The mysterious poultice presented a terrible dilemma. Was it medicine, or a more subtle form of poison?
"Their biology could be completely different from ours," Chloe argued, her voice a low, worried hum. "This could be toxic."
"Look at us, Chloe," Ethan countered, gesturing to their depleted med-kit and Maya's feverish, unconscious form. "Our options are to trust a potential poison, or to accept the certainty of a fatal infection. They haven't killed us yet. I think… this is still part of the test."
With a grim sense of finality, they made their choice. They gently cleaned Maya's wound and applied the strange, cool poultice. The effect was immediate and shocking. The angry redness of the skin subsided, and within an hour, Maya's fever began to break. The Watchers' medicine was beyond anything they had on the surface.
This miracle, however, only solidified their terrifying reality. They were utterly at the mercy of their captors. And going back was no longer an option. Maya could never climb the thousands of steps of the Wraith's Staircase.
"There's only one way to go," Ethan said, his gaze turning toward the dark, unexplored side of the vast cavern. "Forward. Deeper into their world."
Survival kicked in, a raw and powerful instinct. Ethan took the boar he had killed, butchering it with his knife and ice axe. He rendered its fat in a spare canteen over a small, controlled fire. While Chloe tended to Maya, he worked tirelessly, creating makeshift torches from scavenged branches and strips of cloth soaked in the grease—a grim, practical use for the creature that had crippled them.
Next, they built a travois, a crude stretcher made from their remaining trekking poles and a cut-up sleeping bag, designed to drag Maya behind them.
After two "days" of rest and preparation, with Maya conscious but weak, they began their exodus. They left the luminous city behind, a ghost town that had been both shelter and prison. They journeyed across the cavern floor, dragging Maya, the single flame of Ethan's torch casting dancing, monstrous shadows around them.
The path led them downward, into a part of the cavern where the glowing fungi grew sparse. At the far end, they found what they were looking for: another entrance. It wasn't a staircase, but a massive, sloping tunnel, descending into a darkness more profound than any they had yet encountered. The Second Descent.
As they stood at the precipice, exhausted and filled with dread, the crystal Ethan had taken from the dwelling began to pulse in his pack. He pulled it out. It glowed with a new intensity, its internal light shifting. He held it up to the tunnel entrance.
In the crystal's light, the stone wall of the tunnel shimmered. Faint lines of light appeared on the rock, coalescing into a map. It showed the tunnel branching, twisting, and leading to a vast, central chamber deep within the earth.
The crystal wasn't just a token. It was a key. A guide.
They looked at each other. The Watchers had given them medicine to heal their wounded, and now a map to guide their way. But it was a map that led directly into the heart of their captors' domain. It was a forced invitation, a summons they had no power to refuse. With a shared, grim nod, Ethan took the lead, and they dragged Maya into the waiting darkness.