I felt Lolan start to breathe heavy and was reminded of his strange racial predicament. The person in yellow was using storm magic, which is only known by the Elves. And they were good at it. I was terrified, and I had no issues with the Elves in particular, other than them hating me like every other race did, of course. Still, I couldn't imagine having an enemy that strong, if that's what this person was to Lolan.
The figure stood, still not facing the spider. I couldn't figure out if it was just strong enough to target something without looking, or if there was something more going on. It looked around the room and walked over to the dead Gnome on the floor. With black leather boots, the corpse was rolled over and examined, though the figure remained standing.
Then, it walked over to the table and flicked its hand. A gust of wind blew a puff of dust from the ancient book's pages. The figure picked it up, tucked it under its arm, and turned back to the stairs.
I held my breath.
The metal mask covering its face was a solid sheet of metal, with sharply angled slits cut into it for the eyes and mouth. Around its neck hung a necklace with some kind of medallion that I couldn't make out. The figure started toward the stairs, paused, and cocked its head. The covered face made it hard to tell, but I thought it looked straight at us, possibly followed by a faint chuckle. Then the person in yellow climbed back up the stairs and was gone.
"What was that?" I said after the sound of the figure had been long gone. I stood up breaking the stone textured illusion; the energy rippling out and dissipating. The others stood too, dusting themselves off, but Lolan remained huddled in the corner.
"Lolan. That was a storm mage, right? Why was he following us?" I asked again.
Lolan shook out of his stupor. "I—I don't know. Maybe he was just searching and saw the tower like we did." I was unconvinced.
Tigala walked over to the curled husk of the warp spider and began examining it.
Zef looked to Lolan. "You don't know anything about him?" he asked.
Lolan shook his head. "I don't know. Let's just get out of here before we run into another spider."
Zef acted like he was in thought about the figure. He probably knew that Lolan wasn't so spooked for nothing, but he didn't pry. "Well, that book he took was unlike anything I've seen. It was on teleportation magic."
"How do you know?" Lolan said. "I thought written magic was extremely dangerous."
"It is. I saw the title as he carried it away. I've never heard of such a book before. It must be ancient. The more important question though is why does a storm mage want a book on teleportation?" said Zef.
Tigala was tearing open the carcass as we spoke. She was elbow deep in it examining the creature's innards.
Lolan looked spooked and he wasn't willing to say why, so I took a quick look around the room for anything of use.
The table was bare aside from a dustless silhouette where the book had once laid. Spider webs stretched across the room making it hard to walk through. I ducked under a web to reach the back of the chamber and found two people-sized web sacs standing upright. The base of each pod leached from the blue-purple glowing veins in the floor, sending waves of the energy up its sides. It pulsed in unison with the energy in the floor.
I went back and grabbed my vine-saw and noticed Zef was exploring too. Tigala was still examining the spider corpse, and Lolan stayed standing in the corner, like a child lost in a crowd.
I walked back to the web sack and began cutting. Inside I found a mummy of a man with skin pulled tight against his bones. He looked like he had been drained of life a long time ago.
Still, I cut him free and checked for useful items. There was a small change purse with some coin in it and a sword at his hip. I grabbed both.
I used the sword to cut open the other sack and found an Elf this time in similar condition. He had a couple of daggers which I took also.
Seeing that the cavern was a dead end, I turned back to the group. I handed Lolan the sword and said, "Here, I think this will suit you best."
He strapped it to his waist and said, "Thanks," still wide-eyed.
"We should go," said Zef. Tigala was swiping the spider guts from her arms and said nothing.
I nodded and Zef led the way. He was muttering to himself as we walked. By the time we reached the room swarming with spiders, we were almost transparent, blurry phantoms of what we were. We still inched our way along, doing our best to stay quiet, but we didn't find the walls to be crawling with giant spiders like our first visit to the room. Instead, several more spider crisps were scattered about the floor. Whoever that man in yellow was, he was powerful.
We climbed out of the tower and back into the forest above. After a few moments, Chipry hopped into view and back into my shoulder with a chorus of cheerful chirps.
It was a long walk back and the sun was setting on us as we got closer. I thought of Rodrigo's speech about not staying out here in the dark. There wasn't much we could do about that though. I hoped we'd be alright.
Thoughts swirled through my head about our findings. The tower couldn't have been made by the first colonies, so this land must have been inhabited before. I thought about the man in yellow and metal. Who could he have been? Why was he out there all alone? And why did he want that book?
I looked up and noticed Lolan trailing behind the group. He was probably thinking about the same sort of things. I slowed my pace until he caught up. "So you know more about that guy, right? The man in yellow?" I said.
He looked over at me with worry on his face, his forehead creased in thought. He glanced at Zef and Tigala who were far enough away to be out of earshot, and then asked, "Can I trust you?"
Could he? I wasn't sure. Better yet, could I trust him? Yes, he had shot an ogre when it was trying to kill me, but why did he do that? It couldn't just be as simple as wanting an ally, could it? He probably didn't want to be blamed for my death.
Then again, what was I going to do with the information he told me. Who would I tell? Chipry? The only thing I could use it for was to get myself out of trouble.
"Sure," I said, unsure that I believed it.
He drew his eyebrows in a line. "Can I?" He said one more time.
"Yes," I said with more confidence this time.
He continued with his puzzled look. With a sigh, he said, "Nevermind."
I wasn't good at this. I had been on my own, only looking out for myself for the past seven years. Trust was not something I had been in the position to give in a very long time—not when everyone blames your race for a war-starting plague.
I wanted to convince him he could trust me, partially in hopes that I could trust someone else for once, but it couldn't be. I couldn't let myself be that careless. There was a reason I had made it on my own for so long, and not trusting anyone was a big part of that.
"So that's it then? You're not going to tell us anything?" I said, more aloof then accusatory. I think I knew how he felt.
"It's my problem. I'll deal with it," he said. He picked up his pace a little, trying to leave me and the conversation behind, but his broken rib made each step painful and slow. I accommodated by distancing myself as well.
That conversation could have gone better, but then again, what could I expect. I've never quite been a socialite.
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