46 Shopping (1/2)

With a shake, the platform stopped descending as it came into contact with the ground. Without even a door to usher them through, the group of four were greeted by a simple 'opening' in the chute they came down. It looked more like a piece of the wall had fallen out, rather than an intentionally made entrance or exit.

Pulling them out, Rob and Chance only just got the twins, who were still in a stupor while looking around, off of the platform before the unseen chains rattled, followed by the wooden plate ascending once again.

”How do we get back up?” Loki asked while looking at the vertical tunnel they just came down. He had expected it to look like a tube suspended in space, or a column shooting into the air but he was slightly disappointed. There was no better description of the route than to call it a chimney.

The chimney was partially submerged in the wall, looking as though it was a bulge in the throat of a giant. Stretching up for around fourty metres, the ceiling of the massive cave they were in was anything but small, yet was still not overly massive.

The only reason they were able to make out the ceiling so quickly was because of their close proximity to the walls of the cave. This made it that they were able to see where the ceiling and the wall connected. If not for that, it would be easy to mistake the ceiling for the night sky.

Similar to the tunnels that ran through the sewers, the walls and ceiling of the cavern were embedded with tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of the grey stones alongside the odd sun stone mixed in irregularly.

”You said you have to charge sun stones. How do they charge them from up there?” Rykar asked on top of Loki's initial question.

”There are only entrances and exits to the underground. If you come down one of the chutes or staircases, you can't go up the same way. The only exception is the castle in the centre.” He pointed to the hulking pillar in the centre of the cave.

Just the distance from their location to the pillar was over three kilometres. With the pillar being around half a kilometre in diameter, it gave the cavern a total diameter of 4.5km, centred around the pillar.

”That pillar is actually the foundation of the castle in the middle of the city. The entire city and this dome underneath it is supported using the pillar as the foundation. It's the perfect example of nothing being outside of the control of the Royals.

The sunstones do need to be charged but the glow stones don't. By mixing them in with each other, it lets the sunstones feed off the glow stones and help illuminate the space which the glow stones alone aren't strong enough to. It's like a cycle.”

Beginning their journey as Rob and Chance used the walk as an opportunity to expand their horizons, filling them in on many things, they quickly made their way towards the auction house, which happened to be an amphitheatre styled structure that was connected to the south side of the Castles pillar.

The entire underground area seemed to radiate a feeling of desolation and ruin. All the walls seemed to be crumbled. Entrances weren't planned out with roofs and arches, rather just holes in walls. There were no roofs on many of the buildings. Rubble could be seen all over the ground, along with mess and bloodstains.

As an area that was under the control of the royals, why not have it more regulated? It couldn't possibly be that difficult to implement a few of the laws from the area above considering the proximity. Hell, this was literally their basement!

Asking the question to Chance, even he wasn't able to come up with a solid answer. After contemplating it himself for a while, he simply passed it off as 'that's the way it was' calling it a forgotten area.

Entering the lobby of the auction house, the space finally lost its aura of desolation. Although still lacking in many of the niceties seen above, the room was crisp and clean. The wooden flooring was swept and polished while the white walls provided a stark contrast with the grey, red and brown pallet seen outside.

”Dear guests, how may I help you today?” A middle aged clerk came over wearing an all-black suit complete with a white tie.

”We're here to list items to the auction.” Replied chance while handing over four black slips. After looking at each slips individually before comparing the numbers written on the bade of each of the boxes, the man snapped each slip in half. Passing one half back to Chance, he pocketed the others before continuing.

”Appraisals will be completed within the next three hours. Would you like me to prepare you a space to wait?” He asked with a smile.