It didn’t feel like he’d had enough rest the next morning when Amil shook Pax’s shoulder and jerked him rudely from a deep sleep. He’d been too distracted by everything with Jane to use his Wand of Sanctuary and vowed to remember the next night.
“Time to get up, sleepyhead. We’ve got an altar to find.”
It took a moment for Pax to pull his thoughts together. But by the time he’d finished in the necessary, fed Talpa and Whisk, and grabbed one of the breakfast wraps Bryn had set out, he was feeling much more alert. His crew and their pets sprawled around the living space, enjoying their breakfasts, too.
Only Incedis and Eldan were missing. Pax assumed they were still sleeping. He felt a momentary jealousy. Old people who the leadership weren’t targeting had the luxury of sleeping in. They’d also discussed bringing along some of the Team Tribal members, but that would make their group even larger and likely attract notice. Besides, some of them were still recovering and weren’t too enthused about a secret, early morning mission.
Mouth full, Pax plopped into a chair and gave Bryn a grateful nod for the breakfast. Before bed, they’d decided to avoid the dining hall today, as it would be the most likely place for the leadership to track him down. Hopefully, if everything went as planned, they’d be deep in the unexplored sections of the base early enough to avoid them.
“Well?” Rin demanded from the padded chair across from him.
Next to her, Amil and Dahni gave him matching impatient looks.
He quickly swallowed. “I’m eating as fast as I can. Besides, Tasar barely got his breakfast, so I’m not the slowest.”
“We’re not talking about the food, dunder.” Rin gave him an annoyed look. “What happened with your mother? Or the lady you think is her?”
“Oh.” Pax flushed as his smile faded, remembering how they’d left things last night. “Well, Titus and I are still sure it’s her. But someone hurt her badly years ago. Mistress Harkness found her and helped her heal. It broke something in her mind. She didn’t have a name, class or level when Harkness found her.”
“What? Oh, no.” Rin’s voice was full of sympathy and horror as she glanced at their friends with a worried look before turning back to him. “We’re so sorry, Pax. Is there anything we can do?”
He gave them a wan smile as he let his hand drop to his plate, appetite gone. “Harkness agreed we could spend the evenings this week befriending her during kitchen clean up. Afterward, I’ll see what my mana and healing skills can figure out inside her. But we have to take it real slow. Harkness says Jane gets upset by any changes to her routine. Of course, I don’t want to mess anything up. This is my mama.”
“Well, if anyone can help her, it’s you,” Bryn said. The confidence in her tone was exactly what Pax needed.
“Do you really think so?” He hated how desperate he sounded, but he’d been so sure his mother was dead. And now, even though they’d found her alive, everything that made her his mother seemed to be missing. She was the shell of a woman he couldn’t relate to. If they couldn’t help her recover, it would be barely better than never finding her again.
“Yes, I do.” Bryn gave him a firm nod, and his friends did the same. “You’ve discovered more about the internal workings of mana than any mage in generations. Why shouldn’t you be about to figure out what’s broken inside your mother and fix it, right? You’ve accomplished plenty of miracles. What’s one more?”
“I guess I am becoming an expert on doing the impossible, aren’t I?” Pax smiled at that, though it was tentative. “Weird stuff must run in the family. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of anyone who started as a mage at the academy, raised a family as a crafter class and then somehow got all her levels reset and is now a worker. My mother has to have a crazy story to tell, too, if I can restore her memories.”
“You’ll figure it out.” Rin sounded as confident as Bryn had. “And the more secrets we learn from this place about light mages, the better. If any type of mage can heal the mind, it’ll be a light mage.”
Hearing his friends’ confidence and ideas eased the worry inside Pax. “Thanks, everyone. How about we get busy figuring out those secrets on our way to claiming the altar in this place?”
“Let’s go.” Amil made a cheerful sound and brushed the crumbs off his hands as he stood. “I’m more than ready to see Merchant Nightblade’s reactions when you flip the power on and off because you control the entire base through the altar.”
That image made Pax’s smile widen, and he gave Amil a grateful nod. As the others hurried to finish up, Pax heard a knock on the door behind them.
“Everyone ready to go?” Titus peered in at them after Dahni opened the door for him.
“Just about.” Pax looked over his crew to verify everyone was ready. “Want to come in so we can go over our plans?”
“Sure.” Titus waved over his shoulder, and his crew trooped in after him.
It definitely made the small living room more crowded, but it didn’t take long for everyone to find a place.
Pax motioned toward Rin. “Want to pull out the base map and show everyone the paths Solani 2-nine marked for today?”
“Glad to.” Rin turned from checking on Eris, who was finishing her meal on her perch. Rin pulled out her map and spread it out on the table, unfolding an upper section while keeping the lower sections folded.
She pulled out a thin stick and used it to point things out so her body wouldn’t block everyone's view. “This is the map of the fourth level of the central section, which according to rumor, has yet to be explored. In fact, only one crew has ventured up to the third level, and they ran into some strange things that made the council mark it off limits for now. I wasn’t able to get a look at the report about that, though.”
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“That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Amil said, brows raised as he leaned forward to see better.
“There’s more bad news. As you can see, the stairwell separates between the third and fourth level, so when we get to the third level, we have to travel from one end to the other to access where the staircase goes up again.”
“That seems inefficient,” Dahni said, frowning. “Why would they build it like that?”
“Likely, a practical defensive measure.” When the others looked at Titus, he explained. “You’ll see this often in strongholds before an important floor where treasures or critical assets are kept. It’s to prevent easy access to valuables if someone breaches your other defenses.”
Crissim, next to him, shrugged. “I guess the altar that controls this entire place would qualify.”
Rin nodded before turning back to the map and tapping on a boxy drawing. “If the magic lift thing was working, it’s supposed to take us directly up, but that’s not an option yet.”
Tyrodon leaned in closer, squinting to read the labels by the depiction of the magic lift.
Rin moved on, pointing out aspects of the third level. “Both the third and fourth levels have the same layout.” She tapped a marking on the upper right section. “This is where the altar is, but up on the fourth level. As you can see, each level has four wings that break off around this central area that is walled off and opens all the way to the ground. You should recognize it as the upper part of the central atrium. You know, the shadowed areas that are hard to see because they’re so high up?”
That got a few more murmurs of interest as the others shifted closer to orient themselves.
“On both levels, a single hallway forms a large square around the central section.” Rin moved her stick around the central square and then tapped two halls marked on the map. “Each wing has two halls to access it. Solani said that the protocol in the past was the clockwise one was for those entering the wing, while the counterclockwise one was for those exiting. Today, we’re going to use whichever is open enough to get through.”
“And if they’re both open?” Crissim asked.
It was a good question and Pax hesitated, unsure who he was asking. He and Titus hadn’t really discussed who would lead their venture today. It was actually kind of funny because Pax’s crew had naturally turned to him to answer, while his brother’s crew was looking in his direction.
Titus chuckled and then waved a hand toward Pax. “I guess I’ll have to get used to my little brother bossing me around, at least for another day. This is a light mage ruin, and you’re the only one of those we have right now.”
Pax stared for a brief moment of surprise. Sure, he’d been proud to save his brother’s life, but to have him so easily turn over the leadership to him, and with such belief that he’d be successful at it? It touched something inside him that was too complicated to figure out right now.
“Thanks,” he said, doing his best to sound confident and ignore the flush that crept up his neck as he turned his attention back to the map. “If there’s only one entrance accessible, we’ll stick together. But as soon as there are two directions that need to be searched, we’ll split up, my crew taking the right while my brother’s takes the left.” Pax had to stop and smile, loving that he could use the word brother again so casually.
Titus was scanning over the map and nodded. “Once we gain access to the wing, it looks like it’s organized in a square pattern, so we could go in different directions and meet up on the far side of the wing. Do we have any more details about the wing the altar is in?” He looked back over at Rin.
“Yes.” She nodded and pointed. “Solani 2-nine said this was the administrative wing where most of the work of managing the headquarters took place. Though she wasn’t sure if there was any other access to the place if the two hallways are blocked or destroyed. She said no part of the third or fourth floor has been online or accessible since shortly after the Cataclysm.”
“So—” Dahni drew out the word. “You’re saying there have been generations for something dangerous to have moved in and set up house there?”
“We’ll have a better idea when we get there.” Pax shrugged. “If we run into too much trouble along the way, we may skip the separating part and stick together for safety until we make it to the altar.”
Dahni looked more reassured by that.
“Considering some of the creatures we’ve found in this place, staying together for strength might be the prudent choice.” Bryn’s words got a few nods from Tasar and the warriors on Titus’s crew.
“Titus, come grab this.” A grouchy voice thick with sleep came from down the hall.
Mage Eldan had poked her head out of her room, hair standing up in every direction from sleep. But in her hand, she held a small device out to Titus. He gave Pax a questioning look.
“Don’t ignore her,” Pax hissed, waving for Titus to move.
As soon as he took the object from Eldan, the mage disappeared back into her room with a slammed door.
Titus returned, shaking his head with a grin as he held up the Echo they’d lent to Incedis and then to Eldan. “You have all the best toys, Pax. We need to get us a set of these.”
Pax nodded, a bit embarrassed he hadn’t thought of reclaiming the one from Eldan himself. To be fair, he had only just considered that they might split into two groups a few moments ago.
Titus put the Echo in his ear and quickly tested it with Pax’s crew. When he got positive responses that it was working, he pointed at the warrior on his crew with the obvious dwarven heritage. “Girrec. When you have time to check with the supply chief in this place, see if there’s anything like this we can get for our crew. I don’t care how much it costs.”
Girrec raised a brow in question at that last part.
“Ok, fine. Within reason. But it could save one of our lives by letting us stay in touch during a battle.” He turned back to his brother, avarice in his gaze. “Where’d you get these, Pax?”
Pax gave him a sheepish shrug. “They were a reward from Master Windhelm after we saved the life of his daughter. We didn’t know who she was, but she was pretty badly injured during the loxotine attack on the capital.”
Now Titus’ entire crew was staring at him, eyes bugging out.
“The Master Windhelm?” Girrec asked. “Not a Master Windhelm?”
Pax could only shrug again. “Well, he was the head of the Windhelm merchant family, so, yes?”
“Sorry, boss.” Girrec turned back to Titus, his head shaking. “But I’m pretty sure something like that is out of our reach. It was likely an ancient artifact they kept in their family. Only a life debt would have Windhelm letting it leave his family’s possession.”
Titus gave Pax an annoyed look and groaned. “What’s the point of having a younger brother with fancy stuff if you can’t share any of it with me?”
Pax had to smirk as he pointed at the Echo in Titus’ ear.
“Oh, so this belongs to me now?”
Pax nodded. “Now that we’ve found each other, you don’t think I’m going to let you disappear again, do you? Well, unless you get more than 800 yards away from me. That’s as far as they work.”
“So, not all powerful, but definitely handy for a battle or when we’re staying close, like today.” Titus looked impressed. Then his expression softened. “And I don’t plan on letting you disappear on me ever again, either.”
Pax hoped he never got used to the happiness that welled up inside him to have his brother back in his life and willing to fight with him for a better future. “Then let’s get going. We’ve got an ancient ruin to explore.”