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For a while, Percy laid completely still. It was absolutely pitch-black, so dark that it didn’t matter whether he had his eyes open or closed. He heard fighting somewhere above him, the sound of steel sinking in flesh or glancing off something hard, the grunts of effort and pain, Scanlan’s voice singing, though the words were impossible to make out. Vex, calling Vax’s name, panic in her voice. Silence. Absolute silence.
Percy waited a moment longer, but heard nothing. No fighting, no talking, not even the sounds of people moving corpses out of the way. Or even footsteps. It was worrying. Percy knew he hadn’t fallen that far, and the noise of the fight hadn’t sounded that distant either.
“Vex?” he called out, hoping that she might be up there and hear him.
No response.
“Vex!” he tried again. “Vax? Pike? Keyleth? Scanlan? Grog? Are you there? Do any of you idiots hear me?”
Seconds crawled past in still silence. Either none of them could hear him, or they were unable to reply. Shit.
He took a deep breath and tried to assess his situation. He was bruised all over from the fall, but not badly injured as far as he could tell. The worst were his right ankle and his left shoulder. He vaguely recalled something hitting his shoulder hard as he’d been pushed back, over whatever edge he’d fallen off of. The ankle he must have hurt in the landing.
He sat up, ears straining to hear any indication of someone else moving through the dark. He pulled out his pepperbox, running his fingers carefully over it. He felt the familiar engravings on five of the barrels, and the scratches and other marks of use across it too. As far as he could tell, nothing was dented, broken, out of place, stuck, or loose. Probably still better if he could avoid using the gun until he could check it properly. It exploding on his own face was the last thing he needed right now.
Light. He needed light. He hadn’t the faintest clue what kind of a space he was in. He had even less of an idea where he could - let alone where he should - go from here, but staying in place didn’t seem like a good idea. He needed to see where he was.
He started going through his pack for anything useful. He didn’t have torches, of course - Pike could just create light with magic, they didn’t usually need torches. Grog probably had some in the bag of holding, but Grog wasn’t here.
His hand met a bundle of arrow-shafts, most of them broken from the fall, tied to the side of his pack. Right. He’d been experimenting with making special arrows for Vex. Well, she’d have to wait for those a little longer. He also found a wet area on the side of his pack, near the side pocket where he kept his healing potions. Great. Just great.
He found his gun repair kit in the pack. Mostly intact, although the jar of tallow he used to protect the metal from rust had a crack running down the side. Oh, well. That was a problem for another time. At least tallow was fairly solid, so it would probably still stay there.
Hold on. Tallow. Didn’t people make candles and rushlights with this stuff? So theoretically, it should be at least kind of flammable.
He dug through the repair kit and found the rag he used for oiling the gun. It was probably pretty saturated with tallow already, but just to be sure, he took some more from the jar and smeared it on the rag as best he could. He took the broken arrow-shafts, tied them together with pieces of string at a few places along their length, and tied the rag on one end.
He shouldered his pack again and took his flint and steel from his pocket. It took a minute of blind fumbling, during which time he managed to hit his own fingers several times more than he hit the flint, before he managed to make a spark. It took almost two minutes more before he managed to make a spark that not only landed on the makeshift torch but actually actually caught fire, but finally he did succeed.
The torchlight was dim, and Percy was convinced the thing produced twice as much smoke as it did light, but it was more light than he’d had before. Enough for him to gather an idea of where he was.
It was a small cavern, no more than maybe ten feet across in any direction, but the ceiling was high, disappearing into the darkness beyond the torchlight’s reach. The walls seem to be made of natural stone. Two tunnels led into more darkness in different directions. Neither had any distinguishing features, and Percy couldn’t feel any kind of air flow from either.
He stood up, careful not to drop the torch, and winced as pain lanced up from his injured ankle. He shifted his weight carefully, testing how much the ankle could take. It hurt like all hell, but he could put some weight on it. Enough to walk, at least. It was probably sprained, though.
His shoulder was really hurting, too. The pressure the pack put on it was almost unbearable. But there was nothing to be done about it, so he gritted his teeth, picked one tunnel at random, and started limping down it.
The tunnel wound on for what seemed like an eternity curving like a snake through the rock, seemingly without any rhyme or reason. After a while, Percy noticed that it was going very slightly downwards. Not much, but it was definitely heading deeper. That was not exactly desirable, and he considered turning back and trying the other tunnel. But it would be a long way back, now, and he had no certainty that it would be heading upwards, either, so he pressed on.
His torch burned lower and lower. The tunnel was still going on. Percy kept walking, because there was nothing else he could do, but there was a growing worry in the back of his mind. These tunnels could well go on forever, and there might be many of them. He had no idea what had happened to anyone else in the group, but the fact that none of them had answered his calls didn’t feel like a good sign. Even if they were alive and well, he might never find them. You could probably starve to death down here. What even had happened to him? And what had happened to everyone else?
He grabbed the strap of his pack to adjust it and lift the weight even for a moment off his hurting shoulder. He felt something warm and wet against his hand and glanced down at his shoulder. There was blood all over the left side of his coat. His hand was slick with it, as was the shoulder strap of his pack. He stared at it numbly for a moment. At least it explained why his shoulder hurt so much.
He continued down the tunnel once more. After a while, the bundle of arrow-shafts he’d used as a torch got short enough that the heat burned his hand. He dropped it, cursing. It went out. He cursed some more. He walked blindly on down the tunnel, one hand tracing the wall. The pain left him hardly able to think or concentrate.
Suddenly the wall disappeared from under his hand as he stepped into a cave. He found it again, and began slowly following it around the cave. There were three more tunnels to the cave, aside from the one he had come through. He had no idea which one to choose. The pain was wearing him down, he just wanted to get off his feet and sit down and rest. The worry he’d been feeling the whole time was now solidifying into panicked conviction that this was it. He was going to die here. Alone in the dark, without ever getting his vengeance, the last of the de Rolos. A bitter end to a bitter tale.
He closed his eyes and sank to the ground, leaning his back against the cold stone wall. He thought about his family, recalled their names and faces from the depths of his memory. Recalled the smell of his mother’s perfume, the sound of his father’s laugh. The color and cut of Julius’ favorite jacket, the way Vesper’s fingers were always stained with ink from paperwork or writing. The exact way Cassandra would wrap her hands around a cup of tea. The weapon rack in Whitney’s room that had first held simple toys, then, in the last few months before… everything, an actual practice sword. Oliver’s drawings. The ever-curious Ludwig peeking over his shoulder as he took apart and put back together simple pieces of clockwork, trying to figure out how they worked. The smell of books in the castle library. The light green of new leaves on the Sun Tree in spring. The way some of the stairs in the castle had been worn down from centuries of people stepping in the same places over and over again.
“Percy!”
Startled, he opened his eyes and reached for his gun. Then his brain caught up with him and reminded him that he knew the voice.
“Vax? Are you there?” He was surprised at how weak and strained his own voice sounded. “Do you have any kind of light? I can’t see shit.”
He heard faint rustling and the sound of metal sliding against leather. The room lit up, blinding bright after the complete darkness. Percy’s eyes were still adjusting to the light when he heard Vax speak again.
“You look like shit”, he stated.
“I feel like shit”, Percy said. “Have you seen anyone else?”
“Not since the fight.” Vax knelt down by him and started pulling his clothes away from the wound. “Holy shit. That’s a lot of blood. You have any healing potions?”
“I had two. Both vials broke when I fell. You wouldn’t happen to have any?”
“I’m all out. Sorry.”
Vax pressed his flame-tongue dagger — the source of the light, Percy realized — into Percy’s hand. He started rummaging through his pack, looking for something.
“Let’s see what I can do without potions”, he muttered, pulling out a roll of gauze.
Percy watched Vax quietly as the half-elf bandaged his shoulder. His fingers moved with speed and certainty that only experience brought. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, really; Percy knew well enough that the twins had spent a long time fending for themselves before joining forces with everyone else. Even so, with Pike there to heal them, Percy had never really thought about it before. He tried to imagine it now, Vex and Vax sitting by a campfire, tending to each other’s wounds. He wondered what their story was. Were they running from something? Or had they been cast out, rejected by their own? Seeking the opportunity for some kind of vengeance, like he was? Those weren’t questions that could be asked, of course. The unspoken rule to not pry, not ask for more details than were willingly given, was there for a reason.
“What happened up there?” he asked instead. “I didn’t really have time to… all I know was Pike’s Light went out and then something hit me and I lost my balance and fell. I could have sworn there were solid walls around us before it got dark.”
“Must have been an illusion we somehow missed”, Vax said. “I see okay in the dark, but nowhere near as good as in light, and not when it gets dark without warning. It was all pretty quick, but some sort of creatures attacked us. We fought them, I killed one, wounded another, but then I tried to dodge one of them attacking me and I went straight through where the wall should have been. And over the edge.” He finished bandaging the wound. “There. Any other injuries I should know about?”
Percy shook his head. “Nothing you can help with right now. I think I sprained my ankle when I fell, but it’s not bad. I can still walk.”
Vax nodded. He opened Percy’s pack and took out his waterskin and a pack of rations. He handed them to Percy and took back his dagger.
Percy didn’t feel that hungry, but in these circumstances he also didn’t want to start an argument with Vax. He nibbled obediently at some dried meat. Vax ate too, so for a while they sat in silence.
When Percy had finished eating, he pulled out his gun. He might as well check it for damage now. The visual inspection confirmed what he’d already found out by feel. No damage, aside from perhaps a few more small scratches.
“Which direction did you come from?” Vax asked.
Percy pointed out the tunnel he thought was the one.
“And what was there?”
It occurred to Percy that Vax was probably asking it to delay the moment when they’d have to get up and leave. Stalling, finding excuses to give Percy more time to rest. Percy wasn’t sure whether he was grateful or annoyed.
“Nothing much”, he said anyway. “The tunnel goes on pretty long, winding a bit, but it doesn’t split. It leads into the cave that I fell into. There’s another tunnel out of that cave, but I don’t know where it goes. And of course, if the walls of the pathway up there are an illusion like you think, one edge of the cave should have the ledge I fell off of.” He paused and thought for a moment. “It wasn’t that long a fall. You could probably climb back up to the path from there if you tried.”
“Probably. But you couldn’t”, Vax pointed out.
“Not in this shape”, Percy agreed.
Vax seemed to be debating whether to say something more or not when a distant roar echoed through the chamber. He shot up to his feet.
“That was Trinket”, Vax said. “And he didn’t sound happy.”
“If Trinket’s there, Vex is probably too”, Percy stated rather uselessly.
“We need to move”, Vax said, offering Percy a hand. Percy took it and let Vax pull him back to his feet. “I’m going to put the light out. Whatever’s there, the light might let it know we’re coming. Hold onto me, I’ll make sure you don’t trip or walk into anything.”
Vax didn’t give Percy any time to argue. The moment he willed it, the dagger’s light was gone, and Vax stuffed the blade back in its sheath. Percy had no choice but to keep his hand on Vax’s arm, limping through the pitch-black darkness as fast as he could.
Vax could hear Percy’s harsh breathing and the gasps of pain he didn’t quite manage to keep down. Even in the darkness, he could see pain etching lines on Percy’s face and sweat plastering his hair against his skin and darkening his collar. Percy was leaning heavily on his arm, requiring it as much for support as for guidance. If this had been about anyone else but Vex, Vax would probably have gone slower, allowed Percy to walk at a less torturous pace. Even now, Vax felt a pang of guilt at what he demanded from Percy. But he had to get to Vex, had to make sure she was alright. He couldn’t lose her, wouldn’t lose her. With her, he had everything he needed; nothing was impossible if they stuck together, but even as a beggar he’d be happy as long as Vex was there. Without her, what was the point of anything? Losing her would kill him just as surely and far more painfully than carving his own heart out of his chest.
And at the same time, he could not leave Percy behind, blind and wounded, easy pickings for any of the horrors that might haunt these tunnels. Keeping him close was the only way to even try to protect him.
All the while as they walked, Trinket’s roars sounded in the darkness, louder and louder as they got closer. Finally they came to a bend at the tunnel, and were close enough to hear the sound of claws… and the sound of something hitting Trinket’s armor. Vax stopped. He guided Percy to the wall, took his hand and put it against the stone.
“I’m going to leave you here, and I’ll go and take a look, yeah?” he whispered. “It’s going to light up as soon as I’m in.”
Percy nodded silently and shifted his weight away from Vax. Vax turned and rushed onwards, moving as quietly as he could.
The tunnel ended in another cave, much larger than the one he’d found Percy in. The ceiling was high, huge pillars of stone stood here and there, going all the way from the top of the cave to the floor. A small stream of water split the cave at the edge of Vax’s vision. And there, halfway between the stream and where Vax stood, was Trinket, teeth bared and growling, surrounded by four… creatures.
He had no idea what they were but they looked like oversized moles with extremely sharp teeth and huge claws and some sort of hard exoskeletons or shells instead of fur. Not that what they were mattered a lot at the moment. Mostly the question was, how could he kill them?
He rushed into the fray, lighting the flame tongue dagger as he ran. He threw it at the eye of one of the creatures, and it found its mark. The creature probably never knew what hit it.
The next two daggers glanced off the plates on the back of the creature, seemingly doing very little harm. Vax got to Trinket, and saw that the bear was doing quite well for itself. Aside from a few scratches across the nose, he didn’t seem to be really hurt. Vex, however, was nowhere to be seen. There weren’t even spent arrows scattered on the ground. She hadn’t been here.
One of the creatures hit him with its paw. The force of the blow sent him flying halfway across the cave, and the claws dug briefly in deep enough to draw blood.
He scrambled back to his feet, avoided one of the creatures, threw a dagger at one threatening Trinket, and danced away from the claws of yet another. His dagger hadn’t done much harm, but it had distracted the thing. The creature that had been fighting Trinket was currently on its back, pinned down by a thousand pounds of angry armored bear.
Vax slipped away from the two that were harrying him and headed for Trinket again. The creature’s stomach side was much less protected than its back. With Trinket holding it down, Vax had no trouble slicing its throat open.
Then a third one of the creatures was on them. Vax and Trinket took on it together, both of them seeking places to sink daggers or claws and teeth into. It wasn’t easy, but there were gaps in the creature’s exoskeleton, and with a few moments of struggling, Vax began to see them.
A gunshot rang out, echoing through the cave. Vax felled the third creature and whirled around, looking for the fourth. It was nowhere to be seen.
“Vax!” he heard Percy shout. “I could really use some help!”
Another gunshot. Vax ran back to the tunnel he’d come from. He more than half-expected to hear a third shot, but there was none. Instead the air was pierced by a scream of pain.
Vax acted on instinct and training. A dagger to the neck in the crack between the hard plates of the exoskeleton made it collapse where it stood. Then it was a matter of prying the creature’s jaws open and pulling Percy out of its teeth. Vax was halfway through frantically pulling out the few medical supplies he had before he first consciously took in the situation.
Percy’s breathing had turned into painful, ragged gasps. He lay on the ground where Vax had put him down, hands pressed in vain against the bloody, torn-up mess the monster had made of his side. He didn’t speak, but his eyes shone with surprising sharpness and clarity for someone as badly hurt as he was. Vax knew as he worked that even at best he was only buying Percy a little bit more time. He had a feeling that Percy knew it too.
“I thought I’d be fine. I would’ve been fine. The damn gun just had to jam right at the wrong moment”, Percy muttered between hisses of pain. He glanced at the gun lying on the ground near the monster’s corpse. “I can fix it easy enough, but it was already almost on me. I didn’t have time.”
“I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help”, Vax said. “I was hoping I could protect you, but…”
“I know”, Percy replied quietly. “Vex?”
“I didn’t see her. I don’t know where she is.”
Vax’s voice had an edge of barely controlled panic. He glanced over his shoulder at Trinket, who had followed him, apparently recognizing him as the person to follow since Vex wasn’t here. Vex would never have willingly abandoned Trinket like that, and neither would Trinket have willingly left her side. It was only for its love for Vex that it came to places like this anyway; deep underground caves were not, to Vax’s knowledge, the natural habitat of bears. So Trinket being on its own, without Vex…
Percy grabbed a hold of Vax’s clothes and hauled himself up into a sitting position. He was very pale now, and his breathing was still ragged, but he had managed to school his face into something resembling a look of calm determination.
“Vax. She can take care of herself. She’ll be fine. And you’ll find her.”
Vax sighed. “I hope so. We’ll need to find Pike, too. And everyone else.”
“We? Vax, you… might have to leave me here.” Percy’s face was tight with pain, but somehow he was still keeping his voice calm and neutral. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to walk anymore. I have my gun. I have bullets and black powder. If you can just leave me that dagger or anything for a little bit of light, I’ll manage. You should get going.”
“No. Fuck that. I know that my sister and I talk a lot about leaving, going off on our own, just the two of us again. But we haven’t done that. Percival, here and now we are a fucking team. I’m not leaving you. You can ride Trinket.”
“I’m pretty sure that bears aren’t meant to be ridden”, Percy said hesitantly.
“Me and Vex have both done it a couple of times. Trinket won’t mind. And if Vex minds, I’ll deal with her when we get to that.” Vax picked Percy up and lifted him onto Trinket’s back. “Just hold onto the edge of some plate and try not to leave your fingers between two moving pieces, because that fucking hurts.”
Percy gave in and slumped on Trinket’s back, trying to find somewhere in the armor to grab a hold of. Bears really were not creatures designed to be ridden, and Trinket’s armor didn’t make it any easier or more comfortable, but at this point he didn’t really mind. He’d been serious about his offer to stay behind, but that didn’t mean he had liked the idea. He didn’t particularly want to wait alone in some corner of a cave, wait either for Vax to find everyone and return, or wait for death from blood loss or being discovered by these… whatever they were. He would have done it, because he had at least a vague idea of what Vax was feeling. Because what right did he have to keep Vax from going to look for his sister like he so desperately wanted to?
But he was glad that he could stay with Vax, when he knew he wasn’t slowing them down too much. He was glad of Vax’s hand on his shoulder, steadying him and making sure he didn’t fall off from Trinket. He was glad that he wasn’t alone.
The pain was overwhelming now. It swallowed almost all physical sensations. He knew that he was lying on his stomach on Trinket’s armored back. He knew his fingers were wrapped around the edges of an armor plate near Trinket’s shoulders. He knew it, but he could not feel the moving plates under him or the cold metal in his hands. It was as if he was floating in a sea of pain and cold. Anything else was barely there at all, but only those two sensations. Pain. Cold. Gods, he was so cold. And so tired. Any moment now, he would slip under the surface of that sea. Under the surface, into oblivion and the Raven Queen’s grasp.
The tunnel system seemed endless, forking and opening into caves at random. Vax didn’t have the slightest clue what direction to choose when there were two ways to go. Whenever he came to a place where the tunnel branched, he spent a few moments calling out names in hopes that one of his friends would be there. No one had replied yet.
He was getting very worried about Percy. Of course Percy was pretty pale anyway, but now he was practically as white as his hair. Even in the warm light of the flame tongue dagger, there was an ashen tone to his skin that Vax didn’t like at all. His breathing was more like gasping now, as if he couldn’t get enough air, even though Vax was pretty sure there should have been nothing wrong with his lungs. He was shivering with cold. Eventually Vax took off his cloak and wrapped it around Percy’s shoulders. It didn’t seem to help much.
He needed to find Pike, and quickly. Percy wouldn’t last much longer without her help.
"Vax?" Percy said suddenly, as if he'd somehow sensed that Vax was thinking about him. His voice was weak, barely louder than a whisper.
"Here", Vax replied in a low voice.
"I don't want to die", Percy muttered. "Not here, not like this."
There was unconcealed fear and vulnerability in his voice that Vax had never heard there before. All the members of Vox Machina had their secrets and kept the depth of their feelings bound in tight shackles, but Percy, Vax had long suspected, was perhaps the best of them at it. Now the mask had cracked, and it felt like a blade struck into Vax's very soul to hear Percy speak with such open desperation.
He said nothing, only squeezed Percy's shoulder a little tighter. There was nothing else to say or do. He didn't have the heart to make empty promises, and he knew that at this point, Percy’s survival was more up to luck than anything he did or didn’t do.
It was only because he could still hear Percy's pained breathing that Vax even knew he still lived as they traveled on. Percy had gone unresponsive some time after that heartbreaking confession. The strength to hold on to Trinket was gone, and it was only thanks to Vax's hand on his shoulder and Trinket's careful step that he didn't fall off.
They came to a branch in the tunnel again. Vax stopped to inspect each branch a little bit before making his choice. There was no real difference that he could see between them.
"Pike! Vex! Kiki! Anyone, please, is anyone there?!" he called out again.
He heard, at last, someone calling out his name in response.
Percy woke up. It was dark, but he was surrounded by comfortable warmth. There was something heavy on top of him. Something made of wool, by the feel of the material against his hand. A blanket? No, he felt fur brush his cheek when he shifted. He opened his eyes and propped himself slightly up with one arm. It was Vax’s cloak, he discovered, that someone had covered him with.
They were no longer in the caves; the air was colder and filled with the scent of a forest, and he felt a slight breeze against his skin. The sky above was clear and dotted with stars, and Catha, half-full and growing, cast its light upon the forest. Brighter than its pale light, however, was the warm flickering light of a campfire somewhere nearby.
Percy realized he wasn’t wearing his glasses. He reached for his pocket, and found he wasn’t wearing his coat. He located his pack, left on the ground within an arm’s reach, pulled it closer, and opened it. His glasses, carefully wrapped in several layers of fabric, were the first thing his hand met when he reached in. He put them on.
He looked around, trying to move quietly so as to not disturb anyone. First he saw Grog’s huge form, sprawled on his bedroll nearby, and Pike’s platinum hair spilling out from under the arm he had curled protectively around her. Not far from them, a figure that by its small size had to be Scanlan, entirely hidden under his blanket. Keyleth, lying on her side, the firelight giving a brilliant glow to her copper hair. Near her, curled up against Trinket like it was the world’s biggest teddy bear, slept Vax. He’d pressed his face against Trinket’s side.
On Trinket’s other side sat Vex, her back turned to the fire. Keeping watch. Percy saw her hands moving in steady, repetitive motions.
He got up carefully, keeping Vax’s cloak on with one hand. It was only as he did so that it really hit him that he wasn’t in pain. His shoulder ached a little, but nothing like the hellish burning agony it had been. Same with his side; it hurt a bit when he moved a certain way, but it didn’t feel mauled and ripped open like it had been. His ankle was like that, as well. He could certainly feel that it had been injured, but it wasn’t the same sharp pain it had been when he last checked, and he wasn’t worried about whether it could take his weight when he walked.
He made his way over to Vex and sat down next to her. She glanced at him and flashed a brief smile before returning to scanning the surrounding forest. She was sewing something, the needle glinting red whenever it caught the firelight.
“You can go back to sleep, darling. I haven’t been up for long”, she said.
Percy shifted a little and took a proper look at her. There were a couple new scratches on her leather armor and a few bruises on her arm. Her face was adorned with a new cut, running from above her cheekbone down to her chin. It seemed shallow, probably only a scratch.
“Are you alright?” Percy asked. “Vax was worried about you.”
“I know. And I was worried about him”, Vex said softly. “But I’m fine. So’s Vax. And everyone else, too, more or less. You took the worst of it. Vax says you were barely hanging on by a thread when he found Pike. And you’ve been out for hours, even though she healed you.”
Percy nodded. “So what’s the situation?”
“The tomb’s cleared and secured. The tunnels around it not necessarily, but we blocked the entrances, so it should take those creatures a while to get back into the main tomb. We’ve done as much as the contract demands, so once we go back to report, we should have money to last us for the next few months”, Vex informed him.
“That’s good.”
“I would suggest you use some of your share for new clothes, dear”, Vex said cheerfully. “Looks like you still have a couple of spare shirts, but I’m afraid the waistcoat is beyond salvaging, and your coat—” She snapped the thread and tossed the bunch of fabric she’d had on her lap at Percy. “Well, I’ve done what I can, but it’s a mess. You’re never going to get all that blood off without magic.”
Percy looked over the coat with a critical eye. Vex had done a very good job mending it, but the right side had been thoroughly torn to shreds. Even the best seamstress would have struggled to hide the damage, and the blood-stains did indeed look like nothing short of magic could get completely rid of them. The patches of dried blood that covered the coat looked black in the dark.
“Thank you, Vex.” He smiled a little. “And believe me, I’ve walked around in worse.”
“Really? You?? ”
He had to laugh at the disbelief in her voice. She laughed, too. He looked at her, and then at their sleeping friends. It was… good to not be alone, to know someone had his back. He could get used to this.