Constant heat led to a perpetual layer of sweat. It was miserable in all aspects of the word. The three of them took turns sleeping under a dust-covered lean-to up against the pit’s wall. Two of them were always on watch and the volume was permanently set to whisper.

  A week in hell.

  A week in hell with the smell of rotten eggs the new norm.

  When the three first went down the pit and settled on their spying ledge, it was meant to be a day or two maximum of surveillance before they would break in and be the heroes. Minily knew the lost were down there somewhere, but there was no indication they were dying or disappearing. So, what was the fire for?

  Ever-burning, ever-being fed—the great bonfire raged night and day like a sun trapped in a pit. She had to have the answers.

  At first, all three crawled to the edge to peer down on the people or creatures flying around tending to the hungry flame. Heat rose as the flames licked the air and their eyes stung with sweat from inside their masks. But it was worth it.

  Minily had audibly gasped when she saw the flying beings and dramatically dove on the other two while covering their eyes. She told them they shouldn’t see the horrors. That they were too young to experience what was down in the pit. Both of them looked at her like normal—the look after someone tells a bad joke.

  After wrestling her hand away, both Laiko and Aggilla peered back over the edge to focus on the people. Their skin varied between yellow and red. Horns grew in unique patterns from their heads while demonic wings shot out from their backs. Long fingers ending with fingernails sharp as blades made them appear lethal. None of this was what Minily was addressing, however. She was trying to block their eyes because none of the people in the pit wore clothes. Succubus flew around with varying images of the female form that gave of an almost irresistible allure. Incubus joined them with sculpted male forms standing tall with confidence that would make most swoon.

  “You know, you had me worried, Minily!”

  “Shh, keep your voice down. I was just trying to protect your innocence.”

  Aggilla laughed. “Nothing I haven’t seen before.”

  Minily and Laiko turned to her with incredulous stares.

  “Alright Aggilla, do tell.”

  Minily made an over-dramatic act of pulling out some roasted nuts and sitting down like she was preparing for a show.

  “Maybe we should focus on the mission.” Her cheeks turned rosy as her gaze passed between the other two.

  “Ah, you’re no fun! I have my nuts and everything. Wait, it wasn’t Laiko was it?! I told you two separate tents!”

  “MINILY!”

  The two younger class chosen yelled in an angry whisper.

  She just chuckled playfully.

  “I’m only teasing. Pretty sure I would have heard it.”

  “Not possible over your snoring.”

  \    “So, you’re saying you guys did do it?!”

  “What? No! Can we please get back to the people down there?

  “See, he can’t even resist now that he got an eyeful!”

  “That’s not…no that’s not what I meant. We need to focus on the mission. The mission and nothing more.”

  Aggilla giggled again while peering back over the ledge.

  “They appear to be perpetually feeding that big fire with some kind of ore.”

  “Oh yeah, I’m sure THAT’S what you saw, but fine we will go with it. What are our thoughts then? Why keep the fire going?”

  “Perhaps they like the warmth.”

  “That’s possible, Laiko, but if that were the case why keep growing the fire? There are plenty of ways to produce heat that wouldn’t require so much work. They could just go back to the canyon that tried to cook us.”

  “Then perhaps it’s about the heat and the toxicity of the gas.”

  “Now that I believe, Aggilla. Way to use your upstairs brain. That leaves one final question, why not fill in this hole and trap all the gas down there? I mean that vent is taking away their precious rotten egg smell.”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  “Maybe they can’t live without the right environment. This mixed with the sulfur naturally occurring in the swamp gas could perhaps let them live above ground.”

  “An expansion of territory. Maybe, but it still feels off. It can’t be that simple for this big of an operation and you’d think we would see some flying up to check the progress. Let’s dig in and see what we see.”

  That was how their watch over the great fire began. In a week, the fire had already grown enough that the flames with nearly licking at their ledge. If they waited any longer, there would be no way around the fire to get down. Minily shielded them and jumped to the side of the flames while there was minimal activity. Right before they hit the ground, she activated her flight skill and caught them. Quickly they lowered to the ground and rolled into the most obscured area they could.

  At the bottom, the heat was much worse, and their health bars started to slowly tick down. Without their mask, there was no doubt they would choke in seconds. A thick black smoke hung in the air. Only a draft here and there would blow the smoke clear for a second.

  During their investigation, they determined that most of the horned beings came from the southwestern area of the pit which tracked with the lights that Minily could always see. Now, they glowed brightly, indicating they were close.

  Silently, they made their way around the mostly circular cavern towards that area. Black and yellow rocks were scattered around the outside in great piles. Some were merely pebbles while others were boulders they had to work around. With their speed and dexterity, it only took minutes to make their way around the edge and to the entrance of a cave. Minily led them to a boulder to sit behind and observe.

  A steady stream of the demonic humanoids came in and out of the cave holding more of the strange ore or storage containers that held who knows what. Still, every now and then there was a lull of about thirty seconds when the stream would slow. That was their window. She knew the lost were inside that cave.

  At the next lull, Minily signaled to move with haste, and they took off in a crouched sprint. Each one had learned to stay low and quiet since leaving the city. The trio only slowed when they were directly behind the last succubus they had seen enter. Quietly, they followed beneath and behind her. She never even took her eyes away from the path before her.

  Minily nudged Laiko and pointed up at the succubus. Laiko thought something was wrong and looked up only to see the naked figure. He realized too late it was a trap and looked back to give Minily a really-right-now glare. She didn’t see it because she was too busy trying not to bust out in laughter. Aggilla just made a gesture of smacking her face with her hand and then sighed.

  The three followed the crimson-skinned woman until they found her destination. Even Minily stopped her antics and became extremely serious. She put her hands on the others’ shoulders and yanked them into a small alcove in the tunnel wall. Once in, she quickly threw up the dusty lean-to, and they ducked behind it hoping it would be camouflaged enough.

  “What is that, Minily?”

  “That Aggilla, is bad news. Some kind of portal. It must be their home world which means that burning ore is doing more to the air than we know.”

  “I thought your skill told you the lost were here?” Laiko whispered as an incubus flew past them.

  “It must have been leading us to the portal. This makes sense now. They have been gone for a while. We shouldn’t have made ground on them, but we were. This is why.”

  “So, we go through?”

  Aggilla’s question hung in the air between the three for half a minute before they all nodded at each other.

  “We go through.”

  Minily poked her head out after the next demonkin passed by and stared at the doorway surrounded by black and red hellfire. Billowing black smoke poured out of the top and filled the tunnel. She waited until the next lull before motioning for them to go.

  The three ran from the alcove towards the glowing doorway and slowly pushed through. Nausea hit them and they all had to fight to not get sick in their masks. When they regained enough composure, their eyes darted up to take in their new location. A location that was more oppressive than the bottom of the pit.

  Hellfire burned wherever they looked. Thick black smoke blanketed the sky blocking out most light. Polished stone buildings built into the side of the surrounding jagged mountains surrounded them. Dark cobblestone roads mixed with a fine black sand sat beneath their feet. Streetlamps giving off the glow of hellfire lined the cobblestone every few feet. Minily instantly recognized it as a teleportation gate area like they had in some of the cities on Motholo.

  Demon kind were lined up with the ore and packages waiting to get in. Two demons stood with gleaming red swords on their waste inspecting the materials before letting them through to wait in a crowd next to the portal. Another two demons stood on either side of the portal actually working the spatial magic to make it possible.

  Conversation between the guards, the line, and the crowd filled their ears. Normal conversations. All that stopped as the first demon noticed them. Laiko nearly turned to run, but Minily set her hand on his shoulder.

  One of the guards approached them.

  “I thought we weren’t taking anymore of the inhabitants for a while. They never tell us anything. At least they had the forethought to put masks on these ones first, so we didn’t have another incident. The temperature is slow cooking them. You, get them to the holding chambers with the others.” He pointed towards a lanky demon walking down the line doing some kind of count.

  The demon ran up and bowed to the guard before magical chains appeared between the trio. His hand grabbed onto Laiko’s and started to pull them through the crowd and out of the gate.

  Laiko turned to look at Minily and she just shrugged. At the end of the day, their quest was to find the lost to bring them home. The demons were getting the first part done for them.

  As they walked down the winding road through the jagged rock pass, Minily nudged Aggilla in front of her and directed her sight with her eyes. She naturally followed Minily’s eye line only to realize she had played the same joke on her that she did on Laiko. Her eyes met the dandelion yellow skin of the incubus, and she stopped while instantly averting her gaze. Minily ran into her who into Laiko who ran into the demon who nearly fell to the ground.

  “Your kind is so pathetic! Can’t even walk right. Do that again and it’ll be twenty fire lashes.”

  Aggilla looked back at Minily who was silently laughing once again, but she saw through the charade. She knew that the cunning pirate had a plan and that interaction just told her something important.

  The trio would need her cunning to survive the world lit by hellfire.