I decided that I didn't want to look at anything else about Bill for the moment, especially with other people in my memory palace. Hell, maybe not ever. Yet another fucking person that had known what I was. At this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if I it was in my records from elementary school; Calliope is progressing well with spelling, struggles somewhat with remembering the order of months, and is secretly a changeling.

The main thing I could potentially still benefit from would be finding out what was on those files from Greg's computer, but I wasn't sure that I'd ever gotten the chance to look at them before he got a hold of my phone and, presumably, destroyed it. The one I had a little over three years later when I'd been teleported away from Earth wasn't the same one, and I would have noticed if any of it had been backed up from somewhere.

I - politely - booted Katrin and Errod out, confirmed that human Calliope was minding her own business in her room, and then got some rest. It was overdue anyway, and I'd have time to dig through memories more before we went to Earth. I had some nightmares about Bill chasing Zoey and I through ruins under the desert, but they weren't particularly bad as that sort of thing went. After having them every single night for so long, the occasional one now didn't bother me much.

In the morning, we ate a meager breakfast and then I immediately put Grunkle on the spot. I was still worried that he was full of shit and didn't have any clue how to find a way in to the Temple of Convergence. "Okay buddy, you're up. Take us to the entrance."

My guess was that he would take us to some random point in the ruins, shrug and tell us the entrance had been destroyed, and that would be it. To be safe, though, when he did finally come to a stop near one of the mounds that marked where the city walls had been, I started trying to explore underground with divination. The mana cost rocketed up, but with Katrin there to recharge me it wasn't a concern.

"How precise would you say you are?" I asked.

Grunkle turned around a few times. "I'm assuming that lump over there was the Hunter's Gate, based on where the mountain is from here. If the Hunter's Gate collapsed more completely and that lump is something else, we could be off by quite a bit. But I think this is right. Yeah. Yeah, see that thing sticking up out of the sand over there? That was a big obelisk back in the day. It was like a block away, so... yeah. Right here, or... maybe like a dozen feet that way."

My divination view of underground was monochrome, since I was artificially making it light. I had already stumbled across some voids in the sand, bits of rooms that had survived for thousands of years. A lot of the walls were ridiculously sturdy, but the issue was with ceilings - once those gave out, the desert happily filled in all the available space as sandstorms swept through.

I laid down on the ground to get myself an extra few feet of range, and re-positioned as needed once I'd done a sweep of the twenty-foot radius I could access. I found a completely intact room with a mummified body in it, a den of some sort of hairless rat things, about half of an old fountain, and then - much to my surprise - an underground passage that was only mostly filled with sand.

"Okay, so... fuck me, I think Grunkle actually came through on this one. There's a tunnel, and it's headed in the right direction. It's flooded with sand except for a shallow area at the top, but it looks like that might get better the deeper you go. We could probably dig down to it pretty quickly, and then once we're inside clearing it out behind us shouldn't be too rough."

It didn't turn out to be that easy, of course. There was nowhere to put the sand that it wouldn't try to spill right back in, and once we'd reached the passage getting the sand all the way up out of the hole was a colossal pain in the ass. Meanwhile the sun rose the rest of the way and the temperature started to tick upwards.

Still, we were able to make progress quickly enough to feel good about it. The entryway had been eroded to the point where it was just pitted stone, but as we got into the passage there were detailed carvings. I had to assume they were about Batasun, but without already knowing the stories they didn't mean much to me. I pushed my divination through the sand to document it all, just in case some scholar would be interested.

"This thing was a secret, back in the day," Grunkle said, "though it wasn't a very well-kept secret."

There had been a handful of people that had supposedly already explored the ruins of the temple, or tried to anyway, but Matlyn wasn't sure if any had taken this tunnel or if they'd dug down to the temple from directly above it or what. If the tunnel wasn't collapsed halfway along it would for sure be the best way for us to access the temple, but I was I wasn't going to hold my breath. As soon as we detected a larger void ahead, I scrambled over the sand - back scraping against the ceiling - and slid down the slope on the other side.

"Katrin, send a light forward. I'm standing, but I can't see very far ahead."

A ball of light zipped past, and I watched as it went further and further into the distance. The tunnel looked nice and sturdy, and while I was currently standing on a foot or so of sand even that was gone another thirty or so feet ahead. I climbed back over the narrow part, and got the others to gather around.

"Okay, next possible problem is bad air. It's possible that if we all head down that tunnel we'll pass out and die or something, so... do we have a good way to prevent that? The water breathing things might not work in this sort of situation, and I don't know that we brought them anyway. I'm sure I left the diving helmet behind." I'd been planning on putting it in my extraplanar storage space in Biltagiretzae, but I was pretty sure it was actually sitting in its spot on the airship.

Katrin studied her spellbook for a bit, and managed to get something going - it was just a gentle push of air, but we figured if we left it going for a while it would do the trick. It didn't blow back or anything, which meant that somewhere, further down the tunnel, it had to be the case that the air was exiting somewhere. Errod and Grunkle continued to clear away sand, with more being blown down the tunnel, and quickly the mound blocking the way was low enough to climb over without crawling.

I dragged our bags down into the tunnel so we'd be ready to go, but we agreed to give the air a little more time to circulate as everyone ate lunch. I wasn't hungry, having snuck some food earlier, so I took a stroll for a moment and checked out the near slope of the mountain. There was some shade, which was nice, and it let me look out across the ruins.

And I saw the kidnappers.

They were just standing there, on a hill that had probably once been a building, with someone I assumed was Matlyn's sister sitting on her ass between them. Using my telescope trick, I could see she had a sack over her head. I didn't see their dino mount, though. I headed back down, and called everyone over.

"Okay, we need to plan. Matlyn, don't get excited. Your sister is probably alive, the kidnappers are here and it looks like they have someone captive."

I grabbed her arm as she tried to run past, and yanked her back. "Nope. You're staying here. Someone should stay here with you, too. Okay, Katrin stays here ready to blast anyone that attacks. Errod and I go deal with the kidnappers. Or... Katrin comes, so she can shield your sister in case they try to kill her, and Errod stays here."

Errod raised an eyebrow. "Or Katrin and I go, since you're the one that can best watch over Matlyn and Grunkle by yourself. Between the two of us we can deal with anything the deserters do, while keeping Matlyn's sister safe."

Damn. He was right, of course, but I wanted to be part of the action, not just the person babysitting the boss. This was bullshit. Human Calliope was off to the side taking a nap, but I didn't trust her to be delicate with the hostage situation and she would hate being the guard. I didn't feel up to that fight, so I begrudgingly waved Katrin and Errod away and then had Grunkle and Matlyn go down into the tunnel. I perched up at the top of the hole we'd dug, and my divination viewpoint was almost twenty feet above that, giving me a pretty good look at our surroundings.

Sand. Bit of ancient wall. Sand. More sand. Badly-eroded hips and lower torso of a statue. Sand. Sand. Motherfucking sand. I rotated slowly, so I could see even more boring desert. Pile of bricks. Sand. Little scrubby bush growing in the shelter of a sunken wall. Sand. Sand. The glint of light off a knife.

Hello.

It was gone already, but I ratcheted the passage of time up in Ematse so I was watching everything in super slow motion. The sand was moving... there. And there. And there. And... fuck, there were a lot of spots. As I looked closer I could see that it was some sort of illusion, just a slight blurring over sand-colored cloaks. Occasionally something would peek into view, a hand or knife or something, but otherwise it was very impressive. The closer I zoomed in with my telescope the easier it was to see what was actually going on, and clearly the trick wouldn't do much at all from up close, but it had come damn close to getting them right next to me.

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Now the question was... what should I do about it? I kicked Calliope, and before she could stab me or something I said, "There are nine magically-camouflaged people approaching, probably Sahrger. The timing can't be a coincidence, I'm guessing they're about to attack while Katrin and Errod are distracted."

She was already on her feet, and dropped down to the tunnel. "Go through. Now. I will get the others."

"They're hidden, and there's nine of them. We should -"

"Now. You're wasting time. Trust me."

Against my better judgement, I dropped down and stepped into the tunnel. Calliope had already grabbed a hammer out of our supplies, one we'd planned on using to break away stone if needed while digging, and she deftly hammered iron spikes into the entrance of the tunnel. One in each wall, one in the floor, and one in the ceiling. And then she was gone, scrambling to the top of the hole and charging away.

"Matlyn, Grunkle. Get those packs on and start heading down the tunnel. We're going to be running, and that'll be easier if you guys get a head start."

I got my own on, and grabbed Katrin's as well. I handed another bag to Grunkle - he was big enough to carry at least two - and Matlyn insisted on taking the last one. They hurried away, and as they did I saw a curse fly towards us. It hit the edge of the tunnel and unraveled, the four points of iron somehow disrupting its power, but an angry Sahrger was right behind the magic - coming at me blade-first. They winced as they crossed into the tunnel but they didn't stop or even slow.

That was some bullshit. The iron was supposed to stop them. Sure, I could force my way through - but that was hard as hell and gave me a headache for the rest of the day. Also, even that was probably just because I'd grown up on Earth where barely any iron actually had the intent behind it to make it harmful... oh. Oh, these might be changelings, which might mean they have less vulnerability to iron, which might ruin the toys Katrin had made before we left Batasun's Shelter.

This worrying seemed like a waste of my accelerated perception of time, though.

My thrown knife was partially dodged, with it only hitting a shoulder - still good, but not good enough to get one of these bastards out of the fight. Their attack, meanwhile, wasn't nearly fast enough to deal with all the training I'd done with Hugh. I grabbed their arm as they stabbed and turned it into a joint lock, then decided to try an experiment; before they could kick or bite or whatever, I slammed them against the wall... or, more specifically, the head of the iron spike that was still sticking out.

The Sahrger screamed, fumbling the attack they'd been making. Good to know - barriers weren't going to stop them, and iron in general probably wasn't as strong against them, but it still hurt like a bitch. I broke their arm, headbutted them, and pulled my knife out of their shoulder as I kicked them out of the tunnel right into the next Sahrger. That one flung their teammate aside and launched forward with a short spear, but I still wasn't super concerned. The attack was clumsy, obvious. I casually dodged and grabbed the spear's haft, and watched in horror from my memory palace as the trap went off.

Lightning crackled over me as I convulsed, and the Sahrger followed up with a knife in that split-second of total incapacitation. They were clearly aiming for my throat, but as I twitched from being electrocuted I - totally coincidentally - dodged such that the blade gave me a wicked slice under my jaw rather than finding my jugular. I dropped my ghost into the fight and swiped at the Sahrger's head, causing them to flinch and stumbled back - I'd been hoping to trigger a seizure or aneurysm or something, but this was at least enough for me to recover somewhat.

We both shook off the other's attacks at the same, and I chucked my knife again while also flipping the stolen spear around to deflect whatever they were doing. The knife, having already spent its charge on the other Sahrger, plinked uselessly off a shield. Worse, the spear was useless because it turned out this Sahrger wasn't going to attack me directly - instead they just threw a vial at my feet. A potion splashed out, and the ground under my feet literally exploded.

As I watched myself fly backwards in slow motion, boots shredded and legs bleeding, I tried to guess at what had just happened. Some sort of transmutation potion, that turned stuff into something volatile? I hadn't looked into potions much, other than healing potions, and now I really wanted to do some shopping and see what all they could do. If I lived. I landed hard, and my first attempt to scramble up onto my feet was thwarted by the fact that my left foot was badly injured and my right foot was full-on missing pieces.

I pulled another knife and threw it, this one piercing the shield charm's barrier and hitting the Sahrger's bandolier of goodies. Something flashed green and caught on fire, sending them reeling back and giving me time to pull out a healing potion. As my feet stitched themselves together, two more Sahrger dropped into the hole and the one I'd originally knocked down was hauled to their feet. That meant it was now a four on one fight. Not great.

And then I heard it, the beautiful sound of Katrin yelling "Grenade!", a word I'd taught her so I'd have some warning when she was deploying her new anti-Sahrger measures that she'd made at the blacksmith's forge in Batasun's Shelter. A black, fuzzy ball flew down into view, and before the Sahrger could do anything about it the runes buried in it triggered. Katrin had been inspired by the one assassin's trick of magnetically flinging away iron, and with a little effort and close examination of the device they'd used she had cobbled something together.

The fuzzy black outer layer was a dense coat of iron filings, and it burst out in a cloud that absolutely covered the Sahrger. Maybe they were all changelings, maybe they had extra resistance to iron, but when they all inhaled it into their lungs? Well. That... wasn't great for them. All four went down in a coughing, screaming pile. One began to stand and was immediately slammed to the ground as Errod landed on them, with Matlyn's sister slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes - bag still over her head and hands still tied.

I waved him past me, and stood as Katrin caught up - Calliope was a step behind, having stopped to finish off one of the Sahrger before entering the tunnel. Katrin put a shield in place behind us so they couldn't follow, and I peeled off the remains of my boots. We hurried down the tunnel, Katrin sending light ahead of us. "Hey, that bomb worked pretty fucking well!"

Katrin nodded, looking like she was already exhausted and on the verge of collapse. They had to have run incredibly fast to get back to me so quickly, and she still wasn't in the same shape as Errod and I. "It did," she gasped, "but I was worried I'd get you too."

"No worries, I was a little more in the tunnel and I held my breath when I heard you yell. The iron didn't go very far, probably because it was so light. I'd say it had maybe a six foot effective radius? The other one is more... solid, right?"

"Yes, we'll see how far that one goes. But I wouldn't want to use that one anywhere near you."

As we stumbled down the hall, I was watching behind us with divination. One of the kidnappers was at the entrance to the tunnel, holding a strange looking war hammer. The end was split, with a lump of metal wedged in and the flayed sides held together by a band almost like a teeny version of the metal rings around a barrel. He hefted it, looking nervously at the Sahrger, and then swung as hard as he could against Katrin's shield.

The lump flashed, and the shield shattered apart. Ah. This was that reactive metal we'd been talking about. Still, it hadn't done anything all that useful. "We need a new barrier. You can just keep putting those in their way, right?"

Katrin bit her lip. "I can, in theory. I've already got a new one up for now. But I can't get too far away without dropping them, so they'll keep being right behind us."

"Hell, just wait until they're about to break it and then drop the barrier and blast them with lightning."

"That will only work so many times. It might be enough. The deserters are, I think, working with them under duress. They might fight back or run away if the right opportunity comes up. I don't know how many Sahrger there are, though."

I watched as they broke through another barrier - this time with some tool I didn't get a good look at - and Katrin slapped another into place. "There were nine that I saw originally, but there could be more. I know one is dead, and three more have a lungful of iron which should keep them out of things for a bit unless they're way tougher than I think they are. So at least five, maybe more. And they all have tons of little potions and gadgets and shit."

Errod, Grunkle, Matlyn, and Matlyn's sister were up ahead somewhere - I could dimly hear the two sisters talking, so the bag had presumably been removed. I yelled down the hall for them to continue on and make sure we had a clear path into the temple, and then Katrin, Calliope, and I watched the Sahrger creep forward and tried to plan. Katrin would, eventually, be in danger of fatiguing herself from channeling too much mana, but that wasn't going to be the roadblock in the short term.

"We need to set a trap," Calliope said, "one they cannot see coming. Then they break the barrier, go to follow us, and die. But... I have no ideas. They can see us, and they will know when you are casting, and... hmm."

Katrin and I had the idea at the same time, and we turned to look at each other with enormous grins. She began casting, and I saw shields flickering into existence and sliding towards the Sahrger as they vanished from sight. There was a glow coming from her eyes again, something I'd only seen a few times, and as the shields sped up I felt air blowing against my back, being pulled towards us from further down the tunnel. Dust drifted down as stones began to crack all along the ancient passage.

The kidnapper's war hammer was being examined, and they had to have decided that it was ready to go off again because they waved him forward. He got into the right stance, swung, and broke the barrier. It was the last thing he ever did. It was one hammer against another, and Katrin's Atmospheric Hammer won. As soon as the barrier was ruptured, the compressed air in the tunnel blasted the kidnappers and Sahrger both with such force that I wasn't sure any of them would survive - but there was no way to be sure, because the passage began to collapse.

"Fuck, run! Run!"

It was like a zipper, the ceiling ripping away in the center starting at the entrance and rushing towards us. We turned and ran, being overtaken by dust but bursting out into an open space ahead of any actual rocks and sand. The three of us stumbled to a stop, coughing and panting, and then Katrin's lights swirled around to give us our first view of the Temple of Convergence. I could see strange plants somehow growing underground, and sections where the walls had turned into some sort of dark, glassy substance, and even a flickering hole in reality with ghostly shapes moving through fog.

But I didn't see Errod or the others anywhere.

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