Elise Morwood traced her finger along another erratic line in her journal, willing her friends to see what was so glaringly obvious to her. "Look at these patterns. They're identical to the surge we recorded when that ranger returned." The dried ink seemed to mock her with its wild zigzags across the page.

  Mitra and Tomas exchanged that look again, the one that made her stomach clench with frustration. They sat in their usual corner of the Leaf and Vine tavern, where the ambient noise provided cover for sensitive conversations.

  "The Oakspire's patterns have always been cyclical," Tomas said, taking a careful sip of his ale. "Remember the fluctuations during the spring equinox two years ago? Everyone thought it was some grand omen, but it was just seasonal variation. They preached on about the end times for months!"

  Elise shook her head, her chestnut hair falling loose from its knot. "This is different. The plants aren't just responding to natural cycles." She pulled out another journal, this one filled with precise drawings of leaf patterns and growth measurements. "See these formations?"

  Mitra leaned back, her green Watcher's cloak catching on the rough wooden chair. "Or they're reaching toward the sun, like plants tend to do." Her tone was gentle, but Elise heard the underlying dismissal.

  "I've been tracking these changes for months," Elise insisted, touching the oak leaf pendant at her neck. "The variations started the day that ranger company, returned from the borderlands. The plants near the East Gate grew three times their normal rate. Then it stopped when they left!"

  "During spring," Tomas pointed out. "When everything grows faster."

  Elise bit back a sharp retort. They'd been friends since their early days as Seedlings, but lately, she felt like she was speaking a language they couldn't, or wouldn't, understand. "The Oakspire itself responded. I saw it. The roots shifted beneath the street."

  "The roots are always shifting," Mitra said. "That's why we have to repair the cobblestones every year." She reached across the table and squeezed Elise's hand. "I know you want to find something significant. We all do. But sometimes the simplest explanation is the right one."

  Elise pulled her hand away, gathering her journals. The tavern's warmth suddenly felt stifling. "The simplest explanation is that we have someone in the city wielding life aether in ways we haven't seen since Mother Arden's time. And instead of investigating it, we're sitting here making excuses."

  "Elise," Tomas started, but she cut him off.

  "No. I know what I've seen. The patterns are clear as day if you'd just look at them properly." She stood, tucking the journals into her many pockets. "The Inner Circle needs to know about this."

  That got their attention. Mitra straightened, her expression sharpening. "You can't go to the Inner Circle with theories based on plant growth and root movement. They'll dismiss you outright."

  Elise knew they were right about the council, but the frustration of carrying this knowledge alone was becoming unbearable. "Then what am I supposed to do? Ignore it? Pretend I don't see what's happening right in front of us?"

  Elise shoved her chair back with more force than necessary, the legs scraping against the worn floorboards. Her friends' concerned faces only fueled her irritation. They meant well, but their willful blindness to what was happening felt like a betrayal of everything the Watchers stood for.

  "I'll see you both at tomorrow's observation." She kept her voice level, though her hands trembled as she adjusted the strap of her satchel. The weight of her journals pressed against her hip like an accusation.

  The tavern's warmth followed her out into the cool evening air, where the first stars were beginning to pierce the darkening sky. The Oakspire loomed above, its massive canopy blocking out entire constellations. Even now, she could feel the subtle pulse of life aether flowing through its roots beneath the cobblestones.

  Her boots clicked against the stone as she turned toward the Inner City, where her small quarters waited. The sound echoed off the buildings, oddly hollow in the empty street. Most citizens would be home by now, preparing for another day of pretending everything was normal.

  But nothing was normal. Not anymore.

  Elise touched her pendant, drawing comfort from its familiar weight. The preserved oak leaf seemed to warm under her fingers, though she knew that was impossible. Her grandmother's voice echoed in her memory: "Trust your eyes, child, but more importantly, trust what you feel."

  What she felt now was wrong. The aether patterns were shifting, changing in ways that defied natural law. That ranger's return had triggered something, awakened some dormant force that rippled through the foundations of the city. And no one wanted to acknowledge it.

  A cat darted across her path, startling her from her thoughts. She shook off the scare and continued on her way home, thoughts swirling around in her mind.

  The tunnel ceiling dripped. Again. Cold water slithered down Aric's neck and under his leather armor. Again. He shivered, not just from the chill but from the suffocating darkness pressing in from all sides. Four days they'd been down here. Four days of endless stone passageways, blind turns, and crushing dead ends.

  "Hold," Kaelen whispered, his voice barely audible over the distant drip of water.

  Aric froze mid step, balancing precariously on slick stone. The tunnel had narrowed again, forcing them to proceed in single file. Behind him, he heard Lian's quiet breathing and the subtle shifts of the Meryan warriors' webbed feet against wet stone. Nobody spoke. Nobody needed to.

  The pale blue glow of Lian's aether light cast eerie shadows across Kaelen's scarred face as the veteran ranger raised a closed fist, signaling complete silence. Aric strained his ears, trying to hear past the thundering of his own pulse. There, a faint scratching, the whisper of something moving through distant passages.

  Kaelen held the position for thirty heartbeats before relaxing his fist. "Just water running through stone," he murmured, though Aric noted the uncertainty in his tone. "Could've sworn it had rhythm to it."

  "Maybe it did," Thalia whispered from her position three bodies back. The healer had insisted on joining this expedition despite Alfen's reservations. "These tunnels are old. Older than Clearwater."

  Aric shifted uncomfortably, hyper aware of the countless tons of rock and water above them. Somewhere, impossibly far overhead, Lake Clarity sparkled in daylight. Down here, only darkness reigned, broken by their meager light sources and the occasional phosphorescent fungus clinging to the damper sections of wall.

  "Forward," Kaelen ordered, his voice pitched so low that Aric barely caught it. "Daven, take point with me. Aric, stay close. Meryan, secure our rear."

  Ayatul, the Meryan leader of this group, clicked in acknowledgment, her webbed fingers adjusting the grip on her carved coral spear. The five Meryan warriors with her moved with an eerie grace in the enclosed space, their bodies seemingly designed for these cramped, wet tunnels. Aric couldn't help but envy their comfort in these conditions, especially when another cold drip slithered down his spine.

  They continued their careful advance, each step measured, each breath controlled. The tunnel sloped downward at a gentle angle before widening into a modest chamber with three branching passages. Kaelen signaled a halt.

  "Daven," he said quietly.

  The ranger cartographer moved forward, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Daven had an uncanny ability to read terrain, to sense which passages might lead somewhere useful and which would only waste precious time. The group waited in silence as he examined each option, occasionally pressing his ear to the stone or running his fingers along cracks in the wall.

  "Left feels like a dead end," he announced after several minutes. "Can't feel the air pressure change. Right..." He frowned, moving to the rightmost passage and kneeling to examine something on the floor. "Recent water flow here. Probably leads deeper, maybe to flooded sections."

  "And?" Kaelen prompted when Daven hesitated.

  The cartographer stood at the central passage, his head tilted slightly. "Air's moving," he said finally. "Faint, but consistent. A larger system ahead, possibly with access to the surface."

  Aric felt a tentative flicker of hope. Four days of exploration had yielded nothing but disappointment; blocked passages, flooded chambers, and once, a cave in that had nearly claimed Lian. Each failure diminished their chances of finding a way past the dead that encircled Clearwater and the lake above them.

  Kaelen nodded, making his decision. "Center it is, pace yourselves."

  As they regrouped, Aric found himself beside Guso, the water mage eyeing him with professional concern. Guso was providing the light with a glowing orb of water. Aric's mood was so somber he didn't even question it.

  "How's the leg?" she asked softly, nodding toward his left calf where a ghoul's claws had torn through muscle during their desperate retreat into Clearwater a month earlier.

  Aric rolled his ankle experimentally, feeling the familiar twinge. "Serviceable," he answered. "Stiffens in the damp. Nothing I can't manage."

  Guso wasn't fooled. "I saw you favoring it on that last descent. If it gives out down here—"

  "It won't." Aric cut her off more sharply than he intended, then softened his tone. "I'm fine. Save your concern for someone who needs it."

  "We all need it," she replied, but let the matter drop as Kaelen signaled for them to move out.

  The central passage started promisingly enough, maintaining a consistent width and a gradual decline that suggested deliberate construction rather than natural formation. The walls occasionally showed signs of tool marks and artistry.

  "Who built these?" he asked aloud as they walked, keeping his voice low.

  Ahead of them, Ayatul made a soft clicking sound. The Meryan had been invaluable guides in the submerged sections of the tunnel network, but they remained tight lipped about their own history with these passages.

  They walked in silence for another twenty minutes before the tunnel began to change character. The ceiling rose higher, the walls widened, and the floor became more even, with occasional flat stones that resembled crude paving. Most promising of all, the air movement Daven had detected grew stronger, carrying a faint but distinct freshness that made Aric's heart beat faster.

  "Hold up," Daven called suddenly, his voice tense. "There's something-"

  The cartographer went silent, crouching to examine the floor more closely. Aric moved forward with Kaelen, peering over Daven's shoulder. In the dim aether light, he could make out strange markings on the stone, not tool marks from construction, but something more deliberate. Patterns.

  "Daven?" Aric asked, squinting at the weathered lines.

  Before Daven could answer, Ayatul pushed forward, her amber eyes narrowing as she examined the markings. The Meryan leader hissed something in her native tongue that made her warriors shift uneasily.

  "What is it?" Kaelen demanded, his hand moving to the hilt of his weapon.

  "Old magic," Ayatul growled, her guttural accent thickening with tension. "Very old. Not Meryan. Not human." She made a complex gesture with her webbed fingers.

  A heavy silence fell over the group, broken only by the eternal dripping of water. Aric found himself holding his breath, suddenly aware of every shadow, every subtle change in the air currents.

  "Recent?" Kaelen asked Ayatul, his voice betraying none of the tension visible in his rigid posture.

  The Meryan studied the marks again before shaking her head. "Not fresh. Old. Many years." She hesitated, then added, "But not ancient."

  Kaelen weighed this information, his scarred face unreadable in the dim light. "We continue," he decided after a moment. "But with extreme caution. Weapons ready."

  No one argued. They reformed their line and Aric noted the subtle changes in their posture, hands closer to weapons, eyes scanning more vigilantly, breathing more controlled. The relative optimism of discovering a promising tunnel had evaporated, replaced by a sharp, focused wariness.

  They proceeded more slowly now, Daven pausing frequently to check for additional markings. The tunnel continued to widen, eventually opening into a proper chamber nearly thirty feet across. The ceiling rose beyond the reach of their light sources, disappearing into darkness. The air movement was stronger here, carrying that tantalizing hint of the surface world.

  "Look," Lian whispered, pointing to the far wall where a larger tunnel mouth gaped. "That's where the air's coming from."

  He was right. Aric could feel the gentle but persistent current flowing from that opening, bringing with it the faintest scent of pine and soil, smells so achingly familiar after a month trapped within Clearwater's walls that he nearly staggered from the sensory impact.

  "Careful," Kaelen warned as several of them instinctively moved toward the tunnel. "Daven, check for more markings. Lian, Aric, with me. Guso, stay with the Meryan."

  Aric drew his sword, the weight reassuring in his hand as he moved along the chamber's curved wall. The stone here was different; smoother, almost polished in places, with occasional protrusions that resembled columns but seemed to have formed naturally.

  "Kaelen," Lian called softly from the opposite side of the chamber. "There's another passage here."

  The veteran ranger crossed over and followed the wall to an opening. Sure enough, a second tunnel mouth opened in the wall, smaller than the first but still large enough to admit a man. Unlike the first tunnel, no air flowed from this opening. If anything, Aric felt a subtle resistance, as if the darkness beyond actively pushed back against their intrusion.

  "No markings near the large tunnel," Daven reported, returning to the group. "But the air flow is consistent. Definitely leads somewhere with access to the surface."

  Kaelen considered their options, his eyes moving between the two passages. "The larger tunnel is our priority," he decided. "But we need to secure this smaller one first."

  "Aric, Lian, with me," Kaelen ordered. "We'll check the smaller tunnel, determine if it poses a threat. The rest of you, hold position here. If we're not back in ten minutes, assume the worst."

  Aric tightened his grip on his sword, suppressing the instinctive fear that flared at Kaelen's words. Assume the worst. The phrase carried a weight down here that it never had on the surface, where a man could at least die under open sky.

  "Ready?" Kaelen looked at him, and Aric forced himself to nod.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  They approached the smaller tunnel cautiously, Kaelen in the lead with Lian providing light from behind. The opening was roughly oval in shape, its edges too regular to be entirely natural. As they drew closer, Aric detected a subtle odor, musty, organic, with an underlying tang that reminded him of the bitter herbs healers used to treat infected wounds.

  The tunnel extended about fifteen feet before opening into a smaller chamber. Kaelen halted at the threshold, signaling for Lian to raise the light. The aether glow pushed back the darkness, revealing a space perhaps twenty feet across with a ceiling that curved overhead like an inverted bowl. The floor...

  Aric's breath caught. The floor wasn't stone at all, but a complex latticework of pale, fibrous material stretched across the chamber in intricate patterns. Suspended within this webbing were various objects, stones and fragments of bone. In the center, a darker mass hung motionless.

  "Back," Kaelen breathed, his voice barely audible. "Slowly."

  They retreated with exquisite care, placing each foot deliberately to minimize sound. Aric's heart hammered against his ribs, and sweat trickled down his temples despite the cool air. They had nearly reached the main chamber when Lian's foot came down on something that cracked with a sound like a thunderclap in the silence.

  All three froze, eyes darting to the tunnel behind them. For several heartbeats, nothing happened. Then Aric felt it, a vibration so subtle he might have imagined it, transmitted through the stone beneath his feet. Then another. And another. Rhythmic. Deliberate. Moving closer.

  "Run," Kaelen hissed, and they abandoned stealth for speed.

  They burst into the main chamber, startling the others who had been maintaining a vigilant watch on the larger tunnel. Kaelen wasted no time with explanations.

  "Contact!" He barked.

  They formed a rough semicircle facing the smaller tunnel, weapons ready, bodies tense. Seconds stretched into an agonizing minute. Then another. The vibrations either stopped or became too subtle to detect. Had they imagined the threat? Had whatever stirred in that webbed chamber decided to retreat rather than confront them?

  "Maybe we—" Daven began, but never finished the thought.

  The attack came not from the tunnel they watched, but from above when a dark form dropping silently from the ceiling and landed with behind their formation. Aric caught a glimpse as he spun around; multiple limbs, a chitinous body, eyes that reflected the aether light like polished obsidian.

  Then chaos erupted.

  The creature moved with blinding speed, its front limbs slashing at Daven who barely managed to raise his shield in time. The impact sent him staggering backward, the shield's edge crumpling like paper beneath the force of the blow. Kaelen roared a battle cry, his massive axe arcing through the air toward the creature's body, but it skittered sideways with uncanny agility, avoiding the strike.

  More movement from above, two, no, three more shapes descending. The Meryan reacted instantly, Ayatul's spear driving upward to impale one creature mid drop. It shrieked, a sound so high pitched it drilled directly into his brain. Aric staggered, momentarily disoriented, before muscle memory took over.

  He stepped forward, sword sweeping in a controlled arc that caught one creature across what might have been its face. Dark ichor sprayed from the wound, sizzling where it struck stone. The creature recoiled, but another took its place, front limbs extended toward Aric's throat.

  Too many, he thought with cold clarity. Too fast.

  The battle devolved into a struggle for survival. The creatures, spiders seemed too mundane a term for these horrors, attacked with frightening coordination, targeting the weakest points in their defensive formation. One Meryan warrior went down, screeching as venom dripping mandibles tore through the scales on his chest.

  Aric found himself back to back with Lian, both of them fending off a creature that moved like liquid shadow, its eight legs allowing it to attack from multiple angles simultaneously.

  "The eyes!" Kaelen shouted from across the chamber where he battled the largest of the creatures. "Go for the eyes!"

  Aric adjusted his strategy, watching for the telltale gleam of the creature's multiple eyes as it circled. There, a momentary reflection as it prepared to lunge. Aric thrust forward, putting all his weight behind the strike. His blade sank deep into the cluster of eyes on the creature's face. It convulsed violently, nearly wrenching the sword from his grip before collapsing in a twitching heap.

  No time to celebrate. Another creature had cornered Daven, who fought with grim determination despite a deep gash across his shoulder that stained half his tunic crimson. Aric moved to assist, but his injured leg chose that moment to betray him, buckling as he pivoted. He went down hard on one knee, pain shooting up his calf and thigh.

  Get up, he commanded himself, using his sword as a brace. Get up or die here.

  The chamber echoed with the sounds of battle, steel against chitin, and the Meryan's distinctive war cries. The air grew thick with the chittering of the creatures, a communication Aric couldn't understand but that raised the hairs on the back of his neck nonetheless.

  He regained his feet in time to see Kaelen deliver a devastating blow to the largest creature, his axe cleaving directly through its body in a spray of dark fluid. The veteran ranger didn't pause to watch it fall, already turning to engage another target.

  For a moment, just a moment, Aric thought they might prevail. The initial surprise had worn off, and their disciplined defense was holding. Those creatures already wounded seemed reluctant to press the attack, retreating to the shadows at the chamber's perimeter.

  Then he heard it, a new sound cutting through the clamor of battle. A rhythmic clicking, growing louder, emanating from the smaller tunnel. Something larger was coming. Something the other creatures had been waiting for.

  "Kaelen!" Aric shouted, pointing toward the tunnel with his sword.

  The veteran ranger followed his gesture, his blood splattered face hardening as he, too, heard the approaching clicks. "Fall back!" he ordered. "To the tunnel! Now!"

  They began a fighting retreat, moving as a unit toward the larger tunnel mouth where the promise of surface air still beckoned. Guso and two Meryan warriors carried their poisoned comrade, whose scaled skin had taken on an alarming grayish hue. Daven staggered but remained upright, one arm hanging uselessly at his side.

  Aric took the rearguard position with Kaelen, both of them facing the smaller tunnel as the clicking grew louder, more insistent. The surviving creatures had ceased their attacks, retreating to the walls and ceiling where they waited with predatory patience.

  "Go," Kaelen growled at Aric. "I'll hold here until everyone's clear."

  "Not alone," Aric replied, planting his feet despite the screaming protest from his injured leg.

  Kaelen looked like he might argue, but a new sound from the tunnel silenced any objection, a wet, sliding noise accompanied by the click, click, clicking that now seemed to vibrate the very air.

  Something emerged from the darkness. Something that made the creatures they'd been fighting seem almost benign in comparison.

  It wasn't a spider, not really, though it bore similarities in its multiple limbs and segmented body. This was larger, easily the size of a large boulder, with a carapace that absorbed light rather than reflecting it. Where a spider might have had a head, this creature possessed a pulsating sac covered in sensory organs that Aric's mind refused to see as eyes, though they swiveled to track movement with obvious intelligence.

  Most disturbing of all were the appendages that extruded from its front section, not legs or mandibles, but something closer to arms, ending in articulated digits that looked capable of fine manipulation. In one of these appendages, the creature carried what appeared to be a crude staff of chitinous material, adorned with small objects that clinked together as it moved.

  "Mother Arden preserve us," Aric whispered, his voice cracking.

  The creature paused at the tunnel entrance, its sensory organs pulsating as it surveyed the chamber. The smaller spiders retreated further, pressing themselves against the walls in what appeared to be deference. The large creature emitted a series of complex clicks that echoed around the chamber with unnerving precision.

  "Back," Kaelen ordered, no longer bothering to keep his voice down. "Back to the others. Now."

  They retreated step by careful step, weapons still raised, never taking their eyes off the monstrosity that watched them with alien intelligence. It made no move to pursue, merely continuing its rhythmic clicking as if communicating something to its lesser kin.

  The rest of their group had reached the larger tunnel, their pale faces visible in the aether light as they waited anxiously. Aric and Kaelen joined them, still facing the chamber where the creature now began a slow, deliberate circuit, its strange staff tapping against the stone floor in time with its clicks.

  "What is that thing?" Daven gasped, his voice tight with pain from his injured shoulder.

  "Tunnel sovereign," Ayatul hissed, her normally impassive face showing genuine fear. "Oldest stories. Very old. Never seen before. Run!"

  Aric's leg screamed in protest as they fled through the tunnel, each step a fresh torment. The clicking sounds echoed behind them, growing neither closer nor more distant, as if the sovereign deliberately maintained that exact distance to torment them.

  "Faster," Kaelen growled from somewhere behind him.

  The group abandoned stealth entirely, their boots splashing through shallow puddles, their breathing harsh in the confined space. Daven stumbled ahead of him, still clutching his mangled shoulder. Aric caught him before he could fall, ignoring the fresh surge of pain from his own injury.

  "Keep moving," he urged, half dragging the cartographer forward. The clicking continued its maddening rhythm.

  They reached the first junction, taking the turn at dangerous speed. Aric's memory of their inbound route felt fuzzy, distorted by fear and exhaustion, but Kaelen called out directions with unwavering certainty. Left. Right. Through the narrow squeeze that had them turning sideways.

  The clicking behind them changed pitch suddenly, becoming more urgent. The sovereign had recognized their destination.

  "They're coming," Lian shouted from his position as rear guard.

  Aric risked a glance back. In the dim light of their retreating glow stones, he caught glimpses of movement along the walls and ceiling, the smaller creatures pursuing with terrifying speed.

  They burst into the final chamber where three Meryan warriors waited at the water's edge. Ayatul barked commands in her native tongue, the words liquid and urgent. The Meryan responded instantly, their hands moving in complex patterns as they shaped the water with their aether.

  "Form up!" Kaelen ordered, positioning himself to cover their retreat. "Wounded first!"

  Aric helped Daven toward the waiting Meryan, watching in fascination despite their dire situation as the water rose and shaped itself into a massive bubble, held in place by the Meryan's power. The poisoned warrior had already been placed inside, his gray skin now taking on a worrying bluish tinge.

  The first of the spider creatures appeared at the chamber entrance. Aric raised his sword, but Ayatul's spear flashed past him, pinning the thing to the wall with devastating accuracy. Two more appeared immediately behind it.

  "Now!" Kaelen shouted. "Everyone in!"

  They backed toward the bubble as more creatures poured into the chamber. Aric felt webbing whiz past his ear, barely missing. Another strand caught Lian's bow, yanking it from his grasp. The Meryan warriors maintained their concentration, hands weaving complex patterns to hold the water at bay.

  "Last group," Kaelen commanded. "Move!"

  Aric stumbled backward through the membrane of the bubble, an odd sensation like walking through cold silk. Inside, the air felt thick but breathable. He turned to help the others, reaching out to grab Lian's arm and pull him through.

  The clicking started again, closer now. Much closer.

  "Kaelen!" Aric shouted, seeing the veteran ranger still outside, his massive axe keeping three creatures at bay.

  The tunnel sovereign's form appeared in the entrance, its staff raised. Kaelen didn't hesitate., he spun and dove through the bubble's surface just as Ayatul barked a final command. The bubble sealed itself and began to sink into the lake's depths, leaving the chittering horrors behind in their underground nightmare.

  Aric's lungs burned as he fought the instinct to hold his breath. The Meryan's water bubble felt wrong, like being suspended in thick honey while somehow still breathing normally. His injured leg throbbed as he watched the dark waters of Lake Clarity press against their temporary sanctuary from all sides.

  One of the Meryan gripped his arm with webbed fingers. Her touch was surprisingly human despite the odd appearance. She clicked something that might have been reassurance, though Aric couldn't begin to interpret the meaning.

  Through the translucent wall of their bubble, he caught glimpses of other Meryan warriors guiding his companions. Kaelen floated nearby, his face set in grim concentration as he watched the darkness below.

  The bubble began to rise, guided by the combined power of their Meryan allies. Aric marveled despite his fear and exhaustion. He'd heard tales of their prowess in the water since arriving in Clearwater but the trip down and back up were his first true experience.

  His thoughts scattered as Daven groaned nearby. His face had gone chalk white, his injured shoulder still seeping blood that formed lazy crimson clouds in the water beyond their bubble. The Meryan who'd been poisoned looked even worse, his grayish blue scales now taking on an almost translucent quality.

  "How much further?" Aric asked, immediately feeling foolish for speaking. The Meryan guide tilted her head, amber eyes blinking slowly before she pointed upward with her free hand. A gesture even a surface dweller could understand: Up. Keep going up.

  Light gradually increased as they ascended, the water around them transitioning from black to deep blue to a more promising green-tinged azure. Aric's ears popped painfully, reminding him just how deep they'd been. His leg seized suddenly, and he bit back a cry as the muscle cramped. The Meryan's grip tightened, steadying him as he worked through the spasm.

  Something large moved in the water beyond their bubble, a massive fish, or one of the other denizens of Lake Clarity's depths. Aric's hand instinctively went to his sword before remembering how useless the weapon would be in these conditions. The Meryan clicked sharply, the sound carrying clearly through the bubble, and whatever had been out there retreated back into the gloom.

  "Look," Lian whispered from somewhere to his left. "You can see the surface."

  Aric looked up. Sure enough, far above them, light danced and shifted in that way that meant air and sky weren't far off. His chest tightened with relief so profound it was almost painful. After four days in the tunnels and that nightmarish encounter with the sovereign, the promise of open air felt almost too good to be true.

  The bubble accelerated upward, their Meryan guides now moving with greater urgency. Whether they were reaching the limits of their power or simply eager to be done with this rescue, Aric couldn't tell. The surface grew closer, details becoming clearer, he could make out the rippling underside of gentle waves, the distorted shapes of clouds beyond.

  Kaelen caught his eye and nodded once. They'd made it. They'd actually made it. Aric allowed himself a small smile, though it faded as he remembered the price. One Meryan warrior dead in those lightless tunnels, Daven badly wounded, and the poisoned warrior's condition deteriorating by the minute. But they'd found a potential way past the undead, even if it wasn't one they'd ever want to actually use.

  The bubble broke the surface with a sound like a giant gasp. Lake Clarity's waters fell away around them as their Meryan guides released their power, depositing the rangers as gently as possible into the shallows near shore. Aric's boots found purchase on smooth stones, and he stumbled forward, helping Daven stay upright as he retched lake water.

  Aric's legs trembled as he waded through the shallows of Lake Clarity, each step sending jolts of pain through his injured calf. The late evening air felt shockingly cold after the stagnant warmth of the tunnels. Behind him, Daven retched, emptying his stomach of lake water while two rangers supported his weight.

  The Meryan emerged last, their scaled bodies gleaming in the dying light. Ayatul clasped forearms with Kaelen, her amber eyes reflecting something ancient and solemn. No words were exchanged, and none were needed. The Meryan slipped back into the depths with barely a ripple, taking their poisoned companion to whatever healing their underwater city might provide.

  Lian muttered as they trudged up the harbor steps. "That…"

  "Aric." Kaelen's gravelly voice pulled him from his brooding. "With me."

  They broke away from the group, climbing the worn steps toward the garrison where Captain Alfen maintained his command post. Aric's leg protested each step, but he forced himself to maintain pace with the veteran ranger. The reporting of failed missions had become routine over the past month.

  Alfen looked up from his maps as they entered, his weathered face tight with exhaustion. "Report."

  "One Meryan taken by poison. Daven's shoulder's torn up. Various cuts and bruises." Kaelen's voice remained steady, professional. "Could have been much worse."

  Alfen absorbed this, his fingers drumming against the map table. "And the passage?"

  "Leads to the surface. We could feel air movement. But we'd need an army to clear those tunnels, and even then..." Kaelen shook his head as he explained what they had faced in the tunnels.

  "Very well." Alfen straightened, looking older than Aric had ever seen him. "Get some food. Rest. We'll meet tomorrow."

  Aric followed Kaelen out, shame and frustration burning in his gut. In the mess hall, he grabbed a bowl of whatever stew was being served, not tasting it as he ate. Around him, other soldiers spoke in hushed tones, their conversations a mix of speculation about the undead army above and worry about dwindling supplies.

  Aric absently stirred his stew, watching the chunks of potato and mystery meat swirl in lazy circles. His mind kept drifting back to those clicking sounds in the darkness, the way that fiend had watched them with its impossible eyes. He suppressed a shudder.

  "You're doing it again," Farran said, sliding onto the bench across from him. The healer's face showed the strain of too many hours tending wounds with too little rest. "That thousand yard stare."

  "Leave him be," Kitra muttered from her spot next to Farran. The archer had been unusually quiet since returning from her own failed scouting mission three days ago. "We've all got demons dancing behind our eyes lately."

  Aric forced himself to take another bite of stew, though it tasted like ash in his mouth. His leg throbbed beneath the table, a constant reminder of his weakness during the fight. If he'd been stronger, faster, maybe they could have pushed further, found that surface exit...

  "Was it really as big as they're saying?" Jens asked, dropping onto the bench beside Aric. The young ranger's eyes were wide with morbid curiosity. "The spider thing?"

  "Sovereign," Lian corrected, joining their small group. The tracker's usually pristine leather armor still bore water stains from their hasty exit through the lake. "Ayatul called it a tunnel sovereign."

  Aric set his spoon down with more force than necessary. "Big enough to give Kaelen pause," he said shortly. "That's all that matters."

  Silence fell over their little group. In the background, Aric could hear the constant hammering from the walls as workers reinforced defenses against an enemy that seemed content to simply wait. The dead had patience. They always had patience.

  "We're running out of options," Farran said finally, her voice barely above a whisper. "The ravens can't get through, the land routes are blocked, and now the tunnels..." She trailed off, leaving the obvious unsaid.

  "Do you really think he'll wake up?" Jens asked, earning an elbow from Lian.

  Aric's hand tightened around his spoon. "He has to," he said simply, remembering the surge of power he'd felt when connected to Val's aether, the way it had made him feel invincible. "We need him."

  The sound of the evening bell interrupted his thoughts, signaling the change of watch. Jens and Lissen stood, both assigned to wall duty. They left with mumbled goodbyes, leaving Aric with Farran and Kitra.

  "Whatever's coming," Farran said softly, "it's coming soon. You can feel it in the air."

  Aric nodded, his leg giving another painful throb. Outside these walls, the dead waited. Above the lake, the clouds gathered. And somewhere in the darkness, that clicking sound echoed in his memories, a reminder that some threats were older and stranger than even the undead.

  "We'll be ready," he said, hoping he sounded more confident than he felt. "We have to be."

  He pulled out his waterskin, now refilled with something stronger than water, and took a long drink. The alcohol burned, but didn't wash away the memory of those pulsating sensory organs, that clicking that seemed to echo in his bones.

  Wake up, Val, he thought, not for the first time. We need you. I need you. Whatever that thing was in the tunnels, whatever's coming for us... we can't face it alone.

  But only silence answered, as it had for the past month, and Aric took another drink, watching shadows lengthen across the mess hall floor.