***

After a cup of cocoa, one of tea, and incessant chit-chat from the professor, and increasingly malevolent stares from TA, Aeniki sends the documents, and with bureaucracy done, the two archeologists take us to the excavations.

“So, we’re going to guard a door which doesn’t even open? What else, a broom closet?” Kaelich mutters softly as we leave the office. Xe did most of the talking with the professor, who seems entirely unaware of the tension while her TA and Gehat glared at each other.

“Pray that it doesn’t open,” Sorivel says, gloomy. Of course, he thinks the precursor relics are cursed.

“Going to the excavation level will be like traveling back in time!” The professor says, oblivious to our conversation. She speaks with a distinct museum-guide-for-preschoolers intonation. “You see, the University has been expanded several times, always upwards. So, every level we descend, we walk into an older building. This, of course, is the modern section. But we’ll cross a level built by the Vorokan Kingdom, then the High Thaumocracy, then the original Duchy of Rakavdon, and finally, of course, the Precursors themselves. It’s a unique historical heritage!”

She sounds honestly enthusiastic. While I’m somewhat curious about the Precursors and their relics, I really don’t care about regular old buildings. The most noticeable difference for me is that, the further we go down, there are much fewer students and way less studenty shit hanging on the walls. Bless the Lord of Skies.

Finally, we reach the deepest, oldest level. This time, the difference with the other levels is obvious – this floor isn’t built, it’s dug into the bedrock, and the walls are dark, rough stone, flaked by niches holding carved statues. Time has smoothed the details, so their faces are disturbingly featureless.

This level doesn’t look nearly as frequented as the ones above - the hallway we walk through is lined with solid metal doors, all locked, and only two researchers in white overalls cross our way.

“This level was built by the original duchy of Rakavdon,” professor Adavert prattles on. “Before the unification under Karvosa. You could say, Rakavdon began here! Even after the Thaumocracy fell, this fortress was never looted. The archives held here were invaluable for our knowledge of the early Thaumocracy!”

The heating must be off, or the stone soaks it up, because it’s almost as cold as it was outside, and breath mists in front of my face.

“We need to guard both the excavation site and the relic vault,” Kaelich says, “are those places nearby? If we can cover both from the same position, we won’t have to split.”

“You need to guard the relic vault?” The grad student sneers. “You know the relics we hold here are junk, right? You might as well guard a trash heap.”

“Be nice, Semejon,” professor Adavert says, a note of strained patience in her voice. I suppress a smirk. That’s the tone most teachers used with me, after the first week of classes. It almost makes me like the grad student.

“The Relic vault,” Adavert explains, “is a high security room on this level. We believe it was initially a prison, built by the Thaumocracy, and their wards are still potent, so it’s a very safe place to stash relics. Unfortunately, the Black Door is on a further level down, at the excavation site proper. You’ll have to split to guard both.

“Not that there’s a real necessity to guard the Vault, if I am honest. Semejon is quite correct, the relics we keep here are all inactive or low-grade. I think the most dangerous relic in our possession is a stone that makes an exceedingly annoying strident noise when close to a living person.”

“We have orders from regional Headquarters to watch both the Vault and the Black Door site,” Gehat says, obviously unhappy. I’m not enthusiastic about splitting up to guard a trash heap, either. Precursor relics aren’t that dangerous - the really powerful ones are Thaumocracy relics, since modern mages would be able to activate them. And anyway, any relic of significant power would be held by ThauCon or the Council.

“Well, the Vault is right there,” professor Adavert says, as we walk past a white, heavy metal door. It’s larger than the other doors lining the walls, and there’s a chip scanner instead of a handle. “There’s no way inside except for this door.”

Gehat looks at the door and at the hallway. It’s a pretty easy place to guard: this floor is mostly empty, and there’s absolutely no way to get near the Vault without being seen.

“We’ll have to station a team here,” Corporal Gehat says. “We can rotate, I guess. On the plus side, anyone going to the Black Door site will have to cross this hallway, so they’ll have to go past both teams – is that correct, professor?”

“Yes,” she answers, pleased, as if Gehat were a student who answered a difficult question. “This is the only way to the excavation level. There were talks of building an elevator, it would help a lot with our archaeological work, but digging through the upper levels is a hassle, since they’re historical heritage themselves.”

“Oh, who needs elevators anyway, when you have grad students with wheelbarrows," Semejon adds, dripping sarcasm.

"Let’s go on, then” Gehat says, “we should all see the Black Door site, and then we decide how to split.”

We walk in silence for a short while, until the corridor ends against steel doors, incongruously modern. There’s a chip scanner, and as we pass, one at a time, I notice we also go through two parallel plinths, engraved with glyphs. Theta scanners.

“You already had theta detectors installed?” Gehat asks, once we’re past the checkpoint.

“Of course,” the professor says, “and there are silver bars in the door. We even have a Theta suppressor! Though we should definitely check if it still works, it hasn’t been switched on in decades. We take security seriously, here - the Vault might be pretty harmless, but truly powerful relics have been found in the ruins.”

One by one, we scan our wrists and go through the doors. Althea looks bored out of her mind. As Jaeleri scans his wrist, he gives a skeptical stare to the detectors, then to the walls. He looks doubtful, but he says nothing.

Kaelich is the last one in, coming behind the grad student.

“What do you do,” xe asks, “when you find powerful relics, if you keep only the minor ones here?”

That is clearly answered in the ThauCon operational guidelines, but then again, by now I’d be surprised if Kaelich knew anything about proper procedure.

“Relics shouldn’t be thought of in terms of more or less powerful,” the professor says, raising a finger, and I want to bash her head with a dictionary. “They’re tools. Ancient and mysterious tools, but you wouldn’t call a hammer more powerful than a scissor. Also, we understand so little of their function. When we try to use them, we’re like monkeys trying to crack nuts with a mobile phone, and complaining it’s not a good hammer. We can activate only a small minority of the relics, and even those would probably require the assistance of a mage to work as intended.”

“I can try to make them work, if you want,” Althea says, suddenly interested. “I mean, since I’m here I might as well do something useful.”

The professor stops in her tracks, her eyes opening in surprise, and the student stares at Althea as if she had just suggested hosting a rave party in the ruins.

“Thank you, but that would be, uh, both inadvisable and highly illegal,” professor Adavert says, sounding dazed.

“Don’t even think about touching the relics,” the student adds, his voice shrill. He has a strange accent - together with his dark skin tone, makes me think he must be Taerish. “Actually, don’t touch anything in the Precursor ruins, for any reason! It could open a portal or free a demon, for what we know! Worse, if there’s magical contamination, they’ll cut our funding!”

“Ok, ok, it was just an idea,” Althea says, shrugging.

“It must be difficult work, digging up the relics,” Kaelich says, sounding full of admiration. Does xe hope to mollify the professor, or to sleep with her TA?

“It’s incredibly difficult!” Semejon answers, raising his hands for emphasis, and talking very fast. “We have to dig by hand, because the Precursors used materials which can’t always be detected, and you can’t risk damaging them. And then when you find something, you don’t know how it relates to anything around it, and touching it might do nothing or it might make the skin fall from your body.”

“So it’s dangerous, too,” Kaelich says. “You must be really driven to do this work.”

I see Sorivel roll his eyes and make the Captain’s sign. Yeah, Kaelich definitely hopes to fuck the student, which is dubious professional ethic, but I realize I want to see this play out. It’s a bit like watching that Ocean Woman show - it’s a guaranteed disaster, but one that you can’t tear your eyes away from.

“Oh yes,” Professor Adavert answers, cutting off her student, “I choose my students for intellect and passion, and young Semejon has plenty of both. If he had a little social grace, and muscles enough to properly operate a shovel, I’d call him a great student.”

Semejon gives the old woman a murderous look, but she doesn’t seem to mind. I guess most of his looks are murderous.

“My very difficult and dangerous job,” he says, poisonous, “would be more rewarding if ThauCon didn’t grab everything interesting we find before we can actually study it. Which also answers the previous question, corporal. When we find a powerful relic, we send it to your people. And now we need you to babysit us to do any work!”

SORIVEL: Captain help me, Kael will hit on him all the time, xe likes them scrawny and nerdy.

I bite my lip not to laugh.

Gehat clears her throat. “We aren’t going to hinder you,” she says, “but we’re here for your safety. You all know what happened in Valanes. It’s simple common sense to guard other precursor sites.”

“I understand, corporal,” the professor says, “I appreciate your goodwill. Even if I’m convinced…”

“What the fuck are you doing?” Semejon says, turning back.

I follow his gaze, and see Jaeleri with one hand pressed against the black stone wall. Angular red lines, like circuitry, radiate from his fingers, running along the wall like veins.

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“I literally just said not to touch anything!” Semejon yells, clenching his fingers as if he was going to rip Jaeleri’s throat. Jaeleri takes a step back, and the red lines disappear.

“You said not to touch the relics, or anything within the precursor ruins, you said nothing about walls,” he answers, whiny as usual. “And the stone is strange. I wanted to check it out.”

“Well, don’t,” Gehat says, exasperated.

“This is a public place, I’m here on official business, and there’s no rule against touching walls,” Jaeleri answers.

“You’re using magic for frivolous reasons,” Gehat growls.

“Frivolous?” Jaeleri turns to her. His hand leaves the wall, but his eyes still burn red. The too-bright, impossible red of magic, a color so deep it makes everything else look muted by comparison. Honestly, I’m surprised the professor kept her calm in front of this blatant public use of magic.

“Should I kill him?” Althea whispers in the channel.

“Not yet, but if anything weird starts happening, tell us, and I’ll shoot him. Honest,” Kaelich answers.

“If you think this is frivolous,” Jaeleri goes on, “I assume you don’t care whether or not a mage could step through this wall. Sorry for using my power to answer such frivolous questions.”

The professor looks at us, obviously puzzled, and I really want to strangle Jaeleri. Can’t he be an asshole in private, at least?

“So, could a mage do that?” Gehat asks, grudgingly.

Jaeleri blinks, feigning surprise. “Oh, you mean I should investigate that possibility?” he says. “I could, but apparently, analyzing the building with magic is frivolous. I think you should write me a signed warrant for that.”

“Look, you-” Gehat starts, stepping toward the small, detestable mage.

“Well, it’s not urgent, right?” Kaelich says, stepping between the two, xir hands raised. “We can discuss it later, at the base. Could you avoid using magic until then, Jaeleri? Please?”

Jaeleri frowns, clearly trying to twist Kaelich’s sentence into a mean comment too, but the problem with Kaelich being pathologically nice is that it’s hard to turn xir words against xem.

“Okay,” Jaeleri snorts. “I’d never want to be frivolous.”

Is he just being aggravating, or is what he said about mages coming through the walls a legitimate concern? How strong would a Shaper need to be, to bypass the security systems by moving through the bedrock? I shoot a glance at Althea, who shrugs. She’s not a shape-mage, so I guess she doesn’t know, either.

“Well, we’re going into the precursor ruins now,” Semejon says. “Really, really, really don’t use any magic there, okay? The Black Door is dormant, but it’s a class A artifact, meaning of potentially cataclysmic power.”

“I won’t use magic,” Althea says, “except if needed to defend against a hostile mage.”

She glares at Jaeleri as she speaks. He just glares back.

We walk along one more grim, dark corridor, and at every step I feel like the ceiling is closing on us, like we’re walking into a tomb. Is it just the depressing architecture, or is it because we’re getting closer to the Black Door? Althea looks on edge, farther and farther from her usual confident self. Maybe there’s something wrong in the Else here, something even non-mages can pick up.

The corridor ends with a modern, steel frame spiral staircase, going down. There are red warning signs: Danger. Do not enter alone. Do not enter without authorization.

“Some people experience discomfort,” the professor says, cheerful, “as they approach the Black Door. We had Council Mages study it - cautiously - a few decades ago, and they left in such a hurry! Should you experience similar issues, I’m sure you can keep watch upstairs.”

“Sweet Doctor, protect us, I can see why they fled,” Sorivel says, his voice soft. He puts one hand around Kaelich’s arms, as if to steady himself. What does he - oh, right. Even with silver tattoos, he can still see the Else, to some extent. He so rarely remarks upon it, it’s easy to forget.

“Something here is…” Althea waves her hands, as if trying to disperse a bad smell.

“Do you want to wait upstairs, Althea?” Kaelich asks.

She shrugs. “If we’re to watch this place, I should know what to expect. It’s… strange, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.”

“It is dangerous,” Jaeleri says. He looks even more sickly than usual, and there’s sweat on his forehead. “Lost Stars, what is down there? There’s… something bad, something wrong.”

The professor and the student look at each other. It must be strange to work with relics every day, without seeing the Else.

“I can’t see the Else, of course,” Semejon says, “but I assume it’s the Black Door. We have a few redeemed mages in the department, and they say it’s really disturbing. But it’s not dangerous, no one managed to make it do anything, for centuries. The Thaumocracy tried with magic, and they tried hard, and they still didn’t get results.”

He sounds frustrated. Personally, I’m pretty sure whatever would happen if an ancient, evil magical door opened, it’s best if it doesn’t happen.

We go down the metal stairs, looking at the parade of warning signs - thaumological fields, strong magnetic fields, mental influence risk. I’ll definitely insist we come here in full armor in the future, this place gives me the creeps. Why are we even excavating it?

I’m curious about the Precursors, I always thought learning more about them would be a good thing. But as a sense of wrongness creeps over me, my curiosity seems madness.

What good can possibly come from an ancient civilization whose main achievement was to utterly vanish? Why do people want to work on what little they left behind? The one time in history we managed to fully activate a Precursor site, it led the Three Traitors to the Moon, and Selenopolis, and the Breaking.

Halfway through the winding stair, Alhea grabs my hand, so tightly I worry she might crush my fingers. And yet, even in this horrible place, her painful grip makes me feel warm and secure.

“Why do people fuck with this stuff,” she says, “Black Liar, I’ve never…”

She shakes her head, as if she couldn’t put it to words.

“See,” the professor says, cheerful, as we reach the end of the stairs, “The Black Door is an absolutely fascinating object! It’s not a door in any meaningful way, of course. The Thaumocracy called it like that, but I think they misunderstood its nature – it was encased in stone, back then, and they probably thought there would be something behind it. It turned out it’s more like a curtain. Its surface, however, has a number of unusual behaviors! For example, you shouldn’t look at it for long, it causes extremely fascinating nightmares, sometimes for years.”

The winding stair finally ends in a vast underground cave, large enough to play spinball in. The inside is so strange, for a moment I can’t understand what I’m seeing - and yet part of my brain screams danger, danger, run away.

My hand runs to the sword at my side, my heart pumps faster, and I scan the vast cavern for threats - but there’s only us, and the ruins.

“Don’t worry,” the professor says, cheerful, “I know it can be disorienting, but it’s all safe, these structures are entirely passive! Not that we understand much about them, of course. But they haven’t changed in a long time.”

The most obvious feature in the room is a ring of columns, each wider than I’m tall, made of half-transparent light. Like Else-glass, but… faded, muted, unlike the violent colors of magic. They almost look like afterimages, except they don’t go away.

They aren’t even true columns, I realize. They’re tapered on both ends, touching neither the floor nor the ceiling. The ceiling itself is covered by thousands of sharp protrusions, some perfectly black, some metallic and gleaming, some a stark white. They’re sharp, and make me think of teeth.

Is that what is scaring me? The room is strange, for sure - everything is perfect, untouched by dirt or time. A third of the cavern, where the excavation is ongoing, is filled by icy mud and gravel, but the column and the stalactites are spotless. Hardly threatening.

But a part of me insists there’s something else here, something bad.

I clench Althea’s hand, forcing myself to follow the professor, and finally see it. As we move a little further from the entrance, we get a better look at the artifact at the center of the column ring, and the cavern itself. The thing, I’m sure, this cavern is for.

The Black Door is barely taller than I am. It should be dwarfed by the gigantic columns. It should look like a toy, in the enormous cavern. And yet it looms, it makes everything else feel unimportant, less than real.

I fight the urge to look away, to turn back and run, but I force myself to stare at the damn thing. It can’t be dangerous, or the professor would have warned us. And I won’t let myself be ruled by instinct and vague feelings.

Despite the professor’s vague explanation, I still expected something door-shaped. Maybe handles and ancient, massive hinges.

The Black Door has none of that - it’s just two curved pillars, barely taller than I am, jutting from the ground. Their points converge but don’t quite touch, they remind me of antelope horns. Their surface is perfectly smooth except for thousands of tiny, spiraling glyphs. We’re thirty meters away at least, I shouldn’t be able to see glyphs that small - and yet I can read every single one. I know nothing about magical glyphs, but I feel like I almost recognize them, like words at the tip of my tongue.

But most disturbing of all, is the perfect, pure darkness between the pillars.

I thought the black stone of Thaumocracy ruins was dark. I thought the night sky over the desert was dark. I thought the Shrine of the Liege of Shadows, where no light may ever enter, was perfect darkness.

I was wrong. This is true darkness, it is dark like the sun is bright. By instinct, I raise my hand to shield my eyes from the Door.

I take a deep breath, and turn my gaze away from the Door, focusing on my surroundings instead. There’s a smattering of scientific equipment close by. A workstation with several screens, and other academic paraphernalia - I recognize theta detectors, muon scanners and an NMR machine, but I’ve no idea what most of the other instruments do.

They look… insubstantial, irrelevant. Just children’s toys, made of metal and plastic, not nearly as significant, as real, as the columns, the stalactites. And most of all, the Black Door.

It’s the only real thing here, I catch myself thinking. We’re all shadows, it’s the only thing that was meant to be…

Liege of Shadows, Liege of mysteries, protect me. What is that thing doing to my mind?

“Captain help us,” Sorivel mumbles, making a sign with his fingers. “We can’t stay here. We…”

“Look away, idiot,” Semejon says, snapping his fingers in front of Sorivel.

“Semejon!” The professor reprimands him.

Sorivel turns away from the Door. “No, no,” he says, weakly. “He’s right. I… sorry. Maybe I’ll station some drones here, and keep watch from the relic vault. I… I don’t think I’d be able to stay here for long.”

“Cerical, Althea?” Kaelich asks. “Be honest, do you think you can manage? If you can’t, we’ll take position upstairs. It’s not a problem.”

It would be a problem, sort of – we’re supposed to be present while the archaeologists work. But I’m not going to insist, if Althea can’t bear the presence of the Door. Fuck, I’m not sure I can stand guard here. Even looking away from the Precursor relic, I feel it, and the longer I look away from it, the larger it looms in my mind.

“I…” I begin, trying to say I’ll be fine, I can stand it, but I’m not sure at all. “I can… I’m not sure, ser. It’s… wrong.”

I expect Althea to be at least as affected as I am, but she slowly turns straight toward the door. Her fingernails sink into my palm, but then, slowly, her hand unclenches. She nods, rigid.

“It’s creepy and probably evil,” she says, “but I think I could ignore it with some practice. It’s just like, I don’t know, ignoring the drunk man shouting death threats in the tube. Can do.”

“I…” Jaeleri says, and he looks like he could be sick at any moment. “I don’t think…”

“If she can stay, so can you,” Gehat snaps. “Find a better excuse if you don’t want to do your job.”

Jaeleri looks at her, and for a moment I think he’ll beg, but then he scowls, and his eyes are murderous. That boy isn’t just annoying, he’ll be a real problem at some point.

“Well, I think we can make everyone happy,” Kaelich says - and, incredibly, xir cheer doesn’t sound forced. “We’ll always have both teams here, right? So, I say those who have issues with the Door can keep watch over the Relic Vault. I’m fine here, Althea is sort of fine, a drone controller can stay upstairs, so we just need a blademaster. Professor, can we have a look at the area? Are there vending machines? I could use a coffee.”

I feel a rush of relief - xir plan makes sense, and I won’t have to stand in front of this awful thing. I’m ashamed, however, that I’m more affected than Althea, even if I can’t see the Else. And Kaelich seems to barely feel anything.

SEND - TO SORIVEL: Is xe really ok with this place? What’s wrong with xem?

SORIVEL: I guess the Black Door can’t mess with your brain if you don’t have one.