Chapter 139 – Deeper

The two greater labyrinthine horrors waited in the antimagic room. The three heavies leaned their war hammers near the door’s threshold, and the soldiers stood ready with their spears. Grimald led the charge, quickly establishing the front of the shield wall, followed by the two other heavies. Mirian used The Dance of the Dusk Waves to quickly cut apart the tendrils as the soldiers came in, adding another two spears to hold the horrors at bay.

Mirian switched to the Spear That Cuts Water stance, flowing away from the horrors as they tried to impale her with their legs. While the spears restricted their movement, she cut at each leg that lashed out. When the two horrors charged together, they snapped two of the spears, and sent Gromaer flying backward.

“Retreat!” Mirian snapped.

The two other heavies kept their shields raised as they walked backwards until they were through the doorway.

Mirian healed a nasty gash on Gromaer’s shoulder and the bruises he’d gathered. “Anyone else hurt? Grimald, let me see that arm. There. Two minute breather, then we go back in.”

Gromaer’s shield was lying on the ground near the door, but they’d probably be able to push the horrors back enough to retrieve it.

“Back in, let’s go. Ready? Advance!” Mirian called out. With Eclipse and the spears harrying the greater horrors, they pushed into the room again. This time, they stayed closer to the door. The fighting dragged on for minutes on end, until Mirian could see the endurance of her allies was waning.

“Retreat. Three minutes, then back in.”

They passed around water skins and caught their breath.

“Advance!”

Four more times they repeated this. It was an absolute slog. Finally, she’d cut up the front legs and torsos enough that the horrors began to make that weird hissing sound.

“There’s the merge! Grab the hammers! Hit it now!”

They dropped the shields, and while the two soldiers kept a spear embedded in each horror, Mirian came at the center, carving hunks of the tough flesh apart. She assumed Lone Pine so that she could keep her attacks relentless. Unlike dueling, which involved a lot of stabbing, puncture wounds were insufficient. She had to cut them apart. Rapiers were usually terrible at that, but Eclipse wasn’t some normal sword, and the unnaturally sharp blade didn’t dull as it cut into the creature again and again.

Then the heavies joined the fray with their war hammers, with Grimald targeting the legs on the left one while the other two smashed apart the legs on the right target. There was the sickening sound of carapace crunching and flesh splorching as they lent all their strength to the blows.

As the two maws opened, Mirian stuck Eclipse right down the center of the left one, raking the inside as she withdrew her blade. She focused on carving a path down the center of the creatures, reasoning that if they couldn’t complete the merger, they’d be crippled. And it’s working! she elated.

With the crack! of steel on carapaced flesh, Aelius’s frontliners finished smashing apart the legs of the right greater horror. It crumpled to the ground, letting out a gurgling scream as ichor poured onto the ground.

As it fell, Mirian targeted the strange head-like protrusion on the top of the torso. She slashed at it once, then twice, then sent her blade right through the center. The creature let out an earsplitting scream again, then collapsed onto the ground, twitching.

Mirian embraced Dusk Waves and came at the left side of the horror, cutting apart its mouth-torso. One of the soldiers managed to pin his spear inside the horror’s maw as it opened, the crossguard lodging in its mouth as the thick speartip pierced out the other end. Mirian vaulted on top of the creature as it thrashed, then embraced Lone Pine. She dug Eclipse deep into its back and dragged Eclipse across the spine with both hands. The back of the creature split open like a rotting melon. Even after the bodies had stilled, Mirian continued to cut the thing apart. No way was she risking it regenerating on them.

“Wow,” Cediri said. “You actually did it.”

“Third try’s the charm,” Mirian said.

Gromaer gave her a funny look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t worry about it.” Mirian let out a big breath and wiped some of the sweat off her brow. “Whew. Now let’s see if we can get this door open.”

She approached the far end of the room, where minuscule glyphs were carved directly into the wall by the doorframe. She hadn’t been able to analyze them before, so she had no idea what to expect.

Sections of the glyphs on the wall were tribonded glyphs, the kind she still hadn’t been able to replicate because they required simultaneous scribing. She’d also have to do more analysis of what those sequences did, which would require delicate divination equipment in Torrian Tower at the very least.

The Vaults were clearly designed with puzzles and trials in mind, though. Four sections of markings that were far simpler than stood out. They were clustered into four insets of stone, engraved with both glyphs and runes.

Cediri and Aelius joined her, while the others watched their backs. “This doesn’t make sense,” Cediri said. “That sequence… its used to pull inanimate objects at short ranges. There’s nothing for it to pull. And I’ve never seen these other glyphs.”

Mirian read the sequence. Pull object at these coordinates from spell, trigger arcane energy burst if detects—and then the sequence transitioned to celestial runes—different tissues? I think that’s what that is. But the runes are different in each one. Referring to body parts, but in strange places. A human wouldn’t have…

And then she got it.

“We need parts from the greater horrors. That one needs one of the tendrils. That one needs that weird cartilage they have. That one needs something from a leg. Either the muscle sinews or the carapace, I’m not familiar with that… glyph. And that one needs part of the torso-mouth,” Mirian said, pointing at each recessed section.

Aelius raised an eyebrow. “That was fast.”

“I’ve studied a lot of glyphs.” That was true enough.

They cut up a chunk of the horror, then placed the tissue samples in the slot. As soon as the correct sample was there, it levitated in its spot. The third slot rejected the carapace from the leg, but accepted the sinewy muscle from the inner part.

Silently, the stone door slid open, revealing a short hallway that led to another door.

“It worked,” Mirian said, about as surprised as everyone else.

One of the soldiers cleared his throat. “Ah, technically, the threat to the town has been eliminated. So…”

“Oh come on,” Cediri said. “You know you want to see what’s down here.”

The two soldiers looked at each other. “Alright, yeah,” one said, and the other didn’t protest.

The group grabbed their packs and supplies from the previous room, then piled the tower shields and extra spears on the other side of the door they’d just opened. Mercifully, the antimagic suppression field ended there. Then they continued down the corridor. This door required no special puzzles, it just opened when touched.

Beyond was a room unlike any other she’d seen in the Labyrinth.

Dozens of different crystals poked out from different rock formations. It looked like parts of a cave had burst up from the floor, though Mirian knew by now the Labyrinth wouldn’t let those formations be there unless it wanted them there. There were dark stone pedestals scattered throughout the room, and a green stone table with a glass sphere and several strange looking brass implements neatly organized on top of it. In other parts of the room, there were things that looked a bit like sarcophagi, only they were too small to fit a person, and there was nothing inside them.

There were two doors, each with glyph sequences written in a circle in their center.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

The other arcanists joined them. Aelius looked at Beatrice. “Ever seen anything like this?”

“Not like this one. Mirian?”

Mirian was already deep in thought. She approached the door. As she did, she felt an antimagic field again, as soon as she crossed a few feet past the entrance. “Damnit, another suppression field.” She stepped back. “But it only affects part of the room.”

“Anything dangerous?” Grimald asked.

“Seems clear. Post two by the door to keep watch. Scrappy still could show up. We’re pinned in if it does.”

“I can handle Scrappy,” Mirian said. Probably. Her focus was mostly on the room, and the glyphs on the doors.

“What’s with the rock outcroppings?” the Ennecus sorcerer asked.

“Normal rock formations don’t look like this,” the mage said.

“They’re all crystals that would be useful in conduits,” Mirian said. She’d thought that was too obvious to be stated. “These doors need specific types and amounts of energy to hit them. Which means spells, but I don’t know how we’re supposed to cast spells and hit the door through the antimagic suppression field.”

Cediri tapped his chin thoughtfully. “Perhaps there’s a way to disable the field without needing to drill into the walls.”

“If we drill into the walls, we definitely attract Scrappy,” Aelius said. “And despite our proto-archmage here, I’d rather not test her claims if we can avoid it. We’ve never been able to disable an antimagic field we found in the Vaults through brute force. Outside the Vault, we only managed it once, and we lost two people to a horde. So. We play the Labyrinth’s little game, yeah?”