Once they commit to the plan to traverse the cave, Camellia admits that she can cast light as many times as they need. It's not the most amazing buff imaginable, since the light coming from right by their heads ruins their ability to see too far in the distance and alerts anything that somehow failed to hear them, but that beats the heck out of not being able to see anything in the pitch dark. The cave system is pretty sizable, but inside the hour they start to hear echoes from some people talking a corner or two away.

Oh, and what are those people saying?

"I'm telling you, it's got to be around here somewhere. We just need to figure out where it got buried in the quake."

"And I'm telling you, you're wasting your time. Even if you could find it, it's not like an angel's sword would respond to you."

Well, better not to startle them when they come around the bend. "Hello?"

"Hello! Woah, are you guys from the surface?"

"We fell down when the crevasse back there opened up. You live down here?"

"I've lived down here my whole life. All us neathers have. There's another way up to the surface now?"

"If you can fly."

She grins, sharply.

"Unfortunately, I'm not exactly swimming in wings. I might give it a look to see if I can climb it at some point, but even if I can it's going to be beyond most of us."

"Should we conclude that this direction is not necessarily an easier way up?"

"The shield maze isn't normally safe, but if we can find the angel's sword here it'll be a lot easier than normal. With that, we can rally all the tribes to go with their best warriors at once instead of individual hunters trying their own luck - and we need to anyway, some kids decided to explore it and went missing there yesterday."

Wenduag doesn't say anything, but she sure looks doubtful.

Do Seelah and Anevia and Camellia seem to think this is a reasonable thing to spend time on?

"Well, an angel's sword would be pretty cool. Maybe it'd even respond to me; I know some paladins get a celestial spirit to empower their sword, even if I can't do that yet. And I don't want to let kids get hurt if I could help save them."

"I'm not one to really buy into the hype around angels, but at least it would make a good story. We might as well get something for our time here, and if it lets us get out of here faster all the better."

"I think it's probably not here. Most of the items angels left with us are priceless relics of the first and second crusade; it seems unlikely there would be one down here still, not if it's a genuine article, and finding  a sword under all this rubble sounds like a tough task anyway. Plus, it would feel weird recommend it when I can't really help with the digging."

"Would make a good story" is enough for Kybele. She starts hauling rocks.

Seelah and Camellia will join her and Lann, though the former certainly seems more enthusiastic. One would be forgiven for assuming that Camellia mostly wants to be able to truthfully say she participated rather than find the sword herself, but she is helping and it's unlikely she'll be able to claim she found it at least.

Before long in her digging, she'll see a hint of something metallic through a crack between some rocks; the material flashes with reflected light from the glowing sphere above her head.

"Ooh, might have it -" She shifts a couple more stones and grabs it.

It's a very impressive sword! When she picks it up, it glows, much brighter than any of the lights, bringing with it a sense of surety and security - and then the wound in her chest opens up, bleeding but still not hurting - and Kybele finds herself in a vision. There's a feeling of hurt and betrayal, clearly foreign to her but somehow still experienced, and she somehow knows that this is the experience of the angel Lariel. They were stabbed in the back, all but one of their allies turning on them, and the last lay on death's door at their feet, having been terribly wounded in helping them survive. Even despite this injury, they are mighty, but they cannot do everything - they must choose between saving the life of their comrade, and taking down those who turned on them.

"Hnnnng?!?" she pants. She has no idea what the fuck is happening and will err hard in the direction of healing in case her ally (???) has more idea what the fuck is happening than she does!

Within the vision, it's nearly a primitive action; as instinctual as controlling paper, if not more, to direct a spark of the brilliant gold into her companion. The girl opens her eyes, and tries to say something, but her voice barely rises above a whisper.

"Lariel... you said that everything was going to change soon? That you and the other angels would go on a mission to stop the source of the demons, and leave us? If that's true... then you shouldn't have saved me. The mission is more important."

The angel shakes his head. "No. Even if I fall here, another will take my place; heaven will not leave people to die alone for lack of one angel. But if I struck them down and left, there would be nobody here to save you. To help someone, to save a life... sometimes you cannot manage it, but it's never the wrong thing to do." He then smiles; visibly tiredly, but with genuine warmth. "When you get to heaven, do not feel obligated to act on my behalf, but know that if you choose it you would be an excellent angel. I will not permit your soul to fall into his clutches."

Then he speaks more loudly, challenging all within earshot, and his sword glows again to drive back the darkness a step. "Deskari! Show yourself!"

Out of the darkness comes a horrible chittering and rustling. The traitors fall to their knees, and the shadows part to reveal the same creature that slew Terendelev. With an unhurried gait, he advances, his terrible scythe swings almost faster than the eye can track-

And Kybele is back in her own body. The sword is glowing, just like in the vision, and a halo of light surrounds her. She has a headache and her chest wound pounds with pain, but even as she blinks away the spots in her eyes those begin to fade.

"Aaaaaaaaugh!" she says, clutching her sternum. "Fuck fuck fuck -"