“Sorry, could you say that one last time,” Iarkspur said to the guard, “I swear you have the funniest name. No offence.”

“None taken. My name is Guy Melneramus,” the guard said, trying unsuccessfully to puff his chest out to say it.

“It’s so silly, no offence,” Iarkspur said, “because you’re a guy called guy.”

She leaned forward and patted his shoulder whilst giggling.

Arledge listened to the echoes of the giggles, not taking his eyes off the open doorway. The two of them had worked on the stone doors unsuccessfully for a short while and then turned their attention to the guard as he had risen from his unconscious state.

As the conversation had gone on, Iarkspur and Arledge had both learnt a lot about the guard. He was new to the patrol; however, his dad was some high up person so he had gotten placed in charge of a troop of people from the start. He disliked the cold of the city and longed to move up north, however loyalty to his house kept him at High Morr. He just didn’t want to do too well at his post and get transferred to Fort Lastlight, even deeper south than even High Morr. All in all, Arledge felt bad that they had accidentally dragged a guard with them to wherever they were and even worse that the man called Jadon had hurt him unnecessarily.

Midway through the conversation, Arledge had heard something that he could swear came from down the stairs. An explosion of some sort. He heard another couple shortly after and hadn’t taken his eyes off the doorway since. It was likely the others setting off traps or being reckless in some unknown way but he was concerned nonetheless.

“Any chance of loosening these vines up, or taking them off?” Guy asked, trying and failing to flex against the green restraints to gain a little breathing room.

“Unfortunately, not, Guy the guy,” Iarkspur said, “that would have to be a group decision.”

“How do you all know each other anyway?”

“Oh, we don’t.”

“You… don’t?”

“Not in the slightest,” Iarkspur said, “I met Arledge a little while ago and we only bumped into the others today in the house.”

“And what were you doing in that building?”

“Don’t answer that,” Arledge said.

“I’m not exactly working right now,” Guy said, trying to nod at the vines around him.

“And when we return?” Arledge said, still not turning to face him.

“Do you really think we will?” Guy asked.

“You think I know a single thing about what is going on right now?” Arledge said, right before his ears began to twitch. “They’re coming. Wait, no, one person. One person is coming.”

Iarkspur spun the vines so that Guy could look towards the door too as they tensed, hearing the footsteps that Arledge had already begun to hear distinctly.

Jadon ran out of the dark entrance, panting heavily from the exertion of running up the numerous steps. He pointed back down the stairs trying to get words out even as he stumbled further away. He was carrying a large sword, ornately carved with runes; with both blade and hilt a polished, shining platinum.

“He’s coming,” Jadon said, gasping for air. Arledge could see a growing patch of blood under Jadon’s lower left ribs.

“Who is?” Arledge asked running closer to Jadon and the doorway, “Where are the others?”

“He’s crazy,” Jadon said, pushing past the rabbit. “He killed them and he’s coming for us too. We need to get out of here right now.”

“Just slow down and explain, please,” Iarkspur said, walking towards Jadon.

“We don’t have time to slow down. Do you know a way out of here, yet?”

“Not really, no. We were wait-” Iarkspur began.

“-Good. In that case, it was nice knowing you,” Jadon said, pulling some blue dust from his pocket and throwing it up in a small cloud in front of him. He went to punch it but the cloud had already been dispersed as Arledge had jumped through, kicking most of the particles aside.

“Not so fast,” Arledge said, “You seem a little too quick on your feet in comparison to our injured ally. Who are you?”

“Why should I waste my time telling you?”

The person that looked like Jadon held out his hand and the sword on his back flickered and appeared in it, disappearing from his back.

“Cool trick,” Arledge said stretching slightly to warm up for this encounter.

A vine burst out of the stone slab that the mystery person was standing on and tried wrapping itself around his leg. A swift swing of the sword and the vine was severed.

“As much as I would enjoy trading blows with you, I’m in a bit of a hurry. Your fight should be arriving any moment now,” the mystery person said, holding the sword out. “Let’s see what this thing can do.” He slashed out with it, half of the sword vanishing from Arledge and Iarkspur’s sight, before reappearing.

The air in between them all was shimmering as if in extreme heat. The person jumped into the heated air before Arledge had a chance to connect with him, Arledge went by, swinging at nothing.

A shift in some stones and Iarkspur looked up to see the person standing high up by one of the holes in the roof. He gave her a wave and jumped down out of sight.

“What the heck was that?” Iarkspur said, helping Arledge to his feet.

“I don’t know, but I hope the others are okay,” Arledge said. He then turned to the still tied up Guy. “I think we might be needing your help.”

Jadon’s leg was on fire. Thankfully not literally, but he was reaching the end of his ability to dodge the barrage of bricks sent his way. The guy with the glowing eyes was relentless and only focused on him for some reason. Ephin glowing in the corner, mending something that the girl had hurt.

So, Jadon had a choice. Run up the stairs just behind him and leave the other two to the wrath of this underground person; or he could keep the man distracted until the others were back up the stairs first. Barely a choice.

“You’re a real bad shot, you know that?” Jadon said, limping to his left and away from both his allies and the exit.

The man was too angry laugh even sarcastically. Instead, he held out a hand, which began to crackle with electricity. Jadon tensed, readying to trying a dodge the incoming bolt when something searing hot slammed into his back. The man had pulled on the rock Jadon had been pressed up next to, heating it till it glowed and then dragged it into Jadon’s back whilst he had been focusing on the potential electric blast.

Jadon cursed, rolling to his feet and stumbling with his one good leg. He pulled off his coat to avoid any of the heated rock on it seriously burning him.

“I spoke too soon,” Jadon said on unsteady feet. “What else you got?”

The glowing from Ephin stopped and he slowly helped Beth to her feet, both of them creeping towards the stairs. Jadon made sure they were both on their way up with his peripheral line of sight.

“In fact,” Jadon said, ducking another two bricks sent for his head and lurching to his right to avoid one at his chest. “Scratch what I just said. I’m not interested in seeing any more. Have a nice time in the dark.”

Jadon turned and ran up, limping up the stairs after the other two.

It was slow going. The stairs continued up for much longer than Jadon had thought it had taken them to go down. All three of them were trying to feel their way up the stairs as they climbed, due to the lack of light. The only positive was that the person chasing them did not seem to be in a hurry and was stalking up the stairs at a pace that could be classed as leisurely if he wasn’t trying to kill them.

Ephin and Beth broke out into the light first, quickly followed by Jadon. Arledge, Iarkspur and the guard were all waiting by the door ready to swing fists. Even as the other three faltered, Ephin and Beth pushed past them with Jadon behind them.

“Collapse that tunnel now,” Jadon said, holding his leg to stop him from falling to the ground.

“Okay, but why?” Iarkspur said, ripping roots and vines through the rock and stone to drag it all down behind the doorway.

“No idea. Angry man,” Ephin said, just as breathless as Beth.

“I can hear him,” Arledge said, “whoever he is, he’s getting closer. As an aside, are you three who you appear to be?”

“What, of course,” Beth said, “Why?”

“Not enough time to explain, but long story short, we just saw him leave,” Iarkspur said, pointing at Jadon.

“Can we discuss this when we aren’t about to die?” Jadon said, crouching by the collapsed entrance to the stairs, his dagger drawn. “Can someone please try to break through those stone doors before this guy caves our heads in?”

As if on cue, the rubble blocking the stairs burst outwards, showering the rest of the group in stone. Everyone dove to the ground to try and avoid the worst of the rocks hitting them and looked up from the floor at the man stepping forth from the darkness, his eyes still glowing that freezing blue.

Jadon, prepared to the side of the doorway, swung up and plunged the dagger triumphantly into the man’s neck, the blade piercing in and poking out the other side. Jadon’s slight smile at getting the surprise vanished as the man did not flinch at all. He grabbed Jadon’s outstretched arm, and then Jadon’s neck and lifted Jadon up to eye height.

“Give it back,” the man said.

“It’s hard to ask what, when I can hardly breathe,” Jadon choked out.

“If that is how you wish to proceed,” the man said, turning Jadon to face the others, “nobody will leave here until it is returned.”

“We don’t know what you’re on about,” Arledge said, “but you better get your hands off our friend.”

“Friend? You admit to being an accomplice to a thief?”

Arledge faltered, looking up at Jadon who tried to shrug.

“Ia, get those doors open while we deal with this,” Arledge said to the taller girl.

She turned and sprinted towards the opposite end of the chamber as the man holding Jadon sighed and shook his head, his anger switching to an almost sad expression, before he locked eyes with Jadon once more and the fury returned. He kept hold of Jadon in one hand and used the other to pull the dagger out of his neck, the wound beginning to knit back together.

Arledge braced against the ground and shot himself towards the man, planting his feet in the man’s chest to kick him back down the stairs. The man did not budge. The kick that had sent other guards flying and broken doors had no effect.

The man took the dagger and stabbed down at the rabbit, meeting little resistance as Arledge’s blood sprayed across the floor. The rabbit hit the ground hard and tried crawling away.

“Return what is mine or this is the fate of you all. No more warnings.”

The man stamped down and Arledge lay dead.

Beth screamed as the man pulled back from the unmoving rabbit. Ephin started to glow and Guy charged the man head on.

By the time Guy had closed the distance, the man was twice as tall, growing quickly. The glow from his eyes was shimmering across his entire body and he swung Jadon against the stone wall, knocking him out but not killing him.

Guy tried to land a punch but was kicked away. Beth was standing still, staring at Arledge.

Ephin, his fists glowing a bright yellow, ran up and tried swinging at the man. Whilst he was unable to physically connect, many smaller yellow fists peppered into the man’s legs and arms. For once, he showed a sign of vulnerability and dropped Jadon.

“Hey,” Ephin said to Beth, “get him out of here.” And then shouting back across the chamber, “Ia, Arledge is down. How long do we have?”

Iarkspur turned to see what Ephin was talking about, with her vines making slow progress on the thick stone doors. Only a few small cracks had appeared so far.

Her eyes picked out Arledge lying on the ground. Her first and only friend outside of her family. The stone doors were wrenched open. Her shriek accompanied by the rushing in of a mass of roots and vines swarming the area.

The man, momentarily distracted by the glowing fists, looked up to see the wall of green approaching and tried to reach down to grab Jadon’s body but was met by Guy swinging at his face. The fist connected and Guy felt the nose break, however he was still pushed aside. The distraction had taken up enough time however, as Beth and Ephin were pulling Jadon’s body away and all four of them were picked up by the vines and carried towards the exit.

The man strode forwards to follow and met the plants head on, holding his hands out and letting forth a torrent of flames that burnt away the plants even as more took their place. He was too slow. The surviving members of the group had escaped, with Iarkspur leaving half the chamber filled with dense plants between them and the man.

Ephin and Guy carried Jadon whilst Ephin helped him wake up, his hands still glowing.

Beth and Iarkspur ran ahead, the group staying tight and trying to run in a straight line whilst keeping an eye on the temple-like structure that was quickly disappearing behind them, hidden by trees.

They were in a dense forest. It did not take long, however, for the group to break out of the treeline onto a beach. Jadon looked around and saw the sun shining down on them. There wasn’t much of a sky between them though. Out past the beach was an absence of water. In its place was more space. More bright lights, like stars.

There were many rowing boats tied to stakes in the sand, bobbing on nothingness. Each one had a sparkling purple name painted onto the wood.

The group followed a set of footprints down the beach to the boats. The footprints stopped at a stake missing a boat. Besides that stake, was a boat that read Rinterria One. Ephin looked at a few of the other boats and could not make out neither the language nor the names painted on.

“This is going to have to be it,” Ephin said, “We live in Rinterria. We can make our way back home as long as we get back to our realm. We have no idea where these other boats go.”

“How do you know this goes anywhere?” Jadon said.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Good point,” Jadon said, pulling himself into the boat and helping Beth and Iarkspur step in also. Guy untied the rope from the stake and both he and Ephin pushed it off from the shore, hopping in before it separated from land entirely. Guy looked for oars but there weren’t any. The boat carried on at a quickening pace, however, and the group watched the beach start to shrink as they pulled away.

“Look,” Ephin said.

He pointed out the man, still twice as large as a normal person, rush out onto the beach. He did not waste time shouting over to them however. He held up his hands one last time and aimed.

“Hold on everyone,” Jadon said, “although he has bad aim, which could help.”

A deep purple blast rocketed towards the boat, two blasts. Three. Four. Five.

The first two missed, passing just overhead and causing all the boat’s occupants to duck down. The third hit the back of the boat square on, splintering the wood and slowing its speed. The fourth skimmed the bottom of the boat, ripping wood from beneath them. Jadon and Beth lost their footing and were left dangling below the boat, holding onto the still attached wooden seats as the boat lurched violently, right into the path of the final blast. The last impact split the boat completely open and everyone held on tight as they once more spun through the vast openness between realms.

As Jadon held on, he heard a voice in his head. The voice of the man with the ice blue eyes.

“I know your face. There is no place between here and your home realm that I cannot find you. You have chosen your path. Start counting your breaths, for now they are numbered.”