The Old Manor House Secret

In this little snippet, we follow Mareth as she is sent on a mission from the Head Scholar of The Academy to retrieve a sacred parchment believed to have been hidden in an abandoned basement of an old manor house near Farnworth. It's best to read this with the included music tracks. The first track is ideal for the first part of the snippet. The second track is ideal for the second part of the snippet.

Music Track: Forest Sounds / Ambience ~ The Guild of Ambience

Three hard weeks travelling with the caravan had left Mareth exhausted and a little out of sorts. They had left her just a day's walk to Farnworth on a quiet stretch of road. She had been grateful for the reprieve. The silence and solitude was a welcome distraction after weeks of festivities and constant chatter. It wasn't that she disliked her boisterous companions, she was used to a calmer environment that prized the quiet reflection of study.

She had lost track of time as she walked, basking in the warmth of the sunlight and the quiet sounds of the forest trail. The sun was already marking a trail across the sky and dusk would not be long behind. She quickened her steps.The idea of spending a night in the wilds alone in a foreign forest she did not know left her uneasy. She had studied the area before she had embarked on her mission but there were factors that no book could ever teach her. It was the unknown that she feared and was ill prepared to face given her lack of real combat skill. Scholars of the Capital were rarely needed to fight battles. It had been unfortunate the guard who had been assigned to accompany her had fallen ill the night before their departure and no other could be spared at such short notice. Mareth had assured the Head Scholar that she could complete the mission without the help but here, in this forest, she questioned her decision.

She glanced once more at the map she had been given and took a moment to gaze deeper into the surrounding wildness. The sun glinted off metal up ahead to her left.  She made her way carefully in that direction and spotted the clearing marked on the map.

The forest had long reclaimed what was left of the old Manor House. Shrubs and vines and wild grass had covered most of the area. What ruins that had been left of the building had fallen and shattered to the ground succumbing to the weight of gravity and nature. She found the door by sheer luck, stumbling onto it whilst avoiding a shrub of poison berries.

The door had been hastily covered by old dead leaves and harmless shrubs. The handle, a ringed thing of brass peeked between the leaves already worn with age.

Music Track: The Witcher - An Ominous Place

Mareth took a deep breath, fingers shaking as she reached for the ringed handle and sent a silent prayer to Sybil. It took a few tugs for the door to swing up revealing a square hole big enough for a small person to squeeze in. The smell of dirt , dank and musk drifted up to assault her nose. She cupped a hand over her mouth and peered into the darkness. What light could penetrate revealed a stairwell leading down.

She took one last look at the sky above her, drew in a deep breath and lowered herself slowly into the hole closing the door above her. The sounds of the forest faded and the darkness grew more dense, more suffocating closing in around her as if intent on squeezing the breath from her body.

Her fingers fumbled in the pack at her waist and she found the strange ball the Head Scholar had given her. She brought her lips close and whispered the word, "Feriq." just as she was instructed. A soft glow appeared at the ball's center, growing in size until it was bright enough to light the way before her. She breathed a sigh of relief as the darkness receded.

The light orb was an invention from the Guild of Artifices, created by one of the many inventors the Guild nurtured. It would last for a day and half down in the darkness. Enough time for her to find the parchment and return to the surface. She would stay in Farnworth for five days and wait for the caravan's return to take her back to the Capital.

Encouraged by the thought of the Capital and her cozy room at The Academy, she made quick work of descending down into the belly of the abandoned basement. Her feet had barely touched down from the last step when a force of wind struck her in the chest and she slammed against the wall. Her head snapped backwards sharply and her vision blurred. As she felt herself lose consciousness, a voice drifted to her.

"You didn't kill her did you?"




Bonus Photo: