Chapter 17 - A Tunnel of Echoes

Adam and Emily continued searching for the right tunnel for a while until they ended up at the largest one so far. The patterned trail in the ground, the widest they’d seen, cast the trees and rows of faceless statues within the tunnel in a haunting green light. On closer inspection, the leaf-vein-like pattern seemed to be directed as if it flowed towards the pyramid. The patterned trails of other tunnels appeared to flow away from the pyramid and towards the other tunnels.

Emily peered at the trail and nodded. “Guess your theory holds up so far.” She closed her eyes for a while in a focused expression. “Hmm… I don’t sense any disturbance in the Oquira, though. Shall we move on, and remember this one as we look for Oliver?”

Adam stared into the lushly grown tunnel, with its hieroglyphs and mysterious statues, and ground his teeth in frustration. It took a whole lot of willpower not to storm in.

Emily raised an eyebrow. “You okay?”

Adam breathed in and exhaled slowly. “If we’re correct, that fell-handed bastard should be at the centre of this cave system, somewhere at the end of these tunnels.” He clenched his hands into fists. “To think I was actually happy—even excited—to get to see that piece of misery again…”

Emily looked away from Adam and nodded slowly. Due to the angle, he couldn’t see her eyes, but the way she clenched her jaw while she peered into the tunnel gave a hint of her emotions. “I swear, if I get my hands on him…” She gave a frustrated sigh. “Like… I just don’t understand! How—or even why—could he do this to us?!”

“I guess we became too dangerous for him after we discovered him being some sort of double agent. Maybe it’s the Penduli’s policy to blast everyone who finds out about them through a roof.”

Emily chuckled humourlessly. “Or banish them to some forsaken hole in the ground, how considerate.”

“Have you spoken with him, lately?” Adam asked. “Oliver mentioned something about an argument between you two?”

She stiffened and nodded with a tight-lipped expression. “That was years ago, we’ve broken contact since. Yesterday was supposed to be the first time we talked again.”

Adam frowned, remembering how close the two used to be. However, from the manner she looked away, it seemed better not to ask further questions about it. “Ugh, I still can’t believe he was right in front of me! Back in his house, I was like this close to him!” He indicated the distance with a thumb and an index finger. “If I wasn’t stupid enough to slack off with my training, I could have had him! And now look where we ended up!” He gestured vaguely at the disturbing town and the pyramid. “Ugh, that reminds me, what is the one thing we need here? A map. I was lucky enough to find one, spread out on the ceiling above me as wide as a Stormball-field! Too bad that by the time I notice, I barely have the time to actually study it! And now that woman and that stupid Shepherd are in the way…”

Emily looked up with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “Oh, on that note; don’t forget you also had to touch one of those creepy books, sending a horde of Roots after us. We were kinda close to that weird spiral thing.”

Adam raised an eyebrow. “Wow, thanks, that helps a lot.” A vague feeling emanated from his heart as if Schultora’s mark flared up a bit, but Adam tried to ignore it.

“Hey, don’t be too hard on yourself, okay?” She smiled gently. “You won’t help anyone by beating yourself up.”

Adam laughed grimly. I’m not sure if Schultora agrees. “Easier said than done.”

“We just ended up in a really, really messed-up situation. Sure, you used to be stronger during the War of the Prophet, but this is Caine we’re talking about. You know, the ‘admired Novaseering prodigy’ who accomplished everyone’s dreams without actually working hard,” she said with a bitter undertone in her voice and a dark expression. “I can’t imagine he stopped improving these past years. He looked darn unwell at the Starwing Grove, but he still took all three of us down at once.”

“And we’ll definitely need the three of us to confront him, I know.” Adam sighed. “Question is, what will we do with him when we succeed?”

Emily was silent.

“I want to hate him,” Adam continued. “And I do, for all he’s done. But something inside me just hopes to wake up, you know? That he’ll jump around the corner and tell us it was all a prank, with that stupid grin on his face. That all of us can laugh about it, and get a drink.” Adam looked at the ground sadly. Why does everything have to be so complicated these days? Why can’t things be as they used to be?

“I understand,” Emily said with stiffness in her voice and body before she moved on. “Although I doubt I’ll be laughing with Caine ever again.”

After a while, Adam peered into a different tunnel. “Are you really sure it’s this one?” he asked, scrunching up his nose. The tunnel in front of him didn’t exactly look welcoming; the familiar coppery stench of the Overgrowth was mixed with the earthy scents of mosses and ferns. Thick vines, laden with purple thorns and spiky leaves, had partially taken over the tunnel. Gnarled masses of the Overgrowth entangled the remaining ferns, mushrooms, and trees. The greenish-gold pattern in the ground cast a haunting light on the lianas that hung from the ceiling and the rows of faceless wooden statues that lined the walls.

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Emily kept her eyes closed in a focused expression and nodded. “Something or someone has definitely messed with the flows of Oquira around here, but I can’t tell if it’s Oliver’s trail. Could be that another Novaseer used a powerful Invocation recently.”

“Ah, perfect,” Adam deadpanned. “Out of all the tunnels, it has to be the one full of signs of the Roots, barely any space to manoeuvre and plenty of spots for all kinds of enemies to ambush us. Can’t wait.”

Emily smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Maybe that charming lady we’d met has a Novaseer as a twin sister, who would like to get acquainted with you as well?”

“Oh, I’d definitely invite her for tea. Although I actually prefer my head to stay on my shoulders, you know?” Adam stared further into the tunnel. Oliver, you’d better be in there somewhere.

Adam and Emily made their way inside, taking care to avoid the Overgrowth as much as possible. Lonely skeletons of large animals, suffocated or pierced by the spiky vegetation, lay between the brambles. The dripping of water and the burbling of small streams were the only sounds around them.

As Adam’s mind wandered, he noticed markings in the parts of the wall that weren’t covered by vegetation. They were hieroglyphs, similar to the ones in the town, picturing people doing everyday activities like reading books, praying to Aves, or eating together.

“More frescoes?” Emily asked innocently.

Adam chuckled. “Nice try, but no.” He felt the smooth wooden surface of the wall with his hand. “This wall looks like it has been carved in living wood. But that can’t be! There’s no way a tree is large enough to tunnel through it like… wait, did you hear that?”

“What?”

Adam pressed his finger to his lips. A barely discernible voice like the wind echoed through the tunnel.

“We expected great things from you,” the vaguely familiar, male voice whispered. “And we invested a great deal to make it happen. You don’t want to let us down again.”

Emily’s face paled from an unhealthy grey to white. She brusquely paced further into the tunnel with stiff limbs.

“Huh, wait! Do you recognize it?” Adam asked as he walked after her.

“No!” she said without turning her head towards him. This place is messed up, that’s all!”

Adam blinked a couple of times while she stomped away, trying to connect the dots. What? Has something happened within the Starwing Order? They sure have invested in Caine, and Emily is a member as well… but why would there be echoes here of their conversations?

Adam and Emily walked further for a while and decided to make some improvised equipment from the available resources. After hollowing out the tough gourd fruits that hung from a few remaining trees, they made handy pouches to hang from their belts. Although Emily had kept her rusty chain, she fashioned a new spear from wood and used a long, purple thorn as the tip.

The skeleton of a big bird of prey came in handy as well; the largest talons were ideal for making a good knife. Adam had never forgotten his brother Joshua’s lessons on how to fashion weapons out of random materials he had at hand. When Adam was done with the knife, he cut a long piece from a thick branch of the Overgrowth, taking care not to hurt himself on the thorns. A bit of elbow grease later, he had crafted it into a spiked club.

To Adam’s interest, the Overgrowth reacted peculiarly when it was cut. When removed from the rest of the mass of vegetation, branches quickly lost their purple colours and clearly died. Odd, that shouldn’t happen so quickly. Out of curiosity, Adam cut through the thickest branch he could find. Starting at one side of the cut, decay spread through vines and leaves connected to it, leaving them brown and dead. Luckily, the decay didn’t spread in the direction they were walking, as it could alert potential enemies. However, the Overgrowth reacted to the damage; similar to how the snake repaired itself, fresh purple vines grew towards the withered parts, restoring them to life again.

So, the Overgrowth needs to be connected to stay alive, although it can regrow and reconnect to lost branches. But maybe we can kill large parts of the Overgrowth somehow by destroying key parts of it? Or by preventing branches from reconnecting somehow?

As Adam and Emily continued following the pattern in the ground, many openings to strange chambers and other tunnels revealed themselves. One of the large caves had a dense canopy of broad flowers growing on the ceiling, which released a constant rain of pollen. Oddly enough, the spaces in the air where no pollen seemed to fall were shaped like humanoid figures. One of them rolled over the ground and stood back up again, in an ever-repeating pattern.

Familiar scents like food came from a hole in the tunnel’s wall. The chamber behind it was filled with a slow-moving whirlpool of an unknown liquid with red, blue and green colours. Each time a polka-dotted bubble popped, the scent of a certain food appeared, like caramel sweets or vegetable soup. Adam thought he almost tasted it from a distance. Adam closed his eyes when he smelled the quiche with apple, walnuts, and goat’s cheese that Alef had liked to make when Adam visited him and his girlfriend. Adam hastily repressed the bittersweet memories of better times.

In an attempt to distract himself, Adam peered into a small dark chamber next to the tunnel. The black emptiness was filled with the chittering of insects, the flapping of wings, and the playful laughter of children. Whooshing sounds echoed through it, like hands trying to grab something, along with the rustling of leaves in the wind.

Unnatural as the bizarre chambers and sensations were, the most unnerving to Adam were the whispers that occasionally echoed through the tunnels. Although Emily obviously tried to keep a straight face, she winced when it happened again.

“Out of my damn sight!” the voice of a woman shrieked, followed by the sound of shattering glass. “OUT! You fell-handed disgrace! If I’ll see you even near those rats again, I’ll strangle you myself!”

The voice was familiar, somehow, but the echoes were vague and distorted; Adam couldn’t figure out who they belonged to.

He frowned when Emily stomped on ahead of him, pretending like she hadn’t heard a thing. Yes, let’s start withholding potentially important information about this place. That sure is an excellent tactic to stay alive.

Adam sighed and closed his eyes. Calm. If it’s a matter of the Starwing Order, she may be bound to secrecy. But if Caine was hanging around with ‘rats,’ did they know about Caine and the Penduli? Or is something else going on?

Even though Adam could almost feel the questions burning on his tongue, he decided to let her be. He’d just begun to gain Emily’s trust again, after all.