"This is it?" Hina asked, peering down into the dark hole in the ground. "This is the place that was marked on the map?"

"I believe so. It's the only thing of note at this location. And it looks like the right place."

It was more of a chasm than anything else, really. A crack in the masonry of an ancient road, spread wide and deep into the earth. The yellowed stones went down for a metre or so, and under that, natural earth and stone stretched off into the dark.

The hole descended at an angle, but it was steep enough that they would need to climb down.

Bean croaked from above, perched near the top of a bare and blackened tree. "Bad hole," he said. He nearly blended in with the branches, until he spread his wings. "Bad hole."

This was the third site that they'd visited, the others had all turned out to be unsuitable, one way or another. The first cross on Olivia's map had led to a cave in the hills, but there was nothing inside. They'd spent hours looking before they gave up and went back to the caravan.

And the second site had been worse: there had been nothing there at all. Just a tree surrounded by an empty circle of stones. No cave, no buildings, nothing.

Kai had come with them to help look for the first two locations, but this time he had stayed behind. Something about a card game with some of the guards. Hina was okay with it really, he wouldn't be coming inside with them anyway—if they found something—so Kai might as well be enjoying himself.

Still, it was strange to be anywhere without Kai after so long. She kept turning around expecting to see him, but he wasn't there.

Compared to the last two sites, this hole was a lot more promising. It was at least something in the right location, and it was big enough that they could fit inside—maybe it even led somewhere like it was supposed to.

Only, it was a hole in the ground. And it was dark down there. And narrow. Hina wasn't entirely excited about the idea of going inside. It wasn't that she was afraid, so much as she'd prefer to face whatever danger might be down there with some room to move around. Not at the bottom of a hole. The thought of getting her leg caught on something while something like one of the huld was trying to eat her—well, she didn't want to think about it.

She wasn't afraid, exactly. Just cautious. She had an abundance of caution.

"You're sure that this is the right place?" Hina looked at Olivia, who was staring down the hole in the late afternoon sun.

"This is the place." Olivia's voice was tight. "I'm sure of it."

"And we aren't going to get stuck down there? We'll be able to get back out again?"

"No, Hina, we won't get stuck. And we're at the right spot according to the map. We haven't found any other ways in, this is the best chance we have. You aren't backing out, are you?"

"No." Hina frowned. "But how do we know there's anything down there? How can we be sure?"

They'd spent half an hour searching the ruined buildings nearby. The biggest one had a single standing wall that rose to three or four times Hina's height, and it had the remains of a staircase that led down into the earth, but it was blocked by a pile of rubble.

There was no way that Hina and Olivia could clear it without spending several days moving the fallen stone. And there was no guarantee that there would be anything down there anyway.

"We're just going to have to go down and see," Olivia said. "I think the big building there was a temple to one of the strange gods, and our site is probably below it—if we can get in, there should be all kinds of good stuff down there."

"Do you at least have a rope?" Hina asked. "It looks like we can climb down, but I don't know if we'll be able to climb back up again. Especially if we're carrying anything, or if one of us gets injured."

"Oh, yes. Of course. I have a rope somewhere here," Olivia said, rummaging through her satchel. "Yes, here it is." She pulled out a bundle of heavy brown rope, and Hina felt a pang of envy. Olivia's satchel would solve so many of Hina's problems. Maybe they'd find another one like it in the temple. If she was lucky.

"That'll help," Hina said. If they could climb back up, that was a start. "Is it long enough?"

"Yes, it should reach," Olivia said. She tied the end of the rope around the trunk of the tree that Bean was perched in, and then tossed the rest of it down into the hole. It fell into the darkness, and Hina couldn't see the end of it. "I think it's about twenty metres long, and it can't be more than ten down, right?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"Should be okay." Hina gave the end the rope a good tug, and it didn't budge. "I think we're good."

Now they just had to go down there. Hina looked at the hole again, and then back at Olivia. Hopefully Olivia wasn't expecting her to go first. She twisted her hands together, and then looked back at the hole.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

"I'll—" Olivia hesitated, looking down into the crack. "It's my venture. I'll—I'll go first," she said. "Are you ready?"

Hina nodded. Her hands automatically patted her belt for her her knife, her sling, her pouch of stones, Kai's hammer, and her purse. She tugged the strap of her backpack. She was ready. She nodded again.

"Thank you again, for doing this," Olivia said. "I really appreciate it."

"Of course. After you," Hina gestured down.

Holding on to the rope with both hands, Olivia gave it a tug. She hesitated for another moment, then began to climb down, supporting her weight with her feet on the stones and then the rock below it. Tiny stones came loose as she descended, and skittering down into the hole.

It was for the best that Olivia was going first. Hina had spent the last few days practising with the sling in the evenings, and practicing the workings that she knew and working on her ambit—to the point where she had completed a second compression and was nearly ready to try for a third, but she still didn't have any workings that would help in a fight, not as more than a distraction.

Olivia had a better chance of being able to deal with whatever they came across down there. She just hoped it wasn't anything beyond what they could handle.

In her mind, she saw a vision of the arm of the huld reaching out of the darkness, and she shivered.

But there was no point in worrying about it. There probably wasn't anything down there. There was a real chance that they'd get to the bottom and find that it was just a hole in the ground.

And then they'd have to try again when they got to Modmin in a day or two, with a guide and all of the hassle that that would involve. Although at this point Hina was starting to think that being guided to a heavily picked over site might be better than searching and searching and never finding anything.

"You okay down there?" Hina called to Olivia, who was moving out of sight into the dark.

"Yes," Olivia called back. "There's a ledge here—yes, this is the bottom. Come on down. I'm going to try for a light."

Hina looked up at Bean, who watched closely from his perch. "Bean, we'll be back soon."

Bean whistled a two-toned note at her. He didn't move.

He would be fine. He was a smart bird.

Hina took a deep breath, and began to climb down. She didn't have a lot of experience climbing, but the rope helped a lot. And at least it was a warm, dry day. It was nothing like climbing down the muddy slope before the Spire in torrential rain. This was hard work, but straight-forward. And the sides of the hole seemed pretty stable. Hina supposed it must have been like this for a long time.

In the dark below her feet, a light appeared.

"Oh, gosh." Olivia breathed. "This is amazing."

Hina's feet found level ground, she was at the bottom. Looking up, she could see blue skies framed by the the hole, and the top of the tree the rope was tied to. The space was wider than she'd expected—room to move her arms and legs, at least. And it wasn't far if she needed to climb back up in a hurry. She let out a long breath, some of her tension leaving with it.

Behind her, the crack descended at a shallow angle, before hitting a wall of large masonry blocks—the lower levels of temple, maybe. A jagged opening led into the building beyond where the wall had collapsed inwards. Olivia was a beacon of light, crouched at the opening, looking within.

"What is it?" Hina asked, moving closer.

"The carvings on the walls," Olivia said. "They're in High Ossurian—I can't read more than a couple of the glyphs here and there, but what they mean is that this is the right place." Her voice held a note of triumph. "We found it."

"Huh," Hina said. Finally. A sense of excitement welled up within her. "So, we go in now?"

"We go in," Olivia said. "The floor below us is only about a metre below this opening, so we should be able to climb back up without the rope. The corridor seems intact, and it looks dry, though I can hear water somewhere. I think we're fine to proceed."

"Okay, remind me one more time. What are we expecting in this one?"

"Like I said, I think it's a temple to one of the strange gods, maybe. I think it'll be similar to your experience in the House—guardians, but nothing too high powered. Nothing beyond what we can handle.

"But please, no unnecessary risks. If either of us feels like we are out of our depth, we retreat back here right away."

"Okay," Hina said. "Let's do it."

Olivia dropped down into the corridor, taking the light with her.

Hina should have started her light working already. She had been practising for this scenario, so the right variant of the sign was still fresh in her mind. She summoned the pattern, and fed it a little power—flexing her will to hold the sign steady, though it hardly took any effort at all. The light working had gotten easier to control after her first ambit compression, and much easier after the second.

Her cheeks flushed with warmth as the working flowed out of her. A point of light bloomed on her forehead and filled the corridor with a gentle glow.

Maintaining it was a strain, but less than it had been before. She felt like she could keep it up for an hour, if she had to.

Hina climbed down into the corridor where Olivia was waiting. She lowered herself down to the fallen stones, and then stepped down onto the smooth pavers of the corridor floor.

She looked around, checking for threats. The corridor was long, and at either end, open doorways led to dark rooms. Nothing moved, no monsters were visible in the darkness. Water dripped from somewhere off to the right. The air held the hint of something wet and musty, but the smell was faint.

Great lines of glyphs and script ran along the walls at head height all along the corridor. They didn't look like any language that Hina had ever seen before. All strange, angular shapes and pictures that she couldn't make sense of. The images gave her a faint sense of unease, though she couldn't say why. It wasn't important.

Because beyond that, Hina could feel something else. A sense of tension in the air. A familiar one. The feeling she'd had in the House, though it wasn't nearly as strong.

The feeling of power, waiting to be grasped.

It felt like she was waking up. Like she was on the edge of something big.

She couldn't keep the smile from her face. "Which way do you want to go first?" Hina asked.