“I see you aren’t trying to either,” Bingwen replied, nodding to the house.
Axle nodded, realizing the sorcerer had used a spell or something to mask himself from shifters. That was how he had snuck up on him. “She was an accident—one we’re trying to deal with.”
“Yeah, well, take your time. Now, Levi said something about a temple in a cave?” Bingwen asked.
“Yeah, come on. I’ll take you to it.”
Axle got on his bike, Bingwen following close behind him. They drove through the night, with Natalie still on Axle’s mind. A small part of him felt a bit of remorse for what he’d had to do, but he knew there was no alternative. If she went around trying to find more information, one of three things could happen.
First, she could end up in an asylum, which would probably be for the best, as she would only be called crazy and kept away from looking for further proof.
Second, she could search forever in secret and never truly find anything, as paranormals did their best to remain secret.
The worst case would be if she actually found some proof. She would run into someone who didn’t care for human life and was willing to do anything to keep their existence a secret, and she would end up killed by the creature.
They got to the cave, and both walked to the entrance at the top. Bingwen looked down into it, and then turned back to Axle. “Anyone down there?”
“If there is, they’re being quiet. But no humans, that I can say for sure. Can’t hear or smell anything,” Axle replied.
“Demons?”
“Hard to tell, but what’s the worst that could happen? We’re here to find Kanai, aren’t we?” Axle chuckled, walking toward the hole.
“What are you doing?” Bingwen asked, raising an eyebrow.
“I’m going in,” Axle replied, confused.
The sorcerer was almost always full of himself, and Axle despised that. But, he was one of the few sorcerers who was actually aligned with the paranormals, and he was the best at what he did. They all had to put up with his attitude, as Bingwen was literally irreplaceable.
“What about me?” he asked.
Axle frowned. He walked over to the man and grabbed him with a single arm, tossing him over his shoulder and jumping into the hole. As he landed, he tossed the old man to the ground. He expected the sorcerer to land with a thud, but Bingwen basically floated off Axle’s shoulders, gliding to the floor.
“Show off.”
Bingwen chuckled, bringing out a lighter and turning it on. The inside of the cave had gotten a lot darker as it was night, and the lamps didn’t provide enough light for them to see more than a few inches from their faces. Bingwen whispered to the light, and the little whisp from the lighter grew larger before floating off of the lighter. He waved his hands, and the flames spread across the cavern, illuminating the place.
Axle watched Bingwen as he pulled off the exciting trick. He had seen a lot of things in his time, but there was always a shock that came with watching Bingwen break the rules of the universe with simple words.
“Well, what do you think?” Axle asked, looking around at the cave. “There’s the altar where we saw him. He touched something there and he just vanished, never seen anything like it.”
Bingwen nodded and walked toward a wall on the south side of the cave. He looked up at some of the chippings in the rock. With a wave, one of the whisps of fire came up beside his face, illuminating the wall for him. Bingwen rubbed against the soft sandstone, pulling the sand away to reveal some sort of symbol carved into the rock.
The wizard turned around and walked to the other end of the room, the fire following him as he walked. He ran his hand across the wall until he found the part of the rock which was sandstone. Once he found it, he rubbed away the rock to reveal another symbol.
“What is that?” Axle asked, looking at it. “It looks like the symbol on the altar.”
“Yeah, it should be similar, but if I’m going to know what this is, I have to find all of them,” Bingwen replied, distracted as he looked around.
“Well, if you can tell me what you’re looking for, I can help you find it,” Axle inquired.
“You can’t,” Bingwen replied, not bothering to even look at him.
Axle watched as he moved to another corner, and once he realized it was sandstone, he quickly began running alongside the walls, rubbing them with his hand until he found a part that fell off with ease. He rubbed it clear, revealing a new symbol. He turned and headed for the next one, and cleared it as well.
“I can’t, huh?” Axle asked with a laugh.
The sorcerer snubbed him and walked toward the altar, looking at the symbols, his eyes going from one to another. “Hm.”