Aftermath of an Unfortunate Earthquake

Everything is shaking. It's a feeling I had long since gotten used to since I had grown up in the area, but to everyone else, I'm unsure as to how they'd deal with it. I have a suspicion that Freware comes from the Ulfur Forests, and I know that Kiaran had to march past the mountains I used to call my home at least twice. Still though, this is a particularly large earthquake, and I'd rather not leave the wellbeing of my party up to chance.

I use my connection to Kari to quickly pull everyone up from the ground and into the air so they can't hurt themselves in the shaking. Kiaran and Freware had already taken up fetal positions with their hands over their heads so I guess they know how to deal with an earthquake. Everyone else though clearly had no idea what to do.

Wait? Everyone else? I take mental notes of everyone I'm helping fly with my winds. Four people, not including myself. One short. Aubrey, Kiaran, Freware, Cesre. I don't have Azariah. Has she not come up yet? Shit.

I quickly fly over to the cave entrance. She isn't skilled enough to fly back out during an earthquake of this magnitude, and underground is just about one of the worst places you can be during any kind of earthquake. As I reach the cave entrance though, it collapses completely, burying Azariah into the ground in the process.

I use the wind to pull the rubble out of the way. It's useless, but I do it anyway. With how deep that hole was, if it's completely buried, I'll use up all my mana before I'm even halfway down there. I can't just leave her though.

Arrgh! What should I do? What should I do?! Start attacking it with wind blades? No, that will only drain through my mana faster. Damn it, why did I let her stay down there? I know just how dangerous this area can be… I grew up here Kari damn it…

The shaking eventually stops, and I put everyone back down. I run out of the cave.

"Freware! Cast "Spatial Awareness!" Where's Azariah?!" I don't bother to keep my voice calm or to look at the expressions of everyone here. I know it's a forgone conclusion, but just in case she came back up and I somehow managed to miss her even with my sensitivity to the wind-

"I don't… she isn't here…" Freware says, crushing me.

Damn it, how could I have let this happen? I told Aubrey that Azariah and Kiaran should be safe, didn't I? Damn it… She was down there in the first place because she was curious, wasn't she? I don't want to lose any more friends like this…

"Inell!" Aubrey suddenly grabs me by the shoulders, yelling at me. "What happened?! Where's Azariah?!" He looks furious, like he's actually about to kill me. I wouldn't even blame him if he did.

He starts yelling all sorts of obscene things at me, all of which I can barely make out, thinking about just how Azariah would have reacted to an earthquake happening while in a cave system like that. I'm reminded of her sheer insanity filled glee at nearly dying when she first learned to fly. If she died… did she die like that?

"Aubrey, stop." Aubrey's wrath, and my remorse are both instantly obliterated by a new aura entering the argument. As I come to grips with my surroundings again, I realize that Kiaran had drawn his scythe right against Aubrey's neck. Something I never would have imagined seeing just a few minutes ago.

Aubrey had gone silent. Freware and Cesre are both understandably panicked. Somewhere between wanting to attack Kiaran on the spot or begging him to put down his weapon is what their minds are on right now, I think. They've begun to go on guard, but it seems neither one of them is able to fully resign themselves to having to attack the boy they've ridden with for the past week if need be.

"Inell." He calls my name with a sense of maturity that I never would have thought I'd see from him. "Is Azariah alive, or is she dead? You know this area the best. What's your best guess at her condition right now?"

There is no kindness in his voice, nor on his face. It's just a pure reason, wanting to get to the most important information as fast as possible. I can't help but think that I'm talking to a completely different person.

I try to do the same as Kiaran. I think back on Azariah's personality, and I think back to the environment she was in, and the problem at hand. What happened? It's possible that the cave began to collapse, but given the size of it, even if it did, it's likely there still would have been room to move around, if only barely.

Given her reaction to that near death experience, I also doubt she'd die in such a way. That time, she had just learned to fly, and had just seen something beautiful. Me dropping her and her suddenly being able to fly got her like that. Thinking about that, it's seriously doubtful she'd feel the same way about being slowly buried alive in some dark cave. This wouldn't be a death she'd be happy with.

If that's the case, then she'd likely be tearing herself apart trying to claw herself out. That's my honest evaluation of her character. I don't believe she'd go down that easily without being able to fly again.

Realizing that, I highly doubt that that earthquake and the subsequent collapse actually managed to kill her. If she survived, then she would have to worry about food and water after that. There's also the issue of a lot of these caves connecting to each other in this area, and being full of dangerous monsters. She'd likely need to run away from the area she was in during the earthquake.

This will make her even harder to find. There's also the possibility that she winds up biting off more than she can chew and dying in battle. Given her reaction from back then, I can't at all rule out the possibility of her charging a strong monster right at the brink of death, all while laughing like it's the funniest thing in the world.

My conclusion then, is that she's probably alive right now, but the longer we take to find her, the harder it will get to actually reunite with her, and the more likely it will get that she's dead by the time we do find her.

I do my best to relay all of this to everyone else, while trying my best to keep silent about just how Azariah acted back then when faced with death. I doubt that Aubrey would believe me if I told him that anyway.

"Hah… thank God…" Kiaran suddenly puts down his weapon from Aubrey's neck, and falls to the ground on his knees in what I assume is pure relief.

"She's alive… thank God she's alive…" Kiaran seems to really believe me…

"He said that might not be the case for long. Help me dig her out." Aubrey then runs towards the cave entrance, not even bothering to say anything to me or Kiaran. Is he really that focused on saving Azariah?"

"Wait." I say. Aubrey looks back at me, furious.

"What?! Didn't you just say that we didn't have any time to lose?!"

"Yes, but we need a plan. Even exhausting all of my mana isn't going to be enough to dig all the way down to where Azariah would be. We obviously can't just dig her out with manual labor either, we'd all exhaust ourselves way too quickly. Besides, Cesre and I aren't too suited for that kind of work."

"What do you want to do then?" Aubrey's words were dripping with poison. It really feels like he wants to kill me. Or at least really hurt me.

"The sun is starting to rise, so other adventurers are going to start waking up and joining the operation. I'm going to fly around to try and see if any mage has a strong connection to the Archon of Earth, Ceres. We'll dig Azariah out that way."

"And that will help how?"

"Surprisingly, a connection with the Archon of Earth, let's you manipulate earth. I pray to Kari that I don't need to explain to you how that's supposed to help here." I don't have the time to deal with Aubrey's stupidity so a fair amount of anger comes off in my word choice and tone.

"I'm flying off now. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone." I say before quickly flying off to look for mages. Aubrey started yelling something at me while I was flying away but I wasn't paying attention to what it was.

><><><><

Well, there goes Inell… Please get back soon. Aubrey won't stop yelling at Inell even though he's long gone by now.

"Aubrey, that's enough." I say. I'm far too tired to say anything else. That was enough to get him to be quiet though.

"Well, it's not like we can just sit here and do nothing. Freware, Cesre, is there anything you two can do?" Nevermind, there he goes again.

"Well, Inell said that we didn't have enough manpower to dig her out. I imagine that he was keeping my strength and stamina in mind, and if that's the case then I believe him. There's nothing really for me to do…" Freware says.

"Same here. I can't think of anything really for me to do…"

"Cesre, you're a mage. Shouldn't you have a connection with… Ceres, was it?"

"Well yes, I have connections with all of the Archons-"

"Then why the hell can't you dig Azariah out then?!"

"I was going to say my connection with Ceres isn't strong enough to dig her out. I only really ever use my connections with Kari, Adad, and Florian. I barely use the other four."

"What's stopping you then? Surely it should get stronger the more you use it? Isn't this a time where you should be getting experience with it."

"Aubrey, you're really inexperienced with magic, so allow me to be the one to explain it to you. My affinity with the Archon of Earth is not very strong at all. This means that no matter how hard I train with it, I will not get as much from it as an entity I have a stronger affinity with, like Kari for instance.

It's why Azariah became so capable with her wind magic in such a short time. It's just that her affinity with Kari is that strong. If you have a good affinity with an entity you can learn to do all sorts of things within a short period of time. That means the opposite is true, though. If your affinity is bad, you can study and experience it for years and have hardly anything come from it.

This is what my connection with Ceres is like. His straightforward, results based way of doing things is something a more unconventional, feeling based individual like me can't wrap my head around. It's for that reason my connection with him will never grow to be as strong as my connections with Kari, Adad, and Florian.

Normally that isn't an issue, I can get by without really using it. Times like this where earth magic is objectively the best magic to use come up very rarely in situations like this."

"So that's it? You're just going to abandon Azariah because of your lack of talent?"

"That's enough, Aubrey." I can't bring myself to let Aubrey keep going like this. "Stop before you say something that you regret. Inell said not to do anything stupid while he was gone, and I can see why. Our emotions are getting way too involved in this situation."

"What are you even-"

"What if Cesre messes up moving the rocks around, and it collapses again, crushing Azariah even more? What then?"

Aubrey keeps silent. He looks like he's in some sort of mental pain.

"I say we wait until Inell gets back. We'll decide what to do after that." I say.

"I agree with Kiaran here, Aubrey."

"Me as well."

Aubrey just looks down. "I need to… Leave me alone, for a bit, I need to think." We're all more than happy to give him what he asked for.

><><><><

Aubrey didn't so much as say a word to us after that. None of us went to speak with him either. That just left Freware, Cesre and I, and we didn't speak much to each other either. There was nothing really to say. Just extremely painful waiting.

The sun had fully risen by the time Inell finally flew back in. He had come with some black haired woman wearing some torn up outdoor wear, using his magic so that she'd fly along with him. She didn't look like anyone special.

"Guys, this is Theran." Inell said as they landed. Theran looked like she was about to throw up. Not used to flying I guess. "She's the earth mage that's going to get Azariah out of that cave. I've already discussed it with her."

"Inell! What took you so long?!" Aubrey speaks for the first time in a while.

"A lot of stuff. There was finding an earth mage with a strong enough connection with Ceres for this job, first of all. Even after that there was a deal that had to be made with their respective parties. I found a couple before Theran, but I wasn't able to secure a deal."

"Um, Inell? You said you had to strike a deal, right? Just what is she getting in return?"

"Half of those scales that I brought with me for stuff like this. I don't take it that there's any problem?" Inell looks weirdly serious when saying this. He also made sure to stand in a place where __ wouldn't see his face.

"Oh, damn it. I was hoping to make money from all that. I guess it can't be helped." Freware says.

"Now, now, Freware. I doubt that Inell would have given any money from that to us. I mean, all of that was basically his emergency fund." I say, trying to cover up for Freware. I think this is what Inell was trying to get across with the expression that didn't line up with what he was saying. Why he wants to lie about where he got the scales is beyond me right now.

"Hey, Theran. How much has Inell told you about those scales?" Aubrey asks. He must be catching on as well.

"Just that he brought them with him to pay off some emergencies, and that this was an emergency. Why?" Theran says. Alright, I guess I was right. Still don't know why Inell's lying here though.

"Then, can you get Azariah out of that cave?" Aubrey asks. Alright, change the subject before she realizes that Freware's and Cesre's reactions aren't adding up! Nice move, Aubrey!

"Of course I can. Just show me where Kari's follower got buried at, and I'll be sure to get her out."

"You don't have to worry about that. I can't quite tell, just because of how little time I've spent with her, but I believe that Theran might be just as devout a follower to Ceres as Azariah is to Kari. I have no doubt in my mind that Theran will be able to get her out."

"Well then let's hurry up and start! We have no time to lose!" Aubrey's suddenly in a rush, and I understand why. We don't have any time to lose here.

We lead Theran over to that cave, and the first thing she does is go up to the rubble, get on the ground and place her ear right up against it.

"What are you doing?" Aubrey asks, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Shh! Let me focus…" Theran says.

A couple of seconds of dead silence pass before Theran makes a small "aha!" sound. After that all the rubble starts to shift itself around, slowly revealing the hole's entrance. We keep hearing rocks shuffling around for about half a minute before she finally stands back up.

"Stay back, it isn't quite secure yet." She says. Rocks continue to rub up against each other for maybe another minute before it finally stops. After this, Theran appears to relax.

"Alright. It should be safe now. Well, safe enough. I'll stay here to keep all the rocks in place if need be. If I wasn't, even rubbing up against one the wrong way would cause the whole thing to tumble down again. It should be alright as long as I'm here, but still be careful."

"That's all that we need. We'll send Inell down there along with Cesre. Inell to get down there and back up, and Cesre to provide enough light to see." Aubrey says, kind of surprising me. Inell though is looking at Aubrey like he performed some sort of miracle.

"You're… you're seriously sending me down there?" He says.

"You're the only one who can even get down there. What's so surprising?" The anger is obvious in Aubrey's voice.

"Well, it's just that-"

"Inell you said yourself that we need to act as quickly as possible. Get down there." This might honestly be the first time I've heard Aubrey sound so pissed off. It honestly sounds like he's about to attack Inell on the spot if he doesn't hurry up.

"Alright then. Cesre, are you ready?"

"Naturally."

Inell and Cesre then fly down the hole, thanks to Inell's magic. Theran keeps standing over the hole to make sure that it doesn't collapse back in on itself. Inell and Cesre are probably down there for minutes.

While we're waiting, I start to feel more and more afraid. For the first time, the possibility that Azariah might not actually be down there anymore really sets in. What am I going to do if she isn't? Are we going to have time to look around for her? The monster congregation isn't just going to stop while we search for her.

><><><><

Cesre and I slowly land on the cave floor. She prepares a simple spell of Florian's so that we can see. Small, glowing lights formed all around us in spread out locations, lighting up the entire cave.

The first thing that I notice other than the effects of the cave-in is that there are burn marks practically everywhere. That can't be good at all. I don't see Azariah here anywhere either. Something must have caused this. Azariah would have had to run away. That will make her so much more difficult to find…

"Inell, over here." Cesre says.

She leads me over to an area of the cave-in. Some of the rocks that fell down appear to have broken into pieces.

"These rocks are split completely unnaturally. It's a sign of a huge explosion. Way bigger than that earthquake. This was probably caused by one of Adad's spells."

Cesre tells me all I need to know. Some sort of monster came Azariah's way, and started burning the entire cave. Azariah tried to fight it with lightning but it clearly didn't work. Then she tried to run away because of the intense heat. What condition Azariah is in, I don't know.

"Cesre, come on! We need to find Azariah, now!"

"H- hey! Don't go running off all of a sudden like that!"

I run in the direction of the burn marks, as Cesre chases after me. The path appears to go on forever. There are tons of branching paths that could lead anywhere. I only follow where the burn marks go. I consider using a spell from a dragon so that we don't get lost, but I figure that the burn marks should be a good enough path to follow back.

Did Azariah really manage to run all this distance? Maybe she managed to hide from the monster and it ran past her? No, given how fast she ran from that fire, it's doubtful she would have managed to endure such scorching heat.

Then where is she? Could she really have ran all this distance? It just keeps going. I guess she would have been trying to survive so she would have gotten a boost of adrenaline. I know how Azariah gets, so even if she didn't exercise very much, maybe she could have ran all this way without collapsing? I hope so…

"Inell! Wait a minute! I can't! I can't…"

Cesre starts to get too exhausted to run. I just pick her up with my winds and continue running. So this is where it gets too much for Cesre… Cesre and Azariah are both mages, so this doesn't bode well… No, Azariah's taller, so she can probably run farther than her. Come on, we just have to keep going.

Eventually even I grow tired and have to stop. I put Cesre down.

"Damn it… could she really have run this far?" I accidentally say.

"Well, she doesn't need to run, does she?"

"...What do you mean?"

"Well, Azariah can fly, can't she?"

Oh… yeah, right. I was so panicked I forgot all about that… I was even the one who taught her to fly. How could I forget that after how she acted afterwards? That really isn't like me… That's way more in line for my sister than it is for me.

"Yes, she can. Come on, let's keep following this trail." I say.

Cesre doesn't say anything else as we continue walking. I should have mana to spare, and walking is taking way too long, so I start using my winds to have both of us fly. I have no idea what condition Azariah is in and absolutely no time can be spared.

It doesn't take us long before I notice that the burn marks have started to go backwards and forwards for some reason. They keep going forward, come back, and then move in a different direction through the caves. I decide to keep following the original path.

We keep flying for a while before hitting a block in our path. Another cave in, which whatever monster it was had appeared to fight its way through. The rocks that fell down are absolutely scorched. I wouldn't be surprised if I found evidence that they had melted.

"Inell… those rocks…"

"Yeah, they're burnt completely black…"

"No, not that. They're all split into pieces, see? More lightning spells."

Lightning? Azariah caused this? Huh… She must have used one of Adad's spells to strike the ceiling of the cave in order to cause another cave-in… In order to block whatever monster was pursuing her. Given how the burn marks double back on themselves, she appears to have succeeded. If that's the case then she must be right on the other side of this.

"Azariah! It's me, Inell! Can you hear me?!"

No response.

"Azariah! Can you hear me?!"

I used wind magic to amplify my voice. Still no response.

I hear the unmistakable sound of a cave in. I quickly grab Cesre with me winds, and fly both of us out of the way of the rocks that come tumbling down.

"Huh… this appears to be a whole lot more unstable than it was at the surface. Well, that was a bunch of rocks that fell down a hole, this is a whole bunch of earth all supporting itself, that should really be a given…"

Yeah, Cesre's right. I should have known doing that was a risk. The panic really is making me think like my sister… I really need to calm down.

Alright, Azariah is definitely behind this… First order of business is heading right up to the surface and getting Theran down here so that she can get us past this.