Chapter 230: Back to the Depths

“I don’t like that I’m not going with you,” Aila muttered as she held Jay’s hand. “Maybe we should change this plan.”

“I’d rather you always be next to me, too,” Jay said as she brought Aila’s hand up to her lips and kissed her fingers. “But we need a strong defense to protect our rear and no one does that better than you.”

“True,” Aila’s lips flickered in a smile. “But still. I don’t like it.”

“Me either.”

The unspoken words between them, though, were that they still had to do what they didn’t like, at least if they wanted to achieve the results that they wanted. Seeing the worry lingering on Aila’s face, Jay pulled her close and kissed her lovingly, taking her time to savor her beautiful girlfriend’s lips and tongue. She wouldn’t be gone that long. It was just a temporary parting.

“Okay, the others are getting anxious,” Jay said as she grudgingly pulled away from Aila. “The sooner we go, the sooner we get back.”

“Then you better get going,” Aila said, composing herself into her typical cool exterior. “We’ll hold down the fort here. I expect Kerr to bring you back safe and whole.”

“I’m certain she will.”

Jay pulled her helm on and headed further into the cave entrance where her other selves and the rest of the investigation party waited. Kerr and Bridget were ready to go, along with Willa, Jaxton, and Landry. Everyone else would be staying behind to guard the entrance to the tunnel against a surprise attack from Stavros’ bandits.

“We ready?” Kerr asked as Jay approached.

“Everything’s set,” Jay answered.

“Thank you for helping with this,” Willa said to Jay as the group started moving into the tunnel. “I owe you and your company twice over now.”

“Who’s counting?” Jay shrugged. “Anyway, let’s just hope we can get what you need fast and get back faster. My sisters and I aren’t fans of caves…”

The plan that Jadis had proposed and Willa had agreed to was to split up their forces, leaving a rearguard behind to defend against any attacks from bandits or other hostiles. The defense wasn’t a simple watch, though. Jadis had made sure she was leaving Aila, Eir, Thea, and Sabina behind prepared for a siege. The wooden fortifications that had been hastily constructed before to protect against the bandits trying to push out of the cave had been repurposed to defend against anyone trying to push in. They’d also been added to, with even more logs and large stones set up as a barrier. The wagons and horses had all been moved inside the cave first, though, with everyone set up within it as a defensible position. Aila had, of course, laid down a large number of arcane trap circles around the entrance to the cave, creating a virtually invisible minefield of spikes and snares thanks to the snow. Kerr had even reset a few of the pitfall traps that the bandits had themselves made, hoping to use their traps against them should they try to attack.

Then there were the traps set up inside of the cave. After Willa’s experience, no one was keen to get ambushed from an unexpected direction again. More traps and barricades had been put up inside of the cave so that if the bandits somehow managed to get inside of the tunnel system and try to attack them from within, the camp guard wouldn’t be defenseless from that direction. Of course, there was also the possibility of different assailants coming at them from the cave, depending on how things went for the investigation crew. Hopefully though, if all went well, the only people coming back up to the cave entrance would be Jadis and the rest of the team.

The plan for the investigation team was to search the tunnel that the bandits had come out of when they had ambushed Willa and her squad. Since Stavros had said his own men had been captured somewhere in the tunnels, it made sense to try and backtrack along his trail and see if they could find where that fight had taken place. There could be clues there that could tell them who the other party was, or the supposed imperial soldiers could even still be in the area. Either way, they hoped to find some evidence of who was in the mines, whether they were Egilhard’s men or another unknown third party.

The goal wasn’t to confront but instead simply to examine and observe. If they found some evidence that pointed one way or another, they’d take it and withdraw. If they ran into imperial soldiers, they’d do their best to take note of who they were and pull back immediately. If hostile forces confronted them, they’d only defend themselves as necessary and otherwise retreat, hence the reason for their small numbers. There wasn’t much chance of them being stealthy, not with three heavily armed and armored giants going through stone tunnels, but Jadis wasn’t going to let Kerr go scouting alone, not in the caves. If things went wrong, her muscle was going to be needed.

Kerr led the way as the investigation team approached the hidden bandit tunnel. Looking at it from the outside, it was clear that the bandits hadn’t made the tunnel themselves and had just covered the entrance to a normal mining tunnel up with a clever use of woven sticks, dirt, rocks, and mud. The remains of the cover lay on the ground, mixed with dried-up pools of blood. The tunnel entrance itself was no different from any of the others that Jadis could see up and down the length of the natural tunnel. Thick wooden timbers supported the entrance, with more timbers visible within. Old, rusted lanterns hung from the supports every few dozen feet or so.

“That’s where Achim died,” Willa pointed to a particular spot on the cavern floor that was stained brown with old blood. “During the ambush.”

Jadis hadn’t seen the bodies. The bandits had buried the dead quickly, not wanting to attract bone thieves or wretches. Stopping at the spot that Willa had indicated, Jadis took a moment of silence to pay her respects to the man. She had barely known him, but he’d died in the defense of his country and his brothers in arms, so he deserved that at the very least.

“Lead on,” Jay motioned towards Kerr after she’d said a silent prayer to D that the man’s soul might find his way to a good afterlife.

“Keep those lanterns shuttered,” Kerr told Dys, Willa, and Bridget. “And spread out behind me, don’t stay close. My ears are going to be our earliest warning if something bad is ahead and I don’t need loud as fuck armor messing up my hearing.”

Kerr entered the tunnel first, followed by Willa. The rest spread out, with Jadis making sure that the others were sandwiched between her selves with Syd in the front and Dys bringing up the rear. For Jadis, the going was rough. The mining tunnels had clearly not been meant for people of Nephilim proportions. Jaxton and Landry, both of them tall orcs, had to duck their heads constantly to keep from hitting them on the support beams running across the tunnel ceiling. Since she was several feet taller, Jadis had to crouch walk. It wasn’t hard, her physical abilities making the exercise trivial, but it still wasn’t fun. The only silver lining was that the tunnel wasn’t narrow. It was nowhere near wide enough for Jadis to properly swing her weapons, even the more normally proportioned couldn’t do that, but the walls were spaced far enough apart that Jadis didn’t feel too claustrophobic.

That changed about half an hour into their trek under the mountain.

“Hold,” Willa called back to Syd. “Kerr has stopped.”

Jadis passed the word back to everyone behind her lance-wielding self as she waited to hear what the news was. The tunnel system had proved to be surprisingly extensive. Willa had shown Jadis maps several days ago, those maps now stolen by Stavros, so Jadis had had some idea of what to expect. Still, seeing some sketched drawings was a far cry from walking the caves herself.

The miners had dug deep into the earth under the mountain, following veins of eleria and other precious stones and metals. Several times Jadis saw ore shining in the walls that she thought might be copper or some other metal, though clearly it hadn’t been a priority since the miners hadn’t taken the time to extract the material. The tunnel curved and twisted, with several other tunnels branching off, though those branches all proved to be dead ends. Though the tunnel went far, it never deviated in depth much, with the ground barely slanting. According to Kerr, the tunnel was constantly bearing east, though how she knew that Jadis couldn’t say.

“We’ve got a split,” Kerr announced as she appeared from out of the dark of the tunnel ahead. “There’s a large fissure in the wall, something natural, not dug out by shovels or magic. The bandits definitely passed through there.”

“How do you know?” Willa asked, beating Jadis to the question.

“I asked the centipedes. Also, I found this.”

Kerr held up a dirty strip of cloth. Looking at it closer in the faint light cast by Willa’s lantern, Syd could see that it was a used bandage, stained with dried blood. It didn’t look too old, maybe a few days. If Stavros had told the truth, he’d encountered imperial soldiers somewhere in the tunnels and they’d taken five of his men alive. That meant there had been a fight, with wounds and injuries.

“I can smell the blood leading deeper,” Kerr tossed the bandage to the ground. “It’s old and faint, but it’s there. No wind or water to wash it away down here.”

“Alright, so we go down this side passage,” Syd said. “Let’s get to it.”

“Not that easy…” Kerr murmured as she looked Syd up and down. “Sorry Big Stuff, but there isn’t any way you’re fitting in that crevice.”

“Shit,” Syd cursed a moment later after Kerr had led the group forward.

Indeed, the chances of Jadis’ selves fitting into the fissure were slim. The crack in the wall was maybe two feet wide and four feet tall, tapering so that it was smaller at the top and wider a the bottom. It wasn’t a clean cut, either. With the meager light Jadis could see that the crevice had a sharp turn a few feet in.

“It goes down,” Kerr told them. “I checked inside a ways. Curves like a spiral staircase. Not sure how far it goes, but it’s more than a dozen feet. Probably a lot more.”

“Double shit,” Bridget cursed as well as she stooped to look into the opening. “Even I’m going to have trouble with this. I mean, I’m not sure how my flail is going to get down there.”

“Alright,” Willa huffed out a weary sigh. “You three wait here,” she pointed to the Nephilim. “The rest of us keep going and check what we—”

“No fucking way,” Syd cut the captain off. “There’s no way we’re waiting here while the rest of you go forward into who knows what kind of dangers.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Willa asked, brows furrowed. “You and your sisters can’t fit in there.”

“Not with armor on we can’t,” Syd said as she pulled her helmet off. “But without it, we can make it work.”

It had been a while since Jadis had been in a dangerous situation without the armor Sabina had made for her. The defenses it afforded her were well with the extra weight and noise, but for this situation, she was going to have to part with the cold flame steel armor. It was just too cumbersome to fit in the crevice. Even getting it down the path while it was bundled up would be difficult. Jadis was sure that the tunnel had to widen out eventually since there was no way the bandits would be squeezing themselves down the crack in the stone for too long, but still she decided to leave the armor behind. Without it, she’d be far less noisy in the echoing tunnels and the armor would be waiting for her when she came back. She’d have to make do with her shirts, pants, and leather boots.

Jadis left her weapons behind as well; they were simply too big to fit. Fortunately, ever since the siege at Far Felsen, she’d taken to carrying hand axes with her as backup weapons and useful tools. She hadn’t had much of a reason to use them lately, but she was glad to have them for the squeeze. Bridget also left her polearm while Kerr grudgingly left her bow. Neither were suited to the twisting tunnel either. Jadis had to wonder how the blood bitch had gotten her scythe through the crevice, though as she remembered most of the other bandits had wielded shorter weapons, the tunnel possibly explaining why.

“Okay, let’s go,” Kerr told them as she ducked into the crack, her horns scraping against the stone. “This is going to fucking suck.”

When it came to her turn to squeeze in, Jadis found that she had to agree with the sentiment. Jadis was forced to crawl on all fours, practically dragging herself along with her arms as she pulled around corners too sharp to be comfortable. The tunnel went down, down, and further down. At times the slope was so sharp that Jadis felt like she was practically standing on her head since she had no room to maneuver around. After a dozen yards, the tunnel did get better, getting a little wider and taller, though not by much. The others were able to crouch walk along, though the space was still too small for Jadis to do anything but crawl.

Just before Jadis felt like she was going to have to scream from the claustrophobia that was starting to get to her, Kerr’s voice echoed quietly from up ahead.

“You’ve got to be kidding me…”

“What?” Willa said, concern evident in her voice. “Is there a problem?”

“Not exactly,” Kerr replied. “Just didn’t think I’d ever see this shit again. Jay, you’re going to lose it when you get out here.”

“That doesn’t sound great,” Jay mumbled as she and her other selves continued to crawl forward.

The others pushed on in front of her, the three of Jadis not wanting to potentially block the tunnel for anyone smaller than her. As she followed, she saw them slip through a decently sized crack that opened up into a wider area. This exit was only marginally larger than the one that they had started at, but Jadis still sighed with relief as she crawled out of it into a much, much larger cavern.

“Thank D,” Syd sighed as she stood and stretched her arms high over her head. “I don’t think I could have lasted in that tunnel for much longer. Why the fuck did the bandits come this… way… anyways…”

Syd’s words trailed off as she looked around her, Jadis’ other selves squeezing out of the tunnel behind her. They weren’t in a cavern, not really, but a tunnel. A long, slightly curving tunnel that was wide enough for two of Jadis’ bodies to easily walk side by side and with a ceiling more than twice her height. The large tunnel stretched onward beyond sight, curving ever so slightly. There were some small rock formations, but the cave otherwise looked unnatural, like it had been carved by some godlike hand ages ago.

“The fucking underground monster railroad? Again!?” Syd squawked, utterly flabbergasted.

“Rail what?” Willa asked, turning to look up at Syd.

“Nephilim thing,” Kerr and Bridget both said at the same time.

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