Page 42 of Dark's Savior

The way into Yurza's Keep was not an easy one when compared to navigating one's way through the upper levels above. Though they called Ryziel's territory the bottom, it was not the end of the caves altogether. Just the bottom where the mines used by Xolis ended. Beyond that was uncharted, unmapped territory, at least within the mine's mapping system. There were no elevators to take, no stairs to climb down save for those made by ancients long ago, but even they were not like the stairs within the mine, which consisted of grated metal steps and bolted-in railings; instead, they were carved from the very rock and spiraled downward within narrow passages.

Once they made their way to a separate tunnel system on the eastern side of the large rocky field that was considered the bottom of the mine, they found one of these ancient stairways. Ryziel led the way down, keeping Aly between him and Xilya, careful to watch the steps to make sure none had crumbled away since the last time he had taken them. He turned on the light to his suit so that the others could see and understand what was ahead of them, but Ryziel himself did not need the lights to see. He had always been capable of seeing in the deepest black, his eyes adjusting so that everything several dozen paces ahead could be seen almost as clear as day. Xilya herself also had a sense of night vision, though hers was not comparable to his.

Aly, on the other hand, judging from those few moments he had walked with her in the dark, was completely and utterly blind. Even with the night vision activated on her helmet screen and the light of his suit shining the way, she stumbled several times and almost fell against him once (and he thanked Nihl that she didn't, her hands catching on a low boulder instead). His receptors tingled from her nearness, but after several days of meditation and working to stifle his Drega, Ryziel was confident he could at least control it with her near, though whether that was true if she were to touch him or he were to touch her was another story, and at that moment, he didn't care to test it.

He kept his eyes ahead and his focus knife sharp, listening and observing around him for any potential threats that might be close by.

The sluths had kept their distance, likely sensing him, clearly not wanting a repeat of their violent encounter from before. Nothing met them along the stairs, either, and that was good.

After several winding passageways and a few more stairs, Ryziel had them stop for a short rest, more for Aly's sake then for him or Xilya, but he was pleased to find she was in no way tired and, after a quick drink of water, was ready to continue. So they did and, after a slow climb down into another level and then across a narrow passage with a high ceiling full of spiked rocks Aly said her people called stalactites, they came to the first doorway leading into Yurza's Keep.

Ryziel stopped and went ahead first, checking to make sure the way was clear. There were some new holes he noticed along the walls and a few piles of crumpled rock indicating something had passed by some time ago, but he sensed nothing around and felt it was safe to continue. They went on through the doorway, clearly man-made with odd markings carved into its frame. Ryziel noticed Aly observing them carefully.

"Who were they?" she asked as they walked on past the door. "The ones who made all this?" She gestured around to the markings along the cave walls.

"A civilization long dead," Xilya replied.

They reached the end of the first passage to a second doorway, one that led on to a stone bridge stretching across a murky river. It was then Ryziel forced Aly to hang onto his belt, as patches of the bridge had crumpled away, some in the very middle, needing to be carefully walked around.

They crossed swiftly, Aly continuing to hang onto his belt even after they made it across and over to the third and last door, when he told her it was okay to let go. She did so but did not move to follow. She, instead, looked up at the impossibly tall doorway, with one frame still half clinging to one side and the other crumbled on the ground beside it.

She seemed ready to ask a torrent of questions, so Ryziel said, "We need to keep moving. We are almost there."

Aly looked back at him and, after a pause, nodded. They started again, with her now following closely behind.

Once past the door, however, she stopped again to gaze around in wide-eyed wonder.

"My god...this place is huge," she said aloud.

Ryziel stopped, as did Xilya. He watched her looking around, her human astonishment somehow amusing to him. Though he supposed he couldn't blame her. Even he couldn't help being impressed the first time he had come down into the Keep, a place with a ceiling so high one couldn't see the top, with hundreds of pillars as large as the watchtowers on Nihl, standing in rows that seemed to stretch several hundred paces. The ground underneath consisted of a black stone with ivory etchings carved deep to form an intricate, unique design. Some of the pillars and sections of the ground, however, had been broken apart by something equally as large. Something Ryziel didn't care to ever meet.

"This way," he said in a low voice. The two followed as Ryziel made a sharp left, crossing behind a pillar, over to the side of the vast chamber where a slip of a cave entrance could be seen, no more than a sliver against the giant, smooth cave wall. Turning sideways, Ryziel slipped through with Aly and Xilya doing the same. After a short distance, they broke through to the other side into a large tunnelway—not nearly as big as the ones leading into the Keep but still equally impressive. The cave walls here were not carved as nicely as the others of the Keep and there were no ancient markings adorning the walls. It was clearly a more natural passage made from a dried-up waterway.

They went on a little farther down one end till they came to a central chamber. One filled with dozens of separate holes and crevices, some wide enough for him and Xilya to pass through and others so small and low one would need to crawl. A large cavity took up a portion of one wall to the left while to the right, a short distance down, another large entranceway was blocked by a pile of rubble.

Ryziel stopped and dropped his bag. He brought up his arm and tapped on the screen of his techband. "Nar, we’re inside."

There was a short click then the urk's voice responded. "I can see you on the map now," he said. "The tracer is synced and tied to your signal, so you can let it go."

Ryziel took the tracer from his bag—a small silver and black orb—and twisted it then flung it into the air. The orb lit up with blue light and hovered.

"What's that?" Aly asked.

"Tracer," he said, watching as it floated around some more then, as it scanned around, flew by and headed down one of the small holes that led through to another set of passages on the other side of the chamber.

"What's it tracing?" Aly asked.

Ryziel flicked his eyes down to her. He didn't see any reason to keep the information from her, since she was bound to keep everything else a secret. "Ionx," he said.

Her expression was one of silent surprise, and Ryziel could not have expected anything different. Everyone who came to Lethe Maws knew of ionx and knew how astoundingly rare it was to find, as well as the nice payout one would receive if they found any. He didn't mention to her, however, that he wasn't looking for it for the money.

"Are we...looking for that here as well?" she asked after a pause.

"No. There is none here." Ryziel went back into his bag and took out a slim can of dustlite and shook it while Xilya dropped her own bags and brought out a few tiny lanterns, setting them alight around the chamber. "Here, we are looking for tython and byril, one is shiny gray the other a bluish-green. If you find aulion, toss it. We won't need it." Ryziel went over to one of the smaller openings in the chamber and began spraying the dustlite beside it with an X. He heard a sharp gasp behind him and stopped to glance back and see Aly looking astonished once again.

"It glows!" she said pointing to the blue X before him. "Is that paint?"

Before Ryziel could respond Aly came up beside him and placed her hand on the X. "Amazing. I could use something like this," she said more to herself than to him.

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