Present Day

  They were gone.

  Kaila, Teth, Meliana, Ve- no, Veil was in his jacket pocket. Cal could feel him shifting. But the others were gone. And so was he.

  “No, no, no…” He whispered. “This can’t be happening. Not again!”

  He wasn’t in the stone room any more. He was in a completely different place. A cave. He could smell damp and he could smell blood.

  It had happened again.

  It was a trap and they fell right into it. It was just like last time.

  Then a thought came to him, What if it was related to the tomb from five months ago, after all? He’d walked right into another one and it had got them again. Cal had stepped up to work with people finally, after five months. He hadn’t worked with anyone since-

  Blood.

  Leg.

  Teeth.

  Not since then and their first day out it had gone wrong. Again. Teth, Veil, Meliana, Kaila… They were going to die, they were all going to die. That is… if they weren’t dead already. He hadn’t had a team mate die since-

  Blood.

  Leg.

  Teeth.

  He almost threw up, but he stopped himself.

  Cal’s legs went weak and they buckled underneath him. He fell backwards onto the floor, hitting the wall and sliding down it. His breath was ragged and fast. Quick panicky breaths as Veil fought his way out of Cal’s jacket and leapt off of him onto the floor.

  Veil said something but Cal didn’t hear it. He looked down at the fox and he said something else. He didn’t have lips that Cal could read so he still didn’t know what he’d said. Cal reached up and grabbed his chest, his heart was racing.

  Veil hopped up onto Cal’s lap and stood up, pressing his paws on Cal’s shoulders. “You’re white as a sheet.” He could barely make it out, but Cal heard the words. “What’s wrong?” Veil asked, concern in his eyes as he looked from Cal’s face to his hand and back again.

  He leapt down and then back up onto Cal’s legs and walked up him, digging his nose under Cal’s wrist and forcing his way under to rest against Cal’s chest, laying his body down and resting his head on Cal’s shoulder.

  The weight was comforting. Cal reached up carefully, stroking Veil’s head subconsciously with a shaky hand until… Cal's breathing slowed until it steadied. His heart rate went from a full stampede to a simple flutter. He let his hand drop onto Veil’s leather clad back and then to the floor. Tears started falling down his cheeks.

  “Cal…” Veil said. After a long moment. “What’s wrong?” He sounded almost like a child. Like just having to ask scared him.

  “I-I’m sorry.” Cal said, tears streaming down his cheeks. “I… shouldn’t- this was stupid. I should have-”

  “Cal is this about the last five months?” Veil asked, gently.

  He didn’t answer immediately. He opened his mouth to respond but a whimper came out instead.

  “Cal what happened?”

  Cal was quiet for a few minutes, laying back against the wall and staring up at the ceiling. He fought to lie, he fought to just brush the question aside, but he couldn’t. Cal opened his mouth to speak again and, through the tears and the weeping he said, “-dead.”

  Veil frowned and pressed himself against Cal again. “Who’s dead?”

  “…Chell.” He said. “She- She was my friend.” Cal explained. “An adventurer."

  Veil waited for Cal to continue, but when he didn't he asked, very gently, "What happened?"

  Cal didn't want to answer, but as if they had a mind of their own, his lips began to move. and words came, unbidden. "We were in a tomb, like this and there was a trap and I missed it.” He said, leaning forward and shoving his face into his hands., forcing Veil to scramble off of him. “I fucking missed it!” He said, slamming his fist sideways into the wall. Veil hopped out of the way, but stepped up again and rested his chin on Cal’s leg. “It was my fault. I was-”

  “Cal… were you the… the scout? The trap expert in that group?” He asked. “You never have been in any group I’ve been part of. Were you in that one?” Veil’s questions were gentle, they didn’t push.

  “I- no, but-“

  “Did anyone in that group expect you to find the traps?” He continued, not letting Cal interrupt.

  “No, but-”

  “So why was it your fault?” Veil asked.

  “I was right there.” He replied “I could have-”

  “Cal, it wasn’t your fault.” Veil said, quietly. “Traps are a danger in these things and it was someone else's job to make it safe.”

  “She was tired…” Cal said. “She was injured. It was my mission, I set it up it’s my-”

  “It’s not your fault, Cal. You trusted her and she trusted you.” Veil hopped back up as Cal leaned back and sat there on his lap, laying against him for support. “Even if she was too tired to focus you couldn’t have known how she was feeling, not really. You trusted her to know her limits. Just as she trusted you to know yours.”

  Everything Veil said made sense, intellectually, but there was just one problem with that: “I can see her.” He said. “Every time I close my eyes I see her body cut in two and bleeding everywhere.”

  “I know Cal.” Veil said, rubbing his head against Cal’s chest. “I know it’s hard losing people. Is that why you’ve worked alone these past few months?”

  Cal nodded and Veil sighed. “I couldn’t… I couldn’t face it if I lost someone again.” He admitted. “And now it’s happened again, as soon as I started working with people.”

  Veil climbed off of Cal’s chest and looked up at him. “That’s not true.” He said. “You were with Meliana for two weeks. With Teth and Kaila for over a week. You went into battle with them and came out mostly unscathed, and you don’t know they’re dead now. You’re not, I’m not and we went through the same thing as them. All we do know is that they’re missing.”

  “I know, but-”

  “Cal I’m not going to let you give me a ‘but’.” Veil said eyeing him. “You’re hurting, I know. And I understand. But… is this what she would have wanted? Your friend who died. Would she want you blaming yourself? Would she want you alone ever since? Would she want you having a panic on the floor when your other friends might be in trouble?” Cal didn’t answer, so Veil answered for him. “If you cared about her this much, Cal, then the answer is no. Because you wouldn’t have cared about an ass hole.”

  Cal sat back and took several deep breaths. Veil was right, but that didn’t make it easier. As his heart stopped racing and Cal’s breathing returned to normal he sat forward and let out a long breath. “You’re right.” He admitted. “She wouldn’t. But… it still hurts. It still feels like I failed her.”

  “And it might always feel that way.” Veil admitted. “But, we move on. Every day, it feels a little less painful, but only if we let it.”

  Cal let out another long breath, it helped every time. He nodded and turned to the fox. “How did you get so wise?” He asked.

  Veil made an expression that approximated a sad smile and Cal understood. His mother. He must have held onto similar feelings for a long time. “That must be tough.” Cal said.

  Veil cocked his head to the side in a sort of acknowledgement. “We grow past these things.” He promised and hopped down off of Cal “Now, we don’t know that the others are dead, but we won’t be able to find out if we don’t get moving.”

  Cal nodded and stood unsteadily to his feet. He wasn’t fixed, but he was ready to go. “You’re right. Lets go.”

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  #

  Cal and Veil moved carefully down a passageway, making sure that there were no more traps as they went. It was like a maze of some kind and presumably they had all been placed at different starting locations, but why? What did the tomb want from them? Thinking back to the first tomb didn’t help. That place had just let them walk in and there had been constructs to fight. It had been a tough fight but it hadn’t meant anything as far as Cal could tell.

  Other than the fact that they were strong enough to beat the constructs.

  Why separate them? Why put them in a maze? Someone had built this place so there must have been a reason for it. They came to a crossroads and stopped.

  “I can smell death down the right path.” Veil said, just like Leni had done on that day, and just like then, Cal turned to the right. They moved as quickly as they could, trying to catch up to the others, without setting off any traps. He hoped that he’d be able to reach them before anything happened. He had to save them this time.

  He wanted to speed up, to run, and so far they hadn’t encountered any traps, but Cal was loath to give the tomb an opportunity to get one over on them again. So instead they maintained their careful approach.

  They turned a corner and immediately froze. Ahead of them was an undead. Not your ordinary skeleton or zombie either. Something else, something worse.

  “Cal…” Veil said, eyeing it.

  “Stay behind me.” Cal said quietly. “Your poison wont do anything to a Wight.”

  Veil stepped back and reached into his bag to chew on the death poison, just in case. Cal drew his sword and ignited the blade. It was as he did this that the Wight noticed them and turned to face him. It’s head lolled to the side a little as it stared. It remained that way for a full three seconds, just long enough for Cal to wonder whether it even saw him.

  Then it screamed and charged him. It’s claws lashed out at Cal, but he dodged backwards, swiping out with his own weapon, more in an attempt to get it on the back foot than to actually hit it. The wight ducked under his attack and made a growling noise, glaring up at him from the floor.

  Cal stood his ground, flaming sword up between them. It wasn’t his normal fighting stance, but against a wight it was the best protection he could gather for himself.

  Wights, for the lucky uninitiated, were powerful undead. In logical terms they weren’t much different from zombies. Dead bodies that have been reanimated to fight, but whether because the bodies used were special somehow or the means of making a wight was different, they were much more powerful. They were faster, stronger, more vicious, smarter, their saliva had the ability to make more undead and their bodies could regenerate.

  There were only three things that Wights were weak to.

  Death magic because it could be used to control them.

  Life magic because it was the fundamental opposite of what held them together and could disrupt the magic that kept them up.

  And finally: fire magic. Because it couldn’t regenerate from a wound that had been burned closed. And Cal had plenty of Fire magic.

  Unfortunately, they were smart enough to know to fear the flames.

  It climbed back to its feet, gnarly claws on its hands flexing menacingly as it stared at cal. It started making short huffing noises, growls and screeches as it worked itself up. Cal could feel it’s aggression building and prepared himself. He took his left hand off of the sword and moved into what felt like a reverse of his normal stance. Instead of holding his hand ahead of him and sword behind, he held the flaming sword between himself and the wight to try and keep it wary. He turned side on to present a smaller target and give himself more option of directions to move.

  Cal took a breath, sure that the next exchange would last far longer than the first, and would end with one of them down.

  A crash and a yell sounded up the passageway beyond the Wight and Cal’s eyes flicked up over the undead’s shoulder. Teth? He though, and it was then that the Wight attacked, when Cal’s attention moved away for a mere instant.

  They were smart.

  Its claws flew at Cal, pushing itself forward before he could even react. He was barely able to leap out of the way in time. Any closer and Cal wouldn’t have had a throat anymore.

  They were fast.

  Cal swung his sword back, blade swiping between them and spinning. He leapt to gain a little momentum and slashed towards the Wight. The blade slammed into it’s shoulder, digging in about an inch and stopped. Flames burst out of the sword, engulfing it, injuring it but in that moment it slammed its fist into Cal’s chest, forcing him back and off his feet, rolling end over end to land a few meters away on the ground, his sword discarded.

  They were strong.

  Without skipping a beat the Wight leapt onto Cal, who reached out and summoned his sword into place before him, no longer aflame. He held the blade up and pressed the flat against it’s chest, grasping both ends of the sword like a barricade. It gnashed its jaws at him, trying to bite his face, it pulled at him with its claws. Tearing and biting.

  They were vicious.

  It’s gnashing jaws sprayed saliva at cal. He kept his brow furrowed to protect his eyes and his mouth closed to keep it out. He couldn’t let it get into his system.

  Their saliva could create undead.

  Veil leapt up over Cal’s head onto its back and bit into it. He tore a chunk out and leapt off, rushing away.

  It reared up and turned away from Cal, reaching to get Veil. As it turned Cal watched the neck wound disappear.

  They could regenerate.

  The wight sat up, still straddling Cal and he growled, “Viron!” through gritted teeth.

  A gout of flame exploded from Cal’s hands and blade, engulfing the Wight, sundering it’s flesh and destroying it.

  But they were weak against fire.

  The Wight fell sideways, it’s legs unharmed but it’s entire upper half burned to a crisp. It landed hard and it’s arm snapped off, sliding away as it’s head hit down and partially crumbled. Cal pushed it off and got up, re-sheathing his sword. He looked down at himself and found little injury, but the sleeves of his blue coat had been torn to shreds. Cal cursed, he liked that coat, Meliana had given it to him, even if it was heavier than anything he was used to fighting in. He let out a long sigh and pulled it off, dropping it to the floor.

  “Thanks.” Cal said without looking for Veil. “You probably saved me.”

  Veil padded over and looked up at Cal, smug. “Not just poisons, huh?”

  Cal grinned, but then there was another shout from up ahead. They turned together and leapt into a run. Down the corridor and a handful of turns later Cal and Veil rounded a corner to see a fight going on at the next intersection. Teth stood there in full berzerk emerald mode tearing… things apart. At first Cal thought they were light skinned goblins, but then he realised that it wasn’t just that they were small, they were also wrong. Extra arms, not enough legs, multiple heads. They were abominations. Undead creatures sewn together from parts and reanimated. He’d never seen, nor read anything like it.

  The moments that Cal and Veil waited, surprised by what they’d seen were all Teth needed to finish up. He leapt over the bodies of several that he had torn apart, onto the last one that was still moving and slammed his fists down, breathing heavily.

  “Teth?” Cal called out. His head snapped to Cal, fury still in his face. For a moment it looked like he was going to come after them aswell, but then his breathing began to steady and the emeralds retracted. Teth found himself knelt on the ground covered in blood and body parts.

  He let out a long breath, eyes closed, before looking up again and over at Cal. “You survived then?”

  Cal nodded. “Didn’t have this lot, just one thing so far. It was a wight, so not an easy kill, but just the one.” He explained.

  Teth took another breath and climbed back to his feet. “I assume it’s just you.”

  “And me.” Veil said, hopping up onto his hind legs to get Teth’s attention.

  Teth looked over and nodded, exhaustion evident. “And you. Sorry. Didn’t see you. Still a bit… tunnel visioned.” He was still taking long deep breaths, but he seemed to be getting there. He climbed to his feet and looked around. Teth found what he was looking for and walked into the intersection, and out of Cal and Veil’s sight. They followed and found him pulling his sword out of the wall where it had been buried at least half a meter deep, pinning one of the undead.

  He shook the creature off and returned the blade to his back before turning to them and jogging over. “Ready to go?” He asked.

  Cal nodded. “Which way did you come from.” he asked and Teth pointed in the direction that the sword had been stabbed into the wall. “Then the only way we haven’t gone yet it this way.” Cal noted, nodding towards the third passage.

  They continued on, moving as fast as they felt was safe with Veil in the lead watching out for traps that never came.

  Like in the tomb five months earlier once inside the door it seemed as though they didn’t care about traps, they just wanted to prove something with fighting. Back then it had been the constructs. Here it was undead.

  Twice more they were forced to kill undead of some kind. One massive cyclops who had been reanimated that Cal had been able to blind with a well aimed flame bullet to the eye, giving Teth the opportunity to knock it down and cut it’s head off with his massive sword. Then after another twenty minutes of walking they were forced to face off against several black cloaked creatures in a pool of water that cal simply assumed were undead but were easily destroyed by tearing them apart or cutting them to pieces.

  They walked for what felt like a full day and night before they finally emerged in what appeared to be the end of the labirinth. A large circular room with one door and another passage entrance, each equal distance from each other. Cal froze when he saw the room, it reminded him so much of the arena with the constructs from the first tomb. Those walls were gold while these were black marble, and there was only one entrance back then.

  But it was so similar in every other way.

  “Wait.” Cal said, holding out a hand and, unlike back then, everyone stopped. His eyes raked the area. When Leni had stepped out the constructs had attacked. Would the same thing happen now?

  “What is it?” Veil asked.

  “I think if we step out onto the circle it’ll-”

  There was a scream from ahead of them, from the door and that’s when Cal noticed that the door was open. “Never mind, go!” Cal said, cringing and running across the room. Nothing happened on the way there and they reached the door in moments. The door was just like the one at the entrance, a black scull embedded in it, but this one looked like it could be detached.

  Directly below it, glowing and humming quietly in the common hand were the words Tomb of a liberator. It was the same title as the first tomb.

  They were related.

  Cal pushed the door open to see inside and stepped in.

  The room was large, a hundred meters in length and half as wide. It was like a throne room with decorations everywhere and pillars running its length. The walls were made of a single massive piece of black marble with gold veins, as if they carved the room out of it, rather than building a room of blocks.

  There was iconography of undeath all over the walls. Skulls, zombies, death in general. This room didn’t have any treasure that Cal could see, but what it did have was a long green carpet that led up the room to an empty pedestal in front of which Kaila and Meliana stood facing each other.

  Meliana had blood on her lip and a whithering mark on her cheek where death magic had hit her, and she held ice power congealed into her hand, ready to strike.

  Kaila had ice burns on her neck and chest where power had burned away pieces of her cloak. Frost had gathered on her shoulder and she held green death energy in her hands.

  “What the-” Cal exclaimed, rushing forward despite his fear of traps. “What are you doing?!” he called out, Veil and Teth close behind.

  Both Kaila and Meliana turned to look at him, then shouted, almost at the same time, “She attacked me!”

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