The group was gathered around a small stash of burning arrows that Alice had created. She was able to conjure one every so often, providing enough light for them to see each other.
Tina also contributed by creating small fires to add to the illumination and practice her magic skills. She sat on one of the Lynx's paws, and to keep warm, she leaned against his furry shoulder, and the Lynx gently accommodated her.
Alice was standing next to Sid's massive head, scratching him behind the left ear while examining a ring in her other hand, while Sid was emitting noises, like a pouring cat, that sounded like a distant tractor.
On the other side, Spartacius periodically pulled different types of food from his magic bag, which disappeared almost instantly as the giant dragon or the Lynx claimed them. Interestingly, they never competed for the same food, even though everyone's attention was focused on Alice and the ring she was inspecting.
“Push here to open!” - the Lynx said, pointing at the ring with a claw - “we should do that!”
Tina shrugged. “But why does it say Alice to wear?” - she wondered.
They looked at each other, not wiser.
Spartacius interrupted his work with the food bag and pointed toward the ring. “What if it's a trap?”
Alice raised a brow and looked at him. “A trap?”
“Well, we got something from a dark elf! That excludes Cala and White Flower.” - Spartacius continued his idea - "Maybe it comes from some other prisoner in a nearby place? Who knows how many people have the orcs imprisoned here?"
"But who would know that Alice is here?" - Tina asked
Spartacius was not ready to give up on his idea. "Maybe they heard the name?"
Sid shrugged but abstained from voicing his opinion. He only pocked Tina, who now had Spartacius' food bag, for more cookies.
"More cookies, please."
His bass, rumbling voice rolled like an avalanche through the cavern.
Tina nodded, grabbing for cookies inside the bag.
"Nonsense, Spartacius. That's too contrived to be a reasonable possibility. Where did the dark elf find the strawberries? They do not grow in caverns! Where from the fine tools to write that tiny message on the ring?" - the Lynx protested, looking at Spartacius.
"Yes, and?" - Spartacius shrugged - "Maybe he got the strawberries from the orcs?"
Tina rolled her eyes. "The orcs feeding their prisoners strawberries! That's the best one!"
"Or maybe it had some food bag similar to mine that's making strawberries? We could have some!" - Spartacius opined.
Sid shook his huge head. "No thanks. Smelling those half-digested had cut my appetite."
As they continued debating, the Lynx lost his patience:
“We can talk for the next couple of hours, and we will not be wiser, or we can just push it and find out,” - then, with a shrug and a swift move, he pushed the button.
As the Lynx's claw pressed the emerald on the ring in Alice's hand, a portal opened, swallowing Tina instantly. Spartacius jumped to the side, desperately screaming:
“Tina!!! Tina!!!”
The Lynx watched the portal sheepishly and exclaimed: “Oops!” - then jumped inside it, following Tina.
Alice's hand holding the ring trembled, but she did not throw it away. The three watched each other in silence for a moment.
Alice's face turned white as she spoke: “Everything ok in there?!”
“Yeah, we are here inside whatever this thing is,” - the Lynx replied from inside the portal - “Can you hear me?”
“Yes,” - Alice answered - “is Tina OK?”
“Yeah. A bit scared but OK.”
“Idiot, you could have killed somebody!” - Alice said, looking towards the portal. It was extremely rare for Alice to admonish somebody like that.
"Sorry, I was sure this must be something from White Flower; I thought it would open some small inventory box or a message," - the Lynx answered from inside the portal.
“They could have put up a warning message or at least an info that a portal is opening. Where does it lead?” - Sid grumbled in his deep voice, a bit unhappy that the cookies were gone with Tina, who had been holding Spartacius' cookies-making bag lately.
The portal was probably not pointing to a faraway zone for somebody to be able to talk through it. The more extended range, the stronger the sound attenuation was, about what the air would allow propagating. For them to be able to speak through, this must have been a very local portal, probably to a hidden room. This was confirmed a moment later by the Lynx.
“Nowhere... This is something like a barn... there is manure on the floor and traces of cows... It rather looks like a farmer's transport ring!?... Oh, a letter!"
“Hey, the portal is closing!” - Sid interrupted the conversation - “Can you get out?”
“The portal is right up above our heads but too high. Can you move it lower?”
Alice shifted the ring carefully in her hand and wondered:
“How? Is it better now?
The portal didn't move much, only a little bit, but it probably shifted inside the ring as the Lynx jumped out of it with Tina on his back just seconds before it disappeared. The Lynx breathed a sigh of relief and looked guilty, with his ears flattened against his head.
"The portal must have exhausted the ring's mana reserves. The reason Alice was asked to wear the ring was likely to recharge it. I still think the ring came from White Flower and Cala.” - the Lynx explained.
“You may be onto something” - Alice nodded, then added - “You've said something about a letter? That should clarify it!”
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The Lynx nodded gladly. “Yes, Tina has it!”
Tina slid down the Lynx's side and landed on the ground, with bits of hay in her hair and smelling of the dirt from the old barn. The Lynx bowed his head apologetically.
"Sorry, Tina," - he said.
She patted his side to reassure him and then raised her hand with the letter. "I think I might need some conjured water," she said, obviously aware of her new fragrance.
Alice took the letter from Tina's hand, unrolled it, and read it out loud while Tina and Spartacius moved a little further for her to wash her face and hands.
"My dear friends,
I am not sure when I'll be able to communicate with you again.
When you see the portal remotely opened, you must get inside the barn and wait there; it will be my signal to start the spell to retrieve you all. I don't know when I'll be able to do that, but I'm working on it!
Love, Cala"
“Shit, should we be inside it now? Will the ring disappear?” - a big-eyed Tina said.
The Lynx shook his head. “I guess not; we opened it; it was not opened remotely. It says Alice should wear it, probably for mana, as we assumed. I guess she would be the most efficient mana factory here.”
“No. I would be,” - Sid said, then wondered - “Is Cala now a dark elf?”
“It says I should wear it, so I'll do that. Maybe it is a mana compatibility issue, or she simply misjudged... No, White Flower would not do that, she knows, so it must be a compatibility issue.” - Alice said - “From the letter, it is implied the portal would be opened remotely. There is still some other magical inscription on the ring that I cannot translate.”
“Oh yes,” - the Lynx nodded - “it looks like some kind of a spell part.”
“True.” - Sid said at his turn.
"I don't see that!?" - Tina wondered, looking at the others as she came back to the group, giving up on her attempt to remove the barn fragrance.
“So,” - Spartacius said - “A dark elf sends us the content of his stomach, including this ring that just happens to have a letter signed Cala... Oh, fuck! I was completely wrong, and you were right Lynx!”
"Your eyes cannot yet read magic runes." - Alice explained as she turned first to Tina and then to Spartacius, who was just sighing and lowered his head. “You look as if someone had sunk all your boats!” - she said.
“Where do you have that one from?” - Spartacius asked, but as Alice shrugged, he watched them, then explained - “This is no trap by some dark elf who ate strawberries and sacrificed his guts, but Cala, who had problems getting back into this world.”
“What do you mean with 'problems getting back into this world'?” - Tina wondered.
Spartacius turned to her and involuntarily wrinkled his nose.
"OK, we may sit down again and have some cookies. This conversation will take some time, and our escape from here will take much longer."
As he spoke, he sat back on the stone he was sitting on before, and his hand was already in the air asking for cookies. His face was pale, and he had a tired look in his eyes. Alice exchanged a worried look with the Lynx.
Oblivious to the mood change, Tina handed him some cookies and again made herself comfortable on the mountain of fur that sat behind her, which accommodated her gently. The others sat again around the fire.
"So?" - Tina asked, raising her brows.
"Well, as you know, Cala and me, we are players. We come from a different world to play into this one. As you know, my name is Michael, and I play Spartacius. This spawn, Spartacius, is my avatar in this game, as Cala is Dolores's avatar. There is a possibility to take the avatar out of this world, what we call a complete logout.
As you see, Cala is gone; she is no longer in this world. And now we got a message from Cala but sent by a dark elf. It was not sent by White Flower. Why? I can only conclude that she was not able to bring Cala with White Flower back into this world, so she had to take another avatar."
"OK, but once you do what you call a complete logout, you can always come back, isn't it?" - The Lynx asked.
"True, but you cannot have two avatars active!" - Spartacius replied - "Besides, Dolores didn't intend to take Cala away. Remember? Something happened, and Cala was gone. Where did she disappear? Exactly like White Flower before! Look, how does Michael come into this world?”
“It is you!” - Tina explained, pushing a finger onto his chest - “So what do you want to say?”
Spartacius sighed and shook his head.
“Look, when Cala was here, she said that we were spawns, too, remember? She and me, we are spawns, isn't it? And Dolores would then log out! But the surprise was that Cala did log out, too, with her. That was not expected. How can I explain this... Remember that first time White Flower disappeared, then...”
“She wanted to solve Cala's problem,” - the Lynx said and nodded - “Because Cala's mind was torn when White Flower left with Dolores.”
“Exactly!” - Spartacius said - “When White Flower did that spell to fix Cala's problem, she must have linked Cala to her. It did fix Cala's problem, but she was taken away from here.”
“OK, but where is the connection to the dark elf?” - Alice asked.
Spartacius turned to her.
“I speak now as Michael. When we come to this world, we come as some kind of ghost, and we take over spawns. We choose our spawns." - he pointed at his chest - "I have been chosen and christened by Michael. OK? He is, in a way, a spirit possessing me. Yes, that's the way to describe it! OK? He comes from time to time here to play, but he needs me to act in this world. He even left an imprint in my mind. OK? When Cala was taken away, Dolores had no spawn to come back to, so she had chosen a new one, a dark elf.”
“Why a dark elf?” - Tina wondered.
Spartacius shrugged.
“I don't know. Maybe because they have high magic capabilities?” - he sighed - “If my theory is correct, she couldn't come here just because of her limited mana. Even though she knew White Flower's spell, she could only teleport some small objects due to her low-level character's mana pool. It was still a remarkable accomplishment! I assume the spell is focused on the center of gravity, which might have been painful for her to realize, and that's why we got something from her guts. If you really think about it, she must have first tried, failed, realized what had happened, and then submitted herself to that painful experience again to send us the ring, which is likely her attempt to get us out of this prison."
“Hm. This is just a theory,” - Alice said.
Spartacius shrugged and nodded:
“Yes. I haven't been able to think of any other theory that makes sense so far. Maybe it is a dark elf who ate strawberries, wrote a message in Cala's name, and exploded his guts to send us this ring to make us go inside it to ... I don't know... imprison us? But that does not really make sense... "
He shrugged again.
“You may be onto something,” - the Lynx nodded - “Maybe only parts of it are true, but..” - he sighed - “I wonder, could she pull the ring away from here the same way as she sent it?”
“Hm. Good question. Probably not the same way, probably that's why there are those hidden runes on the ring.” - Alice said.
“It needs much more mana to pull the ring away with us inside. Well, we can wait and jump in when the portal opens,” - Sid said with a sigh.
“It cannot open now; the ring has no mana!” - a worried Tina countered.
“Don't worry; if she tries now and does not succeed, she'll do it again. With Alice wearing the ring, it will be loaded again soon,” - Spartacius said.
Alice shrugged: “And what should I do when this happens? Should I jump inside the portal too, or keep it on my finger?”
“You should jump inside, too,” - the Lynx decided.
“But what if we get trapped inside?” - Tina wondered.
“I think I saw some levers inside. You can probably control the portal from the inside, too, and open it. We have time to test it... yes, unless the dark-elf Cala calls it before, but I don't think she will be able to solve the problem soon..” - the Lynx explained.
Alice took Tina's hand.
"Come, I know a good place where we could clean you up properly, and you can exercise your magic to warm up some water. You need to change those clothes."