Thalia remained where she was, the obsidian ring on her left ring finger still giving off a noticeable warmth.
It was nowhere near hot enough to burn her skin, but the reaction was stronger than anything she had felt from it before, making it difficult to ignore.
She glanced down at the ring, then looked back at the wall across from her.
“I think it’s there.”
Ivan followed her gaze but did not approach immediately.
Instead, he carefully looked around the room first.
The room itself was not particularly large, and there was no furniture against that section of the wall.
Much of the wallpaper had peeled away, exposing the yellowed plaster beneath it.
A few thin cracks ran near the corner, but otherwise there was nothing that looked different from the rest of the neglected manor.
If Thalia’s ring had not reacted, neither of them would have thought to pay the wall any special attention.
Ivan walked over and tapped lightly against the surface.
The dull sound carried clearly through the quiet room.
He moved slowly along the wall, testing several places until he reached a spot near the lower right side.
The sound changed.
This time, it was slightly hollow.
Thalia heard it too and immediately came closer.
“There’s empty space behind it?”
“At least behind this section.”
Ivan crouched and examined the wall more closely.
The wallpaper there had deteriorated badly, but beneath the dust he noticed a faint seam.
With the paper already torn and the surface covered in years of grime, it could easily have been mistaken for another crack in the plaster.
Thalia crouched beside him.
As soon as she moved closer, the warmth from the ring became stronger.
There was no doubt now.
Whatever the ring was reacting to, it was somewhere behind this wall.
“Don’t open it yet.”
Thalia took out her phone and photographed the wall from several angles, then took a few close-ups of the seam.
The manor might have been abandoned for years, but they were not here to tear the place apart.
More importantly, anything Adrian had hidden here had probably remained untouched for decades.
Carelessly forcing the wall open could damage whatever was inside.
Ivan nodded and continued examining the seam.
Before long, he found a small indentation close to the floor.
He brushed away the dust with his gloved hand, revealing a piece of metal almost completely embedded in the wall.
It had oxidized so badly that its surface had turned nearly black.
“There’s something here.”
Thalia leaned closer.
Ivan pressed it once, but nothing happened.
He tried again, this time carefully lifting one edge.
A faint scraping sound came from behind the wall.
Both of them stopped.
The section that had appeared to be solid wall shifted outward slightly.
Ivan checked the edges once more to make sure nothing was caught, then took hold of the panel and slowly pulled it open.
A hidden space appeared behind it.
It was not a secret passage, only a shallow compartment less than half a meter deep.
Thalia switched on the flashlight on her phone and aimed it inside.
Dust covered the interior, but otherwise the compartment was empty except for a small wooden box sitting at the very back.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The unfinished message they had found earlier came back to Thalia.
If I don’t return, give the box to…
So the box had been in this room all along.
Not on the desk or inside the cabinet, but hidden behind the wall.
Thalia did not reach for it immediately.
She first asked Ivan to photograph the compartment and the exact position of the box.
Only after everything had been documented did he carefully reach inside and take it out.
The box was about the size of an ordinary hardcover book.
It was made of dark wood, with tarnished brass fittings protecting each corner.
Having spent so many years sealed inside the wall, it was covered in dust, but otherwise it had survived far better than most of the furniture in the room.
Thalia took it from him and gently wiped the dust from the lid with her glove.
As the grime came away, a faint design slowly emerged from the wood.
Her hand stopped.
A circle of thin lines had been carved into the lid.
At its center was a bird with its wings spread wide.
“Ivan, look.”
He lowered his gaze.
“That looks like the symbol on the pocket watch.”
Thalia took out her phone and found the photograph she had taken of the silver watch.
The same winged bird had been engraved on its back, though years of wear had made the details difficult to see.
When she compared the photograph with the symbol on the box, there were a few minor differences, but the central design was unmistakably the same.
The scattered clues were beginning to connect.
The silver pocket watch had contained a brass key.
That key had opened the room Adrian had marked on the floor plan.
Now, hidden behind the wall of that room, they had found a box bearing the same symbol.
None of it had been left here by accident.
Thalia put her phone away and examined the box again.
There was no keyhole, only a simple brass clasp on the front.
“Do you want to open it here?” Ivan asked.
Thalia considered the question for a moment.
They had come to Eremon Manor to find out what Adrian had left behind.
Now that they had finally found the box, there was little reason to take it somewhere else before opening it.
“Here.”
She placed the box carefully on the old table and released the tarnished brass clasp.
It opened with a quiet click.
Nothing happened.
There was no hidden mechanism, nor did anything unusual happen.
Thalia slowly lifted the lid.
The faint smell of old paper rose from inside.
There were no valuables in the box.
Instead, they found several letters, a folded sheet of paper, and a small object carefully wrapped in faded dark red cloth.
The envelope on top had yellowed with age.
There was no recipient’s name on the front, only a date.
October 17, 1996.
The year immediately reminded Thalia of the silver pocket watch.
“1996 again.”
Ivan had clearly made the same connection.
The pocket watch Adrian had left behind was somehow connected to that year, and now they had found a letter from the same year hidden inside Eremon Manor.
It was becoming difficult to dismiss that as coincidence.
Thalia did not open the top letter yet.
Instead, she checked the rest of the contents first.
There were four letters in total, each dated only a few days apart.
The earliest was from October 3, while the latest was the one dated October 17.
The folded sheet beneath them was made from heavier paper than the letters and looked like some kind of map or architectural plan.
As for the object wrapped in dark red cloth, it had been covered too carefully for them to tell what was inside without unwrapping it.
“Letters first?” Ivan asked.
“Let’s read them in order.
It’ll be easier to understand what happened.”
Thalia arranged the four envelopes by date, then picked up the earliest one.
October 3, 1996.
There was still no recipient’s name on the envelope.
Wearing her gloves, Thalia carefully removed the letter.
The paper had yellowed, and the old folds had become brittle, but the writing itself was still clear enough to read.
At first, she assumed Adrian had written it.
After only a few lines, however, she realized the handwriting was completely different from the notes on the floor plan.
This letter had been written by someone else.
Then she reached the first sentence.
Adrian, I’ve confirmed it.
The ring has appeared again.
Thalia stopped reading.
Ivan, standing beside her, instinctively looked at her left hand.
The obsidian ring still rested quietly on her ring finger.
Strangely, ever since they had opened the hidden compartment, the heat had gradually faded.
By now, the ring had returned to its usual temperature, as though nothing had happened.
Thalia looked at it for a moment before continuing.
The next paragraph was short.
I don’t know why it has returned now, but if you meet the person wearing it, do not let her enter the basement of Eremon Manor.
Her eyes lingered on the last few words.
“The basement…”
Ivan picked up Adrian’s old floor plan and checked it again.
The plan they had found earlier showed only the ground floor of the manor.
There was no basement layout and no marked entrance leading underground.
They looked at each other.
Then, almost at the same time, their attention shifted to the folded sheet still lying inside the wooden box.
Until now, they had assumed it was only an old map.
That no longer seemed likely.
Thalia set the letter down and carefully picked up the thicker sheet of paper.
It had grown brittle with age, so she did not unfold it all at once.
Instead, she followed the existing creases and opened it section by section.
The first fold revealed only a few faded black lines.
The second showed the outlines of several rooms.
When the entire sheet had finally been spread across the table, both of them could see exactly what it was.
Another floor plan.
Only this one did not show the ground floor.
In the upper left corner, a faded line of text remained visible.
EREMON MANOR — LOWER LEVEL
The basement.
Thalia studied the plan.
The underground level was not particularly large.
A storage room, wine cellar, old boiler room, and several narrow connecting passages were all clearly marked.
But at the farthest end of the plan was one room with no name at all.
Someone had drawn a circle around it in black ink.
At first, Thalia assumed it would have been marked the same way as the room upstairs.
Then she noticed a short handwritten warning beside the circle.
Only two words.
DO NOT OPEN.
Thalia stared at the warning.
The letter had told Adrian not to allow the wearer of the ring into the basement.
Yet the basement plan Adrian had hidden away clearly marked a room that was never supposed to be opened.
The two warnings had to be connected.
Thalia looked down at the obsidian ring on her finger, then back at the yellowed floor plan.
For the first time, she began to wonder whether Adrian had gone to so much trouble to leave behind the pocket watch, the key, and the hidden box because he wanted someone to find more than a few old letters.
Perhaps the box had never been the real secret.
Perhaps it was only meant to lead them to what was waiting beneath Eremon Manor.