Author Note: I just know someone is going to mention, "It's a short chapter!" Yes, it is. It's simply as long as it needed to be to hold the scene here. I could've continued writing on, but this seemed like a lovely breakpoint for the scene here to sit and settle in all its oddness for the reader. Longer chapters does not equal better chapters. I wish someday, people would learn that. Short chapters hold a purpose -- to either emphasize a scene, or else to indicate a rapid flow of action. Sometimes, added words really are nothing more than wasted filler. ;)

And now, onto our chaplet!

Striding boldly down the hallway, it was kind of irritating to have to crawl on our stomachs to worm our way past the barricade. The thought briefly ran through my mind to order the goblins to dismiss the barrier later, but I pushed it aside. I’d learned enough about myself in this hellhole to know I seldom made great calls of judgement when I was as angry as I was right now.

One past the makeshift barricade, Isabella created one of her bluish floating flames for us to see by. And then another. And another. And another. And even one more! In the past, she’d been straining to hold two small flames in the air at a time as we tried to explore the tunnels; now she had five of the lights slowly rotating in a large circle all around us. Even the darkness in the tunnel on the left seemed to shirk back somewhat from the blue radiance she was emitting.

Grinding my jaws until the sound of my own teeth popped under the stress I was exerting on them, I stomped down the hallway, following the small thin trail of blood towards wherever it led. Without speaking; we both seemed of the same mind, thinking that only silence was fitting for the hunt for Brandr’s corpse and her slayers; Isabella followed a few steps behind me. Sending her lights ahead to illuminate our path, we trod forward resolutely.

As we traveled further down the hallway, and on towards the far western side of the building, the feeling of fear slowly started to eat into me. Self-doubts began to appear, and I found my resolve to move forward wavering. Brandr was the most dangerous person I’d even imagined meeting in this place. Perhaps in any place! If whatever it was could destroy her, what chance did I stand against it at all?

Gradually, and against my will, I found my pace forward beginning to slow. The unnatural fear that had consumed both Isabella and me the first time we had travelled through these tunnels was seeping back into our bones. Glancing over my shoulder, it was a minor relief to see that Isabella seemed to be holding up strongly still against whatever was steadily chipping away at my courage. Even now, I’m so worthless, I have to rely on a woman to help me keep my courage up so I can place one foot in front of the other.

I’d lost Brandr. If I lost Isabella, I don’t know what would happen. I’d probably break and be as worthless as the quivering meat suits that were the other girls back with the goblins. Honestly, I should turn around. If not for me, then for Isabella. I didn’t want to lose her. I didn’t want to be alone. I’d already lost half my strength to this tunnel. My Blade had broken. Why was I risking Isabella?

Just as I found my mouth preparing to open and tell Isabella that it was time to go back, that I wasn’t going to risk her as well, a sharp strong odor hit my nose that brought my will for revenge rushing back to me. The scent of Brandr’s sweet, sharp, feminine sweat came to me from somewhere, and the memory of her warm and giving embrace last night flooded back all my doubts.

“RAAAAARRRRRHHHHH!!” I surged forward, propelled by the anger and sudden rush of guilt and loss. At the end of the hallway, off on the left side of the tunnel, an eerie, deep crimson and purple light shone shimmering slightly around the frame of one of the doors. Without slowing my stride at all, I lowered my shoulder and charged forward slamming myself into the door with all my might and speed. The battered wooden door split in half and burst into scattered pieces to the left and right of me.

Blinking, I tried to take in the scene before me, but I couldn’t quite comprehend what I was seeing. I was standing in a classroom – a perfectly abnormally normal classroom!

The florescent lights were shining brightly. There was a teacher at the blackboard with a piece of chalk in her hands scratching mindless drivel on it. The chairs and desks all were clean and undamaged, and a combination of students and goblins sat drooling, staring up mindlessly at the teacher. Some were missing chunks of their flesh; one corpse only had one arm. Another headless body was sitting at attention in a chair, and its head was sitting on the desk in front of it, both facing the front of the classroom.

It looked like a perfectly normal classroom, if having the dead attend class was perfectly normal!

And then, off to the side, in the third row, second seat from the front, I spotted Brandr’s corpse sitting pale and ashen. It was as naked as when she’d left on patrol, and nothing at first seemed obviously wrong with her. There were no open wounds. No sign of blood or injury at all on her. If it wasn’t for her complete and utter lack of bloodless color, one could almost think she was diligently trying to pay attention to the teacher at the front of the class.

As my mind tried to comprehend what it was seeing, one of the pale, bloodless looking girls in the center of the classroom turned her head and tilted it slightly to the side as she slowly put her fingers to her lips and made a shushing sound. “Be quiet, there’s not much longer left in class. I’ll speak to you as soon as it’s over, OK?”