Sylas Thorne walked the circumference of the room containing the stairs which led to the surface and out of the Labyrinth. It wasn't a terribly large area, all things considered, and it only had three tunnels leading out into the greater labyrinth. Sylas had made the small circuit for as long as Theo and Iroha had been gone, while Rosamund and Mason had sat as close to the stairs as humanly possible, leaning against one another and watching him.
Sylas couldn't tell if they were mad at him like Iroha had been. Like Theo must have been. He set his eyes forward and kept pacing. Sylas couldn't think about that right now. He had to keep a perimeter, and needed to keep his ears open on the chance heard Theo or Iroha calling out for help. Sylas was the person who'd gotten them all trapped down in the labyrinth, and it was his duty to keep them safe. But more than that—
"It is the duty of the strong to protect the weak," his grandmother's voice echoed in the back of Sylas's mind.
Sylas gritted his teeth. He'd been pacing for the better part of half an hour, and there wasn't any clear sign of Theo or Iroha. He couldn't exactly run off and look for them himself, or he'd leave Mason and Rosamund alone and that was essentially the same as leaving a nice plate of beef wellington out in the middle of the woods and expecting it to still be there unmolested after a good few days in the middle of spring.
That really left him with only one option.
Sylas completed his final circuit of the room, then broke off to walk over to Mason and Rosamund. Rosamund raised her head from Mason's shoulder to watch Sylas's approach.
"Is everything alright?" she asked.
Sylas sucked in a breath through his teeth, and his chest tightened a bit in anxiety.
"I don't think there's anything nearby," he said. "But I am a bit worried about Theo and Iroha. They've been gone a long while now."
"They are probably both dead," Rosamund said, and returned to resting her head on Mason's shoulder, who turned to gawk at her.
"Rosie!"
"You both know I'm right," Rosamund said. "Neither one of them had any chance of survival from the moment they went marching off into the great unknown down here."
Sylas felt something hot and acidic boil up inside him. Narratives snarling and snagging at each other with hot claws of similarity and a desire to be singular. Sylas closed his eyes and counted backwards from ten, trying to calm them down a bit before speaking again.
"They could both still be alive," Sylas said. "That's actually what I want to talk about. I think we need to go after them."
Both Rosamund and Mason stared at Sylas, and he suddenly felt much less sure of himself. Anxiety and doubt swirled around in his brain like a twister.
"Go after them?" Rosamund repeated. "Go after them? Sylas, have you completely taken leave of your senses?"
Sylas couldn't meet her eyes.
"Is it really such a bad idea, though?" Mason asked, and Sylas felt incredibly grateful to him. "Theo and Iroha are our friends and—"
"They're our friends?" Rosamund interrupted. "You want us to dive deeper into this death pit because we like the two of them?"
Mason blinked. "Y-yes?" he said, uncertainty etched the word thoroughly.
Rosamund gave Mason the look one might give to a child. Fond, indulgent, and more than a little condescending. "Mason," Rosamund said. "We're not all meant to survive our education here at Angitia. It's the empire's way. The weak shall be weeded out, so the strong shall prosper. It doesn't matter if we like certain people, because if they can't make it on their own, then they'll just drag us down with them."
Sylas flinched at the words and couldn't look at Rosamund or Mason. He didn't want to see Mason nod his agreement. He didn't want to feel himself agreeing to it; admitting it was probably for the best if they all accepted that Iroha and Theo were probably already dead and there wouldn't be any point in going after them and getting killed as well. Eaten alive by the abominations lurking deeper in the labyrinth or encountering otherworldly entities looking for their latest battle.
Battle… a fight…
Sylas's channels sung in anticipation.
"Besides," Rosamund was still talking. Sylas hadn't noticed. "It's not like we could even find the two of them, even if we looked. The labyrinth is massive."
"I think I might actually know a spell for that?" Mason hesitantly said, but Rosamund kept on talking.
"And even if we knew where to find the two of them," Rosamund said. "How would we even expect to survive long enough to retrieve them? It's not like we could just fight our way there and back. Where would we even get the mana?"
An expedition such as that would surely take massive amounts of mana. Sylas knew that. An expedition like that would surely take buckets of mana and would require him to carve through hordes about hordes of different monsters.
The thought made his mouth water involuntarily, and he felt the twin Narratives in his channels bubbling up from their long slumber.
Seven arrows. Seven tears wept by the Eye of Ra.
I am a reflection of the sun. So long as it shines, I shall fight and fight and—
The seal his grandparents had cast on the Narratives shuddered, and Sylas pulled back the sleeve of his jacket to stare down at the brown skin of his forearm. He hesitated, for a moment pushing back the buzzing of mana and the offer of power trickling into his mind. It could be a mistake. A very, very big mistake.
But Sylas knew he wanted to save Theo.
And Iroha.
Sylas Thorne knew he was weak. Nervous. Uncertain even. And he knew how to make that all go away, if only for a little while.
Sylas bit his arm hard enough to taste the metallic tang of blood on his tongue.
His sword, a massive two-handed monster of a blade, formed itself in his hands. The sun, blood, and war all made into a flawless blade. There wasn't a conduit in the world better suited to Sylas, and he immediately used it to draw in mana.
Sylas turned, lips dripping with his own blood and a black sword in hand, to Rosamund and Mason. The two of them stared at him, utterly slack jawed. He could smell their surprise and taste the hints of their fear on his tongue.
Seven arrows. Seven tears wept by the Eye of Ra.
I am a reflection of the sun. So long as it shines, I shall fight and fight and—
"We are going after Theo and Iroha," Sylas informed them. "Now. Do either of you know how to form a Circle or do I need to explain it?