An Archmage Among Adventurers

The air inside the ruin was dense and cold, the kind of chill that wormed its way under skin and gnawed at the bone. The stone walls loomed, jagged and ancient, pressing inward like the ribs of some long-dead creature.

Ellie’s footsteps barely broke the silence, her bootfalls swallowed by the darkness, a near-constant reminder of how close she stood to the edge of failure. Her heart pounded against her ribs, loud enough she half-expected the others to hear it.

Liora’s flickering flame hovered in the gloom ahead, casting leaping shadows over the archaic carvings on the walls. Every twist of stone seemed to shift in the uncertain light, as if the ruin itself was watching them, waiting for a misstep. Ellie lingered at the back, her eyes darting nervously between the walls, her skin prickling with the unsettling sense that something was following them, unseen and patient.

“Stay close. And whatever happens... be careful.” She echoed the words in her mind, the ones they’d drilled into her since they first entered this cursed place. The plan was simple: keep her head down, let the others—strong, capable, magical—do the heavy lifting. All Ellie had to do was act the part, nod in the right moments, and survive.

But the plan, like everything else here, was already unraveling.

Her foot slipped on a loose stone, and she flung out a hand, hoping to steady herself against the rough wall. Instead, her fingers found something else—a lever, cold and smooth beneath the dust.

There was a low groan of stone grinding against stone.

Ellie’s breath caught in her throat as the wall beside her shuddered, then slid open with a creaking hiss. A dark, narrow passage appeared, yawning like the mouth of a waiting beast. She jerked her hand back as though burned.

“Oh no…”

The group stopped, turning toward her as one. Hannes, who had been scouting ahead, was the first to break the silence, his voice a mixture of awe and disbelief.

“You found it!” His eyes gleamed in the dim light. “The hidden passage!”

Ellie blinked, her mouth going dry. She hadn’t found anything. She had nearly tripped. But Hannes was already striding over, his face alight with excitement. The others followed, their faces mirroring his wonder.

“This must lead deeper into the ruin,” Liora breathed, her flame casting a wavering glow into the dark passage. “Lady Liddell, you have quite the eye.”

Ellie felt the blood drain from her face. Protest lodged itself in her throat, but she couldn’t force it out. She should tell them it was a mistake, that she had no idea what she was doing. But the weight of their admiration bore down on her, making it impossible. They were looking at her like she had just unlocked some ancient mystery with ease and purpose.

She swallowed hard. “Shall we... continue then?”

They surged forward before she could take another breath, already crowding into the newly revealed passage. Ellie found herself at the front, leading the way into the dark. Her legs felt like lead, her pulse quickening with every step. The walls closed in, pressing tighter as they descended deeper into the ruin’s bowels.

Each footfall sent an echo through the narrow corridor, the oppressive silence only broken by the occasional drip of water from unseen cracks in the ceiling. Ellie’s eyes darted around, searching for signs of danger, but everything was obscured by shadow. She could feel it in her bones, though—the traps were here, lurking just out of sight, waiting for her.

Then it happened.

Her boot brushed against something that clicked, sharp and too loud in the stillness. Ellie’s heart plummeted into her stomach. She tried to step back, but it was already too late. The ground gave way beneath her feet, and she let out a strangled cry as she plunged through the floor.

The world became a blur of darkness and motion. She hit the ground hard, the impact rattling through her bones and knocking the air from her lungs. Ellie lay there, gasping, her mind spinning as pain shot through her limbs. Above, the muffled voices of her companions echoed down.

“Lady Liddell! Are you hurt?” Keldric’s voice was thick with concern.

Ellie forced herself upright, her legs trembling beneath her. “I’m... fine,” she managed, though her body screamed otherwise. She glanced around, squinting in the dim light filtering through the hole above.

The chamber she had landed in was small, cluttered with debris—shattered pottery, rusted tools, broken stonework. And something else. At the far end of the room, a faint, eerie glow seeped through the cracks in the walls. It pulsed, alive and menacing.

Ellie didn’t have time to dwell on it. A sudden grinding noise filled the chamber, the walls trembling as long-dormant mechanisms groaned to life. Her eyes widened. Metal gears creaked, and then—she heard it. The telltale hiss of arrows being released.

Without thinking, Ellie threw herself behind the nearest pillar as the arrows whistled through the air. She pressed her body tight against the stone as the deadly volley ricocheted off walls, some burying themselves with a dull thud into the ground where she had stood seconds earlier. Her heart pounded in her ears, drowning out everything but the clatter of arrows falling uselessly around her.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the chamber fell silent.

Ellie, shaking and breathless, peered from behind her meager cover. The mechanism had stilled, the arrows spent. She glanced around, her stomach twisting. She had survived. Again.

Above her, the others were already descending into the chamber. Hannes’s boots hit the ground, and his eyes widened as he took in the scene. “You... disarmed it.”

“I—” Ellie stopped herself. There was no point in trying to explain. She couldn’t admit how close she had come to being skewered. Not now. Not with them looking at her like this.

She forced a smile, trying to mask the trembling in her voice. “Of course. I thought it best to handle the traps before anyone else got hurt.”

Keldric let out a low whistle, impressed. “Brilliant, Lady Liddell. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Ellie’s stomach twisted harder. They believed her. They thought she had saved them.

“Let’s... keep going,” she managed, her voice shaky. “We’re not done yet.”

The others nodded, falling in behind her once more, oblivious to the dread rising inside her. Ellie forced her legs to move, each step heavier than the last. She was their hero now, their guide, the one they thought could navigate this deadly maze.

But Ellie knew the truth.

She was walking blind, and luck was a fickle thing. One misstep, one false move, and it would all come crashing down.

And when it did, they wouldn’t be looking at her with admiration anymore.

They’d be looking at her with blame.