Lorian was completely surprised with the revelation.
Kaelen continued, "If Alkaz was the left hand of Lord Cassian, Arthaz is his right hand! And his coming here means….."
"Yeah, I know!" Lorian stopped him before he could say something that could lead him to serious consequences.
Now it was to be decided what was supposed to be done with this.
Kaelen suggested an official raid on the building to catch everyone red-handed.
However, Lorian reminded him that if the raid ended up in failure, it would not only damage his reputation but also make the enemies alert as well. After all, none of them knew how much Cassian's influence had spread among the ranks of Thorne Guards. Any news of such an operation could alert the enemies early enough to give them the opportunity to shift or destroy the proofs.
Kaelen realized the practicality of this and suggested raiding it by themselves at night. However, this time Jax objected to it.
Jax reminded them of what they had heard till now: the warehouse gets busy at midnight, as lights would start flickering and voices would be heard. It meant, at night, there were many people inside. It was not a good idea to infiltrate the enemy territory with just three of them, when the enemy hideout would have the greatest number of enemies inside.
Saying this, Jax suggested he will try to peer inside the warehouse to check who could be inside so that they could be prepared when entering and not fall right into a trap.
With Lorian's permission, Jax took out his shoes and, with a feline grace that would betray his size, climbed up on the roof of the warehouse.
After carefully scanning the dark interior for a while, he jumped back in front of Lorian and Kaelen without making any noise and gave them a nod suggesting it was alright to enter.
Now the next problem was how to enter.
However, neither Kaelen nor Jax knew their lord was going to have help from the beyond.
Lorian closed in his mind and issued a mental command to summon the 'Hidden Details' scroll.
As he opened his eyes and instinctively stretched his hand with an open palm as a gesture of receiving a gift, the scroll appeared and gently fell on his hand.
Lorian issued a mental declaration of consuming the scroll.
The scroll disintegrated into golden light particles, and a blue screen appeared.
< 'Scroll of Hidden Details' has been consumed by the user.
Usage remaining: 3/3
Time remaining: 24 hrs >
Jax and Kaelen were looking at their master making such weird gestures. They did not get what was happening but considered it a way how genius minds work, as they had heard of before.
Meanwhile, Lorian found the whole landscape around him completely changed.
It seemed everything was enveloped in golden grids as if it were some 3D animation on a computer.
The grid pulsated thrice, and it vanished, and now there was a golden outline of a liver that was visible from one of the crates.
Lorian got his clue.
He pulled down the wooden crates one by one, much to the objection of Kaelen and Jax, as they were not ready to let their lord do such a menial task.
However, Lorian was in a trance-like situation, as he was not paying attention to what was happening, and he was just pulling down the crates.
On the bottommost crate he discovered a pile of normal-looking iron rods. However, one iron road among them was still covered in a bright golden outline. As soon as he touched it, the vision around Lorian became normal again.
The rod was still warm. With a gentle twist, it rotated, and the floor beneath Lorian's feet suddenly vanished, making him fall on a haystack underground.
The thick haystack cushioned his fall, making not only a safe but also a silent landing as well.
However, the hole above his head, from which he had fallen, was still open.
But seeing it suddenly get dark, he realized what was going to happen, and he swiftly got down from the haystack.
Proving him right Kaelen fell on haystack and then Jax directly on him.
Before Kaelen could shout in pain as Jax had fallen directly on his back, Lorian quickly handgagged him.
After coming out from the initial shock, they stood up on their feet.
The hole on the floor was still open. There had to be a similar lever to close it from the top.
But, before that, the crate, which was still open aboveground, was to be kept as it was before.
On Lorian's command, Jax quickly climbed up the staircase on the wall to go above ground, kept the crates as they were before, and again jumped down.
There was nothing special like a lever other than the torch on the wall. He took a gamble and twisted the Torch to see if it really closed the open roof.
However, now there was very little lamination for them to navigate around.
But it was no issue, as Jax was there to guide them.
Both Lorian and Kalene put their hands on Jax's shoulder as Jax guided them through the dark alley.
After walking a while in the serpentine lane, they eventually arrived in a rather ill-lit and broad passage. Jax raised his hand to signal Lorian and Kaelen to stay alert and stop in their tracks. They remained in the shadow while Jax tiptoed in the passage in feline silence.
He surveyed the whole passage to discover it was deserted. However, at the end of the passage there was a closed door, and from behind the door, voices could be heard. Jax was in a bit of a dilemma, whether to continue eavesdropping or signal Kaelen and Lorian to join him. But they were arguing over some important things, and he did not want to miss any snippet while he was gone—even a small piece of information can be most important, Lord Lorian always says. So he decided to continue eavesdropping.
Meanwhile, Lorian and Kaelen were getting restless seeing Jax taking too much time to return. On Lorian's command, Kaelen decided to check on Jax. Slowly, stealthily, he walked near the mouth of the illuminated passageway to peep into the other side to look for Jax.
Kaelen peeped to discover Jax was leaning on the other side of the door, in a pose of eavesdropping. However, Jax's eyes, fixed on the other side, caught Kaelen's head coming out from cover.
He hand-gestured to signal them to lay low and stay hidden while he continued eavesdropping.
Kaelen nodded his head to signal he got the clue.
However, suddenly Jax's bestial instinct triggered, and, just like a scared cat, he jumped on his feet to fix himself on the ceiling above the door, where his dark fur gave him natural cover in the darkness of the roof.
The door opened below him.