Chapter 284: The Tunnel Goes Ever On

Poor Kat. Girl was just not built for tight spaces. Just way too broad, and not all holes adapt to her size like Ann does! What other madness can these little cuties find? They're stumbling towards something very very old, but I'm not going to spoil what it is. The world is so full of mysteries, and it'd be a shame to ruin them.

It took a very long time to get Kat through her crawl. Everyone had joined in to take the woman’s mind off her situation and were talking about whatever came to mind. Rosalyn and Bren had gone into the war tactics of orcs, which had done a good job of distracting the princess until she’d gotten stuck.

Kat had panicked. Her chest was just too thick for the spot she was trying to get through, and it’d wedged her tight. Freaking out wasn’t helping anything, so Ann dove into the crack and wriggled her way over to her lover. After some very tense affirmations that she was fine and inspections from Ann, they found a way that Kat could move herself backwards and try a different approach. Everything was still a tight squeeze. Kat was not built for caving. Still, they worked together to get her through, talking with their party all the while.

Thankfully, Minnie’s trip didn’t take nearly as long, nor have any hangups. She crawled through faster than any of them, in fact. Her ponytail’s puffy end was full of stone dust, but she’d brushed off all offers of help.

“Alright,” the smith said, checking her tools for any damage. “While you all get re-equipped, what’s this big warning Kat was talking about?”

The ghostly woman’s face emerged from the ceiling. Her hair hung like flowing moss as dead eyes stared at Ann, reminding her of her promise.

“Yeah, so the ghost lady wants us to go back. Says that there’s doom and death down here. Something ancient that she either doesn’t want to get us curious over, or really just knows that we shouldn’t be down here. Ghosts can have shitty memories, right?” Ann’s hands danced over the straps of Kat’s armour, working with practised efficiency.

“Right,” Rosalyn confirmed.

Minnie cinched a few straps tighter and set her gear aside. “Well, considering the age of this mountain and the general stone, I’d say this is pre-Return ancient. Can’t be too much further, though. Ann, you said you were out for five thousand years?”

“Yup,” Ann nodded, tightening a shoulder strap. “Makes me five thousand twenty-nine.”

“Hang on, yer sheet says twenty-three,” Kat pointed out.

Ann gasped. “That’s what I’ve been forgetting to ask her! One sec!” She pulled open her chat.

[Chosen Annita]: Hey Orenous! Why am I twenty-three right now?

[Bestest Goddess]: Wait, I told you that. I told you I changed it so you didn’t get shown as 5k years old.

[Chosen Annita]: Yeah, but why younger than my before age?

[Bestest Goddess]: Seemed right? People like a youthful hero. It’s not like your body is really what it was anymore, considering all the wolf parts. How have we not talked about this?

[Chosen Annita]: I WAS ASKING MYSELF THE SAME THING! This is so dumb. Did you make any other changes?

[Bestest Goddess]: No! I just changed the number! I swear we’ve talked about this.

[Chosen Annita]: If we did, I’ve completely forgotten. Change it to 29 when you get a chance, yeah?

[Bestest Goddess]: Dunno if that’s smart. Think enough people have seen your sheet at this point to change that. Just roll with 23 and wise/learned for your age. You grew up with the internet. Compared to most people now, you know a lot more about a lot of things, but less than an expert. You’re fine. Also, you’re my Chosen. Explain it away with mind magic or something.

[Chosen Annita]: Cool! Get six years of my over 5k years of life back! Such a huge difference. Alright, later!

She closed the ethereal screen. “Alright, so I guess I’m twenty-three again. Not a big deal. That’s… a thousandth of my life refunded? Does me being asleep count as part of my life?”

“Or is it just the number?” Rosalyn asked. “Cause if she actually made you younger then that’s a whole other thing, but if it was just the number…”

“She said it was just the number,” Ann cut her off before the tangent could get too far. “I trust her on that one.”

“So… the ancient warning of doom and death?” Minnie prompted. “Do you all think you’re alright dealing with whatever’s down there?”

“I dinnae,” Kat said, looking back at the crawlspace. “We’ve got a wall at our backs now. We aren’t gettin’ through that space fast, least o’ all me. Think we need tae do some scoutin’ tae figure out what we’re runnin’ intae. Minnie, ye got any other tools or skills tae help wit’ that?”

“Fools, the lot. My task is done.” The ghost’s voice made them all look up. Her lips split in a rictus grin as her head pulled back into the ceiling. “Your fate is your own.”

“Anyone else feckin’ hate that?”

“Yeah,” Rosalyn nodded, clutching Kat’s arm. “Gonna go with looking into what we’re getting into before we get into it.”

“Ann, that means you,” Bren said. “Lucia as well. Between the two of you, I would trust no one more with covering unknown territory. It will also give us a good line of communication between the two groups. Does that sound appropriate, Minnie?”

“Ruins are always a consideration, so yeah, we’d send mercs in for this. You all are my mercs, so you all get to be the ones who decide safety procedures, besides when it comes to breaking rocks. Our next resonance point is up ahead, so be careful. We’ve got an actual network of tunnels coming up. Some seem natural, and others were carved by something else. Probably an animal. Plenty of rock movers that could be down here. We’ll stay as a group for an hour until we get to the resonance point, then I think they should start scouting.”

Without much else to say, the group set off into the depths. Like Minnie had warned them, branching paths in the tunnels became far more frequent and originated from all angles, lending to the animals digging holes down here. There was even a point where they had to jump down into a branch that had been dug straight into, or out of, the floor they were walking on. Minnie marked that branch more thoroughly than the others, since it was really easy to miss that you wanted the tunnel hanging in the air.

Ann’s ears kept picking up life just out of sight. It was like every time they took a step forward, whatever was living in the area either took a step back or hurried to hidden shelter. While that was pretty normal for small bugs and rodents, Ann wondered why creatures would be scared of them if these tunnels had been abandoned for so long.

“Well, prey is going to be scared of bigger things,” Rosalyn said when asked. “An untouched ecosystem like this, though? You’re right, they shouldn’t be scared of us. Actually, maybe it’s the light. There are whole subterranean species that are adapted to low-light environs, and if we bring in something bright like these crystals, then they are probably avoiding those. It’s like a sun coming into your bedroom at midnight. You’d be freaked out too!”

“Fair. Or someone coming in and screaming. Bet they’ve got good hearing, too.”

“Or tremor sense, in the case of that worm,” Minnie said. “They’ve been killed before. There’s thousands of hairs along their bodies they use to sense the stone vibrating, then go on the hunt when something worth it gets into range. Otherwise they’re just sleeping the entire time.”

“Besides the triangle thing, what do they look like?” Ann asked.

“Well, they’re big and triangle.”

“Gee, thanks,” Ann shot back, voice dripping in sarcasm.

Minnie continued. “Six eyes; their mouths are weird. It’s a three-way crushing machine that uses these massive flat teeth to pulverise stone or whatever else it finds into pieces. As they shit, they let out a caustic mud that erodes at the floors, smoothing them out even further. Some of the ore broken down by that has a chance, in the right combination, to create some of the strongest alloys we know of outside Bultrite. We’ve thankfully gotten to the point that we can mimic this process without the worms. Too many deaths to get that stuff before, so now we just avoid the worms if at all possible.”

“Do they actually have a name, or have they just been called worms for forever?” Ann asked, ducking through a few stalactites.

“Petra Mala,” Rosalyn chimed in. “Evil rocks. Worms makes more sense, but people thought that mountains they inhabited were cursed because they look so much like rocks that it was just impossible to sense them until we got a person with skills to do so underground. Could just be walking along and suddenly crunch! There goes your leg!”

Ann watched her next step very carefully. Nothing ate her paw. “Christ, they sound awful.”

“There’s a reason they were thought of as a curse,” Minnie agreed. “Heard tell that early years of the Return made gathering resources incredibly difficult. With magic being new, and creatures popping up like crazy, I’ve gotta imagine the superstition was through the roof.” Minnie checked the wall at a five-way path, scratched a marking into the tunnel they’d come from, and continued down the path to their forward right.

“When people are still getting used to ghosts existing at all? Yeah, I can imagine,” Ann chuckled ruefully. “I’m still surprised by shit, and if everyone else wasn’t here, I’d be making stupid assumptions, too.”

“Such is the mind of one who lacks understanding,” Bren sighed. “You two are correct. Myths and legends still persist today from those early years of our rude awakening. Once again, the beastmen from the Seeds before we knew what was happening with the Vulhardrin. Superstition has never left humanity, and I sincerely doubt that it ever will. Just like spilling milk is bad luck.”

Ann was thinking about all of this while she walked. It was kinda… quaint that a land full of magic would have deeply held superstitions, but it also made sense in some other ways. Since all of the bumps in the night could actually be real, that’d make people even more terrified and lead them to find ways to ward them off. If they couldn’t explain it, magic was always a safe scapegoat, and curses would absolutely fall into that realm. Hell, they’d just met a ghost. Evil spirits could be another point of blame for things they weren’t responsible for. It was a little crazy if you stopped to think about it, and Ann had plenty of time to do so right now. Ghosts in your blood might actually be a real diagnosis, and doing cocaine about it, as far as she knew, might be a real solution. Well, if a healer or priest wasn’t around that could tackle something like that. Would a possession fall under a healer’s purview or a priest’s? She assumed priest, but a healer was restoring the body to its original state. Maybe they’d need to team up.

Her runaway train of thought continued until Minnie held up a hand. “Good to stop here. Got my resonance point. Ann, if you want to do the honours?”

Ann started to reach for the Kine held out to her, but saw Kat’s face for a quick moment. The woman was practically drooling as she stared at the tool. Her princess always was one for interesting new tools and weapons. Ann took the Kine and offered it to Kat.

“Shite, really?”

“Yeah, knock yourself out. You looked like you wanted to.”

“I mean, aye, but it’s not like I couldn’t figure out one fer meself later, just… heard about ‘em an’ they always seemed cool.” Kat’s eye hadn’t left the tool as she gingerly reached out to take it from Ann. “Not exactly somethin’ ye ask fer on Everfrost, ye know? Not even fer me.”

Ann smiled as Minnie showed Kat where to place the point of the metal rod. Kat followed her directions closely, letting the more experienced woman nudge the tip to just the right spot. It was cute. Kat looked like a little girl with how excited she was to use the pick, and her energy was infectious. Rosalyn was hugging Ann’s arm warmly and let out a happy sigh as they watched their girlfriend.

“It’s nice to see her relaxing a little,” Rosalyn whispered.

“Yeah. She’s been so on edge since the capital. Gods, she tries to hide it, and does so well, but her sleep is awful.”

“I know. Worries me too. Still, we get to enjoy moments like this, so let’s enjoy them.”

Kat had the Kine in position and raised a gloved hand to the back. She squared up on the raised dome and gave it the hardest flick she could muster, according to Minnie’s direction. While Minnie’s strike had been a ringing bell, Kat’s was a gong that vibrated through Ann’s bones. The sound persisted as the world around them exploded once more into the constellation of ore, stone, and empty spaces in between.

Kat’s gasp of delight made Ann’s heart flutter as she watched the warrior princess whip her head around, trying to take in everything she could with only one eye. Damnit, Ann wanted to give her more of that, less of the hardship they’d all been going through. She couldn’t make any promises, but it was something she wanted.

“Alright, so good and bad news,” Minnie said absently, looking down the tunnel they were in. “Good news, I can see the Bultrite. Bad news, it’s pretty far away. We’re gonna have to camp before we get to it. There’s also… Kat, you see that black void there? Around that frankly staggeringly bright star?”

Kat peered where Minnie pointed. “Aye! Looks kinda like a…”

“Building?”

“Can’t be. Somethin’ else?”

“It’s resisting the vibrations from the Kine. Whatever it is is magically inert or denser than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m going with the former, because I don’t know what the latter would even be,” Minnie said. “Either way, that’s not all. We’ve got a few good gem deposits along the way that I want to stop off by, as well. I figure while Ann and Lucia are scouting out ahead, we can pick those up.”

Kat’s head got back to swivelling, looking around at the stars. “Ye think that we’re goin’ tae have the time?”

“Oh yeah. I’m only going after shallow embedding or exposed gems on this trip. Stuff we can get to and out of a wall quick. Gonna have heavy bags if we pull this off!” Minnie did a little jig as she spun in the sea of stars. “Gods, you all hiring me was crazy good luck for all of us! I’m gonna get an extension built onto the forge and everything! Eee!”

Ann laughed as Minnie hugged Kat out of pure joy. Kat froze, hands halfway to a hug that she didn’t look sure about. Her eye was bugging out as she looked up at Minnie’s face, just a little higher up, but still. Kat finally accepted the hug, joining in the somewhat premature celebration. Ann knew that even if they needed to retreat, they’d be rich with what Minnie was seeing. Money wasn’t too big a concern, but Kat and Ann shared the mindset that living off their own earnings was a better path. That it helped Minnie, who’d probably be using that wealth to help herself help Godrin’s Cliff? That made things way better. Maybe she’d even get roped into the oath for Eldest of All, and start helping their newest friends.

The stars around them began to fade as time passed. Minnie had released Kat from the hug and got to work making feverish notes. Bren was doing the same, trying to assist as best he could. He didn’t have whatever skill, either learned or earned, to translate all of the stars, so he’d been taking down colour, brightness, and position.

Finally, the stars winked out into the darkness. All that was left was the yellow glow of their crystals. A view that wouldn’t be seen again for years stuck in their memories.

“Sad,” Lucia said, looking around. “Was pretty.”

“Really was,” Rosalyn sighed. Instead of the stars, her eyes were on Kat. She’d watched her and Minnie embrace and dance with a happy smile. “Really was.

“Alright people, daydream’s over,” Ann said, trying to shake herself out of the soft feeling the last moments had put her in. “Lucia and I have point for the scouting. The four of you are taking a detour, right? How’re we gonna know which way to go?”

“That’s an easy one.” Minnie ripped out a page in her notebook and handed it over to Ann. “It’s not a map, but it’s directions towards whatever that giant void thing is. Follow these, mark your way back with your gauntlets, and we’ll meet back here. We’ll backtrack to the crawl and camp there. Better to be somewhere we know what’s behind us.”

“Even with the ghost?” Rosalyn asked, clutching her arms.

“She seemed harmless, just scary,” Ann said, patting the woman’s horns. “Alright, see you all when we get back. Good luck! Lucia, need anything?”

“No,” the woman shook her head. She pulled up her hood, hiding her feathers. “Quiet. Be like shadows.”

“Shouldn’t be hard for me,” Ann grunted, stretching her shoulders. “That’s Waheela’s speciality.”