"I appreciate you agreeing to accompany me on this mission, Captain. I truly do. But like I told you before you signed on, itās due to get... sticky.ā He stared out over the precipice in front of them, too far for even a super soldier to jump but just far enough for one gifted with the weird to find doable. It wasnāt, however, the gap that yawned between them and the continuation of the tunnels they were in that worried him.Ā
What worried him, of course, was the aura the place had which he had no expectation the soldier with him had picked up on. Theyād had to descend several leagues before heād noticed it himself, but the longer they walked in the dark tunnels with only their flares and flash lights to guide them, the stronger the feeling had become. He was certain they were being watched, or more specifically scried upon. There was no entity nearby that could have managed going unnoticed to his wards if it was close enough to watch them, which meant they were being actively watched from a distance via some spell he didnāt have the time to diagnose. All that mattered now was alerting his compatriot to their predicament - and by that he didnāt mean just getting across the chasm.
āAnd right now, sticky doesnāt just mean that we need to get to that tunnel entrance over there,ā he said, pointing to the darkened alcove they were staring at from the other end of seeming impossibility. āIt also means,ā he added, āthat we need to be watching our backs. Weāve been being watched at least most of the way down here, and Iām not exactly sure by what or by whom.ā Not the most helpful statements, he knew, but until they got down to the catacombs where the artifacts he needed lay waiting, they didnāt have time for him to back-track and trace their observers.
āNow, Iāve got more than a few ideas on how to get over there, since the cloak canāt - or wonāt, really, itās gotten finicky and lazy lately - lift two people. But if youāve got any more impressive ideas than a little levitation, Iām open to suggestions.ā