“We could wear stilts and walk over the traps!” Leo suggested enthusiastically.

“What do we do about the misty stuff, and even more, do you know how to use stilts? I sure don’t,” the Envoy countered. “And where would we get the material to build them? Anything magical would be detected. Hells, I’m pretty confident that stepping on a ward with stilts would still make it explode, just like a foot would. I vote we place this little butt nugget onto the stupid pile.”

They were long past “No idea is a bad idea”. The Horde was quite competent. Therefore, according to the Envoy, sneaking into the City was virtually impossible. So, they were brainstorming ideas. After reviewing the typical approaches, they had devolved into gimmicky ones, hoping for a stroke of brilliance. But thus far…

“Are you sure we couldn’t just blast our way in?” An asked. “Tenthé could probably make a really big boom.”

“We’ve already talked about this,” Elishua responded with exasperation. “An explosion, or something like dropping a boulder from the skies, won’t have much effect. Everyone in the Horde is extremely hardy, and the Mentor is there to resurrect any who die.

“Leo and the Envoy tried a diversion. The warriors are too well trained. Sure, some would be pulled away, but not enough. And the traps and detectors are still a problem.”

She sighed. “Everything we learned in the College is… too simplistic. I don’t know what else we can do. Plus, if we manage to get past the Horde, we still have to find some way into the City. It’s shut up tighter than a…” Elishua broke off, sending an embarrassed glance at Magister Grenville.

The simply Magister laughed, causing Elishua to turn even redder.

“So. Let’s see what we’ve got,” the Envoy said as she began ticking off things on her fingers. “Going over them: out because both sides are shooting at anything that flies near. Plane walking: not all of us can do it and we’re not sure who, but someone, probably the Mentor, has that shut down hard. Digging a tunnel: out. Takes too long and we don’t know how deep we’d have to go or if the wall wards ever end. Distraction: out. Fighting our way in: maybe as a last resort. Stilts, disguise, rats, bats, dragons, and… dresses.” At this, she glared at An. “Too stupid to mention.

“So far, sneaking in is our best bet, but that’s exactly what the Horde expects. Next is trying to lure in some big beast from the Wilds. A bit iffy because we don’t know how, and it’s just another type of distraction. Third is to negotiate a pass. Really, we have no idea if it’ll work, but let’s give it a maybe?

“Lastly, a combination of distraction, fighting, and sneaking, which is probably what we’ll have to do.

“Is that it? Any more ideas? And shut up, An.”

Tenthé added, “If we have to fight, I’m sure one or more of us will be killed or captured. With all that’ll be going on, I can’t cover everyone all the time. It’s not that I’m worried about myself, but some of you won’t make it.”

“Uh, why don’t we just send in Tenthé, then?” Yu suggested.

“Actually,” the Envoy responded, “That’s not the worst idea. The dresses is. The rest of us could travel to another city or we could go back to my homeland.”

“Well… let’s not give up even before we start. But, I agree, that we could do. Without Tenthé we’d have to stick to the main road, but if we joined a caravan, we could probably make it to somewhere. We could return once the Horde’s cleared out.”

“But that could be years!” Leo whined.

“Yep,” the Envoy answered.

Tenthé was torn. He had many more options, but most would be hard on everybody else. If he went full dominator, the Horde warriors were their favored troops because, once the Mentor was eliminated, they were quite suggestible. It was a large part of why they were hated, other than the whole pillage and convert stuff. He had several choices if he decided to fight, but he wasn’t sure how the City would respond, and there was still the likelihood that this approach would cost lives.

But, there was an alternative.

“Um, is it okay if I say something?” he asked. The others turned to listen.

“I have an idea, but… well, I don’t know. If we get closer to the Heart, then I think it is possible to get in. Or, I mean, I can make it so each of us will be able to find our own way into the City. It’s like that.”

This less-than-thorough explanation left everyone confused, although the Magister appeared to be more concerned than confused.

“What?” Tenthé asked her.

“Well, I’m not going to second guess you, but I can’t help but caution against this approach.”

“What in all the Gods’ Hells are you two talking about?” Leo demanded.

“Getting closer to the Center. You’ve been introduced to it in my class. It’s possible, but dangerous. Or rather, as dangerous as you believe it to be.”

“Said like a true seer,” Leo mocked.

The Magister continued, “I think he’s suggesting we follow a mystic path. We travel near to the Heart and once we reach the right place, we’ll be able to walk into the City.”

“What? If it was that easy, the City would be undefended! Anyone could get in. You two are idiots!” Leo declared, sounding more like the old him.

“I agree,” the Magister said, surprising everyone. She turned to Tenthé. “This is a path that only a few can traverse. You have to be completely sure of yourself. If not, you won’t come out. As it stands, we’ll have… losses.”

Tenthé fretted a bit about revealing more of what he could do. The next part would be iffy. Internally, he went back and forth while the rest of the group waited.

Finally, he started, “I… uh… there’s a way for me to make everyone sure of themselves. No doubt at all.”

This was met with looks of confusion. The Magister’s wasn’t one of them. She gave Tenthé a hard stare.

“Oh, really? You can do… that?” she asked.

“Um… yeah.”

“That’s worse than fighting the Horde! In what crazy universe do you think you can get away with what you’re planning?”

“Small amounts are okay. But you’re right. It could go bad.”

“Bad?” the Magister laughed shakily. “For an ordinary Magister, it might go bad. For you, it would be… the end of everything! Everything! How do we know you won’t lose control?”

“Um… I’ve already done it a, uh, couple of times on this trip. Maybe more.” Tenthé was a little shaky on the meaning of “a couple”.

“What! I hope it was very, very important!”

“Yeah, it saved our lives and helped fix,” he glanced at Leo. “And, well, there was the burro.”

“The burro! You did it to a burro! You risked everything for a burro! What. Is. Wrong. With. You!”

“It all worked out,” Tenthé mumbled.

“My gods, my gods, my gods!” was all the Magister could say.

The rest of the crew watched this byplay, having no idea about what was going on. To them, it appeared that the Magister was just discovering that Tenthé was dangerous. For a few of them, it may have taken a while, but for the most part, they’d already figured it out.

At this point, Tenthé was smart enough to shut up. Any more details would only work against him.

The Magister stood, working through a few issues. After a moment, she took a deep breath and addressed the group. “Humph. I looked through what I could see. It appears we do have a choice. A very dangerous choice!

“Tenthé has a way to make most of us safe… uh… safer for a trip near the Center. It messes with your minds, but I suppose… well, assuming it works, we’ll be able to get through to the City. I am not terribly happy about it, but I admit, reluctantly, mind you, that it could work. Will work. It’s just that I’m rattled to discover a… something like this, in existence. Here. Now.”

“Hah!” laughed Leo. “Aren’t you the seer? Didn’t you see it?”

“No. I didn’t,” the Magister responded. “Not at all.”

“Well, it has to be better than fighting the Horde, doesn’t it? What do we have to do?” Leo asked.

“First, we need to find an entrance. Not just a tunnel, but the start of a path that lets us get closer to the Heart. I mean, the Center.” Tenthé answered. “I’m pretty good at finding passageways, but out here, I don’t know. The Wilds might be a problem.”

“What about the mines?” Elishua suggested.

“What mines?” Leo asked. “My family owns a bunch, but there’s nothing special about them, except no-one wants to work there because it’s hard. And filthy.”

“No, not the mines, but the mines!” Elishua responded. “The old mines!”

Everyone looked at her like she was crazy.

“You’ve never heard of them? They’re scattered about, but not near the City. Out here in the Wilds. The ones I’m talking about have figures carved in the rock near their entrances. Everybody keeps out because of the voices. I mean, people go in, but when they hear the voices, they leave. Fast. Nobody knows who dug them. Even being out here in the Wildlands, they’re stable. They don’t change like everything else does.”

She stared around, then asked, “Really? You truly have never heard of them?”

It appeared that no-one had. She went on. “Okay, I guess. Since I grew up on a farm, maybe it’s something only we know about.”

Tenthé thought that there was more to it than that. Much the same as the Old God’s temples, somebody, sometime, wanted these mines to be forgotten. If they offered access to the Heart, that might have been a problem for certain beings and their plans. Even if using them wasn’t exactly safe.

“Do you think there’s a mine like that near here?” the Envoy asked.

“No idea. Our farm’s on the other side of the City, somewhere over there.” She pointed in a direction. “There might be more, but that’s just a rumor. The only one I’ve seen is ours. It’s in a gully. You can’t see anything unless you’re right on top of it.”

“Let me say it, I am completely opposed to doing this,” the Magister declared, stopping all conversation.

Leo turned to her. “Okay, that’s your opinion,” he said. “But I have to admit, if Tenthé says he can do it, I’m inclined to believe him. Sure, you helped us get away from Angel City, but we could have made it on our own. On the other hand, Tenthé’s pulled our butts out of the fire more than once. I vote we give it a try.”

It was obvious the Magister was in a minority of one. She didn’t push it.

“So, how do we find these mines?” the Envoy asked.

Everyone stood around, looking at each other. After a moment, Tenthé spoke hesitantly.

“You know I see magic. But more than that, I can see other things, if magic bounces off them. It’s how I can look through walls. But usually, it only works for things that are close. Sometimes, if I’m watching something and a big spell goes off, I can see even further. But there’s a problem. Some of the time I get too much, all at once. The good news is, out here, it’s almost all sand and rocks. I should be able to make out a tunnel, if it’s not too small.

“And, I would need a big burst of magic for me to see enough. And by big, I mean huge. But it might work. What do you guys think?”

“Of course you can do something like that. But, no. A big burst of magic is sure to bring the neighbors over,” responded Elishua.

“We could do something and then run,” Leo suggested.

“Um, what about when the daily show’s going on?” the Envoy asked. “If the City and Horde are in the middle of a fight, then there’s a chance that no-one will know it’s us.”

“Yeah, but if they do figure out that the magic’s coming from over here, that would be bad.” Elishua argued.

The Envoy wasn’t listening. After a moment of thought, she let everyone in on her thoughts. “Tenthé said he sees by ambient magic. What if he uses the energy from the daily battles?”

She turned to Tenthé. “Do you think that would be enough?”

“I don’t know. To see into the ground would take a lot of magic. A lot! I mean, sure, we can try it. But…” Tenthé was squirming.

“Okay,” Elishua began. “I can tell you’re hiding something. What is it? Out with it. Since we’re already sharing, what’s one more stupid little thing?”

Instead of talking, Tenthé pulled a small rock out of his robe. He examined it for a second, then put it away and brought out a bigger one.

“To see underground, it’ll have to be pretty big boom,” he said. “I think this is a little bigger than the others. It should work.”

“What are they?” Elishua asked. “Where did you get them?”

“Oh, I know a guy. They were left over from… well, never mind, it was a big battle. I can tell there’s still a lot of magic left in them, ready to be let loose.

“I suppose,” Elishua admitted. “If we time it right, we could set it off when there are lots of other things going on, and it’ll look like just another combat spell.”

“I don’t know,” the Envoy began. “If one of us has to take it close to the fighting, they’ll be detected. Same problem we’re trying to solve.”

But then her expression changed. “Wait! That’s not true. There’s no reason for any of us to go. I have the perfect thing! It’s something I’ve been working on. Shield me.”

Tenthé covered her as she started casting. What she was doing was strange. A big white bird formed on the ground in front of her, but then it began to stretch. As it grew longer, its head and neck shrank and disappeared underneath the feathers. The body kept growing longer and longer until it was at least a couple of paces long, with many pairs of wings and rows of different kinds of bird feet.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

“There. Done!” the Envoy said with a flourish.

“Hm. That’s certainly… unique,” the Magister responded. “What is it?”

“I wanted something that could fly really high and not fly away. Without a head, it works quite well. Um… if it doesn’t flip over.”

Tenthé looked at the bird-creature. Some of the feet had large talons that should be able to hold the rock.

“Yeah. Might work, if you’re sure you can control it.”

“There’s no head. I have to control it.”

“How soon before the fight do we have to get this thing of yours in the air?” Tenthé asked.

“That’s the good part! I made it to stay up all day and fly so high it’s nearly impossible for most beings to see. I wanted something to spy with.”

“How can it do that with no head?” he responded.

“Yeah. I’m still working on that. But, for our purposes, we can make it to go where we want.

“So, if we set it off now, will it be able to flap around until we need it?”

“Uh-huh, just as long as it gets up there. Sometimes other birds attack it. It has talons, but without a head, I have to control them, and that doesn’t work very well.”

Elishua spoke up, sounding a little strained. “So, we’re going to let Tenthé try to find a hole in the ground using the noise from a battle, and if that doesn’t work, we’re going to drop a magic rock with an untried spell, and have Tenthé attempt to look at everything in an instant, with no assurance he’ll be able to make any sense of what he sees. This is one great plan.”

“Hey, so what?” Leo chipped in, surprising everyone. “You got anything better? At least there’s a chance it’ll work, and if it doesn’t, we’ll still be here to do something else.”

“I suppose,” Elishua admitted, grudgingly.

While Elishua had been ranting, or rather, pointing out issues, Tenthé held the stone against a talon, and with some concentration, the Envoy made the bird-thing grab it. Tenthé pulled reasonably hard, and once he was satisfied the stone wasn’t likely to come loose, stood up. When Elishua found Leo to be the only person listening to her, she joined the rest as the Envoy bade them keep back. Then, with a scurry of many feet, the creature started running across the plain, flapping its wings madly.

“I thought it was supposed to fly,” Leo said, after a moment.

“Wait for it.”

As it was about to disappear into the distance, the creature began to rise. Slowly, very slowly, with its long body snaking back and forth while its wings flashed in no discernible pattern.

“That has got to be the stupidest thing I’ve ever seen,” Leo muttered. “Looks like a drunken caterpillar having a fit while dancing.”

The creature kept rising and circling, going up and up until it was nearly impossible to see. Obviously, the Trachteur had better sight and lower expectations than most humans, because the Envoy said everything was looking good. She directed it to circle back to the City.

“You know, we could probably drop the stone now and let it lie on the ground. Just another rock,” Leo suggested.

“Yeah, but to be safe, let’s do what we planned,” Tenthé responded. “That way, if someone notices anything, it’ll be too late.”

Everybody crept over to the outcropping and settled in to watch the City and the Horde. As the morning dragged on, the kids weren’t even trying to look as if they were paying attention, instead, were making figures out of belly button lint. To tell the truth, the rest were watching them.

When lunchtime rolled around, the group ate, keeping as quiet as possible. More time passed, and a couple of hours later, the battle finally commenced. The Horde flowed into defensive positions behind bulwarks they had erected by hauling in large rocks and piling up sand and dirt. Then the City’s massive gate opened and a number of companies of soldiers marched out, followed by mounted troops. After the horses were the magic casters maintaining a casual formation.

The Horde began casting various spells at the open gate, but some sort of shield prevented any of the opening salvo from penetrating into the City. From the outcrop, it was difficult to make out anything except chaotic movement. The troops on both sides surged back and forth, with flashes as spells were cast and shields deployed.

It was apparent, though, that neither side had an advantage, the fighting went back and forth with no-one achieving any significant gain.

Large weapons appeared on the top of the City wall, hidden until now by false fronts or stealth spells. As they opened up on the Horde, the warriors responded with their own heavy weapons.

If nothing else, the light show was spectacular. It was probably being paid for by lives from both sides, but from far away, it was fascinating. Distant booms and cracks could be heard.

Tenthé was playing with his imaging. The results were not very good. The noises were not terribly powerful, but the biggest problem was that both he and the explosions were close to the ground so everything was clumped together.

Tenthé turned to the kids and whispered, “Fall back. I need you to hoist me into the air. I have to get higher to see more.”

After crawling a fair distance into the Wilds, the three of them rose and stood together, hidden by stealth. An and Yu then grabbed Tenthé and tossed him a few body lengths above their heads. Unfortunately, he was rolling head over heels. After plummeting down, he got up and had a little discussion with the kids.

The next time, with the kids standing on either side of Tenthé, and after another fairly energetic discussion, each took hold of a knee and an elbow. At an unseen signal, the kids threw Tenthé straight up so he was facing the City. At the top of his travel, he paused for longer than normal, then when he came down, the kids sort of probably-on-purpose missed the catch, but that was to be expected.

Tenthé looked at the images he’d obtained. They were okay, but showed mostly surface features. For better detail underground, they needed a lot bigger boom.

Tenthé made his way back and sat next to the Envoy. “We need to use the stone,” he said. “And it should go off above the ground. Not too high, and not too low.”

“So, about thirty degrees from here?” the Envoy asked, then realized who she was talking to. “About there?” she pointed.

Tenthé shrugged. “I guess. If you show me where the rock is as it falls, I’ll set it off when I think it’s right.”

Then he had a thought. “Are you sure you’ll be able to see it from here? I know your eyesight is good, but is it that good?”

“Of course. We Trachteur are vastly superior to humans.” From her tone, she was serious. Although, in this case, she did have a point.

“Okay, then. I’ll wave when it’s time to drop it. You point at it as it falls.”

Tenthé returned to the kids, who got into their throw position. At his signal, they tossed him into the air, where he lightened himself until he was stationary. After a moment, he waved at the Envoy.

She pointed nearly straight up and held her other hand out with all the fingers extended. She curled them in one at a time, counting down, and when they were all in, her other arm began to drop slowly, indicating where the rock was.

When it was at the spot he thought would be good, Tenthé set off the boom.

A massive flash came from the sky over the fighters and everyone in front of the walls fell down. Tenthé’s shields reduced the brightness, but in the aftermath of the explosion, all he could see was a wall of dust speeding their way.

Tenthé was wondering what it was, when the wall passed the outcropping. Suddenly there was the loudest noise he’d ever heard, and shortly afterward, he found himself tumbling through the air, heading into the Wilds. He made himself heavier, and after touching down, rolled a fair distance. When he stopped, he leaped to his feet and ran back.

Using battle vision to counter the dust, he could see the lumps of his companions at various distances from the outcropping. Hopefully, there weren’t any serious injuries.

He passed the Envoy as she was getting up. Her small size had caused her to travel much further than anyone except Tenthé. She waved him on.

As he ran past them, the kids fell in behind, yelling, “Do that again! It was fun!”

Next, Tenthé came upon three more lumps. One was Elishua, who was shaken but okay. Beside her, the Magister and Leo were emerging from their coating of dust. Tenthé walked over to the Magister.

“I’m alright,” she said. “Just give me a moment.”

She sat up, sipping from a teacup. “What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t really know. That was bigger than I thought,” Tenthé replied.

“What do you mean?” Elishua demanded from beside him. “It was your spell!”

“Well… the guy I got them from was a little crazy. He set one off to show me what they could do, but it wasn’t anything like the stone we used. I thought they were all about the same.”

“What? You didn’t test it? Are you insane?” Elishua yelled. After that, most of the others began yelling at him too, so he turned and trudged back to the outcropping. The rest of the group followed, still being quite vocal in spite of the danger. Tenthé could tell the kids weren’t being serious. They were yelling just because everyone else was.

Nearing the rocks, the yelling died out and everybody crawled the last few paces to various spots where they could see what was happening outside the City. As the dust settled, it was possible to make out both sides moving around, with some figures being carried away. The Horde was tough and the City soldiers had shields, so most of the damage was minor. Relatively minor.

“You know? If we had known the effects of that spell, we could have snuck in while everyone was down!” Elishua hissed in his ear.

Tenthé didn’t answer. The past was the past, but… yeah. She had a point.

Around the City, both sides were pulling back. Odds were that there would be a lot of finger-pointing, but hopefully, neither side would figure out what had really happened. The blast didn’t appear to have affected the City, since the walls were still standing and the gate was shutting behind the last of the stragglers. Tenthé guessed that without magic the damage would have been significant. Even so, it appeared that the bulwarks that the Horde had built were entirely gone.

Tenthé figured he might want to be more careful with the many handfuls of similar rocks he still was carrying. As he recalled, the guy said they might be a little unstable too.

Deciding to look at the picture he got, Tenthé turned over and lay on his back with his eyes closed. What he could see wasn’t normal pictures, more like a bunch of lines and blobs he couldn’t understand.

“I have something, but it’s different from what I thought. I can’t figure it out,” he told the others.

“What you’ve got has a lot more depth information than what you see normally,” Elishua said. “I’m sure you’ll make sense of it eventually, but for now, I have some experience at analyzing data like that. Strangely enough, it was from when you came into the College with your head all banged up.

“Let me look at what you have. If it’s okay, I should be able to get it from the front of your mind. Don’t worry, I won’t look at anything else.”

Most people would be worried. Tenthé wasn’t most people. He felt Elishua’s feeble probe and shoved the images at her. She collapsed to the ground, out cold.

“Oops,” he said. A few moments later, she began to revive. She made it to a sitting position and held her head in her hands.

“Ow,” she managed, then looked up. “Hey, don’t everyone leap to my aid, or anything.”

No-one appeared too apologetic, mostly because she was being a bit cranky. Like normal.

“Oh, this is good,” she stated, after some internal rumination. “There is quite a lot, much more than I expected.” She glared at Tenthé. “Do you have access to this level of information all the time?”

He declined to answer.

After a moment, Elishua returned to business. “It’s preliminary, but there are several possibilities. Let’s go look at the closest and find out what’s there. That will help me refine my analysis.”

Not waiting, she began crawling into the Wilds. Everyone else followed. And, once they were far enough away, got to their feet and began walking. The spot Elishua was aiming for wasn’t exactly close, especially since they had to circle wide, then crawl back toward the City. Eventually, a small gully appeared in front of them.

“What is that smell?” An whispered. It was fairly ripe, and as the group made it to the edge and looked over, the smell turned into a stench.

“Yee-ach!” the Envoy gagged, “Sewage!”

Everyone hastened backward, away from the gully.

“That is truly disgusting,” Elishua said, voicing everyone’s opinion. “I thought the City disposed of all its sewage!”

“I guess not,” Leo answered. “More importantly, we ought to get out of here before we all stink like that! Even a dead dog would be able to find us!”

“Sorry about that,” Elishua whispered once they were far enough away to huddle together. “I have a better idea now of what we should be looking for. On to the next?”

A rhetorical question, since she started crawling back out into the Wilds until it was safe to get up and continue on. After a half hour, they were close. Leo was volunteered to go ahead and to check it out. What he found was a small crevasse with a few large boulders, but no mine.

The third time was the charm.

“There’s a nearly filled tunnel, but I can see some sign of carvings on the rock. We’re going to have to do some digging, and… the place feels kind of weird.” Leo stated when he returned.

The group advanced and found the crevasse to be much deeper than expected. Most importantly, it didn’t have a sewage pond at the bottom. The walls had partially collapsed, but the top of the tunnel could be seen and, sure enough, there were rough carvings in the rock.

“I don’t recognize the glyphs,” the Magister informed the group. “Which is odd. I am somewhat knowledgeable about ancient scripts, since what I see when I’m meditating comes in all sorts of forms.”

Tenthé cast a shield over the depression as everyone climbed down. Once they reached to bottom, the Envoy trotted over to the mine entrance.

“Looks like we need to do some digging,” the Envoy said, with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. She started in with her front claws.

“Oh, yes,” she purred. “This is good dirt.”

She kept going, with the dirt coming back through her legs.

“You two, start moving what she tosses to the side,” Elishua ordered the kids. They leaped into action.

“Is she purring?” Leo asked as he watched.

“I think so,” Tenthé responded.

“Is she going to pee on everything when she’s done?”

Tenthé shrugged.

It took a surprisingly short time to remove the blockage. The dirt had barely filled the entrance, and the team of the Envoy and the kids were very fast. Once she finished, the Envoy plopped down on one of the piles of fresh dirt and then proceeded to roll around in it. Apparent to all, she was really enjoying the process.

“Almost makes me want to join her,” Leo said to the kids, who were staring too. The display was quite sensual. No doubt the Envoy knew the effect she was having.

“Okay boys,” Elishua decreed. “Show’s over. Let’s go see what we’ve found.”

In passing, she kicked the Envoy. “Stop that. You’re being obvious.”

The Envoy got up, stretched and followed Elishua into the tunnel, not repentant in the least.

The group huddled up after a few steps. Although the distance to the mouth was short, it seemed like they were suddenly much deeper in the mine than they should be.

“Oh, yes,” the Magister whispered. “this is the spot.”

Tenthé agreed. He could hear the beating, but it was extremely faint. “We still need to be nearer,” he said, then generated a light. The tunnel didn’t actually go very far, after a few paces, it dead-ended at a rough pile of boards. Moving closer, it was obvious that they covered a shaft. When An put his foot on one it creaked, but held. He stepped on and stopped, and when nothing happened, he bounced up and down a few times.

“Seems solid…” he began, then with a crack, he disappeared. Tenthé rushed to the edge and looked down. Not surprisingly, all he could see was black. Crashing noises echoed up and went on and on, slowly fading as An fell.

When Tenthé tossed a light into the hole, it descended quite a distance before revealing more planks bracketing a large gap left by An’s passage. Far below this, another floor could be seen.

Yu was jumping up and down, “Me too! I want to! Please!”

Tenthé shrugged and Yu jumped. He dropped to the next level, but missed the opening and landed on the edge. He rolled over to the hole and plummeted through, laughing the entire time.

“Are we going to follow?” Elishua asked. At this nod, the Magister cast her float spell on those who needed it, and everyone drifted down, with Tenthé being the last. Far below, the kids could be heard arguing.

“I made the biggest crater!”

“No way! Look here; that’s deeper!”

“No! You just poked it right now!”

“Didn’t!”

“Did!”

Crashing noises followed.

When Tenthé reached to bottom, he found everybody watching the kids. They had each other in headlocks and were trying to rip any protruding bits off each other’s face. He didn’t really pay attention, the heartbeat was strong and the voices were whispering.

“Stop that!” the Magister ordered in a tone that couldn’t be denied. “We’re in a perilous place! You need to be aware!”

The kids reluctantly complied and stood beside each other. Their clothing looked a little worse for wear, but, as usual, they were unharmed.

After taking a quick look around, An yelled, “Hey, wait! I know where we are! I can see from here!”

“What?” the Magister asked, looking confused.

“Is it okay? Can we go? Please?”

Both An and Yu were bouncing up and down, pulling on each other.

“Uh,” the Magister began.

“Alright! Bye!”

It was very strange. The two kids ran down the passageway, getting smaller and smaller while going off in different directions where there should have been walls. Dim sparkles whirled as they disappeared from view.

Tenthé had never had the chance to watch, before. What he saw looked similar to the place he often went to with the Guard. Maybe they were related?

“Hmm, what are An and Yu?” The Magister mused. Tenthé didn’t know, he called them faerie, but that covered a lot.

Elishua and Leo appeared apprehensive. Tenthé remembered his first time walking near the Heart. As far as he could tell, he’d made it through okay. But, you could never be entirely sure.

With a glance at the Magister, he felt the coldness settle in as he edged himself into the right frame of mind. It took a gentle touch, but he smoothed out Leo and Elishua’s fears. The Envoy didn’t have any. He would talk to her before she left.

In a soothing voice, the Magister addressed the pair. “Pick a place in the City that you would like to go to. Somewhere familiar and peaceful. Keep your destination in mind, but don’t force it. Simply regard it as an intent. The voices are nothing. Ignore them and keep going. The exact path you take isn’t important. Don’t stop and really, hold your thoughts loosely. Time doesn’t matter. When you near your goal, you’ll know, and will reach it when you should.”

After what Tenthé had done, the two were completely receptive and at ease. From his viewpoint, he watched them choose destinations and start walking. He had no doubt they would be okay as they faded out of sight.

The Magister turned to him, “I thought you were full of crap, but you were right. They’ll make it. I don’t see you going nuts either. I am afraid to admit it, but… I’m out of my depth.”

With that, she vanished, traveling her own path.

Tenthé faced the Envoy. Peering at her mind, he found that she wasn’t human, not in the slightest, and somehow, he knew she was much older than he had assumed. Without a word she dropped to four feet and raced away, going in a kind of direction Tenthé had no experience with. Must be a cat thing.

Tenthé soothed the dominator back to quiet, not gone, but simply an aspect of himself. He took a breath, calmed his mind, and started walking. Everything was good. The sparkles swirled, the voices beckoned, and the path opened before him.