The Princess of Light and The Knight of Shadow

Year 1: Fifth Month, Part 2

"Are you sure this is the right way?"

Estella scrunched her face, glancing at Aldros in annoyance before burying her nose in the map she was holding. They had taken a left turn at the fork, and they should have reached another junction by this point. But the dark corridor just went on and on.

"Maybe the one who drew the map was wrong," Nox suggested. He held Erebos, fidgeting where he stood. "We can just revise it and report the discrepancy."

"Right," Estella mumbled. She crossed out the junction and drew a corridor in its place.

Exploration was always a tedious mission, and it was annoying that the task fell on her group. She never liked journeying into the unknown, though the challenge of it, including facing potentially dangerous monsters, were exhilarating and terrifying at the same time.

But she was not worried. With her and Nox while Aldros and Erian supported them, mapping out the rest of these tunnels should be easy. Besides, their time limit was only four hours, including the return trip. And they had already spent one hour. They would be finished soon.

Satisfied with her work, Estella rolled the map and proceeded onward, flanked by Nox and Erian. Aldros guarded the rear, his hammer resting on his broad shoulder.

The corridor was damp and dark, and the only light illuminating the path came from one of the two lamps they had brought. Estella held one in her left hand, keeping her other hand free. Though she didn't expect a fight, letting her guard down wasn't advisable.

"I wonder who built these tunnels?" Erian was whispering, but the silence and narrow space magnified his voice. "They looked old."

"Coltar was once populated by dwarves," Nox said. "They were probably the ones who built the tunnels." He paused for a moment. "I'm guessing there are mines below us."

Erian sighed. "Too bad we can't go down there. If there are dwarf mines, they are surely filled with treasure."

"They would have been emptied when the dwarves left," Aldros said with a grunt. "I wouldn't count on it, kid."

Finally they reached the end of the corridor, leading to a chamber that branched off in two directions. Estella marked the location on her map as they entered, then looked around with a frown.

Where should they go next?

The chamber was small and unadorned, making it difficult to determine what it originally was. The ceiling was so low that Aldros's hammer scraped against it, an irritating sound that made Estella want to scratch her ears.

She resisted the urge and focused on the choice she needed to make. Right or onward? The three men stared at her expectantly, waiting for her decision.

Estella studied the map, but it wouldn't help at all. The unexplored parts were too vast to let her make assumptions of where either direction led to. She looked at the right passage; it was pitch black and seemed uninviting, but that was usual for tunnels like these. The path ahead was the same, though she was quite certain it wouldn't lead them to the lower levels.

Lady Lyris was specific: do not go lower.

"That way." She pointed ahead before marching toward the gloom.

The tunnel widened at some point, spilling them into a vast hallway lined with cracked pillars. Estella swept the lamp around, but the light didn't reach past thirty feet in all directions. The air was stale, and there was something about the darkness that made her skin crawl. Above her, she couldn't see the ceiling.

She shivered, but pressed on. It was nothing. She was just being paranoid, especially with that flower field. The Academy wouldn't let its students venture into a dangerous location, after all.