"We need to talk." For a second, Rhys was distracted from the nervous waiting for Marshal to reappear, by the thought that Alaric wanted to talk to him. About what had happened. He had to give it to him for the timing, but Rhys supposed that death being a very likely possibility had the tendency to make people air their regrets. Maybe forgive pointless arguments and clear the air of all bad will.

But when he turned his unwavering gaze from the darkened pool of water, the form of Marshal having shot off from view, he found that it was not him that Alaric was addressing. No, he was addressing Alice and Lily. There was a certain pang of pain that curdled in his stomach, as the intent for him to be left out was very clear by Alaric's body language. While his back was not turned to Rhys, it was rigid, uncompromising, and his gaze was fixed solely on the two girls, only looking to Rhys when he very awkwardly inserted himself beside Lily and into Alaric's field of vision.

"Shouldn't we wait for Marshal?" Lily asked, eyes darting briefly to the pool while she removed a salvaged package of bubblegum from her bag, and popped one into her mouth. She offered some to the others, but they refused.

"It's got something to do with Marshal, and I know he won't like it." Alaric continued, noting as Rhys crossed his arms nervously over his chest and shuffled his feet.

"You think the Hunter is Mark, don't you?" Alice said coolly, standing from where she had been prodding at the smooth sand in an attempt to distract herself from the enclosed space, and stretching her legs.

"Yes." Alaric replied, none surprised at all that Alice had deducted his reasoning for the conversation. Although a slight tinge of confidence did swell within him at the thought that he possibly wasn't alone in his thinking.

"Mark? That's crazy, he's so sweet! And It's quite clear that he is very... fond, of Marshal. He wouldn't do anything to hurt him." Lily countered, punctuating her sentence with a loud pop of bubblegum from her lips.

"I was attacked before. A few nights a go, by a hunter."

"A hunter? There's definitely more than one?" Alice questioned with the raising of one eyebrow.

"Yes. But we knew that was a possibility with Rhys' dream." Alaric mentioned, and Rhys hated how much it hurt to have Alaric have his name in his mouth in such a neutral tone. Plain and flat, devoid of any of the teasing friendliness that it had held throughout these years. "The one we fought the other night was a completely different one I had encountered previously encountered, both vastly in size and skill. The one that cornered Lily was trained, and the one that attacked me I am certain was Micah given the body type."

"Oh? You're so sure it was a man? Body armour hardly gives away gender. Unless you can smell ball sweat or testosterone or something, you don't know it was Mark at all. Or even if it was a dude under there." Lily argued, although gave a small protest of disgust when Alaric gave a look that suggested that he could indeed smell all of that stuff. Or at least something close to that approximation.

"The only thing we're missing is motive." Alice began, giving a quick glance to the water before continuing "He was gone all summer, coming back a heck of a lot stronger than before. His family are one of the oldest and richest in Willowstream, and yet despite how saturated the population is in 'inhuman's' there doesn't seem to be a single drop of that blood in the family from what I can tell looking at what I've met of them. And conveniently, the only place that would hold any further information about them, save for their own home of course, recently went up in flames. Seems to add all up to me."

"Exactly" Alaric responded, glad in the affirmation.

"Except, there isn't a motive that I can think of. From the very brief horror stories I got told as a kid, there haven't been Hunters in Willowstream for at least one to two hundred years. When societal ideals began to change and people began to have less credence in what the church says goes, the Hunters kinda became obsolete."

"Not to mention Lily has a point." Rhys started, although was very aware of the look of distrust in Alaric's eyes as he spoke up. "We know this Hunter is trained right? Probably stands to reason he's trained in how to identify anyone non-human. Not to mention if Micah is working with him, who is not only a Witch, but also knows personally who exactly isn't human. If Mark was this Hunter, then why would he not only be working alongside a piece of shit inhuman like Micah, but also dating one?"

Before a response could be had, Marshal broke the surface of the pool with a heavy breath, and scurried his way out of the water. Lying on his back against the cool granules of the dirt, and closing his eyes in a moment of pure and utter relaxation that was, rather annoyingly, cut short by the squeal of Lily:

"I didn't know you had fins!" She rushed over, and gently caressed the caudal fins that were outstretched from his calves. Gushing over the almost prismatic shine of colour that shimmered along the length of them by the small lantern light.

"You did it." Rhys beamed proudly as he kneeled beside Marshal and gripped his hand tight. Marshal grinned happily, using the grip of Rhys' hand to pull himself up into a seating position, and then finally into standing where with steady slicking sounds, his fins retracted back into place. Looking like nothing more than a strange assortment of leg hair, or long scars along the length of his lower legs.

Alaric approached Marshal, smiling gently as he placed a hand on his bare, wet, shoulder and gave him a nod of approval.

"You were amazing Marshal. It takes a whole lot of guts to do something that frightens you." Alaric said warmly. Rhys, once again, couldn't help but feel that Alaric was being over the top with his gestures. Clearly telegraphing his willingness to be warm to others, and cold to him. Although he supposed that was to be expected, he did betray him. But it still hurt.

"How're we looking?"

"It's actually not that far. Especially if I help you along. About twenty metres I'd say. Comes up on the other side, which is another problem. It's totally dark, I couldn't see at all, and something tells me the camping lantern isn't going to survive an underwater excursion."

"Oh! I got this!" Lily said, everyone turning to her expectantly as she shoved her bag into Alaric's chest, who haphazardly caught it, where she then unzipped it and began rummaging through. "Aha!" She proclaimed, pulling out a small hair tie. She then pulled her mess of wild red hair behind her head and tied it up. "There that's better." She said, stopping for a number of seconds too long before realising the expectant look on her friends faces. "Oh right, yeah the lantern." She continued with a snap of her fingers.

A few seconds later, she had procured an empty sandwich bag. A few errant crumbs still rumbling down the bottom, and it smelled of bread, lettuce and tomato. A scent that immediately caused Rhys' stomach to growl in hunger. As luck would have it, the bag was just about big enough to encase the lantern properly. With a zip tie at the top that provided an almost waterproof seal, it would prove a worthy protection from the water. At least for a little while.

One by one, Marshal led them through the cold depths of the pool. Taking but a few pumps of his powerful legs to ferry them to the other side before their lungs could get too tight at the protest of air, and when they appeared on the other side, though shivering from the cold; they found themselves in a hallway much like the one they had just left.

It was far better carved however, adding credence to the idea that what they had just passed through must've been an old cave in of some kind. The walls were smooth, occasionally marked with what appeared like purposeful grooves that were just the right width for fingers. Like they were purposefully put there with the intention of finding your way in the dark.

Eventually, the tunnel became brickwork. Solid, squared, stones. Piled upon each other in a recognisable pattern.

"Are these scones? Like actual sconces?" Lily gasped in wonder at the cylindrical protusion that was affixed to the wall. It appeared to be made out of a dark, rusted metal. And by the raising of the lantern, they could see that others had been placed periodically down the hall. There was some kind of residue within a small cage like structure at the uppermost point of one of these protusion, that was black to the touch like soot, or charcoal.

"It looks like it." Alice hummed inquisitively as she studied it a little closer.

"We had some in the basement, back in the manor." Alaric mentioned. "In crates of course. Along with a number of relics from lifetimes passed that my father had collected."

"That stuff must've been worth a fortune." Lily mentioned, although looked apologetic when she received a reprimanding elbow to the ribs from Alice.

"I wasn't much of an appraiser or appreciator of my father's collection. But I should imagine it was worth a fair bit yes. Although, when you're as wealthy as my father, your money tends to make money on it's own and there's no need to sell the things you want to get more." Alaric paused for a second, drawing in a deep breath before continuing "Let's go."

They walked for what couldn't have been long than ten minutes, although it felt like hours, along the same gently bending hallway. When finally the came to a dead end.

A stone wall, smooth save for a definite outline in a rectangular shape that was indented into the wall, and at it's apex a familiar coat of arms, sculpted masterfully out of the same, yellowish stone rested. A kite shield, parted into four sections. The centre foreground emblazoned with a skull, and a spear pointing downwards behind it. A knights helm sat atop it, surrounded in what appeared to be stylized oak leaves.

The silent recognition bounced through all of them.

"I guess we know where we are now..." Marshal said quietly, as he watched Alice approach the door and inspect it closely.

It was featureless, save for the coat of arms and the definite "door-shaped" grooves, but there was no sign of a handle or lock.

"My guess is that it was supposed to be a secret escape, once upon a time. Which means two things. One it's probably not going to open easily from this side, and two: where we end up is probably going to be one of the oldest spots in Willowstream..." She mused, applying small amounts of pressure with the flat of her hand on various parts of the surrounding brickwork.

"Well then let's hope whoever owns it, isn't home." Alaric said plainly, handing the lantern to Marshal who held it higher into the air for others to see, before pushing against the smooth rock.

He flexed with all his might, his eyes clouding in a sanguine mist as his fangs clicked into his mouth, he pushed. Alice stepped in beside him to aid, and with the pair of them, the wall began to budge.

It ground along the floor in protest, shifting two foot forward and leaving trails in the long undisturbed floor, before intuitively sliding to the left.

The smell of fresh air was the first thing to meet them all, along with old wood, old paper, and metal. Marshal hurried to put out the light of the lantern as whatever room they had entered was lit well enough for them all to see unassisted.

They seemed to have pushed aside an old book case of sorts. Long covered in abandoned webs, with books that looked on the verge of total disintegration. They were met with a large, dome shaped room. Reaching high above, and criss crossed with numerous bridges and stairs of stone, linking them all in someway with each other. Each visible floor was lined with book cases, storage boxes. Suits of armour. Archaic weaponry. Relics and collectables from lifetimes dedicated to one purpose, and one purpose only. War.

Rhys was called to look over the edge of the walkway they currently stood upon, towards what seemed to be the only source of light in this massive place. The light itself wasn't the medieval flickering of fire from dotted torch lamps one would have expected from this place. It wasn't yellow at all. It was white. Enough so that it was clear that the light was electrically produced, and far down below, Rhys could just make out where a space had been cleared for more modern work to be done.

When they had made their way down the five floors, they discovered that it had been entirely rigged up with wires and cables. A small metallic desk, set up with a laptop. Work out equipment. Another metal work top with a number of particularly vicious looking instruments lay atop its surface. Some assembled, and some disassembled. While others were clear in the early stages of just being made. There was an uncanny feeling upon inspection, that the purpose of these gadgets were that of violence, and that there was to be no question otherwise.

Alice and Lily were immediately on the laptop. It sprang to life with a touch of the power button, and Alice clicked her fingers with a stretch as she scrolled over to the password input box. Lily began looking through the errant files of paper work that seemed strewn beside it, eyes widening as she noted on each one; that each of their names had been inscribed.

Alaric had found himself at the weapons table. He had never held a handgun before, discovering the cold metal to be surprisingly weighty in his grip. He postured with it for a moment. Getting a feel for the balance and how it held itself in his palm.

Rhys and Marshal had walked over to the oldest furniture in this small area that had happened upon. An old wooden armoire it seemed, and upon opening it revealed a whole host of weaponry. Knives, daggers, swords. Even a flail and a mace. There was something indescribably awe inspiring about them, as they daringly admired a number of them with a stroke of the fingers.

"As terrible as this implies... This is pretty fucking cool." Marshal said, pulling out one of a pair of sai's and giving it a twirl. Wincing in horror as it slipped from his fingers and clattered loudly to the floor. "Sorry."

"Try 07092003." Lily suggested

"Hey, that's my birthda-- What are you?" Marshal began to protest, but the sudden slam of a door that came echoing above them. Coupled with a pair of discordant voices had them all rushing to hide.

Rhys and Marshal stuffed themselves into the armoire. Alice slammed the laptop closed, gripping Lily by the hand and pulling her down one of the many aisles of books, and Alaric was perched in an instant into a shadowed corner of the room. His fingers dug into the stone to give him grip as he held himself above the floor, and with bated breath, they did the only thing they could do. Wait.

A/N: Look see I can update semi-regularly!

I hope this chapter wasn't too boring or anything of the sort. Gotta have a slow chapter so you can appreciate the fast ones more am i right? Either way the last thing I want is for it to be boring.

Anyways, as always: Thanks for reading ^-^