Chapter 109 - The chains that bind
A wide bedchamber opened up before Allyssa. Paintings, mirrors, and other decorations hung off the walls, and near the center was an ornate bed with a marble dressing table next to it and a chest placed at its foot. There were no windows, yet an indentation in the ceiling held a panel that lit up the room in a soft, white light. The panel looked like it could have been made of the same material most magical lamps were, but it was massive compared to them. She couldn’t even imagine how expensive that would be.
Her eyes passed over the bed and a few bureaus that were placed around the room. There were dolls on them. Not as many as in some of the other rooms they’d seen up till now, but they looked to be the same—or at least a similar type as the ones back in the Withersworth cellar.
“Stay here for now,” Sir Leon said and stepped past her into the room, his sword at the ready.
None of the dolls moved.
He continued even further inside, but the dolls remained still.
The knight looked back at Allyssa and Rosa. “You can enter. Stay close to me.”
They walked through the door, looking around as they took the rest of the room in. Unlike the other parts of the mansion that they had been in, this room felt a lot calmer. It didn’t have that same sense of foreboding that seemed to stick to the rest of this place like a veil of untreated Nettle Tar. There was a tranquility to this room. As well as something else. Something that Allyssa couldn’t quite place.
“I can’t detect anything in particular here, discounting the dolls,” Sir Leon said, eyeing them closely. Then he looked back at her. “But you’re still saying it feels special in some way?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Or, yes, I guess. But not really. It’s obviously different from the rest of what we’ve seen, with just how calm it is here. But there’s something more to it.”
“It’s lived in. That’s what’s different.” Rosa’s somber tone reached Allyssa from the side. “Or it was, once. The feeling just never left.”
She turned to look at the bard, then froze when she saw Rosa move to pick up one of the dolls sitting on the marble dresser. “Wait, don’t—”
The doll was picked up without issue.