Weird things in the basement

Posted on Thu Dec 15th, 2022 @ 16:31 by Claire Cavendish & William McAvoy

Chapter: Days of Future Past
Location: Avalon Institute, The Crypts
Timeline: The summer of 1989
2924 words - 5.8 OF Standard Post Measure

Claire's eyes were well adjusted to working in dark environments, it had always been more comfortable and she didn't lose as much of the details that most of her peers did. But even her eyes were starting to tire after trying to map out the entire basement of the keep. If they were to create an institute of learning here it was important that they knew about all the places people could try and hide.

It was probably the dust permeating the air, agitating her eyes. Any work done here would have to be done with good protection in place. She was about to call it a day when she came across a slab of stone that seemed out of place with the rest of the corridor she was walking through. The mortar between the slabs had seemingly crumbled away, but it had happened in such a neat way that it created the impression of a doorway. It made one wonder if there ever had been any mortar keeping it in place.

She put her hands on the stone and it felt warm to the touch. This was an odd sensation with the cold water of the loch encompassing the keep completely the crypts under the structure had all been cold and damp. This was warm. She pressed against it but found it didn't budge a single inch. Taking a step back to get a better view of the thing she felt her heart starting to race. Was this a secret room? A medieval treasure room? Or perhaps something horrifying?

Not at all slowed down by the prospect of finding decaying bodies she tried to hook her hands into the crease and pull, the stone wouldn't budge. Looking around the wall she couldn't find any other feature that stood out on the wall. She took another step back to take in the larger view and felt the flagstone beneath her heel budge. It was out of the way and with normal use of the corridor nobody would really pass by the wall that closely. She stepped fully on it, there was a creak of old and rusted mechanics surrounding her. The stone slab door seemed to shiver a bit. She jumped, bringing down her full weight on the stone beneath her feet.

A loud crack.

Complete silence.

Then the stone slab door suddenly fell into the floor. It revealed a soft blue glow coming from a gemstone suspended in mid air. It hovered over a full suit of armour, bathing in the blue energy, arms crossed as if laid to rest. The walls lined with several carpets showing battles and at the far end of the room the heraldry of a noble house.

Claire didn't recognise the family crest, but it was clear from all of the items around and the location that they were in that this was a Scottish individual. It took her a moment to realise that all of the weapons, the carpets, the family crest were all in pristine condition. Nothing at all like you would expect from a crypt kept under a loch for the past six-hundred or so years. She stepped closer to the entrance, the stone released but the door didn't come back up to block the way. The smell of dust and mold had made place for ozone. She carefully inched forward and reached out a hand into the blue light.

The gemstone hovering in the middle of the room shimmered, like a light bulb about to break. Then it lost its luminescence and landed gently on the chest of the full plate armour, embedding itself in a socket seemingly made especially for that purpose.

The armour let out a large gasp of air as if suddenly awoken from a deep sleep by shock and sat up looking around in confusion eyes settling on the woman in the room. Oblivious to the tension in the room of a piece of armour rising from a slab other than it did not know the being in the room nor understand where it was. Its hand instantly went for a weapon that should have been at its waist but it was missing. Why was its weapon not there? It was there when it last thought about it.

When the armour moved Claire instinctively jumped back and, even though she had long ago learned to control her powers, felt a rush of adrenaline and fear trigger her reflex to turn invisible. She was half faded when she realised that the creature, or was the proper term Golum? Was about as lost and confused as she was.

The armour whipped around as the sudden moving of the being in the room and it took in more of what was happening. "What is going on?" It demanded in a rough deep voice that gave a hint of a man beneath the armour.

"What?" Claire came back into full vision and stepped closer. "Are. Are you human?" Everything around the room spoke to a person being laid to rest during the dark ages. No human could possibly survive for that long. Could they? "Who are you?"

The armoured man slowly shifted around and moved off the slab standing with a groan and the armour faded with a loud metal-on-metal nose revealing a large man who was not that much smaller. Blonde, shoulder-length hair swept out of the man's face as it took in the woman's features even as she spoke to him demanding answers. "Lord William McAvoy." He said scrubbing at his face. "Where... am I?"

"You're. Ehm. Perhaps. I don't know it might be more relevant when you are. Maybe sit down again." Claire looked at the man that was revealed by the receding armour, she wondered if it had been something mechanical. If it were it was way more intricate than scientist had been able to muster so far. The door had also been quite advanced for the time it probably stemmed from, but this would've been next level. "We are in the year of our lord 1989."

William sat back only because he felt heavy and was pretty sure if he tried to move anymore he would fall to the floor in front of the woman who was trying to help him understand what was happening. "Impossible." He said simply before it slowly dawned on him how undressed the woman was compared to women he knew. "It is 1401... " He said sounding less and less sure of himself.

As William staggered back Claire dared to step closer. She saw him take in her body and instantly felt very self conscious. She was wearing a teal low cut shirt and tight black jeans. "I'm sorry." He was even older than she had imagined he would've been. There were so many questions that where swirling in her head. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"600 years..." He zoned out for a second trying to remember what had been happening but his memory was so fuzzy. "I do not have anything clear that might have cause this event."

Claire took another step closer and looked around the room a bit better now. It was clear that it wasn't a burial chamber, thought exactly what it was meant to be was unclear to her as well. She saw some deep carvings on the stone altar he had been laying on. All of it was in middle English, and she was rusty at best at trying to understand exactly what it said. "Oh man. There's so much you've missed." She was probably looking at one of the very few Englishmen that had never heard of William Shakespeare.

Miss would be an understatement if it was truly real what she was saying about 600 years. "What is this place... wo... what is your name?" He demanded trying to temper the frustration that was rising in him at the confusion that was clouding his mind. Nothing was making sense.

"I am Lady Claire Angela Cavendish," It was weird to introduce herself like that but it seemed like the appropriate thing to do with someone that would be going through quite a severe case of culture shock in the not so distant future. "You're in the crypts of an old keep, I don't remember the original name. It's in the process of being turned into an educational institute. We were thinking of calling it Avalon."

"Strong name." He said finally looking at the woman. The purple did not bother him at all. Why was it not bothering him as it should? It was not a proper colour for someone to be but it did not scare him or make him declare her a witch as he had seen his father do to the outcasts. "Lady Claire... " He inclined his head in a respectful way when he could not bow at all.

"Just Claire is fine, Sir William. I'm not really in the family's good graces at the moment." She returned the small bow to him. "You're probably starving. I think there might be something to eat in my car... riage." She stumbled to make it something he'd recognise while pointing over her shoulder in the direction of the exit.

"I am fine." He lied.

Stumbling over her words made her wonder how they were communicating at all. Wasn't he supposed to be talking in 1400s English? Which was all but incomprehensible to her. Same would be true for him hearing her. "Excuse me asking, but how do you manage to understand the words I'm saying?"

"I do not know but I am hearing you correctly so it must be something in this room." He looked around again and noticed some of the images on the walls as things he had seen many times. "I recognise this." He staggered a few steps away from the slab where he had been lying to the runes written on the walls. "My wife..." He said trying to grasp a fuzzy memory of a woman he could not quite make out. Something about all of this was saying it was her, whoever she might be. "It is all just out of reach." He said slamming a fist against the wall in anger at the confusion.

"Wow! Hey. Let's try and stay calm." Claire tried her best soothing voice, though his anger and frustration was perfectly understandable at this moment. She stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder, feeling the strong muscles not far underneath the coarse fabric of his shirt. "We'll figure this out." If it was something in the room making them able to communicate she wasn't sure if she should take him out of the room. And in here he couldn't really do damage to anything or anyone either.

"How?" He demanded.

"I'm sure we can reach out to some experts in regards to this stuff and they'll be able to tell us exactly what all this is about." She was definitely not sure about that. How would she explain the pristine condition of this stuff? They would definitely say it was fake. Perhaps that was to her advantage. Her mind was racing, but it felt like spinning her wheels in place. "Food first? A drink perhaps?"

William shrugged and turned away from the woman to sit on the step of the slab and just look depressed for a moment. Nothing was making sense, if he closed his eyes for a second he could grasp the memory of what happened but the second he opened them again it was gone. "I could do with a drink if you have something, my lady." He said quietly as he stared at the heraldry of a noble house - his house on the wall. "That was my standard. I rode into battle with it for 27 turns of the sun."

Claire wondered if that was years or days he meant. twenty-seven days didn't seem like much to boast about, but she wasn't really up to date on her medieval casualty numbers among the knights. "Come. Let's see if the sun is willing to show its face on this auspicious day." She held out her hand to help guide him towards the exit. She didn't really want to leave him behind.

The man refused the hand with a shake, he knew his bulk and a woman could never pull it up. He used the slab to pull himself up and stood taking a deep breath. Seeing the sun would be nice as there was much to discuss about what was going on and despite the unusual situation neither of them seemed fazed by the unusual. "Lead the way."

Just when she turned around and headed through the hole the stone door had left she heard the unmistakable crack of stone. She froze in place, which was possibly the worst reflex she could have in that moment. Her mind had been so preoccupied with the whole situation that she wasn't really checking her environment. The stonework above her crumbled and she screamed as it started to come down towards her.

William instantly stepped in front of the woman despite his weariness and shifted without hesitation the stonework hitting metal instead of a fragile squishy human. William stood over the woman half shifted in the armour he had woken up in, half human. "Move." He grunted.

Claire gasped a bit at what she was seeing and then immediately turned to look down the corridor. Her jaw tensed as she focused and with a small hiss she melded into the shadows only to reappear about ten meters down the corridor. She figured it was the quickest way to get out of harms way and if she could she would've taken him with her. The first time she tapped into her powers to teleport she hadn't even been able to take her clothes with her. It had left behind a very confused police officer with nothing but her shirt in her hands. Luckily she'd already learned to control her invisibility a lot better by than. She shook her head to come to her senses. "I'm safe."

The man blinked in surprise as she disappeared in front of him but set about to do his task. He pushed back again the rock sending it to the floor away from him leaving him breathless from exertion and confused. "You're a blinker." He said as he staggered out into the corridor the armour disappearing.

"Not quite..." Claire wasn't quite sure how to explain the extent of her abilities to the man. She simply used the darkness around her to fade away and become fully invisible to the naked eye. "Primarily I'm a fader." She wasn't quite sure if that was the right word either. She reappeared. "But in recent years I've found some other uses for my abilities."

“Interesting. Never seen one with purple skin.” He decided finally looking around. “This looks like my home.” He said taking in the damaged walls and the lack of upkeep.

"You saw many... others then?" Claire looked around the corridor and wondered how one would recognise their own home just by the abandoned and largely decrepit dungeons beneath them.

William nodded. “My home was a safe haven for Faeblessed after my father was killed.” He said quietly. “That memory is clear as this day light you promise me.” It was a disturbing twice of clarity that struck him hard had he could remember his father but not the woman who had wrote the runes to preserve him.

"Faeblessed?" Claire hadn't quite heard that term before, and she wondered how much of it had disappeared due to the supernatural superstitions attributed to fairies. "But you'll be pleased to know that we intend to create a sanctuary for people like us on these grounds, once more." Making their way to the ground floor daylight was already coming back in through the large windows in the hallway. "It seems that the sun has decided to grace us with their presence today." She motioned for the front door. Sunshine wasn't something that you took for granted in Scotland.

William was pleased to know that there were places where people could be safe no matter what god have given them. But the thought did make him sad that 600 turns of the sun later not much had changed and the need for sanctuary was still there. “Fortunate my lady.” The man paused on the threshold of the door.

"Please, call me Claire, I haven't been a Lady for a long time." She sighed a bit at that. She should've never introduced herself as such. It seemed like a good idea in the moment but the man was clearly going to cling onto one of the few things that still made sense to him. She stepped past him into the courtyard and the waiting sun. "It's actually lovely out. Come, take in some fresh air while I scrounge up some food." She was glad whatever it was that translated for them kept doing its thing and they weren't struggling to speak to each other in words that didn't quite mean what they hoped it meant.

William inclined his head but gave no offer of agreement. Forms of address would be maintained if he could help it but he did follow her out into the sunshine. “Home… I am home.” He said simply taking in what had become of his home in 600 years.it was run down and practically a ruin but it was unmistakable.

Time did not suffer fools or wait for anyone it seemed.