Lunor Faust's Arc

Chapter 2 of 3

Lunor opened the journal at her research table and flipped through pages of expedition notes. She needed to understand where others had searched before. Her green eyes scanned reports about caves, ruins, and forgotten temples across Tongassia. One article mentioned a site where magical artifacts had been discovered decades ago. She marked the page with her claw and cross-referenced it with her uncle's map. The locations didn't match perfectly, but they were close enough to mean something. She wrote down three possible starting points in her notebook. Tomorrow she would visit the first site, but tonight she had learned something valuable—other searchers had come close to the grimoire without knowing it. Morning came with cold air and clear skies. Lunor packed her new camo battleboard set into her satchel, careful to secure the straps. The sturdy case would protect her uncle's map and her notes while she worked outside. She clipped an illuminator lantern to her belt. The grey and red metal felt solid in her paw. If she stayed out past sunset, she'd need the light to find her way back. She grabbed an apple from the research sanctuary's kitchen and headed for the door. The Employment and Social Services Bureau sat at the edge of town. Its grey and white walls looked clean but empty. Lunor pushed through the front entrance and found rows of filing cabinets covered in dust. Her uncle had worked here before he lost the tome. She opened drawer after drawer, searching for his name. Finally, she found a folder with his employment records. Inside were assignment sheets showing which sites he'd visited. One location appeared three times in a single month. She copied the coordinates onto her map and placed it back in the battleboard case. Outside, Lunor held the map up to the sunlight and studied the route. The repeated site was half a day's walk from here. Her uncle had gone there again and again for a reason. She folded the map carefully and tucked it away. The first real clue was in her paws now, and it pointed somewhere specific. Tomorrow she would walk that path and see what he had seen.