Chapter 43

43

B efore Delina can think, Maison's shifted himself in front of her, and Chloe's hands glow.

Literally glow, not with strips of magic, but like the very air itself is brought to light.

"Delina," Chloe says, her voice remote, "there's going to be dead in here."

There's been dead revealing itself to her in every step, but Delina nods and lets her mind concentrate.

There's the echo of pain, of sudden ends, and a few disjointed bones laying deep beneath the floor.

"No actual bodies, they've cleaned them up," Delina says, and Chloe nods absently, before the air wavers over her hands and the wall in front of them opens.

Splits in two, the stucco and brick peeling away like it's burnt paper.

Revealing a deep chasm, one that can't exist in the building. It's too big, too deep, too spacious.

It's too much.

There's blood slicked along the walls, dried and blackened. A vague hint of machinery whirs, somewhere in the deep, like a maw chewing through something.

Chloe gestures them in, before she seals the wall back up, leaving it without a crease.

"Congrats," Chloe says, and she's not whispering now, her voice echoing down into the depths. "This is the biggest hurdle out of this place."

Even Gurlien looks peaked.

"If we get the wight out, we don't have to do the hard part of this," Chloe says, and her eyes are sharp, surveying the machinery.

"How do the guards get around this?" Delina asks, and her own voice hangs in the air.

"They take shifts," Maison says, and he's tracing his fingertips along the short platform, as if searching for something by touch. "They generally work a week, then have two weeks off, so they only have to cross it then."

"And they know the spells, they know the changes of the runes, and they know who to call when it backfires," Chloe says, then cracks her knuckles.

For once, instead of the remote fear that's been across her for the entire time, an almost content expression filters over her face.

"Maison, you mask any leakage, cover for any traps at our back," she orders. "Delina, you keep your hand on the bugs in case something comes at us, and sense anyone who might be near us. Keep yourself aware." Chloe throws a look to Gurlien, who nods back at her. "Gurlien, stop me from falling over."

There's a breath, where everyone absorbs that information, before Maison turns back towards the door.

A strip of magic twists into his hands and, between one roll of his fingers and the next, he shreds it, and a warping golden wall forms behind them, not unlike the demon bubble.

He keeps his hands against it, his back to the cavernous maw, like his hands hold it up and away from them all.

Delina pops open the bug pill container, and with barely a thought, compels the tiny golden string into the palm of her hand.

After so long in the airless coffin, it's almost joyous against her skin.

Maison inhales, then throws her a grim grin. "Still weird when you do that."

Chloe watches Maison's shield for a split second then slings off her backpack, unzipping it and grabbing a handful of…gravel?

Playing with it in her hands, Chloe crouches at the edge of the platform, peering over. As if ready for it, Gurlien crouches next to her, grabbing her by her shirt collar, bracing himself.

"So the guards get over this by targeted runes and precisely placed keys on four separate points," Gurlien recites, as if it's not something that they all have memorized by that point. "All she's going to do is mimic the keys, and we should get across this."

"Can't do that coming back," Chloe replies, almost mechanically, "not without someone waiting on the other side. So we have to hit the stasis floor."

"Yep," Gurlien says, and it's so practiced that Delina would've believed that they've had the information for far longer than they should've. "Ready on a go."

Delina nods, crouching as well, and Maison braces himself with the golden shield.

"And…go."

Chloe's hands light up again, the gravel floating around them an inch away, and the entire platform lurches.

Biting back a gasp, Delina sits her butt on the floor, and the platform slides along the wall as if on an invisible track in a theme park.

Unable to stop herself, she glances off the edge.

The floor of the cavern, much closer than it looks, whirs into activity. Machinery, grotesque and monstrous, churns on the ground, knives glinting in the light of the runes. Blades, cogs, and teeth all gnash together, in one long continuous machine.

"You broke into the wall here?" Delina breathes, and Chloe doesn't pause to nod.

"There," Gurlien points, keeping one hand wrapped up in Chloe's collar.

Chloe inhales, sharp, then squints, letting one of the pieces of gravel spin off to the floor.

It changes midair, twisting and engorging, before it sockets into place with a clunk.

The platform hitches, then continues to slide along, and for a split second Delina sees the tracks along the wall, before they fade as well.

Maison's back twitches, and he lifts his hands up higher, as if counteracting something that only he can see.

"There," Gurlien whispers, barely audible over the din of machinery.

Another pebble, growing into a metal rod, sliding into place on a lock. It turns, smoothly, and the platform drops a few feet before the track illuminates once more and they slide on.

Delina cranes her neck to look back at the lock. The metal rod fits perfectly, but by the time the next piece of gravel gets socketed in, it disintegrates, the machine crunching to life once more.

So. The locking pits re-lock themselves.

"The thing about the walls," Chloe says, her voice remote, "is that there's scaffolding in them to balance on. Much easier."

She's sweating, in the odd glow from her hands, coming from the pieces of gravel, and her head is starting to pound, so strongly Delina can almost taste the bitterness.

There's a skeleton, somewhere close by, though Delina can't see it, and it might also be in the walls. It's old, aged almost beyond recognition, dry and almost dust.

The lights dim around them, and Maison grunts, lifting the shield higher, and Delina catches a spare glimpse of magic swirling beyond it. Magic, dark and bulbous, striking the shield, as if testing it.

Another piece of gravel, another lock, another chunk of machinery cluttering to a stop and another piece of track illuminated. There's a splash of blood on the lock, the splinters of a bone, as if they didn't fully clean it.

As if they didn't want to take the risk.

Chloe leans forward, almost craning her neck over for the next piece of lock, and Gurlien grabs her tighter. His wrist aches, sharp, at the strain, before she adjusts herself so she's lying flat against the platform.

There's a hint, just something, within the moment, and the only warning Delina gets is the sudden inhale from Maison, before his shield shatters.

Shatters into a million golden pieces, flying around them like shards.

Chloe cries out and the platform drops a few feet, and Delina has no time to think.

No time to think, no time to plan, no time to breathe.

Before the nebulous dark magic swirls towards them, surging, and—

Maison staggers back, falling on the platform, still keeping a hand up on the broken shield. There's a sharp bite of pain in his back, in his knee, sudden.

He's hurt.

The magic forms, hunching over Maison, like it's some sort of creature. Like it's something sentient, like it's something that could hunger, raising itself to strike.

Delina grabs the magic in her fist, spreading it like the paper she was taught, flowing it between her hands.

It glows, bright in the dim light, and the dark magical…thing…turns towards her.

It has no eyes, it has no discernible face, and yet Delina can feel its gaze on her.

"Yeah," she breathes, and her heart pounds. "Look at me, not him."

Maison scrambles back, as much as the platform will allow, and his knee is twisted. Not critically, not irreparable, but hurt all the same.

The creature shifts, as if assessing her, and Delina hitches her breath.

And lets the magic snap out of her hands.

There's a split second where the light reflects shiny over the thing's form, before it splatters out of existence, a high-pitched shriek echoing through the chamber, drowning out the crash of machinery.

Delina's ears ring and her hands smart, before the platform slowly continues on the track, clicking another lock into place.

Maison surges himself up to standing, grabbing Delina and pulling her back down with a quick, practiced motion. His knee buckles, but there's no trace of it in his face.

"What was that?" Delina breathes, as Chloe clicks another lock into place and the track illuminates once more.

Maison shakes his head, like he doesn't fully know. "Some ghoul, something twisted, I don't know."

"You're hurt," she says, turning away from the cavern and to him. "You're hurt, I can tell—"

"I've done a lot harder with a lot worse," he replies grimly, but he clutches her, an arm around her middle, like he could keep her safe with just that.

"Well, that's not coming back," Gurlien says, still keeping a grip on Chloe, but the far wall grows nearer, impossibly so. "Good instinct."

Delina nods, and her breath comes out in huffs, like she just ran a few miles.

"Almost there," Chloe mumbles, and her head blooms with pain with each stone fall. "Almost there, then we can relax."

"We can absolutely not relax," Gurlien corrects. "We can do something marginally less difficult."

Maison adjusts himself so her back is tucked against his chest, and his hands tremble, the fingertips aching. Like the entire weight of the shield had been just on the pads of his fingers.

Delina squeezes her eyes shut, as the platform shudders and drops again, before it clicks into place, socketing against the far wall.

Chloe finally crawls fully back onto the platform, shaking like a leaf, before peeling the wall open to another corridor with white light and polished walls.

"Get in," she croaks, her voice hoarse, and Delina hauls Maison up to standing, stumbling into the hallway.

His knee twists, painful, before the weight on it crumples him, staggering against Delina.

"I got you," Delina murmurs at his hiss of pain, and Chloe and Gurlien follow them behind, before Chloe waves her hand and seals it off.

Closing off the giant maw, all sounds of machinery cutting off, leaving them just in the stillness and bright lights.