Chapter Text
The wind roared in Esha’s ears as it tried to push her into the slim canyon below her. She stumbled a bit as a hand patted her on the back, sending a pebble off the edge. It vanished into the depths below her, knocking into the walls on its way down.
“This is going to be fun,” a voice chirped beside her. She turned to see her partner in crime that stood beside her. Calvus’ previously long, red hair rested in a short wavy pattern on his head. It looked good on him.
While she was dressed in a tank top turtleneck with a thin jacket in her bag he was wearing a casual t-shirt with no back up long sleeve. He had paid the price last night when she had left him to freeze at the fire out of spite. Other than the shirts they practically wore the same utility pants and climbing boots.
He noticed her looking and smirked, “You admiring the view?”
“What view? All I see is a dirty, smelly man in front of me,” she snorted, giving her own small smile.
“You don’t smell much better than me.” He crossed his arms and huffed a bit.
It was nice to joke on missions. These things could last from hours to weeks at a time. Playful banter kept things less stressful.
“Why did we take this job again?” He peered over the edge in an attempt to see the bottom that was hidden by darkness.
“We need the money. Well, more like you need the money. I’m just along to make sure you don’t kill yourself.”
“Ha, ha, very funny. I guess that means you wouldn’t mind going first.” A hefty slap sent her barreling into the abyss below.
“CALVUS,” she cursed. She only heard a loud chuckle before most noises were blocked out completely by the magic mist that shrouded the depths of the canyon. Not wanting to take any chances she pulled a grape sized crystal from her pocket. It swirled with turquoise and purple. She crushed it in her palm and her descent slowed. Watching for the ground below her she prepared for a shoulder roll.
Her landing was a bit rough, but not the worst. She grimaced at the memory of when she broke her wrist. That had not been a fun event. Setting her pack on the dusty black floor she pulled two things out: a lantern that she turned on instantly, the little yellow crystal inside glowing and illuminating the tight walls around her, and what would look like a normal pocket watch with some carvings etched on the outside.
Tapping the outside, the runes glowed a bit.
“Esha,” Calvus’ voice came through a layer of static. “Alive- come- no- bad- push.” She was thankful the fall hadn’t carried her out of distance.
“I’m fine Calvus. It’s safe down here for now,” she responded, pulling her pack back onto her shoulders. The watch got attached to her belt loop on her pants. She pulled the blade on her hips out of its sheath, holding it to prepare for the worst.
Esha scanned the darkness, feeling something pushing at the edge of her senses. It was giving her a headache. Humans may not have personal magic, but after years of being around it gave them a bit of an edge in detecting it.
A scream above her distracted her from deciphering the thumping of her head. She lunged to the side as Calvus came tumbling out of the thick mist. He practically slammed into the ground. Black dust erupted around him, making the darkness worse.
“You alright there,” Esha asked, tilting forward with her lantern. He muttered something into the black sand and one hand formed a thumbs up. She sheathed her knife.
As he rose back to his feet he dusted his clothes off, but he forgot his face. It was covered. He coughed and hacked a ball of sand out of his mouth, distracting her from the hilarity of his face.
“Eww,” he gagged, dusting off his own tongue.
“That’s what you get for not preparing your landing.”
“Says miss “I’ve been doing this for years’.”
“It was like 2 years Calvus. Anyways, what way do you want to head?” She pointed to the two choices they had: left or right.
“Left I always say.”
“Is that because you’re a lefty?”
“No, because I just have a good feeling about that direction.”
“Then let's go.”
The darkness wrapped around them as they walked, not staying away more than a couple feet. It made Esha anxious. A pitfall or creature could come out of nowhere. What didn’t help was that everything sounded muffled. Their foot falls in the sand didn’t crunch at all.
“Are you sure this is where we’re supposed to be,” Calvus questioned from behind her.
“Yes, they told us to find the darkened pit and find their treasured mirror or something.”
“A mirror?”
“Something like that. I think they told some long winded story about old bandits that robbed their family and fell down here. They were talking for an hour, so I had spaced out by then.”
The lamp in her hand flickered. She whacked it and it stopped. Esha knew the wiring had no issues. As they started walking along a gentle curve to the left their watches started shrieking. They stopped and disconnected the crystals. The shrieking stopped.
“I think we should turn back,” Calvus whimpered. “Our tech is going faulty and we both know crystals don’t go faulty without reason. What if we can’t get back out?”
“We didn’t always have our gear, Calvus. You and I did plenty of missions without it,” Esha grumbled.
“Yeah, but-” She cut him off by slapping her hand over his mouth. A wet thing ran against her palm.
“Really?” She tugged her hand away and rubbed the saliva off on her pants.
“You should’ve expected that. Why did you do that?”
“I thought I heard something.” They paused for a moment, listening. “It must’ve been my imagination. Let’s continue.”
The path didn’t seem to ever end. With the inky blackness they couldn’t tell if it stopped up ahead. They reached a fork in the road and stopped, trying to squint into the blackness.
“Well, we have a choice to make,” Calvus broke the creeping silence.
“We’ll have to choose wisely. No point wandering down here longer than we have to.”
“Agreed.” Esha lowered her bag to the ground and shuffled through the packages of food to find a small yellow crystal that fit into the palm of her hand. “Hm? What’s that?”
“It’s supposed to be able to track down valuables accurately. Don’t even think about it. This thing was expensive, we’re not using it all in one go.” She scratched the surface with her finger and blew it into the darkness. It glimmered for a moment and floated in the air towards the left, vanishing into the mist.
“See!! Lefts are good!”
They went down the left path, passing over the glimmering remains of the crystal dust as they faded into the mist. As the path continued to turn and twist it got warmer and warmer. Esha was glad for no sleeves.
When she saw a slight glow coming from in front of them she sped up her pace until she was sprinting between the stone walls, Calvus trying to keep up with her pace. Esha skidded to a stop inside a small sort of circular room.
The room was lit up by a flat piece of crystal that glowed orange. Orange was a dangerous color for crystals. One touch could set it ablaze. That wasn’t her main priority. On the ground were different trinkets. Old bracelets and gemstones on the ground. She picked some up and shoved them into her bag. Calvus joined her in raiding the space.
On a step around a wall she felt something hard under her shoe shifting around. Esha picked up her foot and dusted sand off the spot. An old mirror greeted her as she pulled it out. The thing had gemstones embedded around the edge and reflected clear as day, even with its age.
“Found it,” she called, holding it out to Calvus. As she waited for him to stuff it into her pack her eye got on something dark in the corner. Once Calvus was done with his shuffling she krept over to the spot while he used a stick to carve runes into the dark sand.
The dark was hiding an egg around the size of her head. It was mostly black with a few colored swirls here and there. She didn’t know what kind of egg it was and she had done a lot of creature retrieval missions. Not thinking much of it she gathered the egg in her arms and wandered back to where Calvus was finishing the last rune.
“Are you taking that with us,” he asked, frowning.
“It just feels right. Let’s just go home.” He pulled a bronze crystal from the locket around his neck and crushed it. The circle and runes glowed. One moment she was weightless and the next her body was being cradled by pillows. Home.
The door opened and Pania wandered in, her golden blonde hair bouncing around. Her brown eyes shimmered with delight as she hauled Esha to her feet.
Pania was curvy enough to make any woman jealous, but was stronger than she seemed. The locals had learned after The Incident not to take any flirting over board.
“How’s the shop been,” Esha asked, shaking her light brown hair of any black sand.
“It’s been the usual. A few rowdy customers, but we came to some agreements. What about you? Mission successful.” Calvus pulled the mirror out of the bag and presented it to Pania.
“Fantastic!” She snatched it from him. “I’ll go to the mail depot at once!” She dashed off, bell chiming as she exited the front door.
Esha wandered out into the shop and to the roped off stairs. She stepped over them and faced Calvus, trying to keep a snort away looking at his black dusted face.
“The bed is calling my name. I’m calling it an early night.”
“I’ll be joining you in the realm of sleep soon enough. There’s a few things I need to do,” He responded.
Esha nodded and continued up the stairs. It was a blessing they had their living space above the shop. After a long trip they could trudge upstairs and pass out. Plus none of them could ever be “late” to work.
The space was small: two bedrooms, one bathroom, and a large room that was half living room and half kitchen. Pania and Esha shared the largest room while Calvus had the slightly smaller one to himself.
Esha trudged into the shared room, kicking her shoes off willy nilly. Her backpack had been left down stairs in the storage room. With the egg held between her chest and a pillow she let sleep take her, too exhausted to try and change clothes.