The stone in my pocket grew warm, and I yanked it out as it flashed at me.

  Havi's voice sounded uncertain, but came through. “How does this work?”

  I smiled, and clenched it in my fist, rapidly giving instructions on how to send verbal messages with it.

  Then I gave an update. “We found the fortress, and where the Forgers are, along with a list of targets that need to be removed.”

  This time Manee’s voice replied, “We will send the details of the map to the Water Tribe. Can you scout the area?”

  “We can,” I said, glancing at Kabi and Lenna, both who still stared across the rocky landscape. “We’re still a few days out from the Fortress itself, though we cleared the tunnels of most things. We sent a group of refugees back to Steadfast. They can detail where we met them.”

  “It will take a couple of days for everyone to converge. We will plan for the dark night.”

  “Dark night?” I asked, wondering if I missed something.

  “Get Kabi to explain.”

  “Alrighty then…” I stuck the stone back into my pocket and turned to the others, who stared at me. “What’s the dark night?”

  “It's the night without any of the moons, it's more than likely coming up.” He glanced up at the sun then back at me with a nod. “Yeah, both the suns are out. No wonder we haven’t been attacked.”

  “Well, we have those reinforcements we wanted, but not until then. Time to get closer and do some scouting.”

  My pocket warmed again.

  “Strange said he’s coming with the sneaky warriors and will deliver them to you.”

  I started laughing. That little guy was finding all the ways to use his profession for the greater good.

  “Sounds good,” I added.

  “We have several days just to find a closer location than this,” said Kabi, still staring out over the landscape. The brightness cast a strange tint to his face. “I found markings in the runes that point to other towers that are like this one.”

  “So, let’s get to it then…” I said with a grin. I liked having a plan, plus any downtime I had while we traveled could be spent working on the Stable Mana crystal I had. Hopefully, I’d figure something out with my profession.

  Dengu paced near the bottom of the stairs and watched us climb down. His head bobbed up and down as he flashed his teeth in a grin. “Strange is doing well.”

  “You taught him to work with a pack,” I replied.

  He nodded and headed down the tunnel first.

  Kabi quickly caught up and passed him, running his hand along the wall. He glanced up multiple times at the sky.

  What followed was a boring day on high alert for any danger, as we wandered the cracks in the red stone. It was exhausting, partly because it was so uneventful. Staying on high alert was hard when the universe stubbornly refused to provide anything to react to.

  Kabi knew where he was going, but that didn’t change the twisting nature of the canyons, or the time spent searching for the next rune that led us closer to the Fortress.

  Dust stuck to every part of me that sweated, and the layer coating my skin made me want to itch.

  Finally, after hours moving quietly and trying to stay alert, Kabi found another entrance. This tunnel led almost immediately to stairs that led up, and to another rocky spiral. It wasn’t as tall as the first, and we couldn’t see the fortress from it, but he studied the Runes around the edges, and pointed out a few to me.

  I learned the directions at least. Then, off we went yet again.

  And again.

  Finally, the sky darkened, and all of us moved just a little quicker as the shadows lengthened in the canyons. Heat still reflected off the walls, yet here and there things popped up on my radar. All were high leveled creatures that didn’t pay too much attention to us, at least not yet.

  More slow, exhausting creeping through the rocks followed. I spotted the rune while trying not to stare at a small crab that scurried from one rock to another far ahead of us. It wasn’t on the side that Kabi traced with his hand, but I pointed it out.

  “What about that one?” I whispered.

  Kabi slowly reached out and touched it, his eyebrows almost meeting in the center. “This wasn’t on any of the maps, it might be a newer barrow…”

  “The rune looks the same…” Yet, my words cut off as I stopped to really look at it. It wasn’t the same as the one that had hidden the various entrances. The edges were jagged, and other runes were layered on top of it.

  He tapped it, but nothing happened.

  “We should keep moving on,” he said, shaking his head. “My tattoo isn’t working.”

  Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

  “It’s getting late and we’ve been going all day,” I argued. “Plus, dangerous things are starting to pop up as the sun sets.”

  Dengu snorted at my words. “More and more.”

  I’d been watching Kabi use his tattoo all day to get us into the rocks. This time, I reached out and sent a little burst of power into the rune, including the one behind it. I couldn’t tell what it did.

  Yet, it glowed as I triggered the first.

  The stone let me pass. Kabi, Lenna and Dengu quickly followed.

  “I’m not sure this is a good idea,” said Kabi. He glanced at Lenna for confirmation.

  The tunnel was bigger than the others that we’d found so far, and I took the lead. “Wait here then, I’ll just take a quick glance.”

  No one stayed behind. After a few moments of walking, the tunnel opened up into a much larger room with two other tunnels branching off it. Dust lingered in the air.

  It felt empty.

  Stairs were carved into the outside wall just like the others, but with a much wider spiral.

  “Smells empty,” said Dengu, almost causing me to jump.

  I searched my radar for anything, but nothing popped up. The small crab I’d been watching outside vanished after the stone became solid again.

  That hadn’t happened with the other barrows. This place was different, special.

  “Tell me we didn’t find the sleeping quarters of the First?” I asked, in a whisper.

  Everyone jerked to look at me, but didn't pick up on the fact I was, hopefully, joking.

  I doubted this was that. Maybe.

  “Alex, you can’t just say things like that…” said Lenna, her eyes flickering around the area.

  Though I noticed that she smirked a little, potentially getting my joke.

  “The rune didn’t work. How did you open the door?” asked Kabi, still stuck on how we got in.

  “I put my energy into it and asked. There were multiple runes stacked on top of one another.” I shrugged, not sure how much to explain, but decided to give my thoughts voice. It wasn’t like I knew what I was doing, and maybe Kabi had picked things up from his brother. “Honestly, I think this is a safe space for rune users.”

  As soon as the words came out of my lips, I suddenly knew something about how rune users had been persecuted like witches back on earth for a period of time. A really rough time, where they needed to hide to survive. It didn’t last long, but there were rumors of ancient schools that predated the Academy in the Labyrinth.

  Dengu padded around the room, and started down one of the tunnels. “I’ll check this one.”

  Lenna pursued him, while I headed up the stairs.

  A slight pull directed me up, and I followed. It wasn’t a crystal; it didn’t have the same feeling, but all the same I continued on.

  Kabi followed behind me, going quiet.

  It led to an archway that opened into an empty room. I checked it for any runes, but it came up empty. The same went for the next room. Then we reached the dusty top.

  Instead of an open archway, this one revealed a door covered with runes. The first layer was simple, but the next round wasn’t, and a third lurked behind the second. Yet, each level decreased in number.

  “I’m not sure we should try this door until we check out the rest of the place,” I said, after studying the runes for a moment. While I might be able to brute force my way into the space, knowing more about this place was important.

  The climb down was quicker, but Lenna and Dengu weren’t back yet from the tunnel they’d chosen.

  Kabi gave me a look and we headed in that direction. A few doors stood open on either side, each leading to what looked like a bunk room. Then a much larger archway stood at the end.

  Light from Lenna's orb came from there.

  Lenna knelt next to a broken pile of stone, and an archway carved into the wall.

  Dengu wasn’t in the room.

  She glanced up. “I think this was an entrance to the dungeon…”

  Kabi frowned and stepped closer. “They’ve gone missing in the past, and we were told the entrances were destroyed.”

  I tried to look at it, and several runes glowed along the back wall. I would have expected them to be broken, but they appeared intact. Another runic puzzle to think about.

  The scrape of Dengu coming down the hall caused all of us to turn in his direction.

  “Nothing the other way,” he said with a head bob before sneezing. “Dusty.”

  “We found a door with runes at the top, but wanted to see what ya’ll found before I tried messing with anything,” I said, yet I couldn’t look away from the runes on the wall. I itched to add some of them to the notebook. “But this looks like a good place to camp out until Steadfast’s forces catch up with us. I doubt any of the Forgers are able to get inside.”

  “Can the rest of us get inside if we go out?” asked Lenna.

  My lips parted, but before I answered, I headed to the front. “Let me try a few things and we can see if I can make that a thing…”

  Kabi caught my arm. “Instead of messing with ancient runes that have kept this place safe for ages, we could use the communication stones if we want to go hunting.”

  I paused. He wasn’t wrong.

  “We could do that…” I turned to Lenna. “So you're going hunting?”

  “Dengu and I want to spend some time out in the canyons and earn some levels after we set things up here.”

  A huff came from Dengu. “Growth is good.”

  “I need to work on things for my profession,” I added. It was why I wanted to stop here for a while. Plus, we didn’t want to get lost in the maze of the canyons. The others needed to find us, though Strange hadn’t failed a delivery yet. I bet he was going to ‘deliver’ the reinforcements to us.

  “We can take over a bunk room,” said Kabi with a grin. “The beds look preserved and must have runes built in. It will be nice to rest in an actual bed.”

  All of us made our way down the hall with several bunk rooms. One had 6 beds, and Kabi motioned to it.

  “Let’s use this one.” Without waiting for a response he chose one bed toward the back. He started taking off his boots. “A bath would be good.”

  I headed back to the archway at the end of the hallway. While I could use some rest, I first wanted to sketch the runes here into the notebook. I’d added several from the various towers we’d visited, and I hoped once I had more time to study them and practice forming them inside crystals, I’d be able to figure out what they did.

  It wouldn’t help with my profession at the moment, but it would help with my skills. Noseen warned me to work with my skills and level them up.

  I had nine, and at least all of them had changed somewhat. Only 3 lagged the others: Venomous Chomp - II, Tensile Claw Strike - II, and Rune Scribing & Attunement. The last I’d recently gotten, so I wasn’t worried. The other two were old. Ones I’d gotten in the very beginning. Venomous Chomp I didn’t use, at least not like it wanted. I spit on various weapons, but I didn’t actually bite anything in battle.

  Claw strike I used when needed, or if I was within reach of the enemy. No matter what, I didn't want to lose that one. It came in handy too often.

  Still, I had to wonder, if I got rid of both of them, would my monstrous stat decrease?