“Stop kicking the door. Please.” 

Sadie’s foot crashed into the stone double doors before Reece could finish his sentence, dust from the roof of the cavern raining down like snow onto their heads. Sadie swore, stamping her foot onto the ground, the door not having moved an inch. 

Just like the last three times. 

“How else are we supposed to get it open, then?” She shouted, her voice echoing along the curved walls of the tunnel. Out of the corner of Reece’s eye, he saw his torch begin to flicker; a telltale sign that their oxygen was running out. 

“Clearly not by force, but you’d have realised that if you thought with your brain instead of your fists, for once.” He walked towards the door, examining it closely and ignoring Sadie’s childish goading. It was clearly a rather thick door, with swirling patterns engraved all over it. On each individual door, there were two small depressions which looked like they would hold some spherical object. “It appears as though we need keys.” 

“I don’t see any keyholes.” 

He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Not actual keys.” 

“Then why’d you say keys?” 

“Should I have said ‘we need a set of indeterminate objects that can be used to open a locked door through the application of setting them into a recess?’” 

She blinked. “What’s that mean?” 

“Oh, forget it,” he rolled his eyes, stepping away from the door and the dim-wittedness of his companion. 

“What, you’re too smart for me?” She shouted, dislodging more dust from the ceiling to fall upon the both of them. “If it weren’t for me, you’d be a dead man! You’re barely a man as it is!” 

“Oh please,” he flung his hands out to the side, facing her with a scowl. “The insults you used to hurl on the sparring ring to your warrior buddies aren’t going to work on me.” Sadie reached up and behind her, pulling her battleaxe from her back and pointing it at Reece. Anyone else would have been intimidated by Sadie’s colossal stature and her equally colossal weapon, but he just scoffed. “You’re threatening me now?” 

“Admit it,” she growled. “Admit to me that you’d be dead if it weren’t for me.” 

“You realise that I can just leave before you swing at me, correct?” 

“I guarantee you that I can slice you in half faster than you can use one of those weird future orbs.” 

“Makes sense that someone of your intellect would refer to them as ‘future orbs.’” 

“Can you two stop squabbling for five minutes, please?” A new voice called out from behind Reece, and he looked over his shoulder. Their other two companions, Charles and Lorelei, had come into view, a ball of light hovering above their heads and lighting the way. 

“He started it,” growled Sadie, reluctantly lowering her axe. 

“If you two hate each other so much, why even take this mission together with us?” Lorelei walked past them both, the globe of light following her. She approached the door, taking four differently coloured gemstones from her pack, and slotting one into each depression. “There. Happy? We could hear your shouting from miles away.” 

“That’s how we found you after the cave-in,” Charles chuckled, tossing Lorelei a golden coin. Reece raised an eyebrow. 

“What was that?” 

“The coin? A bet. Fortunately, Lorelei won.” 

“Fortunately?” 

“Well, if I won, it means that you’d be dead.” Charles smirked, placing a firm hand on Reece’s shoulder before walking past as well. The door in front of them began to open by itself, the stone grinding against the gravel floor as it pushed inwards, opening the way forward. 

“You’re lucky,” growled Sadie, putting the axe away. “Always need someone else to save your ass.” 

Charles waved his hand dismissively, following the other two through the door. A grumbling, cursing Sadie followed a short distance behind him. The four emerged into a large room, and Reece’s eyes widened. The room was filled with gold, silver, and countless precious gemstones; more than anything he’d seen in his life. There were coins, gilded silverware, golden goblets and jewellery, even a few ingots of pure gold. 

“See? Wasn’t this worth it?” Lorelei exclaimed, spreading her arms out and allowing herself to fall backwards into a pile of gold, landing with a loud oof. 

“You alright?” Charles asked, not even looking back and hefting an ingot in his hands. 

“Yup,” she groaned, sitting herself back up. “I didn’t expect it to hurt that much.” 

“Hurry and get as much as you can carry,” Reece instructed, pulling a small mechanical orb from his pack. “We’re leaving soon.” 

“What’s the rush?” Sadie asked, greedily shoving fistfuls of coin into her pack. There was a sudden, loud crash, and the four paused their gold shovelling to turn to the door. It had closed by itself. A low rumble began inside the room, and the walls on either side began to slide together, pushing everything towards the middle of the room. “Shit, sorry I asked, I guess.” 

Lorelei was the first to finish, lugging her full pack into the middle of the room and putting her hand on Reece’s shoulder. Charles finished next, and by the time Sadie was done, the walls had shoved most of the treasures into the centre of the room. It was packed up to their knees at this point. 

“Now, before we leave, I have a request,” Reece stated. Lorelei huffed, annoyed. 

“Yes, Reece? What is it?” 

“I’d like Sadie to tell me that if she didn’t have my assistance, she’d be dead in about thirty seconds.” 

“Oh, fuck off!” Sadie yelled. The treasures had now rapidly climbed to their waists. 

“Sadie,” Charles said calmly, but with an obvious hint of urgency in his voice. “Now’s not the time for pride.” 

“To hell with that! He’s bluffing! He knows he can’t get you all out of here without me! He’d die too!” 

“Reece, are you bluffing?” Lorelei asked. Reece remained silent, his stare fixed on Sadie’s face. They were buried up to their chests now. 

Then their necks. 

And their chins. Reece’s entire body was almost completely covered, only his eyes and the top of his head above the flood of treasure threatening to crush them into paste. Yet, he was still just staring at Sadie. 

“Alright, fine! If I didn’t have your assistance, I’d be dead in, like, five seconds? Happy now, you little shit?” 

Suddenly, there was a blinding white light, and all four companions dropped to the ground, feeling a spongy bed of grass beneath them. 

“You arrogant bastard,” Sadie muttered, getting to her feet and standing above Reece’s prone body. “You could have got us all killed.” 

“But I didn’t, did I?” He sat back, propping himself up with his hands. “Now, as we agreed, my half of your takings, please. On the ground at my feet.” 

Sadie growled, but stopped, almost as if she had a thought. She dug through her bloated pack and pulled out three solid gold bars. “At your feet, right?” 

“Yes.” 

She smirked. “Alright.” Sadie dropped the gold bars, missing Reece’s feet by mere inches. When he leaned forward to grab them, Sadie let out a roar, stomping on the bars one by one, and burying them in the dirt. “There you go. Have fun getting those out.” 

Reece glared up at her. “That’s not what I asked for.” 

“Actually,” Lorelei said, brushing the dirt off her robes, “it is. At your feet, isn’t it?” 

Reece’s eye twitched, and he got onto his knees, grabbing one of the golden bars with both hands. He pulled as hard as he could, but it wouldn’t budge. His cheeks burned as Sadie laughed at him. “Charles, a hand, if you would?” 

He shrugged. “You’re on your own, friend.” 

“If you want me to get them out for you, weakling, I have a request.” 

Reece scowled, looking up at the disgusting smirk on Sadie’s face. “What?” He spat. 

“You know what.”