It was well into the night when Daisy finally pulled the group to a halt. Devin had been walking along, eyes half closed, imagining he was back in his small bed at the Good Fortunes Tavern, having just completed a successful contract. A half smile crossed his face as he realized he was daydreaming about just making ends meet with the Black Boar Band, rather than making it big.

Daisy halted the group, jolting him awake and back into reality. Griff stumbled into him slightly, putting him off balance. He felt a jerk at his back as Griff caught him, keeping him from spilling onto the dirt road. Daisy was looking around, frowning.

After a few moments, her face lit up. “Ah, here we are!”

She walked over to a tree at the edge of the road. It looked like any other of the millions and millions of pine trees they had passed during their trek. Looking a little closer, Devin saw a small mark made into the tree. It looked like a T with small claws extending from the bottom.

“We are almost there. A quick walk into the forest and we will be under the mountain soon.” She adjusted the bag on her back and strode into the forest without glancing back. The group scrambled to catch up to her, Shia mumbling curses about having to go back into the forest.

They walked along a small trail in single file, likely a game trail of some sort, one that would be easily lost if you did not know exactly what you were looking for. As the minutes wore on and they kept walking deeper into the forest, Devin began to worry that a quick walk meant something different to orcs than it did humans. His fears of a long walk in the horrid forest disappeared, forgotten in an instant, when they came to a sheer rock wall.

The rock was a deep gray, the color of storm clouds, and smooth, almost polished looking. It was flat and clearly man made, no force in nature could have made such a clean cut, polished wall on its own. Devin walked up to it and reached out with his good hand to stroke its smooth surface. He could feel the heat radiating from its surface as he neared the rock.

Daisy’s hand shot out and caught him by the wrist. She gave him a fierce shake of her head, “Don’t touch it. It won’t recognize you and trip an alarm on the inside.”

“Inside?” Murton asked from behind them. He was eyeing the rock wall nervously. “Are we going to have to go inside that monstrous slab of rock?”

Shia turned to him, her eyebrows raised, “What did you think under the mountain meant?” She seemed to have recovered most of herself since their encounter with the Shriekers, though Devin noticed every time they heard a particularly high pitched noise she would flinch.

“I dunno,” he grumbled, “Maybe it was a euphemism of some sort, like the elves have in their cities.”

“Now hold one just one damnanable minute, dwarf,” Teryn said hotly, spinning on her feet toward him.

He raised his hands defensively, trying to adopt a face of innocent surprise, but only succeeding in looking like a child with their hand caught in the cookie jar. “I said elf, not half elves.”

Devin rolled his eyes and jumped in before the argument would escalate even more, “Both of you, please. Murton, stop antagonizing Teryn. We are going through the mountain to Grinnish. End of story.”

They both mumbled under their breath as they turned from each other, Teryn mumbling much longer and likely more eloquent than Murton’s. Devin turned back toward Daisy, who had let go of his arm when he pulled it away.

“What do we do now?”

Daisy reached out toward the wall and stroked it with her pointer finger, a long stroke from the height of her head to about her waist. Her finger left a trail of light gold, glowing softly in the night.

There were several sharp intakes of breath as the golden light kept going after she lifted her finger away, stretching down to the ground and to several feet above their heads, even Griff’s. The light stopped, quavering for a moment, before it started to spread across the rock wall. The light kept spreading, coming to a halt and forming a doorway.

The light faded as quickly as it had begun, leaving behind a tunnel the width of two men, or about one and a half of Griff. Daisy stood in front of it, a look of sheer delight on her face.

“It works! Oh Gods’ below, it still works!” she exclaimed. “Let's head in everyone, we are almost there.”

Daisy took a step into the tunnel and Devin followed shortly behind. Teryn followed him, Murton behind her, with Griff bringing up the rear behind Shia. As Devin stepped through, it turned pitch black for a moment. After a few steps, soft lights began to emanate from the walls. He reached out to one, not daring to touch it, but felt no heat being cast off of it.

“What are these?” he asked softly.

Daisy glanced over to the light as if seeing it for the first time and shrugged. “Just lights. Why wouldn’t there be lights in an underground tunnel?”

“No, I mean, what are they? It doesn't have any heat like fire.”

“Orcish magic, I suppose.” She shrugged.

“How do you not know?” Devin asked as they walked through the tunnel. The walls were as smooth as the rock face outside, exuding a soft warmth, just enough to be comfortable without sweating through their furs and clothes.

“Because I didn't study magic when I was a child,” Daisy said, looking at him like he was asking where to find honey made from spiders. “It would be like if I asked you how the sewers beneath Mossglenn were built, and how they built some that were put in after the city was founded. If you didn’t study engineering, you likely wouldn't know.”

Devin bit his tongue, slightly chastised. She was right, of course, it was just being in a new area with someone he had never seen, he wanted to understand how it worked. It was a bit unfair to assume just because she was an Orc she would automatically understand everything that took place in her home and how it worked.

They emerged into a larger room, with the heatless lights shining softly without a flicker down on them, ringed around the chamber. A quick glance around told them that the only way in or out was the tunnel they had just come through.

“Huh,” Daisy said, looking around at all the walls. The room was not terribly big, maybe twenty feet across. As Griff followed through into the room, making it feel just that much smaller with his bulk, the glowing light returned over the tunnel they had come through. WIth lightning speed, it snapped shut, locking them in the rock chamber.

Multiple voices erupted, crying out and asking what was happening. As Devin tried to calm them and be heard above them, the lights went out, casting them in perfect darkness. The group stopped their clamoring immediately, and a deathly silence fell on them, as thick as the rock surrounding them.

“Daisy,” Devin whispered, his voice sounding oddly stifled, “What is going on?”

“I don't know,” her small reply came to him from somewhere on his left. “I don't remember this chamber when I came here last. That was over a year ago though.”

“NOBODY MOVE AND NO ONE GETS HURTS,” a deep voice boomed out, seeming to come from all directions at once.

“A likely ruse,” Murton grumbled. Devin heard shuffling around him as the group tried to find the source of the voice.

A pair of hands grabbed Devin’s arms, twisting them behind him. He cried out as a sack went over his head, muffling his voice. Similar sounds were all around him, his band trying to cry out. Devin heard an unfamiliar cry and felt a whoosh of air by him, followed by metal crashing.

“Stop the large one!” the voice called out.

“Griff!” Daisy said, “It’s ok, they are orcs, they are just taking precautions!”

There was a large grunt and another crashing sound of metal. Devin decided to take the leap and trust Daisy.

“Griff, let's do as they say for now. If they have weapons they can kill us all. I’m tied up and in no shape to fight.”

The grunting stopped and no more crashing metal sounded. There was a small whump noise followed by Griff exhaling quickly.

“Uncalled for! Punching a man when he's tied up!” Murton’s voice called out.

“You will keep your comments to yourself or I will see you gagged as well as bound,” the deep voice sounded again. This time it came from Devin’s right, rather than from everywhere at once.

There was a solid push at his back and he stumbled forward. The hands behind him gripped his arms and turned him slightly, pushing forward to start him walking. Devin thanked whoever had built this tunnel that they had the foresight to make the floors as smooth as the walls, or he would have stumbled all the way to wherever he was being taken, arriving with broken toes.

The group marched in silence, the only sounds around them the clinking of what Devin assumed were weapons and armor on their captors. His gut was twisting in on itself. Had he done the right thing trusting Daisy? Was she walking freely with the orc who had taken them or was she bound up too, just like them?

Their captors kept them moving, goading them forward in what felt like a straight line. He could not tell for sure though without being able to see anything. The person behind him would correct his movement with light pushes on his arms, keeping him from walking into the walls. At least they were kind enough to help them avoid hitting anything. That let a small kernel of hope take hope in his chest. If they wanted them dead, why even take them along? Why not kill them in the chamber? And if they did not care for them at all, why take measures to avoid them stumbling or running into anything?

The hands took Devin firmly, turning him quickly, left, right, left again, a slight right, more times than he could count. He soon lost track of his direction entirely. The floor beneath him had changed too, rising for smooth stone to some sort of texture with raised bits. With a final nudge, he walked forward slowly, stopping as he bumped into a wall. He felt someone bump into him from behind and a mumbled apology. Teryn.

After it sounded like everyone had been shuffled into one another, the ties holding Devin's hand behind him were undone. The sack was pulled from his head just after and he found himself staring at a gray skinned orc man in the face. The orc had one yellow eye and two large tusks. One of his elongated ears was torn and a scar ran over his left eye, rendering it white.

He went around, removing everyone's ties and sacks. Devin saw each of the group here, minus Daisy, who was nowhere to be found. He was in a small room, surrounded by the same grey rock on all sides except the far one, which had a stone door and small windows, just large enough to fit a hand through. The scarred orc finished setting everyone free and walked to the door.

He turned to face them and announced in the deep voce they’d heard earlier, “You will stay here until the Regents decide what to do with you.”

“Where is Daisy? What do you plan to do with us?” Devin spoke up. The orc gave him an offhand look, as if he were a fly interrupting a train of thought, then walked out the stone door. It snapped shut behind him and sealed, leaving no hinges or knob of any kind.

Griff rushed over and slammed into the door, but it did not budge. It did not even make a sound or show any sign it would give. Griff tried again, with the same results. He stepped away and lowered himself into a corner, rubbing on his shoulder.

“Well, shit,” Murton said. “What now?”