Even with the lift moving down steadily, it almost felt like it wasn’t enough. 

Darcy’s goons were already piling into that hallway, and trying to force open the lift door as the motor struggled along. They may not have found the secret switch to it yet but it would only be a matter of time before they got in either way.

This was when Fionn touched her shoulder, pointing up to the light peeking through the cracks of the lift door above them, “Think you can light that once we are near the bottom?”

“Depends on how far the bottom is,” She could still see the fuse at this distance, “and if it can even hold up against the brutes up there.”

That bomb would only work to jam those gears for so long, especially will how hard the lift door was being rammed. She could hear the wood splintering and the angry yells of Darcy commanding who knows how many men. It really was only a matter of time.

He started to kneel down at her words, motioning her to do the same when she noticed, “Then do it now and brace yourself against the floor of the lift.”

Oleander had her reservations about the whole idea, but still sent the tiny blue match flame flying to the fuse all the same. She’d already gone this far with everything tonight, so why not just add on an explosion to it?

And what a fantastic explosion it was.

She only barely braced herself before the tiny bomb went off, sending metal and splintering wood everywhere down the shaft. The lift rattled and slanted from the blast, one of the cables lowering it frayed from the explosion to the point of nearly snapping. The engine at the top of the shaft continued to run despite it, but it was starting to sputter as the metal of the lift began to creak loudly. 

“Got any spells to stop us falling?” Fionn coughed from the falling dust, shifting away from pressing into her as he stared down through a hole in the floor of the lift.

“None that could really help here.” Oleander shook some of the dust and wood debris from herself as she stood up.

She could stop herself from falling easily, though that was something she wasn’t willing to share with him. Being reliant on magic to solve any and all problems like this is exactly what led to the mess of the human mages college. It wasn’t something she wanted to encourage with him if they were going to keep working together.

However, it also didn’t mean she was dismissive of their situation. As she glanced up the shaft to the frayed cable she could tell it wasn’t going to hold much longer. The risk of it snapping only compounded as the lift continued to move. There was also the threat above of Darcy and his men, the proof being the light which she could see peeking through the settling dust from the blast.

Fionn shifted on the floor beside her, checking the lift controls as he got up on his knees, “Then we better hope it can hold. I don’t know how far the bottom is.”

“We’re probably about halfway down,” She answered confidently, pinching her nose shut, “if the smell of the sewer is any sign.”

It was hard for her to ignore the foul odor when it hit her nose, and she found herself thankful her handkerchief blocked most of it. Without it she might have been gagging by now. That didn’t mean she was any more eager to reach the bottom. Not that she, nor Fionn, had much choice with the commotion resuming above them.

Darcy was up and yelling at his men again with the same demands as before to capture her.

“Ah, shit…He’s still kicking.” Fionn sighed, keeping his voice down as he continued to eye the lift controls.

Oleander let out her own grumble at his comment, adjusting her handkerchief higher over her nose as she looked over to him, “I swear that man is like a damned cockroach.”

“No arguments here about that.” Fionn added, grabbing a lever under the main control for the lift, “Brace yourself.”

Without a hint of hesitation he pulled the lever, causing the lift to practically start falling down the rest of the shaft. Unlike before with the blast, however, this drop was uncontrollable. A result of that lever he grabbed being released, no doubt. 

All at once the metal of the walls buckled as the lift crashed to the bottom of the shaft, threatening to crush the pair. The sound of it all ringing painfully in Oleander’s ears as she crawled out of the lift through the broken doors of the bottom floor. It was almost too much as she stumbled around the cold stone floor, finding every uneven brick and debris with each step.

She could feel the thick dust they kicked up with their landing in the air against her skin, and see the suffocating darkness at the edge of her vision ahead. The light from the top of the shaft could only do so much, and the dead wired wall lights she could see leading away from the lift. It was doubtful they could be lit, even with her magic.

With those lights crossed off as being an option she scanned the area around her, looking through the remains of crates and abandoned tools strewn about. It was a long shot if she’d find anything, even as she remembered the mention of crystal lanterns. The trouble was that almost everything left down here was intentionally destroyed. 

And so, taking a chance she uttered a spell command word in a soft tone, “loinnir.”

Her gamble quickly paid off as a few patches of light began to glow around her, between the remains of wooden crates. Most of them were just from crystal fragments that died just as quickly as they came to life. One light, however, inside the remains of a crate nearby kept on glowing, and she quickly made her way over to it.

Behind her Fionn was stifling his own coughs as he pulled himself out from the lift, picking up the larger glowing fragments before their light died. He was slow to make his way over to her, pocketing a few of the crystal shards, “So, you found a lantern, huh?”

“Most of one, but it works.” She pulled out the mostly whole crystal lantern, part of the crystal cluster that made up the light broken off.

“How long will it stay lit?”

“Let’s not find out, shall we?” Oleander motioned him to start moving, holding the lantern up to the break through the darkness ahead of them, “I want to get out of here.”