"We're here, my brave adventurers!" Elliot exclaimed, bringing his wagon to a halt in the middle of the forest before a tree as tall as—if not taller than—the walls of any castle worthy of the name.

Beneath the tree, between roots thicker than both of the old man's donkeys standing side by side, a dark passage descended into the depths of the earth.

"Is this where the goblins have been sighted?" Master asked as she climbed down from the wagon.

"No, milady. Better. I got to talking with someone I met yesterday at the tavern where you spent the night. He told me the cousin of an uncle of a friend he once shared a smoke with... Well, never mind. He marked this spot on my map and said it's one of the entrances to the creatures' warren."

"And why should we trust this person?"

"He bought me a couple of beers," the old man replied enthusiastically. "Paid for some cheese and bread too. Seemed like a good fellow."

Master pressed a hand to her face in frustration.

"Well, we had to enter the Warren anyway. At worst we'll run into a few extra traps." She looked at the group. "All right, team. After what we accomplished in Sham'Ará, we've been hired to recover an artifact stolen from a caravan traveling through this forest.

It's common knowledge that goblin sightings in the area have increased dramatically—far beyond what's considered normal. More importantly, their behavior has changed. Normally they kill travelers and leave the bodies behind. Now they're trying to capture them alive.

Everything points to the goblins having the artifact. And to make things even more interesting... it's marked with the same symbol we found in the Temple of Immortality, in Alfíteres."

"So we're about to run into more weird things," Dragoon said.

Swordsman and Archer exchanged glances without thinking. They both felt they should remember something terrible. Instead, there was only a blank space. Archer frowned and looked away with an exaggerated gesture. She was annoyed, though the reason seemed just as blurred as the memory itself.

"Most likely," Master replied. "All right. Dismount. We're heading into the cave."

"Thank you, Elliot," Cleric said as he climbed down. "And thank you for the songs this time. They really reminded me of home."

After thanking him, Cleric summoned his Lightvault, letting a thread of Lux flow into the wagon driver.

"The honor was mine, young Cleric. I'll be waiting in the nearest village."

With that, Elliot turned the wagon around and rode away.

"Master," Swordsman called just as the group prepared to descend into the cavern. "Aren't you going to teach Healer how to use her powers?"

"Why would I?" Master asked, genuinely puzzled as she stopped walking. "Did I have to teach anyone on this team how to do what they're already good at?"

"Well... I just thought... since you trained us..."

"If I remember correctly, what I asked back then was for each of you to show me what you could do. I didn't teach you anything. If I'd had to teach you, you wouldn't have been allowed to join the Group."

"Hey, why are you always in such a bad mood?" Healer asked. "Swordsman is only asking something reasonable. I'm new to all this. You don't even know what I can do."

A deathly silence followed until Master finally spoke.

"Very well." Master's voice was as sharp as ever. "Let's find out. Swordsman, cut your hand."

A chorus of uneasy murmurs spread through the group. Swordsman drew his sword, glanced at both Master and Healer, then, after a brief hesitation, sliced open the palm of his hand. Healer flinched as blood began flowing from the wound.

"Anyone here could heal a cut like that," Master remarked.

With a snap of her fingers, her greatsword appeared. Before Swordsman could even react she cleanly severed his hand in half.

Swordsman cried out, clutching his mangled arm. Healer, on the other hand, simply rested a hand on her chin, studying the situation.

"I see. Dice. All right," she stepped toward Swordsman, raising one hand as it became enveloped in an increasingly brilliant golden light. A die clattered across the ground to show a twenty.

Threads of light wrapped around Swordsman's hand. Within seconds they reshaped it. When the glow faded, his hand was completely restored.

"Wow," Swordsman murmured. "It doesn't even hurt anymore."

Master, Archer, and Rogue had already resumed walking toward the cave, seemingly uninterested in what had just happened. Behind them, Dragoon excitedly praised the miracle while Healer insisted it had been nothing special.

"I don't know if this helps," Cleric said to Swordsman, "but Master could've done the same thing herself. I saw her regenerate an entire leg during one of my first expeditions with her."

Swordsman nodded. He understood what Cleric meant.

What unsettled him wasn't how extreme Master's actions had been, but the feeling that she'd done it out of annoyance toward both him and Healer. And somehow he was supposed to trust her.

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The journey through the cavern was nothing but a steady descent across a surprising variety of terrain.

It began with a narrow stone tunnel. Master led the way with a sphere of light floating beside her, while Cleric brought up the rear with his hammer. Halfway through, they discovered that Healer could produce light as well—far brighter than either of theirs.

Before long, the tunnel floor gave way to an ancient stone staircase. Soon, the passage opened into a vast cylindrical shaft. The stairs clung to the outer wall, winding downward around an abyss that seemed to stretch on forever. There was no railing. Nothing separating them from the void.

In several places, broken steps forced the group to slow down and pick their footing carefully. Elsewhere, entire sections of the staircase had collapsed. Those they could only cross by jumping.

"Please don't fall," Healer said with a laugh. "I can't heal you if I can't reach you."

A moment later, she realized she could cast a spell that reduced their weight, letting them leap much farther by almost floating through the air. She didn't discover it until after everyone else had already jumped, so only Swordsman, Cleric, and she herself benefited from the spell that first time.

Farther down, they reached a landing where another passage branched off. Beyond it, the staircase simply ended to roughly continue fifty or eighty steps below. Their goal was to descend as far as possible until they found the Warren, but with no safe way to cross the gap, they chose the alternate passage and stopped to rest for a few minutes.

"Hey, at least we can be thankful all this exercise is downhill," Dragoon said, dropping onto one of the long wooden benches lining the room.

"You do realize we'll have to climb all the way back up eventually, right?" Cleric replied. He didn't laugh just because the thought bothered him just as much.

"Are you tired?" Healer asked, still smiling as she had throughout the journey.

"No," Archer answered.

"Yes!" Dragoon blurted out.

"Allow me."

She summoned a silver staff, gripped it with both hands, and spun it overhead. A gentle breeze carrying golden droplets drifted from the staff. The moment they touched the adventurers, they felt as though they had just awakened from a long, refreshing sleep in feather beds.

"This is incredible, Healer," Swordsman said. "See, Master? She really is useful."

The instant Archer heard that, she rose from the bench with an irritated look and crossed the room to join Master at the opposite end, where the passage opened onto a long stone bridge that, like the stairs, it had no railings.

"My dude," Dragoon said with a chuckle, "I think you should stop saying things like that."

"What? That Healer's useful? I think it's ridiculous they get upset over something like that. Women… I seriously don't understand them."

"Just let them be, Swordsman," Healer said, draping an arm casually over his shoulders. Swordsman turned bright red almost instantly. "I'm a woman too. And that's not why they're upset. You need to be a little more respectful."

"S-Sorry."

Dragoon burst into laughter.

"Besides," Healer continued, "precisely because I'm a woman, I understand them. They see me as an intruder. And your comments defending me aren't helping at all. It's better if we keep a low profile. Eventually Master will understand she's still the one in control... and Archer will realize I'm no threat to her." Then, discreetly, she leaned close to Swordsman's ear and whispered, "...Or am I?"

Swordsman's face turned an even deeper shade of red. Feeling as though it were melting, he slipped out of Healer's embrace and awkwardly excused himself, claiming he wanted to inspect the bridge. Healer simply giggled to herself.

Once everyone was ready, they began crossing the bridge one at a time. It was wide enough for two people to walk side by side. Maybe even three. But the lack of railings between them and the endless abyss was enough to make everyone uneasy.

They had barely reached the middle of the bridge when they heard one of the worst sounds imaginable under the circumstances. War drums.

The thunderous rhythm echoed through the cavern as watchtowers on both sides of the bridge flared to life, their narrow windows glowing with great bonfires.

They were surrounded.

Half a dozen goblins appeared at each end of the bridge, mounted on beasts that resembled hyenas, if hyenas were three or four times larger and completely hairless. The creatures snarled savagely, ropes of drool hanging from their jaws.

Swordsman and the others readied themselves, but the tension was palpable. There was barely enough room to fight.

The moment the enemy charged, Master shoved Swordsman and Cleric out of her way. With a snap of her fingers, her clothes shifted into the black cloak, leather straps, and books she wore before. Fireballs burst from her hands. Some goblins were incinerated where they stood. Others were blasted clean off the bridge.

At the opposite end, Archer put on a breathtaking display of archery. Nearly every arrow struck a mount directly in the eye. The beasts convulsed violently, hurling their riders into the air before slipping over the edge themselves.

But for every enemy that fell two more appeared.

Then, to the adventurers' horror, arrows began raining down from every direction.

Healer spun her staff overhead once more. Golden threads of light intertwined above them, forming a shimmering dome. Every arrow bounced harmlessly away.

"Very well," Master admitted at last. "Archer. Can you take down their archers?"

"I can try! But there are too many!"

"Rogue. Any ideas?"

"...Jump?" Rogue suggested uncertainly.

The abyss beneath the bridge appeared bottomless. Jumping sounded like the worst possible idea.

Then something changed.

What had seemed like ordinary arrows suddenly curved through the air, each leaving a glowing trail behind it. One slipped beneath the dome and wrapped itself around Cleric's leg. Only then did they realize it wasn't an arrow at all. It was a whip.

The enchanted lash yanked hard, sending the heavy warrior crashing face-first onto the stone. Swordsman reacted instantly, severing the whip with a single swing. But a dozen more changed course in midair, all following the same strategy.

"We'll have to jump," Master murmured. "Yes... There's no other choice."

"What are you talking about?" Rogue asked, knives already in hand, ready to cut down any whip that came near.

"Everyone! Jump!" Master ordered. "Healer! You know what to do!"

"I know what to do? What? Oh my God..."

Healer stared in disbelief as everyone obeyed without hesitation and leaped into the void.

Realizing she wasn't about to jump on her own, Rogue wrapped one arm around her waist and threw himself off the bridge with her.

The adventurers' screams echoed through the darkness as they plummeted into the abyss.

"Do what Master told you!" Rogue shouted, still holding Healer tightly.

"I don't know what she meant!"

"Make us flo—" Rogue never finished. One of the strange projectiles caught his leg, coiling around it before violently yanking him upward.

One second and Rogue disappeared from sight. Two seconds and the projectiles no longer seemed able to reach them. Three seconds and the war drums had faded into the distance. Four seconds...

"...Of course!" Healer exclaimed.

She finally understood. Her spell enveloped the falling adventurers, making them almost weightless and slowing their descent to a gentle drift.