Chapter 4: No Way Back But Through

Chapter 4

“Hey, watch it!” yelped Eike, yanking his hand back. “Can’t you just cast a spell to heal it?”

“I’ve lost a lot of mana,” Fia replied. “I’ll need some time to replenish it. Don’t be such a baby. This will sting a little, but it will help.”

He reached out, taking the salve, and began massaging his bleeding hand with it.

“You seemed a lot more powerful when we first met…” he muttered.

“I’m sorry to disappoint.”

“I mean, it was a door; you didn’t even cast anything!”

“That same door has you wailing on the floor over a little blood.”

“A lot of blood,” Eike whimpered but fell silent suddenly, much more focused on wrapping his hand.

The stone doors stood open before them, but it was too dark to see within.

“Just a few more minutes, and I’ll be ready.”

Eike looked back at her, “it does feel better.” he admitted, handing her back the salve.

Fia closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, recalling long-lost memories and the light they provided. In front of them, a brilliant orb began to form, revealing a second staircase.

“Downward and deeper,” she smiled.

About halfway down the stairs, they heard a click and the grinding of the great stone doors sliding closed.

“Great, no escape now…”

“No way back but through.” It was something Sophie had used to say. A dungeon that didn’t cut you off at one point or the other was hardly any dungeon at all.

The end of the stairs opened up into a circular chamber. Fia sent her light forward into its center, illuminating the room. On its walls were set four massive stone disks, grooved around the rim, with faint carvings spiraling out from their center. Just below her orb lay a bronze grate sealed from below. On the opposite side of the grate was an altar, and placed upon it was a slate tablet. On the ceiling was engraved a large map of the continent.

“Be careful,” she whispered. “We don’t want to trigger anything before we know what we are meant to do.”

“Right, I’ll take the walls; you check out the middle.”

As they walked out of the stairwell, the room began to rotate. It was slow and only lasted a moment, but when it ground to a halt, the entrance had disappeared.

Fia crouched over the grate. There were no doors but the one they had come through in. This must be the way out, but how to unseal it?

“The discs have different carvings,” shouted Eike, “and I think you can turn them.”

‘Don’t touch them!”

“I know!”

The tablets must hold the key. She stepped towards them, peering down to see letters etched into the stone:

When the waters rise, the way is revealed. Seek the path below or rise with the tide to Heaven’s Gate.

Puzzling, but perhaps there was more. She picked up the plaque, searching it for more clues, but found nothing. The path below was sealed, but perhaps—

Something wet and cold fell from the ceiling, splashing onto her forehead. Fia looked up just in time to see a storm of water begin to fall.

The room began to fill, and it suddenly became very apparent just how small the chamber really was.

“That wasn’t me! I haven’t touched anything!”

“We need to open the drain!”

“How!?”

“Try the discs!”

Eike jumped to the stone closest to him and began to turn it. From deep within the walls, they could just hear the groan of metals scraping against each other.

“They’re valves!”

“That’s great! This one hasn’t seemed to do anything, though.”

The water was up to their knees now, and the seal beneath the bronze grate remained unopened.

“Just try them all! I’ll work on getting the grate off!”

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Fia stared at the grate, desperately searching for something, anything that would get it off the seal. Bronze, thick, but otherwise unremarkable. Too heavy to lift, but there must be a spell. What would Sophie do?

More creaks and screeches rang from within the walls.

“That’s the last one!”

She looked down at the water. It was just above her knees now.

“I think it's slowed down! Come help me with the grate!”

He splashed towards her. “Any ideas?”

“You try to pull it loose. I need to think of a spell.”

She closed her eyes. There had to be something. So many memories, but they were all useless. Why hadn’t Sophie bothered to teach her anything practical? Too many spells that made her laugh, spells that caused uncontrollable itching, filled you with gas, or made you speak in riddles. Amusing spells for a mage with limitless power. She could hear Sophie’s laugh taunting her. Sophie would have saved them, but Fia was going to get them killed, and when she woke, she would have to journey back here to try again.

She opened her eyes. The water was up to her shoulders now. Eike was below, struggling against the grate. There was nothing he could do; she needed a spell.

Eike resurfaced, gasping for air. “Any second now,” he cried.

“I need more time,” her voice quivered.

Eike glanced up at the ceiling. “Soon the whole room will be filled and will suffocate… or drown.”

“Just keep trying! I’ll think of something!”

He dove back down as the waves lifted her up off the floor. There was no time. She couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate. How could she remember when she needed to focus on staying afloat? She had no choice. There was no spell to save them; her only option was to join Eike below.

She dove. Eike had taken the stone plaque and shoved it between the grate and the floor for leverage. He was ramming into it, over and over, but he needed more strength. She swam down beside him and began to pull. She felt so weak in the water, and her breath was dying, but she kept pulling. The water stung her eyes, and she shut them tightly, but she kept pulling. It was no use; she couldn’t do anything, but she kept pulling.

And then she felt Eike wrap his arm around hers and pull. Up.

They hit the ceiling with a thud. Then, he began dragging her along its width. What was he doing? Her lungs were about to burst, but she kept her eyes shut. When I open them again, I’ll be back home. Next time, I won’t bring him; he doesn’t need to suffer like this.

And suddenly, they were going up, climbing higher and higher! She opened her eyes. Through the cloudy water, she saw a light up above. Golden hues cut through the darkness, reaching out to grab her. She pushed Eike forward, breaking free from his grasp, and began swimming behind him. They were so close, but the weight of the water dragged at her, weighing her down, pulling her in. Her muscles burned, and her lungs screamed. Silence. She threw her hand out, and her fingers just broke through the still waters. And just as they began to sink, a hand caught them, pulling her out, choking and gasping from the depths.

“What happened?” she spluttered, her heartbeat hammering in her ears.

“Heaven’s Gate!” he exclaimed.

“I’m sorry, did I actually drown?”

“On the map! The tablet said to rise to Heaven’s Gate!”

She stared at him blankly.

“Heaven’s Gate— it’s a pass in the mountains up north. It’s where I’m from.”

She had been wrong. “The grate was just a diversion? A trap?”

“It seems we were meant to drown fighting to open an escape that didn’t exist.”

“You saved me…”

“It was just a lucky guess.” He turned away, but there was pride in his words, and Fia caught a smile creep across his face before he’d fully escaped her view.

They rose with the water still flooding the shaft, bobbing up and down, resting as best they could. Soon, they reached a ladder set into the stone. A short climb and they emerged into a dimly lit room, dripping wet and freezing.

She could help with that. Bath time had always been an adventure when Fia was young. She closed her eyes, lifting her staff. A warm breeze filled the room, rippling through their hair and lifting their robes. It swirled around them, bathing them in its heat.

“That was amazing! I don’t think I’ve ever felt so clean!”

“It’s the least I could do; we’ll catch a chill if we wander through the dungeon soaked to the bone.”

Eike frowned, thinking. “The door at the beginning?”

“Yes?”

“It needed mana to open, right?”

“Yes.”

“So, I don’t have any…”

“I don’t think so…”

His shoulders sagged, crestfallen but only for a moment, then he perked back up smiling, “I guess I’ll need to stick with you then! You do the magic, and I’ll handle the rest!”

Eike had helped a lot, and it would be nice to have a companion— why was she smiling— and then she remembered. This was a one-time adventure. For the smallest of moments, she thought of the changes Timor had made to the shop, but she couldn’t do that. Not to another person.

She looked back up, eyes searching for him. Eike was already by the exit, peering out into a hazy fog.”

“What do you think’s in there?”

Fia raised her staff, sending a ball of light flying at the mist. But no sooner than it touched it, the globe lost its light and vanished.

“Perhaps the torches, then?”

The walls of the chamber were lined with torches. They did not provide much light, but it was better than nothing. Torches in hand, they stepped out into the murk.

The firelight banished the gloom, revealing a thin path to guide them. Water dripped from the ceiling, splashing into shallow pools, sending tiny insects skittering away across their surface. But amidst the plinks and spatters, a deep, droning croak echoed throughout the cave. A slow, deliberate toll, rumbling in the distance like low thunder. It was growing louder. From the shallow pools fled a myriad of cave dwellers. Water bugs and flies, followed by snails and all manners of amphibians and reptiles. They could hear a splashing now and a wet rasping gasp of deep breath. Then, suddenly, silence.

Eike looked back at her nervously. “We better—”

—A sudden wet hiss sliced through the fog. And then, with a snap, a glossy pink tendril whipped out of the darkness. Specks of glimmering saliva flew at its back, and on its tip, a black barb twisted and thorned. It slammed into Eike, latching onto his shoulder. He let out a horrified scream as it tore into him, snatching him off the path and dragging him into the mist.

“Fia! Run!”

But she couldn’t. Not again. She followed his cries and the spattering thrash of his struggles. It was not long before she came upon them.

Before her, hunched over Eike was a mottled, sinewy beast. Its thick, leathery hide, a shifting mass of deep grays and sickly green. Its barbed tongue coiled tightly in its gaping maw. Pools of viscous, glistening drool hung from its lips in thick strands, which it pulled away with its spindly limbs like thread wrapping Eike in the wet slime.

She lifted her staff, crying out, though she did not recognize the words.

And before her, appeared a specter. A mage cloaked in all white and she too held staff raised high. From above, light. Golden spears, radiant and terrifying. The creature screamed, a horrible guttural squeal. Its eyes lifted in terror, sparkling in the brilliance of its doom as the spears fell upon it. And so, it fled, and its shrieks echoed through the cave as it disappeared into shadow.

Fia fell to her knees. Exhausted. They were safe. For now.

Cycle: Timor 1-2