"Where do you think this will put us in terms of distance to the main structure? We can't be that far away if the larger portions are just over there..."
THEROS turned back to THEXIS and motioned with his finger to keep quiet. I remained motionless and silent for a moment, thinking that THEROS had heard voices again, but when he began moving further up straight away, he just wanted to ensure we didn't give our position away. Additionally if the HoN Co. guards were here and didn't know about us then we could retain an element of surprise. I felt a little vulnerable walking up the edge of the stairs, a steadily increasing height growing to my left; I told myself that everything would be okay provided I didn't look down. I don't have a fear of heights, not normally, but I'm pretty sure it's not the heights that scare people. I'm more scared of falling off! But I wasn't presented with an alternative when I had to manoeuvre myself along a small section that wound back on itself. Gulping slightly whilst looking at the dizzying vertical drop, I calmly breathed in and continued. When the small lip of the bridge was within my grasp, and I swung my legs over onto the main walkway, then I was able to breathe easy again.
"Right, we approached from that direction, from where the lava lake was, so logically we should head in this direction where the larger structure should be..."
"Logically yes. Also, the other three routes not only take us away from those, but they are also surrounded by Nether stone. If the last structure taught us anything, it's that that is the wrong direction to head in."
THEROS led the way once more down the only route that didn't lead to a claustrophobic tunnel or passage, back along the way we had come, only this time at a much greater elevated position. As we neared the far end of the bridge, the larger structures began to take shape ahead of us; we were definitely heading in the right direction. However as I looked out across towards the far end of the bridge, I could make out what appeared to be a break at the end. Instead of leading down to a set of stairs, which would require a smooth edge, the very end of the bridge was broken and mangled, as though something had fallen onto it or it had collapsed a long time ago. I was beginning to wonder if this was the right way to go, but I continued to follow THEROS until the very end. I got the impression that both THEROS and THEXIS had thought the same thing...
"Oh... So it leads down to where we need to be...?"
"I don't know, but look down there! A light source... That's either the lava basin or the torch trail left behind by the HoN Co. guards..."
"But the guards hadn't left a trail of torches before... So... It can only be one thing..."
Looking down to where the crumbling remains of the bridge led, I began to think we had actually found the entrance; the light coming up from below did seem a little dim to be torches, and the edging of the roof section showed characteristic markings that were only present where the entrance was. Only one way to find out, and we could just head back out if it was wrong...
Carefully making our way down, we soon found out that the source of the light was indeed the lava basin that was seated in the centre of the large entranceway. Moving down the single corridor that led away from the entrance, we found it to split as normal a little further down than usual, however we remained with the theory that the path straight ahead of us was the right one. This passage was very long and winding, much like the ones we had encountered before, but it also had a degree of variation in terms of alternate paths to take. This threw THEROS slightly, until we went with the 'head down the left path' rule, which from my opinion seemed to contradict the first. Taking the second path to the left from a crossroads, we met with another corner, this time leading around to the right. Turning to head down the new section of passage, we stopped immediately! We stood silent and still, staring into the room that we could now see contained the Eye of Ender. Only, that wasn't the only thing in this room... Three guards stood around, two near one of the Affinitas cages carrying swords, whilst a third stood to the right of basin, not carrying any weapon that we could see. They were talking amongst themselves, and only a few bits were audible at the distance we stood at...
"Do we just take it or..."
"We could do what we did before...? Take it and run... Worked last time..."
"Or, we could destroy the cages and then take it; stop them from having a chance to spawn..."
"No, that might actually cause them to spawn before we touch the Eye... We just..."
The guard next to the basin stopped talking and looked at us from where we stood. We knew he could see us, and we watched as he mouthed the words 'Lone 7'...
"Finally... We've been following you for some time... Come forward or we'll kill you where you stand... Now!"
Moving out from the shadows, we entered into the room, confronting the three men that now stood at the front of the basin, swords ready. THEROS motioned for me to keep quiet, presumably to let him do the talking. I was more than happy for him to do just that... I wouldn't be able to speak even if I tried...
Syeonyx signing off
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