NOVPUBThe old manor had been ransacked many times over the years, perhaps even before the arrival. There was nothing of value on sight, but the buiding itself was still standing and held an incalculable value for Uriel who needed but a glance to learn its secrets. 𝘯𝑜𝘷𝘱𝘶𝑏.𝘤𝘰𝑚
By studying the remains of the building, Uriel was able to tell more or less the date it was built, what the rooms were used for and also a part of its story. Judging by the architectural style, It was built by the french settlers that claimed both sides of the Mississipi for their country.
This alone made the finding of such a place interesting enough to pique Uriel’s interest, but the more he explored the manor the more he learned.
The rectangle foundations he found nearby hinted the presence of a barrack of some sorts and Uriel deduced the owners of the manor must have kept slaves which, in turn, pointed out to the fact that the place must have been a cotton farm since it was the only way to explain the wealth of the owners.
Keeping slaves was a common practice in those times, it was part of the dark side of history people made a point to forget when convenient. It was the cause of severe social disparity and racism that lasted for generations. Uriel took some time to reflect on this, thinking on how different life is now, but at the same time he questioned wether or not the change was significant enough.
Even if racism wasn’t a thing now, people discriminated the traitless or even those who had weaker traits than themselves.
"Social disparity..." He muttered as he watched the corporals working hard on the task he entrusted to them earlier that day.
"Lieutenant Sage, we’ve been working all morning. Can we take a break already?" Mayhem voiced the thoughts of her companions.
"Less talking and more working!" Uriel grunted. Needless to say, the irony of his thoughts and actions went completely over his head.
After using the tape to enclose whatever remains they found, Uriel asked them to remove the rubble with care. Threatening to leave them without food all day if they so much as scratched anything that could potentially be valuable.
Their hard work paid off, but not exactly how Uriel expected. Instead of digging out a valuable artifact of unparalleled power or a rich treasure of breathtaking beauty and price, the soldiers uncovered a small piece of furniture.
It was nothing but a small recliner made of wood. It was incredibly well preserved for all the time it spent underground, but the wood was so fragile and mushy one of its legs broke as soon as Young touched it.
"Careful!" Uriel let out in a growl and proceeded to dig the old piece of furniture with the proper technique. "It’s just as I thought, this used to belong to a church. There must be a chapel nearby or perhaps it used to be in this very spot."
"Didn’t you say earlier they kept slaves? Why would evil people like that build a church?" Mayhem asked with a confounded expression on her face.
"It’s not as easy as that dear. Back then, people saw slavery with the eyes of their own time." Her mother explained.
"That’s precisely it, but that’s not all. These guys were most likely aristocrats, even if they weren’t religious people they still needed to keep appearances. At the time, there were several occultist underground movements in Europe so I wouldn’t be surprised if we stumbled upon alchemy parafernalia..."
"Alchemy!? It was real!?" Mayhem’s eyes glimmered with fantasy.
"No, of course it wasn’t. Just like people used to believe in a higher power, some people thought the elements were the core of existence and believed they could understand and manipulate nature’s laws."
"This is garbage, all of this is nonsense. How can you tell this people used to keep slaves just because you found a few stones underground or that there was a church nearby just for a piece of old furniture." Rusty wasn’t interested in their conversation nor was he happy about doing all the hard work while Uriel rested.
His already short patience was nearing its end and he was about to burst into another of his rage fits when Uriel directed a glare at him, one so cold that left him paralyzed on the spot.
The reason why Uriel was being so serious now was because that small recliner was all the evidence he needed to confirm the theory that began forming on his head as soon as he noticed the building was on dry land, completely surrounded by the shallow waters of the swamp. It signalled the presence of something he feared almost as much as it excited him, it was the presence of a dungeon.
"You can all rest now, I recommend you to grab something to eat and get some sleep now. This is going to be a long night." Uriel said with a serious tone of voice. It wasn’t authoritative as much as it was grim.
"A long night? This place is safe from cryptids, I’ve only ever spotted beast rank cryptids in the vicinities, but they never set foot on land." Young said, unwittingly furthering Uriel’s hypothesis.
"This land is sacred, that’s why they don’t dare to come in here, but there’s no need to tell you about it. You will see soon enough what I mean." Now that he was certain there was a dungeon nearby, it was his turn to work.
He took notes of everything they found, took measures of the buildings hinted by the foundations he found and he even attempted to make a few drawings, though they were nowhere near as good as Luna’s.
For hours, Uriel stared at the remains and nodded from time to time as though he was having a conversation. For the onlookers, he seemed like a madman, mumbling all sorts of nonsense to himself, but it didn’t take long for Uriel to unravel the history of that place and to find out the name of its guardian.
"This is just like Luna said, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but it seems cryptozoology might as well be considered a true science." He spoke the words he would never say in front of Luna looking in the direction where he guessed the zeppelin must have been.
