The room around him was chalky white. Outside, it was dark, and the only light came from an overhead lamp to his side. Ezra pushed himself up, but the pain he hoped was just a dream surged through his side again.

“The doctor says you need to take it easy for the next few days.” Owen was sitting on a stool beside his bed, and Albert lay fast asleep in a chair in the far corner. “It’s a miracle you survived.”

The veil of sleep was beginning to wear off, and Ezra remembered. The vibro-crystals, his little coffin, Owen finding him, the burning flower, and the metallic orb. He pressed his hands against his sides, but he was in a clean pair of clothes. “Where’s my stuff?”

“Don’t worry, I’m holding onto all of it. You’ll be able to retrieve everything when you leave.”

Ezra glared at Owen before wiping the distrustful look off his face. There was no need to be angry. Owen was being as helpful as he could. He could be angry later if he got his stuff and the device wasn’t there. He wanted to trust Owen. Trust was rare, and at least for him, hard to come by.

Albert yawned, scratched his nose, and blinked a few times. “You’re awake.” His voice shook as if he had been anticipating this very moment. Replaying it in his head a million times until he had figured out what to say, only for his mind to go blank the instant that moment happened. “I’m so sorry. I should have been more careful. I should have cut the wire and gone in there with you. I should have done a trillion things, but I didn’t.” His voice broke, and it felt like he was going to sob. Albert’s face remained dry, but his eyes glanced at everything in the room except Ezra. His fingers shifted on top of one another like his hands were a field of thorns.

“I should have remembered my position. I got too ambitious.” Ezra said, staring up at the ceiling.

“But it was our duty to protect you. I’m the expert, and I’m supposed to know what I’m doing. It was my duty to ensure the explosives didn’t go off when they shouldn’t have.”

“It’s over, Albert. Ezra is alive.” Owen sat hunched over on the stool with his hands folded. “You're lucky our haul of crystals paid for your hospital bills. Albert argued with the supervisor till he was blue in the face.” A smile finally broke his serious demeanor, and he chuckled. “I think it’s the first time I’ve actually seen Darian scared. I didn’t think you had it in you.”

“Well, us old fellas still have a fire in us. We just let it burn when it matters most. The whole thing’s a miracle. I tell you. If that collapse didn’t happen, I’m not sure we would’ve found you.”

“Yeah, it is a miracle.” Owen chewed on his bottom lip. He knew something Albert didn’t. “We’ll let you rest. We have to get back to work tomorrow. Right, Albert?”

The old man nodded and pushed himself out of the armchair. They left, and everything was silent again. Ezra looked out the window. Light dotted the slope, flickering with limited power to supply them. The lighthouse wasn’t on tonight, but Ezra never liked its harsh rays. Even from here, he could spot his father’s home. The fluorescent red sign, that bothered the neighbors and always took up an unhealthy share of their electric bill, was his father’s pride and joy. He had made it himself and insisted it attracted more customers than it scared away. The man was likely asleep now.

That fact didn’t bother Ezra. His father knew Ezra could take care of himself. There was no hatred, no anger, only that together they were alone. Memories of his mother pained him. She was the only one that had held them together. For the short time she was here. The question of “what if” never left, and it had taken him a long time to accept what was. Now, that bright red sign stared him back as if beckoning him to come home.

Tomorrow, he would consider it. He turned his head towards the blank wall and tried to go to sleep.

The morning light willed him awake, and another visitor sat by his bedside. He would recognize that messy brown hair anywhere.

“Had enough beauty sleep, princess?” Milo beamed.

His optimism typically brought a breath of fresh air into the room, but this time Ezra’s lungs felt too heavy to take it in. All he could manage to return was a pained smile. “How have you been?”

“Obviously better than you. I’ve heard rumors about what happened, but I need to hear the story from you.”

“It’s not terribly exciting.” Ezra wondered if he should include details on what he found. “Just a simple mining accident. Deadly, but not some enthralling tale of adventure.”

“I want to hear it anyway. That is if you're up to it. I’m not going to awaken some trauma by having you relive it. Am I?”

Ezra laughed. “You know I’m mentally stronger than that.”

“You were scared, at least, weren’t you?”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“I’m not that inhuman. Of course, I was scared! There were boulders about this big on top of me.” Ezra went to sit up and stretch his arms as an example, but it felt like a knife stabbing between the gaps in his ribs. He groaned, and his hand intuitively reached for the source of the pain.

Milo shot up from the stool and reached for him. “Are you alright?”

Ezra removed his hand from the self-inflicted wound and put it out to stop Milo. “I’m good,” he said through gritted teeth. “Guess I’m not as unscathed as I thought.”

“Yeah, I wasn’t going to say it before but you look like crap. Keep it lowkey until you’ve healed. Now, how about that story?”

Ezra’s story began with joining the explosives team. He told Milo about Owen and Albert and the amazing vibro-crystal find. Milo was especially interested in the crystals, asking questions Ezra would have never considered. He kept his time in the cave brief and only mentioned his strategy using the crystal.

“It’s crazy you're even alive, and that stuff with the vibro-crystal, absolute genius. Oh, and you have to introduce me to the guys on the explosives team.” Milo paused, and the smile faded from his face. “So, when do you get out of the hospital?”

“Not sure. I haven’t had the chance to ask the staff yet, but I think it’s going to be a few weeks.”

“I’ll try to visit as often as I can, but work is getting busy. After your recent find, the boss has us scouring the dig site for more vibro-crystals.”

Ezra’s face hardened. “What we found was just luck. He’s asking for the impossible.”

“It’s not unusual.” Milo nervously laughed. “He’s always asking for things beyond our capabilities, but I don’t want you worrying about it. Just focus on recovering.”

“I wish I could help. I really do.”

“It’s fine.” Milo got off the stool and pushed it against the wall. “I need to get going. Work starts in less than half an hour.” He opened the sliding door and waved goodbye. Once the door clicked back into place, Ezra stared at the ceiling. He was alone again.

A nurse visited him later that day and showed him images of his bones. They were from an ancient device the hospital bought a few years ago. The results were two broken ribs and a concussion. She told him he was lucky. It felt like everyone told him that, but Ezra hadn’t convinced himself he was. Twilight came with no visitors, and his father’s sign glowed in the night. He pushed the decision to go back to his fathers to tomorrow. There was no rush.

Milo didn’t visit again until the third day, informing him that work was difficult as always. This time they had moved deeper down. Milo said people were worried about the tunnels collapsing. He made a joke about Ezra having experience with that and left.

On the fourth day, Owen visited. This time without Albert. He said the old man was sick but was sure he would recover soon. Owen relayed similar experiences to Milo. Going deeper and an increasing scramble for vibro-crystals were the only things Hubert was concerned about. This was the first time in a while Ezra had heard the boss’s actual name. Owen didn’t like resorting to petty insults.

There were no visitors for the next few days. Dawn blended into the evening and night into the morning. Ezra sat with his thoughts during the day and the bright obnoxious sign during the night. He wondered if Owen still had the metallic orb or if he had discovered its abilities. Asking him was out of the question since Ezra assured himself Owen would interrogate him about it.

Albert came with Owen on the thirtieth or maybe the thirty-fifth day. The days stopped having a point to them some time ago. Albert talked about the stupidity of management, and Owen corrected him on a few points of exaggeration. Ezra had enough strength to sit up and had even requested the nurse to open the window. The breeze was never strong down here, but the occasional gust of wind brought relief.

“There was news from the third layer recently,” Owen said.

Ezra perked up. News was rarely important enough to reach down here, especially all the way from the third layer.

Owen grinned at his interest and continued. “Well, it’s good and bad news. I’ll start with the bad. A sky razor, apparently a big one from the sound of it, came down from the fourth layer and raided Shatterfold’s headquarters. It took the effort of several other guilds to drive it away. A lot of sky-seekers died, and they're preparing a party to go kill it.”

“Sounds like a mess.” Ezra leaned in further.

“And this leads me to the good news. Applications are now being accepted for new sky-seekers, and get this, it's open to the public.”

Ezra’s jaw dropped. The last time sky-seeker applications were open to the public was twenty years ago. The year his mother left. He didn’t remember much, but his father told him it was a time of great excitement. People thought the ground was near when the seekers breached the eleventh layer. Applications opened to aid in the effort, and applicants flooded in. The ground wasn’t as near as everyone thought, news of higher layers or the ground never came, and his mother never looked back. Since that day, the dream of becoming a sky-seeker was forever imprinted on children’s minds, and the thought Ezra could follow his mother never left him. Yet the barriers to becoming a sky-seeker rose again. Be lucky enough to be born on the higher layers, have the connections to gain a sponsor, or be talented enough to be selected and trained by the seven guilds.

“So, are you going to apply?”

“Of course.” Owen seemed ready to jump off his stool.

Albert shook his head. “Too much excitement for me. If I didn’t apply twenty years ago, I’m not going to now.”

“And what about you?”

“Me?” The question almost made Ezra lay back down. “I’m not in any state to do that.”

“The hospital says you should be good in about seven days. I’ll wait for your decision until then.”

Ezra pressed his lips together and gripped the bed sheets. “If you really want to do it, don’t let me stop you. You don’t know how long the applications will be open.” Everyone had told him he was lucky, but now he was about to miss his only chance at being a sky-seeker.

“I can see it in your eyes, that longing,” Owen said. The phrase sent a shiver down Ezra’s spine. He had heard it somewhere before. “You want it too, don’t you? To go higher. Find out what’s really out there.”

“I do.” He pulled the bed sheet tighter.

“Then I’ll wait.”

“Thank you.” He could feel tears welling up in his eyes. No one was leaving him behind. Those simple words from Owen were all he had wished to hear for years. Words he wished his mother had told him. For once, it felt good to not be alone.