Tag: Elves

53. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

Everything was chaos. I felt useless holding back, summoning vines to help entangle Shadawn whenever I had the chance. Sometimes it worked, but he had learned to watch for my trick and had gotten more adept at moving away from them quickly. It was like being benched during an important game, and I felt frustrated that I couldn’t do more to help. Peyton’s hand was on my shoulder, her fingers digging into my skin, and I knew that she felt exactly the same. The glowing third eye swiveled to watch Shadawn as the battle raged before us.

Raella and Zolambi worked in tandem – she seemed to focus on keeping barriers around the two of them and somehow boosting his abilities, and he lobbed spell after spell at Shadawn’s shifting form. Between him and Lyre, the ethereal echoing of Primordial chanting seemed to fill the cavern. Asterollan seemed to be doing the most damage with his blazing sword, but Shadawn was aware of it and focused on keeping the golden-haired man out of range. Every time his blade bit flesh, I could hear Peyton cry out briefly in victory.

Shadawn also seemed frustrated with Lyre’s massive fire spells. I wasn’t sure if Lyre would have the energy to keep the display up – after the massive wave of fire, he had managed three massive balls of twisting flame, spiraling like an out-of-control vortex of fire, as well as some smaller fireballs. Now he stood back, still glowing with magic and chanting to form the next spell. He was obviously winded and panting hard. Shadawn pulled back several feet to avoid Asterollan’s blade and focused on sending his own dark tendriling magic toward Lyre, sensing the nearing completion of his next spell. Again, the energy dissipated before reaching him, sparking and crackling into the air in a series of blue flashes. A look of anger flashed across Shadawn’s face and I heard him hiss, “T’Keran!”

Lyre loosed another monumental wall of flame, and seeing it, I sent vines to grip at Shadawn’s feet. This time as the wall of flame engulfed him, I could hear Shadawn scream in pain and frustration, and Peyton gave another victory whoop. “Is it time?” I asked her.

She shook her head, but still looked please. “Not yet, but a few more shots like that…”

I glanced over at Lyre. The light of magic had faded around him, and he looked exhausted, his shoulders visibly slumped as he panted. “I don’t think we’re getting any more of those,” I said.

Peyton followed my gaze and cursed slightly under her breath as she saw what I saw. Shadawn emerged from the dwindling spell – despite the scream he looked untouched to my eyes. He rushed forward, straight toward Lyre, his eyes focused angrily on the pale elf. He hit an invisible barrier, but as he came into contact with it, it exuded sparks, and streaks of lightning went skittering and sparkling up a rounded dome that seemed to surround Lyre. Lyre stepped back, his eyes wide as he looked in surprise at the dome, and then he stumbled and fell as it visibly shattered under Shadawn’s push forward.

Shadawn was on him shortly after, physically reaching out to grip at the front of Lyre’s shirt, and pulling back his fist to punch him. He must have been furious to have dropped all pretense of using magic – once, twice, he slammed his fist hard into the elf’s face. Before the third strike, Asterollan came sprinting through and tackled Shadawn bodily, sending him skidding back. Asterollan reached down and helped pull Lyre back up to his feet. “Get closer to Raella,” I heard him say. Lyre nodded and moved away, limping, his nose bloody.

Shadawn was standing, brushing his robes off, glaring at Asterollan. “Of course, Cenastrum chooses a human – he always favored your festering race. Surprising, though, that his Chosen is a man that murders on the orders of his superiors.” Shadawn smirked slightly. “But then, he always did love unquestioning obeisance.” Asterollan narrowed his eyes slightly, shifting back into a more defensive position with his sword, but otherwise did not appear bated by the words. Shadawn sighed. “I do not prefer playing this way,” he said as he summoned a sword of his own into his hands – it was dark and dripping with shifting shadows.

He rushed forward, and the swords clashed together, the sound more a hum of energy and the faint sounds of screams than the clang of metal. The tendriling darkness of Shadawn’s sword seemed to creep over Asterollan’s blade, causing the light to flicker. I could see Asterollan’s expression falter in the light of his sword as the darkness moved to wrap around his wrist. He disengaged and jumped back, studying Shadawn with a deep frown as he shook the hand, almost as though the darkness had numbed it.

Shadawn pulled himself up to his full height with a satisfied smirk, then shifted suddenly out of the way of one of Zolambi’s spells. As he reappeared, Shadawn glared over in the direction of Zolambi, Raella, and Lyre. Then, with seemingly no need to prepare for it at all, he released a massive wall of shadow on par with one of Lyre’s previous walls of flame.

As it released, Asterollan dashed forward to slide his blade down across Shadawn’s back. Shadawn cried out in pain and rage, and turned to swipe at Asterollan with his own sword. The spell had already loosed though, and continued to roar off towards the others.

Raella and Zolambi both focused on erecting barriers – but when the first barrier shattered easily under the force of the dark energy, Raella gasped and turned to focus instead on shoving with her magic, sending Lyre and Zolambi out of the path of the spell. They cried out in surprise as they unexpectantly went sliding away, so forcefully that both hit the wall of the cavern and fell to the ground, alarmingly still.

I watched the massive wave of shadow in shock, my mouth gaping wide, the immense size of it taking me by surprise. As I watched the second barrier shatter, I finally roused myself and grasped forward with my vines, intending to pull Raella out of the way of the oncoming spell. I did manage, but almost too late – it was a glancing blow that caught her just as she was pulled off her feet by my vines, but it must have been bad – she let out an inhumanly pained shriek. She lay on the ground where my vines had carried her, not immediately getting up, whimpering and writhing on the ground.

“This isn’t good,” Peyton noted grimly, watching Asterollan and Shadawn fight one on one. The third eye shifted, looking at each of our companions briefly, and then focusing back toward the main battle. “Lucas.” Her grip on my shoulder tightened briefly. I glanced over at her, frowning. “Go check on them. I’m going to help Asterollan.”

“Are we even close at all?” I wondered.

She shook her head. “No. We’re only halfway there.” And then she sprinted forward, summoning massive shards of ice in the air to hurtle at Shadawn.

“Oh. Well shit,” I grumbled to myself, then sprinted over to check on the person nearest to me, which was Raella. As I reached her, I could see that she had curled up into a ball and was sobbing. I gripped her shoulder, shaking her briefly. “Are you okay?” I asked, feeling a bit stupid to ask since she obviously wasn’t. Another wracking sob shook her body. I focused on the healing magic I had learned, and while there were some physical injuries, she wasn’t badly hurt – the dark energy must have done something to her mentally. I healed her anyway.

After a few moments, her sobs quieted and her eyes flashed open to look at me. She sat up, wiping at the uncharacteristic tears that wet her face. “That was…” she gasped, and shook her head. “That was… intense. He chose fear as his domain, I believe you said?” I nodded, and she sniffed. “I see.” She glanced around to see what was occurring – Asterollan and Peyton were fighting Shadawn, and Lyre and Zolambi still lay still close to the wall. She nodded to them. “I’m fine. Go attend to them.”

I nodded and got up to jog over. I checked on Lyre first – he was unconscious. Even after I healed him, he remained passed out, and I wondered if the massive spells he had used had completely drained him. I could hear Raella approach me from behind as I checked on Zolambi as well, and I breathed a sigh of relief as I found that he was also only unconscious. His eyes fluttered open as I healed him. Raella sat with a sigh next to Zolambi, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m not sure how much more we can do,” she admitted.

I nodded, understanding, and turned to watch the battle. “I… should I join?” I asked, uncertain.

“We need you fresh for the end of this thing. Wait a bit longer,” Raella said. I grimaced, watching as Shadawn’s form seemed to enlarge and he viciously backhanded Asterollan into a nearby wall.

“How much energy could the stupid spell use anyway?” I asked.

Zolambi and Raella exchanged looks, but said nothing. I frowned, watching Peyton help Asterollan up. They both looked winded, though the light of magic still burned around them. Shadawn moved in on them, still enlarged.

I moved forward, ignoring Raella’s shouted warning, and focused on summoning an entire area of thorned vines. They shot up, gripping at Shadawn. I don’t know how I understood that I could do it, but I did understand naturally that it was possible – the flowers shifted, growing fangs, and latched onto Shadawn’s flesh, pumping him full of venom. He screamed angrily. I considered pulling upon the power of death that was at my hands, not with the kill spell but perhaps something weaker, but hesitated at the thought of draining myself of any magic I might need later.

Shadawn screamed and pulsed with dark energy again, the way he had before, blasting the vines away and causing them to wither and fade to dust. He turned to glare at me angrily, and raised a hand in my direction. I heard Peyton yell something, but didn’t quite catch the words. I watched as the tendrils of darkness seemed to swirl around his hand, almost moving in slow motion as I focused on that point…

There was a sudden deafening screech from above, almost like a musical bird call. Near the top of the cavern where the platform had descended initially, I could see a bright light. A figure of flame with outstretched wings like some sort of magnificent bird descended quickly through the air. It wasn’t long before it swooped down, landing between me and Shadawn. The shadow turned to stare at the figure impassively as it shrunk down to a smaller size.

Shadawn studied the flaming figure. “And what are you?” he asked.

The flames coalesced and the wings drew in, but she was still lit brightly, a beacon of raw magical energy. Lexie.  “I’M. FUCKING. PISSED!”

She wasn’t looking at Shadawn though. She was looking at me.

“LUCAS! I can’t believe you did that!” she screeched.

I held up both hands in surrender. “I’m sorry?” The firey aura around her grew, compounded in her rage, and I shifted my hands up protectively in front of myself. But instead of focusing the flames on me, she turned and blasted Shadawn, who cried out in shock and anger. After a few tentative moments, I moved closer to where she stood. “Ah, I thought you were going to attack me,” I admitted under my breath.

“Later,” she promised gruffly, her eyes focused on the whirling flames. I grimaced and nodded. Shadawn emerged, looking angrier than before – and he was actually starting to look winded. My gaze shifted to Peyton as I wondered if he was damaged enough yet, but she shook her head as she heard my thoughts.

Shadawn released another massive wall of black energy. I gasped, but in response, Lexie released a massive wall of flame, larger and more intensely hot than the ones Lyre had been producing before. The energies collied, the fire burning through the shadow with ease, and Shadawn let out an angry yell. He began to send wave after wave – similar, but smaller than his previous attacks. Lexie released another massive blast of fire, but it didn’t burn through all of them, and the darkness shifted, focusing on attacking her. I shoved Lexie out of the way of one of the smaller waves of dark energy, and felt it strike me.

First there was pain. It was intense, like someone had taken several bricks and lined them with needles and then slammed them into one side of my body, the side where the dark wave had physically touched me. And then something else took over completely, that made me understand why Raella had been left a sobbing mess.

Terror.

It was instant and overwhelming and in every nerve ending: pure terror. I felt how truly insignificant I was for several long seconds, like every cell in my body had been reminded that I was nothing but a bag of meat and blood that could be easily torn apart by chance or whim. It was like being dumped into a pool of spiders and feeling a million tiny skittering feet run across my skin and into my open and screaming mouth, and feeling them bite and hearing them skitter into my ear canal, and feeling myself grow numb and cold with death. It was like hearing a single overwhelming note hum incessantly, and realizing it was the sound of a heart flatlining, and…

“Lucas! Lucas!” I could feel hands shaking me hard. Coppery brown hair floated around my face and I looked up into blue eyes.

“That was shit,” I said groggily, gripping Peyton’s arms tightly as she helped me sit up. “That was so much shit.”

She frowned, worried, and brushed tears off my cheek. I hadn’t even realized I’d been crying. I shifted slightly on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief that I hadn’t shit my pants, and she chuckled, having read my thoughts. I looked up to see that there was fire everywhere – the cavern was an absolute inferno. “Yeah, Lexie doesn’t really hold back,” Peyton said, reading my thoughts. And as she read my next one, her frown returned and she shook her head. “No. It’s not time – not yet. But it’s close.”

As she spoke, she stood and offered a hand to me. I allowed her to help me up. I realized I couldn’t see Asterollan anywhere, and Peyton gestured, though I couldn’t see what she had gestured toward. “He got knocked out coming to help you. I think he’s fine… I dragged him off to the side and tried healing him of the worst of it…”

52. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

We stood in front of the platform that would take us the final leg of our journey, down to the seal and to Shadawn. “Do we have a plan?” Peyton asked, running her hand along the edge of the panel. She turned to face us when she finished speaking.

“Free the asshole, hit him with everything we’ve got, and then when you give the signal, I’ll kill him,” I said. Asterollan and Lexie both nodded in agreement as I spoke, though I noticed that Lyre frowned.

Peyton sighed. “So that means you and I have to hold back enough to make sure we stay alive until the end of the battle. No running directly into the fray for me and you, and try to keep our attacks at a distance and reserve our energy as much as possible.” I frowned, thinking of every time she had run directly into the most dangerous situations, and she narrowed her eyes at me. “You’re right,” she said after a moment.

I started singing Baby Shark in my head. “So you and I focus on things we can do from a distance. And Lexie, Asterollan, Lyre, Raella, and Zolambi keep his attention off us by attacking – hard.” I glanced over at Peter thoughtfully. “Should I bring Peter?”

“No, you can’t bring Peter. What if he dies!?” Lexie said immediately.

“There was a little bag of gunpowder in Cassandra’s things. I was thinking maybe he could hang on to that and lob it at Shadawn if he gets a chance.” Lyre had offered up Cassandra’s bag of supplies for anything useful, and I had found the small bag of black powder while sifting through it.

Lexie turned to me, her eyes wide with alarm. “You are not going to kamikaze your spider!” she said, her voice shrill.

“That wasn’t what I meant. I was thinking he could just drop it on the guy and one of us could light it with fire…”

“Is… can Peter even understand a plan that complicated?” Peyton asked. We all turned to look at the giant jumping spider. It clicked its jaws, happily waving a leg into the air.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. Peter chirped happily. “Well, let’s see.” I scanned the ground and picked up a nearby rock. I held it out to Peter and leaned in close, watching the reflection of my face glitter in its eyes. It occurred to me that being this close to it was something I would never have been able to manage before. “Here, take this.” The spider obediently moved forward, taking the rock from my hand. I knelt closer to it, whispering, “Go to the ceiling and lob this at Lexie when I say ‘good boy.’” Peter obediently chirped and moved out of sight.

“Regardless, is a little black powder going to make a difference?” Peyton crossed her arms, tapping her fingers gently against her elbow as she watched Peter disappear out of view overhead.

“Maybe not a little, but if there was some way to make a lot…” Asterollan said. “I’ve seen a lot of it blow a ship to smithereens.” Lyre’s frown deepened into a scowl momentarily as Asterollan spoke, before he caught me watching and then his expression evened out.

Peyton turned to look at Raella thoughtfully. “We can summon water… and make plants grow from nothing. Could we create more black powder with magic?”

Raella looked surprised at the question. “I’m not really sure. I suppose… hand me the bag of powder.”

Lyre stepped forward to provide the bag to Raella. “Good boy,” I commented loudly. He tilted his head in confusion at my statement just as I heard a soft thump and watched Lexie’s hand fly up to rub at the back of her head. “Oh! He understands! Good boy!”

“What the…” Lexie grimaced, frowning at me.

Raella ignored us, opening the bag to sift her fingers through the course powder. She studied it for a time, the light of magic surrounding her as she focused on it, and then shook her head. “It’s not an impossible idea, but not something we’re going to accomplish in such a short time frame.” She handed the bag back to Lyre. “We can’t spend forever camped here, after all.”

We all stared at the platform hesitantly. Peter jumped down from wherever he had been hiding and crawled along the edge of the platform, tapping the sides as he went. “The Underlings will find a way here eventually,” Zolambi said finally. “We need to go.”

No one immediately moved, but then Peyton sighed and boosted herself up onto the platform. She turned around to look at us, and said, “If we sit and plan too long, we’ll lose our nerve. We’re running out of time and our chances won’t get any better. We go now. It’s now or never.” I nodded, and moved to join her on the platform – she reached down and offered her hand. I paused a moment and took it, allowing her to help me up.

“Now or never,” I agreed. Then I started wondering if that sounded stupid, and added, “Now. Definitely now,” guaranteeing that I sounded stupid. The others joined us on the platform.

Raella, who Jon Umberling had shown the controls to, moved towards them and began to work on using them.

The dwarven soldiers, Captain Kaphryn, Jon Umberling, and Chase all stared up at us from below. “I should be going,” Chase said, watching as the platform lit up along the bottom and edges. She looked like she was debating jumping on to join us, but Zolambi only smiled and shook his head at her wordlessly. She sighed, staring at each of us as though it might be the last time she saw us. I wondered for a moment if it was.

“Good luck,” Jon Umberling said, looking somber. “Our very world depends on you.”

Lexie was standing very near the edge of the platform. She placed her hands on her hips as she looked down at the small gathering before us. “It’s all good,” she said confidently. “We’ll have this world saved in no time!” Peter chittered like he agreed with her, his front legs waving in the air.

The platform started to inch forward. And I made a split-second decision. “I’m sorry,” I said.

Lexie was just turning her head to look at me with a slight frown on her face, wondering why I had apologized, when I shoved her off the platform. Twisting vines were already reaching up from the ground below to catch her, softening her fall and grasping her limbs, holding her in place. The platform gained speed, pulling away quickly, and I could just barely see the look of shock making the whites of her eyes stand out before we were away. “Lucas! What the fuuuuck!”

The platform swooped into the next tunnel and I stared back at the spot of light at the end of it as it grew small in the distance. Turning to face my remaining companions, I could see Peyton regarding me with a warm smile on her face. Asterollan frowned, his arms crossed. “You plan to die today, one way or the other, I see. You know she’s going to kill you for that, right?” Peyton said, though her tone lacked any venom.

I sighed. “But at least she’ll be alive to do it.”

“She would have been useful to have in the fight ahead of us,” Asterollan said, less pleased. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for.”

“And what will we do if we need to reform the seal?” Raella asked. Her face was carefully composed and emotionless, but her tone betrayed the seething anger underneath.

“We’ll deal with it when we deal with it,” I said. I didn’t look at either of them as I spoke though – I found myself staring directly at Peyton. My thoughts were only on one thing: winning this fight.

The trip was shorter than I had thought it would be.

The platform exited the tunnel from high up on the wall of a massive cavern. I gasped, ducking down to place my hands on the platform as it tilted, but despite the angle we weren’t sliding off. Far below and approaching fast was what I assumed was the seal.

My breath caught in my throat as I stared at it. I think I had expected something massive in scope, especially given that it supposedly contained all the gods and not just Shadawn. But it hovered very near the floor, a pulsing ball of light. The platform floated to a stop as it reached the ground, the ball still several yards away. We each dropped down and approached.

The surface of it was volatile, more like looking at something molten or made of plasma. It seemed to thrum and pulse with energy in front of us, and I could see tiny hairline fractures of darkness along its surface. I handed Peter the gunpowder and told him to hide in the ceiling and throw the bag at the bad guy when I called for him. He scurried away, disappearing into the dark, and I felt a little better that he would be out of sight for the battle.

I wasn’t sure how any of this was going to go. “How are we going to break the seal?” I asked.

Peyton approached the ball first. She turned to look at the rest of us. “He’s been asking me to free him since the beginning… he showed me how.” She took a deep breath, and I realized she was calming herself, steeling her nerves for what was going to happen. Her nervousness made me nervous, and I swallowed hard. “Remember, Lucas. We need to move away quick, let the other handle this.” I nodded and set my jaw.

Her eyes lingered on mine for a moment, and I nodded again for her. She reached out and placed her hands on the surface of the ball, and muttered, “All right, you bastard. Let’s start this.”

I wasn’t sure if anything was happening at first. The ball seemed to shrink for a moment, and grow dim. Then there was a loud noise – like a tear in fabric, or an explosion, or a scream, or all of it at once, and it seemed to come from everywhere without and within. I flinched, and I could hear some of the other shout out in shock at the sudden noise. The ball seemed to suddenly expand to encompass us all and then shattered with a noise like breaking glass.

Peyton, Asterollan, and I all immediately lit up. I wasn’t even aware I was reaching for magic – in retrospect, it would have been smart to have been ready, but I had made no conscious decision. It was simply like the wall between myself and magic vanished, and I wondered if that was what it meant to truly hold all the power of my god. I gasped as I felt the power surge through me. The sudden rush of it was euphoric, the auras around the three of us bright and instantly overwhelming the entire cavern. Asterollan shone so bright it was hard to look directly at him, so I focused on Peyton – her floating eye was focused off to the side.

Following its gaze, I could see darkness coalescing.

Shadawn was taking shape.

It was like the shadows creeped into each other, whispering as they gathered, and a humanoid shape took form within. When he appeared, he looked like any other elven man. In fact, it was almost disappointing how normal he appeared. Despite that appearance, there was a sense of apprehension in the air, something that made me internally shiver like I was hearing nails scratch across a chalkboard. I realized the revulsion was almost like concentrated fear, and remembered what domain he had chosen.

He was tall – about my height – and thin, with pale skin and long, angular features. His eyes glowed faintly. He smiled at Peyton, a smile that conveyed no actual warmth. “I see you’ve put the knowledge I gave you to use. Even if you intend to use it against me.” And then, without any visible sign of wielding magic, no gesture, no shout – a rush of tendriling darkness moved to grab Peyton.

She looked as surprised as I felt. The only thing I could think to do was to summon vines to grip her and pull her back – we needed to stay further from the fight, and she was too close. She gasped as my vines pulled her forcibly back, though it was hardly necessary – a barrier had erected in front of her, and the darkness crawled along the edges of it like it had its own living will.

As I ran over to where I had pulled Peyton, I could see that Raella was focused on maintaining the barrier. Shadawn narrowed his eyes at her, annoyed at her interference, his expression speaking of his absolute disdain for a mere mortal. And then everything exploded into chaos.

It was crazy to watch – Asterollan had moved forward, his blazing sword of light swinging with precision, but Shadawn moved unnaturally, almost like he didn’t exist as a physical object in space. He shifted easily out of the way of Asterollan’s magical weapon, and easily brushed off the spells that Zolambi was hurling at him. Raella seemed to focus on defense, quickly pushing Shadawn’s offensive spells away or creating barriers to deflect them.

As I reached Peyton, she shot me an annoyed look. “Really? Vines?”

“You’re welcome,” I said. I turned to watch the battle. “Are we even hurting him at all?”

She was watching as well, the floating third eye focused on the battle. She nodded after a moment. “They’re doing damage. He’s just… very strong. Final boss energy.”

I watched him continue to move quickly and easily away from Asterollan’s sword, and focused on summoning vines just beneath him, springing up to grip his legs and thighs. Despite the unnatural shifting, the vines held him tight – it surprised me, because I hadn’t expected them to, and I wondered if there was something about the divine nature in the vines that helped against him. Asterollan’s next strike cut him deep across the abdomen – it looked fatal, but the wound reformed quickly and he growled angrily, hitting Asterollan hard and sending him skidding back several feet.

He turned to glare at me, but as he did, a massive wall of flame rose up in front of Lyre, blocking him from view. “It’s working,” Peyton said. “We’re doing damage. But this is going to take awhile.”

“Oh, that’s nice and fucky,” I commented, trying to sound as cheerful as I could as the fire faded and Shadawn came back into view. If he had been hurt like Peyton claimed, there was no physical sign of it yet. Mostly he just looked annoyed, but thankfully that anger seemed to have shifted away from me and towards Lyre, who he regarded carefully after the fire spell.

He pointed at Lyre and a lance of shadow struck out, lightning fast and jagged. It seemed to hit something in the air and dissolved in sparks, though it didn’t look like Raella had managed to summon a barrier in time.  Lyre looked just as surprised as Shadawn did, who let loose a low hiss of anger as his attack dissolved, his eyes narrowing. He inhaled deeply, and focused, the air wavering around him, and then waves of dark energy exploded from around him, knocking all of us back and off our feet – but more than that, when the wave hit, there was a sudden explosion of pain from inside of my skull. It was like hearing a thousand voices screaming in terror at once – it hurt so bad it left my vision flashing and left me dazed. I hadn’t even realized I’d been knocked off my feet until that pain subsided.

As I lay on the ground for a moment, gasping, I realized this was just the beginning of the fight.

46. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

It was a little clusterfucky sneaking back into the cavern with a larger group and using the compass spell a couple of times to narrow down the place where our friends were being kept imprisoned. The building was guarded – there were just two guards though, and that seemed simple enough to deal with. Still, we paused for too long to brainstorm the rescue. Raella and Zolambi wanted to exercise an abundance of caution, which seemed to annoy Lyre, who wanted to immediately save Cassandra. But Raella made several points – if Peyton and Cassandra were fine and could use magic, why hadn’t they escaped? We weren’t close to the city, but being within the same dimly lit cavern, if we all lit up with magic the display would garner immediate attention. If we did end up using magic, we had to figure out a quick escape route. The discussion reminded me so much of attempting to make a plan with my friends in D&D that I was on the verge of manically laughing in panic because the stakes were very real and we were wasting too much time. “There’s more approaching,” one of the dwarven soldiers said, and we became very quiet, making sure we were out of sight as we apprehensively watched.

There were several Underlings approaching, but I couldn’t get an exact count. They approached the two guards at the door, and after a brief conference with each other, they opened the door. I watched the stone smoothly slide out and to the side, impressed by the motion of it and wondering what their technology was like. The first few soldiers stepped down into the entrance. I couldn’t see what was happening clearly – the one in the doorway dropped to his knees, and the Underling behind him lifted one clawed hand and suddenly there was screaming coming from inside the building. I tensed at the sound, wondering if we should rush down to help. I saw Lyre start to stand out of the corner of my eye, and watched Zolambi grip his shoulder tight, pushing him back into a crouch. “Wait,” he said softly.

Lyre grimaced, but didn’t move.

When the screaming died down, Peyton stepped out first. Thanks to the compass spell regaining its depth, I had known that she was alive, but I breathed an inward sigh of relief anyway seeing that she appeared unharmed. Cassandra stepped out next, looking paler than normal and trembling so hard it was visible from where we were. Lyre groaned softly, but from what I could tell, she looked unharmed as well – just scared shitless. I realized after a moment that there was some sort of dark spot in the middle of their foreheads and wondered what had been done to them.

A few moments later, Asterollan and Captain Kaphryn also emerged. I heard the bookish Jon Umberling sigh in relief. A strange weight lifted off my shoulders as I glanced over at Lexie, remembering what Asterollan had promised… if it came down to it. There was some brief discussion amongst the grouping, after which Kaphryn stepped back into the building and the door closed, hiding her from sight. Then the other three began to walk, loosely surrounded by the Underlings, heading directly toward the city. I could hear Raella cursing lightly under her breath and raised an eyebrow at her language.

“We’re never going to be able to save them once they’re in the city,” she finally said. “We need to hurry.”

One of the dwarven soldiers nodded, but said, “A few of us are going to get our Captain. If she’s alive, we can’t leave her behind.”

Raella nodded. “I’ll go with you,” Jon Umberling said. He flushed, and added, “I’m sure I could figure out how to operate the door faster.”

“Fine, but catch up to us quickly,” Raella said. A pair of the dwarven soldiers left, taking a roundabout way to approach the building and the lone guard unseen. Jon Umberling trailed behind them. The rest of us went the opposite direction, looping out of sight and then hurrying to catch up to the Underlings that were marching our friends away. I felt my heart racing, wondering how we were going to handle the situation, if we would be able to catch up in time to help free them, especially if we couldn’t use magic.

I realized that we were quickly catching up now, because the group had paused for some reason. A fight had broken out. I could hear Asterollan shouting in pain, and saw Cassandra attempting to desperately flail at the Underlings that had grabbed her. Peyton seemed to be standing her ground, for now… but she was outnumbered, and they were moving in close around her. I could hear the clicking, screeching noises they made even from this distance.

Lyre broke out into a run immediately upon seeing Cassandra in danger. I could see him reaching for his magic, heedless of Raella’s hissed warnings. Shrugging, I ran after him – if our cover was already going to be blown, it was better to act fast and hit them hard. I heard Peter chitter excitedly behind me. Even before I rounded the last stalagmite, I heard Peyton give a triumphant shout as I came within range of her mind reading ability, and as I slid into view I summoned as many vines as I could to grow out of the ground and strike at the Underlings surrounding her, eviscerating as many of them as possible. Peter trilled happily and launched himself at the head of one of the Underlings, biting and tearing its ear off. “The entire city is going to see!” Raella said as she caught up. “We need an escape route!”

I turned to glance around. The Underlings that had captured Cassandra had been knocked back somehow, and were currently being mercilessly burnt to a crisp. Lyre was helping Cassandra up from the ground as he continued to focus his magic on them. The dwarven soldiers had engaged some of the remaining Underlings. I watched Chase and Zolambi help Asterollan to his feet as Lexie stood back, bouncing on her heels nervously. “The platform!” Peyton said as she approached Raella and me. She turned to point down closer to the city. “It’ll take us to Shadawn!”

“It’ll take us closer to the city,” Raella grumped. We could hear the screeches of Underlings from below, who had seen the displays of magic. We wouldn’t have a lot of time before we were overwhelmed. Glancing back, I could see that Jon Umberling, Captain Kaphryn, and the pair of soldiers that had gone to rescue their Captain approached at a quick jog. Jon was red with exertion, his eyes flashing with worry as he heard the screams of the Underlings from the city.

“We’ll get on the platform first and then collapse the tunnel behind us,” Peyton said.

“We need to hurry then,” Raella said with a sigh. She began to shout, urging the others into a run, directing them toward where the line of light that showed the path of the platform was. Peyton paused to poke around the corpses of the Underlings, picking up a few items that were too small for me to see. “What was that?” I asked.

“Worry about it later. We need to run,” she said, patting me on the back. I frowned, staring in worry at the strange mark on her face, but there was no time to think about anything. I ran, calling for Peter to follow.

I could hear Jon Umberling’s labored breathing, and felt a stitch of pain in my side, my own lungs aching as we ran at a breakneck pace down to the other end of the cavern. There was movement all around. I could hear the screams of the Underlings approaching. I gasped as one dropped down in front of me from above, but Peter trilled and tackled it bodily, sending it sprawling. I called for the spider again as I kept running.

Looking ahead, I could see that Lexie and a few of the dwarves had taken the lead, running fast. And emerging from the city were many Underlings, moving to block our path. I felt a momentary despair staring at them as they approached, but then Lexie lit up like a fiery beacon and a massive wall of flame engulfed them. The light was so bright that I had to raise a hand to shield my eyes, and I could feel the heat of the flames even from behind her. I heard some of the dwarven soldiers hoot in exultation as we continued to run.

We reached the platform, launching ourselves up onto it. I paused to help boost the dwarven soldiers and Jon Umberling as Lexie danced nervously from foot to foot above us, shouting, “Hurry, hurry hurry!”

“Someone figure out how to move this thing!” I shouted. Raella was already quickly fumbling with a panel that looked like controls of some sort, and as soon as I boosted him up, Jon Umberling rushed over to help her. The platform began to move, slowly at first. Realizing I was the only idiot left standing on the ground, I gripped the edge and pulled myself up, and could feel Peyton and Asterollan steady me, pulling me over the side.

I looked back at the mass of shrieking figures moving towards us. Lexie stood at the end of the platform and released another massive blast, a moving wall of fire that caused the entire tunnel to rumble alarmingly, and I focused on summoning something thick and tangled to block the tunnel – I had expected more vines, but was almost shocked to see the thick trunks and branches of trees blast through, thoroughly blocking the tunnel. But as the platform picked up speed, all of it – the blockade, the eerie screeching shrieks and screams of the Underlings – fell behind, out of sight, out of hearing.

I stared back into the tunnel, breathing heavily. Then with a sigh, I flopped on my back and closed my eyes. “Holy shit,” I said.

It felt like we were on the platform for a couple of hours, zooming along at a speed that was hard to determine in the dark. It moved smoothly, and there were hardly any distinguishing features for us to tell how quickly we were moving past things. Despite it being an open design, the movement of the passing air wasn’t strong enough to pull us off. Maybe it only felt fast because it was the fastest thing I’d been on since arriving in this world. Regardless, the breeze felt nice after all the running.

Before long, the platform followed its lit track into another cavern, with only a few sparse buildings near the line. We tensed, wondering if we would find more Underlings here, but as it slid to a stop, we realized the entire place was eerily silent. “Hello?” Lexie called out curiously, but nothing answered. We stepped off the platform. The dwarven soldiers cautiously investigated the surrounding area before reporting back that it was safe.

Now that we didn’t have the wind whistling in our ears or any Underlings to worry about, Raella summoned her globes of light and we examined the marks on Asterollan, Peyton, and Cassandra’s foreheads. Peyton showed us the dark gemstones that were the keys, and explained that it was suppression, and they discussed how to free themselves from it. Attempts to destroy the stones didn’t result in much luck, and Asterollan kept insisting that he thought moving out of their range would break the connection. Peyton was reluctant to test the theory, so Asterollan offered to be the guinea pig. I handed the stone to Peter and instructed it to move to the far side of the cavern. When the spider was almost all the way across the large, echoey space, the mark on Asterollan’s head lifted and dissipated into the air. He immediately reached out for his magic, summoning his blazing sword of light, and flashed a cocky smile at Peyton.

“Don’t even say it. We didn’t know for sure it would be that simple,” she told him.

He shrugged and allowed his magic to drop, the sword disappearing. I called for Peter to come back. As we were waiting, Peyton also took the chance to pull Raella, Zolambi and Chase together. “I need to tell you all something important,” she said, almost hesitantly. “Greyjon is dead.” I could see Cassandra tense and stare at the ground nervously.

Raella looked startled for a moment, then she nodded. “I… I see,” she said, her voice quiet.

“How?” Chase asked, her tone anguished. Tears were starting to well up in her eyes.

I noticed Cassandra opening her mouth as though to speak, but Peyton cut her off to say, “It happened quickly, and there was nothing we could do.” I frowned at the vagueness of the statement, but Chase nodded in acceptance.

Zolambi sighed heavily, crossing his arms. “He was an excellent soldier, and will be missed. The city of Kimber has suffered a great loss for his death.” Then Zolambi glanced around at each of us. “But we understood the stakes when we were chosen. This was always a possibility.” Chase nodded, though she looked a bit uncertain that she had agreed to possibly dying.

We decided to rest for the evening, grieving and tired as we were.

We slept in the next day, not really in a hurry to get to the last leg of our journey. We knew we were close. All that was left was to face Shadawn and save the world. We fixed a gloomy breakfast and discussed our options. “You’ve been instrumental in getting us here,” Raella said to Captain Kaphyrn and her soldiers, “but the coming battle will rely heavily on magic. It will be safer for all of you to stay here… and prepare for us to return, so you can get us home.” I felt a bit cheered at her words, thinking about that – about returning to the surface, and building a new life. It felt like it was in reach.

Kaphryn nodded. “I won’t argue against that. We’ll scout a little and see if we can find an alternate path to the surface. Backtracking might be hard…”

“I assume I’m staying here as well?” Jon Umberling asked, a little nervously. Raella nodded, and the dwarven scholar exhaled in relief. “Of course! I couldn’t be any help in a battle.” He chuckled.

Raella paused for a moment, looking over at Chase. “I want you to stay here as well.”

Chase blinked several times in confused surprise. “What? I can’t… I’ve come this far, Raella!”

“I understand, and I don’t doubt your skill, but I will feel better if you are not risked. Besides, we have alternate means of completing the seal now, which we would have to use anyways now that Greyjon is… not here.” Raella frowned, pursing her lips. “Stay and help Captain Kaphryn and her people find us another way out to the surface. Certainly you can finagle a spell capable of helping in some way?”

Chase grimaced, but didn’t argue. I glanced at Lexie, wondering if I could convince her to similarly stay, when I noticed the strange frown on her face. She stared into the air, focusing hard on something. I remembered that she could see the strange balls that were watching us, and wondered what they were doing to catch her attention, when they suddenly appeared, clear and present and easy to see for everyone. Several of the dwarven soldiers shouted, startled, as their invisibility dropped.

“Greetings,” a voice boomed tinnily from the spheres.

45. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

I had a strange dream, like I was sleeping peacefully until I was swallowed into a void, and then I had fallen into the ocean… The first thing I became aware of was voices, very near to me, quietly talking. Voices I recognized. I realized that Peyton and Asterollan were with me, and the thought was somehow instantly calming. The next thing I immediately became aware of was my headache – it throbbed just behind my brow in the middle of my forehead, sharp, like a pickaxe poking into my brain. I sighed as I stirred and sat up. I felt a strong hand grip my shoulder and elbow, helping steady me. “Are you okay?” Asterollan asked. His voice sounded harsh, but when I opened my eyes, I saw the worry spoken plainly on his face – as well as the dark circle on his forehead.

I nodded, hardly able to take my eyes off the mark. “I… I just feel like someone took a pickaxe to my head, but I’m fine.” The memories of watching people get crushed by rocks, of losing Lyre behind me in the cave-in swirled through my mind, making me feel nauseous. And Greyjon… A bad headache was the least I deserved. I placed my hands over my face, rubbing slightly, wishing I was sleeping again.

We were in some kind of strange stone building with a dim ring of lights set into the ceiling. It looked almost like it had been formed out of the rock itself. The floor dipped down, completing the dome in a kind of lopsided oval. It was like being inside a stone egg that was set with flat platforms along the walls at spaced intervals, like beds. I was laying on one of those platforms. Maybe they were beds after all.

Peyton and Kaphryn sat on another platform nearby, watching me as I sat up. Captain Kaphryn watched me intently, warily, and Peyton sat, her arms crossed and her head tilted as she stared. I could see the same dark circle on Peyton’s forehead, and reached up to my own pounding head where I assumed I had a similar mark. It struck me as immediately strange for a moment – every time I had seen a tether on an elven slave, the marks had been different, unique, usually encompassing one entire half of their face and trailing down their necks. For some reason, I understood intuitively that this was not the same. Rubbing my forehead again, I asked, “What did they do to us?” As I asked, I reached for my magic. I could still feel it, sense the power around me, but it was just out of reach and I couldn’t grasp it.

Asterollan frowned. “I thought it was tethering at first, but…”

“It’s not. It’s suppression.” Peyton frowned, uncrossing her arms and gripping the edge of the platform she sat on. “They’ve had enough dealings with the elves that they’ve developed a method of suppressing magic. Apparently, the process is quite similar to tethering, but there’s no Focus, because they don’t want us to cast. Instead, there’s a key.” I looked up at the dim circle of lights above us, blinking as I stared into them. It looked suspiciously like electricity. Before I could even voice the thought, Peyton said, “Yes. It’s electricity.” I raised an eyebrow at her nervously.

“They… they have electricity,” I mumbled the statement in shock. “Where are we?”

“It’s a city of some kind. I don’t know the name of it. The Underlings minds are… hard to understand. I don’t even know if they built the city themselves, or just found it… They seem to understand and speak Blest, but they also have their own language…” As Peyton spoke, I tried to imagine words coming out of the toothy maw of that strange, eyeless face I had stared into before and shuddered.

“That scholar had mentioned before that there were records of a transport that could run the Graces straight to the seal, deep underground. It supposedly ran on some kind of mysterious energy, maybe this electricity you both mentioned,” Kaphryn spoke up, a frown on her face. “We were just discussing the possibility that the Underlings have tapped into its source.”

“That scholar?” I repeated her words, raising an eyebrow.

Her frown deepened and a flush rose up her face. “That… Jon Umberling.” I stared at her a moment, amused at her reaction, but decided not to comment on it and only nodded. “We saw the transport briefly, when we descended into this cavern. We should make it our goal to get to it.”

“It ran along a glowing track, kind of like a futuristic train,” Peyton described for me. I sighed and rubbed at my forehead again. “The gems they used to suppress us are the keys to that,” she said, changing the subject as she read the thought that flitted across my mind. “But when we tried to attack them and take them by force… well, it ended poorly.”

I frowned, wondering how strong the Underlings were if they easily overpowered people like Asterollan and Peyton. I also imagined that as a Captain, Kaphryn wasn’t a pushover either. “Somehow, they used the keys against us,” Peyton said a bit defensively, reading the concern in my thoughts.

“You need to quit doing that,” I said.

Peyton smiled apologetically. “I’m sorry. I’ve been… opening it up a little more lately. Trying to get us out of this mess.” I nodded, understanding. “What I have learned is that they can’t take the suppression keys far from us for some reason. Whether that’s for a good reason or a bad reason, I can’t say, but the guards outside have got ours.”

“What would be a bad reason?” I asked, feeling a little confused.

“Maybe we die if they get too far from us,” Peyton suggested, a little too cheerily.

I stared at her, my jaw dropping open at the thought. “Or,” Asterollan said, finally speaking, “they become less effective at containing us with distance.” His hand was still on my shoulder, and I felt him give a reassuring squeeze. When I glanced up at him, I saw that his eyes were unfocused as he frowned, deep in thought.

Peyton raised an eyebrow, her eyes lingering on Asterollan’s hand on my shoulder for a moment before she said, “I’m simply trying to posit the possibility that it wouldn’t be wise to just go running out of the range of the gems. At least not until I can get a read on what the result might be.”

Asterollan’s hands pulled away from me as he shifted to sit on his own stone platform. “Now that Cassandra is up, we should run or try to fight them again. How many guards are outside now?”

“Just a few. But they’re waiting for something,” Peyton looked thoughtful, her eyes unfocused. I realized she was trying to push into the minds of the Underlings.

“Can you tell why they’ve captured us in the first place?” I asked.

Peyton flushed, looking mildly annoyed. “They work for him. For Shadawn. He created them.”

I gaped at her. “What?”

“I don’t know when or how or why, but they all seem to think they owe their existence to him. And from what I can tell, he still wants me.” She paused for a moment, then seemed to rethink the phrasing of her last sentence, and blushing furiously added, “As his Chosen. Shadawn wants me as his Chosen.”

I nodded, not really questioning. Even if Shadawn wanted Peyton as something more… was that hard to believe? She was a movie star. Beautiful, and ridiculously talented, and skilled at everything she tried… no wonder she caught the attention of would be evil godlings. “Okay. Stop that,” she said, reading my thoughts and still blushing furiously. “I’m not perfect.”

I snorted. “So, what’s the plan?”

Kaphryn sighed. “The door is sealed from the outside. I suppose we just wait, and prepare ourselves for the second they do unseal it.”

“And then?” I glanced around and saw that all three of them had set and determined expressions. I hesitated a moment, then nodded. “We fight,” I said nervously.

We moved closer to the entrance, taking up platforms that would allow us to move quickly against whoever stepped in first. Since I had already had plenty of sleep owing to passing out earlier, I sat up with Peyton to keep watch. Kaphryn and Asterollan each chose their own platforms to snooze on for a bit, taking the moment to rest. Peyton stared at where they insisted the door was, her eyes unfocused as she attempted to read more out of the thoughts of the guards outside the building.

I glanced around the small room nervously, though there wasn’t much to see. Eventually, my eyes rested on Asterollan. I stared at the features of his face absently, especially the notch in the bridge of his nose where the scar sliced across his face, a long white stripe across his otherwise flawless and tanned skin. It occurred to me again that if it wasn’t for that scar, he would be devastatingly beautiful. In sleep, his expression was less severe, instead veering toward melancholy. I wondered for a moment if he was having a sad dream…

“He’d do anything for you, you know,” Peyton said suddenly. I shifted, startled by her words, and looked up at her. She was staring at me, her head tilted curiously, her blue eyes seeming to stare right through me.

My heart raced for a moment, and I inwardly chastised myself for it. “I have Lyre…” I said, a bit harshly, and avoided looking in her eyes. I wondered if Lyre was even alive.

Peyton nodded. “Lyre would do anything for you too. But what if he’s dead?”

I glared at her. “He’s not dead,” I said firmly. She smiled knowingly, and I was instantly annoyed. Then, half curious if it would get a rise out of her, I asked, “Do you think Lucas is still alive?”

She looked a bit surprised for a moment, then something in her expression hardened. “If he’s not, it’s your fault.” The comment hurt so much I nearly gasped out loud, but Peyton’s head suddenly swiveled toward the door and she reached out to shake Kaphryn awake. “They’re coming,” she said quietly. I reached out to wake Asterollan, but saw that his eyes were already open. He sat up, pulling himself into a crouch on the platform. I heard the shifting of the stone as it pulled slightly out and shifted to the side smoothly, automatically.

Before we could move, I felt a sharp pain overwhelm my senses. My vision strained, sending strange halos of light flickering through my sight that warped everything so drastically that I shut my eyes tight. The sharp pain I had felt in my head before intensified, brutally. I realized I was screaming, a sharp piercing noise, and I could hear Peyton grunting in pain and Asterollan’s angry shouting. I managed to force my eyes back open in time to blearily make out Captain Kaphryn yelling and throwing herself bodily at the first figure that appeared at the door. She was easily swiped out of the air by one unnaturally long limb and thrown harshly, her back slamming into one of the platforms on the other end of the room. She gasped, moaning in pain as she crumpled to the curved floor, curling into a ball.

Peyton, gasping in pain, shifted forward, striking quickly into the neck of the figure. Her blow caused it to wheeze painfully, and it let loose a short, sharp bark of pain as it fell to one knee, but the one behind it held up a small black gemstone. The gem glowed brightly and Peyton screamed shrilly, clutching her head.

After a few moments, the pain subsided, but the strange halos of light still seemed to flicker across my vision, making me feel nauseous. The creatures stood for a moment in the doorway, holding the gems up, a threatening reminder they could use them on us again. One of them made a strange series of clicking noises from deep inside its throat, and then spoke in Blest. “Follow,” it said, and clicked and gurgled again. They stepped back from the door.

We hesitated for a moment, then Peyton stood and stalked out, standing just outside the door. I slipped off the platform I was on and followed, my chin lowered as I stared at the tall creatures that surrounded us. There were several of them, forming a loose semi-circle around the entrance of the building we were in. Asterollan jumped down from his perch, walking over to check on Kaphryn, and helped her to her feet. As they both stepped out behind Peyton and me, the Underling that had spoken before gestured with its hands at Kaphryn. “You. Stay.”

We paused for a moment, then Kaphryn sighed and stepped back into the building. The door slid closed, smoothly transitioning back into place. I stared back at the door. “What’s going to happen to her?” I asked, as the creatures began to move us forward.

Peyton’s expression paled before it even spoke. It gave a harsh series of clicks, much like laughing, and then said, “Food.” The nausea became overwhelming. I looked out across the dimly lit cavern, seeing a massive city on the other end, and the lights from similar domed buildings as the one we had stayed in splayed across the ceiling. Far below, I could see the glowing line of the transport that Peyton and Kaphryn had mentioned.

We seemed to be heading toward it. “Where are you taking us?” I asked. I had hoped to sound a little demanding, and winced when my tone came out desperate and frightened.

“To Master.” We walked quietly with the group for a moment. I wondered briefly if maybe this was for the best. They were taking us directly to Shadawn. We wanted to go to Shadawn. Granted, with the suppression in place, this confrontation wasn’t going to happen how we wanted it to. But maybe we could figure something out once we were there. My mind raced, wondering what action I could take, or whether Asterollan or Peyton had a plan…

I thought about Kaphryn being cannibalized by the creatures and froze in my tracks.

We couldn’t leave her. She was in this mess because of my stupidity. I couldn’t leave her. One of the Underlings shoved me hard between my shoulder blades, causing me to stumble forward a few steps, but something in my mind had set – I wasn’t going to take another step. Not where they wanted me to go.

It happened quickly. I stumbled forward onto my knee, felt my resolve harden before I even hit the ground, and heard Peyton groan as she read my mind. Distracted by my hard tumble, the Underling that had shoved me reached down to grip my arm and roughly pull me up, and Peyton swiveled into a sudden round house kick, her movements as graceful as a dancer. I didn’t even know what she was kicking at until I heard the crystalline sound of the gem hitting the ground.

Without even trying to stand all the way, I pulled from the Underling’s grip on my arm and dove toward the sound, hoping to find the gem in the dim light. I heard Asterollan tackle the creature as it grasped at me, rolling onto it, and then heard him scream in pain as his key was used against him, but I didn’t look back. I continued grasping along the ground desperately, but then felt the halos flair in my vision and screamed in pain, convulsing bodily and curling up into a protective ball.

I could hear Peyton struggling, fighting desperately. It must have been her gem that she had knocked free. I felt rough, clawed hands grip me, lifting me bodily, and I screamed and kicked, windmilling my legs in desperation. I felt dread well up in me as more clawed hands gripped me, tearing at my skin. This was hopeless, I realized. I began to cry as I screamed, feeling angry and frustrated, and looked up in time to see Peyton’s face.

She was fighting, lashing out with swift strikes and weaving out of the grip of the Underlings that were trying to catch her, her expression set in a grimace reflecting my hopelessness. But suddenly, her expression contorted. Her eyes widened in shock, and a smile spread across her face. “Yes!” she shouted, pumping her hands into the air as she literally jumped for joy.

I stared in confusion.

And then the vines shot violently from the rocks, eviscerating the Underling that had started to reach for her, and realization dawned on me.

44. Lucas

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

I lay panting heavily from adrenaline as I stared at the rocks that had almost crushed me. I could hear Lexie coughing from the dust that still swirled in the air around us, and I breathed a sigh of relief knowing that she was okay, and that I was okay. Glancing up, I could see Peter nervously skittering in circles around the girl, making alarmed clacking noises, obviously in high alert and searching for any sign of danger. Good spider, I thought.

I heard someone shifting rocks nearby, grunting in exertion, and I sat up. It was Lyre. “What are you doing?” I asked, confused.

He paused, staring back at me with a dazed expression on his face. “Cassandra…” he said.

“Is she trapped there?” I said, standing to hurry over in case he needed help shifting rocks off her, but I didn’t see any signs of her.

Lyre frowned. “I don’t know.”

I stared at the piled boulders that completely blocked off the area where we had all just been fighting for our lives moments before. “I don’t think we’re going to make it through that way,” I said. Lyre continued to stare at the rocks. “I’m sure she’s fine,” I added after a moment, not entirely sure what else I could say.

“Oh good. You’re alive,” I heard a voice say behind us, and I twisted around to see Raella approach from the dark passage. Her expression was grim as her yellow eyes glinted in the light of my magic. She looked over the boulders and sighed. “Let us attempt the compass spell.”

“Will it work with only us?” I asked.

She nodded. “Just barely, but it won’t be as accurate. With only myself to cast, there will be no… depth? But we’ll get a general idea of direction at least.”

I nodded. Lexie and I followed Raella’s instructions, standing where she indicated, and then she cast the familiar compass spell. The glow flowed around us, and a small circle appeared between us. A single, very bright light flashed on one side of it.

I stared at the single flashing dot of light, feeling something like dread close around my heart. “Why is there only one?” I asked. “Shouldn’t there be three? One for Cassandra, one for Asterollan, and one for Peyton?”

“Asterollan was not summoned, so he would not appear regardless,” Raella said, though that was only part of the answer I was looking for. I glanced uneasily over at Lyre, who stared at the dot as Raella allowed the spell to fade. 

“There should still have been two of them,” Lexie said very quietly. I felt suddenly nauseous. The girl stared at where the circle had been and shifted her weight uneasily and Peter trilled softly at her distress. Her arms were crossed and she was covered in a fine layer of dust that made her look almost deathly pale. Looking for something to do, I started to pat some of the dust out of her hair and clothes.

Raella had her finger to her chin as she often did when she was thinking. So either Cassandra or Peyton had survived, but not both. I wondered briefly if Cassandra had been crushed by the rocks, if that was why Lyre was in so much shock. For some reason, my brain did not want to consider the possibility that the dot was not Peyton. Peyton had so much main character energy that I couldn’t even begin to consider her being dead. Lexie began to bat my hands away, looking annoyed at my fussing, and I backed away.

“What’s the plan?” I asked Raella.

She looked a little startled for a moment, but then nodded decisively, her expression settling on determination. “We’ll continue along this passage, and any time we hit a crossroads or an offshoot, we’ll cast the spell again and choose the path that takes us closest to our companion. Perhaps the tunnels meet further on somewhere.” I flinched at the word companion. Non-plural. Fuck.

“And if we run into a dead end?” I asked.

“Then we’ll think of another plan. Let’s not put more trouble in our path than we already have to deal with.” She turned and began to walk further into the tunnels, reaching for her magic and summoning the globules of light that I had seen her use to read with before. She allowed her hold of magic to drop, and the globes of light floated around her and ahead of her, lighting the passage.

Lexie sighed and followed along behind her. I glanced back at Lyre, who was staring back at the boulders. “Come on,” I told him.

He nodded and silently started walking ahead of me. Peter and I followed.

It was quiet for a long time while we walked until Lexie asked, “What do you think happened to the others? All those dwarven soldiers? And Chase and Greyjon and Zolambi? And that nerdy scholar what’s-his-face?”

I frowned, and morbidly began a mental count of how many dwarves I’d personally seen crushed by rocks or killed by Underlings. I hadn’t seen any of our other companions bite it at least. “I think just the cavernous area in the crossroads caved in. If they made it to the other passages, they’re likely fine,” I said.

Lexie shivered.

We continued until we came to a split in the path, where Raella cast the compass spell again. For a moment, I held my breath, silently hoping to see two dots appear in the softly glowing circle, but there was just one again. I let out my breath in a deep sigh of disappointment, and glanced over at Lyre. He stared at the dot with a faintly determined look on his face, like he absolutely believed that it was Cassandra, and for the first time I considered that maybe it was. Maybe Peyton was dead. The very thought felt like a punch to the gut, and hurt a lot more than I had thought it would. To distract myself, I turned toward the path that led closest to the indicated direction and started to walk down it before anyone else did.

“Do you think there are any Underlings watching us?” Lexie asked after a while.

“I don’t believe so,” Raella said. “There are so few of us they would have surely attacked.”

“That’s very reassuring,” I grumbled, casting my eyes up to the ceiling of the passage we were in. I noticed that one of the globules of light that Raella was controlling shifted up toward the ceiling slowly after Lexie’s question, helping to illuminate the shadows and crevices so that we’d be able to spot anything if it approached from above.

Our journey through the tunnels continued in that way for a long time, in a strange quiet and calm. Lexie was subdued from the cave in, and the remaining three of us had never been big conversationalists. We stopped when Raella told us it was time to rest, and took turns at watch through the night. Halfway through the next day, as we approached a fork in the path, Raella motioned for us to stop and allowed her globes of light to blink out of existence. She motioned for us to press ourselves against the walls of the tunnel and whispered, “Let go of your power.”

For several tense moments, we stood in complete darkness. “Raella, why…” Lexie started, but Raella shushed her. I strained my ears and held my breath, attempting to hear what had her concerned. From somewhere ahead of us I heard a low keening call that echoed down the tunnel. It was utterly inhuman and sent a shiver traveling down my spine and raised goosebumps along my skin. “Is that… them?” Lexie whispered.

“I believe so. Stay still and stay quiet for a moment,” Raella murmured back. Another similar call trilled in answer to the first, and then the cries continued, growing fainter as the creatures moved further away. Once they were distant enough, we cast the compass spell again. Raella frowned down the passage ahead of us, in the direction the blinking light was indicating from the spell. “I think that’s the way the Underlings were going,” she said quietly.

I sighed at her words. Of course it is, I thought to myself, but I didn’t say anything out loud. We continued down the passage.

At some point it grew lighter inside the cavern and we were able to drop all our sources of magical light. Raella touched the side of the tunnel curiously, her fingers coming away with a faint luminescence clinging to them. “It’s like some kind of moss,” she said. I frowned and placed my hand on the side of the tunnels, noting that it was quite damp through this area. I wondered where the water was coming from, and realized I could hear it faintly dripping and trickling from somewhere within the cave.

It was probably a good thing that we were no longer lit up, because around the next corner the passage opened up into a cavern. I could hear the screeching cries of the Underlings as we approached the edge of the passage, peaking out at what lay out ahead of us. I heard Raella gasp in shock, and Lexie, her voice low and awed, whispered, “Did they build that city?”

Because it was a city – a massive one, set on the edge of an underground lake. It was lit bright with low greens and blues from bioluminescent plants, but also with bright white strips of lights – electricity. I realized with a start that it was technology of a sort that was way beyond anything we had seen so far in this world. “What is that sound?” Lyre asked quietly as he tried to comprehend what he was looking at. I paused, wondering if he meant the calls of the Underlings in the city below, before I realized I could hear the faint hum of something electric. As we watched, a strip of light leading down a tunnel near the city grew brighter and the hum grew louder, and a platform hovering above the light strip slid into sight and disappeared amongst the buildings.

I realized there were more lights from above and looked up to see that there were more structures on the ceiling. They were simpler than the city below, rounded stone domiciles with circles of lights on their roofs (floors?). I could see Underlings moving in and out of them and crawling along the ceiling and the walls of the cavern. I could see more Underlings moving in the city below.

I gripped Lexie and Raella’s arms and pulled them back into the passage. “Please don’t tell me we have to go through that.”

“Such an amazing display of actual culture that we never even knew…” Raella was muttering. I snapped my fingers in front of her face and her eyes focused on me, her expression annoyed. “Stop that,” she commanded and I sighed and repeated my question. We cast the compass spell to see which way we needed to go.

To my relief, the blinking light did not lead directly to the city – instead it focused on the side of the cavern, on the far side of the cavern along the wall that we were already on, which was less populated. I wondered if there was another passage that way. “So how are we going to handle this?” I asked.

“Stay low,” Raella said. “I know it’s bright through here, but don’t do anything to draw attention to us, such as reaching for your magic. I think the light sources we’re used to are still brighter than theirs, so we would stand out. We’ll follow the wall until we reach that side and then try to find another passage or a place where we can hide and cast the compass spell again to determine if we’re moving out of this cavern or… or back into it.”

We kept to her plan, hugging the wall on the side of the cavern we were on and hiding behind any rocks or boulders we came across. When we reached the other side, we were lucky enough to find a side passage, hardly more than a crevice in the wall. I frowned as Raella pushed through the opening, feeling mildly claustrophobic watching the tight fit. Once she was on the other side she called back, “It opens more down here. Come through.”

Lexie and Lyre followed her next as I turned and glanced around, making sure nothing was moving towards us. Then I followed them down with Peter pushing along behind me, feeling the rocks scraping against me. I barely fit, and was terrified I was going to get stuck for a moment. I could feel Peter nudging me along with his head, and I finally stumbled through, losing my balance, and falling to my knees. Lyre helped me up as the spider clicked in alarm at my fall, waving its legs in the air as it emerged from the passage.

Raella cast the compass spell again. I groaned loudly as I realized the blinking dot was pointing back into the cavern. “We have to go back in there?” Lexie said in a shrill whisper as she began to comprehend what we were seeing. “Do you think they’ve been captured?”

I sighed and ran a hand over my face. “Yeah. That’s probably what it means,” I grumbled. Lyre had shifted back toward the tight space that we had crawled through and was staring back out into the cavern. Lexie stared at me, her jaw hanging open. We stood silently for a moment, tensely considering our options. “Should we rest for now?” I asked.

“What if they get moved further into the city while we’re sleeping? We’ll never be able to find them. There’s no way we could just sneak down into all of that. We’d be captured immediately.” Lyre shook his head, frowning as he spoke.

Raella suddenly tilted her head and said, “Drop your magic and stay quiet, I hear something from further down the passage.” We all immediately dropped into a crouch and let go of our magic, plunging ourselves into darkness. I could feel Peter nudge at my leg and placed a hand on his body as I listened intently, trying to catch what Raella had heard. After several moments I realized I could hear voices.

More importantly, I realized they were familiar voices. I stood up and moved forward, reaching for my magic so that I would be illuminated and saying, “It’s us!”

A line of fire bloomed into existence moving straight towards me. At the end of it, I could see the barely illuminated and shocked face of Chase. I stumbled back from the flame arrow, throwing my hands up to defend myself as Raella threw a barrier in front of me. She motioned with her hands as the fire hit the barrier and instead of deflecting the spell, the barrier shifted around it and seemed to swallow the flames, snuffing them out of existence quietly. Raella grimaced as the barrier dropped, and in a loud whisper said, “That could have alerted the Underlings to our presence.”

“Raella?” Chase whispered back. As she moved forward, I could see that Zolambi was with her, looking extraordinarily relieved to see us. They also had several shorter forms with them – dwarven soldiers, and Jon Umberling. “You’re alive!” Chase said, moving forward to hug Raella.

“We thought that we may have failed the entire world,” Zolambi said after he had greeted us. Raella awkwardly patted Chase on the back as she attempted to extricate herself from the girl’s hug. Zolambi’s eyes flitted over our small group, and his lips thinned in a grimace. “I take it you’ve been casting the compass spell?” he asked.

Raella nodded. “Please, lower your voices. If you wish to see why, just look out into that cavern.” Raella gestured toward the crevice we had crawled through. Zolambi frowned in curiosity and moved forward to look. I could hear him gasp at what he saw. “With you here, we might be able to get a more accurate read with the spell, which will help us immensely for what we are about to do.”

“They’re in there?” Zolambi said, his tone grim as he took in how many Underlings existed in the cavern.

We positioned ourselves for the spell and it was cast one more time. The circle flared into life between us, and I saw that with more people to cast it, the dot had shifted back into a figure, much like how we had glimpsed Cassandra before when we had first come to this world. I frowned in confusion at the jumble of limbs and features and realized with a start that the figures of light showed two people, so close in proximity that they overlapped and jumbled in the circle.

Cassandra and Peyton were both alive, I realized, and I breathed a heavy sigh of relief.