Seera woke up when her inner sense told her the sun was rising on the outside of the cavern. She stretched in her corner. She looked around in the dark. Mister Shanahan stood next to the door of their alcove. He had the pose of someone who could stand in one spot forever. The rest of her group were still in their makeshift billets. She decided to take a sip of water before she got them up and moving. She washed her face with some of the water poured in her hand. She stood up and stretched again after putting the canteen away.

She sent out a look for danger. Everything looked clear. They could move forward in earnest. She decided to use the latrine first before she woke the others. She might as well enjoy the minutes of silence she had before they went back to moving down.

“I'm going down to the latrine to take care of my business,” said Seera. “When I get back, we can get started.”

Shanahan nodded. He looked up and down the corridor before moving the spike out of the way so she could pass. Seera went down to the latrine with her light as her guide. She returned minutes later.

“I'm going to enjoy my bath when we get back to New York,” she said.

Mister Shanahan shrugged.

“All right,” Seera said. “Let's get started. The faster we get this done, the faster we'll be able to leave.”

They woke up the group and got them started on their day. Master Yuen checked his map as the other Wu Chi packed up their belongings. An extrapolation of the other two tubes ran along the one they were in. The ends cut off since their real counterparts were out of his range.

Seera looked at the map. She sent a look down to the end of the tube. She was surprised that it stopped close to their waystation. She checked for the path further along and found something across a gap.

“We're going to have an interruption to this tunnel up ahead,” she said. “It might be a crossing point to get to another tunnel.”

“Do you think it's an entrance to that central shaft?,” asked Yuen.

Seera sent out her locator. It reported that the central well was still behind a wall. She couldn't sense an entrance off whatever was ahead.

“No,” said Seera. “What's up ahead appears to be some kind of enclosed room with openings to other tunnels. We're going to pause when we get there to make sure none of the local monsters decide to come at us. Then we'll push on down the best tunnel to travel.”

“All right,” said Master Yuen. He put up his map, and straightened his robes. Grime covered the whiteness.

“We're going to try to be careful,” said Seera. “We're going to be meeting some of the tunnel monsters. If anything happens, I'm going to need you to run while Mister Shanahan and I deal with it. Is everybody ready to go?”

“Don't worry,” said Everett. “I'll yank them out of the way if I have to.”

“Let's get started,” said Seera. “This gap should be easy until we reach the clear area. After that, we'll see what's going on.”

She cut on her light. She stepped out in the tunnel and started walking. Mister Shanahan fell in behind her. He didn't have his light on, preferring to save his batteries while her light was still working. The Wu Chi came next. They moved cautiously in the wake of their protectors. Everett walked last, checking behind them as he went. He didn't need a light, and his spider power should give him an advantage in movement if he needed it.

The group paused at the latrine before they moved down the tunnel toward the gap ahead.

Seera paused when she saw a glow permeating the space in front of her. She cut off her light. It wasn't a reflection. She didn't sense any immediate danger.

“What do you think?,” she whispered to Mister Shanahan.

“Stay here,” he said. “Make sure you can cover both sides if this is an ambush.”

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“Right,” said Seera.

She waved for the rest of the group to line up one side of the tunnel. She took the other side. She hoped they knew enough to stay out of the way if she had to shoot behind the group.

Mister Shanahan returned a moment later. He was a shadow against the light before he leaned against the tunnel wall.

“It's a pool,” he said. “The water is glowing.”

“Did you see anything out there?,” said Seera.

“No,” said Shanahan. “I checked the water. There's some fish in it. I didn't see anything moving around.”

“Let's look at this pool,” said Seera. “Our path will be on the other side.”

The group walked into the light. They spread out around the room. A raised pool stood in the center of it. The glow flowed from the stone container. Shanahan moved to the other side of the room. He made sure he could cover the three openings in front of him.

Seera peered inside the pool. She spotted the pale forms of fish undulating at the bottom of the water. She queried her ability. It pointed her to an opening in the bottom of the container. The fish had swam into the pool through an opening, and they could swim out the same way when they were done.

How had that happened?

Her ability didn't answer.

“This water leads deeper into the system,” said Seera. “The opening doesn't look big enough for us to use it as a passage.”

“How did the water get in there from below?,” asked one of the Wu Chi. He joined Seera at the side of the retaining wall. He started to put his hand into the water.

“Don't,” said Seera. “Something is wrong with the fish.”

She sent her ability at the fish. It came back as dangerous.

“Don't put your hand in the water,” she said. She took off her pack. She pulled out a meal in a box they had bought as part of their supplies. She took the brownie out of it and dropped it in the water. The fish attacked the intruder and ripped it apart in a few seconds.

“That's incredible,” said the Wu Chi. He stepped back from the pool. “Thank you for saving my hand.”

“At least we know we can't use the pool to bypass the normal monsters to reach the bottom,” said Seera.

“This room sticks out, but the other tunnels are behind this wall,” said Master Yuen. He pointed at the wall behind him. “We could punch through to one of them if we had to.”

Seera nodded. She knew Mister Shanahan could punch through rock with the Fist if they got that desperate.

The pool bothered her. She didn't know why.

“I think we should keep moving forward,” said Seera. “If we have to eat the fish, let's save that for when we are desperate and hungry.”

“Especially if they want to eat us as much as we want to eat them,” said the Wu Chi who almost lost his arm.

“Especially because of that,” said Seera. She walked over to where Mister Shanahan waited. He stood so the light wouldn't backlight him for anything down in the tunnels in front of them.

She sent her ability flying in front of them for the safest choice. It selected the one tunnel farthest right. She went to it and sent her talent down the shaft. Monsters registered to her.

It looked like they were going to be fighting before the day was over.

“There's some monsters down this tunnel,” said Seera. “Do you mind leading, Mister Shanahan? Everett, it might be good if you block the passage behind us with your webs in case we attract too much trouble when we have to start fighting.”

“No easier way?,” asked Yuen. He rolled up the sleeves of his tunic.

“I'm not seeing any,” said Seera. “Keep an eye out and stay in the middle as much as possible. I'll try to protect the three of you when things get rough.”

“If you can push down to a defensible position, we are ready to aid you,” said Master Yuen. He glanced at his fellow Wu Chi. They nodded in agreement.

“All right,” said Seera. “Let's go ahead. We knew this was dangerous going into it. It's been a slow walk so far, so hopefully this will be just as easy.”

“Everyone ready?,” said Mister Shanahan. He held his rifle to his shoulder. He faced down the tunnel.

Everyone stated they were ready to go. Everett took the time to seal the tunnel behind them. Any monster coming at them from behind would have to cut through five layers of his silk before they could get to them.

“Don't shoot unless you have a clear target, Wyndham,” said Mister Shanahan. “Center of mass, single shot. Be careful about shooting into the walls. Ricochets could kill us here.”

“Got it,” said Seera. She had practiced before they had arrived to carry out the job. She hadn't been in real combat, but she knew which way the bullets went.

Mister Shanahan switched on the light built into his rifle. He wanted a clear picture of what was ahead of him when he started shooting.

Seera waited for him to start forward. She held her rifle the same way. She switched lights so she didn't have a bull's-eye on her chest. As soon as he was ten feet ahead, she started behind him.

Master Yuen pulled a short sword from his pack. He wasn't that good with it, but he was ready to defend himself as best he could if monsters got through the vanguard of his protection.

The other Wu Chi pulled sheets of paper from their packs as they followed Master Yuen. They held them ready to throw ahead of them.

Everett climbed a wall and headed down the ceiling. He could throw webs in either direction, and he was good enough with his own sword to take on a small monster. He shook his head.

Why hadn't Seera picked Morehull? He lived for this stuff.