“Why would we not murder him?” She asked.

“Because he might be stuck here too,” Lefty replied.

“But why would that bother us? What does it matter if he’s stuck here? It’s a game. We’re all stuck in a game and I … I need to kill him for … like … the obvious reasons and stuff.”

“But what if we’re actually here?”

“What do you mean?”

“What if we’re actually here and this isn’t all just a bug that some engineer is going to fix?”

“You don’t know that.”

Lefty let out a sigh of exasperation and set down the tool kit. “Exactly. I don’t know that and I don’t know if I don’t know it. So we’re stuck here wondering if we should actually be killing this guy or if we should be trying to talk to him. What if he knows something we don’t? What if he’s able to tell us what Concept is doing? What if he doesn’t know? What if he’s in on what they’re doing? We’re not going to find out any of that if we just run up into his lair and slice his head off with that sword of yours.”

She let herself breathe for a moment. Just say he’s right and move on. She held her hand through the bars of the cage. “You’re right. We can see if we can take him prisoner and maybe interrogate him first, or something.”

Lefty gave her a stern look, “And then what?”

She wiggled her fingers, “And then I’m not making any promises.”

Lefty looked down at the tool kit and then back at Calista. “I’m still not sure I should give these to y-”

A rumble shook the cavern as a hidden stone door began sliding open on the cavern’s left wall. The door was about half way up the wall’s face and once it was all the way open, an orange glow appeared and grew brighter and brighter until a tongue of lava fell out over the rock and splashed against the rocky floor.

“Okay, forget everything I just said,” Lefty said as he pushed the tool kit through the bars and then let go as they floated through the air and into Calista’s outstretched arms.

“I’m glad to see we finally agree on something.” Calista grinned as she searched for her lock picks.

Another mass of molten rock fell from the opening, and then two more drips and then the stream of glowing red rock came out strong and steady. Soon, glowing red lava was flowing between the rocks and stalagmites as it crawled across the cavern.

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Calista fell against the door as she went to work with her two best lock picks. Focus lady, or you’re both going to burn. Feeling with her picks, she closed her eyes as she tried to visualize the lock in her head. One tumbler … two … almost there … got it. Setting the last tumbler, she turned her picks as the lock clicked open.

She rushed over to Lefty’s cage, grabbed the lock and found it identical to hers. She had it open in seconds. As she pulled the door open, Calista spotted something climbing down the side of the far wall where they had entered. A troll! More of the monstrous soldiers had already reached the floor where a captain was marshaling them into a formation. Then an archer spotted them just as Lefty climbed out the cage and as they rushed across the cavern, the twang of bowstrings sounded behind them.

The lava was oozing into the middle of the room, but they ran around it. Arrows fell around them as they hurried between the stalagmites and rocks. Then they reached a pair of giant wooden doors where Calista grabbed one handle and Lefty grabbed the other. They both pulled as one and the door groaned but did not open.

An arrow clattered against the wall. And then another, and another.

“Duck!” she cried as she jumped behind a rock.

Two more arrows wizzed past and a third thunked into the door. Seconds later, they could hear the boots of the trolls clamoring over the rock. She looked to find Lefty tucked behind a pillar of rock.

“Okay, what do we do now?” She asked.

He shook his head, “I don’t know? Is there another door?”

Then she remembered the hidden doorway that she had used to first enter this room back when they had been on the first floor. Back when they had first been separated.

“This way,” she said as she jumped out and ran along the wall.

The mage close behind, she bounded over the rocks. One arrow zipped past her leg as another narrowly missed her head. Then something punched into her the small of her back. Great, an arrow wound, she thought as the pinching and burning pain began to work its way through her body. She let go of the mage as she clutched her side.

“You’re hit,” Lefty said as he grabbed her arm and threw it over his shoulder.

“Yeah, I’ll make it to the door,” she grimaced.

Holding her with one arm, the mage turned and three white hot bolts of magical force flew from his finger tips. “And do you know how to re-open the door?”

“Not yet,” she said.

Twice they jumped over a finger of the molten rock. Luckily, their side of the cavern was mostly dark which clearly impeded the archers who’s arrows snapped and clattered against the rock as they ran. The lava was nearly across the cavern now, forming a barrier between them and the trolls who were trying to hustle their way around it.

The arrow had gone straight through her, again. Every time she breathed, she could feel the air drain out of her chest. Do I have a punctured lung? Is this what that feels like? She could feel the blood as it streamed down her back and onto her legs. Lightheaded and woozy, she felt herself swoon and she caught herself by putting her hand against the wall. I need to stop and heal before I drop. She reached for her belt pouch, but then realized it wasn’t there. I don’t have my gear. I’m going to die.

Staggering forward, her arm over Lefty’s shoulder, they reached the edge of the torchlight where Calista stopped to shake the cobwebs from her head. The blood loss was getting intense.

Lefty had already begun searching the wall. “Is this is?”

“Yeah, there should be a trigger here somewhere,” she said.

“Can you see a trigger anywhere?” Lefty asked.

“I don’t know, can you?” She replied.

“I’m trying but I’m not the Delver,” he said.

Well I’m not really one right now, either, she thought. She tried the torches. She searched the wall. She searched the rocks along the path. Nothing.

Lefty was looking through the rocks near the path. “Are you sure there’s a door here? Are you sure we’re on the right side of the room?”

She looked back over the room. The lava was creeping fast toward them. Way in the other corner, she saw one of the trolls jump away from the lava as his cloak had caught fire. He fell to the ground as two of his fellows rushed to help him. Most of the trolls were trapped on the other side of the lava, but she counted a dozen that had made it across. They had to escape, and soon.

“I know how Blake thinks,” she said, “ he’s too paranoid to design a hidden door that didn’t go both ways. He always had an escape plan and then a backup to the first plan just in case.”

Lefty leaned against a brazier mounted to the wall. “Well what if his backup plan for this room was to keep someone from going back out the door?”

She shook her head, “That’s not how he … wait …” Then she noticed the brazier Lefty was leaning on was bent away from the wall like a lever.

The mage noticed it the same time she did. “Oh hey!” Lefty exclaimed and then pressed the brazier all the way down and in response a slab of stone sunk in from the wall and slid aside. If Calista hadn’t been in so much pain, she would have laughed.