Once again they were saved by Alan. She didn’t see the battle behind them, but she did see him carried forward by four dwarves. It was a strange sight since his muscles had locked solid while he was sitting in a strange legs-crossed position. They sat him down in the middle of the tunnel, which was far from the fighting, but also right next to Cassidy.

  Seeing him again brought back the memories of her feelings, but not the feelings themselves. With the trauma her soul had experienced, she was incapable of feeling anything at the moment. The same couldn’t be said for Parina who was staring at Alan like a dog at a bone. For the short time Cassidy had known her, she had seen her drawn to many men.

  He remained locked in position for a little while before he finally opened his eyes and asked about the situation. Parina jumped to respond, but she didn’t know much. After he got the most he could from those around him, he headed for the front. Cassidy’s eyes followed him, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. She did find her feet pushing her forward, however.

  She didn’t move all the way to the front, but she was close enough that she could watch as he saved the downed dwarves next to him, but then became separated from the rest of the fighters. Those at the front scrambled to fix their line and then started pushing to get up there and keep him from getting surrounded.

  A couple of kobolds had ended up between the front line and Alan’s fight and they were keeping the dwarves from helping out. They burned their stamina to cut the kobolds down as quickly as possible, and then stepped up next to Alan.

  Cassidy was aware of all that going on, but her eyes were locked onto the blue eyed human as he fought for his life. She watched as he took an awkward hit to his shield before killing one of the kobolds before him. It’s blood sprayed out and it seemed to affect him. He staggered a little before standing straight again, but he was looking at the wall, not at the foes before him.

  Cassidy would have screamed a warning if her voice was working, but while her brain had started functioning again, it wasn’t letting any words out. Somehow he sensed the blows coming and managed to block, but he was forced back again. The drow, who had been their captor since the beginning, reached out and then Alan shot a bolt of light into the extended hand.

  Some kind of reaction happened, and the drow was sent flying. Her heart started to fill with joy, he had won! Then she saw that the last enemy, the kobold on his left, was still in the fight and was bringing his scimitar down in a vicious overhand cut.

  The sword somehow went right through the shield, cracking it almost in half. The damaged buckler went flying and clipped Alan in the head. It took Cassidy a moment to realize that his hand was still attached to the handle. Blood was spraying from his stump and she saw him fall to the ground. In that moment she found her voice and used it to scream.

  Luckily, this was when the front line of dwarves managed to move up next to him. They struck down the kobold that had maimed him and pushed forward. One of the dwarves in the second line bent down to move him, but he found a pretty human girl had already grabbed him.

  Seeing him fall, and possibly die, had clicked something inside of her. There was still a deep wound to her soul, but her aura was flowing again, albeit with a reduced strength. She had moved faster than she could ever remember before, and started pulling Alan back toward safety. Her adrenaline had given her the strength to move him.

  All of the healers were still in the back, but they had a few bandages here at the front. They wrapped one around his stump but the blood quickly soaked through. She checked his pouches for a healing potion but couldn’t find one. Then she remembered the necklace he had taken from Oshae.

  Pulling it over his head, she placed it around her own neck. It had already absorbed some of her blood from the abuse she had suffered at the monster’s hands. She frantically searched inside, but while she found a few potions, she didn’t see a healing potion. There were some ingredients in there that caused her eyes to widen, but she didn’t have the time or the tools to make a potion here.

  “Somebody help me, we have to get him to the healers!” Cassidy choked out. Her voice sounded weird in her own ears.

  Her friend Parina came forward and the two of them carried him toward the back. He needed a real healer. Cassidy knew that they most likely couldn’t bring his hand back. Regrowing limbs was not something most low level healers could accomplish, but they could at least stop the bleeding.

  Neither Cassidy or Parina was all that strong, but they still managed to drag him to the back. When others saw who they were carrying they quickly made room. Many said prayers or made hand gestures. He was more than just one of the men who set them free, and they needed him to be ok.

  Finally near the back, Cassidy called for help, “we need a healer here!”

  An exhausted dwarf, seated on the ground, looked over and, seeing who it was, she got up and hurried over. She took a moment to assess his injuries, wincing at the stump that was his left arm.

  “I’m running low on mana, but I should be able to fix the worst of it. I can’t do anything to bring back his hand, though.”

  She placed her own hand on his chest and mumbled some words. There wasn’t any obvious change but the healer started to unwind the bandage. The bloody rag was thrown away, and a healed over patch of skin was revealed. He wasn’t in danger of bleeding out anymore, but he was still missing his hand.

  Cassidy thanked her for her help and stood next to him, unsure of what to do next. Parina was kneeling next to him, holding his good hand. His life was safe for now, but unless something changed, they were still stuck here. She kept silent vigil over Alan as the fighting continued.

  There was an increase in the noise from the front of the train of prisoners. It sounded like a hundred people banging pots and pans. Then it changed to cheering and it started propagating through the escapees. They had been saved again.

  When the prisoners had first encountered the small army to their front, Thadrick and the other fighters had managed to push forward enough to send a runner back to the mining camp. Not knowing if the quick footed beastkin would be able to make it, the leaders had decided not to share that information.

  It turns out he had made it. He had changed into a puma and managed to evade all of the attackers and make it back into the tunnels on the far side. Upon reaching the camp and sharing the news that their friends and family were trapped, so close to home, almost the entire village emptied. Even those who weren’t fighters took up what arms they could and marched into the mines.

  Without Alan’s presence pushing them forward, it took the camp a while to get here. Now that they were, they descended on the kobolds like a thunderbolt. The two drow had already been injured and were near the back of the enemy when their saviors arrived. They were the first to be cut down, Kespar taking the head of Mertar himself.

  It turned out the drow had been holding back earlier in the fight because they were dealing with some listocampi that had been rooting through the tents. That was part of why the refugees had managed to get such a good push in the beginning. They found eight of the lizards’ corpses while doing a quick search of the area.

  The column was finally freed up and they began the final march to safety. When the back of the group made it into the abandoned kobold village, the relief force took over rearguard. Seeing the large, fresh force waiting for them, and without any more drow to push them forward, the kobolds retreated back into the deep tunnels.

  Alan was still unconscious, but his friend Thadrick and another dwarf Cassidy didn’t recognize were carrying him. She walked behind them, but Parina was still holding his hand. She should probably feel some kind of jealousy, but she still was unable to muster any emotions. Other than fear and regret anyway.

  A resounding cheer went up when they emerged from the mines at last and saw their village before them. A grand party probably would have broken out, but there were injured from the fighting and many of the prisoners had taken a turn for the worse during that last trek. All of the effort they had put into the first part of the journey caught up to them at the end. Cassidy wondered if Alan was still marching with them, instead of being carried, would they have felt the same?

  Thadrick brought him all the way back to his own house and laid him in the cot. His bloody clothes would stain the sheets, but he didn’t even hesitate. Unfortunately, while the bed was large for a dwarf, Alan’s legs dangled off of the end. After placing his friend down, Thadrick almost seemed surprised to see the two human women standing there. Parina had been forced to let go of his hand to let them squeeze into the tent.

  “I thank ye for watching over him, I am sure you have people to see now.” The gruff dwarf said in what was clearly supposed to be a dismissal.

  Parina looked between Alan and the dwarf several times before she nodded and started to walk out. She had tried to take Cassidy’s hand and lead her away, but she kept her arm pinned to her side. Even though she was unclear on her feelings about this man, about anything really at the moment, she was not going to leave his side. Her friend glanced at her face before sighing and leaving the house.

  Thadrick opened his mouth to give her a more forceful dismissal, when the other dwarf who had carried Alan here put a restraining hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. Thadrick closed his eyes for a moment as a shudder went through his body. He then went over to his table and brought a chair next to the bed.

  “Here, lass, at least take a seat,” he told Cassidy.

  She heard him, but the words had no meaning to her at the moment. Her beleaguered mind was trying to do three things at once. Process what had happened to her, figure out why she couldn’t feel anything, and understand why this man was still somehow important to her.

  Thadrick watched her for a moment, but when she didn’t take the chair, he simply went and got another for himself and sat watching his unconscious friend. A few times Thadrick tried to strike up a conversation with the woman standing there, but after looking at her semi-vacant expression he could never get the words out.

  Several hours later, he realized he had fallen asleep in the chair, and Cassidy showed no sign of having moved. He was reluctant to leave Alan alone with this woman, but he needed to get some food, and to see if he could find anything to help his friend.

  Cassidy noticed the dwarf leave, but she was still processing things in her mind and paid it no heed. She had given up on dealing with the trauma, she didn’t want to willingly relive it, and she had decided her soul would either heal on its own, or not. She still couldn’t figure out why this man seemed so important to her.

  Even stripped of actual emotions, she had a feeling they were connected. When Alan had woken up from his trance in the tunnel and seen her, Cassidy recognized that he was drawn to her. It was a not uncommon experience for her. But why did she still feel like he was so important to her? It could have been explained as the dungeon pushing them to help the delver, but she had become separated from the core's control. Perhaps it was just the knowledge that her soul had once seen him as her match.

  Her legs suddenly gave out beneath her. It wasn’t from any kind of epiphany, she had simply been standing for hours, and that was after marching for most of a day. She managed to pull herself into the chair Thadrick left for her, but her eyes never left Alan’s. Deciding that she wasn’t going to figure out her feelings towards him tonight, she turned to another problem that had been percolating in her mind.

  Before signing on in the dungeon, Cassidy had been an apprentice alchemist. She found it quite enjoyable and actually seemed to have some talent. That was part of why her parents chose her of all her siblings to receive the valuable class stone. When she had first looked through the necklace she still wore around her neck, she had seen some items that peaked her interest. Now that she had some more time, she checked it out again.

  Stolen story; please report.

  There were some potions, some talent stones, and an opal class stone. These were valuable, but not useful for her now. What had caught her interest was the pile of plants she found, and a book.

  The book was a primer for advanced alchemy students. She made a note of the ingredients in the necklace and then took out the book. She skimmed it until she found what she hoped for. A recipe for a special potion, a Potion of Regrowth.

  It would help someone regrow a lost body part. These potions were much in demand for lower leveled adventurers, but anyone who had evolved to red or beyond didn’t need it. Their pathways were so advanced that they would eventually be able to restore their own missing limbs. This meant that while they were valuable, they weren’t common to find since higher leveled adventurers in the Network didn’t bother with them.

  Cassidy stored the book in a pocket of her robe. People in the Network were big fans of pockets, so it was kind of funny how new initiates were never given clothing with them. Now she sat and pondered what to do. The potion would be relatively easy to make with the plants the drow had so thoughtfully provided, but she didn’t have the tools.

  She would need a mortar and pestle, an alchemical cauldron, and one more ingredient, fur. The mortar and pestle wouldn’t be too bad, she could afford that with her measly earnings from being a waitress. It wasn’t like she could take that money home with her anyway. The cauldron, however, could run upwards of fifty gold, even for a cheap one.

  Luckily they were in a camp that processed ore, so alchemy was a needed profession. That meant there would be supplies. For some reason, it never occurred to her that she could simply hire one of the alchemists to make the potion for her. She was still trying to figure out how to purchase a cauldron when Thadrick returned.

  In his hands, the dwarf carried a tray with several bowls of steaming hot food. He set it down on his table and then went to check on Alan. Cassidy hadn’t been paying attention to the passage of time, but she thought he had been gone for over an hour. In that time there had been no outward change in their injured charge.

  Thadrick noticed that Cassidy was finally sitting down. “You must be starving, girl, come have a bite with me.”

  His words actually broke her out of a thought loop she had been trapped in. She felt ashamed for how silly she was acting, and then suddenly felt rage that this dwarf would intrude on her after everything she had been through. Her emotions were fluctuating wildly and it took her a moment to realize this was progress. She was actually feeling emotions again.

  The shock of that realization was enough to break her out of it, and she made her way over to the table. Once she got there she remembered that she had been sitting on the only other chair, so she had to go back for it. Finally, sitting at the table, she watched as Thadrick filled her a bowl. In addition to the welcome heat it had an amazing aroma.

  “Thank you,” she managed to get out. Then she was slurping down the soup. There was also a loaf of bread that the older dwarf broke in two, and she used her half to mop up the dregs left in the bottom of her bowl. There were a pair of mugs holding ale, but she wasn’t ready for alcohol yet. Fortunately, Thadrick had some water in a canteen.

  The two began talking as they sat, digesting. Thadrick was the first to talk, but now that Cassidy’s voice had returned, it felt cathartic to explain how she met Alan. Much of the story went over the dwarf’s head, but it was amusing to her to watch how the dungeon twisted her words for him. When she explained meeting him in a different dungeon, he heard vague words about meeting somewhere else. While Cassidy had managed to break free, Thadrick was still under the dungeon core’s thrall.

  Then it was his turn to share how he and Alan met. It seemed like that man was an honest to goodness hero, and one who wasn’t full of himself either. Maybe her soul knew what it was doing after all. Then Thadrick shared what he had learned of Alan’s exploits at the back of the column, defeating one of the drow and helping with the other. Left unsaid was his fight at the front, but they both were left staring at his stump. That was when Cassidy had an idea.

  “Do you have any money?” She brazenly asked him.

  This erased all of the good feelings Thadrick had started to get about Cassidy. However, seeing the instant change in his demeanor made her realize she hadn’t handled that well. She tried asking again, this time explaining her plan. She was hoping to fix Alan’s hand but she didn’t have the money to purchase a cauldron.

  “I have some, but not nearly enough to buy something like that. It’s too bad we didn’t stop to loot any of those damned dark elves. They must of had some nice things on them. Maybe we could get a collection going. I’m sure everyone would be willing once they realized what it was for…” Thadrick trailed off as he saw a look in Cassidy’s eyes.

  When he mentioned loot, she remembered the necklace again. Before, she had been looking for things to help Alan, but now that she went through it again she found the pile of gold. This would be enough for more than a basic cauldron. She stood to leave, but then realized what that would mean. She wanted to help Alan, but she also didn’t want to be away from his side.

  Thadrick noticed her indecision, “I’ll keep good watch over him, don’t you worry. I’d offer to go for you, but I don’t know a thing about what makes a good cauldron or a bad one.”

  With a nod and a deep breath she scurried from the tent. The sooner she was gone the sooner she would return. Rather than heading to the general store in the center of the camp, she went to a specialist shop where the camp’s top Alchemist worked.

  After explaining what she was looking for and why she needed it, the man had offered her a twenty percent discount on a very nice cauldron. This was something her own master would have been happy to use. He had also offered to make the potion for her, but by now it had become important to her that she did it herself. This was how she could repay him for saving her. Although, she wouldn’t have been in that situation if it wasn’t for him, since this dungeon wouldn’t exist without his presence.

  That nasty thought almost made her trip on her way back. One part of her knew that was unfair, he hadn’t willingly been put in the tutorial, and even if he had, Alan had no part in the creation of this dungeon or that drow’s usurping of its purpose. A deeper, more primal part of her, didn’t care about any of those perfectly reasonable arguments. She was hurt and if it wasn’t for him it wouldn’t have happened.

  Cassidy did the healthiest thing she could think of and suppressed that thought. Now was not the time to try and deal with that snake pit of irrationality. Instead she focused on what was ahead for her. With the cauldron she had also picked up a few other ingredients.

  Finally arriving back at Thadrick’s house she ducked inside and studied Alan’s prone form. He hadn’t woken up yet, which was a little troubling. By now it had been almost eight hours since he had fallen unconscious. In the Network, usually only two things could cause that kind of problem. Soul trauma and aura fatigue. Either was possible in this case, but Cassidy was hoping for the latter. Fatigue normally cleared up on its own. Her own broken soul was proof that she had no way of fixing the former.

  Taking out her new mortar and pestle, in addition to the cauldron and ingredients, she got to work. Thadrick got the fire going and tended to it while she prepped the plants. Different herbs and plants required different parts to be used. She kept referring back to the alchemy book to make sure she recalled the directions correctly.

  All of the plants preserved in the necklace had been recently harvested when they were placed inside, and whoever had done it had made sure to carefully dig the plant out. Everything, including the roots were present. They had been harvested so well that if she wanted, she could probably plant them in the ground and they would continue to grow.

  From some plants she only needed the roots, which went into the cauldron to boil. Others needed the leaves to be ground up into a paste. One of the rarer plants needed the stem to be diced and ground together with the fur she had procured. She wasn’t sure what animal the alchemist had gotten it from, but the hairs had a reddish orange color. This was the final component of the potion and would have to wait until the rest had steeped for a bit.

  Cassidy took the opportunity to work on her cultivation. She hadn’t spent any time on this since she was captured, but now that her body and aura, at least, had settled down, it was time to get back into the habit.

  The energy levels in her aura were still low, only around half of what they used to be. This wasn’t a problem related to her pathways, this was due to her soul withdrawing into itself. It was only pumping out a fraction of what it usually did. Before she could cultivate, she would have to try and get her soul to open up.

  No amount of coaxing or prodding with her mental energy seemed to have any effect. Giving up on brute forcing it, she next tried to get a better understanding of what the problem was. Reading her soul was always more difficult than her pathways, but she didn’t have a choice.

  It felt like there was a cage around her soul. She couldn’t tell if this cage was built somehow to inhibit her soul, or if instead it was something she had unconsciously made to protect it. Letting out a deep lungful of air, she opened her eyes. She hadn’t made any progress in addressing the issue, but it was time to add the final mixture to the potion.

  Rising from her chair she made her way over to the boiling cauldron. Thadrick had been dutifully keeping the fire at as close to a constant temperature as he could. Sending her senses into the potion she could tell it was ready. Taking out the mortar from the necklace, she scraped the final paste into the broth.

  The color went from clear with a hint of green, to a dark brown. Taking out her new alchemy stirring rod, she channeled mana into the top of it and the energy flowed down into the potion. As she stirred, a line of orange started to mix with the brown. The next part was time and mana intensive, but alchemy usually was. Plants, chemicals, and other matter all had properties that could be used to achieve benefits, but it was the addition of mana that really made potions effective.

  Over the next half an hour she steadily added mana to the mix as she stirred. The potion was now mostly orange with only a hint of brown. Removing the stirring rod, she placed her hands on either side of the cauldron. She was careful not to touch the hot metal, but she still felt her hands being cooked from the proximity to the fire. One of the differences between a normal pot and an alchemical cauldron was the gems embedded on either side of it. This particular pot had two large rubies. Her master’s only had garnets.

  Because Cassidy herself was only beginning her Path, she wasn’t able to fully utilize the difference in quality between the stones, but the higher grade would allow her energy to suffuse the mix with greater efficiency. It also meant that this pot would be a useful tool for a long time to come.

  Mindful of the damage being done to her hands, she sent a burst of her mana flowing into the gems which then spread throughout the potion mix. With a flash that temporarily blinded her eyes, the potion condensed and she was left with several centimeters of orange liquid at the bottom.

  Withdrawing her hands from the flames, she asked Thadrick to pull the cauldron out of the flames. Her hands were useless at the moment, the skin burned and cracked. Luckily her body's own healing would fix them in about an hour. If she had a proper alchemist’s lab, this wouldn’t have been a problem because the cauldron would have been heated with a smaller, but hotter, flame that would have been concentrated at the base.

  The potion had to cool anyway before they could do anything with it. As her hands healed, Thadrick complimented her on the work. Cassidy had always been self conscious about her efforts and her pale skin made her blush all the more obvious. She tried to pass the credit to the dwarf for his work with the fire, but he was having none of it.

  “Any fool can tend a fire. What you did takes talent, and if it can help regrow his hand, I know Alan will be truly grateful.”

  “It's the least I can do after how he saved us all. I mean after you both saved us,” she finished, only remembering to include Thadrick at the last moment.

  “Oh, I am happy to take some of the credit, but I know who deserves most of the reward. It was his idea to go down there to begin with. Granite’s bones, I didn’t even want to go with him, he had to force me.”

  Cassidy sent her senses toward Thadrick as he hung his head. She couldn’t actually see his aura, but her scholar class had grown quite a bit recently and she was finding it easier to get a read on others.

  “I can’t imagine he had to do much convincing. You seem to have a good heart, and you were critical in saving us.”

  Now it was the dwarfs turn to blush. It always amused her that when a dwarf blushed, you could see it in their beard. Instead of the dark black color it normally was, it had highlights of pink in it now.

  “I have to ask something, did you notice how quickly we seemed to travel on the way back? It took us much longer to march down there when we were still captives.”

  “Aye lass, I think we all felt it. I have been around others with a Presence before, but nothing as strong as what I felt from him. It seemed to give me more energy and confidence. I wonder if he even knows he has it.”

  When Thadrick said the word Presence, her brain finally made the connection. Her mentor had one of his own, but it was more of a soothing one. It was highly effective in dealing with nervous apprentices, but its strength was a flickering flame when compared to the sun that was Alan’s.

  Her hands were finally healing and it was time to decant her creation. The liquid had congealed some and was now more like a jelly. It was enough to fill four potion tubes, leaving six empties. She had purchased a rack of ten in addition to everything else. She had spent over a hundred and fifty gold pieces on everything. For her it was a fortune, more even than the cost of a quartz class stone.

  “Thadrick, if you could help me. Please hold his arm down. If he was awake he could drink this, but instead we will have to spread it on the stump.”

  Potion of Regrowth (common): made by an apprentice alchemist with reasonable skill. Will help a body to regrow a lost body part.

  The dwarf held the arm in place while Cassidy carefully poured it over the smooth flesh that was once Alan’s hand. The fact that it was thicker now was helpful in keeping it in place. Instead of running off and spilling on the ground, it slowly oozed over his flesh. As she worked she could tell that it was starting to seep into him. Even her limited aura senses could tell her that something was happening.

  Suddenly almost all of the potion remaining on his skin was sucked inside and she could see something moving under the previously smooth stump. All of this activity held her attention, but when Thadrick gasped, she looked up. What she found was a piercing pair of deep blue eyes. He was awake!