My blood went cold the moment the torches died. My hand instinctively reached for the book but couldn’t find it. I stumbled back, frantically searching the darkness.

I heard a grunt as the room became clearer. Rainen’s fire illuminated the area and I was pressing against both him and Raia. “S-Sorry,” I said, realizing I must’ve bumped into his arm. I shuffled forward a step.

“Don’t apologize,” he said. “I should’ve reacted faster.”

“By the gods… They got really close,” Raia said.

She was right. Rainen’s fire was barely enough to make out all the statues. Mine, which had been in the corner since I first saw it, was maybe three steps away. I reached for the book again and a chill ran through my body.

Where did it go?

I was about to start looking along the ground until I felt Raia push against me this time. I kept my eye on the statue as I felt around with my other hand. I found it on my left hip. I’d fallen asleep with it in my arms and attached it to a different side when we were woken up.

Stupid. Stupid! I almost put everyone at risk.

“Hey, take a breath,” Nyle said. It was a shaky one, but it helped. “I’ll keep an eye on both our statues. You should watch out for the one up the steps,” Nyle said.

I nodded and we began shuffling toward the stairs again. There was nothing there yet, maybe it was waiting around the corner to ambush us. The stairs were too narrow to take a wide angle. As we approached, I quickly spun to look down the hall, and it was there.

“Why did we stop moving?” Raia asked.

“I-It’s blocking the way…”

“Rainen, can you see mine?” Nyle asked.

“Not yet,” Rainen responded. “Raia.”

“I see yours,” she said.

“Okay. On the count of three. One. Two. Three.”

I assumed Rainen took over the statues Nyle was supposed to be watching since he stopped looking over the edge of the steps and peered down the hallway. “You’re right, it is just waiting there. Can we walk past it?”

“Y-You’re asking me?!”

“You were the only one who knew they were going to move and to look at them. We just thought they were statues.”

“I-I don’t know…”

My knowledge of these monsters was limited to what Skychaser and other adventurers wrote in their journals, which was very little. And, the bestiary I had wasn’t completely intact. All of what I knew was already shared with the group.

“I’ll go first then. Make sure you watch it,” Nyle said.

“W-Wait! L-Let me close my eyes for a moment.”

My eyes were dry, but I also hoped, naively probably, that closing them for a second would help with my nervousness. It didn’t, and I couldn’t keep everyone waiting. I had to blink a few more times until I was comfortable keeping them open.

“Guys? Don’t tell me you got killed,” Raia said.

“We’re preparing,” Nyle said, somewhat exasperated.

“O-Okay. R-Ready.”

I stared at the stone monster harder than I ever stared at someone or something before. It felt like I was channeling all the stares I got on the first day of the academy. Nyle glanced at it once, held his breath, and slipped past. He turned back, surprised and relieved at the outcome. He beckoned me.

“R-Rainen, Raia, I-I’m going next.”

“Good luck,” Raia said. Rainen followed with a nod.

“Don’t worry, I’m watching it,” Nyle said.

Despite knowing that, I found it hard to move. I felt like a child next to the statue as it stood over me, silent and observing. The floor suddenly seemed to creak, despite being stone, and wind blew from behind me. ‘Go back,’ I heard. My trembling hand wandered over to the book. It was the fourth journal, something I couldn’t have gotten back home. Mustering my courage, I kept looking even as I moved past. It shifted once I was behind it. I tripped on my own feet, scraping my hands against the floor before spinning around, catching it in the act of moving.

It paused, halfway around with its arm outstretched as it froze an inch from grabbing me. “N-N-Nyle?” I called out, stunned.

“I-I didn’t blink or anything. I was looking at it the whole time. Why’d it move?”

“We can’t see what’s happening,” Raia said.

“Our statue just moved even when I was looking at it.”

“That’s great,” she said. “What’s different about it?”

“I don’t know. Do you have any idea?” Nyle asked. The question was directed at me. I only figured that out when he pulled me up and grimaced as he did.

“M-Maybe…” I was still watching the monster. “I-I think it only works if they know we’re looking at them… probably…”

“It can see you now so we’re safe. Go, Raia,” Rainen said.

The two joined us after a tense brush against the statue in the hall. The others gathered at the entrance, standing frozen once in our sight. Rainen led the way and I kept throwing glances over my shoulder even while Raia was the one who offered to watch our backs.

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It was a straight path back to the next room. In it were more statues, but we split the work and made it past them safely. The howls of the washir grew louder as we retraced our steps. Back at the split in the hall, we took the other path and ended up in a room with two pedestals in the center. Nyle stayed to guard the hallway while we inspected the area.

“Don’t touch this one,” he joked.

“Depends on the voters,” Raia retorted.

A tablet rested on both pedestals, and on them were the same text.

“New paths will open for those with two cores. Be wary, however, of guardians and shifting doors. The first is a beast whose size is deceiving, the second is a watcher who freezes when perceiving. Mindless are both who wander the tomb, but protectors they are of orbs to exhume,” Raia read.

“So it’s telling us everything we already know,” Rainen said. “I’m glad they wasted their time with this.”

“Maybe we found these out of order?” She suggested.

“As if anyone would’ve figured out the right order to go in this dungeon. What would have happened if we decided to go to the left, or straight through the middle? Could we have even reached this place if we didn’t find the washir bones first?”

Raia gestured for Rainen to turn around. He’d been carrying Nyle’s pack for a while now. She took out his map and mine and pointed to a path that broke off from the central circular artery of the dungeon. “Here. I’m not good at picturing things but we ran down this way for a few minutes, right? I think the first path that neither of us took would’ve led us here.”

We looked for another entrance but the room was closed off except for the way we came.

“Maybe when it mentions shifting doors, the way to this place was closed off. We needed to get bones from the washir to even access both cores.”

“So aside from missing this tablet, we’ve been on the right path this whole time?” Rainen asked, not fully believing it. “What if we went left?”

Raia shrugged.

“D-Dungeons are usually fairly simple. O-Or at least the ones in the real world are. I think a similar solution w-would be on the other side. Or maybe we would have looped back here eventually…” I trailed off to gather my thoughts and stopped myself. I would likely go on for a while if I didn’t end it here.

The two were still looking at me. I waved my hands in a panic, trying to throw their attention off me, to tell them that I was done, but it only made things worse. When I went quiet and couldn’t look at them anymore was when they began talking again.

After a minute, they placed the cores onto the pedestals. The room shook and the sound of sliding stone echoed from all around. Nyle bounded down the steps, rejoining us. Raia held onto the pedestal and I held onto her. I caught a statue at the entranceway. It appeared only seconds after Nyle turned around.

The room shook more violently, the ground shifting underneath us. The torches in the room flickered and Rainen preemptively brought out his flame. I saw his eyes widen with the flare of his magic. “Behind you!”

A new hallway had opened up, and in it were washir. The foremost monster growled and bared its sharpened teeth. The rumbling floor kept it from moving but it seemed ready to pounce. I conjured a barrier.

Then, I remembered the statue. I twisted on my heel and caught the stone creature a few feet away from Rainen and Nyle. Rainen cursed, realizing what just happened, and also turned.

“When’s the rumbling going to stop?” Raia screamed.

More walls opened and revealed new corridors behind them. As the shaking gradually subsided, there was one last surprise for us. The ground between the two pedestals rose like a wall. Rainen beckoned us over, and Raia did the same.

“I can’t move!” she yelled.

I couldn’t either. I’d never experienced an earthquake before, but this was how I imagined they felt like. My legs were weak and it took all I had not to fall over. Rainen might have made the jump over the rising wall, but Nyle was drenched in sweat and sitting on the ground. The wound I’d given him wasn’t bleeding as much anymore, but blood soaked through the second round of bandages.

Rainen slammed his fist into the pedestal.

He collected the minor core and gestured for us to do the same. Then, he pointed down one of the opened paths. “We’ll try to find something that connects us that way,” he said.

The ground reached the ceiling, completing the new wall. The room ceased shaking, and I held onto Raia as she pulled out a crystal for light and collected the major core. The washir pushed against my barrier. It didn’t have enough space to throw its full weight behind the attempts, but its massive body strained the limits of the magic.

Sometime down the hall, I felt the barrier break. I cast ice bolts behind us hoping to kill or, at the very least, slow down the monsters. Growls, snarls, howls, and yelps echoed through the corridor.

There was only one way to go, and that was away from the washir, even if that meant we had to follow all the twists and turns. Once, I was sure that Rainen and Nyle were on the other side of the wall, but now I didn’t know, and the washir were gaining on us.

As I turned to cast more magic, I tripped. All the air left my lungs. Pain radiated from my left side and my hand burned from scraping the ground. Raia, thank the gods, helped me up. I cast my magic and ran while clutching my side. My feet ached in response to the extra weight I put on them and recalled the brief moment of rest they got when I fell. My breath was still short.

“Keep going,” Raia encouraged as she visibly strained to keep her pace.

Knowing that death trailed not far behind was what kept me going at a speed barely faster than walking. I sent more ice toward the monsters but each cast drained my energy. Raia grabbed my hand and pulled me along. There was a lever on the wall and she pulled it. The corridor shook as a thin block of stone slowly slid down. She let go but it rolled back up, forcing her to hold it.

“Go ahead. I’ll catch up,” she said.

With her urging, I kept running, if it could even be considered that. I knew I’d only slow her down if I stayed behind.

One of the monsters managed to get half its body under the door before it closed. It snapped at Raia’s feet and she stomped on its snout, causing it to retreat. The crystal she used as a light floated in the space between us and lost its effectiveness the further I went.

She dug into her bag, pulling out another crystal and using that as hers while she sent the other one to me. Now we could see each other, or as much as we could given the distance.

“I’ll let go on three. Go as far as you can in that time,” she said. “One. Two. Three!” She let go and began sprinting. The ground I’d made disappeared fast. The moment she let go of the lever, the door rose and the washir started barking.

Was the door closing that loud?

I could hear it from where I was. It sounded just the same as when I was next to the lever.

“H-Hey! Stop it from closing!”

I turned around and, to my horror, saw the wall extending to close out the corridor. I pushed against it and used barriers and magic, but it didn’t stop. I didn’t even slow it. Raia would make it before it closed, but she wouldn’t fit in the small space left. Then, I noticed another path opening, right before mine. Raia could use that to escape.

Could she outrun the washir?

If I joined her I’d slow her down, but we'd be stronger together, especially because of my magic.

I stepped toward Raia and my hand wandered to my side.

It’s not there.

I checked my right. It wasn’t there either. I frantically searched my whole person but couldn’t find it. I looked up and froze. I saw Raia's face change, from one of effort and exertion to something else.

I can still make it. If I go now, we can fight the monsters off together.

Then, I heard their panting echo through the hall and their claws tapping against the ground. I took a step back.

She’d reached the wall, but it was too late.

“Take the backpack,” she said, sliding it through the gap. “I’ll find you guys outside.”

I heard her steps as she took off. A few seconds later I heard the washir pass by. They were snarling, unaware that I was on the other side of the wall.

As I reached for the backpack, my body lost all its strength. I sat there for minutes, I think, before fastening the straps and numbly walking down the hall.