David Wells - Linkershim

The sentinel didn’t hesitate, dropping its damaged spear and drawing its sword before pressing the attack, raising its shield high and thrusting low, targeting the inside of Alexander’s leg. He slipped aside, cut the blade of the sentinel’s sword, then swept up through its shield and forearm. The sentinel froze for a fraction of a moment, then turned to ash and fell to the floor in a grey cloud.

There was a moment of silence before the whole world seemed to vibrate. The enormous door started to grind and move.

“Run!” Alexander shouted. “We have to make it through!”

He darted ahead, racing through the narrow passage while the block of stone creaked and complained, coming to life for the first time in centuries. He wasn’t sure what had happened, but he was certain that he didn’t want to be on the wrong side of the door when it closed. They reached the other side, racing into a room so big that Alexander couldn’t see the far wall with his all around sight. A forest filled the room, created in perfect detail down to the texture of the bark and the haphazard ground cover, all made entirely of stone and metal.

The world seemed to rumble as some ancient mechanism struggled to move the broken door, then there was a jolt and the fissure in the enormous door slammed shut with a deafening crack that echoed throughout the forest room.

“I guess we won’t be going back that way,” Jack said.

“Probably not,” Alexander agreed, retrieving Luminessence from his Wizard’s Den and filling the immediate area with light.

The detail was breathtaking. Leaves made of copper adorned stone replicas of a wide variety of deciduous trees, while giant firs reached up to the ceiling several hundred feet overhead, acting as support pillars for the cavernous chamber.

“How big do you think this room is?” Anja asked.

“Huge,” Alexander said. “I can’t see the far wall.”

Jack whistled, shaking his head in wonder.

“I never imagined a place like this even existed,” Lita whispered.

“I know what you mean,” Alexander said.

A noise filtered through the stone forest-voices in the distance.

“Sounds like overseers,” Jack said.

“They certainly had time to get ahead of us while I healed,” Alexander said. “They’re probably crawling all over the underdark by now.”

“So where to now?” Anja asked.

“Let’s see if we can find another passage that runs along the chasm wall.”

They stayed near the wall of the forest room on their way toward the chasm. As much as Alexander wanted to explore, there was nothing to be gained. And since the room was so big, they could easily get turned around within the maze of stone trees and lose valuable time. The wall offered a point of reference that Alexander hoped would lead them straight to the chasm.

And it did, opening onto a balcony running for a full league along the chasm wall, the entire length of the forest room. Stone trees stood at the edge of the balcony, holding up the ceiling three hundred feet overhead.

“Looks like you’re right,” Jack said, pointing out into the darkness.

They could see clusters of light in the distance, both back toward the entrance and across the chasm, but the thing that caught Alexander’s attention was the giant pillar in the middle of the chasm that was encrusted with glowing crystals.

“Did any of you see that when we first entered the underdark?”

“No,” they said in unison.

“In this darkness, it should have been visible … provided it was glowing when we came in.”

“What are you thinking?” Jack asked.

“When I killed the sentinel, the underdark seemed to take notice. I’m just wondering if I triggered something.”

“You think you woke up some ancient security apparatus?” Jack asked.

“Possibly,” Alexander said. “That sentinel wouldn’t have been there, and that enormous stone door wouldn’t have been there, if someone or something didn’t want to secure this part of the underdark.” He pointed to the edge of the balcony. “There’s no corridor running along the chasm wall that joins the previous part of the underdark with this one. Seems we’ve entered a more secure part of the city.”

“Maybe that means we won’t run into any more bugs,” Anja said.

“We can hope,” Jack said.

They set out along the balcony, keeping a close eye on the artificial forest filling the cavernous space to their right. A bridge arced away from the balcony to the glowing pillar in the middle of the chasm. It was wide, easily broad enough to drive a horse-drawn cart across, and the railings on each side looked like perfect rows of oversized tulips, three feet high. A few were broken, but most were intact and flawless.

“Should we try the bridge?” Jack asked.

“Let’s see if there’s a corridor along the chasm wall leading from the other side of the balcony first,” Alexander said. “A lot of those bridges don’t look entirely stable, so I’d rather avoid them if we can.”

Muffled voices filtered out of the stone forest. Alexander reached out with his all around sight, sweeping through the artificial trees until he found the platoon of men. Most were Lancers, but without their force lances. They were led by an Acuna wizard who’d brought along a few overseers for good measure.

“Seems they ran out of overseers and started sending in Lancers.”

“This entire place is probably crawling with them by now,” Jack said.

“Let’s keep moving,” Alexander said, continuing along the balcony, staying close to the railing. The sheer size of the forest room was impressive but it only served to underscore the vastness of the underdark-as big as any city in the world and bigger than most. He couldn’t help wondering anew about those who had lived here so long ago.

Several more bridges arced gracefully away from the balcony into the darkness. All looked intact, but Alexander ignored them, hoping the balcony would join with a corridor running along the wall of the chasm, but his hopes were in vain. The balcony ended without a way off save the bridges or whatever passages might lead out of the forest room.

Not a minute after they turned back to try one of the bridges, men started filing out of the forest several hundred feet ahead of them, fanning out across the balcony and drawing weapons, the overseers shouting orders to the soldiers, forming them into two ranks stretching across the balcony, blocking escape by any route except the forest.

“Run or fight?” Jataan asked.

Before Alexander could answer, a blue sphere the size of an apple shot forth from the wizard’s hand, crossing the distance with alarming speed. Time seemed to slow. Alexander saw the coming moments, and they were devastating. He moved quickly, pulling Anja away from the balcony, nearly throwing her toward the forest just a moment before the force sphere detonated. His friends were all blown toward the forest, scattering them across the stone floor, dazing them all. He was blown from his feet toward the chasm, over the railing and into the deep dark.

He’d known what was going to happen to him the moment the Acuna wizard cast his spell, but it was far preferable to losing Anja to the dark. He saw the balcony railing pass beneath him, then nothing but endless darkness. Gravity started to claim him.

He opened the door to his Wizard’s Den and tumbled inside, the portal suspended in space over the void a dozen feet from the railing. He hit hard, landing poorly, Luminessence clattering across the floor. Willing himself to his knees and then to his feet, he looked out the door but couldn’t see past the railing. He heard shouting and boots running on stone.

Stepping up on a chair, he could just see over the railing. Jataan was up. Anja was racing toward the railing with a look of wild panic that melted into relief the moment she saw him standing in the doorway of his Wizard’s Den. Soldiers were advancing on Jataan. He strode calmly toward them, no hint of a weapon in his hands.