"Good morning, Ms. Trepe," Bret smiled up at her from his seat by the campfire, holding out a plate. "Breakfast?"
Quistis took the plate from him, looking around. "Thank you. What did you guys do, camp out?"
"Yup," Bret responded, gesturing towards the gaping mine entrance. "Didn't want to havta clear that out again."
Quistis smiled and nodded, digging in to the eggs. Nadiana appeared from the woods as they finished, and the three set about breaking camp. Quistis watched as they went about methodically, each seeming to know exactly what their role was without a word ever passing between them. Within minutes, the area was clear, leaving no trace of their stay save the pile of dirt that had been the fire pit.
"Have you three worked together before?" Quistis asked Bret as they walked in to the mine entrance.
"Well, we all went to school together. When we were kids, we went campin' all the time. We had a few adventures, y'know, the crazy stuff kids do. This is the first chance we've had to go on a….well, a real adventure."
"Ah," Quistis said quietly as they lit their lanterns. They knew the way a bit better this time, and made better time. Within an hour they reached the site of the cave-in. They all exchanged longing glances with each other and the dark alcove that led to the chute. With a reluctant sigh, they continued on.
Quistis used the map to keep track of their location, for now they were in uncertain territory. Gefrey had been confident the rod lay beyond the cave-in, but that was all.
The blonde SeeD nearly stumbled in to Geral when the man stopped abruptly in front of her. She was about to ask what the problem was, when she saw he was studying the wall of the shaft. He let out a long, low whistle as she moved to see what he was looking at.
Along the wall, Quistis could make out a band of silver, wider than her arm, meandering its way down the tunnel.
"Silver," Geral said with wonder. "Pure as moonlight."
"The stories're true," Bret murmured beside his brother. "Little wonder Lord Gefrey wants to get the mine open again." The two men took a long, last glance at the vein of silver before continuing down the tunnel.
They reached a crossroads, faint tracks gleaming in their lamplight running along the new passage. Quistis looked around, shining a flashlight down each of the corridors. Marking her decision on the map, they continued on to the left, down the new passage.
As they walked along the tracks, Quistis felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She glanced at her companions, seeing equally concerned expressions of their faces.
"We're bein' watched," Geral finally spoke.
"You see something?" Quistis asked.
"Naw….But I feel it."
"I feel it, also," Nadiana fell back from her point position to speak with them. "The air here is oppressive…as if the shadows themselves were watching us." The two brothers nodded in agreement.
"Be ready," Quistis said simply, pulling Save the Queen from its resting place while silently going over her spells. Bret and Geral drew their axes, while Nadiana nocked her bow.
So it was that they were not taken completely by surprise when the shadows exploded into action around them.
With a blow born more of instinct than precision, Bret swung his axe hard into the form nearest him, and was rewarded with the sound of bones crunching. Holding his lantern up, he looked down to see what had crumpled so easily, and saw bones.
Human bones.
More than a dozen skeletons trudged out of a side passage the four had not noticed, their claw like hands outstretched. Tiny red points of light glared angrily from their empty eye sockets, and tattered remains of cloth—flesh?—hung from their bones. A few held rusted weapons, but most were swiping at them with their bony claws.
A single glance at her target told Nadiana immediately that her bow would be of little use against these adversaries. Putting the bow away, she jumped right in to the fray, whirling and kicking.
Considering her spells, Quistis decided that these skeletons seemed to be falling easily enough with simple brute force, so she settled on a spell to augment her speed. With magic coursing through her veins, she went into a blur of motion, snapping Save the Queen around exposed spinal cords and ribs, flinging the hapless creatures against stone walls and each other.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw another skeleton step into the corridor and stop, seeming to observe the melee. Its red eyes flared, and Quistis gasped as a beam of ruby light flashed across the tunnel, leaving a smoking hole in the rock where Nadiana had been a moment before.
The flustered ranger looked up from where she'd rolled, instinct controlling her flight more than strategy.
Time to end this, Quistis decided. Skeletons are one thing, but skeletons with disintegrating eye gazes are another.
"Get out of the way!" she cried, waving at Nadiana as she clasped the platinum pendant. She began her chant while the pale woman scrambled back to join Bret and Geral. Within moments misty clouds began to fill the passageway as Bahamut made his entrance. The platinum dragon wasted no moments, drawing in a great breath to release his powerful beam of silver fire, obliterating most of the skeletons, crushing the rest.
Quistis could almost see him wink at her before he faded away again.
As silence fell in the corridor, Quistis felt three pairs of eyes staring at her. She turned to her team, a sheepish smile on her face. "What?"
"What the hell was that?" Bret finally asked with wonder in his voice.
"A Guardian," Nadiana answered for her. "So it is true. You must be from Balamb Garden."
"I am," Quistis answered carefully.
"But what about your memory?" the ranger asked. "Or is that untrue, merely propaganda?"
Quistis sighed. The Guardians were extra planar beings who sometimes "adopted" inhabitants of the material plane, lending their combative skills. They demanded a price, however, in the form of human experience. A price many warriors had found too high.
They've already taken my childhood, she thought sadly. What will be next, I wonder? She shook her head a little. This was an ongoing debate she held with herself, but here was not the time or place.
"I keep a journal," she answered simply. "The memories don't disappear, just get harder to find. Now, we should be moving on." She gestured at the side passage the skeletons had come from. "This way."
The four held themselves at the ready as they walked on. Occasionally a scuttling sound would echo down the tunnels and make them jump, particularly as they passed other side passages, but nothing more approached them. Quistis kept them on a straight path, ignoring any other routes that opened up. The walls of this passage were not cut, like the previous mines, but looked to be natural caves.
They were not marked on her map.
Nadiana ran ahead, but was back within a few minutes, her brow furrowed.
"What is it?" Quistis asked.
"Dim the lights," she responded quietly.
The three complied, and as their eyes adjusted to the darkened tunnel, they detected what Nadiana had.
Up ahead, a dim red glow lit the corridor.
"What's up there?" Quistis demanded, keeping her voice low and just about the harshness of a whisper.
"I don't know yet," Nadiana replied. "I came back to confirm my guess at the light. I'll go look now."
"Be careful," Quistis said, but was talking to empty air. Nadiana was already gone.
They waited a few minutes, when Quistis gestured for the brothers to follow as she started ahead slowly. She nearly gasped when Nadiana suddenly appeared out of the darkness. Quistis saw the woman's pale eyes were wide, her mouth set in a grim line.
"I found it," she said simply.
"Found what?"
"The Finder's Way."
Quistis swore under her breath as she looked down from the ledge out over the cavern. "There it is," she whispered to herself. "But, Hyne, how the hell are we gonna get it out of there?"
A slender silver rod, topped with a sparkling sapphire, lay atop a pile of rubble on the cavern floor, some thirty feet below them. Also laying with the rod were weapons; a few swords, an axe, and what appeared to be a longbow. All around it, the floor was teeming with activity.
Shambling figures walked back and forth across the cavern, pushing carts filled with gleaming silver ore towards a lift contraption near the center. Workers with pickaxes beat against the walls of the cavern in various places, while other groups were making their way in from side tunnels. Here and there were holes in the cavern floor from which steam escaped, sometimes in sudden bursts that would catch workers unaware. More ledges similar to the one they stood upon could be seen at various intervals and heights. The luminous moss the team had seen growing in the underground city grew here, as well. Here in this cavern, however, the light it cast was eerie rather than surreal.
"What are people doin' down here?" Bret asked as loudly as he dared, although with all the noise of picks hitting rock, carts rumbling along, and the escaping steam, Quistis doubted they would be heard.
Nadiana was squinting, looking intently at the workers. Slowly, her eyes widened and her mouth twisted in disgust. "They're dead."
"What?" Upon closer examination, the others found the ranger to be correct. Many of the shambling figures had gaping wounds that no longer bled. Some were missing body parts. Others the flesh hung loosely off exposed bones, while still others were no more than skeletons.
"Well, Ms. Trepe," Bret sighed. "It's yer game. What are we gonna do?"
Quistis stared at the cavern floor, her mind racing. There was no way the four of them could fight all of those creatures down there and survive, not even with Bahamut's aide, especially if these had that disintegrating attack the one in the corridor had. There had to be another way…
Her eyes fell on another ledge. The rod lay roughly in the center between it and the ledge they stood on.
"Do we have any rope?" she asked, turning to Geral.
"Yeah….Two coils, fifty feet apiece."
"Good. I….have an idea."
Quistis waited patiently on the ledge, keeping an eye on the activity below as she waited for the signal that the other three had found their way to the ledge. She'd sent them back along the side passages, hoping they would take the team to the other ledges.
A tiny flash of light grabbed her attention. There was Nadiana, shining her flashlight across the cavern.
Quistis flashed hers quickly to let them know she'd seen them. She cringed as Bret dropped their rope, watching the creatures below to see if they'd been detected yet. Thankfully, the skeletons that had been nearby trudged on, apparently oblivious.
She held her breath as Bret began to slide down the rope, Geral right behind him. Everything was going well so far. As Bret touched the floor of the cavern, Quistis stood and began to chant.
She heard the commotion begin as the two brothers yelled, tearing into the unsuspecting ranks of undead with their axes. Nadiana began to rain arrows down, more for effect than for damage, drawing the horde's attention to them.
Perfect timing, she thought, just as the float spell completed. She saw the telltale dance of light swirl around the rod as it lifted just slightly from the pile. She began to chant again.
Bret's axe caught in the rib cage of one shambling monster as he swung. He pulled a little, but it was stuck. With a mighty heave, he flung the creature up into the air.
"Look out!" he called to his brother.
Geral looked up, watching the skeleton flying towards him. With a grin he twisted the handle of the axe in his hands, holding it like a baseball bat. As the creature came within range, he took a might swing, and was satisfied with a solid connection. The bony projectile went bowling into two others, knocking them off their feet.
Bret looked back at his brother, a mischievous smile across his face. "That looked like fun, man. More?"
"Ye're on!"
Nadiana smiled at the brother's antics, but kept an eye on their leader. The blonde SeeD was chanting again, Nadiana watching as a tiny wisp of wind left Quistis's hand and whirled its way towards the rod. The toned-down aero spell pushed against the floating rod, drawing it towards Quistis. Something else had been caught by the float aura….the longbow, from the looks of it.
The longbow reached Quistis first. Raising an eyebrow, she grabbed it anyway, and was reaching out to grasp the rod. Below her, one of the skeletons finally noticed the floating rod, and leapt up to grasp it.
Quistis was ready. Out snapped Save the Queen, wrapping its gleaming end firmly around the rod. She couldn't contain the satisfied smirk she gave the rotting creature as her hand closed around the cool metal rod, although she was quite certain the dead thing was well beyond noticing facial expression.
"Run!" she cried to Nadiana and the brothers before beginning the summoning. As misty clouds filled the cavern, she saw Bret and Geral running back towards the rope, plowing through the skeletons and dodge a few ruby beams.
Bahamut gave a great roar as the platinum dragon made his entrance. Immediately the undead horde's attention was drawn to the Guardian hovering in their midst, exactly as Quistis had hoped. Scooping up the bow, with the rod pressed against her chest, she fled the ledge, running on down the corridor.
I'll hold as long as I can withstand it, Bahamut whispered in her mind.
Thank you, she replied as she turned a corner and entered the corridor with the tracks. Here she was supposed to meet Nadiana, Bret, and Geral. Soon the three appeared, and at her direction, they continued their flight out of the mines.
Bret dropped down on the dirt outside the cave entrance, breathing heavily. He was used to heavy work, but not running. He couldn't help but grin at the others as they, too, sat down, gasping for breath.
"We could do this."
Nadiana looked over at him, eyebrow raised. "Do what?"
"This," he gestured at the rod and the mine entrance. Quistis gave him a puzzled smile. "Y'know, runnin' around in caves, findin' stuff, fightin' skeletons."
Quistis laughed, then sighed. "I already do all that…."
"Yeah," Bret nodded, "but who decides what you're lookin' for?"
"The client."
"Exactly."
Quistis opened her mouth to reply, then closed it again. Bret had a point…
She shrugged it off. It wasn't an issue at the moment. She looked up at the dark sky. "It's dark."
"Yeah."
"Skeletons."
"Oh, yeah…"
They looked at each other. Then began the run back down to the Vanderstyll Manor.