SOLAR KNIGHT

With Kaellatch clinging on by a fistful of fur behind his shoulders Razorfang bounded across the room, his teeth bared. Leaping at Tellius ready to tear out his throat, he was thrown off-balance as Tellius upended the dish of spheres. They scattered across the room towards Razorfang and he staggered as they exploded, flinching away from the blasts. Kaellatch fell from his back and tumbled across the stone floor.

Spying an opening, Tellius bolted across the lab only to come face to face with Micaiah. As she stood between him and the doorway, her arms raised in an arcane gesture, the hair on his neck stood up and he momentarily froze in place. Before he could react however, his decision was made for him: after slinking along at the rear Dain grabbed Micaiah from behind, a blade of fire held close to her throat.

"Nobody move, or I'll kill her!" he called out. No one else spoke. "I mean it!"

"Sure you do," called Kaellatch from the other side of the lab, struggling to her feet. "Go ahead. We only met her a week ago. It's no skin off my nose."

"Do as the little vermin says," said a deep, resonant voice from just beyond the open doorway into the lab. "We don't need a hostage." Cinder stepped out of the shadows and into the room. His crimson scales were streaked with ichor and the membrane of his wings hung in strips, but his gait was strong and purposeful.

"Yes, get on with it," chimed in Tellius. "I know where the artefact is now so we-"

Before Tellius could finish, a crossbow bolt flew over his head, striking Cinder's remaining intact horn and chipping it to match its mirror. Cinder roared in fury and charged, and Razorfang roared back having shaken off the worst of the effect of the percussive orbs. Sensing her chance, Micaiah reached out to one side with her fingers tensed in the shape of a claw and snatched a filament of darkness. With this weapon she then stabbed blindly behind herself. As the fragment of solidified shadow sunk into Dain's thigh like a knife, he gasped in pain and his flame blade dissipated into smoke in his hand. Her captor's grip momentarily loosened, Micaiah wriggled free.

"Forget the kobold!" yelled Tellius to Cinder, who was now spitting sparks trying to muscle past Razorfang to get to Kaellatch. "Get the mage!"

Quickly refocusing himself, Dain conjured a smouldering ball of flame in his hands. "If you know where the artefact is then let's hurry and go get it!" he shouted. "I'll cover our retreat!" As he announced this he spiked the burning orb into the floor, where it squashed out like a glob of molten glass and began to fill the room with smoke.

Tellius was first out into the corridor, with Cinder stalking after him and Dain limping along further behind. Once they were out into the corridor proper and on their way deeper into the complex, Dain drew to a halt and began to trace out runes onto the wall and floor with his finger, leaving a red-hot glow on the stone panelling where he touched. As he hastened to finish this task, Razorfang erupted out of the smoking doorway, fumes pouring off his coat in rivulets as he took off in a dead sprint towards his quarry. Cinder moved to intercept, but Tellius stopped him with a raised hand. A wall of flame streamed out of the line of runes between them and Razorfang skidded to a halt several feet from the barrier, the firelight reflecting in his eyes with the glint of violence denied.

Back in the laboratory, the smoke was beginning to clear. Micaiah meandered over towards the ward trap where Azinax was still confined.

"Oh dear," she remarked. Azinax was crouched at the back of the runic circle, too distraught to answer. With Tellius now seemingly out of reach it was like all her strength had forsaken her. Micaiah then glanced over to the left, her gaze drawn by another set of symbols and aparatus on the adjacent wall. As she vacated the spot directly in front of the runic circle the space was swiftly taken up, to the limited extent that her small frame permitted, by Kaellatch.

"Look, I know this feels like a tight spot, but we'll figure something out," she said in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. The lifeless look in Azinax's eyes, her defeated posture; she had seen this before. She had dragged Azinax out of this kind of pyschological hole before, but it usually took longer than Kaellatch suspected they had. If Tellius was in league with Cinder, who was in league with Neratokthian, then whatever it was he was seeking in the depths of this place could only augur ill.

"So that's what it's for..." mused Micaiah. "I think I know what to do now, but I'll need that prism back for a moment."

Kaellatch pulled the metal prism out of her pocket. "If this works you can keep it." She held it up for Micaiah, who took it immediately. At the same time Kaellatch kept her gaze fixed on Azinax, who still had not moved since the others had arrived, and was still staring down in a state of despondency at her killing-edge laying on the floor in front of her.

Kaellatch stepped over the outer rim of the ward trap, the runes glimmering as she did so and sparks dancing on her azure scales. This was enough to draw Azinax's attention.

"Look me in the eye," hissed Kaellatch. "You can punish me for insubordinatory backtalk afterwards however you like, as is your right; indeed I encourage it if it gets you up off your back end, but before that I am going to say my piece and you are going to listen. All your history with Tellius prior to today? It's in the past, it's invalidated, it doesn't exist any more. You owe him nothing and you always owed him nothing. Your loyalty was nothing but a courtesy to him, a privilege that he squandered! He's nothing to you! This is nothing to us! Micaiah back there is going to pop open this ward trap like it's not even there, and then you are going to go after Tellius and Dain and Cinder, and show them all how a lux-borne killing-edge works, are we clear? Tellius was condemned to die by Phaetusia's blade. You tried to stop that. You thought you failed, but he cheated death anyway! Now is your chance to make up for years wasted on the specious notion of a leader who died when he should have lived, and wash away the dishonour of the Order with the blood of a traitor who has lived when he should be long dead! Tellius has subverted the will of Phaetusia! Fulfil your oath and strike him down!"

"I do not know which hell he will find himself in after I am done with him," growled Azinax, a renewed vigour evident in her tone, "but I intend to make sure that it comes to him as a relief."

"Yeah, make him suffer!" encouraged Kaellatch as she backed away as far as the confines of the ward trap would allow. She shot a nervous look at Micaiah, and as if on cue there was a snap as the runes of the ward trap flared bright then went out, apparently inert. Kaellatch stumbled back as the barrier she had been pressed against vanished. Azinax stood, then doused the light of her killing-edge before sheathing it.

"Let's go," she said shortly to Micaiah, then took off at a brisk but measured pace out the laboratory.

"Where are they?" she asked Razorfang over their telepathic link.

"I chased them as far as I could down the corridor, but they got away," Razorfang informed her, remorse and blood-lust both carrying over through the empathic link. Once Azinax had rounded the corner just beyond the lab entrance no further directions were necessary. From there she could see the barrier as Razorfang continued to pace ineffectually in front of it.

"Allow me," offered Micaiah, who had drifted along silent and unhurried behind Azinax. "It sounds as if Tellius intends to desecrate the relics of my forebears, and obviously this cannot stand. Of course, Dain cannot be allowed to escaped unpunished for his treachery either." As dark and quiet as it was in the bowels of the earth, it became yet more so as Micaiah plied her chthonic art. A discordant thrum filled the air as she approached the barrier, and the flames shied away from her. Guided by her arrhythmic movements the shadows gnawed at the flames, and the flames contorted into twisted shapes like living things in pain before shredding apart and going out. With the way clear the four of them pressed on with Razorfang leading the way, tracking the enemy party by scent. The tunnels and corridors stretched on and on, and it began to seem as if there would be no end to them. But even so, the group would occasionally come across some disturbance, such as a charred metal construct or a battered-down door, with the end result that they never lost confidence that they were on the right path. At last they came to territory that the ancient elves had evidently taken great pains to protect as demonstrated by numerous runic barrier circles blocking the corridor in question. All the ancient elves' effort had been in vain, however as subsidence had caused a deep long crack in the ceiling running the length of this corridor. The breach had torn through every circle, rendering all their work null and void.

"This lines up with the map I saw earlier," said Azinax. "Our enemies are likely just up ahead." With that, she took up position alongside Razorfang and together they advanced into the passageway of dead wards.

The earth trembled, and all eyes turned to the crack in the ceiling. Despite disgorging a little dust in response to the disturbance, it held firm. The four of them hastened their pace. Once through the pried-off double doors at the end of the passageway, the cause of the subsidence was obvious. A large tunnel pierced the antechamber beyond with one entrance leading diagonally down into the floor and another opposite in the ceiling.

"Worm trouble," remarked Kaellatch. "There's no escape, is there?"

Everyone's attention was quickly drawn away however by the contents of the chamber. This room, unlike every other room in the complex that they had encountered thus far, was illuminated by numerous small crystals embedded in the walls and domed ceiling, each burning with a silent smokeless flame. These lit up row upon row of machines carapaced in matte black as far as the eye could see.

"Precursor artefacts," whispered Micaiah. "There's so many of them."

"But they're not what we're here for," Azinax reminded her. "You can do an audit of grandpa's mystery widget collection later."

"Everyone shut up!" interrupted Kaellatch. "We're not the only ones here!" As the group fell silent words drifted on the air from a heated conversation several aisles over. "That's gotta be Tellius. Alright, we've found him. Now what?"

Azinax looked down at Kaellatch, then off into the distance in the direction of the voices, mapping out an approach in her mind's eye. Tellius was right there, waiting for her among the countless precursor machines, though he didn't know it yet. He soon would. Azinax drew her sword, its blade catching the light of the eternal flames suspended above her.

"Now I follow your advice. Phaetusia will receive what she is owed."