Page 110 of The City Of Fractured Memory

“Well that’s just fantastic,” he mumbles, rolling his eyes. “Oh well, no time like the present.”

And without another word, he marches off confidently into the gloom, leaving me to run after him, once again questioning his sanity.

Okay, maybe mine too.

The tunnel exhales cold air as we walk briskly along, the echoes of our footsteps swallowed immediately by the dark. It’s been at least an hour already, and I’m seriously regretting the decision to come down here.

The ceiling slopes downward into a narrowing corridor of carved stone. We reach a junction and I brighten the gentle light in my palm with a thin thread of my magic, just like Riven taught me, the faint blue glow revealing a maze of intersecting hallways splitting off in every direction.

Riven lets out a low, unhappy sound. “Oh, perfect. A subterranean nightmare. My favourite.”

“It can’t be that bad, surely?” I whisper.

We turn left.

It is that bad.

The tunnels twist and loop back into one another like the innards of some colossal beast. Our footsteps start to sound unfamiliar, as though new echoes have replaced our own. The air grows thicker, colder. I try to hide my rising dread, but the oppressive dark presses against us.

As time slowly marches on, my mind starts to unravel. My Shadow follows at every turn, whispering terrible things repeatedly. I start to picture in awful, vivid detail all of the various scenarios that could befall us, the horrific things that could be happening to Stryx if we don’t make it in time.

At the fifth dead end, Riven stops abruptly.

“This isn’t right,” he says, panic leaching into his voice. “We’ve been here before.”

“No, we haven’t,” I insist, though my heart hammers too fast. Then I see it—my own footprint, smudged and half-washed by moisture. Next to it…bones.

Panic claws up my throat. “Oh Gods. We’re going in circles. What if we get lost and we can’t find her–”

Riven grabs my shoulders, jaw tightening. “Stay calm, we will find her.” His tone is determined, but I don’t miss the fear in his eyes. “They’re designed to disorient intruders. These aren’t just tunnels, they’re wards. Spatial loops. There must be a way of navigating them, otherwise they would be entirely useless.”

I nod, trying my best to slow my heart, but it thunders on regardless. The set of Riven’s shoulders is too stiff as he walks on ahead of me, like he’s trying really hard to look calm for my sake.

It’s not helping.

We try another pathway. Another. The walls start feeling closer. The air thinner. All the while, my Shadow whispers relentlessly to me, giving voice to my anxieties. My light flickers each time my hands shake, and my thoughts start to spiral again.

“Riven, what if we–”

“Don’t.” His voice snaps sharper than intended. “We are not dying down here. And neither is she.”

It doesn’t escape me that he’s failing to hide his panic now.

I swallow hard, my mind spinning with every wrong turn, every dead end. “We’ve been down here for hours–”

“I know!” he shouts, his voice echoing loudly off the stone walls, the feedback ringing in my ears. He instantly takes a step back with his head hung, biting his lip as he avoids my gaze.

I grab him, my anxiety and anger battling it out, only to feel him sway slightly, eyes once again unfocused, breath hitching.

Something inside me goes cold.

“Riven.” I cup a hand on his cheek, studying his face. He won’t look at me. His hands tremble. “Riven, what are you not telling me?”

“Nothing,” he says too quickly. “We just need to keep moving.”

“Don’t lie to me.” My voice cracks like a whip in the dark. “You’ve been slowly falling apart whilst we’ve been down here. Tell me what’s wrong.”

He flinches, jaw tightening, like he’s trying to physically hold himself together through sheer force. But another shudder ripples through him, and I see the truth he’s been concealing, barely holding on.