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Chapter Four

The path Ashereth, Krivkris, Lyera, Rakiri, and Takasato travel on under the guard of the creatures winds around the mountain, and it ends at a cave entrance. It is a narrow opening that the party members question themselves about their capability to fit. When it becomes their turn, the captors behind them jab them with their weapons to coax them into the hole, and they enter. Surprisingly, it is comfortable to Ashereth, Lyera, Rakiri, and Takasato. It is only a slight annoyance to Krivkris as he has to bend over after his head collides with rocks on the ceiling, at first. Then it starts to constrict, and they notice the creatures effortlessly navigate it like mice and rats in homes or other buildings. Only the Ki'Tsuns have minimal issues about the space, but even they inveigh about the conditions. To the party members' relief, the path opens up to a cavern and civilization inside.

The cavern is monstrous in size with a height of two hundred feet between the ground and the dangling stalactites, and the width is too wide to accurately measure. Within view, the group observes three massive holes that extend beyond into the unknown. Water from the stalactites drips as a mimic to rain from the outside sky in lands that aren't wastelands. Natural rock pillars serve as support to prevent the cave system from collapsing and also a shelter to the critters. Purple blazes barely function as a light source to Ashereth, Krivkris, and Lyera.

The residents force the party members into a jail cell towards the top of a rock pillar, and they secured the door. Additionally, they remove visible weapons on the captives and valuables, agitating Krivkris when they steal his pendant. After a brief confabulation in their native tongue, they leave them behind under eight guards' supervision.

Inside the cell is vacuous, so Ashereth and the other party members sit and do nothing. Testing the bars by vigorously shaking the bars confirms to Krivkris they're too sturdy to physically fracture them, and he thinks to himself while sitting on the frozen, smooth ground. Ashereth, Lyera, and I could provide enough firepower with our magic. Still, it would require our most potent spells and deplete our mana, leaving Rakiri and Takasato the only capable fighters if we find ourselves in another precarious situation. Are these another branch of the Soulmonger's army? No… no, that can't be true. I blocked a crucial passageway and buried a significant amount of Sorrowmen in the rubble. Plus, our captors speak a different language, and their architecture's too distinctive. Still, they're highly unknown to trust them, and there's a possibility they want the Arcanium Scroll for their purposes. Thank the gods we still possess it. We're only half a day away from leaving the gods forsaken place, and it's smoother sailing.

For the group's meal, the guards hand the members giant insects that have an appearance of cockroaches. They're roasted to the point where their guts rupture, and steam rises. Leading the example, the guards also consume cockroaches for their sustenance, and they slurp the insides, chew on the head, and exoskeleton with an audible *crunch*, and pick their teeth clean with the insect legs. All the party members grimace as they ingest the insects and Krivkris, Lyera, and Takasato almost gag at the slimy, gelatinous texture and the putrid taste.

To keep track of time to the best of their ability, Rakiri scratches markings on the wall to represent the days since their capture, and he's on the fourth engraving when the wardens arrive to collect him and his companions. Under tight security, they escort them down the spiral staircase onto the busy streets. Feral citizens act aggressively, sticking their elongated tongues and sometimes spraying their saliva, hurling insults in their language, or getting physical towards the prisoners. A certain amount of the guards retaliate against them. When the residents aren't occupied at taunting them, they focus on preparing for an upcoming celebration. Ashereth and his companions are awestruck at where they end up from the escort.

Carved into a side of the cave instead of pillars is a palace that is a thousand feet wide and contains five floors. Pillars, arches, and other design choices give the outside appearance a majestic look compared to the rest of the city. Four statues of humanoids hunched over equidistant from each other on both sides of the stairs carry unlit braziers and greet the arriving guests. As they ascend to the entrance, they meet a creature with the same characteristics as the city's residents but wears more lavish clothing of silver, white, and grey. The crown is half the size of her resembling a beetle on its head with eleven jewels alternate between the colors yellow and green.

“Awaswišæ," she said, and she extended his right hand to shake. Ashereth, Lyera, Krivkris, Rakiri, and Takasato are unsure of her, so they reciprocate hesitantly. “Kácanré," she ordered with a hand gesture. With a shove from the guards as motivation, they follow her deeper into the palace. Is she friendly or adversarial? Will she release them or keep them as prisoners or worse? They're one of the numerous questions they ask themselves in their head. On the bright side, there exists some life in an inhospitable land.

During their walk, the group members catch glimpses of more natives in a room preparing either decorations or costumes with dead twigs and thorny plants. In a branching path, they smell food cooking, and it smells ambrosial though days of consuming giant cockroach guts cause them to assume it on the menu.

In the throne room, the queen of the natives sits on her throne. It's prosaic in design, and the stone material doesn't add any fancy flashes. Behind it, however, is an entirely different story. Another stone statue depicts a gargantuan, thick worm that is sixty feet tall with spikes coming out of its pores. Its gaping maw reveals hundreds of tiny tongues with humanoid faces of either agony or fury. It is in the center of a circular chamber behind the throne. Above it are two more statues of a cockroach and a beetle with an engraving beneath them in a script unknown to anyone in Krivkris's party.

“Markæ," the queen ordered, and she gestured to the five chairs in front of her. Her mouth twists and contorts as she struggles to connect to a word deep within her brain, and she finally speaks sluggishly in the common tongue with a thick accent, “Sit." Krivkris and his cohorts obey, still on edge in case the situation escalates for the worst. A sweet, foreign aroma invades the savory odor's space and overthrows it as the dominant redolence, causing the tension in their muscles to ease and relax. “Cïkon asórko nud' de?"

“I'm assuming she wants to know our name," Lyera said to the entire group.

“Cïkon asórko nud' de?" asked the queen again with more force. A minute passes by of her forcing herself to say, “Name?"

This is fortunate news to the party that the queen knows the lingua franca and can speak it in one effortless word with difficulty, withal. In succession, the members reveal their names, and they presume hers when she responds, “Jašav."

A young girl appears on the member's left side of the throne room from opening a door, and she charges forward and pounces joyfully on the queen, shouting, “Ïri." Lyera and Rakiri recognize the girl as the one from the house when they notice she still has the exact doll from there. “Dáe bolúnt sistaste nóm tri?"

“Ub'tá, Berál. Ïri yá tovit æt ub," Jašav responded, smiling at her. She lifts her down from her lap and motions her dismissal. “Isá ašwe nóm uré uy é cavabri." As Berál exits, she waves to Lyera and Rakiri, and they reciprocate. After the door shuts, she refocuses her attention to the group and a minute of silence later before she speaks, “Sorry." The sweet scent in the room increases its potency in the place, and her next words catch the party by surprise. “Take the males to the dungeon and leave the females with me. They shouldn't provide any resistance now with the drug in the air."

There are two reasons why Krivkris's party is flabbergasted. Reason one is the members can understand Jašav's language somehow, and the second is her command. True to her word, the drug etiolates their body enough for them to not physically resist the guards or for Ashereth, Krivkris, and Lyera to utilize their mana. Restraining their prisoners by pinning their arms behind their backs, the guards escort the party's masculine members to the dungeon. Lyera and Takasato attempt to flee, but they slip and fall on their coccyx on the sudden appearance of slippery ice, the noise of Ashereth's, Krivkris's, and Rakiri's struggle fades gradually the farther the guards escort them away to the point the volume is silent.

“Art of Conjuration: Binding Vines!" Thorny vines erupt from the floor and ensnare Lyera and Takasato. Jašav's steps echo throughout the throne room as she descends the stairs and walks over to them, extending her glowing hands and touching them. “This is excellent. The both of you will be the guests of honor for the festival tonight."

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