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“What, you think the priests were eradicated by someone?” asks Aleya.

“Possibly,” reasons James. “It’s the only explanation which seems to fit.” A glint from the midst of the three corpses catches his eye and he leans forward for a closer look.

“What are you doing?” asks Aleya nervously. Her nerves have been on edge ever since they first entered this place and being around the dead priests hasn’t calmed them down any.

Taking out his knife, he begins moving the rags and bones away, “There’s something here.”

“You shouldn’t disturb the dead,” she warns. “It isn’t good.”

James suddenly stands up with a chain dangling from the point of his knife. An amulet is attached to one end of it.

Coming closer to take a better look at what he found, Jiron suddenly gasps when the face of the medallion comes into the light. He glances to James.

“I thought so,” he says. Holding it up, they all see the three points with the lines running between them. “The sign of the warrior priests, or at least something to do with them.”

Taking it from his knife, he takes a closer look and says, “I once had an amulet exactly like this one that I bought from a merchant in Cardri.” Removing it from his knife, he places it within the pouch at his waist. “I’ll not lose this so readily this time,” he announces.

“Why take it?” asks Aleya.

“Never know if it’s going to come in handy or not,” he tells her. To Jiron he says, “Now, shall we continue?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “Let’s get out of here!”

As they continue past the dead priests, Aleya says, “You know, if that is the sign of these priest, why didn’t everyone have them?”

“Maybe it was only given to a priest once they achieved a certain level of the temple hierarchy,” suggests James. “Simply having one may have afforded them some privilege or it could’ve been a sign of rank or trust as well. We may never find out conclusively.”

The tingling sensation of another doing magic suddenly comes to James. It isn’t very strong and it feels like it’s far off, probably the mage up on the surface hunting for them. Whatever the reason, he doesn’t mention it to the others, he can tell Aleya remains quite agitated about being in here. No sense giving her more to worry about when nothing can be done about it anyway.

They come to another junction of converging corridors branching off to the right and left, or they can continue on straight. Shining the light from the orb down the left corridor reveals another impassable cave-in. To the right the corridor extends further into the dark, as does the one continuing on straight.

A moment’s hesitation is all they need before feeling the breeze once again coming from straight ahead of them. Not worrying about the corridor to their right, they continue on down the corridor ahead of them.

From where Jiron leads, he suddenly says, “I think there’s light coming from up ahead.” Glancing back at James he adds, “Douse the orb.”

“Right,” agrees James as the orb disappears, plunging them into darkness. It takes their eyes a few moments to adjust before they can make out the faint light from up ahead that caught Jiron’s eye.

As they move closer, their excitement mounts as they realize it is in fact sunlight coming in from the outside. The corridor is blocked by a cave-in except for a small opening near the top.

Jiron climbs the rubble pile and looks through the opening. Turning back, he whispers excitedly, “I see trees out there!”

“Can you make the hole bigger?” asks Aleya, anxious to get out of the underground temple.

“I think so,” he replies. Soon rubble begins to cascade down from the top as he begins widening the opening.

“Jiron,” James suddenly says, interrupting his excavation.

Glancing back at him, Jiron pauses in his labor and asks, “What?”

“Maybe we should rest here until night and continue this once the sun goes down,” he suggests. “Then we could get out without anyone noticing.”

Aleya gets a panicked look in her eyes at the prospect of spending any more time in this old temple which is now more of a tomb.

James lays his hand on her