After noticing there were no explosions like he’d expected, Ben stopped covering his head and peered at what was going on. He saw Eliot standing tall near the mage that was sprawled on the floor. There was nothing on fire, nor any damage was visible in his surroundings. Feeling he was no longer in danger, Ben stood up with some difficulty, his knees weak and threatening to give up at any time.

Coming out of her daze, Liza hurried to the corpse and grabbed his arms, lifting him up. The others could only see the middle-aged man’s body hovering in the air in awkward fashion, causing a sense of discomfort in their stomachs.

“Ben, get over here quickly, we need to hide the corpse.”

“Wait a sec.”

Perceiving the urgency of the situation, Ben checked five rooms before discovering one that looked like a study. It had a big desk near the wall, a couple bookshelves, a beverage cabinet, a gigantic fireplace and two antique sofas. Of all the chambers they had checked so far, this one looked the most promising.

He then rushed back to help Liza out. With much hesitation and forcing his head to look the other way, Ben grabbed the legs of the deceased wizard and lifted him up.

[Damn, he’s dead! I’m touching a dead body, urgh. I got to tell her about the study, focus. Let’s go over that one, it’s the study.]

“Let’s go over that one, it’s the study,” he said, signalling with his head.

“Ok, up we go. Come here Eliot, follow us.”

They went inside, locked the door and rested the dead body against it. Liza gave the place a quick glance then approached Eliot with a worried expression.

“I’ll take a look at Eliot’s injury, you should start searching around for the passage. The battle was rather silent and the aftermath not that messy, even so I don’t think we have much time before things get troublesome. Let’s hope what we are looking for it’s in this room,” said Liza.

Ben nodded and began scrutinizing the walls and furniture. He shuffled around the objects on the desk, finding nothing out of ordinary. He opened the drawers, poking around for false bottoms and other hidden compartments. He did find one, but it only contained a document and a key. He then searched the surface of the desk in its entirety, looking for switches or suspicious crevices, but to no avail.

On the other side of the room, sitting on the couch, Liza was grimacing at Eliot’s wound. The spell tore through the chain mail, leaving behind a long and somewhat deep cut on his abdomen. Imagining what would have happened were he not wearing armor, she shuddered. Taking the best medicine she had on hand, Liza smeared generous amounts of greenish paste on the cut, covering it carefully with bandages afterwards.

“Did you find anything yet?” she asked.

“Only a parchment and a key, I doubt they are instructions from getting out of here though,” Ben replied, holding the document in the air.

Liza grabbed it from his hands and gave it a cursory read. It was just a bunch of jumbled nonsense to her, nothing that made sense or constructed a coherent sentence. She put the text back on the desk.

“It’s encrypted, but you’re probably right. Must be some of the earl’s secrets or business dealings, it’s useless. I’ll help you look around.”

Feeling confused, Ben looked at the parchment Liza left on top of the desk. He couldn’t understand why she was just discarding the document like that. Not taking the opportunity to learn something a noble felt the need to keep hidden was such a waste, so he pocketed the document for later perusal.

After searching the place for a couple minutes, they couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary. No lever, no hidden switch, no conveniently placed book on the bookshelf that magically opened the way. They were growing tenser by the moment. That was when Ben’s gaze stopped at the humongous fireplace.

“Hey, doesn’t that fireplace look kind of exaggerated to you?”

“It’s kind of overkill, yes, but that’s nobles for you…” replied Liza.

“Yes, but it’s so big you could almost fit inside…” he said meaningfully.

They looked at each other, or at least, Liza looked at Ben while he gazed at the air to his side. With their hopes of finding a secret exit renewed, they carefully poked and prodded the fireplace.

“Got it! There’s something here on the chimney, wait a sec… wait… done!” said Liza ecstatic.

A low rumble came from the fireplace as it’s backwall retracted. It kept moving back until there was a space large enough on the ground for one person to go through, revealing a series of stone steps going down. Ben’s eyes were glistening, he couldn’t contain his fascination with this development.

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“So cool! An actual secret passage! Never thought I would see one…”

“What so you thought we would fail? It was your idea in the first place!” said Liza, flabbergasted.

“I know for a fact secret passages existed, there’s even some historic records of Popes escaping disaster by using them, so I thought we had a good chance. It’s just that even knowing that, such passageways always felt more mystical and fictitious than real, something you find written on a book or in a game.”

“There you go again, speaking things I don’t understand. Anyways, let’s get out of here!”

At the end of the stone stairs there was a pedestal upon which rested a small gem that glowed with white light, illuminating their surroundings. They found themselves in a crudely constructed tunnel. It had an irregular shape, like someone just half-heartedly excavated and compacted the earth around it. Wooden beams were placed at regular intervals, keeping the passageway structurally sound.

Liza took the gem nonchalantly and held it in front of her as the group started walking through the tunnel.

“Ah, I remember this gem! It seems way better than a torch,” said Ben.

“Oh, you’ve seen this before? Gems like this are not rare, but they aren’t that common either. I’ve been meaning to buy one, but I’ve never had the coin to spare,” replied Liza.

“Well, you have one now. I guess you just saved some cash.”

“What do you mean I have one now? This is not mine, I’m tossing it back in the tunnel after we get out.”

“What? No way!”

“Yes way! I’ve my principles, I don’t steal!”

Ben couldn’t help but feel admiration towards Liza. From what he could infer so far about this world’s society and class-based system, stealing something here and there or taking advantage of some less than noble opportunities were the norm. Heck, sometimes it was almost needed for survival, like was the case for Popis and the other kids.

Although he was still scared that killing came so easily for his new friends, at least he could rest better knowing they had higher moral character than most. From what he could tell by interacting with them and their previous talks in the past couple days, they were tough and rough, but not bad people.

“Look, up ahead there’s a branching path,” said Liza.

Stopping at the intersection, they examined their options. At the end of the branching path there was a small dot of white luminosity, while the way forward was completely dark. Both passages were filled with the same stale, stagnant air.

“It’s another entrance! I should have guessed, that bastard probably made many other entry points to this escape tunnel. Our chances of finding the right place were pretty good from the start, as it turns out,” said Ben.

They kept moving forward. So far there were no indications that they had been found out or were being pursued, which made them feel much more at ease. From time to time, another branching path appeared, signalling another possible entrance to the secret passage.

Long minutes later, all they could see was the endless earthen walls and it’s support wooden beams. Ben couldn’t help but let his mind wander as he gazed at the rough surfaces and rustic construction techniques.

[This kind of sucks. Even with the light gem this place is gloomy, narrow and cramped. The air is musty and leaves a weird taste in your mouth. Is that what miners usually have to deal with? It must be terrible. Uh? Why is there a yellow mark painted in that wooden beam?]

*Kacha*

The sound of a mechanical trigger releasing followed by grunts of pain echoed underground. Hidden behind the wooden beam, inside a hole in the walls, were two crossbows linked together by a small and almost invisible thread that Eliot unfortunately stepped on. It was a simple, but effective trap.

“Are you guys ok? Show me your wounds,” asked Liza worryingly.

“That’s why it there was that small yellow marking, fuck!” complained Ben.

Both Eliot and Ben were hit on the shoulder. The chainmail did a good job protecting them and the bolts didn’t penetrate deeply. Liza examined the projectiles against the light of the gem, finding them to be covered with a greenish crust. Frowning, she grabbed a flask from one of her pouches and dropped a small amount of liquid on the bolts, examining them attentively.

“The bolts were poisoned! Thank Mifros they’re old and they didn’t keep them proper maintained, so it shouldn’t do much harm. Take one of these, just to be on the safe side,” said Liza, giving them one medicine pellet each.

Now much more alert, the group kept walking. Whenever they came across wooden beams they would scrutinize them for weird markings of any kind. When they found one, they would take extra time and care to circumvent any traps or danger.

An indeterminate amount of time later, they arrived at the end of the passage. There were crevices on the wall, making a ladder up to a stone hatch on the ceiling. Liza climbed up and after exerting herself, managed to open it, making dust and soil fall on their heads. Outside there were bushes, trees and other vegetation. The secret passage exit was hidden in the woods.

When everyone was out, Liza tossed the light gem inside and closed the hatch. They then covered it up with earth and leaves, making very hard for anyone to discover the entrance. At this time Liza was finally visible again, the effects of the invisibility potion having run out. They couldn’t help but smile at each other and laugh in joy.

“It actually worked! Hahaha, well done Ben!” exclaimed Liza, slapping his shoulder with force.

“Hahaha, it did! They wanted to imprison me, but I’m free! Take that you bastards! Hahaha!”

Eliot and Boro didn’t know what was going on, but they joined in the happy mood. The laughter and rejoicing finally died down a bit and they returned to a more serious attitude.

“The tunnel was really long, and we should be a good distance away from the city, but we better not be complacent. Let’s rest for a few minutes, gather our bearings and move towards Kelna village. The elder is a friend of Paul’s, he should let us hide there for some time till things die down.”

Confused, Ben thought about asking who Paul was, but changed his mind. He was tense and tired. He needed to make the most out of this temporary respite before they departed again, because he knew Liza wouldn’t be too happy if he started to drag them down.

They rested for a moment, approximated their current location from the stars and, even though it was night, began their journey to Kelna.