Chapter 141: The Shimmering Labyrinth

  Castile stood o Schor Favian as he tio the door. His robes, hands, and arms were quickly covered in dirt as he frenziedly cleared away the turies of dust, searg for more script.

  “Does this mean the dungeon is above ground?” Castile asked the filthy but excited Schor.

  Schor Favian paused, uainty flickering in his eyes. “The transtion is something like, 'Guardians of Access to the Labyrinth.' The Elven King who ruled Caelora kept the Adventurer’s Guild from accessing the dungeon and maintained his own guards for the entrahe entrance could be at the top of these stairs,” he said excitedly. He looked down the passage, “Or it could be close, just down there. We are in the right pce at any rate, Mage Castile.”

  Adrian looked skeptical. “We should not go up to the city unless we are sure. It could trigger a flood of specters to our position, and we would be quickly overrun.”

  Castile looked out over the men in the corridor. It was clear we were on our st legs. She looked at me, expeg some wisdom, but I remained silent, with nothing to offer. Finally, Castile gave a and, “Let’s clear a room nearby a. Eryk, find a suitable room. After we rest, I will lead a team up the stairs to explore.”

  Adrian was clearly not happy with the answer but nodded. It felt strange being part of the deaking process. The mystique of leadership appeared to be mostly a guessing game.

  We found a storeroom with rotted crates a up camp. I was tasked with watg Lirkin cook and prepare the meager food allocation. After the meal, I sat with Maveith, who was fondling his new hammer in a less-than-fttering way. “You like pying with it?” I asked, preparing to lead into a joke.

  Maveith nodded. “Killing is not its intended purpose, but it is still a runic on. It makes me feel strong and fident.”His voice echoed in the room. He was making a lead-in joke too easy, but I resisted.

  “You are taking down twice as many specters as the man in the pany, even Konstantin,” I said, and he beamed at the praise. I left the joke about his fasation with pying with his hammer unspoken; I was not feeling it today, and Maveith would have probably taken a few mio puzzle it out anyway, ruining the delivery.

  We rested against the wall and sipped on watered-down wine. Both our stomachs protested loudly at the inadequacy of the . Maveith spoke uncharacteristically softly after a time, “Eryk, I think I am going to go home and tell my father.” I knew Maveith was referring to the reason he ran away from Stone Mountain Isnd. He had seen his sister cut down by orc svers and ran away in fear and shame at n to help.

  I had been hoping Maveith would stick around for a while. He did grow on you after some time. “I think that is sensible, Maveith. He will be happy to see you are alive.” Maveith did not say anything else, and a few hours ter, Castile took Konstantin, Adrian, Fvius, and Brutus up the stairs to search the building above.

  It was only a few minutes before we could hear the echoes of fighting up above. Benito and I guarded the base of the stairs. The muffled sounds rang down to us, but we could not determine what was happening. It was almost an hour before Brutus desded the steps. He looked cold and exhausted. “One wight, but Castile restrai with shadow s. Also, some twenty specters so far. Specters keep ing from the city, but only one or two at a time. Benito is to head up and repce me for now. Eryk, you are to repce Fvius.”

  I directed a few of the men to take our pces guarding the stairway. With my glowsto, I climbed the stairs with Benito. I ted forty-oeps to reach the nding, and each step brought colder and colder air. Entering the room beyond, I was momentarily fused as one of the windows was letting in light from the very top. It was a blindingly bright white light after so long underground, where the only light came from the soft glowstohat lit the rooms and halls. The rays of the su almost fn to my skin.

  Konstantin was sitting on a stoable with Adrian. Castile was walking slowly around the room. A desiccated corpse in armor rawled across the floor, and other scattered skeletons dotted the room. I tore my eyes from the wight, and the room looked like an intact tavern trapped in time. The windows were also intact, but the deep snow ehe building. Fvius studied me for a moment before he headed dowairs to get some rest with the pany.

  As I was figuring out the rge open room, a specter walked through a wall near a window, and Konstantin slid off the table and hacked it down in a flurry of sparks. Castile did not use the kettle immediately as she circled the room,entranced. Seeing Castile thinking, Adrian asked, “What is it, Castile?”

  “The stone walls have runic weaves ihis entire building has been artificed like the library to preserve it,” she said while running her hands along the stone wall.

  “To urpose?” Konstantin asked while keeping watch over where the specter had dissipated. Castile paused her exploration and used the kettle on the remnants, colleg the purple smoke so Konstantin could sit down again.

  “Defense. Prote,” Castile said, bemused and shrugging as, in the end, it didn’t matter how it had stood for nearly fifteen hundred years. “It is just like the library and seems like a huge waste of resources, but maybe it is just how the a elves built their buildings. These runes are something I would expect to find defending the walls of the city, not every building withiy. I could probably break the weaves as they are weak, but…” Castile went silent in thought.

  After a long silence, I interrupted Castile’s musings, “So the dungeon is not here?”

  Castile turned and sidered. “We think it is through that door,” she poio the rge door at the back of the tavern. I did not uand why the others were not more excited at the prospect—the goal of over a month of searg. I approached the heavy door and knocked on it. It was solid and didn’t sound like wood.

  Konstantin ughed at my efforts. “It is petrified wood. Wood turo stone, like everything else in here.”

  Castile approached the door and stood o me. “We are going to need Maveith’s hammer to break it down. Whatever magic petrified the wood has sealed the door in pce. We already tried opening it. We will ched clear the upper floors first. I am guessing this is the elven version of an Adventurer’s Guild Hall. Do you think we should have the pany join us up here?” Her question was directed at me. I se was a test.

  I thought about it, “No. If the specters e through the walls, we might get rushed and be uo retreat to the uy before being overrun. It is also much colder up here,” I said as I watched the cloud of my breath expand and dissipate.

  Castile nodded and smirked. She addressed Adrian, “Told you he could think and offer something.” Adrian just shrugged,either at my answer or Castile’s pliment of me. Adrian had said the same thing I had before we climbed the stairs, so I essentially agreed with him.

  Only oairway led up near a rge firepce, and we all made our the petrified steps. Our footfalls scraped oone as we reached the floor. The stairs ed around, indig even more floors. The hallway was lined with sealed stone doors. It was as if all the wood in the building had been turo stone. We mao break through one of the thin doors. The noise brought five specters, but the fight was over quickly.

  Konstantin had us remain perfectly silent after the short fight so we could listen for any wights. We didn’t hear any movement, but everyone was on edge. Ihe room was a bedroom with all the furniture turo stone. Castile studied a chest and bed before tapping the stone bed frame, “I think a powerful mage did this before he died. It must have happened when the Legion poisohe city. The mage shed out blindly while dying from the poisorifying all the wood in his spell’s range. But that is just my best guess.”

  We called Maveith after we got to the first room. Maveith was willing to use his new hammer to bash down door after door. We worked through the sed and third floors with a few preserved skeletons and fewer specters. Two more elven runic bdes were found and passed to men in the pany. Only Schor Favian, Castile, and two legionnaires now had no runic on to use against the specters.

  Looking out oy from the higher floors showed us to be in the shadow of the massive hearth tree. Adrian offered spiratorially, “If those giant eagles are still alive, perhaps we lure one down to join us for dinner.”

  Castile shook her head, “If we did, it would reveal to the Summoner where we are. We o get into the dungeon unnoticed.”

  With the upper floors cleared, we turned our attention to the rge door at the back of the building that possibly led to the dungeorance. We encircled the door as Maveith swung his hammer, and his first strike caused spidering cracks to form. His sed strike caused a k of stoo free itself, thudding onto the floor. His third strike had the door crumbling inward, revealing a small pile of snow walled behind it.

  Our celebration was short-lived as a wight burst out of the snow and uself at Maveith. The mummified elf bit into Maveith’s arm, and he flung it into the ter of the room, sending it crashing into and shattering a stoable.

  Castile yelled, “I will restrain it! Someoake its head!” Anht burst out in a cloud of white snow, targeting Maveith again. He was ready this time, and his hammer came down on its head, smming its body into the floor.

  Shadow s raced from Castile’s fingers and encircled the first wight. Konstantin started to e, but I was more ed with the translut specters ing from the snow with it. Adrian cursed, “It is a fug rush! We should retreat!”

  Castile was fumbling with the kettle while trying to maintain her shadow s. “No! Eryk!” Castile tossed the kettle in my dire to focus oraining the wight for Konstantin. I led the kettle and eled my aether to e the wight Maveith had struck. The tug-o-war with its undead soul left a cold, unnatural feeling spreading through me. I used my bck bde to hold off a specter with my free arm as I backpedaled.

  A third wight tore out of the snow. Benito had e, but the creature was immensely strong and in silvery pte mail. Benito was thrown back hard by the creature’s silvery broadsword striking his owo crashed hard into a stoable, losing his on. “Eryk, kettle this one!” Konstantin yelled as he went to protect Benito. The first wight was beheaded, and I raced to use the kettle on it. It seemed to take forever as the rich purple smoke flowed slowly from the severed head and neto the kettle.

  Castile’s shadow s enpassed the wight with the massive runic broadsword. They couldn’t tain it, though, as it crossed swords with Konstantin. Konstantin grunted as he tried to block a heavy overhead swing. The wight’s sword cut into his pauldron and drove him to his knees. Maveith was swinging wildly and grunted with effort at the stream of specters ing from the snow, trying to get them all before they ehe room.

  Adrian targeted the specters that slipped past Maveith. It was plete chaos. Benito was moaning in pain, Konstantin was in serious trouble, and Castile was drawing more shadow s to slow the wight. Should I tih the kettle or help Konstantin? Maveith howled in pain as a specter got past his windmilling hammer.

  I made a decision and raced to help Konstantin, leaving the kettle spinning on a table within easy reach of Castile. I rushed the creature in pte armor, swinging its nearly four-foot sword to behead Konstantin. I yered air shields ih of the killing blow. The sword destroyed both air shields but slowed the bde enough for me to parry the rge bde and pull Konstantin back.

  The old scout did not look good, with blood oozing from his shoulder. I could tell from the wound that his cvicle was broken. I barked at him, trying to motivate him, “Konstantin, are you telli only took one swing t you down?”

  Castile was yering her shadow s, and the rge wight was struggling but almost under trol. Konstantin grunted something I couldn’t make out and tried to stand. My bck bde was trying to get past the armored wight, but it was still foiling me. With Castile’s shadows weighing down the wight, it was a somewhat even test. I was sooing in the frigid air and focused on my bat. I finally got the advantage by dug a horizontal swing and pg air shields so the undead creature could not swing back. My bde darted out, striking into its throat.

  The creature just grabbed my bde aracted it. While it was focused on me, Adrian came from the side and hacked into its neck. This gave me some trol over my own bde, and with Adrian’s help, we removed the creature’s head. I ran over, pig up the kettle once more, quick to use it on the creature. I gritted my teeth against the pain that was evident on my face as I overcame the creature’s resistao being permaly ended. Castile nodded weakly in my dire, drained from using her s to hihe wight. The violent violet smoke seemed almost substantial as it flowed from the creature into the kettle.

  Maveith was still holding back the tide of specters, and Adrian moved to help him. I stumbled for a sed but also joined him once my task was plete, just hoping no more wights ehe tavern. Konstantiood with us, weakly wielding his runic bde. Benito was not able to stand, his arm clearly broken and his leg at an odd angle. Fortunately, the tide of specters slowed aually stopped. Castile must have used the kettle nearly a huimes ihan thirty mihe broifact was almost pletely full from her efforts.

  Benito was on the floor, wing and trying to get his dislocated hip in a fortable position. Konstantin was trying to remove his armor to che his shoulder. Maveith was inhaling deep breaths and still guarding the shattered stone door. White and bck blotches were all over his skin from where the wight and specters had struck him. I stood o Adrian, and we were both steaming as our sweat vaporized in the freezing air.

  Castile’s fingers were white with frostbite as she put the kettle of souls down once she was sure she had tained all the remaining specters. No one spoke for a long time as the realization that we had won slowly sank in. Maveith was the first to speak, “What does a dungeorance look like?”

  Castile answered him, “It would appear as a bck door with an oily appearance.”

  Maveith nodded, “I think the dungeon is there, then.” We all rushed to see where he ointing. The snow blocked the majority of the doorway, and it was still extremely deep, but about thirty feet away, the top of a stone archway was visible above the snow, and a bck oily surface was just below the stone arch. We all stood there and studied the obvious dungeoraantalizingly close. The sun was setting outside, and soon, it would be hidden by the dark. But we were all certain we had found the entrao the Shimmering Labyrinth.

  ? Chted 2024 by AlwaysRollsAOne

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