It took me a while of fiddling around until I managed to get a somewhat useful image from my magical eyes. It wasn’t detailed, or containing colour, more akin to a grainy image taken by a pin-hole camera but it was good enough to identify tunnels, simple environmental dangers and, hopefully, monsters if there were any. The range was a little short, just a few meters, but compared to fumbling my way forward in the dark, it was preferable.

After taking a break, getting some cold food and a bit of rest, I was back on my throne, stretching a new set of tendrils out, into the darkness. I quickly realised that I had missed quite a few things when feeling my way through the tunnels earlier, crags, holes and openings were abound, some of them large enough to be interesting, others just the right size to step in and break an ankle. Instead of exploring the larger ones, I followed the main cavern, what I thought of as an old, currently dry, stream, likely carved by the run-off of a glacier higher up the mountains. The contrast between the smoothed over, lower parts and some jagged and cracked edges higher up, were quite interesting, but I didn’t have the time to investigate every nook and cranny. We had places to be, and I had to find a way to get there.

Further up the mountain, what I thought of as the main-cave narrowed, to the point that traversing it would be painfully difficult, maybe outright impossible. When it got narrow enough that I would have to squeeze on my belly, pulling me along with my magic, I gave up that direction, instead letting my eye-tendrils extend into a promising crack, hoping that it would lead in the right direction.

Traversing that crag would be quite dangerous, though luckily it wasn’t particularly jagged, the rock washed smooth similar to the crag we had entered the caves through. Further down the crag, I decided to split the tendril I had been using, letting one of them move in one direction, the other into a different hole, one that might lead into the right direction. At this point, my notion of cardinal directions in relation to the tendrils was rather vague, I had a rough idea which of the tunnels I had extended them through, allowing me to think I could follow their path, but if the tendrils were going north or south was a mystery to me.

By the time my Astral Power was low enough to force me into taking a break, I realised just how expansive the caverns and tunnels beneath the mountains were. I had thoroughly lost track of every nook and cranny I had looked into, though I had kept the one tunnel in mind that had led to the outside. It would need some major effort to get out that way, the tunnel was a long, narrow crag that we’d have to climb up, but it proved to me that there were other ways out. And we could discover quite a few things down here.

In addition, I had noticed some living things, mostly lichen and mushrooms, but also insects and what I thought were rodents. I had only seen one of those as it scurried along the edge of my vision, but it meant there were things down here in this dark maze.

“What did you find?” Adra asked, once I returned to the circle of light around Olivia’s staff. I could see that the three of them looked a little anxious, while Sigmir rested with her back against the wall, taking up the only space where she didn’t have to duck. For her, the tunnels wouldn’t be fun at all, simply due to low ceilings. Being small finally came in as an advantage.

“It’s a maze down here. We should make sure to always leave behind marks on our path, otherwise we might get lost down here and never find our way back out.” I replied, noticing that Rai and Adra turned a little pale at that.

“I agree, marking our path is a basic precaution. Eleutheria might bestow me with the ability to find my way back, or out, but that depends on many factors I hardly understand. The ways of the Gods are mysterious and not always for us mortals to understand.” Olivia added, restoring a little bit of vigor to their faces. It made me, once more, wonder just how divine magic worked, but I had learned that trying to figure out that particular puzzle would yield nothing but a headache. I would undoubtedly try again at some point, despite that knowledge, but it didn’t have to be now.

“What is our plan now? You mentioned you wanted to hunt down a few more Manticores once we have a good hide-out, but I’m not certain how this maze will help us there.” Olivia asked, getting a nod in return.

“My original idea was to hide in some cave, come out of one exit at night, set up somewhere, strike down a flying Manticore like we did with the one we saw in the night and hide again, never letting them get a good idea where our hide-out is. If we combine Adra’s magic, her bow and the magic of Rai and me, we should be able to keep hidden. But this cave-system is a little large, and too difficult to traverse, for such tactics. Just getting from one exit to another would take hours, maybe days, I only discovered one other exit, which is even more difficult to use than the one we entered through.” I explained, getting nods of understanding in response.

“You said it was your idea, so you have a new plan?” Adra asked, making it my turn to nod in agreement.

“Yes, I do. We killed a few Manticores and have no real idea of their total number. We could simply continue on, using this cave-system to get as far west as possible, maybe even break contact with the Manticores if we get far enough. We would simply avoid further battles until we reach Narristo and report to the Guild. That way, we’ll gain at least a partial completion while making it no longer our problem, without being stuck for weeks, maybe even months hiding and creeping around, trying to thin out their number. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to get away from their shadows for a while, to say nothing about our limited supplies.” I explained, again getting nods, this time even Sigmir joining in. She wasn’t too worried about our current situation, but I could see that she’d be happier if there wasn’t a pride of flying, monstrous lions waiting to descend upon us and feat on our flesh. Being the hunted didn’t sit well with her, and neither did it sit well with me.

“That doesn’t sound too bad. If we happen to come close to an exit, we might want to peek out, maybe take down a Manticore or three, but if the tunnels lead in the right direction, we should follow them as far as possible.” Adra agreed, the huntress within her baring her fangs, causing Sigmir and Rai to nod in agreement.

“Excellent.” I nodded, before looking at Sigmir. “Love, can you make a small mark here and maybe near the exit? Nothing large, but I think you should have the strength to leave something that won’t fade for quite some time, right?”

She nodded and curiously, Ylva shifted into her Hallow before she acted. Moments later, I had a faint idea why, when Sigmir’s finger-nails turned into claws and she used une of them to scratch a deep mark into the walls of the tunnel. Once she was done, I led her back, outside the gentle light, making sure she didn’t hit her head as we moved until we reached the crag we had entered through. I could vaguely make out the sunlight filtering down into the crag, though not into the tunnel itself, and guided Sigmir to leave another mark.

Knowing that the way out was secure made me let out a soft sigh, as a tension I hadn’t noticed before faded from my shoulders. It was curious, I liked the Darkness, even if it was deep enough to hinder even me, but somehow, the tunnels made me feel a little strange. As if there was an unseen weight pressing down on me, threatening to crush me.

Shaking my head, I led Sigmir back to the others and after a few moments of consideration, we decided to keep moving. While I hadn’t been able to form a map of the whole cave-system, I had somewhat of an idea where to go. We would just have to slowly make our way forward, hopefully without running into too many dead-ends or walls. Or monsters. There might very well be monsters down here.