Psider led us to one of the destroyed houses.

  Most of the homes were built out of wood, even though there was a lot of rock nearby. Earth Elementalists were able to create very sturdy homes out of stone and then fuse all of the rocks together. Every so many years, the family would have to pay an Earth Elementalist to come through and fix the cracks from the stone expanding, contracting, or settling, but that was a small price to pay for a house that could survive a wyvern landing on it.

  The only reason why there wouldn’t be a lot of rock houses was if the people who lived here didn’t have access to an Earth Elementalist. Given that we were on New Kazadt, it didn’t surprise me that the races that had access to builders like the Dwarves, Minotaurs, and Kharm would want to avoid the continent.

  “You travel with a Camadt?” Psider looked at Starna. “Doesn’t that hinder your magic?”

  “We’re on a continent of Camadt.” The beautiful Elf winced. “Just being here makes it feel like I’ve got a Leviathan sitting on my chest.”

  I thought about pointing out that even baby Leviathan were the size of an Elephant, but considering the pained look on her face, that’s probably what it felt like to her.

  “You need to learn how to internalize your magic.” The sharkman took a deep breath. “It’ll take longer to cast a spell, but you’ll be able to hold onto your magic better and it won’t be so oppressive.”

  “I’ll have to try that once we clear this out.” She turned around in the wall-less living room. “Where are we going?”

  Psider walked over to the ruins of the kitchen and put his hand on the stone floor. “I sealed the exit to keep them locked down there, but they’ve probably got a dozen other ways out.” He looked around at the other ruined houses. “The rest of the soldiers are looking for more exits, but until we’ve cleared the tunnels, we can’t assume that it’s safe for civilians to come back.”

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  He twisted his hand and a four foot square dropped out of the floor. The sharkman looked at Starna. “Can you sense anyone?”

  The tanned Elf closed her eyes at the edge of the hole and after a few moments shook her head. “Nothing.”

  “What are we up against?” I touched my sword’s handle, but hadn’t drawn it yet.

  “Tunnels are six feet high, four feet wide.” Psider nodded at my sword. “That’s not going to do you much good down there.” He pulled a clear bladed dagger off his belt and slid it over to me. “Can you use that?”

  I picked up the eight-inch diamond bladed weapon. It was surprisingly light for how sturdy it was. There were few things that could cut Dragon scale or Camadt hide, but this would do the trick.

  “Is this what they were using?” I didn’t know much about diamond weaponry, but I did know that it took a very skilled Earth Elementalist to make.

  The Kharm nodded. “Humans from what we can tell. Never saw anything else.”

  “Humans haven’t had powers in almost two thousand years. There’s no way they could get enough of these blades for a small army without someone noticing.” It had been the cost of banishing all the other races from Earth. It was also why almost every other race saw Humanity as a joke. They were powerless and in a world where many beings could summon a fireball with a thought an unarmed Human wasn’t a threat. Considering that I could pass as a human, I’d used that to get many opponents to underestimate me.

  “They’ve got to be getting help from somewhere.” Starna agreed. “But it’s the Cult, so does that surprise you?”

  “No.” I peered into the hole. “How far does it go?”

  “Bottom is about ten feet down. Hallways between the rooms are what’s restrictive.” Psider sat down on the lip. “I’ll go down first, then the Singiver. The Ambassador can go last.” He looked at both of us. “I started sealing tunnels, but if they’ve got an Earth Elementalist, that doesn’t mean anything, so assume that we could have someone try to sneak up on us.”

  We both nodded.

  Satisfied that we understood the plan, the Kharm dropped into the hole. A second after he landed, soft light filled the hole. “It’s clear!”

  “Did you think we were going to be chasing down Cultists when we landed?” I sat down on the lip of the hole.

  “The moment Alessa decided to run, nothing in my life has been what I thought it was going to be.” Starna crouched next to me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “For luck.”

  I smiled and kissed her back, then jumped in the hole.

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