Thaddeus Diggory
The sun is just beginning to rise again, if the light creeping in is to be believed. I haven’t slept yet. Ariel decided that she would not work with me in any capacity, after learning about my involvement with Marcus, so I told her to get some sleep. She almost refused out of spite, but ultimately decided that complying would be better than sitting and watching me struggle.
I haven’t slept all night. I’ve been trying to find some way of getting Lilo out of the trap she triggered with her infernal kleptomania, although I have half a mind to leave her here and let her suffer the consequences of her own actions. Once the light is fuller, I’ll wake Ariel and let her decide if picking up the task of freeing Lilo is too high a degree of cooperation with the enemy. Who knows, she may want to carry on alone and leave the two of us to die here. Lilo was able to pass me her waterskin through the bars of the gate, but Ariel has what food they’d saved while I was on my own, and I don’t dare risk rifling through her bag with her mood being what it is.
Lilo Talei
So Thaddeus worked all night to try and get me out of here, but we haven’t had any luck so far. He found a lever, but it doesn’t actually lift the gate high enough for me to get out. I’m exhausted, even though he insisted that I get at least a couple hours of rest. I can’t imagine how tired he must have been when he finally got to sleep. Ariel didn’t say a word to him when he woke her up. She looked away and waited until he’d walked a few paces past her before she even glanced my way. But once she’d gotten up and had some food and the last sip of water that Thaddeus had left for her, she seemed less irritable.
It’s hard to tell the time of day down here because the only natural light we get is filtered through the entrance of the cave where Ariel and I slept the night before last, but we walked a good couple hundred feet before we found this big empty cavern, so even the brightest daylight isn’t that bright way back here. But I think it’s mid-morning, maybe getting close to noon. Ariel’s been up for a few hours, and she keeps trying the same thing Thaddeus did all night. It’s getting annoying to keep telling her that he already tried every single thing she’s suggested, and she does not appreciate hearing it over and over again.
The conclusion that they both came to—individually, of course, since she won’t talk to him—is that it’s going to take Ariel lifting the gate while Thaddeus pulls the lever, or something. So now Ariel is off pouting and debating whether she’s willing to help Thaddeus and me. She’s not exactly pleased with either of us right now, but I guess it says something about her that she hasn’t abandoned us. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if she’d up and left as soon as Thaddeus woke her.
I, of course, have had plenty of time to walk around this treasure mound and am feeling… less excited about it. Now that the “OOH, SHINY!” has worn off, I’d give my left arm to never see any of it again, if it just meant that I could get out of here alive. I put all of us in danger over, what? A tarnished gold goblet that any competent metalworker could replicate in a couple hours?
How pathetic am I?
Ariel Irene
Thaddeus just woke up, and I know I need to talk to him about getting Lilo out of the treasure room, but I just… hate his guts. And hers, too, for that matter. I don’t know why I don’t just leave and let them fend for themselves.
Esther would never do that, though. She would let bygones be bygones and be the bigger woman.
I wish I could be half the woman she was.
I can do this. I can talk to them calmly and kindly, and we can get Lilo out quickly and without any incidents. It’s going to be okay.
-
Well, we got Lilo out, but it was not calm or kind or quick.
I told Thaddeus that I would be willing to cooperate with him since the stakes were life-and-death for Lilo, but before we could do anything, he made an offhand remark about Esther, and I just… absolutely lost it. Called him all kinds of horrible things and told him I hoped his wife kicked him out again and a lot of other things I’m not proud of. Thaddeus launched right back at me—I’ll be honest, it scared me because I’ve never seen him angry before—telling me I was overreacting and he didn’t know about Esther and didn’t want anyone to get hurt.
That’s when Lilo chimed in and shouted that I’d killed someone so I was one to talk, and Thaddeus’ face went corpse-white for a moment. I guess he didn’t know. His voice got very quiet, and he asked if I’d honestly gone after Marcus and killed him. I didn’t know what to say, but before I could put two words together, Lilo started demanding to know if it was Marcus Cecchini I’d killed? I didn’t even know she knew him. Turns out, she owed him a ton of money because she’d stolen family heirloom from him and sold it before he found out.
All of us got kind of quiet after we put together that we’d all been involved with the same gang leader—and not only that, but he’s more or less the reason we’re all here in the first place. I don’t know what the hell is happening, but it’s too much of a coincidence for me to feel comfortable.
So we’re all sort of on the same team again, against whoever—or whatever—brought us all together as what’s looking more and more like some sort of sick joke.
Thaddeus and I had the gate up quickly enough once the two of us were working together, and Lilo crawled out with only a little scratch. I noticed she left the goblet behind that she’d been trying to take when she got stuck in the first place. It’s wild—she said she was stealing it to pay Marcus back, not knowing that he’s dead. I did decide to tell her why the knife was so important to me, and we talked for a long time about Esther, about her death, about how I managed to find Marcus. She asked if I regret what I did, and I told her that it didn’t make me feel better.
I knew it wouldn’t, I guess, but I kept holding out hope.
The light from the passageway is starting to fade, and we’re all pretty spent. We’ll try and get some rest for a little while before picking back up in the morning. We have no idea how to get out of this cave with the gate sealed down and no idea where we’d come out if we kept walking forward. I don’t like it, but my body is refusing to stay awake any longer, so I don’t have much of a choice.
Tomorrow will be a new day.
You’re reading The Ravenswing Report, a rapid-fire, limited-run serial from Sara Dietz at Blinking Blue Line. To learn more and access the Table of Contents, click here.
The long-awaited moment of truth!
Also, I’m really curious about the nature of this place. A part of me is wondering if it’s Purgatory. 😳
Although after rereading Day 0, I’m guessing along different lines now.
But did Lilo give the knife back?