I knew at that moment that we were in deep trouble. I was still wearing a smile when I turned to face Kai. We nodded at each other almost simultaneously and started running for our lives.

Most of the pirates didn’t expect this response so we had a short head start. However, most of them didn’t mean all of them, as I discovered when the suspicious woman’s first arrow was deflected by my protective force field.

“They’re spineless filth!” she shouted, as she ran behind us.

Shouts and insults followed us down the tunnel as we ran away from them. I looked at Kai and realized once more that his face was absent of any emotion, perhaps one of his reactions to being under pressure.

I was also feeling the pressure. We were running for our lives after all. However, this new Myriam would not be stunned in the face of danger.

The old Myriam might have crawled onto the floor, pulling at tufts of her hair to bring herself back to her senses. The new me would never do that though. My hair was long enough again, but my own sense of bravery and purpose had grown with it. I wouldn’t falter.

Kai was running two steps ahead of me until I saw his right foot hit a loose rock and his ankle twisted in a way that was not natural. He immediately fell to the ground and I tried pulling him up without losing any of my speed.

He launched himself up on his left leg, but as soon as his right one touched the ground, he gave in under his body’s weight and fell to the ground again.

“Myriam, I can’t,” he said, in an eerily calm tone. “Help me, please.”

“Your spells are useless here, you little punks!” shouted the fastest of the pursuing men, who was now almost upon us.

“Don’t worry,” I replied to Kai, as I fumbled in the pocket holding my rings.

I took out one of them and couldn’t help but smile as I saw it was the most comical option of the few in there. I had several rings which would help us in this situation—a fireball-shooting one, a ring which would set up an invisible net from wall to wall, another that would raise an obelisk from the ground, and the one in my hands.

Item : Ring of Partay

Type : Magic Item

Durability : 1,200/1,200

Grade : D Grade

Weight : 12st.

Description : A thin black ring with the ability to materialize feast preparations, tables, chairs, food and drinks for fifty people. This ability can be used once every 7 days.

I whispered the command trigger and a steady flow of feast preparations started to materialize in front of me. There were tables with large lit candlesticks, engraved wooden armchairs, silk tablecloths, and a vast variety of delicacies and drinks.

The item was designed to produce enough furniture and food for fifty people and was supposed to be used in an open space. When used in extremely close quarters, like the tunnel we were running in, for example, the result was an almost immovable barricade.

I could barely hear the pirates on the other side of the clogged corridor, shouting curses at us. I’d bought us ample time, but perhaps not enough for a limping Kai to exit the cave complex.

“I’m going to take you into our chest,” I said, and hushed him with my right index finger, “and I will escape. As soon as we’re safe, I’ll join you downstairs and heal your leg.”

He didn’t say anything since what I was proposing made absolute sense. I opened our chest, put his hand around my shoulder and helped him downstairs and onto his bed.

Before leaving, I tried casting a minor cantrip to check if magic was available to me inside the chest but was disappointed to see that nothing worked. Finding a loophole of this sort would have been great information though.

I climbed back out of our chest into the tunnel where nothing had changed apart from the voices of the pirates, which had now been replaced by the sounds of moving furniture on the other side of my barricade. I closed the chest, strapped it on my back and began walking south, toward what our map showed as the exit closest to the monastery.

Twenty minutes later, I was standing at an opening similar to the one we used to enter the tunnels. I moved some snow and ended up in a little clearing located before a very clear path.

A path that lay between two very high mountainsides, traveling both north and south.

The north side was tortured by violent gusts of wind, though it was mostly clear of snow. The side of the gorge leading south however was totally different.

The narrow pass had gusts of snow travel through it as well, but there was something more. I moved closer and upon further inspection, I realized there were whips of energy in all manner of colors and brightness, clashing with each other. The magic of this place was extremely strong and something I needed to consider well before trying to tackle.

I searched for a corner where I would be able to set down the chest without it being very obvious and set up extended magic protections. If the pirates dared to follow us here, I would know it immediately. And if they managed to find the chest or come close to it by accident, they would definitely regret it.

Once everything was ready, I climbed down the stairs of our chest and went to Kai’s bed where he was resting.

“Are we safe?” he asked, his tone not actually sounding worried at all.

“We are,” I said, and immediately started chanting a healing spell while touching his ankle.

“Did you exit the tunnels?” he asked, and patiently waited for me to finish my incantation before I could answer.

“Yes. We’re close to the rainbow storm the pirates mentioned,” I said, giving his newly healed leg a pat. “Be more careful next time.”

“There won’t be a next time, Myriam,” he said, and jumped off his bed. “We’re almost there.”