Josh was probably going to die.

He had enough wits left to remember to zig zag as he ran from the fort, just as he would have done if he had been in a first-person shooter. Arrows began to ricochet around him, striking the stony ground with a loud crack. He flinched at each one, hoped that Lady Alianne and Lady Paleyne were safe, and that his flight would cause enough of a distraction for them to stay hidden.

The outer circle of flaming torches seemed impossibly far away. They were just beyond bow range, he realised. He pelted for them, keeping his strafing movements random. An arrow pinged ahead of him and he swerved to avoid it, then swerved again. Was he just imagining or were the guards beginning to anticipate his movements?

The staff thrummed in hands. He’d momentarily forgotten he was carrying it. Red lights suddenly appeared, darting through the air and striking the ground. Did the guards have some kind of magic spell? A split second later, he saw arrows striking the points the red light had marked.

What were the guards doing? Did they have some kind of magical targeting system? Didn’t they know Josh could see it?

The staff kept giving out little thrumming pulses that timed with the red lights as they lanced around him. Josh realised the targeting lights weren’t coming from the guards, they were coming from the staff. It was warning him where the arrows were about to land. Just as he had that thought, a red light pierced through the centre of his chest. He threw himself to the side as an arrow thwacked on the ground in front of him.

If he hadn’t moved, he probably would have died.

Temporarily died, he reminded himself, even as he threw himself the other way to avoid a shaft through his arm. But if he did, he would lose all his experience, not to mention he would be abandoning two women in a hostile environment, one of them unconscious, and neither of them with a secret resurrection ability. If they died, that would be it, and it would be partly Josh’s fault for getting them into this particular situation.

The staff became even more helpful, casting illusions of person-shaped outlines which showed where Josh should step. He followed its instructions while arrows pinged around him, but with the staff’s help, each one missed. The illusion consisted of a trail of multiple images through the air, followed by a wire-framed mesh that settled over his body and grew brighter every time he was out of alignment. The clever, intuitive feedback was suspiciously game-like, but it wasn’t easy to follow its instructions when he was running flat out.

He didn’t want to get it wrong.

Then the staff added an illusory copy of itself to the Josh-shaped figure, and the illusion swirled its imaginary staff expertly from side to side, to no purpose that Josh could see. He did his best to copy it anyway, just in case.

A moment later, the hail of arrows faltered briefly. Josh had a brief flash of hope that he was out of the danger zone, but new lights flashed all around him, saturating the area he was in. The guards were going for a massed volley.

Josh saw the outline of himself turn to face the arrow storm. What? But the staff had guided him well so far, so he stumbled and turned, trying to get himself into place within the guide mesh as best he could. He held the staff in front of him, rotating it just as the illusion suggested, then realised he was standing in a guard position just as the hail of arrows reached him.

You couldn’t block arrows with a staff! That was the sort of stupid, unrealistic thing that happened in martial arts movies.

But then there was a knocking sound and the staff was nearly torn out of his grip as it deflected an arrow that would have taken him in the stomach. At the same time, a line of fire bloomed on his right calf and his left arm. The arrows fell away, so Josh whirled and kept running. A couple of seconds later more red lights bloomed around him, but the distribution pattern was looser, allowing him to dodge.

By the third volley, the range had widened up, and he hardly needed to dodge at all. And there was the outer ring of torches, only a little way ahead. The last handful of arrows clattered away, and the last torch flashed past him.

He was in the darkness beyond the torch line, and out of arrow range. For the moment.

He slowed to a jog, gasping for breath. His calf and his arm felt like they were on fire. He automatically put his hand to his upper arm, where he found a tear in the snakeskin armour.

He couldn’t stop to inspect the damage though. The fort might send a squad out after him, so his first priority was to find somewhere he could rest and take stock.

At first he could hardly see anything, but as his eyes adjusted, he began to pick out landmarks around him. There were scattered islands out in the lake, and a dark cleft in the rock wall ahead. This cavern had multiple small caves and tunnels leading away from it, all feeding into to a large maze called the Myriad. This was the section of the Cathedral which had caused Josh’s raiding group the most trouble in Spiralia Online. Subjectively, it had only been a month or so ago, but he wasn’t sure he could remember the route well enough to get everyone through it.

That was assuming he could find Lady Alianne and Lady Paleyne at all, given that the Hide spells were still active. They only lasted an hour. How long did they have left? They would probably be running out soon, Josh realised with alarm. It had taken them a long time to cross the previous cavern, and getting out of the fort had been a slow process. They might only have fifteen or twenty minutes of invisibility left.

Josh hadn’t thought to give Lady Alianne a place they could meet if they got split up, even supposing she would be able to find her way in a cavern that was close to full darkness. Maybe Josh should have told her to go to the stone elf shrine on the island in the middle of the lake, which was reasonably well lit, although that would be an obvious place for the guards to look.

Josh darted into one of the side tunnels which led to the Myriad. He remembered this one—in Spiralia, the tank had directed them there because he knew a place they could sit that was free of monsters while he dealt with whatever his wife had wanted. They’d waited for twenty minutes before he sent them message to say he couldn’t continue, and that they would have to go on without him.

In the game, the Myriad had been full of a subtle ambient light that allowed the players to see. There was no such benefit in the real version of it, and the moment Josh took the first turn he was plunged into deep darkness. He dug around in his pack and brought out a handful of his largest feathers, using a tiny trickle of magic to make them glow. It helped a little, even though he still had to find his way by feel. His boot felt wet and sticky. Had he stepped in something?

The tunnel led eventually to an open area, which was bisected by a wide chasm, just as Josh remembered. To one side of the cave was a rocky ledge, situated above head height. The party had amused themselves while waiting by trying to use a shield bash ability to boost each other up onto it. Josh would be able to get up there easily without the restrictions imposed by a video game.

He squashed himself back into the ledge as far as he could, and tried to use the glowing feathers to inspect his calf. The area around it was drenched black, and when he felt the tear in the armour, his hands came away sticky. That meant it was bleeding. That was why his boot was wet—it was full of blood. The rip on his arm was similar, although it seemed to have bled less.

Josh had no bandages, and he didn’t want to cut strips off his spare set of clothing, because it was now his only set, aside from the armour. He clamped his hands over both wounds, trying to use pressure to stop the bleeding. He was beginning to feel sick and lightheaded, either from loss of blood or shock or both. Lady Alianne had taken the sack of supplies, so he had nothing to eat. He hoped she still had it.

A short while later, Josh saw a faint glimmer of torch light spreading through the cave, and quickly shoved the glowing feathers underneath the cloak, just in time. It was a squad of four guards. Two of them arranged themselves outside the entrance to the open area while a third thrust a torch in, and the fourth stood back with his weapon drawn.

“There’s blood,” the one with the torch said, bending down to touch something on the ground and then rubbing his fingers together. “It came this way.”

It? Did they think Josh was some random monster?

The guard with the torch took several steps into the cavern, studying the ground, but to Josh’s relief found no more blood. The bleeding must have slowed enough by that point.

“It never got across that,” one of the other guards said, nodding towards the chasm.

“It dint have no torch. Maybe it fell?” a third suggested.

“Them buggers can see in the dark. Maybe climbed down.” The first stood up and held up the torch while he looked around. Josh froze and stopped breathing.

Another guard grunted.

“We should smoke the lot of them out. Don’t know why we always sit around staring out into the darkness and waiting for them to throw that powdery shit at us. Gives me the creeps, this place.”

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Another one said, “Money’s good at least.”

“It bloody well should be.”

“Let’s go back. Little fucker’s probably trying to draw us into an ambush.”

They withdrew. Josh waited for some time, enough for the sweat to dry on his skin and cause him to shiver, and for his wounds to stop bleeding. He felt drained by the events of the past few hours, but it wasn’t over yet. He needed to find the others. Maybe even rescue them.

He was uneasily aware, however, that escaping may have put both himself and the two women in more danger than if they had stayed captured. It was evident that Lady Paleyne had been utterly wrong when she’d said the stone elves were the ones who granted passage through the Cathedral. Josh didn’t know exactly what was going on, but it was looked like it was the Earl of Northcrag had control of the Cathedral, and was at war with the huldra.

Were the huldra dangerous? Did they hate humans? Josh was uneasily aware that he had run straight into huldra territory wearing Northcrag guard armour. It probably didn’t matter what the huldra though of humans in general if he was clothed in the uniform of their enemy.

Maybe it would be better for Josh and the two ladies to return to the fort and surrender. The Earl of Northcrag probably wasn’t going to kill them.

Josh wished he could discuss it with Lady Paleyne.

Eventually he climbed down off the ledge, limped towards the tunnel entrance and peered out into the cavern with the lake. There was no sign of the guards. He stood there uncertainly. Had they captured the women?

He should at least attempt to search for them, but he should be careful, because the guards might have left a squad lying in wait. Josh eased out of the cave and flattened himself against the rock wall. He moving slowly and carefully, first clockwise, away from the ring of torches, and then edged his way back again.

He saw no sign of guards, and if the staff held any opinion on the matter, it kept its own council.

He had no idea what to do now. Go and find the women near the base of the fort? How could he get there without being discovered? Could he hide in the water?

It looked cold and inky black as it lapped at the shore. The blue glow of the shrine was visible in the middle of the lake, which was dotted with flowers. They were even more beautiful than they had been in Spiralia, a mix of cerulean, sapphire and lapis lazuli, cupped like great lotuses, but with rounded petals. They floated serenely on the water, each one about two feet in diameter.

Wait, was that flower moving? Was there some monster underneath?

Something pale and misshapen rose up from the lake and collapsed on the shore, coughing horribly. Josh realised it was Lady Alianne. He ran forward, and saw Lady Paleyne sprawled on the shore beside her, still unconscious, her dark hair tumbled around her in wet coils. He knelt by Lady Alianne, worried about the noise she was making. Sound carried far in this cavern.

“Shhhh, my lady, please, if you can,” he said, looking around them, although he couldn’t see any sign of guards.

Lady Alianne nodded and tried to muffle her coughs with her hand. She was shivering uncontrollably, and the cold and wet couldn’t have done Lady Paleyne any good either. The Hide spells had already dissipated, so Josh de-activated the invisibility effect on the fur cloak and held it out to Lady Alianne. She burrowed into it gratefully. He took out the second cloak, the magic muffling one, then dragged Lady Paleyne fully out of the water, and draped it over her.

“Did you hide under a flower all the way from the fort?” he asked in a low voice, impressed.

She nodded.

“That was really clever!” At her fulminating glance, he added, “My lady!”

She gave another weak cough.

“Where next?”

“We need to go into the Myriad,” Josh said. Either that, or turn themselves in. He wasn't sure whether to suggest that or not.

Lady Alianne stared at him.

“What do you mean?” she hissed. “We can’t … we need to go back to Brackstone!”

It was Josh’s turn to stare at her.

“We’re in the middle of the Azure Cathedral. My lady.”

“I know that! I’m not an idiot! I mean, how do we get back to the surface?”

Josh stared at her some more.

“We have to keep going,” he said, slowly. “We find our way through the Myriad, then into the Huldra city, and out via the north exit, and then we’ll be close to Dendral.”

She clutched at the cloak.

“What!? Are you utterly mad?”

“What do you mean?” Josh asked, perplexed.

“I thought you were leading us back south! Out the way we came in! You seemed to know where you were going!”

How had she not noticed which direction they were going in? And there was no way he could have operated the first canal lock to get them back through it with all the guards standing around.

“I do know where I’m going!”

“Through the Myriad? Without a guide?”

Josh had not previously been entirely certain that he would be able to find the way through a network of underground tunnels which continuously crossed each other, turned back on themselves, or unexpectedly turned into vertical drops or impassable chasms. He’d only done it once before, after all, and that had been in a video game. Also, it hadn’t been nearly as dark as this.

His resolve firmed.

“I can guide us!” he declared.

“We’re going to die!” Lady Alianne clutched her knees to her chest and rocked back and forth.

Josh felt insulted. He had got them this far, hadn’t he?

At some point the guards at the fort would check in with the commander in the previous cavern and connect the dots. Would the commander organise a search for Josh and the others when they found out the invisible escapees weren’t just huldra ninjas, but human travellers escaping detainment?

“Let’s get out of the open,” Josh said. “You both need to warm up, my lady, and we should rest before we continue.”

“Lead on then.” Lady Alianne didn’t sound happy about it, but she helped him lift Lady Paleyne into a fireman’s carry. Josh swayed a bit, and ignored the puzzled frown Lady Alianne sent him. His leg felt like it was on fire every time he put weight on it, and his muscles were stiff and ached all over. But they couldn’t stop here.

He led them into the caves of the Myriad.

This time Josh navigated to a rat’s maze of twisty little tunnels. It was only a short distance from the lake cavern, but it had multiple exits and entrances, and if the guards did come after them, it would be hard to pin them down. Lady Alianne stopped them before they were more than a few metres in, and insisted on lighting a lantern, although Josh had to use a heat spell to dry out the candle, which had been submerged in the lake along with everything else Lady Alianne had been carrying, including their food supplies. Josh could only hope the lake water didn’t contain any harmful bacteria. He could see he was going to be casting a lot of Heat spells.

Once they’d found an alcove to settle down in, and Josh had scribed and then cast Heat spells onto the women’s clothing to help get them stay warm, he took himself off a short way and changed out of the armour.

That was painful. Where he had bled, the armour was stuck to his skin with dried blood. The cut on his arm and the gash on his leg both started bleeding sluggishly as he pulled it off. He hissed in pain, but he had nothing to bandage himself with, for all the good that would have done. He should probably have stitches, but they didn’t have anything like that in the supplies Lady Alianne had been carrying.

He shrugged his spare set of clothes on carefully, and he was probably going to get blood on them, but he couldn’t help that. The wounds settled into a hot, persistent ache that was hard to ignore.

Back in the alcove, Lady Alianne was inspecting their remaining soaked food. There was soggy bread, a bag of oats that had solidified into one big lump of porridge, a wheel of cheese with a hard rind, and some kind of smoked sausage. There were also five apples, which Josh initially thought were rotten, but Lady Alianne called them medlars, and claimed they were supposed to be that way. He dubiously added them to the edible pile, along with the wheel of cheese and the sausage, and cast the Heat spell on all three a couple of times.

When he cut into the cheese, he found the heat had made it go slightly runny, so they dipped the sausages into the cheese and ate them that way, and then finished with the medlars, which tasted a little bit like caramelised apples or dates, except with a soft, mushy texture. Josh set aside a portion for Lady Paleyne.

“Are you sure you know your way through this place?” Lady Alianne asked, giving the tunnels a dubious look.

“Yes,” Josh said confidently. As far as he could tell, the layout of the Myriad had been replicated in Spiralia exactly. In fact, the landscape of the entire Cathedral had rendered faithfully in the game. That made him hopeful that the rest would be the same, except without monsters. They hadn’t seen any so far.

There was only one truly unknown factor.

“What do you know of the huldra? Uh, my lady?”

Lady Alianne’s eyes flickered nervously around them.

“Only that they are savage creatures, and tricksters. However, in gratitude for being able to claim their ancestral home in these caverns, they allow agents of the Crown to use the Cathedral to traverse between north and south swiftly and safely. The huldra have little concept of diplomacy, however, so the relationship is managed by the Earl of Northcrag. Whose protection, it appears, we cannot rely on.”

“I don’t think that’s how it is at all,” Josh said, and explained what he had seen—how fort faced outward into the lake, presumably to defend from the huldra, how the fort’s guards had immediately assumed Josh was one of them, the disparaging way the guards had spoken of the huldra, and of the conflict between them.

“So,” he concluded, “that means we are in huldra territory now.”

“You mean they could attack us at any moment?” Lady Alianne’s voice rose sharply.

Josh made shushing gestures.

“It doesn’t sound like they have any reason to be grateful to humans. Um, my lady. But if the Cathedral is supposed to be a safe route to the north, Northcrag’s couriers must have some way of getting past them. If the huldra were routinely attacking Northcrag convoys then I think everyone would know about it, wouldn’t you?”

Lady Alianne frowned.

At that point, Lady Paleyne spoke up.

“Northcrag holds a hostage,” she said.

“Pally!”

Lady Paleyne slowly heaved herself into a sitting position, and winced.

“Why, I beg of you, are my clothes damp?”

Josh and Lady Alianne tried to speak at once, explaining the events of the past few hours. Lady Paleyne held up a hand.

“Yes, yes, so I had gathered. Oh, my poor head!”

“Are you hungry?” Josh asked. “Thirsty?” He gathered up the portion of food they had left for her, along with the waterskin from his own pack.

Lady Paleyne regarded the congealed lump of cheese, the sausages and the medlars with a dubious expression, then sighed.

“I am utterly ravenous. While I eat, perhaps you could satisfy my curiosity. Where on earth are we?”

Josh explained, ignoring the wince Lady Paleyne gave at the intelligence that they were now in the winding caves of the Myriad. He followed that up with, “But what do you mean, a hostage? Does Northcrag keep a huldra hostage?”

Lady Paleyne shrugged.

“Very likely. He could not hold the Cathedral against them if he did not have some way to threaten them, and there is no easier way to achieve that than a hostage. Ideally from their ruling family.”

“That’s assuming they have a hereditary leadership,” Josh said, trying to remember if there had been any information on stone elf social structure and governance in Spiralia.

Lady Paleyne gave him an odd look, but before she could reply, another voice floated out of the darkness.

“He doess indeed hold a hostage.” The voice was lilting, and a little sibilant, in a way that made it sound Scandinavian.

A figure materialised out of the darkness, and Josh groped for the magic staff. The newcomer was short, perhaps no more than five feet tall, with a slender build, pale skin, and huge eyes that were all dark iris and no whites. They had pointed ears, and a narrow face that was humanoid, but very much not human. They also had a tail that flicked restlessly at their ankles.

Josh was looking at his first huldra.