Whispering Verse

When Shade took out the last signed document, Luvia reached out and took another framed document on the side:

"Look at this."

Shade looked over, and the first thing he saw was the red seal in the lower left corner, which was the king's personal seal. It is not "Lion Lion", the father of the contemporary king Margaret, but the king of the previous generation. This document was the letter sent by His Majesty the King to recruit local masons to go to Willendale to build the Colossus. Unexpectedly, it was placed together with the documents from the initial establishment of the Masons' Association. This is enough to illustrate the importance of this matter in the Masons' Association.

Luvia looked at the letter with great interest, while Shade carefully distinguished the twisted Carson Rick text from the founding contract of the Masons' Association. Although the masons of that year could write their own names, their handwriting was worse than that of the foreigners who had just arrived in the world last summer and were getting familiar with the local script.

Fortunately, he finally identified the surname "Fleming" from it, which showed that there was really a Fleming among the founders of the Masons' Association. Looking at this simple contract again, the founders equally divided the equity of the association and agreed not to give this power to the hands of those in power. Mr. Fleming also had a shareholding, which was probably inherited by others after his disappearance, so now his name is rarely mentioned in the association. "I found it."

Shade whispered to Luvia, pointing to the name on the document. Luvia stretched her head to look, and was about to say something. Suddenly, a bang bang bang sound came from the side. The two of them looked at the door in surprise. Someone actually knocked on the door at this time:

"who?"

The knock on the door only rang three times before disappearing. Both Shade and Luvia were sure that they heard it correctly.

Shade handed the documents to Luvia and asked her to restore the safe, while he carefully approached the door. He put his hand on the door, but felt nothing. After opening the door, there was no one in the dark corridor.

"Is this... stone chips?"

His eyes caught some traces on the ground, and when he bent down, he discovered that they were stone chips produced when carving stone statues. If you listen carefully, you can hear a slight tinkling sound in the distance, as if the head of a hammer is hitting the chisel rhythmically.

At this time, Luvia, who had locked the safe, also walked to the door. Naturally, she heard the noise coming from the empty corridor:

"Really showed up?"

Looking at Shade suspiciously, Shade shook his head slightly and said that he didn't know what was going on: "First he knocked on the door, and then made this sound. It's a very standard horror story plot." Luvia tossed a coin casually:

"The danger is not great. It's not as dangerous as in the past."

With a fortune teller, everything becomes easy.

"Okay, let's follow and have a look. Get ready to fight and hope not to make too much noise."

Following the subtle voice, Shade and Luvia returned from the third floor to the second floor, and then from the second floor to the first floor. But when we arrived on the first floor, the clanking sound disappeared immediately.

Fortunately, Luvia was by her side, and her divination led the two of them to the courtyard behind the Masonic Guild building, and then they entered the stone statue warehouse in the north, which was also the warehouse that Shade and the playwright went to this afternoon. …

The door of the warehouse was closed tightly. When Shade unlocked it, he saw that it was completely dark inside. It was indeed as scary as the middle-aged stonemason said. When a normal person faces this kind of situation, of course it is best not to go in, otherwise it will be a standard horror story. But for Shade and Luvia, there is no need to worry about ghosts or anything like that. The two of them walked in together, but after walking around they saw nothing. So he could only leave from the door in disappointment, not even forgetting to lock the warehouse from the outside.

"Oh, I was scared to death. I almost got discovered."

The old man's sigh sounded in the dark warehouse. As a faint orange light appeared, the fire from the middle of the warehouse illuminated the small area in the warehouse.

The light did not come from gas lamps or candles, but someone had set up a coal stove in the warehouse.

At this moment, a huge shadow is reflected on the wall of the warehouse by the light of the stove, and

The owner of the shadow is an old man with a bandage on his forehead, dark blue suspenders overalls and half-white hair who is carving a stone statue next to the lit coal stove.

He seems to be working on a standing figure. The body of the stone statue has been almost carved, but the face has no facial features.

The old man put down the hammer and chisel in his hands:

"You can still encounter something like this after death. The young man just now actually looked scarier than the exorcist priest from the church last year."

He whispered softly, and then suddenly noticed the sound of stones rubbing against the ground around him. Suddenly startled in his heart, the old mason subconsciously showed a look of fear, and then realized that he died last autumn:

"I am also an undead, who is afraid of whom?"

Although this comforted himself, the old soul was still a little scared. He observed his surroundings nervously and finally discovered something unusual. At the edge of the firelight of the charcoal stove that appeared with the emergence of his own soul, there was a stone statue that he had never seen in this warehouse.

It was an angel statue, but the statue looked very strange. Normal angel statues usually stretch their bodies to show divinity and love, but this angel statue has its wings curled up behind its back, its body hunched over, and its eyes even covered with its two palms.

The old stonemason was quite convinced that this was not something in the Masons' guild. Then, the terrifying legends I heard from other old people in my childhood appeared in my memory:

"The Weeping Angel? The protagonist of a horror story who can petrify any living creature!"

Although he didn't know whether the rumored monster was also effective on souls, he still followed the experience of the old people, covered his face with his hands, and squatted down with his back to the fire. I didn't hear any more sounds for a long time, and just as I was about to peek behind me, I heard footsteps.

"Footsteps? Not a stone statue?"

The old mason's soul turned around and saw Shade looking at him inquiringly. He was so frightened that he took two steps back, and then thought again that he was the undead:

"Young man, go quickly! There is a terrible monster here!" The old stonemason reminded kindly. Shade thought for a while:

"Is this what you're talking about?"

He covered his face again. The old stonemason looked at him in shock, knowing that he had been trapped: "That girl obviously went out with you!"...

"Of course it's an illusion." Shade said easily:

"Don't leave if you're here. I'll call my companion in and we'll talk. Don't leave. I know you're here and you can't escape."

When Shade and Luvia walked along the path among the many stone statues and returned to the center of the warehouse, the soul of the old stonemason was carving stone statues there again. Although the old man seemed to be an entity, both Shade and Luvia saw that this was actually an undead spirit. However, this is just the soul of an ordinary person. Although it has some special methods and is good at hiding, it is not even an evil spirit. Using his voice to attract two people and control the stone statues here is the best he can do.

When the two of them stood around the light of the fire, the old man stopped what he was doing and put the hammer and chisel on the trolley beside him. He stared at his work, his cloudy eyes shining in the firelight: "You caught me, but I still want to say-young people, stealing is wrong."

The soul turned to look at the two of them. The "turning head" here really turned its head. Only the head moved, and the body and neck did not move:

"If you just take other belongings, I will not knock on the door to warn you, but you should not touch the contents of the safe. That is the foundation of the association - so I am not an evil soul. Please do not destroy me. .”

"We are not here to destroy you. Just like what you said, you are not an evil spirit. I also want to declare that we are not thieves. You see, we didn't take anything."

Shade spread his hands to indicate that he had empty hands:

"In fact, we came here just to take a look at the documents, not to value them."

"Yes, sir, if we are bad guys, there are ways to directly torture the soul to get the answer."

dew

Via also said, and the old stonemason nodded and continued to turn his head to look at the stone sculpture he had carved. Interestingly, the stone carvings and the fire are also part of his soul, which are the special abilities possessed by this spirit:

"As long as you didn't steal anything, you have nothing to do with me if you didn't steal anything."

The warehouse door in the distance creaked, and he wanted Shade and Luvia to leave. But neither of them moved. Shade asked curiously:

"Are you the founder of the Society, Mr. Fleming?"

"Oh, no, young man, you have mistaken the person. How could I be such a great person?" The old man shook his head hurriedly:

"My name is John Humphrey, a very ordinary stonemason. Last autumn." "Last autumn, I was killed in the earthquake."

Shade suddenly understood, and at the same time he understood why this soul was still here after the church's exorcism ceremony. Obviously, this is not an evil spirit. Even among all the souls that Shade has seen, this is the most sober soul. The church probably also discovered traces of this soul, but if it were not an evil spirit, the church would not interfere too much. After all, the soul that resides in the material world will leave sooner or later.

He reached out to touch the mithril cube in his pocket and found no response before he remembered that Thomas Granger left the cube nearly seventy years ago, and the soul in front of him died only last year.

"Yes, during the earthquake last year, I was the unlucky guy who was killed by the most perfect work I carved. Young man, do you know me?"

The old man was a little surprised:

"Did you hear what the people in the association said? It's really good to be remembered by others." He showed a satisfied smile.

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