After swearing his oath, the adept's hands are bound to prevent him from initiating any maneuvers, and he leads the way deeper into the cavern. The next hours pass slowly, as the four Seasonal Masters lead their reluctant ally through the winding caves, the Master of Autumn keeping an eye on him while the other three spread out and search side paths for any sign of Adept al-Wazra or her quarry. The Master of Spring is very helpful in this with his ability to remove obstacles like stalagmites and, well, walls, while the Masters of Summer and Winter are able to pass over streams, gaps, and other annoyances to search farther afield than Torog. The enemy adept is sullenly silent through this process, not willing to volunteer any more information than is absolutely necessary.

Eventually, though, the four of you pick up signs of al-Wazra's chase. None of you are particularly skilled with tracking, but the large scorch marks and imprints of spear heads scattered through the tunnels are hard to miss. As you all well recall from your time as her instructors in your respective disciplines, al-Wazra has been one of the Temple's most promising adepts for some time, but she was never one for subtlety, and for the first year or so "collateral damage" might as well have been her middle name.

Soon enough, small spots of blood join the scorch marks; it seems al-Wazra caught up to the other adept before he could make it to safety, fortunately. Continuing on, a few minutes later you hear the step-shuffle-thud...step-shuffle-thud of someone walking in an irregular rhythm with the aid of some sort of support, and you turn a corner to see al-Wazra limp along the tunnel towards you, one hand on the wall and the other hanging onto her spear for dear life. Many small wounds are visible on her bare forearms and shins, and one large red blotch on her side and the expression of pain on her face signify a deeper wound that she is bearing with some effort. A wide strip of cloth is bound around the wound, and the cloth appears to have come from the same sort of long tunic that your captive wears complete with Unconquered Sun emblem, so it appears that al-Wazra was successful in her mission after all.

The enemy adept is being escorted in front of you, so he is the first to come face-to-face with al-Wazra. Your pupil, seeing another enemy walking towards her, grits her teeth and growls, stepping away from the wall and falling into a lunge with her spear in the hopes of taking out this new enemy before being slain. "NonoI'mwithyourmastersdon'tkillmeplease!" the disarmed and defenseless adept shouts in one breath, taking an involuntary step backwards and bumping into Four's breastplate, and al-Wazra barely arrests her strike as the rest of you round the corner. "Masters! It...is good to see...you, I...was not sure if...I would fine you in...time. The...adept has been...slain as ordered," she pants, dropping into an awkward bow while leaning once again on her spear. The adept looks quickly between her and the four of you to gauge your moods, and he slowly reaches into a belt pouch, making no sudden moves. "I, uh, have a healing potion, if that'll help," he says, holding a small vial of blue liquid out to al-Wazra while keeping as much distance as possible between him and her.

She yanks it out of his hand, uncorks it, holds it up to her nose, sniff suspiciously, determines it not to be a trick, and gulps it down. None of her visible wounds disappear, but the grimace of pain fades from her face and she stands a bit straighter. "Thank you," she growls grudgingly, in the manner of a paladin thanking a demon for a favor. Turning back to you four, she bows to each individually and motions back the way she came. "The enemy and I were well-matched, almost...too evenly, and it was a very near thing. One misstep either way and...it might have been he who triumphed," she reports, still breathing heavily. "I tried to hide the body as...best I could, but I was not able to conceal...the signs of our battle as well as I'd have liked. But I believe I...did find the way to the enemy Temple."

The adept and al-Wazra work together to scrub the scorch marks and blood off the tunnel walls and fill in the holes made by weapon blows as best they can while they both lead you through the tunnels. The adept stays ahead of Four, pointedly not looking in al-Wazra's direction for fear of provoking her, while your pupil walks in the back with the others of you. Even al-Wazra gets turned around quite a few times, and without the enemy adept you'd be completely lost--and even with his guidance, you doubt you could keep track of the many twists and turns. "Everyone has to memorize the route to the Temple before training begins as our first test," the adept admits proudly, in a rare moment of offering information voluntarily, "and I was one of the fastest; it only took me two weeks to get it down." Half an hour passes, then you notice the tunnel smoothing out and sloping upwards to a small ledge. The sunlight, even dim as it is here, is a welcome relief from the oppressing darkness of the cavern complex with only Abd's fire and a small lantern to provide illumination.

You creep up to the ledge and look over it. Below you, a large cluster of buildings lies at the bottom of a small clearing. It resembles your own Temple, for this is the Temple of the Unconquered Sun, and both successor temples tried to imitate the original Temple of the Nine Swords in architecture and layout as much as possible. You are far too high up to make out any details, but you can definitely tell that there are some buildings for quarters and some for instructions, and several small figures appear to be practicing out in the open. Looking up, you can see why the Temple was situated here: the top of the cavern is open to the sky, and the setting sun can clearly be seen through the opening, even as deep as you are. In fact, you guess that this is the caldera of an extinct volcano, for the opening is too large and too smooth to have been hollowed out for this Temple in a reasonable amount of time; the enemy Temple went to ground too soon after the Shadow Tiger War for them to have created this from scratch without discovery.

"So there you go. The stronghold of your hated enemy," the adept says bitterly. "You're welcome. Not exactly the main entrance, but I didn't promise to show you that; I'm a coward and a traitor, but I'm not stupid. I bet you want to kill me now, huh? Despite my oath? I mean, I could yell out and warn them or something, right? Or at least I could if they could hear me from here. It didn't sound like you have any intent to be merciful, even though I can still be useful to you--Hells, you" he says, pointing to Belcor "are the only one who didn't threaten me or the Unconquered Sun Temple with your first words." He pulls himself up, willing to face death bravely, if that is your decision now that he has served his purpose, but you can see in his eyes that he's really really hoping you were serious with your offer for him to join your Temple.