Bound Evil

Emily leaned against the wall, waiting at the threshold to the next chamber. Alex had been umming and erring for the last two hours. He’d even backtracked to the previous two routes to double-check them before once again eliminating them as choices.

“This is getting ridiculous what’s taking so long?” Marth ground out as he glared at Alex.

Alex didn't turn away from the runes on the wall but he did speak.

“There’s a trap in this room, unfortunately, I can't disable it. Worse still I can’t even tell what it is.”

“What? Are you telling us to walk in blind?!”

“No, preferably I’d like to sidestep it but the other routes are impossible to proceed on.”

“This is your job, the whole reason we brought you here, are you seriously saying you can't do the only thing we need you for?”

Alex frowned and turned to look at Marth.

“If you want to inspect the trap, please, be my guest.”

Kael pressed his fingers to the bridge of his sharp nose.

“Enough. Is there anything I can get you that will help you to figure out what we are dealing with?”

Alex shook his head.

“Right now, it might be better to send a scout ahead.”

“Are you telling me to use my men as bait?” Kael's voice shifted down a couple of octaves.

“No, but you have a Yellow Mage, don’t you? Is he able to summon anything yet?”

Kael had a broody expression but had Selia go fetch Nox. When the teenager arrived he looked uncomfortable as multiple gazes fixed on him

“Um, I can summon an animal spirit but it won’t be very strong…”

Alex grunted.

“It won’t need to be, it just needs to trigger the wards. You can release it if things get dangerous for it in there.”

Nox bit his top lip and nodded.

Placing one hand over the back of his neck, Nox began to make the longest series of hand gestures Emily had ever seen. When he was done he’d gone over thirty new gestures that Emily had never encountered.

When he finished the last one, a yellow glow pooled in his hand and the image of a ghostly bird took shape in his palm. It was almost completely transparent but Emily couldn’t help herself and came over to poke the cute little thing. When she did, she felt resistance as the bird flailed its wings at her. It brushed against her with the same feel as real feathers. It was physical.

Panting Nox said.

“Okay, I probably won’t be able to do that again. My bridge is already nearing full.”

Alex nodded and had him send the bird forward.

The bird crossed the threshold without much problem, flying into the center of the circular room didn’t seem to do anything either. The space was huge and the walls were lined with more recesses, but no one was paying them any mind at this point. The coffins were either death traps or chocked full of rewards, but either way, until the room was cleared no one wanted to mess with them. It was only when Nox had the bird land, that something shifted in the room. The sound of metal clanging throughout the room could be heard as the tiled floor slid out of the room. To reveal a long shoot dropping into what looked like a bottomless pit. Had they been in there no one could have avoided it unless they’d been close to the wall when it happened. Nox’s bird took to the air, but as though the architects were expecting this, the ceiling dropped like a hammer made of hundreds of separate pillars.

Nox shouted but the bird was unable to escape the falling death. The entrance to the room was covered for just a moment in stone as the roof blocked it. No one spoke for the next minute or so as the stone pillar ascended back to the ceiling and by that time the floor had already sealed shut again. Two doors opened at the opposite end of the room, leading in opposite directions.

“Well, fuck I’m glad we sent the bird,” Kael said as he looked at the floor of the room.

Nox looked even paler than when he first cast the spell, but Emily was fairly certain he’d suffered some sort of lashback when the bird was killed.

“Nox do you need me to take you to Yishmal?” Emily started but Alex grunted while he stooped over the engravings on the floor.

“Shit no time, the runes are resetting. We have a minute or two at most!”

“What?!” Atticus grunted.

“We need to go now! The kid won't be able to give us another chance like this!” Alex ground out.

Kael moved to the front and raised his voice.

“Everyone mount up! We’re charging through, don’t stop for anything!”

Emily had already hopped into Cupcake's back and leaned down to yank Nox by the collar of his shirt. She hoisted him up to the saddle and fastened him there. Letting the she-wolf know they need to run hard.

Chasing after the front-runner, Emily delved into the death chamber, an uneasy weightlessness settling in her stomach as she glanced at the ceiling.

Poring out into the room, the wandering fangs followed Kael’s lead as they charged through the room. Already Emily could hear the sounds of something moving in the stone walls preparing to drop them into the abyss.

Halfway across the room, Emily glanced back to see the whole line of mercenaries streaming from the opening. She could just make out as the final man made his way through the entrance. Kael and Gerade were the furthest in front filled closely by Alex. Emily was just behind them when the room let out a final click, and the ceiling began to fall—not all at once, though. This time was different from the last, as octagonal pillars, as thick as a grown man, started crashing down around the outer edges of the room.

When they hit, they crashed against the stone floor like pearls of thunder. Emily's eyes widened as she saw one falling towards her, Cupcake swerved around it just as it crashed to the ground to their immediate left.

Up ahead Emily could still see the others but more and more pillars were starting to fall and impeding progress.

“Right path!” Alex’s voice echoed into the chamber.

Sadly things were never that easy. When a couple dozen pillars came down over the front of their formation, one of them came down in front of Alex and her. Cupcake was unable to dodge slow her momentum and clipped the stone pillar. In doing so the Rime wolf tumbled and the harness strapping Nox and herself snapped. Emily wrapped herself in a coating of blood and clenched Nox to her chest. They went spiraling away from each the wolf and Emily hit the ground hard, her vision fading for a second.

Emily had the blood latch onto the ground to halt their slide as soon as she pushed the daze from her mind. Glancing around for Cupcake, she saw the wolf already on its feet and shaking itself.

Alex had Beth with him on Mist, but when the pillar had come down they too had swived to avoid it. Luckily he had managed to keep Mist under control and avoid falling off.

Emily got to her feet as she noticed others rushing past her periphery. Grabbing onto the saddle Emily pulled herself and Nox into it, she had Cupcake take off but they were at the back of the pack at this point. People were already streaming into the right passage and Emily got ready to bash people out of her way when she saw Oscar riding an uncontrollable mount, the wolf looked pissed but it was listening to his commands. Emily only had enough time to urge Cupcake forward before more pillars began to fall around them blocking off the path forward.

Emily tried to find a gap towards the exit but the path was completely blocked from sight. That’s when Emily noticed the entrance to the left path. It was far closer than the right and they might just make it if they make a break for it. Without any thought, she directed Cupcake towards it. Behind her, she heard Alex following on her heels as well as Oscar.

Emily could see a clear path to the exit, but then she couldn’t as a final pillar dropped to close off their escape. Grunting she flicked her dagger up her forearm and opened her veins. Without any choice, Emily pulled the largest amount of vitality from her chest as she dared. Blood exploded from the wound in liters and her vitality instantly replaced what was lost, before more poured out of her body to shape into a convex tunnel. When the pillar hit, the blood absorbed the impact, slowing it to a crawl. The three of them rushed under the bridge before it gave way. The moment it did Emily pulled the blood ahead of them again and stopped a second one from falling, but by this point, the pillars were falling too fast and it was only a matter of time before she was overwhelmed. Emily saw a third pillar dropping and prepared to pull more life force out when she saw a blue flash out of the corner of her eye.

One moment the space was being blocked by a pillar, the next Kael appeared above them and crashed into the side of the stone with enough force to cause it to snap. Seeing it falling Emily pushed Cupack and narrowly escaped being crushed by the falling debris.

Kael was a swerving blur as he dropped from the sky and caught up to them on foot. Running parallel with the wolves. He gave Alex a signal that Emily didn’t understand, and then dove ahead of their mounts, his body wrapped in a faint blue vapor.

Emily's eyes widened as he knocked down the nearest pillars, opening up the path. Alex pushed forward, reaching the opening. Emily and Oscar were right behind him, and together they crashed through the left path just as the last pillar came down, sealing off the entrance. Emily hadn’t even had time to talk stock of surroundings when Alex yelled.

“Hold your breath!”

She pieced the words together, but then her eardrums suddenly popped as the air pressure in the room plummeted. Sound vanished from the world, and Cupcake’s body trembled violently before collapsing onto her stomach. Emily struggled to take a breath, but nothing came.

Her eyes widened as realization hit. They had escaped onto the left path, only to fall into yet another trap—the very one Alex had warned them about hours earlier.

Because she had been panting when she entered, Emily hadn’t had time to draw in a full breath. Now, her body demanded air in compensation for its exertion, but there was none to give. Sliding off Cupcake, she tried to push herself upright, but her legs buckled, and her muscles gave out beneath her. Nearby, Alex had dragged himself off Mist and was hurriedly drawing something with source chalk.

Kael was still moving around, vapor pouring off his body as he attacked the screen of force that had dropped when they entered. Sadly even though he was capable of breaking stone, the barrier refused to budge at all.

Emily's vision was burling and her skin was rapidly losing heat. Suddenly Nox cupped his hand over Emily's mouth and a faint yellow glow collected in his hand, breath filling her starving lungs. Greedily drinking the air in Emily saw the kid's eyes flutter as he passed out. Oscar was the next to drop he’d managed to get halfway to his feet before collapsing to the stone. Kael was still very much awake but it wouldn’t matter if Alex couldn’t get them out of here.

Shifting her remaining blood that had followed them in here, Emily used it to move herself over to Alex.

The man had drawn the beginnings of a ward but his head was lulling, it was only his willpower alone that had kept him awake.

Dropping next to him Emily grabbed his face and pressed her lips to his. Transferring the remaining air she had to him.

His eyes refocused and he went back to work.

Emily watched as Alex finished the circle but he was just staring at it, then he looked up at her as though trying to tell her something. Emily didn’t understand what he wanted and his eyes were glazing again. Then he reached for the blood Emily had used to get over her, just managing to dab his fingers in it and bring it up toward the ward.

Eyes widening, Emily called her blood just as Alex passed out. She moved it to float over the circle and began to mimic what she saw.

The answer was a blood ward. One that Emily had never seen before but had to get perfect or they would all die here.

Rapidly the crimson liquid pressed down into the chalk and subsumed it.

Emily couldn’t hear his steps, but she noticed Kael's boots out of the corner of her eye.

Ignoring him Emily focused on the blood ward entirely, until nothing else mattered.

Suddenly her title triggered and Scarlet Sister became a guiding hand as it showed her the right way. There were imperfections in her reproduction of the ward and inefficiencies she couldn't address right now, but when the title was happy Emily allowed her internal grey source to meet with the ward.

The room shook and Emily felt her ward fighting against the one in the room. And then a splintering sound of glass exploding outward as air rushed back into the chamber.

Blood points: 78