Iarkspur took off at a sprint, bee-lining towards the man in red. The others stood still trying to work out what was going on before running after her. She didn’t alter course for the river, instead throwing down a seed and riding the growing vine over the water.

The sound of the vine cracking through rock and Guy’s clanking to catch up alerted the man in red and he turned his head to see the angry girl chasing him down. He smiled, winked and ran.

Thankfully the town, whilst built underground, was well lit by the everflame lanterns. Whilst Douglas Davistone was fast, Iarkspur kept him in her sights. He was limping slightly as he ran, which allowed her to catch up significantly. It was not a large town and Iarkspur could see the cavern wall rising behind the next row of houses, cutting off Davistone’s escape. He could see it too and slowed slightly, considering which route to try and run, most likely.

Iarkspur nearly had him, she reached out, trying to grab onto his red hood as it flapped behind him. He spun on his heel and turned the next corner extremely sharply, Iarkspur losing sight of him momentarily. She turned the corner a second after and ran face first into an elderly elven woman. They both hit the ground hard. Iarkspur looked up, left and right, Davistone had vanished. She brushed the dirt off of herself and helped the older woman up as the others caught up. The lady said something in elvish to her that she was glad she didn’t understand, before she pushed past the group and walked down the street, with a slight limp, turning right and out of sight.

“I’m sorry,” Iarkspur called after her, “I lost him.” She said less to the others and more to herself.

“Lost who?” Jadon asked.

“Douglas Davistone. The man Arledge and I were in High Morr for.”

“One of the Severed Redemption? Weren’t they all dead?” Beth said.

“He was too. Which is why I’m wondering what he’s doing here on, apparently, a different continent,” Iarkspur said, slumping to the ground.

“Quite strange for a dead person,” Guy said, turning to look back around. He jogged away for a moment, leaving the group looking at him clank down the street. “Ma’am, ma’am!” He called, looking for the slow walking elderly woman, but she too had disappeared. He returned empty handed.

“Mind explaining what that was about?” Jadon said.

“Not at the moment,” Guy replied. “Forming an idea.”

“Well, look,” Beth said, “we aren’t going to work anything out standing around here. How about we make use of our new coin and get some food, some drink and some rest. Finally.”

“Seconded,” Ephin said.

Everyone walked back to the Stonecut Softaway and took up a table to sit down and rest after the long day that began all the way back under the ocean.

“So, if Davistone is digging around here for some reason and the other Davistone wasn’t real, do you think any of the other Severed Redemption members are still alive?” Beth said taking a long sip of her ale.

“You shouldn’t be drinking that,” Guy said, but Beth slapped away his reaching hand.

“Please shut up,” she said, “if I’m old enough to jump between realms and kill monsters, I’m old enough to drink.”

“I’m not sure about the other members, or even if the dead person was him,” Iarkspur said, “I was a bit in shock so I could be wrong.”

“Let’s assume you’re right, for now, as that’s the safer option,” Jadon said, “the more pressing matter would be why is Davistone here of all places?”

“I’m not sure,” Iarkspur said, “when Arledge and I met for the first time, Davistone had attacked Arledge’s home and family, but seemed to be on a path to something else in Urkeoaes. Not sure what. Perhaps something here is related?”

“Two very different places on different continents,” Beth said, “doubtful.”

“But not impossible,” Guy said, “you have some notes, don’t you? Perhaps you could do some digging and see if this place pops up in them?”

“I guess I could,” Beth said, “but first, sleep.”

Everyone went up to their rented rooms after the meal and Jadon held Beth back for an extra moment. He pulled out the collected notes from the laboratory of the machine people.

“Here,” he said, “I figured you enjoyed learning and studying. Maybe these could help?”

Beth glanced over them.

“I have no idea what language this is,” she said and then, seeing his expression fall slightly, “but thank you, I can’t wait to figure it out.”

She took the collection of sheets and went into her shared room with Iarkspur.

Jadon waited a minute more in the corridor, nodded to himself and went over to his room. This time, I had asked to be on his own considering Ephin’s episode the night prior.

Against her better judgement, Beth stayed up much later into the night, reading over her book. She found some passages that perhaps might be useful, but she would need to investigate more around town the following day to make sure.

Feeling sleep approaching, Beth cast a curious eye over the notes that Jadon had given her. The words made no sense at all, however there were images too, almost feral drawings depicting what was possibly a rupture. The drawings were so messy and the words of a language she couldn’t fathom that she made no headway at all in her studies.

She put the notes down on the bedside table, tucked into her book and closed her eyes to try and get some sleep before the others woke up. Lying in the darkness, hearing the light snoring of Iarkspur, she thought she could hear metal on metal, similar to a hammer on an anvil. Repetitive and boring its way into her brain. She shook off the feeling and managed to let sleep take her. It was not a restful night.

Jadon was the first up, his normal nightly activities allowing him a good control of when he both went to sleep and woke up to start each day. He went downstairs and filled up on a hot breakfast whilst waiting for the others to traipse in one at a time, each looking more tired than the last. Beth was the last to emerge, looking as if she hadn’t caught a single minute of sleep.

“We have a good day ahead of us,” Jadon said, smiling above his empty plate. “Maybe it’s my full coin purse talking, but that’s as good a reason as any. What’s the plan?”

“Can you be quiet and let me wake up?” Beth groaned, biting into the greasy meat on her plate.

Once everyone had eaten and drank enough, making the most of a night’s stay back in their own realm, Beth discussed her findings with them.

“I think this town is connected to the rupture war in some way, and maybe to ruptures in general. That might explain what Davistone was doing here. We just need to find a specific cave system. It works as the main entry point to the town for people travelling between this country and this one.” Beth emphasized her presentation by pointing out different portions of a rudimentary map that had been illustrated in the book.

“Why do we need to find the cave system?” Guy asked, “wouldn’t that take us out of town?”

“Yes, but this town is just a stop on what this book calls the Pilgrimage of Potential. That cave system connects us to the main route of the pilgrimage too. Do you have any better ideas?”

Guy shook his head and the group started walking. They couldn’t work out which direction they were meant to be looking for the main entrance to the town, so they walked towards where the walls of the cavern intersected with the town and started to follow it around until they found a large opening.

This opening was well lit and was split into two smaller pathways by a large statue. The statue was of a huge bald man, forced down onto one knee and holding up the roof of the cave with both hands. Curious, the group looked around at the statue, which was smiling for some reason. It had a bronze plaque fixed to the base of it. It read:

Welcome to the Voiceless Abyss

Main stop on the Pilgrimage of Potential

Safe haven by the gracious sacrifice of Kin, the Smiling Giant, Champion of Vixtrie and Defender of Crend, Member of the Demise of Drakalkhan

“I knew it,” Beth said, “this person was one of those heroes of the Rupture War. The mention of this place was brief so it didn’t mention what his sacrifice was, simply that he helped a lot of people flee from a fight and they used this town as their asylum until the war was over.”

He was in my dream, Ephin thought, the large one holding the trident. I wonder why I was shown it if it happened so long ago.

“So, we follow these caves and follow the pilgrimage, for what?” Guy said.

“I don’t want to agree with him, but yeah, why?” Jadon echoed.

“Because we need answers on why Davistone is here, for Iarkspur and Arledge,” Beth said, looking at Iarkspur for support.

“It would be nice to know,” Iarkspur said, “and if this is how we figure it out, I’m all for it.”

“And if it’s unrelated?” Jadon asked.

“Then we’re just as much in the dark as we have been from the start,” Beth replied, “now come on. If it ends up being nothing, we could get back here safe within a couple days.”

“I’m only going because I have nothing better to do,” Jadon said.

“Sure. Now stop whining.”

The cave system was not as complicated as the book made out. There were helpful signs and everflames pointing them in the right direction the entire way, until they reached a path that was well-paved and not like the hard, trodden down dirt that they had been walking on until that point.

A sign pointed upwards and they saw a precarious staircase winding up into the rock ceiling, also well-lit. The main path continued in both directions as far as they could all see. The sign that pointed upwards also had signs pointing left and right. The right one read: Araven; the left one read: Dracisle.

“Dracisle?” Guy said, “like, the actual Dracisle?”

“What’s so bad about that?” Jadon asked.

“What’s so bad about a country entirely run by dragons, with dragon-descended people as its population?” Guy continued, visibly shaking.

“Guy, we aren’t going to Dracisle. We’re going up, following the pilgrimage,” Beth said, placing a hand on the armored man. “If it was so dangerous, this wouldn’t be a regular thing for people to do.”

“You don’t know that,” Guy said.

“I do know that according to this book, there hasn’t been a war between Dracisle and Araven for a good few centuries, so we shouldn’t have anything to fear.”

Before anyone could slow the group down by arguing again, Beth started to climb the stairs, which were steep enough for her to have to use her hands to keep herself moving upwards. Halfway up, everyone took a break as their limbs felt like they were burning.

Jadon was getting routine magical help from Ephin for his leg and, whilst it looked better every day, it was obviously still giving him some discomfort.

After what seemed like a whole day of dragging themselves up the stone steps, Beth emerged at the top, in a small stone shelter. More like a shed than a complete building. There was a thick set of wooden doors between them and the elements.

Everyone took another break at the top, Guy wheezing heavily in his armor.

“Why did you even wear that?” Jadon asked.

“The small priest said that there had been regular weird appearances from things. Better to be prepared.”

“Well, as long as the stairs don’t kill you first,” Ephin laughed, also covered in a thin layer of sweat.

“We’ve done well, let’s keep pushing,” Beth urged, walking over to the double doors and forcing one of them open, the heavy wind outside making it difficult.

The freezing wind rushed inside the room, covering anything close to the door, or Beth, in a light spray of snow. Whilst everyone had been overheating from the climb, the gust of wind fixed that quickly.

The winds were fierce this high up. Everyone stopped to take in the view. They were all high up in the mountains and far below them, they could see a thick, rich forest. Up as high as they were, the snow settled to at least Beth’s knee height, although she believed it went deeper and she was simply walking above it.

Beth and Guy took the lead in trudging through the snow, Guy watching for danger as Beth guided the group from the rough map in the book.

There were everflames sheltered underneath thick glass jars to protect them from the worst of the winds and light the way for those attempting to walk the path.

Beth could hear the complaints of those behind her and even she started to think it was a ridiculous level of risk to figure out some information based on a hunch. An unnecessary hunch.

Something large began to form out of the snowy fog ahead, uphill at the base of a large peak.

Beth pointed it out to Guy and, both squinting through the snow, they pushed on.

The marvel of a stone building stood out from the mountain to meet them, the back of it being built into the mountain. Two statues flanked the gold-plated doors. One, the group recognized as Kin, the Smiling Giant. In his hands he held a long trident pointing up, and a large sword resting towards his feet, point down. The statue next to him was eroded beyond recognition. Perhaps it once stood tall, but there was little remaining of the original statue, apart from the feet, which had also mostly worn away.

Beth and Guy worked together to pull open one of the gold-plated doors and let themselves into the building.

The interior was almost sparklingly clean. A grey marble floor, and thick, marble walls, carved into pretend wood logs. The interior looked like a log cabin, if it had been frozen in time and turned into a statue.

Two fenced off alcoves lay on either side of the empty room. Each alcove, nestled behind the metal fence, held a sarcophagus. One was larger and the plaque beside it read:

Here lies Kin, always the first to befriend,

never once could hate reside in his huge heart.

Others came first. In the end, the world was his family.

“Holy heck,” Beth said, “one of the heroes is buried right here.”

“Yes, we can read,” Jadon said, “is there anything useful at all from seeing some musty old tomb?”

“What does the other one say?” Beth asked Iarkspur, who had tried to look at that one first.

The alcove was smaller, as was the sarcophagus, but it was no less grand. There was no plaque.

“It doesn’t say anything. I have no idea who is in this one,” Iarkspur said, shrugging.

“Weird,” Beth said, “they must have been important otherwise they wouldn’t be here.”

“Strange that both the statue outside and the memorial bit inside are both impossible to figure out for one person and nearly pristine for the other,” Ephin said.

“What are you all doing here?”

The group spun around in unison to see the voice. Guy drew his sword.

A figure stood by the entrance. Somehow, he had both opened and closed the door without any of them feeling the windchill. He stepped forwards, making no sound at all, and pulled his hood down. A little bit of snow fell from the hood and he caught it to avoid dirtying the floor.

Before the group, stood a metal man.

“I prefer not to repeat myself. What are you all doing here?”