A month at the Zorken Manor, and yet Lola still hadn’t explored every corner. This place was huge — and "huge" still felt like an understatent.
For instance, the path she was taking now with Sybil was so sort of underground passageway. Lola had no idea what was inside it or what to expect. She just followed and was secretly amused at its existence.
"Don’t you have lights here?" she asked, her voice echoing along the narrow stone path. "Sybil?"
Sybil slowed down and glanced back. "There are lights — torches." She smiled. "Although it would’ve been easier to install electricity here, the master preferred we keep it like this. The lack of light slows down intruders... if there ever were any."
"I see. Made sense." Lola rocked her head and followed closely behind Sybil, who was holding a lamp. "Where are we headed?"
"We’re almost there," Sybil replied as she slowed her pace. "We’ll take the right turn, and we’ll arrive shortly."
And so they walked ahead, reached the turn, and took a few steps. Lola glanced at each old door they passed, but Sybil didn’t stop at any of them. Instead, she stopped in front of a stone wall.
"This is a dead end, Sybil," Lola pointed out, but Sybil only smiled.
The old woman hung the lamp on a hook beside the wall and felt around the stones. When her wrinkled hand stopped, she pushed one stone in. To Lola’s surprise, the wall shifted beneath her touch. Then, the entire concrete surface shuddered.
"What the—" Lola stepped back, breath hitching as the wall rumbled and lifted. Dust and smoke filled the air, making her squint her eyes and hold her breath.
But her amazent only grew.
"Wow..." she whispered, watching the concrete rise halfway like so enormous roll-up door. Her eyes moved upward, wondering how the chanism even worked.
"Co on, Young Madam," Sybil said, not bothering to retrieve the lamp as she bent and stepped through the opening.
"Wait—" Lola paused. "What about your lamp?"
Sybil chuckled. "We won’t need it anymore."
"..." Lola pressed her lips into a thin line and cleared her throat. Then, just like Sybil, she bent and walked through.
What she entered was pure darkness. If not for the small stretch of lamplight lingering behind them, she wouldn’t have been able to see anything — even with her eyes wide open.
"You said you don’t need the lamp," she murmured. "But it looks like you need it more here than earlier."
All she received in return was Sybil’s gleeful laughter.
"Let’s go, Young Madam," Sybil said. "Though I advise you to squint your eyes a little."
Lola’s brows knitted, but she followed. Then, on their third step, sothing flashed above. Lola instinctively squinted and flinched, earning another wave of laughter from Sybil.
Slowly, she peeked from one eye, just when another light flicked on just a few steps ahead of them.
One after another, lights illuminated the entire hallway.
Lola held her breath again as she stared at the slightly modernized corridor. It was nothing like the path they’d walked through earlier. It didn’t even feel underground anymore — more like a hospital hallway.
It was so bright that one could see the pores on a person’s face.
"If you step here..." Sybil tapped her foot on the first tile of the modernized path, "...all the lights in this area will turn on."
Her smile stretched. "I rember the first ti I brought the master here. He didn’t even blink!"
"Is that surprising?" Lola murmured, her eyes glued to the bright corridor. "Knowing him."
"Don’t worry," Sybil said. "We’re just getting started."
They resud walking, and Sybil continued, "I thought that when you first ca here, the master would lead you here himself. I had expectations, but..."
Lola glanced at her back, lips pressed into a thin line. "Are you saying Atlas doesn’t care about ?"
"Oh, not at all!" Sybil chuckled. "If anything, it’s the opposite."
Lola sighed inwardly with relief. Even though she liked Sybil, she remained cautious. Sybil was once the forr madam of the Order, the woman who had commanded the remnants of the Zorken family.
Lola would be foolish to be too trusting. She expected many things from this place — not all pleasant.
"When you arrived, I expected the master to drill lessons into you and force you to get familiar with this complicated world as quickly as possible," Sybil explained. "But I was wrong. The master was never fond of anyone — except his children — but he is very fond of you, for letting you take your ti."
Lola smiled subtly. "Or maybe he just thinks we have forever, so there’s no rush."
"Haha. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if that was his reasoning," Sybil said with another chuckle. "But since you asked — and since you’ve been learning about the Zorken family beyond our usual routines — this place will enlighten you more. Especially, about the horrible incident years ago."
Soon, they reached a door. It looked surprisingly ordinary, which caught Lola off guard.
Sybil reached for the scanner mounted beside it. She placed her palm over it and waited. When the light turned green, a soft click followed.
"This will explain why... this entire family almost fell apart," she remarked, hand on the knob as she glanced at Lola.
After a mont, Sybil pushed the door open and stepped inside. Lola followed closely.
Both won stopped right at the entrance.
And Lola definitely did not expect what she saw.
Beyond the door was a massive underground facility — a laboratory. Through large transparent glass walls, she could see several people working. There was even a small cafeteria. But what baffled her most was that this was only the first floor... judging by the elevator nearby.
Sybil huffed lightly, folding her hands behind her back.
"The people Nathalie took hostage years ago belonged to the research departnt," she said, turning to Lola with a small smile. "I assu you haven’t reached the part explaining what the Order truly was. The Zorken family’s real power isn’t its military strength or its wealth — but this."
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