Dmitri rose early but let Antonio sleep for a while longer. Dmitri had spent the night tossing and turning and had awoken bleary eyed, his sleep had been a troubled one, dreams full of bears and fire and darkness and demons, no doubt brought on by the priest's tale yesterday. He went down to the taproom to get some supplies for the day from the innkeeper. They gathered sacks of provisions and some sturdy staves to help them up the mountain. Just as they were tying the bundles, a tousle-haired Antonio appeared in the doorway.
“How did you sleep?” asked Dmitri, knowing that they’d both need to be alert during the day.
“I practised the shielding after you went to sleep last night. I can do it every time now,” replied Antonio.
“Ah, excellent.” Said Dmitri, “That is very good to hear. You’re going to need that a lot today. Once we reach the section in the cave where the disease is entering the water, the disease will be present in the air and could easily infect us if we’re not prepared.”
Antonio’s eyes widened at this and he opened his mouth to say something but Dmitri cut him off, “Don’t worry; we’ll both shield each other as well as ourselves, just in case something happens.”
They broke their fast the way they normally did on a day of much magic with simply some bread and water. The innkeeper had panicked and been horrified when Dmitri had asked for water, but once he had handed it over, Dmitri had cleansed it. As a kind gesture to keep them through the day, Dmitri also cleansed a few barrels of water for the innkeeper. After this basic meal, Dmitri and Antonio gathered their things and bade farewell to the innkeeper and all of the patrons. A chorus of well wishes and thanks were heaped upon them as they left.
Dmitri and Antonio hiked up the snowy mountain path towards where the priest had said the cave was. The wind threatened to both crush them against the cliff-face and send them hurtling to their deaths, but after much toil, they at last reached the shelters with the flames. Peering inside, Dmitri saw that the flames were still burning strong, the caretaker for today looked up and saw him and nodded in respect. Dmitri recognised him as one of the men that had been at the Inn the day before. At Antonio’s insistence, they rested for a few moments, and chatted idly with the man before Antonio was ready to continue on again. When Antonio was ready, they left the meagre shelter and continued towards the cave, which the man in the hut had assured them wasn't far. Sure enough, they reached the cave a short time later. It was an ominous black hole in the side of the mountain. Flowing out, gently but strong was the river that gave the village its water. Instead of the pristine clear mountain water it should have been, it was a foul cloudy liquid. Dmitri could smell the taint emanating from it. Calling out to Antonio, who was peering into the cave excited and ready to go, Dmitri said, “Come and smell the water.”
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“What?” asked Antonio with a bewildered expression on his face.
“You can generally smell a disease,” explained Dmitri. “It usually smells,” he paused, looking for the word, “wrong. Yes, I think wrong is about the best word I can think of to describe it. I’ve known a soldier that hid a festering wound because he didn’t want a priest to inspect it. His fellow soldiers ended up complaining about the smell. They ended up having to take his leg off.”
Antonio nodded along as Dmitri explained, but was left wide eyed after Dmitri mentioned the amputation. He sniffed the air. He could instantly tell what Dmitri was talking about. He mentioned this to Dmitri.
“Yes, the mind is a tricky thing, unless it is made aware about some things, they might as well not exist because it will not let you see them as such,” replied Dmitri. “Now wait here a moment, I want to be sure it is safe,” he turned towards the cave. He stepped inside and was quickly plunged into darkness. By rote, he drew the glyph for fire with one hand and over this the cloud-like shape of an air glyph. Nothing happened. Confused, Dmitri did it again; still nothing. Frowning, Dmitri exited the cave and looked around, clearly looking for something. Antonio watched him in confusion for a moment and then he realised what Dmitri was looking for; the runes that Father Marcus had spoken of. They must have been preventing Dmitri's magic from working, so Antonio joined the hunt. After a brief search they found them; the runes were scarred so deeply into the stone that Dmitri couldn't help but think of generations of villagers making the journey up here each year, braving to venture past the fires to ensure the runes were still here, and carving them ever so deeper, just to be on the safe side. Dmitri, regretting that he must now undo their toil; set about doing so. He traced the area with fire glyphs until it began to glow red with the heat. He then drew a large earth glyph to encompass the entire area. The carved runes bubbled and gradually smooth out leaving no trace that they had ever been there.
“Was that a good idea?” asked Antonio. “What about the demon?”
Dmitri laughed, “Didn’t you hear the description that Father Marcus gave? It was a bear. We have nothing to fear from a ‘demon’”.
Even though Antonio could hear the inflection on the word demon, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy.
With the runes now gone, Dmitri asked Antonio to wait outside again and entered the cave once more and again drew the fire and air glyphs. This time, a small ball of flame appeared in the air, it seethed around the inside of a ball of air, creating a portable and safe lantern. Satisfied, Dmitri called out for Antonio to come in. He came in lugging their packs. Dmitri slung his pack over his shoulder and gestured in front of him and his lantern started bobbing along ahead of them. They continued through the cave, following the low gurgling of the river beside them. If the path veered away from the river for too long, it was simply a matter of stopping and listening for it and they would find it again.