The air of the cavern was damp and humid, and Emily could hear the faint echoes of dripping water. Veins of quartz and other minerals sparkled in the light from the flame in her hand as she proceeded deeper into the tunnel. She realized that she had no way of knowing where the tunnel led, or how much longer it would be traversable. And though she strained her ears, hoping that the cries of her companions might give her some direction, she heard nothing more than the sound of water dripping.
But there seemed no better course than continuing to follow the tunnel. She did so, until it came to a dead end. Then she returned to the main cavern and found another to follow, listening all the while for the faintest sound of her friends. She marked each tunnel she'd already explored with piles of lose stones.
I am not trapped in this place, she assured herself. She was perfectly capable of launching herself from the cavern all the way back up to the surface with Stoneshell fire, just as she had done during the duel with Richard. Though it did seem that she had fallen quite a distance. But in any case, it was no good returning to the surface without her friends. And finding them, she told herself, was just a matter of methodically exploring this dark, damp, enormous cave complex.
Of course there was the possibility that she would encounter Elara before her friends. The thought made Emily shiver.
Though there remained no sight or sound of her friends--or enemy--one particular tunnel brought her closed to source of the dripping water. She followed a winding passage to a narrow opening which she was just able to squeeze through, brushing one shoulder against the rough stone.
Emily found herself in a small, almost circular cavern. Water dripped down from stalactites on the ceiling, splashing into a crystal-clear pool which occupied the center of the cavern, surrounded by dark walls. Staring at her reflection in the water, she felt almost as though she had been transported back to the surface of the Labyrinthine Pool. A vivid memory came to her, of standing over that watery surface, staring at her reflection as she readied herself to begin her adventure.
Her present reflection and the one from her memory seemed to fade between each other. She was better adorned now--barely--but alone, without Aria or Brom at her sides. Her hair was longer, and its natural orange undertones had become more pronounced, blending with the flame in her palm. Her face had a harder expression, and her skin was slightly darker, stretched over more visible muscles, and speckled with small scars. Against her chest, the Stoneshell glowed.
Glowed? Emily looked up from her reflection and looked around the cavern with fresh eyes. She'd had a vague sense, upon entering, of the darkness of the walls--a uniform blackness unlike the grays and browns of the stone she had become accustomed to. But while she had been staring into the pool, the blackness had started to change, a bright orange spreading through it. The walls of the cavern were coated in a thick moss, which appeared to be changing color before her eyes.
Facing the nearest wall, Emily reached out and touched a spot of still-black moss. At her touch, it turned orange, and the color rippled out from her hand. It was soft, warm, and felt... alive! The moss squirmed beneath her fingers like an animal. With a cry of shock, Emily pulled her hand from the wall.
"Careful, miss," said a deep voice behind her. "There's powerful magic here."
Still reeling, Emily spun around to see a man standing in front of the tunnel she had come through. Her gaze met a pair of piercing blue eyes beneath a wild mane of brown hair. He was tall, dressed in tattered brown robes, with a sharp jawline covered in a few days of beard growth and an expression that was curious, but guarded.
"Have--have you been following me?" Emily asked. The intensity of the man's gaze reminded her of the inadequacy of her current outfit, which certainly hadn't escaped his notice.
"Not for long," said the man. "And with no ill intent. I assume from the flame you carry that you are no stranger to self defense."
Emily glanced at the flame in her hand, willed it a little bigger, and then looked back at the man. "What are you doing here?"
"I might ask you the same question," he replied, holding her gaze and showing no signs of fear. "Down here, we're both cut off from the dominion of man. I assume that you're human. If not--if one of my enemies has sent a succubus to tempt me, know that it will not work."
"What?! I--no, what, ugh!" Emily blushed and stammered at the accusation. "Of course I'm human!" She waved both arms in the air and punctuated her statement with blasts of fire from both palms.
The man raised an eyebrow. "A half-naked woman, wandering alone in the Deep Realm, conjuring fire from her palms."
"I'm not alone! Or at least, I wasn't. My friends are here as well, somewhere. I just got separated from them." Emily glanced down at the blue scarf tied in a cross-shape over her body, full appreciating how much of her it didn't cover. "And I don't normally dress like this. It's... a long story."
"What is your name?" asked the man, his tone softening. Perhaps something in Emily's words or tone of voice had sparked some sympathy in him, or perhaps he was also coming to appreciate how much of Emily was not covered by the scarf.
"Emily."
"My name is Dorian," the man replied, stepping closer and reaching out a hand. "Dorian Blackwood, spellbreaker, at your service." He bowed, and Emily noticed for the first time that he carried a large sword on his back.
Emily felt Dorian's fingers against hers, and then the light press of his lips to her hand. His beard bristles tickled her fingers, but there was something else... a slight tingle.
Dorian looked up into Emily's eyes. "I believe you speak the truth, Miss Emily. An apparition would have dissolved at the merest touch, and a succubus would now be burning from the press of my lips." He produced a small blue vial from one of the folds of his cloak. "Holy water."
"That must mean something different around here," Emily said. At the confused look on Dorian's face, she added, "Uh, never mind." She didn't need to tell him everything.
Dorian stood up to his full height, briefly startling Emily. He was standing very close to her now, and had an intense look in his eyes. She flickered a few small flames around her fingertips and felt reassured.
"There is powerful magic all around us. But a great part of it, I now see, comes from you." Dorian turned his gaze to Emily's chest. "That necklace is an immensely powerful artifact. The band on your arm, less so."
"I know."
"The walls of this chamber are also filthy with magic. This black moss--I have encountered much of it in this part of the Deep. It is called nightmoss. When you touched the wall, it turned orange. Look behind you--even now, it remains faintly discolored."
Emily craned her neck to see that Dorian was correct. The spot of moss that had moved beneath her touch was a deep orange color, in contrast with the pitch blackness of the moss around it. "It... moved. When I touched it, I mean."
Dorian nodded. "Yes. Nightmoss is responsive to magic. Though I have not seen it change color before."
"Is it dangerous?" asked Emily.
"Usually not," Dorian said. "You must be tired. Hungry, perhaps? Do you have food or supplies?"
Emily blushed and shrugged, holding empty hands out to her side. "I've only got the, uh, clothes on my back." She winced at this admission, even though this was more than she could have said for much of her adventure so far. "My, uh, my friends are carrying all the supplies." This was true enough.
Dorian's eyes widened. "Then you are fortunate I came along. I've set up a camp not far from here. There you may rest and eat."
Emily still didn't quite trust Dorian, but had to admit his offer sounded enticing. On the other hand, she didn't know what he was capable of. He had called himself a spellbreaker--did that mean he had some way of neutralizing her fire? And that was a very large sword on his back...
"That's very kind of you, but..."
"I also have a spare tunic you can borrow, if you're getting cold."
Emily decided that she would take her chances. If the Stoneshell could save her from Elara and Richard, it could surely keep her safe from this guy. At least for long enough to get her hands on some more clothing.
"Thank you!" Emily said enthusiastically. "Lead the way!"
Dorian smiled, raising an arm to bade Emily out of the chamber. "I had a feeling that might do the trick," he said. "You remind me of a warrior I used to undertake the occasional job with. She once spent a large amount of gold, and many of her possessions, on a set of armor, enchanted with powerful protective wards. It was sold to her by a shifty traveling merchant, who boasted that she would never find such powerful protective magic at such a low price from anywhere else. But of course, there was a catch."
Dorian laughed to himself. "The armor had to be worn against the skin for the magic to work, and it was nary more than a couple of plates of mail and twists of wire about the hips and breast. The worst part was she'd sold all her old things to pay for it, and the merchant refused to allow a return. Needless to say, she completed that job in my cloak."
Emily bit her lip with secondhand embarrassment, even though the armor described was much more substantial than what she'd been wearing when she arrived in Thessolan. At least she wasn't the only one in this world to suffer these sorts of indignities.
Dorian's camp site was set up in an alcove a short way down one of the tunnels out of the large central cavern Emily had started in. The site had a tent, some bags with food and other supplies, and the remains of a fire in the middle. Dorian deposited a few fresh logs on the fire pit, and Emily lit it.
"Very useful," said Dorian, taking a seat on a smooth rock on one side of the fire and offering Emily a stick of cured meat.
Emily sat down on the other side of the fire and chewed while Dorian rummaged through a bag of supplies. "Aha!" he said at last. "Here it is." He held up a large, shapeless piece of rough brown fabric--the promised tunic.
Emily received the tunic gratefully. While it didn't look or feel as good as the outfits she'd tried on in the dress shop earlier, it did appear to be big, sturdy and complete enough to cover most of her body. This was something she was learning not to take for granted in the outfits she had been afforded since her arrival in Thessolan.
