It had been so subtle and too late for Cal to react.

  A flash of light from one of the many fires around the room had glinted across the dias in a way they hadn’t until just then. In that light, Cal caught the sight of a final incredibly thin wire, thinner even than the cobwebs, connecting from the dagger back to the indent at the centre of the cushion.

  As soon as she pulled the dagger up, a scythe swung out of the wall, slicing through the space where Chell stood. Through the space behind her where Cal would have been stood if he’d not wanted to get a better look.

  It happened so fast that Cal wasn’t sure it was real or his imagination, but as Chell was thrown back and her legs was separated from her upper half, he knew that he hadn’t imagined it.

  “NO!” He screamed as it really settled in on him what had happened. He leapt down to her, dropping to his knees. He was sure that the others had heard and were asking what was going on, but he didn’t hear them. He grabbed Chell up as best he could, eyes going from her face to her middle, to her legs a half meter away. There was blood everywhere.

  Blood.

  He didn’t know what to do, tears were streaming down his face, and he was covered in blood. He looked up to her very pale face and knew that she was fading fast. She said something, but he couldn’t hear, his ears were ringing.

  She forced the dagger into his hand and he tried to focus, staring at her lips, but he only read the last words, ”Get out”.

  Then she was gone. It was so sudden, so unexpected, so brutal. He hadn’t even heard her last words. Cal looked up from her to see that the others weren’t rushing over, instead Leni was moving to the door clutching treasure in her arms and Sidian was holding both hands over his head. One hand held his wand and light was pouring out of it into large squares of force that appeared to be holding up a quickly deteriorating ceiling.

  “COME ON CAL!” Sidian was yelling, pleading.

  Cal Stood and dropped Chell. He paused, unable to comprehend the time pressure. He couldn’t leave her, but how- the bag. Hating himself for treating her like luggage Cal opened the void bag and stuffed her inside, both parts along with the magical dagger.

  He then ran for Sidian.

  When Cal reached the mage he released a portion of the spell and the half of the ceiling where Cal and Chell had been, collapsed down. Releasing it lowered the pressure on Sidian and they were able to run.

  Cal pushed Sidian ahead of him, letting him focus on dropping pieces of his spell as they got out from under sections of the ceiling. His control wasn’t perfect though, as he released one section other sections broke down. Rocks slammed down in front of them and to their sides.

  They had to stop and dodge multiple times before they caught up with Leni, and as soon as they burst out of the room Cal felt a rumbling that he didn’t like. The combat room walls and ceiling began to crack as well. “Keep moving!” Leni growled, leaping into a run across the room. Sidian and Cal looked at each other and leapt into motion together.

  Pieces of the ceiling were breaking away and falling. Sidian skidded to a stop and moved to cast another spell but Cal grabbed him, pushing him by the shoulders to keep moving. “There’s no time!” Cal yelled. A piece crashed down behind them and they flinched. He covered his head uselessly with his arms and kept moving. Sidian ran ahead, looking around, back over his shoulder, and then up as a horrible wrenching sound cracked through the room. A piece fell down and Sidian, no more than a meter ahead of Cal, leapt forwards. The rock chunk slammed into the force mage's leg as he flew through the air into the room with the font and an audible ‘crack’ echoed through the room.

  Leg.

  Sidian yelled out and Cal skidded to a brief stop beside him. The mage’s leg was crushed and he wasn’t going anywhere without support. Cal cursed and lifted him up, throwing Sidian’s arm over his shoulder and wrapping his own arm around his waist. Leni wasn’t far ahead, the room was small and they were nearly in the clear, but those fifteen seconds as they hobbled around the font and to the door were amongst the scariest of Cal’s life.

  He’d been in fights before, he’d been caught in traps before, but this was different. Here he barely had any control over what happened. All those other times it was him, his skill and his power against the circumstances. All those times, if he screwed up he’d die, but… just him.

  They reached the door and Leni took Sidian from Cal, hefting him up into her arms like you would carry someone on your wedding night. “Come on.” Leni said stepping out onto the bridge. Cal followed her out. “We don’t know how much more will come down. We need to-”

  Almost as if the tomb had been waiting for her to give it a verbal cue, the bridge gave way beneath them.

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  They fell without even realising what was happening. It was only when the cold water rushed over them, forcing the breath from their lungs, that they understood that they had fallen. Cal briefly marvelled at how lucky he’d been not to hit any spikes before they were swept away.

  The rushing water pulled them deeper into the caves. They were thrown around, slammed into walls and rocks, pulled under and tossed out again. In the darkness they couldn’t even fight back, couldn’t steer themselves. They just had to go with the water’s flow and protect themselves as best they could.

  It couldn’t have taken more than a few minutes for them to come out the other end, but it felt like hours. However long it took them, eventually they were greeted by starlight and the light of the moon Tecro. They’d been in the caves and tomb so long that the whole day had passed them by.

  As they emerged from darkness, they were tossed unceremoniously into a small, shallow lake, deep in a canyon, presumably the scar south of the city of Vanderheim. Cal didn’t know of any other canyons close enough to the capital for them to have arrived there so quickly.

  Cal remained there staring up in shock for a long moment until he heard splashing to his right. He looked over to find Leni throwing Sidian down next to the lake and then looking over at him, fury in her eyes.

  He forced himself to his feet in the water just as she began running at him. His eyes widened and he back stepped until he was no longer in the water. He didn’t move out of the way though. She slammed into him, grabbing him by the front of his armour.

  “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” She yelled.

  “Leni- I-”

  “She’s Dead!” Leni growled again. “She’s dead because of you!” Leni swung Cal around and slammed him into the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

  “I didn’t-” He gasped.

  “This was your job! She was by your side!” Leni growled pressing down into him, her jaws bared. Teeth flashing.

  Teeth.

  “We never should have listened to you!”

  “I didn’t know-” He growled back, the sense gradually coming back to him as the shock wore off. “-wasn’t my fault!”

  “It never is!” Leni growled back, spinning and swinging Cal through the air, throwing him back into the lake.

  Cal fell and landed with a splash. He forced himself back to his feet and turned to face the Drakokin again. She stared at him with anger and seemed to suck in a breath.

  Cal looked at her with disgust. “You’re going to kill me now? After everything?” He asked. She didn’t respond, instead sucking in more air.

  “Leni! Stop!” Sidian yelled, but she ignored him as well.

  Cal recognised her motions, she was drawing in breath to breath fire at him. And then Cal realised that he was going to let her do it. Despite the fact that he had argued with her a moment earlier, there was a part of him that agreed with her, that wished he’d died instead of Chell. He'd let her die. She was right... what right did he have to stop Leni?

  Leni breathed out with all her might and fire came with it. It poured over the whole area, burning off the top layer of water, creating a cloud of steam that burst upwards. The fire covered the whole area, except for in a column starting about a meter in front of Cal. There was a slight shimmer and Cal realised, there was a wall of force protecting himself and what was left of Chell in his void-bag.

  When Leni finally stopped and the flames died away she was shocked to see Cal still standing, hot but largely unscathed.

  Cal looked over at Sidian, eyes wide. the man lay there on his side with his wand out and pointed at them. He'd saved Cal's life, even if he didn't deserve it.

  Leni turned to look at Sidian and opened her mouth to speak but Leni cut her off. “You’re upset and angry, Selenia. I am too, but I’m not going to let you kill him to make you feel better.” His wand shifted from pointing at the spot between them to pointing at her. “Chell wouldn't want this." He said, then a hardness that Cal hadn't ever seen in the young man set over his expression. "For Leni’s sake, I’ll give you one chance. Walk away. You never have to see each other again.” Her eyes darted from Sidian to Cal and back again. she looked as though she was going to charge Cal again, but tightened his grip on the wand and said, very carefully. "Chell wouldn't want us killing each other like this."

  Her lip twitched and she growled like she wanted to test him, but a moment later she blinked, standing back up straight. She turned to Cal. “You are a curse Cal. You will be alone forever because everything you touch dies. I’m glad to be rid of you. I hope the next time we see each other it’s on opposing sides of a battlefield, because at least then I will know, even if I die, my side will eventually win.” She turned, and walked away without another word, not even an acknowledgement to Sidian, let out a long relieved exultation before lowering his wand as they watched her walk away. A few minutes later they heard a loud crack, likely the sound of her punching a tree, but then she was gone.

  The two of them remained quiet for a long moment, Cal quietly contemplating the fact that he should be dead, Sidian staring at him. Eventually Cal looked up and said, "Thank you." Though he wasn't sure he felt it. He should have been dead.

  Sidian shook his head. "You saved my life in there. Now we're square."

  Cal nodded. "Still. Thank you."

  The force mage nodded, but then as the adrenaline began to ware off, so did his confidence. They remained in quiet for a while longer until Sidian eventally asked. “What now?”

  It was a good question. If he wasn't allowed to die, then Cal supposed the next step was to move on. Get more work. “We get another job, we find more allies. We keep moving.” Cal sighed, kneeling down by Sidian’s knee to look at the injury.

  Sidian shook his head. “I… I’m sorry Cal but I think I’m done. Seeing… seeing Chell like that… Seeing Leni turn… I don’t know if I can do it again. Sorry…”

  Cal looked up at him and he could see the fear in Sidian’s eyes, though he was smiling apologetically, self deprecating even. The fear had buried itself deep, his protection from Leni was the last ember of his spirit as an adventurer. When that happened to an adventurer, they were done with the life. There wasn’t much that could change that. Cal nodded. “I understand.” He said, and he did. “Then I guess ‘what now’ is that we get you to a healer and go our separate ways.”

  “What are you going to do with… you know.” Sidian asked.

  Cal looked down at the void bag on his belt and sighed. “I’m going to give her a funeral. She believed in the Dawn so I’ll cremate her in the morning. She was from a town just west of here. I'll go there and do it, then come back and get to work.”

  The last thirty minutes flashed through his mind and he felt sick.

  Blood. Leg. Teeth.

  “Then I’m going to get as drunk as I can possibly get.” He sighed and shook his head. "Might not even wait until then."

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