Discordant Note | TBATE

Chapter 76: The Lay of the Land

"I'd rather spend time with family of my own than fight scorpions," I said with a smile that didn't quite reach my eyes. I didn't like being reminded of my slipping memory. How long until I forgot my brother's face, too? Until the voices of my family became indistinct and grainy, worn down against the winds of time? "If there's anything Darrin and I agree on, it's that we hate insects."

Dima's eyes traced over Darrin. "Is that so?" she said, cocking her head slightly.

Darrin rolled his eyes. "We have a mutual distaste for things with more than four legs."

"They're fundamentally wrong," I affirmed, shuddering slightly as I remembered the scorpion at the end of the desert zone.

Alandra settled back into the couch, closing her eyes. "But I'm sorry you're here, Toren," she said with a sigh. "We're stuck here. Have been for a while."

I frowned. "Can't you locate the portal with your spell?" I asked, remembering her strange fire compass.

"I did when we first got here," she said with a quiet sigh, not opening her eyes. "But you can't go near the ground at all. That's why we're all up here, close to the clouds. Any sound that makes it to those strange roads makes those horrid undead burst from the ground."

Alandra seemed to wilt. I felt disjointed seeing the cocky conjurer so disheartened. "Surely there are other people in this convergence zone you can work with," I hedged. "There's no way everyone who entered here besides you has died."

Dima responded in place of Alandra. "There are a few other groups holed up in the other steel towers. But they're extremely distrustful. We're all almost out of limited food and water, making barely any progress in getting to that portal. Darrin saw the place from afar. It is an island with a tall, tall steel tower. And around that island is an entire lake."

Darrin's face took on a determined look. "That's going to change now," he said with confidence. He looked at me from the side of his eye. "Toren here can nullify sounds around him. Perfect for getting past these undead."

Alandra perked up, blinking and looking at me. Dima didn't look so convinced. "That's real nice, Darrin," she said, "But we won't be able to do anything if we don't get more supplies. I haven't eaten in two days. And my water won't last through tomorrow. And I know you haven't touched a bite of food for almost a week."

She looked at him imperiously, as if that tidbit of information cemented her argument. I swallowed, taking another look at Darrin. On second inspection, maybe his cheeks looked a little too hollow. His form a bit too gaunt.

"I'll be fine, Dima," the leader of the Unblooded Party said dismissively. "We'll get out of here soon enough, you'll see–"

"And if there's another zone after this one?" she snapped. "What then? Will you just let yourself starve?"

"That's not going to happen," Darrin said stiltedly, the tension rising in the room. Alandra covered her face with her hands, leaning over in a defeated posture. "We'll be fine, okay? Just like every time."

"This isn't like every time," Dima snapped, moving closer. "This zone is like nothing we've ever seen before. Nothing anyone has seen before in the Relictombs. It's an alien city!" she said, throwing her hands up. "This is an entire city! It's like the ghost of a civilization! The Relictombs have always been strange, but... But I've had to kill things that shouldn't be able to move. How can you expect the next zone to go back to the norm?"

I stepped back slightly, feeling a wave of guilt. Dima hadn't directed the words at me, but I couldn't pretend anymore. This exact situation had been what I feared so deeply on my prelim: getting the group caught in a trap they couldn't escape.