were in and moved to the next. There were far fewer items here, and it seemed more of a meeting room with a table in the center and chairs around it. Shelves lined the walls, but they were fairly empty.
What a perplexing place.
"How old are the tunnels?" Finn asked the arrogant one, whom she now knew as Kristof. They had stopped working for a while to have a small meal around the dusty table. Which meal this was meant to be, Finn had no idea. Time was meaningless down here.
"This section has been dug out within the past hundred years or so. The tunnels are ever expanding as the population of Klain grows. Should there ever be a need to shelter the populace underground, it would be here." He explained, seemingly glad to have her ask a question so that he could impart his knowledge to her.
"Is there a set schedule for where to search? Could we go to the oldest part of the tunnels and begin there? The prophecy refers to 'roots of old' and 'ancient land' and finding what was left behind. I think we would stand a better chance if we looked at much older areas that would have been around when the curse was cast, since the prophecy was likely given at the same time."
Kristof's mouth twisted in thought, and he looked her up and down. She fought the urge to shrink away from his calculating gaze, when at last he relaxed a little.
"That's not half bad, you know. I wish I'd thought of it myself."
"I'm surprised you didn't claim to." The third man put in. Kristoff doffed his hat, slapped him with it, and put it back on. Finn snorted with suppressed laughter. Whatever his name was, he didn't say much, but he made his words count.
"Is there a map of the tunnels, or do you know them well enough without one?" Finn asked.
"I know them passing well, but we'd better coordinate with the other team if we're changing the search pattern. No need to go through rooms twice when there's so much to cover." Kristoff decided.
He led them out of the room and further down a slightly claustrophobic hallway and into a room where four men were elbow-deep in silverware.
"OW! Are you sure we need to check all the way to the bottom of this?" Asked one. He was pushing his arm deeper into the haphazardly-stored cutlery, which was cushioned with straw but did not make digging through it much more comfortable.
"If you were going to hide something important, wouldn't you put it at the bottom of a box no one wanted to dig all the way through?" Asked another.
Kristoff cleared his throat loudly to gain their attention. "There's been a slight change of plans, men."