Chapter 1

“It’s this way, Ulysse, and stop dragging your feet.” The two travellers trusted in the enchanted candle’s flame, which glowed brighter than torchlight. It illuminated the maze of subterranean tunnels that led them deeper into the catacombs.

Greyish limestone decorated load-bearing walls, forming a monolith with the tunnel roof and floor. They inspected the lit recesses carved into the soft stone but found no tombs, engravings, or ornaments. The flame beckoned them further down the tunnel until they reached a spacious area that showed some signs of life. One traveller kicked a wooden crate but found it to be empty. The other grabbed and emptied a cloth satchel found on a nearby crate. It weighed about as much as the small rocks and sand that poured out of it.

“Ashoo!” The traveller tried to sneeze into her sleeve as the sand and dust entered her nostrils, snuffing out the bright light she clasped between her fingers.

“A drink, Larissa?” Larissa’s partner offered her a bota bag flung around his banded overalls. He found her in the darkness that enveloped their forms and pressed the buffkin leather pouch against her arm.

The refreshing mixture of dried hibiscus and mint hit the back of her throat. She inhaled the heavy air and coughed. “Thanks, Uly.”

“Are you nervous?” asked her partner.

“This place is abandoned.” Larissa coughed again. “And dusty.”

“You didn’t answer my question, dear.”

Larissa sighed. “Does it matter how I feel?”

Ulysse sensed fatigue in his partner’s voice. He leaned forward slightly and wriggled off the straps of his backpack. After rolling the pain out of his shoulder muscles, he stretched his arms forward, clutching his fist in his hand. “I will not break in the midst of battle.”

Larissa recognised the adage. “Should I be nervous that you’re reciting your Battle Mages’ Code?”

“We must stay strong for Udor. And it’s a good time for a snack break.” Ulysse’s hand rummaged through the pack’s compartments but found only crumbs.

Larissa handed Ulysse the bota bag. “As I recall, you finished the last of our food when we camped in the woods near Dream Master Lake.”

Ulysse put the bota bag to his lips. He savoured the small swig of liquid and patted the bottle to drain the last drops. “Ahh... And I finished the tea. To think we invested everything we owned to meet with this wretched cave dweller.” “Doubting the candle’s flame would be doubting ourselves for it is intuitively aligned with our purpose.”

“To find a Blue Wizard with an affinity for the catacombs?”

“Yes, Ulysse. One who is also able to speak to the void.”

Larissa rolled the enchanted candle’s wick between her thumb and index finger but failed to arouse its flame. Wax drippings formed a smudgy pool in the brass holder and slowly began reforming the magical candlestick. “The candle of intuition needs to rest. After our eyes adjust, we should see what Udor said about these tunnels.”

Ulysse retrieved a leatherbound journal, taking care not to catch the edges of his backpack. He opened the notebook, making sure his finger covered the memory crystal embedded in its cover. He knowingly moved to a page and read aloud: “An old labyrinth lies below Blue Wizard Bastion. Tunnels link a network of caverns that look perfect for mining.”

Larissa looked around the dusty space, eyeing the empty crates. “This doesn’t look like a mining cave to me.”

The memory crystal guided Ulysse’s hand to another section. “There’s more: It is said that the Blue Hat of the Catacombs wanders where warriors rest. With the right amount of power, the Incantation of the Sun may reveal the way.”

“You know I’ve read Udor’s journal a thousand times. We need to get out of these tunnels. I’ll take care of the rest.” Larissa rubbed her face. She felt lightheaded. The tunnel air was making her short of breath.

Ulysse could make out something next to the handwriting, “Here’s something I haven’t noticed before!” He circled some numbers: 0.147 Ξ. “Our son was always cryptic.”

Larissa propped herself up on one of the sturdier crates, sighing deeply as she scratched her head. “Those numbers aren’t new to me. They’re part of the incantation.”

Ulysse repeated his son’s words to himself, failing to grasp their full meaning. He paced around the room, then turned to Larissa abruptly, “I think I’ve got it! Here’s the plan: we blunder around in the dark until we find the mine, then we start chanting ancient poems to reveal any illusory walls.”

“Don’t be daft, Ulysse! If the Bastion hadn’t rejected our request to speak to them about Udor’s disappearance, we wouldn’t be stuck here like rats.” She coughed deeply then continued slinging words at her partner. “We should’ve just lied about our intent. Don’t you realise that these tunnels could go on forever? We don’t have forever...”

Ulysse slowly lifted his head from the journal with a grin on his face. “Larissa, you’re a genius!”

“...I am?”

“You’ve just given me an idea. Watch this.” Ulysse stowed away Udor’s journal and retrieved a golden pendant from one of his many purple pockets. The ornament matched the shape and colour of the embroidered pocket and served as physical connections to ancient metaphysical shapes – the Forgotten Runes. He focused on the pendant and recalled the rune bestowed upon him by the Ether on the Day of Summoning – the Rune of Mars. Solid lines emerged from his consciousness that spiralled into curved shapes to reform the rune in his mind’s eye. The memory of the rune awakened the bond between Ulysse and his familiar, then, suddenly, a winged creature materialised by his side.

“A forever bat! Thanks to all your forever talk. I usually have to channel my rune much longer to summon this critter.”

Larissa sensed her partner was pleased with himself.

The bat’s red eyes dotted the cavern. “It’s finding the edges. It might lead us to one of the mines.”

The travellers collected themselves and then continued their journey. The stone tiles of the tunnels beneath their feet turned to uneven rocky earth as they ventured deeper into the cave. Green specs of dust played off the walls where crevices revealed luminous patches of mineral decay. Their footfalls were softer in places where moisture had dripped from slender roots that swung gently above their heads. Suddenly, Larissa heard a loud thud. She turned and saw her partner brought down hard to the ground.

“Argh! Azure plague take me! When we find this blue fool, I swear…” A looped root was curled around Ulysse’s boot. He lay staring at the sharp outcrop a foot away from his face.

“Hypogean tube roots. These caves are full of surprises,” said Larissa.

“I’m glad I can provide an opportunity to practise your fancy Alfheim Academy vocabulary. Scumming roots!”

“There, there, Uly. Do you need a minute?”

Grunting, Ulysse got up and patted off the gravel that clung to his body, taking care to brush the muddy lumps from his curly beard. “I will not break in the midst of battle,” he affirmed.

Larissa coughed and then tried to inhale deeply through her nose. The air was clearer, but her chest still heaved as she struggled to control her breathing. Her lithe frame was more accustomed to lecture halls than catacombs. Then she heard another noise. “Can you hear that, Uly?”

“You mean the sound of blood in my ears?”

“If you listen carefully you can hear a distant hummmbzz.”

Ulysse eyed his partner inquisitively. “I can’t hear it. How does it sound again?”

Larissa pursed her lips to imitate the sound. “Hummmbzz… hummmbzz…”

Ulysse chuckled, then felt the pang of an annoyed fist on his shoulder. Raising his hands in surrender, he said, “you know I don’t have those Elvish ears of yours.”

Larissa listened intently, “It sounds like a swarm of bees.”

The travellers followed the distant drones into passageways where old roots broke through the stone walls. They felt their way through the bumpy dark, the buzzing growing ever louder. They stopped abruptly and could feel the hummmbzzing reverberating against the iron door in front of them.

Larissa tried to focus over the droning to trace a scrying field around the door’s frame, revealing a circular rune in the upper left corner.

“There’s a rune on the door. Do you recognize this one?”

Ulysse stroked his illustrious beard with a quizzical look in his eye. He moved his head from left to right in a circular motion. “I have a special way to remember these; big circle outside, little circle inside – Rune of Sun. One of the most common ones.”

“Correct. Although, the scrying field points to a foreign signature. Almost as if the rune wasn’t born of Ether.”

Ulysse nodded but was more concerned with the droning door. “The real question is; what do we do if there are swarms of Gigas hornets behind this door?”

Larissa pondered before answering her partner in the least belittling way possible. “Well, Uly, since Gigas hornets are indigenous to the region surrounding Muscle Mountain, and would need to fly a thousand leagues over the Quantum Shadow to reach the catacombs below Blue Wizard Bastion, it is highly unlikely that there are swarms of bulky bees down here.”

“I just wanted to hear you say Muscle Mountain.”

“We’re wasting time, Ulysse! Bulky bees aside, we’re opening this door. In fact, you’re opening it.”

Ulysse nodded then pulled on the door handle. Rusted iron scratched against the door’s frame, but didn’t budge.

“Is it locked?” asked Larissa.

“No, no. It’s just stuck on something.”

He accessed the power of the Rune of Mars again, this time unsummoning the forever bat. The battle mage refocused the power used to summon the familiar then transferred it into his forearms. A layer of energy spread from his wrists towards each finger, forming runic gauntlets. He gripped the door handle a second time, then pulled his arm back. To his surprise, the door only screeched open slightly.

“Maybe it’s locked from the other side?”

“I’ve got this.”

The gauntlets glowed bright red after Ulysse focused his rune’s remaining power. Grabbing the handle with both hands, Ulysse pulled with his whole bodyweight, then heard a loud crack. The door flung open. Chains on the other side of the door had snapped off completely. He stretched his arms forward, clutching his fist in his hand, then watched as the runic gauntlets dissipated.

The chamber was filled with constant droning that emanated from rows of metal structures. Lines of chains linking to the base of the structures were run to a pit in the centre of the cave. The travellers’ were drawn towards the black crystal obelisks that sprouted from the pit.

“No hornets, eh?”

The temperature changed drastically as they moved around to inspect their surroundings. The heat was coming off rows of structures stacked like shelves, some built into the recesses of the cave walls. Each compartment housed a drawer between metal slats. Some were scorched and bent out of shape, yet the flickering red light on their front panels suggested their internal mechanisms were still powered.

“A hive of machines,” said Larissa. “They’re making contact with the node.”

“You mean these crystals?” Ulysse asked.

“Nodes are a residual by-product of the Ether transposed on the Day of Summoning. But this is a rare sight, Uly. I’ve never seen an exposed node this size, not even in Alfheim.”

“What kind of mining operation is this?” asked Ulysse. “Is this really how Blue Hats mine Ether?”

“This does seem rather primitive for the Bastion, known for seeking a balance between technology and magic.”

“Don’t they need the crystals? They look sort of lifeless.”

“Crystals are commonly used as vessels, but Ether can be stored in many ways, even transferred between vessels.” Larissa struggled to contain her excitement. “Uly, I can’t stress enough how remarkably rare this is!”

Energy pulsed beneath the traveller’s feet as she tried to make contact with the node. Cracked lines shot through the glassy protrusions, some exposing shattered tops. The lines of chains were hammered into the pit’s ridges where shattered fragments lay strewn around. “These machines must’ve drained the node dry. I’m not resonating with any of the crystals. I’ll see if there’s some Ether in these slivers.”

“Remind me again why we’re stealing from the most technologically advanced wizards in the world?”

“Udor calculated we would need about an eighth of a crystal for the incantation. A little smaller than a thumbnail. If there’s any left in this abandoned mine, I doubt the Blue Hats would miss it.”

While Larissa was inspecting the crystal shards, Ulysse moved to the area behind the buzzing machines where the air was much cooler. Three cylindrical tanks were nestled against the corner wall with pipes leading out to various points in the room. A few pipes led straight into the wall. Cooling liquid dripped rapidly from one of these pipes, forming a pool near some hypogean tube roots. He kneeled down and broke off a flowering tuber that sprouted from a looped root. He gazed at the spud in his hand and remembered how hungry he was. He pulled off more tubers and stowed them away. Near the coolant tanks, a console flickered with hundreds of green and red lights. Next to the console, he eyed a wooden hammer resting on hooks above a workbench. Ulysse wrapped his fingers around the grip and admired the blue and gold emblem painted on its cheek. He returned to Larissa who was still sifting through crystals.

“I don’t understand how the machines are still running,” asked Ulysse. “What’s powering them?”

Larissa tossed away a dull fragment, then paused for a moment. “That’s a very good question, Uly. In fact, you just gave me an idea.”

Ulysse's eyes lit up. “I did? Oh, please, go on.”

Larissa paced around the pit, formulating her hypothesis. “A node this size would suggest a much larger deposit below, even a network of veins. It’s possible that these machines are not only extracting the Ether, but simultaneously using it to perform the work. Inefficient work, yet they could theoretically drain it all, or until the machines seized up, which means… Uly, I need to see what’s inside these machines.”

Ulysse gestured with the mallet. “Can I use this?”

Larissa nodded. “Just be careful. If my theory is correct, we will…”

Ulysse grinned. “With pleasure, dear.” Ulysse pushed against one of the buzzing boxes, sliding its drawer open smoothly. A rectangular contraption lay immersed in a bed of warm oil. He propped it out with the hammer and it clanged on the ground. Ulysse swung the hammer downwards and bashed the oily casing in.

“Be careful!”

“What? I can’t hear you!” Ulysse shouted over the hummmbzzing and clanging.

“Nevermind! Let’s see what’s inside.”

The travellers didn’t recognise the foreign mechanism, eyeing the flat green board’s golden patterns that flowed towards a silver-black vessel. They recognised the ‘◎’ symbol inscribed on it. “It’s the same rune we found at the entrance. The same foreign signature too.” She picked at the vessel’s tight edges with a grimy fingernail and slid it upwards, revealing a chipped gem pulsing with energy. “As I thought! These machines are powered by the same Ether drained from the node.”

“Why would the Bastion drain the nodes?” asked Ulysse.

“We’ll take this machine’s innards to the Blue Hat. But first, we’ll need more of these gems.”

Ulysse continued dismantling the machines and made sure to remove the chipped gem carefully. Each machine was marked with the Rune of Sun along with the same foreign signature. “Ten should be enough, give or take.” She felt vibrations of pins and needles as she held the gems in her palm, then rolled them around her hand to spread the sensation. She poured them into a small bag for safekeeping.

“I found some spuds near the cooling systems too.” Ulysse led her to the tube roots and cooling system where one of the pipes was still leaking.

Larissa noticed the smudgy pool of wax in the brass holder had fully reformed the candlestick. After gently rolling the wick between her fingers a second time, the flame again failed to spring to life. But she felt the presence of heat on her fingertips and realised her intuitive bond with the artefact had been severed. Re-establishing the bond came naturally to her, owing to many years of studious effort. Teaching at Alfheim’s most prestigious academies had also trivialised adept spellcraft for the light elf. The Ether did not bestow a rune upon Larissa of Alfheim when she was summoned, which made academia the most logical substitute for mastering magic. She knew being runeless often meant a different path than those summoned with Forgotten Runes, exchanging pendants and garments decorated with the ancient shapes for a mind trained in the arcane arts.

“It’s not working?”

“Shh! Let me concentrate.”

She focused on the wick then glimpsed at her past self instructing a class of eager scholars, one of whom included her son. Udor sat in the front row, listening intently with warmth behind his eyes. She felt a quick succession of twitches in her right eye as Udor’s visage left her. Her memory of her son, her purpose, had re-aligned with the candle of intuition. A brilliant spark ignited then leapt into a luminous finger that pointed to the pipes leading into the wall. It beckoned them to crawl through the narrow mazes within the catacomb’s walls.

“Are you sure that thing is working properly?”

“Its flame is aligned with our purpose. The Blue Hat must be somewhere beyond these walls. Try that leaky pipe over there.”

Ulysse pressed a boot to judge the integrity of the pipe then pushed his weight down on the cracked, drippy parts. Sure enough, it broke away from the cave wall. After removing the pieces, he used the wooden mallet to clear any remaining jagged edges. He threw an uncertain look at his partner after the musty interior of the tunnel was revealed.

“After you, dear.” Larissa took a deep breath then riggled into the cavity, followed by the backpack, then Ulysse who barely squeezed through.

“By Deeze’s beard! It smells like a kobold warren in here,” said Ulysse as he gagged on the fetid odour. “The coolant systems were probably pumping the warm air through here.”

Larissa heard every word her partner said, but didn’t answer out of fear of suffering a coughing fit. She put the odour out of her mind and continued crawling. Her eyes watered as her knee scraped over a knobbly rock. Further on, the tunnel split into three passageways. The candle’s flame pointed them to the left-most tunnel where some debris had fallen through. She cleared the rubble and then turned her tired body too quickly. She caught a fist of stone in her side, causing her to lose control of her breathing. She expelled the nasty air from her lungs and then realised she was in darkness. The enchanted candlestick had smashed into the tunnel wall during her coughing fit. Larissa lay in silence, searching for a feeling that wasn’t there anymore. The enchanted candle was broken and her bond with it severed.

“I don’t know if I can do this.” Hearing herself admit it felt freeing, but she knew she couldn’t let go yet. “Can’t we just stop here and start a new life in the fetid tunnels below Blue Wizard Bastion?”

“Sure! We can eat cave potatoes for the rest of our days. Come on, dear, let’s keep moving.” They crawled through the muddy dark and pressed on into a space where the air was less foul. Further down the tunnel, it split again into separate entrances.

“Two… three… four new tunnels.” Larissa sighed. She cleared her throat, her chest erupting in a coughing fit again. Ulysse grabbed her ankle tightly, then said, “I never trusted the candle, only the elf holding it. Get us out of here, Larissa.”

Relying on her senses, Larissa closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "The third tunnel. I'm sure of it." They kept moving and, after what seemed like forever, their wretched crawl through the foetid tunnels was finally over when they saw an opening. They discovered a chamber illuminated by pale light from wall sconces. Several stone structures lay below them.

“When you crawl through, be careful. It’s quite a drop.” Larissa pushed herself out of the tunnel and then landed on the hard stone floor crouched. Ulysse would need to jump down but first dropped the backpack into Larissa’s arms. She stood back, then a loud thud resounded as the battle mage’s boots met the ground.

“What is this place?”

The travellers stood in a round chamber in awe of the statue towering in front of them. The sculpted hands of a headless figure rested on the hilt of a massive greatsword, its stone blade thrust into the floor.

“No doors. Just more holes like the ones we crawled through. He gazed up at the ceiling into the unending dark, then spotted something. A feathered creature was perched on the statue’s headless frame.

“I don’t want to alarm you, dear, but I think there’s a crackerjack up there,” whispered Ulysse.

“Don’t disturb it,” said Larissa. The purpled-eyed crow watched her as she moved to the base of the statue. There was a message carved into the stone: “THE BURNING OF THE THIRTEEN – I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THE WARRIORS FOR WHAT THEY DID TO OUR WIZARDS.”

“Where warriors rest.”

“You have the journal, Uly?”

Larissa placed a finger on the memory crystal embedded in the journal's cover, and then flipped to a page near the back. She approached the side wall to search for any engravings. She stopped when she recognised a familiar shape from Udor’s writings. She dusted off an inscription, then read aloud, “HENRY DISPATCHER OF THE DOCKS.”

“One of the warriors, I assume?”

“According to Udor, he was burned first. His rune, the Rune of Mercury, is inscribed below his title.”

“Are you telling me we’re in a tomb?”

She drew a scrying field around the warrior’s resting site. She broadened the field to detect signatures across all thirteen that were radially aligned with the stone effigy. “I’m detecting many runes, but no remains. Not a tomb, but a remembrance of sorts.”

She pointed Ulysse to a longer inscription adjacent to the first. He read aloud: “GOODBYE TITAN SWASHBUCKLER OF THE RUINS. YOU WERE WITH US FOR FAR TOO LONG.”

“He was second,” added Larissa. “And the rune?”

“No rune,” said Ulysse. “I wonder what he did to earn that epitaph.”

“The Rune of Mercury is inscribed next to the first warrior’s title, but the second has no…” Larissa felt a pit forming in her stomach. She moved around the chamber, stopping at each remembrance.

“LORTHAR IMPALER OF MONSTERS – Rune of Lime, MURPH SLAUGHTERER OF KOMODI – Rune of Cinnabar, SANDY MINCER OF THE PAVILION – Rune of Jupiter, CALLAN SLASHER OF THE SAVANNAH – Rune of Uranus, NIX ERADICATOR OF THE ROAD – Rune of Air, AYO CUTTER OF THE BACK ALLEY – Rune of Pluto.”

Larissa had to pause before reading the next inscription. “LUCY CAD OF THE ELYSIAN FIELDS. THE MOST WORTHLESS WARRIOR OF THEM ALL – runeless.”

Ulysse looked straight at Larissa. “You don’t suppose it has something to do with…”

“You read the rest of them.” Larissa marched off towards the headless statue. The crackerjack, perched in stillness, watched as the travellers moved around the tombs. Larissa stared blankly at the stone sword, her back turned to her partner.

“GILBERT SHAVER OF BRIGANDS – Rune of Uranus, ROCK BASHER OF BRIGANDS – Rune of Earth, PRESLEY FRAGMENTER OF MONSTERS – Rune of Cinnabar, SPIKE CLEAVER OF KOBOLDS – Rune of Saturn.”

Ulysse felt the need to break the uncomfortable silence. “Whoever did this to these people had a pretty sick sense of humour! Wrong place, wrong time, eh?” The burning of the thirteen unlucky meatheads. Larissa…” said Ulysse as he touched her shoulder.

“I’m fine, Uly. I’m fine.” Ulysse hugged her. Her green vest still smelled of tunnel muck, but her partner drew her stiff body closer. It took only a moment’s resistance before she too embraced her partner.

“Those vile words for the runeless,” said Larissa. “Is this how these people will be remembered?”

“I know you’re fine, dear. And too smart to care about that sort of thing.” Ulysse pressed her elven figure tightly. “You probably think I’ve been playing the fool in these scumming tunnels, but it’s just the way I… the way I deal with all of this. We’re here for Udor. That’s all that matters.”

She dug her chin into his shoulder as she cried, “Where is our son, Ulysse?”

“We’ll find him. I know we will. The Blue Hat will help us.” Larissa felt his curly beard against her cheek, and squeezed the journal tightly against him.

Then Ulysse affirmed, “I will not break in the midst of battle.” Larissa laughed, then the travellers released each other's embrace.

“No, Uly. We will not break.”

“Do you need the journal for the incantation?” asked Ulysse.

“I’ll remember it,” she said, handing him Udor’s journal.

Larissa faced the headless statue then shouted at the crackerjack, “You like to watch, ey, bird? “Watch this!” The crow remained silent, seemingly unamused by the elf’s taunt.

She lowered her hood, revealing a jewelled headband around her red head of hair. Grasping the Ether charged gems in her palm, she began the incantation. She tightened her grip as she recalled Udor’s words: “Sun is the light of the world; I bow to the divine decree!” Veins of white light zig-zagged up the sword’s blade, searing a ‘Σ’ symbol into the stone – the Rune of Sigma. Larissa felt a presence behind the runed sword, then repeated Udor’s words, the gems glowing red through her hand. With her fist clenched she shot her arms outward as if to pry open great doors. Gritting her teeth, she leveraged the Ether’s power against the Rune of Sigma, releasing a burst of light that lit up the entire chamber. The frame of a runic gateway materialised around the edges of the stone blade, then suddenly, Larissa felt a sharp pain in her chest and then a coughing fit seized her. After seeing the blood she had spat up, her vision blurred. She realised Ulysse had caught her before she slumped to the ground. He pried open her hand and saw the black crystal chips burned into her palm. The darkness above the travellers heads descended over them and the last thing they saw was the crackerjack enter the golden gateway.

Entered by: 0x0415…e092