Surprisingly, the insides of the building weren't completely dark - the enchanted lights attached to the walls at even distances were glowing dimly, this made their job significantly easier.
The group quickly dispersed around the building, tending to their assigned tasks. Having already fulfilled her task, Isara joined Calen.
"Do you have a plan?" asked Isara
"For now I'll just interpret the runes to see what the enchantment does and we'll go from there."
"Well at first glance it's a simple arcane lock, no need to check" she said smugly
"I'm not that incompetent, you know. I want to see if the key is physical or verbal."
Calen slowly traced the runes engraved on the doorframe with his index finger, and stopped on a particular cluster of symbols.
"Here, that's the key."
He took out the rune dictionary and opened it, searching for any of the symbols that compromised the key. Isara stood on her toes and put her head on his shoulder to also study the book.
"You can just stand next to me, you know."
"I know, but this is more fun. I think the second one means knife"
He flipped the book to the page dedicated to various tools and weapons, and localised the specific rune.
"You were close, it's 'dagger'."
"Eh, same difference. Now check the section on materials, if the key is physical it will be described, otherwise we translate it verbatim and say the phrase."
After a few more guesses and checks they discovered the key.
"So we're looking for a dagger made of volcanic iron, with a spider engraved on the handle and an amethyst on the pommel." Summarised Isara
"Our best bet is probably the bedroom, but let's check on Elira first."
She nodded and together they made their way to the living room. The charred corpse of the abomination was moved to a corner, probably by Cassian.
With spider-dagger being the key to the basement and information provided by Elira it wasn't difficult to deduce that the monster was in fact the alchemist Drithen.
The young alchemist herself was crouching over the split cocoon prodding the dried body of the little gray monster with a stick, Cassian was standing next to her, curiously observing what she was doing.
When he saw the remaining two enter he nodded at them and said:
"The building is safe, but everything is old, dirty and falling apart. Except the bedroom, that place is weirdly intact."
"You didn't happen upon an iron dagger when you were searching, did you?" asked Calen
"No, but there were a few locked drawers I couldn't get open, it could be in one of those. Why?"
"It's a key to the basement, we'll check the drawers in a minute." he turned his head, and addressed the alchemist:
"Did you find out anything about the silk? ...Or the little creep?"
"...Huh? Oh! Yes, quite a bit on both accounts. The silk from the cocoon was dried, a bit fragile, and generally not a very good material, but the webs are a different story"
She pointed to the gray strings covering the entire ceiling.
"They're elastic, light and very durable, I can use them to make a lot of things, so we should gather as much as we can."
"Noted. What about the creature?"
"Well, it's unlike anything I've ever seen before. It's deaf, blind and can't smell things, instead it can pick up vibrations through the membranes on its feet"
She pointed the stick she was holding at the darker area at the bottom of the creature's stumpy legs, and then continued:
"It's muscles are unnaturally dense, it could probably lift several times its weight. The claws and teeth are very sharp and tough, they would make great arrowheads or spikes."
"Any obvious weaknesses?" inquiried Cassian.
"Its skin is thin and it lacks bones in many vital areas, a group of those things would be very dangerous, but a single one shouldn't pose a threat."
"How did you learn so much from a single, dissected body?" Calen asked, slightly intrigued.
Elita suddenly seemed very embarrassed, she looked down and rubbed her arm.
"Oh... I... Um, It's a part of alchemy, you know... to understand how things work."
It seemed like she wasn't willing to divulge any more information, and Calen wasn't going to press her for more details, after all they barely knew each other.
He was still curious of course, but they could revisit that topic later on, after all there were things they had to do before they retire for the night.
"Right, so Cass, you're going to gather web for Elira to use, put it all in here" he handed his friend the magic bag and continued. "Elira, if you can, try collecting teeth and claws from the little freak, as you said they might be useful. Isa and I are going to look for the dagger, we meet back here in half an hour."
Soon enough, they were all busy with their respective tasks.
Calen and Isara made they way upstairs, straight to the master bedroom, to begin their search. They quickly localised all the locked drawers, and got to work.
"Try the wardrobe, I'll check the nightstand" instructed Calen
The nightstand was old, but strangely well preserved, like everything in the room. The top drawer had a large brass lock in the middle.
'What's the point of an arcane lock on one door when you use mundane locks everywhere else.'
He took out the strange knife from his master, and carved a single rune right next to the lock. The symbol glowed faintly, and something clicked - the drawer was open.
Inside, resting on a small decorative pillow, was a small dagger - its blade was double-edged and its handle had an engraving depicting a spider.
Its the pommel was decorated with a smooth, purple stone.
"Found it!" he announced.
"I also found something."
Isara was holding a thick, leather-bound notebook, and a thin piece of wood was laying next to her.
"The drawer had a false bottom"
She flipped through the book.
"I think it's his journal"
"Research?" asked Calen, somewhat curious
"No, personal stuff - how he felt, who was mean to him, things like that. It seems like he was quite the character..." her brows furrowed as she continued reading the book. "wait... but how... what?"
Calen walked up to her and asked:
"What's going on?"
"The entry dates... look at this."
She pointed at a date above an early entry, it was from a day about a month before the invasion.
"And now, look at this."
She opened the notebook somewhere in the middle and pointed to another entry, when Calen saw the date his eyes widened.
"That's... impossible."
The date, clearly written by the same hand, was almost 300 years later.
"But that's not the worst part" said Isara
She started quickly turning the pages - as she got further and further, the neat handwriting of the alchemist got messier, and the entries started growing shorter.
Finally, only one ugly scribble was repeated on every page.
"Drithen the Eightfold" Calen read aloud.
"I don't think he succumbed to the corruption." whispered Isara
"We'll know for sure very soon"
He held up the dagger.
"Come on, let's find the others."
Both Cassian and Elira were done with their tasks, the first one had a few gray strands stuck to his hair, and the second one sported a few stains of half-coagulated blood on her hands.
"Cass, there should be a wondrous soap among the things I taken from Grond's shop, get yourself cleaned." Said Calen
Cassian rummaged around in the bottomless bag and pulled out a baby blue bar of soap, and quickly rubbed it with one hand. A thin layer of bubbles enveloped him, and a few seconds later he emerged completely clean.
Soon enough they were all clean, and ready to face whatever was waiting for them in the basement.
__________________________
"Here goes nothing."
Calen put the dagger against the wood, and suddenly the runes grew brighter - then they lost they their glow completely, and the door moved.
"Alright, we're going in."
Everyone was following Calen, who was holding up the lantern with the divine flame to disperse the darkness of the basement.
The subterranean part of the building had only one large room, like everyone already suspected it was an alchemical laboratory
Calen put the lantern on one of the desks thrown haphazardly around the room.
"Elira, take the bag and go look for any usable reagents, in the meantime we'll see if we can make sense of his research notes without your help"
The young alchemist took the bag and approached the large shelf filling the far end of the room.
Meanwhile, the rest of the party started studying various books and papers stacked on every available surface.
Soon enough, they found what they were looking for:
'On human transmutation - the harmonic union of man and beast'
It was a particularly heavy tome, thick and bound in a metal casing. Fortunately it seemed like they wouldn't have to read the entire thing - from between the yellowed pages a few coloured pieces of paper stuck out.
Calen opened the book on one of the marked pages, and started reading a highlighted passage:
"...the act of merging two separate organisms into one is highly beneficial for the stronger of one, not only would they gain beneficial attributes of the other, but they would also extend their lifespan by hundreds of years.
It is also speculated that one would become immune to other factors that could cause mutations."
He flipped to another marked page
"...there are risks to becoming one with a beast of course, while the mind of a human is stronger than any beast it is also susceptible to madness.
When one changes their physiology in such a radical manner, it's only natural that questions about identity would arise.
Those questions, if not properly addressed those questions can lead to madness, and that is a sure way to lose oneself in the mind of a beast."
Cassian drummer on the desk with his fingers, and then summarised:
"So a guy merged himself with a spider to live longer and avoid being corrupted, lived peacefully for almost three centuries in the middle of an apocalypse, but then went crazy and became a rabid beast."
"That pretty much covers it." confirmed Calen.
"It's not the first time something like this happened "
The comment was from Elira who just got back from ransacking the shelves.
"Really? I've never heard of anything like that." responded Isara
"Because the standard process doesn't turn you into w monster. Drithen clearly modified the procedure to maximise the inherited traits, it's a miracle he held onto his sanity for as long as he did" Elira shrugged.
"I think his sanity was debatable even before the mutation." grumbled Calen.
They decided to keep a few alchemy books that could be useful to Elira, as well as Drithen's journal - he lived for centuries in this new world, maybe he had left some useful information.
Having resolved the mystery of Drithen, there wasn't much else to do in the house, so they decided to get ready for bed. They would all sleep in the master bedroom, the girls on the bed, the guys on the floor.
Thankfully, among the things Calen had taken from the adventuring shop were four enchanted sleeping bags, so they could at least rest semi-comfortably.
When they were fully settled in the bedroom they started conversing about various topics.
"What's the plan for tomorrow?" Asked Cassian.
"I want to reach the place where I woke up, considering we don't know how far off that putrid grove is, we'll spend the night there." Replied Calen
"What if the grove doesn't exist?"
"Well, then we'll figure it out. We have Drithen's journal, there's bound to be something useful in there."
Cassian only nodded in response.
Their future was very uncertain, even if they find the grove they would have to come up with a plan. They were thrown into the middle of a conflict they don't understand, and they didn't have anyone to guide them.
As far as they were concerned, they were screwed.
"Don't worry too much, you're going to be fine." Said Isara.
Calen looked at her with an unconvinced expression, so she turned her head and addressed the young alchemist:
"Ellie, was there ever a Flamebearer who couldn't accomplish their task?"
"...Huh? Yes, of course."
Seeing everyone's gloomy look she quickly added:
"B...but there are only a few cases! And all of them were loners, so as far as statistics are concerned Calen is in a great position."
That did lift their spirits a little bit.
Seeing how knowledgeable Elira was about the history of his predecessors, Calen decided to ask her a question:
"How does a Flamebearer recive the divine flame under normal circumstances, anyway?"
She was a bit surprised by the question but answered anyway:
"Well... When someone with the mark is discovered by the clergy, they are to be immediately transported to the royal cathedral in the capital."
She started pacing around the room while she talked.
"There, the aspirant would go through a verification process, and if they are confirmed as a Flamebearer they would be trained for a decade.
After they are fully prepared, the head of the church would give them the flame."
Calen nodded and silently absorbed the information. Now he understood why his master has forbidden him from interacting with the members of the church in any way.
He wasn't sure why his teacher didn't want him trained by the church, but he trusted the Archmage's judgement.
"I think that Alarion was right to be so distrustful of the church. I bet that their 'training' was just a badly disguised indoctrination program." Commented Cassian.
"Trust me Cal, being personally trained by the great Archmage Alarion is milion times better than some church bootcamp!" Confidently proclaimed Isara.
"Uh-huh, and your opinion surely isn't biased as another apprentice of said Archmage." Replied Calen.
As they exchanged jabs and comments about Alarion, Elira started staring at them with wide eyes.
"M... Mister Alarion is an Archmage?" She asked quietly.
"Ah, right it was supposed to be a secret." Isara smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, guys."
"Well it's an open secret anyway, not like he does a good job hiding it himself, at least that's what I thought until now..." Calen shrugged and looked at Elira
The poor girl was reeling from the shock, apparently the 'kind and humble shopkeeper' role his master played was more convincing than he thought. Alternatively, the young alchemist was particularly gullible.
Cassian shook his head and said:
"You only think that it's obvious because you know the truth, for most people Alarion is just a quirky owner of a small enchanting shop."
There was a lull in the conversation, and they all started yawning.
"Well, it seems like it's time to go to bed. Let's get some good rest, we don't know when we'll have the chance to do so again."
With those words they all entered their sleeping bags, and a round of 'goodnights' rolled through the room.
Whatever was waiting in their future, they would be ready. And if not... Well, Calen would rather not think about it.
In a few hours a new day would begin.