Qrow, Haldrin's Brother (Part 3)

To their surprise, the door opened with little issue. It was definitely heavy but other than that, no strange spells or other contraptions. The door simply opened to a large dark room. Qrow peered inside, able to see a little bit of what was in front of him but otherwise was mostly blind. The room looked like it was filled with a thick black fog. Qrow reached out and touched it and it had form to it, the black fog seemed to curl around his hand, pushing around like a thick mist. 

"What is this?" Qrow asked.

"I'm surprised you don't know," Fuju said, "it's a spell, Darkness. I would have thought a rogue of your stature would know this spell, it's quite a favorite for many of your profession." 

"Not all of us were blessed enough to study at Tennocks," Qrow said. Qrow had learned quite a bit of magic in his time but most of it was from a sorceress. She was incredibly proficient but her spells for thievery were definitely limited. Qrow made a mental note to learn about this spell for later. 

Fuju reached his hand out and his eyes glowered white for a moment, "lux," he said. A small white rune flashed in his hand then dissipated into a ball of light. He took the ball and sent it forth into the room. It showed brightly for a moment but then disappeared within the thick fog, being completely snuffed out. 

"How does that help us?" Qrow asked. Fuju gave Qrow a demeaning look then closed and opened his hand. As he did so suddenly the light burst force through the magical fog, dissipating it at illuminating the room. 

"Like that," Fuju said. Qrow rolled his eyes. Was he impressed? Yes. Would he tell Fuju that? Not when he was acting cocky. The room was illuminated to reveal what was hidden. Around the room were many tables with different items and pieces sprawling across them. Papers and writings littered every single table, but most of them looked to be nonsense with little to no order. The center point of the room was a large round pedestal in the middle of the room with strange fabrics around it. The three men walked into the room in order to get a closer look. Fuju began to study the writings while Rijin began to study the various devices. Seeing the pedestal in the middle, Qrow immediately went towards it. Strangely enough, it was the most non magical and nonsensical of all the tables in the room. Most were filled with magical processes and artificer work of some kind, but this table looked more like it belonged to a tailor or seamstress. The table had many different fabrics crudely sewn together in an attempt to make…something. Qrow couldn't make heads or tails of what the odd misshapen "bag" in the middle of the table was meant to be. Qrow picked it up and turned to the other two men. 

"What do you…" he began to say but his voice trailed off. The other men had turned to look at two strange looking statues that adorned both sides of the main door to the room. The clockwork looking statues looked to be composed of gears and wires, covered by bronze plating and armor. They held swords in front of them covered in runes. They looked to be ornamental at first glance but there were discrepancies. For example, Qrow noticed their feet were not mounted to the plate they stood on. He also noticed that they had far less tarnishing on them than that of normal statues, and by far the most alarming thing was the absence of dust upon them. Unless someone was dusting them regularly, they were almost completely free of any sign that they were indeed stationary. 

Qrow walked over to the two of them, Fuju noticed Qrow coming and quickly put away a small circular bronze device before turning and slapping Qrow on the shoulder excitedly, "well done Qrow!" Fuju said. 

Qrow looked at him confused, "that's uncommon…" 

"These automatons would have been activated if you hadn't adjusted the spells accordingly. Seriously well done," Fuju said. 

So that is what it was. Qrow had luckily deactivated the spell's ability to activate the automatons, but he knew he hadn't deactivated the spell entirely. Maybe it had manifested itself as the magical darkness? Qrow was unsure but he did know that meant that two spells were accounted for, but what about the third and fourth?

"By the way I found this strange fabric bag," Qrow said. Fuju and Rijin looked at the bag. 

"May I see it?" Fuju asked. Qrow handed it over a little reluctantly, but he knew a wizard was his best chance of finding out what exactly it did. "Interesting…so this is what he has been working on…" Fuju said, examining the bag. He held out his other hand and a rune flared across his palm. Blue light emanates from the rune encompassing the bag. The bag itself began to glow brightly from the rune.

"What is happening?" Qrow asked.

"This bag is teeming with magical energy. More than normal. The amount of energy should have destroyed the bag and yet it is somehow still holding together," Fuju said.

"How is that possible? There is no known fabric that can hold that amount of arcane energy," Rijin asked eagerly. 

"That is what I want to know…I can honestly say I have no idea…maybe it comes from the different fabrics…" Fuju continued to talk but Qrow stopped paying attention. Something else had drawn his attention. The room itself was larger than what they could see. The light Fuju had conjured only covered the center part of the room leaving the edges in darkness. Qrow could hear a low rumbling sound coming from the darkness around them. Not only that, but he felt the hairs on the back of his neck stick up, like he was being watched; someone was in the room with them. Or something.