Venjimin’s maps proved imperfect—as expected—and resulted in a lot of back-and-forth flying across the land before Mark spotted the mine’s entrance.

Set on the side of a mountain overlooking the remains of a settlement, the mine’s mouth was a small clearing with a couple of abandoned mine carts almost entirely buried by snow.

Mark had almost missed the site at first, only just spotting the former settlement’s foundations and a crumbling stone temple through the snow. Turning his ship toward the ruins, he flew over at low altitude and just barely managed to spotlight reflecting off the edge of an old mining cart.

This has to be it.

The spot was close enough to where Venjimin noted, and the cave tunnel delving into the foot of a mountain with a short terrace overlooking the once capital of a major barbarian clan was exactly as described.

There was barely enough room, and the throne ship took up almost the entirety of the little terrace when Mark brought it down into a shaky landing.

“Alright,” Mark said, pulling his hands free and dismounting his cockpit chair. “Looks like we’re here.”

His crew unbuckled as he walked toward the hatch. Mark waited for them before opening it. He wasn’t sure what awaited them in this abandoned mine and figured it was probably a good idea to have everyone ready before opening the hatch, just in case.

“What are you doing?” Mark eyed Elowen as they worked through a pile of belongings.

“Getting my things,” Elowen replied as she stuffed books and trinkets into her pack.

“Do you really need all that? It could be dangerous in there.”

Elowen looked up with a glare that softened into a forced smile as she caught Mark’s eyes. “Fine, I’ll only take a few things.”

What an obviously fake face.

“Are the rest of you ready?”

The two mercenaries nodded and grunted, swords drawn and held at the ready.

“Yes, sir,” the acolyte smith apprentice barked, straightening into a salute.

“Ye, I am, boss man,” one of the students Venjimin sent with them said.

Okay, that’s new.

“Good,” Mark waved toward the hatch. “Let’s get a move on then.”

Icy wind whipped up around them as they stepped out of the throne ship. Mark waited at the mine’s mouth; his hand held slightly up at the ready while waiting for the others to gather around.

“Only got two notepads,” Elowen huffed, stepping up to Mark’s side. “We better not make a too valuable discovery. I would hate to miss the chance to record what we find.”

“You can always come back, Elowen.”

“I’m not sure you realize how busy I am these days. I just have to hope the acolytes I left in charge don’t let the whole thing fall apart while I’m gone.”

“I’m sure they’ll do a fine job. We also have Venjimin’s cartographers here. We'll be fine.”

“You call them cartographers?” Elowen narrowed her gaze on the two scruffy-looking feral students as one of them picked his nose down to his knuckle. “Can they even read?”

“You know what? I’m not sure,” Mark said. “But I trust Venjimin. If he thinks they can get the job done, I’m sure they’ll be fine.”

“Suuure, if you say so,” Elowen said.

“Alright, alright,” Mark turned around to his party. “Are we all ready?”

A variety of affirmatives followed, and Mark stepped toward the mine entrance.

"Let's see what this thing has for us."

The party at the entrance lit several touches, fighting back the dark and revealing the narrow passage beyond, but Mark kept his hands free. He wanted his lightning at the ready.

A few dozen yards in, they came to a rotting timber wall, the remains of a door once connected to it lying on the ground with mushrooms growing from its rotted wood.

“It's certainly been a while since anybody came down here, from the looks of it,” Mark mused as he stepped through the passage.

“Creepy,” Elowen said as she followed.

“Human remains,” one of the mercenaries said, poking a skeleton sitting against the cave’s wall with his sword.

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“Not very reassuring,” Mark muttered. “At least it looks old. Let’s keep moving. Whatever happened to this person clearly happened a long time ago.”

“Right,” the other mercenary said, knocking another skeleton over with his sword and following.

The tunnel continued for a couple of dozen yards before opening up into a larger cavern, which the path continued to skirt around the edges of as it spiraled down.

They walked the yard-wide ledge with a rock wall to their left and a drop that disappeared into darkness to their right. Rubble slid under Mark’s foot as he stepped, sending several pebbles and small rocks tumbling down to the cavern beneath and freezing him in place.

“What happened?” One of the ferals asked.

“Shhh,” Elowen hissed, turning back to the man at the rear with a finger pressed against her lips.

Mark listened for a long moment before whispering, “Let’s continue. I'm fairly certain the mine is abandoned anyway.”

At least, I hope so.

The rocks took a long time to hit the ground, and the echo they sent back sent a chill tracing down Mark’s spine, but nothing else happened, and there was no sign of anything living down here, so he continued to walk cautiously.

The path continued to wind down, tracing the cavern's wall several times on its spiraled pathway to the bottom.

Elowen swallowed, and Mark turned to spot her shivering. It wasn’t warm down here, but they were dressed for a Frontier winter, and it certainly wasn’t as cold as the surface.

“You okay?”

She shook her head and tightened the book she held to her chest.

Torchlight illuminated old mining carts and skeletons, but they spotted no weapons or any signs of a fight.

Maybe they were just left down here or something… or maybe these are the remains of ferals that sought refuge in the cave and passed away peacefully. It is pretty cold out in the Frontier; there wouldn’t be anything particularly strange about that.

“Okay, we may as well set up camp here while we test samples,” Mark said, turning to one of the Imperial mercenaries. “Go collect more wood from the ship. We’ll set up a fire here,” he added, pointing to the cavern's center.

“Will do,” the man nodded, dropped the gear he had brought with him, and turned to make his way back up the path.

Elwoen set her own equipment down, brought out a book, and began writing down what they had found so far.

“And you, can you start the fire?” Mark said to the second mercenary.

“Yes, sir,” the man said, albeit with a tinge of snarkiness that set him apart from the acolytes.

“You two,” he turned to the ferals. “Start mapping out the cave and how we got here, but keep an eye on our surroundings, okay?”

The men nodded, and Mark turned to the young apprentice smith. “Check the carts for rocks containing metal. We’ll see what we can learn of the mine from this chamber and then consider investigating the deeper chambers based on what we find.”

“Yes, sir!”

Mark hoped he was right about the mine being abandoned because they didn’t have any means to fortify the cavern. If something was down here, it would mostly be up to him to defend the party.

The mercenaries did rounds up and down for a few hours, bringing their supplies down into the mine.

Mark didn’t care about trying to hide the ship. They had spotted no signs of life near the mine or abandoned settlement above, and every bit of information they had said that the wargs were gathered into the armies that were attacking the south, so there was no reason to suspect anyone attacking from above.

None of that calmed people and the unease in the camp was undeniable, but once the fire burned brightly, spirits rose a little.

The apprentice gathered and cracked rocks, visually inspecting them. He poured vinegar onto some of them and checked the reactions as he tested their worth.

“So, how’s it going?” Mark asked.

“There’s definitely metal down here,” the apprentice nodded. “But I suppose we already knew that.”

“And? What kind?”

“I see signs of both iron and copper so far, but there could be more around.”

“Great. That's a good start.”

“Yes, but the thing is, that only proves they were mining it. Without going into the shafts, we won’t know how rich the remaining deposits are.”

“Right, I should have expected as much,” Mark said. “How far away is supper?” he continued, turning to ask the mercenary working over the pot by the fire.

“Not long,” the man shrugged. "But don't rush me. It'll spoil the broth."

“Looks like food is close. Alright, we’ll eat and recover a little then we can delve into the shafts and find out what this place has install for us.”

“Imperator,” Elowen ran from a corner of the chamber. Come, you need to take a look at this,” she waved him over.

“What is it?”

“Just come look,” she nudged her red curls toward where she had been writing notes.

“Alright,” Mark nodded and followed her to the cavern's edge.

Pointing the torch she held at the wall, Elwoen pointed out colorful drawings along the wall. “See this?”

“What am I supposed to be looking at?” Mark said, eyeing the cave wall drawings.

“Cave drawings, obviously. But look how primitive they are.”

“Yes,” Mark nodded. “And?”

“Barbarian artwork might not be as advanced as ours in the Imperium, but they don’t look like this.”

“They don’t?” Mark furrowed his brow.

“No. Absolutely not. I’ve read about cave art like this. Imperial scholars think it is the work of ancient civilizations. Long before anything we built.”

“Okay…” Mark said slowly. “And what exactly does that mean? We are in a cave. Is it really surprising that some ancient civilization once lived down here?”

“Yeah, but that’s the problem. These drawings are not ancient. Look,” she said, pointing at the canyon-like material flaking away from the wall. “See this?”

“I do.”

“You don’t get this on ancient artwork. These shavings are from whatever they used to paint the wall. Now, do you see how the shavings hang to the drawings like this? It means they are fresh, relatively speaking. If this was thousands of years old, they would have fallen away by now, leaving a somewhat smooth surface.”

“So, you think some primitive creatures painted this wall recently?”

Elwoen shrugged. “I’ve no idea. I just know it isn't ancient and I doubt a feral drew this.”

Mark turned to glance around the chamber.

"Could they still be here?"

"That's what I want to find out," Elowen said.

"What do you mean?" Mark swung back around to her.

“I better go get the rest of my books from the ship. This could be the discovery of a lifetime,” Elwoen said, waving as she ran toward the path leading up and out of the mine.

“I thought you were scared?”

“I was,” she said. “But an inquisitive mind needs to be strong,” she turned to nod. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

Just when I thought she couldn’t get any weirder.

Mark turned to the half dozen shafts that were connected to the central chamber they were within. The idea that some primitive civilization might be down here set alarm bells ringing, but he also couldn’t just walk away from this potential asset. Too much was riding on this trip. It was exactly what they needed.

Damn it, we’re going to have to see this through, aren’t we?

Exhaling, Mark thinned his gaze as he looked around. Suddenly, he go the feeling somebody was watching them and it gave him the creeps.