Chapter 37

It took us another thirty minutes to get to our first sign that we were getting close to the cave. It came in the form of a broken-down Magister cart. The Magisters were laying dead on the ground with several limbs strewn about.

"Mind investigating the crime scene, detective?" I said to Sebille with a courteous bow.

"Not at all," she replied with a smile and bow of her own.

She walked over to one of the severed legs and bit a chunk out of it. Once again, she swallowed and looked up. After a minute, her eyes returned to reality and she discarded the appendage.

"The Magisters were hauling a cargo of Sourcerers but were ambushed by a swarm of voidwoken. Not just the grubs that attacked us on the ship, but large flying ones. Poor sap lost his leg just as the monsters hauled him away."

"You mean the voidwoken took the Sourcerers alive?" the Red Prince asked.

"Looks that way," she replied.

"That's rather peculiar," the Red Prince stroked his chin.

"Any bets it has something to do with Mordus?" I asked.

"Possibly," Ifan said. "Lohar told me several Magister convoys were attacked by voidwoken. Even he suspects Mordus may be the cause of this."

"But what would he want with Sourcerers?" Sebelle wondered.

"From the way we're going, I have a feeling we're about to find out," I said. Ifan nodded in agreement. He pointed down a small path off the side of the road through a brush of trees.

"The path to the cave is down here."

Ifan went first with the rest of us close behind. After ten minutes traversing through the trees, we found ourselves in a winding labyrinth of cliffs. We made our way through the path for another five minutes. Eventually, we came to an opening that overlooked a cove down below. To the left, the path led down into a cave. The cave we presumed was where Lohar performed his smuggling operations.

Ifan turned to the rest of us.

"Ready?" he asked.

Sebille and Red Prince nodded. I took a deep breath and sighed, preparing myself for the horrors that awaited us. I nodded.

The interior was not what I expected. Granted the caves we explored so far were vast. But this one was the vastest. The cave floor sloped down to a large chamber that could fit at least five Lady Vengeances. All around were pieces of ships, some used as makeshift bridges over chasms leading to an underground river.

Of course, we wouldn't be here if it didn't have a disturbing element to it. That took the form of piles of bodies littering the sloped path leading to the wreckages. As you could imagine, the smell was almost as bad as the one when we encountered Redeka.

"The things we'll do for Divinity," Sebille coughed.

I grunted and nodded. If only I knew a spell that could clear the air. We descended the slope, passing by several piles of corpses along the way. The majority were humans and dwarves with a handful of elves and lizards. We saw several source collars laying on the ground or still attached to the necks of some corpses. What could the Voidwoken or Mordus be up to?

We came to a piece of a ship that was used as a bridge over a chasm. One by one, we crossed the makeshift bridge to find ourselves in a wide-open part of the cave with sand under our feet. At the edge was a cliff overlooking something. We treaded over the sand to the cliff edge and kneeled. We looked to see a collection of pieces of ships mangled together in the chamber below us. We saw several scattered fires illuminating figures through the fog between us and the bottom. Ifan pulled out his spyglass to get a closer look.

"Can you make out anything?" I asked.

"Barely," Ifan said. "There are dwarves down there. I reckon they're Mordus's cronies."

"Question is, how do we get down there?" Sebille remarked.

It did make me think. I could unfurl my wings and float down there. But the distance to cover and the fog would make it difficult for me to go back and forth between here and there to transport everyone. I looked over at my right to see a broken, but still relatively intact hull of a ship lodged into the cave wall.

"Have an idea?" Ifan asked.

"Maybe," I said. "Let's look around to see if we can find some rope."

Ifan smiled figuring out what my plan was. We stood up and turned around to begin our sear-

"EYES UP!"

The shout from Ifan and the rustle of the sand around us caused me to reach for my wand. Unfortunately, I wasn't fast enough. I felt something sharp lodge into the back of my neck. It felt like a dart of some kind. A dart that was filled with a paralyzing venom. I felt the venom creep into my bloodstream and flow to every corner of my body. The only thing I could move was my eyes. I looked around as I saw a trio of large insects with wings descend on my companions. But I didn't see what became of them because a sticky web came over my eyes and my entire body. All I remembered afterwards was my body being lifted by nightmarish legs before my consciousness faded away.

I coughed myself awake. Globs of sticky goo were expelled from my mouth clearing the way for clean air to enter me. I felt my senses return to my body. The venom had worn off. But thought I could feel my body again, I couldn't move it. I tried opening my eyes, but I couldn't do that either. I couldn't see. It could only mean one thing: I was in a large spider web. Or the voidwoken equivalent of one. I felt myself get nervous. But thanks to my experience fighting monsters over the past few days, I managed to calm myself and think about my options.

I couldn't move my hands thus I couldn't cast spells with them. But my mouth was clear. I inhaled a large breath and felt the fire in my heart stir. I exhaled and felt the fire envelop the area around my head. When it ended, I felt my head free itself and the goo around my eyes melted away. I opened my eyes but suddenly wish that I didn't. I saw myself suspended against a wall in a large cave chamber. A chamber lined with bloody puss, corpses of Sourcerers and large eggs. Voidwoken eggs.

It was a gods damn birthing chamber! And it looked like I was to be this clutch's first meal once they hatched. I wiggled my body, unable to free myself. It looked like the only other way to free myself would be to use my fire breath again dangerously close against my body. But the problem was the fire in my heart was still building up. It would still be a few seconds before I would be able to do it again. Of course, I wouldn't have a problem waiting a few more seconds if it weren't for the cracking sound I heard. I looked over at one of the eggs. It cracked.

"SHIT!"

The shell broke open and a newborn grub voidwoken emerged. I held my breath seeing the abomination wiggle on the floor gaining its bearings. But it wasn't long before it turned its ugly insect eyes towards me. I groaned. It lurched across the floor towards me, hungry for its first meal. When it was close enough, it reared back and readied itself to leap onto me and feast on my insides. But I was prepared and unleashed my frost breath onto the creature. When my breath ended, I saw the monster frozen solid. Its antennae fell off along with the rest of the segments of its body.

Whew. That was close.

But I thought too soon. The four eggs next to the one that hatched started to crack at the same time.

"Oh, come on!" I shouted in equal parts frustration and fear. My fire breath still wasn't ready. All four eggs opened and four newborn voidwoken emerged with their sights on me. I gritted my teeth I wiggled my body hard.

Not like this! Not like this! Not like-

BAM!

I looked up to see a ball of lightning hit one of the larvae. All four of them turned their attention to another corner of the chamber.

"Oy! Over here you ugly cretins. You should work for ya meals!"

Standing there was a dwarven man with a thick braded beard, an eye patch and a sailor's hat. He held an axe in his right hand and a wand in his left. It looked like he was a battlemage based on his stance.

His distraction worked out for me. I felt the fire in my heart ready to be unleashed. I leaned my head down and inhaled. The fire flowed out of my mouth, grazing the web holding my body. The web melted, causing my body to fall off the wall onto the floor. I noticed my wand and shield were still on me.

Thank the gods.

I drew both just as two of the hatchlings started to crawl towards me. I took my stance. When they were about to strike with their mandibles, I unleashed my Blinding Radiance. Both monsters reared back, disoriented. With them stunned, I reached into their air and unleashed a Hail Strike. Both grubs froze and fell apart before me. When I looked over at the dwarf, he had dealt with the other two that came his way. He put his weapons away and hobbled towards me.

"You alright there, lass?" he asked. "I heard ya yellin' so I decided to make a detour."

"Yes, thank you," I said with a smile of gratitude. "Not a moment later and I would have been bug chow."

"You're lucky to be exploring this cave the same day I am," he said with a cheerful grin.

"You one of Lohar's people?" I asked him.

"No," he replied.

My brows shot up.

"Then what are you doing here?"

The dwarf looked away with his hands on his hips.

"Let's just say I'm looking for something and this cave has one of the breadcrumbs leading to where I need to go next."

Much like my reason for being here. Suddenly I jumped, looking franticly around me.

"What is it?" the Dwarf asked startled from my movement.

"I didn't come in here alone," I said. "There were three others with me."

"Ah!" his eye widened. "No doubt taken to other birthing chambers I suspect."

"Do you mind being my partner until I find them?" I asked him. He looked around him for a moment.

"Best to have a partner especially in a place like this," he said.

"Thank you," I said. "I'm Mahalia, by the way."

The dwarf was hesitant to respond for a moment.

"You can call me Beast," he said.

I raised my brows.

A rather piacular nickname. Wonder what his real name is?

But I dropped my suspicion and held out my hand.

"Alright Beast. Partners?"

His grin returned to his face as he hobbled over and shook my hand.

"Partners," he said.

I looked around the chamber.

"How'd you get in here?" I asked.

Beast pointed behind him at a hole in the ceiling against the wall.

"I slide through there to get to ya. But it looks like we won't be able to get out that way. The wall's too slippery to climb."

There must be another way out of here.

I looked around the chamber. Passed the corpses and already hatched eggs, I saw something on the other side.

"There," I pointed. I walked towards it and Beast followed me. There was an opening in the wall that looked to lead to a way out. But when we arrived, we saw the opening dropping into a chasm that descended to the darkest depths. Across the chasm was another opening in the cave wall. Beast stepped in front of me, standing at the edge looking up at the rocks coating the walls and ceiling.

"Well that's a downer," he said. "I don't see any rock above to use my grappling hook to swing across on."

I smiled.

"Well if you don't mind being picked up, I have another solution."

"Are you suggesting that you want to-"

He turned around. Before he could finish his sentence with what I assumed would be "toss me", I unfurled my wings. His eye was wide open. I smiled.

"I don't mind being picked up in this instance," he said. He turned his back on me. "Ready when you are."

I walked up to him and kneeled, putting my arms under his armpits. When I had a firm grip, I picked him up and leapt over the chasm. I flapped my wings three times and glided to the other side. Landing gracefully and placing the Dwarf onto the ground, I retracted my wings afterwards.

"Whew," Beast said catching his breath. "I'm used to the sway of the sea. But for some reason I still get woozy from flying."

I cracked a smile.

"It's understandable. One of my partners isn't fond of flying either."

He smiled and composed himself. We both looked to the tunnel. I took a deep breath.

"I'll go first," I said.

"Lead the way," he said with a bow and gesture of his hand.

The tunnel turned left and led into a maze of forks in the roads along with underground rivers and pools. We traversed the tunnels, u-turning at dead ends and backtracking to the forks until we came to a vast opening in the cave. We crept up to a pair of barrels standing at the edge of a small cliff. We peaked over them to see a camp set up on the level below. We saw three dwarves sitting around a campfire in the center. At the opposite side of the camp was a large wooden gate. Beyond it was a small corner of the cave. On the walls, I could see the outline of the same bloody puss that coated the birthing chamber I woke up in.

"I think at least one of my partners may be on the other side of that camp," I whispered to Beast. He narrowed his eye on the three guards in the camp.

"You want to go quiet or loud?" he asked. "I'm fine with either."

Despite my size making it a problem to sneak by, I wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible until I found my partners.

"Let's go quiet," I said. He nodded. Slowly and softly, we crept down the slope to the bottom of the chamber. We quietly approached the camp and hid behind a stack of crates. Because the Dwarf was… well, a dwarf, he was already concealed behind the crates. Meanwhile, I had to crawl on all fours and tuck my tail in to avoid the guards' attention.

He tiptoed to a set of barrels and I followed him when the eyes of the guards were away. We were halfway across the camp now. The dwarf held up his hand, waiting for the moment to slip by. As he waited, I peaked over the barrel. The three dwarven guards sat around the fire. But an unsettling feeling set in when I observed their behavior. One dwarf with his back to us sat on a stool with his hands pressed his ears. I heard him mumble to himself.

"I can't hear nothing. Nothing but that voice. It won't stop. It never stops…"

It was then I observed the two other dwarves. When I looked closer at their eyes, I saw they were oily black. They were like Silent Monks only without the black hew around their mouths and eyes. It had to be some sort of mind control spell.

"HELLO?!"

I heard a familiar voice from the chamber behind the gate.

"Ifan," I whispered.

Unfortunately, the shoat caused me to twitch and accidently bump into the barrels. A bottle on top of it fell off and broke on the ground. I gasped and gritted my teeth. I looked over the top and as I feared, six oily black eyes were facing our direction.

"Time to go loud!" Beast shouted drawing his wand and axe. He charged in towards the nearest one who bore an axe of his own. Meanwhile, I drew my wand and shield and set my sights on the spellcaster and archer who had their sights on Beast.

I immediately unleashed a Winter Blast on the two, causing them to stagger. I unfurled my wings and launched into the air to close the distance. With them chilled, I inhaled and unleashed my frost breath. When I landed and closed my maw, I saw both guards frozen solid. A second later, they fell apart into a hundred pieces. I looked over and saw the third guard was dealt with by Beast. With the immediate threat dealt with, my sights focused on the gate.

"IFAN!" I cried out.

"MAHALIA?!" I heard him shoat. "I NEED HELP! QUICK!"

I ran as fast as I could towards the gate. I grabbed the handle and tired pulling it.

"IT'S LOCKED!"

I franticly looked around to see if there was another way in.

"HERE!"

I turned around to see Beast toss something at me. I caught it and saw it was a key. I hastily put it into the lock and turned it. A click.

YES!

I burst through the gates to find myself in the second birthing chamber. In the center, I saw a wolf wrestling with a new larva.

Afrit!

I looked to my right to see three eggs hatch near the tangled web embedded against the wall. In the web, I saw Ifan's face.

"MAHALIA!" he shouted.

Thinking quickly, I unfurled my wings and launched into the air. I landed right in front of him as two of the three larva closed in. I inhaled and unleashed my fire breath. Both larvae withered in the flames. The third one was out of range and crawled around the trail of fire I left. But Beast took his opportunity and dealt with the monster swiftly. I saw that Afrit had taken down his opponent as well. I turned around to see Ifan's face smile with relief. I did too.

"Hold still," I said. I held my wand near the web. I tightened my grip and focused my mind. The crystal at the tip emanated flames like a torch. Carefully, I ran the tip over the outline of Ifan's body. Ifan grimaced from the heat. When I reached the bottom, Ifan's body dislodged itself from the web. He landed onto the ground and I helped him up. I brushed off the remaining globs of web still stuck on his tunic.

"Thanks, Mahalia," Ifan said with a smile. "Seems you're always the one saving my ass. Is this the third time now?"

I recalled the times. I dug him out of the debris and pushed him out of the way from the tentacle on the prison ship. But he kept me from falling during the battle at the Black Pits. So, I guess the score was two for me.

"Oh. Am I intruding on something?"

Both of us looked over at Beast. He stood with his arms crossed and wore a smug grin that could belong to Sebille. Ifan and I looked at each other before taking a step back. I felt my cheeks flush.

"Ifan," I held my hand out to Beast. "I'd like you to meet Beast. The one who got me out of my sticky situation."

Ifan walked over to him and shook his hand.

"Ifan Ben-Mezd," he introduced himself. "Thank you for helping us out."

"Of course," he said. He then gave an inquisitive gaze with his eye. "Ben-Mezd? You mean the Lone Wol-"

SKRRREEEEEEEEEEEEE!

We all looked up when a disturbing sound pierced our ears. From holes in the walls, two horrid winged creatures emerged and flew down towards us.

"SPREAD OUT!" Ifan shouted.

We dispersed just as the pair of monsters landed onto the ground. I faced the monsters with my wand and shield at the ready. One of the monsters turned its head towards me and hissed. Its skin was pale and had a balled humanlike head. But it had no eyes and its teeth were sharp with two extra-long fangs. I couldn't be sure, but I assumed these were some sort of vampiric voidwoken. The monster started to crawl towards me while the other crawled towards Ifan. I unleashed my fire breath towards the one headed towards me. But it leapt to the side and flew into the air. It moved through the air and crawled across the walls with grace. I tried to throw some fireballs from my wand, but the projectiles were too slow to hit.

On the other side, Ifan and the dwarf weren't doing much better. The monster dodged every arrow and lightning projectile thrown at it. They were way too fast and kept their distance. The one I faced suddenly swooped in towards me. I couldn't fire another fireball and instead raised my shield. The monster collided and forced me onto my back. It was on top of me, pinning me to the ground. It lurched its razor-sharp teeth over the top of my shield towards my neck. I snapped my head left and right, keeping my flesh out of reach. I couldn't inhale deep enough to unleash a fire attack. I tried flicking a fireball with my wand but couldn't get an angle on it.

Shit! Shit! Shit!

But I suddenly felt something flicker in my mind. An image of sorts. Though I couldn't picture it, I felt it. I felt the red gem in my amulet glow. Then I felt the crystal of my wand glow too. My eyes widened. A solution had presented itself to me. I knew what to do. I whipped my wand in a fluid motion. Suddenly, a flash of fire appeared on the side of the monster. It screeched in pain and leapt off me. I immediately twisted myself to my feet. The monster crawled on all fours and faced me down, hissing angerly. I noticed a burn mark on its hindleg.

I looked at my wand. My eyes widened when I saw something hanging out of the crystal at the tip. It was a long, lightweight chain enveloped in fire.

A Flame Whip.

I knew of the spell where casters could summon a whip of fire against enemies at close range. The wand I found in the chest must have had this as an innate function. And it must have been unlocked by my amulet. I snapped my eyes to the monster. It charged at me. With a swift and fluid motion, I flicked my wrist and the whip swung up. The monster tried to get out of the way, but the whip was too fast. The tip lashed across the monster's head. It writhed in pain as another burn was scorched into where the eyes would be. I twisted my hand back and the whip hit it again. I felt the retheme of the weapon as I continued to hit the monster again and again. The wounded monster reared on its hindlegs, exposing its chest. The tip of the whip dug into its flesh, leaving a deep and scorched gash in its belly. I suddenly had an idea. With a flick of my wrist, the whip dissipated. I aimed my wand at the creature and spoke the words. A lightning strike surged from my wand into the monster's chest through the gash. The monster jolted. The gash suddenly grew, and the monster's innards plopped out of its body. The monster fell to the ground lifeless.

Whew. One down.

I looked to see Ifan had managed to put one arrow into the second monster. But it was still scurrying about. Its back was to me ready to charge Ifan and Beast. I crept up behind the monster. Just as it was about to lung towards Ifan and Beast, I flicked my wrist and the whip ignited. The whip extended to full length and wrapped around the monster's neck. The monster stopped, bringing its claws to the whip around his neck. It screamed as the hot chain burned into its flesh. As I held the monster in place, I felt the fire in my heart grow. With a thought, the fire flowed through my arm into the wand and into the whip. The whip glowed brighter and the fire burned hotter. The screams of the monster grew but then transformed into a gargling sound. It's arms and body went limp. I pulled back on the whip hard. The head of the monster twisted and was cleaved clean off its shoulders. The head landed first before the body flopped to the ground dead. I twisted my wrist and the whip disappeared. I looked over at Ifan and Beast. As I expected, all three of their eyes were wide and looking at me.

"When did you learn to do that?" Ifan asked.

I looked down at my amulet and my wand.

"Just now," I said. "Seems the amulet and wand are connected. I somehow learned to do that trick while under pressure."

Beast whistled.

"That was mighty impressive," he said. "It'll defiantly be useful against the other bugs we're gonna face in this hell hole."

I glanced at my wand again and grinned. But the grin disappeared.

"We'd better hurry. We've got to save the others."

Ifan's eyes sparked. He nodded and pointed to an opening in the chamber on the other side.

"Let's get going," he said.

Without another word the three of us took off into the tunnel.

Author's Note: I haven't played the game with Beast but I did watch a synopsis of his story arc and I figured his storyline could be useful for my story without him being part of the main quest.

Also, my spin-off story, The Life-Shaper, is up if you want to read that:

s/13480619/1/The-Life-Shaper

As always, thank you for reading my story and a review goes a long way. See you next chapter.