Part 3

"Ah, the caves?" The waiter asked. "Yes, Norio knows caves well. You refer to what we call the Maw."

"What do you know about ruins inside the Maw?" Emma asked.

"No ruins inside Maw." Norio asserted. "Norio is not coming with you when you leave tomorrow morning." Norio winked and put a finger to his lips. "Bad luck to speak of Maw in town. We speak tomorrow."

Norio politely but firmly shooed them out of the restaurant, before turning over the open sign to read closed and locking the door, leaving Emma and James slightly bewildered in the street. With a shrug, James began to walk down the street.

”James, where are you going?” Emma asked.

”Back to the hotel to plan our expedition, Emma. It’s not like we got anything else to do.” James answered, continuing his slow walk. “Care to join me?”

Emma smiled for a moment. “Of course I will, you dummy!” She called out, moving to catch up with him.

"So my first question, did you leave a trail?" James asked as they walked.

"Better than that. I do know some displacement magic, James." Emma said, poking him on the shoulder. "From the Maw's Entrance I have a series of reflection runes from the entrance all the way to the ruins I found."

"Wait..." James said, pausing. "You mean we can just-" James started.

"Teleport right to the ruins, the 3 of us and all of our supplies." Emma finished, looking very smug.

"You wonderful cheater." James said with a smile. "So it's just the one week walk to the cave, then?"