Chương 56: Breaking Through

"TIM!" Aaron shouted. But no one responded. Aaron could only hear distant footsteps echoing up the cave. His heart was racing. Tim was barely hanging onto reality back in the cavern and the blast might have just pushed him over the edge. Alex wasn't with him to help and he had no sleep potions. He didn't even have an orb to light the way. The only thing lighting the path was the faint glow of Cuthbert's wings as he flew beside him.

Like the other passageway, there was no evidence of rot left on the wooden beams supporting the tunnel, except that these were completely charred black. The walls glistened as the crow flew by. The surface layer of rock had been burned and polished by the blast. There were charred bat corpses littered over the floor beneath his feet. The burned bones crunched under his feet as he ran. There was no evidence whatsoever that any of them survived.

Aaron tried not to think of what would have happened to him if he didn't make it out in time. Aaron soon reached the opening, except it was almost unrecognisable. The cobwebs had all vanished, making it appear much larger than previously. The puddle of water in the middle of the room was gone, evaporated by the heat. And the smell of sulphur was replaced by a tickle of smoke in the back of his throat. Several stalactites had snapped off and lay on the floor, shattered into hundreds of small shards.

Cuthbert flew in circles around the large open room, squawking at regular intervals. The dim light from the fissures on his body illuminated the varying-sized holes around the room. These weren't man-made. They were either naturally formed by underground rivers, or burrowed by some unknown creature. Amongst the rocks on the floor, Tim was crouched down just past where the puddle used to be. He was facing away from Aaron and was inspecting something on the floor.

"Tim, you worried me. Come on, let's go back," Aaron said, in a sigh of relief. There was no response.

"Tim? Come on," Aaron said louder, starting to feel worry building inside of him. Aaron walked forward and put his hand gently on his brother's shoulder. He jolted suddenly and brushed his hand away in surprise.

"Tim, it's me. What are you doing?" Aaron said calmly. He was desperately hoping that Tim was still vaguely himself and would snap back to his senses and come back with him.

"Aaron, where's Paige?" Tim asked.

"She's just back up here," Aaron replied. Tim shuffled and not so subtly stuffed something into his jacket pocket.

"Did you find something?" Aaron asked.

"Oh, yeah. There was a Boonstone on the skeleton. I could sense it across the room," Tim said. He brought out a green glowing rock on a silver chain. The dim light illuminated and reflected off the glass floor below. Aaron couldn't tell what it did, but if it was around the skeleton's neck, it probably once belonged to the guard who was reanimated as a skeleton, so it was likely combat-related. That's if the necromancy hadn't corrupted it. Aaron assumed that's a thing that could happen.

"Can I see?" Aaron asked. Tim clenched his fist around the stone, turning his knuckles white from the strain. He sucked his lip nervously. Luckily, he seemed to shake it off and dangled the stone into Aaron's palm. But he still held firmly onto the chain and had a pained expression on his face as if it was painful to risk losing the treasure. Aaron instantly recognised the necromancy in the pendant. It felt corrupted. Not like the creatures affected by the dragonfire, but more like the corruption school of magic.

He had hoped that his Curse Lore would tell him more about it, but nothing came to mind. He had spontaneous wisdom come to him for all the other curses he'd investigated, so it was safe to assume this pendant wasn't cursed. Tim pulled the chain, yanking it out of Aaron's hand and snapped, "That's enough!" He stuffed the pendant into his pocket and scowled at Aaron.

"It's alright Tim. I'm not trying to take it from you. Why are you getting so upset with me?" Aaron asked. Tim's face dropped.

"I'm sorry, Aaron. This place is sending me crazy. I keep feeling angry and having these outbursts. I don't know what it is about the stone, but it feels comforting to have around me." Aaron tried his best to not show any sign of concern or worry on his face.

"Nothing to be sorry about." He smiled at his brother, hiding his fear for Tim's safety behind it.

"Shall we head back up?" The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"Yeah, I don't even know what I'm doing down here anyway. This was stupid," Tim said. Aaron put his arm around Tim's shoulders and shook him gently, then patted him on the back. They headed back up the tunnel over the mounds of dead bats. At least the smell of sulphur and rot was gone. But he didn't want to be there to smell it in a few hours when the charred corpses started to decay. As they reached the top, they could see Paige sitting up, leaning against the wall.

She was panting and supporting her weight with her hands on the floor. It looked like she barely had the energy to look up at the approaching brothers.

"Sorry, Paige, Tim was in trouble. Are you okay?" Aaron asked.

"I'm alright," she said, panting between each word.

"I. Owe. You. For. Helping me."

"Let me check you over for injuries," Aaron said. Paige saved her breath and simply nodded in acceptance. Aaron knelt down and put his hand on her shoulder. Her heart and lungs were working at twice their normal capacity, which was impressive as Paige had an extremely efficient, well-developed heart. It must have taken significant training to achieve, or perhaps magical enhancement, but Aaron couldn't tell.

Otherwise, all of her bones were intact, and she had no injuries except superficial cuts to the skin, which Aaron sealed quickly for good measure. There was no telling what infections lurked in this cave.

"You're fine, there's no injuries, but you really exerted yourself back there with the wind spirit. I guess I owe you too, so we're even," Aaron said. Paige opened her mouth in protest, but she barely had the strength to argue. Aaron let slip a cheeky grin as she frowned back at him. She breathed a few times heavily, and all she could muster up was the word "mana."

"Yep, you used too much. You'll be alright in a minute," Aaron said. He'd seen this a few times at the infirmary in the city. Usually overzealous apprentices of various disciplines would push a bit too hard and end up lying on the floor dribbling for an hour. Paige was made of tougher stuff, though.

"I wish there was more I could do, but you'll just have to wait it out," Aaron said. He wished he could reverse Drain Remnant and infuse some mana back into Paige, but this definitely wasn't a Necromancer power. He'd only heard of particular types of arcane mages who had the ability to manipulate raw mana in that way. Paige gave him a gratifying thumbs up before continuing to pant intensely. Although the breaths were slower and longer now, a sure sign she was recovering.

A strange heat radiated from the caved-in area next to him. It warmed the side of his face almost to the point of pain, like sitting too close to a campfire. Aaron inspected the rocks closer. There was an orange glow peering through the cracks in the rocks, and occasional sparks would float out like feathers on the wind.

"Giddeon is trying to break through, get back," Tim said. Sure enough, Aaron watched as a circle of rock, about the size of the top of a barrel of mead, faintly glowed red as it heated up. The heat on Aaron's face intensified and forced him to take a step back. The centre of the circle melted into thick grey sludge and dripped down the sides. The rest of the circle collapsed and liquified soon after. A marbled swell of grey molten rock oozed across the floor towards them.

A large red orb sat in the hole that had been created. It was almost too bright to look at. The orb rapidly dimmed and dissipated into nothing, instantly darkening the room around them. The only light came from a white orb on the other side. Cuthbert cawed and flew through the newly made hole, its wings just about fit through as it glided to the other side.

"Stand aside," Giddeon said. A gust of wind shot violently through the hole before anyone had time to react. Aaron and Tim sat down against the wall next to Paige, pushing themselves as flat as possible as the wind roared through the hole. Aaron's cheeks stung as the frigid cold wind thundered past him. It sounded like they were in the middle of a storm as the wind rushed through the mine. Aaron put his arm forward and pushed Paige upright and back against the wall.

Even leaning out into the wind a tiny bit might have been enough to knock them off balance and send them rolling down the tunnel. The magma on the floor stopped moving, chilled and solidified in place by the howling wind. The newly formed rock had fissures running through it in a rounded swirling pattern.

"Come through," Giddeon shouted as he patted the hole, presumably testing its temperature. To Aaron's surprise, Paige slowly stood up, dusted off and rearranged her jacket. She climbed into the hole and army-crawled through. As soon as she climbed out the other side, Giddeon impatiently gestured for him and Tim to join her. Tim was looking uncomfortable and anxious. He was cradling his knees to his chest and holding the pendant tightly in one hand. The silver chain dangled down from his grip.

"Come on, Tim, I've got you," Aaron said as he helped him to his feet. Tim looked up at his brother with big eyes. The expression made Aaron feel deeply unsettled. Tim had gone through hardship his whole life, and never had he looked so scared. Tim crawled through the hole, helped out by Alex at the other end, who must have got the hint because he immediately started trying to calm Tim down. Aaron was last to go through.

The hole was about the length of his body and large enough to comfortably crawl through on his belly. It was unnaturally round and uniform for rock. Giddeon's fire spirit had burned a perfectly smooth passage through it. Aaron slid on his belly through it with little resistance. He heard shouting from his party as he crawled through. Tim was angry.

"GIVE IT BACK, I FOUND IT!" He shouted.

"No, it's corrupted magic. Necromancy. I need to destroy it," Giddeon replied.

"Giddeon, I think you should stop. Tim doesn't look okay. We are close to the relic now, and he needs to stay calm," Alex said. Aaron admitted to himself that the bard had grown on him. Particularly because of the empathy he showed for Tim.

"It's just a Boonstone. It's weak. Can't we destroy it later once Tim is himself again?" Paige asked. Tim was reaching up for the pendant, which Giddeon held above his head. His arm was outstretched, keeping Tim just out of reach. The way he swiped for it reminded Aaron of a child or animal.

"What does it even do?" Aaron asked as he pulled himself out of the tunnel. Giddeon sighed and calmed himself down.

"Fine, I will see what it does. But I will destroy it when I prove its dangerous and corrupt magic."