Into That Wild Blue Yonder

17. Planting Roots

The trio crept up to the entryway, quiet as mice in a cathedral, every hair and scale on their backs at full attention, ready to jump at anything that moved. As they closed the distance, the sound of bitter laughter and falling glasses rang out from the room with the light. Ulan stopped to look back at his companions, silently blinking and tilting his head toward the light ahead.

"Sounds like a few guys," Colm whispered.

"I guess I'm surprised?" Idara said with a shrug. "I don't know why I thought they would be alone."

"I wouldn't have thought an essence user would have many friends," Ulan replied.

"How do we approach this?" Colm asked.

Ulan inched forward toward the entryway just as the light started flickering and shifting, throwing shadows throughout the entire room, giving him a moment's pause. When the light stabilized, he pressed onward again and positioned himself to peek around the corner at ground level, cheek pressing against the floor.

Inside the next room, he could hardly believe his eyes; eight men sat around a flame, drinking and laughing and spouting whatever nonsense they were on about. They all sat on the same sort of make-shift stools, but one stood out from the rest. He sat between two others, an oddly cool smile on his face, maintaining his temperament as his companions drank more and more.

Behind him lay a pile of bodies, all recently deceased, with a small pile of gems next to it.

"We found him," Ulan whispered as he pulled his head back.

"Great, now we just have to go in there and kill him," Idara said. "Easy enough, right?"

"No," Ulan said. "There's seven other guys in there. It'll be a fight, and who knows what the mage can do."

"We have to use surprise," Colm said, deep in thought. Ulan and Idara cocked an eyebrow each at him and waited for him to continue. "We can't just approach this like any other fight. We have to weaken them first, throw them off balance."

"How?" Idara asked. "If we can't just charge in there, what's the plan?"

"I can throw the flame off enough to sneak in," Colm began, shifting to take the front in Ulan's place. "I'll either weaken it for a moment or put it out. Then, I sneak in and take a side position. I'll throw my hammer as the signal to rush in and attack."

"Okay," Ulan said.

Without another word, Colm moved to the entrance and peeked to see how far into the room the flame was from his position. He figured it to be about seven meters away, just outside the effective range of a push of fundamental magic. He would have to wait for an opportunity to reduce the flame to make his entrance.

"I wonder if we can figure out what made him use more than a five word sentence there?" Idara wondered aloud, though not loud enough for Colm to notice. Ulan shrugged with a giddy smile and kept his attention forward.

Colm watched intently as the men around the fire moved and spoke, patiently waiting for the opportunity to present itself. Before long, his moment came; one of the men drunkenly fell forward, nearly landing in the fire, drawing raucous laughter and thunderous applause from his noncoherent fellows. With everyone distracted, Colm silently made his move.

He crouched and walked out, and within a couple steps, he was in range and made a fundamental push with his palm, throwing the fame just enough to cast shadows over most of the room. He took the chance to stand up and run to the other end of the room behind a mine cart he spotted along the way. Once he had his hiding spot, he took a better look around the room, noting multiple mine carts and passageways leading further into the mines.