AERIN

The 48th day of the moon of Harvest's End. Year 1458 of the Age of Stagnation.

Aerin cursed out loud. The slabs of stone had barely missed her. "By the Six!"

"Back up a little." She heard Will shout from somewhere above. She was too startled to scold the boy about carelessness. As she carefully crawled backwards a more reasonable thought reminded her they could not have known the roof was this thin.

There was no light above her, a curtain of nothingness stretched out all around. They were in a vast underground hall. That much Aerin could understand. But the way it was built, the way their footsteps sounded on the floor, something felt off.

The air was stale, full of dust. Down in the shaft, there had been the constant sound of the wind, but here, nothing moved. Even their voices sounded muffled.

A flash of fire illuminated the vast cathedral. Will had thrown fire in the air. However, it only made the darkness surrounding them seem deeper.

"Don't bother. You'll blind us. Unless you can keep that fire steady, it's useless." Aerin stood still and waited for her eyes to adjust to the dark again. She heard Will pacing around. "That will not help either."

Looking around, she saw nothing. The hall extended into darkness all around her. She could guess all she wanted, yet there was no way to tell how large this place was. Darkness played tricks with her vision. Aerin turned on the spot and headed towards the sound of Will's footsteps. Walls of pitch-black tar were closing in around her.

Another flash of fire tried its best to keep the darkness at bay. It helped for a mere moment. She could barely guess the silhouette of Will as she carefully felt her way around the place. Shortly after, Will conjured yet another flash of fire that died in vain.

"Will! Stop. You're blinding us." Aerin shouted, annoyed.

He did not respond.

This time an inferno lit a good part of the hall. She did not know Will could do that. In awe, she stared at the deep orange flames swirling around a cavernous cathedral. For the briefest of moments, she saw twisting reliefs on the walls and something even more bizarre. The darkness was smothering the flame.

As a second inferno raged through the cavernous hall, she was certain of what she had seen. Tendrils of dark ate into the flame.

"Will. Will! Will damn it!" She shouted. "Will, stop!"

"Not so damned loud." Will hissed.

"Stop doing that! It's no use!" Aerin tried to calm Will down.

"I can't find the exit anymore! It's gone." Will's voice was a panicked whisper. "I made a mistake, alright! This is an awful place. We shouldn't be here!"

Will was hurrying towards Aerin. His footsteps were coming closer, and she was afraid they might bump into each other. The footsteps stopped, and she heard bare hands patting a stone surface.

"What are you doing? What do you mean we should not be down here?" She cautiously wandered towards the sound of Will's hands patting a stone surface.

Some of Will's anxiousness was getting to her. But she could not understand his panic. When in doubt, stop, look, listen, think. Impulsive action was often fatal, in her experience.

The patting stopped. "I can't find it. The exit is gone. Aerin, the damned hole and the cover are gone. I put it right next to it. They are gone!"

"You lost the hole because you blinded us! I am still seeing lights flicker in my eyes, you twat!"

"Stop speaking so loud!" Will hissed again.

"What's wrong?" Aerin took a deep breath as to calm herself.

"I don't know. This place does not sit right with me. This darkness feels wrong, the air is heavy, no one has set foot in this place forever, but there is something here. I don't know why, but my thoughts keep telling me that this is no place to be. Especially not tonight. Let's get out of here."

"We still have a job to do. Pull yourself together. A little darkness is nothing to lose yourself over." But Will's words had something to them. This place felt lonely.

"The hole is gone." Will said again with a tired voice.

"Shut up and listen."

"The hole..." Will started again.

"Is somewhere around here. We lost it because you kept spewing fire like an idiot and didn't give me time to mark it. Now use your ears, you twat. There is flowing water nearby. We might get into the waterways from here. How on earth did you pass Garret's trials is beyond me? When in doubt, stop, observe, think. It's no use if you act blindly." She reminded Will.

It was unlikely they would find a way into the waterways, but Will had made her even angrier than before. Still, it was uncanny how she could not catch even a glimpse of the hole they entered through. The sun should still be shining into the shaft below it.

She made her way towards the sound of water. Now that her eyes were used to the darkness, she could guess her way around the place. There was nothing in her way, at least. Will was following her in silence.

Considering what had happened tonight, she felt no guilt at all. She had every right to be angry with him; she knew best. Although, it had come as a surprise to see what Will could do.

"There." Will suddenly grumbled. "I think there's another grate or something in the wall there."

Another old and rusty grate. The bars took a few kicks but did not last long. It was a tight squeeze through the rough opening. The two of them ripped their clothes a little.

It surprised Aerin to see they were actually in the waterways. All known entrances were heavily guarded.

"Not bad. This is a silver mine." Aerin breathed. "Tonight might not be a complete waste of time. Someone needs to go through that underground cathedral once more and mark the path through it. Getting larger items out of the houses might be tricky, but I bet we can find another safe exit around here. I don't think we have ever had access to the waterways under the upper city. We can make a lot of coin here, Will!"

"I am not going through that pit of gloom aga... OW! Stop it with the punches! What is your problem, woman?"

"Use your head and think!" Aerin looked down both ends of the tunnel and set off to her right. The ground was rising in that direction. It was a good chance they would find an exit that way.

Throwing one last look at the opening they had come from she realised that even from this side, the interior of the underground cathedral looked like a black wall. Dark enough to be confused for the canal wall.

"Feeling better yet, Will?"

"No." He grumbled. "I hate you."

"Good. Then the feelings are mutual. This looks promising." Another tunnel branched off to the right, about the way they wanted to go. And the ground was rising at a sharp angle now. Stairs led upward next to the water canals.

They reached a larger canal dotted with grates and smaller inlets in the low ceiling. The distance between the grates was sporadic, and while the rays of sunset were visible through the smaller ones, others were in the shadows.

Their presence was made obvious by pale blue soul gems hovering under and illuminating them with a faint glow. Those flow-invested gems would draw the water from the canal below and into the house above. Nobles did not need to bother with buckets and wells.

"How are we supposed to find the correct one?" Will mumbled. The ceiling was low enough that Will had to lower his head to Aerin's level. Now that she could see him better, she noticed he was rubbing his arms again.

"What are you doing?" She asked, tiredly.

"It's cold! I told you. I feel freezing all the time. I swear by the Makers, there are cold tendrils crawling down my neck." Will said with exasperation. "The time we spent down in that pit of gloom did not improve things."

The two of them wandered the canal, stopping to examine the larger grates with the soul gems and listening to any sounds above them.

"Hold on, there's no..." Aerin suddenly heard Will's voice declare behind her. Before coming to understand the situation, she jumped at the sound of shattering dishes and crockery somewhere above her.