Karina squinted at Noah for a few seconds, as if she were trying to decide if the Linwicks had all come together to collectively play a prank on her. Then her eyes flicked down to her missing foot and her lips pressed thin.

“Right. Let’s go, then. Just remember that it’s nearly certain that there are other protections in the catacomb. It won’t just be the Frost Wight.”

“That would be odd,” Noah agreed as they headed into the catacombs. They turned the corner and came to a stop before the mutilated body of the Frost Wight. Karina stared at it.

“What did you do to it?”

“Killed it.”

“How?” Karina demanded. “What kind of magic can do this?”

“Really good wind blade,” Noah said without an instant of hesitation. “It’s quite effective if you know where to cut.”

The still-frozen armor of the Frost Wight shimmered on the ground where it had fallen. Karina knelt unsteadily, leaning against the wall to support herself as she touched the dead monster. “This armor is nearly as thick as my forearm. You cut through that?”

“Evidently.”

Karina pushed herself back up with a grimace. “I’m a failure of a Rank 3.”

Whoopsie. I don’t think she needed self-esteem issues on top of everything else. Maybe she’ll think more before being a manipulative, backstabbing prick to people in the future.

“I told you. I’m special.”

“And now I’m starting to believe it,” Karina said as she wiped her features clean and gave Noah an inquisitive look. “You keep pulling out surprises. If this is how you do everything, then I think I can see how you’ve managed to stand toe-to-toe with Father and live to tell the tale.”

“I’m not sure I’d say I was quite toe-to-toe.” Noah rubbed the back of his head and grimaced. “More like I’ve scraped by. Don’t start spreading rumors that I’m actively fighting him or we’ll all be dead.”

“Trust me, I know.” Karina’s face darkened. “He only keeps you around for as long as you’re useful.”

“You know, speaking of Father…” Noah dug into his pocket and took out the slip of paper Father had given him. He held it out so the others could see it. “Do you recognize this?”

Karina peered closer at the paper. Her eyebrows rose. “Yes. It’s a Space Rune that’s linked to one in Father’s possession that gives someone a direct line to him. He’s given me them before – very rarely, though.”

“Nothing else?” Noah asked. “It doesn’t give him some way to spy on us or something?”

“Not that I know of, but I wouldn’t put it past him,” Karina admitted. “It’s just a direct link to one of Father’s Runes. It basically lets you send him a mental message saying you want to speak, and I don’t think it does anything else. A lot of people use them, sometimes as a way to check up on each other. If Father died, the rune would burn up.”

“I’ve heard of those. Could I see it?” Moxie held her hand out and Noah gave her the paper. She studied it for a few moments, then shook her head. “Karina’s guess is as good as mine. It does look similar to what I’ve seen, but I was never given one myself. Lee?”

Lee sniffed the paper. “I could eat it.”

“Best not,” Noah said, taking it back from Moxie before Lee decided to follow through with her offer. “It’s not like Father isn’t going to figure out what’s going on. If this is actually a way for him to spy, then I think he should understand the consequences of interfering.”

Karina stopped walking and squinted at Noah. “Consequences? Do you have leverage over him?”

Noah chuckled. “More like I’m incredibly annoying and he can’t be bothered to deal with me. Besides, if he wanted anything in the catacombs, he would have already taken it. I don’t think he’s trying to spy on me in such an obvious manner. It isn’t worth it.”

Because if he is spying on me, then I’m going to find out if Mascot can carry gifts whenever he teleports around. And, if Mascot can, then Father is going to get every piece of shit that I can find or buy. We’ll see how he likes his fancy office when it smells like death warmed over.

“You’re thinking of a bad idea,” Moxie said. They all continued on, walking past the body of the Frost Wight and continuing deeper into the catacombs.

Noah threw his hands up. “How can you always tell?”

“It’s on your face,” Moxie replied. “Clear as day. If I left you alone, you’d probably start cackling maniacally.”

“She’s right,” Lee added. “It looked like you were thinking of something fun, though.”

“Don’t encourage him,” Moxie said, flicking Lee in the back of the head as they walked.

“Aren’t any of you even slightly worried about the catacombs?” Karina demanded from where she walked at the back of the group. “You’re acting like this is a light stroll.”

Noah shrugged. They reached a corner and he sent heated ash out to illuminate the way before poking his head out to confirm there was nothing waiting for them on the other side. All that he found was a T-intersection.

“If there’s a monster, we fight it. It’s not like anything in here doesn’t know we arrived,” Noah said with a dismissive wave. “The fight against the Frost Wight was hardly quiet. Which way do we go?”Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

Karina let out an unsatisfied grunt and walked up to stand beside Noah. There were some carvings along the far wall that he’d missed before. She studied them for a few moments, then nodded to the left path. “This way. And make sure not to touch anything. We’re probably entering the catacombs proper now.”

“Catacombs proper?” Lee asked as they all continued in the direction that Karina had indicated. “Aren’t we already in them?”

“No. This was just the entrance,” Karina said. “Nothing was stored there.”

As they got deeper into the catacombs, the hallway started to narrow. The tiles on the ground became duller and they passed dozens of small, tight side paths that branched away from the main one. Karina checked all of them as they passed, but after ten minutes, she showed no signs of being satisfied.

“Why aren’t we checking any of these?” Lee asked, going to poke her head into one of the halls. Moxie caught her before she could, pulling the demon back.

“Because they could be better defended than anything I read about,” Karina replied. She adjusted her grip on her makeshift walking stick and paused to study the carving beside another small hallway before shaking her head and continuing on. “There’s a lot of stuff down here. Some of it isn’t documented. That means it could be either completely worthless or incredibly dangerous. If we trigger some form of trap, we’re all dead.”

“What if we just don’t trigger the trap?”

Karina glared at Lee. “If it was possible to simply decide not to trigger a trap, then sure. But, unless you can magically detect every single trap, checking random halls is a great way to get ourselves killed.”

I could probably just stroll around here on my own after they leave. Even if I die, it’s not really a big loss. I just need to make sure that doesn’t happen while the gourd – and the others – are here.

“What kind of traps could there be?” Noah asked. “Do you know?”

“Who knows. I’m not exactly an expert. I just read a few books,” Karina grumbled. She stopped by the next hall down. “Anything from physical attacks to gas or other forms of magic. And setting any of them off would almost certainly alert the rest of the Linwick family that someone’s digging around where they shouldn’t be.”

“Haven’t we already done that?” Moxie asked. “We killed the Frost Wight and entered the catacombs.”

“Sure, but the difference is that we haven’t pissed someone off in particular. Breaking into the Catacombs may have notified the Linwicks as a whole, but none of the individual branches should care. This isn’t their main store of artifacts. They’ll probably expect us to get killed by whatever traps they laid. But, if we steal something from someone important, then they’ll start to care.”

Only looking out for themselves. Sounds about right for the Linwicks.

“And this artifact we’re after won’t piss anyone off?” Moxie confirmed.

“It shouldn’t. It was so old that I barely found any info on it. Anyone who cared about it should be long gone,” Karina said. “According to what I read, it wasn’t all that useful to the Linwicks anyway.”

Karina moved on to the next hall. She leaned in to study the sigils. Her stance shifted and she looked back to them. “Here. I found it.”

They gathered around her, staring into the dark hall beyond. It was only wide enough for them to walk through in a single-file line, which was far from ideal.

“The artifact is just down the hall?” Noah asked.

“The person it belonged to is buried down the hall,” Karina said. “And the artifact should be with him. There might be some other stuff too, but I don’t know what it is or if it’ll be worth anything. If there’s a trap, it’ll be in there.”

“So I guessed.” Noah rubbed his chin. “I’ll go in alone. It might be wise for the rest of you to leave the catacombs. Now that we’ve found it, I don’t want you getting trapped in here with me if something happens.”

Karina was shaking her head before Noah finished talking. “You’ll never get the artifact out on your own. It’s definitely protected. We’ll have to remove the Imbuements, and if you do it wrong, you’ll definitely trigger a trap.”

“You didn’t mention anything like that before.”

Karina stared at him like he was an idiot. “What, did you think everything was just lying around? I’ve spent weeks studying containment Imbuements so I could remove it. The only reason I’m half confident this can be done is that I doubt the artifact has a good one. Either way, unless you’re a master Imbuer or happened to have studied this yourself, you aren’t going to take it out on your own.”

“Fair enough. You’re with me, then. Lee, Moxie, do you want to head out?”

“I think it’s better we stick around. If you guys get attacked, you’ll need help,” Moxie said. She sent a pointed glance at Karina. “Even if you can protect yourself, you won’t be able to cover for her as well.”

Damn. That’s a good point. I don’t really want to risk it, but we promised to protect her.

“Right. You two stand out here, then,” Noah said. “Come inside if you hear fighting, but having too many people stuck in a tight corridor is a recipe for disaster. Karina, follow behind me.”

Karina nodded her understanding. Noah sent his glowing ash cloud into the hall, but it was just a dark, stone pathway that led even deeper into the earth. There was nothing to see. He stepped into the doorway carefully, half expecting something to come flying out of the darkness.

Nothing came, and so he walked in deeper. Karina trailed several feet behind. Before long, the path curved to the side and Noah could no longer hear or see Moxie and Lee. His and Karina’s footsteps echoed down the tunnel as they descended.

Finally, the tunnel came to an end in a rectangular room. A coffin rested on an elevated stone slab in the center of the room, and shelves ran along the sides of the room, built into the stone.

Half a dozen stone and old wooden boxes sat on the shelves. They were a variety of shapes and sizes, all covered in a layer of dust. Karina walked up beside Noah and squinted into the room.

“Can we go in?” Noah asked.

“I think so.”

She didn’t sound particularly confident, but Noah couldn’t think of anything he could do other than just test things out. He carefully edged into the room. Silence was all that greeted him. Karina followed after him, taking care to avoid touching anything.

“Where’s the artifact?” Noah asked. “In the coffin?”

And I wonder if there’s anything valuable in those small little boxes. They look like a good spot to store gold and jewels.

“Probably. It could also be in one of the smaller boxes on the shelves, but if I had to guess, those are traps for stupid tomb robbers.”

Ah. They’re traps for me. Tempting, even still. I wonder if it’s an Indiana Jones kind of thing, where it triggers the moment I pick up a box. If not… can I just take the boxes out without opening them?

“Don’t do anything,” Karina said. She limped up to the coffin in the center of the room and knelt beside it, studying the plain carvings covering the stone. After a few moments, she pulled her dagger out and started to scratch at them.

“That’s your way to take out the Imbuements? Vandalism?”

“Be quiet while I work,” Karina said irritably.

Noah shrugged and obliged. A minute later, Karina straightened back up. She tapped the coffin with her staff. When nothing happened, she braced her staff against the coffin’s lid and shoved.

A grinding noise filled the small room as the lid slid back. Before Noah could catch it, the large chunk of stone slid over the edge and crashed to the ground with a resounding bang. He stiffened, drawing on Natural Disaster, but all that arose was a cloud of smoke.

“The Imbuement is off,” Karina said, waving the smoke away. “I cut the power to it. And, before you ask, if I’d messed with the wrong line, it could have exploded in our faces.”

“Good job,” Noah said. He peered over the edge of the coffin. A skeleton laid within it, any clothes they’d been wearing long since rotted away. Its hands were wrapped around a massive book on its chest. The book must have been four and a half feet tall and was easily three feet wide. It practically filled the entire coffin.

“That’s one big ass book,” Noah breathed.

“That,” Karina said, a smug expression flashing across her features, “is your artifact.”