Chapter 50: What Lies Below (Patreon)

The trees blurred by under the light of the moon, no longer obscured by smoke. Tular, with its screams and fire, was lost to sight within a minute. The husk made great, swooping leaps, touching down lightly in between arcs before shooting off into the night once more. Elliot could feel an intense rush of wind, the stars above pinwheeling constantly as he thrashed in the thing’s grip. His stomach emptied itself within the first few seconds of the journey, but he never stopped feeling dizzy.

When the husk finally came to a stop, Elliot was squeezed in the crook of its arm with his head almost touching the ground. All he could see was a dark green patch of brush right in front of his face, but the intense smell of loam and pine sap hit an instant later, and he knew he was still in the Gerrwood. But where within it?

“No more jumping,” he wheezed faintly, “I don’t care if you kill me, no more.”

The husk padded forward smoothly, staying grounded. Elliot, still swaying roughly back and forth, could make out nothing except the vague outline of ferns against the soil. Only scattered fragments of moonlight made it through the tree cover, and everything was indistinct.

They arrived at some kind of edge, and the husk stepped off into empty space. Elliot screamed.

The darkness of their descent was unmarred by even a hint of illumination. There was a faint echo of flapping cloth off the walls of some kind of shaft, but if not for that they could have been dropping into an endless void for all he could tell.

Landing wasn’t as painful as he’d expected. As the floor approached, symbols etched into the ground flared to life, and their momentum bled away far more smoothly than it should have for the time spent falling. By the time they touched down, his initial flare of adrenaline had faded slightly.

This has to be a hidden base of operations. Falling for roughly twenty seconds, plus or minus. Make note of that for Breka—can I calculate how deep that is? Actually, is gravity the same here? Ask about falling speed.

Even as he tried to keep his thoughts practical, to be useful instead of gibbering, the cracks in Elliot’s mental state were deepening. Were there others here? What could they possibly need with live prisoners? What would happen when they saw his mark?

The husk carried him through a short, dark passage, but almost immediately there was a glow visible up ahead. As they reached it the tunnel walls curled out, opening into a massive cavern. Yellow glowstones the size of cars provided light where they stuck from the ceiling, easily a hundred feet above. Multiple football fields would have fit comfortably inside the single room. There didn’t seem to be nearly enough going on to justify the size, only one small cluster of tents present a short distance away. The husk turned and began walking toward an opening in the far wall.

Elliot felt the bargain complete, all onus fading, and the thing froze.

Was it confused? That could be an opportunity.

Starting with a slight wiggle of his shoulders, he began to twist with more and more strength, ending up thrashing his whole body in painful bursts of effort. After almost a minute of trying, he hadn’t slipped an inch. The husk’s grip was absolute, despite its vacant stare.

“What is this?” someone said from behind. A woman dressed in simple gray robes hurried over from the camp. “Mindless, what’s wrong?”

The husk tilted its head, and Elliot let out a wheeze as it tightened its grip.

“Take the prisoner to holding,” the woman said slowly, watching the husk with narrowed eyes. “Follow protocol.”

As if a yoke had been lifted from its shoulders the husk’s grip relaxed, and it began to move toward the far wall again.

Elliot tried to kick out one last time, futilely. As much as he didn’t like his chances of struggling here, going deeper into the cave system would only make things worse.

Activating [Combative Bartering], he felt it fizzle before the energy had even fully marshalled in his core, the husk’s defenses once again feeling impenetrable. The mark was quiet, with none of the fire from before. He clenched his right hand, trying to squeeze energy from the purple sigil, but nothing happened.

If he hadn’t been lost in the depths of what he could only assume was a hidden Talessi fortress, far away from any aid, and almost certain to die in the near future, he would have been much more worried about the Titan. The events of the last few hours still felt like a blur, but it seemed clear that he’d stolen at least a fragment of its power, and then shunted that power into [Combative Bartering]. That was already deeply worrying even without considering the crack in the statue, although who knew how much you could interpret from a dream.

But even if catastrophe was about to strike above, it was hard to imagine the situation down here getting any more bleak, so what did it matter to him.

That’s pretty selfish, he thought, feeling a pang of guilt. And not how he really felt, either. It was extremely important to him that Breka, Hadrian, Yehi, and the rest of his friends survived, not to mention any potential effect on Rowan. The animal fear pumping through his body just made it hard to focus on anything but what was right in front of him.

After passing into the next opening, the husk began a chaotic zigzag path through a web of interconnected tunnels. Once it had taken its tenth sequential turn, Elliot gave up on trying to keep a mental map. Rare glowstones gave off just enough light to see the vague form of the walls, a damp blend of stone and soil.

Several minutes later the thing finally came to a stop, and Elliot tried to crane his neck enough to take in his surroundings. He saw iron bars, white glowstones in the ceiling, and several terrified faces peering out from what were clearly cells.

At least twenty people were visible, most huddled against the stone at the back of their enclosures. The cells stretched in a line deep into the darkness, only the first several filled.

The husk carried him down to the last iron door, reaching out to touch the lock with the tip of a glowing finger. Before Elliot could even brace himself, the door swung open and he was sailing through the air, impacting the rough stone a moment later. Pain stabbed in his side, and he let out a strained grunt. The silver light of the husk’s core was already retreating back the way it had come.

“It’s alright, lad,” someone spoke softly behind him. 

Turning, he saw a woman with short-cropped red hair and shoulders that wouldn’t have been out of place on a bodybuilder. Her left hand was raised, like she was trying to sooth a spooked horse.

Elliot, opening his mouth to reply, suddenly had no idea what to say. Part of him wanted to reassure the woman in turn, let her know he wasn’t just a scared merchant, but he found there was another not-so-insignificant part that wanted to burst into tears.

Get a hold of yourself, Elliot. Treat it like another delve. What would Hadrian say if he could see you right now?

He took a deep, shaky breath, and smiled. “Well I’m not sure it’s alright, but it’s good to see another face that’s not glowing silver.”

She let out a sharp laugh. “I’ll bet. Why don’t you sit?”

Seeing the wisdom in that suggestion, he walked to the back wall on shaky legs and collapsed down, legs splayed out in front of him. What a nightmare.

“Come here, lass,” the woman said, and Elliot looked up in surprise, seeing he’d missed another occupant of the cell. A young girl, perhaps seven or eight, was crouched in the corner, watching him with wide eyes. The woman—Soldier? Blacksmith?—was inching towards her, what looked like an attempt at a reassuring smile on her face. 

Instead of calming, the girl let out a panicked hiccup and scrambled backwards. Elliot winced.

“Okay, okay, don’t worry,” the woman said, retreating immediately. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

The girl had collapsed into the far corner, shaking.

Elliot shifted, letting out a hiss as he hit a bruise on his thigh. “I’m pretty scared too. Even someone very brave would be scared right now.” Rowan had been inconsolable when they got news of their parent’s accident. For days, the only interaction she was willing to have with him was taking chocolates he’d bought from the tiny bakery that was a favorite of their mom’s.

Reaching into his rear pocket, he carefully stretched two fingers down into the space of [Esoteric Storage] and fished out one of the hard candies he’d packed earlier. “I’m going to have a candy. That always makes me feel better when I’m afraid.” He popped it into his mouth, making an appreciative humming noise as he sucked.

The girl didn’t move, but he thought he saw her eyes flick up to his face. He looked forward, towards the bars, as if he didn’t know he was being watched. “This is so tasty, I think it’s flavored with some kind of berries, but I don’t know which.” He pulled out a second candy. “It’s so nice to have something sweet.”

She was definitely watching him now, her gaze fixed on the candy in his hand. Holding it up in the air, he said, “I don’t know if I need two right now, though. Do either of you want this one?”

The red-haired woman smiled. “No, thank you.”

“You?” Elliot asked, holding the candy towards the girl, although he kept his eyes on the front of the cell.

“Yes, please,” came a whisper from the corner.

He tossed it towards her. “You’ll have to tell me what you think the flavor is. I can’t tell.”

There was the sound of wax paper unwrapping, a quiet sniff, then he saw her slowly place the chunk of crystalized sugar in her mouth.

“I’m Elliot,” he said to the muscular woman, trying to keep his eyes open. He didn’t know exactly how much sleep he’d gotten squeezed into the corner of Yehi’s house, but it hadn’t been enough. And the husk ride hadn’t helped.

“Yolena,” she replied, crouching down next to him. “Pleasure, under the circumstances.” She gave him a look. “Combat experience?”

“A bit of delving,” he replied, feeling a pang of longing for his staff. “I’ll try to be helpful, but I’m not too strong.”

Yolena’s lips pursed slightly. “Early second circle, and a merchant, yes? I’m impressed you can delve at all.”

Elliot coughed. He hadn’t run into many people with an inspection skill that pegged him that accurately, although obviously she still overestimated. “Roughly that, yeah.” He glanced at the girl in the corner, still huddled in a ball, and lowered his voice to a murmur. “Do you know why they took us?”

“Not for sure,” she replied just as softly. “But I suspect the goal is a blood ritual. A Talessi special. We’re not valuable enough for an exchange.”

Elliot’s mouth tightened. “Ah.”

“Sorry, lad. I’ve been told I can be blunt. Bad habit.”

He forced a smile. “Don’t worry about me. I might not be able to do much in a fight, but I’ll do anything I can to be helpful. Are you one of the guards from Tular?”

“Ranger.”

Raising an eyebrow, he gave her another look. The Greenguard rangers were known for their effectiveness in the deep wilds, blunting threats before they could get close to civilization. Like the Sunsguard, they seemed to operate on a higher average level than local guards or soldiers, at least from what he’d picked up in Tular.

“Are you a thinker, a shield, or a shadow?” she said, looking back toward the corridor.

“What?”

“When you delve.”

“Sorry,” he said, scrambling to think if he’d heard these terms before, “I don’t know what you mean.”

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow. “You must delve with a team. This never came up?”

“Uh…no.”

“Tell me what you do in the warrens. Why do you get to tag along?”

Elliot thought for a second, wrestling with how to lay out his abilities without making it clear he was deeply abnormal. Screw it. What’s the point of secrecy if holding back now might prevent an escape plan? I’ll probably be dead before Breka has a chance to scold me anyway. “Normally, I have a staff with a penetrating force blade enchantment, and I have a skill to make it stronger. I also have a powerful inspection skill, decent mental defenses, and a skill called [Combative Bartering] that lets me make forcible bargains with opponents near my level.”

Yolena had turned back to look at him again, her expression far more intent than before. “Are you joking? Or boasting? Now is not the time for either.”

“I’m well aware of that. And no. Oh, I forgot, I have a hidden pocket that can’t be easily found, and it has a knife, a tool for finding things you focus on, and a piece of metal that’s enchanted to be deformable. Have they been searching people?”

She didn’t answer, frowning.

“I mean are they searching us for things we shouldn’t have, like weapons?”

“I understood,” she replied. “They searched us all at the initial checkpoint. They didn’t search you?”

“I think my arrival might have been slightly atypical.”

“Not just your arrival.”

“Yeah, well,” he replied, feeling his eyes flickering again, “I’m still pretty weak. But if you want to count on me for something, make it appraisal and inspection. I punch above my weight there.”

“You need sleep,” she replied, still frowning. “They’ll notice you aren’t accounted for, and search you then. Each of us was logged. Stand.”

Elliot obeyed, levering himself to his feet with a grunt. Yolena gave him a quick but thorough patdown, moving over his back pocket without pausing.

“Where is the spatial pocket?” she asked after taking a step back.

He reached back into the space, pulling out the dowsing rod and waggling it in front of her before replacing it.

“I have many questions,” she said slowly, rubbing her chin, “but I suppose they’ll keep. I imagine you don’t share that information freely.”

“That would be fair to say, yes.”

“Then I appreciate your cooperation. That pocket should be missed, when they search you. Keep everything inside for now. And sleep. I’ll wake you if needed.”

Elliot nodded appreciatively and collapsed to the floor again. He was wrung out, and despite the aching fear and morbid curiosity driving a mess of thoughts around his brain he wanted nothing more than to drift off and get a bit of rest. Before closing his eyes, he pulled the last candy from [Esoteric Storage] and held it up towards the corner of the cell. “I have another one of these. Did you like the last one?”

“Yes,” came a whispered reply.

“Have this one too, then,” he said gently, tossing it back.

Then he stopped fighting, and everything faded away.