'This isn't a good plan,' Arsh thought as he climbed the tree behind Juan.
'Going in without knowing exactly how we're going to get out is madness.'
He watched the curly-haired man reach toward the window, trying to open it while muttering curses.
'But even if they hadn't agreed, I would have made the same decision.'
Juan's willingness to take such a risk made Arsh like him a little. And the fact that the other team members accepted the plan without opposing him kind of made him respect these men.
He wasn't sure what might happen to him here. Judging by the others' reactions, the risk of injury or even death was possible.
But the ones inside were only Kurshan children. Even if this was where his path ended, he remembered something his grandfather used to say.
"A person should fight not for the dead, but for the living."
'Are you proud of me, Grandfather? If I die here, it won't be because of revenge, but for the children who still have their whole lives ahead of them.'
In reality, that wasn't the kind of 'fight' his grandfather had been talking about—the old man had actually been complaining about a messy inheritance dispute in another village. Anyway, Arsh was just trying to motivate himself.
After a couple of minutes of struggling, the window opened with a faint crack. Juan slipped through the open window, and Tedor followed right after him. The room was dark and silent. Juan signaled for them to wait, then, just like he had done on the rooftop the other day, his body blurred, turned into a mist, and vanished under the door.
They waited silently in the room while Juan checked to see if anyone was on the route they would take. Before long, the door opened from the outside.
The corridors were wide and brightly lit. They moved forward without running into anyone. Following the golden threads, Arsh led them to the staircase at the end of the hallway. It wasn't a staircase for guests, but for the staff. They slowly went downstairs.
The floor where the children were kept was two levels below ground. They passed the ground floor, the kitchen, and the laundry room in order. After that point, the lights were no longer on.
'They're on this floor,' Arsh whispered.
The basement looked like a where unused items were stored. Broken chairs, torn-up sofas, old cabinets, chandeliers, and similar pieces were scattered all around.
They moved forward silently, careful not to bump into anything. A gas lamp hung on the wall ahead, but the cluttered furniture made it impossible to see how many people were there. Once they were close enough, they hid behind a cabinet and began to watch.
Under its dim light, there were two men. One was standing against the wall, trying to light a cigarette, while the other seemed to be dozing off in a chair. Behind them was an iron door.
'The children are in that room,' Arsh whispered, even though it was already obvious.
"Okay, let's look at the situation. These men don't particularly look strong. Two against two. It's best to move fast," Juan said. Then, without waiting for a response from Arsh or Tedor, his body began to darken again. His form faded, and within a moment, he vanished into thin air.
Meanwhile, the man dozing in the chair woke up grumpily and turned to the other.
"Didn't I tell you not to smoke around me? Where do you even get those? They smell like shit."
"Hey, what do you expect me to do? We've been waiting here for hours. If I don't have one, I'm going to lose my mind."
"Ugh, this smell is suffocating me. Damn thing... kgh..." the man suddenly stopped talking. He really looked like he couldn't breathe.
Hearing strange noises, the man who was smoking turned to his friend. The moment he saw his face, he froze for a second, then threw his cigarette to the ground and stamped it out.
"Hey, Richard, sorry! Look, I won't smoke around you anymore, okay? Are you alright? Don't scare me, man!"
But Richard didn't look okay at all.
"Hey, Richard, what's going on? Are you okay? Answer me!" the other man asked, his voice full of fear this time.
The man looked like he couldn't breathe. He was acting as if he were trying to pull something out of his throat. Arsh saw his eyes widen, his face turning red, then slowly shifting to a purplish hue. After about thirty seconds, he stopped moving.
The other man panicked. For a few seconds, he just stared at his friend, not knowing what to do, and then started to run.
"I'm going to call someone... wait!"
He ran toward the stairs nearby. But just as he was about to turn the corner, he slammed into something as hard as a wall and fell backward.
"What the hell?" he muttered, trying to get up while wiping the blood from his nose.
"What was that?"
When he looked up, he saw a man at least a head taller than him, with shoulders twice as broad as his own.
It was Tedor.
The man tried to step back, but it was already too late. Tedor grabbed his head and slammed it against the wall. A moment later, he slumped to the ground.
'He didn't faint. He's dead,' Arsh thought.
Arsh shuddered when he heard the sickening crack from the man's skull. Seeing the blood pool on the floor, he felt a chill down his spine. The fact that a man could die from such a simple blow was terrifying.
'Terrifying... they are terrifying,' he thought. He was glad he had followed Juan without resisting before.
Everything had ended in seconds, much faster than he had expected. If things kept going like this, he thought they could get out of here quickly. But when Juan reappeared from the shadows, there was a troubled expression on his face.
"This isn't good. Both of them were too weak. They probably didn't have siuni. But I don't think they'd leave just two such weak people here as guards, especially when the general himself is here for this transaction. There must be someone else," Juan said.
When Arsh looked at Tedor, he saw that he agreed.
"It's best to get out quickly. Let's find the keys," Tedor said.
However, even after searching both men, they couldn't find the keys.
"Shit. If they don't have them, who does?" Juan said irritably, running his hand through his hair.
"Should I break the door down?" Tedor asked, approaching the iron door.
"Wait, let's not scare the children too much. Let Arsh see if he can find them first. Can you try?"
'Find the key? But what should I focus on…?' Arsh was confused for a moment. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to find it.
He approached the door and grabbed the handle.
'Let's think… where is the key? Where is the key that opens this door?'
It had to work. He closed his eyes and whispered the question to himself. But when he opened them, the golden threads in his hand were so faint that he couldn't even tell where they were leading.
"I can't find it... just wait a bit longer," Arsh said.
"Hurry up, kid. We don't have much time," Tedor replied.
'As if I don't know that,' Arsh snapped back in his mind.
He closed his eyes again and forced himself to focus.
'I need to think calmly... The children are behind this door. Nesame's son, Sefir, is in there,' he thought, as Sefir's face appeared in his mind.
'This door is between us. I need to find the key that opens it.'
When Arsh opened his eyes this time, he saw the golden threads. But they were surrounded by that same darkness again… And the person at the end of the threads was very close.
Too close.
As Arsh followed the threads with his eyes, Juan and Tedor looked in the same direction.
There was a man leaning against the stair railing, watching them in silence. Finally, when everyone's eyes turned toward him, he spoke.
"I only stepped away for a second, and look at this mess."