Perfect... simply perfect.
Rynn glanced down the left hand tunnel, then the right. She didn't remember a fork. But this had to be the right way... she couldn't be lost.
She turned suddenly and sent a blast of fire down the passage she'd just come through. She caught a glimpse of black shapes leaping swiftly aside, and heard shrill, derisive laughter. The creatures knew, she realised with a sinking feeling. They knew she'd lost her way. All they had to do was dog her trail until she left her guard down or gave up and...
"Rynn?"
Rynn suppressed a gasp of relief and blinked at the glitter of light approaching around a bend in the right-hand branch. It was Ebontyne, her fire magic bobbing beside her helmeted head.
Surprisingly, the War Mage looked relieved.
"I thought I'd gotten lost," Ebontyne admitted reluctantly, and her expression turned to one of self-disgust. "I could have sworn I'd come in this way."
Since she could afford to be honest, Rynn decided she could as well. "You're not the only one."
"That's something, I guess. It was tough going for me before I decided to use magic to defend myself. The creatures down here seem to be resistance to my sword's power."
"Like that black unicorn?"
"Exactly." Ebontyne looked back over her shoulder, down Rynn's tunnel, then at the third branch, which had a distinct downward slope. "I guess we go that way. I'll watch our backs."
They started walking, Rynn feeling much better with some human company. The darkness was so absolute outside the circle of firelight, save for the glittering of eyes, and the ceaseless sounds of the quicklings' chattering and the scratchy sounds when they darted across the ground had started to get her nervous. This place reminded her a little of a spider cave she'd cleared a while back... only worse.
Here you couldn't see the webs.
"What the..!" Rynn stopped abruptly, wiping something from her face. It was hair-thin and clingy, sticking to her hand as she tried to shake it off.
Ebontyne drew in a sharp breath. "Rynn... does it look like the walls are... moving?"
Rynn looked quickly at the tunnel wall on her left. It wasn't going anywhere. But... it did look like it was shifting... like its colours were warping within the boundaries of the stone. No... she peered closer. Colours? The wall was black, with only varying shades of dark grey and even deep violet. What was that hazy stuff drifting cloud-like out of the stone?
"Shiv'arass Ravine," Ebontyne whispered, and when Rynn looked at her there was an expression of open horror on her face. "We have to go back. Now."
Rynn didn't have to be told twice. They spun to dash back up the passage... which wasn't there any more. Only a wall of that shifting darkness.
Darkness...
"Ebontyne," Rynn said slowly, "this isn't the place where you got the material for your shadowshiv sword, is it?"
Ebontyne nodded, her face even paler than usual.
"What's going to happen?" Rynn demanded. "What's down here and how do we fight it?"
"Darkness is down here," Ebontyne replied softly. "And you have no more hope in fighting it than you have of fighting water as you drown."
"But you've been down here before?"
"Only the edges." She shivered. "I had no idea we were this close. Or that the darkness had spread this far."
"Ebontyne, focus," Rynn said, her commanding tone deliberate. The other woman's eyes hardened at the words, and some of the steel returned to her voice as she said, "What do you want to do?"
"Get through," Rynn answered firmly. "Any ideas how we can do that?"
"Only one. Walk straight in with your head high, and no fear."
"What?"
"That's what this place is. That's what this is," Ebontyne said, drawing the shadowshiv. "The stuff of nightmares. Your fears. It gets into your mind... and you lose control."
Remembering her encounter with Ebontyne's sword, Rynn didn't doubt it.
"It's worse than that," Ebontyne rasped, once again seeming to read her mind. "My sword is a mere shadow compared to this blackness. What you saw that day by the shadowshiv's blade is nothing, literally. A vision. Down here where we're surrounded by it's very substance, what you feel is real, Rynn. You will live out your fears. And if you're not strong enough, your fears will eat you alive."
"There must be more to it," Rynn objected, chilled to the bone and already feeling very much afraid. "I mean, that unicorn was afraid of me, but he wasn't affected by your sword!"
"Vakailan is a creature of this place. He's a spawn of darkness, fear and chaos. Fighting him with a shadowshiv would be like fighting fire with fire. You can't. It must be the same for the other creatures down here." She fell silent.
Rynn stared into the vast darkness before her, the black walls of the passage growing more indistinct and less solid by the minute. The two magical fires were dwindling, too, as though they were being choked. Rynn felt a panicky need to laugh at the notion of darkness overpowering light, and opened her mouth, taking in a ragged gulp of air.
"I don't even know if there is a way out," Ebontyne said, almost too softly to be heard.
Rynn offered her hand and Ebontyne gripped it tightly. As a passing thought, she was glad she was wearing gauntlets. Her sweaty palms would have given away her terror in a second.
The darkness pressed around them, a hollow, whispering sound filling the air.
"Don't make that one of your fears, whatever you do," Rynn replied faintly, "or, as you said, it'll be real."
With a soft hiss, the lights went out.
...and in the sudden silence, Rynn thought she heard her brother's cry of her name...