“Everyone get down!” she yelled, and Gabriel pushed Fort to the ground, covering them both with his shield. A blue glow lit up the side of the cavern suddenly, but it was quickly overwhelmed by another burst of red, and then the wall exploded.

Rock went flying everywhere, and Fort shouted Rachel’s name over and over, but no one responded. A stone larger than Gabriel struck his shield, only to bounce off, its protective magic saving them from being crushed. Dust cascaded into the cavern, dropping a cloud over everything that made it even harder to see.

“Rachel?!” Fort yelled, pushing out from under Gabriel as soon as things settled down. “Rachel!”

Through the dust, a blue light flickered, then solidified, and Jia walked Rachel out of the cloud in a bubble of Healing magic. Fort quickly ran to them, only to bounce right off the bubble, falling back to the ground.

Inside, he saw Rachel soundlessly laugh at this, even as she wiped tears from her eyes. Her mouth moved like she was saying something, but her words didn’t make it through the protective bubble. Jia waved a hand and the bubble popped, and Rachel’s laughter filled the cavern.

“Thank you for that,” she said to Fort. “Totally worth almost dying.”

“Um, you’re welcome,” Jia told her. “You’re lucky we didn’t all experiment with blowing things up.”

“A CORPOREAL SPHERE,” the dragon said, peering down through the cloud of dust at them. “I WOULD NOT HAVE THOUGHT A HUMAN COULD CAST SUCH A POWERFUL SPELL. NOTHING CAN PENETRATE SUCH A THING AS LONG AS THE SPELLCASTER LIVES.”

Jia’s eyes widened. “Seriously? I kinda just cast it randomly and thought it was a fun protective bubble.”

The dragon narrowed his eyes, and fire began to escape his mouth.

“I’m kidding!” Jia said quickly, putting her hands up to ward off any fire. “I mean, of course I take Corporeal magic too seriously to ever just experiment with it.” She flashed Fort a terrified look.

“THERE IS NO TIME TO WAIT,” the dragon said. “WHICHEVER OF YOU HUMANS HAVE STUDIED SPACE MAGIC, REMOVE US FROM THIS PLACE NOW, BEFORE MY BRETHREN ARRIVE.”

Fort nodded and stepped forward, peering into the cloud of dust. Beyond it, a hole as large as the dragon now opened in the middle of the cavern wall, and he stepped around some enormous rocks to better see what was on the other side.

They were on the shores of what looked like a lake, only it looked more like liquid silver than water. And the heat was so intense, he could feel it all the way from inside the cavern.

Tubes ran from the lake of molten metal in various directions, most likely as food for the Dracsi. Well, he could look when they arrived back in the den he’d first landed in.

“Everyone ready?” he asked, and opened a teleportation circle.