Tal calmly took a sip of her tea, savoring the way the warmth of this particular brew drove away the slight chill that had crept into the hideout once the sun had fallen. While it may very well have been a decent place to take refuge, Mike had not had time to fashion much in the way of creature comforts.
Such things rarely mattered in the grand scheme of things, but it might be beneficial to remind him that his party mainly consisted of young women, two of which hail from noble backgrounds, and it would not be a bad idea to take that into account when planning future bases of operation.
"I suppose Sir Mike and the others should be returning soon." William offered, interrupting the silence that had sprung up between the two of them for nearly a half hour. "Perhaps I shall retire to the kitchens and ensure we have something warm to welcome them with."
"Is fine." She replied, indicating that she thought it was a good idea.
The butler was sitting nearby, having successfully guided Lily into her room and set her to a simple course of study in regards to regional history. Tal suspected that his efforts were likely futile, since the obtuse woman had an almost pathological inability to remember anything that didn't relate to her interests, but she had to give the man credit nonetheless. He put forth every effort to do his job as her de facto tutor and guardian.
While he was getting up to start the lengthy process of starting a fire in the hideout's makeshift stove, Tal caught the faint sound of hoofbeats in the distance. She paused to listen for a few seconds and confirmed that they were growing closer.
"Someone coming. Prepare Lily." She told William, before stepping outside to get a better vantage point.
A whispered request to Akiriti, and her mind was soon riding along with the bird-like Air Spirit as it breezed over the tops of the trees. She took a brief moment to enjoy the sensation of flight, the caress of the wind against her companion's semi-corporeal wings, before focusing on the situation at hand.
Scanning the nearby region with her borrowed senses, she quickly located the interlopers, a pair of riders moving at a dangerously fast pace. When she had drawn close enough to identify them, she felt her heart sink.
Releasing her connection with Akiriti, she walked back into the hideout and spoke to Lily and William. "False alarm. Sera and Morris."
The butler blinked. "It is good that they aren't enemies, but why are they returning on horseback and without Sir Mike?"
"Unknown. Must wait." She replied, indicating that all would be explained once their friends had joined them. Thankfully, it was a short wait.
In a matter of minutes, a slightly breathless Sera burst into the room, demanding. "Did Mike come here?!"
Tal shook her head. "Not seen."
The Oracle bit her lip in frustration, walked over to one of the stonework chairs and sat down. Morris, evidently having dealt with the pair's horses, stumbled in next to provide a bit more context.
"We were hoping that he might have headed here instead." He offered, a bit listlessly.
"What happened?"
He scratched his neck. "Truthfully, I am not fully certain. We had just finished fighting the final boss and were in the process of taking the portal back down to the entrance. Mike said he wanted to check something out and told us to go on ahead. Not long after we left the dungeon, the whole Seaside Citadel started shaking, and dozens of parties of delvers were forcefully ejected from the main portal. And then the whole thing just...collapsed in on itself."
"I'm afraid I don't follow." William asked.
"I mean, it looked like the entire citadel was just sucked up into a tiny pinprick of light that simply vanished immediately afterwards, leaving a massive hole in the ground that quickly filled up with sea water." Morris explained wearily while rubbing his face and collapsing into another chair.
"But surely Sir Mike was ejected with the rest of the delvers."
The bard glanced away, expression uncertain, but eventually shook his head in a firm denial.
"He vanished." Sera offered before grimacing. "He probably did something foolish again. I just hope didn't get himself killed doing it, because I have every intention of strangling the man the next time I see him for making me worried like this!"
Tal examined her friends sadly. They had clearly worn themselves out coming here as quickly as they could, exhausting themselves for the small possibility that Mike had shown up here first without letting them know. They definitely need a few words of encouragement. "Will be fine. Have faith."
Morris nodded in agreement and gave a big sigh without saying anything.
Sera on the other hand only seemed to be getting more agitated. "If he got sucked into interdimensional space or became trapped in a collapsing reality, then even he might have difficulty surviving. How can I…"
She trailed off with a glazed look in her eyes, mouth hanging open slightly as she stared off into space. With the ease of someone long practiced in it, Tal gently led the Oracle to a chair and had her sit down before returning to her own seat to wait for whatever insight her friend managed to glean from her vision.
This behavior earned a few questioning glances from Morris and William, but they held their tongues. After a few seconds, Sera gasped and rubbed her forehead, obviously coming out of her trance.
"What news?" Tal asked once she'd regained some degree of her composure.
The Oracle glanced over at her, face unreadable. "Well, on the bright side, I think we can stop worrying about whether or not Mike made it out of the dungeon realm. I just had a vision of him in Gildusi."
"Then why don't you sound relieved?" Morris asked.
She stared blankly into space again for a few seconds before answering. "I don't know what was happening, but in my vision he was...killing everyone and burning the city to the ground in a storm of magical death. There was something off about him, though. Like he was just going through the motions without feeling it, even when…" She swallowed, "...even when his victims were children."
Silence descended on the group for a few moments, before Morris eventually broke it with a question. "Could he have been affected by his ordeals in that dungeon realm? Maybe he's suffering from some kind of temporary insanity?"
Sera shook her head. "I don't know. He looked physically fine, but it's hard to tell with visions. Oftentimes their contents are more allegorical than literal, and even then they only represent a possible future. Mike, in particular, is bad about altering the course of events in a manner that is completely outside of my expectations."
"Perhaps it means that Master Mike is taking a dangerous course of action in the city which might endanger the lives of the citizens." William offered hopefully.
Tal stood up and began packing up her belongings. When she was confronted by three curious stares she offered a simple explanation. "Go there. Find out. Change things?"
That served as an impetus for the group to spring into action, and in a matter of minutes they were pressing on through the grasslands towards Gildusi. Conversation between the five was strained, in part due to the need to keep an eye out for monsters prowling the region at night, but mostly due to the fear and uncertainty that had arisen with the absence of the group's central figure.
For her part Tal was feeling conflicted. While nothing remained certain, she suspected that Mike's experiences in another realm had less to do with his change in mental state than the entity that was currently occupying a piece of his soul.
If that was the case, he should be more than capable of treating himself in the short term, so long as the entity's malign influence hadn't extended too far yet.
However, if he had unconsciously allowed it to burrow deep into his psyche, she feared that he might not be capable of realizing the tainted nature of his own thoughts. If the worst had come to pass, their only hope was to try to get through to him and warn him before it was too late.
Lost in thought, she almost missed it when a quartet of leaves passed in front of her, carried by the wind. They caught a brief eddy and swirled in a lazy fashion before continuing on their way. It might have appeared a bit odd to the casual observer, but the unusual path of the leaves would be quickly forgotten by any not versed in the ways of Spirit Magic.
Tal felt her heart lighten. It seemed that help was on the way. Now they just needed to hold out until it arrived.
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Julia swallowed trying to wet her dry throat, but nothing seemed to relieve her discomfort. A palpable tension filled the air, smothering her with unseen pressure until it took all of her focus to just keep putting one foot in front of the other. Dorn, for all of his earlier eagerness, appeared to be feeling it as well, and his energetic chatter had slowly trickled away into silence while they followed the stranger as he cut his way deeper into the ruins through a veritable army of ghouls.
As they progressed, he began to kill these enemies with more and more violent methods until he had reached the point where he was simply causing them to spontaneously burst into flame as soon as he laid eyes on them. They had been at it for nearly a half hour when he finally turned back towards them, a cold look in his eyes.
"This is taking too long. Do you have any information that will lead us to the ritual site faster?" He asked.
Julia was confused for a moment, but then remembered the snatches of his and Dorn's conversation from earlier. Apparently the attack of the monsters on the surface was both a distraction and a component of some ritual the ghouls were attempting to complete.
Dorn spoke up. "The guard you interrogated mentioned that it was located at the deepest portion of the ruins, in a chamber that dwarfs even the largest of cathedrals. Are you not able to use your abilities to suss out such a location?"
The man grimaced. "I've tried, but the materials used to create much of these ruins are resistant to Earth Magic. I can still determine a rough outline of underground structures, but I have no way of knowing what is what down here."
"Then perhaps it's time to question another guard. Surely anyone this deep must have some knowledge of the layout of the ruins."
For a moment, the man stared at him in surprise, like the thought hadn't occurred to him. Finally he muttered under his breath. "Why didn't I...Why am I…" He shook his head as if trying to clear it of intrusive ideas, before finally concentrating on the pair of them. "Alright, I'll capture the next guard and make him take us to the ritual site."
"On that note," Dorn added before the man stalked off to find another victim, "do you know what the purpose of this ritual is? If we have an idea of what the Shadow Council intends on doing, it will better arm us against their future wiles."
"Hm? Didn't I tell you?" He asked over his shoulder. "They are trying to free their god from a several millennia long imprisonment, or something like that. You know, typical cult nonsense."
Despite his nonchalance, Julia definitely didn't feel any better about the situation after hearing that answer.