Deeper

Pillars, where were these people taking them? The paths they tread were seemingly paved with the dead… animals she hoped. The Arbiter was beginning to feel as if her Gods had abandoned her.

Voah tried engaging the spear woman in Mizaran, “A kodii uuen nemono sora?” - "To where you are taking us?"

The woman looked back at Voah and cocked her head, trying to make sense of her words. A few heartbeats later she placed two fingers against he own lips and kicked at some bones on the floor with her foot. The woman pronounced a few words in her language that Voah took to mean 'silence' or 'danger'. Where her hand touched, Voah felt her skin itching.

The Arbiter had the feeling she should remain silent or end up as dust and bones. Not that she was afraid to die, but she would rather go to her grave unbound and doing the work of the Pillars.

She squinted her eyes and suffered silently as her upper arm began to itch fiercely. She looked to Tarmen to see how the was fairing. He had expressed his desire to leave the mines earlier and it was her zealousness that had gotten him into this situation and she knew damn well, especially now in her clear mind, that Alexis too wouldn’t ever leave her behind. She was as bound to her code as Voah was hers. Sadly, she probably had Gonyaul in tow. Voah felt her failures multiply, racking her with more guilt and self loathing.

The group travelled far into the tunnels. Each step they took seemed to erase the passage of time, so much so that they couldn't tell for how long they had been down there.

The air remained chill enough to fog deep exhalations. The sound of water rose so gradually out of the silence that it seemed sudden when they finally noticed it.

A left a right another left… this place was an endless maze and with no idea where she started, it was almost useless to try and remember each way they turned, besides she was already forgetting as she was battling an unscratchable itch with hard discipline.

The Arbiter’s desire to squeal in annoyance from the itching was replaced by involuntary shivering from the frigid depths of this place. It was fine for now but if the cold kept on too long she would soon be wishing she wore heavier clothes.

The walls and ceiling of the passage flared outward, like the mouth of an intricately carved horn.

After several steps, the walls fell away altogether, and they stepped into booming space, except that it wasn’t another corridor... but the entrance to some kind of shrine.

Voah noticed that Tarmen didn’t even bother trying to look at her or speak to her this whole time. She guessed he was upset with her, and rightly so… The man was savvy and could certainly find a way to escape eventually. And being in her right mind now, she would completely understand if she was left behind.

As they approached the sound of water and the opening of the tunnels, her attention was drawn to the next chamber.

What now?