And Deeper

JP with Lucian, Omni and Winteroak

Ypogeios

Tarmen looked at the chamber with grim familiarity. While not as grand or secretive as this, he knew a place of sacrifice. The dry crunch under their feet didn’t dissuade this assessment.

With no chance of talking, he had been trying to work out a way to escape and maybe even get the Arbiter out as well. Wouldn’t look good on him if she died under his watch. The only issue was the location. He could charge through a forest and skitter through mountainous terrain just fine, but here there was no where to go if you didn’t know the way.

Once they entered the chamber he glanced at Voah, no true emotion on his face. Once the nihilism of their situation had settled, he found a small comfort in not being alone here. He then looked forward, towards whatever fate Zin had prepared for them.

There was a small pool in the centre of the room; its freshness a welcome break from the air of the caves that tasted of tombs and age-long motionlessness.

The room was neither large nor small, about the size of a temple prayer floor, with a low circular ceiling spoked like a wheel. Etchings adorned the walls, representations of devils, like the masks they had seen before. The captors pushed their prisoners towards the pool. While one of them kept watch, the other man and the woman spoke in quick low voices.

The man watching over them bade them to drink from the pool, jabbing his metal spear in their direction. Tarmen noticed his machete at the man's belt.

Voah was thirsty, but worse, she had to pee. The cold, the itching and the sound of water wasn't helping.

She shook her head at the man with the spear and squatted and squirmed a little. "I need to relieve myself."

The man didn't look like he understood at all, so she turned and showed him her bound wrists.

Then the man looked at his companions and spoke sharply to the woman, pointing at the two prisoners. Seemingly she was the leader.

What was this about? A rest area? A shrine? Voah was hesitant to touch or drink anything else in this place as doing so had already gotten her in enough trouble. But damn it, it made the headaches go away. She resigned to drink the water and knelt beside the pool, praying to Cambena and Panolis that the water didn't give her some disease.

Voah looked at her companion with regretful eyes. "Tarmen... I am so sorry. I should have listened to you." Then she bent down to drink as best one can with their hands bound behind them.

Voah sensed someone behind her holding her by her bonds so that she wouldn't fall face first into the water. It was the woman. That was a relief. After helping Voah drink she did the same for Tarmen.

When Voah rose from the water, she turned to the woman and bowed her head slightly. "Thank you."

So... this woman was taking care of them. Voah was growing more certain now that the strange subterranean people either wanted them alive, or healthy at the least. She held the woman's gaze with a grimace that said, 'Please?' and she shuffled on her knees, squeezed her legs together, and groaned in discomfort to suggest that she really couldn't hold it much longer. She then whimpered her next words as if she was begging, but really she was trying to fool them into not realizing she was talking with Tarmen. Hopefully he would get the hint and respond in a way that didn't suggest communication.

"...there are three of them... I think we can take them... but I'm worried about that mould."

All those years of watching The Grand Revelry acting should come in handy. She was a pretty good actress herself. Plus it didn't hurt her performance that she really did need to pee soon.

Tarmen was glad to see Voah was in the same mindset as him, not wanting these people to know there was a real connection between them. Still facing away from her and making it seem like he was trying to talk to the spearman again, he responded to Voah.

“No point, we have no idea where we are. They do.” he did gesture towards her, trying to convey an urgency to her condition.