Chapter Sixteen: Welcome to the Underground


"'Scuse me."

The surly librarian looked up from her book at the centipede-man standing before the desk. "Whaddya want?" she asked.

"I was wondering if you had any books on old Wiccan. Dictionaries if you have 'em, but old legends of stuff of that sort are fine too," he answered. He proceeded to place a library card on the table.

The lady ran his card: everything checked out. A few late returns here and there, but he always paid his fees. "That sorta stuff's in the Forbidden Stacks. I'll get someone to escort you."

Soon enough, Kade had collected a small handful of different books he felt held at least a tangential connection to the topic at hand. No actual English-to-old Wiccan dictionaries, unfortunately, but some of the compendiums he could find did have translations. He sat down at a table and opened the first of them.

While he didn't expect to find the very phrase he was looking for on the first try, he had expected, or at least hoped, that what he could find would be a little bit more helpful. Instead, he found page after page of nonsense. Most of the text related to old Wiccan was little more than speculation and guesswork, and the few and far between times when something of substance came up, it was completely banal or irrelevant, like a sign pointing out the bathrooms in an old temple.

He closed the book, moving onto the next. "I've a sinking feeling this is going to take a while," he muttered. "Ah well. It's not like I'm pressed for time or anything."

Elsewhere in the library, a commotion was going on that he barely registered. A young lady had just dashed inside, yelling to the librarian. "Anything you have about underground tunnels, quickly! Please, I'm pressed for time!" The sluggish librarian said something in response as the girl bounced on her heels anxiously.

"Huh," Kade thought. "Wonder what's got her so worked up?"

He didn't have to wonder for long, as the girl chose the exact table he was sitting at to place her books down. "Sorry, but this is an emergency!" She put down several sheets of paper, transcribing some sort of twisting map. "Gah, it's like a devil-anthill! I'll never find them in this twisted mess!"

Figuring he wasn't going to get any work done at this rate, but not wanting to be rude, Kade tried to gently tell her to go away. "Not that it's any of my business, kid, but…find who?"

"No time, gotta get this down!" She just kept on drawing; a glance at the book showed Kade that she was marking down a map of old mining tunnels that ran underneath Bonesborough and the surrounding areas. Tunnels that had been long buried, from the looks of it, as they had been abandoned long before the Emperor's rise to power. "My friends are counting on me!"

"Aren't you on break?" said Kade. "Does Hexside really still give out reports over the St. Bludworth's Day weekend?"

She skimmed the pages to try and find a specific section of map. "Not a report! I…" She took a deep breath, and faced him. "Some friends of mine had an…encounter in the woods. It wasn't exactly a fight, but some blows were exchanged, and…okay, yeah, it was a fight. But the fight caused the ground to give way, and they fell in, and I really need to find out where they could've gone before those Inquisitor guys find them!"

At this, Kade's danger senses tingled. "You were in a fight with the Inquisitors?" At first, he was wondering what a kid like her was doing tangling with the Emperor's Coven, but it didn't take long for him to connect the dots. "I don't suppose one of these friends was a human, were they? Dark hair, blue hoodie, wants to learn magic?"

The girl was partly confused, partly worried, and partly relieved. "You know Luz?"

"I'm a friend of Eda's," he explained. He picked up the book, carrying it towards the desk. "Here, I'll put it on my card. We'll need it to navigate those tunnels."

She followed him. "Oh, wow, I can't thank you enough for this! I would've gone after them, but it was a really long fall, and I'm not exactly a master witch just yet, and I couldn't go home because my parents are at work, plus I was afraid telling someone would get the Inquisition's attention, and–hang on, you don't work for the Emperor's Coven, do you? At least not with them?"

After Kade had checked the book out, he handed it to her. "Nope. Kade Murkwater, ex-boyfriend to Eda Clawthorne, professional potion brewer, and poet at heart! Now, let's go and get that troublemaker out of trouble!"

Kade climbed onto his staff, the girl climbing on after him. With how long his body was, it was a tight fit. "Tia Nocturna…um, student," she said. "So, what were you looking for?"

"Nothing as important as saving Luz and company," Kade said as they took off. "Just some translation stuff."

And speaking of that translation stuff, the librarian wasn't exactly thrilled that the pair of them had left their books and papers strewn across the table. Grumbling to herself, she levatated them onto a cart to put away. Right before the book Kade had been looking at closed, a familiar phrase graced its pages: "Ulhrig kovoum altai Malakar yarlim tshihru Koschei-sin Raxan." Unfortunately, there was no listed translation, so he wouldn't have known what it meant even if he had read it.


"Was that one of you? Because something just touched my arm, and if it was a spider I'm going to freak out…"

"No, that was me. I'm trying to feel my way around in here…could you shine the light this way?"

"Is it me, or is this wall way wetter than it should be?

"How is it possible that a light glyph makes this place look darker? I…was that a rock, or somebody's foot?"

"That was my foot."

"Sorry. I know I said we should stay close, but so far that's been doing more harm than–oop, sorry Willow."

"Still my foot."

The trio fumbled their way through the dark, Luz's light glyph doing little to illuminate anything more than three feet in front of them. And since three feet was a bit shorter than all of them bunched together, making progress through the murky tunnels was slow at best, hazardous at worst. Luz counted them lucky that nobody had tumbled into a ravine or some sort of monster's nest yet.

"So, there are exits to this place, right?" asked Willow. "Because we just fell down here from a sinkhole. Who's to say these caves aren't entirely closed off?"

"Don't worry, we'll find an exit eventually," Gus said. "These mines are abandoned, but there's still some entrances scattered around up top. We just have to keep going."

"Still, we've been going for hours now!" said Luz, even though it had been only about forty minutes. Which is still a while to be traversing an abandoned mine. "What were they even mining for to make this place so big!?"

"Titan stuff, probably," Willow replied. "Bone, marrow, blood, there's tons of valuable stuff just under its skin. You'd be surprised at some of the uses people found for the weirdest things. Did you know Titan hair can be used to–"

All three stopped walking at that moment, having felt and heard the same thing: a breeze. A stale breeze blew through the tunnels ahead of them, a welcome occurrence despite its smell. Because where there was wind, there was…

"A way out!" Gus exclaimed. "Follow that gust!" Luz shined her light forwards, the trio hurrying down the pathway it was coming from. It wasn't exactly obvious which way it led, with the three of them getting turned around on occasion, but they eventually arrived at a chamber not unlike where they had come from. However, their excitement was soon quashed.

Expecting a mineshaft leading to the surface, they were instead greeted by an enormous room filled with the roots of an equally-enormous tree. From the sheer size of the roots, the tree would have to be bigger than anything on Earth, as even in the chamber there was only half of the likely whole. They twisted and gnarled in all directions, illuminated by a multitude of glowing mushrooms.

"Woah…" Luz put her light down, amazed by the right before her. "This place is…beautiful! It's like some kind of ethereal sprite kingdom! Or a mystical fae hideaway!" She ran around the roots in wonder, taking in all it had to offer.

Gus prodded one of the mushrooms, which spurt out a putrid cloud of spores. "Eugh. Or an infestation."

Meanwhile, Willow approached the center of the tree's roots. She placed a hand on the trunk, her palm glowing lightly. "Amazing. This tree's been here for centuries. Even after having its roots cut away over the years, being hollowed out time and time again, it's still survived, and claimed these tunnels as its own. If that don't tell you nature's hardcore, I don't know what does!"

The tree bore scars from its thousands of years. It had been cut, burnt, torn, gnawed, but it still grew back. Looking closer, Luz noticed several glyphs dotting the wood. "Ooh, it's got little badges of honor!" Most of these she recognized as plant glyphs, with a fire glyph here and there, but a few she didn't recognize. "Huh. Wonder what these are…" She took out some slips of paper and began to trace them.

"So, how big is this thing?" Gus wondered. "I feel like we'd know if there was a massive tree sticking out of the ground this close to Bonesborough…"

Willow continued to feel its roots. "I think that's because it doesn't stick out of the ground. A few trees might be a part of it, but most of it's all underground. One big, interconnected system, just like these mines, only much older."

Hey guys, come check this out!" called Luz, waving around a new glyph. "Wanna see what this one does?"

The two went over to watch, standing at a safe distance just in case. Luz likewise was cautious when activating it, placing it down on the ground in a clear spot, and tapping it lightly before dashing back a few feet. The glyph glowed a bright yellow as the paper erupted in a cluster of electric shocks, disappearing in the flash and leaving a few lingering sparks. Luz gingerly prodded the charred spot where the paper had been.

"Lightning glyph!" she exclaimed triumphantly, throwing her arms in the air. "...Hang on, how does a tree have lightning powers?" She gasped. "Is it an electric tree, like an electric eel? A tree that can make its own electricity as a method of self-defense!? This place is amazing!"

"Aaactually, it's a bit more likely that those are from lightning striking the trees on the surface," said Willow. "There was just a big storm, after all. And didn't you get your fire spell after that Grudgby ball got burned?"

"Yeah, and from Mattias' explosion spell, too," said Luz. "I guess magic leaves traces of itself behind. Still, I'm not one to turn down a new spell!" She sat down and began making more shock glyphs. Gus and Willow sat down as well, deciding this was a good place for a break.

Okay, so: after we get out of this place, we need a new plan," said Gus. "We're clearly not a match for the Inquisitors on our own, Tia's probably looking for us, King's out there somewhere…there's a lot of loose ends we need to deal with."

"King! Oh, I forgot all about him!" Luz moaned. "Poor little guy, out there all alone in the rain, and the monsters…" She tried to shake off the worry. "No, King may be small, but he's tenacious. Wherever he is, he's okay, he has to be."

"I'm more worried about Eda," Willow said. "With all of those guys hunting her, who knows whether she's safe? I just hope she's hidden."

"Eda's the toughest witch on the whole Isles, I'm sure she's fine," Gus said. "If we should be worried about anyone, it should be us."

"Worried? No, don't be worried." With a devious grin, Luz got to her feet. "Not when you're under the protection of…Luz, Lord of Lightning!" She threw her hands in the air, bolts of lightning shooting forth from the glyphs on her palms. "MWAHAHAHAHAHA–ouch!" She shook off her finger after it was hit by a wayward shock, putting it in her mouth.

Willow giggled at the display. "Come on, let's get going before Luz turns full supervillain!"

Just as the three were preparing to move on, it became apparent that they were not the only ones who had heard Luz's display. They all went still and silent as sudden snuffling noises began to echo through the cavern. Someone, or something, big was searching for them, sniffing the air and digging to look for signs. The three of them readied their magic, closing into a defensive circle.

After a few moments of tense quiet, whatever was making the noises suddenly let out a loud shriek. All three whipped around, pointing their spells in the direction of the terrible sound. After some more grumbling noises from the mystery monster, the sound of footfalls told them it had trudged away. They were now able to breathe, though they stayed quiet just in case.

"Why does it not surprise me that there's a monster down here with us?" Gus wondered aloud. "There's always a monster, isn't there?"

Luz was still looking around, just in case the thing suddenly burrowed through the cavern wall. "I…I feel like I've heard that noise before," she whispered. "One of the monsters I've met since coming to the Isles… Either of you recognize it?"

"...I don't know if I should be concerned or impressed that you've been menaced by so many monsters that you can't tell them apart," said Gus. "But I guess I can't judge, since I don't remember that either. I wish Tia was here, she'd know how to handle that thing."

Willow, who had been contemplating the creature since it had left, agreed with Luz. "I've definitely heard that before. I think… To me, that sounded like a Scuttlejaw. But what's one doing this far underground?"

"Have we ever been chased by a Scuttlejaw?" asked Luz.

"Maybe. They're definitely aggressive enough. Hang on…" Willow created a small likeness of the creature using some nearby moss. It resembled some sort of lizard with six spindly legs. "Like I said, though, they aren't very good diggers. I don't know why one would be down here."

"Maybe it fell down a sinkhole like we did," suggested Gus. "Or this could be some kind of cave-dwelling subspecies. If that's the case, its hearing is probably a lot better than its eyesight."

But Luz recognized the creature immediately: she had been chased by it just days earlier. "Uh, guys?" she said. "One of the Inquisitors had one of those things as a pet. You don't think…?"

"That he sent it down here after us?" said Willow. "I hate to say it, but since that other Inquisitor fell down here with us, it can't be a coincidence. I'll bet his friends came down here to look for him, and for us."

"So, do we stay here? Or press on?" Gus asked. "Either one could put us right in that thing's path, and I'm not sure if illusion magic can mask scents…"

"Easy: this thing went that way," Luz said, pointing at one of the walls, "so all we have to do is go this way." She pointed towards a cramped passage covered in tangled roots and more glowing mushrooms. Pushing some of the roots aside, she began to crawl through. "C'mon!"

The others followed her. This passage was too symmetrical and smooth to be natural, especially after it turned to carved stone. The stonework was far too intricate to belong to a mine. "I don't think those miners were the first people to dig down this far," Gus observed.

"I know," Willow said, feeling the lichen on the walls. "This place is older. From the look of these plants, it predates the Emperor's Coven."

Gus took note of their surroundings. "This passage seems too small to be an actual passage. It's more likely some sort of aqueduct, especially given its slight downwards slope."

Luz glanced back slightly. "Expert on abandoned mines, expert on old ruins–where did you learn so much about history, and can you direct me there?"

"When your dad's a reporter, learning about these things is like second nature," Gus said. "Dad says that reporting on the past is almost as important as reporting on the present."

After a short descent, the tunnel led them out into a room even larger than the last one. "Hold on, there's a bit of a drop!" said Luz. Slapping a plant glyph on the edge, she created a few vines to lower them down to the floor. Once they were safely standing, they looked around. The room appeared to be a temple of some sort, lit by glowing stones that lined the walls. There were many more tunnels like the one they had just come out of, all of which opened up into two large reservoirs that lined either side of the room, long having dried out over the years.

"Yup, aqueduct," said Gus.

Luz's attention, however, was drawn towards what sat on the far side of the room: a massive mural. The room already seemed to have been made by and for beings several times their size, judging by the sheer size of the door on the other end, but the mural seemed almost larger than life. It depicted an army of figures wielding either spears or staffs, standing at attention around a pair of figures in the center.

The larger of these two figures wore similar armor, and gripped a staff with bat wings emerging from the head. It loomed over the viewer, as though daring them to challenge it–or its companion. For although the other figure was much smaller than the first, it was located in the mural's very center, a glowing aura leaving no doubt as to its importance. All of the giants seemed to revere it.

He was a witch, or at least Luz assumed him to be one, as she couldn't see his ears. He seemed to be wearing something around his neck, but more attention was drawn to the sword in his hands. He gripped the hilt, just below which there was a simply-drawn glyph of some nature. Following where the sword was pointing, there was a multitude of similar figures lying on the ground. Most of them seemed to be screaming, if they weren't completely still. "...I don't think I like this place," said Luz.

Willow examined the chamber. "Me neither. There's something sinister about it, but I can't tell what. It's almost like there's a dark aura about this place…Something warning people to stay away."

"Maybe we should listen to it, then," Gus said nervously. "Whoever built this place, I can't imagine they would be the type to be happy about people snooping around in…hold on, did you hear that?"

Once again, the three of them went completely still. Rather than the tell-tale sound of a monster searching for them, it was a forceful pounding. Every few seconds, a distant impact would reverberate through the chamber, seeming to grow closer each time. "Think that's the Scuttlejaw?" asked Luz.

"Hard to say," Willow replied. "If it really does belong to that Inquisitor, there's no telling what sort of modifications he might have–"

Another boom, louder than any before it, coincided with a large crack running across the mural. They flinched, instinctively readying spells to fire. Another impact widened the crack, this time accompanied by a dull grunt of effort. Luz, Gus, and Willow backed away from the mural, waiting for it to give.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Whoever was on the other side pounded away against the wall, breaking the mural apart. And then, with one final blow, the entire wall gave way, filling the temple with dust and rubble. Luz shielded her eyes as the wave of dust watched over her, looking up to see some familiar-looking silhouettes emerging from the cave.

"Luz the Human!" She recognized this bellowing voice. "You have been found! Surrender yourself to us immediately, and avoid unnecessary combat!" The dust settled to reveal Briares, wielding his massive hammer, and Sanguinus, the growling form of Ophelia emerging from behind him.

"How did you find us?" Luz demanded, shock glyph in hand.

Sanguinus stepped forward, holding out his arms to calm both Ophelia and Briares, and probably the kids as well. "Ophelia here's a better tracker than any bloodhound. Which means that if you run, we'll only find you again." These words were delivered not as a threat, but he was undoubtedly firm when he said them, a tone Luz had heard teachers use before. "These tunnels are no place for children. Come with us to the surface, where it's safe."

Willow eyed first his snarling beast, then his hammer-happy companion. "'Safe,' huh? And what happens if we'd rather take our chances down here."

With his eyes closed, Sanguinus' hand slowly reached for the hilt of his sword. "I cannot in good conscience allow children to remain in such an awful place. If you wish to resist, please take into account how a fight may destabilize the–"

"Destabilize this!" Luz threw her shock glyph, releasing a bolt of lightning that Sanuinus only barely dodged. "Go back to Belos and tell him we want nothing to do with his dictatorship!"

"They will not listen to reason, Inquisitor Sanguinus," growled Briares. "Regrettably, violence is the only option." His partner reluctantly seemed to agree.

Ophelia roared. Sanguinus drew his blade. Briares swung his hammer. All three of them charged.