The warriors and scouts went first. A few lesser warriors stayed to guard the tribe; the bulk of them went on ahead. The light of the caverns cast an eerie bruised purple glow over the ground, constantly shifting, which Ruyi found quite spooky. It made her feel like she was deep underwater, staring at sunlight playing on the ocean floor.

But a few strides into this stairwell and she was starting to miss it. Livia held a lantern, but its glow didn’t reach back to where Ruyi was. The only light here came from the crystals crusting the ceiling, a poisonous purple slicked black, and they gave just enough to light two or three steps ahead. Just when she thought they'd run out of steps, when they hit the end, more would emerge from the darkness. Sometimes she felt she was stepping out into open air and hoping a step would catch her.

The only sound was the march of their footsteps, that rattling, scuffing, thumping echoing down the hallway, bouncing over itself, so messily loud she couldn’t hear herself think. Enemies could be coming up the other side; she wouldn't be able to tell whose footsteps were whose. What if a horde of monsters came up the front and then plugged up the gap behind them? What if it was all a trap—what if molten steel came pouring through the walls, and they were frozen here forever? What if the ceiling fell in and squished them?

These were dumb thoughts. They had no hold on her. She wasn’t alone: she had all kinds of strong folk with her; they’d all protect each other. They were strong.

She wasn't sure who made all these crystals crusting the tunnel, but she was quite annoyed at them. They were far too shiny. When you saw them out of the corner of your eyes, you could think they were claws, or teeth, or even eyeballs. She kept seeing serpents slithering from the ceiling, or giant slimy things riddled with beaks slinking down the walls.

But they didn't scare her. She had her Winter’s Wrath all done and ready! If anything came at her, she would just—

Something slapped her in the back.

She shrieked, whirled around, hit a hard shoulder, and went tumbling over herself.

A laughing Sabina pulled her up. “What’d you do that for?” grumbled Ruyi.

“Calm, Ruyi,” said Sabina, “Fear is of no use to you here.”

“I'm not afraid!”

“That's the spirit!”

She wasn't afraid, that was the thing! She wanted to drag Sabina back and explain, but the warrior had gone off to talk to Livia, leaving Ruyi burning. Maybe she was a little nervous—that was all. And she wasn’t nervous for herself, she was nervous for everyone else, which wasn’t the same at all! It felt a lot nobler, for one.

Beside her, Darius looked even more unbothered than he usually did, which Ruyi took to mean he was kind of scared too. He thought he had her figured out—and maybe he kind of did—but she’d learned a thing or two about him. Darius was all about appearances.

“How long have we been going?” whispered Ruyi. She said it too softly; she had to repeat it to get him to hear her.

“Oh, I don't know,” he said. “Five minutes?”

It felt like at least half an hour. She wasn’t sure if he was messing with her or not; she never could tell.

“Trouble sleeping?” he said.

“Yeah… how’d you know?”

“Your eyes,” he said.

“Yeah…”

“You do realize you don’t need to take on everything yourself, right? That’s what the rest of us are here for.” At this point she stopped being surprised everyone could read her like a scroll.

“Mm,” she said, and Darius gave her a hug—“Dummy,” he sighed— and she felt briefly happy.

Then she remembered what she’d seen when she’d gone to his tent last night, and jerked away. “You had trouble sleeping too, didn’t you?” She said it like an accusation.

He blinked at her. “What?”

“Hmph!” She turned away from him.

“…Lula?” She ignored him.

“What exactly did I do?” He had the audacity to sound genuinely confused.

At first she thought she made the gray dot up. When she wanted something really badly, she had been known to just invent it.

But it kept getting bigger, and folk gasped and pointed at it, so she wasn't nuts, which was quite a relief because they’d barely gotten started.

As they neared, a new sound trickled between the drumming of the footsteps: It sort of sounded like rushing water. But as she neared, she could swear they were murmurs. Or were they wind? By now she’d lost all faith in her senses.

"Everyone," Livia shouted, "Ready yourselves! Here we go!"

I am ready! Ruyi wanted to shout back. I've been ready all day! She was so ready, bundled so tight with nerves, she felt a little exhausted. She could really do with a nap.

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First went the scouts. Ruyi listened hard as she could, but she heard no screaming, no scuffling. Then Livia came back and gave a signal, and the rest of them marched through.

It was the wind. They weren't sure where it was coming from — it swirled about the cavern, spinning mists of essence in endless twisting circles. She swore she heard voices; she just couldn’t make them out, like she was hearing them through a wall. The cavern walls were fuzzed with what looked like phosphorescent fungi. It cast a ghostly glow over the columns littering the room. This might have been some kind of temple once, but the roof was missing and most of the columns were cracked.

The winds stirred the essence so much that half the room was lost to their swirls. There could be all kinds of monsters hiding in there, and you’d never be able to tell. The winds were so loud, so lilting, she swore they were whispering, plotting. She kept looking over her shoulder, expecting to see a toothy smile leering out at her from the dark. The winds weren’t cold, but they made her skin tingle, made the hair on her skin stand up; sometimes the voices came from far away, and sometimes it was so close she swore she could feel someone’s breathing tickling her ear.

The cavern was so big it took nearly 200 strides to get to its center. There they found what must have been a fountain once. Just the cracked ornate base of it was left. Livia kneeled at the edge of it, inspecting the glyphs etched into the worn, bleached stone.

Was it just Ruyi's imagination, or were the whispers louder the closer they got to the fountain? Something was coming—she could feel it. She didn’t know how, but she was certain of it. The winds were telling her.

"This used to be a shrine,” Livia murmured. "This was where they prayed. It's remarkable how well-preserved these inscriptions are — Uncle Tyrus would love this."

“Uh,” said Ruyi. "Does anyone else hear that?"

“Ruyi,” sighed Sabina. “You must stop—“

She stilled. "Huh. That is odd."

The wind was picking up. The mists rose all around them and essence bloomed in the fountain, spiraling over itself, thickening. The fountain came alive again, gushing with white-hot essence. The whispers had grown to a field of shrieks, a crowd of ghostly shrieks, higher and higher, livid, excited.

Then it burst out of the fountain. Its massive head emerged first, fangs as big as spears, scales white as bone, and its eyes were slitted, the pupils a shocking orange that never appeared in nature. It coiled once, twice, bringing the bulk of it to bear, and it just kept coming—

Screaming, Ruyi demonformed and charged.

It’d barely managed to turn before she punched it in the face. She followed up with another punch, then another, then another; it thrashed, screeched, then she hit it again, and it went still. Its face caved in, and it went still, mouth lolling open, fork tongue hanging listlessly out the side.

Ruyi looked at it, then at her paw, then at it again, panting. She hit it again for good measure. It didn't even flop. When she turned back around, she found all the wind had ceased. The fountains had stopped glowing. The air wasn't screaming anymore. It was hardly murmuring. They were all staring at her. She stood, human-forming, and scratched her head.

"Um,” said Ruyi. "Is everyone okay?"

"I think so,"said Livia.

"Very good," said Darius. “You sure taught that poor Feral snake a lesson.”

She looked at it again.

She swore it'd been bigger —had it shrunk when she glanced away? Its fangs

weren’t even as big as her forearm, now she got a good look at it.

"Usually, the critters in these outer chambers are not so strong," said Livia, hiding her mouth behind her hand. “But, thank you, Ruyi. I… appreciate your…enthusiasm."

“Our hero,” Darius added.

Ruyi wished the serpent ate her.

As it turned out, that was the last of the threat. They called in the rest of the tribe. Claudia and Ruyi went off to gather the fungi lining the wall, which turned out to be netherworts: the plants that’d supercharge their Ruyi’s elixirs. But Ruyi also found this five-leaved plant nestled between the stones.

"No way," she gasped.

"What is it?" said Claudia.

"Ignatius’ Folly!” said Ruyi. “Have you heard of it?”

“No.” Claudia crossed her arms. "Maybe I should’ve read more scrolls. But it’s not like we have many to begin with…"

"Oh, don’t worry. I wouldn't expect you to know, it’s really obscure. These are Ignatius Follies! I didn't even think they were real--they're mentioned in just one edition of the Styx Codex. Supposedly they're found only really close to Hell. They grow from the blood of deities."

"How could you tell it’s—Ignatius Folly, was it?” said Claudia. "It doesn't look too special. There's probably dozens of plants that look like it."

"No, no, it's the number of petals," said Ruyi patiently. "And look at the stem. See how thin it is, almost translucent? It's just like the Codex said! There were pictures."

"You’ve memorized all of the Styx Codex?" Claudia asked.

"What do you mean?" Ruyi said, blinking. “Oh, no, I don't memorize things. I read and they just get remembered."

Claudia let out a tight breath, then chuckled. "Ah. Of course."

"What is it?"

Claudia looked like she wanted to say more, but she just shook her head. She smiled. "It's nothing. Let's gather these Follies."

An hour later the smiths had scraped away all the steel they could find, and the warriors had split up the snake and wrung the essence from its flesh. They were ready to keep moving.

It was easier going down the next flight of stairs. She found being next to Darius helped, because he relentlessly and mercilessly made fun of her. She was starting to suspect he knew exactly what he was doing. It was hard to be scared when you felt embarrassed-which still wasn't great, but at least it was better.

The third chamber was spare. Nothing lived here, but there were some shambling buildings built of marble and steel. They were all white, bleached dry, and mostly empty. Lorekeeper Tyrus found a vault of scrolls; he was excited for all of one breath. Then he touched it, and it crumbled to dust in his hands. Livia thought it might have been some frontier town once. Nothing of value was left-they moved on.

This time there wasn't a staircase, but a tunnel. This time, the scouts came back pale-faced.

“It’s a hotspot,” said Livia. “If we want to go this route, we’ll have to clear it.”

“At last!” Sabina leapt to her feet. “What goes there?”

“A pack of Cerberii. Four King, nine Core. A few lesser monsters—harpies, minotaur. Can you take them?”

“Do not insult me.” Sabina grinned at her praetorianus. “It’s time, everyone!”