Jigano didn't bother hiding his relief when Killian chose not to go forward. Spiders weren't the worst things he'd faced, but that still didn't make them pleasant, especially when he had no idea how venomous these were. He walked a little behind the younger man as they made their next foray, so that Killian wouldn't be blinded by the light of the burning feather inside the lantern, and was relieved when the webs grew sparser and then fell away behind them. The chamber was larger than he had expected, with occasional pillars of stone interspersed and holding up the floor above, and he was tentatively excited to see the dampness being left behind them and drier conditions prevailing as they walked further from their entry point. It was an eerie space, though, the lantern light only illuminating a circle of yellowish-orange around them, while beyond their surroundings receded into impenetrable blackness. Once there must have been lighting down here, magical or some sort of system of lanterns and mirrors such as the Guildhall sported, but for the moment all that was visible was the area immediately around them.
The lorekeeper paused when his companion did, keeping his ears tuned to the faint sounds around them - distant dripping from the hole they had crawled through, tiny skitterings of mice or bugs in the darkness beyond their light, their own breathing in the near-silence - but following Killian from a little ways back as the younger man began to dig at a pile of wooden rubble. Most things might have disintegrated, but perhaps there were still a few treasures to be unearthed down here? The red book that was held up seemed to be proof of that, and Jigano looked at it eagerly, trading the lantern for the relic and running his fingers lightly over the symbols on the cover.
"As a matter of fact... I think I can," he admitted, bemused and excited. "This is one of the languages I spent the winter translating. I don't have my key with me, but let's see how much I can remember of the structure..." He hummed softly to himself as he opened the ancient tome with gentle, reverent fingers. The paper was yellowed with age and neglect, dangerously ready to crumble at the edges, but the lorekeeper's touch was sure and gentle. "Ahhhh..." he breathed as he scanned what appeared to be a table of contents. "It's an account of the early attempts against the Spire Demon, and what they learned of it... Damn, but this would have been useful a month ago!" He grimaced but closed the book carefully and tucked it into a large pouch at his side that held a grey-bound journal.
"You're lucky you missed that chapter," he told Killian with a wry smile as he took the lantern back and began to amble their way south and west, the farthest reaches of their light bouncing off the far wall at last.
The lorekeeper paused when his companion did, keeping his ears tuned to the faint sounds around them - distant dripping from the hole they had crawled through, tiny skitterings of mice or bugs in the darkness beyond their light, their own breathing in the near-silence - but following Killian from a little ways back as the younger man began to dig at a pile of wooden rubble. Most things might have disintegrated, but perhaps there were still a few treasures to be unearthed down here? The red book that was held up seemed to be proof of that, and Jigano looked at it eagerly, trading the lantern for the relic and running his fingers lightly over the symbols on the cover.
"As a matter of fact... I think I can," he admitted, bemused and excited. "This is one of the languages I spent the winter translating. I don't have my key with me, but let's see how much I can remember of the structure..." He hummed softly to himself as he opened the ancient tome with gentle, reverent fingers. The paper was yellowed with age and neglect, dangerously ready to crumble at the edges, but the lorekeeper's touch was sure and gentle. "Ahhhh..." he breathed as he scanned what appeared to be a table of contents. "It's an account of the early attempts against the Spire Demon, and what they learned of it... Damn, but this would have been useful a month ago!" He grimaced but closed the book carefully and tucked it into a large pouch at his side that held a grey-bound journal.
"You're lucky you missed that chapter," he told Killian with a wry smile as he took the lantern back and began to amble their way south and west, the farthest reaches of their light bouncing off the far wall at last.
