Hadespera
The 11th of Elaphebolion
The Year 4631 in the Era of Mortals
“But I don’t understand, how did he solve the puzzle?”
“That’s hardly the most important question right now, Helwan.”
“You’re right, of course. He glowed! Have you ever seen someone glow like that? I felt his Mana surge, but that certainly wasn’t like any spell I’ve ever seen.”
“The process nearly killed him, he’s lucky he made it as far as he did.”
“Indeed. Mana Burnout is the bane of all young mages, though with his power I’m surprised it’s still an issue for him. Will he wake up soon?”
Arche groaned. “With you two making all that racket, how am I to sleep?”
He opened his eyes and found that Lyssa was leaning over him, wiping his forehead with a cool rag. She looked relieved, though her eyes still shone with worry. Helwan paced nearby, wringing his hands.
Arche felt like he had been trampled by an ox. Or, perhaps, a kýklōps. His head pulsed with each beat of his heart. Trying to concentrate only made his head pound worse as the room swayed in front of him.
“What happened?”
“You did something that bottomed out your Mana. What you’re experiencing is called Mana Burnout. Typically, it’s young mages that have to worry most about that sort of thing. I thought you didn’t know any magic,” Helwan answered.
“I don’t.”
“And yet here you are.”
Arche checked his vitals.
Health: 360 / 360
100%
Stamina: 240 / 240
100%
Mana: 15 / 160
9%
Mana Burnout: 18:42
“How long was I out?”
“Just over ten minutes,” Lyssa said. “What’s your Mana at?”
“Fifteen. I thought I’d have regenerated more by now.”
“Normally, you would have. Mana is based on your mental attributes, but during burnout there are punishments. All of your vitals will regenerate more slowly.”
“How much more slowly? I’ve got almost twenty minutes left before it’s gone, you might as well explain it to me.”
Lyssa gave a conspicuous look toward Helwan, which Arche waved off.
“Going to have to trust him eventually, right? His light blast pretty much saved you, after all. Besides, he might help me get answers.”
Lyssa’s squinted, clearly not happy at the situation, but spoke anyway.
“Mana Burnout happens when you run out of Mana. It lasts longer the more Mana you use and the faster you use it. Yours seems to last about half an hour, which is light compared to what it could have been. In some cases, it can be fatal. Your vitals will replenish at one-tenth their usual rate. Normally, you regenerate the value of the associated attribute every minute, with the exception of Health. At base ten Wisdom, you would regenerate ten Mana per minute, or one point every six seconds. During burnout, you regenerate at one-tenth that speed, getting only one point in that minute.”
Arche nodded his understanding as Helwan looked between them, frowning.
“This is basic information,” Helwan finally asked. “Why don’t you know this?”
“I’m an amnesiac. Total memory loss of everything before a week ago. I’m still learning about this world and its mechanics.”
“Strange,” Helwan said quietly, almost under his breath. “Amnesia rarely erases all memories.”
“Nonetheless, everything is brand new to me.”
Helwan narrowed his eyes.
“How did you solve the door?”
Arche blinked. He had no idea how to explain the feeling he had, so he went for his backup reason.
“Well, erm, dwarves are on the smaller side, aren’t they?”
Lyssa nodded.
“I figured if they had a magic door where you had to pick the symbol that would let you through, they’d use the one easiest to reach.”
Lyssa and Helwan stared at him in shock.
“You realize if you were wrong, we could have all died.”
“I didn’t see an alternative. We were getting our asses kicked. I had a hunch, I went with it.”
Lyssa muttered something quietly in elvish. Helwan stared down at his hands, as if realizing how close to death’s door they had all come. Arche eased himself off the floor and look around the room. It swam before him, but his headache was beginning to soothe. The timer still had ten minutes left. Arche placed a hand against his pounding head. This must be what a hangover felt like, curse it all.
The room they were in was made of fine stone. It was also lit, which surprised him. The rest of the underground complex had been in pitched darkness, the only light came from torches or the Everlit Lantern. In this room, however, pillars were adorned with sconces that burned a bright blue, casting an ethereal sheen on everything in the room.
Treasures piled high between the pillars. Golden trinkets, precious jewels, statues, figurines, paintings, piles of coins, and adornments of a kind so alien that Arche couldn’t think of a proper name for them. In the center of the room, on a marble pedestal, a single staff of dark metal was embedded into the stone’s very center.
Something about it drew Arche’s attention immediately.
“What is that?”
“The reason we’re here, I’d wager,” Lyssa said, following his gaze.
“What, we’ve been here for fifteen minutes and neither of you went to have a look?”
“I’m afraid it’s not quite that simple,” Helwan said, gesturing toward the treasure on the floor. “The whole area is under a powerful enchantment. Do you see these runes, adorning the stones?”
Arche turned his gaze toward the pillars. Now that they had been pointed out to him, he clearly saw writings carved into each pillar. He looked back at the treasure horde and, from what little he could see of the stone floor, also saw writing adorning it.
“I don’t know much about magic—well, anything, really—but I imagine that anything that requires that much effort is probably dangerous.”
“Well reasoned. Yes, if anyone so much as touches any of the treasure here, their life-force will be siphoned. That staff is emitting quite a bit of necromantic energy. It’s possible it’s empowering the enchantment.”
“So, what you’re saying is that this treasure isn’t just the dwarves’ horde, it’s also the trap itself?”
“Yes, for as long as it remains in the circle.”
“Can you dispel it?”
“Oh, goodness, no! It would take half a dozen master enchanters weeks to undo a ritual as powerful as this and I am no enchanter. Not even my gaiamancy would be enough to counteract the effects of the spell if I were to command the stone beneath to change.”
Arche held up one hand and began counting off his fingers.
“We can’t take any of it or we’ll die. We can’t leave the artifact or we fail the quest. If we go out the way we came in, the revenant will kill us.” He shook his head. “We’ve got to figure out some way of solving this. The dwarves wouldn’t have set up a massive death trap without some way of deactivating it. Look around, there might be a lever or a clue somewhere that we can use.”
He tried to take a step and stumbled, the world spinning in front of him. Lyssa caught him by the arm and lowered him into a sitting position.
“On second thought, I’m just going to sit here and wait for my burnout to end. Ow.”
Lyssa and Helwan split up to explore the room. Arche’s stomach grumbled and he recalled his skipped breakfast. He pulled some bread out of his inventory, wincing at the pain the mental effort brought forth. After a moment’s thought, he also produced some of the cooked wolf meat they had and made himself a sandwich. It was good, but dry. He felt it was missing something, he just didn’t know what.
The flashing of unread notifications caught his attention as he closed his eyes.
You have learned a Skill.
Unarmed Combat — Level 1
Punch and kick your way to a brighter, bloodier tomorrow.
Each level in this skill improves your ability at fighting without a weapon.
+4% Damage while Unarmed (+4%)
+0.5% Natural Armor (+0.5%)
You have learned a Skill.
Divine Body — Level 1
Two new skills. Unarmed combat felt like something to experiment with more. Something about it was attractive, but he couldn’t quite verbalize why. When he fought with his hands, it felt familiar. The Divine Body skill was the complete opposite. He had no idea what that was about. The outline of the notification was a radically different color from any other he’d received so far. Whereas the rest of his notifications were a translucent gray, this one was a royal purple.
He had no clue what the color signified and the lack of skill description, combined with still another five minutes on his Mana Burnout timer, was a thorough argument against immediate experimentation.
“Just more questions,” he muttered, dismissing the notifications.
His current Mana had risen to a whopping thirty-three in all the time he’d been waiting, a mere twenty percent of his total. His Stamina had dropped with his exertion of walking around and was now sitting at around seventy percent, which explained why he felt so winded. Arche closed his eyes and pressed his fingers against his temples.
“Lesson learned. Mana Burnout’s a bitch.”
“I’ve got something!”
Lyssa was standing next to one of the walls, her hand resting on what appeared to be a normal section of stone. Arche took a breath and forced himself back to his feet, using the wall to guide him around toward her.
“There’s something here,” she said, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.
Next to her fingers was a small indentation in the masonry, easily mistaken for a stray chisel scrape. As Arche peered closer at it, however, he made it the slightest hint of a seam, outlining a small circle.
“Well spotted,” Helwan praised. “Dwarven culture is famous for their hidden secrets. We should make sure we’re ready for whatever might happen when this is pressed.”
“Agreed, so don’t press it yet,” Arche said, his voice betraying his weariness. “Let’s figure out our next steps. Say we press the button, the ritual powers down, we get the artifact. All right, then what? Do we take more treasure? Do we leave it now that we know how to get to it?”
Lyssa shrugged. “The mundane items are of little use to me. My people don’t trade like the outsiders do. Magical items could be useful, but more difficult to find in this heap.”
“I have some debts,” Helwan said in a quiet voice, his eyes downcast. “That a couple of these treasures could pay off, and then some.”
“What’s the potential that this stuff is cursed?”
“Curses delve into a type of magic that the dwarves consider heinous. Even in the early periods of their history, they valued secrecy and privacy, but were not outwardly malevolent. Traps and protections, yes, but they would not purposefully curse their own artifacts. Anything of dwarven make should be fine unless it was cursed by other means.”
“So, if we can get the treasure, there shouldn’t be anything supernatural about it? It’s not going to force us to walk the land and sail the sea, unable to eat or sleep or die until every last piece is returned?”
Helwan frowned. “That’s a, erm, a very specific and very powerful sounding curse, Master Arche. I think I can say with some certainty that it won’t do that.”
“All right, cool. So we grab some treasure and any magic items we find. What if taking the staff doesn’t depower the revenant? How do we deal with Sir Kills-a-lot outside the door?”
“What if we lure him inside, then trap him in here?” Lyssa asked.
“Not a bad plan, but it means we’ll have to deal with him again if we want to come back here.”
“Better to make it out, first, and have the option of coming back later,” she pointed out.
“True enough. Helwan, any other ideas?”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
The satyr shook his head. “No. My Ray of Light spell was only enough to stun it for a moment and barely accomplished that.”
“All right. If, for whatever reason, we can’t trap it, run like hell.”
“Like what?” Lyssa asked.
“Just run for your lives.”
Arche took a deep breath and the pulsing sensation in his head faded away to nothing. His Mana Burnout had finally elapsed and his Mana ticked up every few seconds.
“Burnout’s over. Give me a couple minutes and I’ll be good to go. Helwan, you said earlier that you could feel the magic that this thing is emitting. Can you locate other magic items the same way?”
“To an extent. I have a spell that gives me general directions of magic, but with as much magic in the air as there is right now, anything less powerful than the artifact would be masked.”
“I guess that makes sense. Coming back seems more and more like the best option.”
“If we can kill an unkillable monster,” Lyssa’s voice dripped with bitterness as she looked at the door.
Arche raised an eyebrow at her, then shot a pointed look at Helwan. The satyr caught the look and nodded, nervously straightening his waistcoat.
“I’m going to study the architecture a bit more. Perhaps find something we may have missed. Over there.”
Arche waited until the satyr was out of earshot before turning back to Lyssa, who had her arms crossed tight.
“You all right?” he asked quietly.
Lyssa stared at the door. The back had an identical pattern to the front. Three strange symbols, full of hidden meaning.
“No,” she said at last. “I…I gave up, out there. Without even fighting. I always thought I would die with a weapon in my hand and defiance on my lips. But when faced with that reality, I gave up. I saw the end coming and I flinched.”
“That’s not what I saw.”
Lyssa’s brow furrowed, but Arche pushed forward anyway.
“I saw a person who was scared, who thought they were going to die, who fought regardless. I may have been the first to face the revenant, but you’re the first who struck him. You fought in spite of that fear and in spite of defeat, and we’re all alive because of it. That’s not shame, Lyssa, that’s courage, and we’d all be better off if we had half of yours.”
“You didn’t even flinch when you fought it.”
“That’s mostly stupidity and ignorance, and don’t get me wrong, I was scared fucking shitless by the end. I don’t know this world; I don’t know what battles to stand my ground and what battles to run from. But you do. You could have run down that other passageway and left us far behind. You’re fast enough. It may not have been a way out, but it could have given you a few more minutes. You don’t have to see what happened the same way I do, but don’t for a second think that I resent you for what you did back there.”
“I…thank you, Arche.”
He held out his hand to her and she clasped his forearm, her skin warm against his. Helwan wandered back and waited for them by the hidden button.
Arche checked his vitals again.
Health: 360 / 360
100%
Stamina: 240 / 240
100%
Mana: 108 / 150
72%
“All right, let’s see what happens.”
Helwan pressed the button and the room went dark. The blue flames sconces were snuffed simultaneously. The only light came from the Everlit Lantern, which Helwan held gingerly in his other hand.
“Uh, Helwan?”
“It worked,” the satyr said quietly.
“Are you sure? That was definitely the button for the ritual? And not some weird light switch?”
“A light…switch?”
“Never mind. Only one way to find out.”
Arche stepped forward, crossing the boundary of the ritual, and kicked a golden plate. He kept an eye on his vitals, but they didn’t start falling.
“All right, we’re good.”
“That was reckless,” Lyssa admonished.
“Stupidity and ignorance, remember?”
She rolled her eyes but he caught a smile at the edge of her mouth. They made their way through the hoard to the staff on the pedestal.
“All right, is this going to be the thing that kills me if I touch it?” Arche asked.
Helwan shrugged. “I honestly don’t know. I’m well beyond my depth here.”
“Truer words, my friend, could not be spoken for any of us.”
“It’s my quest, as you pointed out,” Lyssa said. “I’ll accept the risk.”
Lyssa placed her hand against the dark metal of the staff and tried to lift it out of the stone. Nothing happened. She gripped it in both hands and gave a mighty heave, the veins and muscles in her arms bulging, but still nothing.
Seeing nothing horrible happen to her, Helwan stepped forward and looked at the pedestal, searching for any writing.
“What a strange sort of stone. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen one like it.”
“Isn’t it just black marble?” Arche asked.
“No. I do not believe so.”
“Quit gossiping and help me,” Lyssa grunted.
Helwan placed his hands near the base of the staff and heaved with her, but the strange staff refused to budge. Finally, they both backed away, panting slightly from the effort and throwing the staff dirty looks. Arche, on the other hand, could not tear his eyes away from it. Standing this close, he thought he could feel the Mana that Helwan had mentioned. It was hypnotic, capturing all of his attention. The staff was begging to be freed, to be used.
Arche stepped forward, his hand outstretched. The staff was drawing him in. It tugged at something inside of him, beckoning him closer. The hair on his arms and neck stood upright, then a spark of lightning arced from the staff and zapped his hand.
“Ow, fuck!”
Even as he said the words, a prompt appeared.
You have discovered [REDACTED]
Will you claim it?
Yes
Yes
The notification disappeared almost as soon as it appeared, barely giving him time to read it. He cradled his hand, which throbbed painfully like he had just grabbed a hot coal. The notification was purple, just like his new skill. Perhaps there was a connection.
“What happened?” Lyssa asked.
Arche reached out and touched the staff again. Nothing shocked him this time, so he tried lifting it. The staff moved easily. Part of it was embedded inside the pedestal, so he had to lift it even farther than he had expected.
“It’s a spear?”
He held it sidelong in his hands, revealing a metal, bladed tip. The spear was longer than he was tall, and holding it brought a notification.
You have claimed the [REDACTED].
Some of its properties will now be made known to you.
[REDACTED]
Quality: Godforged
Rarity: Mythic
Durability: 15,000 / 15,000
Weight: 6 kilograms
Length: 4 meters
Status: Dormant, Bound, ?
“Oh, wow,” Arche said. “That’s cool. I don’t know what it means but it’s cool.”
He read the description to the others, both of whom gasped.
“It said you claimed it? Not that you found it or received it, but that you claimed it?” Helwan asked. “And that it’s bound? To you? Redacted?”
“Mythic rarity?” Lyssa murmured. “Such a thing truly exists?”
“Look, I don’t understand it either, but let’s wait until we get out of here, yeah?”
He tried to store it into his inventory but was met by a notification.
[REDACTED] cannot be stored in Inventory.
“Looks like I have to carry it out of here, it can’t be stored in inventory. Why does it have to be so big?” Arche paused. “I could have phrased that better.”
“Focus on the size you want it to be. Bound weapons tend to associate with dimensional magic, that might be why you can’t store it in your inventory,” Helwan said.
Arche looked at the spear in his hand. It towered above him at over twice his height. He closed his eyes and imagined it being as tall as he was. His Mana began to drop, his vitals still visible even with his eyes closed. After fifty Mana was expended, it leveled out, and Arche opened his eyes to see that the spear had shortened in length. By the feel of it, it had lightened somewhat as well, though it was still much heavier than his sword.
“Incredible,” Lyssa breathed. “What did you say it was called?”
“I don’t know. It just says ‘redacted.’”
“A mystery, much like you.”
“Agreed. So we have the artifact. Next step, look for magic items and take some treasure.”
They gathered up as much as they could fit into their inventories. Arche left a couple spaces empty, just in case, and put a couple smaller items into the bag physically. As far as he could tell, none of it looked magical, but a small treasure trove could come in handy in other ways. Helwan could take a more in-depth look to find any enchanted items once they left the dwarven tunnels, and the revenant, behind.
When they had gathered their fill, Arche stood by the door, breathing deeply.
“What are the odds we just open the door and it’s gone?” he asked half-heartedly.
Lyssa put her ear to the door and listened, holding up one hand for silence.
“Not good. I can hear him scratching against the door.”
Arche hefted the spear and gave it a few practice thrusts, half-heartedly hoping it would be enough for him to learn whatever skill was related to fighting with spears. It was not. He looked expectantly at Lyssa.
“I don’t know anything about spear-fighting. Only staves.” Lyssa forestalled his question. “You’ll have to wait until we get back to Dawnwood before you get a proper teacher.”
Arche sighed and nodded at the others. Helwan held the Everlit Lantern at the ready, casting a wide light over all of them. Lyssa touched the bident symbol and the door opened, grinding against the stone floor. An angry, rasping cry filled the air as a bony arm stuck itself through the gap.
“Back, back!” Lyssa cried out as the revenant forced its way into the room.
Arche raised his spear awkwardly, unsure of how to hold it. Seeing the revenant again made his palms slick with sweat and the dark metal of the spear wasn’t helping his grip. The revenant, who had appeared relatively emotionless before, was much more animated. Its face twisted in hatred as it stretched clawed fingers out toward Arche, despite Lyssa being closer. He could see there was an indentation in the revenant’s chest where the bone had caved a little, about the size of his fist.
“Come back for more, did you?” Arche taunted, putting as much bravado into his voice as he could.
The creature lunged for him, to little effect as it hadn’t brought itself entirely into the room yet. Arche backed off and the others followed his lead.
“He’s pissed at me,” Arche said. “I’ll distract him while you two get out.”
“Arche, no!”
Further conversation was cut short as the revenant pulled itself entirely into the room and lurched toward Arche. The first thing he noticed was that it was much faster than before. He gripped the spear tightly with both hands, holding it out in front of himself like a quarterstaff. The revenant swiped at him, fangs bared and screaming. Arche screamed right back, though whether it was out of defiance or the fear sweeping through him, he wasn’t quite sure.
Claw crashed against dark metal. He hadn’t been sure that the spear would be up to the task as the revenant’s sharpened claws could gouge stone, but it appeared fifteen-thousand durability actually meant something. Arche ducked out of the way of the revenant’s second attack, a vicious swipe that would have taken his head clean off. The third attack came unexpectedly as the revenant lunged toward him with gnashing fangs. It moved inside his guard before he could react and bit deep into his shoulder, its teeth puncturing straight through his leather jerkin. Arche cried out in pain as his Health dropped thirty percent. The revenant twisted its head as it tore away, dealing even more damage as a spray of red blood painted the floor.
Arche’s fell onto his back and the revenant fell with him, biting and gnashing at his face. He shoved the spear widthways into the creature’s mouth, barely keeping the snapping teeth from tearing off his nose. The pain in his right shoulder was maddening even through the adrenaline, and the extra weight pressing down on him brought tears to his eyes, blinding him. The revenant pressed against him, inching closer and closer with each snap despite the length of metal in its mouth.
A sword pommel slammed against the side of the revenant’s head and the weight was gone. Arche grabbed the proffered arm and let it pull him to his feet. The heavy spear hung loosely in his grip, one end resting against the ground, as his free hand clutched his wounded shoulder. Blinking the tears from his eyes, he saw Lyssa standing between him and the revenant, swords drawn. She turned her head to look at him over her shoulder.
“Go!”
Arche didn’t have the strength or the courage to disobey. He moved for the door, dragging the spear behind him. Helwan appeared in front of him, moving his fingers in nimble, well-practiced gestures. The satyr intoned a word of power and green light enshrouded the revenant. Flora spawned across it, bright flowers and moss sprouted from its skin and bones. The revenant moaned, the sound unlike the angry shrieks from before, and its movements slowed. Lyssa capitalized on the moment by striking. Her movements were precise, and her blades were deadly accurate. She attacked the revenant’s joints, aiming to sever a limb by avoiding the hardened bones. The revenant was forced to a kneeling position to protect its legs from her strikes.
The fresh plant life began to darken and wither, and with it the revenant roared its anger. It lunged forward, slashing at Lyssa’s own legs, but she danced backwards out of the way. Helwan took Arche under his uninjured arm and half-dragged him toward the door. They were almost to it when Lyssa lost the creature’s focus. It saw Arche nearly out of its clutches and let out an otherworldly screech.
The revenant charged forward in a lurching run, completely ignoring Lyssa. She broke away and moved back, still trying to impose herself between them and the undead. She brought both swords up but the revenant barreled into her, knocking her to the ground, and continued toward Arche with single-minded determination.
Arche slipped from Helwan’s grasp and turned. He knelt and raised the spear, setting the butt against the ground and pointed the tip at the oncoming revenant. His right hand hung at his side, utterly useless with his torn shoulder. Helwan grabbed the spear on the other side and held it steady with him. The revenant had too much momentum to change directions and ran directly into the tip of the spear. Bone crunched as the tip plunged into the creature’s fractured chest. The look of rage on the revenant’s face barely wavered as it saw the length of metal protruding from its sternum. Arche stood and kicked the revenant free of the spear. It fell backwards to the ground, its movements suddenly slow and groggy.
Lyssa reached them a moment later and dragged Arche out of the room as Helwan shut the door behind them, trapping the revenant inside.
Arche noticed a notification in his vision and opened it, hoping for an after-battle experience count.
You have learned a Skill.
Spearmanship — Level 1
The weapon of choice for warriors across millennia.
Each level in this skill will improve your ability with spears.
+2% Damage with Spears (+2%)
Arche dismissed the notification with annoyance. No experience meant the revenant still lived, in a manner of speaking. Even the satisfaction of learning a new skill was dulled by the horrible pain in his shoulder.
“Remove your shirt,” Lyssa ordered, pulling out a bandage.
Arche inventoried his leather jerkin and linen shirt, biting back a hiss of pain. Blood streaked his torso. Lyssa poured cool water over the mass of torn flesh, then applied bandages and wrapped his shoulder with gauze.
“You are not invincible,” she hissed at him when she had finished. “I had hoped your previous injuries would have taught you that, but you continue to rely on leveling to fix your wounds.”
Arche couldn’t answer. Now that the battle fervor had worn off, his shoulder felt like it had been slathered with molten flame. It was all he could do to keep from howling his agony.
Lyssa watched him for a moment, her gaze calculating. Then she produced a large, yellow flower and tore it into several pieces. As quick as thinking, she tilted his head back with one hand and forced the flower bits into his mouth with the other.
“Chew into a paste, then swallow.”
At the first taste, Arche wanted to vomit. The flower was bitter beyond belief and he could feel his gorge rising as the flavor seeped into his tongue. Through effort of will and her hand still covering his mouth, he did as he was told and chewed until the texture was paste. It took Arche two swallows to get it down. The first had nearly brought the vomit up anyway but he managed to clench his teeth and keep himself under control. Finally satisfied, Lyssa removed her hand from his face. A notification appeared.
You’ve ingested Unidentified Flower.
Pain reduced by 20%.
“You’re not going to be able to move your arm for a while. We need to immobilize it to ensure it heals properly if you can’t level beforehand.”
The inferno of his shoulder dulled into a bonfire. He still wanted to scream, but now he could talk.
“If it heals properly and I level up later, will it fix itself?”
“Doubtful. Healed injuries are rarely affected by leveling. Certain injuries and illnesses can be similarly unaffected. This is why you must be careful, Greenstick.”
Arche poked at his bandage, earning his hand a smack.
“Point taken; lesson learned.”
Once he had reequipped his clothes, Lyssa used a spare shirt to fasten a sling, looping the fabric around his neck. Arche turned, squatted, and bent over, but the movement didn’t aggravate his shoulder at all.
“Thanks. I really appreciate it. So who remembers how to get out of here?”
Helwan shrugged, his ears drooping. Lyssa just chuckled and took the lead.
“Greenstick mistake. Always remember where the exits are.”