Back in the tunnel, the faint presence of the miasma became clear after being without it inside the sanctuary. The spirit had manipulated him in various ways, though he wasn't sure if there was malicious intention behind it or if it was the only way for them to communicate. It appeared to be honest with him and as he moved further from the sanctuary, there was no change to his mind that suggested any lingering compulsion.

He didn't know what to do, he had no obligation to the spirit but the opportunity was enticing. His goal in joining the guild was always to form a contract with a spirit to become stronger so why not do it now? He pushed the thoughts out of his mind, deciding to focus on getting back to Keira first. He would talk it over with her, rest on the idea, give it time and continue looking for another exit, another way to escape.

But when he reached the opening after the long walk—Keira was gone. There was no sign of her, no sign she had been there, even the bag he left with her was gone. Panic welled within him, he spun around and searched the walls, searched the openings within the space, any clue, any sign of what happened.

“Keira!” he called out but only silence replied.

He called again, running to each opening, again he called her name searching for a response. There was no reason for her to leave, she could barely walk with her injuries. It didn't make sense, did something happen, could something have gotten in, there were no signs of a struggle. His mind continued to race as he searched...

“Ahoyhoy, you must be Finlay.”

It was a quiet voice, pleasant and friendly. It came from one of the tunnels that forked out of the opening, a route he hadn’t explored. He spun around to see who had spoken and a short man appeared from the passage. He was older than his father and balding with grey curled hair at either side of his head. He smiled at Finlay and walked closer with muscular arms that showed his years of hard physical work, open and outstretched.

“Don’t worry my boy, Keira’s safe, she’s with the others.”

“The others?”

“Survivors, seems you two had a run-in with those demons yourselves.”

“She’s safe…" Heavy breaths filled his panic-stricken chest as relief started to wash over him. She was safe, they had found others, the miners and then another thought appeared, "My father, Logan Dunaid, is he with you?”

“Ah, Keira hadn’t said you were Logan’s boy—she was too busy fighting Mary, kept demanding we leave her be so she could wait for you. Yes, he’s well and safe, no need to worry.”

He struggled to believe what he was hearing, he had already gone through such a confusing experience with the spirit there was a part of him that said this couldn't be real. But there was no real reason to doubt it, to question it, they were safe. Both his father and Keira were safe.

The man reached him and patted his shoulder. He was shorter than Finlay but his hands, like his arms, were huge and he almost appeared wider than he was tall.

“Come on, she only went with Mary because I said I’d wait for you, let’s get you back to them. Name’s Alasdair but the way, though everyone calls me Big-Al."

The tunnel he followed Alasdair down wasn’t as long as the one which led to the tower but there were numerous branching paths that had he not had a guide, would have left him lost. Long before they reached the end of the tunnel, he could hear the chatter and sounds of people which filled him with hope for the first time since reaching the station.

The sounds continued to get louder, echoing through the tunnel walls which changed from carved-out stone to reinforced steel structures. When they reached the end, there was a steel wall with an open doorway that extended out to a room far larger than even the entrance they had escaped to. There were lots of other doors around the room but even this was big enough to house the various groups of people scattered throughout it.

It wasn't the entire village, not even close. The excitement he felt diminished as he looked around at the broken families and struggling people. He almost cursed his naivety for believing things were better than they were.

“How many made it?” He couldn’t help but ask.

“Not enough.”

The man's cheerful demeanour fell into a solemn state for only a moment before he recovered. A few people greeted Alisdair as they walked and gave Finlay curious looks. They went through one of the doors at the other side of the room from where they entered and Keira was sitting propped up on a table as a woman was looking at her leg.

“About time you got here.”

“I thought I lost you back there," he immediately ran to her side.

“Big-Al was supposed to be waiting for you,” she glared at him, though he noticed she had already adopted his nickname.

“Aha, my bad little miss, I was checking something when I heard him hollering for you. He was in quite the panic but no harm done.”

The room was small but had several chairs scattered around it with the large table in the middle that Keira was sitting upon. He assumed it had been some kind of meeting room before the attack but now it was her personal hospital bed. He was relieved she was fine but now he was here he wanted to find his father.

“Finn—pops is alright,” she laughed, happy to give him the good news. "He almost went looking for you but I told him you'd find your way back soon enough. He's gone to get a doctor, he'll be here soon."

She always knew what he was thinking but with the relief so obvious on his face, even a stranger would know. The other woman in the room shuffled around him and stood by Alisdair, almost disappearing behind the man. Her pale blonde hair with grey streaks stood up in giant curls and bounced as she walked. She was even shorter than Alisdair but that hair added enough height that she looked close to taller.

“Mary," she said finally looking him in the eye, "Keira’s been telling me all about your little adventure.”

He nodded in response, "It wasn't exactly how we intended on getting here."

“Stupid of you to come at all, why on earth are you here?”

He was a little taken aback by her words, as though they should have known what was happening at the station. He looked to Keira who immediately turned away with a face that said she had already had this conversation.

“We didn’t exactly know what was going on.”

“You should have gone back as soon as you felt the strangeness.”

“There’s a big difference between feeling a bit off and giant hell birds attacking you,” Keira couldn't stay out of it for long.

“Don’t you start again, you know full well you had plenty of opportunity to leave.”

“Give it a rest Mary, they’re just kids, how were they supposed to know what was happening, it’s not like we were any better at dealing with it,” Alisdair said, meeting Mary's glare with a fond smile.

“It’s my fault, I was worried about my father and I feel guilty enough for Keira being in this situation.”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“We agreed to turn back, you don’t need to feel guilty—we were just too late.”

“Exactly. Too late.”

“I swear I’ll punch you even if it hurts me more to do it.”

He laughed a little, "Sorry, I'll stop."

“Now see what you’ve done, Mary, poor things are beating themselves up,” Alisdair said, still not yielding to the woman’s glare.

“Youngins shouldn’t be in danger like this.”

“See," he turned back to them, "she’s just upset that you're having to deal with this madness, she doesn't really blame you, no one would.”

The feeling of guilt and regret disappeared as the door to the room opened and a man appeared. He was almost the same height as Finlay, with the same shabby dark brown hair but had more bulk, broader shoulders and a thick beard that was looking very unkept.

“Finn!”

He didn’t say anything but ran to his father and he responded with a tight embrace. They held one another, his father patting his back but it didn't last as a woman pushed them to the side and marched through the doorway.

“Yes yes, family reunions are all very well, but let me see the girl,” she said, moving straight to Keira.

“It’s good to see you safe but I wish you hadn’t come,” his dad said as they pulled back from their hug.

“We didn’t know, and when we felt the miasma, I guess I was more focused on making sure you were okay.”

“I understand but unfortunately, it’s not good.”

“Ah, what the hell!” Keira snapped at the doctor who was currently examining her ankle.

“That’s a good sign,” she replied, taking no notice of the protests.

“Take a seat, I’ll tell you the current situation," said his father, one arm slung across Finlay's shoulder.

They moved to a corner opposite the door, chased out of the way by the doctor but close enough that Keira could be a part of the conversation. His father looked solemn, paler than normal and he had bags under his eyes.

“It was just under a week ago, not long after I messaged you. It was barely morning when they came, still dark and no one knew what was happening. When I woke I understood immediately, as did anyone else who had experienced the miasma before. We tried to alert people, sound the alarm but by the time we could, we were already under attack.”

The doctor seemed to be avoiding the conversation, muttering to herself as she pulled and prodded at the complaining Keira. He listened without question or response as his father was already struggling to tell the story.

“Many got taken by the demons but most couldn’t handle the miasma. Their bodies tore apart and they disappeared into dust before our eyes.”

He was staring at his hands as he spoke, his fingers outstretched as though something was slipping between them. The image of the woman on the boat from years gone by, her skin burning under the demon’s touch flashed in front of Finlay’s mind. The miasma affected people differently, but the worst looked as though their bodies decayed in minutes, like skeletons made of sand.

“Those of us who weren’t incapacitated by the miasma or picked off by the demons tried to escape, and we found ourselves here in the mine. From what Keira said, you two came in from the new area that's been dug out, this is the old entrance. The room out there was a dining hall for the workers and most of these other rooms were offices.”

“Alright, I'm done and you'll be fine.” the doctor spoke up.

“Done with your prodding and poking?”

“Yes, I don’t think anything's broken, nor is it likely you have any internal damages. I can’t be certain of course but as long as you rest and things continue to improve, you should be fine.”

“Thanks, and sorry for not being a better patient.”

“I’ve had worse,” the doctor turned and left the room without another word.

He decided the doctor must have been very busy, he was sure there were many injured during the attack and likely far worse than Keira. It also seemed she didn't want to listen to his father recount the events of their attack, and he was sure she had her own traumas.

“That’s good, Keira, I’m glad you’re okay, though again, I’m so sorry you ended up here,” his father said, finally looking away from his hands to her.

“Thanks—but you need to stop apologising, not like you brought the hell birds down on us.”

Finlay's mind shot back to the spirit's words, that the sanctuary sent the guardians. The miners caused the attack but that wasn't worth dwelling on and wouldn't help anyone now. He pushed the thought aside and focused on the present situation.

“At least you have a good excuse for not seeing your grandmother.”

“Exactly, what better reason is there to risk life and limb.”

"Though I'm sure they'll use this against you during guild joining arguments."

"If it comes down to hell birds versus living with family forever, I'm going with the hell birds every time."

They laughed though the joking didn’t seem to quite work with his father who could only muster a small smile.

“Right now the plan seems to be that we wait them out,” the man continued, deciding to get back on topic. “Either those things leave or enough time passes that help comes from Aberana. The one problem with that is we’re running low on food. We’re fine for water but supplies were due to be picked up on the next train run and without that, it’ll be a problem soon.”

“They’re not going to leave," Finlay replied without thinking.

“What makes you say that?”

He wasn’t sure if he should tell them everything; the tower, the spirit he spoke with and the fact it was because they had tried to get into the sanctuary that the guardians came. His father was already feeling guilty that they were here, knowing they brought the guardian's wrath could only make that worse.

But right now they had to prioritise saving everyone and he couldn’t justify withholding information that might help them. It was possible the sanctuary would call the guardians back, there might have been a way to communicate to fix all of this. It was alive in some way, intelligent in some way, there was a chance—he told them everything.

“It wanted to go with you?” Keira was the first to respond.

“I think it’s like the guild, the contracts, but maybe a little different.”

“Well, it’s a good thing you didn’t do it, who knows what would have happened.”

“We caused this?” his father spoke and as he feared, seemed focused on the worst part.

“You can hardly blame yourself for something some Ancient's building decided to do,” Keira responded before he could.

“I think it was inevitable once someone found it, the obvious thing is to try and get in,” he added, though his father didn’t seem comforted.

“Begs the question of how you got in,” Keira continued.

“The spirit said it was because I wasn’t thinking about getting in, but trying to find somewhere safe.”

They fell silent, each in their own thoughts over what he had said. He suspected his father was busy blaming himself or the other workers but he couldn’t decide how Keira felt or thought about it.

“I think I should talk to it again, the sanctuary responded to me, it might call the guardians back,” he finally broke the silence.

“You’re not going back there,” Keira was adamant but his father was still lost in thought.

“It might know another way out, or get rid of those things, it could be our only way.”

“It was manipulating you, you have no idea what it’s capable of or what it wants.”

“It didn’t feel that way, I thought about it, I'm not an idiot—but the longer I've been away the more I feel it was being honest with me. It only did those things so we could communicate.”

“You don’t know that, for all you know everything was a lie. Maybe the Ancients imprisoned it there because it was dangerous, the hell birds could be making sure no one frees it.”

“Then why would the sanctuary let me in and not the others? We’re joining the guild, remember, this is exactly what they do, contract with spirits.”

“It’s not the same! You don’t know anything about this thing.”

“Alright, that’s enough—” his father said at last, “You’re supposed to be resting, not getting all worked up at Finn's nonsense. And you, you’ve been through enough already, you don’t need to be risking yourself with some ancient spirit you know nothing about.”

They both fell silent, it wasn’t often they heard him raise his voice but it also wasn’t often they argued. His father stood and walked over to Keira, patting her head with a smile before turning back to Finlay.

“Both of you need some rest. I’ll talk with the others about what you’ve told me. You've done good, you've given us a lot to think about but now it's time you let us deal with it. No more risks. You two get some sleep… we’ll talk more later.”

He left the room and they looked at each other for a moment, sheepish at first but as inevitable as it was they laughed.

"That made me feel like I was thirteen, staying at yours and getting yelled at for waking him in the middle of the night."

"Nostalgic in the strangest way..."

“I'll say this again—you're not doing anything stupid without me, no visiting spirits on your own."

“Right, can only do stupid things if you’re there.”

“Exactly, and I can't walk right now so you're stuck.”

"Fine."

They talked for a while longer over nostalgic moments, the spirit and the sanctuary. But exhaustion took over them and after he found some blankets to build a makeshift bed beside the table she slept on, he drifted off without difficulty.