As Twist and Tenacia rested and dried from the lake treading, Klamka and Lionel reached the great stalactite and stood in front of the stone door Twist had lowered.
“You sure they went up here?” Lionel asked Klamka, looking at the door doubtfully, "That is one big heavy looking piece o' rock"
“I am, I can easily track down magicians and I feel the lingering magic of the noctav.”
“Oh really?” Lionel responded, raising an eyebrow, “You can sense the remnants of the spells he has cast?”
“I would, but he hasn’t casted any magic”
“Then how can you track him? He fart magic or something?”
“He has something on him that is leaving a lingering magic trail behind” Klamka answered, more than a little testily, “I assume it is some sort of enchanted relic. A powerful one if it is still so clear at this point. It’s like the lingering smell of strong cheese”
“Strong cheese? You sure he didn't fart?” Lionel chuckled with a big smile.
Klamka gave no reply.
“Hoho… I won’t lie though, I am intriguied. It is a rare ability to be able to sense magic like that, the sixth sense I have heard some call it” Lionel went on “Especially with someone who isn’t even a magician!”
Klamka still had no response.
Lionel nodded, then stabbed his long sword into the stone door.
“Either way, time for some controlled demolition. Ignite!”
The orange runes on the sword glowed, then Lionel took a few steps back.
“Gather flames to burst out all at once, a fiery explosion to break the door and…”
He turned to Klamka.
“Say, what rhymes with once?”
“Dunce”
“Hey, I was just asking…”
“No, it is a word that rhymes with once. Idiot”
“Heh I know! Just making sure you are paying attention, princess"
Lionel cleared his throat.
“Gather flames to burst out all at once, break down the door and help use reach a dunce!”
Twist’s bat ears twitched, from afar he could hear an explosion. Then the cavern around shook a bit, pebbles falling from the ceiling.
“Alright, what was that?” Tenacia asked, seemingly more angry than afraid “Are there monsters in the Underworld that explode?”
“Yes, but none that dwell in Lethes” Twist replied, keeping his ears up.
For a while there was just the echo of the explosion, then he heard the sound of metal boots on stone.
“We have company” he said aloud “Someone is following our path and are going up the stairway”
“The clankers?”
“No, I don’t hear the awful creaking and scratching sounds their bodies make. Just the clinking of armor”
“Ughh, must be that knight then” Tenacia groaned, remembering the knight with the flaming sword.
“Does he have a sibling, do you know?”
“Why?"
“There is another person in armor with him, wearing heavier armor”
“Well then let’s send em both back with their tail between their legs!” Tenacia said determinedly.
“I am almost out of vis and your arm is hurt” Twist replied, frowning incredulously “We must flee, but no worries; our route will help us get ahead!”
Tenacia sighed, but nodded.
From afar, Klamka and Lionel ran up the stairway and could hear the pitter-patter of their targets running away.
“They are here indeed! This will be the easiest bounty I ever got” Lionel chuckled.
Klamka nodded in response. The two reached the cave and quickly ran through the water.
Ahead, Twist and Tenacia dashed as fast as they could.
“Almost there… Perfect! Not only are the tracks here, but a minecart is here!” Twist laughed, he pointed at something ahead.
A strange structure stood before them, it had a hollow top, was cubic in shape, and made of grey stone. On its sides were etched runes and intricate designs, from its bottom came out a large spike that balanced the whole device in top of a thin strip of stone that was the same shade as the box and spanned into the distance, etched on it was a lone thin string of runes.
“This looks nothin’ like any minecart I’ve ever seen” Tenacia remarked, placing a hand on the rim of the device skeptically.
“It is a special one! Made by the dwarves and powered by magic!” Twist explained excitedly, he leaped into the runic minecart. Tenacia leaped into it herself, using her good arm.
“So how does this thing move?” she asked.
Twist looked around the inside of the minecart, honestly not sure. He had read of these runic minecarts and even seen them long ago, but he had never actually used them.
Tenacia looked around the minecart too, she noticed odd bumps near her. They were three little round runestones arranged in a straight line; a dot, an arrow pointing right, and two arrows pointing right. She realized these were buttons and she quickly pressed the button with two arrows.
Suddenly one of the large runes on the side of the minecart glowed a bright orange, followed by a plume of flame extended from it and pushing the cart down the lines of runes through the tunnel at a rapid rate, faster than a horse at full gallop.
“Whoa! Fire propulsion!” Tenacia exclaimed, startled but invigorated by the burst of speed.
“Amazing! Well done Tenacia!” Twist laughed, waving his hat in the air “Fatana, here we come!”
Klamka and Lionel arrived where the minecart once stood not long later, but by that point Twist and Tenacia were already far, far away.
“Well dang” Lionel said, scratching his head “I thought we would have caught up with them by now”
Klamka leaned and examined the rune-engraved minecart path.
“They have been sped ahead by magic” the princess said “This must be part of some sort of magical form of travel”
She got up and looked at the stone path that went down the tunnel with grim determination.
“But regardless how they get away… No one outruns me. Especially not a mage”
As the minecart sped on its path, Tenacia leaned out and looked in wonder as the cavern around them sped by in almost a blur.
“Who did you say made this again?” she asked.
“Dwarves!” Twist answered brightly.
"What kind of dwarves?"
"Deep dwarves I think they call themselves! They are a brilliant though rather cold bunch. Not many dwell in Lethes, most of them dwell on higher layers"
Tenacia nodded and enjoyed the ride. Eventually, the flame behind slowly grew weaker and petered out. The two riders were worried there was a problem, but it was simply the minecart slowing down purposely. Twist let out an echoing shriek ahead, not too far was the end of the path and the minecart slowly stopped at its end.
“Excellent!” he said as he got out “Not only are far ahead, but with the minecart on this side of its rail, our pursuers can’t use it!”
"Was hoping this thing could take us further, but outrunning those metal punks is more than good enough" Tenacia remarked, getting out herself.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
The two companions kept up their trek through the caves. Tenacia could tell from the incline of the minecart’s path and now they were slowly but surely going upward, she was a bit worried about being too far from Hubert, but with how determined the cult was to catch her she realized it would not be too difficult to find her brother if she got far away. If anything, the behemoth would find her before she found it.
A few hours passed without much happening as they traveled, the twisting tunnels of the Underworld felt very much the same, though Twist seemed to know where he was going. Twist was also slowing and beginning to pant.
“You okay there?” Tenacia asked him.
“Aha… Sorry! I have just done so much traveling already, I have scarcely rested!” Twist answered. Indeed, Twist’s own journey through the Underworld had already been arduous and long, he had intended to rest in the Grey Vale before he saw the Behemoth.
“Well then, let’s rest” Tenacia said “I think we are far enough away from those loonies, we can sleep for a while”
Twist wanted to keep going, knowing they had pursuers made him nervous. He thought about it, and saw the wisdom in Tenacia’s words. He was tired physically and magically, while she was injured.
“Good point! Let’s rest then for a dark cycle” he agreed.
“A what?” Tenacia asked, taking her thick coat off.
“Night essentially, for us who don’t see the sun or moon. It is about six hours” Twist explained.
“Alright, sounds like a good amount of sleep for me” Tencia affirmed.
The two set up camp. Twist reached into his hat and pulled out a log of wood which Tenacia soon lit on fire with her tinderbox. Twist then pulled out two blankets, with which the two travelers quickly wrapped themselves up in. As the campfire burned, the two continued to talk. Twist had more questions about the surface which Tenacia tried to answer to the best of her ability, though the half-dwarf had some questions of her own.
“How does your magic work?” Tenacia asked “Me and my bro have tinkered with runes, but we have never bothered with stuff like spellcraft. We know a few mages, but never really spoken to them. If we are gonna travel together, I wanna know how it works so I don’t push ya”
“Ahh it is actually rather simple” Twist said sagely “It is Spellcasting 101… Ahem!”
Twist cleared his throat and explained how spell casting works.
“To cast a spell you need four things: enough magic energy to power the spell, the proper elements on hand for the spell to work, something to direct the spell, and an incantation to command the spell. Fuel, ingredient, conductor, and command! Like if I cast a spell that makes a gust of wind I need enough energy within me, air around me, my staff to channel it, and I say an incantation to make the spell work”
Twist raised his staff and swung his staff “Give me a gust!”
Tenacia felt a fairly strong wind blow past her, making the fire flicker.
“Just four words though? Does that count as an incantation?” Tenacia asked.
“It can! Simpler spells like throwing a fireball or gale have no need for anything special, just a few simple words or even one combined with proper staff aiming will get the spell done. Now for stronger or specific spells like unlocking a door or making a gust fly me into the air, you do want to be more wordy! Eloquent and structured words will give further power to your magic, for it is order that gives magic shape. This is why I, and other mages as far as I know, usually try to use a rhyming scheme in our spells. Plus being specific will keep the spell on track and not do something you don’t want it do.”
Tenacia chuckled “I can get why. I have heard tell of tales of wizards who got undone because they didn’t phrase their spells right. Things like summoning a lightning bolt to shock someone, only for it to go target some donkey in the distance ‘cause they said ‘shock that jackass!’”
Twist nodded and chuckled “Indeed! When I was an apprentice mage I got cocky and tried to summon a tornado just by going ‘tornado appear before me!’… It certainly did appear before me and it nearly killed me!”
“So what is this energy you are talkin’ about? Vis was it?” Tenacia asked with a yawn, she was sincerely interested, but was getting sleepy.
“Ahhh that is a fascinating subject! Our souls, you see, generate a sort of energy, just like how our bodies do when we eat” Twist answered happily “This soul magic energy is called vis! The soul is always making more vis, though more taxing spells can take more vis than the soul can make.”
“Can you cast magic without vis?”
“Oh you can cast, but you don’t want to! If you try to cast a spell without vis, the magic will work using your own life force”
“Ouch” Tenacia remarked.
“Ouch is an understatement my friend” Twist said seriously “Magic drawing upon your very energy and stamina not only hurts horribly, but risks spell corruption.”
“What is that?”
“The worst thing that can happen when casting magic! It is essentially the magic itself attacking you. What entails afterward depends on the element you called on, but rest assured it is always unpleasant; from being set on fire to growing extra limbs. Spell corruption can also happen if you improperly cast a powerful spell.”
Tenacia flinched at the descriptions.
“Okay wow… Magic is tricky.”
Twist nodded “Indeed! Powerful and helpful, but tricky indeed and never to be taken lightly.”
Tenacia noticed the campfire had finally died out “Hmm I kinda want to know more… But campfire is done, time to sleep. G’night Twist”
“Have pleasant dreams Tenacia” Twist responded with a smile, angling his hat down over his eyes.
Tenacia turned to her lantern and blew it out with a puff of breath, plunging the cavern into darkness. Tenacia laid there, mind filled with worry: was Hubert okay? How would they save him? Were they safe here? What if they slept for too long and got attacked by that nutty cult or an Underworld monster? And was Twist truly trustworthy? Was he taking her to the city? Was his affability just a façade?
Despite these concerns, tiredness overtook her and Tenacia went to sleep.
Tenacia awoke, opening her eyelids and groaning a bit. Laying on rock was not the most comfortable sleeping condition, but what had really woken her up was the sound of something slimey. She sat up and looked at the source of the sound; it was a small and somewhat spherical little creature, it was featureless and glistened like a drop of water. It was slowly moving toward Tenacia, leaving behind a trail of ooze.
This was clearly some sort of slime. Tenacia had encountered slimes before, though they were a lot larger and more horrifying than this thing. It was actually somewhat cute.
The slime attached itself to Tenacia's arm, she could feel it begin to tingle unpleasantly as the slime tried to eat her. Tenacia looked it unimpressed, then with with a flick of the wrist tossed the slime towards a wall. There was a loud splat as the slime hit the wall and broke into countless tiny slimes.
Tenacia turned to Twist, he was still sound asleep leaning on the cavern wall. Tenacia wasn’t sure if it was the end of the “dark cycle” he had mentioned, but she felt they had to get moving. She got up and lit her lantern, then she walked to Twist. She put her hand his shoulder and started to shake him.
“Hey! Twist! Wake up!” she said as softly as she could.
He didn’t wake.
“C’mon Twist, let’s get up”
No response. Twist was still deep in his sleep.
“WAKE UP!” Tenacia snapped, shaking Twist with both arms.
Twist stayed asleep for a moment longer, then jolted awake.
“WHOA! What? What? What? What? Oh hello Tenacious, I mean Tenacia! Have any good dreams?” he greeted, smiling nervously.
“Uhhh I suppose?” Tenacia replied, noticing his unease.
“Good! Is the Dark Cycle done?”
“No idea! I normally keep track by the sun”
“Oh fair point! Well even if it isn’t, I think we are rested enough don’t you think?”
“Agreed, let’s continue forward” Tenacia said, stretching then cracking her neck.
“Right! Onward!” Twist laughed, his smile becoming sincere.
Twist got up and put both blankets away. He then marched away with Tenacia closely following him. They went through a tunnel, then entered a cavern with various pools in it. Each was about the size of a small pond and each glowed brightly. Both Tenacia and Twist looked into one, inside were thousands of tiny glowing specks that swam around.
“Fascinating!” Twist whispered in wonder “What unusual creatures! Or are they plants? Amazing!”
Tenacia nodded in agreement, though kept her distance.
“Y’know for as many horror stories I heard about the Underworld, other than those masked freaks we haven’t faced much danger” She remarked.
“Precisely, and there is a reason for that! For a whole month I planned the safest route to the surface, making sure to avoid all of the Underworld’s most terrible locales” Twist explained proudly.
Tenacia took note of “A whole month”, though had a more pressing question.
“So is it one hundred percent safe?”
“Ahh sadly not, there are some areas where safe spots will be scarce”
“Okay, what kind of dangers should I expect?”
“You should have already seen some of them being down here for so long, can you not remember?”
“I got kidnapped remember?” Tenacia replied impatiently, “I was stuck on that giant machine as long as I’ve been down here! I couldn’t see out of it whilst in a prison made entirely of metal”
“Ahh that is true! So sorry my friend” Twist apologized “Though on that note, how did you escape?”
“Me and my brother, who was in another cage by the way, did the old sick prisoner trick”
“Oh? What does that entail?”
“Well here’s how it went down…” Tenacia began.
So there we were in our cell. I lied on the floor face to the ground and shuddering as dramatically as I could while Hubert pounded on the bars and yelled “Guard! Guard!”
One of them tall masked and robed jerks marched into the prison, in one of his hands was a short and stout metal wand. He was a flesh in blood worker by the way, not a clanker. Though soon we heard whirrin’… Then one of those clankers, clockwork slobs, came into the room.
“What is it?” the fleshy guard asked gruffly.
“It is me sister! She’s sick!” my brother shouted desperately, pointing at the cage that contained me.
“And why is it my concern?” the guard questioned grimly.
“Ye master caught us to do a job right? How do ye think he’ll feel when one of ‘is employees is a cadaver?!”
The guard paused then nodded, he then got from his robes a ring of keys. Taking one of the keys he unlocked the padlock to my cage.
“We do have a healer here” the guard said, then he motioned to his metal buddy “We’ll get you to him”
The thing was above me and I could feel its things cold steel hands grab me by the arm.
“Take her to Zelos” the guard chuckled as he and the clanker walked out of the cell, locking Hubert behind bars again.
I figured that the guard saw through our plan and thought I could do nothin’ to that metal pal of his… Well if he did think that, he was wrong! I sprang into action and kicked that thing in the nads!
Hmmm ok, I am pretty sure that thing didn’t have nads… Automaton and all, but I sure left a dent and it toppled over! Both Hubert and the fleshy guard groaned.
The fleshy guard then tried to grab me too, but I punched him in his mask. It shattered and he fell to the ground, knocked out cold.
I quickly ran to his body and picked up the key ring… Then that clanker grabbed it! It was down but not out, it also began to make this horrible screeching sound!
“Ye get goin’ without me Tenacia!” Hubert shouted “I bet dollars to diamonds those guards’ll be ‘ere any sec!”
“No way!” I barked, playin’ tug o’ war with the keyring. I won that tug and got the keys, then ran over to Hubert’s cell.
“Which key, which key…” I whispered as I began trying keys. How many locked doors were in this place anyway?
“Don’t worry me girl! I’ll be fine! Ye get goin’ I say!” Hubert begged.
“Escaped! Someone has escaped!” Yelled a voice down one of the halls.
I looked up in alarm, groaned, and ran off in the opposite direction as I put the key ring in one of my pockets.
“Ahh I see” Twist said, nodding approvingly “A clever plan indeed!”
“Yeah, but it didn’t really work” Tenacia moaned.
“Ahh the best laid plans of mortal and immortal often go astray, besides you not only got away with the keys, but you gave those disgusting guards what for!”
Tenacia chuckled “Yeah! I busted those creeps up good!”
“Well done indeed! And from what I saw before, you are a truly remarkable fighter!”
Tenacia chuckled and scratched her nose, blushing slightly.
“Yeah! My dad taught me how to fight! ‘Course I’d be a beast! But I gotta say I ain’t workin’ at full efficiency since those jerks took my pickaxe”
“Well we’ll just have to get that back with your brother then!”
Tenacia looked at Twist. He seemed too good to be true, but she had to admit she was warming up to him. But what exactly was his angle? His goals? These thoughts kept flying around in her mind as they continued their trek through the Underworld.