Like taking candy from a...corpse. [Cambie!]

[Rhindeer]

"Good job? That's it? I saved your bloody neck and all you can say is 'good job'?"

...Saved his life after leaving him for dead, of course, and only saved his life in the process of saving hers, and made him cut himself when her own blood would have done just fine, but...pshaw! Details, and all that!

With a shake of her head, Briar pushed past him and headed out through the open door. "So damned ungrateful, gods."

[Cambie]

"My neck isn't saved yet," he muttered as he scrambled out the new dusty opening and into a long narrow corridor leading back up to Gods knew where. "Let's get out of this place first, then maybe I'll thank you for real."

It must've been pitch dark for her, but luckily he could 'see' perfectly fine. And what he saw didn't look promising, but gave him at least a bit of hope.

"Looks like this leads upwards for a while, and then we turn a corner and see what surprise awaits us next," he said as he pushed forward, not waiting for her. "Maybe more rock monster friends for you."

[Rhindeer]

Briar brought out her lightstone again, murmuring the trigger word that brought it alive. Of course, it didn't do much good when pit against pitch black; it just created a sort of bubble around she and Jocelyn.

At Jocelyn's comment, she cracked a wide grin. "Yeah, I really miss ol' Rocky! But what he really wanted was you. He wanted to give you a great big smooch and I was just being a good friend and trying to help him out, y'know? It was really rude, what you did. Rejecting him like that. You're ice cold, Jossy. Ice cold."

She looked around as they walked, and finally had to stop when the sand in her boots got too annoying. Grabbing Jocelyn's arm, she pulled him to a stop. "Hold still a sec," she said, before using him to balance as she took off a boot to empty out the sand.

[Cambie]

Jocelyn was so preoccupied with getting to the end of the tunnel (and ignoring her) that her grabbing his arm jolted him back to reality. He turned with a frown.

"You've never been in a desert before?" he said, gazing down at her overturned boot, the small trickle of sand coming out of it like pixie dust. It wasn't even that much. "Don't bother, you're going to get sand in there again. You'll have sand everywhere."

To demonstrate, he ran a hand through his hair, letting small granules sprinkle out of his head. "See? You're probably filthy by now." And to prove his point, he gave her sleeve a shake too, sending out another dusting.

[Rhindeer]

"Tell me about it! I've got sand in my fucking ass crack, Jossy," Briar grumped as she slipped her boot back on. "And my goddamned ladybits! You realize how uncomfortable that is? Ugh, now stop shaking more of it onto me! You keep your sand to yourself, I got enough!"

She gave her head a vigorous shake, sending out another dusting, and let out a groan as it clouded in the air. "I fucking hate the desert. I've decided that now. It's official."

[Cambie]

"You probably should have decided that before tomb robbing," he said with a shrug. There was sand down his trousers as well, but he'd been through this before. At least sand was less uncomfortable than wet mud. "Especially in a DESERT."

The corner yielded another small path and another corner. But finally an opening (a door? a window?) appeared at the far end. "Perfect," he said as he jogged lightly toward it.

And skidded to a halt.

It was a sheer drop down.

[Rhindeer]

"Pffft, whatever, Jossy," Briar said with a roll of her eyes. "At least I got something for my fucking misery." And she pat her pouch as she spoke, grinning like a fox, because she still had her gem.

Her grin faded, however, when Jocelyn came to a sudden stop, and since she couldn't "see" in the dark like Jossy could, at first all she saw was blackness beyond her bubble of light. Nothing too unusual, considering it was pitch dark, but she proceeded with caution nonetheless, because Jocelyn proooobably stopped for a reason.

A reason that became obvious she she stepped up beside him.

Briar's stomach lurched, and she took a quick step back from the edge. "Fuuuuck. For real?" she breathed. "How big a drop you think that is?"

It was like an inky pit of DOOM, and out of sheer, morbid curiosity, Briar located a large rock--a chunk of temple, no doubt--and held it out over the edge before releasing it.

And then she waited.

And waited.

And waited some more...

[Cambie]

It was a long time -- a LONG time -- before the noise echoed back up. Whether it was a thunk or a splash was difficult to tell. But Jocelyn (clinging tightly to the edge of the drop and peeking down over), couldn't even tell where the rock had landed down there. The pit dropped that much.

"Well great," he said as he scrambled back from the edge, sitting down with his back to the wall. "It's a dead end. I think there used to be a bridge here, but it probably crumbled long ago. Look, you can see the hole in the wall on the other side."

He pointed out into the darkness, completely forgetting that she probably couldn't see a think in the pitch black. "That's where we need to go, I guess."

He sighed, but then stopped and looked out again. Something in that vast chasm felt different. It was fleeting and brief, but the tingle he felt was unmistakeable. "Wait..." he said, holding up a hand. "There's some magical residue out there, but it's really faint." Maybe something to help people across?

He looked back to Briar. "This is your department. Find out how we escape. Do your thing."

[Rhindeer]

Briar squinted into the darkness, then fixed Jocelyn with a dull look. "No, I can't see a hole in the wall, smartass. I can't see shit," she said, and let out a frustrated sigh. She couldn't see how they were supposed to get over such a chasm!

But as soon as she thought that, and as soon as Jocelyn mentioned this was her department, well, she sure as hell wasn't about to admit any of her doubts! So with a toss of her hair, she brushed more sand from her clothes, dusted off her hands with a clap, and rolled her shoulders back. "But since I'm already doing all the bloody work, why stop now? Fine, fine, let's see what I can do to save your ass again. You're gonna owe me big for all this, Jossy!"

And so she slipped off a glove and thrust it into Jocelyn's hand before he could protest, before she knelt at the edge.

"Point out the magic to me," she told him. "I can't see jack, so I need to know the exact place."

[Cambie]

"Yeah yeah, I'll owe you," Jocelyn grumbled slightly, though he wasn't really in a position to complain. If she saved both of them, then it'd be worth it. Taking her hand, he peeked over the edge again, down at the gaping chasm. His heart leaped into his throat for a moment before he swallowed down the fear.

Right below them seemed to be some sort of protrusion, sticking out of the sheer wall perhaps several inches. It might have appeared to be one end of a bridge long since fallen, if not for the way it was ornately carved into the shape of an owl -- and the fact that the precise details of the protrusion remained, untouched by time. The threads of magic lay dormant though, and were so frayed that Jocelyn couldn't immediately decipher a pattern in them. Perhaps if he had several hours...

But they didn't. And that's where she came in.

"Right there, the little carving," Jocelyn said, forgetful of the fact that Briar couldn't see down there anyway. Nonetheless he guided her hand right onto the protrusion.

[Rhindeer]

It was always unpleasant when a person touched her skin, and Briar jolted with a hiss when Jocelyn touched her hand, but she grit her teeth and bore down against the flood of emotion and images and sound, even as her head began to swim and grow light and fuzzy. She swayed a little, dangerously with her so close to the edge, and braced herself with her other hand against the ground.

Seconds in, and her head began to pound.

But then her fingers brushed something, and Jocelyn said that was it, and as soon as the words left his mouth she jerked her hand free and pulled back with a gasp, and as soon as contact broke, her vision cleared and the throbbing pain in her skull abated. But she still felt oily, because she'd seen things, little flashes of scenes of this man's life, flashing too fast for her to catch, and though she'd tried to ignore it, she still hated it.

It was invasive as fuck, for both people involved, and it left her feeling uncomfortably voyeuristic.

She was breathing hard, sweat beading along her blanched skin, and she sat back on her knees for a breather. "Alright. Thanks. I got it now. Just one sec, fuck." She rubbed her head, sucked in another breath, and braced herself. The living were the worst. Old objects could be hard on her, because they were filled with history, and it could hit like a punch. But it still wasn't as bad as dealing with the living.

Once she'd gotten a hold of herself again, she reached down to the owl carving and lightly touched it. And this time, unimpeded by Jocelyn's touch, she got a taste for the magic.

It came over her in a wave, a flicker of vision hitting her, flickering and broken up like static, but she could see enough to glean what was going on--or what wasn't going on.

And when it registered in her mind, she drew back with a gasp, pulling her hand away, and groped for the glove she'd shoved into Jocelyn's hands.

"Fucking clever dead people," she said, wiping sweat from her brow with her other hand. "There is no bridge."

[Cambie]

Jocelyn only barely detected the look of disgust and discomfort on Briar's face when their skin touched. What he did notice was the swirl of magic within her when they did, impossibly tangled patterns that he didn't have time to decipher. In the back of his mind he wished he had access to a scribe to write down his observations.

When she snatched the glove out of his hand though, it snapped him back to reality. His own face soured at her words.

"What do you mean no bridge?" he gasped. "Did we take a wrong turn?"

[Rhindeer]

"Oh, we're on the right path, all-fucking-right!" Briar said as she slipped the glove back on, plucking at the tips to adjust it on her fingers. "I misspoke, anyway. There is a bridge. You're damned right there is. But there isn't a bridge, too. You know why? 'Cause it's invisible."

She waved her arm out over the edge of the chasm with an exasperated sound. "It's glamoured so you can't see it, but it's there. You step down about a foot off the edge and bam, there it is. Of course, those ancient cult wackos can't just go and make it easy, oh no. There's gaps in the bridge and it's winding so you gotta know where to step, or else it's a long drop and a sudden stop for you. Splat!"

She looked over at Jocelyn. "You first."

[Cambie]

"Dammit, I'm already blind. You want the blind man to take the first step onto the invisible bridge?"

Jocelyn bit his lip again as he stared down into the abyss. Well it wasn't so much of an abyss for him, for he saw what was described to him as a charcoal drawing upon parchment. And that black-white view showed nothing in front of them, just an empty chasm.

Still, there were little tendrils of magic that occasionally flashed across the span, threads that he could sense but he knew were invisible to all else. If he looked long enough, eventually he might be able to memorize their patterns and determine just how it wound about like a trickster serpent across the hundred foot drop down.

Well at least he could sense the magic enough to know where the bridge went these first couple steps. With a grimace he swung himself over the ledge, said a little prayer to whatever gods were listening, and dropped down.

He landed on something invisible and stood there, floating on nothing.

"Huh."

[Rhindeer]

Briar poked her head over the edge to peer down at him, half expecting to catch a glimpse of him tumbling down into the abyss.

She was pleasantly surprised!

"Ah! You're still alive, blindie! Fabulous!" she said with a beaming grin. "Nice. So I was right. That's great to know, 'cause the vision was a little ambiguous at parts. Like, I wasn't really one-hundred percent sure the bridge magic was still actually active, since the vision was from like hundreds of years ago, so this is really hopeful!"

[Cambie]

Jocelyn turned to scowl at her, though it was probably lost from behind his veil and with the darkness enveloping him.

"Yeah I'm glad I'm alive too. Don't want to make things too hard for you now," he shot back before turning back to the invisible bridge beneath him.

Now that he had two solid feet on it, the wisps of magical energy shone more brightly to him, illuminating the way forward for at least a little distance. It seemed that the bridge's magic pulsed more intensely when someone stood on it. An odd design but probably a purposeful one, to deal with exactly the kind of people like him -- who had the ability to sense its presence. He wondered idly what sort of enchantments they wove to create such an artifact that had survived after thousands of years without upkeep. Likely latticed together, woven like a fine Essyrni throw rug, and-

He shook his head. First things first.

"You coming down, or what? I mean you could stay up there if you want, not a big deal for me either way."

[Rhindeer]

Ahahahaha...

Shit.

Yeah, she had to follow him now, didn't she?

Briar looked down at the yawning blackness beneath her, then at Jocelyn, standing for all intents and purposes on thin air, and was glad for the darkness that his her blanch. Her stomach lurched, feeling like it was trying to climb its way up into her throat, and she stubbornly swallowed it back down.

"Yeah, yeah, quit your bitchin'. I'm coming. Just wanted to give you time to give the all clear, duh. Gods, so naggy."

But her words petered out at the end, losing some of their usual acid, as she twisted her body to hold onto the edge while she carefully, carefully stuck a foot down toes first, and only stepped down after she felt solid something beneath her foot. With another deep breath, she put down her other foot. And after another, she let go of the edge.

Then she looked down.

She was standing on fucking thin air with a screaming abyss gaping all around her like some giant monster's mouth.

Her chest tightened and stomach twisted and she snapped her eyes back ahead at Jocelyn, willing her legs not to tremble--even though it was far too late.

"Uh. Yeah. Right. Right behind you, blindie, just uh...just wait right there, yeah, we don't all got magic-seein' blind eye juju." And she slid her foot forward an inch. Then let her other follow. Then another excruciating inch, not even daring to breathe.