If I Had a Heart

Nikolai followed behind Raptor, feeling tense as he followed silently. His breathing was a little shaky. He was grateful that Raptor had a weapon now, and he knew Eira had managed to help them with her powers before. While that was reassuring, it also made him feel like... a bit of a liability. If a problem arose, he couldn’t help but think that he might be the least useful person in the group.

And a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

When he saw the doors, he realized that there could very well be a new danger right behind them. Nikolai was silent for a bit as he swallowed hard.

“This is a bit bigger of a decision than opening a chest,” he said quietly. Raptor had taken the risk of unlocking the one containing the battleaxe himself, and he didn’t want to make him handle every peril first just because he had a suit of armor. If there was a threat in the next room, they’d all need to face it together.

Ainsley caught up to Mel as she spoke. He felt as baffled as she looked. As he listened to Mel's question, he caught snippets of the others' conversation. Something about a magic river? That was hardly his concern, though.

He turned to her with a chuckle. "No, I guess we won't get any more wine." He knew it was an almost arbitrary topic, but what was one supposed to talk about after seeing someone burn to death, only to come back to life moments later?

Elias bristled at the terms of endearment, jaw tightening. "Enlighten me then, kind sir." The tunnel, which was growing increasingly narrow, had begun a downward slope. "I am a man of science, not well versed in such things."

Mel forced a smile in the same way she would if she passed a stranger who made eye contact with her... which, in a way, was still sort of true in this situation. It wasn't like she really knew Ainsley, and they were forcing small talk.

It was still better than the alternative, which was contributing to the weird conversation between Elias and Aumurauth. Mel was still curiously half-paying attention, though.

"So," she said airily, staring at the back of Aumrauth's charred head. "How do you think the others are doing? Do you think they found an exit already?"

Aumrauth sighed. "Doctor - Elias, right? You did say your name was Elias?" He paused, looking at the walls growing closer around them and then back at Elias with something comparable to pity.

"Science is but an onramp to magic. But to learn the ways of magic takes years of study, and you have to have a certain level of aptitude to even do it. Not everyone just can. You have to form a connection with the river first... and, well, no one has a connection quite like me."

He smiled, and his burnt, cracking lips reformed once again.

"I am a swift learner." Elias smiled thinly. "Perhaps we could arrange an exchange of knowledge or something along those lines." He cast a glance back at the other two, who were in the midst of their own conversation.

He sighed. "I couldn't tell you. If they're lucky, none of them were burned alive." Ainsley gestured vaguely in Aumrauth's direction, internally wincing at his blunt choice of words. "Hopefully they're already halfway out of this place."

Aumrauth's eyebrows raised in curiosity. "Oh? An exchange of knowledge? Now, what knowledge could you have that I might possibly want?"

Elias shrugged slightly. "I have picked up many things in my travels. I'm sure we could find something. What is it you wish to know?"

Mel let out an amused laugh at Ainsley's blunt humor. Although the whole situation was pretty dark, his blunt joke reminded her of something a friend would say. The group she was with actually eerily reminded her of her friends, from the doctor's name to the Aumrauth's ability. But she decided to not dwell on that too long, especially since she was here to have an adventure.

"Do you think we chose the right group?" she asked Aisnley softly, loud enough for just the two of them to hear. She didn't want Aumrauth to turn around and be offended that she couldn't possibly think the other group—who was without his awfully strong presence—would be faring better than they were.

If the escapists were doing worse than 'opened a chest and blew up an immortal,' she was going to be very worried.

Aumrauth laughed again, slipping ahead of Elias as the passageway became impossibly narrow. Perhaps they would reach a dead end. They were about to find out, weren't they?

"Personally, I'm happy to learn anything new after being alive for hundreds and hundreds of years. I'm beginning to think you're from a different plane, so you might just have some knowledge useful to me. Where is it you're from, exactly?"

"I had a business in London for several years," Elias replied. "I was in medicine. Some things went sour and I was forced to migrate to Austria, then Italy, and most recently I settled in Latvia."

When Eira joined them, she gave a nod in confirmation.

Raptor turned back to the door.

Taking a deep breath, he grabbed onto the door's handles with a single hand. He couldn't predict what would be waiting inside. He hoped it wasn't another, potentially larger scorpion, but he felt a little more capable now that his other hand was holding an axe.

The door didn't budge.

After a moment of hesitation, Raptor gave it a slightly stronger tug.

It still didn't budge.

Awkwardly resting his axe down on the ground next to him, Raptor tugged on the door even harder. No matter how much strength he tried putting into it, he couldn't get it to open.

He grabbed his axe from the ground next to him and turned back to Eira and Nikolai.

"...I think it's locked," he said. He was grateful that he looked the way that he did right now - if he didn't, the blush he would have shown would have given away just how embarrassed he was. "Whatever is past the doors must be important, but I don't think we can open them without some kind of key."

They would have to go back through the main room to get to one of the other tunnels. There was no avoiding it now. Resigning himself to that fate - and the chance that he would run into the other group - Raptor started to head back towards the main room.

Ainsley's brow furrowed at the question. Did they choose the right group? He wasn't sure there was a straight answer. On one hand, the other group could very well be reaching the end of their adventure, finding safety and freedom outside the catacombs. Thinking back, the escapists had made the more sound decision, but when it came for him to chose, he couldn't refuse the possibilities of what finding the heart could offer.

He thought it out before answering the girl's question with a small smirk. "I don't think so. They're a little odd, but nothing we can't handle."

Nikolai wasn’t sure how to feel about that. Disappointed? Relieved? Something in between, or both, or something else entirely? Things hadn’t quite worked out, for better or for worse. He’d instinctively reached up to grab the crystal pendant hanging from his neck, playing around with it absentmindedly. It was glowing too, just much fainter than the ribbons. He wasn’t thinking about that much though, as Raptor was on the move again and he had little choice but to follow, glancing at Eira as he started walking.

It was a shame they weren’t stopping for longer, because Nikolai really would have liked to check the leather pouch he had on him soon enough. He knew it wasn’t urgent, though, and it could most likely wait. It wasn’t like it was large enough to hold anything too relevant.

He didn’t comment on how those doors hadn’t worked, guessing that Raptor wasn’t too pleased about the failed attempt. Maybe they were meant to be pushed open instead of pulled, he thought. But if that was true, he wasn’t about to humiliate his companion by dragging them back there and doing it right.