Fantasy Ascent into Madness

[Lyro]

Kytrek blinked as the light went out, then narrowed his eyes. With another press of his suit's controls, he turned on his headlights once more, bathing the cavern in a cold, blue-white glow. "Squatters. Or looters. Either way, they shouldn't be a problem. They're probably getting as far away from us as they can right this instant." He swivelled his head upward, illuminating the ceiling of the cavern. It was not particularly high up, maybe 30 to 40 metres. "I can see why they'd like this place, though..." he added softly as he looked around.

Despite the great state of disrepair, it was obvious a thriving civilization had once made its home here. The buildings - at least, what was left of them - were grand and imposing, the architectural style seemingly designed to create an illusion of greater height (which once might have been reinforced by actual illusion magicks). The ceiling itself was a work of art, a finely detailed mosaic depicting all manner of different scenes; much of it was missing or discolored by now, but a few fragments remained relatively intact. Including...

"Hah. On this trip of all trips," Kytrek remarked as he increased the intensity of his helmet's lights. Directly above what seemed to be some kind of central plaza or courtyard lay an enormous symbol, etched into the ceiling with what looked to be some kind of precious stone.

"Friends and otherwise, we stand in the ruins of Sun-worshippers," Kytrek announced as he sat down on a nearby piece of collapsed wall. "Specifically, worshippers of the All-That-Was. Gnomes, in all likelihood." With no small amount of effort, Kytrek managed to reach into his suit pocket and pull out one of his notebooks. His gloved fingers began leafing through it until at last they came to a page with a matching image. "At least six hundred years old. Probably more. Some variance from the more common depiction, but it is essentially the same thing." His gaze lowered to the structures around him, and he frowned. "I wonder what happened to them. This looks advanced for such an old upper civilization. But then these caves hide all sorts of haza-AAH!!"

Kytrek jumped up and spun around as Dalamus approached him. Despite moving like a panther, the dark elf was still covered head-to-toe in a thick, hermetic suit with heavy boots, making for a panther that was neither stealthy nor particularly dextrous. While he had managed to remain relatively silent until now, a misplaced step had sent him slipping slightly, making enough noise to startle Kytrek. "What is wrong with you, you demented freak?" Kytrek shouted in a mixture of fear, surprise and anger, both at Dalamus and himself. "You barely move for hours and all of a sudden you're trying to get the drop on us? Where were you when Gniss told us to find a way through? It's like--" He paused and looked around. "Wait, where did Gniss go?"

There was the sound of shattered glass, a strangled yell, and the sight of a body crashing into the ground from above. A smaller figure dropped down immediately after, landing on top of the body. The light from Kytrek's helmet illuminated Gniss, face grave, looking down at the person on which she was standing. "Found your supposed squatter. Don't worry, they're not dead. I just needed to get their attention." Again, it was probably Kytrek's imagination, but for a moment he thought he could hear a hint of glee to her voice. "Alright, pal," she continued, reaching down to grab them by the collar. "Start talking. Don't dwell on the pain. Who are you? What are you doing here? What do you know?"

 

[C.DEX]

"Don't - Don't hurt me." the man said, raising his hands in a defensive manner as Gniss - who was surprisingly strong. He had been armed - as presumably everything without a proper abode had been, up in the levels, but he didn't seem to be going for his weapon at all. It was stowed on his hip, a particularly unremarkable dagger-like thing. "I'm ... Argis a-Voldur. Currently, I'm being strangled by a tiny woman. I know that I'm being strangled by a tiny woman."

His eyes shifted to the side, finding that he had been surrounded by a group of ... what were they wearing? They were puffy suits, almost looking as if they had been designed to be stuffed with cotton to ... keep temperature? No, the couldn't be right. They looked like aliens, some of them still wearing their suits while those such as Cyell had taken them off, revealing that they weren't otherworldly creatures at all.

The man himself was long, a scarf covering his mouth and head to insulate against the cold, but Gniss' treatment had caused the upper portion to fall off, revealing his head. He had an odd hue of gray-green skin and cat-like yellow eyes. His features weren't brutish enough to be orcish - although they had been particularly square - and his skin wasn't hued to be elvish. He was an odd - and rare - combination of the two, but he had said it all in his name. He was Voldur.

"I can't understand why you would assault me in a place where I've lived for years and then ask me what I'm doing here, unless ..." his eyes shifted past Gniss, to the etching on the ceiling. "You wouldn't all happen to be All-That-Was worshippers, would you? You don't look very Gnomish..."

"Stop messing around." Cyell hissed, aiming his weapon down at the Voldur man.

"I'm just trying to parse why you're here, friend." Argis replied, not particularly amused but not looking exactly terrified, either. "I heard a rumbling in the foundation of this place, there was suddenly a massive hole, and you all burrowed through like moles." he said, revealing that he had been astute enough to realize at least the basis of what was going on. "You can see that I don't mean you any harm, so if you would step off of me."

The mage lowered his weapon for a moment, glancing behind him at Dalamus, then back to the Voldur. He was nervous, and justifiably so. If anyone had looked like an Upper Spy, it certainly could have been him, but ... then again, there was nothing about his voice and words that had indicated he knew what was going on.

"...Please?" Argis asked. "I would hate to be shot and not have any remote idea as of why."

 

[Lyro]

Gniss's grip had not relaxed by one iota throughout the exchange. She kept looking at the man, attempting to gauge whether there was any truth to his words. The silence remained unbroken for a few more tense seconds, the whole scene an improbable still image.

"Very well," she said finally, her grip loosening at last. She stepped back to stand on his chest, then looked up at the group around her. "I am willing to believe his story. It is unlikely they would have known we would pass through here, after all." She sighed and raised a hand to her forehead. "So. We now have a classic case of the innocent-guy-who-knows-too-much. Whoever he is, there's no telling what he'll do the moment we leave."

"Believe or not, I am not keen on killing innocent bystanders. Which leaves us with few options. Is there any magic you people could weave that could make him..." She paused for a moment, closing her eyes as she took a deep breath. "We mustn't fail," came her barely audible whisper, before she opened her eyes and looked at the group once more. "Any magic that could make him forget what just happened? Or otherwise unable to share these events with anyone?"

Kytrek seemed to hesitate, his bushy eyebrows furrowing in thought, before he reluctantly shook his head. "That's mentalist work. Very delicate thing, the mind. Naturally nothing that is beyond me, given enough time - say, a few months, maybe a yea--"

"In that case we are left with only one option," Gniss resumed, cutting off Kytrek. "We must bring him with us. Bound and gagged in the hold if need be. Hopefully we have suits that will fit him. And no," she added, turning to Argis. "You do not get a say in this. Now get up." She hopped off his chest and turned to watch him, ready to run after him if he tried to make a break for it. "We're going to the Surface, and you're coming with us."

OOC: From now on, you can all start playing a second character - just run it by me first so we can decide on a good introduction location.

 

[C.DEX]

"...That's insane." Argis replied, his brow furrowing, and his tone suddenly flipping. "You want me to be involved in what, a suicide mission? I don't know who you all are, but you're all already insane enough without the addition of the mana insanity that you'll get from even venturing close to ... whatever is up there."

His eyes shifted to the hole in the ground. That must have been where they had come from. Then, his eyes landed on the dark elf, a wand prepared in his hand. The group didn't seem to be faltering, but ... maybe he could take them? The sprite was unusually strong - pixies hadn't exactly been a thing he'd come across too many times. Then, he looked to the old man and the odd, gray human. The human had a gun trained on him.

From what little he understood of them, he had known that that wasn't good.

"Maybe you'll reason." Argis said. "I can always forget this ever happened. Stranger things happen every day, here, and I forget most of them. I may make a note that I don't have any idea who it is that's ... chasing you? Are you being chased? - Well, I can guarantee I don't know them, and it's not as if I can just call them up."

Cy lowered his gun slightly as Argis had climbed to his feet. He was tall, but tied garments had concealed how he had been built. His clothes were surprisingly clean for apparently having been a squatter or a graverobber. There wasn't really a great amount of information they could glean from looking at him alone, and he'd had too many areas in which he could hide a weapon for them to be truly comfortable. Then, he spoke, once again interrupting their surveillance.

"A swift blow to the head is also a good way to lapse one's memory. There are many drugs and flora around these parts that would be likely to make me forget, if you want assurance."

"Are you seriously suggesting we hit you?"

"It would be a preferable death to radiative insanity." he replied back, now on his feet with his hands raised. "I would rather be concussed than have the fabric of my mind torn apart at the seams, as you would know. I have seen it occur, and it is ... not pretty."

"We have suits. Maybe." Cyell replied, glancing to the others. The idea of taking someone with them wasn't exactly exciting. What had the others thought?

"They look very uncomfortable."

 

[Lyro]

Argis and Gniss made their way back to the hole in which the small group had came from, with little protest from Argis. After all, now wasn't the time. He was being watched by a creature a sixteenth of his size that could hit like someone two times it, with the others watching him like a hawk. But what he saw next, he couldn't exactly anticipate.

A massive thing had dug through the ground, tipped with a metallic drillhead and rockets lining the side. It looked claustrophobic - everything they had come in and worn had looked claustrophobic - and the idea of being shoved into the 'hold' (which he had assumed was the bottom) of a massive flying tin can that only served to ... go upwards, it looked like, well ... it wasn't exciting. As much as he had wondered what the capabilities were - what it could do, he didn't want to find out firsthand.

But then again. Tiny fairy. Strength of a giant. He weighed his options, and kept descending. Once he had hit solid ground - which happened to be the ledge that allowed them to climb into the rocket via a door on the side - he looked to Gniss, his hand clamped on the doorway of the rocket.

"Since I've already been exposed to ... whatever this all is ... do you mind me asking what you're all doing this for?" he asked. "I can understand that some people might be a little miffed that you're digging a hole through their area - you said you were being chased, right? - but is that just it? I mean ... at this point you can't really put a bag over my head and pretend I haven't seen anything, so I figure I would ask."

Gniss gave him a blank look and made her way past him, walking through the doorway and into the rocket. "I told you," she said, as she eyed a metal wall with various closed drawers. "We're going upwards. As far as anybody can go. And maybe a little higher even. Ah." Through a series of small leaps from drawer to drawer, she made her way to a larger one halfway up. With some effort, she removed the latch that was keeping it secured and pulled herself up.

"As far as motivation goes, I am sure our employers can arrange some financial compensation for you, despite your... circumstances," she continued as she reached in to the drawer. "And if the gold isn't enough, tell yourself that this is a peaceful voyage of scientific exploration. It is not untrue. Very well-financed scientific exploration. Which is paying for these suits. Try this one on." With a flick of her arm, the pixie tossed an unused suit from the inside of the drawer towards Argis.

"I'm not interested in money." Argis said. "I have an idea for payment, though. Don't include me on this trip, and I'll take it in advance, need to feed the kids and a-" he stopped, realizing that the pixie wasn't finding his humor quite so funny. "Could you at least allow me to get my things? Or send your ..." he looked to the side, as if assuring they weren't there. "Your commandees after them." he said, as if trying to butter Gniss up.

Then, the suit came. He looked at it with uncertainty. "For the record, I haven't tried to fight you so far, but if you do try to 'bind and gag' me in the hold, I'm going to have an issue with that." he warned, still plotting on just how he could get out of this all. "On the offhand chance that this is your way of courting a random handsome vagrant, I can assure you that you don't need to go to this length to do so."

Argis began to step into the suit, a terrible feeling overcoming him. It was easy to be in denial that these people were going to The Surface, but that's just what it was. They were insane already.

Gniss waved her hand dismissively as she closed the drawer and walked back to him. "There is room for your personal belongings. We can take that which you absolutely cannot part with. And I would like to ask you to reconsider your interest in fashion gain, as I wish to be absolutely clear on this subject." She came to a stop before him, arms on her hips, her eyes meeting his. "This expedition has been in the works for years," she said in a slightly hushed tone that forced Argis to strain to hear. "The people on this ship were extensively researched and profiled. Their presence is accounted for down to their likelihood of survival. But you," she added, and there was now a definite hint of menace to her tone, "you are an unknown to me. And as much as I am tempted to just..." she paused, briefly, then resumed, "I am willing to compromise and let you come with us. This is not an offer. This is the state of things. And you can either put on the damn suit and accept this, or you can keep denying it as I personally throw you down this shaft."

"And now that I think about it, that one seems one size too large. Give me a sec," she added as she turned around and climbed back up to the drawer.

"O-kay." Argis replied, with a throaty sigh. As she turned away, his eyes nervously darted to the exit of the ship. He had already looked down the shaft as he descended the ladder. Probably wouldn't survive. "Then ... since I'm going to be traveling with them ... who are they? And who are you? I presume they're all, what ... scientists, you said?"

He sighed. The reality was in front of him. There wasn't really a benefit to trying to think on how to get out of it all now, so he stopped. Be too aggressive, and she'd no doubt make good on her promise, and too passive? She might think that he was plotting something.

"What is this ... thing?" he asked, looking up and around at the inside of the rocket. "I haven't been to the lower levels too many times, but it looks like something they would make. And ... you're not going to be going through any active civilizations, are you?"

Gniss smiled privately to herself as she dug around in the drawer again. Good. Hopefully he wouldn't give them any further trouble. For now. "One of them is. At least, if you believe him. But mainly these people are uptrekkers. Experienced ones, too. I have, shall we say, equivalent training, but I am first and foremost this ship's pilot. The engineers call it a rocket, but you may call it whatever you like - one made-up name is as good as any as far as I am concerned. It goes upwards. Fast. And that's all you need to know about how it works."

She picked out another suit and threw that one at him too. "And no, if we can avoid it, we will not be going through any active civilizations - or even inactive ones, for that matter. The only reason we came across you was because you weren't even on the map." She hesitated, wondering if this would weaken her position, but finally ceded to her own curiosity. "How... did you come to this place, incidentally?"

Argis raised his hands, catching the suit before it could hit him in the face. With a dissatisfied grunt, he climbed into it, not exactly sure how to fasten it or ensure that it was closed. It was only his life on the line, after all - assuring that the alien material had sealed him in. The thought had brought him an odd mixture of annoyance and fear, putting his life in the hands of the overly-warm suit that Gniss had thrown to him.

"I'm ... not here to rob this civilization, if that's what you were thinking." he said. "I leave things as they were. Or I try to. As my name suggests, I'm Voldur." he said, referring to the name - sometimes derogatory - of those who'd had both elven and orcish blood. "I haven't ever truly fit into elven or orcish settlements. And so I wander. I found this place in coincidence - a cavern with the entrance the size of a, well ... gnome. It was well-hidden, and I figured this place would allow me to live in peace."

A sigh had indicated that it wasn't true, but there was something definitely missing from his story. He was a mixture of elven and orcish, but he looked at least middle-aged - where that had landed between a race with exceedingly long lifetimes and one with exceedingly short ones was up in the air. He'd had more history than that, but it wasn't anything that was pertinent to Gniss.

"And how does a person such as yourself become a pilot of a rocket?" he asked. "I'm wholly unaware of your peoples' normal careers apart from aged information in books."

"You won't trick me into revealing confidential information if that's your angle," Gniss warned with a twitch of her index finger as she closed the drawer and climbed down. She moved to Argis and began making adjustments to his suit, jumping up and holding on to him as she adjusted various buckles and restraints. "It's understandable you'd be curious about my kind, though - we don't often... wander." She paused, before adding, "How old do you think I am?"

"If I flatter you, will you kill me?" Argis replied, a smirk creeping up on his face. "By orc-ish time ... twelve? By elven time ... one-hundred and ten. By human? You couldn't be a day over ... twenty-five. But I imagine you're older than that, given your position here. I'm not entirely aware of the lifespan of pixies." he said, his eyes tracking Gniss as she fastened the suit into place to assure he didn't anti-climactically die from mana radiation.

"Nothing about this is a trick, by the way." he noted. "Just understandably curious about this all, since it's apparently going to become my reality. It's my luck that it's a 'confidential' mission."

"It's not exactly common knowledge how long pixies live," she replied, ignoring his last comment. "But we burn fast. Something to do with our metabolic processes, the dwarves say. Makes us mature much faster, at a cost. I am nine years old. If I am lucky, I will live to be sixteen." She tightened one last strap with a strong pulling motion, then leapt off and stood in front of him, inspecting him critically. "And even taking that into account, it would still take too much time to explain to you how I came to be here. But in those years, I have seen enough to make my presence here all but inevitable. Sit down in that middle seat there," she said while pointing to one of the unused seats next to her.

"I see." Argis said, his smile dimming. "It's ... never easy to be such a short-lived species. But you've made a decent enough impression to be given a 'rocket', so there's that." he said, sitting down now that they had been into the conversation. "I haven't met many of my own race, personally, but ... from what I've seen, while we have lifespans comparable to humans, our faculties tend to degrade early on. Surviving past that is possible, even probable, but I'm not entirely sure it's worth it for having my lucidity stripped from me. The curse of two incompatible peoples, I suppose. Which is why I'm so averse to ... this. I know it will happen, but I would much rather it happen at the prescribed time."

He smiled again. "Your people have a lot of similarities to orc-kind, if you'd believe that." he said. "Obviously very strong, short lived, a little bit more intelligent, very exclusive. Bad reputation."

Gniss briefly met his gaze before turning back to the matter of strapping him into his seat. "Yes, I'm sure we do." Having ensured he was fully secured, she moved to the side of the ship and unhooked a small radio communicator from the wall. "Attention, crew. We will be leaving within the hour. Locate and acquire our new passenger's belongings and bring them back, will you?" She hooked the microphone back on to its hold on the wall and turned back at Argis. She crossed her arms and began to lean against the wall.

"Listen, pal. I appreciate that you are trying to establish a rapport between us. 'We're not so different after all.' I'm sure if we kept talking we'd find all sorts of things to bring us closer." She shook her head. "But I'm not interested. I'm not here to be your friend. I'm not here to be any of these people's friend. I'm here to do a job. So by all means let's stay on good terms, but don't try that shtick on me."

"There isn't any need to get defensive. I'm not trying to butter you up. I already see that that's not going to work. Normally one would conclude a conversation at that, but I'm sure you don't have a lot of people who inquire about you. Or you do, and they tend to do so with snideness rather than real curiosity. Obviously, you're not here to be my friend - and if you are you've got a strange way of going about that. But I was genuinely curious."

He shrugged. "Plus, you did ask about me. I thought it was only kind to return the favor. I don't come across a lot of people. I didn't even expect my voice to work after so long."

"Just so long as there are no misunderstandings between us," she said, standing back up and beginning to climb up her tiny ladder into the ceiling. "I hear them coming back," she said, referring to the distant clank of boot on metal. "Luckily for you we're going to be running entirely on magic from now on, so the ride will be a lot smoother than when we first took off. I'd tell you to try to relax, but..." She shrugged, opened the hatch on the ceiling, and disappeared through it.

Argis looked down to the strappings locking him in, suited hands pulling at them. His face dropped. He still wasn't entirely sure what he'd gotten himself into - or really, what he'd been drafted into - but he wasn't exactly pleased at the prospect, no matter how cheery he'd kept his conversation.

He closed his eyes, and beat his head against the seat. "Fantastic." he muttered under his breath, before closing his eyes and waiting. After all, the others would be back soon.

 

[C.DEX]

"Kidnapping a person ..." Cyell muttered. He looked up to Kytrek. "This is apparently so important that we've kidnapped a person. Someone that doesn't want to be involved in this. I wouldn't care normally, but spies, and kidnapping ..." he sighed, assuring that the microphone in his helmet was off. "Gniss is hiding something. Well, that's obvious, they don't really try to hide that they're hiding something, but I don't trust -"

"Attention, crew. We will be leaving within the hour. Locate and acquire our new passenger's belongings and bring them back, will you?"

Cyell jumped at the intrusion of the pixie's voice into their comms, soon realizing that it wasn't because she was standing behind them in dramatic fashion. A small trill came from his throat. If anyone else had been watching, they might very well have believed that he had been afraid of her.

"His stuff? I guess that means going where the fire was." he said, with a grumble, looking upwards. The balcony was still there, he had simply extinguished it. As they got closer, a small form of something next to the now-smoking fire had come into view, disappearing as soon as they had gotten too close to the still somewhat intact building and come under the balcony.

The bloodmage's shoulders raised in tension, his grip still on his firearm.

"Doesn't feel weird to you?"

 

[Lyro]

"You don't think I'm bothered too?" answered Kytrek as he followed Cyell, occasionally pausing to stare at a broken mural or a ruined fixture. "This whole business stinks of unseen players using us as pawns. It has from the very beginning." Seeing his apprentice tense up, he rolled his eyes and pushed his way past him. "Come on, Cy, there's nobody here. Let's just get this over with." Walking into the building he immediately came across a spiraling flight of stairs leading upwards. "Look, boy. I don't like this business any more than you do. But we're committed now. Besides, whatever our unseen puppeteers are up to, they need us to do it, and they're willing to pay handsomely for it."

He reached the top of the stairs and pushed open a door. Beyond lay a dark room illuminated only by the dying glow of a few embers. The beam of Kytrek's flashlight poured through the entrance, highlighting various bundles and instruments strewn about the floor. "See? Nobody here. Now let's just grab what we can carry and hurraaa--!" Kytrek stepped back involuntarily as his flashlight illuminated a massive figure on the far side of the room, by the balcony. The light's beam swung wildly across the room as he backed away in fear.

Then, as all seemed to remain still and quiet, he hesitantly turned the light back towards the figure, which had not moved throughout his episode. "Ah," he remarked somewhat falteringly, before clearing his throat. "Ah, yes," he said, more assuredly now, "a statue. An impressively life-like one. See, boy? Like I said. Nobody here. You're just jumping at shadows."

With another glance at the statue, which seemed to depict some kind of tall humanoid, he set about gathering Argis's belongings.

 

[C.DEX]

"Weird." Cyell said, pointing his own light at the statue for a moment. If they were gnomish sun-worshippers, what had that been doing there? Of course, he could ask Kytrek, but that would most likely lead to a long-winded, technical answer, so mind-numbingly boring that it would dash his initial interest in the subject at all. So he followed Kytrek up the stairs, the two of them finally finding the spot in which Argis had been camping out.

An extinguished lantern and a small scattering of things inside of a rucksack set next to a stone makeshift fireplace sat on the balcony. Cyell leaned down, reaching into the rucksack and pulling Argis' supplies out. He came up with a book - all apparently handwritten - and all in orcish. It wasn't a language he could begin to read, but the sheer volume of the Voldur's notes had indicated that he had been there for a long while.

He put the journal back into the rucksack, shifting small survival tools and gathered herbs around to look for any weapons. Something that an unfortunate kidnapped person could use to potentially kill them, but ... he didn't find anything other than small totems and more scrawlings. The mage lifted the rucksack, slinging it over his shoulder.

"Lets go. I'd say go first, but I can call out any statues I see if I do so you won't have a heart attack." he said. "Hope whatever cause our 'unseen puppeteers' are championing for is a good one."

 

[Lyro]

0:01
0:00
LIFT

Outside, the metallic attachments that had embedded themselves in the cavern wall finished slithering back into the rocket. For a moment it felt like they were falling back down, and Kytrek worried for a moment that the magic on this level would be insufficient to propel the rocket on its own. But the moment passed, and slowly but steadily the rocket began to rise once more. It was almost quiet this time, as Gniss had elected to use none of the fuel that remained in reserve ("We will still need some for the voyage back, after all").

With unnerving stability and grace for a machine its size, the rocket slowly lifted up, passing through the hole Gniss had made in the ceiling. There was some noise for a few seconds as the drill widened it slightly to allow for the full width of the rocket to pass, and then they were through. The darkness of the cavern surrounded them, the surrounding buildings appearing as only the faintest of silhouettes. The quiet was short-lived however, as a few seconds after the rocket's head hit the cavern ceiling, and the familiar drilling noise resumed. Kytrek had assured Gniss that if there were enchantments on the ceiling, they were likely to be on the other side, which made it trivial to destroy the enchanted stones from the inside. And indeed, after the slightest of pauses, they were through, and their journey through solid rock resumed.

"This is it, people," came the voice from the intercom. "No more refueling stops. I will mark a short slow-down on every level to allow your bodies to adapt to the increasing levels of radiation, as your suits still let some mana filter through, but we do not stop until there is no more roof above us. ETA is four hours. We will be entering the Eighth Level soon."

Kytrek shook his head in disbelief - at least, as much as his restraints allowed for it. He turned to look at the wall-mounted digital clock in front of him. "We left at 5:30 from the Fourth Level. It is currently almost 13:00. By evening, if this contraption holds and our captain to be believed, we will walk where no person has walked before in recorded history. When you take into account our hour-long break midway through, this means that within half a day one can travel to any point directly above, and within a day you could reach any point in the entire world." He attempted to shake his head again. "Even if we don't find something up there, this has the potential to change everything about travel from the Depths."

 

[C.DEX]

Argis leaned back in his seat, the situation in itself feeling particularly ludicrous. He was a stranger in a strange land when it had come to the technology of the lower levels, and even moreso, they were apparently pioneering some sort of travel from the Surface to the depths? Or, that's what it had sounded like. The rocket had begun to move upwards, sealing his fate, and even furthermore, Gniss had stated over the intercom that there weren't going to be any more stops.

He had sort of counted on that.

He was going to be a pioneer into an unseen land - something that he'd never expected to happen upon cooking a scavenged bundle of Phospho leaves - or at least, that's what he'd aptly named them - earlier that day on the campfire. He wasn't sure if his stomach turning upside down was due to the fact that he hadn't finished that or that he was on a deathtrap of a device barreling toward the Surface.

"Well." Cyell said. "We could technically be the second."

"The second?" Argis asked, his first real words to the men. This time, he didn't have weapons trained on him, but he felt even more uncomfortable.

"If Sunburnt is to be believed." Cyell said, knowing that his observation on the subject would drive Kytrek up the wall. "You never know. It's possible. When we come back we might think it was shitty, too. If we come back, I mean. We could still all die."

 

[Lyro]

Kytrek bristled visibly at Cy's remark. "You're going to drive me up the wall with that kind of talk, boy," he warned. "That book has been thoroughly debunked many times over. It's simply impossible. The only reason we're able to do this now is because of our progress in the fields of arcanology and advanced in mana engineering. Like it or not, we're going in blind. Blind and struggling to put one foot in front of the other in these suits," he added after a brief struggle with his suit's tight collar.

"Besides," he continued, "the Surface itself isn't the crucial aspect in this journey, and not just because I'm starting to suspect a big part of this is for us to test out their toy. Certainly I'm curious, like any citizen with a spark of intelligence would be. But the real value lies in the sorcery that could be done at that altitude. Think of the raw, unbridled potential." Kytrek pauses for a bit as he contemplates this, then resumes in a more subdued tone. "Point is, if the Surface itself turns out to be as disappointing as that piece of literary trash claims, your expectations were simply wrong in the first place and you only have yourself to blame."

"Level Eight."

 

[C.DEX]

"A lot of people would say that this is impossible." Cyell argued. "Plus I'd rather believe that it's a boring place with a lot of potential than a maddening hell that traps you within your own mind filled with mutated creatures that'll tear us apart limb from limb. Unless you have a better idea of what it looks like." he said, not particularly bothered by Kytrek's disbelief of the literature. "Plus, the amount of 'sorcery that can be done' probably has a big influence on what it's like."

"I haven't read this literature." Argis noted, feeling a bit lost and confused on just what they had been talking about. His stomach was in turns, the poor Voldur going through what the others had gone through at the beginning. "What ... what did it consist of?"

Cyell paused, knowing that spreading the theories of what had graced the surface from Sunburnt would only annoy the old man, but that didn't particularly matter. It was the elephant in the room: they were heading to a location that none of them would truly know was even habitable or survivable, the first pioneers to a location that was near-completely unknown. The question of what it had looked like had been begging in their minds, no matter how intellectual they had supposed themselves to be.

"It basically said the Surface wasn't worth going to." Cyell said. "There wasn't much detail on what it was, but - I don't see how you can really disprove something where you don't really understand the laws. Where no one's ever been. You might have disproved it with the magical laws in the Lower Levels, but I've ... seen things change enough in levels lower than this to know that you can't really understand it."

"Sounds like how many people talk about the afterlife." Argis said. "I hope that isn't where we're going."

 

[Lyro]

"It might be where you're headed if you're unable to hold your own up there," chides Kytrek as he gets a better look at Argis. "So what can you do, aside from skulking around in moldy old caverns? Have you ever been in a fight? You any good with spells?" A thought ceases him suddenly, and he hurriedly asks, "Hold on, do you even have uptrekker training? If you don't, just... stay in the suit. Keep it well-sealed."

It wouldn't do to worry the stranger with tales of travelers who moved too far upwards too quickly. So long as the suit stayed on, his body wouldn't be exposed to the higher background radiation of the upper levels - not lethal in and of themselves, but any sudden change in exposure to mana, whether a rise or a fall, could result in unpredictable... "changes".

 

[C.DEX]

"Uptrekker ... training?" Argis replied, confirming Kytrek's suspicions. "I'm unaware of what that is. Then again, perhaps people already from the Middle-Upper Levels don't necessarily put stock in 'trekking' further upwards. I've never really been possessed to do so, though at this point I don't have the choice, do I?"

He sighed. "It's not really worth debating my merit to the team, I'm going to be in it regardless." he said. "Of course I've been in a fight. I'm an orc with elvish blood. Do you think my kind are generally accepted in orc society? Not to mention, they may seem okay when you're simply trawling old gnomish ruins, but this level has enough volatile magic to be host to many dangerous beasts. If I couldn't hold my own, I wouldn't have been there for us to be having this conversation now. I didn't feel it wise to try to fight you while you had your weapons aimed at me."

"Probably a good decision." Cyell said. "And if you try anything while we're higher up, we'll also shoot you then. We're already risking our lives to do this, so it's not personal, it's just that we're not willing for this to be ruined because of you."

"Should I assume that your merits are just pointing weapons at strangers as well, or are you spellcasters?"

 

[Lyro]

"Those aren't mutually exclusive," growled Kytrek. "The days when you could afford to be some simple doddering fool in a robe and a book full of cantrips is over. Any mage worth his stuff nowadays knows to arm themselves with more than just spells."

At least it seemed the new arrival would be able to hold their own in a fight - if they were telling the truth. And who knows, it might actually prove useful to team up with a non-mage - after all, up there, there was no telling how quickly spell casting could turn your mind to mush. Kytrek knew his will was strong enough to avoid succumbing, of course, but he couldn't say the same of any of his fellow adventurers. At least if Argis avoided any magicks, he would draw less mana into him.

"Anyway, is it just me, or did we just pick up speed?" said Kytrek, abruptly changing the subject.

"Engine phase three engaged. Drill is now enchanted and pierces rock more efficiently. Coming up on Level Nine in about an hour."

 

[C.DEX]

"Fantastic." Argis said, fussing with his restraints to make it more comfortable. There wasn't much he could do on the matter, but he wasn't exactly resigned to his fate. He was forced to put his trust in a group of strangers and their foreign technology, and he wasn't entirely sure if what he was seeing was impressive or terrifying. "I assume we're supposed to be going straight to the top, so ... hopefully my abilities won't matter in that regard."

He paused.

"It was useless asking the pixie, but you two seem to be on par with my own level of knowledge about this all." he said. "Since we're going to be stuck here for a while, what series of events would lead the two of you to be on a voyage such as this? What levels are you from?"

Cyell looked to Argis, naturally being suspect of him, but ... it would be a logical conclusion that he'd want to know more, and he had been surprisingly non-combative to their expedition as of thus far. "I'm from the eighth level." he said. "Cyell. We're part of the Guild of Adventurer's."

"I see. Did you visit home before taking this expedition? We're there."

"No."

 

[Enkerzed]

While everything that was going on, Rico had taken up residence in a room at the very bottom of the rocket, furnished with consoles, some tubing and a steel footlocker containing the tools of her trade which she was now resting upon, sitting sprawled with her elbows leaning against some piping on the wall. With her head tilted upwards, a lit cigarette in her mouth and her eyes closed in blissful laziness, she relished the rumbling silence as the rocket tore its way through the underworld.

This close to the engine of the vessel, she could barely hear the others speaking over the intercom in her suit, though she had heard much of the conversation during the brief halt of ascent. Heard and pointedly ignored as none of it was any of her business. As long as no one was clumsy enough to damage her suits before making it to the surface, there was nothing to concern herself with, though she did ponder the wisdom of bringing a complete stranger into this venture.

I suppose I'll have to get a suit prepped, Rico thought as she briefly considered opening her footlocker then just as quickly reconsidered. Eh, worry about it later.

In any case, she was simply far too relaxed to leave her little smoke filled refuge where there was no one around to bother her.

 

[Lyro]

"I am nominally from the Fifth Level," said Kytrek, "but by now I have traveled so much and lived in so many places that it's pretty immaterial from the place. That's just how the great Kytrek operates." He glances briefly at Argis to see if the name elicits any reaction, then sighs when he only responds with a blank look. "I am a researcher in formal magistics - I'd explain what that means but I doubt you'd be able to follow. Just don't expect me to be lobbing fireballs around like some jumped-up second-year academy novice."

The ship began to shudder slightly as it passed through a tougher kind of rock, and Kytrek shut his mouth as his teeth began to clatter. "Sorry about that," came Gniss's voice, her own voice sounding strained. "It's going to be rough for a bit. Lots of obsidian deposits in this area."

The next few hours were spent mostly in silence, with occasional bursts of conversation. The ride went on much as it had before, becoming increasingly smooth and effortless as the engine increased its mana consumption and the drill tore through the rock faster and faster. The Ninth Level came and went, followed by the Tenth. The Eleventh was traversed in a quarter of an hour, as the rocket achieved peak velocity and the levels became increasingly thinner. As the Twelth Level was entered, Kytrek breathed a faint sigh. This was only the second time he had been this high up. The last major civilization was well beneath them by now. They were truly in uncharted territory now.

"Level Twelve," came Gniss's announcement, somewhat delayed. "We are actually already halfway through it. We'll reach the next level in about five minutes. I will soon begin the deceleration process, so get ready for--"

A violent shudder of the ship's frame cut her off abruptly. All around the passengers, alarms began to go off, and the lights flickered for a few seconds. Around them, the various dials and displays began to display wildly fluctuating values that did not make any sense. Before anyone could say anything, however, another tremor reverberated throughout the ship. The noise of the drill was suddenly interrupted, followed by the disappearance of the faint hum of the engine as the cabin lights shut off.

Almost immediately, emergency lighting switched on, both on the inside and on the outside of the ship. The dim red lights allowed the passengers to spy the same snake-like protrusions fly out from the ship's sides to embed themselves in the surrounding rock, just as the ship was beginning to slide back down into the abyss. Inside, the various alarms were still ringing, a cacophony of whining, ear-splitting sirens broadcasting a simple message: something had gone terribly wrong.

"Something has gone terribly wrong," confirmed Gniss, having opened her cabin's hatch on the ceiling and now climbing down to join the adventurers. Her voice sounded unsteady, and her climbing lacked the assurance of a few hours prior, her feet slipping several times on the rungs. As she reached the floor, she stumbled visibly, allowing all to see the deep gash in her forehead from which a dark, viscous blood was oozing. "Need to get you out of there," she added faintly, as she tried her best to hurry from one passenger to the next, hastily undoing the restraints that bound them to their seats. "Something... something hit us. Not safe here. Get out. Cavern's right above us. Your weapons..." She paused as she reached Kytrek's seat, having already freed Cyell and Argis, blinked, shook her head, tried to steady herself, then collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

The blare of the surrounding alarms went on.

 

[C.DEX]

Cyell's eyes widened under his helmet as he watched the Captain of their ship stumble down, free them, and then collapse. It had been a relatively easy ride up until them, so the red light that had bathed them in the cabin had startled him, to say the least. He had almost been able to fall asleep, the ride almost becoming monotonously so. Then, they were thrust into their worst fears.

The blood mage stepped out of his seat as Gniss had collapsed, Argis too rising from his place. It would have been very easy, of course, for the Voldur to get the advantage between Kytrek still being locked in his seat and Cyell having been stunned. By all means, he could have taken the opportunity to hurt or harm the remaining crew and take his leave. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for them, they hadn't picked up a plundering vagabond, the Voldur's conscience compelling him to help the wounded pilot and the others. Perhaps it was because Gniss had decided to spare him. It certainly also could have been the fact that it wasn't quite so easy to kill someone else in cold blood.

The blood mage hadn't even considered that fact, but as Argis had come to Kytrek's aid, fussing with his restraints until he was able to free the man, he didn't have to. Cyell had kneeled in front of the fairy, a suited hand attempting to grab her without doing any more damage than had already been done. They were going to have to deal with her injuries when they had gotten out of the rocket.

"What happened?!" Argis asked, not realizing that Cyell and Kytrek probably had less or the same information that he had as of then.

"Don't know." Cyell said, keeping the pixie cupped to his chest while he came to his own footlocker, pulling it open to find his own gear locker with the other. "Probably wise to stop talking and help us get out of the rocket." he snapped, stress more than a little apparent in his voice. "Is everyone else okay?" he asked, calling out to the cabin. "Do we have everyone? Is anyone else injured?"

It had been an important question before they could really leave, of course. While the crew wasn't the friendliest toward one another, they certainly hadn't been brazen enough to leave each other behind. Perhaps that had been why they were chosen for the little adventure - one that had abruptly proven to potentially be fatal.

"Is she okay?" Argis called out, pulling his own supplies out of his locker after having freed Kytrek in a painfully slow fashion. He had paid attention enough to be able to do so, though not exactly gracefully.

"We'll be able to check on everyone once we leave, right now I don't think anyone is safe!" Cyell said, coming to the door they had used to exit the rocket when they had gotten stuck the first time. Now, they weren't stuck. "Did she say something hit us?!" Cyell said, realizing the fact for the first time through shock. He looked for an emergency button. They would have to climb.

 

[Lyro]

Kytrek had remained calm as the alarms had started up, and had even managed to keep his cool as he felt the rocket start sliding back down. It was only when Gniss began to untie the others first that he became agitated, craning his neck to see what she was doing and wondering why it was taking so long.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry," he barked at Argis as he struggled to free him. Kytrek fidgeted throughout the process in an attempt to speed things up while still trying to see what was going.

Having finally be freed, he bolted to his feet and rushed to his own locker, which was sizably bigger than many of the other lockers. From it he hastily grabbed his bag and slung it around his shoulder, followed by his rifle after ensuring it was loaded. He then hurried towards the door, joining Cyell in his search for an emergency button, cursing his suit's heaviness. And although he had been mentally preparing an agility spell ever since he had laid eyes on the horrid thing, there was simply no time to cast it right now. He would just have to grin and bear it.

"There!" he shouted as he spotted the button and hit it with all his might. Immediately another alarm began to blare and the rocket's heavy metallic entrance door swung open. Remembering just a second too late, Kytrek swivelled around, grabbed Argis's helmet and slid its visor down. "Whatever you do," he told him, jabbing his index finger directly in front of his eyes, "don't open this until I say you can. You hear me? Let's go."

Kytrek turned back and looked out the door's frame. It looked like the rocket had just barely started its ascent through another cavern: its bottom half still lay in the vertical shaft it had dug out, suspended by its metallic protrusions. A faint phosphorescent light came through the circle it had dug out above them, bathing them in its tranquil glow. It didn't seem to be very high up, but there was a gap between the ladder on the side of the rocket and the rim of the cavern. They would have to jump.

"Alright," he said, turning on his radio to broadcast to the others, "it's a short climb and a big leap. Whatever did this to our ship, it may think it got us, and it may not. So we'll have to move fast if we want to avoid drawing its attention. Move."

Kytrek glanced upward one more time, then stepped outside and began to climb the ladder to the left of the door. He moved as quickly as his suit allowed him, years of practice combined with an adrenaline rush helping him.

 

[C.DEX]

Cyell had looked down to Gniss, knowing well that he couldn't climb without both hands freed. At least, not past the ladder portion of the rocket. "Sorry." he said, briefly, before putting the pixie snugly into the pocket of his sash, an act that was most likely some sort of odd insult to her entire race. It had been an emergency, of course, with whatever having wrecked their voyage upwards potentially coming back for them at any point. With their pilot secured, he swung outside of the ship, beginning their trek out of the rocket.

It wasn't hard to climb past Kytrek, the man carrying more than all of them. When Cyell had needed to surpass him on the ladder, he used what little there had been of the outer rock, intending on positioning himself to help the man bridge the gap that they had to jump. By the time Kytrek had been halfway up the ladder, Cyell had made it the full way, grabbing the outer portion of the massive drill head for stability. The rocket had been designed to carve a great portion out of the surrounding area of the rocket even past the drillhead itself, making a rather large jump for the emergency evacuators.

Cyell held his sash away from his front, placing it on the side of his body. Then, adrenaline coursing through him, he ran and pushed off of the lip of the rocket, feet not touching ground for far longer than he had been comfortable with. Then, he slammed into the rock on the other side, his chest and head hitting the rock while his legs had missed the jump. He pulled himself up to glance back at those stuck on the rocket, and then checked to assure that he hadn't accidentally killed Gniss in the process.

Before he could even begin the act, Argis had made the jump as well, landing next to him. He turned to look to Kytrek, planting his feet in the ground and reaching a hand out to the man. "Jump!"

The blood mage looked up, realizing that they hadn't suddenly exited into a nightmarish hellscape. There were no mutant spiders or wildlings. In fact, there really had been nothing at all. Excluding the sounds of the alarms and panic, they had exited out into a lush cavern, bioluminescent spores floating overhead like pink fireflies, casting fairy light onto all of them. The ambient sound of gliding water had pierced past the alarms, indicating that there had been a stream somewhere. By all means, it had seemed like they had relatively nothing to worry about at all, other than maybe making sure that their pilot hadn't died in the process.

"What did we even hit...?" Cyell said aloud, pulling Gniss out of his sash again. Then, completely against Kytrek's advice, he disengaged his helmet, exposing himself to the ambient mana. His skin prickled, confirming their presence in the Upper Levels. Then, he brought his arm out of it, surprised to see his runic tattoos instantly alight, a process that had usually taken quite a while. "Gniss, are you okay?" he asked, internally terrified that she might have died.

 

[Lyro]

Kytrek landed with a loud grunt, collapsing to the ground close to the edge, but he quickly forced himself to roll over and get to his feet, rifle in hand. He began to swivel his gaze from one side to the other, looking for whatever had brought about this situation.

"What did we even hit...?"

"I don't know," replied Kytrek, still looking around. "I'll keep watch, you try to fix what's wrong with her."

As Cyell stared at the tiny body held in his hand, he noticed Gniss was still breathing, though it was a harried, ragged breath. And yet, as far as Cyell could tell, there were no other wounds on her body except for the gash on her forehead and a small bump next to it. The gash didn't even seem that deep, and pixies were notoriously robust creatures - even an untrained eye could see those two surface wounds alone could not have been responsible for her current state.

"That's... odd," Kytrek said suddenly, looking at the drill head of the rocket. Moving cautiously, with occasional glances to his side, he crept closer to the edge of the bore shaft and peered at the drill in detail. "The enchantments are just... gone." He blinked to verify that he was not seeing thing, but sure enough, there it was: where before the drill had been covered with runes and etched with detailed enchantments, there was now only smooth, untarnished metal. And as his gaze swept the rest of the rocket, he saw that the same fate had befallen the rest of their ship: all the tiny, delicate tracings that had covered it from top to bottom, some of which he only noticed now for their absence, were gone. As if they had never been.

"Not just odd," he continued, with disbelief in his voice. "Impossible. No magic could do this."

Gniss's eyes fluttered open then, her body stirring faintly. She looked up dazedly into Cyell's face. Her lips moved to say something, but no sound came out. With visible effort, she managed to move her right arm and pointed at one of the glowing tattoos adorning Cyell's body, before going limp once more, her eyes remaining half-open.

 

[C.DEX]

"Are the enchantments completely gone?" Cyell asked. "I'm not sure if it works like mine, where they can charge again, but if they're completely gone ... can we even use the rocket anymore?" he asked, panicked.

"You wouldn't think it would just disappear..." Cyell said. "That's the opposite of what's supposed to happen up here." he said, looking down to Gniss. She had pointed at the tattoo on his arm. The logical conclusion, of course, would have been that something had either eaten the mana or drained the rocket, but ... He set Gniss down on the rock, touching the tattoo she had pointed at, but directing it away from the pixie. He wasn't exactly sure how difficult it would be to control his mana this high up, especially with how quickly his runes had absorbed the ambient mana. It discharged violently, the concentration of mana that had swirled through the air having been so strong it had set off Argis' external suit sensors.

The Voldur backed up, not exactly sure what to think of the affair. Gniss had looked mostly dead to the world, and their voyage upward had certainly taken them up, but not all the way up. Their pilot had been incapacitated, and he was sure that none of them could pilot the rocket in her absence.

The blood mage had tried it one more time before he had gotten a handle on using the rune, finding it wise not to test too many spells with how high they had been. His arm had felt off in response, the Apprentice Uptrekker already having broken some of the fundamental rules of staying within the Upper Levels. He waited again until the rune had been half-charged - only a matter of seconds - and then directed the spell down toward Gniss before it could become as violent as his previous attempts.

After all, time was of the essence. They had to move. Maybe. They weren't sure.

"Did she have a suit as well?" Argis asked. "I'm not entirely sure if she did that any of us could even fit in her hold enough to retrieve it, or if it's a good idea to even be near that rocket anymore in the first place, but ..." he glanced over toward the disenchanted piece of metal. "If it happens that she doesn't recover, would that help?"

"Not if her problem is lack of mana." Cyell replied. "Gniss?"

 

[Lyro]

"Gniss?"

The half-charged spell hit the pixie's diminutive frame with a shower of blue sparks. Immediately, her body arched backwards and her eyes flew open as she sucked in a deep breath. Her entire frame shook as a concentrate of Twelth Level mana was blasted into her, suffusing her with even more energy than she had been exposed to when standing unshielded inside the rocket.

"S-stop!" she managed to gasp out, abruptly snapping back forwards and standing up in one brisk motion. Her feet wobbled uncertainly as she got up, and she unwittingly took several steps forward as her body spasmed every which way. "That's... that's enough," she said in between deep breaths. Reaching out to a nearby smaller rock, she steadied herself, blinking rapidly. Slowly, she began to compose herself, as her breathing became more regular and her posture straightened. She turned her jet-black eyes to look up at Cyell's concerned face. "That's a hell of a way to wake someone up. But, thank you."

Only then did she seem to truly realize where they were. She stared confusedly at the pink spores floating around them, hesitantly reaching out to touch one of them. It seemed to shy away from her grasp, floating away in a different direction on an unseen wind. Looking around, she spotted the tip of the rocket from where it had emerged into the cavern, the glinting metal of its drill reflecting the soft pink ambient light."What..." she began, before clearing her throat and resuming in a tone that carried more authority, "What just happened?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that," said Kytrek as he walked back from the rocket. "One minute it was smooth sailing, the next alarms everywhere and our captain stumbles in, bleeding all over the floor and saying we've been hit." He comes to a stop before her and kneels in front of her, a concerned look on his face. "What happened up there?"

"All I remember," she began slowly, "is the controls just suddenly dying on me, followed by pain. A lot of pain." Her left hand reached up to her forehead hesitantly, looking for the wound she had received. She winced when she found it. "I must have hit my head against something when it happened. It really felt like... like something struck us. Struck me." She looked around the cavern searchingly, eyes darting to and fro. "You didn't see anyone, did you?"

 

[C.DEX]

"I didn't see anyone, did you?" Argis said, looking to Kytrek and Cyell. When they had only returned blank looks to him, his shoulders slumped. Of course, he wasn't exactly against not going to the Surface, but they also had been a long way away from home. Whatever home was. He wasn't excited at the idea of permanently staying within the uncomfortable suit, either, and he knew well that going back down the shaft that the rocket had made wasn't an option. "We could still potentially be in danger." he said.

Cyell looked at his arms and hands, frowning. Using his mana had left an eerie static in his arms, but it had been minor enough for him not to say anything about it. Something had told him he shouldn't do that again anytime soon, but something else had told him he also might have no choice. He looked back to the rocket, the thing showing no signs of 'recovering' from whatever had hit it.

"Is it still flyable without those enchantments? It ... draws in the ambient mana, right? Doesn't that mean it should charge up again over time?" he asked, knowing well that he hadn't any idea of what he was talking about. "Could it have something to do with the people that had been trying to stop us earlier?"

The blood mage rocked backwards, using his freed hand to find his bag, finding a small strip of cloth that he'd normally used to tie his scrolls. He proffered it to Gniss, knowing well enough that she could wrap her own wounds now that she had been on her feet again.

"Never casted anything this high." he added at her snap, admittedly feeling a bit bad that he'd shocked the living daylights out of her.

"Perhaps we could find a safe place to rest." Argis suggested.