By now I had quite an accurate mental image of these people: Bastian was going to keep rushing our adventure and getting us killed for the sake of his dear daughter, and Holdreda was more than happy to stand aside and let us die for the sake of her loot. Neither of them were people I wanted to have in my team, as it was obvious that the next one to die would have to be me for their plans to work. I didn't have enough power to betray them and escape, but my eyes were open.

We advanced through the temple, which had little more than plants and rotten furniture, until we reached a staircase that went down into some sort of basement with glowing runes on the walls and a large door shaped like a wolf's head. No orcs in sight, although their tracks were clearly visible in the stones of the underground room: blood had been spilled.

"Nice door, but won't open," I said, and Holdreda examined it squinting for a few seconds. She then said to Bastian:

"Is your daughter a sorceress?"

"Yes, we tried to keep her powers a secret, but magic isn't exactly subtle. How did you know?" he said, although his expression told me that he expected a specific answer.

"This door is a classic example of a bloodgate. It can only be opened by the blood of a certain lineage, but the heir must have enough magical energy to power the runes. The glow indicates that they've been recently activated."

"Yes, I've heard that before. You're a wizard, can't you open it again?"

"I'm afraid my blood isn't magical, nor do I belong to whatever lineage this is."

"Boring end, no more adventure," I said.

"No, we have to get through this door, whatever it takes. She's still in there!" Bastian said, and Holdreda replied:

"Yes, I would also love to know what this bloodgate is guarding. Do you happen to know anything?" Her tone made me think that she only wanted to confirm whatever rumor led her to these ruins in the first place, it was no mere curiosity. Bastian said in response:

"How's that important? We only need to get it open and keep killing those orcs!"

"Don't be so imprudent, we need as much information as we can get to figure out how to open it. Any secret passwords, passages, rituals?" said Holdreda.

"I know nothing of the sort."

"Then what does your daughter know?"

"Nothing! We did our best to keep her away from this, but that damned magic! It's like it has a mind of its own."

"It probably does. Did she have visions, nightmares? Did she speak in tongues?"

"She knew someone was coming to kidnap her. She saw the attack to the town in a vision, but nothing else."

"Interesting. Perhaps it is the work of fate?"

"I don't care whose work it is, I'm going to rescue my daughter. How about you blow up the door with a spell? Or you, help me break it down."

"Now, don't be ridiculous. If breaking it down was an option, a group of orcs would've been the first to try it, don't you think?"

"Then what? I don't see you coming up with any brilliant ideas."

"More information is good. We learn how to open door," I said, mostly out of curiosity regarding the loot that had everyone at each other's throats. Would it be enticing enough to make me want a piece of it too? Sadly, Bastian didn't seem convinced. He answered:

"I've told you everything, it's not a matter of how much you know," but I got the feeling he was lying.

"Then let's try this: if it's your daughter's blood it wants, yours must also work. You put in the blood, I'll hit it with a spell and hope for the best."

Bastian looked reluctant for a moment, but then agreed. He tore off a piece of his clothing that was soaked in blood from the fights and put it in the wolf's mouth. Holdreda charged up a spell and I saw a mage in action for the first time since I arrived in this world. Her eyes didn't glow and her voice didn't resonate, it was all a combination of words and gestures along with a few odds and ends from a pouch that she carried. Still, when the spell was cast, I felt a certain wave of energy that bounced back and forth in the room until it dissipated. The runes didn't glow any brighter, the door was shut and Holdreda looked frustrated.

"Ugh, there goes a spell for nothing. Pray we don't need it later," she said.

"It's the wrong blood. It must come from my wife's side," Bastian said, and Holdreda retorted:

"So you did know more. What is this about your wife's blood?"

"None of your business."

"Then this door will remain as it is," she said, crossing her arms. By that point I was tired of their banter and it was clear that Bastian wouldn't give away any more information, so I tried the only solution that came to my head:

"Blood on ground, it is daughter's blood. We use it, you cast spell. Give me sword," I said, and extended my hand toward Bastian. He gave me his sword and I used it to scrape some of the dried blood from the ground and carefully held the brown dust in my hands. I put it in the mouth of the wolf, along with dirt, orc blood, my own blood and whatever else might have been on my hands. They were dirty and sticky, don't think I was comfortable with it.

When everything was in place, Holdreda opened up a scroll, saying "This one has the lowest chance of being useful here." She cast the spell and immediately all the runes began to hum and shine, and the wolf closed its maw and swallowed what we'd given him. Then, it disappeared from the door and it slid open. I was mildly disappointed because it didn't howl, but it was cool nonetheless. Behind the door we found a long, dark hallway, then a staircase going further down and huge chamber filled with orcs.

They were moving crates, wooden beams, planks, rope and tools like it was a construction site, and in the center of the room stood a large monolith that they had tied with rope and were trying to mount onto a cart that was being built. Had they prepared all of this ahead of time? How did they get it down here so fast? They must've opened the door much earlier than we thought. We weren't spotted thanks to our careful movements, but it was hard to stay hidden in this place. We waited and observed from behind a column, but the darkness was only offset by the faint glow of the monolith, so it was difficult to see further beyond it. The thing was at least four meters tall and three meters wide, and it appeared to be secured by a slab of rock on top of it with four columns to support it. Chained to one of the columns was a young woman who looked exhausted, with her head sagging like she couldn't stay awake any longer.

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"There's too many of them, we'll get crushed if we attack now," Holdreda whispered. It was true, no doubt, but Bastian seemed to have more information:

"We'll have to use the guardians, but then it'll be a free-for-all. You two distract the orcs while I activate the guardians, then we run up the stairs and hold our ground until we can get the door open again," he said, and I gave him a confused look.

"That your daughter? She in chains. How you save her?"

"We'll have to cut the chains before the orcs cut us down. Just give me a little time, I'll take care of it."

"Will these guardians attack us?" Holdreda said.

"Only if we don't get out of here quick," Bastian replied, and immediately snuck off into the darkness. Thus, this was the part where we all died to protect him and his daughter. Marvellous.

"I not like plan. We die for stranger girl," I whispered to Holdreda, and she answered:

"I agree, doing what he says is too dangerous, and he's clearly trying to hide something. He might stab us in the back as soon as we're out. I don't want to let that poor girl die, but I don't want to take her place either."

"You have idea?"

"If you drink this potion of invisibility, you can unchain her discreetly and then run away," she said, showing me a vial from her pouch which held a yellow transparent liquid.

"They see me carry girl, they know I am here."

"I'll cover you, just make sure to not bump into anyone or make noise."

"Fine. Give potion."

I drank the potion and it immediately turned me and all my equipment invisible. It was a bit confusing, since I couldn't see myself and had to judge distances by muscle awareness, but the difficulty didn't prove to be an obstacle. The orcs near the girl were making noise and focusing on their own jobs, so I was able to walk there without issue. I circled the column where she was and saw that the chains were shackled to her wrists and around the column. I got a flask of acid from my bag, distinguishable from the vial of healing by the shape and size of the container, and poured it on the chains. The faint grey smoke made me worry, so I looked around and took a step back just in case anyone had seen me. When the chains were melted apart, it occurred to me that the girl still had a long stretch of chain on each of her arms, which might make noise if I moved her, so I used the remaining acid to melt the chains as close as possible to her wrists without hurting her.

The entire process must have taken less than a minute, but having to be so careful made it feel a lot worse than it was. When I began to move the girl to haul her up, a thick mist appeared near me, blocking the view. At least that wizard woman had kept her promise. The orcs took a minute to notice that something strange was happening, but by then I was already back at the entrance of the chamber with the girl on my shoulders. When the orcs began to grab their weapons and shout, obviously saying something about the strange mist, Holdreda used another spell to create several moving lights near the monolith, inside of the fog. The orcs knew something was happening, but it took them a while to notice that we weren't in the fog. Meanwhile, we prepared to leave the chamber.

At that moment, we heard a heavy grinding noise and a strange rattling as shadows began to move toward the glowing fog. The orcs went crazy shouting and we could see them exchanging blows with a group of humanoid silhouettes, but we wasted no time trying to figure out what they were. We simply escaped upstairs and crossed the hallway as fast as we could, although we weren't the only ones who thought about that. Behind us, four orcs came running and soon caught up with us. Holdreda threw a spell without hesitation, and a vibrating mist of several glowing colors was sprayed from her hands. When it touched the orcs, two of them fell to the floor like they'd been knocked out, but the other two continued and attacked her. I was still invisible, and they must have assumed that Holdreda was using magic to carry the unconscious girl.

I simply kept advancing while Holdreda fought them, taking advantage of my invisibility. One of the orcs attacked with its sword and Holdreda grunted in pain, but still stood. She responded with another spell and one of the orcs fell to the ground after an invisible wave hit him. Seeing that only one was left and Holdreda looked badly wounded, I dropped the girl and charged with my spear. The orc didn't even react as his brain was utterly scrambled by a single attack. My invisibility wore off at that moment, and I wondered if it was related to my attack.

Holdreda drank a potion of healing and at that moment I realized that if such a potion had brought me back from the brink of death, it might also be able to awaken the girl.

"Finish off the unconscious ones, it won't last long," Holdreda told me, and I quickly put my spear to their necks one by one. Better safe than sorry.

"Give potion to girl, we need blood to open door," I said, going to pick her up again.

"You're right, let's do it when we reach the door."

Once we were faced with the wolf's maw again, Holdreda put her last potion to the girl's lips while I drank mine. She awoke instantly, but was confused, unable to stand up on her own and spoke incoherently. I prickled her finger with my spear and put it to the wolf's mouth for a moment, paying attention to its movements to remove the finger from its mouth before it bit down like it had done before. Just a drop of blood was enough to activate the door, and soon we were out of the hallway and back in the small underground room of the temple. We climbed the staircase without looking back and heard the door shifting behind us. It was unlikely that Bastian could ever escape at that point, hell, he was probably dead as soon as the skirmish with the guardians began, but who knew. Perhaps he had another bit of information that could save his life.

On our way out we passed through the room where Avem died, still full of corpses and reeking of gore.

"We need rest, bury Avem," I said to Holdreda while helping the girl to walk.

"No, no, we should leave this place as fast as possible, rest and resupply back at Brimbrom," answered Holdreda, but I replied:

"I tired, can not. Girl tired, can not. We need rest. You go alone." She seemed to ponder for a moment, and finally said:

"Fine, you're right. I'm almost out of spells and that orc nearly killed me, a bit of rest would be good. They won't come back up, right?"

"They can not. Wolf is hungry."

"You're right, let's rest for a moment. Ugh, this room stinks!"

I set the girl down sitting against a wall and went to pick up Avem's head to join it with his body. Among his equipment was a shortsword that I didn't take, his armor and a stick that looked like incense, but much thicker. I asked Holdreda, she told me it was a smokestick, so I put it in my bag. The girl had fallen asleep again, perhaps due to some form of torture inflicted by the orcs, and Holdreda was sitting in a corner with her spellbook in hand. I sat next to her and asked:

"What you do now?"

"I must prepare to come back here, we were so close! Do you know what that monolith was?" she said.

"No idea."

"That's what I need to find out. If those guardians are still roaming about when we come back, we're going to need much greater force to deal with them."

"Is monolith why you come here?"

"Of course! You might be looking for battle trophies, but I'm searching for something much greater. The Academy needs this discovery. We must absolutely return."

"Need girl for door."

"Yes, I'll take her with me back to Surom, we must find out what she knows," she said, getting up and walking toward the sleeping young woman. It was my first time hearing the name of the city where this whole adventure started, a bit odd. I got up as well and stood behind her as she crouched to examine the girl.

"Is sorceress different than wizard?" I said.

"Indeed. Wizards like me learn magic through years of hard study, but sorcerers are an entirely different matter. They are born with magic in their blood, no need to practice, no study, no preparation. Another breed, and a very rare one," she said without even looking at me, almost like she was talking to herself and salivating over the prize she'd just caught.

"She has mark on neck, that magical?" I said. Of course, it was a lie.

"Where? Perhaps it--" Holdreda said until I ran my spear through her neck. She fell to the ground and I pierced her again, this time through the chest, just to make sure that she wouldn't use a weird spell to come back to life. Now I had become a traitor, what a strange feeling. Dread, regret, excitement all together. It was too late to turn back, even if I had to face harsh punishments for that sin. My only option was to confront whatever may come with courage.

The Academy must not be allowed to learn about this adventure, or about my part in it. All witnesses were dead save for the girl, but I hoped she wouldn't remember anything. I waited for her to wake up so I could show her the corpses and tell her the sad story of the losses we sustained and the pain we endured trying to save her. After two hours of waiting, during which I looted and re-looted the corpses, that's exactly what I did. She saw me moving the bodies of Avem and Holdreda, I let her watch as I performed some improvised burial rites and covered them with leaves, then I turned to her and said:

"You awake, good. Have only orc food, sorry. You can eat, need energy for travel. We go back to Brimbrom."