Lux, Lia scolded me silently, you know she’s not our enemy here.
I gave an annoyed grunt in response. “Get up, Val.” Her body shook with exertion as she struggled to meet my demand, leaning heavily against her cracked shield to regain her footing. My Detection was still blocked by the swarm of monsters that filled the mine ahead of us, and my presence at the back of Val’s mind hadn’t given me an accurate idea of the extent of her injuries. Despite the resentment I held for her, I couldn’t help but be impressed that she was still conscious, let alone moving, based on my initial estimation of the wounds covering her body. “Come here.”
She shuffled towards us until she was only an arm’s length away, then attempted to straighten her posture, resulting in an immediate wince that knocked her forward another step. I steadied her by her shield and ran my thumb along the fissure in its face. Mana rushed down my arm and suffused the artifact, then continued on around her body to give me a full assessment of her injuries. You really used it all, huh? Where her shield was usually filled with a swirling reserve of rainbow mana, I found it entirely empty: a simple shield of metal and tempered glass, which, without its magical energy, had easily broken under the force of one of the monster’s scythes.
Her body was somehow in worse condition than the shield. Three parallel gashes ran across her back where a set of talons had raked dangerously close to her spine. A deep cut had completely severed the muscles in her left shoulder, and the bone, which had been torn from its socket, bore a deep, ponderous crack where the blade had caught. A majority of her ribs were cracked, and those that weren’t were clearly dislocated. Her nose was broken in two places and slanted heavily to one side, while the rest of her face was covered in various shallow cuts and bruises. Most of her armor was slick with blood, and the spots that weren’t were rapidly soaking through. She would have died of blood loss before she made it out of the cave.
I sighed as I invoked the Healing rune within my ring and set the energy to work repairing her various wounds. She gasped as the mana took effect and carefully rolled her once-ruined shoulder, then gently ran a finger along her nose. “By the Prime of Life itself,” she whispered. “No healer has ever been this skilled. How is it you can—”
“Val, it is really not the time for that,” I said, closing my eyes to watch my mana finish its job. With a final surge of effort, I left a small store of energy within her shield. The glass absorbed the mana hungrily, and I felt the unknown enchantments stored within it activate automatically. “Lia and I have work to do. You should leave.”
“No,” she stated emphatically, stepping forward. “We all need to leave; my army will collapse the tunnel soon. We will be trapped within Shadowmine if we do not hurry.”
I rolled my eyes. “First of all, no, we won’t,” I countered. “These monsters can burrow. If they don’t already have a half-dozen exit tunnels dug out of this place, they definitely will after the entrance is sealed.” I stared at her with an eyebrow raised. “Did you honestly think collapsing a single tunnel would permanently fix your problem?”
She stared at me with her usual, emotionless expression. “Yes, I did,” she answered honestly. “I was not informed that Serathids can tunnel through stone.”
“Well, that seems about the right level of informed for someone in Virram’s army,” I quipped. “Beyond that, we aren’t here to slightly inconvenience your monsters; we’re here to kill them, and to stop more from coming.” I pointed my sword back down the tunnel towards the entrance. “So, again: you should leave.”
“Val, you really should go,” Lia chimed in. “It’s too dangerous down here for you. Let us take care of it.”
“No,” Val repeated stubbornly. “I will help you.”
“What part of this don’t you understand? I don’t want you here,” I snapped. “You betrayed us, and I don’t trust you. It’s that simple. Now, leave, before you make me regret letting you live.”
“Lux, I am not—” A long, low rumble echoed through the tunnel and shook the ground beneath us. I stared past her, clenching my fist against the side of my leg as I silently fumed.
“I believe they have sealed the tunnel.”
“Yes, I know that!” I shouted, resisting the urge to punch a hole through the stone beside us. “Fine! Come with us. Don’t get in the way, and don’t die. You already tried the guilt-ridden sacrifice once tonight, and it's far less effective the second time around.” I felt a small moment of satisfaction as she quickly looked away, her eyes wide. I turned to press on, holding my sword out in front of me to illuminate the path in the absence of my Detection.
Are you okay? Lia joined me as we retread our steps.
Knowing it was impossible to hide my emotions while she and I were so deeply linked, I sighed and answered honestly. I don’t have the time or the capacity to deal with Val right now. She’s so ashamed of what she did to us that she tried to give up her life here to make up for it. I rolled my head to loosen my overly tense shoulders. I don’t want her here because I don’t trust her, but also because I don’t want her to get hurt.
You don’t have to figure that out now. Lia walked more closely beside me, rubbing her shoulder against mine. There will be plenty of time after all of this is done.
What about you? Are you okay? I looked over my shoulder and found Val hurrying after us, still seemingly cautious of her recently healed limbs.
Yeah, I’m okay, Lia answered. Val just makes me...sad. I know that she’s a good person, clearly, but she still gave the order to have us killed. I just want to know why.
The bloodied corpse of our most recent encounter appeared as we rounded a bend, and we hopped over the spreading purple ichor. I guess you’ll have to ask once we’re finished here. Lia gave me a small nod, and I regripped my sword as we entered unexplored territory. It wasn’t long until I heard the telltale clatter of claws against stone ahead of us, and two curved blades flashed in the darkness. Lia dashed ahead and dispatched the beast with ease, leaving Val behind to watch in continued awe. When the beast was dead, Lia cleared the majority of the blood from the glowing greatsword with a quick flourish before falling back to rejoin our group.
“The King’s Sword,” Val mused quietly, motioning to the large onyx blade.
“No,” I corrected sharply, “not the King’s Sword. Lia’s sword.”
“How is it you have become so skilled in manipulating it? It has been less than three months since you acquired the weapon, yet you appear to have full mastery of its abilities.” Val’s eyes fell to the dead monster as we continued past it. “You fight the Serathids as if they were no more dangerous than a common sellsword. How?”
Lia cocked her head to one side as she looked back at Val. “There isn’t much to the sword thing, really.” To prove her point, she split the greatsword back to her usual matched blades. “I guess it’s just...practice?”
“When you stop looking at the world through all of your mysticism, things are a lot easier to understand,” I said. For a moment, I contemplated explaining the concept of mana and how magic truly worked, but I quickly thought better of it and simply shook my head. “These things might be monstrous, but they’re also dumb. They’re suited for pack tactics and surprise attacks, so if you’re fighting them one-on-one, they only have a handful of tricks that they use over and over again.”
“You said the Serathids are invading Lybesa,” Val continued in her questioning. “Have they broken through the Mountain Gate?”
“Not yet, though with the sad force assigned there, it won’t be long,” I answered. “Regardless, these things clearly don’t need a bridge to cross the Maw. They’re still getting in.”
“I was unaware that they had spread beyond Kaldan,” she said quietly, her gaze falling to the ground.
“Another reason to thank your King,” I spat.
“He is not my King,” Val responded immediately, her voice low. “I no longer serve Virram Yorrell, both by his order and of my own volition.” We had known
as much from our conversation at the Mountain Gate, but the statement was still strange to hear from Val herself. She bit her lip and shook her head before she continued. “Even so, I do not see how this invasion could be his doing, or what benefit it might bring him.”
“He already planned an invasion of his own country once,” I countered. “I don’t see why he wouldn’t do it again.”
Val gave a small nod and fell silent, and we continued to work our way through the mines. The restrictive size of the tunnels prevented our enemies from approaching stealthily or pressing a numbers advantage, and we effortlessly cleared any resistance we encountered. Without the ability to scout our path ahead with Detection, we were forced to choose a tunnel at random when the mineshafts split, and we doubled back on our own tracks three times over the course of our journey.
After what felt like hours of walking, we finally encountered a break in the monotony of the endless tunnels. A narrow passage broke through the tunnel wall ahead of us and wound its way down into the darkness. The rough-cut walls and steep, uneven floor were clear markers that the passage had been created by the monsters below us, and the loose debris piled by the entrance told us it was a recent construction. It was only wide enough for us to squeeze through single-file, and after a moment’s pause to prepare ourselves, I led the way into the crevice. I felt an uncomfortable sense of claustrophobia as we descended, pressed against the wall for support and guidance as the path awkwardly rose and fell beneath our feet.
As we sank farther and farther into the earth, the air in the passage shifted from cool and dry to a suffocating, humid vapor, heavy with the stench of death. The hair on the back of my neck stood on end as our path began to flatten out, and a flickering orange light appeared on the cave wall ahead of us. Lia and I cut off the mana lighting our swords in unison, and the three of us slowed our pace and silently crept towards the light source. A sputtering torch was mounted on a clearly manmade wall around the final bend in the passage; as we drew closer, I could see a long brick hallway extending out in both directions lined with wall sconces, most of which had burned themselves out.
A wave of deathly void energy washed over me as I stepped out of our rough passageway onto the dusty brick floor. I let out a loud hiss of pain and whirled around, holding out my hand to block Lia’s entrance into the hall. “Stop,” I whispered, clutching at the burning sensation in my right arm. “Don’t come in here.”
Val’s head poked out from above Lia’s, and she looked back and forth down the hallway. “What is it, Lux?”
Lia’s eyes locked with mine as she stood frozen in the entranceway. We’re getting close, her voice echoed in my head.
Yes. The familiar tingling of void energy shot up to my elbow, where I was able to hold it at bay. Lia, you can’t come in here. I don’t want the—
I leapt forward in vain as Lia stepped down into the hallway. She winced as her hand moved instinctively to her chest and hovered directly above the disfiguring black scars. You aren’t facing this alone.
I cupped her cheek with my hand and sent a surge of mana through her body in a preemptive defense against the darkness. While I could feel the burning in her chest through our mental link, my mana found no trace of the void energy within her. I let out a heavy sigh and rested my forehead against hers. That was stupid.
No. You thinking I would hide in that tunnel while you went on alone was stupid.
I didn’t—
You did, she cut me off. She raised a hand to my face and brushed away a strand of hair, tapping on my temple. We’re in this together.
I can’t lose you again. I picked my head up and looked over her at Val, who stood a step above us in the rough passageway, watching the two of us intently. I motioned her into the hallway with a flick of my head and gave Lia’s shoulder a gentle squeeze before stepping away. If you feel the darkness surrounding you, promise me you’ll fight it. I’ll take it away, just...don’t let it in.
You don’t have to deal with it on your own, Lux, she insisted.
With this, I do. Promise me.
She hesitated momentarily, then gave me a small nod. I promise.
Resigned to the difficulty ahead, I turned and scanned the hallway in both directions. “I’m assuming you have no idea what this place is?” I asked Val.
“No,” she answered slowly, shaking her head. “I have never heard of a structure beneath Shadowmine. This is all so...” she trailed off, looking back and forth. “How could such a place exist?”
“More secrets,” I muttered. I attempted to send out a quick scan of Detection, but the mana pooled at the edges of my boots with the all-too-familiar sensation of the Serathids’ aura. “Well, no sense in waiting, I guess.” After squinting down both sides of the hall for a final moment and finding nothing out of the ordinary in either direction, I led our group to the right. The rancid smell in the air increased rapidly as we walked, becoming so pungent that I had to lessen my Enhanced Senses to keep from gagging. The hallway turned ninety degrees to the left, then ended a few dozen yards ahead with a heavy metal door that had been knocked from its hinges.
We found the source of the stench beyond the broken door: a long chamber constructed entirely of metal from floor to ceiling, completely filled with rotting Serathid corpses. Blood squelched beneath my boots as I stepped inside and peered around the piles of decaying beasts, looking for any signs of life. “What could have done this?” Val asked as she entered behind me, her voice buzzing as she pinched her nose closed.
“They did,” I answered, pointing my sword towards the nearest corpse. “They killed each other.” Half of the beast’s body was stripped down to the bone, its chitinous armor shattered away to reveal the skin and muscle within. The mortal blows that had slain the monsters were all obvious slash wounds, made only more apparent by the dark ichor staining most of the beasts’ bladed appendages. “They killed and ate each other.” The burning in my arm grew more painful as I walked further into the room, consciously absorbing the ambient death energy to keep it away from Lia.
“Vile creatures,” Val swore.
As I scanned the rest of the room, the entirety of the situation became more apparent. “They were locked in here by someone. They were starving, so they ate each other. Eventually, they broke out of that door and made the passage we found to reach the surface.” The metal walls, which had appeared to be some sort of patterned steel, were covered floor-to-ceiling in deep slash marks. “Something other than these beasts is down here, or at least, was down here. These things were intentionally imprisoned here.”
“Maybe this whole invasion was an accident,” Lia posited. “Whoever was down here clearly tried to stop these things from getting out. Not that it worked, but still...maybe it wasn’t one of Virram’s plans after all.”
“Or his plans just got out of hand. Or this is his plan.” Lia’s point was valid, but I refused to give Virram the benefit of the doubt. “Summoning these...creatures isn’t something you do entirely by accident. You have to be—”
“Noises. At the far door,” Val hissed, waving off our conversation. As we fell into silence, I noticed the sounds she had somehow picked up over my bitter complaining: taps and scrapes against the metal door opposite where we had entered. “More Serathids.”
I formed up with Lia and dashed across the room. The door was secured by two parallel steel bars that were controlled by a single wheel at the center. “This must lead further in,” I said, placing a hand on the wheel. “Ready?” Lia and Val nodded in unison, and I spun the wheel and threw open the door. Two bladed arms flew past me and caught on Val’s shield as the first monster lunged toward us. As it stood, preoccupied with its strike, Lia and I stabbed through its hanging body, and Val shoved its broken corpse back into the doorway.
“Close the door!” she shouted, striking out at the next Serathid that attempted to enter the room. As she repelled the intruder, I put my shoulder into the heavy bulwark door, latching it shut immediately after the beast was
pushed through. I watched Val expectantly, waiting for an explanation as the walled-off beasts banged against the metal. “Two more at the door, but beyond, at the end of the hallway...scores of them. They did not react to our skirmish.”
“Well, they might react now,” I said in annoyance, motioning to the door as it shook under the full weight of the ravenous beasts. My eyes turned to Lia, and we set an instant plan into motion through our accelerated link. I spun the door open once again and allowed her to slip into the hallway, deftly rolling beneath the first beast to skewer the second with both longswords. Her sudden movement distracted the final Serathid and allowed me to catch it unaware with a plunging stab into its skull.
With the entrance momentarily unassailed, we took the opportunity to confirm Val’s assessment. Beyond the doorway, a wide hallway ran over a hundred feet back, ending in a chamber far too large to accurately gauge from our distance. I squinted at the movement and repowered my Enhanced Senses, marveling at how Val could have taken such an accurate estimate in such a brief amount of time. Serathids appeared and disappeared at the entrance to the chamber as they scuttled about with some unseen purpose, easily fifty strong, if not more. Also in accordance with Val’s report, they seemed to take no notice of us as we lingered in the doorway.
“That has to be what we’re looking for, right?” Lia whispered. “Or at least, closer to what we’re looking for.”
The sudden drop in my stomach echoed her sentiment. “We’re getting close. The source of the invasion is here—I can feel it.”
“We cannot hope to face that many Serathids at once,” Val protested.
“Yes, we can. If we hold this hallway three wide, they won’t be able to flank us, and the ceiling is too low for any of their acrobatic maneuvers,” I answered. “If things go south, we can retreat to this room; their numbers won’t mean anything when they’re forced to face us through the doorway.”
“You may be right,” she replied, biting her lip, “but...I am unsure if I can face that many at once. I do not possess the skills in combat that the two of you do.”
Restart Again: Volume 3 Page 48