Book 7, Chapter Fourteen – Bunny Slope

Nearly an hour later, some of the shine had worn off Empress Glory’s pleasure. Her Tenebron – who had already had fifteen different names, none of which stuck for long – was a mischievous creature, and it seemed to take some particular joy in preventing Glory from cleaning her face. Every time the Empress tried, the elemental snatched – for some definition of snatched which meant ‘ate’ – the object she was using. Several handkerchiefs and what had looked like a chunk of bread later, the lipstick was only smeared over even more of her face, and the Tenebron was giggling to itself almost constantly.

“I hate this place,” Glory said, not for the first time. She wasn’t quite whining, but she also wasn’t not whining, which made Pandy want to clap her paws over her ears. Fortunately, Augustus was made of sterner stuff, which was probably why he was chancellor of an elementary school, rather than her. Well, that and the fact that he was a full-time human, a high-ranking veteran, and a personal friend of the queen, but that was beside the point. He was patient.

Pointing to another surging wave of Duskin fleeing ahead of their light, Augustus said, “No one has been down here in years, or there wouldn’t be any Duskin left. But the air is still breathable, which means there’s an exit somewhere. We just need to find it.”

“Unless the air is coming in through holes that are too small for, say, people. Your girlfriend might make it out, but we could be trapped in here forever!” Glory’s voice cracked on the last word, and Pandy felt a renewed sense of empathy. The Empress was already suffering from survivor’s guilt after being trapped with a bunch of dying strangers, and a bit of claustrophobia wouldn’t be surprising either.

Just then, a lock of Augustus’s hair lifted, twisting into a curl, and he turned his head to the right. They were standing at the corner of the main intersection in their small area of blocked-off city. They’d already walked up and down both streets, checking behind every building, even the ones that seemed to merge into solid rock. It turned out that that was, in fact, exactly what had happened. When Earth elementalists built over this part of Knightmere, they hadn’t been messing around.

“Zephra found an opening she says is large enough for us,” Augustus said, following after the elemental. Pandy kept meaning to ask if he could actually see Cieris and Zephra, or if he just sensed them somehow. She was also curious if they were able to speak to him even when they weren’t touching him, which would be a good trick to learn.

Glory muttered something uncomplimentary about the elementals. This was somewhat fair, because Augustus had sent Cieris out at first, and the lower-tier elemental wasn’t entirely clear on the fact that humans were larger and considerably more solid than she was. Her ‘exits’ had indeed turned out to be cracks or small holes that reached the outside, which was what had prompted Glory’s rather snarky commentary in the first place.

Augustus was still carrying Pandy, partly because they both seemed to enjoy it, and partly because the dust covering the ground went halfway up her body and was thick enough to form a sort of wave ahead of her when she tried plowing through it. Now, however, he set Pandy down and switched his candle – the first one had melted completely, so this was the second – so he could pull a sword from his cache pocket.

Empress Glory fell back slightly, giving the weapon a wary look. “What’s that for?”

Forging through the furrowing dust, Augustus said, “Zephra also says there’s someone waiting for us at the end of the tunnel.”

After that, silence fell over the group, other than the faint giggling sound produced by the Tenebron. Pandy quickly found herself becoming a literal dust bunny, to the point that she had to pause and use her paws to swipe the grime away from her face. Repeatedly. This was how she discovered that as they went on, the dense layer of particles covering the ground contained a greater and greater proportion of cobwebs. They blended in perfectly, but the thick strands wrapped around her paws and whiskers, preventing her from easily brushing the dust away.

Even their footsteps were muffled as they approached what looked like just another dust-covered wall. It was at the end of one of the small alleyways they’d already explored, off to the side in what had probably once been an open courtyard, maybe outdoor seating for a cafe or bar. A gust of wind blew against the wall, flattening thick layers of spiderweb and sending small black shapes skittering away. Not all of them were Duskin.

Glory stopped dead in her tracks. “No,” she said, and if there was a note of desperate fear in her voice, who could blame her after what she’d been through? Her Tenebron, however, seemed to find the sound interesting, because it separated itself from her chest and extended out the part of its body containing its glowing eyes, staring at Glory’s red-streaked face.

Augustus held up his sword – much better for stabbing enormous arachnids than a gnawed-off iron bar – and said, “I’ll take care of the spiders. Just stay back.”

Nope. Pandy didn’t like that plan, and she shook off a particularly large clump of debris so she could hop over and tell him so. Neither of them had to do anything though, because the Tenebron detached itself from its master and reformed into the vaguely humanoid shape they’d first seen. It didn’t disturb a single particle of dust as it flowed over to the cobwebs, then up the wall. Pandy wouldn’t call what fell to the ground behind it a shower of spiders, since there were only four or five of them, but it was far more arachnids than she was comfortable with.

Glory gasped, placing a hand on the low stone wall next to her. Some of the aged mortar crumbled away, but she didn’t even seem to notice as she clutched at her chest. “What’s happening?” she asked, her face pale.

Augustus strode forward, carefully prodding one of the fallen arachnids. “They’re in stasis,” he told the woman. “Your Tenebron will be using your magic to hold the spell on all of them. Tell it to stop, or it will drain you until you pass out or-” He didn’t finish the thought, but he didn’t need to. Unlike every other kind of magic-user on this world, Dark mages remained connected to their ongoing magic. This allowed them more control over their spells, since they could alter them as needed, but it apparently also led to a lot of deaths when the mages took on too much for too long.

Glory’s knees trembled as two more spiders dropped to the ground. “Stop,” she whispered, then “Stop!” The dark blotch on the wall paused, and one of its eyes actually split away from the other, moving halfway around the ‘body’ so it could look at Glory while also watching another arachnid.

Managing to straighten, Glory put more strength into her voice as she said, “Release those spiders and come back.”

The Tenebron hesitated, the eye watching Glory wavering indecisively, then slowly extended a hand-like blob toward the spider, practically exuding an aura of, “What will you do about it?”

At Glory’s desperate glance, Augustus said, “Cut off the flow of your magic. This will be difficult, since your contract didn’t state that you should be in control of your combined power. Remember that you are stronger and more intelligent than it is. Feel the connection and tighten it, like turning off a faucet.”

Desperation shifted to realization, and Glory grimaced but nodded. Her hands tightened into fists, and her shoulders drew up toward her ears as she stared at her elemental. “Release. Them,” she told it, and it halted, both eyes moving to stare fixedly at Glory as its body puffed into a larger and more amorphous state.

No one even seemed to breathe as the two fought a silent internal battle. Glory didn’t move, but the Tenebron slowly shrank back down as the tennis ball-sized bodies on the floor stood up, then plowed off through the dust. If the spiders ever had any intention of aggression, that urge was entirely absent now, and they obviously just wanted to get away.

Finally, the Tenebron dropped from the wall just like one of its victims, flattening into a blob before reforming and gliding back toward Glory. It put a lower appendage on her foot, but she pulled away, dropping her bag so she could dig into it. Pulling out another wedge of cheese and a handkerchief, she held up the wedge while slowly and deliberately wiping the crimson lipstick from her face. Only when nothing more than a subtle reddish stain and irritated skin was left behind did she give the cheese and the dirty handkerchief to her elemental. It ate both and then, equilibrium apparently restored, flowed back up her body, engulfing her torso once again.

Augustus watched the whole process without a word, and when it was over, he nodded in satisfaction. Turning toward the dark, rubble-filled tunnel revealed by the tattered curtain of cobwebs, he started into the depths.

But Pandy had been watching for long enough. She hopped forward, jumping right through the tangled mass of webbing like a trained dog through a paper hoop. To her great relief, nothing bit her, and while she was possibly filthier than she’d ever been before – it was a high bar, so she wasn’t certain – the opening was left clear, so the candlelight could reach several feet into what looked like an old tunnel that had been deliberately filled with rocks.

“Probably an access tunnel left over from when they were working on clearing everything out,” Augustus said as they made their way along it. It was difficult to tell, but the floor seemed to be slowly but steadily trending upward, as evidenced by the fact that the stones they dislodged rolled back behind them as they went.

Augustus kicked another stone behind them. “For obvious reasons, the locations of these tunnels weren’t made public, but Beeswick managed to find a map of them. The Knights checked them all after we discovered the Exchange had built a base down here, but only the one we already found had been disturbed.”

“I wouldn’t mind… if this one…  was a bit more disturbed,” Glory panted as she climbed over a particularly large rock. It stood almost as tall as she did, with only a bit over a foot between its top and the ceiling. Fortunately, the ceiling was unnaturally smooth, and the rock wasn’t sharp. Getting through the narrow gap was only difficult, not painful, but Glory’s backpack had gotten stuck more than once already.

Pandy was serving as scout and cobweb-clearer, while Augustus and Glory traded places as needed. More than once, Glory had required a boost over a large rock or small boulder, and sometimes Augustus went first so he could pull her pack through, since the woman absolutely refused to either abandon her things or at least lighten her load.

Seeing that they were all past the last obstacle, Pandy forged ahead again, Hopping to the top of a rock – smallish, at only three feet tall – then through the layer of dust-covered cobwebs beyond. She’d run into several spiders by now – some more literally than she preferred – and had accidentally squished at least two on her stronger bounces. She was almost certain there were now spider-bits mingled among the ever-growing layer of dust that clung to her, but at this point the arachnids were scrambling away before she got close enough to crush them, so it seemed like a fair trade.

The Duskin didn’t run from her. Every time she got far enough away from Augustus and Glory that their candlelight didn’t reach her, the small, fluffy-looking elementals surrounded her. At first she was wary of them, but their soft luminescence – visible only in total darkness – was oddly comforting, as was the wash of cold that accompanied them. Best of all, however, were the ones that gave her Corruption Points.

+1 Corruption Points from an Offering

The letters floated across Pandy’s vision as a Duskin brushed against her cobwebby padding. It drifted away as soon as it had delivered its tasty morsel, but within moments, another had taken its place.

+1 Corruption Points from an Offering

Pandy had no idea why they were doing this – if it had to do with the fact that she was also a Dark elemental, or if these Duskin knew about and continued to be grateful for the one she’d freed from the spider-body into which it had been Bound. No matter the reason, however, she was grateful, and found herself forging further and further ahead in order to meet more of them. She was back up to almost seven hundred points, and she was fairly certain she would need every single one of them.

That was why she actually felt a bit disappointed as she paused until Augustus rejoined her. She could hear Glory swearing in a steady, virulent flow somewhere not far behind, but the chancellor was as silent and wary as ever. He’d used melted wax to attach his candle to his sleeve, where he could hold it up but it wouldn’t be in his way, and he’d put away his sword so his hands were free. As he came up to her, carefully kicking aside a few small rocks, which rolled back down the slope, he murmured, “We should be getting close to the surface by now.”

Pandy nodded. She’d been thinking the same thing. Even at the very shallow slope they were climbing, they had to eventually reach the end, and they’d been walking for at least half a mile. In fact, something had recently shifted in the feeling of the air – it was perhaps a little colder, the scent less dusty and more like damp earth.

Glory joined them, releasing a little yelp as her ankle rolled when she stepped on a rock. She was definitely the worse for wear, with her makeup smeared or missing and her hair in dusty, tangled tendrils, and looked much more like the bedraggled young woman Pandy had first met.

“Let’s stay together from here on,” Augustus said, glancing forward into the thick darkness. Pandy and Glory nodded and they continued, single-file but always within candlelight distance of each other.

Until the tunnel reached a dead end. Not in a literal sense, thankfully, but if they’d thought the creators of this tunnel had blocked it with nothing more than a few spare boulders, then they were wrong. Pandy attempted to jump through one particularly dense cobweb, only to smack hard against a solid wall, losing two points of Life Force in the process. Augustus brushed the dust and webs away with his hand, revealing a stone surface as smooth and featureless as the ceiling. The Earth elementalists hadn’t left anything to chance.

“This is what your elemental considers a way out?” Glory sniped, pounding hard on the rock with her fist. From the look on her face, she immediately regretted it, and Pandy took the opportunity to use Minor Heal, not for the first time since they’d entered the tunnel.

Minor Heal successful.

Healed Empress Glory for 1 HP.

Nineteen more uses to level 28.

That was nice, but it was something else that made Pandy’s maybe-actual-heart jump into her throat. From above them fell a small shower of rocky dirt, accompanied by a shadowy tendril and a muffled voice.

“Who’s there?”