Unbound

“Ooof!”

The regal princess of the sun made a decidedly un-regal noise as she was acquainted with the floor as quickly as gravity could accommodate. Six more shapes fell around her, kicking up dust and creating a pile of groaning ponies.

Luna tensed her jaw and squinted an eye open. She pushed her way up and brushed her dirtied coat off. “Just as unpleasant as I remembered it.”

“You’d think we’d be used to it by now…” Twilight muttered, shaking off stars as she picked herself up.

Celestia stood and offered some magical assistance to Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “If one can get used to slamming headlong into the ground, we never did.” She took a look around their surroundings, casting her eyes over a place she thought relegated to distant memory. However, something was wrong.

Off to the side, Rainbow Dash huffed anxiously as she hovered away from the unforgiving ground. “I can’t believe Fluttershy would do something like this! I’m going to have nightmares about this place, so how could she come back here all… by… her… huh?”

The pegasus trailed off as she actually took a moment to look at where they were. Instead of the earthen floors and wooden rafters they were expecting, they instead found dark stone below and unending shadow above.

“This isn’t right,” Twilight noted. “Shouldn’t we be in the basement?”

“Yes. Or some variation of it,” Celestia replied cryptically. Before anyone could question her last statement, she hummed curiously and rested a hoof to her cheek. “Perhaps Isaac has already progressed to the depths since you all left him?”

“The depths?” Rarity asked.

Celestia nodded and gestured around. “It’s what we took to calling this place. The caves before it were simple enough to name, but I must admit it took us some time to identify that the floor after is a w—”

“Sister,” Luna interrupted. The others turned to see her standing at the back wall, looking up at a large door.

It was a few inches taller than even her impressive stature. Dark stone comprised its face, but not like the stone all around them. It was marble, like something one might see at a tomb or monument in a graveyard. The pillars to either side and the triangular top helped this comparison.

And stuck on the very front, was a square frame with an indention in it, as if something was meant to be placed there.

“What’s that?” Applejack asked.

“That wasn't here last time.” Twilight furrowed her brow as she stepped closer to examine the strange door.

“It wasn't here during any of our expeditions either,” Celestia noted. “It’s… new.”

Luna turned to her sister. “Is that even possible? There are random elements to each of the floors, to be certain, but I thought we saw every possible variation all those years ago?”

“This place was born from Isaac’s mind. If something has changed about his mentality, perhaps that change could be reflected here?” Celestia mused.

“Should we open it?” Pinkie asked, patient as ever.

Rarity gave her friend a weary look. “I feel as though we’ve opened enough strange things today, don’t you?”

A magenta aura enveloped the marble face of the door and began to shift about. After a few moments spent pressing and pulling every which way she could, Twilight shook her head. “In any case, I don’t think we have a choice here. I can’t see a way to open it.”

“Aww…” Pinkie deflated slightly. “I never get to have any—”

*Krak*

“—AHH!” Feeling the floor giving way under her hoof, Pinkie squealed and stumbled back.

The group looked to their pink friend, and then to the floor ahead of her. A hole had opened up, and inside was a swirling purple and black void.

Before anyone could question this, the very room around them began to rumble and shake. More cracking sounds came, and debris fell from the walls. One or two cracks widened and opened up, letting the cold stone of the dungeon around them fall away to reveal more holes with that same spiraling abyss.

“W-What’s happening?!” Rarity asked, getting low and broadening her stance to steady herself.

Then, the shaking stopped, though the holes and cracks remained.

Applejack peered down through the hole Pinkie nearly fell through. The dizzying pattern below didn’t seem to have any depth to it. It was simultaneously close and infinitely far away. “Uh… is that normal?”

“No… no it most certainly is not,” Celestia said before lighting her horn. She scanned the magical energies of the pocket dimension, or at least did to the best of her ability. Even now she was no expert on this nebulous place. Suddenly, her face paled. “Oh no.”

“What is it, sister?” Luna asked.

Celestia turned to them with newfound urgency, but before she could speak, another bout of shaking opened up more cracks in the floor and walls. “Something is very wrong. The pocket dimension is growing unstable. If it keeps worsening at this rate, it could collapse entirely.”

“Umm… w-what would happen to us if we were, say, still inside when it did that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Remember when I said ignorance is bliss?” Twilight said before turning to her former mentor, eyes brimming with dread. “Princess, what do we do?”

Celestia looked to the ponies gathered around her. They were all terrified, and she didn’t blame them. Even her former student was defaulting to her like she was the authority in the room.

Racing to come up with a solution, she turned toward one of the open doorways and stepped forward with authority. “We need to find Isaac. Right now. If something is happening here, it likely involves him. Whatever the case, I fear he may be our only avenue of escape.”

“Would we even have time to reach one of the final floors from here?” Twilight asked.

Celestia shook her head gravely. “You misunderstand. Perish the thought, but… if this keeps up, we may have no choice but to kill Isaac in order to eject ourselves from the chest.”

A series of gasps rang out at the grim suggestion.

“But, we can’t do that to Isaac!” Pinkie said.

“Isaac?” Rarity retorted. "Pardon my bluntness, but it's my understanding the dear is already dead. What about poor Fluttershy?"

“Fluttershy will be ejected as well, no matter where she is,” Luna assured her. “Now come! We mustn’t waste time!” She gestured wildly before taking off with her sister.

Twilight and the others barely had time to share a look with each other before another quake rocked the room. They were out of time and out of options. If they didn’t do something fast, Fluttershy wouldn’t be the only one in need of saving. Without further delay, they rushed off after the alicorns in search of the boy at the center of this chest of horrors.

Meanwhile, further into the depths…

The only sound that could be heard was his own frantic breathing. Isaac paid no heed to the occasional rumbling, or the steady destruction of his surroundings. Lying on the floor, clutching his knees to his chest, he was lost within his own mind.

He had tried to ignore what his doppelganger said. Another run would clear his thoughts, he was sure. But the further he got, the more his other self’s words and the words of his friends began to eat away at him.

The only other people he had met in countless years, people who genuinely cared about him, and his inner darkness almost got them killed. It made ignoring his mother’s booming voice impossible this time. After all, she was right, as she always had been.

Each gasping breath gave him less and less air. He could feel the unseen walls of the chest around him again. It was a feeling he buried deep inside, and never wished to experience again.

Maybe his other self was right? Maybe it was time to stop hiding from what he truly was. An unrepentant sinner like him deserved no love or forgiveness.

The floor shook and crumbled around him as the void took hold. Even if he noticed, he didn’t care. Nothing of value would be lost when this place was gone. Nobody was here but him and his suffocating loneliness, as was meant to be all along.

He clenched his lids tighter as his lungs fought in vain for air, drowning without water. It would be better if he just disappeared into unfeeling blackness. Far away from his mother, far away from himself, and far away from anyone he cared about enough to not want hurt.
.
..
…
With the ground beneath her hooves rumbling hard enough to rattle her bones, Fluttershy raced through room after room in search of her young friend.

“Isaac?!” she yelled. No matter where she looked, he was nowhere to be found.

A violent crack underneath her made her yip. She spread her wings and hovered up just to be safe. More and more of the floor was falling away into swirling nothingness. Danger was something she expected and was prepared to face, but this wasn't part of the plan.

Tensing her jaw, she hurried into the next room. Movement ahead caught her eye, but any hope that it was Isaac soon faded.

More of the skinless bipedal figures growled and cast their singular, unblinking eyes on the pegasus as she entered. They immediately started shuffling toward her, closing in and blocking her way forward.

Fluttershy felt the urge to freeze in place, but she resisted. She ran forward, ducking and weaving around three of the creatures on her way past.

The doorway ahead drew closer. Then, a nearby groan pricked her ear. She turned to see one of the red monsters reaching out to grab her, and her heart leaped into her throat.

Another crackling sound came from below. Before the beast could reach her, it suddenly fell through the floor. She was forced to take flight once more as the entire room filled with massive fissures, claiming many more of the mindless creatures as victims.

“Ohh… this is bad!” She cringed before pressing on. At this rate, she feared that the whole area would fall away into nothingness before she could even find the boy.

Flapping her wings hard, Fluttershy zoomed through another few rooms while doing her best to avoid the horrors within each. Without a way to defend herself, she was dead meat if she got caught.

Darting her eyes side-to-side in her frantic search, she took in as much information as she could as quickly as possible. If it wasn't her friend or another room to search, she couldn’t afford to care about it. Time was running out.

Then, a high-pitched screech snapped her attention ahead to reveal a circular maw of teeth flying straight for her.

“AH!” She pulled to the side hard, but not fast enough. A burning pain raked across her side as a flying leech clipped her on the way past, sending a trickle of blood leaking out.

She cried out and clutched her side with a hoof. Squinting an eye open through the pain, she grit her teeth and kept going.

More leeches screeched from her sides and came zooming toward her, but she managed to evade each one. Another open doorway loomed ahead of her, and she raced toward it. One last screech behind her made her pick up her pace, and just as she tore into the next room, a flying shape thuded into the wall next to the door, latching onto cold stone instead of pony flesh.

Fluttershy stumbled into a landing and panted heavily. She looked back to see if anything was following her. Thankfully, the room around her was empty.

Ignoring another sting from her side, she shifted her gaze ahead. Then, she paused, her eyes widening. There it was, across a chasm of nothingness. The crumbling remains of the skull door. And within, a familiar shape was cowering in the middle of the room.

“Isaac!” Fluttershy’s face lit up. However, her expression quickly fell as her voice provoked no reaction from the boy.

Isaac was lying there amidst the destruction, shaking and crying as he hyperventilated. He was either asleep, or so deeply occupied by his thoughts that he didn’t notice the yellow mare, or the world crumbling around him.

Fluttershy rushed up to the doorway. “Isaac, wake up! Please!”

Feeling a crack beneath her, she squeaked fearfully and spread her wings. She took to the air just in time for the patch of floor she was standing on to fall away.

“Oh no…” she muttered as the void below beckoned her, waiting for her to give up this pointless struggle. Soon, everything around her would be gone. Denying the dreadful chill working its way over her, she looked back up to the boy.

Maneuvering over the abyss and into the room, she made her way over to Isaac and landed. Just seeing him struggling to breathe made her heart ache.

With reality collapsing around them by the minute, Fluttershy did the one thing she could think of doing. She wasn't even sure if it would work, but somehow, part of her knew that this could have been a one way trip. Sidling down next to the boy, she covered him with her body and hugged him close, causing his eyes to snap open.

“Isaac… I’m not leaving you, no matter what!” Fluttershy said.

Despite her tender embrace, Isaac frowned. He jerked away from her and curled in tighter on himself. Confused, Fluttershy reached for him again, only to have her hoof swatted away.

Fresh streams of tears like salty rivulets flowed down his face as he turned and glowered at the pony. Even so, he couldn’t keep his lips from trembling as he looked at her.

Fluttershy shrank back, her ears wilting as the boy faced away from her once more. “Isaac?”

A piece of the wall behind her clattered to the ground, stealing her attention. The room around them was crumbling, falling into oblivion, but she refused to let go of him.

“You don’t have to be alone like this!” she pleaded. “I know you think you deserve to be here, but you don’t! Your mother and that other version of you, they’re wrong. You are a good person!”

Isaac’s form shook with a mixture of anger and despair. He stood and jabbed a finger toward the door. When she kept staring at him and didn’t move, he blinked a few tears at the ground in front of her. The impact sent flecks of stone all over her hooves.

Fluttershy frowned, but not from the aggression he showed. He was trembling, and his chest was heaving. If he could speak, he would be sobbing and whimpering between each tremulous breath. Fluttershy, who had weathered her own storms of turmoil, could sense the depth of his misery, as if his emotions were her very own.

“No. I’m not leaving,” she stated, soft but firm. “Even if I could leave, I wouldn’t. I came here to save you… from this place, and from yourself.”

Isaac’s breathing quickened even more, and he clasped his hands over the sides of his head as he looked around. Now, not only was his world literally falling apart around him, but he was going to get one of his only friends killed. He felt like he was suffocating—only this time, it was so much more painful.

Desperately darting his trembling eyes around, Isaac paused at one of the many holes opened into the floor. He stared at the void below, and in that moment, in that abyss of nothingness, he saw an answer to his problem.

Fluttershy slowly stood. Her eyes grew wary as she watched the boy glance at her before turning. He started to walk away from her, and as she realized where he was walking to, she gasped. “Isaac, wait!”

Isaac paused at the edge of the massive hole before him. He looked over his shoulder, and the barest hint of a smile broke through his sorrowful expression as he took in her appearance one last time.

Then, he stepped forward onto thin air.

“No!”

In an instant of speed that would have made Rainbow Dash proud, Fluttershy beat her wings faster than she ever had and zipped forward. She clutched Isaac to her chest, hovering on the very tip of her hind hoof at the edge of oblivion. Teetering back, she fell to her haunches and just hugged him.

“Please don’t leave me…” Fluttershy started to weep. “I know there’s a way to help you! There has to be! Please… if you don’t trust yourself, just trust me!”

The floor cracked around them, with more and more pieces falling away. She squeezed him tighter and nuzzled the top of his head, both to comfort him and to prevent herself from watching her own demise.

Isaac stared up at the pegasus in disbelief. Despite everything, she not only chose to enter the chest again, but now she was dooming herself by preventing him from saving her the only way he could.

Why was she here? Couldn’t she see that he destroyed everything he touched? That the world was better off without him? She had seen all the horrors of his imagination laid bare, terrible beasts that would rip her and everything she loved to shreds if they were ever freed, and yet she still chose to come back for him.

Was this what it meant to be truly loved?

Clenching his palms, Isaac fought against his spiral of despair. He closed his eyes and gradually slowed his breathing, focusing only on the warmth of the pony nestling him into her fur. He couldn’t let her die.

Fluttershy slowly peaked an eye open as the rumbling around her faded in unison with the boy’s tremors and shallow breathing. Much to her surprise, pieces of the floor and walls started rising back out of the void and reattaching themselves, until eventually everything was normal again.

Getting to his feet, Isaac turned and looked up at her. A heartfelt smile framed his face, and his eyes sparkled with tears of joy. Before she knew it, he leaped up into her chest and hugged her. She caught him with a foreleg, still processing everything that had just happened. Eventually, she rested her chin on his head and squeezed him back.

“Thank you.” She smiled.

Once they separated, Isaac’s mouth fell agape as he pulled back and noticed the shallow wound running down his friend’s side. He frowned and put a hand beside it, framing it and seeing how painful it must have been.

Fluttershy frowned as well at his dismay. She used a hoof to pull his hand away and just held it. “Don’t worry about that. I got hurt because I wasn't careful enough, not because of you. I came here because I want to rescue you… Now, how do I actually do that?” Her ears drooped as she took another look around the room.

Much to her disappointment, nothing had changed from last time. The opening to the next floor was still there, as were the two floating photographs. She wasn't sure what change she was hoping for, but it clearly hadn’t happened.

“Oh, I wish I knew more about magic,” Fluttershy fretted. “Isaac, the others say that this place was made by your imagination. Do you think maybe if you try to imagine yourself free that it would work?”

Although he seemed doubtful, Isaac closed his eyes and concentrated, tensing his body. When nothing happened, he gave her a lopsided frown and shrugged.

Fluttershy’s ears wilted, but she remained undeterred. “It’s ok. I’m sure this is more complicated than I’m making it out to be. If you have to let go of your past and move on, I know it will take time… but don’t worry, I’m going to be here for you every step of the way.” She rested a hoof on his shoulder, causing a small smile.

Just then, hurried hooves approached from outside. The pair turned to see none other than their friends, headed by two familiar alicorns.

"Fluttershy!" Pinkie cheered.

"Girls?" Fluttershy inched back in surprise. Before she could say anything else, a cyan blur set upon her and wrapped her up in a hug.

After she was done hugging her friend, Rainbow Dash pulled back and frowned at the bleeding cut. "What were you thinking coming in here alone?! You could have gotten yourself killed!"

"I'm sorry…" Fluttershy looked between her friends regretfully. "I just couldn't leave Isaac on his own. I didn’t mean to worry you… or to make you come in after me.”

“The best intentions can lead to cruel consequences,” Celestia said. “I am merely glad to see you alive and relatively unharmed,”

Looking over, both Celestia and Luna found Isaac staring back at them. He slowly approached, mouth agape.

Merely seeing the boy was enough to cause a somber hush to fall over the royal sisters. Luna found it difficult to keep eye contact with him as he walked up to her. “Isaac… we are most sorry for leaving you all those years ago. Just because it was the logical solution, doesn’t mean it was the ethical one.” She lowered her head.

However, much to her surprise, Luna felt something small and warm hug her forelegs. She opened her eyes and saw the boy squeezing her like a teddy bear, a bright smile on his face. “I-Isaac?”

Even Celestia’s patrician composure faltered as the boy stepped back and gave both of them a teary, joyful thumbs up. She wiped the corner of her eye before lowering down and giving him a brief hug of her own. “Truly, we don’t deserve your forgiveness. Even so… I’m so glad to see you again.”

“Princess, there has to be something we can do to help him,” Fluttershy pleaded. She shared a sad look with Isaac and brought a hoof to his shoulder. “I… I-I can’t just accept that we have to leave him in here!”

Seeing the desperation in the pegasus’ eyes made Celestia sigh. “I’m sorry, Fluttershy, but there is simply nothing we can do. We exhausted every path this dreadful place has to offer, and none of our magical attempts to free Isaac have worked. I wish it weren’t so, but it seems Isaac is well and truly trapped here.” She frowned as she looked at him.

Meanwhile, Twilight paused as she noticed something. She walked away from the group, slowly moving up to the two pedestals with the photographs on them. Something about their size and shape was familiar, and as she stroked her chin in thought, it suddenly clicked.

“Celestia, Luna,” Twilight called, catching everyone’s attention.

“What is it, Twilight?” Luna asked as she and her sister made their way over to their fellow alicorn.

Twilight scrutinized the polaroid for a few more moments before turning. “Is it just me, or does this photo look like it would fit into that door we found earlier?”

Celestia paused and examined it as well. "Yes, actually. I think it would," she said.

Isaac shifted his gaze between the ponies, looking genuinely puzzled at their conversation.

Luna took notice of this and paused. "Isaac… do you know about this door we're talking about? The one at the beginning of this floor?" she asked, to which the boy shook his head.

“Why doesn’t he know about it? I thought he made this place?” Applejack asked.

“We seldom are conscious of changes in our psyche, but they would be more obvious in a realm borne from your mind,” Celestia explained. “In any case, I feel as though we should investigate that door again. If it has to do with this photo, it could have significant importance to Isaac’s past.”

Fluttershy perked up at this. “Does that mean it could help us free Isaac?”

“There’s only one way to find out,” Twilight said. She turned to the photo, and then to its owner. “Isaac, may I?”

The boy stared at the photo for a moment. Just looking at it brought back a mixture of emotions and memories. He gave a tiny nod, signaling the alicorn to snatch it up in her magic.

Eager to uncover the mystery behind the photo, the group made their way back to the beginning of the floor, retracing their steps along the paths they knew to be safe. With their newfound determination, they arrived in no time at all.

There it stood, marble pillars standing out against the hostile slate walls like a beacon. It almost begged for them to push past the ominous sensation radiating from its cold surface so they could see what was inside.

Twilight and the others slowly approached the door. She looked down at the indent in its center. As she held up the photo, she confirmed her earlier suspicion: the square shape was a perfect match. She glanced over to find Isaac staring up at the strange door. He walked up to it and rested a hand beside the indent.

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” Rarity asked.

“Have you had a good feeling about anything in here, to be fair?” Applejack added.

“Is everypony ready?” Twilight asked. Nobody reacted, but they did stare back at her and the door behind her anxiously. Finally, she looked to Isaac. “Isaac, do you want to do the honors?” She held out the photograph to him.

The boy hesitated before taking the polaroid out of her magical aura. He looked down at it, and then at the door. For once, even he didn’t know what was about to happen. This place was his domain, but it held one final hidden corner he had yet to tread.

Looking back to his new friends, Isaac felt a sense of courage welling up as they all flashed him reassuring smiles.

Clutching the photo of his family tight, Isaac mirrored the ponies’ smiles and nodded to them before turning to the door. He placed the photo into the indent. Like a picture nestling into its frame, it was an exact fit.

The door jolted and shook, and the room began to rumble. Isaac and the others stepped back, watching warily as the marble slab receded into the floor. Air colder than the grave leaked out of the newly revealed passage, framed by an eerie purple glow.

Swallowing hesitantly, Isaac looked to his pony friends once more. Many of them were tense as well, with Fluttershy hiding behind Rainbow Dash and shivering violently.

Seeing no sign of the boy moving on his own, Celestia took it upon herself to be the first to investigate. “Come along, everyone, and be on your guard. This is uncharted territory for all of us.” She beckoned a hoof as she lit her horn, filling the area with warm light. Without so much as a moment of hesitation, she ventured inside.

With a deep breath, Luna stepped into the chamber after her, the rest of the group following close behind. Isaac and Fluttershy, united in their nerves, looked to each other for encouragement as they crossed the threshold, their footsteps echoing against the rocky walls of the stale-smelling chamber.

Two glowing purple flames cast dancing shadows along the floor, and a similarly-colored luminescent fluid leaked from the walls like water back in the caves. And sitting in the middle of the floor, the only other feature to be seen, was a long rectangular slab of stone that soon pulled away, revealing of all things, a pit in the floor.

The mere sight of the opening was unnerving. It resembled an open grave, but with no body, or bottom, in sight. If previous logic held true, this was an exit to another floor, but the ponies weren’t sure if they wanted to find out what kind of place it led to.

“No, not even going to say anything about that,” Rarity said. “That seems like a perfectly reasonable hole to jump in. Nothing bad will happen to us down there, definitely not.”

“That was almost so sarcastic that it looped back around into being believable.” Rainbow Dash blinked, more impressed than anything.

“Look on the bright side, Rarity. At least this one isn’t all fleshy and gross,” Pinkie pointed out.

“Is that really our standard for something good now?” Rarity sighed.

Seeing their young friend shivering as he stared into the darkness below, Twilight brought a hoof to his back. “Don’t worry, Isaac. We’re with you all the way.”

Fluttershy took a moment to swallow dryly and force herself to stop trembling quite as much. “Y-Yeah. No matter what, we’re right —” she paused, her pupils shrinking at a faint, eerie noise drifting out of the abyss “— behind y-you.”

Before anyone else could speak up or react further, Luna flashed her magic along the group’s left side. A barrier of shimmering blue light appeared just in time as one of the crackling purple fires flickered and spat out a glowing projectile. The orb homed in on Rainbow Dash, the nearest member of the group, before it harmlessly fizzled out as it contacted the magical shield.

“Woah…” Rainbow relaxed from her sudden jolt. She barely had time to react. The princess must have been expecting such a strike to act so quickly.

“I hate to rush us along, but perhaps we shouldn’t linger around these flames? I recall them being an annoying and dangerous fixture of these rooms,” Luna said.

“Good looking out, sister,” Celestia said. “I’m impressed that you remember so much about this place. Personally, I tried to forget much of what we saw.”

“I tried to as well… The operative word there being tried.” Luna stepped up to the edge of the hole. Without wasting any more time, she turned around and faced the group while spreading her wings. “As they say, tally ho!”

With that, the princess of the night stepped backwards and fell into the abyss. The group immediately lost sight of her, and while they heard one or two flaps of her powerful wings as she hovered down, this too faded soon enough.

“We’d best not keep her waiting. You all go ahead, I’ll keep these fires from getting any cheap shots in,” Celestia suggested.

“I guess it is a little late to object.” Rainbow was the next to go. She sauntered up to the opening and gave her friends a quick nod before flying down.

Twilight lit her horn and cast her magic around their flightless members as she made her way over.

“Is this what flying feels like?” Pinkie asked. She giggled excitedly and clapped her hooves. “Ooo, can you make me do a flip on the way down? I’ve been working on my Dashie impression, and I want to surprise her!”

“Pinkie, I—” Twilight started before sighing and managing a smile. “We’ll see,” she said as she gently lowered herself and the others down and out of sight. The last sign of them before they vanished was a giddy laugh from Pinkie.

Fluttershy’s body tensed as she peered over the side. She couldn’t even see her friend’s magical light anymore. It was like they had been swallowed up by a vast abyss, and she was next in line. Feeling a hand on her side, she looked over to see Isaac flashing her a reassuring expression. He cast his own hesitant glance into the hole before taking a stiff breath and nodding to her.

She nodded back, and while her limbs still held a slight tremor, she managed to stand somewhat tall. Both of them turned to face Celestia, who offered a slight smile. Then, they took the plunge together.

As the last one standing before the hidden depths, Celestia couldn’t deny a bit of trepidation herself as she stepped up to the very edge. She had long ago thought that she would never walk these cursed halls again, but now she and most of the ponies she cared so dearly for were back in the chest’s malevolent grasp.

They stood to lose everything, and yet, a faint blossom of hope welled up in her heart. She and Luna had explored every nook and cranny the chest had to offer in their fruitless attempts to help Isaac. Now, however, there was a sliver of unknown, a path yet to be trodden. With it came the potential for unseen horrors, but also a chance to possibly save their young friend.

“Tally ho indeed,” she muttered. And then, with a silent prayer that no harm befall her companions, she fell into darkness.

The last thing she heard before her senses left her behind in this slow fall, was a stone grate, followed by a slam as the slab above them slid closed.