Chapter 79: 78: Icy Heart in Darkness

Sea Song Tione whispered, "Sorry! I'll be quieter." He touched his flipper to the stone and barely breathed, "Darkheart," as he vanished.

MatchlessMinion pressed one large round ear against the cold door, and then used his skill that made him nearly invisible again. The door swung open just enough for a small chinchillamin to slip out.

Aishin snatched up the stone and held up his hand in warning. He folded his fingers down one by one, before opening the door and slipping out first, then beckoned and started down the stairs.

Danika zipped after him.

Aishin halted and backed up a step when they reached the bottom of the stairs. Danika peeked past him and saw that there was only an open space between them and a doorway that had its broad door propped completely open. A stone glowed above the door, and Danika glanced up and saw that the light on the stairs had been provided by more stones embedded in the bottom of the steps above.

Just beyond the entrance to the tower the darkness showed the movements of the press of goblins that she'd seen with Quin. MatchlessMinion whispered softly, "I can't find any logs that seem different."

Somewhere above them a sharp thud sounded, and Aishin hissed, "Something probably pushed past the stoned goblin." He brought up his menus and added, "There are several living beings below us, there has to be a way to get farther down."

A grating sound was followed by more thumps and Danika murmured, "Or they're rolling it down the stairs at us."

The shimmer that was all that she could see of MatchlessMinion scurried along the walls of the space, so Danika activated her invisibility and zipped forward to examine the floor. A flicker of light caught her eye as she zipped over the large stone directly in front of the open doorway and she dropped to the ground and hurried to dig her claws into the little gap.

Danika pried it up with her dragon strength, and a moment later she could feel MatchlessMinion's fur brush against her as he hissed, "Wait a second!"

Danika's invisibility gave out and she renewed it, as the door to the tower slowly swung closed. The goblins outside didn't seem to react, and she heaved on the stone as Aishin darted over and lifted it beyond where she could reach. The thudding grating progress of the stone goblin coming down the stairs grew louder and Danika zipped down into the room the stone had revealed.

A moment later she appeared to explode like a small firework over the heads of the goblins that waited below. She burst her light cantrip in every direction like she had in the clearing she'd planted her radishes in, and activated her strongest dazzle. At the same time MatchlessMinion dropped through the stone trapdoor and silently shot the goblins that had turned to stare at her with his darts. Aishin dropped beside him, and lowered the stone back into place gently, since he was taller than the occupants the room had been designed to house. Small blades began to hit their targets a second later.

As though they'd worked together a thousand times the three of them took out a full dozen goblins in everything from heavy armor to the robes of mages in under a minute in almost complete silence. Overhead the stone goblin apparently finished its forced descent and voices broke into muffled arguments.

Aishin slit the throats of all of the fallen goblins, and replied quietly to the shocked expressions MatchlessMinion and ZipZing wore, "Just making sure."

After a moment Danika nodded, and asked quietly, "Time to bring out Sea Song Tione again?"

"I still don't see anything that looks like a staff," MatchlessMinion agreed in a whisper, "so yeah."

Aishin set down the stone, entered, and brought out the dolphin again. The noises overhead faded as Sea Song Tione whispered cautiously, "It's still below."

MatchlessMinion popped into the stone and returned with Shrubbery and the whole party searched for another hidden entrance. Aishin shook his head a few minutes later and said softly, "I can't sense anything alive below us, and we're not finding anything."

Danika asked doubtfully, "Is this where we cannot go farther? Should I call the Dragon?"

MatchlessMinion shook his head and said softly, "Let's try prying the floor up like we did that stump?"

Danika pointed out, "We don't have the kind of strength Terri's attack used to lift these stones like that?"

Shrubbery whispered, "If you can find or make a gap, I can make seeds grow underneath, if there's soil below."

Danika dropped to the cobbled floor and used her featherweight spell and her dragon strength to pry one of the smaller cobbles up enough for Shrubbery to stuff a seed beneath it with her long thin fingers.

Shrubbery's growth spell was more advanced than Danika's and she had another spell or skill that let her control how the plant grew. A few moments later cobblestones across the room began to heave themselves out of the ground as the roots of a wizened tree buckled and coiled beneath them.

"There!" Aishin exclaimed quietly. The spot where he was pointing was sinking as the stones around it were pushed up and away, and a moment later that section of cobblestones fell into the darkness below as a solid piece and landed with a muffled thump that sent earthy dust billowing back out of the hole.

Danika pushed an energy potion into Shrubbery's hands and finished the piece of candy she'd been chewing, before zipping over and sending her light cantrip spinning into the darkness. Massive ice covered wooden pillars supported the tower, with dozens of thin round staff sized beams interlocking across the spaces between them.

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"Dolphin," MatchlessMinion stated after the light vanished.

Danika zipped over and cast featherweight on Sea Song Tione, who bounced with excitement. Aishin used the blanket to drag him to the edge, and then dropped through first. He looked up and said doubtfully, "Even if we get him down here, there's not enough space to get him through to the ones around the outer edge."

Danika said practically, "We can just break enough of them to get him through."

Aishin jumped up and grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled the dolphin down into his arms. Sea Song Tione announced despondently a moment later, "It's no good, I don't think I'll be able to tell even if I'm touching it. It feels like it's everywhere."

Danika suggested, "What about Shrubbery? Maybe she can tell which one isn't really wood?"

Sea Song Tione returned to the stone room and Aishin jumped up and pulled himself back out of the darkness. A moment later he held Shrubbery's hands and lowered her gently into the space he'd stood.

Shrubbery shivered and complained, "It's too dark. I can't do anything."

"SaltySiamese's stone," Danika turned to MatchlessMinion and prompted.

MatchlessMinion blinked and replied, "Oh, yeah!" He pulled it out of his inventory and activated it, before dropping it down to Shrubbery. The little stone blazed like a small fragment of sunshine compared to the small glowing stones embedded in the floor above them.

Shrubbery carefully touched each of the staff sized beams that she could reach, and then shook her head. But instead of having them pull her out and break one, she whispered quietly to one of the staves and it humped itself upward into a curve. Shrubbery wiggled through the gap and tested the next set.

By the time Shrubbery started in on the last corner, they were all beginning to lose hope. Danika asked dolefully, "What if they embedded it inside of one of the main support beams?"

Shrubbery looked up at them, and her eyes sparkled. "I'll ask them!" She announced. "They are dying, but they were cut so recently that none of them are completely dead yet!"

She ignored the last few staves and laid her hands against the ice of the nearest enormous wooden pillar. She shook her head a moment later and moved to the next. She looked up and nodded. "That was it! This one is barely alive and complains that ice is embedded in its heart."

Danika zipped down and handed Shrubbery her last energy potion. "Is there anything else we can do to help?" she asked.

Shrubbery gulped down the potion and then asked, "Do we have any more light? Light and warmth would help I think."

Aishin began stripping the bodies of the goblins they'd killed and tossing the fabric down. "What are you doing?" MatchlessMinion asked.

"Do you have anything that will burn?" Aishin asked in return.

"Oh," MatchlessMinion replied, and a sly grin spread across his face as he answered, "I do. I have oils and waxes." He began pulling things out of his inventory, and passing them down to Shrubbery and ZipZing.

Danika said sadly, "Too bad I bought candy instead of cheese, I've heard cheese burns."

Aishin asked curiously, "Why candy? Can you really taste it through VR?"

Danika replied, "Yeah, or at least, kind of? I'm not sure if I can actually taste it or if I'm just smelling it and think I'm tasting it. Sweet things are the most flavorful that I've tried so far."

Shrubbery commented enviously, "Now I wish I had full VR, I'd love being able to eat sweets without having to wear the calories."

"Me too," Aishin agreed laughingly.

There was a noise overhead and they all froze. It wasn't repeated, and after a minute, Danika whispered, "Is this everything? Should I light it now?"

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