"Explain..." Marcus nudged imdiately.
"In old wars...there were structures like this," Luna said. "Underground routes built to confuse enemies. Fake tunnels, dead ends, complicated loops...All kinds of underground tactics."
"And I’d wager this was the sa."
"So you think this is so sort of hidden base?" Emily asked, leaning in from behind her.
Luna shook her head. "Not necessarily. It felt almost as if—"
"Sothing witnessed said wars...and tried to replicate it."
Iris let out a quiet breath through her nose. "...You’re telling sothing down here watched human warfare and decided to copy it?"
Luna realized the thought sounded absurd even now. But it was the Wildlands after all. Anything could happen.
Emily’s hands trembled as they grasped onto Luna’s sleeve. "Do—do you think that ’sothing’ is—is sstill down here?"
"...Maybe we should head back instead!" Emily added quickly, nodding a little too enthusiastically. "W—we can contact Professor Sterling and—"
"I doubt it." Marcus turned his gaze back toward the tunnels. "If sothing survived this long, we would at least sense a hint of ether coming from it by now."
"...So we’re still going?" Emily said ekly.
"Yeah."
"Ohhh...I hate this idea..."
Marcus shifted his stance, his eyes scanning the three tunnels ahead once more before glancing sideways.
"...Luna."
"You’re the one who brought it up," he said. "Military tactics. If this really is sothing like that..."
His gaze returned to the split paths. "Which one do we take?"
"...In real warfare," she said quietly, "the correct path usually isn’t the obvious one."
Emily imdiately nodded behind her. "Yes. Exactly. So we take one of the side—"
"It’s also not the most difficult one," Luna added, cutting her off.
Emily blinked. "...Huh?"
Luna stepped forward, her gaze settling on the center tunnel. "It’s the one people are least likely to commit to."
"Think about it," she said. "If you were building sothing like this...you wouldn’t just rely on making people choose wrong once."
"You’d make them doubt every choice after that."
She glanced briefly at the left and right paths. "Side paths are tempting. They give you the illusion of progress...of control."
"You take one, it dead-ends, you co back."
"Take another, sa thing."
Her voice stayed calm, but there was a quiet certainty behind it all. "Eventually, you stop wanting to ’commit’ to a path."
Iris tilted her head slightly. "...So people keep turning instead of going straight."
"Exactly." Luna stood. "And if there’s one path that keeps going...with more branches splitting off of it..."
Marcus’ eyes widened as he imdiately got the implication.
"Most people won’t follow it all the way through."
Emily made a face. "...I hate how much sense that makes."
After a mont of silence, Marcus finally picked up his feet. "Guess the straight path is the correct one...any objections?"
They chose the straightest path on the side, one that they’ve already been through, yet chose to swerve along with the side branches.
The difference was almost imdiate with the strategy in mind. The path stretched forward without interruption, but every few ters, another narrow opening slit off into the sides. They appeared at irregular intervals, just frequent enough to keep drawing the eye, but varied enough to feel worth checking.
Luna felt it almost instantly—the urge to make sure they weren’t missing sothing obvious. It lingered at the edge of her thoughts, and from the looks of it...in everyone else’s as well.
Behind her, Emily let out a quiet, strained breath as they passed another branching tunnel.
"I hate this," she whispered. "I actually hate this."
She’s right...the possibility that sothing else is in this maze isn’t exactly zero.
But still, they pressed onward until eventually, the tunnel ended as it always did...a dead-end.
Marcus slowed first, his steps coming to a halt as the path ahead closed off into solid stone. The others stopped behind him.
"...Again?" Iris muttered.
Emily let out a weak laugh that didn’t quite help the situation. "So much for the ’right path’..."
"Sorry guys—I...I just thought—" Luna started.
"Hold up," Marcus cut her off, stepping forward and placing his palm against the flat of the stone.
Then he knocked it.
CLINK!
His eyes widened instantly. "It’s...hollow!"
Everyone’s expression took a 180 instantly as Marcus told them to step back. He placed both hands against the wall before a brownish aura, most likely his ether, surrounded his hands.
The stone began to shift under his control as cracks spread across the surface, thin lines forming before widening as chunks of stone began to fold and slide over one another.
And finally...soft blue light, spilled through from the other side.
Emily instinctively stepped back. "...No way!"
Marcus didn’t crawl through imdiately, pushing off and dusting his hands before glancing their way.
"...Sa formation," he said quietly. "It might not be clear."
Iris nodded, already shifting her stance. "I’ll cover from the back once we’re through."
Emily swallowed, her earlier complaints gone as she straightened slightly.
"...Right. No touching anything weird," she muttered, sounding more like a warning for herself rather than for them.
Marcus nodded. "I go first."
He stepped into the opening, lowering himself slightly as he moved through the narrow passage. The stone scraped faintly against his shoulders as he pushed forward, his presence disappearing into the blue glow beyond.
There were no imdiate sounds of combat.
Iris nodded before following next, slipping through the passage easily. Emily hesitated for only a second before quickly ducking in after her, muttering sothing under her breath that sounded suspiciously like a prayer.
Luna crouched down before hearing a single phrase from the other side.
"...What the hell...?"
Her mind went into panic mode instantly. "Guys! Guys?! Are you okay? What’s happening?"
She slipped through the passage imdiately, crawling so fast that the stones managed to leave a small scratch on her knee.
She barely noticed. Her eyes lifted the mont she cleared the opening—
Luna imdiately understood what was going on.
Crystals lined the cavern, their surfaces smooth and glass-like, emitting a soft blue glow that filled the entire space. For a mont, Luna thought they were frozen shards of water—light caught and held in place.
A shallow pool cut through the center, its surface impossibly clear, even more so than the lagoon waters above. The light refracted across it, rippling faintly along the stone like reflections from a distant sky, even if none existed below.
The cavern stretched far beyond what it should have, the ceiling arching high overhead, almost like it was deliberately made by so gigantic and ancient creature.
Everyone knew exactly what this place was, even if they had never seen it before.
...The Sunken Cave.
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