Bound Evil

Sweat trickled down Emily's forehead, collecting as tiny beads and falling down her face. Air had returned to the room and she couldn’t be happier, but the mood in the room was strained. Kael was still standing nearby but moved away to check on the others. Oscar and his stolen mount seemed to have regained consciousness as soon as the air returned but Nox was still out for the count. Cupcake was already up, shaking herself and sending feelings of annoyance to Emily through their link.

Emily ignored her moody mount to check on Alex and gave him a couple of light taps to wake him. Luckily he seemed to respond to her efforts as his eyes rolled forward in his skull.

As of yet, everyone had been content to remain silent and regain their breath, but the peace couldn’t last.

“What in the hell have you gotten us into?” Oscar growled as he looked from the entrance to glare at Emily.

A stone wall now sealed off their retreat, barring them from rejoining with everyone else.

“I didn’t see you making any decisions back there. This was our only option.”

“Yeah? Well fat lota good that did us.”

Kael investigated the path behind them and then spoke.

“We’ll need to rejoin with our people as soon as possible. Before I left, I gave the order for everyone to hold their positions.”

Alex looked up from his place on the ground and squinted his eyes at Kael.

“That’s another thing. I’m not complaining because you saved our lives, but you were in the clear, why did you come back for us?”

Kael paused and turned to face Alex.

“I’m wounded you’d say such a thing, Alexander. How could I leave my precious employer to die.”

Alex’s face remained plastered with a dry look, causing Kael to sigh. Neither he nor Emily believed that for a second. The man cared about his people but he was the same as them. He’d abandon everything before he put his life on the line, or at least had a very good reason for doing so.

“Honest answer? It’s you, Alexander, you have circumvented a great deal of the traps in this place. How. I don’t know, but it’s almost as though you know what to expect…”

The room remained quiet as Kael cleared his throat.

“But I digress. The safest and most rewarding path, as I see it, is the one where you lead us through this place. Ensuring your survival is merely an act of self-preservation for me and my men.

Emily was watching the exchange with little interest, but she was fairly certain there was at least a kernel of truth in that.

“The real kicker will be to find my men again. They have supplies for a little over a week, probably more now that we’ve lost nine of my men. So the question is how do we get back to them?”

Kael’s face was dark when he mentioned his men, but he seemed to be concentrating on the problem at hand. With the things they had been through Emily was impressed more were not dead.

Alex glanced around the room as he fiddled with the hilt of one of his daggers.

We shouldn’t. As I see it, we have two options left. The first is to backtrack and hope to meet up with everyone else. I can’t recommend this, though. Now that we’ve split from the main group, rejoining them would be difficult. The builders of this tomb designed it to be hard to enter but deadly to leave. If we try to go against the flow, we’ll quickly find ourselves exhausted. The second option isn’t much better: we push forward to level four, find the main ward controlling the traps, and deactivate it. Backtracking would not only be easier then, it would be preferable.

Oscar grunted.

“What about all the specters? Surely they will impede us both there and back?”

Alex nodded.

“Yes but if I can find the control ward and shut it down it will greatly weaken them. Right now, source is purposefully being supplied to the specters to ensure they develop title stones and as a bonus, they act as guards. Once the supply is cut off they will be greatly weakened.”

Oscar grunted thoughtfully and he seemed to think this over.

Emily felt a sinking feeling in her gut.

“And… what's the likelihood that the biggest and baddest specter is going to be guarding that ward?”

Alex gripped his dagger pommel harder.

“Its almost a certainty. We would have to get in destroy the main ward, and get the hell out of there”

Kael shook his head.

“All of that is contingent on us getting down to that level. If im to understand correctly we are only on the second. Will it even be viable to get there?”

Alex was just about to answer when Oscar interrupted pointing deeper into the room.

“I’m guessing that’s our ticket down?”

They all followed his line of sight and spotted a set of spiral stairs sinking into the earth near the exit to the room.

Alex must have seen it earlier because he pursed his lips.

“That will no doubt take us to the third floor, but this is why we need to decide on a route now. It’s either, wander through a trap-infested maze, or advance further into the tomb. Neither is safe so perhaps we rest and then come to a decision.”

Kael hummed.

“My expedition, my decision, but I’ll hear all your thoughts. Oscar you’ve been with me for the longest, what do you think.”

Oscar straightened his spine and spoke with certainty.

“Boss, I’m of the opinion that finding our lost companions would be far more constructive. If we encounter a room that has too many of those creatures in we’ll be overrun.”

Kael nodded, he glanced over to Nox but the kid was still passed out.

“Alexander?”

Alex took his hand off the dagger’s hilt and nodded.

“I believe if we work together and I steer us away from the worst of it, we should be able to safely make it to the final room of this place. I vote we go deeper.”

Kael didn’t say anything but he turned to look at Emily was a raised brow.

To be honest neither option sounded too great but if there was one thing Emily had learned by now. It was to trust Alex's hunches. He hadn’t steered them wrong yet, so Emily put on her best smile.

“I’m for delving deeper. We have a decently strong team here with us four. If Nox wakes up even better, but otherwise I think we should be fine as long as we don’t take on more than we can chew.”

Kael nodded to this and cleared his throat

“Good. Let's rest for now. I’ll make my decision in a bit”

Emily took a moment to look around the room there wasn’t much in the way of interesting features other than the staircase.

Moving over to one of the corners she guided Cupcake with Nox strapped to her back to sit down. Emily fell down herself, taking a moment to regain her strength.

She’d pushed her blood hard back there and it was exhausting. Just like stretching a muscle, she needed time to build it back up. Pulling out that much blood meant that she needed to constantly replenish her own. Of course, it was expensive, but was also when she was at her most deadly.

Surprisingly, Alex came over to sit next to Emily.

Lowering his voice so that they spoke in hushed whispers he said.

“Thanks for backing me up back there.”

Something was different about Alex he seemed more open to her than before

Emily shrugged her shoulders.

“I just said what I thought.”

Alex nodded and yet didn’t leave. He seemed to be thinking hard about something and finally looked up at her.

“How… how do your, natural abilities work? I’ve watched you for a while now and can't seem to find a rhythm or reason as to what rules them.”

Emily leaned back into Cupcake's chest and glanced over to the other two. Kael and Oscar seemed to be talking quietly to themselves but she couldn’t hear them from here.

Should she try her luck again?

Turning to look back at Alex, Emily hummed.

“It’ll cost you. That’s one of my best-kept secrets. I’ve even killed a few people to keep it that way”

Alex frowned but seemed to understand what she meant.

“What do you want to know?”

“How do you know so much about this place? And don’t give me some bullshit excuse like ‘you’ve read about it’.”

Alex looked like he’d been about to do exactly that, but stopped himself.

Glancing up at the ceiling he didn’t answer for a couple of seconds but then nodded to himself.

“I’ve been to a place almost identical to this before. There we learned about all these traps the hard way.”

“Care to give me more? Where was it? Was Eva with you?”

Alex cocked his head.

“No, and Eva was not with me.”

“Couldn't have been long ago then. Why’d you even enter a place like this ”

“Suffice it to say that I only entered in order to see my family again.”

Emily hummed.

“And you miss them? Is that why we’re traveling halfway across the world? To see them?”

Alex’s face hardened.

“They’ll be there, but that's all I’ll say on the matter”

Emily pursed her lips. It was the most personal information she’d ever managed to pry out of the guy so she supposed she should give him at least something.

“My power is divided into two aspects. Blood manipulation and life force storage. Now on their own both if formidable abilities but when they are used together, that's when I’m unstoppable. As long as I have life force I can keep going-”

Alex frowned.

“But you have to have a limit…”

Emily smiled at Alex.

“Hmm… maybe, though I can say this. The more life force I have, the less I need to use for the same technique. When I got here had to start from scratch but as I horde vitality, it gets cheaper to do the same thing further down the line. I’m close to the first threshold, but we keep getting into dangerous scenarios that force me to use more power.”

Emily shot Alex a wry grin which only seemed to stoke his curiosity.

“So how much more do need? Wait, for that matter, how much did you have before entering Eva’s body?”

Emily snickered.

“I think I’ve more than paid for my information. As for the rest, I’m always open to another trade”

Emily winked at Alex but he grunted to himself as though realizing he’d let his curiosity get the better of him.

“Fair enough, So all we need to do is have you nearby but not have you use energy. Gods, what kind of place did you come from to have abilities like that?”

Emily laughed freely.

“Now I’m certain you can’t afford that.”

Alex seemed to agree as he moved the conversion onto something more mundane yet equally interesting.

“You did a really good job back there with that ward.”

“Thanks, my title did a lot of the heavy lifting, but those things are impressive.”

“I wasn’t even certain it was going to work. We’re just lucky you figured it out.”

Emily blinked to herself as the air between them became warmer. She wasn’t too sure why but she felt more comfortable around Alex at that moment. From the beginning It wasn’t that their personalities clashed exactly, it was just that they were both slow to trust. Emily had faced too many betrayals to simply let her walls down, but it seemed Alex had similar reservations.

After that, the room was fairly quiet, but Emily didn’t mind. She used the time to rest and prepare for what was to come. Whatever route they took, it would be filled with equal parts battle and reward, and Emily couldn’t wait.

Blood points: 79