Because Hitryel could still activate his Ethersurge, he strengthened his arms with Flow and pulled his wrists apart, the chains connecting the steel cuffs tensing stiff.
"It's no use so stop doing that already," Joysaleen suggested. "Can't you wait just a tiny bit longer?" Hitryel held the map to the side, Joysaleen's eyes glued to it, as they navigated their way to the southern mines. They'd left Lexnal's office around 15 minutes back and still hadn't reached their destination.
On their way here, they'd ducked away from more than a single horde of miners, each too panicked to cause any alarm as they passed by, and each making Joysaleen's face sickly pale.
She desperately avoided looking even to their general direction, though Hitryel didn't find it important enough to ask. Maybe it was their smell…? Hitryel pulled his wrists apart again, this time absently, tearing the map he held.
"Huh?"
"Are you happy now!" Joysaleen shouted. "Now hold still."
Hitryel sighed, relaxing. But the one who'd handcuffed him wouldn't be able to after Hitryel finds him. And the one who'd touched Kelty's gloves would receive an even harsher punishment. To touch a warrior's weapon without having the honor to match one, that was amongst the greatest of sins.
"Um…are you alright, Hitryel?" Joysaleen asked, looking at his tightened expression. "We're almost there."
"Good," Hitryel said, jogging faster.
"What's your plan for this round?" Joysaleen asked, keeping up. "Those three have weird Etherskills. You can't look forward to a straight fight." Did she find this out first hand when she was captured by them?
"That Ernash guy got me by stealing Kelty's gloves," Hitryel said. "If that's his best trick then he's going to be surprised this time."
They turned a corner and the walls expanded out, as if they were now going into the stomach of some gigantic snake with stony insides. The wall on either side was lined with bright cylindrical lamps going on and on until becoming dots of white.
"Etherskills are more complicated than that," Joysaleen said. "What if this time he steals your underwear? Would you be able to fight like that?"
"Huh?" Hitryel whipped his head toward her, baffled. "Did you just…?"
"I'm just saying," Joysaleen said with a tilt of her head, brows rising as she shrugged. "You must anticipate all the dirty tricks your opponents throw at you. We have no idea about how any of their Etherskills work."
"One of them is a thief," Hitryel said, passing a toppled cart. "Another cuffs you. The last one smokes. I think I have all the ideas I need."
"Lexnal wasn't smoking, you moron," Joysaleen said with a chuckle. "That was a lollipop, not a smokestick."
"You're the moron here!" Hitryel said, annoyed. "I didn't spit the idea of doodling on a knocked out person's face. It was you."
"Admit you wanted to do it too," Joysaleen said, rolling her eyes. "If my hands weren't cuffed, I for sure would've done it without a second thought."
"That's because you're not a warrior," Hitryel said. "There's no honor in disrespecting a defeated opponent." He'd learned it the hard way.
'The Demon is coming! Everyone, hide!'
'Don't go near him! He's not human!'
Hitryel shook his head, knocking off the cries from his past that cursed him still.
Joysaleen eyed him for a long moment…before her cheeks puffed and she burst into laughter, the cackling echoing as they jogged deeper. "You seriously said that with a straight face," she said in between her laughs. "That's flucking wild."
The girl was simply annoying. Everything about her was just smoking annoying. "Cut the smoke," Hitryel said, a nerve popping on his forehead. "At least I'm not delusional like you. Seeing leeches and stuff on people? And why did every miner make you want to throw up? They're not dirty. It's their smoking job. If you can't respect that, you're the one with the problem."
"No, no," Joysaleen said, eyebrows furrowing. "It wasn't that. It was the leeches. Those leeches on every miner here. I'm not a freak like you, so forgive me for getting fazed by that sight. But come on, you can't point fingers at me for something so gross. I mean…more than a dozen leeches stuck to…stuck to a…per—" She grimaced, her eyelids squishing shut, as she again looked like she was about to throw up.
Sweat trickled down Hitryel's brow as he pressed a palm against her Healmarked cheek, turning her head away. "Idiot! If even a bit of that touches me, you're dead!"
###
Arold grunted loudly as Ernash punched him in the face again, harder than the previous one. He could make out the soft red glow burning on the skyguard's bloodied fist through the slit of his throbbing left eye, the other being completely swollen shut.
Bodies of the two "normal" cavelurkers rested between the hordes of the small ones hiding behind the spiky pillars not too far to the side, each creature too scared to move out of this well-lit open cave.
Arold's hands were tied behind him, the chain of the cuffs going around the large conical rock pillar jutting from the ground to which his back was pinned against, the ceiling above his dizzy head mirroring the floor, tens of scattered spiky pillars pointing down. Arold had never imagined southern caves to be his grave.
But then again, he'd also imagined that he'd one day step outside Ezlus, looking up at a sky that was not made of stone.
Both thoughts were stupid—the one he hadn't thought and even the one he had.
Lexnal shook out a round piece of pink candy from a matchbox-sized candy case, offering it to Ernash. The well-built skyguard lowered his bloodied hands to his sides, not bothering to clean them, crimson tears dripping from his knuckles to the irregular ground.
Celd was watching from a short distance away, one hand pocketed, the other holding Arold's bow. Ernash was the one who'd done all the beating for the past couple minutes. But now he stepped aside to make way for Lexnal, the unaccepted candy going inside the slick-haired skyguard's own mouth. Arold's legs gave up again.
Lexnal sighed as he rolled his eyes, crunching the candy inside his mouth, peeling the wrapper of another lollipop. "Stand up," he said in a fed up tone. "Your debt isn't cleared yet."
Arold's jaw was probably broken. Not that he could've said anything if it weren't. The moment he'd discovered what was going on inside Ezlus Mines all those years ago, fear toward these men had seized home inside his frail heart.
The leaders of Legion 55 were doing much more than simple lucentum mining down here. And what made it scary was the fact that they'd been doing it for years, without anyone's knowledge. How could all the other skyguards fail to discover something like that?
Arold feared that they too were somehow involved in Lexnal's plan due to this, keeping him from revealing his discoveries to them. But now he was incapable of it. Lexnal had silenced him.
'But let me ask you a simple question. Do you know why the independent research team that came here failed to stay alive?'
'Because their leader made the same discovery as you.'
But…rock lungs had taken them… What was Lexnal even trying to say by this?
"Didn't you hear me?" Lexnal said, louder. "You have to pay, brat, so stand up!"
Every other research team that had stepped inside Ezlus Mines had left shortly after learning that rock lungs was not a myth. The ancient disease was thought to literally turn your lungs into rocks, but that was the only false part about it that Arold could find. Ezlus Mines accepted anyone that came here…but denied them the right to leave.
Arold was also amongst the ones bound to these dark caves, forever cursed to never see the light of the surface again. He wouldn't want the same for anyone.
So he took to scaring away any outsider who'd venture deeper into these twisting caves, because they still considered rock lungs to be a hoax. He was exceptionally good at removing his presence, even more so than the little cavelurkers, so it wasn't hard for him. But in his five years of doing this, he'd never imagined he'd come across someone like Ryuzio.
'Who said anything about leaving, Aro?' Ryuzio had shouted with a smile, blood covering his face. 'Friends don't leave each other, yeah!'
But just like others…he'd also left. Good for him.
Arold should've realized it back then…
'I don't read books,' Ryuzio had said with a shake of his head. 'They're boring.'
The only reason he was willing to stay down here…must've been his lack of knowledge about rock lungs. If the boy knew about it back then…he'd left right away. Him wandering that deep into the caves had made Arold think he belonged to the second camp of outsiders—ones that didn't consider the deadly disease to be real. But maybe it hadn't been the case. It wasn't too outlandish an idea considering Ryuzio. The boy was insane, after all.
And also the first person to call him a friend so proudly—
"Look alive, kid!" Lexnal jabbed a foot toe-first into Arold's ribs, making him throw up blood. "Get up. We don't have all day. You haven't returned even 1% of what you lost me."
Arold's head sunk even deeper, his face burning with stinging pain from the punches he ate. His legs were shaking from an ugly mix of both fear and pain.
But then Lexnal went and poisoned the whole thing by squatting down and whispering something that could've only been described as a curse.
Arold's eyes widened, tears welling up.
Lexnal smiled, standing. "That's worth 2% now. Keep going. Or should I tell you the whole thing from the very start?"
'It's not true,' Arold told himself, tears washing down the blood on his face as he denied Lexnal's whisper. 'It can't be… He's lying. Don't trust him, Arold.' But if it was true…
"Or should I start from the very end?" Lenxal said, putting the new lollipop in his mouth. "Because that's the part where I killed your mother."
Arold screamed inaudibly over Lexnal's voice, not wanting to hear another word from the man. Jaw hurting, tears dripping to the rocky ground, he put his head down as he continued to cry loudly.
Lexnal laughed. "3% debt cleared. It won't take much longer if you keep this pace. Keep it up, kid."
It was a mistake. Arold should've never come here in the first place. None of them should've.