Morpheus Keep Tunnel Corridor (Below from Effigy Room, connects to all MK rooms)

A stone staircase connects this vast tunnel corridor, which in turn connects to all of the rooms of Morpheus Keep in one circuit-like pathway. It is wide enough to allow three grown men to walk down it side-by-side with a decent amount of elbow-room. One's footsteps tend to click against the granite floor. Oddly enough, footfalls tend to be even louder than the noise emitting from the generator room.

Must be the sound-proofing charm on said piece of machinery...


Stark electrical lights line the hallways and cast the area in a pale-yellow hue. These lights go out at 10 pm, so one will either need a lamp or the light of a wand to find their way through the hall. Don't worry about getting lost - every so often, Tav and Valerio graffitied a map onto the wall for you!

One wonders if anyone will notice any further graffiti? After all, there are probably spray paint cans down here...

... somewhere.

Valerio Addams casually leaned against the tunnel wall, at a loss for what to do. His father had told him to wait for the "opportune moment," but never did he really specify when that was. The young man wished he knew precisely what his father had meant by that.

With a sigh, Valerio removed from his belt the dagger he had inherited, more or less. The blade was in actuality two, in the design of twin serpents entwining. Despite both his and his father's attempts to clean it, a small hint of a bloodstain remained.

Amaranth Viper's blood.

How the dagger had come to be in Addams family possession was not entirely a mystery... In fact, Valerio knew about half of it from personal experience. One could tell by looking at it that it was an heirloom of the Viper clan - the state of the weapon and related engravings told him that much. It was with a sad irony that it was a weapon of Amaranth Viper's own family that, in the end, caused her demise... thoughts of this weapon were - for Valerio at least - most unpleasant...

From what he knew, Amaranth had passed the dagger from her family to Sevastyan Kaminski - her husband - who practically carried it with him everywhere. That would easily explain how the purgers would have been able to get into such a fortified residence as Viper Manor. Whomever had killed Sevastyan must have took it from him. Valerio winced at the mental image he'd conjured.

Had someone took the weapon from Sevastyan's grasp and rammed it down his throat?

Valerio hoped not...

With Amaranth... gone... Valerio hated saying someone was dead, the Vipera dagger had no other owner except his father, Ethan. The man always kept it in a prominent place: a memorial to his one-time student and practically lifelong friend. Valerio promised not to tell the Kaminski kids that their mother had died, sharing his father's worry that they would not be able to handle the fact that both parents were dead. Despite the cheery front he tended to maintain, it tore at him whenever he learned of a spat between them over their parents.

He felt sorry for everyone here, for they had lost one if not both parents to the purgers' wrath.


Eventually, Valerio came to the conclusion that he really needed to get this dagger to one of the kids before they traveled to the future. The thing was, which child did he dare give it to? On the one hand, Lara was the eldest... yet Demyan was technically the male heir... and then there was little Lynn, who was surely too young to remember either of her parents.

The wizard sighed: this was a rather interesting dilemma. He needed to consult somebody about this decision, for he was personally at a loss. But who? And where were they when he needed them? Before one of the Kaminskis could round the corner and find him, Valerio placed the dagger back into its sheath and crossed his arms.

Anyone that came upon him would be able to clearly see he was having one of his semi-rare serious moments.

Ta entered the tunnel corridor. "Haven't seen you this pensive in a long time, Valerio." Tav remarked, his voice level. "Everything alright?"

Valerio blinked and focused his hazel orbs on the other young man. He offered Tav a faint remnant of his usual grin. "Yeah, I'm all right mate... just thinkin' about my Dad and how cryptic he got... and sorta was in the first place sometimes..." A slight laugh punctuated the statement. "See, he asked me to do something at an 'opportune moment' but never really specified what exactly he meant. It's been driving me batty lately."

"But what about yourself and our troops? Holdin' up?" The smile widened to a very small grin as Valerio said this. The phrase 'our troops' was a term he sometimes used to refer to the other members of The Remnant as a whole.

"Ah, I see." Tav nodded. It was usually him standing around brooding, not Valerio. But he accepted the fact that everyone needed a moment now and then to reflect.
"They're holding up just fine." he smiled. "Mostly just passing the time." Tav folded his arms over his chest as he wondered about what Valerio's father might have meant. But he wasn't going to pry.

"I was looking for you...kind of wanted to ask you when you wanted to give the Vortex another try."

"Good good," Valerio replied with an enthusiastic nod very much like his father's, which is also to say was very much more like himself. He could see the question in his best friend's eyes, but knew Tav wasn't likely to ask despite his curiosity.

"Ah, the vortex," he kind of sighed. Yes, they needed to get a move on with that. "Anytime's fine, really. I mean, we aren't getting any younger are we?" Finally, the grin commonly seen plastered to Valerio's face made its entrance.

"Say... hypothetically, if you were a maternal family heirloom that needed to go to one of three children: which one would you pick?" he inquired randomly. Valerio wasn't really sure that anyone in The Remnant knew about Amaranth Viper's burial on Keep grounds except for him... the wizard had kept the secret well, just as his father asked.

The proverbial cat might as well be let out of the metaphorical bag... after all, since he had the dagger that killed Amaranth Viper-Kaminski then the body had to have been found - which it was. The next thing was explaining it, unless he could get around that little glitch with certain individuals.

One Larissa Kaminski being on the top of said list...

"So you wanna head down there now?" Tav asked. He had completed everything he could do for the time being and had an hour or two to kill. He smiled at the mention of them not getting any younger.

Valerio's question was not entirely unexpected, but he hadn't expected it to be so...subtle.
"Speaking hypothetically? Well, I suppose I'd want to be given to the one who would take care of me and use me accordingly." Rather an odd question, but Tav was used to oddities since everyone around him was either a wizard or a witch.

"Sure," replied Valerio. He had nothing pressing to do other than mull over the various meanings of the phrase 'opportune moment', and it was really starting to drive him insane.

"Fair enough... though I suppose it'd be good of me to give you some background input on what I'm talkin' about, huh?" he returned with a laugh. "I'll explain on the way... which way is it again?" Valerio consulted the map briefly and then started to walk with Tav at his side.

Without missing a beat, the wizard removed the dagger again and held it out for Tav to examine. "My dad was the one to find Amaranth Kaminski. Dead, of course, by the time he got there. This dagger had been plunged into her throat..." Valerio paused to shudder at the memory. "He didn't think the Kaminski kids could handle the fact that both parents were dead when it happened... Hell, the youngest was only four. So, we buried her here next to Vastyan, and Dad more or less inherited this thing.

"Naturally, when he died, that put me in the position of keepin' it until the maddeningly-elusive 'opportune moment'. Not really sure which kid to give it to, to tell ya the truth, or if now's even the right time," Valerio explained openly.

Tav nodded, listening to Valerio divulge the background to what he had been talking about. He examined the ornate dagger as he walked, a look of wonder mixed with grave realization on his face. So this was the weapon that had been used to killed Amaranth Viper, he mused.
"Who did the dagger formerly belong to?" he asked, although by the snakes he was fairly certain it was a Viper heirloom. Never hurt to be certain.

"I see. Well, if you're talking about Lara, Demyan and Lyn...I'd wait a bit. The right time hasn't presented itself in my eyes." But then again he wasn't certain. It was a pickle of a problem to be sure. He trusted Valerio's judgment though. And as his friend, he would do anything he could to help.

"Amaranth gave it to Vastyan, insofar as I know. I remember that year, as I had got to spend Christmas with my dad at Hogwarts... Who had the dagger before then, I don't rightly know," Val answered. He had been about to say that whomever had it before was probably dead, but the wizard didn't mention this part. Death was a particularly touchy subject for all of The Remnant, or so he thought. Valerio could hardly blame anyone for being that way what with the way, either, after all that had happened.

Valerio nodded, thankful to have a friend like Tav to confide in. Neither were fathers but he was the youngest of his siblings, save his half-sister, while Tav was the oldest. "D'you reckon I should at least tell them? I mean, they deserve to know... and I hate keeping it from them. But at the same time I don't want to push them over the edge," Valerio asked.

The door to the Vortex Chamber was now in sight.

Tav sighed. So he had been correct. Not certain how the Kamiski "clan" would respond to the dagger, he bit his lip. It was no secret that Demyan and Lara had different views on their deceased parents. Somehow he doubted that showing them the dagger would help anything... except maybe, no Tav wasn't going to go there.

"That's gonna be a problem, Val." Tav muttered. He stopped right outside of the chamber. "It's already been kept from them. If you tell them now or later, it will have the same effect. And I'm not exactly sure what that effect might be...but its probably not going to be a good one." He opened the Vortex Chamber's door and sighed and they walked in.

Valerio lowered his eyes guiltily at Tav's reasoning. He was right, of course. The worst thing was, both Addams father and son were to blame: Ethan for wanting to keep the secret, and Valerio for following his father's wish for the kids' continued ignorance. Mirroring Tav's sigh, though for once not out of playfully attempting to annoy, the wizard followed his friend into the Vortex Chamber without a word.

What had his father gotten him into?!

((Different timeline))

Eliza wandered along the corridor, completely aimless.

And slightly worried.

Where was Darius? And where was her mother's book?

And which one did she care about more?!

((ouch - XD))

Darius approached Eliza tentatively.

He felt slightly guilty for taking the book.... but he was just trying to have some fun, he didn't meant anything by it.

((lol...))

"Darius!" Eliza was torn between relief and annoyance.

"Here is..." Darius flattered slightly. "Here is your book..."

He didn't dare look at her eyes.

"Thanks..." Calista took the book and placed it on the floor beside her.

Then she gave her little brother a hug.

"Oof..." Darius said as the wind was knocked out of him. "Eliza... I can't breath..."

"Don't ever do that again! I was worried." Eliza released her brother.

"What if you'd gone on the surface and got caught?!"

"I'm not going up there..." Darius said slowly.

"Good!" Eliza finally released her brother.

"And don't take my book again." She added, as an afterthought.

Unsure as she was, when it came down to it, Darius was a hundred times more important than her mother's book.

"I'm sorry I took it... I didn't know..." Darius said lamely.

"It's okay Darius...I know you wouldn't have taken it if you'd known." She smiled at her brother. "I'm just glad you're okay."

"Why wouldn't I be?" Darius asked.

Eliza shrugged. "Any number of reasons. I guess I'm being a bit paranoid." She smiled weakly.