Back. Sorry, I died.
Fooruman seemed deeply insulted by my remark three minutes earlier. Despite his apparent uselessness, the wizard had helped us in many an occasion and I felt he deserved my respect. Or at least it was better to have him on my side.
"Fooruman, I'm sorry I..." I tried really hard to remember what I did, "said we werent friends or something."
Tears welled up in the archmages eyes as he stood up and hugged me. "By the Ultimate Foo, you ARE the chosen one!" I pried the old man off of me and pushed him back into his canoe. "Ms. Shuriken, I would have preformed the Quantum Squaredance," he explained, "but something here opresses my arcane powers. Well, not all of them, just that one. We may, in fact, be dealing with yet another teleportation ward."
"You used megawarp last time we encountered a teleportation ward," I pointed out.
"That's different. MW is a HAX program."
"Er... right." I remembered something else I had to do. "Leetzan," I addressed the now almost fully healed serpent girl, "I'm sorry I got you impaled. But, really, it was your fault for standing in the doorway." Something about this apology left me feeling that it was poorly executed. "I'm still sorry, though," I added.
She at least seemed amused. "5'ok4y. Just make sure you put F0oruman in the doorway next time."
Or Araches, I thought as the sorceress came to harass me more. "So, our leader has a plan now?"
"Yes. We leave and go south." I helped Leetzan up and lead the party back through the hallway to the campsite.
Nothing here seemed different than last time. However, I briefly saw something out of the corner of my eye; a pale shadow, as though seen through the ice. I snapped around to get a better look, but it was gone.
"Everything okay?" Faw asked, worried.
"Yeah. Let's keep going south."
"How do you know it's south, anyway? We're underground, and all the Compass Roses exploded."
"... Magic." I loved the fact this was a valid excuse. "Anyway, southward." I didn't want to bring up the shadow and cause a panic.
Soon, after going through another hallway, we reached yet another room with a glowing floor and rounded ceiling. Another small crystal pyramid stood in the middle, ominous and important looking. Rolled to the side of the room was a baseball sized crystalline sphere. It greatly resembled the gem I was carrying, only perfectly smooth and rounded. A single, incredibly thin, rectangular sliver of crystal was leaned against the ball. It was almost invisible and looked as though a single touch would shatter it.
"Let's pick the pyramid up and see if anything bad happens again," Uberbob proposed.
Faw raised an eyebrow. "Let's not," he said, "Both Archmage Fooruman and I no longer have any healing spells readied. It could take a while to regain the energy.
The Mythslayer drew his cutlass and struck a dramatic pose. "We can't afford to take any more risks; we should leave at once. An unholy presence draws near." Leetzan (big surprise) nodded with agreement.
"I have an idea, but you'll have to beg," Araches taunted. I scowled back at her.
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