Seed Of Speed

Diego led his band of twelve warriors and one shaman through the Quko campgrounds. Shaman Fanflame looked their way, but just gave a simple nod to Rainshower before losing interest in their group. He had the veteran warriors cross the blue ring first and, as each of their feet passed the inside edge of the stones, they appeared to be yanked forward while spinning in a counter-clockwise direction and disappearing almost instantly. Diego, Peyni, and Tovao all shared a look of muddled fear and concern, but Rainshower did not as she excitedly crossed the line and vanished without a trace.

"Certainly can't let a woman beat us," Peyni said, summoning his courage, before he stretched his foot over the line then vanished.

Tovao gave a nervous chuckle while shaking his head. He tightened his grip on his glaive then entered the passage like everyone else. Diego looked around the campsite one last time before stepping forward and following the others into the Void Passage.

Instantly, it was if some suction force latched onto the toe of his boot and pulled him inside as it crawled up his body an army of bugs swarmed their way up his entire body within a moment. Somehow, it felt as if his whole body was being yanked through a garden hose and it even felt like it had changed to fit the tight, narrow tube he was being pulled through. There was no light, or he had no way of seeing during the transfer, but he could feel his body spinning at high speeds.

Then, after what seemed like an eternity though it was only a minute, everything stopped suddenly, and he was in a dark cave with a few torches being the only source of light. The chamber was quite large, nearly a hundred meters in width, and the sound of metal picks against stone could be heard in the distance. The air was still, muggy, and had the faint smell of sulfur. With his sense returned, Diego paled as he stumbled to the side, but a pair of strong hands steadied him.

"Will you be sick, young lord?" the warrior holding Diego's shoulders asked.

Before he could answer, he heard the sound of someone retching and peeked over to seeing Peyni on his knees with his head in a bucket. Although Tovao had yet to lose his last meal, he had a greenish complexion and sweat on his forehead as he sat on the ground. Diego gritted his teeth and forcefully tried to suppress the queasy feeling.

"I'll be fine," Diego said to the warrior.

The warrior gave him a nod then loosened his grip on Diego's shoulders. Diego was still a little wobbly, but he was no longer in danger of falling over. He looked around his group and saw that, aside from himself, Tovao, and Peyni, everyone else appeared fine, albeit, a little pale. Rainshower looked like nothing had happened to her as she examined the area with a big smile on her face.

"So, are you going to show me what's in the bag now?" Diego asked as he walked over to her side.

"Not bad, junior-apprentice brother, most people end up like Tovao, if they managed to not end up like Peyni," she said with a light chuckle. "This is something Mother created for me with some of our spare Light Crystals."

Rainshower reached into her sack and pulled out something slightly larger than her hand that was tightly wrapped in a leather pouch. When she started pulling the cord tying it all together, white light poured out of the gaps as they formed. Once it was completely free of the leather pouch, the orb of pure white light was revealed. She gave it a little toss as her fingers lit up with white glow and then it remained floating in the air, hovering just over her head.

"Once I remove the cover, the orbs will last six hours, and I can set them to hover over anyone's head. Mother made thirty, so we can't go crazy with them, but we should have enough that we won't need to rely on torches in our group," Rainshower replied with a smile.

"It is definitely brighter than the torches," Diego said as he used a hand to shield his eyes from the miniature sun above her head.

She laughed and snapped her fingers, sending the globe up higher. Diego let his hand drop and he turned back to look over his men. Aside from his two brothers, everyone else seemed back to normal. Tovao was still pale and sweaty, but he was at least back on his feet. Peyni had stopped vomiting and was just staring blankly at the bucket, as if he was deciding whether or not he was truly done.

"Udan, Jime, and Walun, go check the tunnels and find where the Quko miners are. Tovao, did you find some parchment and charcoal like I asked?" Diego asked.

The three me who Diego ordered nodded and walked together to check the four tunnels that branched off from the chamber they were in. Tovao opened up the pouch on his belt and pulled out a folded piece of paper and a small, charred stick then passed it to him. Diego took the paper over to the wall as he unfolded it then spread it out against the stone surface. In the center, he drew a rough circle for the chamber then marked the tunnels with little notches.

"All four of the tunnels show recent activity, but the Quko miners are in the two at that end of the chamber," Udan informed when he walked back up to Diego.

Diego gave a firm nod then looked back at Peyni who was struggling to his feet with help from one of the warriors. Rainshower seemed to finally notice his discomfort as she crossed the group and stopped in front of him. She placed a hand on his head as her hand lit up with a pale blue light. When she pulled back her hand, the color in Peyni's cheeks had returned and he looked a lot more comfortable than before.

"Thank you, Shaman," Peyni breathed as his face relaxed.

"It's not a problem. You will get used to feeling after a few more times," she replied.

"Since everyone is more or less recovered, let's get moving," Diego said as he pulled his spear from its holder across his back and tucked the paper into his belt.

Diego took the lead, flanked by Tovao and Peyni and Rainshower directly behind the trio. The veteran warriors and marksmen all kept their weapons ready and their guard up as they had been repeated warned by Toba of their fate should something happen to the heir. As a unit, they made their way down one of the empty tunnels.

The black stone that made up the surroundings seemed to drink in the light, reflecting none of it back out, but the light orb was still bright enough to light up the tunnel fifty meters away. There were a number of places where the tell-tale signs of mining could be seen as chunks of the wall and ground were missing in places. Diego frown upon seeing this as that meant his miners would have to move even further from the entrance, putting them at more risk, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

They moved deeper and deeper while Diego would stop every now and then to mark his makeshift map. It took ten minutes of walking before they found another, smaller chamber that was untouched.

Large crystal of blue, red, green, yellow, and violet were imbedded in the walls while others hung from the ceiling and sprouted from the ground. The crystals in the chamber alone could pay a quarter of the taxes for the entire Telryn Clan. No one escaped the look of wonder as they entered the sparkling room.

Diego marked the chamber on his map and wrote in "crystals" in the center. The small room had two more tunnels that split off, of which, Diego chose the right and continued on. Crystals appeared every now and then down the tunnel, but never the same size or amount that there would be inside the chambers. After an hour of walking, they had discovered two more untouched chambers before they turned around for the night.