Chapter 36: The Terrible Truth About Reality

 “Well… that certainly isn’t a good sign…” Varhi grumbled as they approached the gates.

Like, he was kind of expecting the gates to be closed, and he didn’t necessarily want to down the hopes of his three new companions, but… um…

Damn, that gate was huge!

Pulling himself away from Cyial supporting him, Varhi walked by himself towards it as the other’s approached. Well, it wasn’t the biggest gate he had ever seen, but this was way overdone for a simple mining village which was supposed to be just a backdoor that just led into the wilderness. He’d seen smaller gates in towns than this thing was. It was a good forty feet high, maybe more.

Testingly, he braced his hands against it and gave it a hefty shove. The doors budged a little, but they no way opened. He felt resistance against them, keeping them from moving more than a couple of inches.

“Yup… that’s locked.” Varhi informed them helpfully as he took a couple of steps backwards. “There’s no way I’m breaking through that either. That’s sturdy. What the heck…”

“Are you sure a key can even open this…?” Cyial asked nervously.

Varhi cupped his left hand under his chin in a grimacing thoughtful expression. “I’m… not sure anymore. This wasn’t on the intel. It was always just a theory and it still is, but maybe Avotash really is hiding a dirty little secret here. A door like this for a small mining village makes no sense otherwise…” He growled. "At the backdoor specifically so nobody could sneak in... And from what it looked like on the front way we came in, it looks like they were preparing for another gate of equal size on the front too. This doesn't make sense for a small remote mining village that barely anyone visits, even with an ancient landmark such as The Pits."

Sairek looked from the wall, then towards Nayleen. “Hey, Nayleen...you’re good at climbing up tall walls, aren’t you? Why don’t you give it a go?” He asked her, his tone dripping with anxious sarcasm.

“Oh, ha, ha…” Nayleen replied dryly. “That wasn’t a magic trick I did, you know.”

“Well, you never did tell me how you got on top of the castle walls…” Sairek replied with a frown.

She sighed. “I just walked in through the front door and climbed up from there.”

Sairek blinked in disbelief. “...Excuse me?”

“It was while you were being dragged off. Everybody was paying attention to you and not me. I just hid inside the courtyard until morning.” She explained with a nonchalant shrug. “Much easier to get on top of the wall on the inside. Unfortunately, there’s no little tower with stairs leading upwards to get on top of the wall with here.”

...Well. That made sense, Sairek supposed.
...Wait a second.

"You... uh... saw what happened...?" Sairek groaned, left hand moving to hide his face as he pressed against his palm.

"Sorry?"

Sairek sighed. "Nevermind..."

Varhi shook his head. “Well Sairek, since you’re a Prince, you should know how these things operate, right?”

Sairek turned to face Varhi. “Sort of… This looks a lot like Marid's gate, actually. I can say a key isn’t out of the question still. The walls are meant to keep things out and not in, after all. In Marid though, the key isn’t a physical thing. It’s more like a special code… a magical one. A specific signature. We do the same for our letters and with sealing them, just those are more… mundane.” He explained, glancing at the gate, then looking back at Varhi.
“This is Masirean we’re talking about though… it’s probably more simple than that… or… I sincerely hope so… because everyone is dead or transformed… and without them alive, there’s no way we’re getting their magical signature to command these doors to open… I’m not even sure it would work anyways, thanks to this corruption and the cloud.”

That would be… bad indeed, Varhi thought.

“Is that the lock? Up there?” Cyial asked, pointing with his finger.

“What the… really?” Varhi blanched, looking up in the direction where Cyial’s finger pointed in disapproval. “That’s... like a good fifteen feet up! I can barely see that because of the fog!”

“That’s… odd. I guess it’s designed like that so someone can’t just go and snag a signature—or key in this case, and then open the gates by themselves.” Sairek mused. “You’d need some way up there as well, like a ladder. That makes someone who isn’t supposed to be up there highly visible, let alone dragging the ladder over without anybody noticing. That’s my guess why it's designed that way at least.”

“...You are kidding me. No wonder nobody escaped through this way then. Probably in too much of a panic with no time to open the damn door even if they may have had a key in the first place.” Varhi groaned, pressing his right hand against his helmet visor. “What a dumb design flaw that could have so easily been avoided. See, this is why I hate royalty. People do whatever they say even if it defies bloody common sense logic! Ugh…”
Though he knew Varhi wasn’t specifically talking about him, Sairek still looked away from the gate and down towards the ground. Varhi didn’t seem to notice his discomfort, though. “Right… off to the town center I guess… Let’s stick to this side as we work our way back north.”

“Aren’t we forgetting something?” Nayleen asked.

“Huh?” Varhi let out.

“Even if we get a key, how are we going to reach it when the hole to it is all the way up there?” She pressed. “I doubt we’ll be able to find a ladder intact. Like, just look at this place. We don’t have the freedom to just go around looking for one either," she pointed out.

Varhi paused, thinking, and slowly his thoughtful expression became one of frustration… then sudden realization. “My boots.”

“...What?” Sairek blinked.

“I can use my boots to jump up that high. I just have to put the key in, turn the lock and it should open like any other door or chest, right?” Varhi questioned.

“I, I don’t know. I didn’t design or build this thing…!” Sairek said in exasperation. “I hope it works that way!”

“Well, it would get him up there, but it would be extremely expensive to just keep jumping up and up if you keep failing…” Cyial replied. “We don’t have unlimited amounts of ethereal to coat your boots with, nor the time to wait days between each try. And if Sairek were to keep refueling your boots like that in this fog... well, who knows what could happen to him as well? What if you under jump the lock? Over jump it? Just flat out miss, or can’t get it in time—?”

“Come on, do you think I’m that inaccurate? You saw how far I jumped and still landed on that herder. It was a bullseye!” Varhi boasted with confidence.

“A red herder is far bigger than a tiny little keyhole.” Cyial reasoned.

“O-Oi… You owe me after sticking me with those hot flasks. At least give me a few tries.” Varhi protested.

“I was taking care of your bruises. I just wasn’t being as gentle about it because you deserved it for how you were behaving.” Cyial explained calmly.

“You mean for streaking, or for calling you short—”

Cyial shot him a look.

“—I mean, you look… handsome today. Hey, are you wearing new shoes? I swear you’re an inch taller than last night!”

The unamused glare Cyial was giving him turned into him rolling his eyes instead. “Why is it that the more injured you are, the more sass you give?”

“Uh-huh. So I’ve been told. Think of it as another incentive to work together to get out of here.” Varhi suggested.

“Can we get a move on please…?” Sairek begged. “We can worry about how to insert the key after we actually get one and not standing out in the middle of the open.”

“Fair enough.” Varhi agreed with a nod. “After all, apparently we may still have the brave the worst this place has to offer.”

“...Thanks for the inspirational speech.” Sairek replied dryly, watching as Varhi began to lead them back northwards, walking alongside the wall and they began to follow.

“Sorry.” Varhi apologized. “Cyial is right, you know, about the sass thing. Try not to take it personally.”

“Is that why you were giving me such a hard time at the beginning?” Sairek asked hopefully.

“Lands, no. I still have plenty of choice words for you.” Varhi sniffed. “But I have even more choice words for Jimmy. We’ll worry about that afterwards, though.”

“Yeah…” Sairek sighed. He felt Cyial reach over to give him yet another reassuring rub to his back underneath his red cape. He glanced over, giving a reassured smile, and Cyial responded in kind with a weak smile of his own.

“Okay, we’re getting back into proper village territory now. Maintain silence.” Varhi cautioned them, ending the conversation.

Despite telling them to be quiet, Varhi never crouched back down like he had before. Sairek wondered if he had just given up on it, or… perhaps even worse, perhaps Varhi was too wounded at this point to even bother to try. He looked like he was walking fine after Cyial gave him some minor reprieve, but given what Cyial had said before, he knew that was a farce. A damn good one. Far better than he himself could pull off for just telling a lie, let alone pretend that the terrible abuse his body had been going through was nothing. It made him wonder if there was anything else Varhi had been lying to them about, though he couldn’t think of any reason the boy would do so. They were trying to all get out of here together, after all.

He examined Varhi closely for any signs, and when the other boy turned to glance back, making sure they were following, he took a good look at Varhi’s face, and saw how under his helmet visor, bangs of Varhi’s hair was plastered against his forehead, damp with sweat, and it wasn’t from the heat. All things considered, it was kind of cool here. When Varhi turned back around, Sairek saw Varhi wipe at his face with an arm to wipe the sweat off of whatever bit of it was starting to accumulate on his eyebrows. His chest felt heavy with guilt. He wished they weren’t so helpless. He felt so powerless about everything right now. He couldn’t even use his magic to help. He wanted to come here to help somebody, but in the end, he was the one being escorted out of here by the one he came to rescue. It was humiliating...

A sudden scream in the distance caused them all to stiffen mid-step and thrust Sairek out of his thoughts. It sounded extremely human. After a brief pause, Nayleen began to move to dash off in the direction of the sound, but both Varhi and Cyial reached out to put a hand on each of her shoulders to halt her.

“Don’t…” Cyial whispered to her, his eyes slightly widened in horrific realization that he wasn’t hearing a person exactly. “They’re… They’re not people anymore, remember…”

“But…”

“Look around you, Nayleen… if I nearly died several miles away on the outskirts of this mess, what do you think has happened to everyone else already?” Varhi tried to reason with her in a whisper. His voice was direct, but neutral.

Nayleen clenched her teeth at that. “Didn’t you say that they were conscious of what's happening to them?”

“That’s completely out of our league right now, Nayleen.” Varhi whispered sternly in warning.

“But that’s just… so cruel…”

“And that’s why I want to find out what caused this to happen.” Varhi answered, sterness dripping into his tone, though not directed at Nayleen specifically. “That scream was to the west, maybe if we’re lucky the screaming will draw some of them over there from the north. Come—” Varhi froze mid-whisper as a shadow began moving just through the fog, lumbering slowly somewhat towards them, but moving entirely in the direction of where the screaming came from. They could just make out that it was a brown herder, with crystals sticking out of it on its side. They watched intently, their breaths held as it lumbered past. Everyone was as still as a statue except for their heads slowly turning to follow the herders’ movements until it disappeared through the fog again out of sight. A handful of seconds later, Varhi let his held breath release out in a long, shuddering exhale and the others followed suit one-by-one. The close encounter did well to sober Nayleen from her protesting. “Come on, before more start to wander around.” Varhi suggested, quickening his pace on ahead, despite how terrible he was currently feeling. The other three did not need to be told twice.

Keeping as low of a profile as they could, Varhi stopped after five minutes of them moving north to consult his map briefly, and then he cut across to the west, going across a dirt pathway after a minute. He stopped for a second to examine the pathway, looking back north and pointed as he whispered. “That’s the mines over there if we follow the path. Keep that in mind, just in case.” Then he resumed cutting across the path into the northern end of the village. An extremely large shadow began coming into view, and at first, Sairek began to freak out, but its shape quickly showed that it wasn’t a monster, but a fairly large building. One that had fallen a fair bit into shambles with some of the structure being compromised.

“Is this it? The town hall?” Cyial asked under his breath.

“So the map says.” Varhi answered. “Do you sense anything inside?”

Cyial shook his head. “Mm-mmm.”

“Good, let’s take shelter in there for a while to rest and get our bearings straight.” Varhi said, sounding a fair bit out of breath. Sairek took a glance at Varhi’s expression and saw that he was trying to keep it neutral, but it was starting to tense into a grimace and Varhi’s voice was becoming strained. His farce at hiding the pain was beginning to crumble. “We just need to find the door to this thing…” Varhi mumbled.

They walked along the east side of the building and went left, coming across to its southern face where they all got a good view of at least the front of the building. It was less a full structure, almost like an open lodge in a way, at least on the bottom floor. However, there was a door at the back leading in, and the top of the structure did seem to have walls enclosing all around it. Given that the structure seemed somewhat damaged, this kind of style of building concerned Sairek that the building might collapse, but it was standing for now, he supposed. There were pillars on the front still standing to support the structure’s weight, as well as on the inside.

Varhi led them underneath towards the door and he tested the it. It was crooked off of its hinges and couldn’t close properly. Varhi pushed the broken door out of the way and stepped inside and the other’s followed. There were two flights of stairs leading upwards, which Varhi began to climb, the wooden steps creaking underneath his weight and his armor, he looked down and paused momentarily after a few steps, but looked back up and resumed walking. The others followed suit one by one.

When Sairek reached the top last, he saw that they were in a short hallway, with the other side of the hallway joining into the other flight of stairs. There was a double doorway in the middle of the hall. Varhi approached the door and pushed one open, peeking inside, then pushed both all the way aside. “It’s clear.” He announced as he stepped inside. "Damn, did this place ever get trashed.” He commented from inside.

The other three followed him into the room. To Sairek, it looked almost like a mini gathering room like at the castle, except it was missing the throne, and it was made almost primarily out of hardwood. There was a misaligned carpet leading from the doorway to the other end of the room to where there were two large windows, though now cracked and shattered. There was a gathering table to their right, a small library of books in the left corner, though many of them had been strewn about along the floor. Some bottles and smashed decorations littered the place. There were two pairs of doors in the middle of the room, separated by about ten feet from each other, though one door was open, as the door seemed to have been blasted off of its hinges at one point.

“You’d expect with this place being like this, that there would be corpses or something, but I guess they’re all walking around outside, one way or another…” Varhi sighed.

“What are these other doors supposed to be? That table is small, it seems like it can only hold four people comfortably.” Cyial asked.

“The doors might be the four rooms for the leaders of this place. There were supposed to be four of them anyway, I think. I don’t know the specific details, though," Varhi replied, "but I do know one was above the rest. He took orders from Avotash himself and all.”

“And you think they would have a key?” Sairek asked.

“Well, their rooms might. Let’s split up and look for each room, but holler if something comes up. I’ll take that one.” Varhi said, pointing at the doorway that was well, missing a door.

“Are you sure that’s wise?” Cyial asked.

“You’re the one who said it’s empty in here. Is that not so?” Varhi asked.

“Well, I don’t sense anything, that doesn’t mean it’s empty, though.” Cyial explained.

“Okay, it’s a risk I’m willing to take. Seriously guys—I can’t last much longer...” Varhi admitted, showing more of a grimace on his face and his voice was becoming strained. That caused Cyial to frown and he nodded his head in understanding.

“Okay then. We’ll split up. Be very careful, though. It’s probably safe, but just be extra cautious.” Cyial reminded them.

“Got it…” Sairek mumbled.

They split off, with Sairek and Cyial taking the right side, and Varhi and Nayleen taking the left. Sairek peeked his door open a crack to peer down a short hallway and, seeing it was clear other than a few cobwebs on top of the doorway which he just disturbed, he pushed the door open all the way and stepped inside, walking the short distance towards another door, which he tried to push open and it didn’t give.

“Shit…” He whispered quietly under his breath. The door was wooden and didn’t look too sturdy. He could probably bust it open. He pressed his ear against the door first through and tried to listen on the other side, just in case. Hearing nothing, he checked how much space he had. It wasn’t too much, so he’d have to make do.
Stepping back until he was pressed against the wall, he pushed off of it and slammed his shoulder into the door with a heavy grunt, causing a loud thud to sound throughout the building. Then he pulled back and repeated the motion again, and again, and again, and again... He was starting to tire after slamming into it for about the fifteenth time, when he finally slammed into it and stumbled forwards into the room and tumbled down onto one knee to catch himself as the door gave way.

Sairek immediately began coughing. Rather than some poison, or terrible smell, it was just dusty and extremely stale inside the room, however, it seemed to have fared much better than the other rooms, looking relatively normal, other than the dust and a crack in the window. In fact, as he looked down, he saw why the door wasn’t opening. Not only had it been locked, but it had been reinforced, with a blanket on the floor, plugging the bottom of the doorway and stuffing from what looked like a pillow or cushion of some kind having been meticulously shoved in all along the edges of the doorframe to completely seal it. There wasn’t any fog in the room. As stale as the air was, it was almost a welcome change from what they had been breathing in.

Sairek began closing the door back shut behind himself, or as shut as he could get it after damaging it as he did, then he paused as realization came to him...
...If someone stuffed and locked the door and he had just unsealed it, then that meant whoever was in here… did not come back out. The window was closed and in tact, and didn’t even look like a window that could open...

...Slowly, Sairek turned back around and glanced around the room. There was nobody here. He saw a dusty bed, a desk and… another door that was closed. Presumably the closet or a private bathroom. He stared at that door for what felt like a very, very long time before he finally moved and very gently tested the knob, to find it was similarly locked.

He did not attempt to open it any further. He didn’t think he could handle what he was sure was on the other side of the door.

Instead, he moved away from the door, towards the desk, opening a drawer where he saw some writing utensils. He checked another drawer below that one where there were some parchments. A quick look over them had him realize that it was not anything useful. No key certainly, just business related documents. Numbers, mostly and even those were nothing out of the ordinary. Wages for workers, and the number of workers seemed to be fairly consistent to even Doran back in Ceareste. They were certainly here for much longer, but that in itself wasn’t suspicious. Ceareste rotated the miners every three months, while here it looked like they were working for over a year.

“I’ve got something!”

Cyial’s voice rang out from behind the closed door. Sairek put the papers back and closed the drawer as he opened the door and closed it behind himself again and walked his way towards Cyial’s room. He waited a few seconds to see Varhi and Nayleen were returning at Cyial’s call as well. Varhi was the last to come back, holding his left hand against the wall and shuffling closer.

“Varhi, are you…?” Sairek began.

“Just go…” Varhi huffed weakly. Nayleen glanced at Sairek, visibly concerned and Sairek returned the expression, but he nodded at Varhi and led the way, walking down the hall and through the doorway of the room Cyial entered.

Immediately, there was a stark difference to the room Sairek had searched. Where Sairek’s felt like a time capsule that was sealed for about a month or two, Cyial’s room was fairly destroyed. The mattress of the bed was half off, causing it to tilt to one side on the floor and the blankets and pillows were everywhere. A similar table lay broken and the closet door’s bottom half had apparently become splintered wood. The window was similarly broken. It looked like a struggle had gone on in the room.

“What’d you find?” Varhi asked from the doorway, leaning his weight against it to one side.

Cyial held up his hand and presented a crystal that was a pearlescent blue. “Do you know what this is?”

Varhi’s face became one of confusion. “Isn’t that crystal… ethereal concentrated to the point that it has solidified?”

“Yes. Do you know how much ethereal is required to do that, even for a small crystal of this size?” Cyial asked.

“Well, I know it’s a lot.” Varhi said, then glanced out towards the window. “...Just what are in those mines…?”

Sairek glanced over the crystal before speaking. “I know my father has been giving a lot of advice to Avotash since Masirean and Avotash himself is kind of ignorant on the subject, but even something like that is a rarity in Ceareste. What was it doing here?”

“I found it inside the bed’s pillow case. It was definitely being hidden, but it seems untainted. Maybe because of it being pressed inside of the pillow case, it wasn't prolonged in exposure to the fog.”

“How much value are we talking, here?” Nayleen asked.

“Probably around a thousand seru or more, at least here, just for that tiny crystal...” Varhi answered, his left hand reaching to hold his left side, then propping himself up by bracing his right hand against his knee.

“You should use it.” Cyial suggested, looking at Varhi.

“Huh...?”

“It would make you feel a lot better. It would even heal you a bit. Crush it against that wound.”

Varhi made a face. “A-Are you sure...?”

“What kind of rhetorical question is this? Of course I am sure! Just look at yourself! You’re barely standing, Varhi!” Cyial growled. Varhi took a few panting gasps for breath, buckling under his pain for a moment, clutching his left side, while barely keeping himself up with his knees slightly bent and his right hand steadying himself on one knee. “I don't know what you think you're achieving with this tough bravado attitude of yours, but this shouldn’t even be up for debate! Right guys?” Cyial questioned Sairek and Nayleen, who both nodded in agreement.

“But… But it’s evidence...” Varhi gulped as he slowly reached into his satchel with his left hand and pulled out a small little book, turning it around to show it to them.

“...What’s that?” Nayleen asked.

“I found something too... I haven’t read anything in it yet specifically... but it seems to be a diary...” Varhi answered her and huffed. “Did... Did the rest of you two find anything?...”

Sairek shook his head. “My room didn’t have anything in it, but it was sealed, so there’s very little fog in there, and… there’s a closet where I think someone probably spent the rest of their life in there…” He said, his voice becoming more of a whisper as he spoke. “I… I’ve declined myself from opening it, if you don’t mind…”

“Yeah. Probably wise... Nayleen?” Varhi asked.

“My room was also sealed but unlike Sairek’s room, the dead guy didn’t hide in the closet.” Nayleen answered flatly. “And no, he didn’t have a key on him. I looked."

Sairek felt goosebumps crawl all over his skin. She saw that, but she didn’t even yell or anything? Though given the state of the building, maybe that was more predictable if anything.

“...Okay... let’s go to the Sairek’s room and get out of this fog for a little bit. We’ve been breathing this shit in for most of the day.” Varhi suggested. “And… I—I think I need... a b-bit of a lie down…” Varhi grunted, dropping his head to look down at the floor.

“O-Okay, then…” Sairek began, stepping out of the room and leading them back into the room he had been assigned to search.

When they all got inside, with Varhi being last, he closed the door back shut behind them and despite the dust, moved to lay on his back on the bed with a pained groan as he held the book out into the air. “Can… Can someone do me the favor... of looking this thing over…? I really need a moment or three…”

Cyial sighed. “Let me see…” He mumbled, moving towards Varhi, bypassing the book which caused Varhi to blink in confusion. “...I meant you.” Cyial clarified in a dry tone of voice.

“Oh...” Varhi shifted his weight to sit up a little bit, beginning to remove his armor awkwardly with one hand, until Sairek reached over to take the book from him. He moved to sit on the bottom corner of the bed and began flipping through the pages.

The first diary entry was dated back from over a year ago, and Sairek flipped through the pages, giving them a quick glance over, but most of it was boring and not out of the ordinary, though it gave Sairek insight into the personality of the person, who he assumed to actually be a female. There was just something feminine about how the words were written. Quite the ambitious one and hated their family, wanting to be better than them. However, there was no name in the diary… Always “I” or “Me” to indicate themselves. This wasn't too uncommon for people in elite positions to do if they wrote anything to implicate themselves, it made it harder to prove it was actually they who wrote it should their diary be found by an unwanted party.
As he neared the most recent entry, dating back about five months ago, his eyes focused on the words, reading more slowly, carefully. “Interesting…”

“What’s that?” Nayleen asked him, having leaned against the wall next to the bed, watching Cyial take care of Varhi who was occasionally hissing inhales of breath through his teeth as Cyial tried to get him as comfortable as he could.

Sairek lifted himself onto his feet from the bed and turned around to face all of them, still looking at the diary, he began quoting from it. “At Avotash’s orders, we’ve begun digging deeper into the mines. The readings weren't entirely correct but they also weren't wrong. There was something there, but what we’ve found is so terrifying, I think it would change the world if it actually got out to the public…
I need time to think and deliberate on this. My decision could make history but it could easily be used for terrible acts if known by the wrong person. Perhaps I will move my private study into the mines themselves for more secrey. For now, I’ve sealed the area off and faked a small mining accident, and have sworn the miners who made the discovery not to tell anyone about this. They too seem to understand the urgency of the situation and why no one else can know about this right now. I don’t think I’ll have trouble keeping them quiet.”
Sairek glanced back up from the book, “There’s one more short entry.” He said, before glancing back down and quoting the last passage.

“Got back from a trip to Masirean and told Avotash we found something but didn’t describe what in detail. Suggested it was too out of our league and we should get Ceareste to study the discovery. Dumb mistake. He said no and now he keeps sending soldiers to pester about the discovery.
“I’ve made my decision. Avotash is not someone worthy of this kind of power. Perhaps no one is. I will destroy this entire operation as soon as I can. I might be executed for treason over this if I survive, but it’s worth it. My pride isn't worth creating the first war after three centuries of peace over. A few peasant deaths is unfortunately the price that may have to be paid in order to save many more.”

“That’s the last entry... from over five months ago.” Sairek finished, closing the diary.

“Karvadean didn’t become like this five months ago... A party had gone since then and returned back just fine as few as two months ago. A party gets set once every couple of months...” Varhi said. “At least that confirms it... Something is in the mines. It doesn’t seem like he knows specifically what it is still, though.”

“Do you think what’s happening is because…?” Sairek trailed off.

“I hope not. This is a pretty sadistic and cruel way to hide whatever is in there. The other people didn’t get any say on the matter, it seems like...” Varhi grunted. “Either way, I would bet the person who wrote that was probably the foreman or something. A foreman would have the key to the gates, which means…”

“We have to go into the mines...” The other three said in dejected unison.

Varhi sighed, looking down at his bare torso for a moment, then at his bruise. He attempted to get up, then grimaced hard, his mouth opening and his body stiffening in a silent scream. He managed to hold off from crying out, clenching his eyes shut and grinding his teeth together for a moment. “O-Okay… I—I call uncle… I need some help…” Varhi admitted, his voice higher pitched and immensely strained as he spoke through his pain. “Cyial, give me the crystal—”

Cyial without hesitation, as if he had been prepared anyway, swung his hand holding the crystal in one brisk movement against Varhi’s bruise in a slapping motion before the other boy could even finish speaking. The crystal shattered into dust as it did so against the wound.

Varhi yelped and almost a squeal in reaction. “Ouch! What the fuck did you do that for—oh that feels better actually.”

Cyial rolled his eyes at him, then examined the bruise. Varhi looked down as did Nayleen and Sairek who positioned themselves over to examine it. They could see in real time as the swelling of the bruise began to fade away quite rapidly.

“Wow…! No wonder why they cost a fortune. That is some serious first-aid.” Nayleen whispered in amazement watching the immense amount of ethereal that Cyial quite literally just slapped into Varhis body working its own magic. The swelling was quickly receding away, the bruise becoming smaller over time, though gradually, the efforts began to slow down more and more.

“Aw man, it didn’t even heal all the way.” Varhi pouted after the effects seemed to have stopped completely.

“Doesn’t it feel better, though?” Cyial asked.

“Yeah. However, it still hurts a lot.” Varhi began, then his expression began to shift slightly into a frown. “I’m… feeling a bit queasy now. I’m—” He trailed off, then his expression began to shift more. “O-Oh… Oh dear... I'm—”

Varhi rolled onto his right side to prop himself up on one elbow while everyone gathered by his side urgently stepped back and out of his path of projectory in time before the young mercenary's body buckled inward a little, dry heaved once, then let loose a bit of vomit beside the bed on the floor, one arm clutching his stomach. He retched a few more times, letting out even more of his breakfast and lunch. Cyial moved to gently and soothingly rub his back to ease him.
When he was done heaving, Varhi weakly fell limp against the bed on his side, panting and gasping for breath, his upper half beginning to perspire heavily in sweat. Cyial moved to help him roll straight onto his back again. He reached into his robe, pulling out water, making sure it was the correct water and not Sairek’s water as he gave Varhi the flask so he could wash the taste out of his mouth. Varhi took a swig, rolled it around in his mouth, then leaned over the side of the bed again and spat out the water and the vomit he had in his mouth, still gasping for breath. “What...? What just... happened to me…?” Varhi muttered weakly in confusion, his voice sounding tired and exhausted.

“Too much ethereal at once causes the body to sort of… um, relapse.” Cyial explained. “You’ll be okay again in a little bit. Just take a few moments to rest and let your body sort itself out. It could even flush out some of this fog you've been breathing in out of your system.”

“Uhn... Fucking... magic…” Varhi groaned in distaste as he sagged his weight onto the bed, his stomach and chest heaving up and down. Slowly, he moved his left arm to touch his bruised side gently, rolling his head and angling it so he could look down at himself for a moment, then he let go, resting his hand on his stomach and rolling his head back, closing his eyes, focusing on the pattern of his breathing, regulating it to steady his heart beats.


They all took a few moments to just relax as best as they could to take a breather. However, even though the room was quite minimal on the fog front, it was still seeping into the room, so Sairek didn’t want to risk bringing any of their items out, like food to help them rest even more. Varhi looked like he had almost fallen asleep, but he wasn’t snoring. Just breathing slowly, quietly, but deeply.

After half an hour minutes passed, Varhi slowly opened his eyes and glanced out the window of the room, though telling the time was quite hard to tell as it was practically just green outside.

“How are you feeling now?” Cyial asked.

“Less nauseous. I’m still hurting...” Varhi answered honestly, pushing himself to sit upright with a small grunt and wince from his left side. “I guess that only goes to show how hurt I was before. We cannot afford to sit here resting all day next to a corpse behind that door over there, though.” He said with a nod in the direction of the closet. “It will be night time soon and it’s still not safe. We’ve got to get going...”

“Are you sure you can handle it?” Sairek asked.

“This little lie down and the crystal gave me enough energy to deal with a few more herders I think—if I really push myself...” Varhi answered, pushing himself to stand on his feet on the floor. “Can you guys help me get the armor back on?”

“Alright....” Cyial said.

Nayleen offered to check inside the locked door just in case the key would be on them. The three of them opted to wait outside the room as they worked to re-armor Varhi. Nayleen returned with a solemn shake of her head and empty-handed.


After the three of them helped get Varhi his armor and cape back on, Sairek put the diary inside of a pocket rather than his jewel. Then they marched their way back down to the entrance of the building as quietly as they could. When they reached the door, Varhi peeked it open and glanced out through the crack.

“Sense anything Cyial?” Varhi asked.

Cyial paused for a time, face remaining neutral, then slowly he raised his right hand to point ahead of the direction of the exit, towards their right. “Just barely.”

“Okay, that’s the opposite direction we’re going in. Move slowly and quietly.” Varhi whispered, then slowly opened the door the rest of the way with a quiet groaning creak. Slowly, carefully, they tiptoed out of the town hall, a few distant thumps in the direction Cyial pointed being heard as they worked their way to go back around the outside of the building from the side they approached it on and Varhi kept leading them back that way, until they reached the dirt pathway they had crossed initially, then Varhi turned them to their left back north and they walked along the road for only a few minutes more until through the fog, the cliffs of a mountain came into view. The mines were a dug out hole that led deeper, though even from outside where it became dark, Sairek could see that the mines dug downwards into a slight incline. The entrance was pretty spacious too, though not as spacious as the one in Doran had been.

“Do you sense anything down there?” Sairek asked Cyial quietly.

“...I can’t sense anything at all.” Cyial answered after another brief pause. “There’s… too much noise. So I guess in a way, I sense a lot, but I don't think its herders.”

“I guess that makes sense, if it’s supposed to be full of magic crystals and stuff…” Sairek murmured. “It’s not just that though…”

“You can feel it too?” Cyial asked him.

“Feel what?” Nayleen and Varhi asked at the same time.

“This fog… it’s moving out from here. It may get even worse down there.” Cyial replied.

Varhi frowned. “Maybe instead of a mercenary I should be a detective. Well, it’s not like we’re spoiled for choice, are we. The mines can’t be that deep… can they?”

“We spent four hours just walking through one from one end to the other back in Ceareste.” Sairek replied dryly. “I suppose the purpose was to get from one end to the other, but…”

“This is Masirean we’re talking about here. I mean, if they kept digging this way, they’d dig into the ocean about half an hour out, maybe an hour if they dug down deep.” Varhi reminded him. “...Or, I think.” He added after a brief pause.

“That’s true…” Sairek mused.

“Besides, we don’t need to reach the end. We just need the key. Then we can meep—err... exfiltrate out of here.” Varhi corrected himself, glancing at Sairek.

Sairek stared at Varhi for a pause. “I don’t think healing you has helped your attitude at all.” he replied dryly.

“Darn. What a shame.” Varhi shrugged, digging into his satchel for his lamp again. “I’m putting you on light duty.” He said, pulling the lantern out and flicking it on.

“...Why me?” Sairek frowned.

“Because you’re going to be in the back and this is a cave. If there’s any twists or turns, we’re going to get lost fast trying to find our way back. I want you to remember where we went." Varhi answered. "Also because you hurt my "feelings" just now.” He added on sarcastically.

Sairek blinked at him slowly.

Varhi blinked back at him, then held the lantern out to him expectantly. “Can you handle that?”

“S-Sure…” Sairek mumbled uneasily with a long exhale as he reached out to receive the lantern.

“Good.” Varhi turned back around, leading the way. He paused for a moment, looking down the dark tunnel. Inhaling deeply, then exhaling slowly, he began to lead the way inside. The others followed suit, with Sairek holding the lantern up to light the way ahead of them.

“How far can you see anyway, Cyial?” Varhi asked in a hushed voice as their footfalls began to echo within the cavern walls as it got darker and darker without the evening light seeping in.

“About the same outside. It’s pretty misty down here too.” Cyial answered. “But between the lack of light and the fog, it’s really hard to make out very much past the lantern light. Only a few extra feet or so.”

“Mm…” Varhi hummed to himself thoughtfully. It sounded unapproving as if he didn’t like the answer, but he let out nothing more.

The tunnel stopped moving in its slight downward incline and took a very sharp turn left. When they turned the corner, they all stopped with gasps of breath. “O-Oh… Oh blimey.” Varhi whispered in disbelief.

Crystals lined up the walls. Everywhere. So many, all of which were glowing and giving off their own light, that the lantern was almost unnecessary. The tunnel was curved and uneven, but for the most part, other than the fog becoming too thick to see further down the tunnel, the cave was fairly adequately lit, as if torches were lined up, except the light was instead a multitude of hues.

“I… I think we found where the crystals on those herders came from…” Sairek stammered, his eyes wide in shock. “These… These crystals… all of them are active–?”

“You saw how messed up that red herder made me… and they’re quite obviously glowing with power” Varhi growled through clenched teeth, taking slow steps forward, urging the others to follow behind as they all looked around themselves in awe. “These crystals could be worth a fortune… maybe too corrupted to use now, though. Why are they just left here? Why didn’t they mine them out of the stone? This is literally the entrance, the easiest to just yoink out of here.”

Cyial remembered what Fuyiki said earlier to him when he asked about such crystals. “Maybe they didn’t have the proper tools to dig them up out of the way and worried about damaging them or… something like that?”

“The pattern of this tunnel does seem like they were building around them. Look how much we’re weaving around.” Nayleen noted as they walked.

“Considering the last diary entry was five months ago, they would have plenty of time to request the necessary tools to excavate all of this, and this cannot possibly be what the diary alludes to being worth forfeiting the operation over or keeping it a secret from the King.” Varhi said, leaning over to one of the crystals to examine it for a few seconds before continuing on his way. They were nearing another sharp turn, back to the right. “The only reason you dig like this and ignore the rest, is if there is something even further on ahead and they weren’t wasting any time. I'm curious about what this 'reading' that was half correct was.”

“The diary seemed to suggest as much that they were looking for something specific, but it never mentioned what they were looking for, or what it even is when they did find it. Just that they knew something was here and it was even bigger than they imagined it to be.” Sairek answered.

“Avotash may still not know, but he definitely knows something of great value might be here. That would explain the lies and secrecy.” Varhi grumbled.

“Or a cover up. If he made the order to dig into the mines like the diary suggested and that decision caused this to happen in Karvadean, it would look pretty bad on him.” Nayleen reminded them.

“That, too.” Varhi agreed. “Either way, I think his idea was to send me in to get killed, but he knew I would thin out a lot of the problem by myself before I went down fighting, without losing any men and spending any expense. Well, except the problem is the very thing he’s looking for, so it sounds like.”

They began turning the corner now, and it kept turning until they were almost going back the way they came, but now on the other side of the cavern wall. However, it was a bit more northwards. The amount of crystals on the wall were now mostly to their right, however the left side wall, while still dotted here and there, were significantly lacking in comparison, and the further they walked, the less there were, until there was only the odd crystal here and there. They were relying mostly on the lantern to see by now.

“I still find it so hard to believe, though…” Sairek mumbled, more to himself.

“Believe what?” Varhi asked.

“Did Avotash really send you here just to get you killed? It feels so—wrong.” Sairek said.

Varhi stopped and turned around to face Sairek, silent for a pregnant moment, which caused Sairek to gulp. Varhi’s look was one of stern appraisal. “I’m sure the six men and an entire village all thought the same thing, you know.”

Sairek looked away from the other boy, uneasy.

“And I’m sure your own men, who are probably marching their way here right now, also probably will think the same thing too, before they get a very bad dose of reality.” Varhi finished, turning back around to resume their trek inside the cave. “Honestly, you trust people on first impressions way too much.”

“It’s just hard to think of him as evil when the people in his kingdom are happy and prospering under his rule, is all…”  Sairek tried to explain. “Besides that, my father and Avotash seem like good friends by now, so it’s… it’s hard to think—you know…”

“What about Kior?” Varhi asked.

“...What about Kior?” Sairek repeated in question.

“Us humans live in greater comfort, due to the discomfort and mass mistreatment of demons. The vast majority of technology we have today that doesn’t rely on magic is almost solely because of them. Would you say that the mistreatment of the demons is justified for the good of us humans—that it isn’t evil? What is even what we call ‘justice’ in our society? The law? It’s not okay to mistreat humans who are living beings, but is it alright to do the same to a race who cannot fight back against us?
“The same can also be said for our treatment of animals as livestock.” Varhi ranted, pausing to look at yet another small bunch of crystals bunched up and embedded into the wall to his left. He looked deep into it, lost in thought for a few seconds before he turned back around to face Sairek. “What do you think?”

“What–?” Sairek hesitated, unsure of how to even respond to that. He could feel Cyial and Nayleen watching them both uneasily. Varhi’s look was a little… strange, though Sairek couldn’t place what was disconcerting about it.

Varhi didn’t wait for Sairek to give him an actual answer as he turned back around, cupping one of the crystals with his left hand. “I understand that it isn’t my place to decide what ‘justice’ is for everyone else, nor do I want to. I’ve done what I did because I disagreed with the justice system. It’s supposed to be there to protect good people and punish bad guys, or at least, that's the perception. But there’s so many false positives, bad people always rise to power who abuse the system of that justice, and fines exist only to punish the poor. With the way it is now, it’s almost pointless. The morality of our society isn’t so black and white as everyone would like to believe… You however are in a unique position where you can force everyone to follow your view of ‘justice’ however you see fit. Whether you or they like it or not.”

Sairek was beginning to feel a feeling in the pit of his stomach. He wasn’t entirely sure, but he believed he was beginning to understand the point Varhi was starting to get across. “That is my responsibility one day, but that isn’t my place now. I still have time to decide what ‘justice’ means to me. For now though, my belief is that everyone should have a chance and a fair trial, which means I need to hear their side of the story before I start making any assumptions about them.”

Varhi nodded at this, seeming to accept Sairek’s answer, moving his hand from one crystal to the next. “All I do is fight for my own personal beliefs. The justice system sucks at catching the corrupt guys, especially those already in control of the system, but of course, sometimes the weak need protecting too and—” Varhi paused, tilting his head some and blinked once. “...What…? That’s... odd. What the...”

“What’s odd?” Sairek asked.

Varhi looked back, then ahead, then around, then back at the crystals, or the one he was holding. “...What am I doing…?” He asked, more to himself in a whisper, releasing the crystal and stepping back, looking down at his hands for a moment, then slowly raising his left hand to his forehead, sliding it slightly underneath his visor as he softly closed his eyes. “...My head... kind of hurts.”

The trio look at each other. “...Are you okay?” Nayleen asked, in a tone that expressed she was a little weirded out at how he was acting.

“...Maybe this fog is getting to me after all.” Varhi grumbled, opening his eyes back again slowly. “I—I don’t know. The crystal just felt so warm to the touch, even through my gloves. It just felt… nice and familiar and—I don’t know… what I… right now... uh...” He whispered, eyes blinking once. Sairek observed Varhi carefully. The mercenary’s eyes were starting to become wet. He was trying his best to hide it, but Sairek had enough experience to notice it.

Cyial looked at the crystal for a moment and the previous one Varhi had been touching. They were both red-orange crystals with a swirly in pattern in amber in the middle of them each. “Looks like regular fire crystals to me. We passed a bunch of them by now.” He said.

Nayleen reached up to touch one with her bare fingertips through her fingerless gloves. “...Well, they’re warm all right, but nothing’s happening to me.”

“Well… whatever. The pain in my head is starting to pass… I guess I should keep leading the way.” Varhi said with a small shake of his head to clear his muddled thoughts and then wiped his face with his arm.

“...Are you sure you’re okay?” Sairek asked. “We can take a minute to talk through it.”

“No. I’ll be fine. Sorry. I don't even know what there is to talk about. That was just weird...”

Patting his cheeks twice with both hands as if to wake himself up, Varhi resumed walking forwards, giving one last curious look to the two crystals as he passed by that had seemed to have infatuated him without even realizing it.

“At least it’s been quiet inside here.” Nayleen muttered to no one in particular.

“I was expecting a lot of them to be down here to be honest. I guess there’s no living things down here for them to care about, though. Sairek, you said you feel the fog coming from deeper inside, right?” Varhi asked.

Sairek nodded. “Yes. It’s a faint flow, but it was coming out of the cave. Had the fog been from outside, you would think it would have been flowing into the cave, not out of it.”

Cyial glanced up ahead of them. “There’s a T junction coming up.”

They all looked ahead, and indeed there was. A turn to their left, or they could have continued straight ahead. However, what became visible as they made their way into the middle of the intersection, is that ahead of them was actually blocked off by a wood and steel gate. Varhi walked up to inspect it. There was a pull chain hanging from the wall from the top of the cave. He reached up, standing on the tiptoes of his sabatons to even reach it, and gave it a hard yank downward before releasing it. Unfortunately, after five seconds of staring, the gate didn’t move.

“That’s not good…” Sairek sighed.

Varhi studied the gate a little bit more and then he could see a lock. “Ah, it needs a key, too… So there really is something deep in here. Why else would they build a gate lock…”

“Looks like the rest of the miners were sent to go the other way, if I were to wager a guess.” Nayleen shrugged, looking over into the other corridor.

“Well, the difference between that other key and this one is that I can reach the lock. Sooo…” Varhi trailed off as he pulled out his sword, gripping it tightly with both hands, and then with a shout, he thrust his sword right into the lock hard, giving it a few good thrusts, denting and tearing apart the lock mechanism completely.

“H-Hey! What if we needed to use that!?” Sairek protested with a stunned look on his face.

Putting his sword back, Varhi reached back up and pulled the chain, only for the chain to have no weight to it and in fact, he pulled it right out of its socket, having the rest of the chain fall down next to him. With a shrug, he stepped forwards and gripped the bottom of the gate, giving a long grunt of effort as he began to pull, slowly pushing the gate up by hand. He slowly repositioned his stance as he pulled it up higher and higher, until he was holding it above his head with both hands.

“S-See? P-Problem… solved…” He huffed. “Now get over here… this is heavy… and I’m already hurt...”

“Lands…” Sairek grumbled, but he stepped through to the other side of the gate as did his other two friends.

With a final heave, Varhi pushed the gate up above himself as best as he could manage and jumped on through, stumbling into Nayleen who caught and steadied him as the gate slammed shut with a loud, echoing thud that made all of them wince.

“Well… I definitely hope there’s nothing down here now. That was loud...” Varhi said, noting the obvious.

“Um… guys…?” Cyial whispered in a tone that Sairek could only describe as shocked fear. “Y-You… You really all need to see this—r-right now…!”

At Cyial’s behest, the other three walked over to where he was standing. There was a turn, and that was the direction Cyial was staring in.

What Sairek saw as he rounded the corner made his face turn ashen white.
It made all of their faces turn white, but especially Sairek’s. His legs buckled, and he fell onto his rear, unable to support his weight as he felt weak and faint from what he was seeing, his eyes, like the other three, were widened in intense alarm.

In a modest size dug out room, was a crystal, pearly white in color, about eight feet tall and half as wide, floating in the air, swirling in circles gently with a faint humming...

...Past that crystal, was another crystal of similar size.
And then another.
And then yet another…
...There may have been nearly a dozen. All crystals of a pearly white. A very, very similar pearly white to the same jewel he was currently wearing against the middle of his own breast… and there was fog very visibly emitting from them.


Emitting from all of them...


Sairek realized very, very quickly, that Varhi was right...

The terrible truth about reality is that no matter how terrible of a situation you could imagine…
...It somehow could always do worse.