Sofie kept her eyes to the floor as they moved further into the ruins. For the most part the hallway seemed to be in fairly good condition compared to the ruin's exterior and even was better than the passageways that split off from it at set intervals; each of which seemed to have caved in, and yet the hallway had been left untouched. There was no sign of rubble or cracks in the stone anywhere in fact, which only served to make her more wary of where she set her feet. Surely there should be some signs of wear and tear from the long centuries that the ruins had lain abandoned, so how were the hallways around this one collapsed and destroyed, but this one had remained undamaged?
It wasn’t only the condition of the hallway that raised questions, but the great wooden door as well. She could only guess at who or what had been maintaining the ruins; surely it couldn’t be bandits? Every tale she had heard of the many groups of outlaws that were scattered across the province seemed to point towards the majority of them being fairly dim-witted, it seemed unlikely that they would have thought to repair their hideout so as to prevent it from collapsing on top of them. Draugr then? No, they were supposed to be little more than shambling corpses, but she had read one…
Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Alarne’s voice right behind her “There’s no point in fretting over what we’ll find in here, we’re going to find out either way.” She had become so preoccupied with what they may find that she had almost forgotten that Alarne was there with her. How did he know what she was thinking? Had she said any of it out loud?
Sofie had to take a moment to allow her heart to slow before answering “I just don’t want to be surprised by whatever has been keeping this place from falling in on itself.”
Alarne paused; as though thinking of what to say next, before replying “It’s not going to do us any good if we’re so busy thinking about what we’ll find when we actually stumble upon it.”
She couldn’t argue with what he was saying, but that only served to annoy her. Usually she was the more level-headed of her siblings. Giving a quick nod in acknowledgement of what he had said she started forward, keeping her ears strained for even the slightest noise.
*****
Runa stood looking after her siblings, a feeling a dread forming in her stomach. She was reminded of the last time they had seen their mother, and how they had watched her back slowly shrink as she walked away from them.
She hoped that she was just imagining it, but the feeling refused to pass and instead she began to worry that it may have been a mistake to split up like they had. Shaking her head, Runa berated herself for letting her fear take hold. If anything was to happen she would definitely be there to help them.
“Alright.”
At the sound of her voice Blaise seemed to shy away, but she paid him no mind and started after her siblings. She hoped that he would show some spine should they run into any trouble up ahead; Runa knew full well that he could, Blaise had demonstrated just that when they had been ambushed by the dead back in the clearing. Now if only he could show it more often, she might just stop looking down on him so much.
As they followed the hallway they passed several alcoves and collapsed passages that branched off, each she checked to make certain that they were empty before moving on. With each alcove that they passed her sense of dread continued to grow, and with it her pace until she was no longer stopping to inspect each one and instead giving them only a quick glance as she rushed past.
Behind her she could hear the sounds of Blaise trying to keep up, his breath sounded ragged and close. Spinning around she saw nothing but the empty hallway stretching back the way she had come; it took her a moment to realize the breathing she had been hearing was her own, she couldn’t remember when she had last seen or heard anything from Blaise.
Where was he?
Runa stood stuck between the knowledge that she would have to go back and look for him and the feeling that something was going to happen to Alarne and Sofie. Part of her wanted to be furious at Blaise for causing this and she even considered leaving him to go after the others... “No” slapping her cheek, the metal of her gauntlet clattering at the impact, she started to retrace her steps; deciding that if anything happened she’d be angry later, for now she had to find Blaise and hope that nothing did happen.
This time she gave each alcove or pathway a thorough search before moving on, convinced that she had missed something in her fear for her siblings. The lack of dust or any sort of debris made it hard to tell where she herself had passed, let alone where Blaise had gone. Surely though he couldn’t have taken another path, every passageway she had seen was either blocked by rubble or a dead end.
It took her longer to reach the entrance hall than she had expected, had she really gone that far into the ruins before she had stopped her headlong charge? From where she stood in the archway she could see no sign of Blaise in what little light managed to creep in past the door, which now stood wide open. There was something wrong about that, she thought, hadn’t they only opened it just enough to slip through?
Making her way over to the door Runa tried to think of why it would now be standing wide open. Maybe something had spooked Blaise and he had fled back out into the world outside the ruins, but no, that was unlikely no matter what she may think of him. Blaise didn’t seem like the type of person to abandon his friends, he had gone with Alarne after all. The wind then? No, that seemed even more unlikely, the weather outside had been fairly calm when they had arrived and not enough time had passed for that to change.
The only other thing she could think of was that whatever had been living here had passed through after them, whether it was leaving or entering she couldn’t tell; hopefully the former.
From behind her, she faintly heard the sound of fabric moving across the floor. Spinning around, she reached for her axe only to find that it was no longer on her belt. All of a sudden the feeling of dread from before was back in full force, and she could only imagine the worst as she waited for whatever was there to make its next move.
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