Chapter Seventy - We find a way through the array by accident

They chose to return to the surface, suffering rumbling stomachs after so long in the depths of the ruins.  This meal was another barbecue, this time of bird meat.  The intention was there to boil the bones and remnant meat for a breakfast soup, only it happened that the fowl were more feathers than flesh and the bones were delicate and hollow, not wise for stewing in water overlong.  So Leon picked wild vegetables and found roots.  It was not as tasty, but it was enough to soak their dry rations in and fill their stomachs.

They took shelter for the night in the shallower slope of the tunnel, staying out of the wind and any potential rain that might fall, before breaking their fast and continuing on with their trials.

As was the case yesterday, the tunnel seemed to continue on endlessly into the dim darkness beyond the light of their mage globes and the steps shallow beneath their feet, but never stopping in descent. They inched their way forward, Roman scanning over the walls for each and any clue on how to escape the array holding their progress at bay. It was monotonous, tedious and they had lapsed into silence sometime ago, having nothing more to say.

Leon couldn't help but try to muffle an overwhelming yawn, but it still escaped from his lips, his eyes fluttering shut as it did so. Caelus side glanced at him briefly with an inward sneer.

"Anything, Roman?" Pike asked, pausing as he did so. The gangly youth, who just sighed and shook his head, thinking of how to respond.

"The walls look... are all natural," he mentioned. "Just carved out of the rock underground. I can't find any hidden switches, no places to push, or exits that allude the eye. Nothing."

They couldn't help but scratch their heads in frustration. Whoever created the array did so cleverly, for there was no obvious exit to breach. To pace slowly from the marker they placed until finding that same marker appear before them once more thanks to the array's loop had taken them about a shichen, thanks in part to Roman's meticulous examinations. And yet, they might as well consider themselves right back at the beginning.

"Wait, where's Leon?" Velana asked suddenly. They all glanced around.

Caelus frowned. "He was just here a moment ago," he informed them, not adding that he was yawning with no discretion, like a broad mouthed fish.

"Velana," Pike turned to her and she nodded, understanding what he wanted without need for instruction and she and the tri-coloured fox rushed back up the tunnel steps quickly.

"Leon's not the sort to rush off on his own," Troy voiced an opinion, which Pike agreed with and Roman couldn't help but add conjecture.

"You don't think... he managed to slip through the array?"

Caelus sneered once more, this time visibly. "How is that possible? I was right next to him. I would have noticed if he did something to break through the array!"

Velana returned as swiftly as she had left. "He is not on the surface," she advised them, shortly. Volune had not found his scent either or at least, nothing fresher than what was left mingling amongst the rest of the team's during the last time they ventured above ground.

"Probably wandered ahead," Caelus believed. The youth had his eyes shut a bit when he was yawning after all. Probably hadn't noticed them stop.

Pike thought about this for a moment, the frown still marring his forehead, but in the end he nodded. Leon was sensible, he would double back when he realised that they hadn't kept up with him. "Velana, would you mind?"

The woman nodded again, agreeing to wait at the point where the steps became steep, where the reach of the array did not seem to extend. If Leon reversed his steps, he would likely end up back at this point. Once the others had breached the array, they would come back for them.

The beast-tamer and beast pair left the team to continue searching onward, this time Roman took particular note of the steps.

Caelus stretched his body, his feet aching slightly as he'd reduced the amount of spirit he'd poured into his steps. To enter the mage school, one had to have three of four attributes and all four if one wanted to enter the inner school. It was unfair, but things were just this way. Caelus was enrolled in the outer school; he only had three of the four attributes. He lacked the root specification, meaning that he did not only have a singular, primary root. He just happened to have a 'waste' root.

Saying it was a 'waste' root was the prejudice of ages past. Apart from holding him back from achieving a higher potential, he didn't actually mind it too much. It was known as a 'cloud' root and thought to derive from 'air'. Basically, it made him light-footed, shifting his body mass that it was not in anyway a burden. He could climb like the most agile cat or run swiftly like a deer. In these two categories, he would seldom lose out to Martial Artists, despite being a 'squishy' mage.

All this time, he'd also been using to ease the burden upon his feet, but it was draining to do this for long periods of time. This venture had seen him need pop blisters more than once. Fortunately, he'd packed a salve in anticipation of that. But now his feet were aching again and he couldn't help look at them, nor could he help wincing when he stepped on a new, painful formation on his heel. He quickly lifted his foot, standing instead on his toes, but in doing so he lost his balance for a moment. He facing a long tumbled, he covered his face with his arms as he wailed in panic.

"C-Caelus? Are you ok-k-k... alright?"

The mage lifted his round face from the shelter of his arms, his fall already broken, when the sudden realisation came; he'd fallen onto a flat surface. His face reddened, embarrassed to have lost his balance for his team mates to witness and he quickly leapt to his feet, hissing at the discomfort that brought in itself.

His eyes scanned over his teammates... teammate...? "Leon? Where did you come from? You vanished before..."

"Ah, I'm n-not sure," Leon admitted sheepishly. "I only c-c-closed by eyes for a few sec-conds and then I w-was here, alone."

Here still seemed to be part of the tunnel, but this time it was tiled floor to ceiling and there were recesses with mage globes, but not were shedding light. Those that were seemed very dim, their glow not extending far from their shells. Caelus looked back and could see the steps of the previous corridor shallowly rising upwards. It seemed that Roman's suggestion had been true; Leon somehow surpassed the confines of the array!

"What... why did you not head back?" Caelus was a bit embarrassed, thinking how quickly he'd previously dismissed this possibility before.

"I thought Roman h-had d-done something," Leon replied, "t-to b-break the array. So I w-waited for everyone."

Caelus shook his head, a slight smile curving his lips. A dimple formed in one of his full cheeks. "No, wasn't Roman." He glanced up at the ceiling for a moment, thinking about how it was possible that Leon and then himself broke through the array. "You yawned, I tripped, what does either have in common?"

"C-closed eyes?" Leon pointed out, tentatively, earning himself a sharp look from the mage. He wasn't nervous beneath the scrutiny, knowing it was just how Caelus was, but he did feel uncomfortable and shuffled between feet. "I sh-shut m-my eyes, yours were c-covered."

"We didn't look ahead to where we were going," Caelus added in realisation. He grinned, his eyes vanishing into slits and that dimple deepening. He slapped Leon heartily on the shoulder. "Good man! Now we just need to figure out how to tell the others."

They discussed it for a bit, they didn't know whether the rule to break through the array would change once they left it, but they had to take the chance or leave the others behind. It was decided that Caelus would head back; his feet would have the advantage of swiftness after all. He would rush and meet with Velana and the Fox, they would send the Fox to grab the others so they could all meet up and try this small method of breaking through the array. If Caelus did not return with the team in a shichen, consider the 'rule' a lost cause and head on alone. Better that one of them find the treasure than it continue to be out of reach.

"Just if you do, be careful," Caelus warned him. "There are often more than one trap set in places such as these." Leon nodded earnestly, but remained worried. He really wasn't brave enough to set out on his own. He really wished that Jin Li was beside him more than ever in that moment.