Blackened and blued, the bruises on her face and arms already beginning to swell, Helen the Huntress leapt back from the party.

‘How could I have been defeated by rookie band that nobody’s ever even heard of?!’ she protested to Gard in general. ‘I don’t even know what your name is!’

With that she turned tail and ran from them, out of the chamber and back towards the exit of the cave.

‘What a horrible person…’ said Ceres.

A thought occurred to Horatio. ‘Hey, what is our name anyway?’ he said to Primus.

‘We don’t have one. Naming your adventuring party is juvenile and pointless. You are merely three people I have hired to assist and protect me on my journey.’

‘Never mind all that now!’ said Egea. ‘To the victor, the spoils! She is no fool who takes whatever she can get her hands on!’

‘I’m not sure that’s quite what the inscription said…’ said Ceres.

Paying her no heed, Egea rushed through the doors into the cave’s final room. The others followed her.

Inside the small circular chamber, in the middle of the black, charred, ashen remains of the plants that Primus had destroyed with his fire spell, was a large, brown, wooden chest with a golden lock, hinges and bordering.

‘Haha!’ Egea practically squealed with glee. ‘At last! I’ll have this open in no time!’

They watched as she crouched down, reached inside her colourful coat and drew out a thin, glinting piece of metal. She shoved this inside the chest’s lock and began fiddle around with it and mutter to herself, sticking her tongue into the side of her cheek.

A click.

‘There we go!’

Egea stood and gave the chest a kick. Its curved lid swung open with a creak

Her face fell.

Horatio stepped forwards a little with the others to look inside.

Egea lifted the contents out.

‘A piece of parchment!’ she said. ‘One stupid little piece of parchment! What the hell is this?! It’s not even a promissory note or a map to find more treasure! It’s just a stupid letter!’

‘What does it say?’ said Primus, curiosity creeping into his voice and stripping it of its usual condescension for once.

‘Here, you read it out,’ said Egea, pushing it into Horatio’s hands. ‘I can’t bear to…’ She put her face in her hands.

The letters on the parchment were written in the same curly script as the writing on the walls of the cave, Horatio judged. He read aloud:

‘Dear Treasure Hunters,

If you are reading this, you have made it through to the end of my tetrachamber. Congratulations! Many have failed where you have succeeded.

Unfortunately for you, I’m afraid I’ve had to come and collect the very valuable treasure that I was keeping safe here, as I need it for a very important Quest that I’m about to go on.

Sorry! If I don’t end up using it on my Quest, I’ll put it back here when I’m finished. Please check back later.

Yours apologetically,

Alexander’

There was a moment of silence.

‘Who the hell is Alexander?!’ Egea burst out.

‘What a peculiar letter…’ Ceres said. ‘Alexander is a Qindian name. But that doesn’t tell us much. This this person is very mysterious...’

‘Well, this has been a complete waste of time!’ said Primus. ‘Not only has Olivia clearly not been here, but this has taken up valuable time when we could have been traveling and getting closer to finding her, and we don’t even have anything to show for it!’

Egea sobbed into her hands.

‘You should be upset, young lady,’ Primus continued. ‘You were the one who managed to convince me to take us on this side-quest in the first place! I am seriously considering sacking you and dropping you from this party!’

‘What do we do now?’ Horatio asked him, seeking to divert Primus’s attention away from his anger towards Egea. She had led them on a wild goose chase, but she was still a valuable member of the party. Horatio thought the Professor was being a little harsh.

‘What we do now,’ said Primus, ‘is get back to our primary objective, the reason I hired you in the first place! We’ll head back to Balamb for the night, rest up, and set out again tomorrow. No more side-quests! Come on! Oh, and bring that chest with us, Horatio. There may have been nothing valuable inside it, but it’s quite a nice piece of work—we might be able to sell it for some coin.’

‘Alright,’ Horatio said to their patron. He stowed the parchment inside his tunic and closed the chest, then hefted it with two arms. It was heavy, but probably a lot less heavy than it would have been if it had still held whatever treasure had been inside it before.

They made their way back through the tetrachamber, out of the treasure-vault, through the pebble-room and over the glowing bridge, which disappeared back into thin air once they set foot on its far side.

At the exit of the cave, monsters were waiting for them.

Random battle!

Music: Standard

Background: Cave1, but flipped back again.