Update 2

Romulus descends the wood slats that seem glued like a ladder to the flaky rock walls. Not wanting to look like a coward in front of the others, he forces one foot down over the other, half expecting the next wood slat to break away under his weight. Romulus focuses on sliding his foot down against the wall until he feels the next slat.

“You only have forty or fifty feet left to go, Romulus,” Stateira smirks at her mocking.

“Thanks, you stupid bitch,” Romulus thinks to himself. But before Romulus can muster a retort, he begins feeling woozy and disoriented. He stops his descent and holds tight to the slat, waiting for the feeling to go away. It doesn’t. Romulus realizes this wooziness is actually the powerful ambient magical energy of the node. He continues his descent. His discomfort with the wood slats is overtaken by a magical oppression that grows with every step downward. Romulus’ fear of falling is replaced with a mounting anxiety over the increasing magic he feels within the large cavern.

His head pounds as he descends faster, no longer focused on his fear of falling. Just as he feels that his head is about to implode, his foot touches bottom. Briefly distracted from his pounding headache, Romulus inhales a slow, deep breath. Not bothered by the musty cavern air, Romulus inhales deeply. Letting the surrounding magic into his being, his headache dissipates rapidly, and Romulus realizes that he stands in a special room.

Peering into the darkness, without even casting, Romulus snaps his fingers to create a glowing orb to provide some illumination. Nifen looks over and sees an almost malevolent look on Romulus’ face as Romulus absorbs the magic of the cavern. His magical thirst is being sated right before everyone’s eyes. Romulus continues to breathe slowly and deeply, guiding his orb to illustrate the cavern’s perimeter. Stateira and Jameyes reach the bottom while Romulus looks around the cavern. After what seems like an hour but is only a few minutes, Romulus breaks the silence, “Lady and gentlemen, I know, I feel, what we need to do to travel from this node to the next.”

Already knowing the answer, Nifen asks, “What is that, Romulus?”

“I can expend just a mild amount of magical energy, and without saying anything, I can teleport all of us to the next node,” Romulus pauses waiting for awe from his companions. Not seeing the expected reaction, Romulus declares, “Did you hear me? I can teleport all of us. And without speaking!”

“We heard you, oh great one,” Stateira says sarcastically. “So what are you waiting for?”
“Huh? Oh. We need to wait a few hours for me charge up my magical strength,” replies Romulus.

“You’ve got to kidding me. It’s a good thing we don’t have to wait for me to charge up my bow for hours before I can fire it. Or wait for Jameyes’ sword to charge up before he can swing it—although he does seem to wait for a few blows to be exchanged before he can dig himself out of his leaf-filled hole to join the battle.” Stateira chuckles at her joke and looks over at Jameyes, who looks passively back at her.

“Stateira, stop,” Nifen interjects. “You are not helping anything with making fun of everyone.”

“Oh, here comes my voice of reason with no sense of humor,” Stateira purses her lips and raises her brow.

“What in the hell is wrong with you? Is it that time of the month? Do elves have ‘that time of the month’? Your outside beauty is dwarfed by your inner bitch, and who gives you the right…” Nifen stops himself as he sees Stateira’s face drop as she fights back tears. Nifen inhales slowly and deeply to calm himself. “Look Stateira, I know this has been a couple of emotional days. It’s been tough for all of us, but especially for you and Jameyes, and we all know that Jameyes isn’t really an emotional person, so we know it’s been especially tough on you.”

“L-Look, I’m s-s-sorry,” Stateira blubbers her words. “I’ve just had a lot to deal with. I find my father, whom I haven’t seen in over twenty years. I find out I’m related to the tall hunk of a mute over there. Incidentally, Jameyes, you look a lot better now that you’ve cleaned up a bit. Jameyes looks at her quizzically and lets out a rare smile. I also find out the Elves of Yourn are not only alive and active, but they plan on sacking my home and killing everyone I’ve ever known and loved. And now we leave my father up there, and I wonder if he’ll be there when we get back. So waiting an additional eight hours is a little bothersome for me. Not to mention, we all might not be coming back since we are walking into a drow lair. It’s just a lot. Jameyes, I’m sorry,” she says as she approaches him.

“I make fun of you because I like you. And I have a lot of respect for you.” She wraps her thin arms around him to give him a hug. With one around her, Jameyes softly returns the embrace. She lets go and approaches Nifen. “Nifen, I’m sorry. You’re a good man. And we need you if we are going to survive this hell-hole.” She leans forward and gives him a kiss on the cheek before she walks over to Romulus. “And Romulus, I’m sorry. You’re a good wizard and you are only getting better. And I don’t want us to die without exchanging this first.” Stateira grabs his face and kisses him passionately. Shocked, Romulus opens his eyes wide, and as he takes in her beauty, he returns the kiss as he reaches behind her and grabs her right butt cheek with his left hand and presses her groin against his left leg.

After a full thirty second kiss, Stateira gently pulls away. “Well, I’m glad we got that over with. Now we can sit back and wait for Romulus to charge up his magic,” Stateira smiles toward Romulus. Romulus rolls his eyes and shakes his head back and forth before letting out a small grin toward Stateira.