Olimpia

Sathera's stomach lurched into her throat at the sudden collapse of the ground, and panic filled her mind as, from one blink of her eyes to the next, all she could see around her were dark brown clods of dirt. A scream of shock ripped itself from her throat as her mind was thrown back in time and filled with primal fear.

She flashed back to her childhood when bandits caused an avalanche to crash into her family's carriage, throwing it off the edge of a narrow road off a cliff and into the Rush. Then, she was separated from her mother as the cold water enveloped her, ripping her downstream.

In desperation, she reached out with her hands, clawing at the falling dirt around her as if she could use the loose soil to climb back to the surface. Then she slammed into the ground, the impact forcing the air out of her chest in a sharp grunt.

Sathera lay still with her eyes closed as she was peppered with dirt, desperately trying to suck in a breath. In a way, she was grateful for the impact, as it focused her mind back on the present, but she could do without the overwhelming need, but lack of ability, to breathe. When she finally got some air down her throat and into her lungs, it came with the fist-sized ball of soil filling her mouth.

Or at least that was what it felt like to Sathera as she rolled onto her hands and knees, trying to hack out the mountain. The glob she spat onto the floor was what had made its way halfway down her throat, and as it splattered onto the ground, all she could do was stare at it in disbelief. Because there was no way that grape-sized lump was what was burrowing its way down her throat.

Snapping out of her staring contest with the dirt when a large lump broke on her back, Sathera tried to quickly clean her mouth from the grit caking her teeth and cheeks with a few sputtering spits but realized it was fruitless. She would just have to live with it for now, as every moment she spent trying to clean her mouth was one wasted.

Sathera knew they were running out of time, as the time of their impending deaths was quite literally pattering down like the sands of an hourglass as the soil and dust once covering the top of this hole settled. Even if they didn't hear her scream, someone would notice them soon enough.

"Get up and move!" Sathera mentally shouted within their mental network, getting disorientated acknowledgments in reply. They might not be moving fast, but at least they were moving.

Following her own advice, Sathera pushed herself up with one arm while wiping the grime out of her eyes with the other.

With the dust still hanging in the air, Sathera tried to look past the dust haze filling the hole with her one working blurry eye. But all she could make out was a wall of darkness a dozen feet away, which was good enough.

The first few steps she took while shuffling forward were over uneven ground, but that soon changed into a smooth casted floor as she stepped onto the area of the chamber that still had a roof. Sathera released a small sigh of relief as she apparently went unnoticed and entered the shadows surrounding the hole.

In the relative safety of the shadows, Sathera took a moment to turn around and look back at where she had fallen. The first thing she noticed was the lower half of Joxin's body disappearing into the shadows on the far side of the room.

Then she turned her head up and started to study the hole and pool of light. The hole had to be twenty feet in diameter, and the roof was ten feet above Sathera's head.

A shiver of dread ran down her spine as figures appeared at its edge, looking down into the chamber as if they were searching for something. Movement caused her eyes to flick down, and she saw the earth she had fallen with start to move.

It only took another second for her to realize what was happening. They were building a large stairwell from the cavern to above ground. Why would they creat—

A ping of warning flooded through the network, and Sathera spun to the side. White spots filled her vision as she suddenly turned her gaze from the bright blue sky to the darkness hiding a tunnel entrance. She couldn't see anything, but she already knew what was happening from the mental warning.

And even if she wasn't pinged with their Union, Sathera could get a rough idea of the situation. The sound of drawing swords and them hitting the armor and flesh was distinctive.

Jim had found a tunnel connecting to this chamber, and people were coming through. Bellous was rushing up to help, but Joxin had twisted his ankle during the fall and was having trouble moving fast.

Trusting that a casted room would have flat ground, Sathera quickly walked to what she could barely make out as shadowy forms moving. Even when she arrived, she could not pick out specific features, but she didn't need to see them.

Sathera knew where her teammates were, making everyone else down here her enemy. Jim was cracking open the head of the first person entering the room, and Bellous was taking up position on the far side of Jim from her, leaving the last side open for her.

Reaching for her blade with her right hand and extending a tendril from it to wrap around the hilt, Sathera whipped it free in an upward diagonal slash. She felt the first two inches of the blade tare through the throat of one of a figure edging to the side of her two scouts. She knew the blow landed from the impact. Even felt a spattering of blood on her arm.

And yet the cloaked figure didn't react to her attack, even taking a step toward her. A twinge of fear ran through Sahtera as the dark form casually shrugged off the blow as if it didn't matter. Or it didn't exist…

Stepping back into a defensive stance, Sathera focused on flooding her mind with psy to resist mental manipulation, but she felt nothing. Like there was no mental attack at all, but if anyone close to being a Reaver was outside of a family's or the Senate's control, they would be in a gang. So, not detecting manipulation could also be a trick.

Sathera continued reinforcing her mind and was ready to hope back when the figure lashed out with an attack, but it never came. They only took another step toward her.

But the moment their foot came down again, Sathera's rushed mental defenses collapsed along with the figure, leaving the space open for those behind to advance as the first bled out at her feet.

More out of long practice than thought, Sathera saw the opening in the enemy formation and took a moment to hack at the neck of the figure at her feet, ensuring their death, before stepping forward and thrusting out her blade at the next person in line.

While her body was attacking, her mind was more focused on pulling back when this blatant trap finally snapped shut, as her lack of imagination to see the trap could be the only explanation for everything. Why else were they acting this way?

Except the trap never snapped shut.

The quarter inch of her sword tip stabbed into the base of their neck, but the blow was so hesitant that it was more like a jabbing with a needle than an actual blow. Then the person stepped forward, skewering themselves further onto her sword.

Sathera was so shocked by the turn of events all she could do was stare blankly at the shadowy figure. When they collapsed, Sathera's sword was wrenched out of her hand and tendril because she could not think to keep hold of it.

The figure fell to the ground with no attempt to halt their fall. The hilt of her sword was the first thing to contact the ground, driving the sword through the side of their neck.

All she could do was stare at the twisted figure lying on the ground as the seconds passed, and she could not bring her mind into focus. None of the ideas cascading through her mind could explain what had just happened.

Movement from the corner of her eye coming right for her caused Sathera to jump to the side and spin frantically, reaching for the hilt of her sword… That was lying at her feet. Blast.

Grabbing the hilt of her hunting knife, she slashed at the form only to halt halfway through the motion and blink in surprise as she felt Joxin with his hands up, leaning back from her attack. "We half to go Sathera." He whispered while tilting his head to the empty tunnel, which was just a darker patch in the shadows.

Jerkily, Sathera nodded once, getting her mind moving again, and noticed shouts from overhead pushing her to act. A second more confident nod came a moment later, and she bent down, ripping her blade free from the body without giving it another thought.

"Jim," Sathera sent, "help Joxin keep up. Bellous, take up the rear."

"Understood," they all acknowledged at the same time.

Sathera walked through the archway and entered an underground passageway after a dozen steps and a couple sharp turns where she sheathed her sword. At first, she thought that the tunnel wasn't lit at all, but as a few seconds passed, she noticed pale green mushrooms sporadically growing along the floor of the passage, giving off a ghostly light.

Not that it should be called a light. The mushrooms were bright enough that you knew you were seeing shadows but not enough to actually see anything. Maybe you could make out the ground and walls a few inches from mushrooms, but nothing in the middle of the tunnel.

It was basically teasing anyone who entered with almost seeing outlines before ripping it away. Why would they even put them there if it's only this much light? Are they trying to torture all who enter? This seems unnecessarily cruel.

Pausing for a moment to determine which way they should go, Sathera decided to go to the left. It wasn't that she was able to keep her orientation from the fall and knew that left was toward the city and probably away from those clustering at the tunnel's exits. Or that she released a pulse mapping the entire subterranean network.

It was much simpler than that. To her right was the sound of voices, and to her left, Sathera couldn't hear a thing. Seemed like an easy choice to her.

Moving as silently as possible, Sathera and the others crept down the tunnel. After passing ten mushrooms, Sathera noticed a tunnel connecting to the passage as it had the faint light of day at its end.

Tempting as the light was, she also knew it had to come from one of the same tunnels her team saw open around their hill. Picking up the pace, they hustled past the entryways.

Holding her breath as they moved, Sathera felt as though, with how loudly her heart was pounding in her ears, it should be enough to alert the enemy all on its own. With Bellous gliding past the entryway, she slowly released her held breath, only for it to hitch to a stop.

Jim somehow tripped on the flat ground, causing Joxin to put pressure on his bad leg. The gurgling hiss of pain he tried to suppress traveled up and down the hallway, bouncing off the walls, but it was nothing next to the clang of Jim's unsheathed sword bouncing off the floor.

The metallic ringing as swords were pulled from their sheaths was all she needed to hear. "Move!" She frantically ordered as she shot down the passageway.

It was no longer time to try and retain whatever small amount of stealth they still held, a fact that everyone agreed with, as Sathera could now hear the scuffing and taps of their feet against the stone.

The sound of running feet suddenly changed from a faint tapping to a pounding roar. It was like a century appeared out of nowhere to chase them.

Releasing a pulse focused at their rear, Sathera almost fell in shock and pain as a sharp pain was driven into her temples. Sathera liked surprises as much as the next person; however, this was becoming a little tedious for one day. A single big surprise in a day was about all she could take.

The latest surprise, and what might even be more shocking than finding the earth collapsing under her, was that a pulse released in this tunnel wouldn't make it back to the caster, at least not after traveling any distance that would matter.

All her pulse told her was that there were walls around her and the three people were traveling five feet behind her… It didn't even show the archway she knew was seventeen feet back.

Yeah, really not that helpful. There might have been some faint fuzzy echoes farther back down the passage, but deciphering that garbled mess wasn't worth the effort.

By the time she deciphered it, whatever she could hear chasing them would already be upon them.

"Bellous, can you see anything behind us?" Sathera sent to him.

"Negative," Came his steady reply a second later. "It's too dark to make anything out."

Turning around and fighting was less than optimal. At best, they killed all of their pursuers, proving they were a threat, so as they wandered around the tunnels, an actually powerful person was chasing them. Or there was so many chasing after them that they could never hope to win.

A far more likely outcome was that there were too many to fight even in a cramped tunnel, and they would be worn down — or stalled until someone showed up behind them — before being killed. Sathera doubted two people in this tunnel would intentionally walk into her blade.

Picking up the pace, Sathera focused on moving down the tunnel. Minutes passed as they traveled, but after the first minute, no more side tunnels were connected to theirs.

If it was within the first moments of entering the tunnel, Sathera might have been uncertain if they were passing side tunnels, but now she was confident. Besides her eyes adjusting to the tunnel's "light," there was another reason. Jim — proving that he can be useful — noticed that every time there was an intersecting tunnel, there were two of those glowing mushrooms on either side of it. Without a tunnel, the clumps of mushrooms alternated sides of the passage about every five or so feet. It was odd.

There was something to be said about making light in a secret… smuggling tunnel? Though you don't need this many tunnels to smuggle goods. It would even be counter-productive, as it creates a greater chance it would be discovered… Whatever this tunnel was, it was secret, and a small amount of light when any passage was opened would be best. But this was ridiculous.

Humans would basically be blind in here, and elves wouldn't be that much better off. It was—

Thought being cut off, Sathera slid to a stop. A void was in front of her, as the path just ended in air.

Looking around, Sathera picked out the spots of pale green of the mushrooms in the distance. They don't look that far away, but how do we get there?

Releasing a pulse, Sathera felt a shaper twinge of pain in her head, as if something was actively resisting and suppressing her this time. It seemed like an accurate guess, as her pulse barely made it to the platform's edge at her feet this time, and it couldn't detect anything past it. It was more help than her eyes, who couldn't even find the floor she was standing on, let alone what was below the platform's edge.

There had to be something, but if she knew what it was, she would be one of the Great Elementals.

"Hostiles rear." Bellous spoke into the Union, "I can make out their forms blocking out the mushrooms down the tunnel but can't tell an accurate distance. They seem to be moving at a quick march.”

The rapid series of reports point to an edge on Sathera's need to move, as staying here would only lead to their deaths. There was no more time to think… Knowing what they needed to do, Sathera hopped off the platform into the impenetrable darkness.

Someone needed to find out how tall this platform was.