Tenthé watched as Guardians drifted through the top of the cavern and deployed around the remaining Horde and House troops. The light on the ramp was blocked as a small contingent of soldiers from the College marched down.

They were led by Sgt. Finleon, and when Tenthé used his magic vision, he could see they were loaded for action. Their weapons and armor were glowing with swirling eldritch colors: deep red, purple, and others that had no names. It was impressive. He’d have to find out more about what all that meant.

The Horde and House troops had fallen back to their original positions. Tenthé watched as the College soldiers marched up the corridor between the two forces, then deploy to corral the dignitaries, who, uncharacteristically, were being quite accommodating. At least for the moment.

Once everything had been secured, Tomas and a crowd of other Magisters came down the ramp. After verifying there was no threat to their august selves, a number of City officials followed.

Nik helped Tenthé identify the newcomers. “Those are the Lord Mayor, High Consul, and some council members. The rest are mostly Heads of Houses.”

Eventually, Tomas and a few of the Magisters, plus all the officials, approached the leaders of the failed coup and started a reasonable and orderly discussion.

Not even close. They began with screaming, and it escalated from there. Nothing egregious enough to provoke the Guardians, but certainly right on the edge. The energetic discourse went on and on, with no indication it would wrap up anytime soon.

Tenthé was the first to crack. “Let’s get out of here,” he stage-whispered.

“What?” Nik replied. “Is it okay?”

“Why not? Might as well go. Nobody needs us.”

Nik looked at Isabell, then they both turned to George.

“Do you think that’s the best thing for him?” Nik asked Isabell.

“I can hear you. I’m crazy. Not deaf,” George growled.

Nik jumped a bit, then stated, “You’re not crazy. Just in shock. Remember training? They said it happens. If you stay here, I have no idea what’ll happen. They’ll probably all want to talk to us, especially Isabell. I don’t feel like it, and I would guess that you’re the same.”

He continued, “And, you know, if we go back the way we came, I bet there’ll be a chance to smash something. Work out your, I mean, our, issues.”

George paused, then surprisingly, agreed. “Right! Yeah! Smash stuff!”

He leapt to his feet.

Isabell looked at Nik with a question in her eyes. Nik returned her look and shrugged. He was just winging it.

When George jumped down from the boulder, Tenthé reached over and grabbed the caster from him. George resisted for a moment, then let it go. Tenthé stored it in a Pocket and the group headed deeper into the cavern.

Tenthé cast a stealth spell. Just in case.

Nik exclaimed, “Where did everyone go?”

“I just hid us,” Tenthé explained. “This spell is one of my better ones. I don’t use it much, you need to keep something in reserve. Doesn’t matter, we did okay.”

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“Really?” Nik exclaimed. “If we knew you had this, we could have avoided a lot of things. Like hiding under that god.” He made choking noises.

“What?” Isabell asked.

“You don’t want to know.”

“Oh yeah, I do!” For the first time, she was showing some emotion.

“No, you don’t.”

The argument went back and forth until they reached the hole they’d used to get into the cavern. Tenthé pulled back the stealth spell as George dove in, squirming out of sight. A moment later, sounds of fighting could be heard, along with George screaming at something, or possibly, nothing.

“Doesn’t sound like he’s dying,” said Nik.

“Nah,” Tenthé confirmed. “Give him some time. We can jump in if we have to.”

George kept on yelling. There was a great deal of discussion as to what he was saying, which, for the most part, remained unresolved. Eventually, he stopped. At that point, all they could hear was gasping. When even that died down, Nik called out, “George! Buddy! You okay?”

“Yeah. I think so. I’m… I’m covered in bug guts.” He started laughing. In a relatively good way.

Tenthé wriggled through the hole, with Nik and Isabell following. The room where they’d last fought the bugs was a scene of utter carnage. The walls were plastered with the smashed remains of bugs, and in one corner, a pile of bug guts was laughing.

Nik stared around. “How did you manage this? Fighting the bugs was hard for all of us together!”

“Not sure,” George answered, “I just lost it.” He paused, then added, “I hurt. Fairly certain I strained every muscle I own. And a few others.”

He chuckled, then groaned.

Tenthé asked, “Do you think you’re okay? I can heal you.”

“No, it’s alright. I need to feel it for a while.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

They continued on, retracing their route through the catacombs. A couple of times they ran into the big skeletons, but it was anti-climactic. Nik and Isabell blasted them, and when they were down, George would rush in and beat them into pieces, then into dust. And then some more. Everyone stood back to let him deal with things in his own way.

When the group reached the room where they’d begun the day, Tenthé leapt up and out of the hole they’d originally used to enter the catacombs. George reverted one of his weapons back to a rope, which Tenthé held as the others climbed out. No-one commented on this casual show of strength.

Nothing attacked while they made their way out of the old temple area, past the new temples, and on, through to the College. Before they entered, each of them took a quick dip in a horse trough, which felt better than using the cleaning spell.

Somewhat wetly, they headed through the passage to the kitchen.

All of a sudden, Tenthé halted as a barrier materialized to block the way. To his view, it wasn’t really a barrier, but the hand of the Guard. The massive entity leaned down to examine Isabell. From the Guard’s motions, he could tell that it was peering at things Tenthé couldn’t see. After a time, the hand swooped toward them. He, George, and Nik passed right through, but Isabell wasn’t so lucky; she was caught up and whisked away. Tenthé watched as the Guard strode off.

“What the heck?” Nik exclaimed. “Where did Isabell go?”

“Someone wants to talk to her, I think,” Tenthé guessed.

“Will she be okay?” asked Nik.

Tenthé shrugged.

Having no idea of what else to do, the group ended up in the dining room.

Nik was talking. “I keep expecting them to come for us. But really, when I think about it, no-one knows we were down there. Isabell’s the only one anyone saw, and they already got her.”

He stared at Tenthé. “And even I don’t know what you did when you wandered off into the Horde. Did you plan the whole thing?”

“Mmpfth?” he said responded, his mouth past full.

Nik sighed. “Never mind.”

He turned to George. “I’ve been thinking… things worked out too well. Us being in the right place at the right time and having just what we needed to do what we did. I’m willing to bet that Tenthé is as much someone’s pawn as we are. There’s more going on here than we can see.

“It’s like that old saying: Coincidence is the dirt that hides how deep a hole really is.”

“Maybe,” George replied. “But how come… never mind. Tell me, though, do you think that what happened to Isabell was part of some big plan?”

“Ah… I guess?” Nik answered. “Some god is involved, I’m sure of it. But, there’s so many of them. And even if it isn’t a big plan, then a little one. You never know.”

“Yeah.”

The conversation petered out. It had been a long day. Shortly afterward, they finished up and escorted themselves to bed.