"I appreciate you agreeing to accompany me on this mission, Captain. I truly do. But like I told you before you signed on, itâs due to get... sticky.â 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 wasnât, however, the gap that yawned between them and the continuation of the tunnels they were in that worried him.Â
What worried him, of course, was the aura the place had which he had no expectation the soldier with him had picked up on. Theyâd had to descend several leagues before heâd 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 didnât have the time to diagnose. All that mattered now was alerting his compatriot to their predicament - and by that he didnât mean just getting across the chasm.
âAnd right now, sticky doesnât just mean that we need to get to that tunnel entrance over there,â he said, pointing to the darkened alcove they were staring at from the other end of seeming impossibility. âIt also means,â he added, âthat we need to be watching our backs. Weâve been being watched at least most of the way down here, and Iâm not exactly sure by what or by whom.â Not the most helpful statements, he knew, but until they got down to the catacombs where the artifacts he needed lay waiting, they didnât have time for him to back-track and trace their observers.
âNow, Iâve got more than a few ideas on how to get over there, since the cloak canât - or wonât, really, itâs gotten finicky and lazy lately - lift two people. But if youâve got any more impressive ideas than a little levitation, Iâm open to suggestions.â