Approaching dawn lightened the night sky and brought color back to Noctim. Most of the party waited together near the lift platform they had set foot upon the day previous. Ordra believed that Astei would come to the same place specifically to check on them, likely thinking he would be bringing news of their demise. Benedict and Shiyo, however, he sent elsewhere.

  Ordra’s directive was simple: find a good place to enter the underground. Both Benedict and Shiyo had interpreted the word “good” to mean “as close to the tree as possible.” As they had just found one of the supposed entries less than a block away from the lift platform, they decided they were close enough.

  Through the lens in his hand, Benedict stared at one specific point on a nearby wall. It pulsed with light focused into a shape identical to that of the stone in his other hand.

  “If you’re right, this would explain why no one could find their headquarters,” Benedict said, staring at the tools he was using.

  Shiyo ignored him and stared at the wall. “Seraphine…”

  “I’m sure there’s an explanation, even if it’s that she simply went mad.”

  “Going made is one thing. If she’s planting monster nests and making the Scourge worse, she’s far more monstrous than I ever would have thought possible.”

  “We’ll find out no matter what, right?”

  “Maybe.” She sighed and turned her attention to her dubiously obtained map. “This would be far more helpful if I knew where we would actually appear.”

  Benedict drew out his map of Noctim and laid it on the ground. Next to it, he placed Shiyo’s map. Fortunately, both had their orientations marked, and Benedict was sure the circle at the center of the underground map was the trunk of the tree. They weren’t at the same scale, but maybe he could guess his way past that. He marked their location on the Noctim map.

  “Let’s hope that cartography elective wasn’t entirely useless,” he said as he focused on both of them in turn.

  “Cartography?” Shiyo asked.

  “Study of maps and map making. It was one of the stranger choices at my high school, and I took it out of curiosity.”

  “People of your time are so odd.”

  “You’re one to talk.” He marked a circle on Shiyo’s map. “I think that’s right. Let’s get back to the others.”

  “No need for that!” Ordra said, voice booming off the buildings.

  Amalyn tightened the ribbon holding her ponytail together. “We left a note. Astei can follow if he wants to share in the glory.”

  “Is everyone ready?” Shiyo asked.

  “Given what we expect to find, I changed the spells in my staff,” Celica said, twirling the implement in one hand.

  “Sneaking around underground is basically what I was born to do,” Kirion said.

  Ordra nodded to everyone in turn. “Yes. We are.”

  Benedict held the stone up on the spot on the wall. Images swirled in his mind of masked men attacking them with the same powers the assassins had used and everyone dying horrifically. His grip tightened on the rifle in his right hand. The citizens of Noctim were counting on this. He’d just have to make sure everyone was safe.

  The stone stuck to the wall where the magic converged. Cracks radiated outward from it, and the wall itself split and opened like a curtain, leaving just a small podium where the stone was. Beyond it, there was nothing more than the interior of a building; utterly ordinary.

  “That was anticlimactic,” Kirion said.

  “I think your captive lied to you, Shiyo,” Ordra said.

  Not likely, Benedict thought. Unless there was some loophole in the way powers Linked to Morighana worked, Shiyo’s information couldn’t have been wrong. But, that assassin had survived Benedict’s instant death power. He stepped into the opening. The moment his foot touched the floor, everything in front of him sunk, creating a long, dark stairwell going deep underground. Formulas glowed on the walls, giving the least amount of light required to see the floor.

  “This isn’t normal thaumaturgy,” Celica murmured.

  “Nothing about this is normal,” Amalyn said.

  “At least we know Shiyo got the truth out of that guy.” Benedict pulled the stone from its improvised podium and trudged down the steps.

  Benedict counted each step and had reached two hundred by the time he met floor. Celica was the last to step off, and as she did, the stairwell groaned and rose back into the ceiling, leaving nothing behind them but a large, bare wall. A check with the lens proved another magical slot was there for the stone. Down the corridor, the thaumaturgical lights continued glowing just enough to see that the walls were at least solid.

  “How ancient is this place?” Amalyn asked.

  Celica moved her fingers across a formula. “These are relatively new. The syntax and techniques here were created less than a quarter century ago. That stairwell, though… I’ve seen nothing like that possible in the Sources I’ve studied.”

  “I think we should put academic curiosity to the side for now.” Benedict marched forward, keeping his rifle’s buttstock securely nestled in his shoulder.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Do you have our location?” Ordra asked.

  Shiyo looked at the map. “If Benedict was right, we should be somewhere in this circle.”

  “There’s only one way to go,” Kirion said.

  “Which narrows down our options. Forward it is.”

  Shiyo whispered to herself at every intersection they passed by, staring at the map and using her own pencil to make dozens of marks on its surface. The further they marched, the more Benedict doubted his guess, meager as he knew his cartography skills were. Still, with violet light cast along their path, at least they could see what was coming, and Shiyo seemed more confident than he.

  “I’m not sure this cave is natural,” Kirion said, brushing his hand along the wall. “This is compacted dirt, not stone.”

  Celica touched a glowing finger to a wall without stopping her stride. A formula appeared next to it. “Because it’s not. Thaumaturgy is keeping everything open here. Were these tunnels here before?”

  “Seems someone would have mentioned them, if so,” Shiyo said.

  “Could they have dug this out by themselves without anyone knowing?” Ordra asked.

  “Digging tunnels using thaumaturgy isn’t unheard of,” Celica replied.

  “Why here, then?” Amalyn asked.

  Benedict held up a hand. Everyone stopped. Ahead of them, shadows danced on the wall at a corner, accompanied by the echoes of footsteps. They darted down the nearest intersection, diving out of sight around a corner. After checking that there were no other surprises lurking near them, Benedict trained his rifle on the opening to the tunnel they were just walking down, finger on the trigger. He dared not squeeze it; not yet.

  A bell ringer strode past, holding his bell in front of him. Immediately following him was a parade of monsters, and not a normal parade, either. Imps scrambled alongside crawling giants and werewolves, followed by a few monstrous plants. None of them so much looked at any other creature, instead focusing all their attention forward.

  They had to have come straight from the nest, but going that route gave Benedict a bad feeling. While a simple straight line run was enticing, he worried about another horde coming from the nest. Better to keep their chance of an encounter low at least until they reached the nest itself. Shiyo agreed and directed them through a zigzag of tunnels, always keeping track of their turns.

  Benedict kept close to her. “You think they know we’re here?”

  Her nod was nigh-imperceptible. “Likely. Something isn’t right here.”

  “This is strange,” Ordra said from behind, low enough his voice wouldn’t carry far.

  “What is?” Kirion asked.

  “The assassin escaped, yes? They would know he told Shiyo how to get down here.”

  “Do you think they’ve been watching us this whole time?” Celica’s voice trembled its way through the question.

  No doubt, Benedict thought. If anyone was Sensing the area, they’d know. His grip on his rifle tightened.

  “Kirion, can you see any traps?” Amalyn asked.

  “Not yet,” Kirion replied.

  “Just warn us if you do.”

  “I will.”

  Benedict fought the urge to Sense the area. The masked men surely were doing it themselves, or at least one of the assassins. Every corner and intersection, and ambush failed to happen, thus they kept sneaking and searching, each foot forward slower than the last. Then they reached a larger chamber.

  It was living quarters with beds set up on the floor and coffers lining the walls. Three tunnels exited the room, including the one they had just come through. No one was around other than the party. Kirion stepped into the room first, dagger ready in his clenched fist, then motioned everyone forward after a thorough search. Benedict kept his rifle raised, unwilling to relax until he was sure it was deserted.

  Celica moved to one of the coffers and drew a potato from it, then to the next and drew a meat bun, and so on. Every coffer held food items, and some of those were Noctim specialties. Stolen, likely as not. Coffers were under the beds, as well, and they mostly held personal items. All they learned from those was that the various masked men had come from every region around Phynel or had at least visited every one.

  “I have our exact location now,” Shiyo said, marking the map using one of the large coffers as a table.

  “And?” Benedict asked.

  “You guessed well.” She circled a small room, then the end of one of the hallways, which was within the circle Benedict had drawn earlier. “Good job.”

  “Where to next, then?” Ordra asked.

  “This tunnel here leads right to the hear to the tree, which is where we want to be. We can go straight down, or we can meander through these offshoots here, if you want to be unpredictable.”

  “Would help us avoid monsters,” Celica said.

  Benedict stared at the map. “Something tells me that won’t happen. The monsters would be better served avoiding a route that goes through here. Besides, as the quarters here are undisturbed, we can assume they don’t anyway.”

  They continued straight, and again they ran into no traps or ambushes. No monsters appeared, either, not even a stray that had escaped a bell ringer. The more nothing happened, the harder Benedict’s heart pounded. There was something waiting for them. If it wasn’t a group of the masked men or a regular monster, it might well be a dreadlord. With the effort and planning they’d taken to dispatch the one, trying to improvise wouldn’t work in their favor, and maybe that was why the masked men hadn’t tried ambushing them yet: the actual guard monster was bad enough, so they were waiting to see the intruders die rather than do it themselves.

  Deeper in, the tunnel began expanding, and it continued more and more until it opened fully into a cavernous room. Unlike the remainder of the tunnel network, the walls, floor, and ceiling were wood cut irregularly. At the center of the room was a structure as large as a building and shaped like a closed flower bud with multiple vine-like tentacles reaching out of the top of the bud to the ceiling.

  “I think this is it,” Ordra said.

  Celica trembled. “Then let’s finish this, please.”

  All at once, they jumped into the room, and the nest twitched. Multiple slits opened in its body, and strange masses floated out of them trailing masses of long tentacles tipped in stabbing needles. They settled between the nest and the party, floating with their tentacles poised for an attack, and charged.

  Benedict fell back behind Ordra and Shiyo. The impact of the monsters—whatever the might be—slamming into the party shook the room. Shiyo’s sword scythed through the air, sending them scattering to avoid her attacks. Ordra sailed among them, batting tentacles away from his party members. His momentum threw some of the monsters higher, away from the party, and right in Benedict’s sights.

  He fired, and the monster twirled and twitched with bullet impacts, but still dove toward him, tentacles outstretched. Before they could connect, they split and fell, disintegrating before they reached the floor. Amalyn landed next to Benedict and nodded as he slammed the rifle butt into the monster, sending it flying away.

  “Keep away from it!” Celica shouted.

  Glowing masses of light surrounded Celica. With a single swing of her staff, the masses launched forward as long, slender beams, vaporizing half the monster’s body. Behind her, another came. This time, Benedict hit it low, where its tentacles met its body. Blood spurted from the wound and it rolled to a stop on the floor. Ordra leapt into the air and landed atop it, driving a conjured blade into it and cutting it in half.

  Another monster went down after Amalyn and Kirion both jumped on its body and stabbed it until it died. Shiyo sliced another with her blade, sending it away as Celica blasted it with magic. So things continued until the monsters had all disintegrated into nothing ness.

  Ordra turned to the nest with a cocky smile. “What else do you have?”

  The body pulsed again, and more of the floating tentacled things popped out. Benedict slid another coffer into his rifle, expecting a long fight.