Chapter 17: The Depths
“Your father was a sadist.”
“Well… Yes. And apparently, so was whoever built this place.”
IXH
The Undercity was a marvel of engineering and architecture. There were spires of grey stone, domes of bronze metal, massive doors and archways, and mechanical contraptions of unknown design. The Din’leth that resided in the Undercity didn’t seem to appreciate any of it and avoided many of the areas that weren’t directly beside their camps, which made it easier to avoid them. Haruka knelt in the top room of a tall tower and looked out over the expansive area, memorizing paths taken by their patrols and looking for their next route.
“What do you think we’ll run into down here?” Isabella said as she peeked over her shoulder. “Not, like… Not spiders, right? Because they like dark places like this and I’m getting worried…”
“I think we’ve met our arachnid quota,” Haruka said as she moved away from the opening and looked at her. “If there are some down here we’ll avoid them. Especially if they’re giant.”
Isabella shuddered. “Good, because I’ve had enough of those things. What will we run into?”
“I’m not sure.” Haruka removed a canteen from her belt, looking out as she unscrewed the top before taking a drink. “I’ve never been in the Undercity before. I’ve only read about it and seen vids.”
“And vids are…?”
“Videos. Recordings. You know, moving pictures.”
“Your pictures move?”
Haruka smirked. “Some of them. Videos are recordings of images and sound – it’s basically like a memory, only it’s in a piece of technology so anyone can see it.”
“Amazing! I want to see one of these videos.”
“We’ll add it to the list.” Haruka wasn’t exaggerating, as she mentally did add it to the list, which, in addition to videos, included: riding in a car, driving a car, taking a train, seeing skyscrapers, getting a picture taken, visiting the Imperial Markets, and going to a club. Haruka was dreading the last one and regretting she’d ever mentioned and described it, but Isabella could make it fun, she was sure. She tried to think of other things she could show her as well – while hoping they’d get the chance – as they began moving again, climbing back down the tower’s stairs after scoping the surrounding area.
They had decided that travelling through the main area was the wiser choice. Their other option was to traverse the various side tunnels throughout the complex, but those could lead to dead ends or, worse, increase the chances of them running into a Din’leth patrol. They made their way through the cavernous areas, underneath giant fungi and around huge rock formations. They came to another large building and had to decide whether to go through it or around it. Haruka touched the bronze door, tracing its designs with a finger. “Well… If we go in, there might be some Din’leth living inside.”
Isabella nodded. “Okay, so we go around?”
“But, going inside will reduce our chance of running into giant spiders.”
“After me!” Haruka chuckled as Bella yanked the thick door open and stepped inside. The interior of the building was dark and poorly lit by dim blue torches. The distant echo of some sort of gears turning was audible but muffled, but more importantly they didn’t hear anything walking around. Haruka closed the door behind them as Isabella walked over to examine one of the blue torches, reaching up and passing her hand through the flames. “This magic is… very old,” she stated as she moved her fingers. “It’s been lit for thousands of years.”
“How can you tell?” Haruka asked as she joined her, reaching up to touch it after looking to Bella for assurance. She was surprised that it felt like something was blowing cool air across her skin rather than heat.
“Because it’s decayed,” Bella answered. She turned around and pointed to another torch in the room. “The spacing shows there were never any other torches in this room, which means these two lit up this entry hall fully at some point. Enchantments weaken over time, and this flame is certainly an enchantment, not a spell. Spells have a limited duration; given the age of this place, it would require an incredible amount of power to cast a spell that would create a light that lasted this long, and that would be for every torch. That means it has to be an enchantment,” she said as she pointed out the runes on the sconces. “And for a simple enchantment like this to weaken enough to cast most of this room in shadow, a lot of time had to have passed; enchantments this basic last a long time.”
“How did you get to know so much about magic?” Haruka asked with a curious look.
Isabella smiled. “My father was a mage. I inherited some of his talents, but I followed my mother and took the path of the sword. Still, I learned a lot from him, and after he died I studied everything he’d ever owned or written. He created my sword, Mercy, you know.”
“Is he the one that bound your power to it?”
“Yes.” Isabella looked sad as she let her hand drop from the torch. “They thought I would be more stable if I had more control over it. Unfortunately they didn’t foresee my emotional instability ruining that plan and shortening my life by seven centuries.”
“No one could have foreseen that,” Haruka said as she turned around and caught her hand. “Hindsight is always easier. They probably didn’t foresee me, either.”
Isabella smiled, walking further into the building but not releasing her hand. “Well, they half expected it; they thought I would end up with a knight in shining armor, a strong and honorable person, who would fight for me but see me as a partner, much like they did for each other. They just thought it would be a man.”
Haruka chuckled. “A male version of me? I can’t say I’m disappointed they were wrong.”
Isabella flashed her a grin and pointedly looked her over. “Me neither.”
“Yes, your eyes have done an excellent job proving how you feel about my body. As have your hands. And lips.” Haruka smirked at her. “Are you even interested in men?”
“Weeeell, it’s not that I have anything against them,” Isabella responded. “I mean, I’m not going to recoil in horror at the thought of dating one, they’re just not for me. It would always feel like kissing a friend, you know – not disgusting, but there’s nothing there, no attraction. Just sort of… blah.”
Haruka laughed. “Blah?”
“You have a problem with my vocabulary?” Isabella smiled at her. “How about you, huh?”
Haruka shrugged. “I’ve dated men. I never really thought about it. I guess my only preference is you.”
“So you’d date a male me?”
“That’s… really weird. How would that even work? You’re not even as tomboyish as I am, you’re too girly. A male you couldn’t be the same person.”
Isabella giggled. “That really weirded you out. I guess you’re right. I’d be really jealous anyway.”
“Are you saying you’d be jealous of yourself?”
“Ruki, don’t make me sound crazy.”
“Bella, honey, no one has to make you sound crazy.”
“I guess you’re right. I shouldn’t be jealous of Hypothetical Guy Me anyway; he probably wouldn’t have nearly as good a body, either.”
Haruka smirked, giving her a sidelong glance. “Does anyone?”
“Aww, it’s so sweet of you to say that!” Bella bit her lip in a way Haruka always found incredibly sexy. “Wanna… find a closed-off room in this place and express how you feel?”
Haruka stopped and blinked at her. “I… Wha- here? In the Undercity?!”
“Mhmm.”
“You’re insane.”
“So you don’t want to?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then let’s go! Say, are our priorities messed up?”
“We only have a few months; I’d say they’re exactly as they should be.”
IXH
Hours Later
“…This is just like one of my father’s training rooms.”
“Your father was a sadist.”
“Well… Yes. And apparently, so was whoever built this place.”
Isabella and Haruka stood in front of the door they’d just barely made it through; it had shut heavily behind them and was, fortunately, thick enough that they couldn’t even hear the Din’leth hacking at the other side. They had run into a patrol but escaped deeper into built tunnels. Unfortunately, this decision meant they were committed to their current course, and these tunnels weren’t kind to visitors; the hall ahead of them was lined with spinning blades, old mechanics but still, impressively, working just fine.
“I won’t have a problem here,” Haruka said as she looked at Isabella questioningly. “But…”
“I’ll be fine,” Bella replied, sighing. “Just… get through it. And be careful.”
“I’ll try to find a way to deactivate them over there.” Haruka turned back to the hallway and stepped forward, studying the vertical and horizontal blades as they spun and slid along set tracks. She hated to give her father’s training credit, but it had given her good tools. She suddenly sprinted forward and dived between two blades, sliding under another before rolling back to her feet and hopping a fourth. She then ran left and along the wall over another, then spun over the next one and under the one after that. One final somersault brought her over the last few to land at the other end of the hallway. She then began to look for a way to turn off the blades on her side while keeping an eye on her girlfriend, who was watching the blades very carefully.
Isabella removed her pack and waited a few seconds before hurling it across the room. It sailed between the blades before reaching Haruka, who caught it. Isabella next threw her iron sword, which made it more easily, but she kept Mercy in her hand. It was tied into its sheath with a leather belt now, which made it harder to draw the blade but she wasn’t planning on ever doing that anyway. Unfortunately, she seemed to be preparing herself for something, which made Haruka pause. “Bella…?” Isabella closed her eyes and shifted from foot to foot, her movements slowing as she calmed down; then she took off, and Haruka’s eyes widened. “Bella, wait!”
Isabella went into a full-out sprint and vaulted over the first two blades. Her expression was calm as she came down at the third one, landing with one foot on the flat of the horizontal blade. She went with one rotation before spinning off of it and holding her sword across her palms as she went up-side down. The sword landed on a blade that was spinning upwards and Isabella used the added momentum to flip further, over another two. Then she hit the ground and rolled under another before coming up and running towards the last blades, tossing her sword ahead of her. The sword landed on the blade and she landed her feet on the sword, skating over the blades before landing beside Haruka and catching the hilt of her sword, sliding it back into her belt.
Haruka let out the breath she’d held the entire time, returning her iron sword and pack. “That was incredibly stupid. Amazing, but stupid.”
“I don’t have the physical ability I used to,” Isabella said as she slid the sword next to her other one and shouldered the pack, “but I still have the skill. I can gather my energy for short bursts.”
“As long as it doesn’t hurt you.” Haruka adjusted her own pack and started moving down the hallway. “Where did you learn how to avoid a hall of spinning blades, anyway?”
“I didn’t,” Isabella said with a look at her. “But it’s not much different from avoiding the blades of an army, along with arrows and spears.”
“Well, you showed me up.”
Bella snorted. “I brute forced my way through. You did it too easily to need fancy moves like that.”
“Well, let’s just hope we don’t have any more traps in our way.”
Another door dropped shut behind them with a dull thud, enclosing them in a large diamond-shaped room with no visible exits. Isabella groaned. “You had to say that, didn’t you?”
“Do you think the walls heard me?” Haruka paused as another dull thud of stone-on-stone reached them. “Is it dropping doors everywhere?”
“Why? We’re already trapped.” Another of the same sound came from the same direction, followed by a third, then a fourth. They both looked towards the wall it was coming from and Bella shook her head. “That doesn’t sound like doors. It sounds more like… footsteps?”
“Is there a way out so we don’t have to find out what makes footsteps that sound like that?”
“I think there’s about to be one.”
Several seconds later the wall erupted inwards and a twenty-foot stone behemoth, humanoid in shape and made of cylindrical parts with extravagant designs, stomped in and released a strange, grinding bellow. Both women threw their packs aside and leapt to either side as it stopped in between them. Bella drew her Mercy, knowing her iron sword wasn’t going to be doing anything to stone. “A golem?!”
“I see you know what this thing is,” Haruka said as the thing looked between them.
“I saw a few in Areya. I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help in this fight, either…”
Haruka stepped forward and threw out a wave of chi to get the thing’s attention; fortunately, it turned to look at her. “What about magic? Can you weaken its magic so I can damage it? Or can you just hit it with magic?”
“I… didn’t learn a lot of spells,” Bella said apologetically. “I learned how to read a lot of runes, and I learned a lot of enchantments, but I didn’t learn the proper way to form too many spells; if I mess it up, it could be bad.”
Haruka leapt back as a giant fist smashed into the ground where she’d been standing. “So what can you do?”
“I can try to remove its magic barriers, but that could take a few minutes…”
Haruka cracked her neck. “Alright – a few minutes. Go.”
Isabella nodded and slid Mercy back into her belt, removing a piece of chalk from her belt pouch and starting to write. Meanwhile Haruka leapt up and delivered a powerful kick to the head of the giant golem – which took no damage. She barely avoided its grab by circling its head and sliding down its back. She took off running and it gave chase; she ran up a wall and vaulted over its head before it could crush her between its body and the wall, but it ripped a chunk out of the wall and hurled it after her. Haruka cursed and braced her feet, charging her fist with energy and punching the chunk of stone in half as it reached her. “Has it been a few minutes yet?!”
“It hasn’t even been one minute,” Isabella responded as she looked over the runes, trying to ignore Haruka dodging another punch that shattered one of the room’s walls, unfortunately giving the golem more ammunition to hurl. “Essa, Tal’in, Roi, Paas… Which one am I forgetting?”
“You’re forgetting one?!”
“It’s been a long time! And you’re breaking my concentration!”
“This thing is breaking me!”
“Nonsense; it hasn’t hit you yet.”
“Only through pure luck!”
“Don’t sell yourself short, dear; it’s skill.”
“Skill-“ Haruka ducked a swipe, feeling the wind actually shift her a few inches, “Skill only goes so far!”
“I have faith in you!”
“Will faith protect me from four-foot-wide fists?!”
“Are you a priest?” Isabella blinked before raising her hands. “Kai! Of course!” She added the rune to the formation and put away the chalk, then placed her hands over the runes and closed her eyes, speaking quietly.
Haruka threw up a block before a fist sent her flying into a wall. She managed to lessen her impact and dropped to the floor, glaring at the golem. “As soon as I can hurt you, those fists are the first things I’m taking.” The golem responded by scooping up armfuls of rubble and hurling it at her all at the same time. Haruka managed to dodge through it all and kick the last one back at the golem; the rock struck its head and it slid one foot back, causing Haruka to let out a sigh of relief. “It’s working!” she shouted as she began to run forward, vaulting over its swing and landing on its arm. She placed a Death Mark on its arm and then ran up its body and backflipped onto its other arm as it tried to swat her off its chest, placing another on that wrist. As the first one exploded and severed its arm she leapt further up and onto its head, placing one on either side and running up and over to land on the other side.
Haruka stood and turned calmly as the golem spun around to face her. She folded her arms and watched as it swung its remaining arm at her; it exploded and crumbled just before reaching her, leaving a stump that brushed past a few inches from her face. The golem stepped forward and raised a foot to crush her, but the head exploded before it could. The rest of the body shattered and fell into a pile of rock soon after, which Bella hopped over on her way to Haruka. “Are you hurt?” she asked as she looked her over.
The monk smiled and wiped the rock powder from her clothing. “Not injured. A little sore, but if that thing’s barrier hadn’t gone down I’d be a lot worse off; golems don’t tire so you can only evade their attacks for so long.”
Isabella sighed and looked back to it. “Where I come from, those things are war machines. Seeing them guarding this place is a bad sign.”
“I’d say it’s a good sign that we can take anything this place throws at us.” Haruka looked at the hole it made in the wall. “Besides, now we have an exit out of here.”
“I suppose you’re right. After all, if we…” Isabella trailed off as both she and Haruka looked at the wall opposite the hole the golem made. “If we… Is that… water?”
Haruka started backing up as the room began shaking and the sound of rushing water grew louder and closer. “Bella… We should probably start running.”
Isabella didn’t even complain about more running as they sprinted through the hole and down the thin hallway behind it. A few seconds later the wall in the room was blasted open by a veritable river that powered its way through the room, quickly flooding it and pouring into the hall behind them. “I really hope this actually leads somewhere!” Bella shouted as she looked back at the wall of water; it was almost high enough to touch the ceiling already, and blocked off all view of the room they’d just left. Haruka was running ahead of her going much faster than she could, knowing that, if it was a dead end, she would have to try to make them a way through before they were crushed by the force.
Haruka slowed down and looked back, yelling over the water, “It opens up! Hurry!”
Isabella felt the spray and grinned; she couldn’t help it, this kind of “near death” was the kind she’d once lived for, the kind her parents would often tell her about when telling stories of their adventures. If she was to die soon, this entire experience was exactly what she wanted – one last adventure. Ahead of her Haruka skidded to a stop on a ledge, looking over into a seemingly bottomless pit. The hallway had led to a massive cavern with no visible floor, though light filtered in through the ceiling from holes far, far above them that led to the surface. In front of Haruka was a series of pillars ending in platforms at the same height as the one Haruka stood on, but the jump to the first one was quite far.
Haruka turned to look back, planning to ask if Bella would be able to make it. However, before she even could, Bella shot past her, grabbed her wrist, and leapt. Haruka’s eyes widened as she looked down at the chasm, but they cleared it easily. Bella landed on her feet and looked back as the water rushed out after them and poured down between the ledge and their platform, becoming a waterfall. Haruka straightened and looked at Isabella in a way that caused the knight to laugh. “It was either jump, die, or jump and die, so there was no point in thinking about it.”
“I… Yeah, I guess, but I just didn’t expect that.”
Isabella smiled. “Come on, you have to admit this is kind of fun. We’re like treasure hunters!”
Haruka stared at her for a few moments longer before cracking a smile. “I can’t believe you’re enjoying this.”
“It’s thrilling! It beats lying in bed all day or whatever other sick people do.”
“Leave it to you to feel that way. I don’t think you have any concept of reality.”
“Pff, reality is for crazy people.”
“I… what? I don’t… I think my brain just broke trying to make sense of that.”
Isabella leapt to the next platform, watching Haruka make the same jump before turning to judge the next one. “That’s what you get for trying to bring logic into things.”
“Yes, clearly it has no place here,” Haruka said as she made the next jump. They made it across the hall and to a ledge beneath a high archway; the platforms they were taking were apparently once a stone bridge through the cavern, though they couldn’t tell what kind of place this archway would lead to. They did notice, as they landed on the ledge and peered further in, that it was much darker and colder here than elsewhere.
“No light again,” Isabella said as she took a tentative step forward, watching the darkness. For a moment she thought she heard something deeper in, but it was so brief and faint she couldn’t be sure if it was something real or merely her imagination. Haruka brought out a new glow rod and led the way. Soon they were far enough into the winding passage that no light from the cavern they’d just left could be seen. The air grew stale and the temperature dropped a bit further, and there was an oppressive silence that quieted all conversation, even between these two. Isabella found herself walking quietly and even controlling her breathing, and she noticed Haruka doing the same. The silence was so thick and heavy, and even hostile, that breaking it was something neither wanted to do.
The air was musty here, and the orange light of the glow rod highlighted clouds of ancient dust that had hung in the air for who knew how long. The reason for this area’s qualities became clear when the rod’s light fell on the walls and illuminated dozens of insets with coffins lining the hall; they were in a tomb. They had no choice but to keep going, though, despite the oppressive feeling of the place. Magic hung heavy in the air and made their skin tingle, along with something else neither could place. Isabella nearly tripped on something and Haruka moved the rod to reveal a sort of table, atop which lay a Din’leth corpse, half-twisted and long dead. They shared a look before continuing on, coming across another two corpses on their way, both with injuries that revealed violent deaths. The odd thing about these, and the several other corpses they found, were that the bodies were strangely misshapen and all holding the instrument of their deaths – daggers and swords, mostly – as if they had ended their own lives.
After a little more investigation it became clear that these bodies were not simply “on the ground” but were on top of stone slabs and laid out in a way that made them seem like honored dead, clasping their weapons and surrounded by small trinkets and jewels that neither woman was willing to take. Their heads rested on the remains of what had once been pillows, and half-rotted but once-beautiful blankets remained partially wrapped around their bodies.
A voice spoke and both women stopped to look at each other, but it had come from neither of them. It said something in a language neither understood, and it spoke again, this time closer. Isabella felt her hair prick up and turned only to come face-to-face with a terrifying apparition of a man, face frozen in mid-scream and eyes wide in terror. Most anyone would have cried out, but fortunately for this situation, Isabella had lived a long, hard life – the only reaction she had was to stiffen slightly, her muscles tightening in preparation. She carefully and slowly took a step back and to the side, allowing the ghost to pass without touching her. She looked at Haruka and was thankful to notice that the woman was no more affected than she was – on edge, but not scared.
Isabella let out the breath she’d been holding and continued forward with Haruka, taking on a much more serious expression. As they went further the rooms changed and they entered a large dining hall, or perhaps mead hall; the room had a ceiling they couldn’t see but that was supported by a line of thick columns on either side. Four long tables sat in the middle, each lined with stools on either side. At the end of the long hall there was a throne of sorts, a chair carved directly out of the stone and decorated with great artistic skill. The more pressing thing of note in this room, however, was that it was full of spirits, perhaps two dozen or more of them, all wandering the hall with looks of horror or sorrow.
They were in a very, very dangerous situation; Isabella had a little knowledge about this sort of thing, and she knew that they were all following some unknown rules. If she and Haruka broke those rules they would be killed with no chance of resisting, as neither had any skill in Necromancy or Spirit magic. Isabella pulled Haruka into a corner of the room and explained this to her, and both watched the apparitions while trying to figure out what rules they went by. After several minutes of study they began moving again, walking across the room in a curved arc to avoid coming into contact with any before silently taking a seat at one of the tables as they had seen all of the ghosts do at some point. One sat across from them and stared with dead, empty eyes, either at them or past them.
After a minute they stood up and continued walking; a doorway near the throne was their goal, and they made it apparently without disturbing the spirits. Ahead of them stairs stretched upwards and, as they began climbing, the sound of singing reached them from the room they’d just left, as if the room was full of people celebrating some victory. They continued to climb until the singing faded and the air grew fresher, until the oppressive feeling was no longer present and they felt lighter. The stairs ended at a circular room with walls covered in intricate carvings, and they took a break to investigate these. Isabella walked around the room and followed the carvings, visible thanks to several red-lit torches that still burned with enough light to see. The stairs continued upwards on the other side of the room, hopefully their way out.
“It’s a story,” Bella said as she stopped and took in the image of a type of people she’d never seen but now recognized as the spirits they’d passed. The image showed them fighting twisted versions of themselves, followed by them holding shut a door as the twisted ones beat on the other side. “These were among the last dwarves,” she said, recalling Haruka’s explanation. “They fought Din’leth and tried to hold them back.”
“Some changed before others?” Haruka joined her, holding up the glow rod for a better view. “It must have been some sort of curse or disease, then, that changed them.”
“They were pushed out of their own city.” Bella pointed to a picture of the cavernous room they had passed through after escaping the water. “They’re the ones who destroyed the bridge, to prevent the Din’leth from reaching them, which is why we haven’t found any here.”
“So the Din’leth corpses we found were… dwarves who were infected during the retreat.” Haruka frowned. “They killed themselves before they could change completely, probably to spare the others.”
“Which is why they were honored after death,” Isabella concluded. “So did the surviving dwarves die down here or did they escape up this way to the surface?”
“I think they died,” Haruka said, pointing to an image of one climbing into a coffin. “They willingly stayed here. Judging by this hopeful image,” she said as she indicated the next carving of the same dwarf climbing out to join many others, “they were unwilling to leave the home of their people, and thought that they would only join their people if they died here. Studies say their culture was very centered around their people, ancestors and their home.”
“To embrace your own people so…” Isabella shook her head. “To think that they died out because of a disease that twisted their own people against them is a very sad end. Worse, I think the ghosts we came across were the dwarves that had been infected, meaning they did not get to join their people. Perhaps that is why they were so sorrowful.”
Haruka sighed. “Maybe we’ll let a Necromancer know about this so that they can help. But for now, we should just leave – who knows what else could happen down here.”
“Yes… You’re probably right.” Isabella backed away and followed Haruka as she ascended the stairs, but not before glancing back at the room one last time. She couldn’t help but feel a strange kinship with these people, who had been doomed to die by something beyond their control but had supported each other in their final hours, working together to survive as long as they could. In the end they had embraced their fate, and as the final carving showed – and the sounds of singing that returned and followed them up the final stairway – they had gone out with a celebration of their lives. They had built traps, sabotaged their own city, and retreated back to their very tombs, all to stall or stop the Din’leth, and though their efforts had ultimately failed, in the end they had chosen to die with smiles and cheers.
Isabella only hoped that she would have such courage when the inevitable time came a few months from now.