Death by flame would have to be the choice. Except that Rupert had already thrown himself in. That sweet and innocent child had unknowingly thrown himself into damnation! She couldn’t let his soul rot for all eternity in the Abyss! But what could she do? Jenn couldn’t fool herself, she knew she had no power to bring them both back from the Abyss. No mortal being had that power. But it was her fault he’d gone. He’d come to rescue her, and now he was damned until the end of time. It was her fault, and she’d promised herself that she’d protect him. Jenn closed her eyes in pain, indecision and agony.
“Come on you fools!” The demon shouted.
No matter what the choice, the boy was in her care. If there were any shred of hope that he could be salvaged, Jenn had to take it. She’d argue with the demon herself to force at least Rupert’s return. No matter the cost to herself, no matter the sacrifice. If she could in any way save him, she had to try. She opened her eyes, fearful resolution and determination giving them an edge.
Steeling herself, she dragged the still tied-up Gastropé with her. Inch by inch she seemed to move. Parts of the flaming tent actually falling on her, and burning her slightly before she could shrug them aside and drag Gastropé the few feet to the hole.
The demon fixed its gaze on Gastropé then looked at Jenn in annoyance as she came up next to him. “Well, he was a prisoner also. I can’t let him die. We humans just aren’t quite as ruthless as you demons!” With that she gave a last heave and shoved Gastropé through the hole. Even as she did it, cold irony flooded her as she wondered what right she had to take the choice of damnation from Gastropé. She didn’t care though; she might need the wizard to help get Rupert out.
Rather than get angry, the demon actually seemed to smile, horrific as that was. “No, but you’ll gladly toss him into the Abyss!” It actually laughed as it ushered her through the hole. Jenn’s spine went cold as she stepped through.
Jenn’s spine didn’t stay cold for long. Out of the fire and into the lava may not have been a sufficiently strong of a metaphor for this situation. As she stepped through the hole she was hit by an unbelievable wave of heat. It was literally like walking into the hottest dry sauna she could possibly imagine. Her breath was nearly sucked from her lungs by the heat.
To make matters worse, as the demon came through the hole behind her, it closed it. With the closing of the hole, the last breath of relatively cool air from the inferno that was the tent vanished, along with the light. With that, the cave, or so it appeared to be from what she had seen as she stepped through, descended into complete darkness. Gastropé was lying at her feet gasping for breath in the heat. The demon was doing something to the hole, she had no idea where Rupert was. “Rupert!” she managed to croak. Summoning up her will in the face of the heat, Jenn quickly brought forth a Were Light. It was a simple spell that all students learned early on, but a useful one. A small globe of green light appeared above and in front of her face.
The light from the globe revealed that, indeed, they were in a cave. Actually a rather large cave. There was a single long passageway sloping upwards to her left and to her right was a crudely chiseled stone table, behind which was what could only be called a stone throne, with a large hole in the rear, near the bottom, and a groove in the seat, going out the back. Further, there were small rectangular holes, or niches in the walls. These could roughly be described as shelves, except that there was nothing on them. Other than this, there appeared to be nothing else in the cave, except for the people and the demon.
It felt like the sweat was literally being sucked from her body. She felt like she was sweating profusely, but the water seemed to evaporate as fast as she sweated it out. Her lungs began to ache from the heat of the air. What was she going to do? There was no sign of Rupert. Was she too late already? The heat was keeping her from thinking clearly. She doubted she could take much more.
“Cool spell...” croaked Gastropé.
“What?” Jenn asked as she looked down at him.
“Untie me, please, and then we can cast Cool spells on ourselves against the heat.”
“What are you talking about? That little cantrip is used to cool liquids for drinking and such.”
“Yes...” Gastropé’ seemed out of breath. Jenn was sure the fiery air made it hard for him to speak, it certainly did for her. “But it can be adapted to cool a thin layer of air around your body. If you do it right and continue to maintain it, it will cool all the air coming through the layer and into your lungs also. If you untie me, so I can do it for myself; I’ll show you how to do it.”
