The cavern beyond the opening in the stone wall was large and round, with easily enough space to fit the Sweet Pine Valley temple building inside of it with room to spare. Lamps had been set up all around the area, lighting up every shadowy corner of the cave, though rather than the pure yellow glow of candles the room was suffused with bluish green reflections as the light bounced off of huge formations of eleria crystals. The valuable mineral so vital to long-term enchantments was all over the walls and ceilings of the cavern, giving the space the appearance of a giant geode.
Forty to fifty men were scattered across the large cavern. Most were soldiers, though not all were in full gear. Ten or fifteen were stripped down to their plain clothes, sweating as they wielded sledgehammers, chisels, and pickaxes. They were busy mining out huge chunks of the eleria, packing them into wooden crates. There were a few people that stood out, though, as obviously not soldiers.
Five workers, four men and a woman were toiling away with sledges and picks, though they were in far rougher condition. Their clothes were torn and stained, their exposed skin was bruised and cut, and at least one of the men had a bandage wrapped around their head, covering up an eye and likely a bad head wound. All five had manacles around their ankles attached to chains. At least three guards stood nearby, watching them with disdainful disinterest.
“Tell me this is enough,” Jay whispered to Willa.
“Absolutely,” Willa breathed out. “See that man there?”
Jadis followed Willa’s pointing finger to a man standing maybe a dozen feet away from the five prisoners. He was an elf with long deep red hair and bright yellow eyes. His skin was light blue, lighter even than Vraekae’s. He had his helmet under his arm and was talking to a couple of soldiers, ones that Jadis was fairly certain had come with the procession of carts they’d followed.
“That’s captain Hakon. He’s one of the officers that works directly under General Egilhard.”
“Caught in the act,” Kerr smirked. “You’ve named him, so let’s get going before someone comes over here for a shift change or some shit like that.”
“Agreed,” Willa said.
The three quietly backed away from the opening, making sure not to draw any attention from the soldiers within. Jay still had the now unconscious guard hanging under her arm, though, and there was the dead guard to deal with as well.
“What about them?” Kerr waved a hand at the two. “They’re going to know we were here. They might assume the bandits came back, though, for those five in there. You’ll have to kill him to make that work. He’s a witness that’ll spill the soup as soon as he wakes up.”
“That’s true, he is a witness,” Jay murmured. “Willa, how do you feel about taking a criminal into custody?”
“I’d love to,” she said, “but if we take him, they’ll definitely know people were here. Whether they think we were the bandits or not, either way they’ll start a search and they may track their way back to us.”
“Definitely don’t want that,” Jay grumbled.
“Just kill him then,” Kerr hissed. “Actually, if we gut them right, we can make it look like cave beasts got them, like the giant spiders.”
“Right…” Jay whispered as she glanced down at the elf’s corpse. “Cave spiders… Hey, Kerr? Did you see any openings on the way here that could be for cave spiders? Or any openings at all that are high up on the wall?”
“Yeah, a few openings,” Kerr nodded. “Why?”
“Here, hold onto him,” Jay said as she passed the unconscious man to her. “We’re taking him. We’re just going to make it look like something a lot nastier than us are responsible.”
Grimacing, Jay took hold of the dead man’s arm while keeping her boot on his chest. Shuddering internally at what she was about to do, Jay took a breath, then yanked. Hard.
With a snap and a pop, the solder’s arm ripped free from his shoulder socket. The arm was still attached to him, but only by the cloth and armor of his gear. With another strong tug, Jadis tore the leather straps and cloth, making a bloody, gory mess on the stone floor. Lips curled back in disgust, Jay let the arm flop onto the ground in the middle of a growing pool of blood.
“Go on,” she growled at the two women with her. “Get going. Kerr, make sure to point out a good cave entrance high up.”
“…right.” Kerr whispered back after she visibly shook herself.
Kerr headed back down the tunnel, leading a visibly green Willa. Jadis couldn’t blame her for feeling a bit nauseous. She wasn’t entirely comfortable with what she’d just done herself, if her protesting stomach was any indication. Still, they needed cover, and the man was already dead. She’d tear a hundred corpses limb from limb if it would help her get back to her lovers safely.
As she followed behind, Jay made sure to leave a trail of blood using the corpse as a sort of grotesque blood bag. She wanted the soldiers to find the trail and focus on it, ignoring any and all other signs that might tell them something other than a horrible monster had attacked their guards and absconded with their bodies.
When they reunited with Bridget, Jaxton, Landry, and her other selves, there was some consternation at the sight of the corpse Jay was carrying.
“We’ll explain later,” Jay told them, waving for them to continue back the way they had all come.
Bridget gave Jay a concerned look, but after a moment she nodded firmly in understanding. She and the others retreated down the passage, making their way back to the crevice they’d crawled through.
About a third of the way back, Kerr pointed up at the wall to the left, near the ceiling.
“Up there. It’s not a spider hole, but it’s high up and big enough for something nasty to hide in.”
“Right,” Jay nodded before leaping up to the entrance and grabbing hold of the ledge.
As Jay pulled herself up with one arm, she moved to toss the corpse inside but froze halfway through the movement. As her head crested the lip of the rough tunnel, Jay’s eyes locked with a pair of large, black eyes set into a wide, yellow, inhuman face.
“Hi there,” Jay quietly greeted the perturbed-looking giant salamander. “Fancy meeting you here. Good boy. I, uh, brought you a snack, okay?”
Wincing, Jay hauled the body up and gently pushed it into the opening, towards the now slightly glowing reptile.
“That’s a good fire monster. No need to breathe fire in my face. It’s a nice, tasty criminal, all for you.”
The layer of flames that had started to swirl around the salamander were increasing by the second. However, right before Jay was about to risk the sudden movement and bolt, the huge amphibian-like monster opened its wide mouth and grabbed onto the elf’s body with a loud clomp. The beast immediately began backing away from Jay as it retreated into its tunnel, bringing its prize with it.
Once Jay dropped down from the overhead cave entrance, she slowly turned to look at Kerr, her large violet eyes boring holes into the therion.
“How would I know it was there?” Kerr protested, holding her hands up. “Seriously, how would I know?”
“Never mind that!” Bridget said urgently as she pointed over Kerr’s shoulder and towards the north. “Look!”
Light was coming from the distance, bouncing off of the walls of the curving stone passage as though many lamps and torches were being carried along by many more running figures.
“Go, go, go!”
At Jadis’ urging, the group turned and ran, trying to make as little noise as possible while putting as much distance between themselves and the chasing soldiers as possible. The mostly straight and clear nature of the tunnel worked against them, its lack of curves and obstacles offering them no cover from the hostiles behind them. Their only real protection was the omnipresent dark.
Not long after they started running, there were several loud shouts in the distance. Angry cries and yelling mixed with steel on stone echoed from the tunnel behind them. For a moment, Jadis was convinced they’d been spotted and the whole company of soldiers was on their heels.
“Salamander,” Kerr panted as she ran next to Dys. “Didn’t want to give up its meal.”
Glancing behind her, Jadis saw the flash of bright yellow flames in the distance. She didn’t know how much time she’d bought them by tossing the guard’s corpse to the magic beast, but she hoped it would be enough. If they were really lucky, the soldiers wouldn’t look any further than the salamander and then they could escape without incident.
“Help! Help me*! Sie haben mich*!”
Jadis cursed, nearly dropping the now struggling live guard. Syd had taken the man once Kerr had reached her and with all the excitement and distraction of the salamander, she’d almost forgotten she was carrying him along. She hadn’t thought to tie him up or anything, focusing solely on getting out as quickly as possible.
“Shut up!” Syd hissed as she hoisted him up to her chest and put a hand over his mouth.
“Shit,” Kerr cursed, looking back. “They heard that.”
Even to Jadis’ weaker perception, it was obvious the following soldiers had indeed heard the screams of their kidnapped comrade. More light and noise was coming from the tunnel, and it was getting closer.
“Just keep going, we’re almost there,” Willa snapped as she dashed forward.
“There!” Jaxton called out a few seconds later. “That’s the exit!”
Having reached the crevice that led back to the mining tunnels, everyone started crawling inside to escape the rapidly approaching soldiers. Jadis waved the others in first, practically forcing Kerr to go in ahead of her. She used the few moments it took for them to pile in to pull out some rope and tied the struggling prisoner up. They had come down into the caves prepared at least with some rope and other supplies, even if she’d been too rushed to use them.
Syd went in first, carrying the bound and gagged man with her, followed by Dys and then Jay. Dragging the captive while crawling through the tunnel was extremely difficult, but by that point she had abandoned all attempts at stealth. She could hear the boots of the pursuing soldiers practically on her heels. Now that they were inside the fissure, they needed to get through it as fast as possible. There was no way she could do any real fighting while stuffed into a crevice barely wider than her shoulders.
As Jadis pushed forward, she thought that the soldiers might have missed their crevice. The sounds of pursuit quieted somewhat, and it didn’t sound like anyone was crawling into the fissure after them. Then she heard a shout, followed a second later by an intense heat. That heat rapidly increased behind her until Jadis realized what was happening. But there was nothing she could do about it. She could only move so fast in the tight confines of the cramped tunnel as she crawled on her stomach and magic induced flames could move much faster than that.
Fire swept up behind Jay, engulfing her in an instant. Some of the flames went past her, licking across Dys as well, but Jay’s bulk blocked most of the scorching heat. For an eternity, Jay was forced to suffer in the heat of the magic flames as they literally burned the clothes off of her back. Her pure white skin was blackened and charred as she held her breath, all the air eaten up by the fire surrounding her.
Jadis had her other bodies, Dys was only burned a little and Syd was unaffected entirely, but their lack of pain was no refuge from the agony Jay experienced as the flames washed over her. Her mind was refracted, but not separated. She couldn’t withdraw from what Jay felt. All she could do was grit her teeth and focus on not passing out.
Twenty seconds. That was how long the flames lasted, Jadis reflected as soon as they ended. She had the wherewithal to count the time out thanks to her other selves. For Jay, though, all thought was consumed by the pain.
There was no follow up blast of fire magic. Either they assumed the job had been done by the one attack, or the mage who had cast it had used up everything they had. Either way, the attack was over. At least Jadis could breathe a sigh of relief that despite the tunnel being turned into an oven, everyone ahead of her had been protected thanks to her impression of a living cork.
Far faster than they had gone in, the group reached the end of the fissure. Once the others were clear of the exit, Syd tossed the no-longer struggling prisoner onto the ground and helped Dys out of the crevice. Her legs were scorched, the leather of her pants crisped and her boots charred. But her damage paled in comparison to Jay.
All of Jay’s clothes were gone, turned to ashes by the flame. No part of her was untouched. Her body looked like it had been dropped into a pile of coal dust and rolled around. Then set on fire. Her hair was mostly gone, having been burnt by the flames as well.
As Jay lay on the stone floor, panting, she shuddered and let out a plaintive groan.
“Still not as bad as the Burning Rancor…”
327