Between one blink and the next, Penlyn found herself having gone from the picturesque autumnal forest of her dreams to…well, she couldn’t quite tell where she was, considering everything in front of her eyes was eclipsed by a dense darkness. She brought her fingertips up to her eyelids to confirm that she was, in fact, blinking, and not just unable to open her eyes. 

Of course, the thought that immediately followed was that she had gone blind, which was significantly worse. Could you go blind from accidentally landing on a (weirdly and semi-adorably awkward) sorceress and falling through a portal? Maybe she was having some kind of freak allergic reaction, or she’d gotten brain damage when she’d tipped out of the tree. Maybe she hadn’t fallen through a portal at all and had just crashed to the ground headfirst, and now she had permanently dented brain cavity and would be blind forever and—

A reserved but distinctly annoyed throat was cleared from directly underneath Penlyn where, apparently, there was a body. A warm breath puffed against her neck.

Penlyn squeaked and rolled away. This is when she also realized that she was covered in some sort of thick, briny-smelling liquid. “Okay, gross.”

A few indistinguishable words were murmured nearby in the darkness, and with a sharp pop, a small blue light burst to life, illuminating the visage of a very disgruntled looking sorceress. Her dark hair hung in clumps around the pale oval of her face, and something dripped off of the tip of her nose. Penlyn noticed for the first time that the woman’s eyes were two different colors: one so dark it was almost black, the other a smoky gray that glinted like steel .

Oh, Penlyn thought. Then she sagged in relief. “Thank the spirits. No allergy or brain damage.”

“What in the Empress’s name are you talking about?”

Penlyn shrugged. “Just thankful for my health is all.”

Leanna spent a moment looking at her like she had suddenly grown a second head. Then she held up the hand on which she had summoned the small orb of light and took stock of their surroundings. They seemed to be in some kind of cave, considering the walls of dark, slick rock encircling them on all sides. Stubby stalactites hung tooth-like from the ceiling, and the sound of water droplets slipping off of them and plinking on the floor echoed throughout the space.

“Ugh, what is this stuff?” Penlyn said, goo-slicked arms held up uncomfortably away from her sides. “And why are we in a cave?”

“’This stuff’ is the interstitial plasma that you slip through when a transport incantation is concluded prematurely and you are ejected from the portal dimension without a properly emulsified landing sector.”

A pause.

“Okay, I honestly barely understood that, but I feel like that might have been a dig at me,” Penlyn said.

Leanna stared at her pointedly.

“Alright, fine, that’s probably deserved. I apologize for falling on you and messing up your creepy blood spell. I’m falling out of stuff at the worst of times, I swear.” This last part she mumbled mostly to herself.

Leanna opened her mouth to speak, but then just shook her head and turned away.

Penlyn decided in that moment that she wouldn’t be climbing into any more trees for the foreseeable future. Well, a year or so. A couple weeks, at least.

“So, I’m guessing that you didn’t mean to land us in this rather cold, very dark cave with no clear exit in sight,” Penlyn said.

“Not exactly,” Leanna said stiffly. 

“And I’m also going to guess that, since we’re still here and you haven’t whisked yourself away through another portal, that you don’t have any more of that creepy blood magic stuff that you used before.”

“If you mean mugwort, then yes, I used up the last of it.” Leanna rose to her feet with much more dignity than Penlyn would be able to summon while slathered in a thick layer of interstitial plasma. She began to investigate the cave for any sign of an exit. “Probably would have made it all the way to Dantoli with that last batch, where they actually have some sorcerer-friendly apothecaries and I could have restocked. But unless Dantoli has gone through some serious spelunking-themed renovations, then it looks like we didn’t quite make it there," Leanna said, her voice tight.

Penlyn stiffened. “Hey, I already apologized for interrupting your spell, and I meant it. No need to get snippy with me.”

Leanna glanced over her shoulder, some kind of indecipherable emotion flashing across her gaze. “I wasn’t getting snippy. I was just…thinking out loud. Falling out of that tree was clearly an accident, just like my running into the tree was. That would be a rather useless thing to get upset about. I know that you wouldn’t have gone through that portal if you’d had a choice.” Her voice was staunchly matter-of-fact.

Penlyn blinked. “Oh. Right.” 

As the sorceress continued making her way around the edge of the cave, darkness began to creep up around Penlyn like spilled ink.

“Is there any way for you to turn up the wattage on that thing?” Penlyn asked, feeling like the scaly folds of bat wings were brushing up against the back of her neck.

“Here,” Leanna said, and an orb was suddenly arcing across the space towards her. Penlyn squeaked in surprise and immediately fumbled it, dropping the orb to the ground where it sputtered out with a weak fizz.

Immediately, another orb burst to life in the sorcerer's hands. One of her eyebrows was raised.

Penlyn straightened, laughing self-consciously. “Remember that whole falling-out-of-a-tree thing? Not an isolated incident.” Then she shook out her shoulders and cracked her knuckles. “Toss me another one, I’m ready.” 

It took three tries and several distance-reducing steps, but eventually Penlyn did, in fact, catch it.

After a bit of exploring, each with a lit orb to help them navigate, they found two possible exits from the cave. One possibility was a tunnel whose bottom ledge rested about a foot above their heads. Penlyn, in an offer that she considered rather selfless, suggested that she could boost the sorcerer up on her shoulders to see if she could take stock of the tunnel and test the viability of reaching the ledge. The scandalized terror that bloomed on her companion's face at that suggestion quickly negated that option. 

The second avenue of escape seemed more promising, if only slightly.

“It will be a tight fit at first,” Leanna said, running her long, pale fingers against the rock of the skinny archway, “but hopefully it will widen."

“Sounds good to me,” Penlyn said. She had no inclination to stay in this cave any longer than was necessary. She bent slightly at the waist, looking up at her companion through dark eyelashes, and extended an arm towards the pitch-black tunnel. “After you, sorceress.”

Leanna rolled her eyes, but—was she blushing? That couldn't be right. She turned away before Penlyn could tell for sure.

“Call me Leanna,” the sorcerer said, taking her first step into the darkness, orb held aloft as a guide.

“Oh, so now I get the privilege of your name,” Penlyn said, following a step behind.

“Yes, well…you didn’t tell me your name either.”

“Ah, but you didn’t ask. Bit different, don’t you think?”

There was a pause. “I suppose you’re right. What would you like me to call you?”

Penlyn would have shaken her head if she thought she had the room for it. This woman. “You can call me Penlyn.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Penlyn.”

“It’s very nice to meet you too, Leanna.”

Purely on instinct, Penlyn moved her palm along the damp stone behind her until she brushed up against Leanna’s fingers, which was as close to a handshake as she could manage in the shallow tunnel. 

And into the darkness they went.