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Emily looks closely at the flower, utilising her enhanced eyesight to trace the direction of the smear. It points into the tunnel entrance before her. A familiar chill runs down her spine as she gazes into the darkness beyond.

Time to find out what’s creeping me out.

Standing up with firm resolve, she steps into the tunnel with an orb of light following above and earthen detection watching the path ahead. She quietly creeps through the tunnel, scanning the floor and finding a few small splatters of blood close to the start.

As she descends further, she finds small bits of blood smeared on the floor and walls, until she stops finding any at all. Emily’s caution increases twofold five minutes after seeing the last drop of blood. However, as she continues walking, her caution slowly morphs into confusion as her instincts calm slightly. She finds nothing at all in the tunnel, and soon rounds a bend to see the welcoming light of The Waters.

Stepping back into the river’s wide tunnel, Emily looks around confused, still feeling the odd discomfort in her gut.

How did that lead into here? Nothing could have entered here without being spotted by the group in the light.

She sees the group sitting together thirty metres down the tunnel and starts walking towards them as she pushes the feeling of anxiety to the back of her mind.

There’s definitely something else in these caves with us, but I’ll just have to wait till it either approaches us or leaves us alone.

As she reaches the group, Oscar, Ivor, Enzo, and Dante all stand up and walk over to meet her.

“Are you alright?” Oscar asks. “You were gone for a while there: we were starting to worry.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I think something’s following us again, but I only ran into groglers,” Emily answers with a slight scowl.

“Wait, you saw something?” Enzo asks.

“No.” Emily shakes her head. “I just have a gut feeling. I followed it and found blood in the cavern we came from that definitely wasn’t there when we left. It led into one of the tunnels that came straight here, so I have no clue where this thing went, but there’s definitely something out there.”

“Why are you so sure it didn’t come in here? Maybe it passed without us seeing it,” Oscar suggests with a frown of his own, glancing up the tunnel cautiously.

“Some of the blood was wiped on the wall around one and a half metres off the floor. Whatever it is, it’s not small. You’d definitely spot it.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” He nods solemnly, not liking the sound of a human-sized monster stalking them. “Let’s get moving then. Best not to hang around here for too long.”

He turns on his heel and heads back into the group, calling for everyone to get in formation and prepare to move.

“I told you your instincts were good,” Dante says proudly.

“You’re not meant to be happy I’m right about this,” Emily says rolling her eyes. “What’s going on? I thought the tunnels gave you the creeps.”

“They do! But I much prefer knowing I have a target to blow up than feeling scared of nothing!”

Emily shakes her head and walks past him, towards her place at the head of the group. The others follow her, and, after one final check, they set off downstream.

Travelling through the bright cave proves far more peaceful than the rest of their trip so far. They don’t encounter a single beast or monster. The river appears lifeless, and nothing steps into the light from the shadowy tunnels joining it. However, this peace only serves to unsettle the group.

As night falls outside, the glow from the river beside the group fades. The crystals on the ceiling dim to release no more than a light shimmer, only illuminating a few centimetres around themselves. And the shadows. The shadows come alive, reaching out from the connecting tunnels and swallowing the cave in darkness.

As they set up camp in the evening, Emily approaches Oscar at the edge of the sound isolating barrier. He’s standing on the border of Nora’s glowing light spell that illuminates their camp, glaring at the shadows fiercely attacking all light in the cave and forming a disconcerting image of motion in place of the still night.

“There’s meant to be more living here, isn’t there?” she asks quietly, joining him in watching the shadows.

“Yes,” he agrees reluctantly, glancing over his shoulder cautiously before turning to Emily and talking quietly. “We’re meant to spend a week going deeper then head back, but honestly, I’m starting to have second thoughts. This feels wrong. First, the groglers, then whatever you felt following us, and now this!”

Emily nods silently, reaching out and patting the stressed mage on the shoulder.

“Well, it’s your expedition. Make whatever choice feels right for you. If it helps, I think those things are all connected.”

He nods at her words, sighing and turning to return to the others.

“They probably are. We’ll keep going. I’m sure we’ll find some answers further in.”

Emily watches him leave before turning back to the darkness. She sits down on a nearby rock jutting out of the ground, ready to stay there till her watch is done. Ivor brings her some food, once the camp is set up, then heads off to sleep. The camp quickly falls into darkness as Nora dismisses her light spell and everyone climbs into their sleeping bags.

At first, she thinks it’s just the roiling shadows and ignores it. But then, she sees it again. She rubs her eyes before focusing on the darkness, tuning out the moving shadows. After a few more minutes, she sees it a third time, and this time she catches what it is. Two dim, glassy balls of light that flash past her vision in the distance before vanishing into the night.

A chill runs down Emily’s spine, and her instincts begin screaming once again. She activates infra-sight, waiting for the next sighting, but sees no heat as the orbs appear briefly again.

Then, she switches to earthen detection, holding the spell on full power until the creature reveals itself. The orbs flit past her vision again, but her spell doesn’t show even a slight disturbance.

She clicks her tongue and prepares a light spell instead. Forming the magic circle in her first circle but not casting it, she waits with bated breath. The instant the orbs appear again, she releases the spell, tossing the ball of light into the air before her and pouring in mana.

Light floods the cave, banishing the shadows back to cling to the walls. Unfortunately, as the darkness recedes, so does any sign of the creature. The cave is empty.

Emily keeps the light spell running for five minutes, before giving up and releasing it, plunging the cave back into darkness.

Am I just seeing things?

As a seed of doubt buds in her mind, the two orbs reappear. This time though, instead of moving quickly, they remain motionless, staring back at her.

Are those eyes?

As the realisation sets in, Emily rises, preparing to fight the creature. Then, as suddenly as they appeared, the eyes vanish again. She sits back down and stays on high alert for the rest of her watch, but nothing else moves around her.

After waking Ivor and Fionn, she warns them about what she saw then settles on top of her sleeping bag to meditate.

***

The morning arrives, made obvious by the sudden explosion of light recapturing the cave, and they once again break camp and set off to follow the river.

Ivor and Enzo both report spotting the creepy eyes watching them at some point in their shift, so the group remains on edge for the whole day, carefully walking around every tunnel entrance they pass and repeatedly sending glances behind them. All conversations are quietly whispered, and every noise echoing through the cave sets off a buzz of nervous chatter.

Their caution proves unwarranted though, as they still don’t encounter a single enemy. They do, however, find a few lesser water crystals, at the edge of a small hole in the wall that appears as if torn into the earth by a set of claws. They carefully harvest and pack the crystals into their dimensional storage, along with a few magical herbs they find lining the water’s edge.

Night falls, and Emily is once again left alone in the darkness. She watches her surroundings, anticipating the re-emergence of the eyes. For the first half-hour of her watch, everything is still, but before she can wonder if their pursuer has relented, a haunting screech echoes through the one-way sound barrier.

The screech is high pitched and drawn out, scratching against her ear drums and sending a shiver down her spine. It slowly fades into the background, but the damage is already done. Several members of the group jump up from their sleeping bags, scrambling to prepare for an impending attack. Emily ignores them, scanning the cave and bracing for an attack herself.

Emily casts her gaze around the cave again calmly, clicking her tongue when she finds nothing.

It’s playing with us. Shit! If it has enough intelligence to do this, it’s probably third circle.

Emily’s face falls into a scowl as she looks back at the mages uncomfortably sitting up in their sleeping bags and unsure of what to do.

“Go back to sleep. Try and ignore the screeches: I’ll alert you all properly if we’re attacked,” she calls out, reassuring them.

Most of the mages heed her advice and slide back into their beds, but Oscar leaves his and approaches her. She watches his glowing orange form approaching, fumbling slightly in the dark.

“Hey,” he says as he sits below her on the ground.

“Go to sleep,” she responds curtly, turning away from him to watch the stirring shadows.

“I will. But first, I’m going to sit through your watch with you. You’ve realised too, right?”

“Yeah, we’re being played with.”

A small light suddenly erupts between them, and Emily abruptly snaps her head to it.

“Ah, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you,” Oscar says with a sheepish smile, gesturing to the glowing crystal candle he’s activated. “I thought it would be nice to have some light.”

Emily sighs, releasing her building frustration and nodding.

“Thanks.”

“Tsk,” Emily clicks her tongue. “We’re gonna be in no state to fight tomorrow if no one sleeps. Do you have a way of making this barrier two-way?”

“Yes, but we won’t be able to hear anything approaching.”

“It’s fine, our main detection methods are visual and extrasensory. Besides, we have two people on each watch now, so one person can check outside the barrier every now and then without being picked off before they can alert the group.”

Oscar nods in reluctant agreement and stands up.

“Fine. Each one of the barrier’s stakes has a secondary activation sequence. Just deactivate them like normal, then use three short bursts of mana instead of one long pulse.”

Emily stands up and conjures an orb of light.

“Take your candle and we’ll go opposite ways, meet at the other side.”

They both set off around the camp, deactivating the barrier when Emily uproots the first stake, before reactivating each stake again. They glow a deeper green when turned on this time, and as Oscar finishes the last one, a lightly shimmering barrier bubbles up around the camp.

That’s new.

Emily pulses earthen detection and locates the drip a hundred metres back upstream, falling on the rocks at the entrance to a nearby tunnel. She pulls back into the barrier completely and glances at Oscar over her shoulder.

“I hear something. Stay here.”

She steps out of the barrier completely, leaving the radius of Oscar’s candle and being swallowed instantly by the shadows. Ignoring the now familiar feeling of pressure as the darkness collapses around her, Emily carefully makes her way towards the faint dripping, keeping her guard up.

When she arrives at the source, she drops earthen detection and casts a light from her hands. As the spell illuminates the tunnel in front of her, she sees a limp grey arm with the hand enveloped up to the wrist in the roof’s stone. Nothing is attached where the owner’s shoulder should be. The violently torn flesh oozes dirty redish-brown blood into a small pool below.

Emily quickly checks her surroundings before staring up at where the arm joins the wall. She examines the stone and sees an odd ripple like pattern surrounding it.

Did it soften the stone like mudscraps do with dirt?

Her thoughts are interrupted by a loud shout coming from the camp.

“Hey!” she hears Oscar yell.

Instantly, she spins on her heel and bolts towards the barrier. She switches to infra-sight as she runs, finishing casting the spell as she bursts through the barrier and into Oscar’s haven of light. Her eyes snap to Oscar’s startled form, scrambling to clamber up from where he was sitting.

“What’s wrong? What did you find?” he asks quickly with fearful concern.

Emily freezes at his question, her scowl deepening in confusion.

“Wait, why did you shout to me?” Emily ignores his questions and asks instead.

“What are you talking about? I haven’t left the barrier.”