As they ventured farther and farther, Rhenor was starting to wonder if they were even beneath the village anymore. It seemed to him like they just kept going in one direction, currently following the stream, but maybe the turns were so gradual he hadn’t even noticed. Kaz hadn’t said anything about this either, so Rhen assumed, since the other man knew more about this cavern, there was nothing to worry about.

Although, did Kaz really know more?

Rhenor didn’t think Kaz was tricking him. He could see the fear and worry in Kaz’s eyes every time the ground shook, which turned out to be often. Rhen wasn’t sure if that was because they were getting closer to the source or if the earthquakes were just getting more and more frequent. That distinction would have been nice to know, but there was no way to know.

Though, what was clear was that whatever this artifact was, someone was very eager to keep it hidden. The sheer number of traps and snares they’d had to avoid so far was alarming.

Well, at least to Rhenor it was alarming, Kaz seemed relatively unbothered. Maybe because he’d managed to spot all the traps Rhenor had almost walked into. Rhenor himself noticed a lot of them now that he knew to expect them, but he’d be dead by now without Kaz warning him. He might not see himself as an adventurer, but he had one of the most important skills for exploring ancient places.

Rhen scowled at the small metal pressure plate he had almost stepped on just now and walked around it, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Do you have any ideas what is going on with these traps?”

“None. Who could have possibly had the patience to install all of these by hand?” Kaz proceeded to shake his head as if he were disapproving of said hypothetical person’s life choices. “I mean—”

“No, not what I meant,” Rhenor stopped him. “I mean why are there so many? It seems very unnecessary.”

Kaz blinked at him and then hummed. Apparently, this hadn’t occurred to him. “Well, whoever put them here is not leaving anything to chance. We are still alive, after all, so they haven’t done their job yet, despite how many there are.”

Rhenor frowned at him at that, and Kaz cleared his throat. “Uh, sorry, not trying to imply that they will kill us eventually.”

Rhen let out a huff, but he supposed the other man was right.

“I suppose this must be why this cavern has such a bad reputation. No doubt anyone local who had tried exploring it had been killed by one of these traps,” Kaz continued, his eyes lighting up in excitement. That look disappeared a second later though, without Rhenor having to point out the problem with such a reaction. “Um, those people dying is a tragedy, of course. I’m just happy to solve that mystery. This place could have been haunted.”

Rhenor flinched, blinking. “That’s...a real thing?”

“Oh, yes!” Kaz exclaimed with excitement, apparently not noticing Rhen’s alarm at all. He even threw out his arms as he said this, which ended in a pained grimace due to his bitten forearm. “Ghosts, specters, skeletons…. But no need to worry. They are only ever summoned by necromancers. Well, mostly. There have been records of some spirits managing to cross over into our plane of reality on their own.”

Rhenor almost reached for his bow out of instinct. Kaz looked at Rhenor again, a smile on his face. It was almost comforting.

“Not to worry, they are very rare since magic use is outlawed. I’m confident there aren’t any here.”

Rhenor would do his best not to jump at shadows, but he was getting paranoid now. Why had he had to ask about this?

Kaz was now giving him a sad, sympathetic face. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I-I’m not scared,” Rhenor argued, clearing his throat as he gripped his bag strap tightly, pretending it didn’t hurt his injured palm like hell. “How do you know these things, anyway?”

Kaz’s face lit up again. “I told you, I’m a bit of a scholar. I know something about most things.”

“And how is that possible? Don’t dragons keep humans away from knowledge?”

Rhenor actually wasn’t sure if that was an objective truth, but in the northern regions, where he’d been for all of his life, it definitely was. Except in the very forgotten, insignificant corners of the kingdom, like Arlow. The problem was that there were barely any books here due to the locals not being able to read, and also not trying to learn.

Kaz stopped, turning to face Rhenor but keeping his eyes trained at the ground. “Well, you see, I…. My family may, um….”

“They are dragon loyalists?” Rhen finished for him, keeping his voice even. Kaz just stood there, still staring at his boots. “I see. And you?”

At that the other man’s head sprung up, his eyes wide. “No, no, I don’t agree with how they do things. Not at all. It’s not right.”

Under normal circumstances, that would have been an odd thing to say. Everyone knew being under the lizards’ thumbs wasn’t right. But Rhenor had to remind himself that Kaz was apparently from a family of dragon sycophants. He’d no doubt had luxuries in his life that most humans could only dream of.

“Is that why you’re here?”

Kaz sighed, looking down once again. “Yes. I was banished for my...unpopular views. And I may have helped a friend who used magic escape from prison.”

Rhenor raised an eyebrow. He was honestly surprised Kaz was still alive after that. Him voicing his ‘unpopular views’ must have been very mild because otherwise, Rhen was sure the dragons would have gotten rid of him much earlier. Kaz’s family couldn’t have possibly had the power to protect him from execution for something like this.

“You could have told me that from the start,” Rhen said, his expression softening. He already knew what Kaz would say to this, but he wanted to show Kaz that he didn’t need to be afraid of saying these things if he wanted to share them.

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“I was afraid you’d reject my plea for help,” Kaz said, his shoulders slumping. “Even in such a faraway village, no one seems to like dragons. And for good reason. If I said I technically used to be on their side….” Kaz let out a heavy sigh, his whole body seemingly drained of all energy. “And as I said, I’m not a fighter, or explorer, or anything. I would have been killed by those wolves if I had gone alone.”

“It’s alright, I understand,” Rhenor said, raising a hand. “Is that the reason you haven’t told me your full name?”

Kaz ran a hand through his hair, or at least he’d tried. The leather cord with the stone didn’t leave him much hair to work with. “Well, yes. It sounds very...draconic.”

Rhenor chuckled a little. “Kaz doesn’t sound exactly human either.”

Kaz smiled slightly, his eyes shifting between Rhenor’s and the wall. “It’s better than Kazterrak.”

Rhenor would give him that. That was so aggressively draconic it made some instinct in Rhen’s body want to reach for his knife. But Rhenor immediately managed to get a hold of himself when he connected the name to the guilty-looking, dark-haired man in front of him.

“Hm. I’ll call you Kaz, in any case, if you don’t mind,” Rhenor said, attempting to be as friendly as possible since Kaz had just told him something this important. Though it had changed very little. It just made the pieces fall into place.

Kaz nodded glumly, which only then made Rhen realize that what he’d said could have several interpretations. Trying to save the situation, Rhen added: “Kaz is more personal than Kazterrak. Also shorter. I have a terrible memory when it comes to names.”

Kaz smiled a bit, though the doubt in his eyes made it clear he didn’t believe Rhenor. At least not fully. But Rhen was starting to like the strange, strange man. He just needed to find better ways of showing that. Living and traveling on his own for years had done little to prepare him for this.

Rhenor waved his torch towards the darkness in front of them, and Kaz nodded, following behind him. But that didn’t mean Rhenor wanted to stop talking. He was now even more curious about Kaz’s past, and he wanted to know if Kaz was willing to tell him.

“You mentioned a friend?”

“Oh, um, yes,” Kaz replied, pausing. “Would you like to hear about her?”

Oh, it was a she, was it? For no real reason, Rhen had assumed the friend had been a man. Though the tone Kaz had just used made Rhenor suspicious that she wasn’t just a friend.

“Well, yes, but I’m mostly wondering why she’d used magic when everyone in the entire kingdom knows very well it’s punishable by death.”

Kaz made a long ‘ooh’ sound. “Well, yes, of course, she knew.” He sounded almost defensive. Had Rhenor used an unfriendly tone? He didn’t think so. “She did it to protect me. A bridge almost fell on top of us, but she used her magic to shield us from the rubble.”

Rhenor didn’t know if he should judge her, be impressed by her feat, or be confused as to how a bridge could have fallen on top of Kaz and his friend in the first place. He decided to ask about the thing that bugged him the most.

“How could a bridge just fall down?” He looked back at Kaz, who just shrugged.

“Magic, I assume. Supposedly a few human rebels decided to take a stand.”

Rhenor turned it over in his mind as they kept walking. While there was no doubt in his mind that these rebels had been executed, the fact that his people were taking a stand was...wonderful. And to destroy a bridge as well…. That had to be powerful magic. He didn’t fully understand how magic worked, but he hadn’t heard of anyone in his time managing something this substantial. It had always only been legendary figures from stories who had the truly incredible powers.

“I assume you didn’t try to help the rebels?” Rhenor asked, finding it difficult to keep his tone neutral. He didn’t want to blame Kaz, but not being able to do anything about the injustices of the world had made him too bitter not to.

“It was hard enough helping one person,” Kaz grumbled, though there was guilt in his voice as well. Rhenor grimaced. Dammit.

“It’s….” He sighed, shaking his head. “I apologize. It’s good that you helped at least one person,” Rhenor said, stopping to turn around. Now it was him who found it difficult to maintain eye contact. Had the darned stream always been this loud? It was so small at this point, partially covered up by a wall of rock. “I’m sorry you were banished because of it.”

Kaz thanked him, not saying anything else. Rhenor didn’t blame him. He also decided to stick with silence for a while, not wanting to make Kaz feel even worse about himself.

The silence didn’t last all that long, however, because soon enough the corridor came to an end, revealing massive space, even larger than before. Rhenor couldn’t see far enough to tell well, of course, but in the very back, on the rock wall, there was an eerie light, glowing in a way that had to be artificial. It seemed too neatly organized to be natural. That revealed the size well enough.

“Oh. This is….” Kaz trailed off as he proceeded to walk towards the wall. Rhenor followed him, being extra cautious about traps.

As it turned out, he ended up finding none on his way over, and so he finally looked up at the wall when he reached Kaz. And then Rhenor had to take a moment to frown at the wall in confusion.

It wasn’t a natural rock wall as he’d assumed, but rather a barrier a little taller than him blocking what was most likely another corridor. The barrier itself was made up of large, stone cubes, each one with a glowing rune on it. Rhenor decided to give up trying to understand anything about this ahead of time. He could understand the important part anyway—this had clearly been put here as extra protection to keep people away from the artifact.

“This is not what I expected,” Kaz said, tapping his chin. Rhenor studied his face. The man seemed equal parts concerned and excited.

“Do you know what this is?” Rhenor asked since Kaz did seem like he did. He just didn’t look happy about whatever it was.

“Well, yes. I’ve never seen a sterkk in person—that’s what these doors are called—but I have heard of them, and I believe I know how to solve the puzzle and open it.”

Rhenor frowned. “Well, that’s good, isn’t it?”

Kaz turned to look at Rhen. “That part, yes. And I’m delighted to finally see a sterkk like this, but the dragons don’t just put these anywhere. I…I think I know what the artifact is now.”

Rhen waited for Kaz to continue talking, but he was also very impatient, so after a couple of seconds of silence, he spoke. “Well?”

Kaz sighed, putting his hand on the stone door. “I might be wrong, but, well, it looks like this door, and all those traps, might be guarding a part of the system the dragons have in place to monitor magic use.”

They had some kind of a magical detection system for that? Well, that explained how they always knew when a human broke their law. Rhenor had simply assumed they had eyes and ears everywhere. In every human settlement, there would be at least one person willing to trade their ethics for a pouch full of coins, after all. Rhenor had no doubts that if the dragons had any interest in Arlow, Lorn would be that person.

“That doesn’t sound like something that would cause earthquakes,” Rhen said, scowling at the door.

“Well, not directly, no,” Kaz said, his eyes darting from one rune to the next. Could he read them? “However, it’s still powerful magic. Disturbing it could do many things.”

“Such as snowstorms?”

Kaz raised his index finger but immediately lowered it, frowning to himself. “I…suppose so.” He shook his head. “Anyway, I’m not sure we should meddle with this. It could be really dangerous, and make the dragons angry, and—”

“Kaz,” said Rhenor firmly, shutting the other man up. “We can’t turn back. You yourself said the earthquakes will destroy the village.”

As Kaz sighed and nodded, another idea entered Rhenor’s mind. Perhaps they could do some fighting back against the dragons of their own by destroying the artifact. But he wouldn’t say that out loud. At least not just yet. Kaz seemed incredibly unhappy with just opening the door blocking their way as it was.

“Okay, okay, you’re right,” said Kaz, looking up at the door. “This…might take a while to figure out.”

“That’s alright, we have time.” At least Rhen hoped so as the ground beneath their feet shook again, making them both lean onto the stone door to stay upright. They needed to stop this as soon as possible.