"What's the hold up?" Nathan shouted forward. "I'm getting squished back here." Emma shifted her weight backward, trying to stay calm as the

"What's the hold up?" Nathan shouted forward. "I'm getting squished back here."

Emma shifted her weight backward, trying to stay calm as the crystal's light faded. "Hold on a sec, I'm trying to figure something out."

Britt shifted behind Emma as well, but the pressure didn't ease much. The two ends of the tunnel were too close together for comfort.

Emma couldn't say anything for Nathan's side of the tunnel, but hers was perfectly smooth, looking more like an engineered wall than a cave in. What's more, it was made of the same crystal, but it merged seamlessly with the walls, no cracks for air or liquid to sneak through.

Emma's heart sped up and she nearly hyperventilated before common sense won out. They were still breathing. With all the shouting, she would feel lightheaded or short of breath if the tunnel was airtight. They weren't going to suffocate.

Starve or be crushed? Those were both still on the table.

"You can figure it out when we get out of the tunnel!" Britt said, her voice full of worry. "Another aftershock could happen at any moment."

"At least move forward," Andrea added, her voice muffled by fabric. "I'm gonna suffocate back here."

Britt's weight shifted again. "Sorry."

"Seriously, Emma, whatever it is, we can worry about it later," Nathan said.

Emma took a deep breath, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible. "It's a dead end… We appear to be blocked in."

A moment of silence hung heavy in the air as the others digested this information. Then all three of them started talking at once. Emma couldn't make out individual words, but the underlying panic was impossible to miss.

"Panicking isn't going to help us in this situation," Emma shouted over them, her voice far from the calm facade she had put on just a few moments before. "I know, this isn't ideal—"

"Isn't ideal?!" Nathan interrupted. "This is literally the worst case scenario!"

"We still have food and water," Emma said. "And we've done enough shouting to prove that we have air."

"Great, so it can be a long road to starvation," Nathan snapped. "That doesn't make it better."

Emma grimaced. "Hey Britt? I know you said you can't bore through solid rock, but if you're sitting on a rune that could help, now would be the time to pull it out."

Britt seemed to consider the question for a long moment. "Anything I do would risk a cave in," she said grimly, with much less panic in her voice than the other two. "We would need a way to stabilize the tunnel before I tried to mess with the shape of it."

"What about us?" Andrea asked.

"We die," Nathan snapped. "Are you even paying attention?"

"No," Andrea said. "Not like that. What if Britt did something to us? Can you make us smaller temporarily? Or maybe you can make it so we can move through rock? We could travel back to the cavern and come up with another solution."

"I wish I could," Britt said. "Runes are… unpredictable… I'll probably just blow us up."

"Yeah, I vote for not turning this box into an oven, thank you very much," Nathan said.

"Well, we're kinda running out of options here," Andrea argued.

The ground rumbled quietly beneath Emma's hands. She tensed, ready for another aftershock.

"At least throw a ward up or something," Nathan said. "The tunnel's about to cave in."

"I can't!" Britt snapped. "Essence runes are useless and there isn't enough—" She cut herself off, a confused quality to the silence. "Are we… moving?"

Emma noticed it as well. It was difficult to tell without any visual reverence, but she felt like she was in a car gradually picking up speed on the highway. The ground was steady beneath her hands and knees, but the rumbling continued, growing in volume.

Then their box got smaller. The walls pressed into Emma's shoulders and the ceiling pressed down on her back, forcing her to lower her head between her arms. The pressure kept her from being jostled too badly by the ever increasing movement, but the stone was uncomfortably warm against her back.

Something clicked in Emma's mind. The earthquakes… the singular tunnel and the strangely inconvenient cave-ins…

They weren't going to die; someone was kidnapping them!

Emma wasn't really sure if that made their situation less concerning, but it put a whole different spin on the last twenty-four hours; maybe even longer than that? Had this unknown entity been responsible for the failing wards as well? Had they been lured to that cavern with the express purpose of getting them in this tunnel? If that was the case, why had it taken so long for the facility to disappear? For that matter, why was the facility involved in the first place?

None of this made any sense.

Emma was forced to turn her mind back to the present by the increasing pain on her back and everywhere else where skin touched stone.

"I don't like this!" Nathan shouted.

"Quit stating the obvious!" Britt snapped. "The last thing we need right now is a grumpy Elemental."

Elemental? There were Elementals on Ember? Was this in the tutorial? Emma didn't remember them being mentioned in Ember Online.

"Okay, miss I've-read-every-book-in-the-library," Nathan snapped. "How about you tell us what an Elemental is instead of forcing us to guess."

Britt growled in frustration. "According to… I don't remember the name of the book… an Elemental is a powerful being made entirely of one or more elements—hence the name."

The tunnel bucked, jarring Emma's shoulders, but the tight fit kept her from sustaining any serious injuries.

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"I'm not interested in meeting one of these things face to face," Britt said.

"I don't think you're going to have a say in the matter," Emma said.

Her back rubbed painfully against the ceiling as they sped along, the heated stone burning through her shirt. Emma cast an AOE healing spell before remembering it was locked to a specific location. They left it behind so quickly it didn't have time to do anything. She switched tactics, casting Basic Heal on each of them to help offset the burning. A headache blossomed over Emma's eyebrow, and she grimaced. She had reached the end of her Mana, it seemed.

To make matters worse, their lights winked out.

"Anyone feel like we're being thrown into a volcano?" Andrea asked. "It's hot as a sauna in here!"

"Now that is something I can help with," Britt said. Wind picked up in the tiny space, circling around them. Unfortunately, instead of cooling them off, the wind merely heated up to the temperature of the stone.

"Cut that out," Emma said, casting more healing spells despite her growing migraine. "You're just turning this into a convection oven!"

The spell cut off. "A what?"

They stopped so suddenly that Emma jerked forward, the ceiling scraping painfully against her already burned skin. If it weren't for the tight space, she probably would have cracked her head on the end of the tunnel as well.

The stone gradually cooled, allowing Emma to pull back on her healing spells. It was a good thing, too. Emma felt like someone was trying to split her skull open with a sledgehammer. Overdrafting on Mana was something she would only do in a life-or-death emergency, she decided.

The ceiling melted away, allowing cool air to soothe the burns on Emma's back. She got up slowly, looking around. They had been transported to another cavern, this one covered in a layer of black crystal. As soon as all four of them were standing, the box melted away, disappearing into the wall behind them.

"Umm… I hope you all have a spare set of clothes," Nathan said.

Emma looked down. Her clothes were mostly intact, but there were full chunks missing where she they had touched the stone walls. Emma couldn't see enough to be sure of the extent of the damage, but she could feel the burns on her hands and knees, as well as the cold air hitting her bare back.

They took a moment to set up a dressing room of sorts, using bookshelves to provide some privacy. Emma went last, keeping watch as the others got comfortable.

She had to take her shoes off to change into a new set of clothes. The black stone was pleasantly cool under her bare feet. She closed her eyes, sighing in relief as her migraine eased. Did the crystal have healing properties? After getting dressed, Emma returned the shelves to her Inventory.

"That was… unpleasant…" Nathan said, holding a new light since their necklace lights had all died.

"Well, we're not dead," Andrea said. "That's something, I guess."

Emma cast an AOE healing spell now that they weren't moving. Her headache didn't return, prompting her to check her Mana.

"When did it refill?" she muttered aloud. Based on the current numbers, it had to be full when she cast the healing spell. Were they changing for that long? She closed her Menu, leaving the mystery for later pondering as she moved a few steps further into the cavern.

Britt grabbed her arm. "Don't get closer," she hissed. "We don't know what kind it is."

"From the way it dragged us through solid rock, I'd guess it's earth," Emma replied. "Or dirt? What are the different types?"

Britt's brows knit together. "What?"

Emma frowned. "The Elemental… wasn't that what you were talking about?"

Britt's eyes widened and she released Emma's arm like it burned her. "Yes… the Elemental…" she said. "They're dangerous. Even a young Elemental can easily match an experienced army."

"Which means that being careful isn't going to do anything," Andrea said. "The Elemental is in control here."

"That's not the point," Britt said, her voice tense. "I just… I think we should stick to the cavern edges until we know more."

It shouldn't matter, should it? The Elemental—if it really was an Elemental, they had yet to confirm that—had been the one to bring them there. That meant that being stealthy wasn't going to do anything and they weren't likely to find a way out of the cavern.

Emma supposed it didn't hurt to try. "Let's search the walls for an exit. There might be one hidden like it was back at the lab. Stay away from the center of the cavern for now."

"Whatever you say," Nathan said with a shrug.

Britt and Emma circled the cavern to the left while Nathan and Andrea moved right. Britt took the lead, stealing glances periodically at the center of the cavern. She was barely even looking at the wall she was supposed to be examining for runes.

There was something she wasn't telling them…

"How much do you know about Elementals?" Emma probed, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Not much," Britt said, running her fingers over the black crystal that coated the walls. "The book was vague…" She glanced again at the center of the cavern.

"Then why are you so concerned about this one?" Emma asked. "You're not usually this jumpy."

"I'm just…" Britt trailed off. She stopped walking, pressing her back against the wall as if to steady herself as she thought about her answer. "Do you ever feel like you can… see magic?" she asked. "Or smell or taste it?"

Emma pressed her back against the wall as well, the black stone buzzing pleasantly against her fingertips. "Not that I know of," she said. "I've only seen the results of magic, not the magic itself."

Britt nodded. "That's what everyone I've talked to said, but in the books I've been reading they talk about Lerian senses. They could apparently detect magic with one or more senses. I kept thinking… Lerians can't be the only ones who sense magic, right? I mean, if there's really thousands of species on Ember, surely someone else has these senses too."

Emma remained silent, waiting for Britt to continue. What she was saying made sense, Emma just wasn't sure why that made her anxious.

"I guess I was wondering…" Britt continued. "Well, if humans were one of those species with magical senses… I mean, it would make sense…"

Emma frowned. "That's a bit of a stretch. We have low magical aptitude according to the System. It would make more sense if we couldn't use magic at all."

"No, but haven't you noticed the difference?" Britt asked, her frown deepening. "Can't you feel it?"

"Feel what?"

Britt closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall. "The crystal."

Emma blinked, taking two steps away from the wall. Britt grabbed her arm, keeping her from going further in.

"You can feel it!" Britt said, a grin spreading across her face. "I was right!"

Emma frowned. "Buzzing black crystal is hardly out of the ordinary on Ember," she said, pulling her hand out of Britt's grip. "And you're dodging my question. What is it about this cavern that has you so worried? Why do you keep glancing at the center?"

Britt's smile faded. "So, you can feel the crystal, but you can't feel that?"

"Feel what?" Emma demanded, her frustration rising.

"The Boundary—"

Andrea's scream cut through the air. Emma turned to run across the cavern, but Britt pulled her around the edge, not letting her move more than a couple steps away from the wall.

Andrea had her back pressed against the wall, staring worriedly at the center of the cavern. Did she see what Britt saw?

"What happened?" Emma asked, yanking her hand out of Britt's.

Andrea shook her head. "I don't know. Nathan… he was… he was gonna talk to you. He just vanished."

"Did he cut through the center of the cavern?" Britt asked, her voice urgent.

Andrea nodded.

"Heavens smite me!" Britt growled under her breath. "Was there a sound when he went in?"

Andrea frowned in confusion. "In?"

"When he disappeared," Britt demanded impatiently. "Was there a sound? A pop or a sizzle?"

"No," Andrea said. "No sound, no light; I blinked, and he was just gone."

Britt nodded. "That's good. That means he's probably alive on the other side."

"The other side of what?" Emma grabbed Britt's arm, forcing the woman to look at her. "Britt, what are you seeing at the center of the cavern?"

"It's a crack, all right?!" Britt snapped. "The Elemental put us in a cavern with a damn boundary crack, and I think this one's an attractor."

"Attractor?" Emma repeated. "Boundary crack? What the hell are you talking about?"

"We don't have time," Britt said. "The other side of that crack is flooded with Miasma, and I don't know what that will do to a human. If I ever see this damn Elemental I'm going to—"

"I don't care what's on the other side," Andrea snapped. "We're not leaving Nathan to fend for himself!"

Before Emma could stop her, Andrea ran to the center of the cavern, disappearing without a trace.

"Damn it!" Britt shouted to the cavern ceiling. "Why are humans so impulsive?! Look, you can come with me or not. I'll find a way to get them back here." She pulled a small metal disk out of her Inventory that was way nicer than any of the makeshift wooden charms they had been using so far. "This is a communication device." She pressed the item into Emma's hand. "It should work through the wards, but it won't work across the Boundary. I'll call you as soon as we make it back." With that promise, Britt ran to the center of the cavern and vanished.

"Wait for me!" Emma shouted, taking a step forward. A wall of stone grew out of the center of the cavern, blocking Emma's way.

"Not yet, human," a female voice said from behind Emma. "There is something I need from you first."

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