Hello, Everyone!
I’m super busy and stressed with university exams. It’s a good thing I have some chapter buffer but I’m behind on the illustrations. It’s possible that you’ll have some placeholder pictures for a while, starting with this one.
Hope you’ll have patience with me!
Anyway, last time, Mary and her friends had a tough fight with two drow who’d cast ‘a goddamn Darkness spell’. They almost suffered a couple of losses (both Paulina and Fennec went down during the fight) but, finally, managed to hurt the drow enough for them to try and run away, at which point Aurum followed and… well, ended them.
The tunnel was still echoing after Aurum's Shatter. The part just in front of the prison cart had collapsed in the loud boom, and the dust was still settling down on top of it.
The two drow lay down under the debris, crushed to death. Mary had lost her connection with the spider familiar who'd been hiding in Essos' armor. She flashed her eyes white to use the senses of her other, the rat Paolo. She'd sent him behind to guard the tunnel against any foes coming that way. She feared that the loud noise of the battle--and especially the Shatter--might have attracted unwanted attention.
It was clear. For now.
Aurum and Bruno helped the chained loggers free themselves and they moved to the collapse. Having grown up in a mine, the dwarves inspected the debris.
"I’m ok, if anybody's wondering," the muffled voice of Saami sounded through the fallen stone.
"Oh! You're alive!" Bruno said. "Great! Now I don’t have to explain to Mom what happened to you."
"Well, I am a tunnel safety specialist," Saami said. "It looks that there's no danger of further collapse if we're careful. So, get your shovels and let's start digging…"
Mary wasn't listening to them. With the adrenaline of the fight quickly draining out of her body she felt faint and dizzy. She looked back and saw Paulina and Fennec huddled on the ground with the woman and the child they'd saved at the beginning of the fight.
With trembling feet, Mary approaches them. They were holding each other and speaking gently, comforting one another about what had just happened.
She wanted to say so many things! To apologize to Fennec for forcing him enter this fight after everything that had happened to him. To say it was all her fault he almost got killed. To explain how afraid she was when she saw Paulina fall. To describe how her heart jumped when her friend got back to her feet. To speak of her anger towards the drow and of...how... awfully... tired... she... felt...
But instead of that, she just slumped down the wall opposite of the four and started crying. She couldn’t stop herself and couldn’t form even one word. The sobs were shaking up her whole body.
She felt arms around her shoulders and saw, through her tears and unruly strands of hair, Paulina, who raised her up and pulled her in with the others.
The five of them stayed like this for a while, until she had calmed down and could breathe normally again.
Aurum and the dwarves had cleared the way and the party was able to finally meet Saami. He was as tall as Bruno, and right now he looked as albino as him, being covered in all sorts of dust and soot. He flung his long braided beard over his shoulder and beat the dust off his clothes.
"Soo," he said. "Where to now?"
They looked towards the tunnel they'd come through. With every passing minute it was getting increasingly more dangerous to go that way. Mary still couldn't see anyone approaching when she looked through Paolo's eyes, but that wasn't a guarantee that there wasn't an ambush waiting for them in Gracklstugh.
"Does any of you have a jewel of any kind?" Saami asked. "A diamond, an emerald, a ruby…"
"A sapphire?" Mary said and raised the brooch they'd found back in Meraket.
"Perfect!" Saami said with a glint in his eyes.
He took the brooch and pressed it to his lips, then started to knock it on the ground in a certain hypnotic rhythm, like a chant, or a song, or a spell of some kind.
There was no other sound for a few seconds, and then they heard a rumble approaching from the side. The wall of the tunnel tore down and, in the resulting hole, there appeared a creature.
It was small and lanky, with a knobby head and a wobbly beer belly. If it weren't for the grey skin and all the grime and soot covering its clothes, Mary could mistake it for one of the inhabitants of Frinkeltong.
"Where is it?" the Deep gnome said, his eyes darting between the members of the group.
Saami reached out and handed him the sapphire. The gnome took it with reverence, turned it to the light of the cart's torches and brought it to his lips. He smacked it like a baby and then gave it back.
"So," he scanned the main tunnel in both equally undesirable directions, "where do you need to go?"
"Belfast," Saami said.
The gnome nodded. Turned around. Raised his hand and the wall in front of him split up. He started walking and a small tunnel dug itself before him. He gestured to the group to follow. They crouched and crawled inside.
The tunnel sealed behind them.
Are we safe? Oh, my goodness, I think we might be! How awesome is that?!
Also, Mary is a crybaby, but I should remind you that she’s exhausted and probably hasn’t seen so much blood before (except for the few times Aurum almost died but that’s like ‘a Tuesday’ now, sooo…)
We have a long way back to Belfast now. I hope nothing bad happens and everyone ends up even better friends than they started off as.
See you in the next chapter! Until then, take care and be well!
(Also, here's a link to the Chapter Guide and the Glossary for the series. You're welcome!)