Arz didn’t need a light to maneuver through the cave. His memory of it wasn’t perfect, but he at least remembered that the trek was significantly easier than walking blindly through a mine on Earth. The ricarun had made the tunnel easy, if they did make it like he suspected. Before long, he stopped beside a pool of darkfire oil with a ricarun skeleton beside it.

  “We’ll harvest as much of this as possible,” Arz said.

  Orikori grunted and carefully set the AZ gun down on the far side of the cave, making sure it was far from the oil.

  Everyone but Arz stared at the skeleton.

  “What is that?” Orikori asked. As always, his question was of curiosity without the slightest bit of fear.

  “The original people of this pnet. The ones who built the cities and the robots. A skeleton that I actually need to use for something in a bit. First, help me fill our big jars with this oil. As you see, it is burning. So, uh, don’t touch it.”

  It took about an hour for Arz and Orikori to fill the jars, clean them off, and safely store them again. He had enough empty vials that he was able to also fill them for other random uses. Hopefully it would be enough to stop him needing to travel to Doumenus again for a while.

  The pool refilled as if over a spring. That answered a number of questions for Arz, but he kept his thoughts to himself as he saw Orikori already busy writing information down.

  “Is this for me?” Isilhorn gestured to the weapon on the ground.

  “Yes,” Arz said, excited. “Khoribin and I went to harvest it ourselves.” Arz made a face. “Collect, I suppose. Harvest would imply other methods.”

  Khoribin leaned on the cave wall and raised an eyebrow. “You do talk a lot.”

  “I can’t stop myself.” Arz gestured eagerly to the gun. “Pick it up. Give it a try. Swing it around.”

  Isilhorn took the AZ gun and held it with the barrel pointing diagonally at the ground. “I don’t think you’re the best to listen to when it comes to firearm safety, Arz.”

  Before fully packing away all the containers of darkfire oil, Arz checked the seals, the temperatures, and the heat-resistant gss. It was resisting the heat, so everything seemed fine.

  “I don’t disagree with you.” Arz packed his containers into his bag and moved to help Orikori fit the rest inside his pack.

  “So, the story,” Arz said, drawing eyes from the other four. “It sounds like some have said my adventuring and discovering is out of some noble cause. I want you all to understand, anytime you see me, I have no idea what I’m doing.”

  Orikori folded his notebook up and put it away. He sat against the cave wall and nodded, signaling Arz to continue.

  Isilhorn had positioned himself with the AZ weapon near the tunnel that led from the surface. While not fully guarding it, his new position definitely gave him a better view of any potential incoming threats. Based on prior experiences, they would know an AZ-32 was headed their way long before they saw it. The robots’ footsteps were so loud that it seemed like an intentional warning.

  Arz sat next to the ricarun corpse. “There was a night like any other. I was running te returning from a trip for the Guild. It wasn’t even far away. Just a short ride across the sea.” He sighed. “I stopped at the office off Knight Street to drop off my report. I thought it was important, and I was always running te. What difference would a few minutes make? I might as well have not been considered te with how often I managed to miss my deadlines.

  “My house was a few blocks away. A modest pce, but Ziyra adored it. There was a garden out back that grew the most delicious carrots every summer.” Arz wasn’t sure he had even eaten a carrot since then. The thought gripped and squeezed his heart. “That day, just about a year ago, I turned the corner and saw fire. I called out for Ziyra and my joy, Alora. And all I heard in return were screams.”

  Arz tapped his fingers on his knees. He watched the oil’s dark fmes burn.

  “I tried running inside, but Higgrion stopped me. He was already there. A whole slew of guards were trying to put the fire out. It didn’t matter that they stopped me anyway. It was far too te. Too te to do anything but watch my life burn. I had moved as fast as I could. I really did. The only people I cared about. Gone. And if I wasn’t te, maybe it would have been different. Maybe I could’ve saved them. Maybe I would’ve burned with them.”

  Orikori had notably not written anything throughout. He listened with close attention, not even blinking throughout the story.

  Isilhorn and Khoribin watched with mixed emotions on their faces, while Alzidius just looked distraught.

  “I was there,” Alzidius said. “I really tried.”

  Arz fiddled with the vials on his belt. “You saw it all?”

  Alzidius gave a subtle nod.

  Arz sighed. “I suppose you’ve all read my record anyway. I was arrested that evening. Assaulting a member of the guard.”

  Orikori raised his eyebrows.

  Arz sat up a little and pushed a pebble into the darkfire oil pit. “Oh, apparently you haven’t read it. Isilhorn, what did it say?”

  “I’ve heard two different stories. What it says in your record, and what my sergeant told me. THe record said you attacked Captain Higgrion, but the captain defended himself and apprehended you.”

  Arz rolled his eyes. “I should’ve guessed.”

  “Sergeant Alzidius told me . . .” Isilhorn looked to the sergeant, who nodded his permission. “He told me you beat Higgrion until his face was blue. Somehow the captain of the guard couldn’t hold you back.”

  “And the Guild had the audacity to interrogate me like I was some common criminal. Now, Jarath insists he was just making sure my violent spree had ended. What he didn’t realize is that a spree requires more than one incident, and I only felt the need to hit Higgrion as many times as possible. As far as I’m aware, it wasn’t a spree.” Arz cut himself off. “Higgrion and the Guild are a sour spot in my memory, even now. They were my employers once at the time, and now I’m working for them again.”

  “With them. Not for them,” Isilhorn siad. “There is a difference.”

  “Yeah, I suppose there is.”

  “What did you do for the Guild previously?” Orikori asked with his notebook out. Arz scowled. When had the little scribe managed to grab it again?

  “Researcher and historian. I helped them find legends and stories about wizards, mages, sorcerers, and whatever else was in our histories.”

  “What about the alchemy?” Khoribin asked.

  “A hobby and something some of the Guild members were experimenting with. It’s something that stuck with me. There were more stories of alchemists in history books than wizards, you know. As soon as the line crossed into fiction, wizards and sorcerers started appearing. Says something about the reality of our little ruling body, doesn’t it?” Arz looked at the roof of the cave. “I am not a good person, but I don’t want any of you to get hurt. I appreciate you coming with me. I’m sorry about your shoulder.”

  Alzidius grunted. “Part of the job. If I can’t work anymore, the Guild will pay for that. I’ll be fine. I hold no grudges.” The sergeant had his hand pressed on the wound. “It’s not enough to kill me and you weren’t the one to shoot me. I’ve got nothing to be angry about.”

  “If you all continue to travel with me, I’ll find ways to help keep us all safer. I don’t want a repeat. I asked for you to come to Doumenus to make it safer for me, not to make your own lives more dangerous. We won’t have a repeat. Okay?”

  Khoribin nodded to him. “Thank you.”

  Arz returned the nod. “How about we smash up this skeleton now?”

  “What?” Isilhorn asked.

  “I need some of this ricarun’s DNA to understand the AZ-32 robots. Well, in theory.” He shrugged. “I’ve been thinking about it since the slimes told me how to make the transtion potion.” Arz took out the slime, gas, vines, red oil, and rainbow salt. “I’ll make enough for you all to try it too. If you want to understand what they’re saying.”

  “Is it worth the rare ingredients?” Orikori asked. He hurried over and sat beside Arz. His notebook was already out as he wrote down each ingredient Arz had grabbed.

  “You two don’t need to stand guard. The 32s aren’t quiet. If you need to rex or want to watch, please do.”

  Khoribin spoke quietly with Isilhorn for a short time before walking over and sitting on the other side of Orikori. “He’s gonna stay on guard.”

  “Last time I was with you, we nearly got ambushed. I know they’re loud, but . . .” Isilhorn aimed the AZ weapon down the tunnel. “I don’t need a hole through my face.”

  Arz nodded. It was difficult to disagree. The Storm Beast had almost successfully snuck up on them.

  “So, uh, yes,” Arz said. He grabbed the slime and showed Orikori. “This is from the slime creatures themselves. The Jumtha. Wait, Jumthins.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t honestly matter.”

  “Is it their skin?” Khoribin asked.

  “Ew, no. Well, actually . . .” Arz set it down and grabbed the gas. “Moving on. This is swamp gas from Jumtha. From the pnet. Uh, and this is some parts of swamp vines. The whole pnet is a swamp, really. But that’s not important.”

  “What is the rainbow salt for?” Orikori asked.

  “You’re familiar?”

  The scribe only nodded.

  “It improves brain function temporarily. A brief boost if ingested. It should improve the original transtion potion when added with red oil.”

  “You’re going to drink red oil?”

  Arz nodded. “I’ll do it first, so if I convulse and die, you won’t need to worry about it.”

  “Wouldn’t we be stuck here?” Isilhorn asked. Obviously he was listening in even if he didn’t join them as a group.

  “Absolutely not. All you do is take a sparkstone like what I have in my pocket and pour one of these pink potions on it.” Arz set the sparkstone and boosted return potion to the side. “You’ll end up right in my study.”

  It took him a little bit to organize everything. Setting up required finding empty containers to build the potions inside, and making sure he knew how much of each ingredient he would use.

  Arz started by using four pinches of rainbow salt into a rger container. Everything would need to be evenly mixed like the original transtion potion he got, so he wouldn’t be able to pce the ingredients straight into empty vials. Unfortunately, there would be more ingredients wasted with the transfer from container to container, but he didn’t have a choice. Measuring an equal amount of slime was difficult and caused Arz to gag a little as it slowly, viscously dripped out. Rainbow salt dissolved slowly into it while Arz dumped most of his container of vines on top.

  “I pn to keep enough for one extra potion. I’d really prefer to avoid Jumtha for a while. The frogs . . .” Arz looked at the others, who all just watched patiently. They didn’t care what he said at the moment. They just wanted to see what he would make.

  “How do you mix gas in?” Orikori asked.

  Arz held it up and shrugged. “It’ll be the st ingredient. When I had mine, it smelled strongly of gas, which leads me to believe the gas will escape. The less time it’s in, the better.” Arz dumped the whole vial of red oil in, which sat on top of the slime without mixing.

  He reached over and tugged on the skeleton’s top left arm. It creaked as it moved before falling over on the cave floor in a puff of dust.

  “I will be honest. I thought that arm would just tear right off.” Arz tugged again and scowled. “This dead one is strong.”

  “What do you need from it?” Khoribin asked.

  “DNA. Pieces of bones. Marrow, if there is any.”

  Khoribin stood, stomped on the arm, and handed Arz some shattered pieces of bone.

  “Crude, but efficient.” Arz stomped on the smaller pieces of bone until they were little more than dust.

  After mixing the bone in, he waited. Nothing happened in the mixture.

  “Is it going to do something?” Khoribin asked.

  “Perhaps it needs heat.” Arz dragged the container to the edge of the darkfire oil pool. Even Isilhorn was looking over. Silence dominated the cave as they all watched the slime slowly heat up. Arz poked a finger into the mix and stirred it, but immediately regretted it. Slime trailed off his finger as he lifted it out of the container.

  “Arz,” Orikori said, finally breaking the silence.

  Arz was in the process of rubbing his finger on the stone he sat on, trying to scrape some of the slime from his finger. It only made it worse when he remembered that the slime was like the meat of the Jumthins. It was Wildil himself sticking to Arz’s finger. He gagged.

  After taking a moment to collect himself, Arz nodded to Orikori. “What do you need?”

  “Is it true you found dead pnets?”

  Arz thought of the barren ndscape he had called Escapopolis. It sounded like a dumb name now, but it was one he would keep. It had a purpose, after all. “Yes. Mostly.” Arz carefully pushed the slime mix closer to the edge over the pool of oil. “There could have been something below the surface, or maybe something I just couldn’t see. I have no real idea, I suppose. But when I went there a second time, there still wasn’t anything of significance.”

  “What if you brought a seed?” Orikori asked.

  “For what? A tomato?”

  “I was thinking more like an oak tree.”

  “That’s an acorn,” Isilhorn said.

  “Which is a seed. We’re all correct,” Arz said as Orikori started to scowl.

  A bubble popped on top of the slime mixture. He pulled it away from the oil and smiled at the others. “Let’s save this conversation for when we return to Bralincote.” Arz held the container of gas and sucked in some air. “This could be a bad idea. If I am in pain, leave me be. Or maybe shoot me. Whatever seems more humane.”

  He shoved his hands back into the mixture and uncorked the gas vial under the surface of the slime. It was hot, but not nearly as bad as he had expected. The swamp gas spread out in the slime. Arz flinched, readying himself for the smell that didn’t come.

  “Is it working?” Orikori asked. The scribe hurried over and sat beside Arz. His notebook page was already full as he somehow found more room to scribble down notes.

  Arz pulled his hands out and immediately gagged. The swamp gas floated up through the hole Arz created. The smell assaulted them all at the same time, causing Isilhorn to stumble away.

  “You’re going to drink that?” Khoribin asked. He set the gun down and covered his nose with both hands. “It has red oil and swamp gas.”

  Arz used his hand to stir it again, then scooped one dose with an empty vial. “Chunky,” Arz said. The red oil didn’t fully mix in, instead floating in swirls around the slime. White dust clumped in chunks that drifted through the dark green slime alongside the pieces of vines. Only the rainbow salt actually mixed properly.

  “One way to find out,” Arz said. He tilted his head back and poured the mix down his throat.

  Never before had he tasted something so absolutely terrible. It was like letting a slug slowly travel down his throat, leaving a malodorous, horrible trail behind it.

  He cleared his throat and wiped his sleeve over his mouth. “Delicious.”

  “I saw your face,” Khoribin said.

  Arz was still unable to let his face rex. It was as if his whole body was readying to revolt against the taste in his mouth. “No, it’s delicious,” he whispered.

  “How do you know if it worked?” Orikori asked.

  “One way to find out.” Arz climbed to his feet and walked over to Isilhorn. “Would you like to go on a quick adventure?”

  “How quick?”

  “Up the hill. Just close enough to hear the robots talk.”

  Isilhorn looked to Alzidius, who nodded his approval.

  “I only need one to come along. Let the injured one rest.” Arz stood, covered his mouth as he fought the urge to vomit.

  “Okay,” Isilhorn said hesitantly.

  Arz pointed at Orikori and Khoribin. “You two stay here with Alzidius. We will be back shortly.” Arz cpped his hand on Isilhorn’s shoulder. “Off we go!”

  The young guard stayed a few steps behind Arz as he quickly walked up through the cave and out beside the burned prairie. The smell and taste in his mouth lingered, but the air outside was fresh, at least compared to the cave. A cool breeze, just the slightest movement of wind, was refreshing.

  “Shouldn’t I be leading?” Isilhorn asked.

  “No.”

  The young guard waited for more, but when Arz didn’t say anything, he jogged up to walk beside Arz. “Are you sure?”

  “Oh, absolutely. I have a pn.” Arz narrowed his eyes. “Sometimes I use ‘pn’ to mean I have an idea that I have no idea if it’ll work. But there is one great way to find out.”

  “Okay.”

  Isilhorn still seemed wary but stayed at Arz’s side. If nothing else, Arz just liked having company. Having the ability to think out loud, to share his thoughts was infinitely more helpful than having someone to protect him. Who needed protection? He had gotten to and from Doumenus once before without any protection. The st time they had been on an adventure, it was Arz who had been protecting Isilhorn.

  “I just think I could lead since I have a weapon and I know the direction. It’s not like the Storm Lands again,” Isilhorn said, trying to step ahead of Arz.

  They walked awkwardly and quickly, half racing until they had climbed about half of the hill. It didn’t take them long to reach Arz’s old hideout. He shushed Isilhorn and waited while listening for robotic footsteps.

  Nothing.

  “Are you originally from Bralincote?” Arz asked.

  “Yes, sir. From Valor Street.” Isilhorn held the AZ gun to his shoulder and swept his gaze around.

  Arz pushed the end of the gun down. “Rex. None of them are nearby. We’re waiting for their patrol to take them near.”

  Isilhorn cautiously lowered the weapon and sat on the mound. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. Valor Street, huh? What did your parents do?”

  “Father was a soldier.”

  “Honorable,” Arz said idly while peeking over the mound and past the spiralwood tree. He watched the horizon for a moment before frowning. “A soldier?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Not a guard?”

  Isilhorn shook his head.

  “In Pralidin’s army?”

  Isilhorn nodded without looking at Arz.

  “Oh. I’m sorry. Did he survive?”

  “He died a few months ago.” Isilhorn stared at the sky. “He was discharged before the uprising. A musket ball through his leg. Mother was his caretaker.”

  Arz nodded knowingly. “Valor Street isn’t an easy pce.”

  “Where are you from?”

  Arz smirked. “That’s a story for another time. Too long to expin now. Lots of things happen because of accidents, you know.”

  The faintest sound of robotic footsteps finally reached them. Arz jumped to his feet. “Follow a little behind me. I need them to see me before they say whatever it is they’re always repeating. I just need you to hear it too, so we know if the transtion worked for me.”

  “This sounds like a bad idea.”

  “I just drank swamp gas and oil. Nothing is a bad idea.” Arz scowled at the thought, knowing it was incorrect. There were so many bad ideas. Sometimes that was all there was.

  He ran up the hill and waited near a mound. As always, the AZ-32s didn’t walk perfectly in sync and nearly stumbled over bumps, so it was difficult to tell how many there actually were. The footsteps grew louder as they moved closer. Isilhorn was a bit farther down the hill, waiting patiently.

  Arz popped out and waved. “Good afternoon, ds. May I interest you in not killing me?”

  Two AZ-32s walked side by side, but stopped as soon as Arz appeared. They were well-worn with spots of degradation on their metal pting. Some of the metal veins were disconnected and stuck out from the metal ptes.

  “You are trespassing. Surrender for processing,” both AZ-32s said at almost the same time.

  “Wow, I thought it was going to be something more exciting,” Arz said.

  “Can you understand them?” Isilhorn asked.

  The AZ units turned to try to see Isilhorn, but he was too far downhill.

  “Yeah. They’re guards who want to arrest me. Could you understand them?”

  “No.”

  Arz nodded and walked off the road. The AZs slowly turned back to him. They were trying to aim their guns, but he walked away faster than they moved.

  “We should hurry,” Arz said casually upon reaching Isilhorn.

  The young guard started running downhill. Arz followed, focusing far more on keeping his feet under him than on not getting shot from behind. The robots were too slow to keep up with a fleeing target at the moment anyway.

  A green beam flew right past Arz, singeing the fabric of his jacket as it passed.

  “Swerve!” He took a turn while running. Isilhorn did the same, but in the other direction. The AZ units fired from above, getting less accurate with each shot.

  They reached the burned down prairie before long and ran straight to the cave and down into the darkfire oil chamber.

  Khoribin stood guard right at the chamber’s entrance, and stepped aside as Arz and Isilhorn barreled past. “Are you being chased?”

  “Uh, maybe.” Arz sat down and tried to focus on getting his breathing under control.

  Isilhorn fared much better. He wasn’t even out of breath after running while carrying the heavy weapon. Instead, he stood beside Khoribin and immediately took up watch.

  “Did it work?” Orikori asked. The scribe sat at the container of slime. He was holding a vial, ready to test it out.

  “Yes, actually.” Arz crawled over and filled more vials. He walked them to the guards, who both looked warily at the mix.

  Behind them, Orikori drank it and moaned in discomfort as he fought the urge to vomit.

  “I don’t know, Arz,” Khoribin said.

  “It’ll be fine.” Arz shoved the vials into their hands. “Faster the better.”

  Both guards drank it and handed the empty gss vials back to Arz. They made their fair share of noises as they willed their bodies to keep the potion down.

  “My stomach gurgled,” Isilhorn said.

  “It’ll be fine,” Arz said. He hurried to fill one st vial and passed it to Alzidius. “If you’re feeling up for it.”

  The sergeant grinned and immediately drank the potion. He sucked on his teeth and sighed. “Not as bad as I expected.” He passed back the empty container.

  “Well, alright. Color me impressed. Or whatever color makes me seem cooler.” Arz cpped his hands loudly, making Orikori jump and nearly drop his notebook.

  “Anyone want to go home?”

  “Yes,” Khoribin said immediately.

  “I wouldn’t mind.” Alzidius pushed himself up with his good hand. He grunted along the way, wincing at times.

  Arz put a cover on the slime mixture and slipped it into his backpack on top of the containers of darkfire oil. Orikori checked on his own stash and adjusted his pack straps.

  “Looks like everything is good,” Arz said. He took out a sparkstone and a pink return potion. “This should work.”

  “Why wouldn’t it?” Isilhorn asked.

  “Sorry, can’t hear you over the sound of me not listening.” Arz chucked the sparkstone at his feet and dumped the potion onto the cloud of sparks. A portal tore through the air, but took a moment to force its way open. It had a red glow around the edges as it continued to expand despite the chronobubbles.

  “All good. In we go!” Arz stepped through and immediately turned to catch the others who all stumbled in turn as they stepped onto the floor of the study.

  The portal stayed open even as they all stood and waited in Arz’s study.

  “Is it supposed to stay open?” Khoribin asked.

  “It usually sts less than a minute.” Arz walked closer and examined the red edges of the portal. “Orikori, are you ready for notes?”

  “Ready, Master.”

  “The red oil succeeded in strengthening the potion, as I expected, but it definitely has some unintended consequences. Not only is the portal stronger, it is sting longer. The opening was bigger and it hasn’t disappeared after over a minute, which means it is already at least twice as long as my normal portals. If red oil strengthens recipes this much, it might be even more valuable than I originally believed.

  “I will need some experiments into just how versatile red oil is, but, uh, I will also need to find a way to force portals closed when they do this. Without red oil, the portal wouldn’t have opened at all. Now with it, it won’t close.”

  “What are you going to do?” Orikori asked.

  Arz looked around the study, hoping to find something that would fix the portal. It had to disappear eventually, but until then, he needed a way to stop an AZ-32 from walking right through.

  “Help me with this.”

  Khoribin helped Arz drag a chair over until it blocked the lower part of the portal.

  “This was your pn?” Alzidius asked.

  “In my head, it was so much better.” Arz shrugged. “Let’s all go visit the shop and get something strong. Something that’ll get this fvor out of my mouth. If the portal is still open, or an AZ is hanging out in here when I get back, I’ll figure it out. Right now, it doesn’t matter.”

  “I feel like it matters a little, “Khoribin said.

  “No, no. It’s fine.”