Chandea, Year of Severus, 15, I.R., the 48th day of Fall, Arenfall

------------------------------------

Ghwynmyr sat anxiously at the far end corner of the makeshift tent the knights reconstructed near the hole this time. He silently observed the tension-ridden faces of the people around him. The knights of both commanding factions were on the edge as they waited for an update coming from below. Both Lord Commanders stood still tirelessly staring at the crystal ball. While the prince sat at the other corner of the room, tending to his unconscious ward.

The tent was densely packed with people on and around it. A few moments later, his friend, the beastman Ulfaar patted his back. The beastman's wounds were already tended and cleaned. From the looks of it, the wounds healed up nicely as Ulfaar was able to move his hands again.

The air of tension was also accompanied by buzzing noises of whispering knights, trying to fill the air of mystery with their own versions of what could've happen down in the hole. Some knights would occasionally glare at him, as if trying to blame him for the current incident that had happen earlier. It wasn't the first time he was glared at like that, but it was truly getting on his nerves at that time.

He wanted to spit at them for their prejudice but knew that it was just an unwanted scuffle that would do no good on both parties. Suddenly, the crystal ball screeched, everyone halted as they waited with batted breath to hear the first report coming from the reconnaissance team.

They waited for a moment, but no one from the other end responded. Lord Prestonheim and Commander Crovar looked at one another and nodded. The silver-haired Commander held the ball in his hands and tried to communicate with the team below.

"Any reports down there?" The silver-haired Commander asked.

It took a few moments for them to respond and in that small amount of time, everyone waited in bated breath as the crystal ball remained silent.

"We just encountered something strange down here, my Lord." Joaquim answered.

The room buzzed with murmurs as the waited for an explanation of what the man meant by it. At that short span of time, the knights were starting to think of whatever they could think was weird inside that cave.

Ghynwymr one too, but he dared not to say it. Not with Ulfaar beside him. The worrywart might do something desperate that it might just ruin everything that was planned out earlier. He was worried too with Adaloun's fate inside that hellhole and now, the elf's, the last thing he want was mangling a raging beastman trying to get into the well.

"What kind of strange is that?" The Commander asked.

"A skull and an armor piece, my Lord." Another voice shouted.

"By the gods!" Lord Prestonheim's voice quivered. "Are they all—" The silver-haired Commander had to stop himself from saying the inevitable.

Everyone stood in silence. The once noisy crowd silenced themselves after hearing out the news. The Prince looked at both his Commanders with a wide-open jaw. An expression of disbelief was painted all over his face. Commander Crovar smashed the table with his hand out of frustration at the terrible news.

Ghwynmyr's knees trembled as the scenario was becoming more obvious. He sat back on his chair, clenching his fist upon hearing the news. He had to calm himself down, fast. The sense of dread continued to sink deeper into his gut. He breathed in deeper to compose himself.

He looked at the beastman who looked more miserable than he was. It seemed like his friend couldn't contain his emotions any longer. He saw Ulfaar's eyes welling with tears and the twitching of mouth stated the more obvious expression than his hunched posture.

He grabbed the beastman's arm to get his attention. Ulfaar looked at him, with anguish written all over his face. Ghwymyr understood that, he had the same feelings too. Although, he was just better at hiding them.

"It's too early for us to know, my Lord." Wahakim calmly answered. "This armor is a segmented shoulder armor. Not one of us has that."

Everyone made a sigh of relief, but another thing came out and reared its ugly head. The segmented shoulder armor. No one in the current Principalian knighthood used segmented shoulder armor anymore. That used to be the thing way back around 15 years ago but had to be taken out after a sturdier, yet lighter protective shoulder armor was made.

Finding the remains did answer some questions. It is possible that the missing squad might just be roaming in the deepest recesses of the tunnel when the explosion happened. They might be trapped somewhere inside the tunnel's winding paths. They might be some place else. Ghwynmyr wanted to think of it just like that. He also didn't want to think of something worse.

He glanced at the beastman once again and saw his confused expression. He patted his shoulder and asked.

"Are yah alright, lad?" He held his arm.

The beastman looked at him with such a baffled expression. "What's going on?" He asked. "Is everyone—"

"Nay, lad. We still can't confirm that." He answered.

Ulfaar sighed in relief, "For a moment I thought…" He clenched his jaw as his tears started to well on his eyes again.

"That is Adaloun you're talking about…" He smiled. "Duncha worry too much! Tis Adaloun we're talkin' 'ere." He patted the beastman's back.

The discussion continued with Lord Prestonheim asking them questions about what's going on down there. From what they reported, they said that the current map they had was grossly inaccurate. The Joaquim person said that there was no small opening that they had to crawl on.

This comment baffled the Prince and the Commanders alike. They thought it was impossible for Adaloun's account to be counted as a lie since everything was so detailed. Once more, the previousuad also confirmed the existence of that tunnel, as they themselves had cleared it earlier.

"That thing that happened earlier might've caused this!" Joaquim explained.

Ghwynmyr couldn't agree more. That earth shaking earlier, might have been caused by the sudden shifting of the underground's interior. A strong magic spell could do that. He saw one of his brothers-in-arms did that before when they were setting traps for the Principalian knights.

But who could've done it instantly was another question that he couldn't answer. It took his comrade almost 2 weeks to complete such grueling task and that's by doing it non-stop from dawn until dusk. This on the other hand, only took a small fraction of time to complete it.

"The skull seemed to have lot some—" there was an awkward pause from the other line. "Or…Orphella! What are you doing? Stop!" The communication dropped.

The dwarf stood up from his seat. What did he mean by that?! His mind was racing as the silence from the crystal ball overwhelmed the tent. All eyes were on them as if they were the culprit of something terrible that happened.

Lord Prestonheim called out to the crystal ball once again. But no one still responded. Ghwynmyr could feel the beastman's energy from where he was, and he knew that it was only a matter of time for Ulfaar to explode.

He nudged the beastman to distract him and whispered inconspicuously to him, "Ulfaar, whatever yer thinkin', don't yah dare. Keep calm or we might nay see dem again."

The beastman took a deep breath and answered in a quivering voice, "I-I…don't…"

"Take a deep 'un, lad." He patted his back. "Deeper."

Ghwynmyr tried his best to calm his comrade down while he tried to figure out the debacle of what elf did.

"My Lord!" The voice from the other line seemed to be catching his breath. "My Lord, are you there? Is anyone there?" It asked.

"Who's this?!" Lord Prestonheim asked. "What's going on down there?"

"My Lord, it's Martigen." He introduced himself. "The elf dumbly ran herself into the white stony wall in front of us! For some reason the bitch just did!" He added.

The last comment angered Ghwynmyr. Did he just call her a vytch?! He couldn't wrap his mind around it. If only he could reach the knight's neck from the crystal ball and choke him out. But if he's reacting this way, he could imagine his comrade's reaction was.

"Don't bare yah fangs," He said. "Now's nay the time tah git angry." He added.

The beastman didn't react, but he could hear the deep breaths Ulfaar was doing to calm himself down. Now that Ghwynmyr de-escalated that situation, he went back to listening on the crystal ball.

They could hear footsteps, as if the crystal ball was being picked up and placed near the other two.

"My Lord!" Joaquin's voice filled the tent. "Orphella just ran into the wall. She isn't bleeding but she is unconsci--."

They could hear from the crystal ball that Wahakim seemed to be talking to Orphella now. She had awoken already! But one question remains, how did an elf ran herself into a stone wall? As far as Ghwynmyr knew, elves usually think they are the perfect specimen of living creatures among all. They even brag they could walk or run on walls, but that wasn't the case here. This would've been a good campfire joke if it wasn't for the situation they're in.

Ghwynmyr stifled a laugh as he imagined the disgruntled look of the elf's face once they talk again at the campfire. He wasn't able to keep up with the conversation at the crystal ball due to the distraction he had with those funny thoughts. He only heard snippets of what it was.

"Are you out of your mind?" Another voice popped up from the communication device. "Oh… Maybe she's still disoriented that's why she's saying—hey!" The voice shouted at her.

Suddenly, there was a disruption from the line. The line jumbled and a sharp piercing sound filled the tent. All they could do was grimace as they waited for the disruption to end. There was another dead silence until Joaquim's voice popped up again.

"My…Lord…The elf found something extraordinary." His voice quivered in excitement, "We need to convene at the surface, now!"