I studied the dust pooling around Attar as he leaned against the giant skull of Brace’s new hideout.

  “Something is off about you. You’re dissolving the stone.”

  Attar tugged at the threads of his kā?āya, “Yet my clothes are unharmed. Can we use this to move through the wall?”

  I brushed at the stone, “It’s far too slow. It is no more than the powder on a poplar tree, and you’ve been there for an hour.”

  “So you will continue your drilling?”

  I shook my head, “Eventually. But I think it is better to rest for today. Tomorrow, I will go on my own to the map, record it as a spell, then return.”

  “I don’t like you going off on your own.”

  “Neither do I, but the main disadvantage is speed. As long as I am cautious, I will be fine. I have been that way before.”

  “Are there dangers along the path?”

  “Beetles, rats, dark elves. Nothing safe, nothing I haven’t overcome.”

  “Is there really that much of a hurry?”

  I gestured to Astra, who was happily tearing apart a piece of swan with her hands, “Our food supplies will diminish faster the more people we rescue. We have the pool to the south for water, but we have not solved the problem of food.”

  “Will several days make that much of a difference? Your spells double in efficacy every day, correct?”

  Attar was right. We could afford a delay for several days. I took a pull from my waterskin—

  Strange, it was empty.

  I set it down. Attar would eliminate essentially any risk I might face along my path. All I needed was some patience. Besides, it would be good to relax and spend some time among friends.

  ***

  A new day dawned after a night of feasting, and with it came the sun. The swan was disappearing alarmingly fast with 15 people making every meal from it. It wouldn’t last another 3 days, but while we had it, we feasted. I broke my fast with more roasted swan and hoped the fatty meat would avoid the same starvation I’d heard could afflict those who ate only rabbit.

  I set out alone once my feast was done, stopping first at the pool of pure water. I held my water skins in the water, only to find they refused to fill. The water swirled down, bubbles rose from the mouth, but every time the skin was removed it came up empty.

  I quickly located the source. My new amulet, the one which had “lightened” me had not done so in a spiritual sense but a physical one. All water was drained from my person while wearing the necklace. I left it with Conan after a brief explanation. If there was a use for it, he’d find it, while I could continue on with my full waterskins.

  I was now forearmed with the knowledge that not all magical items were beneficial. Had Attar and I not been able to return to the first floor, we may have expired.

  I made it to the old safe room with good time, perhaps a forty five minute walk in all.

  Tunnel. I could have simply cast the spell and been done with it, but for an hour of suffering I saved myself an entire day of spell casting. I struck the wall countless times, I’d have gone mad if I counted. I wouldn’t do it again unless absolutely necessary. The excavation was not under my direct control. I received enough wounds I’d have succumbed without my Regenerate II.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Tunnel II: Excavates 22.5ft3 over the course of an hour.

  I was tempted to record the Regenerate II as part of the spell, but I’d already tested my concentration enough not losing the spell when I’d stabbed myself, and casting the regeneration spell while continuing my recording and chipping of the wall.

  The dark voices in my head, not satisfied with the multitasking I was already performing, also chose the same moment to start yammering their dark promises in my ear.

  Dispelling Key

  The promises were light this time. A friendly suggestion. One I could disregard without hard feelings or risk to myself. The spell could be let to slip back into the abyss it had crawled from.

  But in chaos there was creation, and a key, albeit of an unusual nature, was not something I was willing to discard. I still recalled the warded door only a few days prior even the pixie had been unable to open.

  The hole I’d bored was now just over thirty square feet in size. Wide enough to squeeze through, but not deep enough to penetrate the walls, which seemed to have taken on a more or less uniform thickness of ten feet in width.

  I’d carved the hole wide, about three feet square after the spell hard started trying to excavate through my hands, meaning I’d made it about a third of the way through the wall.

  Tunnel II

  I left the spell to it and returned to our base of operations. By the end of the hour the wall would have nearly another third excavated, and then we could crawl through on the morrow.

  ***

  Tunnel I. Tunnel II. I didn’t dare dig alongside my spell this time. I’d learned my lesson the day before. Attar waited with me. The spells, should they succeed, would be enough to break through to the other side. Of course, nothing was ever that easy. The whispers found me. Taunted me. Tickled me. Encoding Poison. Ultimate my concentration was maintained, and I kept the dark magic spell. Poison was useful, whatever the Delta people might think.

  Tunnel III: Excavates 33.75ft3 over the course of an hour.

  Tunnel III

  I immediately cast my new spell. The recording hadn’t penetrated all the way through to the other side of the wall.

  Attar began to get up as I approached him, then settled back when he noticed the path was still blocked. My ring was activated at full senses, allowing me to notice the minute movement.

  “Another hour?”

  “Thereabouts,” I sat next to him, “What do you think of Astra?”

  “The pixie sent her. I have no doubt.”

  “I don’t think I can think with about her with a clear mind. Gunhild once seduced me with her trollskap. I’m scared to be beguiled again. What do you think?”

  “I’m not sure. I neither trust nor distrust her. She has done nothing to make me concerned and your behaviour towards her is nothing unnatural. It is only her sudden appearance and beauty which concern me. Though if the pixie sent her, it depends on whether or not you believe we can trust the pixie.”

  I thought about it. Pixies were not malicious creates, not even mischievous like brownies. The tiny creatures were filled with such joy and wonder at life and creation they had room for nothing else. But they were also simple minded. Not stupid, but not concerned with the minutiae of life. They had better things to do.

  In other words, she was as deceptive and untrustworthy and honourable and kind as any other person. Time would tell. I wished I could close that parentheses in my mind, but I would have to live with uncertainty.

  I held up my quicksilver. The Watcher winked at me. I knew the answer already, but even Magi occasionally long for simple solutions, even if they knew they led to folly. Nature was growth and decay. The cycle never ended, and it was a cycle. The wise were made fools to lay the soil for new wisdom to grow.

  Or so I could tell myself. My master had told me the same. Perhaps to comfort himself.

  “If you say I am not ensorcelled, and my love is not extraordinary, then we will trust her until she reveals herself otherwise, and we may pray she never does.”

  Attar tucked his chin into his chest and closed his eyes, “You are ensorcelled, but there is no magic there. We will trust her.”