When Abelas finally reached the bottom he scrunched his nose up at the excessive dust that gathered in front of him when his feet hit the ground. Ramia laid on the ground not too far, the only sign she was alive being her pained groans as she clutched at her head.

"Are you alright?" He asked as he helped her to her feet. Ramia was still recovering from the fall to give a snarky reply and instead nodded, allowing Abelas to check for any serious damage. "You'll be fine. So long as you start to listen to me from now on."

"How was I supposed to know the ground would literally collapse beneath me?!" Ramia slapped his hands away as she became more irritable.

"I do recall telling you to stay close by did I not?" Ramia waved her hand dismissively, pulling her cloak tighter against her.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah…" Her eyes widened a fraction before she began to search frantically around her. "Shit! My staff…" Abelas clears his throat, revealing said staff to her to take. Ramia stubbornly glares at him before snatching it from his grasp.

"Thank you…"

"You are welcome." They stood in front of each other awkwardly for a few seconds, Ramia's eyes trailed off to the hole that she had fallen through. She was an inconvenience to Abelas, there was no doubt about that in her mind. Yet he had gone out of his way to come after her.

"You could have left me behind." She commented. Abelas followed her line of sight, a grunt rumbling from his throat in agreement.

"The idea of doing so did come to mind I admit." A thought came to mind which caused Abelas to smile a fraction. "Has my 'timely rescue' at least earned me your co-operation?" Ramia leaned back, jokingly contemplating his question.

"Maybe…Just a bit though. Takes more than one simple rescue to win my favour y'know."

"Of course." He replied dryly.

Ramia turned on her heel regarding their current situation. "So Abelas…where are we now?" tapping her staff against the ground she cast the crystal gem at the top to glow, providing light for them both. Abelas poured magic into her staff to make it glow brighter, revealing the room to have coffins, bones and prayer stones. Skulls seemed to have become part of the temple's foundations, due to a shortage of tombs or something more sinister neither of them could say.

"Catacombs…"

"Creepy…" Ramia recoiled away when she found a skull too close for comfort near her foot, bumping into Abelas. "Please tell me there's a way out." Abelas placed a hand on her lower back, pushing her to start moving through the underground tunnels.

"Considering our unorthodox entrance, yes. Knowing our luck it will be incredibly far and take us to the complete other side of the temple. Where we won't need to be."

"Living up to your namesake aren't you?" Abelas ignored her comment and pushed her forward to light the way. Their footsteps echoed through the tunnels that seemed to go unending, the only other sign of life being the occasional rat that scampered across the walls. Ramia groaned at the sight of them. "Why rats?! I hate rats!"

"I imagine they haven't had a good scrap of food for some time….let us hope they do not crave portly, loud obnoxious elves." That remark earned him a good elbow to the gut.

"That's not funny! Gods this place gives me the creeps…"

"It is a tomb full of the dead Ramia. I would be slightly concerned if you felt 'right at home'. So to speak." Despite all his jests and Ramia's bravado she truly was unsettled by the catacombs. He kept a hand on her shoulder, a reminder she wasn't by herself down here and that everything would be fine. The sound of a large slab of stone hitting the ground broke from behind them, causing them both to turn sharply behind themselves. Feet frozen to the ground.

Out of the dark came out a handful of undead, nothing but bone and rags. Abelas muttered something in elvhen Ramia couldn't pick up, his hand already clenched in a fist of fire. Ramia looked from the skeletons to Abelas and his defensive stance. An amused smirk on her face.

"Abelas." She snorted, a hand cocked on her hip. "They're a bunch of bones, what are they gonna do?"

Within moments the collar of her cloak was being pulled, as she stumbled backwards the sound of a fireball hitting the wall she stood in front of moments ago was ringing in her ears. Abelas had pulled her out of the way of an attack cast by one of the skeletons now coming after them.

"What the fuck?! They can use magic?!"

One of the skeletons threw another. Abelas shoves Ramia to the ground, his legs spreading further apart in an offensive stance. "Stay down!" He yelled before unleashing a crushing force of magic at their enemies. The strength of the blast leaving the undead in pieces all across the tunnel.

Ramia stared wide-eyed at Abelas from below, amazed at the sheer control and strength of his magic. If she had tried that spell the entire area would have collapsed, if she could even muster that amount of power. Ramia was reminded that Abelas was no mere elf. Not as old and powerful as Solas but still, something for her to keep in mind when she was giving him a hard time.

"You can get up now."

"I don't know…sentinels, slavers and now undead? I think I might stay down here- Ok never mind!" Abelas was hoisting her up from her collar again until she could stand on her own two feet, ignoring the girl's glare as she dusted herself off. "Your skinny arms are quite deceiving."

Both continued their journey through the tunnels, the sound of shuffling feet pausing their steps once again. Abelas turned, pinching the bridge of his nose at the sight of more undead behind them again as far as their eyes could see. "Etunash…ahnsul to em min gara?"

Ramia held up her staff, ready to fight but was stopped by Abelas who grabs her by the wrist. "No, there are too many. And this tunnel is too narrow. We run." Ramia squeaked in surprise as she was dragged at an alarming speed through the tunnels, every now and then coming to a rough halt as Abelas decided which paths they should take.

"Do you even know which way you're going?" Abelas sends another force of magic to slow the undead down, muttering a quick "no" before grabbing her again and sprinting off again. "What do you mean no?! We need to get back to the temple proper!"

"I am more concerned with not getting overwhelmed by undead!"

"I just saw you take out five of them like it was nothing! OW!" Somehow some of the creatures had weapons other than magic, sending an arrow their way. Ramia paused and fell to the ground, revealing an arrow lodged in her waist. "Not again!" She screamed, a pained sob leaving her as she squeezed her eyes shut in pain. "Shit…shit, shit, shit…" Abelas cursed under his breath realising that fleeing would be pointless and never ending. Besides…

They'd hit a dead end.

Abelas looked from the undead to Ramia on the floor in pain, cursing again before picking her up, careful to avoid the arrow in her side.

"Brace yourself and pull out the arrow. Do it!" Ramia screamed as she pulled it out, hand quickly pressing on the wound to hold back the bleeding until they could escape. Abelas carried her to the dead end, ready to blast a hole through the wall. Another fireball was sent their way that he barely avoided. It collided with the ground below them, crumbling the structure and sending them both tumbling through and sliding downwards. Ramia used what strength she had to erect a barrier below them. Wherever this led them, she was not going to make it a painful landing.

Finally reaching the bottom, they stumbled and fell into a ravine. The sound of water crashing against rock filling their ears. Abelas groaned eyes opening and sighing at the sight of them being back in the forest.

"Abelas…" Ramia was still on the ground, hand bloody as she still held it against her wound. Abelas was quickly at her side, picking her up again and taking her into a nearby cave. "Where are we? Fuck! Gently!" She groaned as he set her down.

"I'm going to rip your shirt."

"What?"

What started as a small puncture hole became much larger, giving Abelas a better view of the damage the arrow did. Placing a hand against the wound and pouring healing magic into it. "The catacombs covered more ground than I expected them to, once you are healed we shall make our way back as soon as we can."

"How far away are we?" Abelas looked back to the waterfall outside the cave, tutting. "I remember no signs of water by the temple, we are most likely far enough to make it a troublesome journey."

"How far Abelas?"

"I…do not know."

"Damn it…this is my fault."

Abelas smirked. "I will not argue that point." Ramia tried to rise, wincing as she was encouraged to lay back down. "You worry for your sister and mother."

"Of course I do! We just dealt with undead! Who knows what else is there!" Ramia bit at her lower lip, anger and frustration building up inside of her in spikes. "One fucking arrow and I'm practically useless!" Abelas blew out a sigh, feeling some level of sympathy for the girl.

"While I am loathe to pay you a compliment. If you had not made that barrier our landing would have been very messy." The glow around his hand vanished, he rose to his feet and offered his hand out for Ramia to take. "What has happened has happened. Do you want to sit here and cry about it or get back to the temple Da'lath'in?" Ramia smiled, picking up her staff. Grateful it had not been lost in the fall. She walked off ahead, unaware of the smile Abelas for her re-found vigour for the task ahead of them.

"Wait!"

Laisa giggled as she continued to follow the wisps. Eventually she came to a dark room, one single wisp larger than the others sat in the middle. That particular wisp grew brighter and echoed joyfully at her arrival, it's bouncing urging her to come closer.

Laisa ran to it, sitting on her knees and holding it close.

"Hello! You're really big! Not like your friends." The tinier wisps gathered around, their voices joining together melodically before becoming fearful again. They scurried away, all except for the large one in her hands. Despite that however, it shook fearful all the same. Laisa cooed at the spirit, imitating stroking movements. "What's wrong?"

Laisa shot her eyes up towards the darkness behind her, shimming on her knees to face the presence she felt lurking in the dark.

"Hello?"

"You can sense me can you? My my…they have brought me something interesting haven't they?"

Laisa cocked her head to the side, hushing the wisp in her lap. "The wisps brought me here? Why? Are you alone here?"

The creature never emerged from the darkness, preferring to stay obscured, but it moved about lazily. Several pairs of eyes glowing in the dark.

"Oh yes…all alone. I'm glad I finally have someone to speak to. It gets so lonely down here in the dark." Laisa didn't know why but she felt something pulling at her. Something deep down inside her told her to keep her distance however, so she stayed where she was. The wisp in her grasp broke into smaller ones.

"But you have the wisps, aren't they your friends?"

"They are…in a sense…but they are such simple creatures. It would be lovely to speak to someone new…"

"You want to talk?"

"Yes, little one. Just to talk…nothing more…" A wisp wandered too close to the creature, revealing one elongated claw, Laisa jumped up to her feet at the sight of it. A chill ran her spine at the sound of the creature inhaling deeply.

"Come closer….Laisa…I will not hurt you…"