Thad hated the place already. The houses were weird. There was something disconcerting about being able to look into the front windows and see the sky out the back. It made them seem emptier than they really were. The warded stone walls stood like sentries along either side of the path, their doors open like hungry mouths. Anything could have been hiding in there.
"Stay alert," Redden said.
Thad held tight to Lena's hand, looking around through his aether sight.
Lena squeezed his hand once reassuringly, then gently pulled free, crossing her arms within the sleeves of her hooded robe against the day's cold."There's nothing here," she said. "Just us." Then, in a grumble, she added, "Of course, I understand if you don't believe me. I'm only a soul reader, after all."
Redden frowned, but Thad snickered. He liked angry Lena. Well, as long as she wasn't angry at him.
He pulled his new cloak closer around him, a hand-me-down from Kane. The soft brown wool was high quality, still good, but Kane had outgrown it and, as he'd been gifted a new one by Harvey Leiden in Melmond, he had passed his old one to Thad. The brown cloak was huge on him yet, but Kane assured him he would grow into it one day. Given Kane's size, Thad doubted he would ever grow that much - he'd had to hem up two feet of the bottom to keep from tripping over it.
There hadn't been much to this so-called "village". The single street ran straight from the dock to the mine, which loomed ahead of them. The street took them uphill, a long and gentle slope, but the farther they went, the more crumbled the houses became. "Why are the wards failing like that?" Thad asked. "Is it because they're higher up on the mountain?" He looked to Jack, but Jack remained quiet. That's right, Thad remembered. He thought he would find his mother here. So much for that. Even Thad could tell there had been no people here for a long time. The aether would have shown it if there had. He felt a pang of sympathy for Jack.
"It is the ley lines," Orin said. "The same energies that create the aetherite deposits interfere with static spells such as wards."
"Active spells as well," Redden said. "I would suggest you don't cast anything if you can help it. You may not be prepared for the results."
Thad nodded, hoping he didn't have a reason to test that. He shivered, pulling his cloak closer. It seemed colder here.
Kane shivered too. "Are you doing that?" he asked.
Jack shook his head.
"The ley lines again," Redden said. "I'll be surprised if..."
He trailed off as they reached the mine, a wide hole leading straight into the mountainside. A few stones stood in the entrance, having fallen from somewhere higher up, but there was plenty of room to move around them. The entrance was huge.
Redden stepped forward, raising a torch, lighting it with a muttered spell. It caught alight with a loud "woosh", the flame rising a good foot above Redden's head before settling down again. "Did you see that?" Redden said. "Did you see how the power took hold? Imagine if it had been more than a minor spell!"
"Wow!" Thad said, but he wasn't talking about the torch spell. Instead, he was focused on the cave, where the torch's small flame came reflected back to them as hundreds of dancing lights. "Is that... is that the aetherite?" he asked.
Redden reached out, touched one of the shining stones, then shook his head. "Ice." He looked deeper into the glittering cave, torch held high. "The whole cave. It's full of it."
"Explains the cold," Kane said, holding up another torch to light off his father's.
"The aetherite will be deeper," Redden said. "It can't form in the open - wind and sun and seasons keep the aether moving too much for that."
"Well, then," Kane said, "we go deeper. Come on. Stay close."
Thad nodded, putting himself between Redden and Kane as they led the way forward. The glittery cave was pretty and all, but Thad wanted to stay as close to the torches as possible, aware that they would all be plunged into darkness should those flames go out. Aether sight wouldn't do much good here - the air was full of aether, with no traces of the auras people left behind that Thad could use to distinguish surfaces in the dark.
He kept the sight active anyway, watching for movement. He didn't know if ochu dwelled in caves, but other things did, monsters from stories. He stayed in front with Redden and Kane while Lena and Orin followed a few paces behind, both holding torches, and Jack brought up the rear holding, not a torch, but a naked flame in his upraised palm.
The still air was dry and cold. Thad could see his breath puffing out in little white clouds, but he was warm enough in his cloak, glad there was no breeze. The only motion came from their flickering torchlight, casting strange shadows against the crystals of ice. The only sound was that of their steps echoing back to them, until Orin spoke. "You are clearly not dressed for this, miss Lena."
"I wasn't expecting it to be so cold," Lena said.
Thad could hear her teeth chattering. He looked back at her, saw how badly she was shivering. "Um, it's not that cold."
"I'm practically barefoot!" She said, waving a hand vaguely in the direction of her sandals, her legs left bare by the short tunic she wore beneath her robe.
"It's the aether," Redden said, shaking his head. "You must be sensitive to the ley lines here since you're-"
"If you suggest this is because I'm a soul reader, Lord Redden, I'll scream."
"-a white mage," Redden finished. "You can feel the aether but can't draw it. It messes with your senses."
"Perhaps you would do better to wait outside," Orin said.
"No, that's-" She stumbled, and chunks of ice and rock clattered across the floor where she had kicked them. Lena hissed between her teeth.
"What happened?" Kane said, turning back.
"I tripped," Lena said, shivering as Jack helped her up. "My feet have gone numb." She bent down to brush a glowing hand over her toes. One of them was bleeding where it had clipped that stone, a glimmer of red against the white of the cave. "I think I will wait outside, if it's all the same."
"Of course, Lena," Kane said. "Shipman, go with her."
"Me?" Thad whined. "Why do I have to go?"
"We're not sending her out there alone," Kane pointed out. "There could be ochus."
"What good would I be against an ochu?"
"It could eat you while Lena runs away."
"We'll be fine, Thadius," Lena said. "We'll wait at the boat. If your fear overwhelms me, I can easily cut the moorings loose and we can sail away downstream. Simple."
Thad considered. "Um, how would we come back for the others?"
"Goodness," Lena said, sounding not at all concerned. "I suppose we couldn't. Pity. But I'm sure they understand how hard it is for a soul reader to think rationally in emotional situations."
"This is your fault, old man," Kane whispered to his father.
"Surely, you won't leave without me, my lady?" Jack said.
Lena, clutching her robe close as she shivered, cut him a stone-faced glare. "That would depend on how fast you run."
Orin chuckled, face serene as always. "Stay with Redden, young master Shipman. I will accompany miss Lena."
"Planning to make her meditate until she's not mad at father anymore?" Kane asked.
"Not at all," Orin said. "Her anger is, of course, justified. But while she may be willing to leave without the rest of you, I am quite sure neither of us will leave without young master Shipman. Isn't that so, miss Lena?"
Lena grumbled, looking from Thad to the others and back again, and Thad felt sure she was weighing their worth against her annoyance with Redden before she gave a curt nod of agreement.
"Excellent," Orin said, taking her elbow as though he needed support. "In that case, we shall wait for you out in the sunshine. Come, miss Lena. I shall build us a fire. Perhaps you would be willing to read to me?"
She nodded, still frowning, as he led her away back toward the mine's entrance. Thad couldn't help wondering if she might try to convince Orin to leave without them anyway. Maybe I don't like angry Lena after all, he thought.
The temperature rose quickly as they left the cave. Though it was a cool autumn day, the contrast to the cave's icy cold made it seem positively balmy by comparison. Lena sighed as they stepped out into the light, already feeling guilty for the things she had said.
"No," Orin said, patting her arm as though he could read her thoughts. "Do not second guess yourself, miss Lena. Lord Redden deserves every ire you can muster. He has behaved abominably toward you. He will only continue to do so if your anger fades so quickly."
"It has though," Lena said. "I act like I'm angry but I'm really just... sad. I still don't understand."
"Would you like to discuss your feelings?"
She laughed ruefully. "I thought you said you weren't planning to make me meditate?"
"On your anger, no. But sadness, that is something else. Tell me, what is it you do not understand?"
"I thought I knew him. Lord Redden. I'd never read his soul like I did the others, but I thought I knew him. I thought... I thought he was a hard man. Tough. Cruel, at times. With a soft spot for his son, of course. And a growing fondness for Jack and Thadius. But I was wrong."
"You have read his soul now?"
Lena nodded. "Last night, across the fire, when he said... those things. He's... he's not at all what I thought. He was only ever cruel... to me."
Orin patted her arm again. "His experience with Lady Aliana has colored his interactions with you, I fear. That is not an excuse, mind you. It is merely an explanation."
"But you believed it, too, didn't you? You knew Lady Aliana and you thought I was like her but you never treated me badly."
Orin shrugged. "That is not my way. I have been blessed with a good life, miss Lena, and the wisdom that comes with a long one. So believe me when I say you are wrong about Redden. He is as you thought: hard and tough, as life has made him. But he is not so hard he is incapable of learning from his mistakes." The old monk chuckled. "Provided we continue to shove those mistakes under his nose, of course."
He pointed to the empty buildings beside the path. They had walked far enough from the cave to reach the ones that were still decently warded, their walls whole and uncracked, though the roofs and doors had rotted away. "I should very much like to inspect these buildings, miss Lena. Tell me, do you detect anything with your soul sight that might wish us harm?"
She looked at the world through her power, searching for signs of life. "No, there's nothing here," she said. "Nothing big, anyway. Birds. Rodents. The fish in the river." She stretched her senses. "Only us. I think we're safe here."
"Excellent," Orin said, releasing her arm as he toddled toward one of the vacant buildings. "I have always wanted to try my hand at archaeology! One is never too old to try new things. Come, miss Lena! Let us explore!"
Senses expanding, she closed her eyes. She could still feel the others in the cave, though they were almost too far away. Something else flitted in there, something small. Bats, maybe? She shook her head. letting the sight go. Be safe in there too, she thought at them before she followed Orin into the ruins.
Jack peered through the aether, sword raised. He'd dismissed the light he carried, opting instead to enflame his blade when they started hearing strange sounds, like something was moving in the cave.
Kane led the way, his own sword held high, likewise glowing with Jack's magic. He'd passed his torch to Thad, who walked close beside Jack, eyes wide in the dark as he waved his free hand through the air, sending the aether whirling around him like silt in a pond. It would have looked odd to those without aether sight, the boy seemingly waving at nothing, but Kane and Redden were focused on the path ahead of them and hadn't noticed Thad's behavior.
"The aether's so thick here!" Thad said, his quiet voice echoing in the icy cavern.
Jack nodded. He'd never seen it like this, thick and rich and pure. He'd drawn the aether here and held it to aid his aether sight. Though he knew he only held a fraction of what he could hold, he still felt full and powerful with it.
Thad waved, sending his hand back and forth, up and down, so intent on the aether that he would have walked right into the side of the cave had Jack not grabbed his shoulder. "Thanks," Thad said, but still he waved. "Is it just me, or does it look like snow?"
"Ice-shaped aether," Jack said, his voice sounding too loud in that smooth silence, like the heavy quiet of a snowy morning. "Like Refial was always talking about. Something about the ley lines here must reshape it like that."
"I kind of miss that pirate," Kane said, chiming in from ahead of them. "Wonder how he's getting along in Elfheim?"
Redden chuckled. "Extravagantly, I would assume."
The others laughed lightly at that, even Jack, but their laughter cut off abruptly at a noise from the cave.
"Was that a chirp?" Thad said, plastering himself against Jack's side, for all the protection that might be.
"Definitely something alive in here," Kane said, gripping his sword in both hands as he assumed a ready combat stance, knees bent, feet planted.
Redden put a hand on his son's forearm. "Something small," he said, shaking his head. "I caught a glimpse of it. Some animal. Probably lives in here."
"Just because it's small doesn't mean it won't try to eat us," Kane pointed out.
"Oscar tried to eat everything," Thad said, nodding.
They waited, cautious, but the noise didn't recur.
"Stay alert," Kane said, leading them on.
The cave wound down into the mountain, a single path, though one that twisted and sloped in odd ways where the ancient miners had followed the aetherite vein. There were some places, free of ice, where tool marks could still be seen. Twice they found fist-sized chunks of aetherite growing out of the wall, covered in ice so thick it took several minutes of vigorous hacking from Kane's sword to get through. Both pieces broke into smaller crystals when they came free, none bigger than a thumbnail.
"Do you think that's enough?" Thad asked, looking around nervously as the chirping sound echoed through the cave once more.
"No," Jack said. "These pieces are too small."
"But it's more than the sages had before, right?"
Kane shook his head. "Let's keep looking. If we- what the hell?"
Something small and glittering buzzed around his head like a fly in summer, leaving a trail of snowflakes in its wake. The thing chirped as it circled first Kane, and then Thad, who shrieked and flailed wildly at the air, his movements sending the aether whirling.
And through those whirls, Jack saw the creature's aura clearly, a bright point of blue-white light, not the dim half-aware soul of a dumb animal, but the glow of a conscious, intelligent being. "Wait! Stop!" he said.
But Thad, still shrieking, paid him no heed. His flailing hands connected, sending whatever it was flying toward the wall, where it hit with a pained squeak and slid down to the cave floor.
Jack stuck his sword in the ground point first then stepped closer to the creature. He found the little thing sprawled on the floor, stunned. Despite its pale blue skin, the thing was oddly humanoid, but no bigger than a bird and unnaturally thin. Its arms and legs, its skinny fingers, were too long for a human, but its face seemed human enough, a girl's face, framed by a tuft of dark hair. As Jack knelt down, the creature looked at him, eyes cautious, but more importantly aware, and glowing with aether. The thing looked somehow offended.
"What did you expect?" Jack said. "You frightened us."
The creature squeaked and chittered at him in a way that seemed conversational, though Jack could make no sense of it.
Likely doesn't understand me either, he thought, but he spoke to it anyway, hoping it could at least sense his intent. "I won't hurt you. We mean you no harm." He reached out, hand flat, palm up, stopping several inches shy of the creature.
"Careful!" Kane said. "Don't do anything foolish."
"It's fine," Jack said. "I know what this is."
The beast eyed the offered hand, then stood and walked to it on tiny, delicate feet that Jack noticed didn't quite touch the ground. When it stood above his palm, gazing curiously up at him, Jack stood slowly, not wanting to unbalance it, but he quickly realized that wasn't a concern. The creature moved with him, and though it floated just above his hand, he could feel its touch on his soul, and he knew that somehow it rested upon his aura. He released a small, wondering gasp.
The creature cocked its head, curious. It looked from Jack to Kane to Thad, then it chittered once more in a way that sounded suspiciously like a giggle. It smiled.
Beneath his scarf, Jack smiled back.
"I'll be damned," Redden said. He'd moved in beside Jack for a closer look. He extended his own hand to the tiny beast and it hopped over to him, zipping up Redden's arm to his shoulder. Redden craned his neck to keep the creature in his sights. "I'll be damned!" he said again.
"What is it?" Kane asked, still gripping his sword. He moved no closer. Thad hid behind him.
"It's an Eidolon," Jack said. "A young one."
Redden nodded. "An aether-wraith. Aether in living form. I never thought I'd see one."
"Is it dangerous?" Thad asked.
"Not at all," said Redden. "They used to be considered good luck."
"They're formed from a convergence of energies," Jack explained. "Just as aetherite is formed. But only from the purest aether. You never get them near people. People change the aether just by... just... by living." He sighed. "This place really has been abandoned for centuries, hasn't it?"
Redden patted his shoulder. "I'm sorry, lad."
The creature chirped at him, swirling down Redden's arm to alight on Jack's shoulder, where it nestled into the space between his scarf and his coat collar then patted his cheek, a comforting gesture.
"Maybe you came from one of those other settlements. Like the one near Gulug?" Thad suggested.
"Right," Kane said. "We can go there, can't we? Check there?"
Jack shook his head. "The sages found me on Gulug. I'm sure they would have noticed if there were a village out there. I... I must have come from somewhere else."
There was grief there, but only a little. He'd known, hadn't he? In his heart, he'd known. Wherever he'd come from, he'd known, he'd sensed, it was farther away than this. Much farther. He didn't know why, but he felt it, like some part of his soul didn't fit. He still felt that here. He wondered if he would ever find the place where he didn't.
The eidolon patted him again, touching his face, his aura, and he felt that touch on his cheek just as though he wore no scarf at all. He could feel the comfort the little creature was trying to convey. He bent his head, looking down at it, seeing it looking up at him. "Can you understand us, little one?"
The creature chirped at him, a questioning sound.
"That sounded like no," Kane said.
"Not exactly," Redden said. "Eidolons are supposed to be soul readers. What are souls, after all, if not aether? This thing might not have language, but I suspect it can understand us well enough."
"She," Thad said. "Not it." He reached a tentative hand up to the creature where it sat at Jack's shoulder. "Hey," he said, smiling at it. "I'm sorry I hit you."
She - for the face really was girlish - eyed the boy, then hopped down to his hand. It sat in his palm like a queen upon a throne, chittering at him.
Thad grinned widely. "Do you want to come with us?"
"You can't just keep it, Thad," Jack said.
"Her," Thad corrected. "And I'm not 'keeping' her, I'm bringing her." He patted at his cloak with his free hand. "Does this thing have a pocket?"
"Just there," Kane said pointing at the cloak's lining, for the cloak had been his.
Thad poked around, then opened the pocket with a crooked finger. "What do you think?"
The creature slipped inside with a chirp, nestling out of sight.
"You- but-" Jack sputtered, unable to believe what he was seeing. "Thad, it's an eidolon! A creature of raw magic! You can't put it in a pocket!"
"Well, we can't expect her to walk, can we?" said Kane.
Jack turned on him. "You're being shockingly cavalier about this!"
"Any reason I shouldn't be? It's smaller than a cat. It's not like it could eat us in our sleep."
Redden nodded. "It doesn't even eat. It's sustained by the aether."
"There you are, then," Kane said. "Easiest pet I've ever heard of."
"It's not a pet!" Jack protested. "It's an untamable primal force!"
"Maybe," Thad said, shrugging as he gently patted the slight bulge within his cloak. "But she seems to like it in there."
"Great," Kane said, nodding. "Let's move on then." And the two of them carried on into the cave.
Jack gaped. Beside him, Redden chuckled. "Why aren't you stopping them?" Jack asked.
Redden shook his head. "I think it's curious," he said. "It's been following us for awhile, I believe. I've been catching glimpses of it since we arrived. I'm sure it will fly off when it's done with us. It's not as if we can keep it against its will."
Jack frowned. "I suppose..." he said, but without conviction. The idea of carrying an eidolon around, even a tiny one, was extremely unsettling.
"Besides," Redden added. "The legends do say they're good luck. I'm willing to test the theory." He reached over to where Jack's sword stood in the ground, its blade still glimmering with a faint flame, and pulled it free, passing it back to Jack. "Let's go," he said. "Gods willing, that's the strangest thing we'll find in here."
Jack shook his head, following the others. Eidolon or not, he didn't think they could count on that kind of luck.
They were closer now, Thad knew. For the past hour, they'd been seeing more signs that people had been here before, of the mining operation that had once existed in this cave. There were more tool marks on the stones, more places where the cave walls were obviously carved by people rather than by time. Once, Thad had found a set of tools lying on the ground, including a pickaxe, but when he'd tried to pick it up the aged wooden handle had all but crumbled in his hand, leaving the metal axe-head behind.
And then, they turned a corner, and the walls seemed to glow. They'd reached the aetherite vein. "Oh, wow!" Thad said, stepping forward. "Oh, wow, wow!"
The critter chirped a warning at him, but too late. Thad felt the tug as the bottom of his cloak caught on a bit of the cave wall, heard the unmistakable sound of ripping fabric echoing loudly in the confined space. Ahead of him, Kane stopped, turned wide eyes on him. "Did you just rip my cloak?" Kane asked.
"Um, don't you mean my cloak?" Thad asked, pulling the cloak free and lifting it up to inspect the damage by the light of Kane's burning sword.
Kane huffed. "You did, didn't you? Damn it, Shipman!"
Thad shrugged. "It's only a little tear. I can fix it."
"Five years I had that cloak without ripping it! You haven't even had it a week!"
Thad felt movement as the eidolon climbed from the cloak's inner pocket in order to stick her head out from between its folds. She chittered at Kane. "She doesn't like you raising your voice," Thad said.
"I'm not raising my voice!" Kane shouted.
"Boys," Redden said, coming up behind him. "Quiet. Listen."
Kane immediately went still at his father's command, but so did the eidolon and that scared Thad a little. Something about Redden's tone had got to her, it seemed. Thad listened, looking through the aether though it remained too thick to see anything, especially here. The walls glowed so brightly, at least to him. Then he heard it: a groaning sound, deep and resonant, like the sonorous creak of ships at anchor moving against the waves. Something was moving in this cave. Something big.
"Maybe we should go?" Thad suggested.
"Not without more aetherite," Kane said. "We've come too far to leave now."
"I agree," Redden said, looking around. "But we've come far enough, it seems. This is it." He unshouldered the pack he carried, and from within pulled a bundle of rough cloth sacks, passing one to each of them. "Gather as much as you can, but do it quietly."
The others nodded agreement, the four of them splitting up to gather what they could. Kane and his father worked together, using Kane's sword to cut sections of the glowing crystal from the cave walls. Jack used earth magics to separate the crystals from the stones that surrounded them. And Thad...
Well, Thad thought longingly of the pickaxe that hadn't worked out. He wandered the space, picking up stray chunks of aetherite from the floor of the mine. None of them were bigger than the pieces they'd found earlier, the pieces the others had said weren't big enough. He bent, reaching for a piece roughly the size of Syldra's Tear, but found it stuck fast to a patch of ice. He tugged and tugged, finally thinking to attack it with the heel of his boot when his cold-numbed hands couldn't prize it free. Why didn't I bring a hammer or something? he wondered, pocketing that particular piece for himself before moving on to another, smaller piece with a sigh.
He saw a glow from the corner of his eye, torchlight on crystal, and when he turned his head he saw the box, a metal cart on wheels. A mine cart, he realized. "Hey!" he called in a loud whisper, waving at his friends. "Hey, guys! Look!" He hurried forward without waiting on the others.
The cart was full of aetherite crystals, already cut. Thad picked up one as big as his head and hefted it. Almost weightless, he thought. He hadn't realized with the pebble-sized pieces just how light the stone could be. He shoved the huge rock into his bag and reached for another, thinking that the contents of this cart alone would fill all of their bags with plenty leftover.
His cloak stirred as the eidolon whined. She flew out, chittering at him, zipping around his head and pulling at the hood of his cloak. Thad froze in place, looking around through his aether sight for some sign of a threat. "What-?" he began.
And then everything slowed down. There was a crack, sharp and loud. He felt the floor shift under him, heard Kane shout, "Shipman!", saw him move, dropping his sword to clatter on the stones as he lunged forward. He grabbed the back of Thad's cloak in one of his large hands and he tugged. The clasp dug painfully into Thad's throat as he was hauled off his feet and away just as the floor opened up under him. Instead of down, he fell back, landing hard on his bottom. More cracking, breaking, stones crumbling as the mine cart fell through the collapsing floor just where Thad had been standing, where Kane was still standing, the edge of the hole rapidly expanding toward his feet as he tried to run to safety.
Thad tried to cast a spell, acting on instinct. Time seemed to stop. Thad locked eyes with Kane, saw Kane's eyes go wide as the floor buckled under his foot. If Thad could just grab Kane the way Kane had grabbed him... Thad scrambled up to his knees, reached out, but he was too far - Kane had thrown him too far - and the cracks were spreading even now, the only thing moving besides himself in this moment of timelessness, moving and spreading fast, too fast. "No!" Thad shouted, reaching forward, losing his hold on the spell.
Time moved again, and Kane was gone, leaving only a broken hole behind.
Kane hadn't thought when he threw Shipman clear, hadn't thought when he tried to leap back to solid ground, but then between one step and the next he felt the floor give way and his mind began to race. In that moment of weightlessness, he remembered the sensation of Jack's Teleport, except now the air rushed past his ears. He was falling, and the thought that came to him as clear as if he'd spoken aloud was: I'm going to die. Other thoughts protruded, thoughts of Sarah, thoughts of the quest that had taken him from his home, the things he hadn't finished, but that one was louder than the others. I'm going to die.
But then he landed on his outstretched leg and it crumpled beneath him, a sudden, violent stop, and all other thoughts fled from that all encompassing pain, pain so vast it filled the world. More pain than he could comprehend. He couldn't think. He couldn't breath. For a moment, everything went black.
And then he was on the ground, looking up as his eyes began to focus on the faint circle of torchlight above him, at the faces looking down at him from the top of that hole - so far away - and he heard shouting, his father's voice, Jack's, echoing down to him.
Kane took one shuddering breath, then another, but when he opened his mouth to answer them, all that came out was a scream.
"Kane!" Redden called, rushing forward, shoving Thad out of the way in his haste to reach the edge of the hole. He threw himself onto his belly, arms extending down, but there was nothing to reach for, only darkness and empty air, along with a distant point of light that might have been the torch Thad had dropped. He extended his senses out, down, into that darkness, but the aether here was too muddled to pick out any signs of life.
"Kane!" Jack shouted, moving in beside Redden. Redden could hear the frantic worry in his voice. "Kane!"
"Can you see him?" Redden asked, shaking Jack's shoulder. "In the aether? Anything?"
Jack shook his head.
"Kane!" Redden shouted again. "Son, answer me!"
A scream rang through the sharp air, the pain of it so incalculable that Redden winced in sympathy.
"He's alive, at least," Jack said.
"Move!" Thad said, running to the edge of the hole and tossing a coil of rope over the side. Redden recognized it as the rope he himself had brought, though he hadn't felt the boy take it from his pack. The coil fell, disappearing into the hole, leaving a trail of rope behind that Thad had tied off to a stone pillar nearby.
"You can't mean to climb down there!" Jack said.
"He saved me," Thad said simply. "Besides, I'm a good climber, and I'm the smallest. If we have to pull him up, you two are stronger than me. And I'm the best at knots anyway; I can tie him a harness or something."
"Do it," Redden said, voice hard as steel.
Thad tugged on his knots, checking them, then nodded to himself and scrambled down the line, nimble as a spider. Redden's stomach clenched watching the boy dangle, hands and feet clinging to the rope as he climbed, quickly vanishing into the dark.
For a moment, nothing happened, but then Redden heard Thad's voice, too quiet to make out, followed by a growl from Kane. Moments later, the torch moved as Thad picked it up. Redden's eyes had adjusted to the gloom just enough to recognize Thad moving down there, and Kane laying prone beside him. "Guys?" Thad called. "His leg is really messed up! I don't think we should move him!"
Redden cursed, grabbing the rope.
"Hold on!" Jack said. "Redden, if you go down there, I'm not going to be able to pull you back up on my own! Are you sure you can make that climb?"
"No," Redden snarled, "but it's a risk I'm willing to take"
He swung his legs over the side, lowered himself down, and nearly lost the rope before he'd even cleared the edge. What am I doing? he thought over and over, his mind all but screaming it at him, but another part of himself, deeper still, screamed louder: My son is down there. He shoved his fear out of the way and he climbed.
He didn't look down until his feet touched bottom. As scared as he was for his child, he was more scared of what he would see when he got there. He looked at Kane's face first, a mask of pain, but he was breathing, he was awake, and Redden felt some of the tension in his chest ease. Alive. Hurt but alive. He grabbed the torch from Thad's hand. "Need light," he snapped. Then he knelt beside his son, senses questing blindly through the aether as Kane whimpered with every labored breath he took.
Redden's heart sank. The right leg was fine - only a minor sprain that Redden healed without much effort - but the left... It looked like he'd landed right on it and it had buckled dramatically beneath him. Redden could sense the wrongness of his son's aura, the broken bones, the damage to the flesh. He knew, in an academic way, that the pain must be excruciating. And he knew he couldn't fix it. Not in a hundred years.
"How-" Kane gasped. "How bad?"
"Bad," Redden said. "This is beyond me. Jack!" he called loudly up toward the ceiling. "Get Lena!"
"Too cold for her," Kane grunted, beads of sweat forming on his face despite that cold. "She can't-"
"She can," Redden said. "Do you really think she'll care about that when she knows you need her?"
"According to you, she doesn't care about anything," Thad said.
Before Redden could formulate a response to that, the eidolon chirped loudly from the wall behind them. Thad hurried over to it, then called, "Redden!" He pointed at what the creature had shown him. "I think these are tool marks! This is another part of the mine."
Redden stepped over to him, holding the torch. "You're right. There must be a path out from here."
A stone clattered down from above as Jack slid down the rope at a speed that would have cut his hands open if not for his gloves. He carried Kane's sword under one arm, and he'd fastened one of the bulging sacks of aetherite to his back to leave his hands free. He landed with a thump, nearly falling over.
"What are you doing?" Redden demanded. "You were supposed to get help!"
"It's there!" Jack said, drawing his sword and casting it alight once more. Only then did Redden notice the fear in his eyes. "The thing we heard before - it's blocked the way out!"
"You saw it?" Thad said. "What was it?"
Jack shook his head. "Big. I didn't go for a closer look. But it knows we're here."
"Alright. You and Thad find an exit. Get Lena and bring her back here, quickly," Redden said, bending over Kane again.
"Maybe..." Jack began, but he trailed off, looking out into the cave as though he could see through the thick stone walls. Thad swiveled his head the same direction, as did the little eidolon perched on his shoulder. Like prey animals, sensing a predator, Redden thought. "No time," Jack said. "Redden..."
"Maybe it's friendly?" Thad said doubtfully.
A roar echoed through the cavern, shaking the cave walls. Around them, the ice groaned and creaked.
Redden spat a curse. He got under one of Kane's arms and began to raise him up. "Jack, help me!"
Kane's breath caught as they moved him, then he screamed as they got him upright. Another roar sounded in the dark.
"Shh," Jack said. "Shh, quiet!"
"Grit your teeth and bear it, son!" Redden said.
"Can't," Kane hissed, a sharp intake of breath. "Gods..." His face contorted with pain. His shattered limb hung limp beneath him, brushing the ground as they moved. "Father, it hurts."
"Can't you do anything for him?" Jack asked.
"I don't dare," Redden said. "I would only make it worse."
"Worse than eaten by a cave monster?" Thad asked.
Redden shook his head. "If I fuse the bone, we'd have to break it again to set it properly later. The pain would be-"
"Could I walk out of here?" Kane asked.
"I- Maybe. I don't know," Redden said.
"Do it," Kane said.
"Kane-"
"Damn it, father! Either I die now or hurt later. What choice is there? Just do it!"
"Hold still," Redden said, placing one hand flat on Kane's chest, just above his heart. He concentrated, forming the spell, checking and double checking its structure. Then he threw it through Kane's body, against the damage like a glass of water against a raging forest fire. Kane gasped, shuddered, as Redden continued to funnel the spell into him, forcing the aether to move as he willed it.
Then he felt it: a ball of aether, living aether, massive and moving through the cave.
"Redden...?" Jack said, voice rising in concern.
"I feel it," Redden said, losing his hold on the Cure spell. "Son?"
"Let's go," Kane said, face grim.
"Lean on me," Redden said, adjusting Kane's arm around his shoulders. Jack took his place on Kane's other side.
"This way!" Thad said, following the little eidolon as it zipped back and forth ahead of them, leading the way.
"I hope that thing knows where it's going," Jack said.
Kane grunted.
They shuffled along at barely a walking pace. Redden kept his senses alert, focused on his son's wavering aura, but he kept getting distracted by the other life form moving through the cave. At one point, he felt it through the wall, slithering through another tunnel mere feet away from them - if it had broken through the stone just there... - but it moved on, taking another path as it wound its way ever closer to them.
"Come on," Jack muttered under his breath, punctuating every step they took. "Come on. Come on. Come on."
Elsewhere, the beast roared. It was behind them now, in the open cave they'd just passed through, with no more walls between them and it.
"I can see a light!" Thad said, hurrying forward after the chittering eidolon who guided them.
And, yes, there! Just there. The sun shone through an opening. It wasn't part of the mine, but an area where the cave's ceiling had collapsed leaving a pile of jagged boulders beneath. A man could climb right out into the open, if he had two good legs.
"Leave me," Kane said.
"Not a chance," Jack replied.
"Just give me my sword," Kane said through gritted teeth. "I can still fight."
"You can flee with the rest of us," Redden said. "The mine keeps going. If we get past these rocks we might find-"
The roar drowned out his words, a thunderous echo that shook the cave, sending loose stones tumbling from the hole above them. The aether raged as that aura surged forward, charging them. In horror, Redden looked back, but all he could see was the glimmer of sunlight reflecting off of one massive slitted eye.
"Run!" Redden said, gripping his son tighter. With a burst of strength he hadn't known he was capable of, he could have carried Kane in that moment.
But Jack held Kane's other side, and he didn't move. "No time!" he said sharply, grabbing a fistful of Redden's coat. "Thad! Thad, grab on to me!"
"What are you doing? Move!" Redden shouted, trying to break free, trying to rip his son free, but then he felt Jack draw from him and the unexpected shock of it seized his muscles and froze him in place. The Teleport took hold, and the world fell away.
The fourth house was just as empty as the first three, but Lena knew what to expect by then. The floors, probably once wood planks, were bare dirt now, littered with leaves and pine needles but with occasional signs of humanity: a fired clay bowl, a metal spoon, the odd jewel or trinket that had withstood the years and exposure without the aid of wards. She'd seen no doors, no windows, no roofs. Even if these people had warded things like that, the wards had worn off. And, of course, there were no bodies. Human remains would have faded back into earth long before those other things.
This house was the first where she'd found furniture though, a vaguely square-shaped lump of rotting wood that might have been a dresser once, or a cupboard, its wards hanging on by the barest of threads. Lena stepped closer, afraid to touch the thing lest it collapse, but intrigued nonetheless. She could see a faint glow in her soul sight, and when she knelt and peered through a gap between the crumbling boards, tiny black eyes peered back at her from a nest cradling three baby birds. She smiled, then turned and left as soundlessly as possible, not wanting to frighten the mother bird should she choose that moment to return.
She wandered back toward the riverside and the last building on the path where Orin was probably still poking through the rubble with a long stick. He'd been in there for some time now. The wards on this building, a blacksmith's shop, had fared better over the years than the others, being farther from the cave, so rather than looking like ancient ruins, it looked like the wreck of someone's life.
Lena hadn't been able to stay there. There was something heartbreaking about the old forge. Despite the years, the anvil and some of the hammers were still intact, while the remains of a rack of swords littered the ground near one wall, the weapons black with age. That the ancient smith had warded his tools with such meticulous care but not the weapons he had made spoke to Lena across the years.
She stopped in the doorway - the floor was littered with rusted metal after all, and she only wore sandals - and found Orin on his knees, digging through the rubble with his hands. She gasped. "Orin! What are you doing? You'll cut yourself!" She quickly tried to remember all the afflictions caused by such cuts, their symptoms and treatments.
"Ah, Miss Lena," he said, smiling as he sat back on his heels and waved at her. "What do you think of my new gloves? Fine protection, no?"
Lena's eyes widened. The old man wore a pair of metal gauntlets, not gloves at all, their silvered surface glinting in the sunlight. "Are those... mythril?"
Orin nodded. "I believe they might be, yes. I am surprised you are familiar with the metal."
"My uncle's a blacksmith," she said. "I've seen it before. Once."
"Ah," Orin said. "I had wondered why the sight of this old forge affected you so. It must be easy to imagine your uncle in this place?"
"Oh," Lena said, realizing that, yes, that was exactly what the problem had been. "Yes, actually. He..." She stopped, trying to breathe around the lump forming in her throat. "My father warded his tools for him. I just remembered."
Orin grunted, resting a hand on the old furnace as he stood up, causing flakes of rust to fall away. The furnace's metal door hung at an angle, but the whole thing was warded like the anvil, like the tools, and Lena suspected it could still hold a flame. "I believe I have satisfied my curiosity," Orin said. "Let us wait for the others by the river. Perhaps you can show me how to fish?"
"You don't know how?" Lena asked.
"I shouldn't like to admit as much in front of the others, but alas, no. I am from a desert tribe, after all. There was not much opportunity for such things in my youth, and not much need for it in my life as a Cornelian lord."
She waited tensely as he tottered toward her, things on the ground shifting under him as he walked. Lena breathed out a relieved sigh when he reached her without falling. He carried a cloth sack over his shoulder that clinked as he moved, and Lena wondered what other trinkets he had found. Though he moved with grace despite his age, he took Lena's arm as he reached her. Lena watched his feet as they walked, looking for signs of the limp that sometimes plagued him, and as she looked down she saw a glimmer of white, out of place against the rich brown soil.
"Wait," she said, bending to inspect it. "There's a strange stone here." She picked at it with her fingernails, prying it loose, and found it bigger than she'd expected. What she'd taken for a coin-sized lump turned out to be at least triple that size, a small handful when she'd unearthed the whole thing. She ran her thumb over it, dislodging more dirt, and smiled at the little bear that seemed to look back at her.
"Hmm, another carving," Orin said, looking down at it. "I have found two others so far. These ancient mages were very artistic people."
"It's wonderful," Lena said, turning it this way and that. "And... and it was just sitting there on the ground!" She stood, looking around at the empty village, the ruined buildings. These poor people, she thought, remembering all the little settlements on the old map Redden had found in the library. How long had they held out on their own in these mountains?
"It is sobering, yes," said Orin. "Nothing lasts. All treasures will, in time, be trodden in the dirt. It is a reminder to savor what we are given while we have it." He motioned for her to continue toward their boat.
"Yes," Lena said, sighing as she slipped the little bear into a pocket of her robe before she offered her arm to Orin again.
A roar filled the air, a deep, rumbling moan that Lena felt in the soles of her feet. Orin's grip on her arm tightened as he spun her around, putting himself between her and the mouth of the cave up the hill behind them, but there was nothing there. The roar faded, the silence it left behind seeming thicker than it had before.
"What..." Lena said, stopping as her voice seemed unbearably loud. She went on in a whisper, "What was that?"
Orin shook his head. "Get to the boat. Push it into the water and get in it."
"Orin-"
"Do as I say," he said, lightly pushing her. He started to walk back up the hill, but stopped after only a few steps.
Lena heard shouting, growing louder. She recognized Thad's voice, saw him run out of the cave, pelting toward them at an unnatural speed. When he drew closer, she made out what he was saying: "Run! Run, run, run!"
She turned for the river, lunging into motion. Thad reached her just as she reached the boat. "Get in!" he said, shoving the boat toward the water. "Orin! Hurry!"
"Where are the others?" Lena asked.
Thad shook his head, struggling with the rope that attached the boat to a heavy stone on the shore. "They're coming. We have to be ready!"
"Forget the knot," Orin said, as Lena pulled him into the boat. "We will cut the line when they arrive."
Thad nodded, scrambling into the boat as the current caught it and began to tug it against its bonds.
For a moment, there was no sound at all, none but Thad's heavy breathing as he lay on the floor of the boat and the sounds of water lapping past them. Lena could hear her heart pounding in her ears. Then the roar came again. She saw a flash in the dark mouth of the cave, and then Redden and Kane emerged at a shambling run, with Kane leaning heavily on his father. She could see he was injured, his aura a marred jumble on one side of his body, but their fear gave them speed despite that injury. She could feel it, that fear, even from this distance.
Another flash, a line of fire, and she could see Jack outlined by it, casting his spells back into the darkness. Seconds later, he too emerged from the cave, shouting something as he continued to throw fire at the unseen pursuer behind him. He glowed in her soul sight, a beacon of red and blue as fire swirled from one upraised hand. But then the beast behind him roared again, bursting out into the sunlight, and Lena screamed for it was nothing but a giant, hideous eye above a gaping mouth, propelled by slithering tentacles. It bore down on Jack, snarling. Jack's spell flew from him, and it hit that huge eye dead center. The beast howled, throwing up tentacles to shield itself too late. It writhed blindly as Jack fled down the hill.
"Hurry!" Thad shouted, waving Redden and Kane toward the boat. "Hurry!"
Those two were moving faster now, with the aid of Thad's magic. They reached the riverside, wading out toward the boat, and Kane's face contorted with pain when his injured leg hit the water. He screamed as Thad and Orin helped him into the boat.
"Oh, gods, Kane!" Lena said, bending over him, hovering her hands above his leg as she ran her senses over his injury.
Kane grimaced, but he paid her no mind, staring up the hill in worried horror. "Jack!" he shouted. "Jack, come on!"
Lena followed the line of his gaze, saw Jack running, feet pounding. The creature behind him recovered and gave chase. It moved with terrifying speed.
"Thad! Make him faster!" Lena said, grabbing the boy's shoulder, shaking it.
"I'm trying!" Thad wailed. "He's too far!"
Too far. Lena looked back, watching Jack run, watching the eye chase him. She expanded her senses - if she could reach him, could Protect him from here, it might be enough, if she-
She staggered. She could feel the thing, the monster, the aether of it, ancient and terrible. She could feel its rage. She could feel Jack, his desperation, his fear. She could feel Thad's spell as it flew from him, as it emptied him, and he collapsed back against Orin, nearly tipping the boat. She felt Jack moving faster.
She felt the moment of panic as the rope holding the boat slipped, the knot coming loose from its mooring hook. She felt Redden dive for it, grabbing the end. She felt Kane grunting as he grabbed his father to keep him in the boat, to keep the boat from being swept away and leaving Jack behind. She felt Jack's next spell flying true, enraging the beast further as the fire singed and burned. She felt the beast moving, gaining, closing the distance between itself and its prey.
And then Jack was close enough for her power to reach him.
"Jump!" she yelled, throwing every ounce of her will toward him.
Jack leaped. Her Float hit him between one stride and the next, and his momentum, powered by her spell, carried him farther, faster, than any man could have leaped on his own. He hit the side of the boat, rocking it, as Lena and Orin hauled him inside kicking and splashing. He felt almost weightless. Redden released the rope. The boat surged with the current, propelled downstream.
The beast roared, still charging. It moved fast, gliding smoothly over the pebbled ground, and Lena realized her Float had hit the beast as well. She gasped, clinging to Jack. She couldn't make her hands let go. But he struggled against her, trying to turn, to face the shore just as the beast lunged after them. Lena screamed, bracing herself against the inevitable impact.
"Hold on!" Jack said, lifting his arm, and his eyes blazed red as another fireball bloomed from his open hand. The flame hit the beast mid-leap, and that single eye widened in shocked surprise as the power slammed into its now-weightless body, launching it backward just as it drove the boat forward with a jolt. The river sloshed over the sides as they rocked, as the boat steadied itself. Lena watched the water pool in the bottom of the boat, praying they wouldn't sink, and then there was whoosh as the eye creature slammed into one of the ruined houses, throwing up a cloud of dust as it landed. The thing yipped like a wounded dog, scrambling as it hauled itself out of the debris and lurched back toward the old mine.
Jack began to laugh, a mirthless, manic sound as he flopped backwards against Lena. He was still weightless, but he had a sack tied to his back full of jagged stones that dug into Lena's belly. She didn't care. She held him tightly, feeling his heart pounding in his chest, and knew it would be ages before her own heart returned to a normal beat.
"Yeah!" Kane bellowed, an edge of the same crazed laughter behind the word. "Yeah, you better run!" He exchanged a look with Jack before they both dissolved into raucous laughter. There was no joy to it, only a flood of pure relief still tinged by fear. Lena could feel pain behind it, Kane's leg, a burning ache that she knew would only get worse when the adrenaline wore off, but she couldn't do anything about that now. Her hands were shaking too badly to let Jack go.
"That was close," Redden said, looking grave as he shamelessly held his son like a squirming child. "That was too close."
The boys only laughed harder at that, tears streaming down their faces. Lena felt a sob welling in her throat, or perhaps a laugh of her own. She didn't know; she didn't care. She buried her face in Jack's shoulder and focused on the water as the river carried all of them away.
Author's Note: 5/7/21 - One summer, when I was about ten years old, my grandmother took my older brother and me on a humanitarian mission to a Navajo reservation. My brother and I spent the trip running wild in the desert with the Navajo children while our grandparents and their friends built houses, fixed cars, and cooked meals. Those are happy memories, among them the horned toad I found and kept as a pet while we were there. I figured Thad needs a pet at least as magical as a horned toad.
At the end of that trip, back in the AC for the first time in ages, we were driving through New Mexico or Arizona - I've no idea where - and we stopped to hike through an old, dead volcano with an ice cave beneath it. I'm sure it wasn't all that cold - we were just so used to the hot that summer, and we were totally underdressed for the temperature in there - but I remember it being freezing. My brother and I clung to each other as we trekked through the cave, making puffy clouds with our breath. There weren't walls of ice like I've described here, but I remember a layer of frost over everything, and the stark change in temperature between one step and the next when we emerged into daylight again. And then my brother made a joke about falling through the floor, like we had in the ice cave in FFI. Because that's a thing that happens in that part of the game. It wasn't funny while we were playing it, but it was pretty funny on location, as it were.
I got more wonderful fan art from reader HungryHungryHimbo this month. Be sure to check that out. But they've also made some memes for us, and those are hilarious. I love all of them. And now, having achieved meme status, soon I will evolve into my final boss form. (FFnet doesn't play well with embedded links, but you'll find links to both of those things in the Author's Note on Ao3.)