The mine cart barreled through the buffer, knocking it aside in a shower of sparks, and ran off the tracks into the black abyss. Everyone screamed as they fell at a fast velocity into an terrifying void of darkness. “Well, amigos, does anyone have any last words?” Antonio asked. “All I gotta say, is that I lived and died a happy rogue, knowing I spent my last moments beside someone I cared deeply about.”

Van stopped screaming to swoon a little before she resigned herself to her dark fate, clutching Antonio’s hand tightly.

“I have a confession to make,” Jetta said with a look of equal trepidation on her face. “I’ve spent most of my life in the shadows. Afraid to tell my father that I desired to carry on the Larson name, afraid to tell Archibald something…”

“You wanted to tell me something?” Archibald asked, looking into her eye.

“Yes…Archie,” she said, pushing her fingers together. “I’ve wanted to tell you that I…”

Without warning, Cyrus let out a loud belch that roared through the pit. “Sorry,” he said. “I get indigestion when I’m about to die.”

Cyrus couldn’t see much in the darkness-- with only the rapidly fading lights from above to brighten everyone’s faces--but he could have sworn he saw Jetta give him a glare that said “if this pit doesn’t kill us, I will.”

“What were you saying Jetta?” Archibald asked urgently

“Forget it,” she muttered. “I feel too sick to talk.”

Cyrus quickly looked around, using the last glimpses he had of the light. He spied the pouch Jetta had snatched from Bungo and his eyes lit up in the dark. “Ooh ooh!” Cyrus said pointing enthusiastically at the pouch. “Guys, open that pouch and use it.”

Archibald meditated for a split second. “Oh, of course,” he exclaimed. “Great mystic marshmallows! You’re a genius Cyrus.”

Archibald snatched the bag, reached into it and threw magic pink dust all over everyone. Suddenly, their dramatic dissent stalled and they began to float slowly downward. “Yep,” Archibald remarked. “Pixie dust. The number one magic guaranteed to float your boat…or mine cart in this case.”

“Wow,” Van said, her eyes sparkling from the pink dust. “You saved our lives, prince.”

“No,” Cyrus responded. “It saved our lives. Wait a minute…it saved our lives…”

The young prince contemplated what he had done. He had used pixie dust for something greater than floating turkey legs and butter scones up to his room. He had used it to save lives, and most importantly, he saved the lives of people he cared about…plus Antonio and Jetta. Perhaps he had been rash in his decision to save a majority of the dust for himself. It had miraculous uses and it would be wrong for him to deny a gift like this to the rest of the kingdom. Once he apologized to Thieves’ Town for his parent’s behavior, he would allow them a much greater share of dust than his.

The enchanted mine cart sparkled and the five rode on through the darkness until they reached the ground. But when they did, they wished they were still up in the air. Behind them was a glinting wall of sinister black gold, and in front of them, a small army of bandaged miners were headed by Bunting in his green chef’s apron. His glowing green eyes and blood red brooch shone in the dark. His light blue skin glistened and he gave a surprised smile. “Ho ho ho,” he said in his flamboyant voice. “Here I thought I was on top of you, but eet turns out you’re on top of me, quite literally.”

Bunting outstretched his hands to show two large metallic containers of devil’s gold clutched by eight men. “Eets a shame I’ve already excavated what I need. This gold is extremely potent and now I can craft a superb basin!”

“What do you need a basin for?” Antonio asked.

“That’s for me to know and for you to die an ignorant death, pretty boy,” Bunting laughed. “When my men ‘ave stabbed you and speared you, you can go to the grave blissfully unaware of my future glory.”

“There’s no way we’re gonna die at your hand,” Van said, unsheathing her sword. “Each one of us has a greater will to survive than your army of zombies.”

“Such a bold leetle poodle,” Bunting said as he chuckled. “But you haven’t put your moolah in your mouth, if that’s ‘ow the saying goes.”

“I don’t have to listen to any of your weird sayings, chef,” Van responded. “For I’m also fighting for true love.”

Antonio grabbed his twin rapiers from his belt. The two sword wielders exchanged glances of knowing love. “That’s right,” Antonio said. “You Everbloods live a cold, passionless existence, always concerned with your self preservation. But us lovers can light a flame that burns passionately in each others eyes as long as we live. You’ll never defeat us when we’re together.”

“Ho ho,” the evil chef laughed. “Perhaps I should test your bond. Oh guards, spear these morsels for moi!”

Sixteen guards moved in to protect Bunting and the miners, each armed with a staff or sword. They had the same dull look in their yellowy eyes and were wrapped tightly with bandmages. Jetta roared at Bunting who had begun to walk towards the exit. “I will get the town back under my control, Bunting!”

“I’d like to see you try Madamoselle Jetta,” the chef said raising his hand but refusing to turn around. “You’ll soon be like your father, languishing in zee grave. A forgotten landmark in my empire ho ho ho.”

As Bunting exited the shaft with his prize, the men moved in closer. Jetta leaped forward and sliced a man’s bandmage right off of his face. They slipped off and fell to the ground like a pile of ribbons, but just as Jetta’s breath charged the air, the bandmage sprang up and tethered itself around the man.

Archibald shook his head. “It seems Bunting’s power has grown and strengthened the dark creatures in this land too. I’m afraid these men will have to die.”

Jetta shook her head. “It pains me to do this to my father’s brotherhood but I agree. Every one of them will be honored.”

She threw three of her knives directly into the hearts of the closest men to her. They all crumpled immediately. Holding their swords directly in front of them to prevent a similar fate, other thieves moved in and Jetta dashed at them with her head forward and her knives held up in the air. Vanessa ran into battle with her sword deftly angled in an attack position and she fought a lumbering swordsman with precision and passion. He blocked a few swings and lunged forward. She parried him and cut him down.

Archibald stepped forward and tossed Cyrus a bag of dragon powder; the young prince devoured it immediately. He felt the fire burning inside him like he had devoured a dozen hot wings. His stomach swelled like a mighty dragon and he let out a ferocious burst of fire, causing four men to be caught in the blaze. They all flailed around; their bandmages making them extra flammable before they dropped too. Archibald patted Cyrus on the back. “You’re getting quite good at that princey! Keep this up and I might move you up to the next level of tricks.”

“Aww come on,” Cyrus groaned back. “I still haven’t reached the next position?”

The Majester wagged his finger with a smile on his face. “I might need to see one more magnificent display from you.”

Cyrus nodded. He watched as Jetta and Vanessa had successfully taken down three more men, leaving five standing. Archibald smirked and reached into his briefcase. “Avert your eyes ladies, you too fellas!”

Everyone did and the Majester whipped out a withered gorgon head with a singular eye and dead snakes for hair. The five men all stopped to look at Archibald and immediately boiled over into stone statues. The Majester’s gorgon head shriveled up into a black husk and fell to the ground, completely harmless.

“Whoa! What did you do?” Cyrus asked.

The Majester laughed as he swung his briefcase back and forth. “In my travels I decapitated a famous gorgon with the ability to turn men to stone. I don’t quite remember her name!”

“That’s amazing!” Cyrus exclaimed.

“A shame that once a gorgon is been killed,” Archibald remarked “Its powers seem to be a one time use. If I knew that, I wouldn’t have used it.”

“Oh well,” Van said. “At least none of us got hurt in this battle. We’ll need all the strength we have to fight Bunting. I just don’t understand one thing…”

“What?” Antonio, Archibald and Cyrus all asked.

“Why didn’t you fight Antonio? After you gave such a passionate speech you just stood there.”

Antonio gave a smirk and quickly averted his eyes from Van’s earnest gaze. He quickly summoned his charm. “You see my fine senorita, I…I…”

Cyrus could no longer stand silently as Antonio came up with another lie. He figured that since it was four on one, they could bring Antonio to justice. He quickly stepped in between Antonio and Van. “Van, I can’t take this anymore. Antonio’s just been playing you. He’s been playing us all. He really works for Bunting.”

Antonio fell silent as Cyrus looked to his allies for their reaction. Everyone was frozen in place until Van finally spoke up. “Cyrus, where would you come up with such a bold accusation? Just because Antonio had cold feet doesn’t mean he’s plotting against us. Though I would like to know why he didn’t fight.”

Cyrus looked to Antonio who quickly stepped ahead of him towards Van and Jetta. “You see my rather rotund rascal, I wanted to give the ladies a chance to show off their unbelievable talents in battle.”

Both women seemed honored by his words. A wide smile stretched on Van’s face and Jetta looked almost as flattered and surprise, as if to say “If only I was 20 years younger…”

Antonio waltzed over to Van and tickled her chin. “I firmly believe that she’s just as capable as me when it comes to swinging a sword. Perhaps if you had a talent with hand to hand combat, you’d understand how beautiful it is to see her in action.”

Cyrus could tell at that point Van was gone. Her brain was overtaken by the flattery and she embraced the traitorous rogue with a warm hug. As she nuzzled him, Antonio looked to Cyrus and gave him a playful wink. Cyrus looked around helplessly as Archibald placed his hand on his shoulder. “Come, we need to foil this madman,” he said. “I have a feeling that his plans far exceed what we thought he was going to do with that gold.”

The five ran through a freshly blasted tunnel in the mines. The smokey smell of blast powder lingered in the tunnel and the passage was jagged and uneven from the blasts themselves. Antonio ran with his hand on Van’s back, as if to say to Cyrus ‘I have her in my grip.’ Fifteen minutes passed as they ran through the crudely blasted tunnel before they reached the end. The five stood in a regular mine shafts crafted with wood and metallic tracks. “We’re almost out,” Jetta said. “This is where everyone usually works.”

“We should prepare ourselves, Archibald said. “Everbloods are nasty normally, but with the devil’s gold, this one has performance enhancing evil on his side.”

“I’ve got my own performance enhancer,” Antonio responded with a look of darkness on his face. “The loving face of Vanessa Montero. This time I will give it my all.”

A solitary glint of sunlight signaled the end of the cavern. Everyone emerged in the open air where they were choked by the humid heat. Withered brown grass swayed in the burning breeze; it offered no relief to their lungs. Sickly purple-grey storm clouds billowed on the horizon where shards of sun of pricked through like heavens, attempting to penetrate a blockade from hell itself. A graveyard fenced in by a rusted gate stood a short distance from the cavern, and in front of it, Bunting sat on the slabs of black gold with his legs crossed. He was surrounded by the eight men who had carried it out, all were armed and just as brainwashed as the sixteen men they fought

“Bonjour friends,” he said as they ran to confront him. “Today is a momentous day! You will witness the full power of the devil’s gold and when I’m done, the land of shadows will extend across the world of light.”