“Who is it?” a familiar voice called out.

“Adok?” It surprised Jere at how relieved he was to hear the young man. Not a few nights ago, he nearly beat him to death. His voice now was more comforting than the softest of beds.

Jere was still getting used to it all. The horrors of the Manor and its inhabitants. Boah and Juddken’s descent into fanaticism. Where Zaman Urash fit into it all. And that was before they forced him down the never-ending stairs. He had put a comfortable distance between himself and Juddken, but it had done little to put him at ease, even as he finally reached the bottom. Hearing a familiar voice was what he needed.

“You’re alive!” Adok exclaimed. Jere didn’t judge his surprise. He hadn’t expected either of them to be breathing by this point, though it was getting harder to do so this far underground.

Jere pushed deeper into the tunnel, crouching under the low ceiling. As he did, he spotted a light. In front of him was the faint glimmer of a torch, silhouetting two figures. Jere realized he recognized both men. Adok stood, whereas Heikk crouched. Long chains connected them somewhere along the wall. In front of them lay a massive pile of rubble, a multitude of boulders caked in between dirt and grime.

Adok grasped Jere’s arm as he approached. Jere recoiled, still on edge after his long descent.

“Look! Heikk’s here too.” Jere crouched, looking over Heikk’s face in the dim torchlight. Heikk looked ill, restricted in his seating position. But he gave a grim smile.

“Good to see you,” Heikk whispered before hacking. “Wasn’t expecting visitors.”

Before Jere could respond, Juddken grasped his wrist from behind. He fastened a cuff around it, tightening it to the same chain link that connected the other two. Juddken gave a hard tug, chaffing the edge of Jere’s wrist. As Jere grimaced, Juddken stared into his eyes. They pierced past his skull. Juddken’s subtle eye bobbing added to the unnerving picture. With another grunt, he turned away, picking up his torch and heading out of the crawl space.

“Freak…” Heikk attempted to spit, but he instead started another coughing fit.

“What’s wrong?” Jere asked. Heikk had been down here the longest, and the air seemed poor as it was. Escape was far from his mind just yet, but he wanted to know if he could even breathe.

“He broke his ankle,” Adok said. “Jere pushed him down the stairs.”

Heikk laughed. “Could’ve been worse… didn’t even fall halfway.”

Jere approached the injured man. Heikk’s right ankle was indeed broken, his foot jutting outward at a right angle. He understood why he had to sit. To stand at all must’ve been torture.

“He pushed you,” Jere said.

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“Eh… should’ve seen it coming. Always warned Juddken to watch his flank… Should have followed my own advice.”

“Don’t beat yourself up over it,” Adok said before turning to Jere. “I think he’s getting a fever. Could be his ankle.”

Heikk laughed weakly. “Smart, this one.”

Jere ignored their concerns. “You were here the whole time?”

“Yeah. I sleep when I can, so it’s hard to keep track of the moons.”

“Sounds right,” Jere recalled his fortnight in the cell. Even then, he could at least see glimmers through the outlines of the wood panels. This deep underground, he would have no way to tell.

Suddenly Jere’s chest pounded. He was trapped again, this time in chains. He had just barely tasted freedom, and now here he was, locked away in a cramped tunnel.

“No, it’s not the same,” he thought to himself. “It’s quiet here. No screamers. People to talk to.” They were all alive. That’s all that mattered.

“Do we have food?” Jere asked. “Water?”

“One of Urash’s men came with grain earlier,” Heikk said. “Maybe he’ll come again. As for water… take a listen.” Jere did so. He found the crawl space wasn’t so quiet after all. He could hear the faint pattering of water dripping from the ceiling. It seemed to be just barely seeping. It faintly echoed down the tunnel. “I think we’re under the water fountain. It’s why it’s so easy to slip down here. If you’re unopposed to licking it off the walls, we have plenty.

“Huh,” Jere said. “Could be worse.”

“Don’t speak so soon. I haven’t figured out where to shit yet.”

“So explain,” began Jere. “Why leave us here? What does Urash have to do with it?”

Heikk smiled. “It’s… complicated.”

“Urash is trapped too,” said Adok. “Not as a prisoner, but… he can’t leave. Boah refused to have any of his guards interfere.”

After all Jere had been through with the Awil-Ishtars, leaving anyone alive made little sense to him. “Why?”

“Well, my friend, turns out there are three people upstairs who want to use us, each for their own reasons. And the more I understand, the more I think that none of them are working together.”

“Explain.”

“You see, Boah somehow discovered this tunnel leads to outside, past the cliffs and far away from the screamers. However, the only thing between us and his salvation are several massive fucking boulders. It was just me and a mercenary before, but now you two will expedite the process. Probably cause a cave-in, but beats getting ‘Shadeon’d’.”

“But why us? Does he not have the Corps?”

“I don’t think he wants them to know. Adok and I didn’t know about this until today. If he’s looking to escape, it’s an escape for a select few. Can’t say I blame him… He’s not dealing with the smartest lot up there.”

“So we’re digging his way out. Clearly, Juddken knows.”

Heikk laughed into a raspy cough. “Did you not get a look at him? Juddken isn’t well. Even if he could speak, I doubt he could tell you his own name… He wants us down here, sure. But he wants us for something else. You see… the tunnel doesn’t just go outside the city. It also leads straight to the heart of it… Straight to the temple.”

That didn’t put Jere at ease. He saw first-hand how many screamers were at the temple, attracted by some unforeseen force. That they could come in from the other side certainly didn’t make him feel more comfortable. “What does that have to do with Juddken?”

“Remember Musub?” Adok nodded at the mention of the name. “He led him down to the temple… Only Juddken came back. It was a long time. I can only imagine he wants us here for similar reasons.”

It all made sense to Jere. Boah himself told him he didn’t understand why Juddken wanted him alive. Here they were stuck to be used whenever. And if Juddken just needed to take them to the temple, it was just a matter of convenience.

“Where does Urash fit in?”

Heikk smiled. He looked close to death, but his smile was still one of cunning.

“I said Urash claims this tunnel leads outside… Do you believe him?”

Jere was confused. “If that’s not true, then where does it go?”

“Help me dig and we’ll find out.”