Steamforged Sorcery - Chapter 39 (Patreon)

The floor was plain metal, without any indication of traps. If anything, that just set Angel even more on edge. He slipped inside the door with a grimace, then slowly started towards the center of the room with Cowl and Vanessa close behind him.

Wind trickled past his face, ruffling his hair and chilling his clothes. It was largely stale, but there was the smallest hint of outside air that gave him hope.

“Where’s the monster?” Cowl asked, adjusting his grip on the sword.

“No idea,” Angel replied. “I hate to say it, but this is new to me. I’ve never seen a catacomb room like this. We’re totally at its mercy right now.”

He approached one of the glowing tubes. What looked like a miniature bolt of red lightening crackled within the glass, arcing from one bronze end to the other. It was mesmerizing.

Angel examined the back end of the tube, but it seemed to be connected to the wall by nothing more than a bronze bar.

He grabbed the support with his mechanical arm and snapped it with a sharp movement. The tube popped off the wall with a hiss. The light within it faded as he ripped it free, revealing several thick wires emerging from the back.

“Whoops,” Angel said, not sounding particularly apologetic as he placed the tube within his pack.

“What is that?” Vanessa asked.

“No clue. That’s why I’m taking it,” Angel replied, ripping a second one off the wall. “Unknown means expensive.”

“Or dangerous,” Cowl said, his tone indicating that he was frowning.”

Angel shrugged in response, liberating a third tube. “The catacomb wanted us to come in here. If it wanted to keep its fancy glowing tubes, then it should have hidden them.”

The iron grates at the far end of the room rattled. The three of them didn’t even have a chance to react before the floor dropped out from beneath them.

Vanessa let out a short scream that ended in an embarrassed grunt as she hit the ground once again. It had shifted no more than a few feet downwards, but the rumbling hadn’t stopped. The ceiling was growing farther and farther away from them.

“Buried gods,” Angel cursed. “We’re getting deeper. Why are we getting deeper?”

“Maybe the dungeon really hates us,” Vanessa said, rubbing her back with a pained grimace. “I thought you said the catacomb wants to get rid of us?”

“Well, it also wants our artifacts,” Angel said, squinting up at the receding light above them. “But it shouldn’t want them bad enough to bring us deeper. The challenges on the surface are usually what it tries to kill people with, but the deeper we get, the closer we are to its inner sanctum.”

“What does that mean?” Vanessa asked.

“It means somebody has a very fancy artifact that it’s willing to risk a lot to get its hands on,” Cowl said. “Right then. Who’s got it?”

“All I have are my skates,” Vanessa said. “And my bed.”

“I don’t have anything worth more than a few Vei,” Cowl said. “My gear is good, but the fanciest piece of equipment I’ve got are the wings.”

“Well, I don’t have anything that rare either,” Angel said. The relic in the wooden box within his bag felt like it was going to burn a hole through it. “My arm is Old World magic, but it’s not something that rare. It’s pretty simple, actually. So what could –”

Angel trailed off as his left palm throbbed. The purple orb. His paling face gave his secret away almost instantly.

“What do you have, Seeker?” Cowl asked.

“I had a minor altercation in a catacomb a few days ago,” Angel admitted, thankful for an excuse to avoid talking about the relic. Friendly or not, men had been killed over much less. “The same one that tried to bury me alive, I might add.”

“Answers, not a story,” Cowl growled.

“A foreign object inserted itself into my palm,” Angel said, shrugging. “It hasn’t killed me, so I’ve been ignoring it.”

He showed Cowl his hand. The purple splotch chose that exact moment to reveal itself, shimmering like brilliant quartz for an instant before fading away once again.

“You’re a moron. Why would you not attempt to figure out what was in you? It could be dangerous,” Cowl snapped.

“Lots of things are dangerous,” Angel replied. “And I got a big job. I didn’t exactly have the time. It’s yet to kill me so far, so it can’t be that bad.”

“It might be about to get us all killed,” Cowl said. “And there’s nothing else you’ve got?”

“Nothing,” Angel lied. Cowl was a little too interested in his belongings, and the strange message from the Hunter’s Guild wasn’t doing him any favors.

The light continued to fade as they sank deeper into the earth. All that remained of it was a faint red dot in the distance. Angel and Vanessa both brought sparks of magic to life in their hands, filling the dark shaft with a dim glow.

“Well, we can’t do anything about it now,” Vanessa said, trying to sound upbeat. “Is there a way we can escape from here? Something tells me this elevator isn’t going to take us back up.”

“Yes, actually,” Angel said. “A rather effective one. Unlike regular catacombs, Great Catacombs can attempt to forcefully eject you. If we do enough damage or steal enough loot, it’ll spit us out.”

“So do what a Seeker normally does?” Cowl guessed. He seemed to have dropped his line of questioning for now, but the man’s robotic voice still didn’t sound particularly happy.

“Pretty much,” Angel replied. The floor finally rumbled to a stop, nearly knocking them all off their feet with the final shudder.

A large section of the wall swung open, filling the shaft with dim yellow light and momentarily blinding Angel. He blinked furiously, letting the magic in his hand fade as he adjusted to the new environment.

The room before them looked like an abandoned armory. It was drab, with a single barred iron door on the far end and several weapons hanging from the walls. They were covered in a thick layer of dust. It smelled musty and every movement Angel made sent a small puff of dust up from the ground.