“We found the cave!” Someone shouted over the blizzarding winds.

“Then let’s get in, ere we all end up buried in this white shite!”

I hugged my fur-lined cloak tighter around myself, trying to save what little warmth I had left—and then followed my companions through the mouth and into the depths.

Stalactites hung from the ceiling, glistening faintly in the cold. A few steps in, and we were safe from the snow. I plopped down against the wall and exhaled; travel-begotten exhaustion crept through every inch of my being.

“Southern Kommodia sure is cold, eh?!” Welles, our party frontliner quipped. He was indomitable as ever, marching in like that as if the cold had no effect on him—despite the fact that I could see his hands trembling slightly along the hilt of his battleaxe.

Face ruddy with cold, his red beard white with snow; nevertheless, he nonchalantly laid his axe against the cave wall, pulled his gloves off and began rubbing at his face.

‘Yeah, a thousand-year blizzard would do that…’

“Best get a fire started, Tommis!” He gave with a hearty belly laugh, before popping the cap of his waterskin and raising it to his mouth. I watched as what I could only assume was not in fact water, but dwarven liquor began to spill from the corners of his mouth, dripping off his beard and onto the floor. Tommis raised an eyebrow.

‘I’d be a bit concerned if his water was brown, anyway.’

There weren’t too many people who loved alcohol more than dwarves, and watching someone indulge in something they loved so much had a funny way of just putting a smile on your face. No matter who you were!

‘Well, okay, maybe an elf wouldn’t find it endearing, but I sure do.’

“Right…” I forced myself up, glancing over at our healer, a thin human man with greying blonde hair. “Tommis, we’re here on cleanup, right?”

He peered at me with disbelief through rounded spectacles, before heaving an exasperated sigh. “Kennick, you really aught-“

“Yeah, yeah, stop forgetting our orders after we- c’mon, who’s the leader of this party?”

Tommis rolled his eyes behind those glasses of his, then pushed them up with another sigh.

“The guild instructed us to capture any criminals we find in these caves alive preferably. We aren’t to spill undue blood. Understand? Dead is a last resort.”

“Why’d you call it ‘the’ cave, anyway? Fifth time today, and it’s empty as all the others. Are there even-“

“Kennick. Do you honestly believe the guild would purposefully mislead us?”

“…Not really, no.”

“You need to take this seriously. You’re an B-Ranked adventurer, for Coim’s sakes. What will we do if you get killed?”

He had a point, I had to admit. Wait, no he didn’t. Sometimes Tommis talked too much sense. I was more than capable of taking things seriously. I was just tired.

“I’m not gonna get killed. Besides, we have you. You know, to make sure things don’t go that bad?”

“I’m not infallible, Kennick. I called it the, because we were looking for a cave. Does my choice of words truly bother you so?”

“Yeah, kinda.”

Tommis glowered down at the slowly embering pile of sticks he’d arranged on the floor. Then he muttered, “Confound it,” and cast Create Flame. The fire roared to life, driving away cold and basking all nearby in warmth. Orange-red shadows danced slowly across the walls. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t half-tempted to slink back down and enjoy it. Sadly, I had things to do.

Noticing I was still staring at him, Tommis looked wearily up at me. “We are all travel weary, Kennick. It would be prudent for us to stay and rest, before we set off back into the cold, yes?”

Tommis posed it like a question, though I knew him well enough to know he meant it more like a: “this is what’s happening and you’re not saying no” than anything else.

“Alright,” I conceded. “You’re right.”

“…I’ll start our meal, then.”

I merely nodded. “Then I’ll scout the rest of the cave myself,” I paused, then added, “Be back before too long. Come look for me if I’m not back by, oh, say fifteen minutes?”

“Very well,” Tommis replied without looking up from what he was doing.

And that’s how I ended up setting off into the depths of the cave by myself.

“Create Light,” I murmured.

#

We’d been at this for days without seeing a soul. Maybe the guild was wrong, maybe there really wasn’t anyone out here after all. Just think about it, how in the hells could anyone survive in these conditions? What would they do for water, first off? I mean, I guess they could melt the snow.

I scoffed, kicking away a small rock. It plinked harmlessly against the wall, rolled a few feet, and stopped.

Yeah, sure, but what about food? Most animals couldn’t survive down here. Monsters, maybe. We’d seen and killed more than a few these last couple days. They rarely tasted good, since most were tough and gamey. The ones with leathery skin were the worst-- imagine picking that out from between your teeth! I didn’t have to imagine. It sucked.

Anyway, those were the thoughts darting through my head as I walked. It was obvious enough from a first glance that there was nobody living in this cave, but Tommis had a point; B-Ranked or not, we wouldn’t be much good if we were all too exhausted and cold to fight. I didn’t much like standing around, so it only made sense I ended up looking around myself. That aside, it wasn’t too cold back here. Though the spot Tommis had built the fire in wasn’t half bad, either.

After a certain point, the cave seemed to abruptly end. It was just me and the walls.

Honestly, that’s what I would have preferred. It would have saved me the humiliation of having to admit I tripped on a rock and fell, face-first through a wall.

Through a wall?

As I reoriented myself, I noticed the wall I’d gone through begin to disappear—it had been illusory.

“Huh… neat trick.”

Dusting myself off, I looked ahead. The cave continued as far as I could see, before splitting off around a bend. I had my Create Light orb shine its light past the bend, but didn’t see any shadows or hear any scuttering that gave me cause for alarm. Even still, I knew I needed to be on high alert. This wasn’t exactly my ideal place to die, and I was a mage without his frontliner or healer. If there really was someone here, and they could cast magic like that? I might be in trouble, if I ran into them alone.

Maybe.

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

“I’m confident in my spells, so it should be okay.” I tried to reassure myself. Although, the need to do so proved pretty undoubtably that I had no such confidence.

Rule number one of adventuring: Never split the party. I was B-Ranked with the guild, so by now I should have known that. For some reason, despite my mind screaming at me to turn back, to alert my friends, my legs continued forward as I swallowed my nerves. Eventually, I came across a glowing circle on the floor at the tail end of the cave, etched with beautifully iridescent, moving runes shimmering with myriad color. It was humming faintly, and when I approached, made me feel distinctly cold. It wasn’t a cold like the one caused by the blizzard, but an… emptiness, almost?

I bent down. A magic circle, but what was it doing here? I must’ve said as much aloud, as my voice echoed slightly in my ears. The longer I looked at it, the more drawn in I felt. As if I were falling, deeper, and deeper…

A shock jolted through my body, returning me to reality as a familiar hand pulled me upright by the shoulder.

“Kennick. What the hells are you doing? It’s been half an hour sinc…” He trailed off. When I looked back at him, his mouth was agape. Welles was right behind him, chewing on a piece of salted meat. He looked with vague curiosity in my direction.

“What’s that? Some kind o’ magic circle?”

I explained everything to them—how I’d found it, what had happened when I’d stared at it too long… Tommis had something to share too: apparently I’d planted my face against the ground, directly in the middle of the circle. I’m sure I’ll never live that down. In fact, I’d bet good money he won’t let me.

In any case, somehow our conversation rounded around to me convincing him to help me deactivate it. Of course, all that came after he and Welles scoured the cave for any potential criminals. In the meantime, I did some experimenting, feeding mana into the circle to see how it reacted. I could tell, for lack of a better word, that it had a voracious appetite—my mana alone wouldn’t be enough to do much to it. I got the feeling this was the kind of spell that couldn’t be stopped once started, or it’d just fizzle out—and that, stopping it, would require more than one person. From a spellcasters perspective, that wasn’t really the best design unless you were doing something like this, and additionally went to great lengths to hide it… like whoever set this circle up clearly had. Most people didn’t have enough mana to affect such a large area, and I doubted the kind of fugitives we’d been hunting lately would be capable of such a feat. Anyway, when Tommis and Welles came back empty-handed, I must have had quite the smirk on, ‘cuz Tommis got really upset. But maybe that was just because he’d caught me screwing with it.

In my defense, I just wish he’d trust me more. I hadn’t run us wrong yet. Didn’t plan to.

“Kennick, do you think it wise to tamper with odd magic circles found in caves? Behind illusory walls, no less?”

“…Look, while you were gone, I figured out some stuff. Trust me more, okay? I’m not gonna blow us up, or something.”

“I know that,” he gave. “Just… exercise more caution with these things, won’t you? Now, what did you uncover?”

When I told him, he just nodded, then knelt down beside me.

“As you know, I have greater than average mana capacity – if you are certain spending mana on this is a good idea, then I shall oblige you.”

“So formal.”

Seriously. You’d think we hadn’t known each other for years with the way he talked to me.

“What was that?”

The traces of a smile played at my lips as I bemusedly replied, “Nothing.”

“Why do you want to meddle with this thing, anyway?”

Oh great. Now I was losing his support.

“I just wanna see what’ll happen, to be entirely honest with you. But-“

“No,” he sharply cut me off. “Do you not remember what happened last time?”

“This won’t be like last time.”

“You said that back then, too.”

“…..come on, Tommis.”

“Fine. But this is the final time.”

And so, we set to work. Welles didn’t do much, sat on the floor with his axe beside him, snacking and drinking as we started. He couldn’t do much, magic-wise, to begin with, so just to set the record straight, it wasn’t like I was complaining or anything.

The idea was simple; if me and Tommis poured mana into it at erratic intervals, we might be able to interrupt the circle’s natural flow of mana, which would then cause a cascading effect and basically cause the thing to shut itself down. Essentially, if one piece lost power for even a second, the rest would fall apart fast. It was a surprisingly fragile thing when you thought about it.

After a few hours, we figured out the right rhythm, and a few short bursts of mana later, a crystalline crack echoed throughout the room. The runic carvings in the circle were breaking apart, the connections snapping like twine and fading away, faster and faster until nothing remained. As if it had never been there to begin with.

Tommis glanced over at me, a weary look on his face. “Satisfied?”

I shrugged. “Yeah. Thanks, Tommi.”

“I’ve told you not to call me that,” He snapped, rising to his feet and wiping sweat from his brow. Without waiting for a reply, he stomped off, grumbling, “Honestly, what a waste of mana…”

“Ah, Tommi, wait up!” That was Welles, running unsteadily after him. To my dismay, Tommis didn’t have a biting retort for Welles calling him that. Why was I the only one not allowed to call him Tommi? It was a perfectly good nickname.

I ruminated on that as I stared at the blank area on the floor where the magic circle had been.

“Wonder what it’s purpose was.”

With nothing left to do, I followed Tommis and Welles back through the cave.

#

Back in my village, there was a saying; “Even the smallest action can make a monumental difference.”

When I’d found that circle, when me and Tommis were deactivating it, I never once thought this would happen. It was an unimaginable sight. I’ll stop beating around the bush: The blizzard had stopped.

“Whoaaa-hoh!” Welles exclaimed. “You broke the blizzard! That’s gotta be a new best for ya, Kenny!”

“Uh…” My mouth felt dry, my throat tight. My fingers had taken on a slight tremor—as I gaped at the clear sky that had been a grey sheet mere hours ago.

“Oooh, I can see it now!” He continued, rubbing his hands together with a grin. “They’ll afford us well at the guild, I wager! Gold aplenty for this feat, the three heroes who stopped a thousand years blizzard!”

…How was I supposed to process that we’d done that? That on a whim, we’d accidentally stopped a blizzard that had raged for countless generations? And why the hells was this blizzard linked to a magic circle to begin with? In hindsight, I suppose it made sense, what kind of blizzard naturally raged for a thousand years? My companions spoke, but I didn’t hear them. Not until one turned to me and forcibly shook me from my stupor.

“Let us return to Hamelan, posthaste.” Tommis began, level-headedly. He wasn’t about to let any of this get to his head—not when we’d have questions to answer, papers to fill out, etcetera, etcetera…

Return, we did. It wasn’t an easy journey back – rounding out to about three months total - , since we’d come on foot, but we made a few stops in villages along the way, as well as a one days rest in Leln. That day had been fun, got to eat and drink. Then we rented some horses and took them the rest of the way to the capital city.

Before long, we were passing through the grand gates of Hamelan, safe once more inside the colossal walls. Then to the guild, who were just as shocked as we were. Word on the street was that the blizzard had stopped, but there hadn’t been any formal investigations done on if those rumors were true or simply that, rumors, yet. So our word was the first trustworthy bit of proof that the blizzard really had been stopped. Although we hadn’t completed the original quest, we’d done something far more profound, so the guild was willing to waive the job for us. It probably helped that, now that the storm had cleared, the government could begin sending dispatchments of knights down there to clean the place out. In essence, we weren’t needed for the job any longer. I had mixed feelings about that, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

Last on the list was to meet with the aristocrat who’d supplied our party the job to begin with. Then we’d obviously have to deal with the horses we rented, but thankfully the guild could deal with that.

I’d always hated meeting with the bourgeoise. Nerve-wracking as all hells. I said a short prayer under my breath as we pushed past the doors to the excessively ornate office. I mean, it was really something. Garish was a good word here—who the hells needed a golden desk, golden lamp, golden… you get the idea. Unfortunately, despite my distaste for nobility, I was the party leader, which meant I was expected to speak first. He glared at me through a thin monocle; I gulped. Now or never.

“R- representing the B-Ranked adventuring party Spiral Blossom, Kennick Halfway, sir.”

“Hmph. And those two were, again?”

“Welles Surmount, sir!” He thumped himself on the chest as he spoke.

“Tommis Anderson, at your service.” He replied, dipping into a dignified bow.

“Very good. I trust this is important? I’m a very busy man.”

He didn’t look very busy to me. I had to resist the urge to scowl, and instead answer with as much politeness as I could muster.

“Er, yes… about the job you gave us. We…”

Elsewhere in Hamelan, news of the blizzard’s end had spread like wildfire. Criers for various papers, including the esteemed Hamelan Times, were out on street corners yelling, “Newspaper! Get your weekly Hamelan Times! South Kommodia’s thousand-year blizzard stopped by adventurers! Read all about it!”

Two young men walked side by side with an elf, and two birdfolk. They didn’t stop to get the papers—they were too caught up in the bustling stress of the capital, and their own thoughts and conversations.

Spiral Blossom’s tale did not end here, for the guild would soon recommend them for promotion to A-Rank, and Kennick would bear the full weight of his actions in a way none could have foreseen—he would be visited by the Fae in his dreams, and offer his name.

But that, is a story for another time.