{-Casrane-}

It wasn’t really a long time—between when they finished talking about Esaphi to when they decided to say something else. Silence just had its ways of making things feel a whole lot longer.

“Still, nothing’s changed about the storm,” Myr commented. “Do you… think we should do something? We can’t go anywhere until it ends, but we don’t know when that’s going to be…”

“I don’t know if there’s anything we can do,” Llewel pointed out. “It’s weather. Enhanced by runes or not, there’s a natural element to it that we can’t fight against.”

“Are we just going to stay here for longer, then?”

“This is the part where we’re supposed to be impatient enough to decide to solve the issue on our own,” Casrane announced as she stood up. “There is something we can do. We might not get it to stop raining, but we can do something about why we can’t go anywhere in it. What we need is somewhere else in these caves.”

“I… suppose that makes sense,” Llewel said with a nod, getting up as well. Myr followed him. “When you can’t go anywhere outside, there’s the chance there’s something to do out in the caves… It’s worth a shot, anyway, since we’re not going to be getting anything done here.”

Casrane gestured for them to follow her. “I’m pretty sure I know where we’re supposed to be going. I don’t think it’ll be close to where Esaphi was, but I’m not sure—we might end up running into her.”

Neither of them seemed particularly worried about the fact—actually, Myr looked more relieved or excited to hear it—but she felt it necessary to give them the warning anyway. They’d see soon enough why it might have warranted being called a warning, whether or not they realized it. If she knew she could tell them now, then she would’ve, but she stayed silent as she led them through the caves.

When the only light was the torch she’d lit, there was a lot left in darkness. Llewel seemed to get more tense the more he considered the fact that this was about runes; some force that the twins could both stop or make a lot worse.

She simply decided, amidst the silence, to give the reassurance of, “If it’ll make you feel better, I don’t think we’re going to run into anyone from the Rune Reactivation Project here.”

“I don’t know if we can ever be too sure, though,” he muttered back. “This would be the perfect place for them to lurk, especially if they happen to realize that we’re here as well.”

“I’m just worried about Esaphi,” Myr mumbled. “She’s all alone. I know that, from the sounds of it, she knows these caves better than anyone else does, but… that wouldn’t stop anyone, especially the Rune Reactivation Project, if there was something they wanted. They’ve hurt people before…”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“I’d be much more worried about yourself.” Esaphi came out then, seeming no better than she was before. “I told you three to leave for a reason. Why are you here..?”

“We don’t have much else to go, with the storm still going,” Llewel explained. “Casrane said there was something we might be able to do to stop it.”

“Leave that part to me,” she insisted. “Look, you three should just go back to wherever you were. I can handle this for you.”

Myr defiantly declared, “We’re not going to leave you alone again. At least not until you give me a reason.”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Why is that a possibility? Just tell us! Maybe we can help.”

“You’re not going to be able to help. I’ve never been able to, I don’t know how the three of you are supposed to do anything different.”

Myr showed Esaphi her pendant and gestured to the one Llewel had. “Because we have these. They mean that we’re capable of doing something, whether you think we can or not. We want to help you. So can you tell us what we can do?”

Esaphi hesitated, then nodded. “I’m… still not sure if you can do anything. I can’t, no matter how hard I try. But… Llewel mentioned the kinds of things that could happen to monsters if they’re too near runes. It brings out the worst in people, too—not just their negative emotions, but their actual actions, too, just like the monsters. I… am one of those people. That’s why I’m up here alone, I don’t want to hurt anyone. I’m afraid I’m going to do something to one of you and I don’t have the power to stop myself. I asked you to leave because I was afraid of what I would do. I’m asking you to leave now because I don’t know if I can hold back its intentions.”

“You’re not going to hurt us,” Casrane assured her. “But you shouldn’t handle this on your own—if you’re not comfortable with doing it with us, then let us do it for you. It sounds like you might know how to stop it.”

“I do but only because I’m connected to it,” Esaphi said, shaking her head. “I can ‘talk’ to it and convince it to go somewhere else. You can’t do anything like that. There’s too many runes there, it’s dangerous for normal people…”

“You might be considered ‘a part’ of the runes, and you’re right to say that we aren’t,” Llewel began. “But I have a feeling that we could do one better than pushing it back: we can get rid of it.”

“Wh-what? That shouldn’t be possible. I-if I tried, and couldn’t do it, then how—“

“Myr mentioned the pendants, and there’s no point in keeping the rest hidden from you—we’re Emmyth’s descendants. If anyone’s going to be able to do it, it’s us. So can you tell us where it is so that we can help?”

Esaphi stood in shock for a moment, then slowly nodded. “Follow that path, turn right twice, then left. If you get lost, follow the glow—there’s enough runes there that they shine pretty brightly.”

Casrane gave her a hopefully-reassuring smile. “Thank you. Just leave the rest to us—I promise we’ll get this taken care of.”

Esaphi managed a small smile in return and darted off again in the direction of where she lived.

“I hope she’s going to be okay…” Myr mumbled. “She’ll be alright, right, Casrane? You know, don’t you?”

“Everything’s going to turn out fine,” Casrane replied confidently. “We just have to stop the storm. The sooner we do that, the better.”

With that said, she motioned for the twins to follow her through the caves. They knew their mission.