Cinnamon Bun

Chapter Four Hundred and Ninety-Nine - Overhead Lightning

The mine tunnel was spooky.

It was a long, darkened passage, supported by regular wooden trusses. Wooden rails for the minecarts dove into the darkness until they couldn't be seen at all. There were cobwebs along the ceiling, to add to the ambiance, and the regular tip-tap noise of water dripping down into a puddle.

The long passage groaned, wind blowing past my bun ears and deeper into the shaft as if the darkness was an inhaling giant.

Of course, there were ways to mitigate spookiness. The first, of course, was light.

I raised a second light ball over the first, brightening things up a bit. Then Amaryllis decided to show off what a Thundere could do and started a low murmuring chant while she waggled and waved her dagger-wand about. I caught some glimmers of the magic she was weaving, but the spell was way, way more complicated than anything I could manage.

I did notice Laine staring at the spell as it came about. I think Amaryllis might have been showing off to the witch a little.

We waited for her to finish, I think we were all worried that interrupting her might be a bad idea, especially when all of our hair started to rise and the entire tunnel we were in started to feel static-y and dangerous.

Amaryllis cast her spell, and I shielded my eyes from the light, only to realise that it wasn't leaving.

I blinked my eyes open and looked around, then let out a low 'whoa' of amazement.

Just above our heads, a bolt of lightning hung frozen in midair. It zigged and zagged ahead, plunging down the tunnel and forking at the first intersection. The branches of electrical light was a pale bluish white and very bright, like a neon tube at a supermarket, but long and continuous.

Amaryllis let out a long, powerful huff, the sort of huff that meant that she was tired out but very proud of herself. "That should allow us to see."

"And it should tell anything in these tunnels that we're here," Laine said.

"Yes. Here and capable of great magic," Amaryllis replied smugly. "The spell is self-sustaining, at least for a while. We should have a few hours of light to work with, now."

"This is an impressive working," Desiree said. "Most impressive, even. Lightning frozen in place."

"Not quite frozen," Amaryllis said. "Slowed down a great deal. The spell will shoot ahead, keep a certain distance from the floor, and try to find a path as deep into the tunnel as it can, forking whenever the tunnel splits. As we go along, the far end of the spell ought to be brighter, and this end will slowly catch up." She pointed to the end of the spell she had cast from.

She was right, it was fading. It looked like cotton candy when dipped in water, breaking up and fizzing away, but in the ten seconds I stared it barely moved a centimetre.

"Will it last until we're done?"

"It should," she said. "I've had this spell in my repertoire for a long time without cause to use it. It was far easier to cast than I remember."

"When was the last time you used this?" I asked.

"Oh, long before we met," she replied. "So a solid dozen levels ago. It took me far longer to cast then, and wasn't nearly as powerful. Also, this will last longer, be brighter, and it barely took a dip of my mana reserves."

My birdy best friend preened happily at her own success, which was, admittedly, really impressive.

"Well! Now that the tunnel's not spooky anymore, let's go!" I said before skipping ahead.

"Ah, we should look for signs that Sir Aberrforth's companions were here," Awen said.

"I'll get snooping," Calamity replied before he stepped up and started to scan the ground. Soon enough he pointed out a footprint in the dust, then another, all of them predictably leading downwards. "Doesn't look like they were in a fight," he said.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"No side-stepping, evenly spaced walking. When you're fighting you move your feet a lot, these... three? No, three, two of them have very similar boots, but look here, the steps are doubled over each other."

I could only barely make out what Calamity was talking about, even with the clear-as-day lighting.

We continued until we reached an intersection, and that's where things got a little complicated. "Looks like they split up," Calamity said. "Three went ahead, the other went that way." He pointed off to the right.

I chewed on my lower lip. "There's supposed to be something dangerous in here, right?" I asked. "We should probably not split up."

"Would we not cover more ground?" Desiree asked.

"Yes, but then there'd be fewer of us if we did meet a monster. And I don't know if we can call for help in these tunnels very well." Our voices echoed a little already. If we split up and someone needed help, there was a good chance it would be hard to find them if the mine turned any more maze-like.

"So, the one or the three?" Amaryllis asked.

"Oh no, it's the trolley problem," I gasped.

"There aren't any minecarts though?" Calamity said. "The rails look way too crooked for those."

"No, I mean... nevermind," I said. "Who do you think is closer?"

Calamity looked at the footprints for a while, then pointed right, the path that only one person had taken. "That way," he said. "The one."

"Really?" I asked.

He nodded. "That's what my tracking skills tell me, and I trust them."

I considered it for a moment more, then nodded. "Let's go to the closer one, then?" I asked as I looked to the others. Aberrforth should probably have been the one in charge, but he didn't contradict my idea.

My logic was simple. If they were closer, we could find them faster, and learn about what was going on faster too. I didn't like not knowing what was going on, and even with all the light Amaryllis had provided, I couldn't help but feel like there was some lingering spookiness down in these mines. It was probably the sound of dripping water, or maybe the nearly inaudible sigh of the wind.

So we went right, and Calamity continued to follow the tracks on the ground. "He started running here," he said. Eventually he chuckled on reaching a spot where a pillar stood in the middle of the tunnel, right after where the rails ended. "He ran into this one full-tilt."

I held back a giggle of my own. It would be rude to mock someone for that kind of thing. They'd probably been really afraid, and stuck in the dark as well. The pillar would have come out of nowhere for them.

Calamity circled the pillar, then we all paused.

There was a sound from up ahead, one that none of us missed. A scuffle, and a shift. Something moving.

"Could be our guy," Calamity said.

"Could just as well be a monster," Amaryllis replied as she raised her wand.

"We could ask," I suggested before stepping up. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

There was a gasp from further in, then a sniffle. "No, no, no," someone said.

I glanced at my friends, then Sir Aberrforth. "I... think that's Henri," he said. "Henri, my boy, it's Aberrforth!" he called out ahead. The tunnel continued on for some ways, but it looked like we'd reached the actual mine part of the mine. There were rocks all over, many of them still decorated with the marks of ancient picks

A greenish head poked out from behind one of these. "S-sir Aberrforth?"

Henri looked like an ordinary young grenoil man. I fired off an Insight, just in case.

Henri

Level 10 Long March Scout

Unless he could fool that skill, then he was who Sir Aberrforth thought he was. The grenoil stumbled out from behind the rock. He was shaky, hands trembling, lips wobbling. He looked like someone who desperately needed a hug.

"Whoa there, Henri," Sir Aberrforth said as he rushed over and grabbed the young man's shoulders. "You look shaken. What happened, my man?"

"Did you kill it?" Henri asked. "Please tell me you killed it!"

"What are you talking about?" Sir Aberrforth asked.

Henri gasped. "Then it's still here?" he said. "You lead it right to me!"

"I don't think anything's followed us," Calamity said.

"No, you don't understand. It's here. It was tormenting me. I swear it. It knew where I was and was just.... Waiting, like a cat playing with a mouse," Henri said. "It's evil! I know it's evil!"

The lightning bolt frozen above us flickered.

"That's... not supposed to happen," Amaryllis said.

"Maybe the spell is broken?" Awen asked.

"My spells do not break," Amaryllis snapped.

A split second later, the light went out completely.

Well, now the spookiness level had jumped right back up to an all-time high.

***