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Talon looked up from likewise examining the bell and thought for a moment before remembrance dawned in his eyes. "Yes." he said. He COULD tell him that much, at least.

"By the priests' sleeping quarters, there's a small winding staircase. It leads down into a long corridor beneath the building with more storage rooms." his eyes narrowed in thought, trying to recall exactly. He'd spent most of the journey last time focused on the conversation amongst himself, his daughter and Hadrian.

"There are more steps at the end of the hallway that take you down into what I can only guess are the main catacombs. Bones everywhere...." he trailed off there. "It was dark, but there were doors leading into different respective tombs. I'm not sure if the one we went into would be left open from the last time and save us some searching or not."

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Retracing their steps was difficult, but not impossible. Aside from having to travel back up the air duct and back into the 'public' area of the Vatican, the hardest part had been locating the sleeping quarters again and the staircase therein.

To give Julius credit, he had been patient while Talonfaust had fumbled here and there on the directions...or perhaps was just especially good at disguising his ire. Talon supposed it was likely the latter.

From the stairwell, however, the rest was fairly cut-and-dry as he led the way down the corridor and the second set of stairs into the inky blackness beneath the vatican. It was just as he remembered it -- dark, littered with aged human remains, and reeking of death.

He was grateful now for Julius's aura of light, otherwise he would have no clue whatsoever where they were going. Even now, the light only carried perhaps two or three feet in front of them, illuminating the macabre grins of skulls and the outlines of bricks as they passed them by. The bones themselves didn't bother him, but the general atmosphere of the place made him tighten his grip on the bell's handle to a white-knuckled hold.

As they rounded a corner, they were met with a gently glowing halo of white up ahead. This stretch....he knew this stretch...! Had everything really remained untouched? It certainly appeared that way. Putting on a bit of speed, he approached the place where the tiny statue still illuminated several of the doorframes and one in particular still hung open.

"This is it." he said aloud, to no one in particular and then ventured inside without hesitation. The rubix cube he'd described was still wedged in a small square slot, casting colored dots of light in a haphazard pattern on all sides of the crypt. The small passage they had ventured into and recovered the tablets in still sat ominously open, a small littering of tiny darts at the floor of its entrance.

Just seeing them again made his skin prickle with unease, wondering if he was in for more of the same this time.

He looked to the bell, and then to the surrounding area. He still didn't know what they were doing here when the tablets had already been taken, but....at this point, questioning was moot.

Approaching the entrance of the tiny passage again, he paused and then gave the bell a sturdy shake, its clapper sending a high, tinny note resounding down the corridor.

For a moment, nothing happened, and then there was the stealthy sound of stone shifting on stone from somewhere inside. Then all was still once more.

Talon listened raptly, even if it didn't appear that he was as his eyes crawled over what there was to see in the aged hallways. How long had it been since someone had ventured here, he wondered?

He nodded as Julius finished speaking. "Indeed they are." he agreed quietly, his mind lingering on Irisa, wondering what had become of her and why the first tablets, even if they HAD been incorrect, had never been delivered. He supposed when they were done here, that would be his next order of business. It would have been his FIRST order of business, in fact, but this had all presented itself rather suddenly.

Over their heads, a large brown spider trundled lazily across the ceiling, seeming not to care about their intrusion as it headed off for parts unknown. Talon watched it a moment and forced his eyes away from it, finding himself inexplicably and stupidly envying it. Must be nice... he thought coming and going whenever and whereever you feel like it

It took him a moment to let it sink in that Julius was, in fact, referring to him. An artificer? Him...? He looked to the ancient and then back to the ornately-decorated doors before hesitantly approaching them. As he laid his hands flat on the doors, a horrible thought came to mind...they weren't going to open for him. Somehow this was all another mistake and had been a waste of everyone's time...

He swallowed a sour taste in his throat, and then pushed.

The doors, for a brief moment, remained firmly closed. Just before his doubts could take substance and become reality, Talon was aware of a faint, barely-perceptible tingling against the flats of his palms and then an accepting click as the doors, under the pressure he exerted, yawned open, sending a shower of dust down from their tops.

Talon bit back the immediate urge to ask the question burning in his mind Are you sure these are the right ones? and instead moved forward to examine the tablets as well. They looked very much like the ones Irisa had found...in fact, he would say they were identical, except for the fact that he couldn't remember the letter placing of the previous ones. For all he knew, they may have translated into reading "Sorry, this tomb is not a winner. Please try again"

Remembering the bell, he supposed that he was going to likewise be drafted into carrying the tablets back as well and gingerly scooped them up. Thankfully, even for being stone, they weren't as heavy as they appeared.

"Then I suppose we had better get started."