The party walked down the hallway, descending further into the Darge. The twists and turns were numerous, but eventually, they found themselves at an opening that was incredibly noisy. There were the sounds of metal hitting rocks and minecarts squeaking all around. Cautiously, Garrett peaked his head out from around the corner.

From what he could see, there were large humanoid bird creatures scattered throughout a large mining quarry, but none of them were digging. They were standing watch, some of which holding spears and others shouting orders. Instead, the ones digging were creatures of all shapes and sizes. They all looked weak, tired, and not at all built for this sort of manual labor. Some of which had passed out from exhaustion and were being carried off into another room, only to be replaced by other workers. Garrett tucked his head back inside.

"These Birdians appear to be running some sort of quarry here," Garrett reported. "It looked like there were at least 12 Birdians and 20 different other creatures."

"But, what would they be digging for?" Iadre asked. "It is not as if the Darge is home to any rare gemstones or crystal Xir."

"If I had to take a guess," Garrett said, remembering the words that Min-Tul had said when they first met, "Then they're here for the treasure of Amer-Turul."

"Wait, that treasure is down here?" Iadre said, surprised. "Oh man, if I had known that, the Felsins would have come down here ages ago!"

"You didn't know about the treasure?" Garrett asked, more concerned now if the treasure existed in this iteration of Asuria.

"Amer-Turul, now that sounds familiar," Plex said, "Perhaps that was a reason that my creator brought me down here. If only I had full access to my databanks, I could be more useful in this."

"It's alright, Plex," Garrett said. "It's not your fault."

"Is it not?" Plex asked.

"What are you talking about, Plex?" Iadre asked with a confused look on her face.

"What if the reason my creator left me abandoned here in the Darge is that I failed to perform to their expectations?" Garrett and Iadre were both quiet, the only sounds being the mining operation. The three of them stood in silence until Garrett broke it.

"Look, whatever happened in the past has passed. All we can do is keep moving forward towards a better tomorrow." Iadre and Plex both seemed to perk up at Garrett's little pep talk. Truthfully, that was more for himself than for his companions. He couldn't change what happened to him and Charlie on Earth, but he could do his best to make a difference here in Asuria. "Okay, so, we should get in there and save those workers. First, we should-"

"Hey, you."

Garrett gripped his axe and readied it. Plex drew one of its knives and Iadre held her orb at the ready. "Everyone heard that, right?" Garrett asked, looking around for the source. The other two nodded in agreement.

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"You with the dark brown hair. Illima."

The voice seemed to be coming from right in front of them in the hallway, but there wasn't anyone there. Garrett gently waved his axe in the air in case the person talking was invisible, but he didn't hit anything.

"I saw you peek your head out."

"Who are you?" Garrett asked, ready for any ambush that might happen.

"Listen, I don't know how you got down here, but we could use your help."

"Who are you and what do you want?" Iadre spoke up, still ready to blast some energy from her orb.

"None of us are too strong to face off these guards, but if you can take them out, we might have a chance."

"I have a feeling that they are merely talking TO us and not with us," Plex said.

"Go for the ones by the south wall first, then work your way to clockwise. You're all we have left before we all die here."

Garrett looked at his companions with a look of confusion and concern. They waited to hear more but there wasn't anything else. "Do we believe whoever this is?"

"We don't know who did this," Iadre said. "This could easily be a trap."

"Or it could be someone asking for help," Plex countered. "However, we don't quite know enough to make a solid case." Plex crossed their arms. "We could send Iadre to scout, but we don't know who sent us this message."

"If it was even any of them," Iadre said. "Plus, if I don't know who it is, then there's a good chance I'll go talk with the wrong person, and then we're all in hot water."

Garrett closed his eyes and thought about the situation. On one hand, if they ignored this situation, they might be able to find the treasure of Amer-Turul and not be killed in an attempted prison break. There's also the chance that this was a trap in order to enslave more workers. On the other hand, someone might need help and the three of them were the only ones who could save them. With a confident grunt, Garrett opened his eyes. "Alright, we're going to follow the plan they set out."

"Well, alright," Iadre said reluctantly. She crossed her arms and said, "But, if this starts to go wrong, I get to say that I told you both so."

"Deal," Garrett said, taking another small peek at the quarry before ducking back into the hallway. "Wait, why are these big guys such an issue? Can't you just kill them outright, Iadre?"

"Bilun's power allows me to kill things of lesser creatures with ease," Iadre said, giving her orb a gentle rub. "Something bigger and sentient, however? The most I can do is give them some minor burns and injuries. Maybe if I kept shooting them repeatedly, I could kill them, but at that point, I think they'd overwhelm me. Plus, I can only shoot one thing at a time and there's, like, 10 Birdians."

"Okay, so that plan is immediately out the window." Garrett turned his attention to Plex. "Plex, I've seen you fighting the monsters with the knives, but are you capable of killing something sentient?"

"I certainly have my reserves against it," Plex said, holding up a knife and looking it over. "But, given what you have told me, I do not believe I shall have an issue, Boss."

"Great," Garrett said, turning away from the quarry. "Which way is the south wall?"

"That direction," Plex said, pointing to Garrett's right.

"Then let's find the south wall entrance that the voice was talking about."

The three of them nodded in agreement and, after a few more minutes of searching, came across the south entrance to the quarry. They held their backs up again the wall and focused on two guards who were close to the entrance.

"On your action, Boss. We'll follow you."

Garrett looked down at his axe and his shaking hands. Sure, before he had killed goblins, spiders, a few large lizards and even bats, but this was something else entirely. These Birdians were clearly thinking creatures, unlike the monsters that he had slain. Could he really take another person's life, even if it wasn't human? He closed his eyes and tried to steady his hands. This was to save the lives of the people who were being forced to slave away here in this quarry. He took a deep breath, then rushed forward.