“Haduken!”

  What is this tripe? Why are you calling out random words?

  “Ka-me-ha-me-ha!”

  Don’t ignore me. You’re being a brazen dork, and you know it. I know what you think.

  “Wizard bird's first level five fireball!”

  Okay seriously, I think you took a hit on the head on the tumble down here. Even if everything in your brain seems fine.

  Shawn practiced thrusting his hands forward, focusing on conjoining a fire dart between his hands on a quick theory. So far, he’d been unsuccessful in joining the two separate darts together mentally into a single bigger dart. “Halsey, quick observations have demonstrated my Etteria use is stronger for the same energy expenditure. Or, my reserves are more pronounced. We’re trapped underground, with beasts that put even an experienced team to their limits. Yeah, I’m using this five minutes of calm to learn everything I can.”

  You were terrified of being an Etteria vampire five minutes ago!

  Shawn let out a soft sigh and grabbed a drink from his canteen. “I still am. This one needs investigation once we get back, and I worry if there’s a connection between it, and how Telga lost her powers. She hasn’t spelled out how she lost her powers, exactly. That worries me.” He gnced down at his bandaged injuries and winced. “That said, when I get back, I need a spa session. I guess I’ll have to build a magitech-powered jacuzzi while I’m at it.”

  What about Maggie? Do you think you have time for luxuries like that?

  The biting question instantly killed his mood. “No, Halsey, I probably don’t. But I have a whole damn world to search, and a belligerent god to take care of, first. I have an unfathomable amount of impossible tasks ahead. That worries me. I’m just one person.”

  One person with an unprecedented gestalt, Shawn. I doubt someone else could have survived the threats you've taken on.

  Shawn looked around at the cavern and noted there appeared to be no threats in sight. He also determined that if he stayed put, Garrett would likely find him, but Garrett could be putting himself at risk, too. Meeting him halfway, seemed the most prudent approach.

  “Halsey, what do you think we should do? Should we try to mark off where we've been so that he has some indication of where we went?"

  It would be prudent to leave a trail of markers at least. Is there anything we can use that can stand out?

  Shawn examined the giant mushrooms that adorned the cavern, amazed at their size, and bioluminescence. And, the much softer nding that he had been afforded.

  He tested one with his cw, and a fluorescent fluid seemed to seep out of the material. It didn't cause him any harm, other than making his hand glow faintly.

  Well, that wasn’t very scientific. He wiped his hand on his legging, opened one of the mineral sample vials, and scooped some of the material into it. After that, he drew a small arrow with a long, narrow rock he used as an impromptu paintbrush, to indicate his travel path. "Well, I guess I'm going to leave myself a trail of breadcrumbs, " Shawn replied as he marked the entryway to the first passage.

  With his weapon at the ready, he ventured forth into the dark. The rifle had been effective against the rats, but, given their extreme difficulty penetrating the hide of the ursina, they needed specialized weaponry. Armor-piercing came to mind, or explosives. I need tungsten or hardened steel for armor piercing. I wouldn’t rule out explosive or incendiary bullets, but that makes me mighty uncomfortable. I am covered in fmmable feathers. He frowned and looked at the grime now coating him. Actually, maybe not. They get sooty but they don't burn.

  The long and winding corridor had more of those mushrooms illuminating the way. Occasionally, he saw little nibble marks–possibly the little lizard creatures he saw that scrambled about when he walked by, slithering into the darkness to hide. The click of his cws was pronounced as he gripped tightly against the rocks.

  Birds do not belong in the underground. Halsey didn't disagree with him, and he could feel her presence pressing against his mind with a mental nod.

  Over the next several minutes, he meandered through the varying passages, found a few dead ends, and put X’s on the impassable terrain, so he didn’t waste time on a backtrack. He noted that caverns bore mineral deposits of varying luster and coloration. He tried to scratch one with his cw, but the material remained steadily stuck within the rock. Then again, it might be a futile effort to chip away at it, if his cw was mostly keratin.

  You know, the ck of a pinky finger isn’t bothering me as much. This isn’t that bad.

  Until you get cozy with someone, sometime down the line. Mind where you put those hooks.

  His eyes widened slightly at this out-of-the-blue suggestion. Halsey, real talk? I am so far from getting busy with anyone in this giant jigsaw puzzle world, that it’s not even remotely a concern. He gnced down at his cws and sighed. You know, that also applies to a lot of other…things.

  He heard nothing but boisterous ughter in his head for several seconds afterward, while he considered the mineral samples. He wished he grabbed a pickaxe when he had the chance, earlier. But he had other things to be concerned with.

  For instance, what was he telling the others about the now-disintegrated ursina. Halsey, a grim thought has occurred to me. Does this mean I’ll absorb the Etteria in every dead creature?

  Indeterminate. The Thunderhead creature didn’t break down in your presence. Perhaps it didn’t have Etteria in it? You also killed numerous razor rats, and the phenomenon has not been reproducible. Perhaps, the material in biological organisms is different? Or maybe it needs to reach a certain minimum mass?

  Yeah, um, deliberately repeating the circumstances on this one could lead to some rather unsettling precedent. I’m not a monster syer, Halsey, I’m an engineer. Murdering creatures for power–if that’s what happened–sounds kinda evil.

  To be fair, the ursina was attempting to devour your whole team. Just don’t go out of your way to find the answer. Perhaps only test this on fresh corpses that you haven’t had a hand in sying?

  He grumbled under his breath. “Yep, this is how it starts. The descent to madness. I hope this isn’t how the Radiants–”

  His voice hitched mid-thought. Is this how the Radiants get powerful? Can they harvest Etteria from living beings? But, I thought it was rendered inert at death.

  It may take time to decompose. Also if this is the case, we should try to resist the energy feed; I do not know if there is an upper limit to what you can absorb, safely.

  A skittering sound caught his attention and he brought his rifle to bear with one hand, and summoned a fme dart in his other. The light from the fme was pying havoc with his night vision, and he had to mentally dim it so that it wasn't going to be an obstruction.

  He saw a tiny pair of eyes looking at him from the rocky outcropping up above. It was another rat-like creature, nibbling on the prevalent moss that lined the structure. After a moment, the creature skidded into the darkness, making tiny squeaky sounds. He took confidence in the fact that not everything was super-sized, and out to eat him.

  As he continued to explore he noticed several interesting things. At one point, he saw a colpsed passageway, roughly humanoid-sized. There was what appeared to be brickwork adorning the frame way, and he traced the edges of the material with this cw, frowning softly.

  The stone was smooth. And warm. He could even see faint machine lines, as if someone had prepared the bricks with an industrial-sized cutter, without fracturing the material. The precision was considerable–this was not primitive chiseling stone by hand. "Halsey, what do you make of this?”

  If I recall what Garrett said, this entire world is honeycombed with old passages and dead civilizations. These caverns could intersect with other settlements that used to be here, if I had to theorize.

  I have an unsettling question: why are all these civilizations dead?

  Eaten by mutated bears, most likely.

  He ughed aloud at that one. “Okay, I don't know where the sense of humor comes from, but I could use more of that.”

  Gd I can assuage your fears. This looks ancient, though. There are no other signs of sentient species handiwork nearby. We haven't found any bones, either, or tools. Anything to indicate their presence. Not even any artwork or decorum.

  When in doubt, you know a civilization is thriving when you find its culture and humanitarian arts preserved. Here...not so much.

  Shawn tilted his head in acknowledgment before pressing on. There was no point in lingering; If these passages had colpsed, it had been so for a long time, before the recent tremors.

  Several more minutes passed by. He slung the rifle and grabbed the warhammer, hoping to avoid wasting ammunition or his Etteria. He wasn’t exactly sure what the energy from the Etteria use was called–he’d have to ask, ter.

  Much to his relief, most of his would-be foes were more content with nibbling on the moss and the mushrooms of the caverns. He noted that the caverns seemed to be sloping upwards, leading him back towards the surface–in theory. Shawn clicked on the Arcom device mounted on his vest, hoping he had enough range to reach Garrett. “Hey, Garrett, can you still hear me?"

  A moment ter he heard a faint ring sound from the device. Garrett's voice came in faintly, but audibly. “Still here, I tried to reach you a few minutes ago. how far along have you made it?"

  Shawn took a look around and stretched his limbs, but also felt that stinging sear of the strained limb on his right wing. It had faded, at least. "I've made it about three, maybe four hundred meters in, but it's hard to determine the distance with the way the passages twist and wind. How about you, had any luck finding a connecting passage?”

  “Well, I had to deal with more razor rats, but they don't seem to be in the same numbers they were before. I'm pretty sure we got most of them when we roasted them in that rge cavern above.” He let out a soft trill of ughter over the Arcom, and Shawn smiled faintly. “I think I'll take up Trask’s offer to roast one.”

  "Think Trask was telling a tall tale?”

  "No, I think he was right on the mark. If we get out of here, there's still plenty left, assuming they haven't eaten their dead,” Garrett answered.

  Shawn nodded while leaping over a deep pit, and his cwed feet quickly found solid footing. "Fair enough. I saw what looked to be some man-made, or…uh, what could have been a sentient-made passage nearby. But, it was colpsed, and I could not explore any further." He hoped Halsey was mentally mapping this pce, because his sketches were minimalist, at best. "Garrett, has Varrick ever talked about the other civilizations in the area? What do you know about them?"

  There was a brief pause as Shawn moved through the cavern, and ducked under a low opening that was no more than one meter high. He felt his cws scrabbling against smooth stone steps occurring naturally in the passage, and he also noticed that the air seemed to be getting warmer.

  "Well, if I believe Telga's assessment, this entire world is one giant honeycomb, and if you dig down straight pretty much anywhere, you're going to find something. And, you might not like what you find, depending on how far down you dig."

  “What broke the world to pieces, Garrett? I think Telga knows.” This question continued to bother him. A world blowing up, as suggested by the strange orbital yers, should have been a mass extinction event. Everyone should have died.

  “I actually don't know if she has the whole story either. But, when she starts talking history, it's like she was there to witness it herself,” he added. “Shawn, why are you asking?”

  “Uh…” he trailed off. “What makes the Radiants so special? What sets them apart from the rest of the gestalt users?”

  “Their power defies all scaling for gestalts. It’s just bigger. They shrug off injuries or don’t get injured by deadly abilities. They are, in effect, walking gods. They don't take damage like you and me. She’s said that sometimes…being one, doesn't make her feel special. Just responsible for so much more.”

  “Okay, now tell me the version without the propaganda,” Shawn stated dryly, and hefted himself up a narrow passage, angling upwards. These tunnels were making it impossible for him to make use of his wings, and he was covered in dirt, mud, and flecks of that glowing mushroom. A bath would be a nice thing to look forward to.

  “You mean, what do I think?”

  “Yeah. Is Telga the real deal?”

  “She is. Before the disaster st month, trying to talk down Revarik, she was getting Valtiria organized. Working on tech, getting industry going, setting up schools to educate people.” Garrett let out a soft huff, interrupted by static. The signal was still a little weak in the passageway, where the glowing mushrooms were joined by a green lichen growing on the walls. The lichen illuminated the passage in a calming light, beying the terrors of the monsters that lurked in the depths. “Telga lost everything, Shawn. She won’t tell it to your face, because she doesn’t want you to know how horribly she’s failed. Even Regia won’t–" He stopped, and Shawn heard a sharp click of his beak. “It’s not my pce to say, on this one.”

  Shawn put together the disparate information. Then, a tangent thought got his attention. “Hey, Garrett? Does Telga have any other siblings? Not fellow Radiants, I mean, actual family members. Like, it would be helpful to know more about what makes them tick.”

  “Does it matter, Shawn? Are you asking if she has more psychotic family members who are chasms-bent on tearing this world apart? Then, no, she doesn’t.” That was the first rebuke he’d heard from the seasoned warrior, subtle as it was. “Why?”

  “Garrett…do the Radiants have a way to absorb Etteria?” He hopped onto a narrow ledge, shimmying up and to the right, and had to make a short leap to catch the next ledge, a drip of water the only sound breaking the cavern's silence.

  “Shawn, I know where you're going with this. You’re asking if that’s what Revarik did to her. Drained her, took her powers. The truth is, I don’t know. All I know is that Regia, Telga, and a handful of others made it back from the core world. Everyone else was killed or captured.”

  “Um…” did he dare to shoot this wild theory off? Could he trust Garrett with this? Maybe not just yet. Even he wasn’t sure about this one, yet. “You know what, let's put a pin in that one. By the way, I found tons of ores down here. I marked them with some magical mushrooms.”

  Garrett let out a shrill squawk. “Please tell me you didn’t handle that stuff. Those mushrooms are a delicacy for the razor rats. They can smell that stuff a kilometer away, even though we can barely smell it.”

  “Smells like chamomile, to be honest. Not very earthly, which is what I usually associate with fruited mushrooms,” Shawn muttered. “Also, it’s all over my clothes. I bounced down and nded on some of them, and they broke my fall.”

  “Shawn, do me a favor. Get that stuff off of you, best you can.” Shawn leaped upwards to level ground, in a new passage that opened up to a vast cavern–this one, with traces of clear crystals lining the walls, and a few rger specimens growing from the ground in a manner of ten-foot-tall crystalline trees.

  Shawn gnced down at himself and grabbed a rag he doused with a dabble of water from his canteen. “I haven’t heard a peep so far. Maybe we did–”

  The sound of a distant, shrilling screech instantly set his nerves on edge. He grabbed one of the remaining incendiary canisters and a length of cord he’d brought along in case they needed to do any climbing with no reliable anchor points. “Uh, yeah, start listening for the sounds of screaming, ravenous rats. And possibly me, running for my life.” He affixed a crude trip wire and hoped the rats would run right over it and arm the incendiary grenade.

  “I hate this infernal bundle of rocks,” Garrett grumbled. Shawn wasted no time picking up the pace, as the screeching became an incessant worry. “Get moving, as fast as you can! I see another passage winding downward, I’m getting closer.”

  The sight of man-made brickwork in the ground did little to assure him that he was anywhere safe as the ravenous horde surged up the tunnel he’d been traveling with great care, and he grabbed his warhammer.

  His next pnned invention was going to be a goddamn fmethrower, to deal with these relentless pests that were trying to turn him into gnawed-on chicken bones.

  My advice? Run and gun!

  He smiled grimly as the incendiary trap triggered in the passage behind him, and ran past the broken crystal trees. Aw, I’m gd you care, Halsey.