Be Welcome to the Seat of the Council.

[Proto Man]

“So what do you two know about this place?” Proto Man asked, his attention on Biggs and Wedge, who had stuck around to explore the ruined town.

Biggs, the taller and thinner of the two knights, shrugged his shoulders as he lifted up his face guard to reveal a relatively young-looking face. “It’s just a bunch of decaying buildings. I think there used to be a small garrison here to prevent it from becoming a nesting ground for monsters or anti-monarchists, but I don’t think they’ve bothered for a while. For whatever reason, everyone just seems to steer clear of this place.”

As he surveyed what was left of the area, the robot wondered why there was no interest in the sight. Sure, it was falling apart, but there had to be some deeper story. Due to its proximity to the Kingdom’s capital, he found it hard to believe they would just leave the dead city to fester in the shadows of the mountain.

“So no one’s explored this place?” Proto Man asked as his system updated his maps of Camelot.

“I’m sure more than a few people have,” Biggs responded matter-of-factly as he poked the metal stake embedded into the stone surface. “Obviously someone was just here pounding stakes into everything.”

“Well what are we waiting for?” Proto Man replied, ducking under the knight and making his way down the cramped side street. Behind him, Biggs and Wedge followed, and a few paces behind them, Samus covered the rear. The badly beaten woman remained silent, obviously still mulling over the fallout of the day’s earlier events.

The stakes led the quartet deeper into the ruined town. Each time they traversed a crossroad or skirted around an alleyway, Proto Man expected a feral creature or a gang of highwaymen to assail them. Despite his apprehensions, the group remained unmolested as they pressed further into Edinburgh. After about a mile and a half, they found a stake nailed into the wall above a trapdoor marked with a sort of religious symbol.

“Have any significance to anyone?” The preteen inquired, turning to face the two locals. Neither Biggs or Wedge had anything to offer, and Proto Man doubted that Samus came from a universe where religion or pagan ideologies warranted much study. “Okay then,” he added as he bent down and threw open the wooden hatch. Beneath them, a ladder connected the street to something halfway between a sewer and a mining tunnel.

Leading the way once more, Proto Man found more stakes that led them through what might have otherwise been an incoherent maze of tunnels. After a few minutes, he started to wonder where exactly the trail of metaphorical breadcrumbs would lead them. Fortunately for him, they rounded a corner and were confronted with a set of giant, glyph-covered gates just as he began to question where they were going.

Said gates were cracked open wide enough for two or three adults to pass through at the same time.

“How do we know this isn’t a trap?” Biggs inquired, turning to look at Samus, who he probably figured would be more rational than the young boy.

“That’s half the fun,” the prototype Robot Master shouted as he passed over the threshold and into what lay beyond the gates.