Cade rolled out his neck, discovering yet more spots that had taken the brunt of his ‘lessons’ with Nora. He winced, yet a satisfied grin ghosted across his lips. Now back beneath the arena, he felt strangely centered. Ready.
The young thief flipped over the golden rectangle in his hand, the respectable weight of the Pennyweather membership card a welcome distraction to the mixed victories they’d achieved today. He went over both of his wins as he toyed with the hefty rectangle etched with his full name on it. There was their survival in the arena to consider, and then his personal triumph this evening with Nora’s reluctant compliment..
The golden card glinted in the warm illumination of the glowflakes as he delved ever deeper. Lifekeepers had distributed the gilded cards to all of the surviving contestants in velvet-lined boxes. Absently, he wondered if they had any extra lying around down here. It might prove useful to forge a new identity for some con down the road. Though even just having the one was a royal gift indeed.
His leather boots echoed softly in the long staircase he was descending, the dim glow overhead barely sufficient to expose the cracked sandstone steps he descended. The air this far beneath the arena was humid and smelled of mildew.
“They’ll be okay with Nora, right?” he asked his rough-hewn surroundings.
The landscape, of course, didn’t reply.
He had sent Bunny, Rayka, and Elena back to the cabin with Gavin, but Nora had rejoined them shortly after her lecture on aloof sadism she’d orated with her boots and fists. His neck twinged.
That had lasted for a grand total of two minutes before Nora started criticizing Rayka’s knifework by the kitchen fire. The paladin had still been too much of a naked blade to be trusted to lounge about camp, so he had sent her and Evie off to check out the Pennyweather banks to see if that winter elf was waiting for them.
It was a precaution, to be sure, and one he hoped didn’t pay off.
Orro and Jer, meanwhile, had run interference for him so that he could slip past the arena guards and into the underbelly once more. They would keep watch while he explored down here.
This time, he needed to find the Remnant.
If he was honest, the quiet was the best part of this trek. His breath came quick and steady as his left fingers traced the surface of the smooth, if dusty, wall that spiraled deeper and deeper into the arena’s true labyrinth.
He had already retraced his steps to where he had met with Lora and Meadow, and he now followed the path Bazz had taken.
It was just a hunch, really, but he figured anyone that high up in the pecking order probably knew where the valuable stuff was hidden—and likely spent a lot of time checking in on it.
Just a hunch, of course, but his hunches were rarely wrong.
As Cade descended deeper into the arena’s underbelly, the stairwell eventually opened up into a wider corridor. The glowflakes cast long, dancing shadows on the walls, creating an eerie atmosphere that seemed to pulse with ancient secrets.
Suddenly, his eyes caught a glint in the dim light. Before him stood a door that seemed out of place in this dank, subterranean passageway. It was a massive, ornate thing, its surface adorned with a dazzling array of precious gems. Rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and diamonds were set into intricate patterns, creating a mosaic of wealth and power that seemed to glow with an inner light.
Cade’s breath caught in his throat as he approached the bejeweled door. His hand, almost of its own accord, reached out to touch the cool, smooth surface of the gems. With a deep breath, he pushed against the door. It was locked, of course, but he tried the handle all the same.
No luck.
He peered through a small window inlaid at the top of the door, and Cade’s eyes widened in disbelief. Beyond lay a treasure trove that would make even the wealthiest merchant weep with envy. Mountains of gold coins glittered in the dim light, precious artifacts and jewel-encrusted weapons lined the walls, and chests overflowing with gems were scattered throughout the room.
For a moment, Cade stood transfixed by the sight. His fingers itched to touch the wealth before him, to feel the weight of gold and jewels in his hands.
But something else caught his attention.
It wasn’t a sight or a sound, but a feeling. A pull. A pulse of energy, like a siren beckoning him to follow. It hummed through his bones and spoke to his core.
This sensation, powerful and ancient, tugged at him with an irresistible force. It called to him, not with words, but with a primal urge that bypassed all rational thought.
Without fully understanding why, Cade found himself turning away from the treasure room and back towards the stairwell.
As he continued his descent, a strange haze settled over his mind. Though he had no idea where he was going, his feet moved with the certainty of someone returning home after a long journey. His hand trailed along the rough stone wall, fingers tracing patterns and grooves as if reading some ancient, forgotten script.
The pull grew stronger with each step, guiding him deeper into the earth. The air grew thicker, heavy with the weight of countless years and untold secrets. Cade’s breath came in short, quick gasps, not from exertion but from the anticipation building in his chest.
He lost all sense of time and direction as he spiraled downward, following the inexorable call of whatever power lay hidden in the depths. Though part of him wondered at the wisdom of his actions, the larger part was caught in the thrall of this ancient force, powerless to resist its siren song.
He felt empty space in the place of sturdy stone and jolted out of his thoughts. The staircase had ended, leading him to the entrance of a dark tunnel. No glowflakes illuminated this path, though a timid brightness flickered softly at the opposite end of the corridor.
Cade’s nerves prickled with warning as he observed this new section beneath the arena.
It felt… older.
More sinister.
It wasn’t just the subtle shift in grout colors he noticed between the stone blocks that composed the staircase and this new area. Nor was it the distinct absence of the filigree so ubiquitous to the rest of the sections of the arena and Elysia as a whole.
No, it was the weathered nature of the stones that finally clued him into his initial impression. The patterning on the rocks could only be explained if they had been scorched.
Something had burned its way through this place a long time ago.
Cade slipped the cord from his neck, checking the amulet to ensure it still hummed with energy. Its soft light flickered in the darkness, just enough to reveal the outline of a torch resting in a dusty sconce to his right. He reached for it, noting the dull shimmer of a glowflake embedded in the ironbound handle.
After tucking his Pennyweather card back into one of the hidden pockets of his tunic—a handy little addition he’d sewn himself—he raised the torch to the amulet’s glow. His fingers traced along the handle until they found the activation rune. A sharp flick, and the torch flared to life, casting a deep amber light that flickered lazily down the length of the tunnel.
His breath quickened.
Now under the greater illumination, his earlier inference was confirmed. This was no mere hallway. Cooled lava, black as tar, coated every surface from the floor to the ceiling. Several pairs of boot prints and at least one set of bare feet had disrupted the thick layer of dust that coated this place.
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That was either a great cover for his own tracks, or someone had beaten him to the treasure he needed for himself.
Cautiously, he mimicked each placement of his predecessor’s feet so as to prevent any trace of his passage. He made his way deeper into the tunnel, his progress slow and steady.
After several excruciating minutes, he made it to the other side. The footprints he noted earlier continued onward, but all of the boots had ended here at the edge of the new space.
He could see why.
Ahead of him, the lava corridor gave way to a truly enormous cavern. He knew it had taken him nearly ten minutes to descend to the bottom of that staircase, but to imagine such a massive cave beneath the arena was staggering.
Cade whistled softly, his glowflake torch barely able to cast its light deeper within the enormous space. The only other light in the entire area was a dull red glow near what he assumed to be the center of the area far below.
He held the torch out to get a better look, leaning forward as far as he could toward the great expanse before him. There was a quiet click, and then a dozen spikes from each edge of the doorway slid from their hidden crevices. He pulled backward in the nick of time, but the spikes snapped his torch into a thousand splinters. He yelped as the glowflake crystal shattered, its magic flickering briefly before it died.
Cade retreated several steps before he checked the amulet Lora had sold him. Sure enough, it was still aglow, its protection apparently insufficient to defend him against these new traps.
That meant no one was supposed to be down here—even those who otherwise had free rein.
“What in the hells?” Cade said under his breath.
As his eyes adjusted to the newfound darkness, the cavern blazed to life. In place of the glowflakes, a field of glowing algae and moss began to illuminate the cavern with a ghostly blue and green light. They covered the grove of stalagmites, and a good portion of them extended high into the ceiling, sparkling like constellations onto their own.
The dead space had transformed before his eyes, and in the absence of any outside light, it only continued to bloom.
As the shadows receded, a breathtaking spectacle unfolded before Cade’s eyes. Flowers burst forth from the darkness, their vines clinging to nearly every surface. Their petals were a mesmerizing shade of cerulean that seemed to capture the very essence of a cloudless sky. Each blossom was a masterpiece of nature’s deadly artistry, their edges glinting like finely honed blades in the ethereal light. The beauty was as alluring as it was dangerous.
His gaze flicked again to where the spikes lay hidden, and he resisted the urge to lean over the edge for a better view.
Hundreds of vines, thick as a man’s arm and pulsing with a deep crimson light, snaked their way up the towering stalagmites. These stone sentinels, weathered by the eons, stood like the fossilized remains of some primordial forest. The vines wriggled and pulsed, and in the glowing world beneath the arena, they looked almost like the ancient arteries of a slumbering titan that carried whispers of long-forgotten magic through the cavern.
A path of rich, dark soil wound its way from a nearby ledge, tracing a sinuous route along the cavern wall. The soil was a deep, lustrous black, flecked with iridescent minerals that caught the dim light, creating a subtle dance of colors. Small, luminescent fungi dotted its edges, their caps glowing with a soft, blue-green light that pulsed slowly, outlining the trail.
At the end of this mystical path, Cade’s gaze was drawn to the source of the pulsing crimson glow. There, nestled within the sprawling roots of an impossibly massive oak tree, lay a glowing red crystal.
The tree itself defied logic, its trunk so wide that it took up a vast majority of this obscenely large cavern. Its roots, gnarled and ancient, plunged deep into the cavern floor and climbed high up the walls, as if this single tree was the anchor holding the entire underground realm in place.
The oak’s branches stretched towards the cavern ceiling, their leaves a tapestry of greens that shouldn’t exist in a lightless domain. Yet they thrived, each leaf seemingly illuminated from within by the same mysterious force that powered the glowing object at its base.
Cade’s head tilted to the side, his mind struggling to reconcile the impossibility before him. This was no mere cave, no simple hiding place. He stood at the threshold of a sacred grove, a place where the boundaries between the mortal world and something far more primordial blurred to almost nothing.
The red glow pulsed again, like a heartbeat, sending ripples of energy through the air that Cade could almost taste. It was an invitation and a challenge, a power that sang to something deep within his core.
As he stood there, awestruck and humbled, Cade knew that he had stumbled upon something that would change not just his life, but perhaps the very fabric of the world itself.
The trunk had contorted itself into the vague shape of a seat, as if the tree had suddenly remembered it was supposed to be furniture halfway through growing. Gnarled roots sprawled out like the legs of a drunken octopus, while branches twisted themselves into what might generously be called armrests—provided the one describing it that way was feeling particularly charitable and possibly concussed.
But the true pièce de résistance was the bark, which was covered in so many thorns that it made a porcupine look like a teddy bear. Clearly, this was a throne designed for a ruler who believed that true power came from the ability to sit still while being stabbed from all directions.
“Who the hell would commission a spiky throne like this? And how long did it take to grow it?” Cade asked under his breath.
Despite the organic construction that had clearly gone into this monstrosity of a chair, this was undoubtedly a throne for a deity. The high back of the royal seat reached upwards in a valiant attempt to look regal, but mostly succeeded in resembling a very confused coat rack. Intricate carvings adorned every surface, telling stories that were equal parts mystical and ‘did the artist sneeze while holding the chisel?’
“That can’t be it,” he said under his breath. The thorny spikes weren’t just here to protect a pretty tree or the flowered vines that climbed the walls. This was a treasure room if he’d ever seen one, just disguised in a divinely clever way.
Now, he simply needed to find the loot.
Taking a risk, he called on his magic.
The moment he did, a pulse resonated from his core through to that cave. The lava behind him glimmered softly as if the destruction that created it was reawakened for a heartbeat. The walls glowed like breath resurrecting the neglected coals of a campfire.
As Cade stood there, slack-jawed, his chest ached at the sight of this ethereal structure. He had been to many temples in his life, for pleasure as much as for performing recon for Hugh.
But never had he felt like this.
Unlike all of those places, this cavern felt like it was holy ground. Sacred, special, and brimming with raw power.
And it was not benevolent.
His eyes darted to the dark corners of the cave, expecting at any moment for soldiers or whatever guardian lorded over this place to arrive and smite him for his insolence or bad odor or whatever excuse they desired.
No one came.
“Huh,” he said under his breath as he scanned the massive space once again. “This place has been completely forgotten.”
Except for those who had walked through the dust before him.
Cade peered over one shoulder at the footprints he’d used to mask his trail through the cooled and uneven lava floor, and he hoped Hugh hadn’t been the one to leave any of those tracks.
One thing was clear to Cade, though—that dull red glow set into the base of that oak tree thrummed with divine magic. He couldn’t tell if it was the source for the imposing aura of this place, or perhaps it was merely there for safekeeping, but this felt all too familiar.
It felt like the amulet, back in Scorn’s temple.
Exactly like it.
Not only had he found what they were here to steal, but he’d uncovered a little tidbit Scorn hadn’t mentioned—namely, that this was the exact same Remnant as the one that had fused to him.
And by the gods how he wanted to steal it—right here, right now.
With another glance at the oaken thorns, however, he had to be honest with himself. He didn’t have the necessary equipment to rob Life blind, nor did he understand the depths of the traps that probably lined this cavern from top to bottom. The spikes had triggered even with Cade’s pendant active, so there was no telling what else down there could kill him.
Something clicked in the back of his mind. He glanced again at the footprints in the dust on the floor of lava behind him and noticed that none of them led away from the cavern… only to it.
“Yikes,” he muttered under his breath.
It looked like he would be the first person to make it back from the cavern alive—provided he didn’t set off any new traps on his way back.
He backed up and held the amulet aloft, using its mediocre light to help retrace his steps. He had no illusions of mirroring the steps of whoever had shown up here before him, and so prioritized speed this time around. He tripped a few times on the uneven lava tube, but recovered quickly. Then, when he reached the opposite side, he paused. There was no indication the Lifekeepers frequented this tunnel. In fact, by the abundance of dust and natural growth, it was a miracle he’d found it at all.
He looked down at his fingertips, suddenly very eager to get back to his training. His eyes returned to the soft glow at the other end of this forgotten corridor, and he sent a wide burst of scalding wind through it. The gale howled and echoed loudly, and he cursed at his own brashness. But the intended effect remained. No damning footprints remained, with the dust of the confined space largely returning back to the rippled surface of the floor. He sighed, nodded, and then began the long trek up those hellish stairs.
With each step, the burn in his thighs increased, but so too did the slow smile that spread across his face.
He’d done it.
He had found the Remnant.
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