Chapter Twenty Three

“I think it’s a right… no wait a left here. There!”

Quickening her steps and pace, her flashlight bouncing off the sides of the walls Mina raced down the cramped tunnel. The end of the tunnel neared and finally as she reached the end she stepped to the side to allow everyone else in. Right behind her was Wendy, then Joy and finally Tzuyu trailing as the last person making sure nobody got lost.

“This is quite some-”

“Is that a skeleton?!” Joy shrieked, stumbling back into Tzuyu who managed to catch her from falling back.

“It is. There are quite a few of them here,” Mina said, giving an apologetic look to Joy as she walked down to the centre of the room. She had mentioned to the three what she had found and that there were skeletons, but for anyone who had never seen a real one the first couple of times would be shocking.

Holding onto Tzuyu for safety for now, Joy followed Mina and Wendy down to the centre of the room where they could see everything.

“I came in through that door over there. There is a little entrance room and alcove, I think it is the main entrance way into this chamber,” Mina explained, as the ladies placed their bags into the centre of the room where there were no bodies or other artifacts in the way.

“I think you should photograph that room first, Joy. It’s small enough that you can catch all the details.”

“Okay, yeah. I can do that,” Joy said as her eyes darted around the room looking at the eerily plentiful amount of long dead bodies. “Can you… show me what and where?”

Mina linked her arm around Joy’s and guided her with a flashlight up to the alcove as Wendy and Tzuyu looked around the room.

“This is really something. Exactly what we were looking for too,” Wendy sighed, feeling a little overwhelmed and surprised that they really had found a secret Cult room in the catacombs of Paris. For it to be pure luck that they found here felt unrealistic, it almost felt like some sort of divine cosmic guidance.

Tzuyu had drifted off a little and found herself in front of the altar and statue of the woman. The light from her torch floated up its surface, casting the sharp and deep details into shadow and darkness.

In the background Joy and Mina were setting up the equipment in quiet hushed tones that echoed in the empty chamber. Tzuyu was caught in a gaze staring at the terrifying visage of a woman; the focal point of this temple-like structure. She had been so young when it had all started that she didn’t really have a good recollection of her first life. A soft touch on her hand informed of Wendy's presence next to her. One of the eldest sisters who definitely could remember the horror of their first life. 

“So, this is supposed to be Mother?” Tzuyu asked, standing in front of the mangled statue, her flashlight flooding its face with light; the exact opposite of what their Mother would have wanted.

“Well, it’s a family portrait, even we are present,” Wendy said in a dry sarcastic tone slowly swiping her arm in an arc as if presenting the visage in front of them. 

Tzuyu knelt down to look at the young children that were being trampled by the female statue. All of them skeletal or rotten, no semblance of any life in them. They were merely sacrificial vessels used to reach a goal, their Mother’s goal of power. All of them appeared to be similar in size, no older than a toddler.

“Whoever made this statue wasn’t too accurate in their information regarding us, it looks as if we were septuplets, all born at the same time and babies at the time of our sacrifice,” Tzuyu said standing back up.

“Maybe it was part of the mythos of our Mother, it made her even more divine in the eyes of her worshippers,” Wendy said, embracing Tzuyu into a sideways hug with one arm leaning in on her younger but taller Sister’s shoulder. “Either way, something as elaborate as this temple hardly seems like the work of the Children of the Void after our Mother’s banishment. It feels like it was built when she was still in power and alive, after we were murdered by her but before we reincarnated for the first time.”

“Definitely, the script is old, very old.”

“If only I had my notes from our last hideout in Istanbul. I could continue my decoding of this script instead of having to start over and over every time relying on my memory alone.”

“Should we drop by there before we go to Scotland?” Tzuyu said, wiggling her way out from her Sisters arm to help set up the lanterns around the room and prepare for their excavation of the place.

“No. Better we go to Scotland and gather. Once we are all together we can form a better plan of action and hopefully go get what’s left of our hideout and research, if any,” Wendy sighed as she stared at the statue of their Mother. The unkempt long scraggly hair of the statue hid its face, a face that Wendy’s memory could barely recall. There were only tiny fragments, the details of her first life so long ago were like a dream. Her recollection of the events that had passed was more due to the story being retold than necessarily of the actual event, than of first hand memories. It was all so long ago.

Just outside of the main room in the small entrance alcove that Mina had originally arrived through to this site, sounds of clicks and shuffling trickled into the main hall. Mina stepped into the low lit alcove with her flashlight. “Joy, you got the settings okay? Can we start photographing?”

Joy was standing in the middle of the alcove with one of the four electric lanterns they had brought with them. She had a camera on a tripod facing one of the first walls with text on it that Mina had found. In her hand there was a remote control and she had just clicked it again when Mina walked in with her flashlight flaring the room.

“Just abou- hey turn that thing off!” Joy shouted at Mina before she looked back at her camera screen. The arrival of Mina’s flashlight had overexposed the photo. 

“Sorry, sorry.”

“Now look at that… the photo that you ruined doesn’t show it but yes I’m ready,” Joy said smiling at Mina. “No surprise light sources, I’m balancing all my settings and shutter speeds manually to get the best photo for whatever stable lighting we have. But look at this previous one.”

Mina scooted over next to Joy’s camera and looked at the clear photograph of the wall, showing the text details. The lighting that Joy had set up from the lantern and one smaller flashlight created just enough shadow ridges to pop out the engraved text on the walls for better visuals.

“It’s looking really good. You photograph this alcove first while we start mapping out the other room and identify things for you to photograph.”

“Alright let’s get to it.”

Returning into the main hall where Tzuyu and Wendy had now set their equipment in the centre of the room she saw the two standing idle. Three larger lanterns had been set at equal distance around the room to give some more ambient light while they could use their own smaller flashlights for more detail. It was still very dark in the hall, more a blanket of shadow than light and they had to be careful not to step on any bones or trip up on the steps.

“Alright Mina, what’s the work order? We may both be historians but you’re the only one out of us who has worked at an archaeological dig,” Wendy said as Mina approached them.

“Once. And I’ve never run one.”

“More than any of us,” Tzuyu replied with a gentle smile. 

“Well, I think first we should try and map this whole place by measuring it and drawing it here on this gridded sheet I’ve laid out. We’ll each start at different corners of the room to measure. Mark down any engravings and writing or anything of interest into your notes and the location and we can combine it all here. Eventually Joy will be done with that entrance room and she can then come and take photos of the locations we have identified.”

“Let’s get to it then.”

Picking up their own notepads, measuring tapes, flashlights and their phone, Mina, Tzuyu and Wendy each spread into their own corner of the room to begin measuring and drawing the large hall out. Marking down the measurements and drawing a rudimentary plan, they added notes on locations of texts, symbols, drawings and any other engravings they spotted. 

Mina, who had the most routine with all of this, was the first one to complete her section and began to compile her notes onto a master sheet in the centre of the room just as Joy had finished her photographing in the entrance room. She then guided her to the locations of interest to take detailed photographs of them before she would take wider and larger shots of the area. With the measurements, some smart algorithms and 3D-software they could use the photographs she was taking to create a full detailed computer model of the rooms.

They worked through the whole day late into the night with nary a break. With brushes they carefully removed dust and sand from surfaces, inspected the skeletons and every single wall surface looking for more clues. By the time they had completed the inspection of the whole space, taken all the photographs they could and catalogued all they could find so far, it was past midnight. 

As Joy finished packing her camera safely into its bag, they all slumped in the centre of the room lit by the faint lanterns scattered about. Utterly exhausted and starving, they finally ate the rest of the food they had taken with them.

“Do you think we have everything?” Tzuyu asked, laying on a blanket on the ground, her head resting on Wendy’s legs.

“Everything? Not even close. This place itself is probably a multi-season study for many years if this was a normal archaeological site,” Wendy replied, “But we are in a time crunch and I think we got most of the visible and slightly invisible details that we can glean off this.”

“I’m sure if we are missing some crucial piece of information that we discover when we start going through this material we can visit here again, right?” Mina said. This site was fascinating and she wished she could spend more time discovering all the secrets that it held, however she knew time was of the essence and they had to get a move on tomorrow.

“I hope so. Right now it feels like every day is uncertain until we meet more of our Sisters,” Wendy replied. “Either way, do we want to climb out of here to sleep or do we nap here?”

“OUTSIDE!” Joy screamed, shocking everybody else in the room. Her eyes sheepishly darted to the ground and she whispered in a more hushed tone. “Outside in our room please… if we can. This place is creepy and bad for my allergies.”

“You have allergies?” Mina asked. This was news to her as well.

“It’s just dusty and creepy okay I don’t want to sleep with skeletons!”

“Don’t worry, neither do I,” Tzuyu replied with a grin.

Packing their things into their bags and taking one final look, the four filed out the way they had come, back into the tight tunnels and out of the catacombs to rest in their beds.

---

“There’s definitely a connection to the Cult in these. You see how after collecting all these references and quotes and notes we get these clusters right?”

“They really do focus on certain areas, as if there have been centres of Cult activity regionally throughout the ages.”

“But how can that be? The Cycles have always been regionally focused wherever the Convergence was going to occur, not global. This is the first time ever that we have such a global reach with our Cycle, so that bases of operation are able to be located anywhere and everywhere.”

“I think the Cult has always existed in a diminished capacity in certain regions and areas unless we completely wiped them out. See here? After we cleared out the Cult bases in Boetia and Attica we don’t see any new activity after.”

“Except for the last Cycle. They re-inhabited the base then as we moved to Istanbul, remember?”

“Sure, that is the exception. Remember what we found last time around though?”

“I do, so I think the real question we are really asking is…”

“Tea anyone?”

Nine heads circled around two combined tables turned to look at the direction of the gentle voice of Mrs. Kerry holding a large tray with cups and pots. The ladies had spent the better part of the afternoon and now evening huddled in the dining room around their research papers from the Istanbul base that Jeongyeon, Momo and Jihyo had brought with them. 

“Oh that would be lovely,” Nayeon said, standing up Yeri quickly following suite to help Mrs. Kerry with the cups and tea.

“You ladies seemed so busy and engrossed in your research I figured you could use some tea and biscuits,” Mrs. Kerry smiled at Nayeon and Yeri helping her with the tea.

“You are very kind,” Irene said, also getting up to help distribute the tea to everyone.

Soon enough everyone had a cup of tea and biscuits in front of them and they dove right back into the papers and discussions.

“So, the real question,” Jeongyeon chimed in to continue where they had left off.

“Yes, the real question is, why is the Cult always drawn into these specific locations? What makes them special? What is there?” Irene asked, the rest of the Eternal Ladies nodding in agreement.

“We did find them digging in their base last time,” Chaeyoung noted.

“We did. We were out of time so we couldn’t spare any moment to explore it in detail, but if an excavation under their base is any indication of the connection between these locations, maybe there is something important hidden underground there.”

“Maybe they are looking for artifacts of your Mother?” 

The Eternal Ladies looked up at Sana who had mostly been quietly observing the conversation, asking even fewer questions than Jihyo, Yeri or Nayeon had.

“That is a very distinct possibility. A good point,” Irene nodded, acknowledging Sana’s contribution. Dahyun gave a little thumbs up to Sana who smiled and took a sip of her tea to hide her blushing face.

“If this was the case and there are artifacts or elements of our Mother hidden under these places, then why have we never felt anything there?” Momo asked.

“Maybe they are artifacts created by humans alone. Maybe these things don’t have the touch of our Mother or any spirit essence of us or Adhabu. If that were the case I could see why we can’t feel it any different.” Dahyun chimed in.

“If true, that is a very terrifying thought. It’s like they have secret weapons hidden that we don’t know about and are unable to locate,” Jeongyeon shuddered at the thought. 

“Considering how many thousands of years it has been since the sealing of our Mother, I can’t say I’m completely surprised if the Cult was able to figure out how to manifest some dark magic that didn’t tap into the spiritual energy of the Void Mother or Adhabu. The time in between Cycles is so long…” Chaeyoung leaned back in her seat to bite her strawberry biscuit and take a sip of tea. 

“Someone in the Cult was bound to get bored of waiting, or power hungry. And we know there have been plenty of splinter groups within the Cult vying for recognition and power from Adhabu,” Dahyun replied once more.

While the thought of this possibility settled in and they took a break to enjoy their tea and biscuits, two beams of light flashed across the large windows into the room and across the front lawn of Inverailort House. Everyone turned to look outside as the beams of light approached the building through the darkness and finally stopped at the small gravel parking lot lit by a single outdoor light.

“Could it be…” 

The Eternal Ladies shot out of their chairs and filed out to the front lobby and stopped to stare at the front door. The silence was deafening until it was broken by the mumble beyond the front door and approaching footsteps on coarse gravel.

“Do we knock? Ring the bell?”

“I don’t know I guess-”

“Come in!” Dahyun shouted impatiently.

The chatter outside ceased and there was a short pause before a careful voice called out inside. “Coming in.”

The door opened wide and the arrivals to the house stood in silence, two ladies in the front and two more behind them. A moment flashed by them all before a chorus of shouts and exclamations filled the air of the house. It was good that they were the only guests there. 

“Wera!”

“Trudi!”

It was a mangled heap of arms as every Sister and The Lock embraced the two arrivals with warmth and tears. They were all now gathered in some way and the feeling of relief was palpable as they now knew everyone was safe.

Seeing their youngest Sister safely with them was an especially huge relief to all of them. Even if it was Seulgi in particular who pampered her the most, they all had a soft spot for their youngest and would do their everything to keep her safe and cherish her. In some ways, the six older Sister’s saw in Tzuyu the innocence that had been stripped from them the day their Mother had sacrificed them. Tzuyu had only been six when she died the first time. Her first rebirth had been a traumatic one and they sought to protect her from it all.

She was their angel, she was their morals, she was their light. It was most likely an unfair weight to be put on Tzuyu’s shoulders and she was well aware of her role in the group, but just like how her older siblings would do anything for her so would she sacrifice her being for their sake. 

“I’m so happy you two made it safely. We’ve been waiting and worried sick,” Irene said as she let go of Wendy and dived in to hug Tzuyu in turn.

“It’s great to see you all gathered here. I can see everyone except Sofija,” Wendy said looking around at the Ladies gathered so far. 

“Well, she is the last of us who isn’t here,” Jeongyeon noted before looking over her shoulder at the two ladies standing behind Wendy and Tzuyu.

“Ah, yes, let me introduce my two good friends Mina and Joy. They have been very helpful and excellent in our search for answers. Mina, Joy, meet the Eternal Ladies,” Wendy said as she moved to the side to let everyone have a look at the two friends.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you two,” Irene said, giving a bow.

“It seems everyone except Irene brought some stragglers along for the ride,” Jeongyeon laughed, greeting the new friends as well. “Just so you don’t feel awkward, the group standing there are likewise non-eternal Souls so you don’t have to feel alone.”

Nayeon, Sana, Yeri and Jihyo were all standing a little further back as they had now gotten used to letting the Sisters have their reunion in peace and waited for their chance to greet the new arrivals. 

“Hi everyone, I’m Joy. Nice to meet you,” Joy smiled brightly before looking at the new Eternal Ladies standing in front of them. “Who here is Móna? I heard there was a castle I could get to see!” Joy exclaimed excitedly.

“Hey friend, that is me. Don’t worry I got your castle itch covered,” Momo raised her hand to give a little wave and wink.

“So who are you this time?” Chaeyoung asked Wendy and Tzuyu as the hugs lessened and conversation could be started. 

“I’m Wendy and she is Tzuyu.”

“Wendy and Tzuyu huh? Well we got a whole lot of new names for everyone. Everyone except Ira actually, she has an old name,” Chaeyoung chimed. “Ain’t that right, Irene?”

Irene smiled. “That’s true. It’s only been over 2500 years but it seems I’ve managed to have a recycled name. Really crazy.”

“Hey, Wera, Trudi!” The two turned around to see Dahyun holding a phone towards them with an active video call. On the screen there was another woman. “It’s Sofija.”

“Wera! Trudi! I’m so happy you’re safe!” Seulgi shouted enthusiastically through the phone as Dahyun handed it over to Tzuyu.

“Sofija? Is it really you?” Wendy said, realizing immediately that she wasn’t connecting with her eldest Sister’s soul through the phone.

“It’s me. Unfortunately our souls can’t connect through a video call, but it’s me. My name is Seulgi this time.”

“Seulgi? Well it’s so good to see you alive too. Where are you?”

“I’m still stuck in Korea. We can talk about it later. Thank you Wera for taking care of Trudi.”

“Always, although as you know she takes good care of herself and me,” Wendy smiled as Tzuyu blushed a little at her Sister’s praises.

“Oh my Trudi, you’re so beautiful. So tall, graceful. You’re an angel really,” Seulgi gushed on the phone admiring her little Sister. The pampering had begun. “I’m so happy you’re safe. Are you healthy? Are you injured? Have you eaten enough? I just want to squish your cheeks!”

“Don’t worry I got you!” Jeongyeon announced, squeezing Tzuyu’s cheeks from behind much to the glee of Seulgi who laughed with joy before Tzuyu shook Jeongyeon’s hands off her cheeks.

“Awww, you’re so adorable,” Jeongyeon said patting the head of the flustered Tzuyu before hugging her from behind into a tight grip and perching her head on Tzuyu’s shoulder, while Tzuyu and Wendy continued their conversation with Seulgi.

“Everything is fine and great. I’m doing well. Are you okay too?” Tzuyu asked, having managed to release her cheeks from Jeongyeon’s grip.

“Oh yeah, I’m peachy don’t worry,” Seulgi answered quickly, trying to avoid worrying Tzuyu even the slightest.

“We found something very important and interesting on our way here. I think it’s worth going through us all together,” Tzuyu said, looking around at everyone gathered in the room. 

“Jeongyeon and I brought the research from Istanbul with us, so yeah I think there’s a lot to talk about,” Momo announced to Wendy and Tzuyu.

“Let’s have an overview meeting of all the basics we know so far tomorrow, cause right now it’s not even 6am here and I’m still tired.”

“Well, we just drove for the past twelve hours non-stop so yeah I think rest is in order,” Wendy said, immediately yawning after as if to drive home the point.

“Tomorrow it is. Goodnight everyone. I love you all,” Seulgi said, the rest of the ladies saying their goodbyes before they ended the call. 

Jeongyeon hadn’t let go of Tzuyu this whole time so she ended up sharing her bed with her while Dahyun as the good younger Sister relinquished her own bed for Wendy to sleep in and instead shared a bed with Sana. Momo gave her bed to Joy and Mina to share, while she bunked up with Jihyo, much to her dismay. They would have to ask if there were more beds the next morning.

A few minutes into the silence of sleep, Mina wiggled over closer to Joy who had her eyes closed and she poked her gently on the cheek. “Hey, you still awake?”

Joy opened her eyes very slowly and overly dramatically, scowling as if she was truly annoyed at Mina waking her up before breaking into a wide smile.

“Yeah, what is it?” She whispered back, wiggling even closer to Mina so their voices wouldn’t be heard by anybody else.

“I just… it’s all real. I just can’t believe this whole thing is all real. All the people Wendy and Tzuyu said we would meet, all the things we would talk about. It’s just… real.”

Joy could hear the incredulity in Mina’s voice, the absolute absurdity of it all sinking in and the two realizing that whatever they had been dragged into was really and truly fact. Even after seeing the ruins in Paris, after seeing all the journal pages from Tzuyu and all the stories they had heard from her and Wendy, there had still been the tiniest dust fleck of doubt resting on their shoulders. However, arriving here and meeting this massive group of ladies of whom all corroborated everything they had heard so far had finally swiped that hopeful plausible deniability away. They could deny it no more; The Eternal Ladies were true, the Children of the Void cult existed, and the Cycle was real.

They would have to come to terms with the reality of the world, a reality they had just barely been holding at bay but now was plain to see.

“I know. I’m still trying to just accept it. The doubt was all but existing but it was always still there even after Paris. But now…” Joy drifted off in her words as her mind thought of this new truth of the world they had discovered. “This is huge. This is literally the biggest news story ever, but I can’t share it. Ignoring the fact that doing such a thing would put my life very quickly under the guillotine of the Cult, nobody would ever believe me! This is madness! I’m a journalist but I can’t write about the fundamental truth of the world!”

Joy’s whisper had almost risen enough to be audible elsewhere and Mina quickly tried to calm her frustration and whisper.

“I know, I know. But, doesn’t it also make you feel pretty special. Most people dream to know some exclusive information that nobody else does, of some great conspiracy. Yet here we are, and we know.”

Joy un-scrunched her brow and her lips quickly spread into a proud smile. “That’s right. We are now one of those conspiracy nuts who rave about the Illuminati. Maybe once this is all over and the Cult is won I can write a book about this all.”

“I’ll make sure to advertise it far and wide,” Mina smiled as the two finally closed their eyes to get some rest.

The last lights of Inverailort House died and the estate was laid to rest for the night.