She doesn’t see another way out

Lux hesitates as she examines the access tunnel. She has a strong feeling that she’s pushed her luck to breaking point; it’s hard not to think of the horrors she could end up facing if she gets caught again. But, if Atara’s right, she has no way to escape this place. And she has her magic back, which has to count some way towards evening the odds.

“What do I do once I get down there?” she asks, buying time.

“They have all the doors down there on lockdown,” Atara says. “Look for the mechanism to open them all up. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Easy for you to say, Lux thinks, you know how everything works down here. “Fine,” she says finally, “let’s get this over with.”

Gritting her teeth, she clambers into the tunnel.

Set the Scene: Lux begins to climb down through the access tunnels. | Complication: [2] An obstacle blocks your way | Altered Scene: [2] Normal

Generic Generator: What is the obstacle like? | What it does: [JH] Protect (social) | How it looks: [5C] New (physical) | How significant: [3] About average

The outcasts have installed a new defence system that blocks Lux's way.

Although Atara was right that Lux’s shorter stature is an advantage in these close quarters, there are also disadvantages – two very big ones that constantly rub and sometimes get painfully pinched as she inches her way along the tunnel, down into the depths. It’s also increasingly and uncomfortably hot in these metal-lined confines. Closed in, with no real sense of how much longer she’ll have to crawl, Lux wonders if things could possibly get worse.

Of course, they can. Up ahead, she spots an unfamiliar shape in the tunnel. A small box of wires and cogs, with a gently glowing glass bulb attached – not matching the surrounding metalwork, it seems to be a new addition. Some kind of trap? Well, Atara did say the outcasts wouldn’t have been sitting idle.