The Witch's Relay

Chapter 57: Branching Off

Occasionally the path would twist and turn, but so far, and even after counting my steps past ten-thousand and loosing count along the way multiple times, the path still hasn't branched out.

We did however stop a few times when we noticed the party ahead stopping, probably to fight since those spots were littered with monster remains and blood afterwards.

"Does she know?" Heather suddenly breaks the long silence to address Linda.

Both me and Vanessa are confused by the question, but Linda seems to get it.

"Yes. So there really isn't any reason to stay quiet about it now."

I am about to ask what they are talking about, but Heather speaks first.

"Who was your master?"

"Dolos. And you?"

"I should have guessed.. Mine was Ian."

I nearly choke at the sudden transparency. Isn't this supposed to be a secret!? And wait.. Didn't Linda say she had a master!? Am I imagining!?

One look at Vanessas shock tells me no.

"Since when is you being a mage, like, not a secret!?" Vanessa blurts out, confused and in the same boat as I.

Linda, amused by her friend's reaction proceeds to explain the situation.

"Heather and my master's used to know each other. We have currently agreed upon a truce and alliance until further notice."

Short and straight to the punch.

"So.. Does that mean you're the dreamwalker who invaded my sleep?" I butt into the conversation with a bit of a grudge.

"Ehm.. Yea.. Sorry about that!" Linda sweat drops.

"Aaand I now that you have your memories back, I assume you also remember trying to stab me?" I press further even though I'm confident that Heather already covered all this during their private discussion.

"You tried to stab him!? Why!?" My focus shifts back to Vanessa when she reenters the discussion.

Heather seems to be content to be just running beside us and minding her own business, probably analyzing the situation and gathering intel.

"I uhm.. Well.. They both seemed like a threat I guess?.." Linda apparently doesn't give a satisfactory answer, because Vanessa continues to press harder.

"You guess! That's not a good enough reason to kill someone!"

"I walked in on Heather doing magic! If it became known that I did nothing, then I'd be burned at the stake, and probably you too for knowing about me!"

"Shush. Stop. There's a new tunnel." Heather interrupts in a commanding tone.

Both Vanessa and Linda are so concentrated on their argument, and I am too invested in what's being said in order to notice an important detail in our surroundings.

Directly to our left, the tunnel branches away from the main path and into an equally large one. From hereon out, we are the vanguard. Any monsters residing down this path, it's our responsibility to clear it for those who come behind us.

"From now on, no arguing or discussing topics irrelevant to our current situation. We all know the drill." Being the only one not caught unawares by the sudden tunnel, Heather takes charge.

Showing visible embarrassment over being caught lacking, both Vanessa and Linda nod affirmingly while I simply ready my weapon.

"Then let's go." Heather turns into the new tunnel and resumes our previous pace while the rest of us follow her example.

...

We end up running down the tunnel for a surprising amount of time without running into anything of note. No monsters, no more branchings, no dead ends, nothing. Just grey stone everywhere and the occasional drip of moisture from the ceiling.

At this point, all of us, even Heather are beginning to show signs of being on edge. Running with our weapons in hand, it seems almost suspicious that we haven't encountered anything, and especially because of the eerie feeling hanging over us.

"It feels as if something is watching us." Vanessa expresses what the rest of us have been struggling to put our fingers on.

"You're right." Heather confirms. "That feeling has been here ever since we branched off, but it's been getting stronger the deeper we go."

"How deep do you recon we are at this point?" I ask to no-one in particular, but mostly aimed towards Linda who seems to know the most about dungeons.

"I don't have anything much to base this on except my vague perception of how long we've been running for. But I would guess we've descended halfway to Northerton by now-"

WHOOSH, CRACK.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, and quicker than any of us have time to react to, what appears to be a thorn the size of a small sword whooshes by, passing just inches away from Linda's skull, before suddenly shattering into a multitude of smaller splinters which are somehow launched back at us from behind.

"AIR- SHIELD!!" Cutting her incantation to the bare minimum, Heather throws herself between the incoming hail of projectiles and us, getting up a barrier just in time, she blocks the danger.

Having dealt with the immediate threat, Heather turns back to try and find out what happened, but is just a step too late.

Vanessa, being our archer, has already loosed an arrow into the darkness, and upon what can only be assumed to be a hit, a shriek of a monster in pain echoes from the tunnel ahead.

Both Linda and I rush forward, me with my sword, and Linda with a raised throwing knife in one hand, and brandishing a torch in the other.

But whatever it was that launched the projectile is nowhere to be found. Leaving only a trail of black blood, indicating that Vanessa's arrow hit its mark, our attacker has already vanished deeper into the dark.