Thana stared down the long winding tunnel behind her, half hoping to see Sabrina following her. Her niece was not. She was alone in this task, but if Sabrina told it true, she would have the weapon she needed to fight the Spider King and bring an end to his reign. It wasn’t his attempt on her life that nested her hatred, but his propensity to exchange her sister’s life so agreeably. She would not let Sabrina fall to the same fate despite what her niece thought of her.

Thana moved with the swiftness of the wind through the sewers, never halting to make certain her journey was safe. The abominations the Spider King had made were down here and restless, but unable to aid their master’s call to the surface. Abominations as young as these were fortunately fragile to the sunlight above.

When Thana arrived at Sabrina’s workshop, she halted at the door to detect any intruders that might be inside, then when she was content, entered. Inside were the collection of brightly glowing bottles of potions, poisons, and decoctions. All of which made by her niece, and all of which were impressive. Thana knew her way around the workshop, she had after all taken the water-breathing draught last time she was here, but she failed to spot the Goldrush Poison last time she looked.

Thana searched tirelessly, moving bottles and veils with a complete disregard for the noise she was making. She slipped aside potions of healing, night-vision remedies, firebombs, and poisons to paralyze, blind, choke, charm, and kill among the several laden bookshelves. She froze when she saw the shimmer of gold through an empty dusty bottle. Moving the bottle aside she gazed into the swirling molten gold that swam in a veil: Goldrush Poison.

She snatched it and looked deeply into the contents. Inside, the poison danced and swirled like it was supposed to, breathlessly she detected a ribbon of black that curled within the golden liquid. Thana smiled at the sight of her own blood swimming among the deadly poison. She clutched the veil to her chest as tightly as someone discovering a key to absolute bliss.

Something let out a wail from outside the small room. Darkness spilled in through the open doorway and Thana caught a scent of decay permeate the room. The abominations had found her, they were among the darkness hunting her. Thana would need to stay down here through much of her journey to the throne room. The surface above bled fatal light in the onset of the morning and during the day, the world burned as if on fire to the likes of Thana.

Thana grabbed a bright orange potion and sped off into the darkness where she heard her predators give chase. They were moving fast behind her, their many legs scurrying along the walls with undiscouraged haste, but Thana was moving faster. In a straight-up race, she would outpace them, but in the labyrinth of tunnels, her hunters could separate and attempt to cut her off, or undoubtedly try and trap her in one of their webbings.

Ahead she saw one such trap as strings of webbing crisscrossed to bar her path, something Thana had anticipated.

‘He fears me.’ Thana told herself, trying to extinguish the fear burning with every progressive step forward. She feared the King and was well informed on his power. Thana raised the orange potion in her hands and shook it violently. The orange liquid began to fizz inside the bottle and looked ready to explode when Thana launched it forward with a flick of her wrist. The potion hissed through the air and cracked upon impact with the thick white webbing.

There was a ‘pop’, followed by a bright light as the contents of the orange potion sprayed across the spider silk. Whips of orange fire licked around the tunnel consuming all it touched and stained the stone walls black in its wake. When the fire was spent a great gust of wind pulled Thana’s hair forward and after a sucking hiss, the tunnel dimmed and fell silent.

“Not bad Sabrina.” Thana coughed as her eyes readjusted to the immediate flash of light that had just erupted. The firebomb had consumed the webbing and once out of fuel, put itself out. Thana was still flabbergasted her niece was so proficient in making such complex potions.

The tunnel continued for another hundred feet before abruptly ending. A small circular hole sat nested behind five iron bars that reminded Thana of the bars in the dungeons. A single stream of water leaked from the hole and pooled down to begin its course throughout the sewers. Above her, she knew she would find the well-groomed gardens in the main keep.

To the naked eye, it would seem the tunnel was a dead end, but Thana knew a secret. A secret that died with the previous Duke of Leeside. Residing on the eastern wall of the tunnel, a slab of rock sat perfectly aligned except for the ancient runes that were edged into its surface. Thana scratched frantically at the mortar surrounding the slab, hearing the scurrying legs draw closer and closer with each passing moment.

Eventually, she removed enough mortar and slip her pale fingers around the rough stone. The slab pulled free with ease to reveal a black tunnel, small enough to fit a crawling child or lean woman. Thana clambered inside to become consumed in darkness. She crawled upwards on a gradient, using her elbows to drag herself along. This tunnel was designed to be exited, so Thana struggled clumsily to clamber up. She heard the scurrying spiders behind her attempt to follow, but the tunnel would offer little room for monsters of their size.

Up and up, she crawled, the ground forever ascending slightly, until her hand hit hard stone. Another dead end, only this one she was blind too. She had moved through this tight tunnel for so long now she felt buried somewhere deep in the earth. She pushed against the stone ahead and heard it scrap its release. Then with one final push, the slab slipped free to reveal lantern light. She snaked her body from the tunnel and landed heavily on the floor.

She was in the kitchens and if anyone had been working in here, they would have seen a part of the wall suddenly loosen to spill out a dirty Vampire. Thana was glad this was not the case.

The tunnel she used was all but forgotten. A shame when she considered the fate of a little boy named Richard. When the keep was constructed there had been many such tunnels made to allow women and children to escape in times of siege. All were slowly forgotten following a great fire that ravaged most of the keep and burned the library near a century ago. Only those that lived during such times remembered the secret passages that the keep possessed.

Now that she had entered the keep in secret, Thana moved surreptitiously around the blotched wooden table burdened with scraps of stale cheeses, flour, and fermented ale mugs. She pressed against the door that led out of the kitchen and listened carefully—nothing. The keep sounded deserted and from inside, one might not even realise the tumult outside that was ensuing. Thana slid the Goldrush poison up a sleeve and made her way to the throne room.