Chapter 34: The Pits

Varhi’s eyes rolled slowly, his pupils turning to glance towards his left. This was when he first saw the first of the mushrooms, the orange spotted one growing on that one specific tree. He thought back to around a week ago already when he first came here and compared the sight to how he remembered then to how it was now.

If he recalled correctly, the mushrooms on this tree had begun growing but the tree had not really shown anything out of the ordinary that something was wrong with it. Now though, the leaves on some of the trees, including this one were an orange color like it was autumn and most of the bark on the trees were either muted in color or completely ashen already. There were also quite a few more mushrooms here and there as well compared to what he remembered, though it could be that he was just more ‘aware’ of them now than before.

Varhi paused, glancing around and motioned Sairek and Nayleen behind him with a finger to approach. They moved up towards him.

“Well, this certainly is getting worse.” Varhi mused with a thoughtful tilt of his head and a hand under his chin clenched into a fist. He examined the same tree he had the first time more closely. “It was only around a week ago, but these mushrooms are even getting bigger than when I first saw them.”

“Think we should try bringing one of these things back with us to study?” Nayleen asked.

Varhi snorted. “Given what these things do, I’m not putting one anywhere near me if I can help it. Way too dangerous.” He shook his head. “Besides, it’s not like we’re going to be able to study one anywhere in Masir.” He turned halfway between the tree and Sairek, nudging his head towards the Prince for emphasis. “We’ll find what Avotash is trying to hide here, then get out. I think that’s about all we can try to bargain for at this point.”
He turned himself back around, looking further down the path. “I don’t understand though. The fog should be here now. Why is it clear?”

“Maybe the wind blew it away?” Sairek suggested with an off-handed shrug.

Varhi blinked. “I… guess? The bridge is just up ahead. Fall back into formation.” He ordered with a waving gesture with his hand to the other three behind him and resumed walking forwards. Sairek and Nayleen obeyed, first waiting for Varhi and Cyial to get a little ways ahead before proceeding themselves. While they walked, Sairek couldn’t help but look around, a bit fearful as the number of those mushrooms that covered either the ground or other trees were quickly multiplying in number the further they moved in.

When they made it to the bridge, Varhi slowed his walk to look around. With the trees dispersing a good amount in this area since they were close to the mountains, he could see a lot more clearly, especially without any of the fog unlike before. It looked clear and he triple checked to make sure, knowing how well these abominations could seemingly blend in despite their nature and size. He once again motioned the other two forward closer while he continued on.

“We’ll march together from now on. There aren't too many trees, so we should see anything dangerous coming, though it looks like this place is clear for now.” He explained, then looked back towards the bridge. “There was a lot more here earlier though. I don’t know where they all went.”

“Perhaps we are lucky?” Cyial asked.

“I don’t believe in luck. Things happen for one reason or another. My gut tells me something is up.” Varhi said. “We’ll stick to the same marching order but we’ll stick closer together for now. Let me lead a little extra ahead than the rest of you, though. The mountains over there can get a little twisty, turny and narrow, so it’s possible something can just be lurking around a corner. Give me a wide enough berth so that if something is around the corner, you all have enough time to react and get out of the way or not get grabbed along with me.”
Varhi began walking forward on the bridge, scanning his surroundings and panning his gaze back and forth on either side of him as if something could still be hiding in front of them in plain sight. “We won’t be going all the way in, remember. We’re just going to investigate the current situation, then we’re going to ‘meep meep’ the heck out of there and head back to camp.”

“Meep, meep...” Sairek repeated slowly, his voice dry. “It sure is nice working with a mature, professional mercenary such as yourself.”

Varhi turned back around to look at Sairek, the movement slow and deliberate. “Fine. We will extract—no, exfiltrate our way back to camp.” Both Cyial and Nayleen snorted out a laugh. Sairek rolled his eyes.

With seemingly no dangers in sight, walking past the bridge and staying on the path was a breeze and the valley of mountain walls were soon around them. Narrow passages that were only about twenty to twenty-five feet wide, but sometimes narrowed down to as little as only ten, leaving not much room to maneuver. Sairek was aware that while they walked, they were almost always on a slight but gradual incline, carrying them up higher and higher.

This was good and bad. It was good because unless something could attack them from range from up above, anything that came at them would be forced to only attack them ahead and would more or less have to be single-file, which Varhi with his three new companions was sure they could handle.
It was bad, because if anything was ahead, they would have to fight their way through. Or if they did leave some enemy behind themselves by accident, most likely by the smaller crooks and crannies that could hide them around a corner or a bend, then they could be pincered really quickly and easily.

“...That’s what happened last time, after all...” Varhi thought to himself in their marching silence, then blinked at the sight ahead of him. “Ah, there’s the fog. So it did move after all...?” Varhi mused when they rounded a corner, heading east. It was thicker than he remembered, almost like a cloud. He could still see through it, but not too far. Maybe only about fifty feet or so before it became too dense and blocked his vision.

“Uhh…” Cyial began, staring intently into it. “I’m not sure that stuff is healthy to breathe in.”

Varhi looked towards the demon. “Well, I’m not dead yet, but yes, I’m sure prolonged exposure is probably deadly indeed. When I was not nearly dying, I would only take small trips inside before coming back out for fresh air, taking a break from breathing this in and all of the killing before heading back on in.”

“Sairek, can you sense this?” Cyial asked him.

Sairek did his best to blank out the running thoughts in his head around him. He never really had time to practice in a situation where he might be in danger or constantly being distracted. It was hard enough when he was at peace and nothing was going on, though he and Cyial would occasionally practice a few times when camping, or even when walking. Oftentimes Sairek could do it only to lose sense of himself and end up walking off the path or right into a tree. Nayleen got a kick out of that…

After a minute, he could span his senses out, going past the other three and sought himself outwards, looking at the connecting threads of consciousness nearby, past the threads of life energy weaving themselves slowly through the air like very fine silk in the wind… and then he felt it.
If the normal threads of ethereal were like fine silk, the fog of cloud was like prickly threads and needles. It was ethereal energy, but it was so unrefined, so… ‘raw’, that it genuinely made him flinch. It’s not that it hurt, but the sensation was uncomfortable—like rubbing a rough rug between your fingers in comparison to soft fur. “Cyial, is this giant cloud of fog all loose magic?” He asked, concern clearly etched in his voice.

“I… don’t know?” Cyial frowned. “I’ve never felt it like this before, but how it feels seems to suggest it is. I don't think there is another explanation for it…”

“But… polluted energy is usually like little pocket clouds this big at most,” Sairek began, putting his staff under his arm and making a vague circle with both his thumbs and middle fingers, about two inches in gap between them. “And that’s in Ceareste where they’re probably the biggest. Something like this in Masir is… is…”

“Bad news?” Nayleen guessed.

“You saw those monsters.” Sairek answered her. “A ‘large’ cloud at the wrong time can maybe make a single monster. This has made, according to Varhi’s testimony anyway, dozens and dozens of monsters, which are also transforming other aspects of life including trees and people into different variations of those monsters as well…” Sairek growled through clenched teeth. “The amount of energy required to make one of those pockets this big is... is—I... I can’t even begin to imagine…!” Sairek stammered.

“Are you sure?” Varhi frowned.” This is Karvadean, a simple mining village off in the corner of the kingdom. I may be ignorant in magic, but I know that even the richest of mines for such crystals wouldn’t even come close to creating something to the extreme as this.” Varhi said, circling his finger in the air above him to gesture all around them. “The mines are resourceful enough to create a sizable village due to the profit of them in the middle of these mountains, but just that. This isn’t some gold rush location.” He paused. "...Or, maybe it is, and that's the secret? Even then though, the amount of energy you're suggesting here seems to be otherwise nearly impossible to comprehend. There must be something else to it; another piece of the puzzle that we're missing..."

Sairek frowned. Varhi was right, though such an accident would probably create a number of those pockets, the chances of them all combining together without at least a few of them setting off a chain reaction were minimal as it was, if downright next to impossible. Even if that happened, it wouldn’t be bigger than the mass wall of ‘fog’ in front of them for sure. Even being extremely generous with the circumstances, it could maybe be the size of a small house.

Varhi looked at both Cyial and Sairek, who were both frowning deeply in thought. “Your faces both look very grim. Just lay it on me.”

“Well, I can say that burning the forest down won’t fix this. In fact, that much fire could cause it to expand even faster or just outright combust.” Cyial said. “Something of this size combusting in the wrong way could either get rid of it peacefully with some... 'adverse side effects' or… outright take out a good chunk of the kingdom with it. Land and all...”

“Oh. That’s… That’s not good.” Varhi gulped, pressing a hand on top of his helmet visor. “Well, I’m really glad I didn’t go on with my plan of burning this forest down with me.” He rubbed his forehead with his fingers. He had been really close to doing that, too... “So, if fire is out of the picture, how do we get rid of this?”

“Uuhhh…” Cyial began, looking unsure, he glanced towards Sairek for help, who met the demon's gaze and sighed.

“Well... I have a few... 'theories', but that would require finding out exactly what happened and what the actual problem is that's causing this thing to grow to this size...” Sairek drawled. “I suppose regardless though, one method to help shrink it down and neutralize it would be black magic. A… a lot of black magic in this case… It would be the ‘safest’ option, but it’s certainly not the most reasonable.”

Cyial frowned. “Black magic is not exactly in ‘a lot of supply’ in the Overworld considering the only ones who can use black magic are demons.”

“Aren’t you a demon?” Varhi asked him.

“Yes, but since I was born on the Overworld, my body has mutated and adapted for this world instead. My body can accept both forms of the magic, but not as much as each. It’s kind of a… half-half thing.” Cyial explained. “But… of course, for me to get black magic, I’d have to feed…”

“Ah, so that’s how it works.” Varhi mused, turning back towards the fog. “And I’d supposed we’d need a lot more than just you.” Cyial nodded and muttered an affirmative. “Okay, so with that all said and done, is it bad to breathe it in?”

“Over a period of time like you said, yes.” Cyial said. “Given my nature though, I’d probably be fine. At least for a lot longer than you three. If it’s transforming things given its corrupt and polluted nature, then it’s possible that over time, breathing too much of it over time causes the ethereal in one’s body to begin to change too, which does… this.” He gestured with a motion of his arm all around them. "But it's not the energy itself that's the most dangerous, it's the spores, like what the spriggan released. Something is parasitic about those... something that we're apparently subject to getting inflicted with if we're not careful."

"Yeah, getting doused in those spores had me nearly vomiting in seconds and I didn't even breathe any of that stuff in..." Varhi shook his head slightly. What a horrible way to die indeed...

“Expending ethereal out of my own system by casting magic should flush any corrupt energy back out of me… sort of, I think. The more I use though, the faster that stuff will come right back into me, too.” Sairek frowned. “If I’m going to be casting spells in this, I’m going to have to be careful. Any time I chain a large amount of spells, I’m going to have to dig into one of our flasks to help keep my system relatively clear, or I could start suffering the effects of this cloud within a couple hours.”

“No, that's too much to risk. If it’s going to be like that, then do not cast any magic while we are inside that cloud at all.” Varhi told him.

“But if I don’t have magic then all I have is my staff as a bludgeoning weapon…” Sairek protested.

“You also won’t end up sick or dead. Assuming I do my role correctly, anyway.” Varhi continued sternly. “Besides, you said it yourself that this thing is apparently volatile. Wouldn’t flinging magic around, even if relatively simple and small in comparison, carry the risk of this thing combusting, like you said?”

“I—I guess.”

“So no magic.” Varhi finalized, then looked towards Cyial. “Same goes for you, unless it’s black magic.”

Cyial shook his head. “I… don’t really have any black magic in me. That part of me is dry.”

Varhi sighed. “Welp, looks like this will be mostly you and I, Nayleen.”

“I’m not sure my daggers will do much. I know my arrows alone don’t do anything but piss them off.” She sighed.

“Just make sure nothing tries to lash out at those two. If any creepy vines crawl their way to them, cut them away. I’ll deal with whatever else comes. Of course, I don't plan to engage with anything today if we can help it. This definitely changes my plans...” Varhi took a deep inhale, exhaling it through his nose. “Let’s step in, you three stay behind me and keep some distance, remember.”

Varhi led them forwards, with the other three about a dozen feet behind him. The path and the openings in the valley continued to lead them eastwards for about fifteen minutes, before it finally began to open up a little bit more as it turned back northward, where there were a few trees which were just as equally as diseased as before. A number of those mushrooms were also scattered along the ground and even the grass itself had turned from green to golden brown as if rain had not fallen here for ages, even though Varhi knew that was not true at all. It had rained way harder than he would have liked a couple of days ago.

He could also see movement up ahead which did not fill him with much confidence. He moved his hand back to signal the others to stop as he looked on ahead, moving to the side of the mountain walls and crouching low. The others after a moment of standing awkwardly out in the open followed suit, though taking a position a little behind him.

They watched for a short time and it was clear that there was more than one thing moving ahead. “Two brown herders… nothing I haven’t handled before, I guess, though that was more on my terms on the bridge than in this more open area.” He mused.

“Maybe I can shoot one of them to lure it over here without the other knowing?” Nayleen asked.

“That’s not a bad idea, but we won’t take them today. I probably could do it but I’m not taking any meaningless risks. We’ll pull back—sorry, I mean, exfiltrate for now..." He heard Sairek sighing in the distance. "...and I’ll be a good boy and continue resting. If we’re lucky, they’ll keep wandering more northwards tomorrow, or at least spread out so there’s only one of them. That would make my job easier.” With that, Varhi stood up and began walking backwards the way they came. “Same marching order for the areas we passed on the way back, okay?”

“Okay.” The three agreed at once.

* * *

The little scouting expedition to and back had only taken them four hours and it was only late noon when they arrived back. They snacked on a light lunch while they discussed. Varhi was the first to begin—after wolfing down a bite of sandwich.

“Okay, so… that fog is bad. We learned that. Also we learned that the herders for whatever reason are idly wandering back towards Karvadean for some reason, but I guess that’s because the fog has moved… um… is there any reason for those cloud things to move?” He asked, eyeing Sairek and Cyial for an answer.

“They drift, like a balloon in the air… but following the threads of energy that’s in the air rather than the wind and those threads kinda flow like a stream, but the currents are always changing, slowly, but gradually.” Cyial explained.

“Can we follow those threads to predict it or the herder’s movements?” Nayleen suggested.

Cyial shook his head. “No, not only is the cloud too big, so it’s kind of… swirling around, but threads of ethereal are a bit more intricate than just that. It’ll move around a little bit but for it to gain this size, it’s going to stay in the same general area, just growing in size from whatever keeps feeding it. It's kind of like an inverse whirlpool. There must be some source of corruption somewhere that’s been going on for a very long time to cause it to get this big, but it must mean that it’s nearby, probably in the general middle area of the cloud.”

“And that ‘something’ is more than likely in Karvadean… that's one gigantic cloud if Karvadean is in the center of it. If it’s been going on for a long time though, why wasn’t an alarm raised sooner before things got out of control?” Varhi wondered to them aloud.

“I don’t know... It’s the only explanation I can think of.” Cyial said, looking down at the book in his lap. “Nothing else in here gives any other suggestion.”

“If the puzzle piece doesn’t fit, it means it’s the wrong piece, you've got the wrong angle or you’re missing something else…” Varhi grumbled to himself in thought, taking another large bite of his sandwich.

“Is it Avotash’s doing—if indirectly?” Sairek asked.

Cyial looked down at his book. “Didn’t you even say it yourself, though, Sairek? That much unfiltered magic, let alone in Masir is…”

“I know…” Sairek sighed, folding his arms across his chest, having already finished his sandwich. “This is Masir we’re talking about. Out of the four kingdoms, there’s probably the least amount of magic here out of anywhere in the world. Let alone the fact they prefer good ‘ol fashioned weaponry over magic. There’s still magic of course, but it’s the least popular here.”

“And you said even the mines couldn’t produce something that big.” Nayleen noted.

“That, too.”

“Maybe some sabotage? Maybe Avotash was right and this is somehow Kior’s doing?” Cyial suggested.

Varhi shook his head. “That’s possible but I highly doubt it. He practically admitted to my face upon my return after I called him out for it that it was bogus and he was clearly upset that I called him out on his lie. So I doubt that's it. Unless there were spies and he genuinely didn’t know they were here, but that’s some hard-ball coincidence right there. Also, I don’t see what Kior would have to gain from causing something like this.” He rubbed the top of his head, stuffing the last of his sandwich in his mouth, chewing and gulping it down before he continued, where he began lifting his helmet off over his head and into his lap. “Well, whatever it is, we’re going to find out tomorrow. Or the day after.”

“I guess.” Sairek muttered.

“In the meantime, I’m going to be doing my task of 'get better'.” Varhi continued, pulling up his cape off of himself as he stood up, holding both it and his helmet in one hand. “So nap time for me.”

“Here, I’ll help you again.” Nayleen volunteered, causing Sairek to snort quietly to himself in amusement, looking down to hide a smirk, but not the small shake of his head.

“What should we do in the meantime, then?” Cyial asked.

“Uh, I dunno.” Varhi admitted, now near his tent, removing the straps of his gauntlets while stepping out of his greaves while Nayleen held them down so he could pull them off of his feet and legs. “I wouldn’t recommend wandering anywhere by yourselves or anything. I know that’s probably boring, just sitting here and doing nothing, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. I assure you though, it's more enjoyable than what I've had to put up with all week.”

Cyial frowned at that answer, which Varhi noted, though paused, raising his arms up as Nayleen pulled the leather armor up off of him. “If I wasn’t feeling so hurt still, I would go today, but even by the time we came back here, I was starting to feel pretty winded just from walking. Sorry.”

Cyial shook his head. “You’re recovering incredibly fast. With the condition you were in, I’m surprised you can even walk already, let alone still had been preparing yourself for a fight against that spriggan.”

“Eh, I’ve just gotten used to getting my ass kicked, I guess. It’s kind of sad, but after a while, you start building up a tolerance to it and start figuring ways to block pain out."

Cyial frowned at that, too. “That’s not healthy. Pain exists because it’s a signal from your body to your brain that something with it is wrong.”

“Yeah, well, I often don’t need that information when I can see what is killing me more often than not.” Varhi chuckled, undoing his belt and pulling his leather pants down, leaving him once more in just his boxers. “Thanks Nayleen.”

Nayleen winked at him, gave him a look that lasted a couple seconds longer than it needed to, and then moved to walk back to the campfire. Varhi blinked, but soon moved, stretching his body as he yawned, wincing part way through. “Ow...  that first hit really did me in… I was totally caught off guard with it…”

Cyial looked towards Nayleen, who soon looked back to him. “There’s probably some herbs we can go scavenging around. I can probably grind them up to make a rough medicine for you that should be more permanent than ethereal.”

“But—”

Cyial shook his head. “With both Nayleen and I looking together, we’ll be careful. No spriggan will sneak up on us, and we’ll look away from the infected area of the forest. You’d be surprised at what you can find when you know what to look for.”

Nayleen nodded in agreement. “He’s right. I know what herbs to get and where to find them more often than not and Cyial knows how to transform them into tinctures so that they’re more usable. We make an excellent team when it comes to plants and herbs.” She smiled, moving to wrap one arm around Cyial and pulled him into her forcefully.

Varhi moved to sit down on top of the bedroll, looking towards Sairek for confirmation.

“If you want to ask me, I think we should play this ‘to win’, not just ‘survive’. We’re going to need you as close to full strength as possible, especially since Cyial and I won’t be able to be much help. Besides, if one of them waddles their way in here while those two are gone and you’re resting, I can handle it for at least a couple of minutes until you’re ready at the very least now that I know what I’m doing and what we’re up against.”

“Right…” Varhi sighed. “Fine, but be careful. Stay close to the path so you don’t get lost and to minimize the risk of any nasty surprises.”

“Yes, dad. Come on, let’s go Cyial.” Nayleen encouraged him, helping him stand up to his feet. They moved back out of the usual exit towards the path.

Sairek picked up his staff beside himself and moved from the fire to sit next to Varhi, glancing to look at him for a moment. “Don’t fret. You need to relax and rest. They’ll be back soon.”

“Well, you sound confident at least. That’s good.” Varhi nodded, moving to slide himself under the sleeping bag, a soft groan of relief releasing from him as he settled in. “This is why I don’t work with other people often… it’s easier when you just have to worry about yourself and not others.”

“It’s because of them that I’ve made it this far. I wouldn’t have gotten nearly this far by my own. Probably would have gone hungry long ago because I can’t cook.” Sairek chuckled.

“Oh, so she is the one who keeps you all alive after all.”

Sairek snorted at Varhi's answer. “Maybe. Even if she teases me to no end most of the time, I know she’s definitely got my back. Cyial too of course. Those two… no amount of riches in the castle could pay for what those two mean to me already.”

“Well, it’s nice when you have friends or partners you know you can trust.”

“We’re more than just friends. We’re a team.” Sairek corrected him.

Varhi smiled at that. “Yeah, I remember what it’s like. Well, maybe not. After all, we only met together because the job decreed that we be in a group of three. I was trying to get officially recognized as a mercenary at that time, but…” Sairek waited for him to continue. Varhi rolled in his sleeping bag, his back facing Sairek. “...But the job didn’t go as planned. Intelligence was bad. One of our group died. Died saving my life, no less… I still don’t know why they sacrificed their life for mine. Hardly knew me. Maybe it's because they just saw me as a kid, because with all things considered, I was even more of a sarcastic ass back then than I am now.”
There was another pause, some uncomfortable silence, but Varhi resumed again momentarily. “I don’t remember what happened after that, other than I felt a rage I don't remember feeling ever before. That was the first time I actually killed someone. By the time I woke up again, I was hurt so badly that my other partner had to carry me out of there. I was a mental wreck after that, both physically and mentally. I didn’t work with people other than Jimmy after that unless I had to. I guess I was starting to like them, and then... just like that, it was torn away from me. And the other guy I was with, we separated anyways. I guess it's kind of put me in the belief that building relationships only gets in the way in this line of work. The guy we were hunting down was a mage too, by the way...”

Sairek opened his mouth to respond, pausing for a moment to think about what he was going to say. He was interrupted however by the rustling of bushes and instinctively he stiffened and moved to stand up, preparing himself for the worst.

“We’re back.” Nayleen called out. She and Cyial stepped out from the brush, causing Varhi to move to sit up in the sleeping bag and Sairek to relax his posture.

“A-Already?” Varhi asked, bewildered. "You were gone for less than five minutes."

“Yup.” She said, moving to sit beside him, which Sairek moved to sit back down too. Nayleen held a particular set of leaves in her hands, green they were, but the leaves looked like they had a little bit of fuzz on them. Sairek wasn’t sure if that was actually fuzz, or just a bunch of tiny little thorns. She did seem to be handling them fairly delicately. “I need to pluck these things out before Cyial can use them. These are endysm leaves and they're poisonous.”

“Umm…” Varhi began, looking visibly less comfortable than he did a moment ago.

Nayleen moved to sit down with her legs spread, setting the leaves on her lap placing the stack on her left leg, and one on her right leg, which she then began to carefully pluck the little needles out of that one, using her fingernails to pinch between a small cluster of them before giving them a pull. “Relax, the poison isn’t very strong and is only harmful in large doses. It kinda itches when you poke yourself with them at first though. Enough of these leaves’ juice together injected into a wound however can help numb the pain from the wound like a pain killer and reduce the swelling a little.”

Cyial moved now to sit in front of the three of them, taking his turn to speak. “When Nayleen is done removing the needles from them, I’ll grind the leaves with a mortar and pestle and mix it with a bit of ethereal to make sure no infection will occur. Then I’ll put it into a syringe to inject you with here and there directly into those bruises. Most of the minor ones should be gone by tomorrow morning and the more serious ones like that big one on your side should at least feel better and be a bit smaller.” He explained. “While I’m doing that, Nayleen will go out and look for more until sundown. There’s plenty of these things, but they can be easy to miss.”

“Huh.” Varhi let out. “Well, I guess medicine was never my expertise. I only studied the human body itself and only have enough knowledge to do basic first-aid.”

Cyial looked towards Sairek, blinking at him once in waiting and Sairek understood without a word, pinching the jewel in his fingers. He brought out the mortar and pestle and the syringe Cyial was waiting for and visibly flinched. He moved his fingers to hide the jewel from view and turned himself away, bringing a flask of ethereal to the jewel to pour some more on it. He was getting a bit concerned at how fast they were going through their flasks of the stuff. They brought as much as they could and it was a lot, sure, but it wasn’t an unlimited supply. He’d have to check how much they had left after they got out of here.

Cyial gave Sairek a knowing look, but didn’t say anything, reaching for the items, he brought them back to his lap. Nayleen handed him two leaves which she had finished and he set himself to work. First he used a little bit of water from his flask to wash the leaves off. Afterwards, he poured a small amount of ethereal into the mortar, then he began to press the pestle down onto the leaves, crushing and grinding them up. He added more leaves as Nayleen finished removing the needles from them, doing this for a good twenty minutes before she was out and got back up to go look for more.

“How long is this going to take?” Varhi asked, watching Cyial this entire time just crushing the leaves.

“Making proper medicine like this especially without a proper workbench is both slow and tedious.” Cyial explained. “I probably won’t be done until supper is ready to be served.”

“Sorry I am making you do all of this just for me.” Varhi apologized. "However, I do appreciate it."

Cyial shook his head. “Don’t be. I enjoy this kind of work. It’s kind of… therapeutic to me, I guess.” He pursed his lips together in a brief thought. He never looked away from the task he was doing as he continued to speak. “I never left the monastery in Lamen because I hated what I was doing there. I enjoyed making medicine that could help people get better. I kind of missed doing this. I just hated that when patients found out that I was the one who made a particular portion of medicine for them, that it must be poisoned or something, just because of what I am.” His eyebrows furrowed some more as he continued thinking and shook his head with a sigh. “I even had someone claim that they were getting worse and dying, even though they were clearly getting better. He tried to sue the monastery.”

Sairek frowned. Such ludicrous paperwork would be handled by Lavian, for sure. No wonder why she expressed so much hate towards the job.

Varhi however snorted in amusement at that. “Believe me, I know the feeling.” He replied, glancing sideways at Cyial but not looking at him directly. “I’ve met all kinds of blundering morons in my time. People will do ridiculous things to keep a belief in something. Most of the time they don’t even know why they believe in something the way that they do, just that they do and will even use cognitive dissonance to keep that belief.” He explained, then turned to look directly at Sairek a bit intently.

“...Why are you looking at me like that?” Sairek asked, his voice dry.

“Oh, no reason in particular...” Varhi mused, his tone teasing.

“I have a giant stick and I’m not afraid to use it on you.” Sairek warned him.

“Unfortunately for you, I still have my pot lid to block your giant stick.” Varhi smirked, reaching into his sleeping bag and pulled the battered and used utensil out.

“What the—? You sleep with it?!” Sairek stammered, taken aback.

“What? Nobody expects a pot lid!” Varhi grinned, pushing it back into the sleeping bag with him. “It can be used as a weapon or a shield. Try having a knife protect you when someone suddenly swings down at you with a type of sharp weapon of your own when you're not even in position to grab it—everybody expects you to have a knife by the way. Most usually will plan for such a weapon when ambushing you in your sleep.”

Sairek stared at him blankly.

“Your stunned silence only proves that the pot lid works, you know.”

“Nope, screw this, I’m ‘meep meeping’ out of here.” Sairek surrendered, moving to stand up and reposition himself to sit next to the unlit campfire away from them. Varhi let out a deep laugh that was hard enough that caused him to have to clutch both his hands onto his injured side, while Cyial grinned widely in amusement.

* * *

“That should do it, I think.” Cyial announced, releasing his right hand from his pestle and giving it a bit of a shake to stretch his wrist. He looked towards Varhi now, who was currently sleeping.

“May as well wait until he wakes up. He’s going to need as much sleep as he can get.” Nayleen said, glancing at the other boy’s sleeping form. She had returned from her little scavenger hunt, and by now was in the middle of preparing their dinner.

“Sometimes I wonder if he’s not actually recovered as much as I think he has and he’s just putting on a show so we won't worry.” Cyial wondered aloud, picking up his syringe and then filling it slowly from the liquid in the mortar. “Or, maybe it’s a bit of both.”

“Does that stuff really work?” Sairek asked with a tilt of his head. The liquid inside the syringe when Cyial filled it looked like a kind of fruit juice of some sort. Mostly clear, but with a lime color tinting it.

“Well… this is really rudimentary, I’ll admit. Usually more goes into medicine than just some leaves and some drops of ethereal.” Cyial admitted. “Proper medicine would include an arcane berry, some herbs, maybe a bloodrop mushroom cap for the good stuff..." He sighed. "This won’t fix him, but it’ll help at least. I pocketed some sleeping stuff with me too, so he’ll sleep again for the rest of the night. I’ll give him a couple of hours to eat, stretch his body and move around a bit before using that to knock him out again.”

“Isn’t it unhealthy to sleep so much?” Sairek asked with a slight tilt with his head.

“You’re one to talk.” Nayleen teased.

“O-Oi… You’re the one who sleeps too little. That’s definitely worse.” Sairek countered.

“Now, now you two…” Cyial sighed, then looked to Sairek to answer his question. “It can develop bad sleeping habits, but I think that’s the least of our concerns right now. His body is beaten and exhausted. It needs this period of rest. A lot of the time, sleeping is just the best medicine. It can do a lot of things. If we had more time, a few days of sleep and feeding him some good hearty food in between and he would have been good as new, especially with his apparent level of constitution. I’m surprised he could even stand up today, let alone walk around like nothing was wrong." Cyial turned his head to look back upon Varhi's sleeping form. "It’s extremely impressive, to say the least.”

“He’s a bag of surprises alright.” Sairek grumbled, looking to the side at nothing in particular. He heard Cyial let out a muffled chuckle and he grumbled under his breath, further.

“Huh?” Nayleen let out, looking at Cyial, then Sairek, then back to Cyial again. “Did I miss something earlier?”

Cyial told her.

“HAH!” She laughed out loud, then eyed her own pot lid that was currently sitting by her side, waiting to be used for its intended purpose. “Maybe I should—”

“Lands, please don’t…” Sairek groaned, holding the top of his head with his left hand and shaking it.

* * *

 

It was another night of Cyial taking watch while everyone else slept, but morning had arrived without incident. After Nayleen cooked them another early breakfast, they were quickly on the move to get themselves ready for what they knew would be quite the hard and dangerous day ahead of them.


“Are you sure you’re feeling okay?” Cyial asked Varhi, watching the other lad move his body within his armor, stretching his limbs out and rolling his arms as if testing his body.

“Meh. Good as I’ll get. Not like it matters. We don’t have much time left.” Varhi answered. In his stretching, he leaned his body to his right, keeping his legs planted firmly on the ground, then his left, which he did partway before wincing a little, though he still completed the action. “Well, it’s an improvement, anyway. I don’t think it’ll affect my movement much. I just need to be careful with it.” Sairek watched him from a small distance, which Varhi caught and saw the frown on his face. “Seriously, no magic tricks in the fog.” He warned, wagging a finger at him. “Cyial might be okay given his nature, but I’d still rather not risk it. Besides, given what that twinkly gem is, I’d rather we hurry up and run as fast as possible through it. Is that thing topped up?”

“Yes.” Sairek confirmed with a nod. “What about your chainmail shirt thing, though? Are you sure you want to leave it behind?”

“It’s too heavy for me to carry given the circumstances, and especially too heavy for you if you’re already struggling to carry stuff in that thing. It’s just a chain shirt. I can always get another.” Varhi answered, then patted his satchel at his hip. “Besides, I’m already carrying some of your burden as well, anyway.”

“I wish you felt that way about the pot lid.” Sairek muttered dryly.

Varhi sent him a credulous look. Sairek blinked back at him, unashamed. Ignoring Sairek’s comment, Varhi resumed as if he never spoke to the Prince in the first place. “Okay, well our tummies are full, our bladders are empty, I’m as good as I’ll ever get in this stupid place and daylight is burning away. Let’s go. If everything goes how I hope it will, we’ll probably reach near the town by early evening. Maybe we’ll find a place where we can rest for the night but if not, we may be doing marching all the way until tomorrow's daylight. Do you all remember the marching formations?”

The other three nodded their heads or spoke in affirmation.

Varhi turned around, looking towards the direction the path would be in. He wasn’t one to be afraid often, but knowing what lay up ahead, he did gulp. “...Let’s get out of here, then.” He said, marching forward.

The other three shared in his apprehension, following him in the same order and distance as they had yesterday. Sairek, when they walked out back onto the path, took a glance down at himself, his left hand moving to hold onto the royal jewel, not to cast any magic, but just to try and comfort himself, if just a little bit. He took a deep inhale, then exhaled it slowly, tightening his grip on it.


They took the same path as last time and just as fortunately as last time too, nothing got in their way as they arrived into the mountains proper. Varhi was also pleased that the herders they encountered yesterday seemed to have moved up north. However, as they passed around a curve to travel past the rocky formation to their right, the sight that lay ahead of them didn’t instil much hope.

Ahead lay a moderate drop of about fifteen feet or so, as more of the stream water coursed through below, bending in a sort of large ‘C’ shape from where they stood. The water flowed towards them and continued to flow to their right eastward, traveling under the mountains it seemed. Varhi assumed that this was water that would flow down southwards and then eventually bend back towards the stream over the bridge they had passed on the way here and where he had initially started clearing the herders out a week ago. From what he saw right before delving into the forest, the stream was a sort of Y shape that he saw tilted to its left. Fortunate, because if it wasn't for that, he would have had no clean water in the first place to drink from.

Next to those mountains lay a bridge, short like the one they had passed previously, but much more essential to cross given the drop. The gap between one piece of land to the next was about a fifteen to twenty feet in distance. From the top of this ‘C’ shape to lead them to the other side and around the water, was yet another bridge, which in between these bridges, were a trio of herders, two red ones and one brown one.

Varhi sighed, crossing his arms and grumbled. “Well that’s a problem. Who designed this place? Why would they plop a bridge on the eastern side when the western side is perfectly good...?”

Nayleen looked around, moving her way along the edge of the drop into the water to their left on the west side. The mountains there dipped in, but curved in such a way that shimmying along the ledge wouldn’t be impossible and it would allow them to skip the entire C shaped stream and everything inbetween it. “Think we could skirt along this to the other side?” She asked out loud.

“Are you serious?” Sairek stammered nervously as he and Cyial approached her from behind. “One slip and we’ll be plummeting down into that water. Who knows how deep it is? And there might not be a way back out.”

“Let me go first then.” Nayleen offered. You got that rope, Varhi?”

“Uh-huh?”

“We’ll tie it to this tree right here and I’ll haul it over and work my way to the other side, then tie it to something else. That will give you boys a safety line and a brace to help work your way over to the other side.”

“...So you are serious about this.” Sairek frowned.

“Duh. This isn’t the worst I’ve dealt with, y’know. I can do it.” Nayleen reassured him with such confidence that he second-guessed his own doubts. “Besides, if the rope is tied to the tree and I do fall, I can just climb my way back up. It’s long enough. I’m sure the three of you together can help pull me back up. That water isn’t shallow or going fast. It’s not dangerous.”

“Okay, but what if there’s any herders on the other side…?”

“Then I’ll just work my way back here.”

“Fine, then. If you're that sure...” Sairek agreed reluctantly.

Nayleen got to work tying the rope to the tree and then initially tied two more bundles of rope together to lengthen it as much as she could. Then she looped the remaining rope around her front and let it slack down off of her back as she gripped the rock and the small little foothold along the mountain and the edge of the cliff that only housed enough space for her toes in some places, let alone the rest of her feet. Slowly, Nayleen began to edge herself further and further away from them, her hands sometimes slowly moving along, searching along the edge to find the best area to grip and reposition her weight.

It felt like an age to Sairek, watching her, but she never showed any panic or any much signs that she was struggling. Soon, she reached the edge of the east side and soon disappeared from view as she shimmied her way along the northern face of the cliff, though the movements of the rope on the tree from the slack it had, showed that she was still moving.

“Can you guys hear me?” Nayleen called out a couple minutes later from beyond the mountain wall.

“Yeah! How is it?” Sairek called back.

“Not bad at all, it’s only about fifteen feet in total and this side is clear. Let me tie the rope to something. I think I see a perfect tree.” She answered, then was silent. A couple minutes passed by and Sairek watched as the rope occasionally moved, gradually the slack it had began to tighten, pressing more and more along the edge of the cliff, before becoming somewhat taut. “Done!” Nayleen called back another moment later.

“We’re actually doing this.” Sairek grumbled.

“Are you afraid of heights?” Varhi asked.

“Afraid of falling off a cliff. These boots don’t have the best grip.” Sairek muttered.

“Oh, like my steel greaves are any better for this, with my side still feeling swollen.” Varhi scoffed. “Just keep a tight grip on the rope, watch your footing and you’ll be fine.”

“Right…” Sairek inhaled deeply.

“Cyial, go with him, help keep him steady.” Varhi ordered, with a nudge of his head.

“Will you be okay on your own?” Cyial asked.

“I’ll be right behind you. C’mon.”

“But my staff...” Sairek protested.

"Why not just put it inside the jewel?" Varhi asked.

"Because it's a Yggdrasil staff..."

"...So?"

"You can't put 'live' things inside a pocket dimension. Even if it's just a piece from Yggdrasil's root, it's still 'alive', so it wouldn't go in..." Sairek grumbled.

"Ah, so that's how it works." Varhi mused.

Cyial reached over, plucking the staff from Sairek, which he initially resisted on instinct at first. Cyial moved to hold his staff against his lower back and moved to wrap his tail around his waist and the staff, keeping it snug against his back. “There. Now come on. You can do this. I won’t let you fall.”

Running out of excuses, Sairek groaned, moving himself ‘under’ the rope to the inner side of it, hugging his front against the wall and much like Nayleen had done, he began to slowly sidle along the cliff. Cyial was quick to follow him as was Varhi. Sairek determined their pace and he went pretty slow, always second guessing where he should grip his hands or his feet and relying a lot on the rope to help balance his weight more forwards, slowly, he worked his way around though, occasionally reassured by Cyial placing a hand on his back and pushing him towards the cliff to give him an extra bit of leverage when he stalled too long in some areas.

When he made himself around the north bend, he saw Nayleen was already there, waiting for him, that helped him have to do a few feet less. He reached out towards her outstretched hand and took it, she slowly ‘pulled’ him along the wall, until his feet were back once again on full solid ground. He let out a heavy relieved breath, sitting down on the ground. His legs felt a little wobbly.

After helping Cyial, she then helped Varhi and went to undo the last knot of rope, letting two thirds of the rope fall slack and splash into the current down below, but salvaging at least the other portion of it, which she began to untie from the tree and wrap back up into a bundle.

“It looks clear again up ahead. Are you ready Sairek?” Varhi asked, holding his hand expectantly for Nayleen, who handed him the wrapped bundle of rope, which he stuffed back into his satchel.

“Y-Yes…” Sairek stammered, standing up with Cyial’s help, who also handed him his staff back. "I'm ready."

“Let’s keep going.” Varhi nodded.

They moved back into their marching order, the opening in the rocks now taking them several yards westwards, before gently curving back towards the north again. Initially, starting wide, but becoming more and more narrow and then suddenly opening up again. As they walked without opposition for another twenty minutes, Sairek glanced around slightly.

“It’s getting a bit easier to see, isn’t it?” He asked out loud, suddenly.

“We might be stepping back out of the edge of the cloud. We did move quite a distance back westward again after all.” Varhi noted. “See that up ahead?”

Ahead of them looked to be another large cliff face that looked to be dome-shaped, caving inwards and down. A single pillar of land, about fifteen feet in diameter, lay in the center, which housed two bridges, one ahead of them going northwards and then the other going east.
As they got closer, Sairek noted that this dome was absolutely huge, becoming much easier to see as they stepped out of the cloud. When they reached the foot of the bridge, he would have guessed that the drop was possibly around ninety or a hundred feet at the bottom which just looking down at how far the drop was made him feel a bit queasy. This wasn’t just a cliff face; this was an entire crater.
Also at the bottom of this crater, far down below was a sight that caused his heart to skip a beat or three and gave him more of a reaction than how far this drop was “Oh… Oh Lands…” He whispered in horror. He heard the other three exhale uneasily much like him or stammer their own curses under their breaths.

There must have been over fifty herders and spriggans combined down there, all bunched up together, seemingly having not much height awareness as there were a number of corpses of them down there as well that looked fairly flattened. There were a few trees down there, which looked quite sickly indeed, and a number of mushrooms as well. Down below was also covered in a thin veil of fog, more or less in small little clouds like Sairek would have figured could only be natural with that much polluted energy down there. Their sizes were more or less what should have been expected.

“It’s like a gigantic fly trap…” Cyial whispered.

“Well shit... that puts a whole new definition to 'The Pits', doesn't it?” Varhi muttered, leaning back away to no longer gaze at the sight.

“What?” Sairek asked in confusion.

“Yes. According to Jimmy based on what he said right before I departed for this job, a few hundred years ago, a meteorite crashed here, causing a large explosion. It’s what formed these mountains around the area. This small continent which Masirean inhabits was outright uninhabited at the time the meteor fell, so nobody was killed or anything like that, but the explosion was so big that it was heard and felt from the northern edges of the mainland. This crater is where the impact of the meteorite was. The impact is what caused people to come here and settle, actually, which created the Masirean kingdom.” Varhi explained to him, he paused, turning to Sairek. “Ever heard the phrase ’This is the pits’ at all?”

“I use it myself sometimes...”

“Yeah, that’s referring to this place. Right here. This hole is where that phrase originated from.” Varhi said.

“What–?” Sairek repeated, though his tone was an octave or two higher than he used previously.

“Yuuup.” Varhi smirked faintly, mildly amused at Sairek’s reaction, but it turned back into a frown as he turned to look back down below again. “I don't know why it's usually used in a negative light most of the time, though that's kinda fitting now, I guess, because shit, even me seeing that down there is giving me goosebumps.” He shuddered. ”I certainly hope that's the majority of them that has fallen down there, because if it's just a fraction of the number of them, I'm legitimately afraid of what we're going to find in Karvadean...”