Night came both slower and more quickly than Cal had expected it to. As soon as they had come to terms with how long it was taking, how long the night made them wait, it seemed to speed up and it was time.

  Following Veil and navigating by the light of the moon, they made their way on foot out of the village via the back streets and south towards the mine. At Veil’s suggestion they gave the entrance a wide berth, while remaining off the main road and traversing into the Blackwood forest once more.

  Meliana was behind Veil with Teth behind her, Kaila next and Cal covering the back. As they marched through the forest Cal watched Kaila’s back, the words that were spoken to him while he was praying playing through his mind over and over again.

  Watch her. Do not trust her. She has not been honest with you.

  He didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone, just in case it was some strange insanity or someone screwing with him, but… When a voice pops into your head that is not your own, while you're literally praying for guidance and help, you simply have to give it some value.

  He had decided not to act on it immediately, nor any time soon, unless she gave him a very good reason, but he would be keeping an eye on Kaila. He wouldn't let her turn on them.

  Ahead Meliana asked, “How far is it?” as she marched on behind Veil.

  “About ten minutes walk.” Veil replied, leaping over a root and landing with a soft thud before continuing on.

  “That close?” Meliana asked. “The people around here must have been coming into the forest for years, why did nobody ever find it?”

  “Dunno.” Veil admitted. “It’s a big stone door. Used to be covered in ivy. Maybe they missed it. Two-legs aren’t very observant.”

  “Maybe they couldn’t open it.” Teth offered. “Just let it sit there for centuries, an old legend. You’d be surprised how long people leave old things alone if they can’t figure them out.”

  “Unless they think there’s treasure inside.” Cal noted.

  Meliana seemed placated by that answer so they continued in silence until they got closer and Veil slowed them down to a stop. They all came in closer - even Kaila - and went down on one knee as Veil turned to face them.

  “See that big rock next to the big tree?” He whispered, nodding ahead where a giant black barked tree with a massive canopy stood next to what appeared to be a huge boulder. Meliana nodded. “The door is on the other side of that rock. It went up and back instead of opening like normal doors so it’ll look just like a cave with a block of stone hanging from the top.”

  “Can you check how many guards there are?” Meliana asked.

  Veil nodded and turned, disappearing almost immediately into the brush.

  They remained there for a while, a few minutes at least but Veil eventually reappeared. “There’s one guard.” He said. “I’ll see if I can lure them away, but if not you need to knock them out.”

  “We’ll get into position on the tree side of the entrance.” Meliana told him. Veil nodded and then disappeared back into the brush as the four bipeds of the group made their way to the tree and waited.

  They heard the guard a few moments before they arrived, all frustrated sighs and boredom. When they were in place Cal was able to see them, a woman with short hair and thick arms, holding a book and leaning with her back against the tree. She was less than a meter from him so he held his breath tight.

  A few moments passed and then Veil, his leather armour gone and acting every bit a normal fox, appeared in the clearing in front of the cave. He walked over, seemingly afraid of the guard but looking for food. It wasn’t long before she noticed him over the top of her book, sniffing at the air.

  “Well hello there,” she said, lowering the book. “Who might you be?”

  Veil pretended to be scared when she spoke and in response she lowered the book and crouched down. She held out her hand and made squeaking noises with her teeth. As if curious Veil moved in closer, sniffing her hand, then up her arm, letting her stroke him until, as he sniffed at her other hand he grabbed the book, biting his teeth into it and pulling. He leapt over her hand as she let out a confused “Wait, what?” and hopped around her, causing her to spin before he ran off away from the cave.

  The guard immediately and without thinking, started running. “Hey, wait! You don’t want that, it’s not food!” She called after Veil, rushing off into the dark.

  “That was… so… funny.” Teth said, somewhat stunned as the four of them snuck out and straight into the cave.

  The cave, was as Veil had described. It went straight into the large rock. What appeared to be the door was held up above the cave on the ceiling as if it had been pushed up. The front of it, which was facing them, looked like jagged stone, so Cal understood how people had missed it for so long. If it was flush with the rock there was no way anyone would know.

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  As soon as Cal stepped inside he paused, his eyes widening for a moment. “Wait…” He said more to himself than them. The walls were flat and bare, except for braziers at intervals along the stone, the contents of which had rotted and become unusable. Next to the entrance was a chain that went into a hole in the ceiling and Cal was willing to bet that if he pulled it the cave door would close.

  Just like in the jail cell back in Vanderhiem.

  “Cal, we have to keep moving, if she returns then she’ll see you there.” Meliana told him as he stood there confused.

  Something deep within Cal told him not to go any further, but she was right He really had to get moving and it was either forward or back. As much as he didn't want to go any further, he also didn't want to let them go along. the decision was simple in the end.

  He followed them inside, almost stumbling as the floor unexpectedly went down at an angle into the ground. A ways in, there was a turning and when they got around it they paused, waiting for Veil to return.

  They didn’t have to wait long. With how long he’d paused at the entrance, Cal guessed that Veil had had all the time he needed to get dressed again and catch up. “I lost her pretty quickly but then I needed to wait for her to find the book. Felt bad and needed to make sure she could find her page again.” Veil explained, hopping past the others, his armour already restored to his body and properly buckled up.

  “Veil, there are traps up ahead, right?” Cal asked as he drew his sword.

  “There were.” He agreed. “The guards, when they were exploring, set them off.”

  “That explains the funeral fund stuff I saw in the Mayor’s office.” Cal noted. “You think a lot died? Vosh.” He whispered the last word and slid his flaming hand over his blade to ignite it and give Teth and himself a little light to see by.

  “The bodies were taken, but I counted at least six places that people died.” Veil noted.

  “We should still be careful.” Meliana said.

  “I should go up front with Veil.” Kaila offered. “If there’s more death magic I will be able to sense it.”

  Meliana nodded and stepped back against the wall to let her pass. She moved past them to take up a position beside Veil. Teth moved back to walk beside Cal and get the most out of the light of his flaming sword.

  Cal saw each of the locations where someone had died as they walked along the corridor. Simple traps like pit falls and darts. One or two places he saw that the guards had triggered the traps but not been killed and there was one spot where scorch marks and a hole in the ceiling where some sort of oil had poured down and burned at least one person alive.

  They walked for what felt like an hour. At first Cal thought it was strange, after all they’d been only about twenty minutes from the mine entrance, but then, of course, the tomb was probably nowhere near the entrance or else they would have found it long ago. They kept going down and making turnings here and there, but eventually, past all of the traps, they found where the miners had broken in. There was rubble littered around the cave and some mining equipment, but no sign that there were guards anywhere nearby. Likely they had limited themselves to guarding the two entrances and left it to that. With the so few guards in town they probably weren’t doing regular patrols either.

  The group continued past the mine entrance and made their way deeper into the cave where, after another twenty minutes, they finally found the tomb.

  The cave opened out into a larger square, like a small courtyard with worked stone walls and floor, including a small grate that looked like a sewer drain in the centre.

  “There’s water down there.” Veil said, sniffing at the grate as they all stepped inside. Cal raised the sword to illuminate the room and he saw the door for the first time. It was so different to the one that Cal had seen five months earlier that for a moment he thought that, perhaps, he’d been worried for nothing.

  The last one had been covered in fire iconography, there had been ornate gold walls and the doorway had been carved so beautifully with inlaid rubies and other red gems that it looked made for a king's crypt. This in contrast was but a simple doorway. There was an archway made of black stone that was accented with Entalium at the top and on each side. In each accent there was a single black gem like obsidian or onyx. The doorway itself looked very plain, made of black stone with Entalium panels in the centre and around the edges.

  In the centre of the middle panel was the door’s only adornment. It had no handle, no keyhole, no bar, nothing. Just a skull made out of the largest piece of black opal Cal had ever seen. It was deep and dark and glittered with all the colours of the rainbow, but especially green.

  It was so different to the first door that Cal let out an audible chuckle, relief spreading through him. The passageway they had just come down was most likely just a common way of making such things back when such things were made. The most effective way to make sure the passage would last a long time, that was all. It had nothing to do with… nothing to do with anything else.

  Around the courtyard area there was evidence of someone trying to break things. Broken pickaxes, soot from failed explosions. Marks on the walls where someone had blasted it with magic, but nothing had worked.

  “The mayor’s work.” Meliana noted. “He’s certainly been busy.”

  “He couldn’t get in.” Teth noted.

  “He didn’t have a necromancer.” Kaila said, a note of confidence in her voice as she stepped forward.

  She took a breath and closed her eyes, reaching out with one hand. She was sensing magic. Cal closed his eyes and did the same, but all he could sense was her. As he sensed her doing core, unaffiliated magic a taste was conjoured in his mouth, like when he sensed her necromancy. This time though it wasn’t vile, it was the taste of… chicken? No, it wasn’t exactly chicken but that was the nearest to what he could think of. Dry plain chicken. It made sense. Chicken tasted incredibly generic, therefore generic magic reminded him of that.

  He opened his eyes again as he felt Veil step on his foot. Cal looked down at him and he crouched down ready to jump. Cal knew the look so he raised an arm for the fox to leap onto then when he was up Cal opened his coat and deposited him into a large pocket to rest and get warm against his chest.

  “Got it.” Kaila said and she opened her eyes. Her hand was hovering over the skull. She looked back at them and the green of her death magic glowed in her eyes, making her look otherworldly. “Are we ready?” She asked. “When this door opens… we don’t know what we’ll find.”

  Everyone nodded in silence and then Meliana looked to Kaila. “Do it.” She said.

  The death mage took a breath and slammed her hand onto the skull, emitting necromantic energy, pouring it in like a key into a lock and then… everything was gone.

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