Finn rushed through the dark streets, feeling the pull of her errand. It was a foolish thing to do in the middle of the night, perhaps, but her sleep schedule had been in tatters for so long that it hardly seemed to matter anymore. The babies should sleep for the rest of the night now that they were fed, she told herself.
Everything would be fine. Roland had strongly protested her going alone, ready to pop out of bed and go with her if she insisted on leaving. She assured him that she wouldn't go into the tunnels alone.
His exhaustion had taken hold while she fed the babies, and he'd fallen asleep. He might be mad that she'd left without waking him, but the urge to go was so strong!
She knew that crews had been working all day and night in the tunnels in their efforts to clear them and retrieve what the Void wanted. After two years of such work, digging out the cave-ins had almost been completed, though there was a long way to go before everything was inventoried.
The image of the strange box she'd found during her time in the oldest parts of the tunnel stuck in her mind: a greenish rock, black oddly shaped stick, and other odds and ends sifted through her mind.
She needed orders, likely, to get into the tunnels, so she ran to the General's residence first. The snow crunched and sparkled as she made her way through the streets, and she mentally took in the moonlight before she would have to leave it behind.
Thankfully, the General was home. As she was shown into his office, the familiar sight of him behind his desk poring over papers brought back memories.
"To what do I owe this very late-night visit from my favorite honorary soldier?" He looked up with a tired smile.
"I want to go down in the tunnels, to find what the Void is looking for." Finn saw no need to waste time with pleasantries.
The General frowned.
"The tunnels have been all but evacuated by now," He replied.
"Just send me and a guide. Is Kristoff available? He would be able to help me find on the map where exactly we were last time." Finn scrunched her forehead, unsure if she would be able to navigate the tunnels alone. He had done an excellent job before.
"The men who helped you before were Peacekeeping men…" The General hesitated, "But since we are in a state of battle-readiness, I do have the authority to reassign him from whatever his current duties are."
The General cleared his throat loudly enough to summon the guard at the door, and promptly sent him on the errand of locating and retrieving Kristoff.
"Have him meet Serafina at the Eastern entrance," The General advised, and the soldier saluted before leaving in a rush.
The General gave Finn directions on getting there in case she couldn't find it on her own. She nodded with a smile and thanked the General for his time.
"You'll have to hurry. If an attack comes, those tunnels aren't safe." The older man's brow furrowed. "I can belay the standing orders for a short time, but I will not risk this city. You understand that this undertaking is at your own peril, and that you are responsible for Kristoff's life as well, now?"
Finn shivered.
"I understand. I just feel a pull to do this. I would avoid it if I could." She steeled herself. That was true. She would give almost anything to stay out of the tunnels, but the need to find those items was nearly overwhelming her.
The General's grave expression softened slightly.
"Then go, and hurry. Please be as safe as you can."
Finn nodded and nearly ran for the door. Time seemed of the essence, even though the city had been waiting for days with nothing happening.
Maybe it was that she finally figured out something to do. If she were honest, she'd occasionally thought of the prospect, but lacked the bravery to do anything about it.
She'd also been so focused on the goblins as an attacking force that she hadn't thought of them as particularly stealthy. Their greed seemed coincidental to their potential service to the Void, and made them susceptible to its lies.
Finn was now wondering how much of the Void's plan was orchestrated and how much was a terrible coincidence. To find a race that exactly served its needs…
Her run through the evening air left her lungs aching. The frosty weather was not particularly kind, and she was almost grateful when she reached her destination. She had only to wait a short time before a disheveled Kristoff appeared holding a lamp.
"My lady?" He bowed slightly. "I hear I'm to guide you through the tunnels?"
"Can you get us to where we were before, or close to it?" She asked. "Have you been on the crews that were clearing them?"
He blinked at her in the darkness as if deciding which question to answer first.
"I have been helping to clear the tunnels, though it has been difficult. The area with the genealogies was fairly deep, but I believe we can get there." He said tentatively.
"Good. Let's hurry." She said, turning towards the door.
"Wait… you… are you aware of what's down there, right now?" He asked.
"Yes. I consulted about it. Hurry, let's go!" She said, spurring the man into action. "Do you have waterskins?"
She'd neglected to grab one before she left home. It was a poor oversight, but thankfully Kristoff produced two from his side and handed one to her with a strange look on his face.
She could tell he was concerned. It was understandable. Long, thin ropes had been strung through the deepest parts of the tunnels, attached to traps and alarms to alert the surface as to anything that dug in.
However, as long as they walked softly and did no digging, they should be fine.
She hoped.
Kristoff led the way with his lamp, and Finn grabbed a spare from a table just inside the entrance. Lighting it with the flame from his, she breathed a slight sigh of relief at the increased light.
Since everyone had been evacuated, there was no need to keep lamps burning down here. Not only were the crews needed for their positions in the army, but the tunnels themselves were regarded as a rather indefensible position when it came to a digging enemy.
Under normal circumstances, the tunnels were all rigged to collapse if an invader managed to infiltrate them. However, this was not a normal enemy.
Finn took steadying breaths as they hurried deep into the tunnel. Whenever they came to one of the ropes, Kristoff lowered his lamp to allow the lady to gingerly step over it without disturbing anything.
"How much further?" She asked as he examined a map.
"Not much, I don't think. Some of these tunnels had to be re-dug around obstacles to meet up with the original ones." He supplied.
Nothing seemed familiar to her, but she had tried very hard to think as little about the tunnels as possible since she'd last been in them. Enduring a cave-in had not been the highlight of her life.
Then again, it hadn't been the worst part, either.
She chuckled slightly at her dark little internal joke, and Kristoff looked blankly over his shoulder at her.
Shaking her head slightly, she looked up ahead. Surely they were coming close by now, they had been walking quite a way. Doorways on either side of them began to remind her of the rooms searched during the last crisis facing the city.
"I think it was a room at the end of a hallway," She said vaguely. "It had a box of random items in it. Do you remember?"
"I've been working these tunnels two years. You're lucky I remember the general area we went to when you had your revelation," Kristoff replied, pausing.
Another rope blocked the path, and they stepped over it together. The hallway was narrower than Finn remembered, and the old feeling of being trapped began to creep up in her heart. She suppressed it with a deep, even breath.
The air smelled foul down here. She wondered if Kristoff hadn't taken the time to bathe before coming, and felt a little bad for having him ordered here in the middle of the night.
They came to the end of the hallway, and she rushed eagerly into a room that looked vaguely familiar. Dirt covered every surface, likely from the earthquakes that had accompanied the mountain's fall.
A few boxes were lying around the room, untouched. She opened them one by one and soon located the one she was searching for.
"Has no one inventoried this deep?" She asked Kristoff a little impatiently.
"Not that I'm aware. There was some sort of system in place. We've had to clear the areas as we go and be careful of further collapse." He defended the others.
"Well–" Her voice cut off as the putrid smell grew stronger. "What IS that?"