Chapter 9 Too Close.

‘Focus! Focus Lenna. I can’t do anything for him if I die here.’ Lenna scolded herself with her eyes clamped shut to keep the poison gas out. She slowly lowered herself to the ground and sat on her heels with only her knees and the toes of her boots touching the ground. Her hands cradled in her lap as she tried to calm herself. She slowly wrestled her mind into the beginnings of meditation. Soon all of her being relaxed save for her held breath. Like this Lenna waited. Minutes ticked by. First one, then two, then five. Lenna felt like her lungs were about to explode and like she was about to pass out. She cycled a small amount of healing through her lungs to lessen the distracting pain and let meditation take her as far as it could.

‘Why am I holding my breath?’ Lenna’s oxygen deprived brain tried to ask. ‘I should just breathe. It’ll feel nice.’ Seconds continued to tick by. Lenna started to tip towards the sweet embrace of unconsciousness. Her head rocking forwards jolted her back to her senses. ‘This is as far as I can go.’ Lenna thought with a mixture of annoyance, trepidation, and hope. Her hand shot into her bottomless bag and pulled out an antitoxin potion. The magical potion was designed to fight anything that the consumer’s body considered foreign and toxic so it would work no matter the poison. She popped the top off with the hand that grabbed it as her other hand opened her visor. She downed the potion and then had to take a deep gasping breath. She barely kept herself from descending into a coughing fit. That wouldn’t help her oxygen levels.

With deep and steady breaths of magically conjured poison Lenna sat there. Her eyes were still sealed shut so she couldn’t see the look of horror and worry on her companion’s face. Six minutes down, four to go. Once Lenna felt like she wasn’t suffocating anymore she took one last deep breath and held it. Lenna’s healing was not very efficient. Much of its power was wasted on producing unnecessary heat. Heat that would often do more harm than good when used on someone else. Lenna’s body however had been through the crucible. When her oath had been broken her old power had tried to burn its way out of her. The power left in its wake had changed her. She was much more resilient against heat than normal people. This didn’t mean that she could grab a chunk of iron out of the furnace with her bare hand but it did mean that she could still function when running a hundred and ten degree fever.

Lenna’s healing burned through her system targeting all of the smallest holdouts of the poison before focusing on the larger ones. The poison burned away as Lenna’s body temperature continued to rise. Lenna was about to run out of mana when she decided that the rest of the poison would get to stay. It wasn’t pleasant but she would survive. At least she would if she could continue to hold her breath and she didn’t inhale anymore poison. Eventually she heard a sound like cracking glass. Soon after she heard a hiss and then the whole prison shattered like a dropped crystal goblet. Lenna got to her feet and ran forwards half a dozen steps before she opened her eyes and started gasping for breath. The poison was rolling across the ground at knee and then ankle height.

“You did it! You survived!” Lenny cheered. “You are going to survive right?” He immediately asked worriedly. “If anything happens to you while I’m here the boss’ll kill me.”

Lenna flashed him a smile, that he couldn’t see, through deep breaths. “Yeah.” She eventually got out. “I’ll survive.”

“Good, because you had me worried there for a while.” Lenny continued his excited yammering.

The paladin shook her head. “Let’s go. If there is another one of those traps we’re done for… I have an idea.” She told the lad and pulled out a pair of scrolls from her bottomless bag.

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“Oh?” Lenny walked over and peered at the scrolls. “What are those?”

“Can you use mana at all?” Lenna asked.

Lenny shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He replied.

The paladin frowned. “Then this is going to hurt.” She told him. The boy gulped. “Hold this open and as flat as you can.” She ordered and handed him a scroll.

He did as instructed. “Now what?” The thief asked worriedly.

Lenna placed her hands over both of Lenny’s. “These scrolls only cast the spell on the caster. We are going to make it think you casted it.” She explained.

“H-How?” Lenny asked. He was getting more and more nervous.

“Just keep the scroll steady and relax.” Lenna ordered him. “Deep breaths.”

Lenny did as he was told and as soon as his mind was on his breathing she forced her own mana through her palms, through his hands, and into the scroll. Lenny clenched his teeth but held steady for the second it took to start the scroll activating. As soon as it started Lenna cut the power. She almost staggered from the lightheadedness that she was assaulted with. She was scraping the bottom of the barrel. She let go of his hands and a moment later the scroll disintegrated and Lenny was gone. “Damn lady-boss you weren’t kidding about it hurting. I feel like you just burned my damn hands off.” He complained.

“Don’t touch anything!” Lenna ordered before the boy could move. “It’s just Shroud. If you touch me it’ll break and I’ll leave you here.”

“Y-Yes ma’am.” Lenny stammered out.

“It’s only half charged so it’ll only last half an hour.” She explained and got ready to cast her own. ‘Lua, please let me have enough mana.’ She prayed silently and started feeding the scroll the last dregs of her mana reserves. Dizziness and lethargy assaulted her but she pressed on until she couldn’t press on any more. Right when she was about to drop the scroll and her vision was starting to darken around the edges she could have sworn she saw another hand join hers and feed just the slightest amount of mana into the scroll. The scroll started to glow and then a moment later it disintegrated and Lenna too vanished from sight. She staggered, barely staying on her feet. ‘Thank you.’ She sent Lua’s way. She wasn’t sure if what she saw was real or not but it was real to her and that’s what mattered.

“Now what?” Lenny asked, completely unaware at how close Lenna’s plan was to not working.

“Give me a minute.” Lenna said wearily. “I’m out of mana.”

“O-Okay… but I’m afraid to move because I have no idea where you are.” Lenny protested meekly.

Lenna huffed. “Damn impatient kids.” She mumbled under her breath.

“What was that lady-boss?” Lenny asked. “I didn’t catch it.”

“Nothing.” Lenna replied and straightened. “Now comes the hard part.” She told him. “Don’t step on any traps and don’t touch me either. We are betting on the wards needing visual confirmation before going off.”

“How do you figure?” Lenny asked.

“Their organization is too big for them to not recruit people from time to time right?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Lenny agreed.

“Then traps can’t be keyed onto specific people.” Lenna surmised. “They have to have a badge or something.”

“That makes sense.” Lenny agreed. “I didn’t see anything on that Tic guy though. I didn’t search him either. Maybe the boss did?”

“Who knows.” Lenna replied and started on their way. “Be careful of traps. It’ll be harder to point them out to you.” She explained.

“Yes ma’am.” Lenny replied and started following after her.

“Too close.” She chastised him.

“R-Right, sorry.” The boy replied. The silence stretched on for a whole thirty seconds before Lenny asked another question: “How can you tell how close I am?”

“Your footsteps.” Lenna replied like a tired mom answering her child asking ‘what is that?’ at every new thing at a store they hadn’t been to before.

“Right, but like, you seem too acc-” He was cut off by Lenna.

“Wait.” She told him. Just ahead she saw poison residue spread across a large area of tunnel, a massive iron door was swung open and a cloaked figure was sitting just inside with their back against the tunnel wall. They weren’t moving. Lenna’s heart sank. Her stomach twisted into knots. She recognized that cloak. Lenna started forward in a dead sprint, briefly forgetting about any traps that might still be there. ‘Isaac, you better still be alive.’ She swore at him mentally. She called out as she approached: “Isaac!”