Book Two Chapter Ten: The Vault

Nick enters Saja's Vault and finds what she is keeping inside. However, Saja finds him in there while he is trying to steal what she is keeping in her vault!

Chapter Ten The Vault: I heard a hiss! Of air. It came from outside. I walked out of the bunker and found that a passage had opened. There was a staircase leading downwards. By getting the password correct, I opened some kind of vault. Plus, the computer thought I was Saja. Was this Saja’s vault? What was in it? I walked down the staircase. The same thought echoed in my head all the way down the staircase: What was in this vault? I went deeper and deeper into the earth. The walls and ceiling were stone, but the staircase was metal. Did Saja construct this place? I soon saw the bottom of the staircase. I turned the corner and I saw a pedestal, this was what I was looking for. There was a shard of the Essence of Life, the lopsided star piece. An engraving was on the wall.

 

Here lies the twelfth shard of the Essence of Life.

Upon the strength of ancient bonds

Set in the war unfurled

One hero sets himself from all the rest

Who’ve tried and failed

Assemble the savior

Go to the tomb of the Ancient One

Atop the Blade of Faith

The savior will do as it's told.

 

Saja had a vault that contained a shard of the Essence of Life! This was the last shard, I guess it didn't matter what order you find them in. This engraving tells me how to use the Essence of Life, the 'savior', which I assumed was the Essence of Life, to stop the vampire revolution from restarting. I grabbed the shard off of the pedestal and hastily ran back to the meeting spot. Everyone was there. I ran up to them. 

“Nick, what’s wrong?” Lauren asked.

"I found a shard." I said.

I gave it to Carlos and told the others what I found on the wall.

"I think we need to go back to Tigiti's tomb and put the Essence of Life on the pedestal where I found the sword and somehow tell it to wipe out the vampires." I said.

Carlos frowned and shook his head.

"But Nick, assuming that we could actually do that, would that not wipe you out as well? “Carlos said.

I froze. It would. I hadn't thought of that.

“But we can do that! Come on!” I said, leading everyone back to the vault.

When we were all down the staircase, I took my friends to the pedestal, where the engraving is. Everyone read it.

“My god, this is it! This is our plan!” Carlos exclaimed.

“We can stop the new Saja!” Lauren said with a smile.

“We can put the world at peace again.” Saja muttered.

The sound of footsteps interrupted out plans of victory.

"Who’s there? I know you’re here somewhere!" I heard the new Saja say.

We all froze.

"The last shard belongs to me!" The new Saja yelled.

Did Saja had the rest of the shards? We now had three, so that means Saja must have the other eight if she is looking for the last one! But even if we do get them, how to we get back to Tigiti's tomb? It is on Ectoclis, I don't even know how I got there in the first place. When the new Saja went away, I would ask the old Saja how she got me to Ectoclis. I heard the new Saja walking around, looking for us. The new Saja came dangerously close to our spot, she sniffed the air, and I swear, if I still had a heartbeat, it would have stopped cold. Saja then continued on. I didn't dare sigh with relief.

The new Saja then came to the pedestal that housed the twelfth shard of the Essence of Life only minutes before. Her eyes grew wide.

“You thieves! When I find you, I’ll kill you all!” Saja shouted, looking around the room frantically.

The new Saja then walked to the far wall. She touched a part of it and a panel as well as a keypad pushed out of the rock. I saw her starting to look back and I got back behind cover, soundless. I heard another hiss! Of air that marked another passage opening. I heard her footsteps recede.

"Why is there a room underground in the ruins of Hemlon?" Lauren asked.

"I have no idea." Serena said.

“This is a vault. Saja is storing the twelve shard of the Essence of Life here. I took it before she came here, but now she’s probably looking for it.” I said.

“It’s not the only thing she’s looking for.” Fenton added.

I walked out from behind cover, perusing Saja and heard my friends behind me. I turned to face them.

"No, stay here. We aren't taking any more casualties." I told them.

"Let me go with you Nick." said Saja.

"No, you stay here too." I told her.

“What are you going to do? She’ll kill you, Nick.” Saja said.

“I’m going to find out what other secrets this place hides. She has a secret door here, and there could be more. If this is a vault, this might be where she’s hiding the other shards of the Esence of Life.” I said.

I then had an idea.

"Saja, if this isn’t where the new Saja is keeping the shards, I want you to take the others and follow the other Saja's scent back to wherever she came from. Maybe we can find out where she really is hiding the other shards." I said to Saja.

"Nick, she has no scent. I already tried tracking her before." Saja said hopelessly.

I shook my head.

"She has to have one, there has to be a way to track her." I said.

"We'll figure it out later." Said Saja.

I took that as a 'get out of here before you blow our chance'.

“Saja, take the others back to the surface. Stay out of sight for now. I’ll come back as soon as I can.” I said.

Saja nodded.

“Good luck, Nick. You’re very brave.” Saja said.

“Be careful. Don’t get yourself killed.” Fenton said.

“Come back as soon as you can.” Serena ordered.

“Nick, do what you can. If things get too dangerous, get out of there. Okay?” Lauren asked.

Carlos remained silent.

“Alright. Thank you all. I’ll be right back, don’t worry.” I said with a grin.

With that, I headed into the secret passage after the new Saja. At the other end, I saw her looking around. I knew that if she saw me, she would definitely kill me. I had learned that I could not fight her without help, but if I had brought the others as help, she would have killed them. She was probably looking for the shard that I took from her. When she had her back turned, I took the chance to go into the room with her. I held my breath and treaded carefully. I was so afraid that I questioned why I even went into the room with her in the first place. I knew that I had to. If she assembled the savior before my friends and I did, there would be trouble. I crept across the perimeter of the room just out of her field of vision. I treaded even carefully than before, so as not to draw her attention. I saw wooden support beams all around the room, they must have prevented the roof from collapsing. I looked around the room, too. In front of Saja was a narrow hallway, only wide enough for one at a time. If I followed her in, and she turned around, I would be in big trouble. She entered the narrow hallway with no hesitation. I looked past her and saw a room at the end. She was feeling around the wall. I looked up to the ceiling because something caught my eye. A small rodent crawled above me, but instead of dropping on my head, it crawled through a hole up by the roof and fell into a cavity on the other side, the wall I was leaning on was hollow! So much for what Saja said about 'not even a squirrel within a hundred kilometers.' I prayed that the new Saja didn't hear the thump. I didn't think she did…

The new Saja suddenly dashed into the room with me. She had heard the thump on the other side of the wall. Her gaze met mine. I froze.

"You!" She spat the word out as if it tasted bitter in her mouth.

She ran at me and tackled me into the hollow wall. My sword flew out of my hand faster than I could react. It fell away and Saja saw something behind me. I looked to see what it was, and it was a shard of the Essence of Life on the pedestal. I thought she would get off of me, grab the shard and run. She didn't. She was still on top of me. Our eyes locked, I struggled to throw her off, but she was just too strong. I tried rolling from side to side, still to no avail.

“You’re going to regret coming down here! I’m going to make you wish you were never born!” The new Saja said to me with a wicked smile.

I struggled against her even more, but it was futile. She lowered her head and bit the left side of my neck. I felt the twin needle points of pain on my neck. I cried out in pain, as the pain was overwhelming. After what seemed like hours, but was probably only a minute or so, she got off, grabbed the shard of off the pedestal, stole my three shards from my pocket, grabbed my sword and ran out of the room. She must be moving it to a more secure location. I thought that I was safe, but just then, something terrible happened.

The spot where Saja bit erupted in pain, and the pain spread to every part of me. I screamed out in horror. What was happening!? I heard banging, and then I heard wood crashing to the ground. Saja was knocking out the support pillars! She was obviously in a rush. She was going to leave me for dead here and kill my friends! I recalled the inscription that I found by the twelfth shard of the Essence of Life; ‘the savior will do as it's told.’ The images that came to mind when I imagined her with the Essence of Life were horrific.

I put those images out of my head and focused on getting up, which was hard because my body burned with fiery agony. Fear gripped me. What had Saja done to me? Did Saja take my sword because it was the Blade of Faith? It was Tigiti's sword, so it might've been, after all, she was supposed to take it to Tigiti's tomb, or rather, I was. It took all my strength to sit up. I've been in worse situations than this, like when I was in Hemlon and Saja turned me. I quickly forced my thoughts back to getting out, I wouldn't die down here, I would be in all this pain and unable to move. The thought filled me with a cold, deep fear. I looked at one of the pillars of the corner, in her haste Saja forgot to destroy that one! If I could crawl over there before the roof came down, then I could slowly claw my way out of here and back to the surface.

My movements were very restricted. My thoughts were becoming fuddled, it was dizzying. I moved as if I was in a dream, slowly. I could sense rocks beginning to fall around me. But it wasn't the rocks that I was afraid of, it was the thought of being stuck down here that scared me. I crawled hand over hand across the ground. One of my hands hit something wooden, the pillar! I found the corner of the wall and crouched. There were patches in my vision now. I could hear voices. At first I thought I was going insane, but then I recognized them, they were my friends! Saja must be attacking them above me! I desperately reached my hand upwards, as if I could do anything to help them. I knew that I couldn’t. The old Saja was up there with them, could she be defending them?

Then the rumbling came, and the roof collapsed. I could make out that I was in a small space, about two feet in diameter. And then came the weakness. It came so unexpectedly and it was so powerful that it floored me. It twisted my stomach. This weakness made the weakness that came with regular vampire bites feel like nothing. I couldn't even move, and I couldn't scream. I was freaking out. What did Saja do to me? Did she poison me with her bite? I wondered if I would ever move again. My thoughts were so fuddled now that I had a headache. I was held down by the weakness while my head throbbed. Then my eyes started to close, I tried to keep them open, but they were being forced shut. By now I couldn't even think, move, talk, or feel anything, including my mind. It felt horrible. Finally my eyes shut all the way, and there was nothing I could do.

My eyes snapped open. The first thing I felt was the pain. My mental condition hadn't changed. I was still weak and numb. The pain was too much. It had at least doubled since I passed out, I didn't even know that I had passed out until I opened my eyes. How long had I been stuck down here? My thoughts were a mess. I tried to formulate a plan to get out of this space, but my train of thought seemed to have exploded in my head. Literally. This happened every time I tried to think of something that involved more than one second of thought. All of this, the weakness, pain, numbness and the fuddled thoughts were getting too much to bare. It was as if when Saja bit me, she injected some kind of virus that messed with my brain. I couldn't take this much longer.

I drifted in and out of consciousness so many times that I lost count, and each time I woke up my condition worsened. It was now at a point where I can't bear it. I couldn't do anything about it. I blacked out again.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!