Chapter 164: Chapter 171: Choose Carefully.

“Ok, what's the plan.” I broke a deafening silence, as everyone seemed hesitant to get going, even Keigan, who up till that point had been charging in headfirst.

He growled, leaning forward on his knee. “We get down there, find the cave spring that cleanses souls, take a quick swim, and come back out again.”

“That’s what we're after?” I asked, being promptly ignored.

Airsidh, stood up, pulling his pack over his shoulder, ready to head out. “The catch is that the cave spring may or may not exist, and if were caught down there after nightfall were all as good as dead to the death hounds.

‘Ok… That’s not much of a catch honestly, that’s it? I mean, I hate timed missions, but if there’s nothing pressuring us while the clock is ticking it’s hardly as bad as anything else I’ve been through. “Is that all? Well, let's get going, no point in wasting the time we have during the day.”

Keigan’s eyes widened a bit as if he was surprised.

“What… I mean, We could always just go back up to the surface, but I doubt you’d be willing to turn back now and I’m not going back alone… So let's get moving already.”

He let out a puff of air and stepped past me into the stairway. His face was covered in sweat, even though we had been resting for a while. His breathing was off as well. It wasn’t something I paid close attention to normally, but it was more shallow.

He staggered on his first step, and the dark fog began to leak from his eyes. It seemed different somehow coming from him, almost like he was fighting it, his body at war with the magic like it was a sickness. I could feel it too, the energy was lashing out inside his body, instead of flowing smoothly like in mine.

I held back and waited for Zu for a second. “Was he cursed?” I asked, knowing he could see it too.

“Probably, but the curse is growing faster than normal, I think he used dark magic like you did. Actually, that’s a more normal reaction to it. The only humans that can use it are those that either have nothing left to live for, or those that are unshakeable, blessed by the goddess of the abyss like many of my kind.” He paused for a moment, staring at me, but never asked the obvious question.

‘So we came down here so he could cleanse his soul in this magic spring?’ “Then why is he acting like we're doing all this for me?”

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“I don’t know the details, but there's only one reason why someone like him would use dark magic.”

“To kill a demon…” I muttered as we continued after the others.

He shrugged. “The spring they're talking about sounds like a Nog. If your soul gets “purified” there, then the ghoul’s connection with you will be severed. It will no longer have a host, and it won’t be able to use any of its powers on you anymore. It would revert all the damage done to your father too. Powerful springs born from fragments of one of the moons as it shattered, or so they say.”

‘Why wouldn’t he just tell me any of this…’

We made it to the bottom of the stairs when the room opened up into a massive cavern. It became clear in an instant how different it was from the other floors.

“The sky cave of the frozen labyrinth,” Airsidh said as I paused to take in the view. The sealing of the cave looked just like the sky, it was bright like the sun and frozen shimmers fell from the ceiling periodically, glistening in the air like dust from Rafi’s sword.

“Siya!” He shouted, without so much as turning around. “Sitting targets make for easy shots!” He yelled back.

‘How is he already way over there?’ I felt my face start to scrunch up. ‘I only looked at it for a second.’

My father stopped and kneeled just off the path. “We don’t have much time. A few hours at most.”

Airsidh pointed up at the sky. “The light in here mimics the day-night cycle, but if we're here when night falls.” He ran his thumb across his neck. “Were all dead.”

Keigan brushed off an old stone carving buried halfway in the ground, pushing in the center. A massive hill in front of us slowly opened up as stones shook the ground under our feet.

“I do… have some idea where it is…” He muttered, “I didn’t bring us here just to die…” His breath was becoming shorter, and from his sudden reassuring words, he could have fooled me. “Zu, carry this, this is about the halfway point since we will be turning back soon. This is another one of your tests.”

Zu agreed without complaint, but I couldn’t help thinking it was more of a cover

“It should be close.” He said, leading us through a narrow stone trail. The other three were starting to have a hard time moving as the walls only got closer together, but I was fine. It was one of the few times I was glad to be so small. Watching them all struggle because of their ridiculous height and inflated physiques… I admit, it made me happy.

We finished squeezing through and came out into a small cavern with three pathways, and the words. “Choose carefully.” written above the one in the middle.

I let out a sigh. “I suppose if we don’t choose carefully we walk into a trap?”

Looking around the room, it seemed as though there were no obvious arrows I could see pointing toward the right path. Above each door, there was a symbol though.

A staff, with a coiled snake around it on the left.

A balanced scale in the middle.

And to the right, there was a book, with a quill and ink.

I looked closely at each one, trying to think of what they all meant, when I heard Keigan take a step forward with a growl. “Right then one door for each of us.” He said not only miscounting how many of us were there but also seemingly not caring about what might be down the wrong path… ‘Even when we're on the same side he’s still this difficult?’ “Screw that… I’m not walking into a trap just because I wasn’t lucky enough to roll the 33 percent chance safe path.” I let out a sigh. ‘Let’s just think this through, I mean… It’s obviously a puzzle.’