The soles of their shoes slapped against the cold stone as they fumbled through the darkness. Each step sent echoes bouncing against the sleek walls. Their jovial mood was quickly replaced by a solemn vigilance as the con tool lit their immediate surroundings in a dull, yellow light. Cordelia was gripping the lighter tightly with her thin fingers, her knuckles were white. Erend could see how she struggled to walk upright, the use of Source had left her weak. Far weaker than they could afford to be.

  "Are you going to be okay?" he whispered and placed a hand on her shoulder.

  Cordelia locked eyes with him and pursed her mouth, she nodded resolutely but didn't speak.

  "I can take channel through the lighter if you need a break," he continued.

  She looked down at the paved floor and shook her head. Erend sighed at her, but he understood. He didn't necessarily want to use more Source than needed. One of them being practically immobilized was enough trouble as it was especially if his bad feeling proved to be correct.

  The halls stretched endlessly before them. Erend hadn't had time to take note of how far they'd actually run before, but now that they walked back he was overcome by the sheer vastness of the corridors. The halls stretched further much longer than they should be able to in a building the size of the prison. It could only mean that they were underground. A basement of this size must have been more costly than he could ever imagine, yet the orcs didn't seem very fond of using it much, at least that's what their lack of patrols down here told him.

  He wondered what the halls were used for but didn't come up with a convincing answer. He shook his head in resignation and focused on the task at hand once again. His body rapidly recovered during their walk, if push came to shove he'd be able to fight again but he was still far from a preferable condition. In a perfect world, they would leave through the snaking tunnels once again – without fighting. It wasn't very likely they would be able to do that though. The perfect solutions never seemed to come his way, no matter how much he wanted them to.

  "Wait," Cordelia whispered and pulled at his shirt.

  "What is it?"

  "Did you hear that?" she asked with a cracking voice. Her eyes darted around wildly.

  "Hear what?" he asked and tightened his grip around the hilt of his blade.

  Suddenly a pained scream echoed through the halls. The sound of it made the hairs on Erend's neck stand. He grabbed Cordelia by the arm, "Go!"

  With only the con tool lighting their surroundings, they were practically running through the halls blind. The magical flame flickered and struggled to spread its light, it was made to start fires, not light up dark halls in a brooding castle.

  Against his better judgment and the dullness already making itself known below his chin, Erend ordered "Light!"

  His throat burst into light as Source flowed through the glyph engraved into his flesh. It felt like he would burst into flames as the ambient Source thrummed to life around them. Even the smallest specks of power vibrated wildly, making the air around them heat up noticeably. As the flaming sensation subsided the halls still lay dark. Suddenly, Erend felt a connection form. With his next step vibrations spread out and reached toward the ambient Source, making the specks of power pulse to life with the same cold light that lit up his throat just seconds ago.

  With a flicker, the halls pulsed to light every other step he took. His head felt like it would split open. He didn't know whether it was because of the use of the glyph or because of the sudden light show. The pained scream that echoed through the halls sounded out once again, closer this time. It sounded human, yet at the same time it didn't. The voice was warm, like a familiar hug, but cracked with a monstrous dissonance. Erend couldn't quite comprehend why, but it sounded more familiar than he'd like.

  "What the..." Cordelia started.

  "Not now. First, we need to get out!"

  The bare wall where Anya had robbed the orcs of their tapestry flashed past them on their right. Erend could recognize it thanks to the large chains that still adorned its surface.

  The screaming got closer, "Mait sta! Waaahiit!"

  Erend couldn't quite understand it but it seemed to be speaking his language. It most certainly wasn't the orc's language, it didn't contain the telltale snarls and growls.

  They rushed past the pantry – or what was left of it. The already dark walls had been painted an abyssal black by the soot. Erend threw a quick glance inside and could immediately conclude that most---if not all of the food had been burned to a crisp. Even in the situation he was in he couldn't help but feel his stomach growl at the smells of burnt animal fats. It smelled like the world's shittiest barbecue, but a barbecue nonetheless.

  "There!" he shouted and pointed with his entire free arm. With a pant, Erend slunged Cordelia past him toward the hole, "You go first, I'll be right in."

  The halls darkened due to his lack of stomping. As soon as he realized he tapped his right foot against the wall. Just as predicted the tap sent out rapid vibrations, which in turn made the Source emit the same cold white light from before.

  As he saw Cordelia begin to climb inside the hole he turned to face the one leaking out the horrible sounds. His light didn't reach far enough for him to see, yet he knew it stood there in the darkness, watching him.

  Slowly, with his muscles stiff from overexertion, he pulled out his blade from its scabbard. Cordelia swore something behind him, then he heard a loud rip. He had half a heart to turn and see what had happened, yet stood frozen in the gaze of the unknown monstrosity. At least that's what he figured it was – a monstrosity. No humanoid race he knew could leak out sounds of that nature.

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  "Show yourself!" Erend pressed through grinding teeth.

  His words bounced harmlessly against the walls until they faded into nothingness. After a few seconds of excruciating silence, a grating voice emerged from the dark. He couldn't quite make out if it tried to speak like it had before but he could still recognize the warmth in the voice, it was unmistakable yet impossible to place. As the creature skulked around in the dark it faltered and mumbled to itself. The sound of the voice hit him much clearer than before, it was grating and unpleasant to the ear, it didn't sound anything like a voice should sound like.

  "What are you doing?! Get over here, hurry!" Cordelia shouted at him just as the shadowy figure of the creature was about to emerge from the shadows. Her voice impacted him like a sledgehammer and practically made him chip for breath as he realized he'd forgotten to breathe in fear of what unknown being closed in on him.

  With a feeling of regret, Erend turned his heels toward the creature and swiftly ran to the tunnels to join Cordelia. As he heaved himself up he felt the softness of fabric brush against his forearm, it was of the same sky-blue as Cordelia's skirt. He threw her a quick glance and immediately understood what had caused the ripping sound from before. Her skirt had received a long slit that ran alongside her rightmost thigh. Soft, pale skin peeked through. Under normal circumstances, the sight would have flustered Erend, but this was not normal circumstances. The gnawing unease of what lurked behind them in the shadows hadn't left his mind for even an instant.

  "Go!" he barked at her as soon as he felt the rough dirt under his soles.

  The two broke off into a sprint. It wasn't the first time Erend ran through the snaking tunnels, but it might as well have been. With only the weak light of the con tool to light their path they were left stumbling on more than one occasion. Erend's arms grew increasingly bruised and chafed as he scraped against the rough surface of the walls. By the sounds leaking out from Cordelia, he guessed that she didn't fare much better.

  His legs felt like they had been set alight by millions of tiny fires, it was a dull sort of pain that he'd grown used to when he was more of an avid runner. Normally he enjoyed this kind of pain. His mother usually said that it was a testament to his effort. This time, however, it wasn't pleasant in the least yet he didn't deign to rest until they reached the crawlspace. Along the way, Erend had thrown a few wary looks to their backs and concluded that the creature hadn't followed them inside.

  "Finally," he wheezed and keeled over with his hands resting on his knees.

  Cordelia slumped down with her back pressed against the wall, she tried her best at catching her breath with a few audibly grating mouthfuls of air. Her eyes were pressed together, and a large glob of moisture had gathered in one of them, it didn't make sense that it hadn't yet formed a tear and slid down her cheek.

  "You alright?" Erend panted.

  Cordelia turned her shut eyes toward the tunnel ceiling and flashed him a thumbs up and a strained smile.

  Erend couldn't help but feel bad about what he'd put her through, but it was life and death, that much was becoming clearer by the day. He most likely wouldn't have been able to make it out without her by his side. "Let's rest here for a minute," he spoke softly and pulled a canteen of water out of his Pocket, "here, drink."

  Cordelia weakly grabbed it. With shaking hands, she brought the canteen to her lips and started greedily sipping on the still-cool water.

  "Even at a time like this she's beautiful," Erend mumbled.

  Cordelia's abruptly eyes shot open and locked in on his, she coughed, spitting and spilling water everywhere, and on him, "What are you saying?!" she burst out, her cheeks glowing red.

  Erend blinked his eyes, dumbfounded, "What?"

  "Don't play dumb!" she demanded.

  Cold understanding dawned over him, "Did I really say that aloud?" he whispered.

  "You did!"

  "I... sorry."

  "What do you mean sorry?!"

  "I didn't mean to say it..."

  "But you did mean to think it to yourself?"

  "... I guess," he mumbled and shifted in place uncomfortably.

  She looked at him at a loss for words, her mouth opened a few times without her saying anything. Finally, Cordelia shyly looked away and fingered at the fabric of her torn skirt, she spoke quietly under her breath, "Then don't say sorry... I wouldn't mind you complimenting me. It just took me a bit off guard."

  "Oh..." Erend reacted instinctively. He looked up at her again. Even behind the cascade of auburn hair, he could see her terrible attempt at hiding a wide grin. Crisis averted?

  "I'll keep that in mind," he added.

  Cordelia nodded, "I'm about ready to head out again. Do you mind going first?"

  "I wouldn't have it any other way," Erend chuckled.

  "You should say that to me again when we're alone sometime," Cordelia chirped behind him.

  Erend jerked at that and slammed his head against the ceiling. Cordelia chuckled evilly from behind as he rubbed his sore crown and started the arduous crawl to the goblin camp.

  Once again they took the necessary steps to not fall prey to Johann's traps. It wasn't hard to avoid them when they knew where they were placed, and they had plenty good lighting now that they weren't frantically rushing for their lives anymore. The con tool had served them well, it was way more useful than Erend would have ever imagined previously, he'd make sure to never leave home without one of those in the future – if he'd ever have a real home again that was.

  The crawl back to the surface was as uneventful as it had been to get to the prison. The only sense of unease gnawing at Erend was the tension that grew between himself and Cordelia. That and the unknown creature of course. Before long, the howling winds could be heard again. Erend stretched his limbs for a second before he climbed up the wooden ladder and opened the hatch as quietly as he could. With only his eyes peeking out of the hole, he surveyed the cave for any unwanted visitors. To his relief, it was as desolate as they'd left it.

  He climbed out of the pit with a groan and turned to help Cordelia up. In a silent agreement to not waste more time than they should, they walked toward the gate of the cave. Erend threw a glance at the scarlet stain where he'd heard Carl's last words a couple of days before. It felt quite worrying that it hadn't been longer than that. So much had happened in so little time. He didn't even know if his father or Albert were okay, but he felt more hopeful now than he had when he woke up that morning.

  The gate swung open with a loud creak. Both of them had to shield their eyes from the violent assault of light that washed through the cave. Erend winced, it hurt him more than it should.

  Maybe it has something to do with Elísitrá?

  With a shake of his head, he organized the thought to the back of his mind. He had more important matters to think about. Namely an ambush and a prison break if Charles hadn't already managed the latter of the two.

  Erend raised his eyebrows with a questioning glance at Cordelia who nodded resolutely back at him. The two smiled and stepped out into the lush forests in search of their comrade.