As Roman recounted all West had missed and they started into the third hall, West pondered a growing problem: Sunny was falling behind. The Mani’s face was pale and faded from exertion, her injured arm clutched tight to her body. Unhurried and drawn into her own thoughts, she didn’t seem to realize how far she was lagging behind. West slowed down his stride, forcing the others to match him– but even at an easier pace, Sunny wouldn’t be able to push ahead much longer.

“Roman, let's take a breather, aye?” West suggested. The swordsman stopped, frowning. The Investigator blew out his breath, as though winded. “I know we’ve gotta make ground, but the lot of us are draggin’ already. We can spare a wee bit o’ time, cannae we? We’ll wanna be fresh fer whatever’s ahead, and anyways, we cannae keep up a nonstop pace all night.”

“It seems too soon,” Roman said. Vera, several paces ahead, stopped to observe the discussion.

“E’en if yer not feelin’ it in yer body, yer mind’s gotta be gettin’ worn down,” West said. “It’s important we be sharp and alert. Hell, I’m feelin’ it, and all I had to do was twiddle me thumbs in the dark fer a spell.”

West did his best not to glance at Sunny, but Roman could infer for himself why the Investigator felt the need to speak up. “Let’s compromise,” the swordsman suggested. “We’ll get to the fourth hall, and then break. One more room– is that acceptable, Sunny?”

Singled out, the Mani flinched. “O-of course.”

“Good, then.” The matter settled, Roman motioned for Vera to continue on ahead, and followed. West bit back a grumble.

With a puff of effort, Sunny started after the others, and West sidled alongside her. “Listen. If we’re nae takin’ a rest yet, well… I know ye’ve got worries about bein’ a drain on our supplies, but I’ve got healin’ potions to spare. More than we’ll need in jes’ one wee night.” West saw Roman slow slightly, listening in. “Yer exhausted and hurt and in no state to look after yer own self, let alone anyone else, so how about I give ye–”

Sunny murmured, “No, thank you.” Seemingly uncomfortable letting him into her space, her steps drifted closer to the wall.

Puzzled, West said, “It’s yer decision, but can ye nae just tell me why?” Sunny shook her head.

“Maybe our friend the Investigator hasn’t managed to make himself clear,” Roman said. “I don’t much care one way or another if you have some deeply personal feelings on accepting help. At the rate you’re going, you’ll likely get killed before we find our way out of here. And, since you are the only one with any information about this place, that would be inconvenient. I suggest you accept the help that’s offered you.”

“It’s just– it’s unnecessary, don’t y-you understand?” Sunny hunched her shoulders. “I’m not th-the one that’s in real danger, here. If it wanted me d-dead, then I wou-would’ve died ages ago. It’s not– it’s not going to kill me, it’s only–”

“That makes no sense.” Frowning stiffly, Roman questioned, “If it won’t harm you, how did you get those wounds on your wrists earlier?” Sunny didn’t answer, and he pressed again, less patiently: “Whistler was what injured you, wasn’t it?”

Her arms locked close in front of her, and her pace slowed. “... No." Admitting it seemed to pain her.

Much as West didn’t want to push her, he couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Then who?”

Hushed, Sunny said, “Not everyone who c-came through here t-took the situation h, here, as professionally as….” Appearing vaguely ill, Sunny cut off her sentence and shook her head. “I really don’t want to t-talk about it.”

West stared, openly dismayed. “Lass–”

"Don't." The venom in Sunny's voice was enough to make West falter. She fixed her gaze on the hall ahead of them, stony-faced. "Please, d-don't call me that."

"Call ye what? Lass?"

"Yes, that. Please don't." Breaking away, Sunny hurried ahead to walk alongside Vera. The scholar drifted a few cautious steps away, insisting on a comfortable space between them.

“... Aye. Whatever ye want.” West continued on, downcast.

Moseying near with a friendly air, Roman clapped West's shoulder. "Not much good with women, are you, Investigator?" Not so far away that she couldn’t overhear, Sunny pulled her wings in close against her body in embarrassment, hurrying further.

West shrugged off Roman's hand, bristling. "Let's just keep focused on the task at hand, laddie,” he grumbled.

“Let’s make that both of us, then.” Roman dropped his voice lower. “You’ve been acting like a mother hen since the moment Sunny showed up, West, and I’m concerned that you’re losing sight of the bigger picture here. We’ve both got our reasons for being here to keep in mind. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but sympathetic though her story is, Sunny is very suspect–“

“Now hol’ on, Roman–”

Roman stopped walking altogether. He faced West dead-on, drawing up his height so that his glare only had to be leveled slightly upwards to meet West’s eyes, and whispered fiercely, “No. Listen. While I’m happy to lend a hand along the way, it’s obvious that even if Sunny’s operating on the best of intentions, she could become a dangerous distraction. And if that happens, we’ll have some difficult choices to make. Getting overly attached will not be a benefit then. So let’s act like the professionals we are, please.”

West quirked his lips down and to the side. “... Professional, aye.” West knew that Roman wasn’t the sort who liked his authority challenged, and did his best to keep sarcasm from poisoning his voice, but it was too bitter to swallow down entirely.

Roman frowned. “Is that going to be a problem, Investigator?”

West flattened his lips before answering. “I’m not in the habit o’ telling falsehoods, laddie, but ye’ll nae like what I’ve to say. There’s nary a chance o’ me leavin’ Sunny behind, nor lettin’ anythin’ happen to her,” a slight pause, “nor any one of ya, fer that matter. Not if it’s in me power to prevent. I’d consider it a courtesy if ye take that under yer profes’nal consideration.”

Roman held West’s look, studying the Investigator deeply, then snorted. “Believe me, I’m considering a great deal.”

***

Vera pushed ahead. She was eternally bored by the posturing that came with her adventurer companions. The scholar didn’t care for their pointless bickering, their childish displays of dominance, their exasperating drive to get the last word. All that mattered was the opportunity for discovery ahead, not who called the shots on how to get there.

At the same time, it was part of what she liked about partnering with Roman. With him to take on all those silly little fights, there was nothing distracting her from the important things. Like now– whatever was going on with West, she didn’t care, and didn’t have to care. Roman would handle it. So far as Vera was concerned, Roman could take the lead all he wanted; anytime he went in a direction contrary to her interests, she could point to their contract, and she knew he’d honor their agreements.

Sunny felt the same– or at least Vera thought she did. Beyond an occasional glance behind them, Sunny showed no more interest than Vera in the quiet spat playing out behind them. As annoying as the whining Aerie could be, working with her on the Vaari tooth puzzle had earned a few grams of Vera’s respect, and even more now that they’d come to an unspoken accordance to focus on the road ahead.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

After walking a short way, they came to a doorway.

“I don’t know this place,” Sunny said, looking through the doorway. Vera could barely call the space beyond the doorway a room. It was more like an alcove set into the stone, its rough walls cave-like. A passage in the left wall was interrupted by a stone barrier, and Vera eyed curiously a small glyph beside its frame. The Zorrocean script here was florid and hard to decipher, but she was reasonably certain that this one was labeled “OPEN.” Set into the back wall was a window, as wide across as two fists and perfectly round, beckoning the newcomers to take a glimpse into a lit room beyond.

Pulled by curiosity, Vera stepped through to the room. “No, wait– don’t go ahead by yourself,” Sunny said, hovering at the doorway. “We need to wait for the others.”

“Won’t go far,” Vera said. Even if the walls began to shift now, she’d have several seconds before the entrance sealed– more than enough time for her to flit out in a room this tiny. Heedless of Sunny’s anxious hemming behind her, she pressed close to the window to peer through.

Another room, not much larger than this one… the door to the stairway beyond was open, but the only other door leading into the room was closed… some sort of pedestal, and an object on it… a long, slender object… a familiarly shaped object….

Seized by a giddy rush, Vera gasped. “WAND,” she squealed.

“Wand?” Sunny echoed doubtfully from the doorway.

Vera’s pulse quickened. She couldn’t make out the details of it here, but the proportions brought to mind something she’d seen in a textbook long ago, the style of the wandmaker Shifter. There were precious few of his artifacts left now, and none at all at her university to study. If that wand was the make she thought it was, it was a once-in-a-lifetime find!

Vera sensed Sunny moving in the doorway, leaning see around the scholar. “Just hold on a moment, we can all look t-together, right?”

But something else arrived. Some background alarm in Vera’s mind might have sensed it slipping in, like the nearly undetectable pressure smothering the calm in front of a thunderstorm, but she was too engrossed in examining the distant wand to pay it any heed. Words carried on the air to her as something other than sound, pressing deep into her very foundations, indistinguishable from her own urges: What am I waiting here for? That’s MINE, isn’t it?

Sunny barely had time to say “Wait”, and Vera had thrown herself to the passage, hand slamming on the OPEN glyph. The stone barrier snapped into the ground with a heart-jumping thud. Beyond it, a dark passage twisted away, its floor rising and dipping and its walls as rough-cut as a natural cave. There was only the barest illumination provided by a thin strip of light in the ceiling– and, as the moments passed, it extinguished itself millimeter by millimeter, creeping forward.

Vera whipped around to Sunny, pointing at the window. “Through there. The door to the room is open?” she asked urgently.

Sunny hesitated. “It… yes, I think so. But let’s wait for the others, and–”

“No time!” She pointed upward at the strip of light as she turned back to the passage. The design here was very plain to her: The light was a guide through the tunnel, but it was also a timer. If it reached the end of the passage before she did, the door to the wand would close. There was a glyph on the door here that looked like it might restart the timer if they were too slow getting to the end, but who could say if the wand would still be there by the time they got another chance?

That wand was hers, and she didn’t dare let anything come between her and it. She had to get to it before it was too late.

Pushing past a creeping sense of fear pervading her thoughts– heart won’t stop pounding, what if I’m too slow, it could be lost forever– Vera rushed into the passage, picking her footing deftly on the rocky floor as she chased after the tail end of the light.

Behind her, she heard Sunny yelping, “S-stop, you can't!”, then footsteps. The Mani must have found the courage to follow her. It didn’t matter to Vera either way. Just so long as she got that wand.

***

Shouting ahead cut off West and Roman's tense conversation. Looking at the hall ahead, West realized their companions had disappeared.

Swearing, West took off at a dead run, Roman only steps behind. The doorway ahead, and voices beyond it. It’ll try to separate you, Sunny had warned before, and sure enough, the hallway walls began to grind and shift just as West reached the turn. The threshold narrowed.

“Hurry it up, lad!” he shouted after Roman, stalling long enough to shove the swordsman through the passage before squeezing through the last of the gap.

Sunny and Vera were nowhere to be seen, but Vera’s voice drifted down from the twisting passages– “very unusual design, never see those these days”– along with Sunny’s pleas for attention– “w-wait, you have to stop!”

And more than that– he felt it again. Like it had been back in the stage room, something invaded against his thoughts, seeking out insecurity and doubt and fear, and feeding them eagerly.

I’m too slow, I’m too weak, I’m a damned fool– I cannae trust Roman, he’ll stab me in the back the second me attention’s turned– what the muck is Vera thinkin’, she’s gonna get us all killed– I’m goin’ to lose Norui again–

“Keep steady, Roman, Whistler’s about,” West warned, holding firm through the cascade of spineless thoughts and urges. The noble paled and slowed, one hand pawing for the hilt of his sword. “Roman! Eyes ahead, lad!” the Investigator said sharply. Something in the tone of his voice broke through, and Roman blinked as though clearing away a bad dream. “We gotta hurry now, trouble’s afoot. Let's go!”

***

Dashing after Vera through a long cave path, Sunny crammed herself through narrow passages, up steep slopes, over stony pits. Her body fumbled and trembled with exhaustion, but she desperately stamped down the inner voice whimpering for reprieve. These tight crevices were terrifying. Her feathers kept getting snagged on rough protrusions of rock, the still-raw skin on her arm screamed at every scrape, and dear Lím could only cling tightly to her dress collar, trying not to be brushed off in her rush. She felt like she could barely get her breath, but Vera was always just ahead of her, just out of reach. And everything was so much worse with that awful sense of dread settling into the cracks of her mind– Whistler had to be near, it was so very near, that thing could be right around the corner–

“P-please listen!” It was hard to talk, squeezing through the passage as they were. “You’re not– you’re hearing something, aren’t you? That’s that thing, W-Whistler! It’s leading you on. You can't let it. You h-have to, you have to stop!”

The crack widened at last, and Sunny broke free of the gap with a gasp of relief. The ceiling was low here, forcing her to stoop, but at least she didn’t have to wedge her wings against the walls anymore. They’d managed to get several paces ahead of the fading edge of light on the ceiling, and Vera seemed to relax, slowing her pace enough for Sunny to catch up at last.

From this small niche, one side opened up into a straight passage that seemed luxuriously wide, broad enough to walk down without touching the sides. On one side was the small window that Sunny recognized from the entrance. On the other side was light. Vera’s eyes were drawn to the far room like a fish to a hook, where the coveted wand rested on its pedestal. “It’s there!” she exclaimed, starting forward once more.

Sunny caught hold of Vera’s shoulder and tried tugging her back, but Vera pushed forward. “You have to know it’s not real! It’s just– it’s an illusion–” Nearly in tears, Sunny wrapped herself around Vera’s arm, dropping her weight and clinging desperately. For a precious moment, Vera was pulled off-balance, staggering back. Sunny saw confusion flash on Vera’s face, her eyes nearly crossing as her gaze lowered with a glimmer of contemplation.

Sunny heard it this time- a ghostly prod, words that weren’t words but a geas made manifest. <”DON’T ABANDON WHAT’S YOURS.”>

“Let. Go.” Vera’s tone went beyond disgust and into a deep, dangerous contempt.

Sunny balked at the single-mindedness in the scholar’s eyes. That look was beyond obsession, and Sunny knew it all too well. If she got in the scholar’s way, bloodshed would follow. She let up her weight. “I understand.” Holding fast to Vera’s wrist, Sunny forced a faltering smile. “Let me just– I’ll stay close, all right? We’ll go together. But slowly, s-so that the others can–”

“Don’t care,” Vera grumbled, pushing forward. Sunny followed along, cringing as they entered the hall. The light of the room ahead was nearly blinding after the dark passages, she could barely discern the rough edges of the ground they were walking on–

A few steps in, it happened. Sunny couldn’t work up an ounce of surprise when she heard the soft scrape of a trigger under their feet, only frightened acceptance. Vera slowed as though in wonder at the sound, but continued forward. All that Sunny could do was keep close and hope that whatever it was they’d set off, she could react before it was too late–

Something caught Sunny from behind, pulling her back. A gasp broke out of her as she tried to draw Vera with her, but the scholar pulled out of her grip. “No!”

The danger was too immediate and real– she reached to try and get a hold on Vera, but it was too late already. Someone had pulled her right out of the narrow passage and she wasn’t strong enough to break out of the hands keeping her back and things began to move–

A pillar of solid stone punched inward from the right wall, catching the scholar at the hip and mashing her against the left wall. Flattened with her back against the wall, pinned painfully in a fist-wide gap between stone and wall, the scholar gave a frightened cry and slapped at the pillar of stone pinning her.

Then came a second slam, pushing stone against stone, crushing whatever was left in the way.

Roman, only a few arms-lengths away, swore viciously. Vera crumpled over the stone, blood and worse spilling beneath her torso. Stunned by pain and disbelief, her eyes sought out the group at the end of the hallway. Her lips moved soundlessly, then stilled. West pulled Sunny further back and around the corner, where she couldn’t see the grisly scene. Sunny’s chest hurt as she fought to breathe through a throat squeezed shut by shock, too horrified to scream.

A few merry notes trickled through the air, as though someone whistling nearby, then faded away.