Siti blinked. The space beside the crumbling pillar was completely empty.
"He's gone!" Ruke shouted, wildly waving his bloody stick in the freezing air.
Over by the shattered window, Lize raised a single finger to her lips. "Shh."
Total silence fell over the drafty room.
A few seconds passed.
Then, from somewhere deep beneath the rotted floor, a faint, pathetic groan echoed upward. It sounded like stepping on a dying toad.
Following the weak noise, the group crept carefully toward the darkest corner of the ruined mansion.
The floor completely gave way here. A jagged, two-meter drop opened straight into the damp earth. At the bottom of the shadowy pit, a tiny boy sat in a pile of wet dirt, miserably rubbing his bruised elbow.
"What are you doing down there, Krai-chan?" Lize asked. She tilted her head over the broken edge.
Krai looked up, his nose still leaking blood. "I was just walking. Then I fell."
Leaning over the jagged wooden splinters, Lushi frowned and rested her hands on her hips. "I never thought there was a sinkhole hiding inside this dump."
"I think it's not," Siti muttered.
"What do you mean?"
Siti pointed down into the gloom. "Look at the dirt walls down there. It looks like an underground tunnel."
Turning away from the pit, Lushi swept her sharp gaze across the huddled younger orphans. "Anz, Ruke, Siti. Stay here with the children. Don't let anything else inside."
"Umu," Anz rumbled, crossing his massive arms.
"Lize, you're coming with me," Lushi ordered as she stepped straight off the edge. Cold wind swirled around her boots and slowed her descent as she used basic magic to float safely to the bottom.
Beside her, Lize did not bother with magic. She just dropped like a rock and landed perfectly on her feet with a soft thud.
"Are you injured somewhere?" Lushi asked.
Krai wiped his nose with his sleeve and shook his head. "No. I landed on this mud."
Without checking his condition further, Lushi turned around and started marching deeper into the corridor. Lize followed right behind her, silent as a ghost.
Sitting alone in the cold dirt, Krai watched them walk away.
Why are we not going back up? Is there a ladder up ahead? He paused, thinking about the structural layout of slums. That must be it.
Nodding to himself, he pushed his body off the floor and stumbled after the two girls.
Pitch blackness swallowed the tunnel almost instantly.
Unlike Lushi and Lize, Krai possessed zero night vision. The darkness pressed heavy against his face. He kept his hands stretched out like a zombie, blindly following the soft scuff of their boots hitting the dirt. The air down here smelled strongly of old rust and stagnant water.
Up ahead, Lushi broke the quiet rhythm. "This tunnel is long. How come you didn't notice this before, Lize? You're a Thief. This should be visible on your radar."
"I can sense anything that has life," Lize answered lazily. "I can track people, phantoms, and magical traps. But not sinkholes."
"It is a tunnel. Not a sinkhole."
"It's the same thing."
"It really isn't."
Stopping mid-step, Lushi turned around to check on their straggler. She sighed heavily. The muddy path behind them was completely empty. Just dark air and dripping water.
"He wandered off again," Lushi grumbled. "Lize, track him."
Dirt kicked up into the dark. Lize sprinted back the way they came, her pink hair whipping through the stale underground air.
A short distance away, Krai was standing perfectly still with his palms pressed against a cold, damp rock face. He had taken a wrong turn somewhere in the pitch black.
Where am I? I can't see anything.
Light footsteps approached rapidly from his left. Lize slid to a halt in the dirt, followed a second later by Lushi.
Both girls looked past Krai into the gloom.
Their eyes widened.