Iter Per Astra: Volume 2 - Fearless Commando

Astral 12 - Upper Floor

At the top of the staircase, the building was much more abandoned than below, the leaves that had entered through the broken windows had created a thicker layer of dirt on the ground than on the lower floor. The floor felt like they were standing on a soaked carpet while wearing soaked shoes, which made them sink slightly into the floor.

Vegetation came in from the windows and attached itself to every wall, floor, and roof of the interior.

"Should I tell him everything about this condition?" Rosalina thought to herself. She looked back at Joseph coming up the stairs but quickly looked away after he looked at her.

She quickly entered one of the rooms on the second floor which she knew from memory was where her father's office was located. This room had no windows and only had a skylight on the roof, which was covered in dirt, not allowing light to come in.

In the room was an old crippled wooden desk, covered in dust, dirt, old leaves, old papers, and even old books that the explorers that have come here left behind because they were either empty or had no real information in them.

Rosalina looked around and all she could remember was memories of her father and mother when she would spend the day helping them with any task, they needed help with.

"Will I be able to see her again?" She thought as a tear ran down her face.

As Joseph came up the staircase, he noticed that Rosalina had frozen at the entrance to the room. And noticed that the room was pitch black.

He approached the entrance and pulled out a little flashlight from his belt to illuminate the room.

Rosalina was startled when she saw the room suddenly light up.

"Here." He handed Rosalina the little flashlight. "You know where to look here don't you?"

"Oh, um... yes, thank you," Rosalina answered.

Rosalina grabbed the flashlight, but Joseph didn't let go.

"Listen, I know that we just met about an hour or two ago, but when I say that you can trust me, I really mean it."

"I know. Just wait a while longer please."

"I know that trust is earned, but please, if you need anything, don't hesitate to tell me, I promised that I would take you back home."

"I'm sorry, I just need some time... before I can say anything."

"It's all right, I just want you to understand that." He then let go of the flashlight. "Now, getting back to the task at hand. Let's see if we can find this map before the bandits come back."

"Okay." She nodded as she turned around and lit up the room looking around.

As the room was pitch dark, the designs of the walls were not visible before. There were gold-colored accents on the white tiles on the floor and walls of the room, and on the wall opposite the desk was a giant Novasong emblem surrounded by a square canvas.

"Here," Rosalina said as she passed her hand the emblem. "There should be something here."

As Joseph passed his hand over it, he noticed something about it, the texture of the wall was very distinctive. It was a flaky-type feeling, not a feeling that would be a normal coated ceramic tile.

"This is M-Star." He said.

"I'm sorry what?"

"M-Star, it's a magnetic reflective that changes when a magnetic field is passed through it. It's mostly a recreational invention but it hasn't been used in anything for a long time. My father has an old billboard from a movie he likes that uses this to change between two posters. But of course, this was widely used way back in the past."