Gisthan took another look at the scrawled map, and decided to keep walking a while more. The proportions were a bit misleading, but he was quite sure they were still going the right way.

“Wait,” Lena told him hesitantly.

“What is it?”

“I think it was one of the King’s wards,” she pointed at the wall.

The old burned marks were definitely the same shape as other wards closing the infected area of underground. Which was weird, since they were already in the restricted area. Could it be that the immortal asshole did take extra contingencies while making those? Too bad he didn’t care enough to check if those didn’t interfere with drainage system of the rainwater channel.

Gis took a small scroll of paper and put it at the edge of the ward. Delicate hiss of concentrated mana has slowly started leave the ward just like the hatch they entered underground. An outline of door started to show up in the wall, but the process was even slower than before. He wanted to force it open, after the stone rectangle would start moving, but he was painfully aware of the dramatic gap between the pick of his power, and a flicker of fingers of the man that made this.

Finally, the space in the wall became wide enough to squeeze through. Five enchanted lamps came to life, and did their best to give the place a bit more light. Gis didn’t turn off his own lamp, as those attempts were didn’t seem to get many results. The equipment must have been installed after the lock down, but it clearly wasn’t used in a long time. Gisthan was actually more surprised that the door even opened, than the fact that Kaihil managed to bypass King’s warding. All the things he would normally be ecstatic to study, now didn’t interest him in slightest. Right now all he could see was the figure laying on some kind of ancient altar.

When he moved closer, his lantern showed him the dark stains of blood on Alta’s clothes. He kneeled next to the altar, and put his hand on her forehead. Cold. A stabbing pain made a sound somewhere deep inside him. So cold. He turned to Lena who was just leaning over her friend’s body. He couldn’t even try to imagine what she must felt. Gisthan wasted most of his life taking dangerous jobs working with dangerous people. By the time his brother has died in the flood, he didn’t have enough humanity to properly grief that lose. Those last years made him a bit more human, but that girl was a different story. For someone who already lost everyone, seeing the last piece of their life…

*Slap*

The sound echoed through the underground tunnels for a while, followed by a deep silence. Gis stared at her not knowing what to say.

“I…” she started losing the fire in her eyes that was there just a heart bit before. “Kaihil said not to let her die again.”

He nodded in agreement. He could feel Alta’s pulse going up a bit, but her eyes were still closed. Gis took of his cloak and covered her, and then summoned a vile for his inventory, hoping it would be enough. Her reaction was quite underwhelming. After having the vile put under her nose, she should have jumped, or at least jerked away. Alta barely moved her head, and he had to keep annoying her for a while, before she became semiconscious. Just as he was considering using something more risky.

“Hey. Are you finally awake or not?”

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“Hmm.…?”

“What is square root of sixty-four?”

“Em… eight…”

“Good. Drink this,” he handed her a flask with - not so hot anymore - chicken soup.

Too bad an Inventory can’t keep the temperature of an object for too long, but it should still warm her up. Some color has already started to come back to her face.

“So,” she started after finishing the soup. “Why do you have numbers floating over your heads?”

***

“Dead?”

“Yes,” both Gis and Lena answered for the fourth time.

“And this is…?” She looked around the strange room.

“According to Kaihil,” Gisthan started explaining. “This should be a forgotten chapel of some god. Maybe even a forgotten god. It was made by The Guardians before founding of the city. Your parents were quite religious, you should know what it means.”

Alta took a look at the ring on her hand. It wasn’t there when she escaped the temple. Or rather tried to. She had a hard time belying Gis’s explanations, even whit those new eyes of hers.

The Resurrecting Ring of Dangerous Life.

“That some expensive gift,” she managed to say.

“As soon as you get better, we will be going to give it back to him, so that won't be a problem. How do you feel right now?”

“My body is numb. If I was actually laying here for two days, I could imagine it will take some time before getting back to normal.”

“Take your time. Just don’t fall asleep.”

She nodded in agreement, and tucked herself tighter in Gis’s clock. The stiffness in her body was actually almost gone, but she was afraid to move, not trusting her own senses. All the stories about resurrecting rings, were quite discomforting. Old lines of power have changed enough for them to have problems doing their job. Being transported to some abandoned chapel, after getting the ring placed on her finger when she was practically dead… It couldn’t go well.

Alta didn’t take long, and despite Gis ensuring her, that she can take her time, it was obvious that sitting on that creepy altar would not make her any better. Which was good, as they left the underground through the basement of the city archive, which was just about to close - not very convenient place for an entry point, if someone asked her. Getting to the entrance of the ‘safe’ part of underground took them around an hour, which forced Alta to reconsider, her previous statements, about being ready.

Getting back to the guild grounds they meet more people than usually at this time of the day. K’hal and his people were celebrating clearly something. It seamed like at least someone had some luck the last few days.

“Alta!” She heard Nix.

She hugged him and greeted their hunter standing over the railing of the upper floor.

“He’s watching over Kaihil,” Nix explained. “We didn’t really trust him after what happened. Especially after his explanation.”

“Where is he now?”

“He rented a storage room from the guild, to test whatever he managed take from our little escapade. It feels strange to know, that we were just a distraction. And the worst part is that, he seems to have some serious prizes in there.”

“Wherever he took them from, it couldn’t be more difficult than our job.”

“That what I’m telling myself, but…”

“Let’s just take the money, already!” Ult interrupted him.

“Don’t be so impatient,” Gis scolded him. “We had to make sure that Alta is alright. Now we can give Kaihil some time to test the artifact.”

“I would rather not wait to see what he can make with it. When I checked on him last time he was already preparing ingredients, and I could recognize most of them quite well. I think he is going to poison us.”