Chapter 17
They rested for a few hours. Alsen managed to catch a nap in the meantime. When he woke, he saw Theron sitting by the abyss. Not only did Alsen ask for more food, but he also got up and sat next to him.
“Quite something, the abyss, isn’t it?” Alsen asked.
Theron grunted. “How deep do you think this is?”
Alsen shrugged. “Deep enough.”
“I saw bones down there. They flashed in the light.” Theron shuddered.
Alsen took a short moment to think. “That has many explanations. One of them is that the temple inhabitants holed themselves up here in the vault, waiting for help to come. It never did, so as the food ran out, they threw themselves into the abyss.”
Theron sighed. “Before we started the crossing, I stood at the edge for a while. Told myself I was checking the pillars for stability, but I wasn’t. I was just… looking down.”
Alsen realized this was the time to shut up.
“My wife used to tell me I stare into things too long.” He rolled his axe handle between his palms, slow, mechanical. “She’d catch me staring into the fireplace for an hour and say that the wood isn’t going to talk back to me. She was right, usually.”
Alsen blinked. He hadn’t heard Theron mention a wife before. None of them had.
“Lena.” The name came out soft, handled with care, like something that might break.
“She’s back in the village I grew up in.
Her and our boy. Edric. He’s seven now. Or he will be, if I’m counting the months right.
” Theron’s jaw worked for a moment. “Might be eight. It’s hard to keep track when you’re underground. ”
Everyone else suddenly looked too busy with anything else, giving them even more distance.
“She wanted me to stop adventuring after the second year,” Theron continued.
“She never said it outright. Lena doesn’t say things outright.
She circles them, comes at them sideways, mentions how nice it would be if I could help with the spring planting, and how Edric keeps asking when I’ll be home. But she never says stop.”
He paused, turning the axe handle again.
“I keep telling myself the same thing. One more quest. Enough gold for the house to be finished. Enough for Edric to go to a school in the city, so he can one day make a living through something decent. A craft or a profession. One more season, and then I’m done.
” He let out a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh. “Been saying that for four years.”
The silence thickened.
“But adventuring pays well. The work is honest. I’m good at it.
” He looked up, meeting Alsen’s eyes. “But standing at that edge just now, I thought about what happens if I don’t come back from this one.
Edric won’t remember me clearly. He’ll have this idea of a father who left and never came home.
And Lena, she’ll know exactly what happened, because she’s always known. ”
Alsen said nothing, doing his best to maintain a calm, steady face.
“I’ve sent gold home every month I could,” Theron said.
“Never missed when I had something to send. But gold doesn’t put a boy to sleep at night.
Gold doesn’t fix the fence when it falls, or carry Lena’s water from the well when her back acts up in winter.
Gold just sits there, reminding her that I chose this over them.
But… it also buys the future. I’m telling you, Alsen, so you know.
So that if only you and Luna make it out of here, you know to take some gold to my family. ”
Alsen nodded. “We will all make it out.”
He shrugged. “Might be.” He motioned with his head toward Luna, who just sat by Sonja, taking a piece of fruit from her. “She will make it out. The rest of us might. Or might not.”
Theron stopped turning the axe and rose. He left to pack his stuff.
Alsen wiped the glisten from his eyes with his fingers. He didn’t even notice that he was tearing up. He didn’t know what to say. Only that he would make sure Theron’s family got whatever gold he could spare if it ever came to that.
They packed in silence.
As they headed towards the tunnel deeper into the dungeon, Sonja slapped her thigh. “So, Kitten, want to bet a kiss on what’s in the next room?”
They all snorted, the tension dispersing from the air. Luna didn’t answer. She didn’t need to.
The tunnel continued its descent, the ceiling rising again as they entered a wider passage.
The carvings changed here. The spirals became less regular, more chaotic, as if the carvers had been in a hurry or under duress.
Alsen noted the shift, but didn’t stop. He could study architecture on the way back. If there was a way back.
Luna took point with Garrett. Sonja held the middle, bow half-drawn. Theron and Alsen followed. Marena took the rear, staff clutched in both hands.
The clicking started softly.
“Contact,” Luna said.
Five scorpions poured from straight ahead, their gems glowing brighter than the ones they’d faced before. These were faster too, their legs churning against the stone in rapid bursts.
Alsen pulled on his power. Indirect missile. Times ten.
The missiles burst outward, curving toward the scorpions. These dodged more aggressively. He still hit two, the explosions shattering their gems. The third took a missile to the body, cracking its shell, and Sonja put an arrow through its gem before it could recover.
The other two made it to Luna and Garrett. They both struck first. Garrett stabbed the scorpion’s gem, and Luna stepped to hers, breaking the gem while gliding her sleeve over it.
Alsen tried to figure out how that attack worked. He came up empty.
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: ENEMIES DEFEATED – GEMBOUND SCORPION CONSTRUCTS (5)] [EXPERIENCE GAINED: 375]
[LEVEL: 12]
“Easy,” Garrett said, a smirk tugging on his lips.
Sonja chuckled. “We’re getting the hang of this.”
Theron nudged a destroyed scorpion with his boot. “These are bigger than the last ones.”
“Doesn’t matter if they die the same,” Garrett said.
They kept moving. Alsen felt good. The missiles barely cost him anything. If the dungeon kept throwing small packs of scorpions at them, he could handle this all day.
The corridor opened into a long, low-ceilinged hall. Pillars again, thick ones, spaced irregularly. The floor was uneven, patches of loose gravel alternating with flat stone. The ceiling hung low, maybe eight feet, and dark enough that his floating orb couldn’t push the shadows from the corners.
Luna stopped.
Garrett stopped because Luna stopped.
Everyone stopped.
“What?” Garrett whispered.
Luna tilted her head. She crouched, placing her palm flat against the stone floor. “I don’t like this place.”
As she finished the sentence, the floor erupted.
Stone tiles shattered outward as scorpions burst from beneath, dozens of them, digging through gravel and loose rock that had hidden tunnel mouths.
At the same time, chunks of ceiling cracked and fell, and more scorpions dropped from above, their legs catching purchase on pillar sides and walls before they even reached the ground.
The hall went from silence to chaos in a split second.
“Formation!” Garrett screamed, sword and shield out before the word finished leaving his mouth.
There was no formation. There couldn’t be. They came from everywhere.
Alsen pulled on his power. Indirect missile. Times forty. He didn’t even aim properly, just blasting the place around them, hoping to catch as many as possible.
A massive burst of power motes flew from around him. Missiles screamed outward in all directions, slamming into scorpions that were still emerging from the floor and ceiling. Explosions ripped through the hall, shattering constructs, sending fragments of stone and crystal flying.
Not enough. He killed fifteen, maybe twenty. More kept coming.
Garrett met the first wave head-on, shield catching two leaping scorpions simultaneously.
He smashed one into the floor and cut the other midair.
Theron swung wide, his axe carving an arc that caught three at once, but only destroyed one gem.
The others scattered and came back from different angles.
Luna barely moved. With a curved dagger in each hand, she stood in place, only spinning a bit or making a small step while waving an arm. The scorpion gems shattered the second they got close, the bodies piling up around her. She stood a few feet away from the rest of them, clearly posing as bait.
Sonja had dropped her bow, fighting with her spear. Its tip blurred through the air. Her stance was perfect, breathing controlled.
Marena waved her staff around, motes of misty light bursting from her. They hit all the party members, wrapping them with misty light, imbuing their bodies.
Alsen felt the energy surge from the spell. But the enemies were too close for him to cast indirect missiles or any larger spells. He slashed with Line Cleave, following up with a Curved Cleave.
There were still too many scorpions.
A scorpion burst from the gravel directly beneath Sonja’s feet.
She stumbled, her balance breaking. She still stabbed it with her spear.
But it gave another scorpion an opening. It pounced on her, whipping its tail. It hit her calf.
Sonja yelped with pain.
Theron got to her in an instant, crushing it underfoot.
“I’m hit,” Sonja shouted, voice panicked. Her step instantly stumbled, the leg unusable.
The ceiling above her cracked open. Two scorpions dropped. Alsen slashed at them. Line Cleave.
He destroyed one. The other landed on her back, its tail hitting her in the side.
She screamed.
Luna spun toward the sound. She bolted to them. In nearly an instant, she crossed twenty feet, shattering four scorpions on the way, one that was pouncing on Alsen’s back.
Damn it. He couldn’t stop. Alsen turned. Indirect missile. Times twenty. All aimed at the area Luna had just vacated.
Luna caught Sonja before she landed on the ground. She knelt on the floor, holding her over her lap. With quick moves, she checked her. “One sting on the calf. Another one under the ribs… fuck.”
[SYSTEM MESSAGE: ENEMIES DEFEATED – GEMBOUND SCORPION CONSTRUCTS (38)] [EXPERIENCE GAINED: 2850]
[LEVEL UP!]
[LEVEL: 13]
Alsen ignored the notification. Even he could see the purple webbing around the wounds underneath Sonja’s skin. He froze in place.
Marena rushed in, staff blazing with teal light. She hovered her hands over Sonja’s side, the light intensifying. “It’s too much,” Marena said, her voice cracking. “The one in the torso… I’m sorry… there’s nothing…”
With tender care, Luna moved the hair from Sonja’s face, turning it toward her own. Sonja tried to raise her hand, but it only twitched before it fell. “Why do you adventure?” Luna asked, eyes watering.
“Kitten, I…” Sonja’s eyes leaked tears. “… want to see the Ethereal Spires. Ethan always wanted to go there. He…” Her voice trailed off, throat unable to move.
Luna leaned in, closed her eyes, and kissed her. During the kiss, she felt Sonja trying to kiss her back. Her lips and tongue stopped moving halfway through. Paralyzed. Luna pulled back, looking into Sonja’s eyes.
Even though air still moved between Sonja’s lips, her eyeballs no longer moved.
Luna swept her hand over Sonja’s face, closing her paralyzed eyelids. “I’ll see them for you.” With a seamless flick of her hand, Luna drew a dagger from her sleeve and rammed it into the side of Sonja’s head.
Instant death, to replace slow suffocation in a paralyzed body.
The hall fell silent.
Alsen stood five feet away, and he couldn’t move. He’d watched the whole thing. He understood every part of it, the logic, the mercy, the necessity, and none of that understanding prevented the feeling of the floor falling out from under him.
Garrett lowered his sword. He didn’t sheathe it. He just lowered it, the tip touching the ground, his arm hanging limp. He looked at Luna, and after a long moment, he nodded. Once. Small. His jaw was clenched so tight the muscle jumped.
Theron set his axe against the wall, walked to Luna, and put his hand on her shoulder. He left it there for exactly one breath, then stepped back. He picked up his axe and faced the corridor ahead.
Marena hadn’t moved. She sat on the floor three feet from Sonja’s body, hands pressed over her mouth, shoulders shaking in silent, heaving sobs. The teal light of her staff had died.
Luna’s dagger vanished into her sleeve. She gently put Sonja’s corpse on the floor. She stood, looked down at Sonja for a moment, and then turned to the body’s other side.
Luna kicked up Sonja’s spear and caught it midair. It was a plain weapon. Shaft made of dark wood, with a long steel point with etched-in symbols. She braced it on her shoulder. “We should move.”
She walked to the front of the group, past Garrett, past Theron, heading across the cavern.
Garrett sheathed his sword. He looked back at Sonja’s body, then at the corridor ahead.
His expression settled into something hard and functional, the leader asserting itself over the man.
“We will take her body on the way back to give her a proper burial.” He wiped his eyes with his hand and drew the sword again.
Theron helped Marena to her feet. She wouldn’t stop crying, but she walked. They headed across the hall without ceremony, without prayer, without anything at all.
Alsen moved mechanically. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew this could happen. But watching it with his own eyes was something entirely different. He couldn’t do anything. Even in the fight. He spammed the indirect missiles because they mostly worked.
He got lazy. Complacent. Mostly working wasn’t good enough. He had to do better. Much better. The moment he had a chance, he had to put some actual thought into his spell repertoire.
He thought he could improvise a spell whenever he needed to. Now, Sonja needed him to do that, and all he could do was throw Line Cleave because in the speed of combat, he didn’t have the time to improvise anything new.
Up ahead, the floor broke under Luna.
She fell through, vanishing in an instant.