She did not stop to look behind. The giant monster bug was still committed to the task of thorough slaughter, metallic clunking sounds intertwined with moist crunches. There was no going back to the entrance, so she chose one arched doorway at random and sprinted forward. Focused on the escape, she was barely perceiving her surroundings, no more than a mouse hunted by the cat. If there was an actual door under the arched opening, she would bump into it.

She rushed through the passage, her heartbeat throbbing in her ears. She did not look for traps or other monsters. Even with her night vision, she saw next to nothing. She took a turn, then another, hoping that it will throw the monster off. Was it following her? She was sure that she heard metallic sounds in the distance. Could the bug hear her too? Or smell, for that matter?

She slipped on the floor several times and her lungs were starting to hurt. If it chases her, it will catch her. Oh, gods, gods, one moment of hesitation and it will catch her. She needed somewhere to hide, and fast.

Then she literally hit a wall.

In hindsight, running at full speed in almost complete darkness, she had only herself to blame. She took the blurred arch in front of her for another entrance when it was simply a decoration. In the nick of time, she managed to put her arms in front, absorbing most of the impact. Still, she took a hit to her forehead and her stomach – the latter coming in contact with a horizontal rail of sorts. She tripped and sat down, panting, and lifted her shaking hand to touch her forehead. It throbbed. Save for a few scrapes she did not have any serious injuries, or so she thought at the moment.

No time. With frantic haste, she turned around, looking for something, anything at all. Perhaps a door or another intersection nearby. Only now she noticed that the floor here felt different, metal instead of stone, and it had railing on all sides except for one. Seeing almost nothing, she explored the railing with her hands. On the right side, she felt a distinct object that could be a torch or a weapon. She pulled.

It changed position. There was a low rumbling noise, and then the floor sunk.

It went down almost at the speed of fall. Nua held onto the railing and screamed, too confused to understand what just happened.

Then, almost as suddenly, the floor halted, giving the girl a few more bruises and a desperate need to urinate. She held on, which was probably the most heroic thing she had done in a while. Then she scurried to the stone floor outside the falling platform. This also turned out to be a very good decision, since the metal floor started to go back up at the same alarming speed.

She took a deep breath. Her lungs hurt. Her bones hurt. Her hands were scraped raw and bleeding. It slowly dawned on her that unless the centipede knew how to operate ancient moving platforms, she was safe.

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And locked down here, too.

Partly from relief, partly from fear and exhaustion, her body went into an uncontrollable tremor. She wasn't aware of how long she was shaking, she only knew that at some point she started humming a soothing tune, a melody coming from Auntie Hala's well-remembered and often-used nursery song. This, finally, allowed her to come back to her senses.

Now she could finally look around and figure out her situation.

First of all, Flavius Aetius was undeniably dead. With all his knowledge and his maps and his notes. Not that he would help her, since he had wanted to kill her after all. It was a shame, though, that she did not get the chance to loot him.

Images of the centipede crushing his head flashed again before her eyes. She gripped herself and panted. Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods. Such a horrible death.

She slowly let the air out, calming herself down again. Then she blew her nose and wiped her hand on the stone floor. She needed to do some more thinking if she wanted to survive.

Flavius said that the monster bug – the guardian – needed only one human sacrifice. He obviously thought that the sacrifice should happen inside the runic circle, but apparently, it was the other way around. Maybe the centipede wasn't actually coming for her, getting its due and whatnot.

Nua wouldn't take any chances, though.

It was quiet down here, and as dark as upstairs. Before, she wasn't sure (and didn't care) where the residual dim light was coming from. Now she noticed single glowing runes on the walls, here or there. Some were accompanied by arrows.

That, she understood.

The walls themselves were smooth and dark, with no glyphs, reliefs, or decorations. No traps added Nua in her mind. In front of her, however, she saw another door, similar to the very first one. She couldn't make out the details in the darkness, though. Was this the place Flavius wanted to loot? She shrugged. Who knows? It was pure chance that she found herself in this part of Inner Sanctum, as he called it.

All of a sudden, there was a thud upstairs, then a flurry of irritated clanking noises.

Oh, by the River God. It was coming. She was dead after all.

Nua sprinted to the door. There could be well another mortal trap behind it. There was also no reason to think that it will open without mixing her blood with the living ether from Flavius' vial. She was no sorceress and had no ether of her own.

Too much thinking. No other options.

She pressed her scraped hand to the cold metal, smearing the blood all over it.

"Please, good door, open up. Please, pretty pretty please."

Was it the polite request in her voice that had helped, or was her blood enough? The door came alight with runes of dim, pale gold. Then there was a click. Then, they... well, didn't exactly open. They came only slightly ajar.

Nua, however, was thin and petite, and that would suffice. She slipped inside. Then she pushed the door, praying to all the gods she knew, especially the one that was in charge of this temple, to shut them back. Judging from the loud click, it had worked.

She heaved.

"If I live" her voice echoed in the darkness. "If I get out of here, I promise to be good. Not steal at all. Peel tubers for everybody for a month. Give a huge offering to the gods, especially you, sir. I have this hunch that you would approve."

She did not expect a reply.

"Oh, perfection.", said a booming voice. "A visitor, after all eternity. And here I thought there was nobody left to remember."