Ausgelich's eyes flashed, and in an instant, the world around them warped. Lanssa felt the ground disappear beneath her feet, her vision blurring as a cold, pulling sensation gripped her body. She felt like she was being stretched, the world bending and twisting around her. It was disorienting, nauseating.
Then, as quickly as it had begun, it stopped.
They landed hard on the ground. Lanssa gasped, her knees hitting rough stone as she steadied herself. She blinked, trying to regain her bearings. The alley was gone. The city was gone.
They were in a dark, damp cave, the walls glistening with moisture. The only light came from a few glowing crystals embedded in the stone, casting eerie shadows on the walls.
Ausgelich slumped to the ground beside her, his breathing ragged. He looked pale, his body trembling slightly from the effort of the teleportation.
The cave enveloped Ausgelich and Lanssa in a heavy shroud of darkness, the air thick with damp earth and the distant sound of dripping water echoing off the stone walls. After their sudden teleportation, they stumbled forward, still reeling from the confrontation with the mysterious assailant.
Lanssa squinted, her eyes struggling to adjust to the dimness. "Not that I'm complaining, but next time, warn me before doing the whole teleportation thing, okay,"
"So… where exactly are we?" she asked, brushing dirt off her.
Ausgelich leaned against the cold rock wall, trying to regain his composure. "Somewhere safe… for now." His expression was grim as he glanced back at the cave's entrance. "But we can't stay here long. They'll find us."
"Who are 'they'?" Lanssa pressed, her curiosity igniting despite the gravity of their situation. "You mentioned a group back there. So, what do they want? World domination? Power? Or is this one of those secret cults obsessed with weird stuff like ancient artifacts?"
Ausgelich hesitated, the tension in his shoulders tightening. "They call themselves the Nocturne—a secretive organization that uses shadows and manipulation to control others. They thrive on chaos and power and won't hesitate to eliminate anyone who poses a threat to their plans."
"Sounds like a bunch of villains out of a story," Lanssa said, trying to process his words. "Why do they want you?"
"Because I've seen their methods firsthand, and I've thwarted them before," Ausgelich replied, his gaze hardening. "They'll stop at nothing to silence anyone who knows too much. That now includes you."
An uneasy silence hung in the air, Lanssa's heart racing at the thought of being dragged into such a dangerous narrative. But something about Ausgelich made her trust him.
"I'm not going to let them hurt you," he said suddenly, meeting her gaze with a fierce determination. "You're involved in this now, whether you want to be or not. We need to figure out our next steps."
Lanssa nodded, the reality of their situation settling in. "So what's the plan? Just sit here and wait for them to come knocking?"
"First, we need to secure our surroundings." Ausgelich knelt to the ground, tracing intricate patterns in the dust. A soft glow began to emanate from his fingertips, spreading into a protective barrier around them. "This will keep us hidden for a while."
Lanssa watched in awe as the shimmering shield enveloped them. She began gathering dry leaves and sticks scattered around the cave, piling them in the center. "Alright, I'll get a fire going before we freeze. Nothing says 'great hiding spot' like shivering in a dark cave."
As she worked, Ausgelich joined her, pulling a small flint from his pocket. With a few quick strikes, a small flame flickered to life, casting a warm glow that danced off the cave walls.
"Tell me more about the Nocturne," Lanssa said, feeling the fire's warmth seep into her skin. "How did you get involved with them?"
Ausgelich sighed, his expression growing somber. "Me and ny father once go on an adventure to murder them. We kind of failed . After my father is dead, they targeted me, and anyone who got close to me."
"So, you're like a one-man rebellion against a bunch of shadow-loving creeps? Sounds… insane," Lanssa replied, sensing the weight of his past.
"It is," he admitted. "But I had to make a choice. I chose to fight back, to protect those who couldn't protect themselves. That's why I'm here."
Just as Lanssa began to feel a genuine connection with Ausgelich, a low growl echoed from the darkness beyond the firelight, sending a chill racing down her spine.
"What was that?" she whispered, her heart pounding in her chest.
Ausgelich's body tensed, his eyes narrowing as he focused on the shadows. "Stay close to me," he said, shifting into a defensive stance.
Before Ausgelich could respond, a thunderous voice boomed through the cave: "INTRUDERS IN MY CAVE! PREPARE TO BE EATEN! ...Or maybe just mildly inconvenienced. I haven't decided yet."
A massive figure emerged from the shadows, brandishing what appeared to be... a wooden spoon? The goblin stood nearly as tall as Lanssa, with muscles that would make a blacksmith envious, yet his fierce expression was somewhat undermined by the pink frilly apron he wore.
"I am the MIGHTY GRIBNASH!" the goblin declared, flexing dramatically. "Fear my... uh..." He paused, clearly losing his train of thought. "Oh! Fear my cooking! Yeah, that sounds right. I make a mean mushroom stew!"
Despite everything, Lanssa found herself fighting back a laugh. Even Ausgelich's perpetual gloom seemed to crack slightly.
"We seek sanctuary," Ausgelich said, his formal tone contrasting amusingly with Gribnash's bombastic presence. "We're being pursued by—"
"Bad guys!" Gribnash interrupted, dropping his spoon-wielding stance. "I HATE bad guys! They're always so... bad! And guy-ish!" He scratched his head thoughtfully. "Wait, how do I know YOU'RE not bad guys?"
Lanssa stepped forward. "Well, he's a guy named lich who hates answering questions, and I'm an adventure-seeking teenager who stumbled into way more trouble than I bargained for even though it's kinda my fault, my mame's Lanssa by the way and we're both running from a secret organization of shadow-wielding megalo-maniacs. Does that sound like typical bad guy behavior?"
Gribnash's face scrunched up in intense concentration. "Hmm... A guy who doesn't like answering questions... That's like a cook who doesn't like cooking! Or a rock that doesn't like... being a rock!" His expression suddenly brightened. "I LOVE IT! You're weird! Weird is good! Bad guys are never weird—they're just boring and evil and stuff."
Ausgelich watched this exchange with a mixture of bewilderment and resignation. "Your logic is... unique, friend Gribnash."
"Thank you!" Gribnash beamed, completely missing the subtle sarcasm. "Now, who wants some of my famous glowing mushroom soup? It only makes you slightly hallucinate! Usually. Sometimes. Results may vary."
As Gribnash bounded off to his cooking area, Lanssa moved closer to Ausgelich. "You know," she said quietly, "For someone who barely says more than five words at a time, you're not half bad company."
Ausgelich turned to her, surprise flickering across his features. "I... I haven't thought of myself that way in a very long time."
"Maybe that's the problem," Lanssa suggested. "You've been doing the whole loner thing for so long, maybe you forgot it's okay to have some help. You don't always have to brood alone in a cave, you know."
Their conversation was interrupted by a loud crash and Gribnash's voice: "Don't worry! The ceiling's supposed to do that! Probably!"
Ausgelich sighed, but Lanssa caught the ghost of a genuine smile this time. "Perhaps," he mused, "there are worse places to hide from darkness than in the company of the strange and the hopeful."
The crystal lights pulsed softly around them, and somewhere in the background, Gribnash began an off-key song about the proper way to tenderize cave mushrooms. It wasn't the sanctuary either of them had imagined, but in that moment, it felt exactly like where they needed to be.
The mushroom soup glowed an unnaturally vibrant shade of purple in Lanssa's bowl, tiny sparkles dancing across its surface. She watched with a mixture of fascination and concern as Gribnash stirred a large pot, humming what sounded like a battlefield chant remixed into a cooking song.
"The secret," Gribnash declared proudly, adding another handful of glowing fungi, "is to punch the mushrooms before cooking them. Shows them who's boss!" He demonstrated with an enthusiastic right hook to an innocent mushroom, sending spores flying everywhere.
Ausgelich sat cross-legged near the cave wall, barely touching his own portion. His dark eyes remained fixed on the cave's entrance, tension evident in every line of his body. The flickering firelight cast harsh shadows across his face, highlighting the exhaustion etched there.
"You should eat," Lanssa said, nudging his bowl closer. "Whatever Gribnash lacks in... conventional cooking methods, he makes up for in results. It's actually good."
"THANK YOU!" Gribnash beamed. "Finally, someone appreciates my culinary violence!"
A faint smile tugged at Ausgelich's lips, but his eyes remained troubled. "The Nocturne won't stay confused by my false trails for long. We need to—" He suddenly swayed, catching himself against the wall.
"Hey." Lanssa moved closer, genuine concern in her voice. "That teleport took a lot out of you. You're no good to anyone if you collapse."
"I'm fine," he insisted, but accepted the bowl when she pressed it into his hands. "I've endured worse."
"Yeah, but you don't have to anymore." Lanssa watched him take a small sip. "You're not alone in this fight."
"GROUP HUG!" Gribnash announced, wrapping his massive arms around both of them before either could protest. "This is nice! We're like a family! A weird, running-from-evil-shadow-people family!"
"Gribnash," Ausgelich wheezed, "breathing is traditionally considered important."
"Oh, right! Sorry!" The goblin released them, looking sheepish. "I forget humans need air. And whatever you are, Ausgelich. You're kind of mysterious, you know? Like a puzzle, but with more brooding!"
"So," Gribnash announced, ladling out another portion, "who wants to hear about the time I tried to teach a stalactite to dance? No one? Perfect! Story time!"
Ausgelich sat with his back against the cave wall, barely touching his soup. His dark eyes seemed focused on something distant, lost in thoughts he couldn't—or wouldn't—share. The teleportation had clearly drained him more than he wanted to admit.
Lanssa watched him over the rim of her bowl. In the soft light, away from immediate danger, she could see the weight of whatever haunted him. His shoulders curved inward slightly, as if bearing an invisible burden.
"You know," she said softly, interrupting Gribnash's tale about the surprisingly rhythmic stalactite, "I am no longer interested in any of those zodiac nonsense that you probably had, that i have asked before a million times."
"I see a lot of things. Like how you pretend to be this mysterious, aloof figure, but you're constantly helping people when you think no one's looking."
"And sometimes when they are looking!" Gribnash chimed in, settling down beside them with his own enormous bowl. "Like that teleport thing earlier. Very flashy. Very helpful. Bit dramatic though. I give it an eight out of ten. Could've used more explosions."
A ghost of a smile tugged at Ausgelich's lips. "I'm not... I'm not who you think I am, Lanssa. The things I've done—"
"—Matter less than the things you choose to do now," she finished for him. "At least, that's what my mother used to say." A shadow crossed her face. "My adoptive mother, I suppose."
Silence fell between them, broken only by Gribnash's loud slurping of soup.
"Lanssa, I will tell you something very important, something you haven't asked before but you definitely needed to know"
"They loved you," Ausgelich said suddenly, his voice barely above a whisper. "Your birth parents. Everything they did... it was all to give you a chance at a normal life."
Lanssa set down her bowl, her heart beating faster. "Well, that's one mystery solved. I guess now I have even more questions. But thanks... For finally telling me something"
"Did you know my parents well?"
"I..." He hesitated, years of habitual secrecy warring with something else in his expression. Finally, he sighed. "Yes. They were good people, caught up in something they never asked for. Like you."
"Like you?" she asked gently.
Ausgelich stared into his soup, as if the glowing liquid might hold answers. "I made choices, Lanssa. Choices I thought were right at the time. Choices that..." His voice caught.
"Choices are tricky things!" Gribnash declared, somehow managing to sound both silly and sage-like. "Like mushrooms. Some are good, some are bad, some make you see dancing dragons for three days straight. But you know what? Even bad mushrooms can make good soup if you punch them hard enough!"
Lanssa and Ausgelich both turned to stare at him.
"What?" Gribnash shrugged. "I'm just saying, maybe bad choices can still lead to good things. Like us! Here! Having soup! Being friends!"
"Are we?" Lanssa asked, looking back at Ausgelich. "So… does this make us friends now? Or is this just a 'running from bad guys' kind of alliance?"
He seemed startled by the question, as if the concept was foreign to him. "I... I don't know if I remember how to be anyone's friend."
"It's easy!" Gribnash jumped up, spilling soup everywhere. "First, you share food. Done that! Then you share stories. Working on that! Then you share secrets. Like how I'm secretly afraid of butterflies. They're too floaty! What are they planning?"
Despite himself, Ausgelich chuckled. The sound seemed to surprise him as much as anyone.
"See?" Lanssa smiled. "You might not remember how to be a regular person, but you're not doing half bad. Just… stop teleporting me without warning."
In the comfortable silence that followed, Gribnash began gathering more mushrooms, singing what seemed to be a made-up song about friendship and proper fungus-punching technique. The absurdity of it all—a mysterious man, a curious girl, and a combat-chef goblin sharing glowing soup in a hidden cave—wasn't lost on any of them.
"Your parents," Ausgelich said finally, his voice steady but quiet, "they used to make me laugh too. Even when things were darkest, they found ways to keep hope alive." He met Lanssa's eyes. "You remind me of them. Not just in looks, but in spirit."
Lanssa felt tears prick at her eyes, but she blinked them back. "Will you tell me about them? Not the big, dramatic stuff. Just... little things. What made them laugh. What they loved."
Ausgelich was quiet for so long she thought he might refuse. Then, softly, he began: "Your mother had a terrible habit of naming every stray cat she saw..."
As the hours passed, stories flowed like water. Ausgelich spoke of her parents—small, precious memories he'd kept locked away for years. Lanssa shared tales of her childhood, of the family who'd raised her. Even Gribnash contributed, though his stories tended to involve either cooking accidents or improbable victories over cave creatures.
None of them mentioned the Nocturne, or the dangers that waited outside their temporary sanctuary. Those shadows could wait until morning. For now, in the warm glow of mushroom soup and newfound trust, they allowed themselves this moment of peace.
She thinks to herself. Well, this definitely wasn't what I imagined when I set off looking for adventure. But… it's not the worst.
When Lanssa finally drifted off to sleep, lulled by the gentle echo of dripping water and Gribnash's soft snoring, she noticed Ausgelich had moved closer to the cave entrance, standing guard. But this time, his posture was different—less the stance of someone alone against the world, and more that of someone protecting what they'd found worth fighting for.
In her last moments of consciousness, she heard him whisper something that might have been "Thank you." Whether it was meant for her, for Gribnash, or for the memories of her parents, she couldn't tell. Perhaps it was for all of them.
The soup's glow dimmed to a soft nightlight, and somewhere in the depths of the cave, water dripped in a rhythm that sounded almost like a lullaby.