The walls are alive with energy. Now that I know what to look for, I can see faint engravings and carvings in the walls, barely legible, depicting what appear to be people and animals, and perhaps buildings. There are geometric patterns that seem random, except for the massive energy my Sight registers.

And there are runes.

To my eye, they are little more than additions to the existing geometric patterns, but with my Sight I’m somehow able to differentiate them, and even intuit their meanings.

“There was…betrayal…here,” I say. My mind harks back to those stories that I’d studied from the scroll, hints of a darkness in the cave, whispers of blood and anger and revenge. My throat feels dry as I piece together the bits I pulled from the scroll with what I’m seeing before me. “Something very bad happened here.” I turn to look at Delkash, who is watching me consideringly. “Very bad.”

Delkash glances at the walls, then back at me. “What else do you see?”

My eyes scan the wall in front of me. I turn and do the same to the wall behind me.

A figure in a black cloak standing on a hill catches my eyes. A dazzling array of shapes and lines and dots fill the negative space in the image, and it all seems to glow in my Sight. I squint, trying to make out details. “This person…they were the one that was betrayed.” I reach out with my finger and gently trace the carving, feel the image embossed into the surface of the cave’s wall. “I’m not sure…how…or why… There is just a sense of betrayal, and loss. And…” I look back up to Delkash. “And they want vengeance.”

Delkash nods again. “Anything else?”

I look back at the figure on the hill, scan the images around it. There is a trail of runes running in an odd line away from the figure, and I follow it with my finger. My Sight deciphers the cryptic lettering, and I gasp.”The figure… That’s Hilda?”

Delkash smiles and claps me on the shoulder. “Well done, Inka. Well done. Hilda will be very pleased.”

“Wait,” I say. “Hilda? How do you know this? Did Hilda send you?”

“She did.”

“Why?”

“To witness, as I’ve said before.”

“To witness what?”

“You.”

I shake my head. “I don’t understand. Why would she care what I do?”

“She cares,” says Delkash, “because you are seeking to be her apprentice. She hasn’t taken an apprentice in a long time, and that’s not because no one has sought her out. She is very particular.”

I consider his words, and the weight of my quest. “You say she’s particular. Can you tell me what I must do to impress her?”

Delkash absently eyes the images on the wall and rubs his chin. Then, with a shrug, he says, “There will be more tests.”

“More tests?”

Delkash just smiles at me.

“You mean this cave, don’t you?” I ask. “This cave has been the first test.”

Delkash shrugs. “One of the first tests, yes.”

“There were others?”

“There are always other tests.”

I look at the pictures on the cave wall and consider what Delkash has said. More tests? “Is this image something to do with my next test?” I ask him, gesturing. ”Something about vengeance? Do I need to avenge Hilda for what was done here?”

Delkash laughs. “Ambitious! So ambitious!”

I wait for his laughter to subside, then say, “I could keep guessing, if you want, or you could just tell me what I’m supposed to do next.”

He gestures placatingly. “Hilda will avenge herself. You are hardly ready for such a confrontation, in any event.”

“So…what?”

“Just carry on.”

I look at him blankly a moment. “Carry on? Carry on with what?”

He meets my gaze and merely smiles.

So. The pictures may or may not have anything to do with anything at all. I need to just “carry on,” do I? In order to impress Hilda, I need to find Hilda? Thinking about it, I suppose that sounds about right.

My eyes fall on the pictures again, and something bothers me. Something… I tease my lower lip with my teeth, considering the figure on the hill. Something… Oh! “These images are ancient,” I say. “They have to predate the arrival of our people in the Ironlands. How can they possibly depict Hilda?

Delkash shrugs again. “Time is a funny thing,” he says.

I wait for him to say more, then sniff when he remains silent. “Okay. Of course I’ll do what is necessary to prove myself worthy to be Hilda’s apprentice. But none of that matters if we’re stuck down here.”

Delkash smiles. “We may not be quite as stuck as you suppose.”

For a change, Delkash leads the way. He takes the torch from me and leaves me to quickly grab my pack and situate Rigi on my shoulder. I hurry after him down the narrow, winding passage. It narrows significantly, both in width and height, and we once again find ourselves shimmying on our stomachs through a claustrophobia-inducing stretch some ten minutes long. When we finally emerge, I recognize the cavern from before, with the six small tunnels. The passage has brought us all the way back around.

From here, it is simple to retrace our steps. The most fraught part of the return is the mushroom cavern, but we repeat the process we used on the way in, holding cloth over our mouth and nose to filter out the spores. Before too much longer we are standing outside the cave, relishing the cool air and the open sky above us. The day is far advanced, and I guess that dark is just an hour away,.

“Come,” says Delkash. “We should be able to make Raven Hill before nightfall. We can clean up, have that arm of yours looked at, and get some rest. I’d like for us to leave as soon as we can.”

“‘We’? I thought this was my test.”

He smiles. “So it is. And I shall be witness to it.”

I’m not sure how I feel about having Delkash as a perpetual shadow, but if this is what it takes to earn Hilda’s respect, to become her apprentice… I nod. “Okay, then.”

We walk together away from the cave, and back toward the village.