“You’re actually going to do this?” Brendel asked, sounding incredulous.

“It’s not like you’ve given me any other choice,” Fallon-Kabbah replied.

Brendel cocked her flaming head to the side. “Are you sure, brother? You’re still using a fae conduit to manifest yourself. I’m starting to think you’re not as powerful as you made yourself out to be.”

Fallon-Kabbah roared a hearty laugh. Brendel had probably said the greatest joke ever, by the sound of it. “You flaming nitwit. You have no idea what potential these fae hybrids have,” he said, pointing at himself and at Taeral. “Well, you might know a thing or two about the Fire Star prince, here, but you clearly don’t understand the perks of my temporary meatsuit.”

“Is he seriously calling Fallon a meatsuit?” Varga murmured, genuinely appalled.

“Here, let me explain a few things,” Fallon-Kabbah said and put his arms out. Green fire erupted from them, crackling hungrily, eager to devour.

He released two streams of emerald flames, targeting the Hermessi closest to Brendel. I felt my eyes bulge as I watched the blaze cut through them, forcing the elemental figures to disintegrate. They spilled across the ground, struggling to regain their forms, but they had trouble recovering. Whatever the emerald fire had done, it rendered them weak.

Brendel moved back, astonished by this development. I couldn’t believe it, either.

Fallon-Kabbah gave us a sideways glance. “It’s not permanent,” he whispered. “Get your asses out of here so I can smite these scoundrels properly. I can’t do it now without hurting you, too.”

Taeral nodded and stepped to the side, and we huddled closer together. “What about Fallon?”

“He’ll be fine as long as he’s with me,” Fallon-Kabbah replied. “Now, go already!”

Brendel shot a massive fireball at us, but Fallon-Kabbah intercepted it with his bare, green-glowing hand. “No you don’t, silly!” he grunted.

“Take us straight down,” Varga murmured, his eyes glimmering gold as he looked past his boots. “Twenty feet.”

Taeral caught Eira’s hand, and she grabbed mine. Brendel threw another flurry of fireballs at us, but Fallon-Kabbah stepped in, once more.

“You’re not getting Eirexis!” Brendel shouted.

“Let the boy try. Don’t be a sour puss!” Fallon-Kabbah replied.

As soon as we were all linked, we vanished, leaving Fallon behind. I felt awful about it, but the mission came first. Taeral’s scythe zinged with excitement as we reappeared in the middle of a dark and narrow tunnel. In this quiet pitch-blackness, I could hear my heart beat, its rhythm undulating, matching the scythe’s hum.

“We’re all feeling it,” I mumbled.

“The scythe. It’s beckoning us closer to Eirexis,” Lumi replied.

Taeral snapped his fingers, fire bursting in his palm. The light splashed against the gray walls, which had been polished to perfection. Not even dust had settled here. Either these tunnels were incredibly well sealed, or they were still used by resourceful and secretive Cerixians. It didn’t really matter, in the end.

Fallon and Kabbah were literally above us, fighting Brendel and her horde of Hermessi. Inalia and Acquis were battling Leb and Sebbi, too. They’d all stuck their necks out for us, risking everything to get us as close to Eirexis as possible.

The least we could do was find the damn thing and not disappoint.

Taeral

This wasn’t a singular tunnel. It was an entire maze.

“There are dozens of passageways down here,” Varga said, using his True Sight. “This is the widest and, I presume, the main one. Up ahead, it splits in two different directions, and from each side, in two more, and so on. It spreads out for more than a square mile.”

“I don’t see any rosy fish here,” Amelia murmured. That was a good observation, to say the least, but I was certain we’d get an explanation, sooner or later. According to Brendel, she’d thrown Eirexis over a tall mountain, and the rosy fish had made a home of it. Granted, it could’ve been a figure of speech, more or less.

“Maybe we shouldn’t take Brendel’s words literally all the time,” I suggested.

My heart was racing. The scythe in my hand vibrated nervously, sensing Eirexis even closer. I took the lead, moving forward through the tunnel, while the crew followed close behind.

“The main entrance must’ve been somewhere behind us, sealed off by fallen rocks or by the ancient Cerixians themselves, since we couldn’t see it from the surface,” Eira said, glancing back into the darkness. “It must’ve been close to those stone pillars above.”

“I doubt that matters now,” Lumi said. “We’re here.”

“The rosy fish sanctuary is farther away from the temple, though,” Eira replied. “According to the documents, anyway.”

Varga raised an eyebrow. “Maybe it reaches all the way down here? Through an underwater stream?”

Eira thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Laying their eggs underground would be a safer option.”

The closer I got to the end of this main corridor, the brighter the scythe’s blade became. The differences in vibrations and lighting of the Reaper’s tool became even clearer when the path ahead split in two. “Yeah, so definitely not taking Brendel literally here,” I whispered. “The scythe is going nuts. Eirexis is down here somewhere, for sure.”

“It could be the landscape changed since Brendel was last here,” Amelia suggested. “Maybe there was more water here four million years ago, and a greater rosy fish population. The water must’ve retreated since.”

“And then the temple was built around Eirexis?” Eira replied, clearly confused. “Why?”

“Who knows? Maybe they were in awe of it. Maybe the handful of early Cerixians that lived here saw it and were afraid to touch it? They could’ve felt its power, even building the underground tunnels to keep it out of sight, and the temple to… I guess worship it? It makes sense in my head,” Amelia said. It seemed reasonable enough.

We stopped in the middle, and I first pointed the scythe to our left. It didn’t react any more than it already had. But when I pointed it to our right, it buzzed audibly.

“Bingo!” Raphael said, the shadow of a smile fluttering across his face.

I used fire from my left hand to light the way, while my right hand was busy gripping the scythe and feeling its increasing reaction.

“Kabbah’s really laying into Brendel upstairs,” Riza commented from behind. We could all hear the violent thuds and crashes, the shrieks and the crackles of turbulent electricity. The elements were in an all-out war, as Kabbah, Inalia, and even Acquis struggled to keep the enemy at bay.

“The faster we get this done, the easier it’ll be for our allies,” I said.

We moved through the tunnels as my scythe continued to shine, brighter with every turn we made. Left and right, over and over, until we reached a long and extremely narrow corridor. I couldn’t put my arms out, and we were forced to advance through it, one by one.

“I wonder if any of those early Cerixians knew what Eirexis was,” Amelia mumbled.

“Doubt it,” I said. “They wouldn’t have even known that it was here. According to Kabbah’s memory, Eirexis would conceal itself from people.”

“Then how will we see it?” Raphael scoffed, and I showed him my scythe.

“I reckon this’ll be the key.”

I stopped when I noticed the end. From here, it looked like a glowing, vertical rectangle. But that wasn’t what had made me still. Low hisses made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, goosebumps pricking my skin. “Varga?” I whispered.

“Oh, crap,” he breathed. “Shills. About twenty of them, seated around a pond. I think it’s in the pond. Emphasis on ‘I think.’”

“We’re too tight in here,” Lumi said. “And our invisibility spells were disabled.”