Welp. After the rest of that in-game night passed along in general humiliation for yours truly, we did some preparing and brainstorming about our--well, my situation, Ariana promising that we'd do all we can to make sure we lift the curse of that ring. In short, I had ended up with a bunch of outfits the girls considered “cute” (which, I mean, sure... whatever... at least one of them was actually armor), and had narrowly avoided being espied by Angelfire in Harmonia City, where they had taken me for shopping. The one person who had seen me outside the guild was Myanihia, whom Lysandra had sent a message to. I don't know what words she used, considering the two of them are still working on their sister-ship and such, but it was apparently convincing. We found her in one of the bath-houses, where that sneaky Snow Elf relished every moment with that smile she only rarely displayed. Of course, she also promised to aid us when we began tackling the issue of lifting the curse.
“Having you... as a child... is cute, it really is -- but, it is not, not right. Lana, you need to be Lana, not, a child.” she said when we parted ways.
“S-sure,” I returned, hoisted into a carry by Lysandra.
Anyway. So we ended up doing the thing again, where we stay in all night because we'd stayed up too late to go to bed properly, making use of the time-warp to trick our bodies into getting rest as well as spending a couple days in Panarena researching more about the ring. After all that time we spent looking around in various locations and libraries, the most we found was that the goblin emperor's lair was rumored to be somewhere far, far down in the Untold Deeps. That made a bit of sense, considering the goblin attackers we'd taken the quest for had seemingly come out of nowhere. If they'd taken some sort of forgotten passage that wasn't mapped--
“Wait, if it was just for that quest, wouldn't the passage have gone bye-bye by now?” Belle wondered as we brainstormed in Cloverbell on our second Panarena day of that night. With a deep sigh, we realized we were back to square one.
“We'll have to do some more preparations to go on an expedition tomorrow; the real tomorrow, that is,” Healina said.
“True. That area does take a lot out of us... even at our levels.” Maryn nodded.
“I can get Der for sure to help us out.” the Sea Elf added.
“Ooh! I won't call Angelfire, I promise, but how about Jannie?” Lizzy suggested.
“Hrrmmm... nyrrrgghh... okay, fine.” I replied with a weary sigh.
“Oh hush, it'll be fine.” Ari patted my head.
“Hahh...”
“Oh, and let's go over some lines again while we're in for the night!” she said to me with a smile. I looked up at her with a semi-baleful look, then nodded.
“Might as well,” I agreed with a shrug. I heard Lizzy snort.
“This. Is the best. Thing. EVER!” she cackled.
“Yeah, yeah...” I muttered.
So anyhow. We made our preparations for our next actual night of gaming, and then logged out in the morning after an in-game sleep. When I got on the bus a couple hours later, I was still mildly irritated, moreso at my impatience than about anything the girls had done--which I kind of almost felt I deserved, somehow.
Ty looked as if he was still asleep, so the bus ride passed in silence for the two of us. At least until we got to school, whereupon he livened up just enough to give his parting flick before we headed our separate ways. Rachel was waiting for me with a mischievous smirk on her face. I wasn't even going to ask. She was obviously still amused about last night, which seemed confirmed as she patted my head while I got my books for morning classes out.
“Now I wish I could remember the actual you at that age.” she said to me, and I let out a smile. So that was it, huh?
“I... kind of remember you... maybe we can try looking through old pictures and stuff some day, just to see,” I said to her. Her smile brightened, and she nodded. We headed in to class, and settled in for our second day of being back at school.
After the ups and downs of morning classes, we made our way to the club-room for lunch, where we found the others ahead of us this time. Thomas was already laughing before we walked in the door, and Andrea, as well as Anhe, were laughing as well as Ellie recounted last night for him. I sat down with an exasperated sigh, and Rachel looked over at me with an apologetic smile. When Ellie had finished her tale (not without making a few in-person jabs), Thomas clapped his hands as he laughed, and then shook his head.
“Come on, man! A mysterious ring? You should've known!” he chided me with a grin.
“I was expecting anything but that.” I returned in a flat tone.
“Before I met you all in game, one of my other friends there did something similar,” Anhe remarked, “He found this ring that made every item he had way too heavy, and was forced to go around... well, you know, until some of his friends helped him with lifting the curse.” she recalled.
“Aren't you glad the items you have are still within your weight limit?” Rachel poked me.
“You have no idea.”
“I heard of a ring like that one being found up in Evergrim,” Thomas nodded to Anhe.
“Hmm? Two of them?” she said with surprise.
“Except the poor person who found it was a female,” he added with a wry expression.
“Aw, poor girl!”
“So I actually spent first period today looking this up on the 'net instead of paying attention to Old Yapper,” Ellie said, “And apparently there's a bunch of these mystery rings that actually can't be identified until you put them on; most of them are prank rings, like those two and the one Lana has now. Only three of them are actually good.”
“Don't be so hard on our teacher.” Andrea gently elbowed her.
“Blehh.” the other girl returned.
“I was actually looking it up in the game before we got off this morning,” Mary told us, “And besides what Ellie just said, you really are lucky it wasn't something worse. About seventy or so of those rings have been found now, including the two Anhe and Thomas mentioned; most of them led to prank dungeons or had severely debilitating curses that were hard to undo. A couple of players almost quit the game, and another one hasn't logged in for months.” she said, and I let out a sigh.
“That's not encouraging,” I smiled wryly. “But it makes me wonder how many of those there actually are, now... if we ever find another one it's going straight up for auction. Let some other sucker figure it out.” I continued, and Rachel giggled.
“What do you think'll happen when we lift the curse? Will the ring disappear, or just become something more usable?” she asked.
“Hmm... it could go either way, really,” I remarked. What would happen to this thing when we got rid of the curse on it?
“It'd be funny if you could keep it and be able to remove it at will.” Ellie said.
“That might actually come in handy; though we'd need to make Lana a duplicate set of gear.” Mary said.
“Hahh...”
“Oh, by the way,” Andrea said, getting out a notepad, “You two put down an 'x' on this list for work visitations; and you also, Tom. The three of you will need to be at Theater this afternoon instead of the club.”
“Ohh, right,” Thomas nodded.
“Gotcha.” I agreed, taking a brief moment to think about it and then marking a couple I thought would be more useful. Thomas put a mark on one I had, and then a different one, while Rachel marked three, including the other one I had marked.
“Hmm... two for the local news station and two for the gaming company in inner-city...” Andrea remarked with interest.
“Come to think of it, put an 'x' for me on the gaming company too,” Thomas said.
“Sure!” Andrea nodded, putting one of her own down as well.
“That's gotta be the Panarena company.” Ellie said confidently.
“Oh def.” Andrea nodded back.
“Why don't we just all agree on that, and have the local news station as a second in case it doesn't work out?” Mary suggested.
“I agree.” Anhe said.
“Same!” Ellie agreed.
“Works for me... I'll let Mrs. Brown know our thoughts, and we'll work from there. Come to think of it, we could ask Christina her thoughts on it tonight, couldn't we?” Andrea mused.
“Ooh, nice idea!” Ellie clapped.
“I mean, I'm not sure how friendly she and her mother actually are now... but sure, go for it,” I said.
“Hmm... even so, even if Chrissy doesn't feel up to it, maybe her twin might open the door for us.” Andrea returned.
“Ohh, true.” I nodded.
“I'd call that a plan, then,” Thomas said. “Now let's get back to lunch before the bell drags us back to classes!” he added, and with that we adjourned our impromptu meeting to resume eating.
***
Afternoon classes went by like a breeze; in Theater class, those of us who had parts in the musical spent the hour learning lines, those who were doing set-building or costume design went to the auditorium or the Home Economics room, and those who were going to be doing things such as sound or lighting also went to the auditorium. As Mary had mentioned yesterday, this musical had a lot riding on it, and Miss Andrews definitely knew it. She herself confirmed that a lot of important people with money would be showing up on opening night.
“Do you know any of them personally, Miss Andrews?” a girl named Lacey Thompson asked her.
“Not a bit,” our teacher replied, “But Dr. Robertson knows more than his fair share, as he would say; a lot of them are very anti-arts, for one reason or another, but he has said that a few of them ironically seem to enjoy the fruits of artistic education without valuing the process which fashions an artist or performer.” she said with a faint roll of her eyes.
“So this is more of a big deal than usual,” Joe Dunn remarked.
“You can say that again.” a girl named Cara Childs said. Miss Andrews clapped her hands for silence.
“All right! That's enough gossip! You guys know what you have to do: let's get to it!”
“Yes, ma'am!” we chorused in almost perfect unison, and resumed work on our tasks. After that class was over, Rachel and I went to our language class, and then as soon as that had ended we were on our way to the auditorium for singing rehearsals. If I said that she was giggling in anticipation the whole way, I would be understating it by -- well, a lot.
And if I said that I myself was thinking about Panarena and my situation there for about the whole time, I would also be understating things. I'm almost sure that I made it through because I was thinking too much about the game to be nervous or anything about singing and reciting lines. The one thing I definitely recalled our teacher and director saying was that our “homework” was to have the first ten scenes down by rote before Valentine's Day. I'll put that in perspective a bit: Act One has fourteen, Act Two has sixteen, and Act Three has twelve scenes. I'm guessing that means she'll want us to have up to Act Two, Scene Ten down by rote come mid-March or so. Probably.
Well, I have a sort-of advantage when it comes to memorizing the lines now, I thought to myself as we headed out with Thomas later. I briefly wondered if anyone else besides those of us in the club played Panarena or knew anything about it. Considering that Thomas had joined us so late, it wasn't too far-fetched of a thought, I supposed.
“Don't worry. A couple of us in the guild have been exploring in the wee hours of the night; there's a small chance one of the trails we've found could be--could be, mind you--the place you want to find.” Thomas remarked as we settled into the car and set off from school.
“Hmm? Ohh, really? Nice!” I replied as the words clicked in my head. “Still... that line is tripping me up badly...” I then remarked as my mind wandered back to the play.
“It does sound difficult.” Rachel agreed.
“Except when I just read it, of course: 'Forsooth, vile villains, yon hart shall hearken to fate's arrow soon enough for your liking, and ye shall take note that I am indeed the finest archer you've ever met! Fie on your jeers and mockeries, and then I shall resume my stride to the tourney!'”
“Hmm... it just needs livened up a bit. Of course, when you do that...”
“I start tongue-tripping.”
“Yep!” she smiled.
“There's a fair bit of alliteration in that line, too. That could be messing with your head.” Thomas suggested.
“Alli--huh? Eh?” I wondered, and he grinned.
“'She sells seashells by the seashore; the shells that she sells are seashells, I'm sure'... it's a repetition or 'rhyming' of consonant sounds. In your case, the 'f's' and 'v's'.”
“Hmm...” I pondered for a moment. “Dah!--oy, when did you become an English Professor?” I then quickly wondered as Rachel covered her mouth to laugh.
“Just now!” he quickly retorted. “I don't have work tonight, so I'll be stopping at Andrea's until after dinner. I'm almost sure she'd tell you to come in and eat with us.”
“Ahh...”
“And if she doesn't, I'll ask.” Rachel added.
“Ah--r-right, sure,” I decided to nod in agreement.
Of course, Andrea all but dragged me in with a crook when I turned up with a hesitant expression on my face. *Whose* boyfriend am I again?! Was all I could think as the red-haired girl handily led me inside and all but placed me on a stool.
“Y-you know I'm not pint-sized right now, right?” I softly reminded her.
“Pfft!” she snickered.
“Are your folks out again?” Rachel asked as she set her bags down.
“Yep. Go ahead and change, dinner'll be ready in fifteen!” the other girl said.
“Got it!” Rachel said as she went upstairs.
“Might as well help them with their homework since we're all here,” Thomas shrugged.
“True! And we did kidnap this one. Or you did, anyway,” she smirked.
“Hahh...”
“Oh, shush. There's cookies at the other end of it all.” Andrea quipped. My face creased in bemusement, but I just shrugged it off. Rachel came back down in some casual-wear after a few minutes, taking the seat beside me and laying her head on my shoulder.
“You'll stay for homework too, right?” she asked.
“Ahh...” I started, and the other two burst out laughing. “Hahh... it's a conspiracy.”
“Oh, def.” Andrea nodded.
“Maybe we should move up our apartment plan...” Rachel suggested.
“You only made that a few days ago,” I replied.
“We could... but then we'd still have to deal with the tots, and an apartment is no place for those rascals.” the other girl told her.
“Gyeck!”
“See? Even Sean knows that's a bad idea.” Andrea shrugged.
“You'll be free of them by next year since they'll be in school finally, huh?” Thomas said.
“Yep! And the grands will be back from their retreat in Europe, too, so they've been excited to take their turn of caring for the cousins.”
“As much as I find it fun sometimes to chase them around, it's really nicer without them here...” Rachel wryly grinned.
“Yip-yip.” Andrea nodded. “Might as well do homework too... let's get it out, huh?” she then said, and in a few moments we were working on our assignments for the evening while also enjoying the night's repast.
It was ten 'til eight when we finally finished up with both, and after Thomas and I had said goodbye to Andrea and Rachel, he took me home. With a playful punch to the shoulder he let me out, and I waved as he headed on down the road to get going for his own house. I entered the house; mom was not here, and dad was watching -- if you guessed cartoons, you got it in one.
“Hiya, kiddo. Heh, if your stuff wasn't here in your room I'd swear you moved out.” he remarked.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Guhyeck!”
“What? Don't tell me you are moving out?” he suddenly paused his almost ceaseless entertainment to look over at me.
“Ahh... I don't think so... not this year, anyway...”
“Hrmm... making plans with your little lady and-or the friends, I take it?”
“Ahh... th-they're definitely planning,” I replied with a bashful grin.
“Heh, of course they are. Your mother was the same way. She had everything planned out from the moment she met me, and boy howdy did she ever succeed.” he shrugged, turning back to his shows. “You just make sure when the time comes to give us advanced warning, huh? Though she does like to joke that you'd likely up and poof without it!” he chuckled.
“Y-yeah,” I replied, and headed upstairs to my room. I hastily got into casual-wear for the night, and immediately put on the Dream Machine to be whisked away to that wonderful world.
Upon logging back in, I was rudely reminded of my predicament when I loaded up and saw myself in the mirror. I was dressed in a pink and white flower print dress that the girls had foisted on me. Quickly I looked for more practical gear, only to find a mail from Lizzy that told me to check the armory. I forgave her on the spot as soon as I got down there, for there I found a set of leather gear, a bow, and two knives all matched up to my current size. With a sigh of relief I put them on.
“Heh... green and brown, instead of my usual black; but hey, it works!” I remarked. It was still weird to hear a grade-school Lana's voice, I grumpily reflected.
“Oh there she is now!” I heard Healina say.
“Uh-oh.” I braced myself. A few moments later, our healer appeared with Jannie and Winnie. The former gazed at me with surprise, whereas Winnie stepped into the room and picked me up like I was her own.
“Whew! You weren't kidding!” the older woman said to Healina.
“I don't know... I think I prefer you this way, Lana,” Jannie grinned, her cheeks coloring.
“W-wha--?!”
“Oh don't mind her. She's been having some lavish late-night dates in-game with Wildeye and they've been talking about starting a virtual family.” Winnie said as she held me in a cradle position.
“H-huh?! Ehh?!”
“Winnie, you're scaring the high school girl again.” Jannie patted her friend on the shoulder. “It's true, though. You can actually have virtual children in this world.”
“Th-that was more than I ever wanted to find out.” I quipped. “Wait a sec, you've been seeing Wildeye?” I suddenly wondered.
“Ahh...” Jannie blushed, an awkward smile on her face. “I mean... you weren't available...” I heard her mumble.
“Hah?”
“Never mind that now.” Winnie said. “Where's the rest of the gang?” she asked Healina.
“Those of us who can make it now are gonna be online soon; the rest of them won't turn up until later. We're meeting at Harmonia City, in the Market District.” the other girl replied.
“Gotcha, hun!” Winnie nodded. “Tabitha's on too, right? She said she'd go yesterday, after all.”
“Just logging in now,” Jannie said as she checked her guild roster. “Meet at the Roasted Mallet?” she asked. That was the name of that Dwarven restaurant we had all liked during the tournament.
“Oh def!” Healina nodded. “I'll leave a message for the others. “Ari! We're going!” she called.
“Coming!” Ariana replied. “Pfft! Winnie didn't waste time!” she giggled as she came in.
“Nope!” the older woman beamed.
“Let's go!” Jannie smiled, and with that we set off to meet everyone at the restaurant.
***
In about fifteen in-game minutes, we had our group assembled. Derwydd had brought Snow Dancer and Peaches, the leader of Dreamer's Fables, who was a wizened Hauflin female with peach-colored cosmetics. Sky Belle and Lysandra were near a corner with Myanihia Black as we entered, and Myanihia came up to me not a second after I had set foot in the building. She picked me up, and I looked at her with a bit of surprise. She had no mask on this time. The faint hint of a smile crossed her face, and she then decided to keep hold of me.
“You do need, to be Lana; but, right now, it's still cute.” she remarked softly. I can only assume some sort of grumbling-fidgety sound came out of me from the way she silently shook with laughter a moment later.
“All right,” Jannie said, assuming the lead on account of my being pint-sized and thus not very commanding at the moment, “I think we're all here; oh, hey, Wild!” she called happily as the guild leader of the Mountain Tigers appeared, along with Tyman.
“Hullo, Jannie!” he smiled back. “Huh! You really got into something this time, didn't you, Lana?” he remarked upon seeing me, but I wasn't paying much attention to him. I was too busy quietly fuming at Tyman, who was cackling as hard as I had ever, and I mean ever seen him do anything in our whole school life together.
“Day-ha-ha-hayum, Lans!” he clapped his hands hysterically.
“Y-you wait until I'm back to normal! You just wait!” I squeaked out at him with that little girl voice which had been temporarily (I hoped) imposed upon me. The others burst out laughing as well, and I sighed wearily.
“Waaaiiit!” an all-too familiar voice came to my ears.
“Gu'hyeck!” I gulped, and quickly wriggled out of Myanihia's arms to hide behind her.
“Nobody told me we were all getting together for a quest!” Angelfire declared with a semi-miffed tone. “After all we've been through together, too!”
“Ahh... ah-heh-heh-heh... sorry! L-Lana wasn't sure how you'd--” Ariana began.
“Where is Lana anyway?” the fire-mage suddenly remarked.
“Sh-she's, she'll be along with us, when we get to the dungeon,” Wildeye quickly said, sensing that I did not want to be found immediately.
“Oh yeah right. She's here. I know she is. Laaa-naa!” she called out.
Oh snap. Who called her, anyway??
“How'd you figure us out, anyway?” Maryn asked curiously.
“Hmm? Elizasmith sent me a message, something about not wanting to miss out on the adventure of the month with Lana and the gang, so I rushed over!” she replied proudly.
LIZZY!! Grrr...!! You promised!! Wait... oh... so *that* was her loophole... she promised not to tell Angelfire what was going on... she never promised she wouldn't drop a few vague hints and leave the rest to chance... why you rotten, sneaky, devious--!!
“Hm? Oh! Myanihia, did you adopt one of those orphans from that new quest chain up in Cymeriu or something?” Angelfire suddenly said.
Uh-oh.
“I... adopted... someone.” the Snow Elf returned nonchalantly.
“Same old Myanihia, huh?” Tabitha remarked.
“Cute! Let me see!”
“She's, shy. She might not, take to you, right now,” Myanihia returned more anxiously.
“Aww, I'll be nice, just let me see your face.” Angelfire said as she knelt down. I made the obvious mistake of daring to poke my head around the edges of Myanihia's cloak. Angelfire immediately locked eyes with me. She knew who I was in an instant.
“Oh boy.” I heard Ariana sigh.
“LANA?!?!”
So after that little piece of drama and a series of fierce hugs and kisses from Angelfire, who out of all the girls seemed to be enjoying this the absolute most, we finally started out to the Untold Deeps. From the time we got off the train I was passed around several times before I finally managed to wriggle loose from Angelfire (for a fifth time), and then I scurried over to Wildeye, who gave a smile and hoisted me onto his shoulders (being the tallest there) to keep me safe. At least until we got to the Untold Deeps itself, which would be a different story.
“Better?” he asked.
“Mm, better.” I returned. I could see Angelfire giving a mock pout out of the corner of my eye.
“You did it to yourself.” Tabitha shrugged at her.
“Still, of all the things; I never anticipated you of all people would fall victim to one of these rings,” Wildeye laughed.
“If I hear that one more time in the next week...”
“Ha-ha! I bet.” he allowed, and Jannie smiled.
“If we can't lift the curse maybe we can adopt her.” she quipped, and the two of them laughed merrily.
“Hah?”
“There's an idea! Though the Queens might lay claim to that first,” Wildeye remarked as he looked over at the other Silvernight Queens.
“Of course we would!!” Ariana jumped in.
“She's our guild leader, after all!” Belle added.
“Hah, not even a chance,” Angelfire remarked wistfully.
“Nope!” Healina grinned.
“So we're looking for the goblin emperor's lair, are we?” Peaches remarked as we entered the caverns themselves, pulling up a guidebook she had brought for the occasion.
“Oh, you have one too?” Healina asked as she fell in step with the Hauflin guild-leader.
“Yep yep! They always come in handy! Hmm... but the goblin emperor... even the highest level players haven't run across any sign of that lair, it says.”
“We'll need to hunt for signs around the deepest tunnels and passages,” Derwydd said. “Our guild got close to something around this passage here once, remember?” he pointed to the map, and Snow Dancer nodded.
“There were a few Deeps Goblins in that area. But they're all over the place, too, so let's not bet on it for sure.” she remarked as we got to our save point wayport.
“I'll go, and look,” Myanihia said, vanishing into the shadows and sprinting off silently. I could tell she was because I could still use my skill that allowed me to see stealthy targets, to a certain degree.
“Myanihia aside, we need to pick our groups carefully if we decide to split.” Lysandra said then.
“Agreed.” Jannie nodded. “But let's not split up now; we'll head for that main cavern over there and clear it while we wait for Myanihia, build up our teamwork a bit.”
“You got it!” Winnie replied, revealing for the first time (at least to me and the rest of the Silvernight Queens) that she was a magic-user. Well, in the way that Angelfire and Anhe are, at least; Winnie used a staff like Anhe and Sun WuKong, but she was more of an athletic sorceress like Angelfire. And Tabitha was a ferocious dual-wielder like Barbarianne.
As for me, Wildeye passed me over to Healina, who kept a hold of me in one arm while buffing up the group with her staff. Derwydd stayed with us, working his druidic magic instead of changing to werebear. Ariana was also nearby, and while the four of us hung back the rest of them went into attack mode. And I cannot tell you how irritating it was to not be a part of the fray. I felt like I really was a little kid again, watching old swashbuckling films while wishing I could be a part of the action.
At the same time, I had to marvel at Healina's handling of me and her staff at the same time. She was definitely used to multi-tasking from handling her younger cousins; it made me wonder what kind of things she would actually be doing while holding a feisty grade-schooler in her arms.
Anyway. The creatures before us that Myanihia had so easily crept past in stealth were soon defeated. The champion among them gave us some trouble, so much so that at one point Healina actually set me down and told me to see if my trick still worked. It did indeed work, but instead of wiping out all the hitpoints it left the creature at five-percent health, which let me know that, like all my other skills, even the one-shot combo's effectiveness was halved. The rest of the gang easily finished it off after I scurried away though, so it wasn't for nothing.
“Note to self: use Lana for emergencies.” Jannie tapped the side of her head as she put her sword away.
“Agreed.” Wildeye nodded.
“Yo, the heck was that? It didn't go down like it usually does when Lans does that,” Tyman wondered.
“Stats and skill effectiveness being reduced is the main curse of the ring.” Lysandra shrugged.
“Whoa,” Tyman's eyes widened. “No wonder y'all need us.”
“It just doesn't seem right when she's a little girl like that, though.” Tabitha said with a wry grin.
“Heard that, girlfriend.” Winnie nodded. “Wouldn't want my little girl near anything this wild.”
“A daughter, huh?” I asked.
“Yep!” she beamed back.
“Cute!” Belle smiled. It was at that moment that Myanihia reappeared.
“See anything?” Lysandra asked her.
“Just goblins; there was no... entourage; no hint of, shamans, or chieftains. It must, be deeper.” her twin replied.
“Deeper, huh?” Wildeye sighed as he scratched the back of his neck. “Tyman, where did that one thing end up? Did Boskers give it to you like he promised?”
“This thing here?” Tyman said, pulling out a multi-sided orb-like thing.
“Oh wow! An icosidodecahedron!” Tabitha said at once.
“Ico--hed--huh??” I stammered in bewilderment.
“It's a thirty-two faced polyhedron.” she told me.
“You can think of it as an angular sphere,” Wildeye grinned back at me.
“Not technically correct, but visually fair.” Tabitha shrugged. “What's it do?”
“Boskers said it was some sort of quest item he found in Ragnarheim but couldn't use since he didn't have access to the Untold Deeps. There should be something down here that makes use of it,” Wildeye replied.
“So it's like a key or an access card.” Jannie said.
“Pretty much; actually, there could even be more of these that we need and we just don't know it yet.” he remarked.
“N-no way...” I sighed, and Ariana patted my head.
“Come to think of it, didn't we skip past a corridor here a few days ago because we couldn't get it open?” Maryn asked us.
“Hmm... it was further in, and everything's reset by now so it'll be a pain to get to...” I recalled.
“Let's check it out!” Angelfire said.
So we spent the next hour or so fighting our way to that sealed corridor, and after beating a particularly aggravating mini-boss in the form of a cave-yeti, we began examining the area for clues. Belle examined the top of the sealed door while Peaches examined the bottom, and the rest of us either examined the middle-parts of it or searched the vicinity nearby.
“Peaches, or Heali, does that book say anything about doors down here?” the pixie-girl asked.
“It does mention that these doors are sealed by protective spells which can be undone by certain artifacts...” Healina noted. “But it says the key for this door is hidden in plain sight for those who have fought their way to it.”
“Doesn't sound like this thing is it, then.” Jannie remarked to Wildeye.
“But it could be a key for something further in,” he said.
“In plain sight, huh?” Angelfire remarked, heading back the way we came a few paces and then turning to face the opposite direction, looking beyond the door and further down the hall.
“I don't remember anything from last time myself,” Maryn said.
“Lizzy mentioned something was weird about some part of this place, yes?” Anhe then piped up.
“Ohh, that's right, she did,” Maryn snapped her fingers. “What was it she was looking at?” she pondered, heading over to stand near Angelfire.
“We were just passing the door when she made the comment, weren't we?” Lysandra remarked. Maryn took a few steps forward, and then halted.
“So... about here?”
“More or less,” I agreed. “Wasn't it that one stalactite she was talking about?” I then recalled. Angelfire, who had joined Maryn, suddenly smiled.
“That one.” she said, and went over towards it, gently pulling something off of its tip.
“Oh!” Belle remarked.
“Nice!” Der smiled. Angelfire brought the object to the door; it was actually a sphere this time, and it began glowing when she got close to the sealed door.
“That spot right here, it's glowing too!” Peaches pointed for her, and Angelfire placed the sphere into the accommodating slot. The door ground open, retreating into the cavern walls, and a dark, descending passage was revealed to us.
“Yo. Now we're gettin' somewhere.” Tyman clapped his hands together. Winnie and Derwydd lit up mystic lanterns to keep the dark at bay, and we entered the foreboding passageway.
“Lucky I decided to let little girl stay at her uncle's tonight,” Winnie said as we did. “This is gonna be one of those three-day all-nighters.”
“So weird, isn't it??” Jannie replied.
“Oh definitely. But handy!”
“You're telling me,” Lysandra agreed. “Sometimes it's the only way to actually get some decent sleep.”
“Or the blissful sensation of a warm bath,” Tabitha sighed.
“Or a lavish feast or a hot meal with friends,” Peaches smiled happily.
“We need to get back to the 'Mallet after this is all over, speaking of which,” Winnie added.
“Oh definitely!” Peaches agreed.
We bantered like this for the next hour or so, only to realize at one point in our talking that we had yet to be attacked by anything. This suddenly made us alert, and a few of us took out our weapons just in case. Myanihia used Shadow Vision to look around, then shook her head. Ariana gazed ahead with Mystic Vision, but only found the next door, which was about ten minutes away. We approached it cautiously, remaining on guard for any nasty surprises.
“This door... we can just force it open, the book says, but I don't trust it.” Peaches told us as she glanced over the pages. “I'd rather have whatever properly opens the door.”
“Think it's trapped somehow?” Jannie asked her.
“Absolutely!” the pint-sized guild leader nodded. “I bet Lana and Myanihia think so, too!”
“True.” Myanihia nodded. “Lana?”
“Some sort of death trap, a trap door that sends us to a cell, or an alert to send a horde of whatever's hiding behind this door after us.” I noted, and the other assassin nodded her head in agreement. She then went to examine the door, looking for an impression similar to the one the other door had. Peaches came to look with her, and the two of them eventually settled on a spot.
“This one, is hard to miss,” Myanihia remarked.
“True. It's more pyramidal. Except a six-sided one, if I'm not mistaken.” Peaches noted.
“Agree.” the other girl nodded.
“So we're looking for a hand-sized hexagonal pyramid...” Tabitha mused.
“Nothing about it being in the vicinity, though.” Peaches read.
“Oh snap.” I sighed.
“This clue says 'It hides in the deep where lurkers sleep, where the underground wave laps the underground cave'.” Healina told us as she read from her tome.
“That's a bad joke.” Wildeye remarked. “Lurkers are found in the Shadow Bay, all the way across the map from here.
“Uhh--!!” several of us chorused in exasperated disbelief.
“Hahh... we got too excited about this, I guess.” I remarked. “Let's look at the rest of the clues for the doors so we can get the keys and then come back here,” I suggested.
“Ahem!” Jannie coughed as she recovered herself. “Lana's right. We should do that. We really should have done that first,” she said with a giggle.
“But we can also speed things up a bit,” Angelfire said, and Jannie nodded back.
“You take Myanihia, Winnie, Tyman, Maryn, Derwydd, and Ariana; I'll take Wildeye, Tabitha, Anhe, Lysandra, Snow Dancer, and Healina; Peaches, Belle, stay here with Lana so we don't lose our progress with the doors.” Jannie said.
“Got it!” Belle nodded.
“Der, you take this book then,” Peaches said, handing the tome to him.
“Got it, chief!” he replied. “All right, let's give this a quick once-over to get an idea of where we'll be going,” he then said.
“There's two other keys mentioned in places that seem to be near the Shadow Bay,” Healina told us.
“And three that are up near the Murk Sea, almost at the underground border for Onyxus,” Derwydd noted somewhat anxiously.
“This sixth one... oh, that's the one your friend found in Ragnarheim,” Healina said to Wildeye.
“Saves us some of a trip, at least,” the other shrugged.
“You all stocked up on potions and stuff?” Belle asked them.
“As much as we can carry,” Tabitha nodded.
“I'll just put a few pixie-buffs on you for the road then; good luck!” the pixie-girl said as she waved her wand over the others. They gave their thanks, and the two assault groups headed off into the Untold Deeps.
“Well, this is weird.” I said flatly as I sat down and crossed my legs.
“I'm sure we'll hear all about it when they get back!” Peaches smiled as she sat down next to me.
“Don't fuss, Lana! They'll be back before we know it!” Sky Belle grinned.
“Hahh... I'm so used to saving the day, I have no idea what to do now that I'm the one being saved...”
“Lolli?” Peaches said, handing a candy out to me.
“Oy, don't treat me like I'm actually--” I started, then sniffed it. “Is that watermelon?”
“Sure is!” she beamed
“Hrrmm...” I softly groaned in bemusement. On the one hand I didn't want to be treated the way I appeared. On the other hand... I did like watermelon. Quietly and graciously, I accepted it, and immediately popped it into my mouth, ignoring the soft chuckling from Belle.
“Now this is a screen-grab moment!” the pixie-girl said. I sighed.
I'm definitely never hearing the end of this.