“There is someone here.”

“There are many of us here.”

“No, you idiot. Someone new. Someone who is still physical. But I cannot reach her.”

“Someone real? Someone who isn’t an echo?”

The voices sounded wrong. There was something missing, but Lex had no idea what it was, other than the fact that they seemed accentless and also held no tone or expression. The words seemed to indicate surprise or disbelief in places, but their delivery was a complete monotone. Lex could tell there was more than one voice because they responded to each other, but as far as he could tell they were all identical. He had no idea how many were there.

“There are two.”

The voices were silent for a long moment after that declaration, then several spoke at once.

“Two-”

“Finally-”

“How?”

“That’s-”

“They-”

“SILENCE!” The new voice was different from the others. It was only in volume, perhaps, but it was still clearly different. “THEY ARE PROTECTED. ONE CAN HEAR US. I RECOGNIZE-”

The louder voice stopped for a moment. When it restarted, it seemed to talk to Lex. “YOU CAN SPEAK HERE AS WELL. WE WILL HEAR YOU, THOUGH YOU MAY NOT. THIS SPACE IS DIFFERENT. I … WHY DO YOU HAVE THE TORNADO BROOCH? IT IS A RELIC OF THE ET’TART LINEAGE.”

The words “Et’Tart Lineage” didn’t mean anything to Lex; they hadn’t been mentioned in his grandfather’s papers at all. They might well be his grandfather’s family; after all, he’d never named them. All he’d said was that he was the “rightful” heir which made Lex the heir and that that fact was dangerous.

Lex didn’t know why that would be dangerous to him; surely whatever inheritance issues existed when his grandfather was a young man would be long since settled. He trusted his grandfather to know that there had been an issue when he fled, but a hundred years was a long time. It had been longer than that since Lex’s grandparents married. Chances were good that no one remembered or cared. Whatever came of it all wouldn’t be in Lex’s favor, but he didn’t care about his grandfather’s family. It wasn’t like they were his family in anything other than blood.

That still left Lex with the question of whether or not he should answer the question of the loud voice. It knew something, and that tipped the answer firmly to “yes”; after all, he was here seeking answers. “My grandfather left it to me when he died. What can you tell me about the Et’Tart Lineage?”

“GRANDFATHER?” The voice paused, probably in surprise. It was strange to listen to an inflectionless voice and figure out what it was trying to say from pauses instead of tone. “WHO WAS YOUR GRANDFATHER?”

There was no reason not to answer. “Timothy Rothmer, Timothy Dale Rothmer.” Lex remembered how his grandmother used to tease his grandfather sometimes; it might be relevant and it made perfect sense now that he knew a little more about his grandfather’s past. “I think he took his wife’s family name when they married.”

“I REMEMBER,” the voice stated. This time, it sounded almost weirdly human for a voice Lex couldn’t see. It softened as it spoke, becoming more real with each word. “I remember! I had almost forgotten. Echoes fade. But if you are my grandson, why do you have an angelblood with you?”

Lex tightened his grip on Bethany’s hand. “I don’t know what you mean by angelblood. Bethany is my wife.”

There was a pause before the voice chuckled. It sounded surprisingly humorless for a voice that had been expressionless only moments earlier. “An old feud that should have died centuries ago. I am happy it did not taint your life. In any case, you should hurry; the longer you stay, the more the brooch will take to keep you safe, and you are paying for both of you.”

“How?” Lex asked, frustrated. He’d tried walking forward, but even though he could feel his weight on his feet, he couldn’t seem to lift them.

The voice that was, perhaps, an echo of Lex’s grandfather said something that didn’t make any sense to Lex. There was something about aligning key pathways and using them to make space overlap with itself? It didn’t make any sense.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The echo tried a few more explanations with a similar lack of luck before he seemed to give up. “Very well. I’ll have to teach you the last method I used. It’s dangerous but if you hurry, it will get you out somewhere. Think about the brooch, there should be a link to it. It’s using that link to draw energy from you and prevent this space from harming you or your wife.”

It took Lex a few minutes, but he eventually found the link. It was slowly pulling mana from him, like a very slow version of a Skill. His only similar Skills were from a basic Mage Path that he’d picked up as much to learn something about magic as for any other reason, but the similarity was still there. After a moment, he felt his hand close around the source of the drain. It felt oddly warm; in the past, it had always felt cool to the touch. “I’ve found it.”

“Concentrate on it and tell it you’re at a way out of the Well. It will do the rest. I don’t know where it will be, other than that it won’t be where you entered.” The echo sounded a little regretful, “I didn’t know where I would exit when I entered, just that it would be a long way from home. If we had the time, I’d ask you to tell me something about my life. I hope I was happy.”

“I think so,” Lex told his grandfather’s echo. He’d have said the same thing even if it weren’t true, but in this case he thought it was, overall. “You outlived Grandmother, but only by a couple of years. You said there was no reason to stay once she was gone and you’d set everything in order.”

Lex was in his early twenties when his grandfather died in his sleep. He still remembered his father’s reaction; he was sad but not surprised. Neither was Lex. The only real surprise was how easy his estate was to handle; his other grandparents’ estate had been a nightmare for Lex’s mother, but Lex’s father was able to follow a checklist Grandfather Timothy made and take care of everything easily.

That was almost fifty years ago, but Lex still remembered it. He remembered the funeral, as well; that was where his normally stoic father cried all the way through his eulogy.

Lex realized he’d lost the connection to the tornado brooch, but it was far easier to find this time because he knew his hand was on it. He tightened his grip on Bethany’s hand for a moment, then felt a similar tightening from her; they couldn’t talk that way, but it told them both that they were in this together.

Lex wanted out of this dark place. Out! He tried to push that desire to the brooch.

Suddenly, he was falling. He could see everything around him; he and Bethany were in a dark tunnel, but it was no longer completely dark. The light came from below and scattered off the walls. Even a single glance at the walls made Lex look away; there were colors there that weren’t colors, colors that tried to tell him things that weren’t good for a human mind to know.

Lex and Bethany weren’t alone. Other things fell with them, mostly dirt and bits of plant, but there were also some small animals, everything from small lizards to one surprisingly calm white rabbit. Figures emerged from the walls and lunged at Lex and Bethany periodically, but each time they bounced off something about a foot away as Lex felt the draw on his mana increase for a moment.

Lex pulled Bethany close to himself, but found he couldn’t let go of the tornado brooch with his right hand. There was still a sensation of heat, but that was all he could feel from his hand and it didn’t respond; that was probably not a good sign. He decided that it also wasn’t something he should pay much attention to right now, since he didn’t have any choice but to use it to try to get out of this place. Instead, he asked Bethany to wrap her arms around him before he moved his left hand. The entire time, Bethany was careful to maintain direct skin contact.

It was impossible to tell how long it lasted. It seemed to take forever but also no time at all. The first sign of a change was when the walls widened; that was when Lex realized that the abortive attacks from the walls had completely stopped. Some time later, the walls started to look like brown stone instead of black insanity.

They were still falling.

“How far down do you think it is?” Bethany’s words were quite different from the echo’s, even after started to sound more human. “I don’t think we’re falling as quickly as we should be.”

Lex twisted to look down; all he could see was a lighter area, but without any markings all he could really say was that it was quite a ways down. When he twisted to look at the wall, he could see individual bumps in the rock move by slowly; it felt more like a quick walking pace than any falling speed he’d ever seen.

“A long way, and it’s going to take even longer.” Lex twisted to look down again. “It’s getting close faster than it should.”

The light had covered half the distance while he wasn’t looking; even now, it seemed to be rushing towards them with a speed that didn’t match how fast the walls seemed to be moving.

Moments later, they hit the ground with a soft puff of dirt. They landed on their sides, rather than their feet, but it was much less painful than Lex had expected, not even as hard as he’d fall if he tripped while walking. It was more like when he collapsed onto a soft surface like a bed.

The first thing Lex saw was a pile of everything that had fallen with them. It was mostly dirt, but the movement of a now dusty but still white rabbit caught Lex’s eye as it hopped away from the pile. Lex and Bethany took the time to untangle themselves, but kept holding hands.

They seemed to have arrived and Lex didn’t feel a draw on his mana anymore, so he tried again to release his hold on the brooch. This time, his hand opened. A bright light shone from where the brooch had been for a moment, followed by a puff of silvery dust. Lex stared at the remnants of the brooch as they vanished; it seemed like it hadn’t been nearly as solid as it seemed.

He hand ached and a second look at his hand showed part of the reason: the tornado symbol that once resided on the brooch had etched itself into his palm where he’d gripped the brooch. Despite the heat, it didn’t look like a burn; instead, it looked more like a tattoo done in a silver-colored ink. The area was red and irritated. Unfortunately, neither Lex nor Bethany had any healing Paths, so he’d just have to wait and hope it recovered on its own. He’d dig into the first aid kit they’d brought and bandage it as soon as he was sure it was safe to do so.

Lex examined the cavern they’d ended up in. It was brown stone, like the tunnel they’d fallen though, but it was in a nearly pure dome shape. It didn’t look man-made, but Lex wasn’t about to discount the possibility. There were three person-sized openings in the wall; one of them was the way the rabbit had headed.

There was no hole in the ceiling that they could have fallen from.