Juniper fiddled with the sword hanging off her belt, trying to put the fact that she was walking straight into a great danger off her mind.

The previous night, she’d almost convinced herself to just let go and push through to Path Inscription, but she ended up deciding against it. For once, she hadn’t simply chickened out–progressing to a new stage came with big changes. Getting used to it would take more than the few hours she had at her disposal. She’d be off balance for a day or two, and she didn’t want to risk being in anything other than tip-top shape, no matter how much an extra stage might have helped.

The sword bit into her hip as she walked near the end of the line through the cramped tunnels of the old sewers. They were barely wide enough to allow a thin man to pass through–behind her, the muscular Slick had to angle himself to fit.

It was lucky none of the group suffered from claustrophobia.

Slick had insisted on her carrying a sword, but so far, it hadn’t seen any use. At the front of the group, Adar was making short work of any giant rat that decided to try its luck, while Slick was guarding the rear, the plink of his crossbow catching any monster before it even knew what it was getting into.

“Stop,” Adar suddenly said, and the group came to a halt. “Large opening up ahead. Is that our target?” His voice was quiet, but over the deafening silence of the sewer, it carried.

“It is. Get ready to fall into a defensive formation as soon as we’re in the open,” Slick ordered. “Let Hess through so she can scout ahead.”

Juniper heard some shuffling up ahead, and then Hester spoke a minute later. “All clear. Come on up.”

They continued, tightening up the line as they approached the end of the tunnel. As soon as they were out, Slick and Adar took the front with Drava and Juniper remaining in the rear. As the designated scout, Hester remained ahead of the group, ready to sound the alert if anything moved.

Juniper took the moment to acclimatize herself with the new environment. The tunnel had opened up into a large, circular hall. Every five meters or so, another tunnel would open into this great… reservoir? Juniper wasn’t sure what it was supposed to be. “What’s this place?” she murmured, mostly to herself.

It was apparently loud enough for the others to hear, because Slick decided to humor her. “This is where the waste used to be collected. Be glad it’s dry now.” He chuckled lightly.

“Still smells like ass,” Drava complained. “Are you sure no one’s using it anymore?”

“Just the rats.” Slick said, then stilled. “Be quiet. Hess?”

“I hear them,” she said softly. “Two tunnels away–a whole swarm, it sounds like.”

“Get ready, everyone,” Slick said, drawing a pair of short swords from a back holster Juniper hadn’t even noticed.

Hester fell back, taking her place next to Adar at the front.

Juniper heard the rats a moment later. So far, she’d only seen the dead ones’ she’d had to step over, but now she was able to see them in action.

A wave of giant rodents burst through from one of the tunnels in front of them. They were about as long as her whole arm, and that was excluding the tails. They were moving too fast for her to count, but Juniper thought she saw at least a dozen, if not more.

She drew her sword, as did Drava beside her, the weapon feeling awkward in her hand. Her knowledge of bladed weapons ended at ‘keep the pointy end away from you.’

Bringing her Will to the fore brought her more comfort, so she readied herself to blast any rat that came close straight into the abyss.

The tidal wave of rats closed the space between them within seconds, and Slick jumped ahead to intercept them, moving like a storm. Five rats fell in the first exchange alone, but many more passed right by him.

Adar and Hester made short work of any that got through Slick’s meat grinder, and Juniper relaxed as none of the rats got through her. A few moments later, Slick confirmed that everything was dead and gave the signal to proceed.

Juniper sheathed her sword and let go of her Will. From the corner of her eye, she saw Drava looking at her, an amused expression on her face. “What?” Juniper said, defensively.

“Nothing, you just looked so concentrated there.” Drava grinned. “It was kind of cute.”

“Shouldn’t I have been? We were just in a fight.”

“They were never going to get past those three. Leave the fighting to the fighters.”

“But…” Juniper said, her hand reflexively going to the sword.

“That’s just in case something goes wrong. It’s good to have insurance. But us two, we’re specialists. We go in, do our jobs, and mostly stay out of the way otherwise.”

“Isn’t Adar a specialist too?” Juniper asked. She was pretty sure he was a safe-breaker.

“Eh, he’s an honorary meathead.” Drava said, shrugging. “His sister’s a bad influence.”

Juniper snorted. Hester was an influence, alright.

As they reached the other side of the reservoir, Juniper noticed one tunnel was much wider than the others. “Is that our ticket?” she guessed.

“Yup,” Hester confirmed, appearing out of nowhere. “Dunno why, but nobles always want all their stuff to be fancy and grand. Apparently that extends to the sewers under their home.”

Slick chuckled. “That works for us. Let’s go. We’re almost there.”

***

Juniper watched as a rat’s cranium exploded in front of her. Slick was already loading another bolt, not even giving the rat another glance.

“This should be the place,” he said, looking at a section of the wall that was completely indistinguishable from any other section they’d passed. “Juniper, can you confirm?”

Juniper blinked, not expecting to be addressed. After a beat, she activated her magical sight, blinking again a few times as she adjusted to the new colors.

The way seeing magic worked was different from practitioner to practitioner–in her case, she saw magical auras as a harsh pink glow.

Immediately obvious were a number of magical items on Slick’s person, as well as a few in Drava’s backpack–she ignored them. That wasn’t what she was looking for. Instead, she looked at the wall–and pushed further. Magical sight was limited by distance, but it wasn’t blocked by opaque surfaces.

“I’m seeing two large, diffuse auras on either side of where you are. It’s something like two meters between them,” Juniper said after a few seconds.

“Great, that means we got it in one,” Slick said, lightly slapping the wall. “Drava, it’s your time to shine now.”

Drava nodded, letting her backpack drop with a loud thud, then began to rummage through it. “Give me some space, will you?”

“You heard the lady,” Slick said, then retreated along with Juniper and the twins a small distance away.

Drava removed four small blocks of a putty-like substance from her backpack. She took two, mixed them together until it formed an uniform clump, then did the same with the other pair.

She then placed one of the clumps at the base of the wall, and the other one halfway from the top. She inserted the end of a long string into each, then took a step back.

“Good to go now, yeah?” she asked, removing a small wrought metal figurine from her backpack. It glowed pink to Juniper’s eyes–an artifact of some sort?

“All good,” Slick said.

“Right, then take a few more steps back,” Drava said, making a shooing motion. “More–and, that’s enough. These babies pack some punch.”

Drava raised the figurine to the free ends of the two strings. “Going in three… two… one…” She touched the figurine to the strings, causing them to ignite with a hot blue flame. As soon as she was done, Drava broke into a sprint, tapping Juniper’s shoulder as she reached the group.

Five seconds later, the flames reached the putty, and for a moment, nothing happened. The putty then flashed brightly, and the wall collapsed on itself with a muffled thump, the shattered bricks falling straight down in a neat pile.

“Cool, right?” Drava asked with a grin. “I got that mixture from an alchemist–I paid through my nose but it’s so worth it.”

Juniper nodded. An explosion like that could only be achieved through magical means. Something more conventional might have given them away or tripped a ward.

“Good job,” Slick said after the dust settled, patting Drava on the back. “Time for the job to really begin. Hess, you take point. Juniper, with her, but stay one step behind at all times. I’ll make sure nothing comes at us from behind.”

Juniper followed Hester through the hole in the wall, her vision immediately overwhelmed by the magical auras. “That’s a lot of magic.” She blinked a few times, the colors receding to a more manageable level.

“What do you see?” Hester asked. She’d stopped moving, casing the room with a careful eye.

They’d entered at the end of a long hall. Carved white marble covered the floors, though it appeared gray under the dust. There were nooks on both sides in sets of two, stacked on top of each other. Each held a massive sarcophagus.

“The sarcophaguses on the sides–that’s what I saw through the wall,” Juniper said. “They’re all spelled, though I can’t say how. Could be wards, but it could just be something to preserve the corpses.”

“Probably the latter, but avoid touching them just to be sure,” Slick said. “Anything else?”

“Up ahead, that intersection?” She pointed to a spot five nooks away, where another corridor crossed the one they were in. It was about as far as her magical sense could see. “The whole center is warded–circular pattern. The corners are clear.” She gave the area another scan. “I don’t see anything else.”

“Good to know,” Slick said. “Hester, proceed.”

Hester began to move, slowly, cautiously. She waved her halogen lantern in strange patterns, and Juniper realized she was analyzing the ways the shadows fell. It was odd to see Hester wearing such a serious expression on her face. Juniper had never seen this part of her–had never seen her as anything other than boisterous.

As they reached the intersection, Hester suddenly stopped, throwing her arm in front of Juniper as she whisper-shouted, “Stop!”

Juniper’s eyes widened as she reflexively took a step back. Hester squatted, bringing her lantern down to about a hand span off the floor. Now that she knew something was there, Juniper was able to notice the thin shadow being projected on the floor.

The trip-wire glinted as Hester shone her lantern on it. She grunted, then stood up. “Warded the center and wired the sides,” Hester said quietly. “They’re really not messing around.”

“They’re certainly not known for playing around,” Drava commented.

“Where does the ward end?” Hester asked. Juniper pointed out the border, taking care not to wave her hand above the ward–she didn’t know if it was merely ground-based or if it covered the air above it. “I think I got it. Alright, step where I step.”

They repeated the same dance for the next two hallways, Juniper finding a few more wards that seemed to be placed at random. After a stressful half-hour of traversing the lowest floor of the crypts, Juniper, Slick, Drava and the twins finally reached the stairs leading to the upper level.

Two suits of armor flanked the stairwell, each set on a marble pedestal. Aside from the diffuse magic lingering in the air, Juniper found nothing of note with them. Hester waved her lantern about, giving the all-clear a few seconds later.

She took one step up the stairs when Juniper noticed a pair of bright pink flashes coming from each suit. “Hess, back!” she shouted, forgetting all about the need to be quiet.

Hester obeyed instantly, throwing herself backwards.

It saved her life.

She landed with a roll next to Juniper right as both suits of armor’s axes came down where Hester’s neck had been a second earlier. Juniper was aghast–she’d been thorough, and the suits of armor had been magically inert. They hadn’t even had axes!

The way the axes glowed told Juniper they were manifested weapons. The suits, too, were now engulfed in the same pink haze. “How the–” she began, but Slick cut her off.

“Questions later–now we fight,” he said, his voice hard. Juniper hadn’t even noticed him overtaking her. “Hess, Adar, on me.” He’d drawn his short swords, holding them in a defensive stance as the suits of armor–no, the golems–came for another round.

Hester and Adar joined Slick, the twins taking one of the suits as Slick handled the other. The suits weren’t slow–in fact, they were deceptively fast for hunks of walking metal, enough that running away was not an option–but the giant axes slowed them down. They handled the same way a real ax might–manifested weapons did not ease the burden of momentum.

The three thieves dictated the pace of the fight, but each attempt to hurt the golems was ineffective. In a battle of steel against steel, the magically reinforced golem held a definitive advantage.

A deafening explosion rang out, and Juniper saw one of the golems stagger as if wrenched away by an unseen force. It recovered barely a second later, cutting Slick’s moment of respite short.

Juniper turned to the source of the sound, and saw Drava in the middle of reloading a… shotgun? She hadn’t even suspected Drava might be carrying a firearm–guns were one of the most heavily restricted non-magical items.

But there would be time to worry about that later. Juniper turned back to the golems and analyzed them with her magical sight, trying to understand how they worked–how had they evaded her sight in the first place? She felt like she might discover a weak point if only she understood how they worked.

Adar passed his blade through his suit’s neck–it seemed to pass harmlessly, the connection between the helmet and body unhindered by the blade. But for a short instant, Juniper was pretty sure she’d seen a surge of magic at the back of the armor’s neck.

Which gave her an idea. She saw Slick had locked his suit’s ax with his sword, and though he was losing the contest of locked weapons, he was still holding. With the suit distracted, she snuck behind it, and delivered not a punch endowed with force, but one containing manifested Will.

The golem staggered, as if confused, and Juniper saw the magic surge around its neck again. Injecting Will into an existing spell was one way to disrupt it–not a great one, especially when the original spell was clearly more powerful than Juniper, but it was enough for a momentary disruption.

Slick made use of the momentary reprieve to land a flurry of blows on the golem, but when it recovered some ten seconds later, it revealed the blows had done nothing.

Juniper scowled, disheartened, but Slick shouted at her, “Can you do that again?”

“Now?” Juniper asked, bringing forth her will.

“Wait,” Slick said, and told them his plan as he dodged the ax’s relentless strikes. Then they got to work.

Slick, Adar, and Hester dodged, ducked, and parried, maneuvering the two suits until they were within a few steps of each other.

“Now!’ he shouted.

Juniper hadn’t been certain she could do it, but she had to try anyway. Instead of focusing her Will in a single strike, she split it into two, sending one into each golem. It wouldn’t be as strong as the first, but it would be enough. It had to be enough.

The suits staggered, and Juniper, Hester, Adar and Slick all ran back, away from the stairs–back to where Drava was cooking a grenade.

The grenade flew, landing at the feet of the golems just as they recovered from Juniper’s strike–but it was too late. The grenade went off, turning their legs and much of their arms into scrap metal.

Juniper breathed a sigh of relief as the golems struggled to lift themselves off the floor. Their spells were intact, but they couldn’t put the mangled body back together.