“Only this broken rifle.” Joe pointed at two halves of a firearm on the ground.

Irfan touched the body.

“Definitely claws. Creature is very strong, has sharp claws, doesn’t care much for ambushing… or was spooked.”

“Spooked enough to destroy half of the guarded territory?” Would it really be capable of such a task?

Irfan nodded, then reluctantly shook his head, deep in thought.

“Can’t figure it out. I know at least five types that fit and are strong enough to take on a group of armed people. I need something more. Something concrete…”

“What about explosions and ashes then?” Pat was looking back at the square. “Could there be any connection?”

“Not sure. Some predators are afraid of fire, some are not. Could be startled by explosions. But that applies to a lot of animals too. I don’t know. I am more worried that it attacked a place full of people. Most predators wouldn’t dare unless something forces them to.”

Joseph glanced at the ruined entrance. Same as the square, ash, and burns all over the spot. But only this spot. Windows, near the door, were shattered, with iron bars on them bent in the opposite direction from the double door.

“Explosion happened right here," Joe concluded. "I don’t see any signs of it near any other area of the wall. Whoever did it was going straight for the main entryway, ignoring any other possibility.”

“A predator and a bomber… could there be different forces at play?” Doctor suggested.

Joseph and Irfan nodded.

“Looks about right. Let’s explore the mansion, we might find at least some answers inside.”

Pat clutched his blunderbuss with shaking arms, glancing at the inviting entryway to hell. Irfan pulled out a pistol and took cover near left side of the wall. Joe glanced at the shaking rat and gestured him to take the right side.

Joseph looked around the area one last time, in case someone managed to sneak up on them.

“We ready?”

Both nodded, one stoically and one with a lot of effort.

“I’m going in.”

*****

“Could really use a lantern right now…”

So far it was quiet. The inner lobby had the smell of an ancient mold, with untouched dirt and dust all around, but it seemed like the bomber failed to get inside - there were no signs of an actual fire. The light outside was providing barely enough vision to see the hallway and a huge staircase in front of them.

They encountered piles of trash again, but this time, Joseph noticed that some of them had undamaged clothes. Black-red uniforms, shirts, trousers, some hats, and a couple of thick wool jackets.

Pat gulped.

“Now I think we know what those piles are…”

Joe poked one with a rifle. The clothes were in a somewhat serviceable condition. Wool jackets weren’t eaten by moths.

“Does this island has any insects? I feel like we are missing a lot of obvious signs here, and it makes me unhappy.”

“The bodies weren’t eaten. No worms either." Irfan was nodding, coming to the exact same conclusion. "This is all wrong. This land feels like a graveyard.”

“I would agree, both fauna and flora are completely screwed. To be honest… it feels like some sort of magical catastrophe happened. With those explosions, burned bodies, dead ecosystem… I am no Mage, but I feel like the air itself is filled with Death here…”

“Meteors? Fireballs? But what about an animal?” Joe wondered.

“Void devour me if I knew the answer to that.” Pat threw his hands up.

They decided to check the left side of the floor first.

The hallway was more-or-less clean. Well, cleaner than the main entrance - which wasn't much to write about. Joe found a kitchen on the left side. There, in the corner, he saw a familiar container.

“I found a freezer!”

Pat emerged from a room nearby. Irfan pushed a door in-between shelves.

“I saw something that may very well be a servant room. A number of simple wooden beds, a sink and a toilet. Wardrobe was closed. Clothes were spread around, they looked well decorated, but nothing extravagant or suited to the taste of the rich. What do you have, Irfan?”

Hunter stepped to the side.

“A half-full food storage." Joe picked up a slice of bread. It was lying there for so long, Joe could crush a brick with it, and the bread would retain its exact form. "Makes a lot of sense."

“Should we open the freezer, then?” Pat ran his hand across a bolt.

All three of them nodded.

Joseph touched a bolt.

“It’s open…” Joe tried to pull a door. It was barely moving. “Irfan, need a hand here.”

Hunter grabbed a handle.

“Three, two, one-a-ah?!”

They were greeted with a tall piece of ice falling out. Joe barely managed to jump away.

“A second in this building and I almost got pancaked by a piece of ice... Some generous hosts these people were. Is this a man?”

“Yep. It is, indeed, a man. In a flash, if there is still anything left.”

Joseph felt disappointed.

“Victim hiding in a fridge. Classic horror blunder. Can we free him?”

Pat looked around.

“If you put him into oven…”

The idea was tempting. Irfan coughed.

“We are wasting time. We can come back if we find nothing useful.”

Moving onward was nice and all, but they could really use a breather right now.

“Agreed, but I suggest taking a break. It’s been… how long?”

Pat pulled out a watch.

“It is almost five of evening. We’ve been wandering for three hours at least.”

Joe reminded himself to get a watch at the very first opportunity.

“How long until full sunset?”

The rat-faced doctor scratched the back of the head.

“It’s the middle of July. So… plenty?”

Middle of July… wait a second. July?

“What day is it? Number, I mean?”

“Erm… 15th of July?”

“Which year?”

“Year 961 from the birth of the Threshold.”

July… birth of Threshold… the gears in Joseph’s head began spinning rapidly, but before he managed to ask any more questions, the unexpected cracking sound scattered across the kitchen. Joe turned his head to the source, only to see Irfan lifting a barrel lid.

“That was a tough one… just water.”

“Hold on!” Pat’s face brightened up. “We were supposed to bring some food and water, right?”

“And spices for Ralf. He was still whining about that.” Some food in the storage was still serviceable, but there was no way Joe would take that bread with them.

Irfan tilted his head.

“It’s great and all… but how do we carry it all back?”

“The truck!" Pat raised his finger to the ceiling. "We need a crank for it. I am pretty sure I remember how to drive a car, so if we manage to get it working, we can transport anything we find.”

That was a great idea, but Joseph recalled one small detail. Very insignificant one.

“What about the tree blockade?”

Irfan and Pat looked at each other and shrugged in unison.

Joseph stood up.

“Well, I guess we can figure it out when we get there. Let’s get something cooking, I am starving in here…”

*****

They wasted too much time. When Pat was checking his watch again, it was almost seven in the evening. Before that, they searched through the right-wing and a second floor. They stumbled upon the armory of the right side, on the first floor and they found guards’ rooms right above on the second.

Irfan tried to lift a huge crate in the corner, but it was a futile task. Pat decided to move ahead, while Joe noticed a package on the table near the very same metal crate.

Across the staircase leading to the second floor, they found a number of free rooms, decorated with gold and black marble. As well as well-embroidered carpets, with pictures of animals and weird eldritch looking creatures, that owners of the house put on display. The beds in these rooms came straight from films about the 19th century.

Pat called the place “tasteless” and Joseph couldn’t agree more - one or two rooms would be just fine, but the entire wing full of this stuff got him thinking that whoever built this mansion, they were in love with their own riches. So much, there were flaunting their status at every opportunity.

Doctor sighed.

“This mansion has a lot of useless space. Even soldiers’ rooms didn’t have anything useful, just uniforms. No keys either… where they could even be?”

“Well, we found this in the armory…” Joseph was holding his newfound toy. One he got after opening the package he found.

“What’s that?”

The thing looked like someone removed the stock from his rifle, shoved a twelve-bullet drum magazine on top of its body, added a wooden handle grip, replaced a thin barrel with a slightly bigger one, and added big long cylindrical mechanism underneath.

“No idea. I’d guess some kind of parody on a semi-automatic rifle.”

“Semi-automatic rifle?” Pat’s face was expressing concern. “I heard it was only a theoretic weapon from Alchfrid. You think this is it?”

“Theoretic? What about the machine gun on the ship, then?”

Pat shrugged.

“I am talking about weapons, that can actually be used by a hand. Threshold Chain Guns work on electricity and are very heavy for a normal person to even pick them up, let alone use efficiently on foot. This is why fast shooting firearms for infantry were only a theory. During the time I was living in the Capital, anyway.”

Joseph examined a weapon. Drum magazine left little room for suggestions. The question was - is it working as intended?

Three thunder-loud shots erupted through the mansion.

“What in the void are you doing, you dumb piece of gutter waste?!!”

“Huh, it works…" Joe muttered to himself. "Not as fast as I thought it would, but it works.”

Echo faded away. Mansion was still quiet and unmoving, completely ignoring three stooges who breached its ice-cold privacy.

They waited for a minute. Nobody heard or saw anything off.

“Don’t do that next time…” grumbled poor doctor. Then his eyes flared up with intensity. “But if it works… then Alchfrid was wrong all along. Weapon engineers made it possible, which means that Empire got some technology development since then… But we should’ve learned that a long time ago. Where did this weapon even come from?”

Nobody had a satisfying answer. However, shouldn't the doctor be the one to know that?

“Weren’t you hunting down ships? Doesn’t it include Imperial ships?”

Pat ran his hand through non-existing hair.

“No idea what Captain’s thinking… but ever since I got on Morning Star a year ago, we’ve mostly been flying either on the outskirts or outside of the Sumeilien territory, in Lower Reaches. Alchfrid was very cautious about going any deeper, and as of late, I can see why. The crew doesn’t like it much, though. Less loot this way.”

Irfan nodded.

“Makes sense. Sometimes we haven’t seen the military in weeks. People say patrols are everywhere near the mainland now.”

“I see.” Joe scratched his chin.

But if these weapons are already developed, why did their crew never found a single one? That doesn't make much sense.

While they walking towards the third floor, Irfan got an idea.

“You know, if we take all those carpets and gold in those rooms, we can sell them.”

“Spoken like a true pirate, mate.” Pat grinned. “I agree, but right now we are trapped and have no way of moving them to the boats.”

Joseph was on board with the plan.

“We can solve one problem with a crank. Trees though… You think we can burn them?”

Pat glanced at Irfan’s injured fingers.

“If it even burns. I can’t analyze this substance without tools, and only Roth has suitable ones for it. So I wouldn’t do anything rash before we will be able to figure out some properties of this thing. If this is some type of Magical goo, then we have to be thrice as careful.”

They stopped near the staircase leading to the first floor. Two sets of stairs were leading up, to the left and right, symmetrically from the spot they were standing on. Joe and Irfan inspected the visible area above. Joe had no idea what hunter could see, but he himself was staring into almost impenetrable darkness. He shivered, as his mind obligingly demonstrated to him the memories of the Tearing.

Wasn’t even that long ago, but I feel like days had passed since then…

“Irfan, anything?”

“Nothing. Should I go up?”

“Nowhere to go, but up…” Whispered Pat.

They exchanged glances. Irfan was stoic as ever, but his eyes were fired up. Pat wasn’t shaking as much as before, with cold determination on his face. Slightly offset by the fact that he was still clutching his weapon with pale fingers. Joe… He wasn’t sure what he was feeling.

Excitement? Fear? Everything together and something else?

It was time to find out.

Irfan went first.

Joseph followed.