“I… How?” Wayne asked Homer.

The other boy grimaced.

“That damn bug.” He said in a dark voice.

He gingerly shifted his body so Wayne could get a better view of his injury. The blood looked like it had stopped, but with a wound of that size it would be easy to reopen it. The other boy couldn’t have run and tackled Wayne into the pit if that had happened before. Homer must have been injured saving Wayne’s life.

“Thank you… I don’t… How can I ever repay you?” Wayne finally asked.

“Ah, don’t mention it. When you make it out of here, just make sure to tell people the reason why, alright?” The other boy said, looking the other way.

Wayne sat there, realizing Homer didn’t expect to live any further than today. The weight of the other boy's boisterous laughter pressed on Wayne now, now that he knew its reason.

“But… the others are coming for us. Yeah, they’ll be coming to save us any time now.”

Homer let out another sardonic chortle.

“Johnathan wouldn’t be coming to save us. No. He may think to check the location the reports indicate the Rift being at, but it wouldn’t benefit him to attempt a rescue. So he won’t.” The other Hastas finally said.

“You don’t know th-”

“I know Johnathan. I know exactly what type of person he is, and he won’t let them get distracted away from the mission for worthless pieces. The only reason he keeps others around at all is to accentuate his own being. I should know, as his silver bracelet…” Homer said.

The other boy shook his head.

“No, if it doesn’t serve him, then it serves no purpose.” Homer said with finality.

There was clearly some history as to how Homer had ended up so close to Lord Heirdt, but for now, they didn’t have time to unpack it. Wayne looked at the man who had saved his life, and made a promise.

“I’ll get you out of here, then.” Wayne announced.

Homer just looked incredulously at Wayne for a moment, before gesturing to his missing leg.

“How are you going to do that?”

It was Wayne’s turn to shake his head.

“I haven’t gotten that far yet. But I’ll figure it out, trust me.”

“Yeah, and how is your promise to participate in the Assessment treating you, Wayne?” Homer asked sarcastically.

“Well, I’m still alive, so I’ve clearly got a pretty good track record at keeping people living.”

Homer stared at Wayne disbelievingly for a long few seconds, before chuckling again, this time with a much lighter tone.

“Alright, if that’s how you want to look at it. You’re good people, Wayne.”

“Thanks Homer. Now, how do I get out of here?”

Homer quickly showed him the ridge around the lip of the well, and the passageway on the other side.

“That’s where I was when I woke up. I barely noticed you across the big pit here. It was the task of a lifetime making it over here in the first place, I’m going back across.”

Wayne dragged himself to his feet, and made his way towards the pit. He tried not to look at the shifting reality and focus on his footing as he carefully stepped around the shallow ridge with his aching quads. That Homer had done it while injured and with one leg was miraculous.

Then, Wayne was on the other side, looking down a passageway coated in strange, pulsating Runes.

“Good luck. If you see a chance to make it out, don’t hesitate!” Homer called out.

“Thanks, but no thanks! I’ll be back soon!” Wayne called over his shoulder, and began walking away down the passageway.

* * * * *

Wayne took a closer look at the Runes on the walls, examining their looping shapes as the mana within them moved to an unknown melody. They were different from the other Runes Wayne had seen, but he didn’t know enough about the mystical language to place the peculiarity.

Small plants were growing from the few cracks in the walls, small hairline fractures that ran from ground to ceiling but didn’t inhibit structural integrity. Long vines hung from the arched stone above and pooling on the floor, giving off a strong earthy smell.

Wayne ran a hand over the cracks and grooves the Runes made in the walls, feeling the solid stone under his fingertips. The stone around the Runes was smooth and worn, while the gaps in between were more often than not chipped and rough.

The years had not been kind to this majestic work of art, but it had stood the test of time, proving its durability against the ages. Each aching footstep Wayne took echoed softly through the tunnels without end as he explored the underground labyrinth.

The dim light moving and fading with the Runes cast strange shadows across the vines, making Wayne paranoid. He was constantly holding his breath, and pausing whenever he thought something was moving from the corner of his eyes.

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But Wayne was alone, at least in the hallway. After several minutes of walking, he found the corridor opening up into a small antechamber, with three other passageways leading in other directions. Wayne peeked his head around the corner to scan the room, but quickly found it was utterly barren.

Stepping out under the detailed dome of hewn rock, Wayne walked to the middle of the chamber and looked down each of the other corridors. The uneven lighting and dangling vines made it difficult to see any distance down the paths, and Wayne made sure to remember which one he came from before he could get lost.

Then he set out down the tunnel immediately to its right, because… well Wayne didn’t really have a reason. His prior experience navigating large ancient structures was limited to wandering around the Light’s Reach keep in search of a toilet, after all.

Still, he figured this would be as good a place to start as the others, and began to creep his way down the new passage. The only noises were the tapping of his heart, and the beating of Wayne’s heart.

It was a surreal experience, like Wayne was walking through the belly of a nightmare, the vines a twisted rib cage as Wayne walked down the gullet.

Out of nowhere, something brushed up against Wayne’s back.

“Ahhhhhhh! Oh…” Wayne spun around spooked, just to find a vine dangling at his touch.

He felt foolish when he saw that. Wayne’s shout bounced around the hallways, alone in the silence. Then when Wayne heard something start to groan in the distance, he felt like the biggest fool to ever live.

With the echoes of the halls it was hard to discern distance, but Wayne waited with baited breath as the sounds emanated through the stone. After the last remnants of the grinding groan faded and silence resumed for several seconds, Wayne thought he was in the clear.

The pounding that immediately followed that thought convinced him otherwise though.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!’ crashed down the stone halls.

Wayne cowered as he frantically scanned for the source of the noise. He would have looked pathetic if there had been anyone there to witness Wayne at that moment. He was hunched over, neck craning back and forth relentlessly.

Thankfully, nothing could see him, and nothing appeared to be stampeding at Wayne immediately, so he began to relax and continue with his exploration. Maybe the noise would lead him to a route out of these ruins.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!..’ Continued to echo from somewhere further into the tunnels.

Wayne quickly found himself at another antechamber with only one other exit, the stone around him reaching a transition point. Suddenly, the walls were more detailed, with mosaics and colorful tiles decorating the spaces between Runes.

At first, Wayne didn’t stop to examine their meaning, but the story drew him in as he moved forwards. He saw the Elves and the history of their race through their own eyes. The legendary war of Durandel. The Duel of Dragons. The grand migration. The greed of the Elvish Empire, and the creation of the Western Wildes.

Then he saw something that made him pause. A pair of violet eyes placed in the center of an unrelated story, the tiles made to flow around them. Wayne couldn’t place it, but he could have sworn those eyes were familiar.

For almost a minute, Wayne stood there and tried to remember. At that point, he was forced to shake his head and move on, the dull crashes still resounding in the distance.

Now that Wayne was paying closer attention, he thought the noises may have sounded closer than before. Staying ready, Wayne pushed his way through the vines and put the strange mosaic behind him. He was sure he would have remembered if it were important.

Eventually his footsteps began to sync up with the rhythmic pounding. Wayne lost track of how fast he was going for a little bit, the beat making it easier to mindlessly walk forwards. He only snapped out of it when Wayne started seeing dust raining from above.

He almost let out a startled exclamation, but managed to hold it in as he noticed a turn in the corridor up ahead. Sneaking up to the bend, Wayne stuck the side of his head around the lip and tried to see out but immediately cringed back.

The sound, which was so thunderous in the hallway, was at a completely different level around the corner. Wayne steadied himself, and took another look out.

A wide open chamber greeted him, with large stalagmites hanging from the high ceiling. Pillars of stone bricks were stacked high to reach through the stalagmites and support the chamber every two dozen strides. It seemed to have been a natural forming cave at some point before it was incorporated into the ruin.

There was nothing natural about the source of the crashing noise, however. A giant golem of stone methodically dragged itself through the series of pillars. Its lumbering humanoid form staggered about, stiff as a board as its joints moved through their range of motion. Still, it was adroit enough to move its easily twenty stride tall body around the tight corners of the pillars unerringly.

Finally, across the room was a dark hole in the cave wall, almost perfectly across from the opening Wayne was gazing through. He ducked back around the corner once more.

How do I get around that?

* * * * *

The golem paced up and down the

Wayne was tempted to just turn around, and try to search the other tunnels. Each of the golem's steps had been longer than Wayne was tall, after all. But when he thought of Homer, and what the other boy had already sacrificed for him, Wayne couldn’t leave a stone unturned.

Besides, it wasn’t a guarantee that the golem was hostile. It could have been performing maintenance of some sort, Wayne supposed.

Steeling himself, Wayne stepped fully around the corner, and began to creep into the room. The golem’s circuitous path left a time while its back was facing Wayne’s entrance and he made good use of it, scurrying across the rough ground.

It also gave him a chance to examine the goliath in more detail. It lacked a head that Wayne could see, instead its body was a bulbous hunk of rock and metal, undercarriage gleaming in the flashing light of the Runes.

Its appendages swung about stiffly, with long metal rods running through and holding stone body parts together. The golem only moved at joints where metal pressed against metal, making a scraping noise that was easily overpowered by the deep impacts of the creature's footfalls.

‘Boom! Boom!’ The golem continued to pound across the stone, each footstep making Wayne’s bones shake.

The ground itself was bouncing and jumping underneath him. Wayne did his best to ride out the miniature quakes, staggering through the force. A part of him wondered how the pillars managed to stay together under this onslaught, but that part of him was barely heard under the crashing of stone on stone.

Wayne dashed forwards to the next pillar and slid behind it just before the bumbling behemoth turned about, almost half way through the room.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

At this point Wayne couldn’t tell if it was the sound of the giant’s footfalls or his own heart making the noise, but the noise was all consuming. Wayne let his fear fade before the encompassing avalanche of noise, and held his breath. Second passed, while the moving stone creature proceeded forwards at its single speed.

Only once it was well past Wayne did he let his breath out, although he could barely hear it with his ears blaring from the thunderous footfalls.

Apparently, that was enough.

The golem let out a noise it had never previously made, a sickening shriek of metal twisting, prompting Wayne to look over his shoulder to it. Its upper body was rotating, but its legs remained stationary as it twisted on a pivot at its waist.

“Oh shit.”

Wayne started running as fast as he could.

The shrieking noise only lasted a moment more, and then the pounding resumed.

‘Boom!’

Wayne’s feet fluttered across the uneven floor. He passed halfway across the room.

‘Boom!’

The golem gained ground, the noise closer and louder than ever.

‘Boom!’

Sweat flew from his brow as Wayne wove through the pillars towards safety.

‘Boom!’

He was so close now, just ten more strides.

‘Boom! Crash!’

From right behind him, but Wayne couldn’t look back. He had to run, had to-

* * * * *

Several seconds later, Wayne jolted back to alertness just to immediately inhale the dust flurrying around.

“Khuhuhuhu!”

Wayne coughed the debris out of his lungs the best he could, but he couldn’t hear the noise. All that his ears could process was a low ringing noise, the squelching of his panicked heart, and the distant bass of the golem’s walking.

‘Boom! Boom! Boom!’

As the dust settled, Wayne found he made it into the tunnel, though it had been mostly sealed with the large stone bricks of a pillar. Wayne himself was splayed out on an aching back, but still he let out a sigh of relief.

He had managed to barely make it. Then the ringing started to fade from his ears, and Wayne started cursing. Even though he had made the dash across, there was no chance that Homer could, hobbled as the boy now was.

‘Boom!’

For a while, Wayne stared at the broken bricks ahead of him. He just couldn’t see a way to get Homer across safely with that golem on patrol. Its strides covered too much ground to outrun, and Wayne didn’t think they could manage to hide during the entire way either.

‘Boom!’

Wayne was still staring at the bricks. Then, he really started looking them over, and thinking. Finally, he had something of a plan, terrible though it may be.

“Oh El, I hate this.” Wayne softly muttered.

Then, he prepared to go back into the cave.