“This next Trial is meant to test your ability to adapt.” Tharn told Kar, in that deep, gravelly tone he had.

  They were in the middle of a large oval chamber, standing on a circular slab inset into the floor. Kar counted the tunnels that branched out in every direction around them. Including the one that had led them here from the second Trial, there were eight total.

  Seven choices then.

  Kiya scoffed at the Shield-Knight. “Got any words of wisdom for the rest of us?” Behind her Lore rolled her eyes.

  Tharn and Erio both turned their featureless faces slowly towards Kiya, and Erio responded, “These Trials are not meant for you.”

  Kiya shifted uncomfortably, then mumbled, “it was a joke.”

  “What do you want to do Kar?” Aldwin asked.

  Kar hesitated, trying to think. He didn’t want to just pick blindly.

  “Let’s check if we can see anything down any tunnels from here.” he answered, then went to the one directly ahead. The others slowly split off to the mouths of different tunnels.

  “Anyone see anything?” Kar called out. His tunnel was featureless, lit by blue crystal intermittently as it stretched off into the far distance.

  “This one curves to the right.” One of Kiya’s men replied on Kar’s left. He needed to learn their names.

  “Same for mine.” “And this one.” The other two Fierdi men said.

  That accounted for the three tunnels on Kar’s left. What about the three to his right?

  “Ours curves to the left.” Derek said from where he and Aldwin stood.

  “To the left.” Lore said from the next tunnel, Kiya with her.

  “Um, this one also curves left,” Morrow said from the last tunnel, “it appears they all lead in the same general direction?”

  So did it make a difference which one they chose?

  Erio and Tharn—who until then had remained at the heart of the chamber—walked forward to join Kar, “What is your decision?” Tharn asked him.

  Just then the circular slab in the floor behind Kar split open. A low, echoing rumble was accompanied by the skittering and scrabbling of hundreds of crystal legs on stone. Out of the floor erupted strange crystbeasts, like many-limbed crystal insects, each of them the size of a large dog. They swarmed in every direction.

  “Group up!” Kar shouted, but he realized almost immediately there was no time for everyone to reach him. Derek and Aldwin blasted over. The three of Kiya’s men grouped together and were forced down one of the tunnels on that side.

  “Go with them!” Kar shouted at Erio. The Lancer hesitated for a moment, then nodded once and dashed in their direction with inhuman speed. Kar hoped the Knights were willing to do more than just observe.

  He frantically searched for Lore and saw that she and Kiya had gone to Morrow. He stood frozen in place at the back of the chamber, “Can you reach them?” he pleaded to Tharn. In answer the shield-bearer charged toward them, bashing aside and crushing chittering crystbugs in his path.

  Kar thought about charging after Tharn, but the swarm of cryst threatened to envelop them, so he shouted, “Down the tunnel!” to Derek and Aldwin. Together, the three of them dashed away from the swarm, taking turns blasting back their pursuers as they ran.

  ----

  They eventually distanced themselves from the crystbugs and reached a small round chamber. Oval panels in the walls opened and armed cryst-soldiers leapt out. Kar shattered one with a Focusing. Placing a hand on both Derek's and Aldwin’s backs, he pushed them toward where the tunnel continued out the other side of the room, “Keep going!” he shouted, not knowing what else to do.

  Time blurred. They fought from room to room, down tunnel after tunnel. The various types of bugs and soldiers they encountered soon blended together in Kar's mind. Soon Aldwin and Derek’s Energia reserves had run low and they resorted to swinging their sledges to crush and shatter cryst while Kar continued Focusing until he had drained all but one of the Shards he carried.

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  “We can’t keep running like this!” Aldwin shouted amidst a lull in the chaos.

  Kar nodded, then pointed towards a bend in the tunnel up ahead, “There!” he shouted. At least they could put their backs up against something solid.

  Kar sagged against the wall, exhausted. He drew on his last shard, re-invigorating himself. Aldwin seemed to be holding up, a sheen of sweat coating his skin. The crystal patches on his left arm gleamed all on their own.

  Derek, however, looked like he was about to collapse. “I really wish you hadn’t opened this stupid vault.” He said to Kar, panting.

  “Yeah me too,” Kar grabbed his friend by the arm, “here.” He said, Focusing. He Imbued a bit of his shard’s remaining Energia into Derek who glowed ever so slightly as his eyes dilated.

  “That’s a bit better.” he said, sucking in and holding a deep breath before releasing it.

  Crystbugs clattered into view, clawing their way along the tunnel floor, walls, and even ceiling. Kar stood, last shard still in hand. He looked at it and shrugged, then drained it fully and redirected its Energia into a single powerful blast at their pursuers. The entire tunnel shook and part of the ceiling collapsed, crushing and blocking off the majority of the oncoming swarm. Through swirling dust the surviving few crystbugs came, and Derek and Aldwin rushed forward to smash them with their sledges.

  “Let’s take a breather.” Kar said to them, bending down to pry more shards from the cryst’s broken bodies. At least there were no bug guts, just broken chips of crystal.

  Aldwin slid to the floor and rested his arms on his knees, “What is this place? This Vault?”

  Derek shrugged.

  Kar thought about how to answer, “It’s… a training ground of some kind. I don’t really understand fully. I don’t know why I can access it. They called me Marked, but I don’t know what that means.”

  Aldwin nodded thoughtfully, “It’s gotta have something to do with the Guardians and the Enclave. Nat would know more I bet.”

  Kar reached up with a forehand and wiped the sweat from his brow, “How did you find us, by the way?”

  Aldwin adopted a wry expression, “When I never saw a signal from you, I realized something must have gone wrong. I waited through the night, and early this morning saw people moving into the Archives.” He shook his head, “I’m sorry everything played out like this. Before I came back to Riftwater, the Fierdi weren’t doing anything on this level. I mean, the Rift Guild had plenty of problems with them, don’t get me wrong. But this Destry fellow, he’s new. He’s far more brutal and dangerous than the governor that was in place when I left.”

  Kar settled down next to Aldwin, offering the canteen he’d pulled from his pack, “There’s something… wrong about him.” He said quietly.

  “Well, he’ll get what’s coming to him.” Aldwin replied resolutely.

  Derek nodded, and Kar leaned back against the wall and enjoyed a few minutes in silence. Eventually though it was time to move on. He rose to his feet, forcing himself to think about how they were going to deal with their present predicament.

  “We should press on, see if we can’t find the others. I’m hoping these tunnels all reconnect at some point.”

  Aldwin and Derek got up and together the three of them set out. They encountered another two smaller chambers with crystsoldier ambushes inside. They were relatively easy to dispatch without the swarm to contend with too.

  They restocked on shards and Kar performed another round of healing. Even though he had a ready supply of new shards and Energia, Kar felt himself getting mentally fatigued from all the Focusing. He hadn’t experienced that yet.

  They finally exited a tunnel and came out into the largest room that Kar had seen in this Vault. A circle of columns supported the domed ceiling. Unlike the other chambers so far, this one was only lit within that central circle. The edges of the greater chamber were all shrouded in darkness and shadows. Erio waited for them within the circle, sitting with his arms wrapped around bent knees, his lance laid out beside him. Two of the Fierdi Hunters sat nearby while the third lay unmoving on the ground beside the cryst-knight.

  Kar jogged over, kneeling to examine the man lying next to Erio. His body was covered in wounds and lacerations. “What happened?” he asked the Cryst.

  “We were overwhelmed. I did what I could to support them, but they do not have the proper armor for fighting down here.”

  Kar felt a spike of guilt despite the impossible circumstances. To his relief, he found the hunter still breathed. Kar drained several shards stabilizing the worst of his injuries as well as those of the other two hunters. As he worked, Derek settled down next to him and Aldwin began pacing restlessly from column to column, peering into the dark and shrouded areas of the grand chamber.

  “What are your names?” Kar asked one of the Fierdi men sheepishly.

  The hunter laughed, “I’m Jon,” he pointed to the other man sitting next to him, “this is Rowan. And that,” Jon told him pointing at the still unconscious man next to Erio, “is Cyse. Don’t sweat it kid. This has been a Rift of a day. We appreciate you looking out for us as much as you have,” he clapped Kar on the shoulder, “we’d be dead if you hadn’t sent this guy to look after our sorry asses.” Erio turned his face plate toward them without saying anything.

  “Any sign of the others?” Derek asked.

  Erio just shook his head.

  Kar stood up and went to the right side of the massive chamber. Aldwin joined him. There were a lot of tunnels that emptied into this room. He hoped that meant all of them eventually led here. Just then he noticed a flash of something down a side passage. Kar stepped closer, then heard echoing shouts of coarse language. That was Kiya no doubt. Soon he could see them, slowly backing down the tunnel. Lore was dragging Morrow’s limp body, and Kiya was letting off small streams of fire over Tharn’s shoulder and shield. It looked like the shield-knight had born the brunt of the punishment. Chips of crystal were missing all across his body. Kar ran up to them and helped clear the remaining crystbugs that had pursued them this far.

  They all collapsed shortly thereafter in the center of the room. Kar took stock of everyone, and was amazed that they had survived. He gave Morrow a healing Imbuement, and the man stirred groggily, his eye-glasses badly cracked.

  “Was that it for this Trial?” Kar asked Erio. The lancer simply shook his head side to side, and from the far, darkened end of the chamber a loud grating noise echoed. A deep roar filled the space around them, and the thud of heavy steps shook the ground.