Pathway

Chang Chang'd been in the Underground less than a day, and already she was sick of it. Instead of them to be going upward and out of the tunnel, it appeared they were moving deeper into the underground. She stared at the Yaomo leader and raised her voice. 

"Your friends are gone, and I'm strong enough to hurl more spells at you." 

She shouted at the Yaomo wizard. 

"Surrender and we will let you leave!"

Shields in place, the Yaomo turned to look at Chang Chang. Surrender? His eyes changed, the red light deepening with hatred and a resolve that frightened her. Cornered as he was, he'd kill himself and all of them before he let himself be dishonoured by surrendering. The Yaomo raised his hands and so did Chang Chang, spitting out the words to one of her most potent arts. She did it without thinking. Or considering the consequences.

Her glaive clattered to the ground as an all too familiar wave of sickness washed over her, a clawing sensation in her stomach that spread outward to her limbs. She tried to concentrate on the mystical arts, but it was too big, a wild thing growing inside her. On a broken cry, Chang Chang thrust her arms out from her body.

Blood lightning erupted from her hands, but what should have been a contained burst instead manifested as huge, jagged bolts that sizzled from her flesh and raised the hair all over Chang Cjang's body. Stalactites rained down from the cavern ceiling as the lightning tore through them. Loud cracks and pops filled the air, and amid the chaos came the yaomo's scream. Blood lightning had burned through his spell shields all at once.

"Chang Chang!"

Ju Feng's voice came to her distantly, through the blue blur of the electrical storm. 

"Stay away!!" 

She screamed and bent double, clutching her stomach to try to rein in the spell, but the lightning came from everywhere: her hands, arms, and chest. Smoke rose around her, and even the blood from her wound took on an eldritch blue radiance. Gods, I'm bleeding aura now, Chang Chang thought. The smell of charred flesh filled her nostrils, making her gag. She prayed that only the Yaomo warrior had been killed by her lightning. But what if it wasn't his burning flesh she smelled? What if Ju Feng had gotten too close? It was too much. Icelin's legs gave out, and she fell, curling into a ball on the cavern floor. 

She stopped fighting the sleep poison, let it cloud her mind and numb her limbs. Sparks burst in the air, bright pops in front of Icelin's eyes, but the storm appeared to be dying down. The poison might even be helping to calm the lightning storm of magic. Chang Chang never thought she'd be grateful to the yaomo for that favor. Her eyes drifted closed, and when she opened them, Ju Feng was leaning over her. He was alive, his flesh not charred and stripped away by lightning. Chang Chang almost couldn't think beyond her relief, but then she saw Ju Feng's face. It was a tight, pale mask, his eyes wide.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

Slowly, Chang Chang sat up, aware of what Ju Feng said earlier. 

"I think."

They were still recovering from the encounter with the yaomos when they saw two dwarves coming their way. Tunnel dwarves. They were friendly to humans. They appeared to have been in a recent battle. The dwarves too them they had been watching the battles from afar but could come in time due to their own battles too. They led them through a tunnel filled with bodies of both dwarves and yaomos. Seeing the situations, Chang Chang guessed she knew what the yaomos sought. 

"This isn't about the guardian, Feng. It's about the Arcane Script Sphere."

"What sphere?" Ju Feng asked in surprise.

"A powerful artifact I once learned about when I was younger. It had created battles between the dwarves and yaomos over the year's. Maybe, they thought we're after it."

"I see."

The conversation subsided. Despite their optimism, they marched for what felt like hours, and as the time passed, Chang Chang leaned more and more heavily on her glaive. She didn't want to be a burden, but the remnants of the Yaomo poison lingered in her blood, and the wild energy had taken an even greater toll. She almost called out to Ju Feng to ask for a rest when she saw the tunnel ahead widening. A string of adjoining passages met up with the main one, and voices drifted from the smaller tunnels.

Chang Chang gasped as the reek of sweat and blood hit her nostrils. On the heels of these grim heralds, a score and more dwarves spilled out into the passage ahead of them. They carried swords, shields, and maces—and litters. At least a dozen dead or injured were among the group. Some of them had no visible wounds, but they shivered and convulsed as if in the throes of some horrible fever. Their bearers stumbled and struggled to keep them on the litters. It appeared they had been fighting the Yaomos.

One of them was pointing at Ju Feng and Chang Chang while explaining something to the dwarfleader. Chang Chang took a wavering step as if to follow the left path to the tunnel head, but she found she couldn't move. She covered her mouth with her hand, suddenly afraid she might be sick.

"It's all right," one of the dwarf said from behind her. "It's minor gu poison. It will wear off. Follow me." 

Ju Feng draped an arm across Chang Chang shoulders as he helped her to stand. Until she felt his warmth, Chang Chang hadn't realized she was shivering. She leaned into Ju Feng's body gratefully and let him support her as they walked on. Finally, they passed out of the long tunnel, and suddenly there were dwarf guards all around them, a dozen warriors heavily armored and grim looking. Chang Chang might have been afraid of the presence of so much steel and so many dour-faced dwarves, but the passage ahead temporarily distracted her, for it contained the largest door she'd ever seen.

Ten feet tall and made of solid iron, the gate to the upper world wedged perfectly into the stone, an immovable titan that Chang Chang couldn't imagine an enemy ever being able to break down. That was assuming the enemy made it so far, past the armored dwarves and clerics who stood on either side of the door. The dwarf physicians immediately went to work tending the wounded dwarves, but Ju Feng noticed a few of them watching him and his companion with different glares as they approached the iron door. Was it his imagination, or did their displeasure deepen when they caught sight of Chang Chang? It must be her glaive—they recognized it for an astral weapon—or else they sensed the blood arts inside her.

Ju Fengl shook those irrational thoughts away. Likely they were simply suspicious of outsiders. There was no point in dwelling on his fears. He had no control over how the dwarves felt about him or his companions, but they'd obviously brought them here for a reason, one that Ju Feng suspected had little to do with them being in their tunnels.

As soon as they started moving towards the area of the massive iron doors, the dwarves had become relaxed. Ju Feng sensed their reaction wasn't directed at them specifically, but he'd known enough of secrets in his life to know when someone was eager for them to leave a place. A shattering groan lifted Ju Feng from his thoughts. The massive iron door creaked open under the direction of the guards, and Ju Frng had another cause for wonderment. The door itself was at least three feet thick, lumbering open by inches, guided by the grim-faced warriors.

The dwarleader came up beside them. "Few outsiders are allowed to witness the Gate Guardians opening the outer door," he commented.

"The outer door?" Ju Feng echoed, incredulous. 

They passed through the mithral door, leaving the dozens of Gate Guardians behind and passing into a wider cavern, where the ceiling soared high above their heads. Being suddenly in the open space, Icelin felt as if some of the pressing weight lifted from her. The fear of being trapped underground started to leave her. It was impossible to feel too much trepidation with the upper world spread out before her. Orblight gave way to glowing, silvery-blue lichen that covered the ceiling, spidering in and out of cracks in the stone and hanging down in clumps throughout the cavern.

Once their eyes adjusted to the silvery radiance, they found it easier to see by than the flickering, smoky orb glow. The light revealed a broad avenue of worked stone flanked by towering statues of dwarves, their shadows thrown far across the cavern floor. Massive staircases led to buildings carved out of the stone—homes, shops, and temples—while winding among them to the centermost cavern was a great river.