The Best Mistakes

[Ramlock]

Danyr would silently curse the shoddy workmanship of whoever had built or designed this building, along with whoever had lived there. What a terrible place it was... How could every single lock and every pathway but one be locked? What if there was a fire? Everyone would be at the mercy of someone else's twisted whims...

Still, with little other choice than to go to ground level, which Danyr had intended to avoid, he would slowly open the one working door, mindful of any occupants despite the negligible chance of there being any. It wasn't a good idea to get spotted now...

[Zach Kaiser]

I think "cunning" would be a better fit for him. He wasn't sure how wise Presmodia was, but he went from being a hostage to basically getting his captors to do his dirty work for him. It didn't sit well with Christoph, but Danyr and Daniel were going with it and there was safety in numbers, not to mention mutually using each other could very well have been the best he could hope for from the Ersatzshad.

"What place is that?" he asked; the thought of ruins reminded him of his quest to find more about his magic, though he had far more pressing concerns at the moment.

But that seems to be the way it always goes.

[Nayt]

The apartment was barren and abandoned. Dust covered every surface in thick layers--layers that had been caked on for years and years. It was unlikely that anyone had lived here . . . . well, ever. Oddly, it was the only apartment door that was actually open.

However, despite all the empty rooms, where beds should have gone, or tables and chairs, toilets and bathtubs, and even a stove in one--or an oven, or both, the apartment had its uses. There were absolutely no supplied to be found, but the windows weren't boarded shut. The windows all faced out, and there were three of them scattered along the west side of the apartment. They all worked fine, too; they could be opened perfectly well--or, at least as well off as they could be, considering age and lack of use.

Danyr, however, needed to get to the north side of the apartment building, where he could continue on towards his destination. Unfortunately, that wasn't a direct option. Fortunately, it was an indirect one. The side of the building had a very thin ledge that ran around it, around the area of the floor on the third story--Danyr's current location. A little lower than the ceiling of the third floor was another thin ledge, which likewise wrapped around the building in its entirety. Danyr wasn't entirely out of options . . .

_____

"It was on your world," Presmodia replied, "And if I'm not mistaken, somewhere in the Prompt region. But it died off long before the elves started in on that place. What archeologists knew about it when that book was written forever ago was all from its pottery and ruins. I don't know if they ever made any new discoveries."

It was around that time when Daniel realized something was missing. At first, he didn't know what. He'd forgotten something, that he was sure of--but what exactly, he didn't know. That would require remembering what he'd forgotten, which was easier said than done . . .

And then, it hit him:

"Aw, damnit! I forgot my coat!" Daniel declared loudly--disappointingly.

And Presmodia didn't take well to being interrupted. He narrowed his eyes on Daniel and snapped quietly, "Yes, yes you did, and you're better off without it."

Daniel folded his arms over his chest and sighed. "I loiked that coat, too."

"Yeah, and I didn't like you in that coat."

[Nayt]

When Danyr finally reached the other side of the building, the apartment complex he was trapped within for some time, he was upon a roof a little closer to the ground, but still one capable of giving him an extremely advantageous vantage point, one he wouldn't have had in the apartment complex, what with most, if not all, of the windows boarded up.

There, he'd see not only the eyes in the streets, all moving back and forth in their fixed patterns, but he'd be able to see blocks down the road. They may have been in the midst of the metropolis, where all of the structures should have remained crowded together and all, but further down the rooftops, there was a refrain. There were less buildings and more open, empty space-- gravel and soot and soil, outstretched for practically a full four acres. It all seemed to be in a full circle, all surrounding a focal central point: a house, a single story structure practically covered with mechanical eyes on all sides, all moving at different, unique patterns.

There was no doubt about it. That was the place Danyr was searching for.

From that point on, it was only a matter of time . . .

The Best Mistakes//Fin.