"We must investigate. We've already involved ourselves here. Knight, block the door we'll look for an entrance"<br/><br/>As Tokar swung the doors shut, removing what little natural light had managed to enter the curiously dark church, Callista shivered. The last thing that she wanted was to be trapped inside this building, especially after the ground had shaken, with an unhealthy groan coming from below – one that could not have been the product of human lungs.<br/><br/>Underground was an even less appealing option, the winding stone stairs looking like they led to the church crypt, or some similar subterranean arrangement. The stink of blood and viscera hit the girl’s nostrils, familiar as she was with it from having read the entrails of slaughtered animals. It was not a preferred method of divination for her, but functional enough when required.<br/><br/>The two bodies that proved to be the source of the smell, laid out on a stone slab, initially caused the girl’s stomach to rise, her abdominal muscles drawing taut as she suppressed her gagging reflex. There were worrying parallels with ritually slaughtered animals; the removed innards, cut throats, on something that could have passed for an altar. After the cursory glance that proved this to be the case, Callista grabbed the leather bags that had been next to the monk and proceeded to distance herself from the corpses, and instead set about examining the contents of the bags.<br/><br/>"This. . . Jewel. Did you see it?"<br/><br/>The old man’s voice cut the curiously still silence apart like a knife, causing Callista to start and nearly lose her balance where she had been crouching, but regained her composure, continuing to search the bags.<br/><br/>“No, I did not. I would have mentioned it, I am not stupid”