Chapter 6

The Illusion

Terrill wished they had prepared themselves better.

Their rushed departure from the Turtle Stone Resort notwithstanding, the quartet found their supplies of food and water had already run dangerously low, necessitating them to be careful on the road westward. Not that there was a road. It might as well have all been sand for all Terrill knew, and the one map they had that hadn’t been destroyed by the ocean didn’t reveal any hidden path or topographical qualities of the road to Tarkinder. Only the volcano provided itself as a guide.

“Maybe we head north,” Floyd panted out a couple hours after they’d started. The sun was dipping low, and the air colder, but Terrill felt like his skin was still burning with sweat. He considered agreeing with Floyd, who happened to be the current steward of their map. “Better than heading south. Ardoris is like a giant strip, so maybe following the coast would be safer than crossing the desert.”

“And what if it’s impossible to cross by the coast? We’d have wasted half a day or more just getting there,” Krysta countered. She was in a foul mood, and Terrill was ready to order a break to give her the rest she required. Every time he considered it, however, she tossed him the most scathing glare that just dared him to do it. She was pressing on.

“We should have just started by the coast, then…”

To answer both of their needs, Torry swiped the map from Floyd’s hands and looked it over with the most discerning of eyes. Once she’d found what she was looking for, she fell back near Terrill as he glanced behind him. In the shimmery haze, there was nothing to see, but more than once since they’d entered the desert, he felt someone was following them. At first, he’d believed it to be the guards from the resort, having figured out who broke into their vault, but Terrill discounted that possibility. Now he was left with the conundrum of whether he was sensing something real or imaginary. For that moment, however, Torry received his undivided attention.

“I think we should continue on,” she instructed, in higher spirits than the rest of them. A combination of general fitness and her undying enthusiasm for what they’d see at the end of their journey buoyed her spirits, and made Terrill wish they all felt that way. He did also wonder if she was using a spell to keep herself cool, but didn’t dare insult their new navigation expert. “See the rocks around the edge here. If the map is accurate, that indicates the continent rises up as it continues, creating sheer cliffs, weathered by the ocean. We’d be lucky to make it there in double the time. Though that’s just a guess. I’m no map expert.”

“Better than these two.” Floyd kicked sand in his direction that completely missed. He followed it up with a shiver, the chill of the desert’s night becoming evident. “How long would you estimate it to take us to cross the expanse of Ardoris? It looks like Tarkinder is on the other side, according to this map.”

“Well…if we’re talking about crossing Sagitta, that would put estimates at about a week, which Ardoris is less distance but…”

“Desert…” Krysta groaned. She seemed done, flopping on the sands. “It could take us double the time.”

Then there’s the sandstorms… Terrill bit the inside of his cheek, chewing at it while contemplating all of their options. Krysta rolled over on the ground, avoiding some sort of creature that was burrowing beneath the sand. Floyd stomped on it. “We’ll have to make it. Between the four of us, we have enough magic power to manage it.”

“Terrill, no offense, but you’re still a novice at magic,” Floyd said while he pulled Krysta up. “So, I don’t see how it will help in a desert.”

“I’m sure my teacher can oblige,” Terrill said, inclining his head towards Torry. The girl blushed at the praise and then puffed her chest with pride. She stomped across the sands to take lead.

“Right, we can all do our part and clear this desert in no time! Right now, we’ll search for a place to rest up and continue on before the heat gets unbearable!” Her joy did not filter to Floyd or Krysta, but they shrugged their shoulders and carried on. Terrill took up the rear.

He wasn’t blustering about using his magic throughout the desert. While Floyd wasn’t wrong in any respect, and his tutelage in magic was severely lacking, the task was not something impossible. For beneath his feet, in each grain of sand, Terrill could feel it. The earth there, sand and stone included, could be drawn to his command. It would take some transformative work, to be sure, but alongside Torry and all the others, Terrill knew he could draw out that power to cut an easier path through the desert.

He just wished, when they found a spot to rest by a rocky overhang, that he could shake the feeling of something following them.

The desert proved to be an arduous trek when they resumed the next morning, only the sun as their guide through the mesas and sands. While Terrill remained disturbed, his mind turned towards more constructive pursuits the further they went, like turning sand into stone. He was hardly successful.

“Maybe…it would be better…to just raise stone from the sand,” Torry gasped out, her body sinking through the deeper sand. Krysta would help to pull her out, but the path got no shallower.

“Yeah, I’m trying.” Terrill stopped, wiping away his sweat and taking a swig of water, hoping for it to restore his energy. Ignoring the sun up high, Terrill focused his energies inward, and stretched his palm out towards the heat of the desert. The volcano could be seen, adding to the heat, always looking closer than it actually was. That didn’t inspire hope, but a desperation welled inside Terrill. He closed his eyes, running his magic along the pulse of the land where all the earth dwelled. He breathed in, then stooped low, touching his hands to the burning sands.

Torry placed a hand on his shoulders. “Remember to use a spell. Circulate it inside you. It doesn’t come from here, but from inside. Externalize it.”

“Can a spell be anything?”

“It’s your spell. There are no limits to magic. That’s what makes it such a wonderful study.” Terrill had to trust in that belief.

“Then…let the earth create a mighty path and strong foothold. Earthen Floor.” Terrill pressed upon the sands, the connection tying him to that element. His soul stirred, shining with energy that then exuded upon the desert. It crackled and creaked, and Terrill opened his eyes to see sparks flying off the land. It was small at first, but soon grew to a carpet that expanded out from his hands, lifting slabs of earth off the desert and providing a pathway that even Terrill didn’t know how far it stretched. Only when he felt it might become too much did he stop, his knees hitting the stone he had created.

“Nice job, Terrill.” Torry slapped his back, almost pitching him over. Krysta and Floyd were just as pleased to see it, dancing on the stone with the relief they would no longer be stuck on the sands. “This will make our journey much easier. You should be able to recoup your magic while we walk.”

“Is that so?” Torry helped him up, the two setting their feet upon the plinth together. It was cooler than the sands, and more stable, if narrow. Testing it under their weights to make sure it held, the pair breathed in relief and started forward, continuing with their conversation. As they did, their party’s formation took that of a single line, each holding to the bag of the person in front of them.

“Magic, and thus the energy inside us to produce magic, comes from all the elements around us. In time, the body regenerates that element we use by simple interaction with the world. It’s why Earth practitioners like yourself are so hearty; most of the world has earth, so the regeneration is swift unless you expel energy all at once.”

“So, realistically, as long as I meter my magic, I could use it endlessly.”

“Depending on how well you monitor your reserves, yes,” Torry informed him, flashing him a smile that spoke to her pride at his progress. He returned it.

Both stopped smiling soon after.

“Then it’s time for you to manage your reserves, Torry. You, too, Krysta. I get the feeling this is about to get rough.” No further warning could be issued.

The onset of the sandstorm was like a hurricane, overwhelming the quartet with malevolent force. Had it just been the wind, it would have knocked them all backwards, but the grains of sand that accompanied it prevented them from seeing even a foot in front of themselves, obscuring the path entirely. Terrill coughed on the sand, shielding his eyes as best he could, but finding they stung with the battering storm. His fingers continued to grip at Torry’s bag, holding tight to her while she inched forward, each feeling for the solid ground that represented their path. Floyd called out, but the storm deadened his cry before he could finish it, rendering it unintelligible.

Terrill thought of risking shouting himself, but the thought of getting sand in his mouth was more than enough to deter him of that risk.

“Wind!” Torry’s voice could be heard immediately in front of him, and for a glorious moment, the sandstorm cleared, making all of his companions visible. The girl’s spell of wind was a boon, but a temporary patch at best. The sandstorm soon returned with a vengeance.

A scream from ahead (which, despite being high-pitched, Terrill couldn’t be sure if it was one of the girls or Floyd) alerted them to the possible danger. That danger became the disappearance of the pathway, and their feet hitting the sand again. Torry sent another gust rippling outward, but it did little to help them regain their bearings, save for a tall pillar of stone that didn’t even hint at their destination.

A particularly nasty squall battered them from the side, the sand threatening to bury them as it piled up until Krysta rebuffed it with a barrier. Floyd, from what Terrill could see of his silhouette, motioned for their pack to move forward. It was no easy task, as every step threatened to see them fall to the sands below, and the howling of the wind made it impossible to communicate. Krysta kept her barrier intact, and Torry threw wind in the opposite direction, but each deflection of the sandstorm lasted less time than the one before.

“I can’t see my hand!” Floyd shouted, the first words of his to get through. “Are we even sure we’re going in the right-”

Crack!

The sickening noise of Floyd’s foot connecting with something in the sand brought all of them to a halt. The sandstorm strengthened, endeavoring to blow them over. Floyd’s reaction to whatever he had stepped on was to stand still, providing them a bedrock to hold on to. They drew close to one another, against each other’s backs and looking down to the sand to find that Floyd had stepped on a withered and dried skull. Just a skull.

“I think we found the people the chief sent.”

“Where’s the rest of their body?” Krysta whimpered. That was a question none wanted the answer to.

It was also one that the desert chose to provide by way of their bodies being half covered in sand. Floyd shrieked.

“It’s some kind of quicksand! Get us out!” he yelled, but his struggling seemed to start dragging each of them down faster. Terrill remained still, continually clutching to Torry’s bag, when his foot seemed to break out of said quicksand. He couldn’t see or feel anything, telling him there was a wide-open air below…and a massive fall that likely waited for them. Terrill grit his teeth and looked to the stone pillar.

“Come on!” he grunted, loosing one hand from Torry’s bag straps and calling to the earth at the base of the pillar. It obeyed, stretching out a plank of stone that he grabbed on to, beginning to pull himself up with just the one hand. “Hold tight to me, Torry!”

She grunted her own response, twisting her body to try and clasp his leg while he pulled them further up the chain. Terrill’s hands hurt from the rough stone he slid himself along, and the weight of his companions threatened to drag him back down at any second. Torry pulled herself up, her hands holding fast to the stone as she started to help Krysta. Terrill felt himself begin to breathe a bit easier.

Krysta shimmied up, her hand slapping on the stone. The second she did, there was a horrendous snapping, and the plinth broke off, right between Terrill and Torry. He shouted, his hands fumbling for her, but only managing to wrap around her bag. Torry and Krysta fell, both shouting Terrill’s name as they hit the sand with Floyd, and were pulled underneath.

“NO!” he screamed, preparing to let go and dive in after them. The sandstorm had other plans. The velocity of the winds increased, and Terrill could no longer keep his foothold. His hands were ripped away from the stone that broke under the relentless sand, and he was pushed through the desert, cutting trenches in its malleable surface.

Terrill’s body rolled along it, coughing up before he huddled close while the sand threatened to submerge him. He was too far from where he’d left them, and the very thought that they could meet the same fate as those before them caused him to seize up. He needed to go after them.

With a strained yell, Terrill pressed his palms to the heated sand, but found it to be nothing compared to the burning grounds of the resort. The worse thing to contend with was the sand that made his visibility an absolute zero, unable to point him in the direction of where to run. Even knowing it was futile, Terrill cupped his hands round his mouth. “Krysta! Torry! Floyd! Say something! Anything!”

No response was given, and in desperate hope, Terrill set off in any direction he could, the desert winds making that more complicated by the second. He was making no progress, or felt he wasn’t. Even day and night were unknown in that space of swirling sands. He could have been wandering for hours, or maybe minutes, until he found the first thing solid.

“Having fun?” Hearing a voice, unable to see what it was, Terrill swung his sword at the object in his way, only to find it cut through nothing but dust and stone. His breath returned in huffs, and he closed his watering eyes.

“I’m delusional. Hallucinating things now.” Or so he wished to believe, as the voice resurfaced next to his ear.

“You’ll never save them. Not as you are.” Terrill now stabbed behind, but again found nothing. The voice from the flames mocked him in tandem with this new voice, one he knew he’d heard earlier. “You’ll flail and fight, and come up empty. That’s all heroes ever do: fight until they break.”

“Shut up!” Terrill shouted, not even knowing who, or what, he was yelling at. It was just an attempt to confuse him. He knew that in his mind, but his body stopped short when he saw an earthen statue in front of him. That one soon became multiple, each crafted in the visage of his companions. Moments later, one of them broke apart, raining stones on Terrill. His face twitched. “What exactly are you trying to do here, Fiend? Test me? Break me?”

“No, I don’t want to break you, hero.” The voice was now closer than ever, but Terrill found his body locked up and unable to strike back. “I want you to understand what it will take. And what you’ll be willing to sacrifice.”

“I won’t sacrifice anything!” Terrill managed to move, his blade spinning around before it embedded itself in one of the statues, right where the earthen Floyd would have been. He clenched. This is a test…just some stupid test…

“Terrill. Help.” Terrill whipped through the sand, deciding to not give in to the illusion when he saw Krysta there, hands held behind her back. She was smiling, and then turned away, walking into the desert storm. Right into an attack.

Terrill screamed, urging his body to move faster, work harder than it ever had to bring his blade soaring up and intercepting the blow meant for her. Only, she wasn’t there, and Terrill felt the weapon he was holding off glint with malice to impale him.

“Keep fighting like that, and you’ll plunge deeper into the darkness.” A hand took hold of him from behind, but Terrill could not see its owner. “Keep trying to stop the fire and you’ll get burned, just like Ardoris burns. Can you stop it, Terrill? Can you stop the fires of war?”

The voice didn’t expect an answer, as before Terrill could, a sudden exertion of gravity pushed down on him, and Terrill could feel himself sinking. There was no column of stone nearby this time, and nothing to grab on to. Just the endless abyss of sand and darkness that he floundered around in an attempt to escape. His sword dug at the sand, hoping for some kind of traction, but finding none. He wasn’t going to hold out for much longer, and before he slipped under, Terrill saw that ghostly image of Krysta reaching for him, but never reaching him.

Don’t burn up.

Terrill didn’t understand, and feared he never would when the bottom gave way beneath him. He fell through the bottomless cavern underneath the sand, its darkened halls spacious and deep. Terrill spiraled, resisting the bile that burned at his throat in his attempt to hold back his scream. Very few vestiges of light were in the cavern, but as Terrill’s eyes adjusted to the darkness, he could see a slide below, made of sand and craggy rock. His hand snapped out, and with no time to focus his energies, he recited a quick spell.

“Guide me on your stony perches, and create a path. Stone Stairway!” He yanked his hand up, his body sent spinning from that singular action. From the slide rose large steps of stone that impeded his fall to his death. He braced himself for the hit and slammed into one of the steps, bouncing off to the next below until, at long last, Terrill hit the slide and began a steep tumble downwards.

He couldn’t control the orientation of his body, forced into banging on the edges of the slide and hoping it wouldn’t eject him before he reached the end. The darkness didn’t help, as he couldn’t see where this would end, or if it would deposit him into some mass grave with no hope of escape. The sand that formed the lining of the slide chafed at skin as his shirt rode up, and the bags that were on him bounced with every rough groove he hit. Not one for praying, Terrill still found himself doing so, hoping that he would reach his destination before either the slide or his body chose to give out.

Soon as he had asked this, the cavern began to lighten, a rather pale glow of plants buried beneath the surface revealing itself. It brightened the entire space and Terrill saw that the slide was, indeed, coming to its end, and a rather abrupt one at that. He had no time to put the brakes on, and Terrill found the slide spitting him out before he spun into a freefall that ended moments later with a great splash.

He had shut his eyes before hitting, not wanting to see himself meet his grisly end, but despite the shock of pain that radiated through his spine, Terrill knew from the splash that he was safe to open his eyes. He wasn’t surprised to find he opened them underwater. Gasping for air, Terrill flung himself up, sending droplets everywhere as he found he had landed in an underground spring. A hot spring, it seemed, too, as the ambient heat of this cave was more than he expected for being so deep underground. With exhaustion, Terrill threw his bags to the drier ground and flopped back on the water, not caring if his clothes got soaked.

It was peaceful, just lying there, not knowing how many hours or days could go by. Part of him wondered if he had been brought here for some purpose that he was ignoring, but the other part was willing to let the spring wash away his fatigue. He would have been content with just that, if the events of the sandstorm didn’t niggle at his brain and force a connection he should have seen in the moment. Terrill sat up.

“It was Clay…” he growled, at last recognizing the voice that had taunted him with statues and visages of his friends. It was the only answer that made sense. At the same time, it didn’t make sense. Why would Clay take him out of a sandstorm of Winifred’s making? Weren’t they working together? “That would mean he guided me here with those things.”

Terrill decided bath time was over, and he stood, shaking the water off of him as he looked around the bright cavern. On closer inspection, he saw that the light was specifically from mushrooms and algae. He sloshed through the water and leapt onto the hard rock that surrounded the pool, getting his bearings, all the while wondering why Clay would have brought him here. It couldn’t have been to help, which meant they wanted him here for…whatever their plans were. Terrill didn’t care anymore.

But he did care about the tormenting visages of his companions.

Clay was trying to break him, no matter his words otherwise. Trying to teach him some lesson on who he could and couldn’t save. Perhaps he wanted Terrill to waste away in this cavern, feeling the hopelessness of not knowing how to stop the war.

Terrill refused to despair like that.

“Even if I have to dig my way out of here, I’ll stop it,” he muttered. His echoed voice made him feel lonelier than before, but at the same time increased that drive and passion. “I’ll protect them and bring them home, just like I promised. No matter what.”

The Fiends would never break him.

A tremor crackled around the spring, something reacting to this declaration. Terrill could tell there was earth falling around, and he spun until he found the source, a crevice appearing. He approached and stared down its darkened pathway, his hand feeling the surface inside to find it wasn’t earth at all, but still something familiar. This time, it was hot to the touch, and he withdrew as another blast shuddered the cavern, this time from the opposite direction.

“Hey, look at that! A hot spring!” Terrill left the new passage behind to dash towards the new arrivals. He cut across the spring as light blossomed in the room, showing his three companions emerge from a hole that Floyd had explosively created. “Terrill?!”

“You’re okay!” He reached them and flung his arms around all three before they could blink. “I thought that…”

“We’re stronger than we look!” Krysta said. She was the one to remove Terrill, offering him a smile. Terrill swallowed, remembering the ghostly Krysta he’d seen during the storm. She could tell something was on his mind, but he wiped it away.

“Floyd slowed us down enough to avoid a grisly end,” Torry said. Under Krysta’s light, she located her bag that Terrill had hung on to and ran to it. “I tried to soften our blow but…well, I’m just not as good at Earth Magic as yourself.”

“Oh, cut the self-deprecation, Torry,” Floyd argued back, stomping over to her with folded arms. “You’re a peerless mage. Better than even your mom.”

The tension that resulted from Floyd’s careless comment grew thick, and all conversation died between the two of them. Torry went back to reorganizing her bag while Terrill faced Krysta. The girl remained concerned about him.

“Did something happen while we were gone?”

“It was nothing. What happened with you three?”

“The usual. Floyd nearly caused a cave-in. I called him impulsive. He called it spontaneity. It did get us here, though, I guess.” That sounded just like Floyd, despite his current uncharacteristic silence. Terrill observed the boy, now making a point to not say anything foolish to Torry. For all of his bravado and unthought actions, Floyd did have his rare moments of insight, and Terrill was beginning to wonder if he hated that. He continued to look at the couple, until Floyd wandered away, towards the crack that had appeared earlier. The more Terrill watched, the more it became apparent to him.

Perhaps it was a result of the introspection Clay tried to force on him, but Terrill could see the two former Academy students struggling with their own personal demons, ones they didn’t want to share.

“Weird…” Floyd breathed out before snapping his fingers. A sudden rush of flame erupted from his tips, replacing the earlier tension with surprise. “Okay, that was a big flame.”

“You didn’t intend that?” Torry asked.

Terrill knew what that meant. He grabbed his own bag, and wordlessly led the other three towards the crack, sidling his body through and calling to them. “This way. I found that same kind of substance as in Luster Mines.”

“The one near the Lifeblood?” Terrill chose to prove it to Floyd than answer him. The boy followed after, squeezing his skinnier body into the crack while the girls took up the rear.

The passage was deeper than Terrill expected, and it grew hotter the further they went. The walls pulsed with red, and soon it became an amber glow that illuminated the tiny passage they were crossing. Heat caused blisters to start forming on Terrill’s skin, and every time they rubbed against the unearthly walls, they popped and burned. It was as if they had dived into the core of the volcano, but had yet to burn up. A popping and bubbling reached Terrill’s ears as the crack began to widen until, after an agonizing second of believing he would melt, he fell out the other side. It was like passing through water, or some kind of protective barrier. Terrill collapsed on the ground and looked up. The others avoided falling on him, each lithe enough to maintain their balance.

“The heart of Tarkinder…” Torry said with absolute awe. She was the first to stand in the middle of a platform that hovered over the center, spinning around with arms stretched wide. “Amazing that we’re not burning up, either.”

“You didn’t cast a spell?”

“A spell of this level? Are you kidding me? I don’t know if anyone could-” Terrill saw Torry’s jaw go slack at the sight of her newest find.

In this one instance, Terrill didn’t blame her.

As he stood, he could see they were on a large, circular, stone platform that spanned across an even greater pool of lava. Up high on the rocky cavern were various vents that allowed light to come in and steam to hiss out. They were kept safe by what Terrill presumed was a barrier, provided by the very thing Torry was now staring at: crystallized flames, frozen in time, glowing red, orange and yellow all at once. Terrill didn’t need Krysta’s magic to tell that it was living, or what it was.

“Is this it…?” Torry spoke tremulously, her hand shaking while she reached for it. Krysta was there to hold her back, prevent her from doing something foolish. “A Lifeblood?”

“Looks different from the one in Luster Mines,” Floyd said. He had crossed the distance, careful to not let his feet tumble off the ledge into the lava below. He circled what he could of the Lifeblood, pulsing with their element. “Guess that would make sense. It’s amplifying my magic, too.”

“Just imagine how far you could develop your Time Magic here, or if we took just a piece of it with us back to Serotin.”

“Yeah, that’s not happening.”

“Just a teeny sliver!”

“No, Torry! You don’t mess with these things!” Krysta and Torry devolved into their argument, while Floyd continued to examine. Terrill joined him. Other than the general structure being that of fire instead of a bedrock of earth, Terrill could tell this Lifeblood was no different than the other. There was still a soul resting inside it, as the longer he looked, the more the crystal flames came to be shaped like a person.

There was also the shadow he’d felt, thin, but present.

“What a marvel. Terrill, is this how you felt in the mines?” Floyd asked. His grin was careless, and his face too close to the Lifeblood for comfort. “This kind of amplification would change the game. We’d fulfill decades of study in mere months. No one could complain about our limited potential ever again. I wonder if just touching it would-”

“Floyd, don’t!” Krysta interrupted, fear making her voice tremble as she drowned out his words. She did not, however, prevent his actions.

Floyd’s hand touched to the crystal flames.

Terrill jumped back, afraid from Krysta’s reaction that the flames would explode or disintegrate the platform and send them all to the magma. Torry ducked, while Krysta’s hand was suspended, torn between grabbing Floyd back or…something. He wasn’t sure what the girl could do.

Still, nothing happened, and Floyd removed his hand.

“Interesting. They felt cooler than I expected despite being the source of fire,” the boy mused, that same hand traveling to his chin while he stroked it. Terrill breathed in relief. Krysta’s worry was unfounded.

At least for a moment.

Floyd stiffened, and then clasped at his chest. His breath turned ragged, and Terrill could see his eyes widening past the natural point they should have. He looked like he was being torn inside and out before he fell to his knees. Terrill dropped to his side, putting a hand to his body and immediately retracting it from the stinging burn that resulted. Torry was there, too.

“Floyd! Floyd! What’s going on with you? Floyd, talk to me!” She was upset, her tears drying in the heat, but her urgent need to hug Floyd and bring him back to reality remained. “Stay here, Floyd!”

“Here?” he gasped out. A bright light eclipsed Terrill’s vision, and he could see the Lifeblood glowing, breaking the bonds of its shadow for just a moment. “My mind feels like it’s…splitting in two. Like there’s…like there’s…another world…?”

Floyd managed to look up, staring at Terrill, who felt equally disturbed by what Floyd was experiencing. Willing to risk the burn, Terrill grabbed Floyd’s arm. “Are you saying…you’re experiencing the other side? My side?”

“I don’t… I don’t know. It feels like…there are two sets of…memories… One with magic… One with…science? One without you,” Floyd grunted. He doubled over, and the scorching of his body reached a zenith until, finally, the Lifeblood stopped its intense glow and receded, leaving Floyd on the ground, ready to vomit. He turned to look at Torry. “But you… You’re still there. You’re always there. Like you’re meant to…”

“Floyd.” Torry’s tenderness was unexpected to Terrill. She had always seemed academically inclined where he was concerned. To see her cup his face, was not something he thought he’d see, least of all when their foreheads touched one another. “Are you all right?”

“I…I think so?” Floyd answered, though the grunt of exertion from him indicated some kind of soreness. “But I feel strange, like I’m in this world but not. Like there’s something tethering me. Terrill, have you-?”

Terrill withdrew his sword before Floyd completed the question. There was confusion from that, but then they saw it: the bubbling lava.

The floor of the volcano burst forth in a geyser of flame, not unlike the one from the resort, and a blade of fire emerged, set to impale Floyd. Terrill prevented it before he did, stepping in with his sword, but receiving a hissing, burning gash on his shoulder for his troubles. He hissed through his clenched teeth as the flame receded, and someone had joined them on the platform.

“So, this is the reason we’re led here. You’re the shadow from the flame.”

“All Fiends are shadows.” The man took a burning step forth, his draconic robes giving off the impression of a man with devout faith. Except for the grim killing intent. That pretty handily identified him otherwise. “Meanwhile, the Blessed exude radiant light. We do not need more than what we have. Only one Hero. The others will be offered to the goddess and join her in her special hell. Which one will you choose to live? And which to die? Decide now, or I will.”

“Like hell we’d let a Fiend choose that. We don’t use pawns for sacrifice like you!” Terrill shouted. Krysta joined him, her pack discarded and her rapier out. Torry dragged Floyd away, glaring at the Fiend the entire time. Said Fiend was unfettered by it, his burning blade glowing as he lifted it towards them.

“Then you leave me little recourse. I, Blaise, the Destroyer of the Flame, shall mete out your punishment, and send your souls to the goddess!”