We Can Be Heroes ...?

34

Dave examined the chest. He scowled, sniffed, took a long drag of his cigarette, scowled again and then coughed before he started to manipulate the lock. All the while, the slab of stone hung above his head, threatening to fall and crush him and Shion doubted even a resurrection stone could bring him back to life should the stone fall upon him. She looked to Mila.

"Shouldn't we find something to prop up the stone?" Wherever Shion looked, however, she saw nothing that they could use to keep the slab stable. "Or, I don't know, hold it up ourselves?"

"Oh, it's fine. Watch." Before Shion could stop her, Jova gave the stone slab a push from the other side. "It won't fall. Trust me."

She hadn't given the slab a little touch, it was a good, hard push and the slab teetered and see-sawed, moving dangerously close to falling upon the old man, but it remained on its perch, coming to a steady, rocking stop. Shion still didn't trust it and stood at Dave's side, holding up her arms, ready to use what little strength she had to give Dave as much time as possible to move should the slab did begin to topple.

Shorter than everyone else, though, her hands remained a good half-a-foot away from the stone. If it did fall, it would already have enough momentum that her chances of holding it up were incredibly slim. She had to try, though, even if no-one else cared. Meanwhile, she heard several curses coming from below and the sound of something metal snapping.

"Bollo's!" Dave rubbed his forehead, smoke dribbling from the sides of his mouth. "I's a mas'er level lo'. Only gives a shor' amoun'a time to pi' i'."

"Then leave it. We should get moving. Besides, it's probably got nothing in it worth carrying." Mila hovered a few feet away. "I'm sick of this place. I just want to get it over with."

She sounded weary and Shion found herself caught between standing guard for Dave and giving comfort to Mila. It didn't matter that Mila didn't like Shion, as a healer, it was Shion's duty to care for those around her, but she was only one person. The others had a strange way of caring for each other in some ways and not caring at all in others. It confused Shion, who cared about everyone. Or, at least tried to.

Jova watched Dave work on the lock, now putting herself in danger of becoming crushed by the stone slab, and Shion tapped her shoulder. A grin came to Jova's face as Shion took her hands, and then dripped away as Shion lifted them toward the bottom of the rock. Shion raised them again as Jova began to drop them and Shion gave her a scowl, letting her know she expected her to look after Dave.

That left Shion able to see what ailed Mila. She gave Jova another stern look before turning to the other sister. Mila had summoned her parchment and Shion touched her arm. Mila's parchment came into sight, but Mila didn't look at Shion as she examined her map, scowling. Shion hadn't looked at her own map for a while, leaving the navigating of the crumbling old city to others, but she could see more of the city now drawn upon it, with still much left to be discovered.

"What's wrong?" Shion watched as Mila traced her finger along several possible routes through the broken streets. "This isn't just you being you. It's different. You can talk to me. I'm not real, am I, so it doesn't matter if you talk to me, does it?"

Mila paused in her map-reading but still didn't look at Shion. The twin's fingers pinched together and then parted over the map and, magically, the map's features became larger and better defined, as though they flew above the city, like birds, and had circled lower to get a better look. Or the city had risen up toward them. Shion saw four sigils with all their names beneath them and realised the map showed where they now stood. It truly was miraculous magic.

"It doesn't matter. It's nothing we can do anything about." Mila began to move her fingers and stopped, her head drooping. "We're not getting out of here alive. You've died, Dave died and we only have two resurrection stones left. We've not even reached a third of the way through all this, still have two boss monsters to fight, at least, then Nukrambuzer, the Big Bad, and whatever awaits us at the Well of Forever. I know we're levelling up fast, part of being in such a high-level dungeon, but ... I don't think we can win. I just don't."