The stairs led them down quite deep, nearly 50 feet into the ground. They went down one after the other, as there was no space for them to walk alongside each other. Their only source of light was the torch the female bandit at the front of the group held in her hand.
Corwyn fervently looked around and occasionally extended his hand towards the wall while they were descending. In order to keep the earth and sand from entering this passage, those who dug it out had apparently encased the walls with wooden planks. Corwyn could feel from his touch that the wood used for this impromptu wall was actually quite old already, as it was not in the best condition. He really hoped that it wouldn't suddenly give away under the pressure from the sand, burying them alive in this cellar. A shudder crept over his body, and he quickly shook his head wildly to get rid of those thoughts.
It took them about half a minute to descend the staircase. At the end of long, dark tunnel, a wide space opened up before them. This was undoubtedly the hidden cellar the young woman walking in front of them had talked about.
Unlike the staircase, the walls of this room were made from proper stone. The ceiling had been constructed with the help of wooden planks, supported by multiple thick pillars made from wood as well. The room was surprisingly quite large, measuring about 40 feet in length and 30 in width. At the wall opposite to them, multiple crates were stacked on top of each other, most likely containing emergency supplies for times like these, when the people needed to take shelter.
Once every one of them had finished observing the cellar, they each took a seat in the middle of the room, each one of them leaning against a nearby pillar. Now that they were finally safe for the time being, Corwyn could relax at last and let out all of the tension that had built up over the long fight and their escape. His two companions let their shoulders sink as well and sighed in relief. They were certainly in a really strange situation, but at least, they were alive and breathing.
As such thoughts crossed his mind, a sudden worry befell him. Uneasy, he turned towards the one who brought them here, the female puppeteer who had given them much trouble in battle. Carefully, he posed his question.
"Ehmm... I might be overthinking things, but will we be alright down here? We have no direct connection to the surface, so won't we run out of air eventually?"
The two sitting opposite of him, already in a deeply relaxed state, both snapped back to attention when his words reached their ears. Teo's face became the same as Corwyn's, having concern written all over it. The young woman however just blinked a few times before she let out a deep groan, as if he had asked something stupid. Her answer came shortly after that.
"It is true that we have no way to get fresh air down here, but this room was built with that problem already in mind. Within a room of this size, we should have enough air for at least a whole day, plus the one in this entire passage over there. Once the sandstorm has subsided, we simply need to dig our way out of the building above, and problem solved. Any more questions?"
"No, thank you.... By the way, now that we are safe and all, we should treat your wounds before you lose too much blood."
"That's a nice reminder, coming from the one who did this to me! Oh well, go ahead!"
With a "humph", she averted her face from him. This time, it was Corwyn who let out a groan. He had a feeling that the more time he spent with this woman, the more he would dislike her. Some part of her unfriendliness, he had to admit, probably came from the fact that they had been in a fight to the death not long ago. However, it felt like she was trying to be as harsh as possible on purpose. Corwyn couldn't help but feel annoyed. Swallowing his rebuttal, he took a bandage out of his backpack, which every expedition member carried with them in case of emergency.
Once everything had been prepared, Corwyn walked over to her. For a short moment, he felt like he saw something like an inner conflict within her eyes. It disappeared just as quickly though, and she stood up next to him. After a brief moment, she began to remove her mantle, exposing the skin of her arms and collarbone. Underneath, she wore a simple tunic, the same grey as her mantle, and brown leather pants. Her long black hair fell onto her shoulders and behind her back, framing her features in a beautiful way.
Now that she had removed her overcoat, the wound Corwyn had inflicted on her in the area just above her chest was revealed, red from the leaking blood. Corwyn thought for a moment about how he should best apply the bandages, then put his hands to work and began to tend to the wound. Fortunately, it didn't appear like the cut was too deep, so the injury wasn't life-threatening. But it wasn't to be underestimated either. Taking out herbs that could stop the bleeding as well, he began his treatment.
It only took Corwyn a few minutes until he finally had finished his work. Seeing that everything was done, the woman quickly put her mantle back on.
"Thank you."
Having shown her appreciation, she once again turned away from him and sat back down. Corwyn ought to be happy that he got at least some gratitude out of her, so he didn't say anything more either and sat down as well. Now that they had completed this measure, silence filled the room. Feeling a tiny bit awkward, Corwyn glanced over at Teo, hoping he could have a little chat in order to escape the eerie quietness. However, as he looked at his best friend, leaning against the pillar next to his, he had to notice that he had fallen asleep, his head hanging low.
Corwyn was stunned for a moment. He hadn't expected Teo to fall asleep that quickly. On the other hand, it was only understandable. In the battle they had fought not even an hour ago, Teo had taken on the massive golem controlled by the ability user sitting opposite of Corwyn, and that for multiple minutes. Adding all the skirmishes they had gone through even before that, it was no wonder that the fatigue had overwhelmed him.
Now that he thought about it, Corwyn felt his eyelids growing heavy too, but he refused to succumb to sleep just yet. With them was someone who was not only a stranger they had met not even an hour ago, but also a bandit, an outlaw. Although he didn't think she would try something down here, he couldn't let his guard down. So the uncomfortable silence continued.
For many minutes, no one said a single word, until Corwyn finally couldn't take it anymore and tried to start a conversation.
"By the way, I know we have just met each other, but would you mind telling me your name?"
No reaction. She didn't even turn her head towards him. The young woman just continued to sit there silently, facing the wall to her left. Corwyn sighed loudly.
"Okay, I get it! You don't want to talk to me, so I won't force you."
Having given up, he sighed and weakly hung his head.
(What is this situation I'm in? The expedition party is probably miles away already, if they are even alive at all, and I'm stuck here with this rogue woman who doesn't even try to be nice for who knows how many hours! How did it turn out like this? What did I do to deserve this?)
He was about to let out another sigh when suddenly, a quiet voice, almost a whisper, reached his ears.
"Yana."
"Hm? What?"
Surprised, Corwyn raised his head and looked at female bandit again. Her posture hadn't changed, as she was still facing the wall. However, she was looking at him out of the corner of her eyes when she slightly opened her mouth again.
"You wanted to know my name, didn't you? It's Yana."
"Yana, huh? Sounds like a good name! I'm Corwyn, and this is Teo."
Now that he knew the puppeteer's name at last, he couldn't help but show a slight smile. Even though she acted coldly and disinterested, Corwyn was certain that Yana wanted to break the silence and talk as well. But for whatever reason, it seemed like she didn't allow herself to be that nice, so he had to take the initiative.
"Well, Yana, how come you are a bandit, even though you possess such an amazing ability? With your powers, you could easily live a legal and righteous life in one of the many cities. So why are you with them?"
He really wanted to know. A puppeteer ability as strong as hers was extremely rare. The number of people with similar power in the great desert could probably be counted on one hand. How could someone with such spectacular talent end up as an outlaw? It truly was a waste.
However, what he had just asked was an incredibly personal question. With her character, it wouldn't surprise him at all if she responded with a "Mind your own business!" and cut the conversation off there. And just like he thought, her head abruptly spun 90 degrees, facing him. Yana glared at him angrily and looked like she would do what he had expected. But just before the words left her mouth, she actually bit her lip and swallowed them.
Corwyn stared at her in bewilderment. This reaction was a far cry from his expectations. Looking like she fought an intense internal battle, the young woman gritted her teeth for a while until she had calmed down. Then, she looked up again, straight at Corwyn. Although she refrained from speaking in a loud voice, Corwyn felt that she was still upset as her eyes were glaring daggers at him.
"Since your friend over there is sleeping, I will be considerate enough to not yell at you. However, I hope you are aware that your question is crossing more than one line considering that we have just met. So why would you ask something like that?"
Hearing her low, but also pressed voice, Corwyn let his gaze wander towards Teo, still sleeping soundly.
(Ah, so that was the reason for her strange reaction, huh. She's considerably nicer than I thought.)
Retracting his view from Teo and looking at Yana again, he awkwardly scratched his head while replying:
"You're right, it was improper of me, and I was aware of that. I just couldn't help but be curious about it. Your puppeteer ability is one of the strongest throughout the whole continent, and you have an ancient golem at your side. And yet, you're living as a thief, stealing from people and occasionally even murdering them. It doesn't add up!"
It seemed like his praise was mildening her anger a bit, since she no longer glared at him with her eyes. She appeared like she still didn't want to answer his questions though, as her expression remained stern.
"I'm definitely not going to tell you anytime soon. All you need to know is that there are special circumstances involved. I'm not going to tell you anything more than that."
Having rejected him once again, Corwyn had no choice but to give up. However, he had at least discovered that the woman sitting opposite to him was more social than how she wanted to appear. If he kept talking to her, they might even be able to be on friendly terms with each other, although, that was a bit too ambitious maybe.
"Well then, how about I tell you a bit about myself?"