The three of them had reached the end of the cavern and had walked into the tunnel system. Terrod had been left behind to organize getting the prisoners to the surface. Enalise had picked a tunnel to the left and had walked unerringly through three more turns until they arrived in front of a circular door. Richter could see where iron supports had been driven into the ceiling, walls and floor. A stout wooden door had been set against these thick bars, effectively blocking off that area of the tunnel. A keyhole and handle were set into the center of the banded door.
“None of us were ever allowed down this tunnel, but one day a group of prisoners walked by when the door was open. The goblins were so furious that they beat two of the prisoners to death. Only one lived to return to the slave pens, and he died less than a day later. Before he did, though, he told the other slaves that he had seen a bright light coming from beyond the door.”
Richter nodded. He checked in with Alma to ensure that all was well up top. The dragonling looped him into her visual feed and said that she hadn’t seen any other enemies. There was a small contingent of sprites walking east towards the encampment from the ravine, but nothing else was happening. The chaos seed was relieved that there were no goblins to be seen but still felt time ticking away.
One thing was clear, he wouldn’t be bashing his way through this particular lock. Richter scanned the door for traps, but nothing lit up red. It was doubtful that the goblins would have had time, or the expertise, to make an elaborately hidden trap so he didn’t take overly long in his examination. Inserting two lockpicks into the keyhole, the chaos seed began tenderly testing the lock. Less than a minute later, there was a barely audible click. Richter turned the wheel set into the door and pulled.
Grey light flooded the corridor, blinding them all. Even as Richter winced against the glare, something inside of him both screamed in rage and shouted in triumph. A seed deep within his soul stirred from its slumber. It used him, it was him, and at a level deeper than consciousness it thought, Home.
CHAPTER 48 – Day 141 – Kuborn 31, 15,386 EBG
The light wasn’t truly that bright, but after only the weak luminescence of Richter’s spells, it was still glaring at first. After blinking for a few moments, Richter was able to look into it without discomfort. The first thing that struck him was the strange effect it had on the walls. The rock seemed to change from plain grey stone to marble to coarse red rock as he watched it. The light also did not shine uniformly across everything. Instead, it flowed over the stone like a liquid with a clearly defined edge. When the light moved away, the tunnel rock was left the same as it had been before. Richter barely noticed any of this, but it called to him. He was walking forward before he knew it and was surprised by the hand he felt on his arm, holding him back.
“We should not go in there,” Sion said in an almost whisper. His eyes were fixed on the ebb and flow of the grey light. “It reminds me of something.”
“I agree,” Enalise said. “Now that we are here, I do not think we should go any further.”
“What about the mission?” Richter asked. His voice was almost absent-minded, because all he could truly think about was the light. He was utterly confused as to why his comrades would not want to get closer. The tunnel curved to the left several yards past the door. He could only imagine how much better the light would look when he got a clear sight of whatever was emitting the mesmerizing radiance.
“I know the mission is important,” Sion replied. His tone was almost as if he was trying to reconcile what he knew with what he felt, “I still feel like we should not go in there, though.”
Richter looked at his friend, and finally understood what his friend wasn’t saying. The sprite was afraid. It just didn’t make sense to him, though. So he checked his Companion’s status page. It looked more or less the same as the last time he’d looked except for one added line.
Current status effects: Trepidation
The chaos seed frowned. He had never seen that particular status effect before, but it didn’t seem to leave much to the imagination. Trepidation was a form of fear. His hands began to move and a gold light surrounded his fingers. Richter cast Weak Courage on his friend.
Some of the concern on Sion’s face eased though not all of it. The chaos seed could also see the status effect was still on his friend’s page. The spell was enough for the sprite to let go of Richter’s arm, though. Sion shook his head and said, “I do not know why I am so affected, but you are right. The mission comes first.”
Richter couldn’t cast the spell again for fifteen minutes. When he looked at Enalise, he saw that the same fear Sion felt was etched on her face as well, “Why don’t you wait for us here?” The chaos seed tried to sound sympathetic, but he was itching to go deeper in the tunnel. The Miner nodded and Richter started walking forward. Sion and the shale adder followed close behind.
With each step, Richter’s excitement grew. He felt almost like a man possessed. The anticipation felt like Christmas Eve, the last five minutes of the big game and the first time a woman got naked all rolled into one. A part of his mind rebelled against the compulsion he was feeling, but he ignored it. The chaos seed also thought he heard a garbled voice speaking in his head, but that wasn’t important either. Nothing mattered but the light. He didn’t even notice when Sion was forced to stop. The Trepidation effect had grown too strong. Richter followed the turn in the tunnel, and his breath caught.
In front of him was a floating gem. He couldn’t say how many sides it had because that seemed to change from moment to moment. The overall shape seemed relatively stable, though it seemed to get longer and shorter, despite the fact that Richter never actually saw it move. It was kite-shaped, with the bottom facets of the jewel being much shorter than the ones on top. The inside of the gem was a swirling grey… something. At one moment, it seemed to billow like smoke and the next it slowly flowed like thick molasses. Other times the surface seemed solid and, as he watched, it entered states that he didn’t have the words to describe.
Richter took a step closer and the light from the gem brightened noticeably. It was only then that he noticed the clear pedestal beneath the gem. Breaking his view of the jewel for even a moment disrupted some of its mesmerizing effect and he began to notice other details about the tunnel. Namely, the dead bodies on the ground in front of him.