The Mine

"Really need a mount," Raiden complains. The road had been too narrow for a royal carriage down this rarely-used road.

"We'll check the black market when we get back." She tells him.

"Maybe there's a better way than waiting for something to come along?" He offers.

"Are you saying we should go tame something?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Maybe." He shrugs. "Though we could probably go buy one from a rancher."

"There's a thought. I'm sure Rainer would like seeing the countryside." She nods.

"Yeah... I kinda feel bad for the kid... He doesn't... Act happy..." He frowns.

"He's still getting used to things." She assures checking the map. "Not much longer now... But something is at the edge here." She points at the map.

"A building?" He blinks at it before looking about and stopping. "There." He nods to a stone tower nearby.

"Looks abandoned... Wanna go check it out?" She asks. He nods at that, curiosity glowing in his eyes. They detour together, soon finding a small old castle.

"A castle out here in the wilds?" Emelda raises an eyebrow.

"Probably used to belong to a noble... But they left because of the wildlife." He tilts his head as a large figure enters the courtyard. It was shaped like a giraffe with a panda coat and markings.

"Kinda cute." Emelda nods as it passes by. "The outside doesn't look damaged." She says as they head to the doors.

"These doors look sturdy despite the years." He knocks, the wood sounding solid. They share a smile before pushing the doors open together. The building was dark as they eased in. The interior didn't seem damaged, just a bit moldy with carpets and curtains rotting away. They check each room, entering a small courtyard at the center of the building before going upstairs and finding a small throne room.

Raiden moves ahead, peering about. Emelda watches his back curiously, smiling when his shoulders droop. "You want to live here don't you?" She guesses. He turns to her then.

"It's going to take a lot of work." He warns her not to encourage him. "And it's in the Wilds."

"If we can get up a barrier the Wilds won't be a problem. It'll have to be the first thing. We can put in the work every day before returning to the manor to sleep. Once it's ready. This can be our new home." She smiles. He shifts looking about.

"Are you sure?" He asks lightly.

"It's what my best friend wants. And I'm positive we can make it work." She nods. Raiden grins at that, giving her a tight hug.

"Alright. Let's go clear that mine!" He rumbles. With that, they hurry back out, following the map to their destination. The land lifts into a mountain, the soil holding a blue hue, a few purplish Crystals sticking out here and there.

"Wow... I've never seen anything like this." Emelda murmurs, feeling the soil curiously. "Feels like rich soil." She murmurs.

"Probably can't grow anything with all these crystals..." He muses, pulling out one. "Heh. You could use this to stab something." He passes it to her.

"Gonna be a fantastic stab." She jokes as they enter the mine. The crystal in her hand illuminated slightly. It was still too dark for Raiden though, so he lit the cave with his electricity.

"A crystal mine?" Emelda guesses as they pass the shimmering crystals.

"Seems like it. No beasts yet though." He frowns slightly.

"Must be in a cavern." She offers, adjusting her gauntlets with the crystal tucked against her armpit.

"Probably... Looks like it's opening up ahead, be ready." He warns lightly. She nods and they soon walk into a cavern. They stop short to peer about, the movement catching their eyes as dozens of eyes reflect the light from Raiden's lightning.

Harmonized growling sounds and Raiden swiftly raises his hand, lightning flashes, webbing out amongst the creatures. Some least affected yowl before throwing themselves at the Adventurers. Emelda pivots, beastly fist flashing out and connecting with a feline beast's jaw. Her other arm swings the crystal to keep another one back as flashes of a lightning tear through the bulk of the beasts.

Before long nothing else moves. Emelda crouches next to a creature to observe it. A feline-like body with a pair of crystal horns sticking out of its head, white stripes glowing slightly in the darkness.

"Sorry for invading your home. Rest in peace." She prays, bringing up a hand in prayer.

"I can see why he had a problem. There had to be twenty..." Raiden frowns.

"Yeah. Looks like there are two more tunnels." She stands, looking about.

"Would go faster if we split up... Can you handle it?" He inquires.

"Not if there's another twenty of them." She tells him with an uneasy expression. He chuckles lightly at that.

"Then we'll go down this one first." He decides to take the lead. Emelda stays with him, peering about. "Sure is a lot in here... Maybe we should get a mine."

"Sounds profitable. Would just need workers, deliverer, and merchant connections." Emelda breathes. "Or I could design jewelry for it and sell that.."

"You could do that?" He peers at her.

"Maybe. My world had so many designs I bet the women here would love them." She smiles. "And sunglasses would be popular too."

"Sunglasses?" He echoes.

"I'll have to show you... You didn't have them in your world? But you had portals." She blinks at him.

"I was a street kid. If we did, I didn't know about it." He shrugs.

"Well, I have a feeling you'll love it." She says thoughtfully as they reach another cavern. He grips her hand suddenly, nodding to a large mass near the back of the cavern.

"... That's a creature?" She whispers in shock. He nods, eyes searching around before he signals her to stay put as he carefully approaches the mass. Emelda steps forward, shifting the crystal to her tattooed arm, getting ready.

Raiden holds up a hand, a bolt shooting into the beast's head. It shudders, sitting up and making them pale. It reminded her of a frog, but its body was armored, with multiple legs like a centipede. Raiden leaps, narrowly dodging the creature's tongue, which had pinchers on it.

"What a nightmare." She gasps as Raiden grabs a stalactite and throws it at the beast as he falls back down. It pierces the creature's shoulder, but the tongue whips out, snatching him out of the air. "RAIDEN!" She calls out rushing at the creature, it turns to her but its body lights up and suddenly explodes. "Right... Of course, you're okay." She wipes herself off.

"Emee! I found a big orb!" Raiden holds up the large orb, over his head, standing at the center of the mess.

"You're sure it's not an egg?" She asks.

"Doesn't feel hollow, feels heavy." He says bringing it over and knocking on it to show her. She hums feeling it.

"Think he'll let us keep it?" She looks at him.

"I hope so. Bet it looks great in the natural light." He grins.

"True. But lightning is pretty natural too." She points out.

"You got a point. But with all this goop I can't really use my lightning without it stinking of burning flesh." He tries to wipe off a horn.

"That is pretty gross..." She agrees.

"Looks like there are no other tunnels connected to this one, let's go to the other." He breathes looking about. With that, they head to the other cavern.

"Should collect some hide before we leave." She looks at the mass of dead creatures.

"You sure you want that hide?" He glances at it as they continue.

"Yeah. Could make for cool designs." She nods starting down the next tunnel. The next cavern has glowing walls of turquoise. "What's this?"

"Looks like the metal Turqonium... I heard it glows before it's put through a forge, then only glows again if enchanted." He breathes. "They say it's for killing demons..." He touches the wall. "Do you think he knows it's here?"

"Not if they couldn't get past those beasts." She assures, touching his back. He sends her an uncertain frown.

"If the king gets a hold of this..."

"It'll mean more trouble for us." She agrees.

"What... Should we do?" He asks her. Emelda looks between him and the walls of ore.

"Let's take a risk. And cut a deal with Tyran." She nods to him.

"You really trust that stranger?" He seems doubtful.

"Kinda. Feels like a worthy risk." She says confidently. He blinks before smiling lightly and nodding in acceptance.

"Looks like that's the only thing in this cavern." She peers about.

"Wait... Looks like there's an opening in that corner, but the glow makes it hard to tell." He starts for the spot he indicated. She follows and sure enough, there's a tunnel they have to crouch through, leaving Raiden's orb next to it.

On the other side, it opens to a deep hole. Raiden and Emelda peer down over the edge. Darkness is the only thing they could see. Emelda peers around before grabbing a small glowing crystal and dropping it in. It falls and falls, eventually consumed in darkness.

"An abyss... How ominous." She remarks.

"Probably see further with lightning." He breathes. "Alright, let's head back to the client." He starts back through the tunnel.

They pass through the ore cavern to the main one. They pause halfway through, the sound of squelching catching their ears.

"Is that... Coming from the corpses?" Emelda points.

"I think-" He suddenly walks her backward as the mound of corpses begins to rise, the corpses were stuck to what she could only describe as a tar creature. It reeked horribly and seemed to be aware of them.

"What the fuck is that?" She whispers in horror.

"I think it's called a corpse collector." He breathes.

"Dangerous?" She asks as they move to the side carefully since the creature wasn't moving to attack.

"Very... It loves collecting corpses, so it'll make corpses." He nods, the creature suddenly ripples and they dive away from each other to avoid the tar creature's lunge. It picks up the rocks it collides with and turns to spit them out at Emelda.

"Raiden! You're gonna have to stink!" She calls, not seeing any weak points as she dodges the rocks.

"I really don't want to! Hup!" He hops up to avoid its tail. "But you're right. Physical attacks aren't gonna work." He calls, landing near her.

"Give it your best." She breathes. With a sizzle, lightning builds up around his arm. With a quick motion, he releases a bolt of lightning at it. There's a flicker of lightning but doesn't seem to affect it. "Time to run." Emelda decides.

"Yep." He breathes and they run for the exit. "What do we do if it follows? It might return to the mine!"

"Good point..." She glances back as they leave the mine, the corpse-covered tar creature following them out. "Bath?" She asks.

"I mean... It won't hurt to try." He nods. Emelda takes out the map as they run, getting steered about by Raiden.

"Looks like there's a lake that way."She points. a tar hand reaches for her back but Raiden swiftly scoops her up, changing direction.

"And if it hates water?" He asks.

"What do you think is stronger? The need to collect or the hatred of water?" She responds.

"Guess we'll find out." He breathes, the lake comes into view and he leaps over it, sending down a bolt of lightning into the lake before landing on the other side, setting Emelda down. They turn as fish corpses rise to the surface. The Corpse collector appears, approaching the water, seeming to look around at the floating corpses.

The tar body ripples and grows, thinning itself as it spreads over the lake like a disgusting tar blanket, string like appendages reach down to collect the corpses. Emelda shudders at the sight. She could make something red out amongst the stretched-out tar.

"There!" She tells Raiden with a point. He blinks and points a finger at it as well, releasing a bolt. The corpses cry out together at that before the tar body breaks apart and falls into the lake.

"Guess you were right... Collecting was stronger than self-preservation." Raiden comments.

"Thank goodness for that. Could you imagine that thing following us home?" She sighs starting back around the lake.

"Talk about living a nightmare." He agrees as they head back.

They returned to Tyran's estate by nightfall, getting ushered in briskly. They recoiled from Raiden, making the demon duck his head in embarrassment.

Tyran greets them at his desk but soon moves to the window and opens it. Raiden stands at that.

"Emee I'm going home. I trust you to handle the rest. Lord Tyran, send her home in a carriage." He requests before leaving.

"Okay." She calls after him before looking at Tyran sheepishly. "As you can guess we had a few issues but the mine has been cleared."

"Good. You have my thanks." He smiles lightly. "But from the change of your expression, you found something not so desirable.." He breathes closing the window again and drawing the curtains.

"Turqonium." She meets his gaze. He pauses in surprise.

"Ah... I suppose that would be undesirable." He agrees in thought. "Come back tomorrow with him. We will do something about it then."

"Thank you." She nods, standing up.

"Not so fast. I'm sending you in a carriage with your pay. And allow me to escort you out." He comes to her side.

"Alright," She nods as they head out.

"I've decided to sponsor you. Although I received word of what transpired at the castle and know you don't need it. I simply hope you will be willing to keep assisting me." He tells her.

"That's your choice. We're happy to help and be helped." She smiles thoughtfully.

"I see. I hope you'll walk me through today's events when we visit the mine tomorrow." He rumbles. She pauses and peers at him.

"I will, I'm sure you'll be quite surprised." She nods. They get outside, both looking towards the moon.

"Lady Night. Tell me, are you truly happy staying in the company of that demon?" He asks lightly, looking at her.

"Of course. Anyone would be happy to live with their best friend." She responds meeting his gaze with a grin.