"So," Lily spoke after a mouthful of spicy lizard sautéed in wine. Both the spices and wine were her creation. "I think it's time we figured out what was going on with the orange energy."

The lines of orange light that they had initially observed moments after they first arrived had been a constant presence in the last week down in these tunnels and caverns. The lines grew steadily over time, covering more and more ground in every direction. Already they extended under the lake, causing the water to glow eerily.

So far, they had only taken the bare minimum of effort in investigating the stuff. In fact, all they had done was use investigative aura sense on it. The energy had major components of infection, growth, fire, light, heat, and death. All of which was ominous and explained both its appearance and ability to extend farther and farther through the rocks. It told them nothing about why or how it was happening and what it meant for them.

Caeden and Lily had mutually agreed that they would only try to figure out where it was coming from and what it was doing after they were relatively certain they could survive the attempt. That discussion when they first fell down here had led to the intervening week of training and trial by fire. Initially, the more they explored and advanced, the more cautious they had become about that initial goal.

Only in the last two days had their confidence grown. Now, instead of encountering holes in every strategy they created, they found only success. Their efforts were being rewarded. Caeden could say with certainty that the four of them could handle basically anything they would find down here.

"Yeah, It's about time, I think." He agreed after swallowing a bite of his mushroom soup with chunks of sautéed lizard. He had a stone bowl and spoon he had carved himself. "We've pretty much got everything down here figured out, more or less. I'm not saying we couldn't be surprised. But even if we were, I think we could handle it."

"Good, that was my thinking as well."

"Sweet! That orange shit is creepy as hell. I wanna go punch whatever made it." Erik slurped at his own bowl of soup. His had moss noodles that the spectral workers had somehow figured out.

"Whatever. Do you think it'll help us get out of here?" Cat huffed. She had finished her lizard steak a while ago and was now brooding. The longer they spent down here, the more Cat complained about it.

"As much as we don't actually know anything, I think it's likely that whatever caused the massive collapse that landed us here was caused by the source of these lines. Honestly, I'm inclined to believe that the collapse, Ash Reapers, sudden spike in monster activity, and the orange light are all connected. It's just too coincidental." Caeden said. "Though I can't guarantee that finding the source will let us get out of here. This seems like some kind of magically enhanced geological event."

"That's not necessarily true." Lily jumped in. "There's every likelihood that this could be a man-made catastrophe."

"Oh?" They hadn't discussed the nature of their situation since they agreed to set it aside until they were stronger.

"Of course. With shrouds involved anything is possible. We've talked about my family's signature ability, right?" Lily looked around, getting nods from everyone.

"Yup, the Island Slayer or something." Erik nodded.

"Island Breaker, actually, but that's not the point. The point is that shrouded exist who could very easily take down this whole mountain. Many of them, actually. Blaine could definitely do it."

"Why was he struggling so much to keep it together, then? It wasn't even the whole mountain! He's the reason we're down here." Cat whined.

"Tsk." Lily admonished Cat's tone. "That's not fair or correct. Destruction is almost universally easier than creation. Making a mountain is infinitely harder than destroying one. Holding a mountain together with swords is much harder than blowing one up. Especially when he was reacting to the situation instead of prepared for it. He didn't even have time to use a mnemonic. We can't blame him for us falling down here."

"But it's been a whole week!" Cat protested. "He should have found us by now."

"That's assuming he can." Lily pointed out patiently as if talking to a small child. "For all we know, he's spent the last week standing in that exact spot, still keeping a section of Black Reach from coming down on our heads. He could be saving our lives this very second. So maybe tone down the blame, hmm?"

Cat huffed. "It sucks down here. I just want to go home."

"We get that, but Cat, you've been whining about it every day. We know, we agree, but it's not happening right now. Cut us some slack, please?" Caeden asked in a much more agreeable tone compared to Lily's barely contained snark. He knew his pale friend was growing increasingly fed up with her tan counterparts' constant bitching.

"Yeah, ok." Cat flopped back, staring up at the ceiling. She let out a sigh. "It's…It's a bit scary. I guess. We don't even know if we can get out."

Lily winced at her friend's rare show of vulnerability, "Ok, I get that. Sorry I've been getting snippy with you. But we're stressed too, and you haven't been very helpful."

"That's true." Caeden could hear the sliver of shame in Cat's voice. "Sorry."

"It's fine. None of us are at our best right now." Despite all the growth they had had, the last week had been a constant stream of dangerous fights one after the other with no reprieve. It was hard to blame Cat for the same irritability they all had. "We just need to work through it."

"I'll try and be better, promise." Cat sounded genuinely remorseful.

"And I'll try to be more understanding. I get that complaining to us is your way of relieving stress." Lily joined in. "I don't want to make you feel like you can't relax with us."

"It's not fair for me to dump on you like that if it's stressing you out, though." Cat acknowledged.

"Hey guys, this whole self-discovery and forgiveness bit is nice and all, but I thought we were talking about the orange stuff and punching the origins thereof." Erik sounded immensely bored.

Lily and Cat both shot him dirty looks and rolled their eyes. Erik didn't even blink.

"Yes, we were. Anything to add to that discussion?"

"Nope, not really. I just wanted you and Caeden to figure it out so we can get on with it instead of sitting around talking about our feelings." Erik shrugged, missing or ignoring the glares he was getting.

"Fine." Lily snapped.

Finding the source of the orange light wasn't as simple as following it back to its source. As far as they could tell, the glowing lines had been spreading for weeks or even months. A time frame that suspiciously coincided with the monster surging in the man-made mining tunnels far overhead. This was another reason why Caeden and Lily suspected they were connected, the time frames were too close together to discount out of hand.

Since the lines were equally distributed wherever they appeared, neither thicker nor thinner, more abundant or less, there was no clear direction. They were so ubiquitous in the tunnel system that pinpointing what direction they came from was a problem. It wasn't as simple as just following the lines back. They would come across caves and tunnel junctions that made it impossible to follow further without guessing.

That wasn't to say it was impossible. When the discussion started, that was a very real concern. After all, they had no guarantees when it came to the mysterious energy. Luckily, a little investigative sense provided a possible solution.

The lines were constantly growing. To do that, they required further supplies of energy to wind their way along the stone. Their auras revealed that that supply of energy was barely traceable, flowing through the lines. If they followed that flow backwards, they should run into the source. They were assuming a single source at this point. It was possible there was more than one, but that assumption did nothing for them until they proved it.

Finding one origin point would let them know if there were more. After all, if they removed or destroyed one source and the lines were still there, that proved another source existed. Until that point, assuming one source was the superior hypothesis. Hopefully, it was only one source.

This whole process led to an even more fundamental question. What were they going to do when they found the origins of the lines? All their actions up to this point had assumed at the outset that these lines and their source had something to do with the monsters and the mountain collapse. That wasn't necessarily true. They had no concrete evidence on what the orange light was. It very well could be completely unrelated and harmless.

None of them thought that was true. Glowing orange lines of slowly creeping energy with a death component? That's got to be sinister in some way. Still, the reality was that they didn't know. They needed a plan of action for when they found the source. After all, they didn't want to be standing around in a possibly hostile situation trying to decide what to do about whatever they found.

That ended up as a non-starter. They didn't know enough about what they were dealing with to make decisions ahead of time. As much as it sucked and left them in a possibly vulnerable situation, the only real option was to find the source and make decisions once they reached it. Anything else was just uninformed guesswork they made up.

All they could do was try to find the source, so that's what they did.

After a good night's rest, or what qualified as night in a cave deep underground lit by mysterious glowing lines, they set out. Their lake cavern had multiple exits all over the place. Some were even underwater. None were uniformly placed, with many being high up the walls, and several were too small for a person to fit through. It just so happened that the tunnel they had first seen the orange lines from also happened to be a ten-foot diameter, relatively smooth tunnel set just above the water line.

This was the main tunnel they had been traveling through over the last week on their monster hunts and was still the best option for them finding the source. After all, since the lights first emerged here, it stood to reason that it had the shortest distance to the origin.

Walking the now familiar halls of this vast underground complex had become a new normal in a very short amount of time. They had had to adapt to their surroundings quickly in their pursuit of perfection and cohesion. The floor was rough and uneven, and this tunnel was one of the better ones. Learning watch their step and keep a constant awareness of their footing had been vital to survival.

It was only dimly lit by the orange veins, leaving deep shadows in every crevice of rock along the way. Many monsters down here were ambush predators, jumping out from concealing overhangs and twisty corners of jagged stone. For all that the dark rock of Black Reach looked like flowing water given solid form; that didn't make it any less sharp and jagged to the touch. There were plenty of rough edges to go around.

It wasn't long before they heard their first fight approaching fast. They weren't a stealth-focused group. They had given up on ambush tactics or even hiding long ago. SO their passage was easily observable in the echoing tunnels to anything with decent hearing. Which most monsters down here had for that very reason.

"ROOOOOOOARGH!" A hooting, rolling roar echoed toward them. From experience, Caeden knew their opponent was a long way off. It paid to be prepared, though.

"Everyone, ready up!"