Act 26.

They walked down a narrow corridor, with Mikako taking the lead and the Queen following close behind. There was not enough room for both to walk side by side but Mikako felt that they would more likely be attacked from the front than the rear. Though so far they had only seen small rodents, let alone anything that might cause them fear.

At least fear in the sense of fearing for their lives.

The Queen it turns out is not one to suffer small furry rodents well. As a matter of fact, she finds them downright repulsive. The mere sight of one of them causes the Queen to cling tightly to the nearest body, in this case Mikako, and bury her face until it goes away or is made to leave by the body being clung to.

"You must never speak of this." warned the queen, "I will not have my people think of me in this way. Father said you need to keep an air about yourself that you are strong and that they can rely on you, even when you are frightened the most."

She looked around at a noise before continuing.

"Unfortunately, I have a hard time keeping a mask of strength about me where those things are concerned."

"And yet my Queen can face a dragon, and eat the strange food made from insects that the ambassador from the east brings." said Mikako.

"That is easy." said the Queen, sounding like it was, "None of those things are disease carrying, ugly, creepy little vermin."

The last was nearly shouted at the walls of the cave.

"Hush my Queen." said Mikako, "We should not be alerting anyone or anything to our presence here."

"Sorry." said the Queen, with a sheepish look.

"It seems to be a useless precaution since other than your hated enemies, we have seen hide nor hair of any other creature. Which I am afraid to say is more disturbing to me than if we had encountered something."

"Why?"

"Because there are several dangerous creatures that like to live in these types of quarters." said Mikako, "And if these creature, who men find frightening, refuse to live in an environment they usually would, then I would wonder what could be here to frighten them away."

The Queen thought about what she had been told.

"Oh dear." was all she could say.

"Indeed." said Mikako, "Whoever brought us here is powerful enough that they can keep their home free of some of the more vile creatures that exist. I am not sure if I would want to meet the owners."

"Are you still getting that feeling."

"As if we should be going in a particular direction?"

"Yes."

"Yes."

They continued on in silence for a while.

"Mikako."

"Yes my Queen."

"What exactly is this feeling you are having?"

Mikako did not answer right away.

She thought about what she should say. She could say that it was a hunch or something else. But she realised that she should trust in her Queen as much as she showed her trust in her mage.

"To be honest I do not know for sure." said Mikako, "But I have this feeling of home."

She waited to see if the Queen would react to this revelation, but none came.

"Go on." said the Queen.

"I know I have never been here, but I feel something familiar in here. And that is what I have been following for the last little while. As they say; better the enemy you know than the one you do not."

"Thank you." said the Queen.

"What for?"

"For trusting me with the truth."

Mikako had no answer and none was really needed.

Something had been bothering the Queen for a little while when it finally hit her.

"How can we see in here?" she asked.

For an answer, Mikako reached out and ran her hand along the wall. She showed it to the Queen who could see that there was a glow coming off of the mage’s fingers.

"Some form of moss." said Mikako, "It emits a constant low glow. With enough of them clinging to the walls you will get enough light to see where you are going but not enough to light far down the cavern."

Mikako heard a noise. She motioned for the Queen to stop. She felt the Queen’s breath as she brought her mouth close to the mage’s ear.

"What is it?" she whispered.

"There was a noise." she whispered back.

Now she could see that there was a small glowing ball of light that was moving towards them from further up the corridor. The footsteps of two people could be heard approaching.

Mikako adopted a stance for defence as the two unknown people came closer. Running was not an option as they could not move quickly and easily over the rocks and stones. Judging by the footsteps of the strangers they were also having trouble.

"Dammit!" said a familiar voice.

"Lady Knight?!" cried out the Queen before Mikako could stop her. She hoped it was not an illusion used to draw them out.

"My Queen?" said the voice of Her Champion.

"Well I’ll be..." said Margaret, "It worked. I would have sworn it was taking us on a fool’s errand."

The two warriors moved as quickly as they could and soon the four of them were together.

The Queen threw her arms around Linda and squeezed to the point that Linda could barely breath. She pulled her loose and held her at arms length.

"You are unharmed?" she asked, quickly examining the Queen.

"I am fine." said the Queen, "And I am glad to see the two of you. Did you get captured by that cloud thing as well?"

"No." said Linda, "We came here to find you. Gregore was able to send us roughly along the same path you took."

"Roughly is a good word for it." said Margaret.

"Tell me about it." said the Queen, "I felt nauseous afterwards."

"Well unfortunately we may have to go through it again." said Linda, who turned to Mikako, "Can you transport us back?"

"I am afraid not." she said, "It is not a spell I know well."

"Then we will have to use this." said Linda as she pulled out the flask with Gregore’s blood in it.

"I don’t think so." said a voice from the darkness.

Before she could react, the flask was taken out of Linda’s hand by a black hand.

They all turned in the direction of the voice. At first they saw nothing and then Linda saw that the shadows were moving and one dislodged itself from the wall and solidified into the shape of a man, whose only facial features were the glowing white eyes.