He regretted his words almost immediately. After entering the cave, swathes of flame washed against a gigantic chaos shield generated by Dariea. She waited for him and Robin to pass behind her to safety, away from the fire trap before walking slowly backwards herself.

Jano flapped at his sleeve, it still smouldered but the fire was out. He looked at the others, embarrassed.

“I didn’t know that there were hidden pressure plates!” He protested, but neither Robin nor Dariea looked upset.

“How could you have known? I surely didn’t. Though I was expecting something of that sort. Anyway, it was good that you weren’t seriously hurt.” Dariea smiled.

He was shocked at how quickly and just how powerful Dariea conjured her shield and managed to protect both of her charges. He was growing more used to her powers now, but this time he was able to directly compare his abilities to his master’s. It reminded him how far behind he was. Even though he shared some of her power, his ability to use it was nothing in comparison. She has called it forth immediately, instinctively. He would have burnt to a crisp if he was alone.

“Right, about here should do it.” Dariea reached forward and grabbed both of their shoulders before pulling them back into line. She took a few steps forward.

“Brace yourselves.” She said. Robin knew what to do, immediately covering herself. Jano stood gawking like an idiot. A bright golden light flashed so bright that it illuminated the entire cave and then some. For a second, Jano could see all down the immediate path they had found themselves on. It seemed to lead to more of the same dry cracked stone.

Then Jano’s eyes began to grow a little dark, with big splotches in front of his eyes.

“Don’t move.” Dariea commanded. Jano thought it a funny thing to say as he couldn’t move if he had wanted to. He didn’t trust the blotches to go away if he did.

Dariea held up her hands and began to mutter. The words were entirely inaudible to him, but the rocks above them began to shudder. The air seemed to dry up and soon Jano thought that he was finding it harder to breathe as well as see.

Dariea dropped her arms and stopped muttering. That was anticlimactic, the thought hadn’t so much entered his brain as it was proven wrong. Streams of water began to forcefully jet from all around the Mage. It reminded him of some of Robin’s attacks, but a much bigger and more powerful version; with jets of water instead of dark air.

They blasted at the walls and even at the floor. As if trying to wash away everything that had ever graced the halls of the cave. He looked to his side and watched as Robin came to stand next to him.

“Woah.” She whispered.

The light had dimmed a little, but it was more than ample to watch the display of power from his master. She was using a type of essence he had never watched her use before and it seemed so natural. It was all they could do to stare at her and observe. After a few more minutes Dariea turned to face them both.

“That should deal with any fire traps. For a little while at least.” Then, without a moment's pause or hesitation, she strode off down the path. By the judge of her gait, she could have been walking confidently down a flower filled garden without a care in the world.

Jano looked at Robin, she shrugged and followed Dariea down the falsely illuminated path. The cave’s roof was high and arched as though it was somehow crafted as a great hall for something giant but the walls ebbed in and out like a wave. Jano found himself thinking about the idea that the gods lived there; somehow it didn’t seem like such a ridiculous concept now he was inside. It smelled like damp and mildew, the warmth of the summer air outside fading with each passing step. Their footsteps echoed away to the edge of where Jano could see and beyond, into the dark reaches.

He watched the two women before him exploring the early paths. He didn’t stray too far behind on account of not wanting to get caught up in any other kind of trap. They headed further in, tracking a wide path right down the centre. Small paths shot off either side. Blood orange moss lined the walls and he couldn’t tell if the water dripping down the walls was from Dariea’s attack earlier or a water source somewhere else.

He abruptly caught up to the others, who had stopped at a platform. There were dozens of paths ahead. Some spiralled upwards as though they were heading back up from where they came but in the opposite direction, and some went either side of them. There was a great slope ahead of them, which seemed to continue the path they had been following.

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“So where do we go?” Jano asked.

“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have stopped would I?” Dariea snapped.

Robin chuckled a little in the background. Then she began to concentrate, and the wind began to howl around her. She pushed her arms out and the wind flew out in several directions. It whistled as it rang out and followed the paths. Robin shut her eyes. She bedded herself down and bent her knees slightly as more wind was pushed away from her and whistled down the paths.

The echo sounded terrifying as it cascaded through the tunnels of the cave. It was a high shrieking noise. If he didn’t know it was Robin he would have sworn it was a horde of enemies approaching. After a few minutes, she opened her eyes.

“Well it’s definitely one of these three. The others all lead out somehow.” She said and she pointed to the three paths on the left hand side. One path was a narrow spiral heading up, the other two headed down into darkness.

“There are three of us. We could each go a little way into one and meet back here to report with what we’ve seen.” Robin suggested.

Dariea’s eyes centred on Jano. She seemed to consider it for a moment.

“I don’t think we can do that. We don’t know what’s down here. It could be dangerous.”

Jano felt guilty. It was because of him that she was saying this. If it was Gryff or one of the others from Molinia she would have probably gone along with that plan. He knew it.

“Let’s do it.” He said.

Dariea’s eyes flashed with concern. Then sympathy. That steeled his resolve.

“Jano, let’s think about it. What if something happens? What about your wife? We are stronger if we stick together.” She said.

“We’re only going a little way in to see what we can find right? How bad can it be? And I can’t keep holding people back, I’m sure I’ll be fine.” He said with as much conviction as he could gather.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.” She repeated. “How will we even find out if it’s the right way?”

“We might not find out if it’s the right way, but we might be able to eliminate one of the options. It’s the simplest and the quickest method. Let’s just do it.” He said.

Robin sat awkwardly observing the deliberations. Her eyebrows raised as she watched the master and apprentice fight.

“If I’d known it would raise such a fuss, I wouldn’t have brought it up..” she said in the silence.

Dariea walked around. Then without a word, she tried to open a portal to Jump through. Then she disappeared.

“Where did she go?” Robin asked.

“Who bloody knows with her.” Jano responded. “I guess we'll sit and wait again.”

——

Water dripped from somewhere in the cave in a regular rhythm which caused Jano to need to relieve himself. He found a private corner and did the deed. He walked back to see Robin smiling.

“That was quite loud in this echo chamber.” She laughed.

Jano turned a bit red. “Oh, sorry. It’s that dripping noise!”

“Yeah, yeah sure. It doesn’t excuse the noise..”

Footsteps were suddenly audible and they both spun around to face whoever was coming. The shadowy figure of Dariea came back into view. She looked annoyed, frustrated and even perhaps a little embarrassed.

“Well…?” Robin asked.

Dariea stood and crossed her arms. She blew her hair out of her face. “We are no further forward I’m afraid. I ended up back at the start of the cave.”

“And I assume that wasn’t where you wanted to go?” Robin asked with a small smirk.

“No. No I didn’t mean to go there. I obviously intended to go to the paths myself and find the right answer, but something isn’t right with chaos essence in here.” She said.

“That’s a first..” Robin muttered almost to herself though her words were clearly audible to all present.

Dariea pulled out some weapons which had been in a bundle on her back. The bundle looked far too small to contain all of the weapons which spun out of it, but Jano was sure that if she could pass through thin air and end up somewhere else, then a bag which was bigger on the inside than outside was probably not difficult.

“But as I was outside, I popped back and grabbed us some weapons. Jano, here’s your snazzy scythes.” She handed the weapons to Jano and then Robin nipped in and grabbed a bow and a sheath of arrows and a small curved sword.

“So I guess without any better ideas, we will do what you suggested. None of us should go further than one thousand steps into our chosen path before coming back here. If you can’t rule it out by then, we will all investigate.”

Jano felt his palms suddenly grow clammy. His stomach was tight. He was going to explore a dangerous cave by himself. What could possibly go wrong?