“Roast meat?” asked Dantes.

“Yes, that’s what magic smells like to me.” said Televor, turning the mirror over in his hands. “And this smells to me like a Lady of the Hearth feast to end all feasts.”

“Don’t get too attached. I’ll be keeping that once you’re done helping me.”

“This is what you needed? For me to decipher its use?”

“I have a general idea of its use. It’s meant to transfer goods from outside the prison. There’s a small gap in the leather frame that I think is meant to be touched by blood to activate it, but I decided against testing it myself.”

“Hmmm, magic mirrors. Elven then, or some other kind of fey creature.” he ran a finger gently across the mirror’s surface. “Old magic, but… broken somehow…”

Dantes raised an eyebrow, the answer to this somehow was obvious considering Tel was holding a broken shard of mirror. He stayed silent though, no reason to ruin Tel’s fun, and he wasn’t sure if breaking his flow would slow him down or break his concentration.

Tel brought the mirror to his nose, gave it a few cursory sniffs, then licked across its surface with his tongue.

This made Dantes raise his other eyebrow, and his eyes widened when the mirror gave off a brief warm glow.

“You were right to not use your own blood. It would’ve resulted in a tremendous expulsion of power. You’d likely be dead.”

Dantes swallowed.

“The only way to activate it is with pure elven blood. Anything less results in the power within the mirror exiting violently, in proportion to how much elven blood you have.” He paused to laugh. “I suppose I’d only be half dead if I tried it.”

“What exactly does it do after it’s activated?”

“It’s a portal. Well, originally it was a portal. Elfland has several mirrors like this, unbroken of course, they’re portals back to the original realm from which the elves hail. Though, they obviously don’t take many trips back, what with the cataclysm and all. A trip back would mean almost instant death for any that tried. They’d be, ‘devoured by the darkness that had slept in their own hearts’ as my Grandma would say when talking about Elfland.” He shook his head wistfully. “She was such a nice woman.”

“What does that mean for the one that shard is a part of?”

“Well, because it’s broken, it can only link with other pieces of itself. I imagine that you put a piece of paper through it and whatever other piece it’s linked to received the message, and they send whatever was requested back.”

Dantes clenched his jaw. It could only be activated by pure elven blood, they likely only communicated through it in elvish script, not to mention that was likely coded on top of that. That limited his options with it severely. He was left with a piece of magic that he could use as either a bomb or a bargaining chip. It wasn’t the full potential he’d been looking for, but considering his only investment into acquiring it had been a small pile of dried meat, he’d come out on top. It could still be all he needed to secure his protection from the kings, but he’d need to play things right, and get incredibly lucky.

Tel paused mid sniff as he was looking at the mirror, his happy expression at being able to enjoy closeness to magic again slowly turning to a frown. “Wait. Where did you get this?”

“From the Elven Kings.”

“They didn’t…give it to you, did they?”

“Afraid not.”

“By the Aether, they’re going to cut you groin to throat! Shit, they’re going to cut me groin to throat!”

“Don’t worry, they don’t know I stole it. There’s no way for them to trace its loss back to me… Unless you say something.”

Tel nodded slowly letting out a sigh. “You’re sure? There’s no way they’re after you for it?”

Dantes shook his head. “Not for it, no.”

Tel nodded and stopped. “Wait, what do you mean by that?:

Dantes sighed, Tel was learning. It was a thing equally detrimental and beneficial to him all at once. “I got into a fight outside, Which Wench. Wound up being pushed into some new hot shit Elfland Kings Leader, and accidentally slashed his face with a shiv. Ran away, and embarrassed a few of them in the process, stabbed one of them.”

“And your solution is to steal this from them? Won’t they be far more upset about that?”

“Yes, but as I mentioned they don’t know I’m the one who took it.”

“Couldn’t you have just gone to them? Throw yourself at their mercy? Take a quick severe beating and then crawl away to recover?”

“You maybe could do that with the protection of the collared and half-elven blood. Me? It’s not an option. Even buying them off would be almost impossible for a mutt like me. I don’t exactly have bars of gold and virginal elven women on hand to trade.”

Tel stared worriedly at the mirror in his hands. He’d just been salivating over it, but now he looked as if it’s touch was actually painful to him.

Dantes held out a hand. “Listen, you held out your end of the bargain, and honored the favor I asked of you. Your part ends here. I can handle myself, and the information you’ve given me should help.”

Tel nodded reluctantly, and handed Dantes the mirror. “Okay… but if they ask I won’t tell them where to find you.”

Dantes chuckled. “Very noble, but you don’t know where to find me anyway.” He took a breath, and let it out. “I’ll guide you back. I need to think through my next moves.”

Tel nodded, and Dantes put the mirror back in its hiding spot before he began leading him through the tunnels. He took a different route back, he didn’t think Tel would sell him out on purpose, but he couldn’t fully trust him, and wanted to be sure he wouldn’t be able to make his way back to the mirror without him.

At one point they entered a large antechamber, with rows and rows of benches hewn from the stone of the Pit itself. Ornate carvings in strange geometric patterns lined the walls, and the ceilings were so high they got lost in the dark. Dantes had another strange feeling, it was similar to the rats, but different at the same time. He’d felt the rats running along his feet, now he could swear he was being lightly slapped in the face by something. He heard a flap of wings above, and realized it was bats, and they were nervous. He didn’t hesitate, instead pulling Tel down behind one of the stone pews.

“Wha-”

Dantes held up a finger, and gestured for him to stay low, and held his breath, drawing his shiv.

Just then, two elves began to walk through the same chamber. They moved silently, with one wielding a thin sword, and another holding a wickedly curved dagger. They scanned the room, then nodded at one another, sheathing their weapons.

“Could’ve sworn I heard footsteps.”

“Might’ve, the echoes down here can linger for a long time. Could’ve been the steps of a man long dead.”

One of them looked up as if beseeching the gods.“When I’m stuck down here as long as you, will I also become unbearably fucking creepy about everything?”

“That, or mad, or dead.”

There was an audible sigh. “That one’s on me. I asked and got another creepy answer. I accept responsibility for that.”

The other one nodded sagely. “It’s normal to be nervous when you first arrive in the pit. We’re meant for rich forests, not deep dungeons. This is the realm of bottom feeding lesser races, like the dwarves and kobolds.”

“Yeah, yeah. We’re the best, they’re the worst. I don’t see why we're doing this in the first place? So some asshole fell into Reivare, knicked him a bit, stabbed a three quarter blooded mouth breather, and ran away when he was chased. I say we let him alone. He’ll come back toward the Maw eventually, and then we jump him there, kill him, and move on.”

“I…agree with you. But a Grand Duke of Spring was cut by a mixed beast. He is fresh to the pit, and impatient. All affronts feel particularly offending to him, deep within his core. This will fade as he settles into the way of things here, and we will be better off for it.”

“And in the meantime we kill this mutt, Dantes?”

“Yes. Even if his temper cooled he has given an order. He will not back off on it unless absolutely necessary.”

“You’ve seen this kind of thing a few times, huh?”

“Many, many times. The new Dukes are sent down to run operations here. They learn valuable lessons. They leave. The cycle repeats.”

“Any chance any of us regulars get to leave with him.”

“It has happened.”

There was a sigh. “It would probably help my chances if I killed the mutt right?”

“It’s likely.”

“Alright, fuck it then. Let’s check the next chamber.”

The elves walked down the long room, past the pew where Dantes and Tel were hiding and off into the darkness of the deeper caverns that they’d come from. They sat there for several minutes, wary of the sensitivity of elf ears before they let out a loud exhalation of breath almost simultaneously.

“Let’s move,” said Dantes, standing up and dragging Tel to his feet.