The cavern’s mouth—that darkened abyss—stared into them as their own eyes stared into it. Tension, unease, and uncertainty filled their breaths; as if doubts and second considerations filled the minds of the men. No thanks in part, of course, to the words engraved upon the mouth’s greeting slab.

  “Welcome your forsaken souls to my home?” Blue so read aloud, disquieted.

  Red stood with determination, Blue by his side—readied, prepared; practiced through repetitive experience. The wagon was parked, the unicorn itself…already chewing upon something it probably should not be—a sort of…rock; not even their gods knew why.

  Maroon had disembarked, her hood still worn overstretched; her head down, she simply stood behind the two…as if their very shadow.

  “Got everything?” Red glanced at his other who glanced him back.

  “Yep, yep!” replied Blue, jittering her backpack. She then glanced behind at their lingering shadow. “And you? Are you…ready?” she softly checked.

  Maroon remained opaque. “…mh.” she simply nodded.

  Once inside, there would be no easy return to their wagon for resupply.

  The Megaberriens meanwhile sorted through themselves. Those with firearms checked their shots—primed and loaded. Those with swords tested their blades; none had shields. The fifteen pistoleer knights had dismounted their horses, their harnesses having been attached to trees—ample munch-worthy shrubs around.

  “Alright!” Red, stepping forth, shouted; “Better be prepared! We’ll be—”

  “Men! Assemble!” Yet stepping up towards the entrance itself was the pistoleers’ chief knight. “Now!” His shouts were sharper, his assertion stronger.

  He, indeed, had taken the lead.

  “Uhm…” Red stepped closer as the Megaberriens so assembled on command, Blue naturally trailing along with him—Maroon…covertly following. “Hey, I thought we agreed that we’d—”

  “Worry not, adventurer,” yet the lead knight looked at him, “allow us to handle the initial sorting.”

  Right… These were warriors—semi-professional urban militia or conscripts. They were more likely to respond to and respect the mandates of their commander than an adventurer—formerly Diamond-ranked or not.

  Red sighed, begrudgingly relenting; he stepped aside along with his two companions.

  The Megaberrien infantry—their gilded armor and Rejinard helmets gleaming from the sun despite the forest’s dimming—stood in seven rows of five. The lead knight, his fourteen fellows by his side, stood before their sight. Their moustache-faced masks hid their expression; their dripping sweat.

  For some reason, it felt as though there was…some kind of tension.

  Hm… One thing Red noticed was that all of the pistoleers were wearing their endowed knightly capes—not just their leader. Usually, such was reserved for ceremonies or knighthood rites.

  “Sir, are we seriously doing this?” Red overheard one of the knights quietly speak, head leaning with a turn towards their leader… “Can they be trusted?” This knight’s eyes glanced the adventurers’ way, so it seemed.

  “Wait, still don’t trust us?” Red himself quietly muttered… Ah… So, was that why the knights had swiped charge?

  “Deal’s made.” The lead knight so turned. “No alternative than to walk.”

  “Hmm…” Maroon meanwhile had popped her head through the gap between Red and Blue, observing—her yellowish-amber eyes piercing sharp.

  With a breath, “Alrightly. Ten minutes!” the lead thus finally spoke; “Then we move in. Adventurers shall head front, us five”—his hands waved to the four closest knights by his side, left and right—“shall follow second, the rest of you shall follow behind, knights by your flanks.”

  Such sounded awfully tight. Red was an improviser by nature; he preferred going into the unknown cave first before determining exact ‘formations’… Often times, the cavern’s interior could make organization…difficult.

  What mattered was that everyone was watchful, alert, and mutually cautious.

  “As the adventurers had informed us,” the lead knight continued on, “be on guard, observant, and crucially: watch for gaps, watch for traps, and especially crevices—hiding holes.”

  Ah… So, he covered that. Good.

  Nevertheless, Red would prefer to get in there fast and now rather than wait ten minutes, not wanting to risk forewarning the Fallen.

  Yet if they were going to be waiting…

  “Uhm.” Red, stepping himself, so interrupted the knights. “We’ve got a shadow mage in our party. She’s a stealthy scouter; we can send her ahead—”

  “Unnecessary.” Yet the lead knight was so quick to eye. “We all move in together; that is decided.”

  By whom? “Uh… No offense, Sir Knighty, but I don’t exactly remember—”

  “If we were to send your…stealthy mage in,” so interrupted yet again the lead knight, “she will surely be killed without support or light.”

  “She’s a professional; she can handle herself.” Red stood his ground. “But I’d rather not wait out here for too long, and if we are, might as well know what’s—”

  “And arguing about this will only prolong the wait.” Would certainly be appreciated if the lead knight would allow him to finish a single sentence.

  Red simply nodded… The lead was being awfully stubborn, he felt—almost different ‘vibes’, so to speak, from their prior on-the-way discourse.

  “Again,” the lead spoke on, “it’s dark in there, and forward light would defeat any stealthy purposes… Therefore: better to move as a block and surveil on the way.”

  He did have a point, too… Truth be told, Red just wanted to make Maroon useful.

  “Fine, fine…” Red, in his characteristic fashion, so waved his hand. “Alright. But how many you leaving behind, at least?” Such would be good to know in advance.

  “None.” thus spoke the lead knight; “As I said: all shall move in.”

  “…” Red blanked. “What??” Now that made him bounce. “Uhm, Knighty, not sure if you know this or not, but: you never NOT leave people behind! We need people outside to know if we don’t come back or not.”

  “We have those already.” so calmly replied the lead knight; “In the village. The rest know where we have gone, and they are in a safer location. How many would you prefer? Five? Ten men, maybe? Such would put them at risk of an outside ambush, never mind split us… Not as though we scouted this forest, no?”

  …once again, he had a point—even if…Red still disagreed.

  “What about our wagon?” Red then said, eyes pointing at his belongings; “Your horsies? Need people to watch them.”

  “Against what? Thieves? Here?” The lead eyed the pined evergreen forest around—a mix of shrubs, trees, and crumbled ash. “The only difference between having watchers and not is that ambushing goblins get to murder a few before thieving.”

  Frankly, whatever justifications Red could devise, it was simply good practice to him. Always leave at least a few outside as both reserves and, especially, witnesses. Yet as the lead knight had said, they did have such already—just not physically present.

  “Red…” Blue, meanwhile, was not particularly comfortable with his arguing with knights. “…I am sure matters will be fine.”

  Red…relented with a sigh, stepping back.

  “We appreciate your intuitions, Dragon Slayer.” the lead, however, softly spoke; “But save them for when we are inside.”

  This settled, the lead knight continued his preparatory speech, bolstering the Megaberriens’ resolve. The knights then stepped off as the Megaberriens took one last gasp of outside air, steeling themselves, bantering freely. The knights themselves remained together—reclusive, quiet.

  The adventurers meanwhile stood where they were—waiting for minutes to pass. Blue sweetly hummed, her legs shaky—perhaps from energy, perhaps from anxiety. Red’s legs too were unable to hold still—impatience, however; arms crossed.

  “Something’s weird about them…” abruptly speaking from beyond, yet, was Maroon—whispering, reclusive.

  “Huh?” Red spun himself around, his yellow-amber eyes eyeing her own. “What do you mean?”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Those knights…” Maroon thus clarified, voice discrete, eyes evasive. “Call it an…intuition.”

  “Hm…” Red stood there, with neither a stare nor glare—his boots tapping, fingers too.

  Ravens, whom this girl was totally not, were certainly ‘people-experts’, indeed; however, they were also manipulators and sowers of distrust. And despite his sympathies, Red still did not…completely trust her—intentions, especially.

  Their moments-ago exchange aside, those knights—their leader in particular—did not seem too bad anymore.

  -||-

  Fifty-three souls crammed themselves through the narrow passage of rock and suspicious cave. Dark, quiet—too quiet, even… Quiet enough that their minds could input imagined echoes and sounds.

  Their only source of immediate light was the lamps dangling from their persons. Further ahead of them, however, was a wisp-dusty ball of radiant illumination, tethered by a barely visible thread linked to she who cast.

  The Megaberriens’ breaths quivered, armor and arms clanking.

  “Easy now…” the lead knight eased the men behind; “Keep your eyes focused, ears sharpened.” The knights had their pistols drawn.

  Red, ‘leading’ in effect, kept his eyes focused on the way ahead—relying on the eyes of those behind that they would see what he could not.

  Blue’s advanced ball of light allowed him to visually scout—to see if there were any…suspicious crevices in the walls or ground; hiding spots and strange turnabouts; or…attached wires or strings. They had anti-goblin gas bombs with them, at least; however, as they had limited quantity, he wanted to utilize them sparingly.

  “Strange…” Red was tense, not from anticipation of encountering many—rather, the lack thereof. “…you’d think there would be something by now.” For all his forewarnings and prior talks of goblinic cunningness, this was all awfully…underwhelming.

  Frankly, if nothing actually happened, the adventurer might even feel embarrassed.

  “Perhaps this cave has been abandoned?” Blue remarked, gently turning her whitish-yellow ignited eyes to him.

  “Wait.” Yet with raised fist, Red paused. “Stop.”

  “Stop.” the lead knight echoed behind.

  Something was up ahead, he had spotted.

  Red squinted his eyes, almost, as if focusing sharper—narrower.

  The ground beneath Blue’s ball of wisp-dusty light… It was weird—off, in a way. Whereas the ground so far had been rocky, cavernish, and such, with shadows cast from protruding stones and rock, the floor ahead seemed…suddenly flatter; a flatness which had only become evident now that Blue’s radiant light was hovering atop it.

  Light, as he understood it, was mobile; strings of embers that could bounce from surface to surface straight into one’s eyes. It was through reading these embers’ strings that the mind could see. However, because embers’ strings were mobile, they had directionality—angles of movement and arrival paths.

  And it seemed that lights’ strings arriving from a forward angle—such as their direction—bounced in a way that conjured an…illusion of sorts when combined with the surrounding dimness: of normalish cavern ground barely different from the rest around, with even small rocks casting shadows. An illusion which shattered the moment lights’ strings bounced from the top—or when simply…noticed; that something was wrong.

  Indeed…

  “Ah… I get it.” With dripping sweat, Red carefully stepped himself forward. His armored boots stopped at the edge between visual normality and abnormality. And it was there where he saw it clear.

  Neither rock nor cavern earth; instead, a…thing…detailed to the likeness thereof—blander and flatter when seen close and direct. What had initially been small rocks with shadows behind were, in fact, shaded textures with a streak of shadowed black; so obvious, indeed, when viewed from the top.

  With the pummel of his polearm, he pressed it—bending, hollow beneath. With force, he pushed the pummel in and down, the whole thing revealing itself to be far larger as it curled and fell into a darkened abyss—a pit, a hole.

  A tarp.

  “…a false ground?” Blue, who had instinctually trailed him, also had a driplet of sweat drip her cheek; she peered down into the pit. “…spikes.” Indeed, such was revealed by her light, deep below.

  A trap.

  So stupid in what it was, yet somehow cunningly designed. The mind, as Red understood it, was a thing that sought harmony—since the embers’ strings of light were read, and reading required interpretation, the mind thus interpreted light through the eyes; threading or stitching from the strings that which was seen. In doing so, however, the mind tended to harmonize into uniformity—making even that which was odd so that all were even.

  Details, thus, could merge and blur for coherence’s sake—conformity of image.

  This illusion worked only by exploiting the mind’s propensity for lazy harmonization—those with light whose embers’ strings did not reach far enough or those who paid little attention, their minds would harmonize whatever peculiarities with the surrounding cavern…until too late.

  “Huh.” Maroon, having been present yet unnoticed, simply mumbled—impressed, potentially. “I didn’t notice that.”

  “Yeah.” Red blandly looked at her. “Which means you would’ve stepped on it.” And yet he had wanted to send her in as scout.

  “Wow…” Blue meanwhile was agape. “That is an awfully…deep hole…” Her tone was…toned—her method stress relief.

  The lead knight had also stepped himself forward, approaching them behind. “Hm… Interesting.” he observed, his affect vague and hard to read. “That was there.” His voice spoke as if such was not supposed to be there, which would suggest prior knowledge.

  An inference Maroon was quick to draw, at least. “Hmph… Surprised?” Which she made explicitly audible, turning as she eyed.

  “Hm.” Yet the lead knight simply looked at her in kind. “So, you do have a voice. A sweet one, at that.” Such was all he would say, before returning his sight to Red. “Well, adventurer. How shall we proceed? ”

  “We’ll have to step around it.” Red thus said the obvious, unable to stop staring into it.

  Indeed, this rather large hole was also rather wide. It was almost elliptical too, stretched upwards and downwards as if to deprive further space of the narrow and linear path. Much of the floor was taken up besides thinnish edges of ground around. Yet something about it was strange to him; it was quite deep and, perhaps, too rounded—or rather too clean; too perfectly shaped…

  That tarp itself was also peculiar, now that he pondered. Would that it was still present so that he could evaluate it further—the design… Goblins were known for their deceptive tricks, with similar traps being not entirely unknown. Yet… That illusion had perhaps felt too potent in what it was—even for goblins. Those small ‘rocks’ especially did nearly look almost physical.

  One could only wonder how the Fallen could have crafted such an elaborate tarp—never mind dig this elaborate hole.

  Either way, this made proceeding difficult.

  “Us first.” Red looked to Blue. “Blue, hold onto me. You”—he eyed her—“grip onto Blue. Like a tethered rope, we will move together. Cling to the wall—careful-careful steps.”

  Maroon’s eyes remained away—posture stiffened.

  Yet Blue, despite her nervousness, smiled and held Maroon’s hand. “It shall be fine. We’ve done this before.”

  Maroon…relaxed, tightening her grip on Blue’s hand. “…that isn’t my worry.” she more mumbled than said.

  Nevertheless, “toss our bags first.” Red took off his backpack and threw it over—his polearm too.

  Blue did the same with hers.

  Such landed over fine.

  The three proceeded to circumnavigate the pit trap by carefully—cautiously—balancing themselves against the edge, backs touching the cavern wall; delicate steps to avoid any missteps. Although the distance was hardly profound, the tension certainly was. Blue’s ignited eyes dimmed slightly, the motions of her light ball becoming erratic as her staff, not in hand, dangled from its affixed strap.

  Rather fast overall, they made it over and around; the two quickly recollected their things, standing by.

  The lead knight, having watched, turned to his men and fellows. “Alrightly. As demonstrated. Carefully: split, hug the walls, and move around… Two groups: three-by-three. Keep guns strapped, swords sheathed.” He looked to his knights. “Our first test… Knights, assemble; we attempt first.”

  Holstering their pistols, the pistoleer knights proceeded to carefully slide themselves around the hole, dividing into two groups. Three-by-three, they made it around finely enough.

  The observing Megaberriens’ confidence immediately improved—no longer trembling. For, indeed, if the knights could do it, they could as well.

  “Alrightlie! Men, shall we?” a sergeant-at-arms, speaking confidently, stepped ahead—further calming the men.

  The thirty-five Megaberrien men split themselves accordingly—two groups of three each. Weapons either strapped or dangling, armor clanking, they cautiously stepped themselves around the wide elliptical hole. One-by-one, three-by-three, they crossed.

  It was almost successful.

  “Shite!” A too strong a step on an already worn edge, a rock broke and a man slipped. “AHH! HELP!”

  Blue gasped, neck jerking back, as she witnessed.

  Yet immediately: “Hold thyself onwards!” The one next so lunged and grasped the tripped Megaberrien’s hand. “I got thee—AGH! WAIT!” Yet the edge was thin, his posture bad, his balance off, and the weight pulled him down too.

  “N-NO! SHAN’T FALL!” The third attempted to grasp in kind to form a pulling string of dangling men, only for him too to slip, breaking more of the rocky edge.

  Their screams echoed further and further until the pops of bodies landing, the harrowing gags, and terrible slicks of spikes impaling (or breaking)…bounced back up to their ears as if a resonance cascade.

  Silence.

  Thus, thirty-five had become thirty-two. An even number, at the very least.

  “Damnations…” The lead knight stared down. “I said careful.”

  “…Red…” Blue looked to Red as if for comfort; she tried to hide her tremors, suppressing any tears.

  “Gods’ sacred… Fuck.” He gritted his teeth, clenching a fist… The larger the group, the higher the chances of deaths—a product of simple mass.

  The three Megaberriens who witnessed from the wide hole’s other edge, stood with much heavier breaths—horrified, terrified. Stiffening, they only hugged the cavern wall behind tighter.

  “There’s no stepping on that one now…” the lead knight remarked; his eyes lanced their sight to those who remained on the other side. “Don’t bother with that one; go from the other.” He then glared at those unmoving three. “For what you be standing? Finish the cross.”

  They quickly stepped themselves over and off, another group of three following.

  “I, I saye w-we jumpe! We cann jumpe over-through!” yet one unnerved so said.

  “That’s riskier than this.” Red was blunt. “Three are dead. Let’s not make that six.” Not that he cared, of course… Were it not for them, he and his others would have been halfway there by now.

  Thus, he presumed—yet affected still deeper within. Empathy’s denial.

  Ultimately, the remainder made it around just fine. Terribly shaken, however…

  “We need breaths!” Indeed, the Megaberriens demanded a short break.

  “Fine.” To which the knights relented. “Ten-minutes.” They sure loved that number…

  Red rolled his eyes, sighing.

  Naturally, with fifty souls crowding near the edge of that elliptical abyss, they all spread themselves further and out; backs slide against rock as many sat down—knights standing watch.

  “Just to say, her mana isn’t infinite.” Red wanted to say, hoping they understood ten minutes was substantial time lost.

  Regardless, the adventurers distanced themselves slightly ahead. Blue leaned her back against a cavern wall, herself nearly sliding down though ultimately not.

  “You alright?” Red inquired, standing close, eyeing her way…

  She was obviously shaken as well.

  “…oh, I am fine.” Blue nevertheless replied; “I shall be… Just caught by surprise, is all.”

  “If you want to pop your light…” Red was going to suggest, yet…

  “I can handle it, Red.” Blue gripped her staff, eyes evading with a bend to her lip. “…I can.”

  “Alright, alright… Just…” Truly, difficult it was for him to admit worry—especially when other ears were around to hear.

  “Hold my hand…” Blue extended her free hand. “…for a little, if you may.”

  Whilst these two eyed each other close and closer, Maroon meanwhile had stepped herself off to the parallel wall behind, as if positioned in their shadow. Her back leaned against, one foot forward, one foot back, she had been looking towards the way ahead.

  “…wait…” And, indeed, her eyes suddenly noticed… “Is that stone…” Her posture sharply straightened, realization piercing her first. “Shit, RED!”

  “Huh?!” Red’s eyes so flung around with an alerted gasp, Blue gasping in kind whom he nearly pushed, startling all.

  “NEEH-HEH! MANLYCKZ!” An upward pop.

  Click, snap, bang! A fired shot, a whistling sound, a striking bullet.

  A false rock.