Chapter 7
The spiders are his only friends
I was lying in a hole, a sharp rock piercing my side, looking up and wondering why bad things happened to good people. Or was I not good people anymore? All I really wanted to do was make the world better with my skills, which meant magic, but now I was caught up in evil cults, and beings from other planes trying to kill me all the time. Beings that were being very naughty indeed and doing impossible things seemingly in direct opposition to me, specifically. Was this the universe's way of telling me I was on the wrong path? Was this pain my karmic retribution for not jumping to Snarly's aid before? Was even the thought of this being something other than random chance, as though the universe even noticed my moving through it, hubris? All of these things filled my thoughts as I lay in the hole, and cried out, because it hurt, darn it!
"Orchid!" I looked up and saw the faces of everyone above me. "Are you okay?" Malachite called down.
"Be careful, there could be other traps," Hanz cautioned. "We should look around carefully."
"She could be down there dying!"
"I'm fine," I called up. "I guess."
"Why is there a trap here anyway?" Malachite demanded to know, but of who I wasn't sure. I really had no idea. "It's not near the boxes, or the entrance. And who put it there?"
"Perhaps getting her out first, then speculate?" Hanz suggested.
"Hereth thome rope!" Snarly offered, and the rope he threw down smacked heavily into my face. "Thorry!"
"Ow!" What am I doing with my life?
"You were thupothed to catch it!"
"Perhaps you missed the part where I'm impaled! Not to mention I can barely see, it's dark down here." My ball of light moves with me, yes, but I have to give it at least some kind of thought. When the floor opens up under you it's not one of the things I have in mind.
"Can you move at all?" Malachite called down, concerned.
"Yes," I managed, gripping the rope. At least Snarly had made some nice knotted handholds for me, which was quite nice of him. "It's fine. Get me out of here."
They heaved me up, yanking me off the pointy rock I had been stuck on, making me grit my teeth together so I didn't cry out again. Finally I was out of the hole, and started to heal myself.
"What a fascinating process," Hanz remarked, watching it. "The crystals are slowly regrowing, they are truly a part of you."
"As if there was some doubt," I muttered.
"Thereth trapth all in a line here," Snarly told us. "Be careful."
"Can we just get back to finding this dragon or whatever?" I asked. "I don't like this cave anymore." Whatever is further down, the cultists are welcome to it, as far as I'm concerned.
"I don't think so," Hanz reported. "I found some notes made by the draig, apparently the further you go into that cave there, the clearer a 'voice' becomes. The voice begs for freedom, so it is something we should probably look into."
"Were they investigating it?"
They shook their head. "Unclear. It seems as though the voice became apparent after they arrived, not that they came looking for it. They were stopped, it seems, further in. There is no indication of some other purpose in them being here, however."
"Don't like mysteries," I mused, getting up.
"Maybe thith will cheer you up?" Snarly handed me a slender, polished, stick. "It was in the thuff! Not much of value though. Is thith what they call a wand?"
"It's magical," I announced, feeling it out. "Earth based. So I guess so, yeah."
"We may need to take a break," Malachite told us. "But that means staying here. The weather is getting a bit worse, and that fight took a lot out of me. I don't think I'm prepared for another."
"Pity you don't run on electricity, like some do," Hanz replied smugly. "Oh by the way I need the magic put back again?"
"You can't use that magic on me, can you?" Malachite wondered.
"Only if you secretly run on batteries," I joked. "Still..." I looked him over. My family had thrown me out, right? I trusted Malachite and the others, right? They wouldn't go spreading it around, right? "I can help you though. In all fairness I should have offered this to you before. There's a combat technique taught in my family, a sort of combat meditation. It helps me keep my cool, gives me an edge over my opponents. I can teach it to you if you want. But the technique begins with regular old meditation. If you want, I can give you some pointers for that right now; you can meditate for a bit, and see if that helps gets you back to a place you're confident in."
"I'm willing to try it!"
"Okay, get comfortable somewhere..." We dug out some blankets and I told him how to sit, how to focus on his body and his breathing, and left him relaxing a moment. "Get used to this, I'm going to do some magic for Hanz, then come back for you. I'll use my magic to artificially boost your skill in this, which should help. Focus on your breathing."
"Got it."
Several minutes later I had remade everyone's spell symbols, worked out what the wand did, (30 charges of an earth moving spell, so hardly worth it. Simply making it with 50- so that it was permanent, forever- would have increased the sacrifice of the mana core only fractionally, and been no less expensive. It boggled the mind why a mage would choose to do it that way) and increased Malachite's skill at meditation. Wait, did the 'wand' have more charges? It must have been used since it was made. So that makes even less sense, if it was say 40 to start, why not just make it permanent? Some people are just really dumb, I guess. Is that how they dug those traps here? Where did they put the dirt then? Did they really shovel it all out the cave entrance? He sat and relaxed, hopefully getting his strength back, while we watched for other cultists flying in. I had webbed up the other passage, we didn't need anyone coming from that direction either. He must have meditated for more than an hour, but finally got up and stretched.
"I really do think that helped!" he announced. "This meditation stuff isn't bad. You really were holding out on me!"
"It was a means to an end," I explained. "My goal was the battle meditation." I looked away, embarrassed. "I can teach you that too, if you want. But that's a long term goal, like I said."
"Sure thing! Well, let's see what this 'voice' has to say."
We headed back into the astral, no sense taking chances, and headed down the path after a quick spell to ignite the webs and get them out of the way.
What it had to "say" was a confusing barrage of images, that we all had to stop and process after the onslaught ended. We all glanced around, confirming that everyone had received these "visions" even Hanz, to my surprise.
"What did you get out of that?" I asked them. And how did we see those images here, in the astral? Wait, wait, is that why those specific elemental demons were sent here? To try and figure out what's here? Maybe this captive is like them, 'smeared' if you will across dimensions? So they can see us just like the elementals could?
"A creature of some kind is trapped down here," they agreed. "I got flashes of wanting to be free again, something about opening the doors, and the captors are ghostly figures and more of those gumdrop creatures but I think they're incidental to the whole process. Probably wandered in here and never left again, rather than being stationed here. Hardly an impressive fighting force, so I admit to being confused about the whole thing."
Malachite and Snarly were nodding along. I had to admit that's what I saw too.
So something powerful enough to show us all that exists here, a capability I would be hard pressed to explain. Maybe an angel could do it? But then why wouldn't it have been freed by other angels? What exactly is keeping it here?
"So what do we do about it?" Malachite asked, looking at me.
I shrugged. "We ask, of course."
I took a moment to frame some questions, and cast my magic into the universe.
"Will we regret freeing the creature whose voice we are hearing in our heads?"
"Unknown"
"Does the creature whose voice we hear mean us harm?"
"No"
"Does the creature whose voice we hear mean anyone outside this cave harm?"
"Yes"
"Oh, wonderful," Malachite spat when I told him that one. "So we let this thing out of here and it goes on some kind of rampage, we're responsible for it."
"That's exactly right," I praised, glad he had seen it right away. "We need to be careful."
"We can approach this with some measure of logic," Hanz decided. "For example, the jailers seem to be spirits of some kind. Odd to see them tied down in such a way, and we can verify if they are indeed ghosts further on before doing something."
"What are you thaying?" Snarly asked.
"The jailers are not angelic beings, as one might find guarding a demon of some sort. At the very least, we know at some point in the past a person or persons versed in binding souls captured our 'friend' here and guarded them with necromancy. Does this suggest an evil being is held here?"
"I suppose not," I agreed. "And while I don't ascribe beauty to goodness- I mean just look at me- we can probably speak to this creature directly before we free it. At the very least it must be chained up somehow below. Let's see what it is, what it has to say and make our choice then."
"Fair enough," agreed Malachite. "Also keep in mind the Gloom cultists didn't rush to free it either. So it doesn't seem like it would be friendly to them."
Maybe they couldn't. But I see where he's coming from. They weren't 'down there' trying stuff, getting more people here and throwing magic at the problem. I know they have mages in their cult, we knew that from the very beginning. And this camp has been here for some time, to have brought all those boxes and things. No, they were in our way, so that's another point in this thing's favor.
We headed further down the path, Malachite again in the lead but this time my allies trailing along behind me. I didn't need them stuck between Malachite and whatever was down here in case it was a narrow passage and he went running at it. (Or was charged himself!) He could also see in the dark, which it was- of course- so I wanted the light bob-bob-bobbing along at my side. My allies couldn't see in the dark any more than I could. He finally stopped and peeked through the opening, motioning me to stay back so the light didn't reveal us.
"Two ghosts all right," he reported. "And something else."
"Does the phrase 'dark souls' mean anything to anyone?" Hanz asked.
We all glanced around but no one spoke up.
They sighed. "Of course not. Still, strange to find such a thing here. There is some kind of odd 'door' here, one that usually leads to boss encounters in a… story… from long ago."
"Thing?" I asked.
"It's a white mist. The character in the story would part it, touching it like this," they made a swiping gesture in front of them, "and the mist would clear, allowing the character to proceed. It was a warning to them, that something awful was beyond. Very strange to see such a clear representation here."
"You think it's been here since the fall?" Malachite asked.
"And they used the convention because it was known to the people of the time?" Hanz went on. "Yes, that's entirely possible. This is the 'door' the entity wanted opened. And yet I see it only as a warning."
"The cult couldn't get past it?" I wondered.
"Ah, but the guardth are thill here," Snarly reasoned. "Tho they didn't try, did they?"
I had to admit this was likely.
"Let's poke the bear," Malachite decided. "I'll try opening the door, and see if they react. What?"
I shook my head. "Too soon."
He chuckled and giggled. "Sorry, I guess I fell into a trap just then."
I glared at him.
"At least give me a ghost of a chance to apologize."
"Just get going!"
He grinned a final time and headed into the room. I watched as he cautiously approached the door, sword out. The ghostly figures didn't seem to react, and he touched the door, which it seemed stopped him. He looked back, scowling, and made the sliding motion. Nothing happened. He glanced around and headed back.
"Four gumdrops, two ghosts," he reported. "No reaction from either. The door felt solid to me, which was a very strange thing to feel."
"Leth just go around the door?" Snarly asked.
"A worthwhile suggestion," Hanz agreed. "We can scout the area fully before committing to anything."
We headed further in and checked the place out. Strangely there were only a few chambers beyond, and nothing that looked like a prison at all. Just empty rooms, a few more ghosts, and two curious additions that had us all scratching our heads.
"What are they eating?" Malachite wanted to know, as we looked at the pair of giant spiders that were before us.
"I want to know how they got here," Hanz added. "The boss door here is closed, can they pass through it because they are animals?"
"Ith is right to call theth bothh dorth when there'th no bothh around here?" Snarly asked.
"Perhaps it only spawns when the door is open?"
"The bothh ith a fitth? I like fitth."
"I could go for a salmon steak or five," Malachite agreed. "I'm starving."
"Spawning refers to- never mind."
"It is curious," I agreed. "Where is the prisoner? Why so many chambers, with seemingly nothing in them?" Yes yes, some old coins laying around for some reason and that scroll but no chairs, tables, shelves, embalming tools, nothing. What's the point of this place?
The other curious thing I recognized was a creature called a death worm, usually found in deserts.
"It seems dormant, probably because of the cold," I finally decided, after we watched the thing for a few minutes. It was just laying there, not doing much. "Too much to hope for that it's dead. If it does stir, run. It can spray a poison that will basically just kill you outright. I… don't know what the sword would do to it. How it got here, what it's eating, I have no clue. This is completely the wrong environment for it."
"Yes, get behind me in that case," Hanz agreed. "It can spray all the poison it wants at me. You would be able to cleanse it with your magic, yes?"
"Once it was on you and considered a contaminant? Yes."
"Are we continuing?" Malachite asked, once all rooms were explored. "You did want to see whatever it was before we freed it. But there's no other doors or passages we've seen in this place."
The worm thing isn't the captive, is it? Now there's a thought. "I guess I would rather free it, allow it to show its true colors and we put an end to it, rather than letting it just suffer here alone. If it's evil, I'm sure we can figure it out and put a stop to it." Even an evil creature should be allowed judgment and rest.
"Despite the ancient people being unable to do so, thus settling on imprisonment?" Hanz asked skeptically.
"What's the worst that could happen?"
"I'm not with her!" they shouted, pointing to me and backing off. "She said it, not me!"
And so the plan was hatched. We started in the center, there were no more than two ghosts on each door which worked out because we had exactly two physical fighters. Snarly, to his somewhat disappointment, was told to stay back because poisoning a ghost probably wasn't going to work out very well. Instead I would phase Malachite and Hanz, empower them, and drop the dimensional spell. This would pop them up right next to the targets, giving us "the surprise round" as Hanz put it, and hopefully finishing them off both at once. As I was touching them anyway to maintain the phase, we would then step back up, get into position again, and repeat until all the ghosts were gone. We would then start in the middle again, opening the doors so the gumdrops and spiders could walk around, and presumably "free" the captive here as they wished. This avoided us having to kill anything just trying to live, and keep us safe at the same time. We would give the gross worm thing a wide berth, and hope it was too cold to be active.
The plan went off without a hitch. The ghosts all burned away, Malachite this time going for the head after being reminded by Hanz while I was casting. With the guards gone we had free access to the place, though it seemed only I could open the doors for some reason. Snarly and Hans simply slid off the surface of the doors, while Malachite said he could almost seem to get a grip on it? I slid them easily, and the mist parted, allowing full access. Something to do with a mana core? Not a very effective means of security though, magic users can be evil or good.
With the last door opened we braced ourselves, and a joyful wind swept through the place slashing everything we had left to ribbons. I sighed mightily. Really? We went out of our way to avoid that, there was no reason to kill the spiders, at least. And gumdrops are just… they're not worth the effort.
We were barraged with another set of images, it seemed the job was only beginning, yay! It conveyed to us that it would need certain objects brought back here to fully break the lock surrounding its prison, but that it was happy to see us, meant no one harm (a lie, clearly, as my magic already said it meant at least one person outside this cave harm) and knew where the first "key" could be found. Some random spot in the woods, of course. The wind died down and we were standing there again trying to make sense of it.
"Clearly a foreign intelligence, to communicate in this way," Hanz finally reasoned. "I am becoming intrigued to meet whatever this creature is."
"And how many of these keys are there?" Malachite wanted to know. "I didn't get a good sense of it."
"Neither did I," I complained. "It figures though."
"Yeah it does."
"At leath we can see what the thuff is around here," Snarly told us. "Come on, therth cointh over here right?"
We found some coins (gold and silver, but not a style we were familiar with) and the scroll we had seen turned out to be a map to the "Well of the Unfortunate" which seemed like a good place to stay away from, maybe? We didn't need any more of that.
"So perhaps finally returning to our mission for the town?" I suggested.
"Depends on the weather," Malachite countered. "You want to fly in the snowstorm, we can but..."
"Let's go see."