Burned things
-You did it!- said Robert, as soon as they got inside the elevator.- It was incredible, you did it!
Albert leaned on the elevator wall and slipped to the floor, it had left him exhausted. Octavia and Dalia crouched down to help him.
-I’m okay, girls, just tired, it is much harder to do it awake.- he waved his hand dismissively, and to his surprise, the lights flickered, he did again and saw that he was controlling them as Marla was known to do.- Oh, I didn’t expect this.
-You didn’t do it on purpose?- asked Dalia, still standing at his level. Albert denied with his head.- See, you can do it!
-This doesn’t require much effort.- he said repeating the movement.- But Marla will be much harder. And now that I come to think it, we should have probably taken the stairs, maybe there is some kind of trap in the elevator that makes it stop before it reaches the last floor.
-Now, I see that you are exhausted, your brain is not working properly… there are over one hundred floors! We would get there by tomorrow night!- Robert complained.
-You are probably right, but still…
-Whatever, we are already in the elevator, so we must ride along.- finished Octavia.
Fortunately, the elevator trip was uneventful, and it opened its doors to the black and white hall as it always did. They climbed up the stairs and found themselves in front of the desolation. The air was still so heavy with the ashes the wind had picked up, that it was hard to breathe.
-You did this?- his three friends asked at the same time.
-It didn’t lookthat bad in my dream, and it didn’t smell like this either!- he said covering his nose with his t-shirt.
They walked through the charred wasteland that Marla’s garden had become. When they saw the house up close, they wondered how had Albert been able to contain the flames. They were really impressed, but they didn’t want to annoy their friend with more compliments, so they admired his work silently. Albert walked up to the door and tried to push it open, getting completely covered in cinder during the process. When he saw that the door was firmly shut he decided to try to open it through other means, so he focused and after brushing the doorknob lightly with his fingers the door flew wide open.
-Shit!- Albert could hear Robert swear under his breath.
They followed him inside and upstairs. The first obvious place to look for things was Marla’s room. Out of curiosity he looked through the window to see his message. It was really impressive, he realized. The search in the room proved fruitless, nevertheless, and Albert decided to move to what was, perhaps, the most interesting room of the full house: the library. Seeing it at the light of the day made it even more impressive, the letters on the book covers shining back to him in gold and silver and cooper, the covers themselves in a thousand different shades. It was a treasure just at the reach of the hand. The family tree was still hanging where he had last seen it, untouched. He diverted his attention from it, since it would, most probably, provide nothing of interest.
He looked through the books, but there were too many for them to look at each of them. Who knew which one would be useful? However, Octavia proved to be the perfect book hunter and quickly discovered something odd.
-Look at this! All these books are related in a way or another to the history of the city or the cathedral, she has some titles I had never seen before, however she lacks a couple of the ones that I have.- she said with some pride.- Oh! I wish I could stay here all my life! With enough drink and food I wouldn’t need to leave the house EVER.
-Emm, yeah, we can see you are excited, but is there something really useful?- Robert cut in.
-Well, I think that her having so many books about the cathedral is interesting, it might be her hiding place…
-I thought about it, but isn’t it… too obvious?- replied Albert.
-Maybe, the key is that it is obvious, so obvious that you would think it is too easy and loose time looking for other places. Yet, the other interesting thing is that she has the plans for the cathedral, the complete plans, with hidden corridors and all this stuff.- she took a heavy leather bound volume to a reading table and opened it at random.- See? It is crazily detailed. Every construction period has its own chapter. And half of the book is about the finished structure. This is a work of art on its own. I need to get back in here when everything is over, this books belong to a public library!
-What worries me most now, is that there is no way we can carry this book around to check where Marla could be once we are there.- intervened Albert again.
-But we can snap some pictures of it.- said Dalia taking out her phone.
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