"What is it?" Nero asked.
The creature’s mask turned fully toward him, and for the first ti, there was sothing in its voice that might have been genuine concern.
"Sothing that makes look benevolent by comparison. Sothing that even I fear. Sothing that, if awakened prematurely, would devour us all before we could take three steps."
Nero’s blood ran cold.
"Then why are we even here? Why is your prison built in the sa chamber as—"
"Because," the creature interrupted, "the best place to hide a prison is next to sothing so terrifying that no one would dare co looking. And for a thousand years, it worked. Until you."
The creature clasped its four hands together.
"Now then. Do we have an agreent? Three tasks for three boons. One boon already claid—waking your friend. One boon held in reserve for later. And one boon yet to be specified, though I suspect you’ll want a way out of here once everything is done."
Nero looked back at Arthur and Jacob one more ti.
Then at the pool with its impossible depths and the thing that slumbered within.
Then at the creature with its white mask and its four arms and its promises that might be lies.
He was trapped between horror and horror, with no good choices.
Only choices that might let him survive.
"We have an agreent," he said.
The creature’s carved smile seed to widen.
"Excellent. Then let’s begin. Place your hand over your friend Arthur’s chest. I’ll handle the rest."
Nero knelt beside Arthur’s unconscious form, his hand hovering over the noble’s chest. The broken ribs sent fresh spikes of pain through him as he lowered himself down, but he gritted his teeth and ignored it.
"Just place it there," the creature said, standing a few feet away. "Palm flat. Don’t move until I tell you."
Nero complied, his hand settling on Arthur’s sternum. Through the fabric of Arthur’s shirt, he could feel the slow, steady rhythm of his heartbeat. At least that was still strong.
The creature began to move.
It circled Arthur’s body once, twice, three tis, its four arms weaving patterns in the air that left faint blue trails behind them. The trails lingered longer than they should have, hanging in the air like threads of luminescent spider silk.
Then it began to hum.
The sound was unlike anything Nero had ever heard. Not a lody, exactly, but a vibration that seed to resonate at a frequency just below audible range. He could feel it in his bones, in his teeth, in the marrow of his broken arm.
The blue fungi covering the chamber floor began to pulse in rhythm with the humming.
Slowly at first, then faster.
The creature’s four arms moved faster now, drawing more complex patterns. The blue trails they left behind began to connect, forming geotric shapes that hung suspended in the air around Arthur’s body. Triangles within circles within squares, all rotating slowly on invisible axes.
Nero’s hand grew warm where it touched Arthur’s chest.
Then hot.
"Don’t move," the creature said, though its voice seed to co from everywhere at once now, reverberating off the fungus-covered walls.
The heat intensified. Nero could feel sweat beading on his forehead, could feel his palm beginning to burn. But he kept it pressed against Arthur’s chest, his jaw clenched so tight his teeth ached.
The geotric shapes hanging in the air began to collapse inward, spiraling down toward Arthur’s body like water circling a drain. They passed through Nero’s hand without resistance, as if he were made of air, and disappeared into Arthur’s chest.
Arthur’s body convulsed.
Once. Twice.
His back arched off the ground, muscles straining, tendons standing out in sharp relief along his neck.
Then he gasped, his eyes flying open.
"What—" Arthur’s voice was raw, confused. His eyes darted around wildly, taking in the blue-lit chamber, the fungus, Nero kneeling over him. "Where—"
"Easy," Nero said, removing his hand from Arthur’s chest. The skin of his palm was red, angry-looking, but not burned. "We’re still in the ruins. We fell. Do you rember?"
Arthur’s breathing was ragged, but his eyes were beginning to focus. "The floor... it collapsed. I rember falling, and then—" He tried to sit up and imdiately gasped in pain, his hand going to his broken leg.
"Don’t move," Nero said. "Your leg’s broken. Badly."
Arthur’s eyes found the creature standing nearby, and his entire body went rigid.
"What in the na of—"
"It’s complicated," Nero said quickly. "But it’s not attacking us. For now."
The creature tilted its masked head in what might have been a greeting. "Welco back to consciousness, young Koh. How does it feel to be among the living again?"
Arthur stared at it, his expression cycling rapidly through fear, confusion, and sothing that might have been morbid fascination. His hand had moved to his sword, though he hadn’t drawn it yet.
"Nero," he said slowly, his eyes never leaving the creature. "What is happening?"
"I made a deal," Nero said. "Three tasks in exchange for waking you two up and getting us out of here."
"You made a deal with that?" Arthur’s voice had climbed half an octave.
"You were unconscious. Jacob still is. We’re trapped down here. I didn’t have much choice."
The creature’s four arms spread wide. "Your friend is quite practical. I appreciate that in a human. Most of your kind would have chosen noble death over pragmatic survival. But not him. He understands that living is preferable to dying, regardless of the cost."
"What cost?" Arthur asked sharply.
"Oh, nothing too terrible. Just a few small favors. So words to be spoken, so runes to be drawn, a simple mixture to be prepared. Hardly world-ending, I assure you."
Arthur looked at Nero, and Nero could see the calculation happening behind his eyes. The weighing of options, the consideration of alternatives.
"And you trust it?" Arthur asked quietly.
"No," Nero said honestly. "But I don’t see another way out."
Arthur was silent for a mont, his hand still resting on his sword hilt. Then he nodded slowly.
"Alright. What do we need to do?"
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