A few days passed before Vayra encountered any true trouble again. This time, it wasn’t just a lone magmaspawn or a drake.

It was a flame wraith. She’d always run from those before.

The flame wraiths were a column of swirling flame and smoke, tall enough to reach from floor to ceiling. Every so often, an animal-like head sprouted out of its main tornado-shaped body, moulded from flame. She couldn’t tell exactly which animal it was, but it was reptilian. Maybe…with a wolf’s maw.

As soon as she saw it, she tucked around a corner and pressed her back against the wall. She didn’t know what it was capable of, or if it was truly stronger than the drakes or magmaspawn, but she didn’t want to find out. And she didn’t need to. She wasn’t here to torment the local fauna.

Its orange light shifted down the intersecting hallway. Had it seen her? It stopped. She dispelled her seer-core, hoping it would draw less attention to herself. The white still slithered up to the roof and clung to the stone, though, and still produced light.

“What is it?” she whispered as softly as she could.

‘When a powerful dragon—not necessarily a Dragon God—dies, it leaves behind an explosion of Arcara,’ Phasoné said. ‘That can sometimes manifest as a wraith, like this.’

Vayra kept her back pressed tight against the wall, willing the wraith to move along. She didn’t need to fight it. She even held her breath.

Finally, the orange, flicking flames shifted, and the wraith continued along the hallway, away from her. When its light faded, she crept out of hiding and searched for any sign of the creature.

‘I see nothing,’ Phasoné said. ‘Though I am working with your eyes, and they can’t be all that amazing…’

Vayra let out a soft chuckle. “I don’t see anything either.”

By now, they had descended deep enough—and walked far enough north—that there were no open vents to the outside. Vayra gathered up all the Arcara she had expelled and formed her seer-core again. There was no point in wasting perfectly good Arcara, even if the Burning Flame Loop could purify more much faster than she was ever able to before.

She kept walking, making sure to glance around every corner cautiously. She was certain that she had deviated from the path she’d used on the way in, but that was probably for the best. It hadn’t exactly been a direct route.

Instead of running, she kept her gait to a walk and tried to step as softly as she could. It’d be easier to react to threats that way, and hopefully, easier to avoid them.

Deeper in the Chambers, the air was dry but incredibly hot. Regularly, Vayra checked up on Phasoné to make sure the Goddess wasn’t starting to blister.

‘I’m fine, Vayra. Just don’t hop in a lava river.’

At least, that was what Phasoné had said when they crossed over a deep underground ravine whose bottom was filled with bubbling magma and flame. As they crept across a thin, cracking bridge, Vayra whispered, “Didn’t plan on it.”

For a few more days, she continued on in the same manner. Every night, she stopped to sleep as long as she could, wherever she could, but the Chambers weren’t conducive to rest. Every time she tried to settle down, she heard a distant rumble or something nearby slithering around.

One evening—or maybe morning, or maybe afternoon; she couldn’t tell—she pulled herself into Phasoné’s void. It might not be much of a rest for her body, but at least it would be a rest for her mind.

“How close do you figure we are?” Vayra asked when the falling sensation stopped. She faced a real-looking manifestation of the Goddess, who laid flat on her back and breathed with her mouth.

“A little over halfway, I’d say.” Phasoné shugged. “Any moment, we should start sloping upwards. It’ll get cooler, and a little less hostile. Hopefully.” She fanned herself with her hand, then smiled jokingly.

“Well, at least you’re not super nervous and awkward in here anymore.” Vayra walked over and sat down beside Phasoné.

“Of course I’m nervous,” Phasoné said. “Just not nervous about you. Nervous for you, now.”

“You sure you’re doing alright? This doesn’t sound a ton like you. You should be complaining or something.”

“Yes. I’m fine.”

Vayra turned her hand over and pressed her knuckles against Phasoné’s shoulder. The Goddess’ skin was warmer than usual. “You can’t get sick, can you?”

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“Not anymore. My body would destroy the illness before it took hold. Unless you get a cold, then I’m sure I would feel it, too.”

Vayra nodded. “We’ll be out of here soon.” She laid down on her back beside Phasoné, then inched away slightly.

For a few more…well, it felt like minutes (though it couldn’t have been that long outside the void) they stared up at the blank white sky. Vayra tried taking deep breaths, though she still felt physically exhausted, and she doubted that would change without giving her body outside a true rest.

“Alright, Phas, I’m gonna keep moving,” Vayra said. “Don’t burn up.”

She left the void and stood up, then kept walking. About an hour later, she found an enormous hall with a magma waterfall on one side and a culvert that let in distilled Stream water on the other. The molten red stone was enough to illuminate the little room, casting a steady glow as it flowed through the chamber’s center along a messy canal. It met with the Stream water in the middle of the room, forming an enormous mound of cooled rock.

She took a step into the room, nearly slipping on the black stone floor—so smooth she thought it was polished, until she looked at the ripple pattern. The lava falls had probably overflowed at some point, turning the floor slippery.

At the very center of the room, she spotted a large, rocky mound, the length of three horses. It was almost beetle-shaped. She was about to pass it off as a statue or a decoration—it hadn’t been moving—when it dipped its head down and slurped a mouthful of melted rock from the magma river with a proboscis. Veins of amber light shone all across its shell, and its eyes glimmered orange.

Vayra stopped moving immediately. It might have seen her.

‘They have horrible eyesight,’ Phasoné told her. ‘If you move slowly, it shouldn’t see you.’

But what was it?

‘What does it look like?’

A magma beetle?

‘Correct. A large magmaspawn. It will eat you if it has the chance.’

There was only one other tunnel out of the room, and it was past the beetle—on the other side of the room.

Vayra crept across the room to the culvert, then stepped slowly through the water in its basin. It rose up to her knees, and when it touched her skin, she felt extra mana flowing into her body. A refill was nice, but she couldn’t stay any longer than necessary.

When she reached the other side of the culvert, her wet boots slipped on the smooth stone. She fell to all fours, then froze. Not good, she thought. Please don’t see me…please don’t see me.

‘I don’t think begging it will do you much good,’ Phasoné said.

The Goddess was right. The beetle’s head snapped towards Vayra, and it opened its mandibles. Lava dripped from its proboscis, and it chittered angrily.

Vayra scrambled to her feet and ran as fast as she could towards the hallway on the other side. It was just wide enough for the magma beetle to follow her, but she wasn’t turning back now.

The darkness of the new hallway surrounded her, but not for long. An orange, flickering glow throbbed behind her, getting closer with every step. She pushed herself as hard as she could. The hallway began to narrow. If she could just get far enough ahead, it would get stuck!

For a brief moment, she considered turning around and fighting, but the beetle let out a breathy howl so loud she feared her eardrums would break. The thought that she might find a way to kill it dried up immediately.

‘Vayra, you aren’t just a cannon,’ Phasoné reminded her. ‘You can Brace your body for more than just attacking.’

The comment gave Vayra an idea. She summoned her seer-core, then sucked up its power and fed it evenly to her legs. If it could help her kick harder, then it could also help her run faster.

She let the light feed into her knees, then her ankles and calves. Her feet pounded against the ground with explosive energy. Every stride was longer, and her legs moved faster. The walls began to blur, and the orange glow of the beetle faded behind her.

After a few minutes, she couldn’t see the creature’s light at all. She let the Bracing fade from her legs, then composed herself with a few calm breaths. The hallway had started to slope up, and it had grown tight enough that she couldn’t extend her arms straight out to the sides. There was no way the beetle could fit in behind her.

She didn’t remember when it had gotten stuck, nor when the tunnel had stopped shrinking, or how far she had travelled relatively, but she had gotten out of trouble. For now.

Her legs were tired, more than usual after running, and her mouth had grown parched. They must have been running for quite a while.

‘Almost out of mana,’ Phasoné said. ‘I’d suggest finding a source somewhere.’

Vayra walked forward for another few hours, but she didn’t find a room with any canals or Stream water in them—only branching hallways and plenty of choices of where to go. She kept heading north.

The creatures in the Chambers, however, wouldn’t wait for her to find a room with Stream water in it. She stopped and leaned against a wall, then opened her haversack. Aside from her scarf, there was no other light, and she couldn’t see the elixirs—until she opened their container, revealing the softly glowing vials.

She found her last remaining vial of orange liquid and drank it. The mana surged into her stomach, then bled out into her channels. Although it didn’t make her feel any less dehydrated, she would at least have something to work with if she needed. She placed the empty vial back in and tried to sleep.

She shut her eyes, and the exhaustion whisked her off to sleep in seconds,

She did manage to rest for a few hours. It was peaceful, aside from a few nonsensical dreams that left her confused and bewildered—which she could barely remember afterwards. But, one time, halfway through a blast of colours and faces, she heard a voice. And it was her real ears hearing it.

She snapped upright, dreams fading. Her heart churned, suddenly beating faster, and she rose to her feet.

It was a human’s voice, and it was coming towards her.