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throne of the dark king
chapter four

Written by Ted Spector

There was no way to make an informed decision on which path to take, as much as Bruno would have liked to find one. The discussion was uncertain yet brief, Cassian taking the first steps down the left path.

The path seemed wider than the other from what little could be seen at the crossroads. They walked in a single line formation; Cassian in front, with Adair right behind him, Florian peering over the criminal’s shoulder and Bruno faltering behind. Cautious. Investigating. The forest grew denser as they trekked through the leaves, the soil and the stones. It was a long walk. Bruno almost found his voice and asked if they should turn back to take the other path before Cassian’s curses of frustration startled him back into silence.

“You’re kidding me,” Cassian grunted, running a hand over his face, lower lids tugged momentarily before it fell back to his side.

“What?” Adair sighed, moving beside him. Florian and Bruno shuffled to peer around the nearest member of the group.

Before them, blocking their path forward was what appeared to be a dead end. A wall of dense, unmoving vines, an overgrown wall if Bruno were to guess. There wasn’t any convenient way to move around it, nor would it let them through so easily. Adair stepped up to it, placed his hands against the vines, and pushed, a soft grunt of exertion leaving him.

“Whenever you three are ready,” he said, turning his head over his shoulder to look at the group.

The others exchanged a look. Florian chuckled and nodded in concession, wandering over to aid in the criminals' efforts to make the earthly wall yield.

“You think it will be that easy?” Cassian piped up, not receiving so much as a glance as Adair resorted to throwing a punch at the vines and inhaling sharply through his teeth when a solid crack sounded from his hand. Turning away and rubbing his reddening knuckles, he watched Bruno feeling along vines that ran horizontally, searching for an opening. Cassian wandered closer to the group and took Adair’s hand in his own, inspecting for any major outward damage. His relief at finding none was cut short when Florian yelped and jumped back in surprise.

The group watched as small openings form within the vines, revealing three different objects tangled within. Presented to them was a mace, a pan, and an unfamiliar artifact, like some kind of thinner sword with advanced metalwork. It had jagged edges, like sharp teeth along the rounded blade. The group was silent for a moment, confused mostly, but then Cassian broke it with a chuckle of delight and intrigue at once.

“Now we’re talking,” he exclaimed, extending his hand towards the nearest item before Bruno seized his wrist in a surprisingly firm grasp.

“Hold on.” Bruno murmured, eyes darting between the three presented items with caution. “We should think about this.”

“What’s there to think about?” the rogue huffed in irritation through his nose, yanking his hand once and then twice with more force to pull his wrist from Bruno’s grasp. “Clearly we use these to break through. Smash through it with the pan and the mace, saw through it with the jagged sword.”

“I don’t think we can take all three,” Bruno corrected, watching the way the vines seemed to pulse and squirm around the weaponry.

“So we have to choose one,” Adair murmured.

Florian tilted their head. Bruno nodded and turned his attention back to the rest of the group.

“Which one do we think will be most helpful going forward?” he said.

Art by Sage / HerbalSpecialTea