Shar thought for a second, then waggled her hand. “Definitely not the biggest; maybe third or fourth, though. Certainly not the strongest, either, and it's completely trapped in these tunnels. Killing it should be as easy as–”

Shar snapped her fingers and surged forward, swirling her mists around her like a saw blade. She pressed forward with one hand and planted her feet, letting her mists blow harmlessly through her and into the monstrous maggot. It exploded in a rainbow gush of fluids that absolutely coated every inch of the tunnel walls and everyone inside.

Elach tentatively tried to take in the light on his skin, but it tasted and felt wrong. “Disgusting.” He spat, closing himself off to the light as it tried to burrow into him. “I think it’s trying to infect me.”

“Undoubtedly.” Shar snorted, pressing a hand to one-half of the maggot and coating it in mist. “This thing was so full of light that it corrupted all of it. But why did I feel danger from this? It couldn’t hurt either of us, and was completely trapped by the tunnels. It won’t even make a good feast.”

She stepped back and clicked her tongue in disappointment. “We won’t need to check the other paths. It felt the exact same down each of them, so I expect that we’d find more of these maggots instead of the feast I’m looking for.”

“The exact same?” Elach asked, following Shar as she began to walk back the way they’d come. “More of these bloated things, going directly to the one way to get to the lightwell?”

“I think I understand what you’re insinuating.” Shar said, then sped up. “These maggots must be delivering these tainted payloads of light to the lightwell. Still, there doesn’t exist a reason for us to hunt them down; consuming the lightwell will solve most of our problems in one fell swoop.”

Elach grimaced, but didn’t say anything. He didn’t enjoy the idea of using the lightwell now that he knew why he could use it, but the ends justified the means. If the lightwell was gone, almost everything here would either finish dying or become fully corrupted. He’d have to get Shar to contact Hoalt to quarantine this floor, or whatever was left of it.

As the strange rock-nest material of the tunnels flew by, Elach became less and less sure that there would be a single soul left to quarantine. Everything up top was dead. Everything down in the tunnels was dying. Whatever Ghravv’s spawn was doing to the Lightwell, it was forcing the well to use up each and every speck of light it could find. Soon enough it would run itself, and everything else in Lighthome, completely dry. Roxu would be stranded, and any strength that Elach could take from this place would be lost.

Anger flared in Elach’s chest at the potential of loss. His feet slammed down harder with every step, the tunnels flashing by at breakneck speeds as his chaining carried his momentum to dangerous levels. He saw the tunnel end and the back of a massive maggot struggling to crush itself into the one tunnel that led to the beacon of power that was the Lightwell, but he didn’t stop. The hunger in him wouldn’t let anything get between him and the Lightwell.

He imagined his chains infesting the creature. Running through all of its organs, scraping along the inside of its monstrous exterior, forming a sort of framework that mimicked the maggot’s entire shape. He forced those chains to expand.

His container groaned under the strain, and the effigy’s spine solidified itself in his mind’s eye. His headspace shuddered with the finalization of his newest focus, and chains exploded out of the maggot to cement themselves into the walls around it. It died without uttering a sound, splitting apart in a burst of dulled colour to give an Elach-sized pathway through to the lightwell.

“Dangerous.” Shar said with a nod of respect, walking through the dripping maggot corpse without taking anything from it. “The mantle of Tyrant really fits you.”

“Don’t say that.” Elach sighed, his heart beating a little too fast at the prospect of the lightwell’s bounty. He’d given in to the Tyrant’s urge in that moment, but he wouldn’t again. He wasn’t a true Tyrant, and he swore to himself that he would never be. A thought at chaining his heart brought to life an actual cage of chains inside his body, wrapping around one of his most vital organs. It expanded and contracted to the beat of his life, squeezing just a little tighter on each contraction and pulling a little further on each expansion.

It was energizing, yet troubling. He dismissed the chains to study when he was sure he wouldn’t crush his own heart to death, but filed away the potential his newfound technique might have at helping his container grow. The brilliance of the lightwell grew and grew as Elach and Shar made their way down the tunnel, scouring away any sign of the darkspawn’s influence until a massive chamber came into view.

“It’s a… throne room?” Shar said in confusion. “But I’ve never seen one with eight thrones before.”

Elach muttered agreement, stepping into the room while his stomach clenched in anticipation. The walls were made of the exact same material that the outside of Lighthome was; a sort of papery wasp nest-like creation that invoked a visceral sense of disgust at a glance. It wove over itself in long strands, leaving gaping hexagonal holes that were filled with brilliant gems that shone with perfectly white light.

He patted his pocket, even if the gems he’d taken from the entryway weren’t there. The massive ornaments in the throne room were just larger versions of what he’d taken from there. “This must be where all the light was funneled to.” He said, his Issi senses on high alert for an ambush he figured had to be coming. “But if it was, why is it a throne room? Wouldn’t it have been completely submerged in light?”

“It would have.” Shar confirmed, studying the walls on her own. “There’s no enchantments or moving parts that could shutter this room off from the rest of the tunnels. Unless there was someone in here constantly keeping the light at bay, this had to have been completely submerged for… well, decades. Maybe even centuries.”

“Centuries.” Elach repeated, walking to one of the thrones and resting a hand on it's not-so-intricate design. The nest-like floor had been raised into a simple throne; a rectangular back, two rectangles for armrests, and a seat. They all varied greatly in size, but not in design. “This had to belong to the luminous web.”

A chittering laugh echoed down from the ceiling, where a massive gem hung from countless strands of silk that pulsed with a soft rainbow of light. “It has always belonged to the web, and it will continue to until it does not.”

A bug with a bright green carapace and eyes the colour of molten gold hopped to the ground with a nimble flair, bowing to Elach and Shar as it landed. “A pleasure to meet you, honoured guests. Is it you Tacc has to thank for freeing Tacc?”

Elach looked to Shar for help, but she just shrugged and waved him onward. He cleared his throat and tried to sound as confident as possible when he spoke. “If you were the one holding off the lightwell, then yes. We… are the reason you’re free.”

Tacc nodded vigorously, his eyes beginning to drip golden tears down his insectile face. “The Web is in your debt, oh savior.” Tacc bowed low and pressed its hands together, revealing a pair of molten gold wings shimmering on its back. “And it reluctantly asks for your aid once more. The consuming shadows seek the last bastion of light, and the darkened beacons will aid in the destruction of the lightwell. The spawn has miraculously regained its mind, something Tacc never once thought possible, and holds them off.”

“I’ve never heard of these ‘darkened beacons’. Is that another name for the greater lights?” Elach asked.

“Greater lights?” Tacc scoffed. “There is only one greater light, and it gives life and warmth to us all. Have the leaders taken such blasphemous names in the time Tacc has been sealed away?”

“Apparently so.” Shar confirmed.

Tacc grimaced, showing a mouth of razor-sharp golden teeth. “Yet another reason they must be dealt with. Tacc will protect the lightwell and the beacons’ thrones while the honoured guests aid Ghravv’s spawn. When you return, Tacc will be prepared for the transition, oh honoured guests.”

Elach’s stomach clenched and his heart beat like a drum at the mention of ‘transition’. “What do you mean by that?”

Tacc seemed taken aback by Elach’s question. “Are you not here to rescue Tacc for your own court, oh honoured Tyrant?”

“Tyrants aren’t honoured. And I’m… not going to be one of them.” Elach said with a grimace. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not going to save you. It just means I’m not going to enslave you after I do.”

“Tacc would never serve in the court of a slaver.” Tacc scoffed. “A molten one such as Tacc is far beyond that.”

“Of course you are.” Elach muttered. “Show us where the spawn went. We’ll deal with the great lights.”

“Beacons.” Tacc corrected, stepping to the right and gesturing at a tunnel on the other side of the throne room. “Excuse Tacc; darkened beacons. The spawn pressed the darkened beacons down that exit when they tried to corrupt the lightwell, giving Tacc sufficient time to regain Tacc’s sense of self. Do try to bring the spawn back alive if possible; Tacc has many questions for it.”

“We will.” Shar said, pressing a hand to Elach’s back to get him to move. “Don’t betray us while we’re gone.”

Tacc reeled back in shock, as if the mere idea of betraying them was blasphemy. It didn’t utter a single word, simply babbling noises that were a combination of insectile chittering and shocked disbelief.

“I thought you didn’t absolutely despise the idea of being a tyrant.” Shar pointed out after checking over her shoulder multiple times to confirm that Tacc wasn’t following them. “Whatever Tacc is, I’m sure it would make an excellent advisor.”

“I’m not important enough to need advising.” Elach insisted.

“Maybe not yet.” Shar muttered under her breath, then shook her head. “Let’s focus on getting enough light to help Roxu first. We’ll talk about Tacc once it’s safer.”