Missteps V.2

Chapter Twelve - Answers

When they got back to the barracks, Iados took a detour and poked his head into the sleeping quarters, just to assure himself and the others (mainly Ander) that the money they’d left was still there. It was, and so was a moving dismembered skeletal hand. Iados quietly squished it under his foot and followed the group.

With the same hesitation as before, Jun opened the final door. This led into a short hallway that curved around to the right. Jun took the look lead as they followed it around, and they discovered that it met up with the first hallway they’d gone down. They retraced their steps and ended back at the fountain.

"So, which hallway next?" Iados asked as Ander and Jun took large gulps of the clear water.

Ander sighed in satisfaction as he felt some of the pain from his encounters with the ooze and rug melt away. Jun frowned. It was a nice, cool drink of water, but he still felt the same level of exhaustion from those same encounters. He voiced this to his companions.

Elaine looked at Ander. “When you looked at the runes earlier, did they say anything about exclusions?”

Ander shook his head. “Only thing I can think of is that the enchantment is fading.”

“Or the fountain could be mad at Jun for cleaning his muddy boots in it.” Iados smiled.

Elaine rolled her eyes. “A sentient fountain would go great with the rug and bones.”

Carric cleared his throat. “Actually, if I understood all the magic talk, neither of those things were ‘sentient’, they were just enchanted.”

Kerri laughed from her seat on the fountain lip. “So, getting back on topic, why don’t we just hit the next one in line?” She pointed the middle of the three hallways.

No had any objections, so the group headed down it in the same split pattern they had adopted for the first hallway. This time it was Jun, Carric, and Iados in front, with the girls and Ander bringing up the rear.

At about halfway down the hall, Carric suddenly stopped.

“What is it?” Iados asked as he came to a stop next to him.

Carric pointed to the wall on their left. “Something about this wall seems off.” The ranger’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the carved rock, trying to pinpoint exactly what had caught his attention.

Ander and the others caught up. “I don’t see anything.” The wizard said when the situation was explained. He brought his hand up and laid it on the rock. His hand went straight through. Ander’s eyes went wide as he pulled his hand back, undamaged. “I stand corrected.”

Kerri reached out and passed her hand through the wall as well. “This is so cool. What do you think's on the other side?”

“Something really dangerous, or really valuable.” Iados stated. His back was against the opposite wall, and his hand was on his weapon. “In my experience the two aren’t mutually exclusive.” Carric took note of his position and did the same.

Ander grinned. “There’s one sure way to find out.” The halfling walked completely through the wall, and disappeared from sight.

Everyone held their breath.

A minute later they heard Ander’s voice. “There's about five feet of hall before it opens out into a room.” His voice was clear. Lia gave a sigh of relief. “I can see runes on the floor from this side.”

“Can you see us from that side?” Jun asked.

There was a pause, before an audible ‘no’.

Lia walked through with her lit quarterstaff. The room was less of a hall and more like a very small antechamber. “Ander, there are more runes over here.” She pointed out a line of runes running the length of the doorway on the other side of the passage. With her light source, she could make out about eight rectangular stone slabs in the room beyond.

“Let me see,” Ander crouched down to inspect the runes. With a whispered word and a glowing hand, he spent a few moments studying the runic language.

“It’s a ward.” He said finally as he stood up.

“A ward for what?” Jun yelled out from the other side of the illusion.

"You don’t have to yell." Elaine whispered to the berserker. "It's not a real wall."

"I know," He crossed his arms and grinned. Elaine chuckled.

Ander poked his head out of the wall. “Not sure. Strange part is that it’s tuned specifically for something gaseous.”

“Gaseous, what does that mean?” Carric asked.

Ander rolled his eyes. “It means any kind of substances made of gas.”

“So, something like steam, fog, or possibly poison?” Elaine asked, and Ander nodded.

Iados spoke up. “Those are the runes leading into the other room, right?” Ander nodded. “What about the runes at the base of this illusion wall? Is the illusion all they do?”

“Give me a second.” Ander disappeared again as he kneeled down and examined the runes as well. Behind him, Lia tried to peer into the other room as much as she could without crossing the ward. “These runes are two-fold.” Ander advised through the wall. “The illusion is actually the second effect.”

Kerri poked her head through the wall and looked directly at Ander. “What’s the first effect?”

Ander looked up. “It’s another ward, this one meant to keep undead in.”

“Undead?” Elaine immediately crossed over, and just barely missed Ander with her stride.

Lia turned to look at the cleric as she pointed into the room. “That would explain why those slabs have lids.”

Iados groaned from out in the hall. “Don’t tell me we’re talking about more zombies.”

Lia shrugged. “There’s one way to find out.”

Kerri walked into the room and peered around Elaine into the dark room.

Elaine stood at the edge of the ward. She held up her charm bracelet, and tried to sense any undead energy coming from the room. She frowned. “I can’t tell anything, those sarcophagi must be too thick for my magic to penetrate.”

Lia faced the cleric. “Good to know, but I was actually referring to us going into the room.” She pointed at the room. “If I was going to hide something in this place, I’d definitely hide it in there, probably in one of the sarcophagi.” Lia explained. “Besides, if it gets to be too much, we’ll just cross back over the barrier.”

A chipping sound behind them drew their attention. Behind them, Ander chipped away at the rune barrier between the anteroom and the hall with a small knife.

“What are you doing?” Elaine practically yelled as she grabbed his collar and pulled him away from his task.

“What’s going on?” Jun hollered.

“Ander’s messing with the wards.” Kerri hollered back.

The berserker scowled and stepped over the ward. The small space, which had already been crowded with just four, now overflowed. Lia flattened herself against the wall. Kerri was unceremoniously pushed into the room. No one but Lia heard her cry of surprise as she sprawled out on the tomb floor.

Ander tried to wrest himself out of Elaine’s grasp. “If you’ll give me a little space, I think I can stop the illusioned wall.” Elaine argued against his skill.

Iados squeezed in behind Jun. He watched Lia cross the ward and help Kerri stand up. He joined them.

Iados rubbed his hands together. “Since we’re here, what do you say we crack these bad boys open?”

“Might as well.” Lia scanned the slabs around her. There were eight sarcophagi in total in the room. Seven of them were evenly spaced in a line down the middle of the room. The last one was up on a dais above the others. The trio investigated that one first. The symbol of Zhagra was inscribed on the lid; a black rose that extended from the knife’s downward tip and wound up towards the hilt, and then surrounded by two rings. It took all three of them push it off.

Inside was a very small skeleton, with the remains of a tattered and decomposing black robe on it. As soon as the air from outside hit the fabric, large patches of it began to disintegrate. A silver amulet inscribed with the symbol of Zhagra hung from its neck. Clutched in its hand was a leather-bound book.

“I think we found the head priest.” Iados whispered. Lia reached in. A couple of the head priest’s finger bones broke as she removed the book from his grasp.

Kerri turned around and saw that Carric and Jun had entered the room behind them. The two of them filtered through the rest of the room.

The akudaem leaned over Lia’s shoulder as she opened the book. “What’s it say?”

The elf’s eyes skimmed over the Dwarvish writing. “It reads like his journal.” She flipped through the writing. “Looks like it chronicles everything he did while here at the settlement.” She reached the back of the book, and noticed that the handwriting seemed to change in the final pages. Iados noticed too.

“What happened there?” He pointed to the last entries.

Lia leaned against the side of the sarcophagus as she read. “Says that the priest was killed during the owlbear attack. He had two apprentices, and they brought his body down here, along with what was left of their prisoners and servants, and locked themselves in. Between storms and predators feasting on the only meat sources during the winter above, they were all trapped down here for two months. They only survived that long because they could use magic to produce food and water.”

“Does it say why they came here in the first place?” Kerri asked as she leant over the side of the sarcophagus.

Lia flipped to the front of the book and scanned the pages. “Looks like their mission was about a book.”

Carric’s eyebrow raised. “They took over an entire community, because of a book?”

“From the sounds of it, it was an evil book. Like, really evil.” Lia explained.

“If it’s connected to a god of cruelty, I highly doubt he’d have his followers read anything else.” Kerri pointed to another sarcophagus. “Should we break open another one of these, see if there’s any more-”

She was cut off by a sudden, sharp pain that racked her entire body. Both Lia and Iados also gasped as they experienced it.

“What was that?” Elaine rushed over to Kerri.

“I don’t know,” The bard took a deep breath. “All of a sudden, I couldn’t breath and I hurt. It’s gone now.”

Elaine frowned. “Doesn’t mean it won’t come back.”

Iados shook his head and pointed towards the doorway. “I bet it has to do with whatever gas that rune is keeping back.”

Jun nodded. “I’ll buy that, I think it’s time for u-”

A loud thud interrupted him. Everyone stopped. Silence descended for a few seconds before there was another thud, and another, and another. With wide eyes, everyone realized that they all came from the remaining sarcophagi.

“Time’s up!” Jun yelled and everyone agreed. Lids began to be scrapped off from inside the stone coffins, as the rancid smell of the zombies started to permeate the room. Kerri and Jun were cut off as lids slid off and zombies popped up in front of them. One of the zombies tripped getting out of his sarcophagus and fell at Jun’s feet. The berserker pulled his warhammer and crushed the zombie’s skull. Kerri wasn’t as lucky as the zombie facing her deftly slid out. The zombie slammed Kerri into the wall before she could pull her rapier.

Carric and Elaine both readied their weapons and took up positions near the doorway. As more zombies started crawling out, they started taking pot shots.

Lia threw a thorny vine out at the zombie who had attacked Kerri. As the creature struggled to free its arm, Kerri stood up and drew her rapier. Within moments the girls had put down the zombie.

Iados climbed into a sarcophagus, and whacked the zombie inside with his club before it could crawl out.

Suddenly, that same searing pain from before hit everyone in the room, including the zombies.

“Back to the hall!” Jun cried as he ran around a sarcophagus. He stopped for a moment and dragged Iados away from his dead-again foe by the back of his shirt. Ander was already out in the hall when everyone else stumbled through. Elaine and Carric stood there and continued to take shots at the zombies that tried to follow.

Iados collapsed against the wall in the hallway, and noticed something. “Hey, you got rid of the illusion.”

“Without breaking the ward against the undead.” Ander pointed out as he stood next to the doorway. He looked up at two ranged fighters who continued to fire projectiles into the room, even after the last of their team stumbled into the hall. “They can’t make it through the ward, so why are you still fighting?”

“I’d feel better putting these guys to my back if they were no longer moving.” Carric said as he felled the last zombie. “Besides, these ones don’t seem as tough as the ones from before.” As if to prove a point, the one he’d just put down stood back up. Before Carric could finish it off, the shuddering pain racked its body and it fell down limp.

“Quick question,” Kerri leaned against the wall and breathed heavily. “If you put in zombies to protect a room, why would you then fill the room with gas that hurts the zombies? Wouldn’t it make more sense to make the zombies immune?”

Lia held up the book. “Maybe this has some answers.”

“Elaine and I need to go back in and gather as many of our arrows and bolts as we can.” Carric said. “Anyone want to come with?”

“I’ll go.” Iados raised his hand. “I want to take a second look in all the sarcophagi anyway, maybe there are some secret compartments like before.”

“I’ll go with you, and we’ll make it a quick search, who knows how much of that poison is needed for it to be fatal.” Jun said, and the four of them trekked back into the room.

Kerri and Ander took Lia’s lit quarterstaff and headed down the rest of the hallway just to scout it. Lia sat down against the wall and went through some more of the journal. Her elven eyes were able to read the words without too much difficulty in the darkness.

As she read over the words, she was thankful that no one else in the party read dwarven. If they did, the journal would give them way more answers than she could allow. She focused her reading on the last few pages, before she ripped them out and hid them in her shirt.

About five minutes later, the quartet stumbled of the room.

“We’re gonna go hit the fountain real quick.” Iados slurred and they headed back up the hall. Ander and Kerri rejoined Lia, and they joined the others.

As they all took a short break around the fountain Lia filled them in on what she’d learned.

"After their master died, the two apprentices began to fight over who was to succeed him. Honen, the one who took over writing in the journal, believed that it was best to hide the book for now and to focus on finding a different way out.”

Carric pointed towards the tunnel they’d come down. “Why’d they need a different way? What was wrong with the main entrance?”

“Sometime during a storm a couple of weeks after the initial attack, there was a rockslide that blocked them leaving.” Lia pointed to the wrought iron gate. “Rocks rolled down and piled up right here. Part of Honen’s efforts were using the prisoners to dig a way out.”

“We didn’t see any evidence of a rockslide topside.” Jun said.

“It’s been a hundred years,” Kerri said. “Maybe animals took them away, or we’re not the first ones down here since?”

“Anyway,” Lia continued. “While Honen worked on that, the other apprentice, Jaret, decided that the way to leadership was power.”

“Let me guess, he started reading the evil book.” Ander suggested.

Lia nodded. “It was their master who created the zombies from the graveyard, using magic he’d learned from the book. While the mine had been renovated, they’d stored the book in the graveyard and the zombies were security. After they moved the book, the master created the skull as an alarm system. Jaret wanted that power.”

“So, let me guess, the zombies from down the hall and the skeletons were the work of this Jaret.” Carric stated.

The elf nodded again. “Once it came to light exactly what was he was doing, Honen tried to fight him. He enchanted several items, such as the rug, and placed an enchantment on the skeletons so they couldn’t leave. It seems though, that Jaret used a teleportation circle from the book to leave. Honen was left here all alone. Jaret had used the prisoners and servants trapped here with him as his guinea pigs.”

Ander stroked his chin. “Honen must have been the one who set up the runes and gas then, to keep the zombies in and eventually destroy them. What about Honen himself, where is he?”

“The book ends with Honen saying he was going to try to leave one last enchantment in case anyone ever found him.” Lia said.

“That explains the skeleton then.” Kerri munched on a piece of jerky.

Jun turned to look at the bard. “Wait, what skeleton?”

Kerri pointed down the hall with the jerky piece. “While you guys went back in for the arrows, Ander and I checked out the end of the hall. It ends in a small room. All that’s there are two suits of armor, and a skeleton sitting at a table.”

“We decided to get the whole group together before we touched anything.” Ander added. “Did you guys find anything more in the sarcophagi?”

Iados sighed dejectedly. “No. I even gave the zombies pat-downs but I didn’t find anything.”

Elaine stood up. “Well, I think we’ve rested long enough, let’s go check out this skeleton.”

As a single group, they went to the room. There wasn’t a door, just a doorway set into the stone wall. Just as Kerri had described, the two back corners were each home to a tarnished silver suit of armor, longswords held at attention in front of them. The center of the room held a simple wooden table that housed a skeleton dressed in a faded brown robe. Its head was down while its hands rested on the table. In the center of the table was a bowl with a copper, silver, and gold piece resting in the bottom.

“Well, this isn’t creepy.” Elaine said as they gathered around the room. Ander approached the table and peered over the edge of the bowl. He had to stand on his tiptoes. He reached up and attempted to grab the coins from the bottom of the bowl but they wouldn’t budge.

Jun eyed the suits of armor warily. “What do you guys think?”

Kerri peered into the bowl over Ander. “Why don’t we try putting more coins in the bowl?”

Ander grabbed a copper coin out of his pouch and slipped it into the bowl. The coin clanked against the metal of the bowl until it came to rest.

The halfling peered around the bowl to look at the skeleton. “Is it working?” He was the only one to see a flash of white light streak across the empty eye sockets.

With a creak and a clash, the armor on the right sprang to life. With two large strides, it moved forward and attacked Ander with two heavy strikes of its longsword. The front of Ander’s robes were cut as the two slashes tore through him. Ander stumbled back till he hit the wall next to the doorway.

Jun pulled his warhammer out and tried to attack, but his strike didn’t even seem to faze the enchanted armor. The armor deftly moved around Jun and went in for another attack. This time the blade cut deeply into Ander’s shoulder and with a cry of pain the halfling slumped to the ground unconscious. As soon as Ander stopped moving, the armor moved back into attention above him.

“Ander!” Elaine knelt to the halfling. Her hand glowed as she brought it over the wounds. As the magic flowed into the wounds, the bleeding stopped. The wounds were still an angry red color. Ander’s eyes opened, and he winced when he tried to move. Elaine helped him sit up against the wall before she pulled a salve and bandages out of her pack.

Jun stood in front of them, weapon in hand.

Lia gulped loudly as she stared at the unmoving suit of armor. “That was terrifying.” Her eyes traveled down to the sword that was wet with the halfling’s blood. “Maybe the money was the wrong route?”

“Or maybe we were just cheapskates.” Iados held out his hand towards Lia. “Give me a gold.”

Lia scowled at the outstretched hand. “Why do I have to pay? Don’t you have money?”

The akudaem smirked. “Yes, but technically you agreed to pay for expenses.” Lia sighed and handed over the gold piece. Iados tiptoed around the suit of armor and tossed the piece into the bowl.

This time, the head of the skeleton came up and stared directly at Iados, as a light emanated from the back of its eyeless sockets.

The skeleton’s jaw dropped. “You may ask five questions, and get five answers in return.” Its voice was raspy, and the end of the sentences ended in a wisp as if the breath it took to say it escaped at the very end.

Iados clapped his hands together and turned to look at the group. “Ok, we’ve got five questions, what do we ask?”

“You may ask whatever you want.” The skeleton answered.

Everyone groaned.

Jun looked over. “Iados, don’t talk” The akudaem clapped a hand over his mouth. Jun turned his gaze to the skeleton. “Alright, what do we want to ask?”

“Maybe we should ask if there’s anything of value left down here, or if we can just leave?” Ander asked from his position on the floor. Elaine had traded places with Kerri as the bard tried to do a quick patch job on the halfling’s clothes.

“Instead of just value, maybe we should ask if there’s anything we should grab.” Lia suggested. “Honen worked hard to defend this place against Jaret, maybe he left something behind we can pass on?”

Iados nodded and removed his hand. He faced the skeleton. “Is there anything treasure or value wise we should take out of this place?”

“Letter to Elder Himo.” The skeleton held up one of his hands and pointed towards the wall on its right.

Lia’s eyes went wide. “Wait, did it say ‘Elder Himo’?”

“Yeah, why?” Elaine asked.

Lia cursed in elven as she closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. “Elder Himo is the name of the head of my organization, and my uncle. He’s the one that sent me here.”

The cleric raised an eyebrow. “Looks like he didn’t tell you everything.”

“Should we ask it how to get to this letter? Maybe it knows a shortcut?” Ander stood up. The coloring was off on his clothes, but Kerri had managed to magically stitch the slash marks up.

Jun nodded. “Good idea.” Iados relayed the question.

“Go to the chapel. Down the hall, make a left, go through the door, take another left, and go through the door there.” The skeleton answered.

“Are there any dangers or threats between us and the letter?” Iados asked, forgetting to confer.

“There is a cube.” The skeleton said.

“Wha-" Iados started to say, but Jun reached around and cupped his mouth.

“We’ve only got one question left, let’s not waste it.” He pulled Iados away from the table. The skeleton’s eyes followed him.

“Does anyone know what this ‘cube’ might be?” Jun asked, hand still over Iados’s mouth.

Carric dragged a hand down his face. “I might. It’s another type of ooze like the one we encountered earlier. Only this one is a lot bigger, and a lot hungrier. They like abandoned places like this.”

Kerri raised her hand. “How much bigger, and is it dangerous?”

Carric nodded. “It’s very dangerous, partly because it’s made up of an acidic kind of ooze that can eat through pretty much anything. They tend to be on the aggressive side, and most of the time you can’t see them until it’s too late because they tend to be transparent.” He shuddered. “The best advice there is on cubes in general is to leave them alone.”

“Can it be killed?” Jun asked.

The ranger nodded. “It’s not easy, but yeah.”

“I think we should use our last question to ask about Jaret.” Elaine said. “If he’s out there running around with a magic book that can create undead, he needs to be stopped.”

“He escaped a hundred years ago, we don’t even know if he’s still alive.” Ander said.

Elaine narrowed her eyes. She looked at Lia. “Did the journal say what race Jaret was?”

Lia shook her head.

“See, he could be a dwarf like his master, or hell even an elf.” Elaine argues. “Besides, I’d be willing to bet that a book that can create undead would have a way of keeping its caster alive for a long time. I’m not saying that we get the location to track him down ourselves, but I would like something that I can pass on to my superiors.”

“I agree,” Lia said. “If my uncle did send me here because of this book, then part of my assignment would be finding out where it ended up.”

Jun let Iados go. “Are we asking where Jaret is, or the book? Do we really want to assume that they’re still together? We could be risking our last question on this.”

“Good point,” Elaine tapped her chin. “I think we should ask after Jaret. Even if he doesn’t have the book, he can still direct us towards it.”

“But if Jaret doesn’t have the book, then he’s not that much of a threat.” Lia argued. “If we locate the book, then your superiors will be able to stop others from learning from it.”

“If Jaret is still alive, I can’t see him letting go of such an important book.” Carric added. Ander nodded in agreement.

Kerri raised her hand. “Why don’t we just ask about both? That Honen guy created this thing to stop Jaret and the book, why wouldn’t it tell us that?”

Ander looked at her. “Enchantments like these are usually very precise, and follow simple instructions. We only have one question left, and if we ask two in the same sentence, it may give one answer and not say which one it pertains too.”

Kerri shrugged. “So, we’ll still find out a location that Elaine’s church can check out.”

Iados ran a hand down his face. He turned to the skeleton. “Where can we find Jaret and the evil book?”

The skeleton didn’t answer. It stared at the akudaem. The light in its sockets dimmed. The seconds ticked by, and then a full minute. Almost a full two minutes later, the lights flared. “Both are together in the heart of Crystaliron.” As soon as the words passed its lips, the skeleton crumpled into dust, and the suits of armor rapidly rusted and disintegrated as the magic left them.

The group was driven out of the room by the sudden dust cloud. They huddled around the fountain.

Carric coughed into his sleeve. “Hey Elaine, didn’t you say that you were from Crystaliron?”

Elaine nodded. “Technically I was only taught there, but yeah.” She nodded at Kerri. “Kerri could tell you more, she’s lived there her whole life.”

Everyone turned to look at the bard. She was leaned over the side of the fountain. She turned and sat on the fountain’s lip.

“Crystaliron is the capital of Liratha.” Kerri said softly. Her gaze was unfocused. “It’s a huge city.”

Iados crossed his arms. “So no chance you would have run into him, huh?” For the first time since he’d met her in at the inn, Kerri was quiet and still. It unnerved him.

Elaine shook her head. She reached out and touched her friend’s shoulder.

The young girl jerked away from her and stood up.

“What’s wrong?” Elaine took a step forward. Kerri took a step back.

“Nothing, I just need a little air.” She took off back up the main entrance. Elaine moved to follow, but Jun held her back.

“Give her some space, she obviously doesn’t want to talk.” Jun said, and Elaine reluctantly moved back. “Come on, let’s scout this last corridor while she takes some time.”

Jun, Elaine, Carric, and Iados headed down the corridor. Lia sat down on the fountain edge and scanned the journal for any last minute clues. Ander held the quarterstaff for her, but he quickly set it down headed off after Kerri. Lia didn’t stop him.

Ander found Kerri about fifteen feet up, curled up against a rock.

Ander crouched down in front of her, the circumluci cradled against his chest. “You’ve met him, haven’t you?”

“I think so.” Kerri’s voice was low.

“Is it a secret from Elaine?” He asked. She nodded. “Why?”

Kerri buried her face in her knees. “Because I don’t have a choice.”

Ander’s eyebrows knitted together. “I don’t understand.”

Kerri lifted her head and met Ander’s eyes. Her eyes were red, and she had tear tracks down her face. “Can I trust you? You can’t tell anyone, especially not Elaine.”

Ander nodded.

She reached up and slowly took off her simple leather armor, and then her shirt. When she showed her back to the halfling, he gasped.

Half-hidden by the bandages that held her cleavage, was a runic seal on her right shoulder blade. He reached out and inspected the runes. He spent almost a minute, focused on the intricacies of the rune that lit up as he scoured it with his magic.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before.” He brought his hand down. “It seems to be a combination of several different runes, but in a configuration I’ve never seen. Did Jaret give it to you?”

Kerri pulled her shirt down. “He didn’t call himself ‘Jaret’.”

Ander handed her her armor. “What did he call himself?”

Kerri didn’t answer.

Ander smacked his forehead. “One of the properties must be that you can’t speak of him.” Kerri nodded. He stood up. “Is the story you and Elaine told us true? That you left because of the Prince? Is he related to the runic mark?”

“Elaine doesn’t know the whole story.” Kerri answered. “The affair with the Prince is a big part of the story, but not all of it.” She winced and rubbed the shoulder blade. “That’s all I can say. If I try to say too much, the rune stops me and causes me pain.”

“I’m sorry,” Ander said as Kerri climbed to her feet.

“Don’t be, not your fault. Besides, it’s a constant reminder of what I have to do.” She said as they headed back down the passage.

“You’re not really out here to find stories are you?”

Kerri smiled. “No, I’m on the hunt for something that can free me.”