The party made their way down into the tunnel.

Its walls narrowed, not leaving room for more than two abreast, and after just a few steps on the stone what little light there was from outside dimmed, and then was lost completely.

Horatio stumbled to a stop in the darkness, at the front of the group where he had been walking next to Ursula.

‘How do Braxians see when they use this?’ he asked her.

‘Lots of them can see in the dark,’ said Ursula. ‘Or they carry torches, but we don’t have that luxury.’

Primus cast a light spell somewhere behind them, and an eerie white glow bathed their little section of the tunnel, casting long, quivering shadows along the floor in front of them.

It also lit the approach of a group of monsters up ahead.

Battle 1

The party’s progress through the tunnel was slow. Or at least it seemed slow to Horatio. They plodded on down the cloyingly close passageway, marching in pairs, with only Primus’s spell-light by which to see about ten paces ahead at a time, and once again on this journey time distorted.

They came across no more monsters, for the moment, and after a few false starts of conversations, almost miraculously the whole party fell to walking in silence, only broken by the tap tap tap of their footsteps in the semi-dark. Maybe they were all wondering if Ursula was leading them into a trap, Horatio thought.

No, she’s proved herself enough times now. He must keep his thoughts positive, keep them hopeful, if they were ever to have a chance of completing their mission…and of possibly surviving to tell the tale. He thought of his mother and his father, how proud they would be if he ever got to seem them again and recount this adventure again. He thought of Ceres, walking somewhere behind.

One foot in front of the other. One step at a time. Don’t think of how far we have to go, or what lies ahead or behind, just take the next step.

Eventually after what seemed like hours of unspeaking traipsing through the half-lit tunnel, but really Horatio had no idea how long it had been at all, his resolve cracked, and he said, ‘Just how long is this tunnel?’

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Ursula gave a little jolt of surprise next to him at the sudden breaking of the silence. ‘Oh. Well, it is quicker and safer than traveling overground, as there are less monsters down here, but we’re still traversing half the length of Braxia by using it. It will take us a couple of days to come out the other side.’

‘A couple of days?!’ burst out Primus from behind them in the line. ‘Why didn’t you think to mention this before, witch?’

Ursula turned to address him, and Horatio turned with her. The eyes of his fellow arrayed party members glinted in the spell-light as they looked back at him.

‘You didn’t ask!’ said Ursula. ‘And I didn’t think to mention it, or that it mattered, since this is still the quickest way to get to where we’re trying to get to!’

‘How am I meant to keep this spell going for two days straight?’ said Primus.

‘Well we’ll have to stop to sleep half way through,’ said Ursula, ‘and you can rest then. There’s a wider cavernous chamber about half way where we can do that.’

‘I can take turns with you casting the spell-light, too,’ said Olivia.

‘Ouzo is cold,’ said Ouzo.

It was increasingly cold in the tunnel; the chill air tickled the back of Horatio’s neck and making him hunch his shoulders.

‘We should never have come down here,’ said Ross. ‘This was a bad idea.’

‘I think I might be starting to agree with you,’ said Walter, who seemed to have sobered up, at least a little.

‘Look,’ said Horatio, wanting to step in before another argument kicked off, ‘we’ve come so far down this tunnel, it would be foolish to turn back now. We must have been walking for–what? About half a day?’

‘That’s right,’ said Egea, holding up a rather expensive-looking pocket watch from somewhere about her person, that gleamed golden in the spell-light. ‘About ten hours, to be precise.’

‘There you go,’ said Horatio. ‘We’ve made good progress, and up above it will be nightfall soon. Let’s keep going to this chamber that Ursula mentioned so we can rest, and keep going tomorrow.’

The party acquiesced and resumed its progress, some more reluctantly than others.

Horatio kept walking, and the party kept its uncustomary silence again, apparently suspended somewhere between fear and exhaustion. After a while tiredness began to tug down at Horatio’s body too, and he lost his sense of time again. It was hard to measure it down here in the dark, with no sun to track across the sky or waning dusk to mark the passing of the day. He didn’t bother asking Egea how long had passed, because he knew that as soon as he did that once he would not be able to stop himself asking again and again, and the answers would probably only frustrate him.

Their walk through this half of the tunnel didn’t last forever, though. At some indeterminate point in the night, the light from Primus’s spell suddenly spread out, no longer clothing near and narrow walls, but getting lost in a wider chamber, and even cooler air caressed Horatio’s face.

They had made it to the chamber that Ursula had said was located in the middle of the tunnel, where they could sleep for the night.

Not before clearing out the monsters that were currently occupying it, however.

Battle 2, poss Battle 3 as well.