"See?" said Ket. "I told you: we have to be prepared. Threats can come from any direction—even above us."
"I thought the surface wasn't as dangerous as I thought?" I grumbled.
She was right, of course. But now that the false alarm was over, I couldn't help but relax again. My acolytes—having given Flea and Binky a wide berth—had resumed their worship. The farmers were at work carefully measuring the right amount of water to drip-feed their latest experiments. The clothiers had gotten their spindle to work and were even now knitting some sort of shapeless fleece garment that could as easily have been a sock as a hat.
Everyone had their roles, and everything was running smoothly. We’d faced adversity and come through it a hundred times stronger. At times like this, I was almost convinced everything that happened before had been nothing more than a bad dream. There’d been no kobolds, no danger, no adventurers—
Darkness blotted out the stars once more as another shape dropped through the hole. This one was much bigger; it fell heavily, and landed with an "Oof!" and a strange metallic jingle.
"Seriously? Again?"
Yet another figure had popped into view, peering down into the hole. I recognized the pale skin and longish mousy hair: Benin, the fire mage from the Guild.
His companion—Coll, the windy warrior—hauled himself to his feet and brushed himself off. "It's not my fault I didn't see the entrance. It's dark!"
Coll froze when he noticed my acolytes cringing on the opposite side of the shrine. "Sorry," he said to them, for some reason speaking in an exaggerated whisper. Then, more loudly: "Ow!"
The little badger had sunk his teeth into the warrior's boot and was harassing it as best he could, growling all the while. Binky had reared up threateningly when Coll first appeared, but seeing that his stripy nemesis had things well in hand, the spider took the opportunity to sidle away.
Gritting his teeth, the warrior turned to face my gem.
"The Guildmaster is hunting you. The gnomes aren't safe," he blurted out.
He recited the words without inflection, like a child that had memorized the message but not the meaning, yet they shattered my good humor entirely. Fear stabbed at me, though confusion dulled its blade somewhat.
Through our bond, I sensed Ket’s own inner turmoil.
"Told you the surface is dangerous," I muttered.
Fifteen
A Core Named Corey
Benin
Benin's whole body felt like a coiled spring as he waited for some kind of response from the Core.
"Why isn't it saying anything?" hissed Coll through gritted teeth. His face was still fixed in an apologetic grimace. As well it should be. Bloody idiot.
Frowning, Benin reached into his pocket and pulled out a rumpled piece of paper. He'd scribbled out bits of Tiri's neat handwriting and made notes of his own, and had been confident the cantrip would let them communicate with any physical presence of magic or divine origin.
Perhaps it has a time limit?
He went through it again, sketching out the required symbols with his free hand and muttering the arcane words under his breath.
"—how you can dismiss such a threat, especially from those who've proved themselves to be our allies—"
"I'm not dismissing it, I'm just saying we might not want to take it at face value. This guy's fallen through the exact same hole twice now. And we know the other one is a pyromaniac—"
"Pyromancer!" said Benin loudly.
The two voices he'd heard arguing fell suddenly silent. Coll was staring up at him, looking even more puzzled than usual. Benin felt heat flush his cheeks.
He cleared his throat. "I'm a pyromancer," he said in a much more reasonable tone this time. "Mancer. Not maniac."
"You can hear us?" The voice was tinkly yet sharp, small but fierce, like the shattering of a crystal champagne flute.
"Obviously he can hear us." The second voice was deeper, a sarcastic drawl. An eyeroll in audio.
"Obviously I can hear you," Benin agreed. "Hi. I'm Benin. This is Coll."
"Who are you talking to?"
Rather than waste words explaining the obvious, Benin quickly recast the communication cantrip on the warrior as well. Coll's eyes went wide with wonder when he heard the voices too.
"Benin and Coll. We already know you," the drawling voice was saying. "Where's the other one? Tiri?"
"Corey!" This was the higher-pitched voice. "They've just introduced themselves. It's very impolite not to return the courtesy."
A sigh. "Fine. I'm Corey. This is Sparky."
"Ket! My name is Ket!"
Benin winced. The voice was so high-pitched in its outrage it felt as though it were piercing his eardrums.
"A Core... named Corey?" He wasn't completely able to hide his amusement at such a ridiculous setup.
"Why are there two of you?" asked Coll.
"You can blame Ket for the name," the Core replied resignedly. "She's my sprite. My assistant, if you will."
"Assistant!" she spluttered. "I think you mean adviser."
"Exactly. You assist me by giving me advice."
"Which you ignore."
"Only sometimes..."
Benin tuned out their bickering, activating Arcane Sight as he peered down into the hole.
The sun was almost below the horizon, and the cave was filled with shadows, but the Core's magical aura lit up its surroundings brighter than daylight. Though the Core's physical form was purple, its aura was green, bathing everything around it in turquoise light like they were underwater in tropical shallows.
For an instant, the light shifted, and Benin thought he caught a flicker of something else in there. Then it was back to green once more.
Weird.
With some effort he filtered out the Core's light until he spotted another glowing form. Some kind of squirrel-fox hybrid, it was clearly a more evolved version of the one that had led Benin and the others to safety when they'd been lost in the tunnels without water. He recognized this one as the creature that had accompanied them down to the red Core's lair during their last visit. Its proud two-legged posture and handsome vulpine face belied its strength and ferocity; he'd seen it fight the abominations in
