Richard and Lavenza

After their brief encounter with Rafta, it became clear to the rest of the party that the best way to navigate the Abyss was to follow what little magic survived underground.

“If there’s life, there’s magic,” Faye reasoned. “It’s better than wandering forever in the dark.”

“Again, Monsters are alive too you know,” Tamarin countered. “I’m not sure if we want to encounter any down here.”

“To humans and elves, much of demonkind are monsters.”

“Let’s not start that,” Richard scolded. “Faye’s right. We have little else to go on, so we might as well try this. How are we on the rations, Tam?”

“More than enough,” the goblin said. “Faye’s bottled enough water for several months, and the mushrooms in this part of the Abyss are all edible.”

The mention of the fungi they found lying in the caves caused Richard to shudder.

Deme was most excited about this change of plans. To her, the odds seemed stacked in her favor. The very first thing they found this way was Rafta. A withered piece, no doubt, but it was already unlikely to have stumbled upon the flower at all. Perhaps there was much more Rafta in the Abyss then they had previously assumed.

But her excitement was short lived. While they never encountered the monsters Tamarin had warned of, none of the subsequent paths led them to Rafta again. For Deme, her optimism that perhaps there were more flowers quickly drifted into worry. What if the dead flower they had found was all that was left?

What magic Lavenza and Faye could detect often proved to be nothing more than trinkets or common artifacts, rings and bracelets found in other dungeons. In some senses, the quest had become more of a treasure hunt.

“You think old adventurers left these behind?” Richard asked.

“It’s possible,” Lavenza muttered, “but if so, there aren’t any bodies, and how did these end up here and not people’s clothes or weapons? Sounds strange, but these might just be naturally occurring magical phenomenon.”

“Right. Very mysterious.”

“You have no idea what I’m talking about, do you?”

“Not a clue.”

Between their different roles and their alternating shifts (a decision he now sorely regretted considering nothing ever happened on said shifts), there was little opportunity for Richard to approach Lavenza. There was always meal time, but in the company of others, it would have been too embarrassing to strike up a more intimate conversation.

Intimate conversation.

Richard slapped himself for even thinking about it. What was he thinking, anyway, out here, in the middle of total darkness, searching for an ancient city that might not even exist? In light of their quest or maybe their fickle mortality, perhaps Richard experienced the all too common affliction of not wanting to leave this world alone.

An opportunity presented itself a few nights later. Tamarin came down with a severe fever. She had found a new bed of mushrooms in one of the lateral tunnels and had eagerly given them a try. 

"Don't let Richard near me," she groaned on the first night. "I have the shits, and I'm scared he's going to want to eat them."

A goblin’s stomach was stronger than most. It was why she felt so safe trying every new fungal delicacy that appeared within the Abyss, but for once, the Abyss defeated her, and she was bedridden for three nights and three days.

“You’re still awake?” Lavenza asked Richard when he joined her at the campfire. “I thought you had a guard shift with Faye later.”

“I’ll do both,” Richard said.

“Really?”

“Yeah,” he waved her away. “I’m not that tired.”

“Sure,” Lavenza shrugged. “You don’t mind if I do a little work then?”

“Work?” Richard asked. “I mean, sure, be my guest.”

Lavenza smiled at him and laid a blanket over the cavern floor. She placed her staff opposite of her, folded her legs beneath her, and clasped her hands together.

“Aphelion. Grixys. Pelagia,” she prayed.

The gemstones on Lavenza’s staff reacted to her call. Tendrils of water, fire, and earth rose from the staff. They waved back and forth like a kelp forest. Lavenza’s fingers brushed along each individual strand of mana. They responded to her, curled themselves around her fingers, and hummed with bright intensity.

“What is all this?” Richard asked.

“I’m tuning the magic of the ley lines,” Lavenza explained, then laughed. “Sorry, you have no idea what I just said, right?”

“Not. A. Clue.”

“Right,” Lavenza bobbed her head to think of a way to explain things to him. “Do you know what the ley lines are?”

“Magic stuff.”

“Right, let’s go with that,” she smiled. “Except it’s not just any magic stuff. It’s old magic. Very old. It was left behind when the Endire first gave birth to the world. These days, there are only so many ley lines left. There are three of them here. Aphelion. Grixys. Pelagia. They’re very special to me.”

'“You said you were tuning them?”

“Yes,” Lavenza nodded. “The mana from the ley lines allow mages to perform what we refer to as Miracles, great magical feats that defy our earthly limits. Mana, doesn’t understand that humans have motivations, ambition. It needs to be attenuated so that when I call for it, it behaves the way that I want it to. Grixys.”

The scarlet strands danced between Lavenza’s fingers. She held her hand towards Richard, and the magic coiled forward and spun in graceful arcs about Richard’s hair.

“Like so,” she said.

“Is that what you’re doing?” Richard asked. “You’re looking to perform one of those Miracles?”

“It’s every mages’ dream to perform a Miracle in their lifetime It can be even be an apostate’s dream.”

“So what’s this Miracle? The kind of Miracle that saves the world?”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Lavenza shrugged. “I don’t know if anyone could pull off that kind of Miracle. Not anymore, at least.”

“I bet you probably could.”

“Come on,” Lavenza laughed, “a few minutes ago, you didn’t even know what a ley line was.”

“Sure,” he muttered, “but I’ve known you the same amount of time as Seline, you know. I’ve always known what you were capable of, just as much as she did.”

Lavenza paused. There was hurt in his eyes. She could see it. His furrowed brow looked like cuts.

“I didn’t use you like she did,” he continued, “like she used your brothers and sisters.”

“Richard, you don’t have to compare yourself with her,” she whispered, “I’m not… a sensitive person, like others, but even I know why you’re saying these things to me.”

“It’s just—sorry,” he sighed. “Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything.”

“No, there’s nothing to apologize for,” Lavenza touched his hand, then let go. “I shouldn’t…say things.”

Richard laughed. It was the only way he knew how to defuse an awkward moment.

“That’s a little cryptic, what did you mean by that?” he said.

“Well,” she stammered, “I just mean—”

A knock echoed from further down the tunnel. Then it came again. That same crisp knock. Rhythmic. Inevitable.

Someone had arrived.

An overwhelming presence made themselves known to Lavenza and only Lavenza. She looked at Richard and realized that he had not felt a thing. Neither had Faye, who fallen asleep by her makeshift enchantment table.

Knock. The sound reverberated through her ears and threatened to burst her hearing. Her shoulders and back were crushed with an unyielding weight, as if all the cavern ceiling had collapsed upon her. Lavenza had to gasp to even draw breath.

“Lavenza?” Richard panicked. “What’s wrong?”

“She’s here,” she grimaced. “Don’t. Move.”

A silhouette entered the range of their torch lights. The sound of the knock revealed itself as a steel cane, a walking stick that stamped itself on the floor of the Abyss. Frail, wrinkled fingers curled around the staff.

Following behind was a familiar pair of mesh sandals sewn with golden threads. The stranger’s dress by comparison was simple, a gray robe tied with a white sash. The colors complemented the woman’s silver gray hair, and the golden headband matched the colors of the sandal weaves.

With lavendar eyes and tattoos streaking across her neck and cheeks, the woman looked at Lavenza and only Lavenza, as if the caverns of the Abyss had vanished and the two had been whisked to a foreign space no longer of this world. Had she blinked and found herself walking upon one of the sister moons above Aparthia, Lavenza would not have been surprised, for when it came to Headmistress Eifen, no feat of magic was out of her reach.

“Hello again, Lavenza. Once again, I've found you."