Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 33 (Patreon)

“But you’ve managed to clear one before?” Cowl asked.

“Once,” Angel said. “Several years ago. I went into one with my Master and three other Seekers. Two of them died and we barely escaped with our lives.”

Vanessa swallowed. She steeled her features and nodded. “Right. But a small chance is better than nothing. How do we do this?”

“With that attitude, you might make a decent Seeker yourself,” Angel said with an approving nod. “And the first thing we’re going to do is take a nice, long nap. We’re all tired, and trying to traverse a catacomb when you aren’t thinking straight is just asking to get killed.”

“I agree,” Cowl said. “We all need sleep. Angel, I know little about catacombs beyond what is common knowledge. Is it safe to sleep here?”

“It should be,” Angel said, peering at the runes on the ground. “A normal catacomb would be different. They’re more predictable – everything is trying to kill you at every moment. They’re meant to keep you out. On the other hand, Great Catacombs want to get you inside. If you die outside it, it’ll be harder to keep a hold of your stuff. The next group would just grab it and get stronger.”

“So we can sleep here safely?” Vanessa confirmed.

“As safe as we’re going to get,” Angel said, already pulling his blanket out. “I wouldn’t worry too much about it. If we die, it’ll probably be fast. We won’t even notice.”

“That’s not reassuring at all,” Vanessa muttered as she took out her bedroll.

Angel chuckled. To his surprise, Cowl let out a small huff of laughter as well. After a moment, Vanessa joined them. Their laughter grew louder and almost hysterical as the adrenaline finally started to wear off.

The three of them went to bed shortly after, none even bothering to eat dinner. Angel was the last one to sleep, as he spent a few minutes replenishing the magical canisters on his shoulder. The cave entrance plunged into darkness as Angel finally let his small sphere of magic blink out, and they were all soon fast asleep.

It was hard to tell what time Angel woke up the following morning. He opened his eyes to the pitch black void surrounding them and let out a loud yawn. He brought a spark of magic to his fingertips, illuminating the room once again.

Cowl sat atop his bedroll, already awake. The Hunter glanced over at Angel as Vanessa stirred and groaned, rising to a sitting position.

“Is the entire catacomb this dark?” Vanessa asked wearily.

“They usually aren’t,” Angel replied. “The machinery within them lets off a good bit of light, and catacombs are full of Old World magic. That stuff is a lot of things, but stealthy isn’t one of them.”

“Which leads us to the question: how do we get inside?” Cowl asked.

“Catacombs often have a relatively simple puzzle at their entrance,” Angel said. “I was thinking about it last night, and I believe I’ve already solved it. Do you see the runes on the ground beneath us?”

“I do,” Cowl said. “Do we have to arrange them in some sort of pattern?”

“Something like that,” Angel said, kneeling and pressing his left palm against one of the runes. He sent a spark of magic into it. The rune hummed to life and he nodded to himself. “Right. We need to find the pattern for ‘open’. That shouldn’t be too hard.”

“These aren’t written in the common language,” Cowl said, peering down at one of the runes. “How do you know which one is open?”

“This is Old World runecraft,” Vanessa said. “We can just spell it out.”

“You can read this?” Cowl asked, a note of surprise in his voice. Vanessa flushed.

“Yeah. I had a phase where I wanted to be a historian. It didn’t last much all that long, but I picked up a bit. I’m not fluent or anything, but I think I can find the right letters.”

“Then come help me,” Angel said. “There are a lot of runes, and it would be a shame if I gave myself a bad back.”

Vanessa laughed and brought a spark of magic to her palm as well. The two of them walked in a slow ring around the room, searching for the proper drawings while Cowl watched them helplessly.

“I found one,” Vanessa called out. “How does it work? Do you think order matters?”

“Probably not,” Angel replied. “Go ahead and poke it with your magic. It should just absorb the energy. Damn greedy catacomb.”

Vanessa did as he instructed. The rune lit up with faint blue light and the orb in her hand vanished. She then wandered off in search of another rune. A moment later, Angel found another one of the runes and activated it as well.

“How many more of them are there?” Cowl asked.

Angel examined the rune Vanessa had found before answering. “We’re missing the last two letters of the word.”

“One letter,” Vanessa corrected, activating a rune to the far left of the circle.

The final rune proved to be the hardest to find. It took the two of them nearly half an hour before Angel finally located it – directly under Cowl’s foot. The moment it lit up, a dull hum filled the room.

“Get together quickly,” Angel instructed, grabbing Vanessa’s hand and moving over to grab Cowl by the arm. “Many catacombs will happily separate groups if you let them. Makes it easier to kill us.”

“Wonderful,” Vanessa said. Cowl just let out a thoughtful grunt as the humming grew louder. Within moments, it had turned to a dull rumble. The ground beneath their feet started to shake and shudder violently.

Dust flew into the air as glowing circles lit up on the ground beneath them, separating the stone into large rings. The rings started to turn, lining up the series of runes that Angel and Vanessa had activated.