Aexilica landed on her face.

Ordinarily, that wouldn't have been such a concern. But it wasn't the soft, deforming sands of Aethiq she fell onto now. Hard stone greeted her, unyielding before the impact, and Aexilica's nose crunched against it. Broken or just hurt, she couldn't say. Only taste the hot blood running from both nostrils and blink away as much of the welling tears as she could.

Around her, everyone else seemed to be handling things similarly, or worse. They hadn't fallen so far, at least. Fifteen, maybe twenty feet. Most of the weaker crewmen—now numbering only nine—had landed upon either each other, or their superiors. One hadn't, and had died instantly where his skull cracked open against the hard floor. Of the magically gifted, Aexilica found that none had been hurt even as badly as her. Captain Asgrim was practically leaping to his feet as he looked around.

"What sort of trap was that?!" He grinned, grinned, not scowled. "How was it still functioning after all this time? This place had so much effort put into guarding it!"

"I see what you're saying!" Sade added, climbing to her own feet now. "You think there'll be even deadlier traps, like—like a fire trap that melts the flesh from our bones! Or—"

—"No." The captain cut in. "I think there'll be enough treasure to warrant that kind of protection down here, with the treasure further up not doing so."

Aexilica realised, then, that they were in another corridor. She declared as much, which quickly galvanised the group and turned bickering conversation back into forwards progress. Though she herself was feeling far from reassured.

It was, Aexilica knew, entirely possible that they were fully sealed off from the rest of the tower. If that was the case, their only chance to reunite with Emma—or even enter the section she'd be coming in through—would be to somehow break through the trapdoor from below.

She didn't fancy their chances of managing that, not in a timely fashion. From what Aexilica had glimpsed of it the mechanism was rather thick stone, more than a few inches and perhaps close to an entire foot. It may as well have been a fortress wall. Even Asgrim's strength would take time to beat through that. Time she didn't know they had.

Which, for all the fear and uncertainty it brought, did at least make their next move rather simple. She could not go back, and so Aexilica had no choice but to merely continue forwards in the hopes that they would encounter another path that looped back onto their first. Trusting in her luck was hardly a pleasant experience, which was why she'd lived her life by doing so as irregularly as she was able.

But again, she had no choice. Say one thing for being forced into decisions by circumstance, if nothing else it simplified them.

As they continued however, Aexilica soon found her discontent with the whole situation abated and disappearing. It was, after all, difficult to maintain something as tame as foreboding when outright fear began to well up around it.

There were more chambers ahead, still. But these ones were emptied already, for the most part. It was tempting to think that perhaps the riches of this place's creators had simply run dry before they filled it, but that didn't survive much scrutiny.

For one thing, Sade—apparently something of an expert on the topic—insisted that to create the tower's exterior alone they would have had to boast far more resources than the Storm-Eyes had yet pilfered.

Additionally, if the tower were to be left only partially filled, Aexilica could see no reason why only the sections most exposed by lighter defences and proximity to the outside would be chosen.

No, the solution, she thought, was obvious.

"Someone's been here before us." Aexilica noted, glancing at the few silver coins left stray and scattered about the room while Asgrim quickly pocketed them.

"Seems like it." The captain grunted.

"They must've found another entrance?" Aexilica guessed, finding a spark of hope at that. "Which means another exit!"

"Or they avoided the first trap," Sade noted, "And got caught by a second one farther along, that dumped them ahead of us down here. Maybe they're heading to where we fell, searching for an exit. Maybe there's no way out at all, and we're all going to slowly starve to death in extreme agony."

Aexilica tried to ignore the disturbing excitement clearly on display, and think more practically. The trouble was, Sade had put her finger on a genuine concern.

"Let's keep going, just to see if this is true." Aexilica suggested. They could, she reminded herself, always break their way back out again. Stone was stone. Strong, but not infinitely so. She would panic only if she discovered a solid reinforcement of iron embedded in the trapdoor.

Gloom and fear followed them as they walked ahead. With the river of coins now suddenly stemmed, and several allies now dead, the group was beginning to fall into the clutches of terror. Aexilica did not draw any comfort in finally finding her emotions matched. Indeed, she just realised how much unfelt comfort she'd been drawing from the unshakeable confidence of all around her.

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Not that there was now an absence of that, Asgrim seemed as gung-ho about everything as ever and eagerly gestured them on like nothing had happened.

"I really do hope I don't end up getting left in this fucking hole." Larry grumbled. "It's bad enough being buried under clothes, at least that's warm."

Aexilica wished Emma were here. She always knew exactly how to respond to Larry, if only by hurling some half-thought insult at him and forcibly degenerating his barbs into a series of shrieking. That was another thing Aexilica had left to go unappreciated, her friend's constant levity.

Up ahead, they found a new room. This one was different, or its door was at least. Twice as tall as Aexilica, five times as wide. It was a thing of solid stone and utilitarian construction, looking as though it had been made to withstand a mountain slide and been built with durability excessive for the task.

Aexilica could practically hear the thoughts of her companions, and less than a fifth of a second passed before Asgrim—literally squealing with excitement—started stumbling his way towards it. Haruki hurried after, Sade more hurried still, and Aexilica fell in if only to keep their group from splitting up.

The door was thrust aside, tons of stone surrendering to Asgrim's strength, and light spilled out from the chamber beyond. It was to scale with the portal, bigger than any room of Vichin and…

Occupied, by people.

The first to catch Aexilica's eye was a man perhaps her age, with greasy, long hair and a greasy, long smile. He was flanked by two women, both tall and both with what Aexilica could only describe as cat-like ears protruding from the tops of their heads. The man ran his eyes up and down Aexilica's body in a way that distinctly reminded her of first meeting Emma, then spoke.

"You." The man gestured towards Haruki, frowning now. "Why are you not using a katana?"

Haruki frowned, too, more in confusion than anything, but the man wasn't done talking.

"This is my treasure." He announced, making Aexilica wince as she realised exactly what was coming next. "Understand? Leave now and I'll let you…Oh, hang on, what's in those sacks?" The man's eyes practically bulged as he stared to the bags around some of the Storm-Eyes' shoulders. "You have some of my treasure? Leave that before you go."

"Fuck you!" Asgrim roared, cheerfully, "It's my treasure!"

The man's face practically convulsed, features twisting and jerking as if he were having some sort of fit. It was one of the most bizarre things Aexilica had ever seen, and following it was a surge of frayed temper.

"You dare defy me? ME!? I am MILTON! The MIGHTY BEAST TAMER!"

To illustrate his point, or perhaps by chance, there were, in fact, several beasts emerging around the room. Aexilica felt the bottom fall from her guts as she recognised them.

Garulkan, of course. And there weren't three this time, but half a dozen.

A reasonable man, or at least one who was not caught in the depths of frothing insanity, might have reconsidered his options there. Perhaps tried some sleight of hand to salvage a few pieces of silver while handing over the bulk, and cut his losses.

Captain Asgrim Storm-Eye, however, was by no means a reasonable man.

"Ha!" He laughed again. "You think you can threaten the Storm-Eye pirates!? We'd sooner die than give away hard-won loot, wouldn't we lads?"

To Aexilica's absolute horror and revulsion, a rousing round of assent answered his cry while weapons were drawn and paces taken forth. The entire room was buzzing with imminent violence, and it had all happened in seconds.

The man, apparently called Milton, didn't look at all as Aexilica would've expected from a person staring down no less than a dozen blades, bludgeons and bared teeth. He seemed rather like an adult being menaced by a pack of children, and that left a chink of doubt in Aexilica's mental armour.

"If I can't threaten you," He grinned, "It's because you're all stupid. And I have nothing to fear from stupid people. Get them!"

Aexilica was surprised to see the wild animals answering a verbal command, and yet they did so instantly and seamlessly. An avalanche of flesh came rolling at her all at once.

Her first swing was well timed, and it brought her sword down hard onto the guralkan's face. Unfortunately, that same sword had been blunted by half an hour of dragging along scales, hardened ink and stone surfaces in Aexilica's previous fights, and exhaustion had still stolen a fraction of her strength. It was a wounding blow, not a killing one.

The creature stumbled, giving Aexilica precisely enough time to lash out a boot and wince as she felt it knocked into the air and out of her reach. Then another attacker came, one of the women. Tall, with pink hair and arms as broad across as most of the Sculd women Aexilica had seen. Her blows were fast, arrow-fast, and unrelenting. Aexilica backed away, parried. She could feel her own weakness, and barely had time to register its extent before something strange was done with her enemy's weapon and her own sword went flying from her grip.

She stared at her own empty hands, then the flat of the woman's blade smacked against Aexilica's temple and everything went dark. When she came to she was down on the ground, pinned and with edged steel pressed against her neck. It pressed harder when she moved, so Aexilica didn't.

Around her, the fight was progressing more slowly. But not with any more of a question about its outcome. Several of the crew just gave in instantly, which was the only reason none of them were killed. Haruki, Sade and Asgrim made a fight of it at least. For all of ten seconds, then they were pulled down too. All of them were wounded, some less than Aexilica and some more. It hardly mattered. Their weapons were discarded, limbs immobilised, bodies held still and vulnerable by the iminent threat of violence just as hers had.

Ten seconds, perhaps less. Aexilica was more chilled by the enemy's strength than she was by her own vulnerability.

"See what happens when you cross me?!" The man laughed, standing over to loom above them. He wasn't very good at looming, seemed altogether too shaky for it, as if he were desperately projecting as much power as he could and not at all skilled in hiding the effort involved. "Maybe next time you'll think twice before fighting Lord Grave." He smirked, queasily, and Aexilica felt her fear spike. "Kill them now…" The man trailed off, frowning as his eyes came to settle on her. Then something fastened at her waist.

"...You!" He gasped. "You're the one who sent me to this world!"

"Oh shit." Larry grunted.

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