Britt's broom exploded, sending shards of wood flying in all directions. The light that the runes had been providing winked out, leaving the

Britt's broom exploded, sending shards of wood flying in all directions. The light that the runes had been providing winked out, leaving them in complete darkness. Emma pulled a mage light from her Inventory, but she fumbled, dropping it before she could turn it on.

"I can't see a damn thing!" Nathan shouted to be heard over the rushing wind. "We're going to be pancakes if we don't do something quick!"

Emma activated her AOE healing spell. It wouldn't be enough to keep them from getting injured, but it might offset enough of the damage to keep them alive. It would be more effective if she could actually see her party members to cast more specific magic.

"Everyone get close to me!" Britt shouted from somewhere on Emma's right.

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" Nathan snapped. "Kinda falling to our death here!"

"Oh, forget it!" Britt yelled back.

Emma couldn't see what happened next, but Britt must have used some kind of magic because the wind in the cave picked up, not just moving past Emma's ear, but actively pressing her upwards. She spread her arms and legs wide, trying to mimic skydivers to stabilize her position.

"Ummm… is anyone else flying right now?" Nathan shouted, barely audible over the wind.

"That's my doing," Britt shouted back. "Hold on."

The wind cut off suddenly and Emma hung in the air for a split second before she started to fall again.

"Oh shit!" Britt's startled exclamation was immediately followed by the return of the wind. This time, instead of moving upward, they stayed in place, held aloft by the roaring air current.

"I can't run two spells at once," Britt said. "Anyone got any ideas?"

"I'm not even sure how you pulled this one off," Emma said. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, Emma could just make out Britt's silhouette against the cave wall. Her hand was moving erratically, drawing something in the air. Emma couldn't trace the pattern mentally with everything else going on.

"What if you let us drop a few feet at a time," Nathan suggested. "Just hiccup us down to the ground."

"That's a terrible idea," Britt snapped. "I don't know how long I can keep the spell going or if I can even keep reactivating it without consequences. If it stops while we're still too high we're all gonna die."

"Well, we can't just keep floating like this," Nathan argued. "You can't keep this up forever."

Emma's head was pounding where she had smashed it against the ceiling, but her healing spells had taken care of most of her concussion. She once again wished she had a skill for seeing in the dark.

Wait, didn't Britt have one?

"Hey, don't you have a Night Vision skill?" Emma asked. "That would at least give you a better view of the ground."

Britt hesitated. "No… I lost it when I leveled up."

"What do you mean you lost it?" Nathan asked. "The System doesn't work like that. The only time you can lose skills is when you ascend."

"It was probably a bug," Britt snapped. "The stupid System has enough of them. Can we focus on the matter at hand? Where's Andrea? She hasn't said anything since we hit the roof."

Emma squinted in the darkness, counting the shapes. "I think she's next to Nathan." She pulled up her party menu, her heart nearly stopping as she spotted the sliver that was Andrea's HP bar. Emma cast Basic Heal on Andrea twice before running out of Mana, bringing her out of the danger zone, but she was still less than half.

"Andrea needs healing now and I'm out of MP," Emma said urgently.

"I got it," Nathan said, casting several spells on Andrea until her health bar was close to full.

Andrea stirred, mumbling something that Emma couldn't hear over the rushing wind.

"Britt's still figuring out how to get us down," Nathan shouted, apparently close enough to hear Andrea's comment.

"Down…?" Andrea asked, her voice louder than before. She must have opened her eyes because in the next moment she yelped, thrashing violently against empty air.

"Don't move around so much!" Britt shouted. "If you break up my air currents you'll—"

Andrea dropped through the disturbed wind platform, her high-pitched scream tearing through the air.

"Damn it!" Britt's hand stopped moving and the wind cut off completely.

Emma's stomach flopped with the sudden drop, panic overriding her common sense as she reached for healing spells that she didn't have Mana to cast. She activated all four of them, trying to blunt the damage of their fall.

Somehow… it worked…

A headache blossomed over Emma's brow as the magic reached toward her party members. Britt cast several wind spells on the way down, managing to slow their fall enough that they didn't splatter against the stone floor. Emma's healing spells took care of the rest.

Emma sat up shakily, holding a hand to her pounding head. The effort of casting magic when her Mana was empty had left her feeling like a wrung out dishcloth. "Is everyone okay," she croaked, her throat dry and scratchy.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck," Nathan groaned. "But I don't think anything's broken… anymore. Thanks for that, by the way."

Emma nodded, but regretted the motion immediately as her headache intensified. "No problem."

Now that they were solidly on the ground, Emma pulled out another mage light and activated it. It blinked a few times and died. Not even the soft glow of the dormant spell could be seen in the thick darkness. The pain in Emma's head eased a little. She grumbled about useless technology and pulled out another light, but it too died on activation.

"What are you doing?" Britt asked.

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"Your lights are broken," Emma said. "I can't get any of them to stay lit. Do you have any more?"

"Yeah, hold on," Britt said, pulling out several of the mage lights and activating them all at once. More than half the batch failed, the remaining four flickered a bit before stabilizing.

Britt placed the mage lights on the ground and pulled out four more, activating them all. Thankfully, the remaining lights stayed lit.

"That's weird," Britt said, handing each of them a light and returning the rest to her Inventory. "The runes aren't holding the Mana like they're supposed to."

"Maybe they have a shelf life," Nathan suggested. "It's been a while since you made them."

"Not that I know of," Britt said. "And even if they did, they should effectively be in stasis while they're in my Inventory. That's the whole point of the Inventory in the first place: to store and preserve."

Emma stretched, feeling much better now that she had some light and a second to breathe. Her headache was gone, along with most of her aches and pains. She looked around, searching for the light she had dropped. It seemed to have landed several feet away from their current position and shattered into hundreds of wooden shards. A small circle of blackened stone sat in the center of the blast radius, marking the spot where the now useless item had hit the ground.

"Magical items explode when they're broken with too much energy inside," Britt said unnecessarily. Emma had guessed as much from when the broom exploded. Britt continued, "at least, that's been my experience. I can't find any mentions of it in my books. I figure it was probably common knowledge back when the books were being written." She grimaced. "It would make my job a lot easier if these writers had written everything for complete beginners."

Nathan held his light a little further away from his body, eyeing it with concern. "You mean we've been walking around with tiny bombs in our Inventories?"

"Only if you squeeze it too hard," Britt teased. She stood and stretched, looking around the empty cavern with her hands on her hips. "Should we press on, or are we going to wait until we're all feeling a bit better?"

"Move where?" Andrea asked, still lying down. "The paths all closed when the facility disappeared."

"All but one," Britt said, nodding at the lone tunnel that branched away from the cavern. It was smaller than the others had been—not even tall enough for them to stand. They would have to crawl single file to move through it.

"You're nuts if you think I'm going in there," Nathan said.

Andrea sat up, frowning at the tunnel. "I think I agree with Nathan on this."

"So, you're just gonna stay here and hope another earthquake comes along to open a more convenient tunnel?" Britt asked. "You know, before you run out of food and starve?"

Emma walked over to examine the tunnel more closely, holding the light up to the stone. The walls were smooth, as if carved by magic or tools. The sides of the tunnel reflected the light, not with the shimmering quality of wet rock, but more the glittery quality of crystal. "I don't think this tunnel is made out of regular rock," she said, tapping her knuckles against the crystal. The stone itself lit up with the impact, the light rippling down the tunnel.

"Luminescent stone?" Britt asked. "Is it magical or natural?" She moved over next to Emma to observe the tunnel as well.

"No idea," Emma said. "Do you have a way to check?"

Britt shook her head. "I can't even check my own items without activating them. Without runes or something to interact with, natural stone and magic stone would feel the same."

"Can you use magic to make the tunnel wider?" Nathan asked. "I'd feel better if I could at least stand up in it."

Britt shook her head. "I barely managed the wind spell. What do you want me to do, bore a hole through solid rock?"

"We're not messing with the cave walls," Emma said. "We're lucky the whole thing didn't collapse on top of us. I'm not crazy about small spaces, either, but I'm also not optimistic about our chances of getting out of here through that ceiling. We have two options: wait for the hole to open up—which might never happen—or crawl through the creepy tunnel and hopefully find a way out of here."

Nathan and Andrea looked at each other and Andrea gave a little helpless shrug.

Nathan groaned. "I'm outvoted, aren't I?"

"Yep," Britt said. "Who's going in first?"

"Not it!" Nathan said quickly.

Andrea shook her head. "I don't have any decent spells yet."

All three of them looked expectantly at Emma.

Emma sighed. "Fine, but I'll need my hands free. Can we put these lights on strings?" She held the small chunk of wood out to Britt.

"Without making them explode," Nathan added.

"Obviously," Britt said dryly, accepting the light from Emma. "I should be able to cut a hole in the top as long as I steer clear of the runes. Give me a few minutes."

They waited in silence while Britt carefully cut a small hole in each of their lights. They had found a ball of twine-like string in the lab, which they used to turn the mage lights into necklaces. It was itchy, but not unbearable. If it kept Emma's hands free to crawl—and fight if necessary—then it would be worth it.

Before entering the tunnel, they ate one more meal—mostly to stall the inevitable, but also because Emma wasn't sure when they would be able to comfortably sit to eat next.

"Last chance to back out," Nathan said after they cleaned up the last of the dishes.

"You're still outvoted," Britt said.

Emma nodded, trying not to let the nervousness show on her face. "If I scream, don't follow me in."

"That's making me feel so much better," Nathan said sarcastically.

Emma crawled into the tunnel, her head nearly scraping the ceiling, even on her hands and knees. The sides were snug, but she wasn't in danger of getting stuck. The frequent brushes from her shoulders sent pulses of light glowing through the tunnel.

She crawled a good ten feet before pausing. "It's a tight fit, but I'm not seeing anything dangerous."

She tried to look back, but there was no way to turn around in the tight space.

Emma backed out of the hole and straightened into a kneeling position. "If anyone's claustrophobic, this might be an issue."

"I think we'll manage," Britt said, eyeing the tunnel with distaste.

"Are you kidding?" Nathan snapped. "Have you ever seen a cave diving video?"

Britt shook her head. "No, I haven't. And from your reaction, that's a good thing right now."

"We're going to end up with our head stuck in a hole and suffocate!" Nathan snapped. "Or worse, get eaten by a giant badger or something."

"Badgers don't bore through rock," Andrea pointed out. "It's more likely we'll meet a mutated worm monster or some other kind of bug."

"You're not helping," Nathan snapped.

"Okay, stop." Emma rubbed her temples. "There's nowhere else for us to go. We can't stay here and we're not splitting up, so either you agree to follow the vote results or we're going to sit here arguing forever."

The ground trembled. Emma put her hand on the wall to steady herself, but she didn't need to this time. It wasn't a full earthquake, just an aftershock.

It was enough to convince Nathan.

"Fine," he snapped. "I'll go, but if I die, I'm haunting you all for the rest of your days."

"We'll probably be dead too," Andrea pointed out.

"You're so helpful today," Nathan drawled.

Emma crawled back into the tunnel before he could change his mind. Britt followed after her, then Andrea with Nathan taking up the rear. Something felt odd the second time entering the tunnel. It took Emma several minutes to pinpoint what it was.

The tunnel was wider than she thought. She could move without her shoulders touching the sides. Had it been that way since the beginning or had it just widened slightly as they went? She still couldn't turn around to look behind her, but the seizure-inducing light show was easier to avoid.

"You overplayed how cramped this is," Britt said. "I'm not even touching the ceiling."

"It's still too cramped for comfort," Nathan shouted forward, his voice echoing up the tunnel. "Any signs of it getting wider?"

Emma was going to shout back, but another aftershock cut her off. This one was bigger than the last. The ground shook so hard that the crystal lit up in time with the waves.

Nathan swore and Britt collided with Emma, trying to speed up.

"Stop pushing!" Emma tried to shout over the sound. "Move backwards out of the tunnel!"

"We can't!" Nathan shouted back. "There's a damn wall there now!"

Emma tried to turn, but between the closeness of the walls and the shaking ground, she could barely keep herself upright. She braced her head between her arms and closed her eyes against the dizzying light show, waiting for the aftershock to pass.

They were silent for a long moment after the shaking stopped. Emma took a deep breath, the tiny glow from her mage light barely illuminating a few inches in front of her.

"So, can I say, 'I told you so' now?" Nathan asked, his voice irritated.

"Told us so?!" Britt snapped. "You didn't say anything about the exit disappearing."

"Well, I said something would go wrong, and this definitely qualifies."

"Call a papilio wet," Britt grumbled.

"A what?" Nathan asked.

"Never mind," Britt snapped. "Can we just get moving? The sooner we get out of here, the better I'll feel."

Emma moved forward a few inches, freezing as her nose brushed stone. Light flashed in her eyes from the crystal that blocked the path ahead. The way forward was a dead end as well.

They were trapped.

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