“Are you sure?” Lindon asked.
Orthos felt the feelings through their bond and let out a heavy breath. “How else am I going to help?”
A little irritation slipped into Lindon’s relief. Not at Orthos; at himself.
Hadn’t he just said that he wanted to use his power to keep everyone together? And now here he was at the first opportunity, letting someone go.
“Next time, we won’t have to leave you behind,” Lindon promised. “We’ll catch you up to us, no matter what we have to do.”
“This is nice,” Mercy whispered to Yerin.
“Quiet!” Eithan shouted. “They’re having a moment!”
Orthos ignored them, and Lindon felt his fondness in his spirit. “There’s no need. I’m content just being along for the adventure.”
Lindon’s feelings firmed. “I’m not.”
Without further discussion, Orthos’ power began flowing into Lindon. His Blackflame core was already full, so this burning power filled his channels directly. Even wisps of soulfire entered Lindon, though what Orthos contained as an Underlord was much less potent than what Lindon himself had access to.
With the power flowing through his veins, Lindon had no choice but to vent it somewhere. He directed his fury downward, and he guided Orthos’ power with the focus of a Sage and the authority of the Void Icon.
“You should move,” Lindon said to nobody in particular. There was a shuffling of feet and a groan from Eithan, but then Lindon had a bare stretch of floor to work with.
He sent a liquid bar of Blackflame down into the stone.
It still wasn’t easy, even with the support of his authority. The Void Icon was great at removing things, and when the Path of Black Flame melted through stone, there was very little left to melt or burn away into the air. So the small room wasn’t filled with the sorts of toxic smoke that would have asphyxiated everyone.
But the resistance on the stone was powerful. Lindon had blazed through all the power Orthos could spare before the turtle released their bond, panting hard.
“I’m sorry,” Orthos rumbled from on top of Lindon’s head. The hole in the floor was three feet deep now, and wide enough that the others had been forced to back up again.
“No need,” Lindon responded. He used his own power this time, and a flame of his own soulfire. “Just a little more.”
Sure enough, the next room was only a few more inches down.
They broke through into a hallway that could have belonged anywhere in the labyrinth. Lindon extended his perception through the hole and felt everyone else doing the same…except Ziel, who dropped down without any fanfare.
He called back up: “Good work, Orthos. We’ll see you back on the surface.”
“Don’t throw your life away, boy,” Orthos called back. Then he leaped off Lindon’s head, landing on the ledge by the transfer circle.
Eithan tapped his forehead. “Good-bye, Orthos. I’ll punch the Monarch an extra time in your name.”
“And someone bite Dross,” Orthos added. Yerin pushed forward to rap her knuckles on his shell.
“Luck,” she said.
Little Blue gave a determined whistle, and Lindon realized she had been listening quietly the entire time. She hopped over to Orthos and stood by him with hands on her hips.
She chimed out her resolve to protect Orthos, and looked at Lindon as though expecting to see him object. He only felt relief. Together, they could protect one another.
“Be safe,” Lindon said. Then he powered the circle, and the two vanished.
“That’s for the best,” Mercy said quietly, and Lindon agreed. But he wasn’t satisfied.
The rest followed Ziel down the hole after a moment, and Lindon noticed that something was wrong.
He hadn’t felt any fury from Subject One when they’d broken through the wall. If it had tried to trap them and failed, it should have sensed as much and been furious. But he didn’t feel anyone’s frustration transmitted through the stone.
That meant they were still in the trap.
Sure enough, he sent his perception down the hallway one direction and detected another of those rooms that was absolutely filled with deadly launcher constructs.
And down the other direction? The same.
Lindon tapped into Blackflame again and looked beneath them. “Does anyone else have any better suggestions?”
“Yes,” Eithan said. “Use the hand. We can still follow the labyrinth when it makes sense.”
Lindon wanted to argue, but he could see the sense, and they didn’t have much time to argue. He withdrew the twisted white hand from its case and exposed it to the aura in the air. It immediately clawed to their right.