We marveled at the sight of lava, since it was everyone’s first time seeing something like this in person, apart from Man who had been in the city before. We all walked through the gate and were met with extreme heat emanating from the fiery rivers while the strong smells of brimstone and molten rock filled our nostrils.

While crossing the bridge, I had the chance to better examine the sculpted innards of the mountain, which were adorned with gems or carved in the images of battles. Moving from one side to the other took us a good five minutes on foot. Seeing all the carvings on the walls, I got a pretty good impression of the people living here and their values.

There were images of battles against all sorts of monsters, but never a humanoid against another. There were also many scenes of people working on the anvil and the forge, mostly dwarves, and equally many of humans and elves dancing and drinking. The depictions appealed to me and I felt eager to learn more about the residents of the city.

At the end of the bridge, we were met with another long tunnel which eventually led us to an even larger opening. The ceiling was shaped like a dome spreading as wide as the mountain walls reached down, eventually meeting the ground.

The walls around the circle were populated by houses on many levels while the bottom, which was far below us, was also lit up with lights from residencies as well as smaller lava rivers.

In the middle of it all, a giant complex of walls, houses, and stairs rose up hundreds of steps and it looked like its top level was where all the trade took place. This central pillar could be reached either by climbing down the stairs to the bottom, walking toward it and then climbing more stairs back up, or by one of the multiple narrow bridges which were no doubt magically reinforced. There was no way a bridge of such great length could remain standing without the assistance of magic.

We decided to cross one of those bridges to reach the city’s central hub and I continued to marvel at the amazing structures and the giant balls of light dancing in the air. The light emanating from the magma, the houses, and the thousands of ever-burning torches on the walls, was enough to illuminate the whole giant cavern.

However, at least a score of big balls of light were hovering some distance above the complex, slowly moving in circles. The light shining from these balls was enough to make this part of the underground city look like it was under a summer’s midday sun instead of being underground.

Crossing the narrow bridge took us a good twenty minutes, and we encountered a lot of people coming from the other side, directing greetings and salutations to us. It seemed that wishes for our forge to never run cold was a popular way of greeting people in this city and we were quick to catch on that and offer it back.

Reaching the top of the central pillar, we immediately started asking around for Myriam and Kai, all the while talking about the situation with The Divine and how the supply of magical items from Elysia was steadily shrinking.

Unfortunately, none of the people we spoke to had any information about them, even though they were very eager to facilitate us, seeing us as a terrific business opportunity. In fact, they tried to overcompensate for their lack of information on whether the duo had passed through the town by showing us an amazing series of magical items and artifacts.

One of my favorites—due to its comical nature but absolute usefulness—was a key, supposedly imported from Yubna, which once inserted into a wall, would create a door leading to a fully functional toilet. Of course, I had seen magical keys leading to bathrooms but they were not as handy as this one.

Another item particularly favored by Man was a normal-sized bottle containing a ship. The merchant did not demonstrate it to us, but the size of his wares indicated he was not lying when he said that once the bottle was uncorked, the ship would manifest at full size in front of us. Man was ecstatic and claimed that items like this and some bags of wind could change the way trading was done overseas.

Kard, who was fidgeting with his jeweled dagger all the while we were walking around the market, was overly enthusiastic about a coin bouncing in a bucket and making a steady metallic sound. The coin was as unremarkable as any gold coin could be, but we were informed by the store owner that once tossed this ‘ever-bouncing coin’ would not stop until someone picked it up. The way he looked at it, I was fairly certain that Kard would eventually come back to buy it.

Krysha and Seika, on the other hand, were excited about a pair of regular-looking lenses that would enable the wearer to read all manner of languages and magic. Krysha said the lenses would open so many possibilities in studying books written by other nations, while Seika insisted that being able to read spells of other deities might make spell adaptations possible. This would mean a whole new catalog of spells for her, and I was sure she also made a mental note to pick them up on our way back.

We spent some hours talking to the people running shops until the giant light orbs levitating around the cavern started to dim. Man informed us this was their way of telling the time while underground, yet we saw no fewer people going through the streets of the market.

We were in any case pretty tired and had already gathered all the information we were able to get in the town. We’d learned nothing about the mysterious spellcasters or Myriam, but at least we had some answers regarding the way to our goal.

It seemed like everybody’s expression changed when we mentioned the monastery. It was clear that the people of Snjokomu did not particularly like having a place of worship for The Divine so close to the core of their country. Regardless, the hearty folk of the underground city informed us of the direction we would need to go to reach it, but strongly advised us against doing it. They warned us that we would receive no assistance in traveling to the monastery and that the road leading to it had purposefully not been maintained for decades.

Having gathered all the information we needed, we decided to spend a night in the comfort of beds in one of the inns we encountered. The warmth of the hearth in each of our rooms and the softness of the pillows was something we hadn’t experienced in many days and I was beyond happy to be there. Without further conversation, we all retreated to our rooms and took the opportunity to bathe and relax.

We were warned that the blizzards ahead of us were tenfold more powerful than the ones we’d encountered on our way here, so we tried to make the most of this night of relaxation. We had a lot of stamina to recover, and would need even more during the final stretch of our quest, toward the monastery at the End of the World.