I stopped behind Devon and crouched down to peer over his legs.

We didn’t travel far once we got above the mountain pass. There was a series of tunnels we took that Devon assured us contained the scent. Despite my constant sniffing, as if I was coming down with a cold, I smelled nothing.

Devon pointed to the top right corner. “There’s a rune etched into the stone. Use your senses; it’s giving off mana.”

Alice closed her eyes, and I joined her. At first, I felt nothing, but then the tunnel emitted a faint tapping every five seconds.

“The mana feels… sloppy. Not sure why,” Alice said.

“It’s because it is. That rune is deteriorating. Look at the southern line.”

It looked like a half-circle connected to a pointed triangle that pointed inward to the center. The half-crescent that Devon was talking about had several smaller cracks digging into the smooth stone wall. Now that I saw it, it was weird that the stone was smooth. Nothing else around it was.

“Most people don’t have the ability to control mana, right? So does that mean they have a magic user with them?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Possibly.”

He backed up, and we followed until we backtracked behind another bend in the tunnel before he stopped.

“What do you mean possibly?”

“Usually, hedge sorcerers and sorceresses obsess over their magic. It’s all they have, and permanent runes can be expensive. The one who put the rune and the people inside may not be the same,” he explained.

“Or they don’t know how, and they have access to some form of magic,” Alice countered.

He glanced toward her before nodding. “Possibly.”

That doesn’t really help us then.

“But the scent leads to here? The route you took us on seems impossible if they were carrying three bodies. Volk is a big man.”

“I didn’t smell any beasts or monsters, but the oil scent leads to this spot.”

“What’s the plan then?”

He looked at me and then down the tunnel. “Use your summon, have it destroy the rune, and we’ll proceed. Chances are there’ll be a door. If not, we sneak in and locate the humans. The only goal is to get them out. Anything outside of that is secondary.”

We made our way back down the tunnel, and I closed my eyes, focusing on the tapping. Freki jumped out of my shadow and dived into the one cast near the far wall.

“Wait until the third tap, then have it rush in. If you mistime it, it will notify whoever the rune is connected to.”

No pressure or anything.

I nodded and watched through Freki’s eyes. The rune blazed with flashes of light in his vision. Each tap was actually a pulse that sent out a thin wave of energy, stretching a few feet beyond the rune’s proximity. This made tracking much easier, and Freki sneaked as close as possible without being within the detection radius.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

One pulse. He waited.

A second pulse appeared, and he began putting pressure on his paws.

The third pulse burst apart, losing power once it reached its maximum range, and Freki launched himself forward. Right at the entrance to the shadows, he dived into the white space, and his vision shifted, showing color.

He jumped.

A giant paw swiped down, slicing through stone without much resistance. Chunks of stone came away as they rained down, clacking against the ground with little echoes traveling down the tunnel. He wagged his tail, and I held out my arms, to which he rushed in. I scratched around his neck before patting his head. Freki then dived into my shadow, and I stood up.

Devon didn’t wait and began walking into the tunnel. It was nearly pitch black, so I pictured a spark in my head and conjured a small flame in my palm. Devon let me take the lead, and we continued through another series of winding passages.

When we reached a small open cave, about as big as a modern closet, Devon grabbed me by the back of my hood and gently tugged. I stopped, and he pointed toward the middle of the floor.

“Use your senses, pup.”

I glared but complied; this time, the energy made me scrunch my nose. It tickled the insides of my nostrils.

I dropped my voice to a whisper and covered my nose. “It… smells funny.”

“You’re not smelling it. Try again.”

He was right. I didn’t actually smell anything, but I did feel it. It felt like mana, but for some reason, it made me want to sneeze.

“Is it mana? I don’t know what’s going on.”

“There’s another rune. Beneath the stone.”

It took a second, but I saw the curling line that stretched beneath the large stone in the middle of the space. Looking around, I found three other rocks, all with similar etchings carved underneath them.

“Multiple. Astra used one once; it’s a trap rune, right?” Alice offered.

Devon nodded. “Can’t risk disabling this without triggering the others.”

Instead of explaining further, he stepped into the space and maneuvered around the stones. They didn’t trigger.

“Move where I move.”

I went second, holding up the light so the shadows were easily visible. Alice followed next, and we made it past the space unharmed. The other side was a small passage that ended in a wooden door.

I expected something fancier, considering they got magical boobytraps.

Devon walked forward and slid his fingers around the edge of the wood. With a tug, it came free, and he leaned it against the wall. He didn’t look back as he entered, and I sighed, following him inside. Beyond the door, a small lamp hung off a peg embedded in the stone, so I cut the mana flow to my palm.

Now that we could see, I approached the lamp, noticing something odd about the glass.

Is that… mushrooms?

Inside the glass, instead of oil or a candle like I expected, were three small mushrooms with glowing orange caps. They grew out of some dirt on a metal plate.

“That’s unusual,” Alice said as she approached the lamp.

Devon moved past it, crossing his arms as the tunnel split into three. One passage was dimly lit more than the others, with lamps spaced from one end of the tunnel to the next bend. The last two tunnels looked identical, with no distinctive markers to tell them apart.

“Are we splitting up?”

He glanced over and narrowed his eyes. Looking down the dimly lit tunnel, he sniffed the air and pulled out his spear. “Yes. I’ll take this one. You two take the one on the left. Leave the middle for now.”

I was relieved that he didn’t want us to go entirely on our own, even if I didn’t say it. So far, these kidnappers have proven themselves to be much more than just some random people hijacking caravans in the middle of nowhere. Whatever reason they had for kidnapping someone, I didn’t want to think about. If we could find the three humans safe and in a cage somewhere, I’d be satisfied.

Though I doubt it’ll be that easy.

Before stepping into his tunnel, Devon turned and glanced at both of us. “If something happens, run. Don’t do something stupid.”

Alice nodded, and I tried to put on a reassuring smile. When he left my smile dropped, and I pinched the bridge of my nose.

“Let’s go. Do you want to take the lead, or should I?” Alice asked.

“Neither,” I said, shaking my head.

Freki appeared and brushed his head against my leg before silently moving down our tunnel. He dived into the shadow realm, and I kept one eye closed, with half my attention spent focusing on his sight.

For several minutes, the tunnel stretched onward before Freki made a stop next to what looked like a branching hallway. One continued upward toward a flight of stairs, while the other led to another room blocked by a metal door.

Except the door was made of metal.

“Alice,” I whispered. “Coming up. One leads to stairs, another ends in a metal door.”

“Metal?” She frowned when I nodded.

Freki slipped into the shadows, but as soon as he did, the door lit up like a star. An invisible rune, similar to the one outside the base, pulsed along the entire slab of metal.