Gemma watched Larin step into the soft glow coming from inside the staircase. He soon disappeared down as the circular staircase turned around on itself. Hugo followed Larin. The small width of the staircase cramped the men and Gemma assumed the two could not fight in such short quarters. A moment later, Larin’s voice rang out from somewhere below. “It’s all clear. They warded this place up tighter than any place I know. Everyone can come down, but be careful and don’t wander or touch anything. We don’t know whether they warded anything with a curse or trap of some sort.”             “Well, that’s a comforting thought. Don’t touch it or it might explode in your hand or kill you.” it did not impress as much Becky as Gemma thought she would be.      

             Larin and Hugo pulled several weapons from their hiding places that they thought the others could handle after a brief training session. The technique could come later, but survival was more important.             With the weapons hauled out, Hugo took it upon himself to use the lab as space to clean and maintain the weapons. The others filed out to do the last thing on their list.             With fresh eyes, they went in search of the images from the ceilings. What secrets lay above everyone’s heads?             They figured out the ceilings in question were the sitting room, study/library, and dining room. Each room depicted a battle of sorts. The study’s displayed the fleeing of many creatures,

             “Are you ready for what comes next?” Larin asked from where he sat on a low wall watching the fire. His arms and ankles crossed.             Gemma moved to sit beside Larin and watched him for a time before she turned to look at the fire. “If what I’ve seen in the last few days is real, do I have much choice?”             “There’s always a choice, but the consequences will always follow. It’s the consequences you need to think about if you haven’t decided.”             “It’s not that I’m not choosing to go. I’m worried about what happens on the other side. My aunt and others never came back, and I don’t know why. Did they

              Exhausted as they were, the packing didn’t start until the next morning and lasted several days. The reason for this was it took longer to come up with wills and letters tying up loose ends with people and businesses. They would not send many until it became apparent that they would not be returning. Evan’s name needed to be transferred to other things so that he could maintain things for himself.              During that time, Evan’s wife contacted him through a lawyer insisting on proceeding with a divorce. He informed her lawyer that he’d have his legal representation contact him soon. That he would like to proceed with removing her from his life and his legal representation would handle the negotiations from then on. Evan didn’t need her coming back into his life and making a mess of it. She’d never understood how his life changed in the m