The Lens Of Perception

Job Details:

Job Sign-Up: Page 13, Post Number 319

-Outside Sombras Manor, midnight-

Wearing her green, white, and gold outfit with bike shorts on underneath the skirt, Leona also wore her Argent Gloves on her hands, backpack of supplies on her back, and carried her Silver Longsword on her left hip. Standing approximately twenty meters outside the wooden double doors to Sombras Manor after a long walk to get here, Leona took a deep breath and stretched her legs. Despite traveling on foot she had managed to arrive ahead of her partner. She listened to the soft sounds of trees rustling in the wind and listened out for trouble... or her partner.

She had been called here by Order Cleric Amberlin, her partner from her previous visit to Sombras Manor. Amberlin needed Leona's help searching the manor for a special magnifying glass that was rumored to be hidden somewhere inside called the Lens Of Perception. This magnifying glass was supposed to have the ability to see the truth and reveal hidden things to whoever used it. The Order of Lightbringers wanted to find it and take it into their custody for safekeeping because of its potential for misuse.

Since the Order of Lightbringers was currently busy with a special mission that occupied the bulk of its forces, it would be just Leona and Amberlin for this search. Leona did not mind, though. The two mages had worked together a few times before and made a good team. In between Leona's muscle and Amberlin's Holy magic they were able to take on almost anything and win.

Leona looked towards the path she had taken to get here and watched for Amberlin to come into view. The pink-haired cleric should be getting here any minute now. At least the Wizard Saint hoped that her partner was on her way and had not been diverted to another assignment at the last minute.

-Outside Sombras Manor, one hour later-

Leona had been waiting patiently for Amberlin, but after an hour of waiting her patience was starting to wear thin. The pink-haired cleric should have already arrived. Leona was tempted to follow the path away from the manor to look for her partner when she spotted a flash of pink hair on the horizon and heard yelling. The Wizard Saint thought that Amberlin was in trouble and reached for her sword with her right hand.

"LEONA! WAIT FOR ME! WAIT FOR MEEEEEE!" Amberlin shouted just before she came into view. Seeing that her partner was not being pursued by anything dangerous, Leona moved her right hand away from the grip of her Silver Longsword and crossed her arms over her chest because the wind was picking up and it was getting cold. Her short blonde hair blew in the wind as Amberlin ran up to her and paused a half-meter away.

"I'm so sorry. Leona. I'm... I'm late again. I left the Order headquarters as fast as I could, but I couldn't make it before you got here!" Amberlin apologized for being late. Leona shrugged it off.

"It's no problem, Amberlin. I'm glad that you got here because I was a few minutes away from entering Sombras Manor by myself." Leona accepted the apology and informed the pink-haired cleric that she had gotten here just in time.

"Well, I'm glad that you didn't go in by yourself, Leona. Remember Louise stealing your Silver Longsword? Remember all those zombies we had to fight through?" Amberlin said that she was glad Leona had waited for her before asking a couple of questions that reminded the blonde of her value. While Leona was sometimes slow on the uptake, on this occasion she instantly got Amberlin's point. She remembered what had happened when her Silver Longsword had been stolen by Louise and they had to fight their way through zombies after a game of Red Light, Green Light on all three floors of the manor. Leona had had to rely on Amberlin and her Holy magic more than she ordinarily would have.

"Yeah, I remember what happened." Leona replied unhappily. Even though the zombies were easily dispatched with the judicious use of Wind Strike Magic, fighting them was a little more dangerous than it normally was because she had to get close to them to use her more powerful spells. Hopefully she would not have to fight them without her sword tonight.

"I hope you're ready for a long night, Leona. We've got to find the Lens Of Perception and there's no telling where it is, so we'll have to search all three floors for it." Amberlin informed Leona of what their task was.

"I'm ready, Amberlin. I"m ready when you are." Leona assured her partner. Amberlin looked to Leona to take the lead, so the Wizard Saint took the lead on the twenty-meter walk to the double doors. Once they were in front of them Leona reached out with her left hand, opened the door, and stepped through with Amberlin close behind her.

-Inside Sombras Manor-

"Is it cold in here or is it just me?" Amberlin asked Leona. The blonde felt that the air was indeed colder than it had been last time.

"It's not just you, Amberlin. It's definitely cold in here." Leona replied. She was not sure why it was so cold in here, but that did not matter. What mattered was finding the Lens Of Perception and getting out of here.

"So, which way do you want to go, Leona?" Amberlin asked Leona. Just like last time they had two choices of direction. They could either go straight down the hall in front of them or they could go down the hall to their left.

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"I say we go down the left hallway since most of the rooms on the first floor seem to be in that direction." Leona suggested to her pink-haired partner. She then looked to the Order cleric to see what she was thinking. Amberlin nodded in approval.

"All right. We go left then. We'll have to search room-to-room." Amberlin reminded Leona that this would not be a quick trip like their previous adventure had been. Leona was fine with that.

"OK. But we stick together. We don't need to get separated in here." Leona accepted the fact that they would be here awhile but added that they needed to stick together. Amberlin nodded.

"Right. We stick together." Amberlin repeated. Together the two began walking down the left hallway while looking out for ghosts, zombies, or any other denizens of the mansion. After a short walk down the hallway they came to a door and Leona opened it, then drew her Silver Longsword and went inside with Amberlin following close behind.

-Inside the room-

The pair entered a dusty room that looked like it had not been cleaned since either mage was born. The dominant feature of the room was an abandoned easel with a canvas that had the words "GET OUT!" painted in blood red letters in the middle of it. Leona turned her attention to it and pointed towards it with the index finger of her left hand.

"Look at that." Leona commented. Amberlin was not nearly as surprised to see the warning as Leona thought she would be.

"I remember seeing that a couple of years ago. I was standing in the room when it was actually painted." Amberlin said calmly and began searching the room for the Lens Of Perception without giving the canvas a second glance. She checked behind some dust-coated paintings of wealthy people in case it was hidden in a wall safe. After a few minutes of looking the cleric could not find either the Lens or a wall safe.

"There's nothing here. Let's keep searching the first floor." Amberlin said to Leona. Leona nodded and the pair left the art room behind.

-In the hallway-

Leona exited the art room last and closed the door behind them, then followed Amberlin left down the hallway until they reached a door facing the bend in the hall that led right. Again Leona opened the door and went in first while Amberlin followed close behind.

-In the room-

The second room they went into was a small reading room with tall bookshelves that dominated the left, back and front walls to the room, leaving only space for a window on the right wall and the doorway. Beneath their feet was a very dusty old carpet that looked burgundy but was hard to tell what color it was due to the dust. Sitting in the center of the room was an old faded black leather chair that was dusty... except for the seat.

"Hey Leona, look at that. The chair's dusty except for the seat!" Amberlin pointed out the odd pattern to Leona. The Wizard Saint walked a bit closer and saw that the dusty chair had an imprint of where someone had sat in it. There were clear marks where someone's back had made contact with the back of the chair and where they had sat in the seat.

"I wonder if someone still uses this room." Leona mused to Amberlin.

"Who's to say that ghost activity's responsible for the pattern? It coulda been a curious explorer who left them." Amberlin hypothesized.

"That's possible." Leona conceded.

With that the pink-haired mage began to comb the room in search of the Lens while Leona watched their backs. Amberlin searched under the chair, in the sides of the chair, and searched every bookshelf but came up with nothing but a lot of dust for her trouble. The pink-haired cleric began to cough as she turned to Leona.

"I wish I could stay and read the books, but we've got a job to do. I also don't want to be around this dust any longer than I have to be." Amberlin said to the Wizard Saint. Leona wordlessly took the lead and opened the door, letting Amberlin go first before leaving the reading room behind.

-In the hallway-

Leona shut the door behind them and the pair faced the hall straight ahead of them. They saw only three doors in the sparsely decorated hall, so there were only a few more rooms left to search before they would move on to the second floor.

"Well, which door do we go to and open first?" Leona asked Amberlin.

"Hmmm. Good question." Amberlin gave a sort-of answer that did not really answer the question. Leona was going to make a choice for them instead of waiting around for the cleric to finally pick a door.

"We'll go through the first door on the right." Leona decided for them. Amberlin nodded and together the pair approached the first door on the right. The Wizard Saint opened it and Amberlin went through followed by Leona.

-Inside the room-

Amberlin and Leona entered a room that had clearly seen better days. The wallpaper was all but gone and what little remained was so dingy that it barely qualified as beige. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere and the only other feature worth noting was an old wooden rocking chair in the middle of the room that had been abandoned for some time. The chair was so rickety that it looked like just breathing in its direction could break it.

Amberlin looked at the chair for a moment with a look of sadness. Leona was about to ask why when the cleric immediately began to search the room for the Lens. Neither one of them were surprised when there was nothing to be found except dust, cobwebs, and that old rickety wooden rocking chair.

"There's nothing here. C'mon, Leona. Let's finish checking the first floor before we move on to the second." Amberlin urged Leona to leave this room. Leona did not need to be told twice. She nodded and together the pair left the room to continue their search.

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[Total Word Count: 1,976/11,000]

-On the first floor, one hour later-

Having canvassed the entirety of the first floor, Amberlin and Leona had checked everywhere for their quarry but were unable to find anything but dust and dust bunnies.

They had checked inside the drawers of what furniture there was in the hallways. They had checked under the furniture. They had checked behind the paintings hanging on the walls. They had found a whole lot of nothing for their trouble.

"Well, that was a bust." Leona commented on their failure as she looked at the painting of a hunting scene they had just checked behind. Amberlin nodded.

"We still have a whole lot of manor to cover, so we'd better move onto the second floor." Amberlin commented before urging them to move on. Leona concurred.

"OK, let's get going then." Leona said. She began to lead the way towards the stairwell and passed by some lanterns that were not glowing. Leona remembered the game of Red Light, Green Light she and Amberlin had been forced to play the last time they were here and shuddered. She was glad that she did not have to play that game again.

Near the end of the hallway and to the right sat the stairwell. Leona waited until her partner had caught up with her before letting Amberlin know that the Wizard Saint would go first.

"I'll go first and see if there's anything waiting for us on the second floor." Leona informed Amberlin. The cleric nodded.

"OK. You got first and let me know if it's clear!" Amberlin agreed to the idea. The blonde then entered the stairwell and began climbing the stairs until she reached the top.

-On the second floor-

Leona emerged from the stairwell and immediately looked around for zombies or ghosts. She looked down the hall in front of her and down the hall to her right and saw nothing. Deciding that the coast was clear, Leona turned to the stairwell and called out to her partner that it was safe for her to come up the stairs.

"IT'S CLEAR, AMBERLIN!" Leona called down the stairs. She heard thumping and soon saw a flash of pink hair. Amberlin was on her way up, so Leona turned back to look for any threats that might have emerged when she shouted to her partner. No threats had emerged, so she relaxed a little as Amberlin finished climbing the stairs and took her place at Leona's left.

"Now we've got to decide where to begin our search. We can go straight or we can go right." Amberlin told Leona their options while facing down the hall in front of them.

"I say we search the rooms on the hall in front of us first." Leona opined. Amberlin nodded in agreement.

"OK, we'll do that first." Amberlin said. Leona then took the lead and took them to the first door on the left. Leona put her left hand on the doorknob, then opened it. Amberlin went inside first followed by Leona.

-Inside the room-

The pair entered the room to find nothing but more dingy wallpaper that used to be beige on the walls, a dusty black leather chair in the left corner, and a small dusty bookshelf filled with books sitting in the right corner. Unlike in the reading room on the first floor the chair here had no signs of being used. Amberlin immediately walked forward to search the room while Leona turned around and stood in the doorway facing the hallway.

The Wizard Saint heard rustling sounds behind her as objects were being moved and heard coughing as Amberlin stirred up dust that had been sitting in the room. Leona waved her left hand in front of her face as the dust Amberlin had stirred up began floating towards her and threatening to choke her. After several minutes during which everything in the room had been moved, searched, and put back everything she had moved.

"Did you find anything?" Leona asked while facing forward and waving away the last of the dust that her partner had kicked up with the search.

"Nothing but a lot of dust and some really old books. I kinda want to read them, but we don't have time for that." Amberlin remarked. Leona frowned a little but soon accepted the fact that searching this room had been fruitless. While it would have been nice to have found the Lens Of Perception in this room, she knew that it was unlikely to find what they were looking for so easily.

"OK, let's go." Amberlin said to Leona. Leona led the way and the pair left the room, shutting the door behind them.

-In the hallway-

Both mages took a moment to breathe dust-free air before focusing on the room in front of them. They then looked to their left and saw that they had at least eleven other rooms on the hall to search before they could move on. They had just taken a step forward when both of them felt a sudden drop in temperature just like they had on the first floor.

"It's so cold all of a sudden. Do you feel that?" Amberlin asked Leona. The Wizard Saint turned to Amberlin and nodded.

"Yeah. Why is it so cold all of a sudden?" Leona asked her partner. Amberlin shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know, Leona. Maybe the cold is a sign of ghost activity. Maybe it's cold because it's cold outside." Amberlin opined. Leona was not sure which one it was. If it was ghost activity, it could be Louise following them while invisible to set them up for another unpleasant surprise.

"Well, we'd better get to searching the rest of the rooms." Leona said to get them back on track.

"Yeah. Let's keep searching." Amberlin quickly agreed. The Wizard Saint walked forward five steps, put her left hand on the doorknob, and opened the door in front of them. Amberlin went in first and Leona followed soon afterward.

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-The second floor, one hour later-

The two mages spent an hour combing the rooms down the hall in front of them on the second floor but found nothing but old books, old furniture, dust, cobwebs, and other things that were not what they were looking for. They had finished the first search in thirty minutes, so they decided to comb the rooms again on the off chance that they had missed either the Lens itself or a clue that could lead them to the Lens. They had found neither of those things.

"OK, that didn't turn out the way I hoped it would." Leona said to Amberlin in mild disappointment.

"Yeah. That was kind of a waste of time, but we tried. We looked everywhere in those rooms and couldn't find anything, but at least we know for certain that what we're looking for isn't in there." Amberlin tried to get Leona to see the bright side of their search. Leona shrugged and looked at the pink-haired cleric.

"I suppose you're right, Amberlin. We went over everything on this floor with a fine-tooth comb and couldn't find what we were after, so there's only one floor left to check." Leona said to her partner. Amberlin nodded.

"Yeah. The third floor." Amberlin replied. Leona nodded.

"Hopefully Cynthia and Louise are in the mood for company. Now c'mon. Let's get going." Leona said to Amberlin and motioned towards the main hall that would lead to the stairs they needed to get to the third floor. The Wizard Saint took the lead and Amberlin followed close behind.

-On the third floor-

Leona and Amberlin reached the third floor and peered down the hallway in front of them. There were no zombies, no ghosts, no opposition of any kind. Amberlin took the lead, walking towards the door that led to the library without notifying Leona that she was about to walk away from her. Leona walked briskly and soon caught up with the shorter mage just outside the library door.

"Do you think Cynthia and Louise are in there?" Leona asked Amberlin. The cleric turned towards her and made eye contact with Leona.

"I don't know, Leona. We're about to find out." Amberlin said and reached for the doorknob, then turned it. The door opened and the pair went inside.

-Inside the library-

Leona and Amberlin shut the door behind them and entered the library to find that everything was exactly as it was the last time they had been here. The wall-to-wall shelves were full of books and the table at which two humans and two ghosts had shared green tea was sitting in the center of the room. There were still four chairs and in front of one of them an empty white cup could be seen sitting on the table.

The cleric began to look at all the books on the shelves and Leona could tell that her partner was more focused on picking out which one of the hundreds of books she would read first than she was focused on looking for the Lens Of Perception. Amberlin had fallen into a trance of sorts and it fell to the Wizard Saint to keep her partner on task. Leona spoke to Amberlin.

"Hey Amberlin, keep in mind that we're here to look for the Lens. We can look at the library later." Leona gently reminded the cleric that they were not here to browse at the books. The pink-haired mage looked towards Leona and blushed.

"Oh, right! sorry about that!" Amberlin apologized for losing focus. Leona looked around the room and did not see any signs of Cynthia or Louise. They must have been busy with something.

"I wonder if the Lens is in here somewhere." Leona mused to Amberlin. The cleric shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't think so. I'm sure that if it was here Cynthia and Louise would have told us about it already." Amberlin opined. Leona raised a finger and prepared to voice an objection when she lowered her finger. Her partner had made a good point.

"That's true. If it's not here, then where could it be? Does this place have a basement?" Leona conceded that the cleric had a point before asking if Sombras Manor had a basement that the Lens could be in. Amberlin crossed her arms and began to think for a moment.

"I believe that Sombras Manor does have a basement, Leona. We'll have to go all the way back to the first floor to find it, though." Amberlin answered the question and warned the blonde that to get to it they would have to go all the way back to the first floor. Leona was not deterred by that.

"That's fine, Amberlin. Since I don't know where this basement is, you'll have to guide me there." Leona said to the cleric. The cleric turned around and opened the door for them. Leona went through first and Amberlin followed, shutting the door behind them. They were on their way back to the first floor, where they would go into the basement to see if the Lens Of Perception was hidden down there.

-On the first floor, ten minutes later-

Standing just outside the stairwell, Leona and Amberlin looked for any newly arrived threats that they might have missed the first time they were here. They did not see any, so they faced each other and spoke.

"OK, Amberlin. We're back on the first floor. Now where do we go?" Leona asked Amberlin. Amberlin crossed her arms and began to think.

"It's been awhile since I've been to the basement, Leona. I'll need a minute or two to recall how to get there. Just bear with me until then." Amberlin counseled the blonde to be patient and give her time to think. Not wanting to put pressure on her partner while she was trying to remember something important, Leona soon replied.

"OK." Leona quickly agreed to the request. She would do her best to be patient and let Amberlin think things over. Leona wordlessly crossed her arms and began looking left and right for zombies or ghosts while Amberlin tried to recall the route to the basement. She was concerned about what might be lurking in the basement, but they would deal with whatever was down there when they got to that point.

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-Twenty minutes later-

Leona had waited for Amberlin to remember the way to the basement and lead them to it for the past twenty minutes, but her patience was starting to wear thin. Amberlin had been staring at the ground for the past twenty minutes and they were no closer to their goal. Leona was hoping to find the Lens and take it back to the Order of Lightbringers headquarters some time tonight, but it seemed like they were not going to find it any time soon. Maybe a gentle reminder was in order.

"Um, Amberlin? Are you OK?" Leona asked her partner, who was still deep in thought. She was so deep in thought that Leona concluded that speaking to her would not get her attention, so the blonde gently tapped her on the right shoulder. Amberlin jumped straight up into the air and shrieked.

"Um, sorry about that, Amberlin." Leona meekly apologized for startling her partner. She then looked around for anything that might have heard the cleric's shriek and was heading for the source of the noise. So far nothing had heard them, but that might change soon.

"It's no problem, Leona. I think I remember the way to the basement now!" Amberlin accepted the apology and gave the Wizard Saint some good news. Leona's face brightened at the prospect of finding the Lens and getting out of here.

"Really?" Leona asked in a hopeful voice.

"Yeah. I remember where it is now. Follow me!" Amberlin exclaimed before jogging off down the hall and towards the entrance. Leona, not wanting to be left behind, quickly followed behind the cleric.

-The first floor, three minutes later-

The cleric had led Leona past the entrance and down the hall towards the art room, then turned right and led her back down the side hall. The pair traveled down it and just before they reached the bend that would take them back to the main hall Amberlin pointed out an open stairwell that led down.

"There they are! The basement stairs! I forgot to point them out earlier!" Amberlin pointed with her right hand. Her face then turned red in embarrassment.

"I didn't see them either, so you're not entirely to blame." Leona stated that the cleric did not deserve all the blame for not seeing the basement stairs. The Wizard Saint did not see the stairs that led to the basement either, so half of the blame was hers. Both mages looked at each other, then the stairs.

"Well, at least we found them. Before we go down there, let me conjure an orb of light so that we can see better." Amberlin said. She then raised her right hand above her head, channeled golden magic into it, and conjured a ball of light the size of a tennis ball. The ball floated at her side and provided enough light to easily cut through the gloom upstairs and cast some of the light down the stairs.

"I'll lead the way, Amberlin." Leona declared and drew her Silver Longsword. She had no idea what was down in the basement and wanted to be ready for it. Amberlin nodded and let the Wizard Saint start going down the stairs first, then followed behind the taller blonde.

-Down in the basement of Sombras Manor-

After a brief two-minute walk down the stairs Leona reached the bottom. She looked in front of her and her natural night vision mode took effect, cutting through the gloom and letting her see the basement. It was a long and wide hallway a lot like the one in the Haunted Guild. However, Leona did not have much time or inclination to compare architectural features of the two places because she spotted some human forms lurking about twenty meters in front of her.

After taking a closer look Leona found that she was facing A LOT of human forms. Thirty-five was the ballpark figure, but there could be more. She had to let Amberlin know what they might be going up against. The cleric had just stepped off the last step when she began speaking to the blonde.

"Hey Leona, what do you see-" Amberlin started asking Leona a question about what she saw before the blonde motioned for silence with her left hand. Amberlin quickly caught the meaning of the gesture and went silent. Leona then walked over to the cleric and leaned down to whisper in her ear.

"I'm seeing a lot of human forms ahead. They might be-" Leona started to whisper before they heard a lot of moaning and the sound of feet shuffling towards them.

"Zombies!" Amberlin finished the sentence for Leona in a loud voice. The Wizard Saint turned around and saw that the undead were on the move towards the two mages. She readied her Silver Longsword and Amberlin raised her hands in front of her, then began chanting. Moments later the cleric glowed gold and fired a wide beam of Holy magic that hit a lot of the zombies and disintegrated them instantly. Leona counted twenty-five zombies that had been disintegrated by the spell, leaving her ten more to deal with.

Once the spell had been cast and the golden glow of the Holy magic beam faded Amberlin shouted a warning to Leona.

"I'll need some time to charge up for another spell. I'll let you know when it's ready!" Amberlin informed Leona. The blonde looked towards the cleric and nodded. She then went on the offensive to buy her partner time to prepare another spell.

Leona started off by raising her left hand and channeling silver magic onto the tip of her left index finger, forming a Wind Bullet. She aimed towards the head of the nearest zombie, a burly man in full steel plate who was missing a good chunk of the left side of its neck, and fired the spell, hitting it in the head and causing it to explode. The decapitated zombie crumpled to the ground and Leona then raised her left hand and pointed the palm towards another zombie. She channeled silver magic into the palm and once the spell was ready thrust the palm forward, firing an Air Pressure spell at the head of a female zombie dressed in chainmail armor and dragging the head of a steel mace along the ground in its left hand.

The second zombie's head burst from the force of the Air Pressure spell and it fell to the ground with a series of rattles followed by one final and dramatic CLANK. Leona looked ahead of her and saw that she had eight more zombies to deal with. They were roughly twelve meters away. There were no signs of reinforcements arriving behind them, so she could easily handle the rest of the current horde in time to be prepared to fight a second wave of zombies if one arrived.

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Since the zombies were still eleven meters out, Leona had plenty of time in which to pick off more of them before they got within striking distance of her. Leona aimed the index finger of her left hand and channeled silver magic into it, then fired a Wind Bullet spell once it was ready. The Wind Bullet flew towards a shirtless and muscular male zombie wearing green pants with brown leather boots dragging a single-bladed ax along the floor and hit it in the forehead. Its head exploded and the decapitated zombie crumpled to the floor almost instantly.

Now there were only seven left. Leona was preparing an Air Pressure spell for the next zombie when Amberlin shouted another warning to the blonde.

"The spell's ready! You might want to get back, Leona!" Amberlin shouted. Leona immediately lowered her left hand and turned around, then hurried to the back wall. The moment she was clear she saw a bright golden glow flash behind her and heard pained moans as the remaining zombies were disintegrated by another powerful beam of Holy magic. Once the golden glow subsided Leona turned around and faced Amberlin, who slumped over a little. The blonde hurried to the cleric's side.

"Hey Amberlin, are you OK?" Leona asked the pink-haired mage. Amberlin nodded.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just a bit drained. The spell you saw me cast twice in a row is really powerful, but it really drains me too." Amberlin answered with an explanation of why she was behaving the way she was. Unwilling to leave Amberlin behind and endeavoring to heed her own suggestion for the pair to stay together during their search, Leona stayed by her partner's side until the latter was able to stand upright again. Once Amberlin was upright the Wizard Saint looked towards her partner.

"Are you seeing any more zombies up ahead?" Amberlin asked Leona. The blonde walked about five meters ahead of the cleric and stopped, then looked ahead intently to look for any incoming threats. She did not see anything, so she turned back to Amberlin to make a report.

"I'm not seeing any more zombies, Amberlin. The coast is clear!" Leona replied. The cleric then began slowly walking towards the Wizard Saint and Leona turned to face forward to keep any eye out for trouble. Four minutes later and the pink-haired cleric arrived at Leona's left side.

"Here I am, Leona. Sorry about the wait." Amberlin apologized for taking so long to get to the Wizard Saint. Leona was not bothered by the delay. The cleric had taken out thirty-plus zombies with two powerful spells and saved Leona a lot of time and trouble, so she had more than earned some leeway.

"It's no problem, Amberlin." Leona assured her companion. The blonde then looked towards the end of the hall.

"I take it we go to the end of the hallway and look for a door that leads to a storage room?" Leona asked her partner. Amberlin crossed her arms and began to think again. Leona suppressed a facial expression of dread to avoid upsetting her partner and silently hoped that they would not spend another twenty minutes standing about while waiting for the cleric to remember if there was a storage room down here or not.

"Yeah, there's a storage room down here. It's all the way down the hall and near the very end. Look to the left and there should be a door." Amberlin answered. Leona was pleased to hear that.

"All right, let's get going." Leona said. She started moving at a slow walk so that her partner could easily keep up with her. The pair slowly made their way to the end of the hall and turned left. Leona spotted it just as the golden orb lit the end of the hall.

"There it is." Leona said to Amberlin and pointed towards it with her left hand. Amberlin walked up to the door and began to look to the left of it. She stopped just to the left of the door and examined it.

"There's the lock to the door. We don't need a key, though. We need a medallion." Amberlin informed Leona. The blonde did her best to conceal her disappointment. She had thought that their search was almost over, but to her chagrin it was not.

"OK. Where do you think the medallion will be?" Leona asked her partner. The blonde did not expect an exact answer. A rough guess would be good enough.

"Hmmm... I'm thinking the third floor." Amberlin quickly replied. Leona blinked. She had expected another wait, but to her surprise she got an answer within seconds.

"OK, looks like we're going back to the third floor." Leona said. She turned around to face the opposite end of the hall and waited on her partner. Amberlin turned around and together the pair began to make their way back towards the stairs. Getting to the third floor again would take a bit of time, but it was a trip well worth taking if they ended up finding the medallion that would unlock the door in the basement.

-On the first floor, five minutes later-

Leona had just reached the top of the stairs with Amberlin following close behind. Leona turned to face the cleric and saw her climb the last of the steps before tripping over the top one and falling onto her face. The blonde quickly sheathed her sword and helped Amberlin up.

"Hey Amberlin, are you OK?" Leona asked the cleric. Amberlin nodded weakly.

"I think so." Amberlin replied. Leona did not think that her partner was OK. The pink-haired mage looked... weary, for lack of a better word. Maybe the Wizard Saint should take Amberlin back to Order headquarters and either ask for a substitute for Amberlin or just finish the search by herself.

"You don't look so good. Maybe we should return to Order headquarters to get you a medical examination." Leona suggested to the pink-haired cleric. At first it looked like she was going to refuse the suggestion, but then she sighed in resignation.

"Maybe I should go back to headquarters, Leona. I'm not feeling so good. And falling on my face definitely didn't do me any favors." Amberlin admitted that she was not going to be able to keep going and complete the search.

"Do I need to go with you?" Leona asked Amberlin. The pink-haired cleric shook her head.

"That won't be necessary, Leona. I can teleport myself back. I'll ask Father Morris to send a substitute for me so that you don't have to finish the search alone, but don't count on it. The Order's stretched pretty thin as it is and I don't know if we can spare anyone." Amberlin told Leona. The blonde nodded. She had completed plenty of dangerous jobs by herself, so she was not going to get cold feet if she had to complete this job by herself. Wizard Saints were supposed to take on challenging jobs and succeed no matter how much the odds were stacked against them.

[Post Word Count: 1,184]
[Total Word Count: 6,372/11,000]

"I'll teleport out right away, Leona. Don't worry about me anymore. I'll be fine once I'm inside Holy Castle." Amberlin assured Leona that she would be OK once she got back to Holy Castle. Leona nodded.

"OK. But before you go, I have a question. How long should I wait for a substitute to appear before I go ahead and complete the search on my own?" Leona asked Amberlin. The cleric thought for a moment before answering.

"I'd say one hour at most. Wait near the mansion's foyer for the substitute to appear. If they don't appear in an hour, then make your way to the third floor and look for that medallion." Amberlin told Leona. Leona gave a thumbs-up with her left hand.

"Got it." Leona said in acknowledgment of the instructions. Amberlin gave a small smile and raised her hands above her head as she began chanting. Her body glowed gold and she soon blinked out of existence in a flash of golden light. Now that Amberlin was headed towards safety Leona could focus on waiting for the substitute to arrive. Leona began to walk towards the foyer to await the arrival of Amberlin's substitute.

-At the foyer, two minutes later-

Leona had reached the foyer with no problems. Now she had to begin the waiting game. She was to wait one hour and if no one arrived she was to proceed on her own.

She and Amberlin had eliminated all the zombies they had encountered so far, so the toughest enemy Leona would have to fight was boredom. She had a whole hour to wait and she was not sure how she was going to pass the time. She had to remain vigilant for ghosts or more zombies, but without an immediate threat to occupy her attention, Leona's vigilance would inevitably slip. She had to stay focused because she was in hostile territory.

-At the foyer, thirty minutes later-

Leona had been pacing back and forth down the hall to keep herself awake and focused. The wait for support from the Order was seriously getting on her nerves. What could be so important that they could not spare a single mage to help her?

Leona came to a stop near the foyer and listened out for anything the sound of her footsteps might have attracted, but she did not hear anything. She turned around and looked down the hall to her left and the hall straight ahead of her, but she did not see anything. Having neither seen nor heard any danger, Leona took a brief break from walking and stretched her legs. She hoped that the Order could send someone to help her, but if no one arrived she would proceed on her own and follow Amberlin's instructions to search the third floor for the medallion that would unlock the door in the basement.

After stretching her legs for a minute or two Leona resumed walking up and down the hall. Maybe another Order cleric would be here soon so that she could be on her way to the third floor.

-At the foyer, one hour later-

Leona stopped in front of the foyer, faced the double doors, and folded her arms over her chest. It had been an hour since Amberlin had teleported out of here and no one had arrived. The Wizard Saint was raring to go, but she decided to wait just a few minutes more in case Amberlin's substitute was running late. Leona took a deep breath and summoned the patience to wait a few more minutes.

-At the foyer, twenty minutes later-

Leona had waited an additional twenty minutes and no one had arrived, so it was time for her to get moving. Leona turned away from the doors and walked down the hallway at a brisk pace. She soon reached the stairs and went up them at a brisk pace. She had wasted twenty minutes for nothing and had to make up for lost time.

-On the third floor, ten minutes later-

Leona stepped onto the third floor and she immediately faced the hall in front of her. There were twelve doors and twelve rooms to search. She had to carefully search each room for the medallion, but she had no idea where to start. Leona took five steps towards the hallway when she felt another chill in the air.

Was she being stalked by a ghost?

Leona had no idea, but she did not have time to waste waiting around for confirmation. She opted to search the library first because she doubted that a valuable medallion would be hidden in some random room. She made a beeline for the library door and soon reached it. She opened it with her left hand and stepped inside, then shut the door behind her.

-Inside the library-

Leona entered the library and her eyes immediately went to one of the ladders. Maybe the medallion was hidden on one of the high shelves. Leona was about to find out. She approached the ladder on the bookshelf behind the table where she had shared tea with ghosts and put her hands on the sides, then began to slowly and carefully climb the ladder until she reached the top. She did her best to avoid looking down for any length of time because she did not want her fear of heights to kick in when she needed to focus on climbing.

Once at the top Leona looked on top of the shelf in front of her and saw a gleaming metallic object on the far left side of the shelf. Knowing better than to try and reach for it when her arm just could not reach it, Leona carefully climbed down the ladder. When she reached the bottom she walked to the left side, then pushed the ladder left until the top was aligned with the area in which she saw the gleaming object, then walked back to its front and began climbing until she reached the top.

Once she was at the top of the ladder again Leona looked for the object and found it right in front of her. She carefully reached for it with her right hand and grabbed it. Once it was in her hand Leona slowly and carefully climbed down the ladder until she reached the bottom. Only when she was off of the ladder and her feet were back on firm ground did she stop to examine the item she had just retrieved.

Leona opened her right hand and looked at what she had found. It was an octagonal golden medallion that featured an eagle on the front. It looked like it was flying towards the viewer with its talons extended.

Having found what she was looking for, Leona swiftly exited the library. Now she had to go back to the basement and unlock the door she and Amberlin had found. Hopefully the Lens was somewhere in that room.

[Post Word Count: 1,160]
[Total Word Count: 7,532/11,000]

-On the first floor, ten minutes later-

With the medallion in her possession Leona reached the first floor. Her first instinct was to go down the side hall and take a shortcut to the stairs to the basement, but she wanted to go by the double doors of the manor in case the Order mage who was sent to replace Amberlin had arrived. Leona made a beeline for the doors and as she got closer to them she saw that no one was waiting for her.

Leona was tempted to wait awhile, but then she realized that she had wasted enough time waiting for someone earlier. If no one had arrived to help her after an hour of waiting, then no one was going to arrive. It would be up to Leona to complete the search for the Lens Of Perception by herself.

Leona swiftly passed by the foyer and went all the way down the left hall, then rounded the corner and soon reached the stairs that led to the basement. Once she was in front of them she began slowly walking down them to allow her eyes time to switch over to her night vision mode. She was glad that she had that ability because otherwise she would either be stumbling around in the dark or searching for a candle, something that would waste even more time than she had already wasted in waiting twenty minutes after the one-hour figure Amberlin had given her as the arrival time for a substitute.

-In the basement, three minutes later-

Leona arrived in the basement safely thanks to her eyes adjusting to the darkness as she slowly descended the stairs. Now she could see clearly thanks to her night vision mode. No new zombies had entered the basement since her last visit roughly an hour ago, so Leona walked briskly through the basement with the medallion clutched in her right hand. Once she reached the lock that Amberlin had pointed out earlier Leona saw that the lock was shaped like an octagon and it looked to be a perfect fit for the medallion.

Leona carefully positioned the medallion in the lock with the eagle facing her. She pushed it all the way into the lock until it could go no further. Once it was in the door slid up and open. Leona turned and started to walk towards the open door when she thought about something.

If she left the medallion in the lock and the door was closed by a malevolent spirit, she could be trapped in the basement of Sombras Manor for a very long time.

With no guarantee of rescue any time soon Leona did not want to suffer that fate. She reached for the medallion and carefully pulled it out of the lock, then held her breath as she waited for the door to close again. When the door did not close again the Wizard Saint took off her backpack, placed the medallion inside her backpack, then put it back on before walking towards the doorway and passing through it into the room that had been previously locked.

-Inside the room-

Leona entered the room and found herself standing inside a medium-sized square room that had nothing remarkable about it except the large amounts of dust bunnies, cobwebs, and dust liberally lining the baseboards of the floor and hanging from the corners of the walls. This room could use a good cleaning, but Leona was not the one to do it. Besides, she was here to look for a lens of some sort, not clean dusty old rooms.

Leona stood in the center of the room and looked all around her for any signs of a hidden door concealed by all the dust. She began tapping her right foot on the floor for any hidden pressure plates that could open a hidden door. Leona walked all around the room and stepped on every part of it, but after a few minutes of doing so nothing happened. Deciding to shift her focus to the walls of the room, Leona braved the dust to push on the walls in case one hid a lever or a passageway.

After spending a few minutes pushing on every wall and not getting any results Leona stood in the center of the room with her hands on her hips. Maybe she should not waste her time and effort on pushing on the walls. Maybe all she needed to find was a hidden wall panel that concealed a lever. Deciding to act on that new idea, Leona began tapping on every section of wall until she found a section of the right wall that sounded odd. She began feeling along the section with her fingertips for a part that stuck out and soon found it.

Leona gently moved the sliding panel aside and located a wooden lever that moved up and down. Leona grabbed the lever with her right hand and pulled it down. As soon as she did a section of the center wall slid to the right and revealed a short passageway wide enough for two people moving side-by-side to walk down. At the end of the passageway was a thick wooden door.

Leona moved away from the lever and walked towards the newly revealed passage. She stepped inside of it and and walked to the end of the hall. There she opened the door by turning the doorknob and stepped into the next room.

-Inside the hidden room-

Leona shut the door behind her and faced a large room that had a wooden desk placed against the back wall. Along the left and right walls were bookshelves crammed full of books with little regard for organization. Leona stepped into the room and noticed that on the table sat something that resembled a magnifying glass. Could that be the Lens Of Perception?

Leona walked towards the desk and as she drew closer what looked to be the Lens Of Perception gleamed as if beckoning her to it. When Leona finally reached the desk she looked at the object and found that it was just an ordinary magnifying glass with a simple metal frame... or was it? Leona picked it up by its handle and began examining her surroundings for anything hidden that might be revealed to her by looking through the lens.

[Post Word Count: 1,060]
[Total Word Count: 8,592/11,000]

-Inside the hidden room, twenty minutes later-

Leona had walked around the room and examined every square inch of the space for anything that might have been hidden by magic, but in the end she concluded that the magnifying glass she had been holding and looking through was just an ordinary magnifying glass. It had no special properties. The disappointed and embarrassed Wizard Saint walked over to the desk, set the magnifying glass back where she had found it, and did her best to get over her disappointment and embarrassment. Leona was thankful that there was no one around to witness the blunder because if someone had seen her using an ordinary magnifying glass like it was a magic one word would spread of her mistake and she would quickly become a laughingstock.

Leona turned her attention back towards the desk and noticed that it had drawers to it. The Wizard Saint's negative emotions were shoved to the back of her mind as she opened the left drawer and began to search through it. Inside was a whole lot of nothing. Undaunted by the setback, Leona turned her attention to the right drawer and opened it. Nothing was inside.

The Wizard Saint frowned, stepped back a full step, and put her hands on her hips while looking at the desk. When she did that she noticed a drawer in the center of the desk. Leona approached the desk again and slid open the drawer. It contained a single sheet of paper that had something written on it.

Leona began to read the sheet of paper and soon learned that whoever had written the note had atrocious handwriting. It also looked like it had been written in a hurry. There were plenty of run-on words plus a few missing punctuation marks that made the writing hard to understand at first glance.

Taking a deep breath and re-reading the note the best she could, Leona learned a little bit about its contents. It was a reminder about something important to the individual.

"Theitemwashiddenbyme  Itliesatthetopofthehouse  Itliesintheroomwithmanybooks. Itmustbeprotectedfromthieves! OnedayIwillcomebackandfinditandtakebackwhatsmine yesIwill!" The note read. Leona lowered the note and took a deep breath. Her head was beginning to hurt from the atrocious handwriting she had had to mentally translate from rapidly scrawled words that looked like gibberish to something actually understandable.

"The item was hidden by me. It lies at the top of the house. It lies in the room with many books. It must be protected from thieves! One day I will come back and find it and take back what's mine. Yes I will!" Leona mentally translated the note using proper grammar and punctuation as she took it with her for reference and stepped away from the desk in which it had been found.

Leona thought about the meaning of the phrases "At the top of the house" and "The room with many books" and folded her arms over her chest. She applied a little critical thinking and soon arrived at the belief that the item mentioned in the note had not been placed on the roof of the manor. Instead it had been hidden somewhere on the third floor. As for "The room with many books" it was fairly obvious to Leona that that sentence referred to the library. That meant that the Wizard Saint would have to go back upstairs... again.

Leona took a deep breath and turned around. She walked towards the door of the hidden room and opened it, then closed it behind her.

-Inside the storage room, twenty-three minutes later-

Leona walked through the short passageway and re-entered the storage room. She walked over to the wall with the exposed hidden panel and flipped the lever up, sealing the room behind her. Once the wall returned to its proper place Leona walked out of the storage room on her way back to the third floor.

-In the basement, two minutes later-

Leona walked out of the storage room, took off her backpack, and set it down at her feet. She dug through it and found the eagle medallion. She took it into her right hand and walked away from her backpack. She pushed the back of it into the lock and the door to the storage room slammed shut again. Leona took the medallion out and kept it in her right hand as she closed her backpack, put it back on her back, and began walking towards the stairs that led to the first floor.

-On the first floor, two minutes later-

Leona arrived on the first floor and looked around her. There were no zombies, no ghosts, and no Order clerics or knights waiting for her. Leona did not want to waste time swinging by the foyer when no one was waiting for her, so Leona immediately headed right and took the turn that led back to the main hall, then followed the main hall to the stairs. Once she reached the stairs she began ascending them... again.

-On the third floor, ten minutes later-

Leona arrived on the third floor and paused for a moment to catch her breath after all the walking and climbing she had done up to this point. It was somewhat exhausting to go up and down stairs over and over again, but she was in good physical shape, so the burden was not as great as it could have been. It was more annoying than anything, but Leona would manage. At least she had gotten here without incident.

Leona walked up to the library door, put her left hand on the knob, and opened the door. She went inside and shut the door behind her.

-Inside the library-

Leona was standing back in the library with the note in her right hand. She was in "the room with many books" located at "the top of the house" as described in the note. Now she had to find the "item" that had been hidden in here. But where did she start looking?

Leona turned the note over in case a clue had been jotted on the back. She found nothing on the back, so she turned it back over and looked towards the bookshelves in front of her. She doubted that the item in question had been hidden on top of a bookshelf, but she could not rule out that obvious hiding place either. It looked like the Wizard Saint who was afraid of heights would be climbing ladders again.

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[Total Word Count: 9,670/11,000]

-Inside the library, one hour and thirty minutes later-

After searching it for what seemed like the entire night Leona climbed down off the ladder of the bookshelf she had found the eagle medallion on top of. She had searched every shelf of the bookshelf and had come away with nothing other than a lungful of dust and the knowledge that Sombras Manor had a well-stocked library. The Wizard Saint had more shelves like this to search, but she was getting tired. The trips back and forth between floors and going up and down flights of stairs repeatedly were more than a little exhausting.

Leona remembered that the Order of Lightbringers was counting on her to find the Lens Of Perception and rallied. She would search everywhere in the library even if she had to move every last book on the shelves. Leona faced the ladder of the bookshelf to the left of the door where she had first entered the library, shoved it all the way to the right, and began searching the bottom shelf of the bookshelf for the Lens Of Perception.

-One hour and thirty minutes later-

Leona climbed down off of the ladder after another unsuccessful search. She had found nothing but dust, dust bunnies, and cobwebs on top of the bookshelf. Leona turned to the note she had set on the table in the middle of the room before climbing the ladder and walked towards the table to re-read it and refresh her memory. She also wanted to read it again to see if she had misinterpreted the words written by the note's author.

Leona walked over to the table, picked up the note, and began re-reading the gibberish for a possible alternate meaning. She spent a few minutes re-reading the note for any alternate meaning to the words but could not come up with one. She was pretty sure that her translated version of the words was the right one.

She was at "the top of the house" on the third floor of Sombras Manor.

She was in "the room with many books" because she was in the library and the library had by far the most books of any room in Sombras Manor.

If she was in the right place according to the note, then where was the item that the author had hidden?

Leona frowned. She had spent so much time and energy here tonight and she was facing the prospect of walking away with nothing to show for her effort. She was not sure how the Order would take her coming back empty-handed, but tonight she just might have to admit defeat.

Leona frowned again. She did not want to give up just yet. She had pulled victory from the jaws of defeat many times before and she could do it again tonight. She just needed to set aside her ego, slow down, and think about likely hiding places for the item mentioned in the note.

She could safely rule out the tops of the shelves. She could safely rule out the bookshelves themselves. She could safely rule out any of the books being hollowed out and used to hide the item. There was only one logical hiding place left and that was under the floorboards.

Leona's eyes were drawn towards the table. They then wandered from the table to the floor underneath the table. Perhaps there was a hidden compartment in a section of floor underneath the table. Having nothing else to go on and having nothing to lose, Leona decided to check out that place.

The Wizard Saint gently pushed the table out of the way and turned it sideways against a bookshelf, then walked to where it had been and began gently tapping the heel of her boot on the floor for any part of it that sounded unusual. Moments after beginning the search she found what she was looking for when a section of flooring sounded hollow.

Leona then got on her hands and knees and began running her fingertips along the floor until she found a part that was slightly higher than the rest of the floor. She pulled the panel towards her and a hidden compartment was revealed. Inside she saw a brown notebook... and something else.

Leona reached in and pulled out the brown notebook. She skimmed its contents and gathered that it was research findings on something, but her interest was drawn to the object that had been concealed under the notebook. It was a magnifying glass with a golden frame and handle!

The Wizard Saint gently reached in and pulled the magnifying glass out. She examined it and saw that it was a masterfully made magnifying glass with a lens that was crafted to perfection. The frame was perfectly intact and the lens had no scratches on it whatsoever. Was this the Lens Of Perception?

Leona was not sure. However, judging from the hiding place, this object had to be very valuable. Maybe the notebook she had found on top of it could give her and the Order more information on the object. But before she did that she had to replace the floor panel and put the table back so that Cynthia and Louise did not get angry at her and make her next visit more difficult than it had to be. Wanting to avoid making enemies if at all possible, the Wizard Saint got to work putting everything back in its proper place.

-Eleven minutes later-

Leona had finished putting the floor panel back and putting the table back in the exact place it was found. She had taken the note off of the table along with the notebook and the golden magnifying glass. She had positioned the ladders exactly where they had been found. Leona had even gone to the trouble to put the eagle medallion back where it had been found just in case.

Now that everything was in its proper place again and she had obtained what she believed to be the Lens Of Perception, the Wizard Saint was ready to get going back to Holy Castle and give the Order everything she had found. She had spent far longer than she had intended in Sombras Manor, but the end result was worth it. Even if the golden magnifying glass did not turn out to be the Lens Of Perception, perhaps it still had some value. Perhaps the notebook that came with it had value as well.

With the magnifying glass, notebook, and note safely secured inside her backpack, Leona exited the library for what she hoped was the final time tonight. She was on her way to Holy Castle to present what she had found to the Order of Lightbringers. She hoped that it was what they were looking for because she did not want to have to come back to Sombras Manor to do another exhaustive search of the place any time soon.

[Post Word Count: 1,158]
[Total Word Count: 10,828/11,000]

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, Leona's room, ten hours later-

Six hours ago Leona had returned from Holy Castle and had handed her findings over to the Order of Lightbringers. There she had learned that she had indeed found the Lens Of Perception, the magnifying glass that was rumored to be able to see the truth of things. Whether that ability to see the truth only extended to being able to see through magical illusions or extended to being able to detect the truth in someone's body language was up in the air.

The Order would not give Leona very many details on their plans for the Lens, but they did tell her that finding the golden magnifying glass helped them greatly because doing so kept it out of the hands of their enemy, a demon cult that wanted the Lens for their own purposes. Leona offered to help fight the cult and the Order was receptive to her offer. They informed her that they would let her know whenever her services were needed, dropping a few hints that they might call upon her very soon. Leona was satisfied with that and left after having been paid for her efforts.

After spending roughly four hours in her office plowing through the guild paperwork that had piled up on her desk during her absence, Leona was now back in her room winding down after a lengthy adventure in Sombras Manor. She was sitting on the edge of her bed and staring at her desk, which still had the book on robotics that Mr. Bank had given her weeks ago. Not wanting to bring back unpleasant memories of her shortcomings, Leona looked away from it and swung her feet onto the bed, then reclined on it. She then closed her eyes and soon went to sleep.

Tomorrow she would wake up and look for a job, but if she could not find one that interested her Leona had plenty of other things to do. There were a few personal projects that she could work on to pass the time. For example, Leona could pick up where she left off on her research into ingredients for a new magical weapon or she could find a tutor to teach her Midi's language. She could also study for a GED test or she could learn computer programming from books she had bought months ago. She would decide what she wanted to do tomorrow, but for now she would sleep.

[Post Word Count: 413]
[Total Word Count: 11,241/11,000]