Tag: underground

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.

43. Cassandra

On By MaryIn 2023, WritingLeave a comment

The tension was palpable as we walked. Even Jon Umberling had stopped chattering and grown quiet as we descended further through the tunnels, his glasses flashing in the lights we carried as he kept his head lifted to stare at the ceiling. The soldiers were all wary as well, and the collected anxiety was catching amongst the rest of us. I walked arm in arm with Lyre, who was constantly glowing, holding tight to his magic in preparation for anything. The silence was eerie, with the sounds of our footsteps and the rustling of our gear being the only noise. Whenever anyone did talk, they kept their voices low, and the whispers echoed in an unsettling way. Peter stayed close to Lucas, almost like a dog at heel, and made soft clicking noises.

It was hard to tell the time of day from underground, but Raella said that we left Gno’s temple late in the afternoon, so it felt like we were making camp very soon after leaving. When we made camp for the night, some of the tension released, and some of the soldiers began to converse amongst themselves a little less quietly, though all of it was still very subdued. I don’t think anyone slept well that night, even though it seemingly remained quiet and calm.

Despite that calmness, in the morning things became even more subdued and tense. Even before Captain Kaphryn approached, our group could tell that something was wrong from the murmurs and nervousness of the soldiers. Captain Kaphryn approached Raella to quietly tell her that at least three of her men had disappeared in the night. “We suspect that more of us will get picked off through the day,” she said, her face grim. “You’ll be safer in the center, but make sure you stay together in groups of two or three and report immediately if anyone goes missing.”

Greyjon looked at the Captain in surprise. “We didn’t hear anything last night.”

Kaphryn nodded. “Neither did we,” she said as she moved away from us, and the displeasure was clear in her voice.

Greyjon frowned but nodded and we were allowed to choose our assigned partners. Lexie immediately gripped Lucas’s arm, and he grimaced at her as Peter happily trilled. “Okay, that’s one grouping. Peyton, stay close to me and Raella.” He glanced over at where Lyre and I were practically attached at the hip and grinned. “I assume you two will keep an eye on each other?” I nodded.

“We’ll keep an eye on our scholar,” Chase said, pulling on Zolambi’s sleeve and ruffling Jon’s hair so that his glasses went slightly askew. Jon straightened his glasses and frowned at her, his face mildly flushed.

Greyjon glanced over at Asterollan. “You can’t continue to brood by your lonesome. Choose a grouping.”

Asterollan clapped a hand onto my shoulder. “I’ll keep an eye on the lovebirds,” he said, his tone light and teasing. I smiled at him.

“Okay, everyone stays close. Don’t go anywhere alone. Make mental notes to check for your partners at regular intervals. If someone is out of your sight for even a second, say something.”

“What if we have to pee?” Lexie asked curiously.

Lucas sighed and planted his face in his palm. “You should have chosen Peyton as your partner,” he grumbled, frowning at the girl through his fingers.

Greyjon looked annoyed. “We can readjust the groups if we need to,” he said.

“The spider can watch us pee,” Lucas said, sounding equally annoyed. “Or we can decide on pee partners as we walk. It looks like we’re about to start moving.”

“What if we have to poop?” Lexie whispered as the soldiers ahead of us began to move, and we gathered ourselves and followed after.

“Nobody is waiting for you to poop. Wear a diaper,” Lucas whispered back.

“Ewww,” Lexie commented dramatically.

I chuckled as she continued to pester him with other scenarios as we walked, marveling at how he acted like a big brother to her. Every couple of minutes I would swivel my head around to look at Asterollan, who was trailing behind Lyre and me. Finally, I said, “Maybe you should walk ahead of us so we can keep an eye on you.”

He looked a little startled at the suggestion, but compliantly moved to walk ahead of us. I found myself staring at the back of his head as we walked, absent minded and tense and waiting for something to happen. I kept reminding myself to breathe. I’m sure my nervousness was quite obvious, because Lyre kept squeezing my hand in reassurance.

Late in the morning as we reached a larger, almost cavernous section of the tunnel that opened into a crossroad that split three ways. there was a commotion behind us and we all stopped as Captain Kaphryn moved from the forward position and went to investigate the issue. Soon she was moving back through the ranks, quietly ordering the soldiers to arm themselves and form a protective circle around us. She didn’t shout the orders, and actually sounded quite calm, but her face was pale and her eyes kept darting around, checking the walls and the ceiling. Glancing up, I could see that our dim lights didn’t reach that high. As she walked past us, Greyjon grabbed her shoulder. “What happened?” he asked.

“Several more of my men have disappeared from the rear. The Underlings are picking us off.” She moved on to pass her orders towards the soldiers at the front as we each looked around at each other. Lexie paled and looked significantly less amused, kneeling to pet Peter, who was making soft clicking noises, its many eyes glittering in the lights. Several of us began to shift into a tighter grouping. I could hear Peyton gasp suddenly, saying, “I can hear their minds. They’re so close. They’re everywhere.” I twisted my head, trying to spot what she could sense.

As the soldiers moved in to surround us and form a protective barrier, several of us lit up, glowing with our magic. Asterollan also reached for his magic, and the significantly brighter glow of his power lit up the stretch of tunnels that we were in like a miniature sun. I heard Jon gasp in terror, and looked over to see that his head was tilted back to stare at the ceiling.

And then I saw movement out of the corner of my eyes as shapes began to drop from above. I heard Peter screech, an inhumanly loud sound, and watched the spider spread its front legs wide, taking a defensive posture over Lexie. Then I heard soldiers screaming and shouting as a fierce battle erupted around us.

Something thumped to the ground next to me from above, and I turned to face it. A figure seemed to unfurl and loomed over me, humanoid in shape, but much taller, and I gaped at it, feeling for a moment like everything was moving in slow motion. It was thin, all wiry muscle and almost translucently pale grey flesh. It had an almost perfectly round head with no discernable eyes or nose. What it did have were long, pointed ears, even longer than those of the elves, that swept back and around the head, and a large mouth filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth. I stared at the teeth in shock, almost too distracted to see it pull its thin, elongated arms up to grab me until the sight of its many fingered hands and long sharp nails loomed into my vision, reaching for my face. Suddenly time seemed to speed up as I screamed, and felt Lyre’s arms tug me back and out of the creature’s reach as Asterollan’s new fiery blade sliced through the thing like paper, causing it to let loose a high-pitched squeal of pain.

I clapped my hands over my ears as several other Underlings squealed in response to the death cry, and looked around at the surrounding chaos. I could see that Raella had summoned a barrier over Chase and Jon, and was focusing on it as Chase focused on striking out with small blasts of fire at any of the creatures dropping from above. I could see that Greyjon and Peyton had moved to help some of the soldiers toward the forward position, both brightly glowing with their magic and using various spells as they swung their swords.

Asterollan dashed past me, and I could see that he was rushing to help the rear defense, where Zolambi had already moved to assist, glowing brightly from the magic he wielded.

Looking up I could see there were many more of the Underlings crawling across the ceiling of the tunnels, so many that they formed a writhing mass of pale flesh. The sight made my skin crawl, and without thinking I reached for my magic, hearing the faint crackle of the electricity that arced across the glow that sprung up around me.

I reached my hands up and unleashed as much lightning as I could summon, bright bolts of plasma jumping across the ceiling and arcing from body to body, causing the creatures above to stiffen and seize and scream and fall. For a moment the sounds of battle seemed to fade away as many of the dwarven soldiers on the ground stared up at the crackling display in shock and the subsequent rain of bodies. I could feel Lyre grip my shoulder tight, shouting, “No! Nothing big! You’ll bring the entire tunnel down on us!”

I gasped and released the spell and my magic, but realized the damage had already been done. The tunnels shook around us and along with the bodies of the Underlings I had killed, rocks were starting to tumble as well, and I could hear a different kind of shouting take hold as everyone and everything nearby screamed and scrambled to avoid the falling rocks and the quickly crumbling tunnel. I felt Lyre pushing me forward at a run, felt the guilt swallow me as I watched a nearby handful of dwarven soldiers crushed by a massive boulder.

Lyre stumbled somewhere behind me, shouting my name. My heart felt suddenly crushed as I turned around, trying to squint through the dust or hear his voice through the cacophony. I shouted for him, trying to stumble back toward where I had lost him, when something bright hit me. Strong arms wrapped around me and lifted me, pushing me forward just as more rocks crashed down where I had been standing.

I gasped and closed my eyes and felt myself hit the ground. The light vanished. I lay on the ground, breathing heavily, trying to organize my scattered thoughts. I could hear rocks shifting and settling, the last gasps of the cave in I had caused. I could hear shouting – distant and muffled – and the weird shrill screams of the Underlings, some not as muffled. I could hear someone else breathing heavily nearby.

I opened my eyes but found that I was in complete darkness, so I reached for my magic to light up the area I was in. I could see some dust still settling, swirling in the air. Looking around, the first person I spotted was Peyton. She leaned heavily on her sword, her hair a disheveled mess. As the glow from my magic lit up the area, she shifted forward and leaned down next to another figure – Captain Kaphryn, who was groaning as she shifted herself into a sitting position. Then Peyton dropped down next to another figure – Greyjon, I realized after a moment.

I glanced behind me at the rocks that blocked the tunnels where we had been standing moments before, and spotted a mess of familiar golden curls. I stumbled over to Asterollan’s prone form and realized he was half buried and unconscious, with blood dripping down his face. I started to frantically work on pulling the rocks off him, tossing them to the side. I don’t know how long I worked, but I felt myself getting sweaty, and could feel hot tears streaking down my face. This had all been my fault. We were underground. I should have realized… I tried to push thoughts of Lyre out of my head as I worked to free Asterollan.

Kaphryn and Peyton joined me after a few moments, also working to shift the rocks. When we had him freed enough, Peyton gripped his shoulders and pulled him free. I fell to my knees, clapped my hands on either side of his face, and lit up like a beacon, pouring as much of my power into healing him as I could as I whispered his name over and over.

For a frighteningly long moment there didn’t seem to be any change. And then a slight frown creased his brow and he groaned, and I collapsed onto his chest, sobbing. Asterollan sat up and wrapped his arms around me.

I looked up at Peyton. “Greyjon?” I asked, not really wanting to voice the rest of the sentence.

She stared back at me, and very briefly shook her head.

I gaped at her, and avoided looking over at where his body lay. “This is all my fault,” I gasped after a moment, feeling sick to my stomach.

“It is,” she said simply.

I pulled away from Asterollan, feeling awful. I hadn’t really expected to be reassured, but hearing confirmation of my guilt felt a stab to the heart. I closed my eyes and took three deep breaths. As I did, I heard her grunt and fall forward.

I opened my eyes in time to see several pale, thin humanoid figures approaching us. One of them was holding a hand up, a strange tendril of light and shadow flowing between a crystal it held and Peyton, who had fallen forward on her knees. She looked strained, and as she lifted her head I watched as a dark spot formed on her forehead and spread across her face.

Asterollan was standing, reaching for his magic as he shouted, “She’s being tethered!”

Gasping, I started to stand, but a strange sensation gripped me, causing me to fall forward onto my hands and knees. I could hear Asterollan and Kaphryn also crying out and shouting. It felt sudden and sharp and focused in my chest, like a sudden thump, like a large bird had gone hurtling straight into my chest at full speed. And then I felt a burning sensation spread across the skin of my forehead and I screamed.

When the pain died down, I opened my eyes to find complete darkness. I could hear Peyton and Asterollan gasping nearby, and Kaphryn groaning and struggling, and the sounds of footsteps all around us. I attempted to reach for my magic so that I could have light, but nothing happened. I could still sense my power, but it was like I couldn’t reach it.

Something began to glow very nearby. Almost like a torch, but it was a light bioluminescent blue-green, and very dim – but by that very pale light, I could see the wide toothy smiles of the Underlings that had captured us.

I had never considered myself the sort of person to faint in terror before that moment. But everything – my terror, my panic, my guilt and sadness – became so overwhelming that I felt like I was going to have an actual heart attack. My senses shut down, I felt my vision blur, and felt the world fade away.