If I Had a Heart

Ainsley nodded in thought. "That's good," he said. "Hopefully we won't run into them." Knowing their luck so far, though, a bit of uncertainty crept into his voice. Serpents, traps, beasts - who knew what the group would face in the depths of the cage?

"Morrick," he continued, picking at the tie of the robe around his waist. "You mentioned an arena. Do you know how to get there?"

Morrick nodded at that. "Yes. I was inside it once. It is near the Hall of Migh'nur. I do not know where they keep its key, though." He fidgeted uncomfortably. "I'm sorry I can't be of more help but I can take you there."

"Please," Aumrauth said with his eye twitching. "Do. Lead us there."

Mel sighed. Morrick could lead them to the door of the arena, but they couldn't go in without a key. Well, they could cross that bridge when they get there.

"Yeah, that's okay," she said. "We don't have any other clues, so we'd be happy to follow."

Morrick nodded hesitantly and then straightened. He clutched his pickaxe nervously, then clicked his tongue. He paused a moment and then started off back in the direction the group had come from, toward the lake.
"Impressive," Elias said softly, raising his eyebrows. He had never seen a human use echolocation before, and Morrick seemed to have quite a handle on it. "Shall we, lady and gentlemen?"

Mel watched with a bit of wonder as Morrick clicked his tongue and seemed to be able to navigate on his own. So that's probably how he sees, huh? she thought to herself. She couldn't ever imagine having to make noise to see.

She gave Elias a pointed look when he singled her out. "You could just say 'everyone,' you know," she mumbled as she turned to follow Morrick down the tunnel.

Nikolai rubbed his eyes, blinking in the now-dim light. He checked to see that the ball had worked. "It's safe," he called out, then he turned around to face Raptor and Aeshan again.

"What's an elemental sphere?"

The term didn't ring any bells in his mind, not even subconsciously. It really was new to him.

Aumrauth trudged forward, looking down at his hands, which were now fully healed. He brushed his cheek, feeling the no-longer charred skin. If there was anything good that came of this painfully long conversation, at least they had a guide, and now he'd fully healed. He felt more comfortable potentially facing another beast without third-degree burns.

Raptor glanced over at Nikolai.

"An elemental sphere is an orb a little bigger than yours," he said, gesturing at Nikolai's bag with a nod of his head. He thought for a moment; he had never had to explain elemental spheres before. "They're more like the size of a snow globe."

He looked back ahead of them. "The spheres contain the four elements - earth, fire, air, and water. They explode when you throw them. I've never used one before, but I've seen demonstrations with them."

Nikolai wasn't familiar with the concept of a 'snow globe', either, but he nodded slowly as he did his best to follow along.

"That's interesting," he said thoughtfully, taking another one out and examining it. He made sure to carefully hold it between his fingers, since he didn't want it to fall and shatter on the ground right in front of him. Raptor was already carrying Aeshan. If he had to carry an unconscious Nikolai around, too, that would be a serious inconvenience for everyone.

Sleep wasn't any element like the other four, not by any stretch of the imagination. But it seemed like these glass orbs and those elemental spheres had a few things in common, or at least a similar idea. Nikolai wished he had a name for the ones he had on him.

"I wonder how that magic works," he thought aloud as he stepped around the sleeping beast.

Raptor followed him around the monster, trying - and failing - to keep the amount of space he really wanted between him and the unconscious beast. He stayed as close to Nikolai as he possibly could.

He tried to remember what he had learned about the magic of elemental spheres. It hadn't been all that long ago since he first learned about them, but it had been hard keeping track of something so minor on top of all of the other things he had been learning about - runes, drawing circles, the proper way to set up a pentacle, etc. It hurt his head thinking about everything now.

"...I think they might be demons," he replied. "But I'm not entirely sure. I thought demons all had two elements, but maybe lower level ones with a single element exist."

It would explain why they were so simple compared to someone like Bartimaeus - djinn were fire and air. Raptor withheld a little chuckle at that thought. The demon would have hated it here underground.

Demons?

Nikolai frowned, puzzled by the reply. He hadn't thought demons fit into this. It had made more sense for the orbs to be a spell or an enchanted item, but Raptor had a different first theory. Well, he probably knew more about demons than Nikolai.

"Wow, really?" He sounded impressed as he stepped into the stone corridor. "I had no idea that was possible."

It looked like he'd be leading the way for the three of them so they could all see where they were going, since it'd be hard to see past Raptor. Nikolai wasn't so confident about being in front, since he'd led them right into the chamber with these beasts. Hopefully he'd pay more attention this time.

"Let's try heading this way," he said, pointing to the left, since the tunnel split up at another crossroads. What a wild cave system, he thought to himself, thinking of all the forks they'd seen so far. He had no idea of the distance they'd traveled, but with all the possible paths they hadn't taken, it seemed like they'd never get anywhere. Glancing back over his shoulder at Raptor, who was still carrying Aeshan, he shot him a faint smile—

Nikolai's head hit something hard. Pain shot briefly through his skull and his vision blurred as he stumbled back, catching himself on the wall to his right. Dazed, he stared at what he realized was a dead end, and he'd walked right into it while he wasn't looking ahead of him.

So much for paying attention.

"Ow," he mumbled, moving clumsily back the way they'd come while pressing a hand to his forehead. "Sorry. Other tunnel."

"Are you okay?" Raptor asked. His gaze immediately dropped down to his bag after he asked, but then he remembered that he didn't have anything that could help Nikolai - all Raptor had was a harming potion that was only able to heal its owner.

The tunnel was small enough that switching who was leading would be tricky, so Raptor accepted his fate and turned around so he was in the front. It looked like heading the other way would lead them into a long tunnel. Raptor started down towards it.

But then he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye as they approached the fork in the path.

"I think I see a doorway down there," he said.

Ainsley followed behind Morrick, listening to the clicks he made. He must use them to see, he figured. But how? Ainsley had never seen anything like it.

Either way, he was glad they finally seemed to be making some progress on their journey. They had a guide and were no longer wondering aimlessly.

"Yeah. I'm okay." Nikolai was following along, just behind. After a few moments, he didn't feel as lightheaded, and the slight throbbing pain had stopped. He rubbed his forehead, checking that there was no bump or bruise before he pulled his hand away.

His vision had cleared once the three of them were back at the fork. There wasn't nearly enough space for Nikolai pass in front, unless he was willing to try to slip between Raptor and the rough cave wall, which would probably scratch him. He decided against that. He could, however, see the doorway Raptor had pointed out. Nikolai tried to see inside.

"Looks like there's another one of those helpful but possibly dangerous chests in there," he observed. "And it looks like there are a few rolled up things too. Not certain what those could be."