We are born twice.

The first birth is when we come into the world. As children, we are able to appreciate its grandeur and novelty. Each discovery is delightful; the mystique of the unknown is an adventure just waiting to happen. Happy is the inner child when discovering the perfect smooth stone or the sword-shaped stick.

The second birth is when we come to understand the world. We turn over the stone and see what was hiding underneath, the grotesque that had been just out of sight. The stick slips in the hand and the splinters dig into the skin, to fester in the wound.

It is this second life where we discover the ugly truth: the world has always been dangerous beyond measure.

— Excerpt from Meditations, by the Red Emperor

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Oasis, underground

"Hold the light up, I can't see."

Aliyah heard Troy sigh as he lifted the torch higher, unsure if the increased height truly did anything for illuminating the darkness of the tunnels. She gingerly checked her feet, trying to ensure her sandals didn't step into the sewage just beneath them.

"Tyson, we can't be wasting our time just getting in, you know." Ayden flicked a finger against his spear impatiently. The reverberation echoed into the distance, seemingly magnified by the walls of the tunnels. "The bulk of the time is supposed to be for carrying the water out."

"You want to carve the runes? Be my guest," Tyson grumbled as he continued to carve golden lines into the wall. "I don't see you or Troy helping out."

"You're the alchemist. Ayden's the head of this operation, so he's responsible for thinking and constantly frowning. That means I'm the one who has to hold this torch up while looking handsome." Troy winked at Aliyah and Yelena. "As handsome as I can look while carrying all of these buckets, at least." He lifted his spear, rocking a line of empty pails carved from stone.

Yelena caught Aliyah's eye, giving her the kind of look one woman gives another when men are acting stupid. Aliyah gave the barest nod in return.

"Ah," Tyson took a step back, squinting at his handiwork. "I think that's it."

"You think?" asked Ayden. "You realize we're breaking into WellWardyn's reservoir, yes? If this goes poorly, we'll swiftly find ourselves on quicksand."

"Don't put all of the pressure on me," Tyson responded testily. "This operation started because Yelena swore she found the keyrune that WellWardyn uses for securing their reservoir. If it doesn't work then it doesn't work."

"It's definitely their keyrune," Yelena piped up, annoyed. "We established that before we even got here. Don't put this all on me now — if this fails it’s because you're a failed alchemist who never achieved the rank of Master."

Tyson sighed, then looked towards Ayden. "Well? Are we doing this? It's not too late to make it just the lads; Aliyah and Yelena can return first."

"I can speak for myself, thank you very much," Aliyah warned Tyson with her tone. "And did you really think I would walk away from this just because Ayden said so?"

"Little sisters should listen to their big brothers," Tyson teased.

Aliyah gave Tyson a hard gaze. "Ayden was only born a few moments before I was. I feel sorry for Yelena if you hold your two Sorrows over her head like that all the time."

Yelena looked up to the darkness, miming a prayer with her palms held together. "Finally! Someone else understands. God Epidr bear witness!"

"Hush, everyone, the sound carries throughout these sewers." Ayden's voice became commanding. Everyone immediately stopped talking to huddle around him without a word. Aliyah bit her lip; she wanted that. Somehow, she wanted Ayden's ability to make others listen to him, her included. "Now, if we want to return to the Lower Tiers with these buckets full of something besides piss and shit, we better get to it." He nodded to Tyson. "If you're confident you have the keyrune worked out, let's start. If you aren't sure, we can still go home."

Tyson's lips went flat, but he turned back to his handiwork. Aliyah had no understanding of what she was seeing; the combination of glowing golden runes just seemed like an elaborate circle of pictograms in the Old Tongue. Tyson had carved three lines of runes in a circular pattern, each with its own intent and meaning once activated. In the center was the keyrune that Yelena had discovered from a discarded half-burnt note when she was cleaning at WellWardyn. It was critically responsible for making sure Tyson's runes would be accepted by the protections within the reservoir without alarming WellWardyn and bringing down a regiment of SandSpears on them.

"Fine then," Tyson whispered, placing a hand on the keyrune itself. It glowed brightly between his dark fingers, then he twisted his hand to the right. The circle of runes turned when he did so, the outer and inner lines also turning in the opposite direction. Then he took a step back.

The surface of the wall in front of them began caving inwards, the runes pushing through the stone as though it were a pliable membrane. The keyrune sank into the wall, then a tiny hole formed as it found an open space on the other side. The hole grew as the rune did its work, and soon a tunnel formed, just large enough to stoop through. When the tunnel became the size of the outermost ring, the golden runes faded but did not fully disappear.

"It worked," Tyson exclaimed, almost shocked.

Yelena punched her brother on the arm. "You weren't sure?"

"Would you have gambled that any alchemist could break through a reservoir's perimeter with just the keyrune?" Tyson gave Yelena a look of exasperation. "I was just prepared for the worst. I didn't expect it to go so well."

"Mhm, so long as you weren't thinking it was going to be my fault," Yelena replied. "I put in extra work to verify it was the right one!"

The buckets on Troy's spear shifted, clattering dully against each other. "Are we going in or not?"

"Let's go," Ayden spoke up tersely, patting Tyson on the shoulder as he moved forward. "Good work, Tyson."

Troy followed, buckets wobbling. Aliyah also gave Tyson an encouraging shoulder bump as she passed by, but he barely seemed to notice, still inspecting the runes surrounding his tunnel. Yelena followed behind her, flattening her puffy black hair so it did not scrape the tunnel's ceiling.

Cool air washed over Aliyah's face as she entered, but more importantly, it smelled clean. Her nostrils flared gratefully. She hadn't even known her nose was blocked from the stench of the sewers.

Troy held up the torch, illuminating the hallway. Smooth gray stone made up the curved walls. Incredibly, there were no seams. Perhaps some skilled aura usage had been employed to carve out a perfect scoop of solid rock. Or perhaps the craftsmen were very good at hiding their work.

"Getting in was supposed to be the hard part, but now we need to find either the reservoir or the banknotes," Ayden said. "Yelena?"

"Down the left," she answered confidently. "I memorized the entire map. We go left, then on the first intersection take a right. There should be a double door."

"Let's go." Aliyah took a step down the left, excitement in her feet. They really were in WellWardyn's reservoir. How would they store the water? She imagined a large lake. Or perhaps it was split into multiple holding chambers, so as to prevent any contamination from spoiling it all.

"Hold," Tyson said, clambering through the tunnel behind them. He held out his hand and twisted the other way; the wall shifted, the golden runes glowing in the dark as the tunnel resealed itself, as though it had never been. He reached forward, then smudged his thumb where the center of the runes had been, before turning back to them.

"I've closed the tunnel for now so the smell doesn't follow us, but you can all use this gesture to open it," he said, showing them his hand. His index and middle fingers were closed together, and so were his little and ring fingers. "All of you, remember this hand position to interact with the tunnel. And just make sure you twist right to open."

"Good idea," Aliyah approved, trying out the hand gesture. It felt unnatural, but perhaps that was Tyson's intent.

"No, Ayden you idiot, you're keeping the wrong fingers together," Troy said while looking over Ayden's shoulder. "The gap should be between your ring and middle finger."

Ayden showed Troy his middle finger. "You do it then."

Troy handed him the torch, then brought up a hand, copying Tyson's hand gesture perfectly and pushing it in front of Ayden's face.

"Easy." He stuck his tongue out, then clenched four fingers closed so only the middle finger stayed up.

Ayden laughed, then looked towards their group. "Let's go."

They followed Yelena's directions down the hall and soon found themselves standing in front of the double doors. Yelena reached for the handles eagerly, but Ayden barred her way with an outstretched hand.

"Tyson? Do a quick check."

The alchemist pulled out a thin rod, waving it over the doors. Golden runes formed on its length, which Tyson inspected. A moment later, he nodded his head at Yelena. "There's only an alarm rune if the door is forcibly broken down."

"I guess they didn't expect anyone to get this far," Yelena said as she tried the handle. "Perhaps they were confident in the — oh, it's locked."

"Well that changes everything," Troy huffed. "We can't break it down or it'll alarm all of WellWardyn's people."

Aliyah spoke up. "Why do we have to open the door? We can open another tunnel, right?"

The others gave her looks of surprise.

Ayden responded first, directing his attention to their alchemist. "Tyson? Doable?"

"It's doable since the keyrune is real," Tyson replied. "But it'll take some time."

Ayden gave it some thought, then asked, "Will it save time if you draw a smaller tunnel? Just large enough to get through, even if we have to crawl."

"Yes."

Her brother nodded. "We'll do that then. Be quick."

"You do know this is delicate and precise work, right?" Tyson grumbled, pulling out his rune carving pen. "Hold the light up."

They stayed silent while Tyson worked to draw the same golden runes he had carved onto the tunnel prior. After some time, the alchemist leaned back to stretch his neck as he observed his handiwork. "This will do. Does anyone want to practice the hand sign for opening? Ayden, perhaps?"

"Ayden should," Troy agreed, winking at Ayden.

Aliyah smiled at her friends, then joined in, "Yes, make sure you get the right sign, Ayden."

Ayden rolled his eyes, then leaned down to place his hand on the keyrune. A twist to the right, and the runes rotated, pushing into the wall and peeling it back much like the other one.

Soon, a smaller tunnel had formed. Troy lowered the torch and they all glanced inside. An empty blackness peered back from the other side.

"That's the reservoir, right?" Troy whispered.

"It should be," Yelena answered. "It has to be."

"I'll go first," Aliyah volunteered. "Light a new torch for me."

"Perhaps I—" Ayden began, but Aliyah cut him off.

"Nope! First."

Ayden shrugged, stepping aside. Troy handed her a new torch, freshly lit. Aliyah pushed her spear into the tunnel, crawling after it.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She emerged in a spacious cavern, pushing the torch out and pulling herself through as swiftly as possible to avoid being trapped, in case there was something angry on this side of the wall.

But there was nothing. Picking up her spear, Aliyah bent down, the torch revealing her landing to be a raised walkway with stone guardrails. She lifted the torch up high to peer through the darkness, but saw nothing. The far side of the cavern — if there was one — was out of the torchlight’s reach. To her left and right was just more of the guardrail, stretching out into the darkness.

"You safe in there, Aliyah?" Yelena called after her. Her voice echoed throughout the darkness, reverberating through the gloom. The hairs on Aliyah’s arms rose in trepidation.

"Yes," she replied, showing her face on her side of the tunnel. "Come through. It's safe."

The others crawled through the tunnel. Ayden came first, pushing his spear ahead of him. He turned to receive the bucket-laden spear from Troy, then helped pull Troy through. Yelena followed after, crawling awkwardly with one hand pushing down her hair. Tyson brought up the rear.

The five of them looked around in silent awe. Troy held up his torch alongside Aliyah’s, but the additional light source did nothing to pierce the gloom.

"It's hard to believe this doesn't cave in," Tyson observed. "Is it even possible to strengthen the ceiling with — oh, I see it. Pillars." He pointed into the dark. "There they are."

Aliyah squinted, barely seeing the cylindrical shapes. "I'm surprised you could see that so easily. Training the Sight?"

"We're not here for pillars," Troy reminded them. "Where's the water? Or banknotes?"

"Banknotes might be better, we can't possibly be taking enough trips with these buckets," Yelena pointed out.

"Glad you noticed I've been carrying all these," Troy muttered.

"Yelena, this is the reservoir?" Ayden asked, peering over the guardrail. "I'm not sure I see water."

"It has to be. There's no other reason WellWardyn would maintain such a large area for anything else. The water is probably at the bottom."

"Then we must go down. Left or right?"

Yelena pondered for a moment. "We're right next to the doors, they shouldn't have placed it far from the stairs or ladder. Search around."

"You heard the lady," Aliyah said to the others. "But don't shout when you see it; sound echoes. Draw a circle with your torch."

They split up into two groups, and soon Aliyah saw the other group's torch drawing a circle in the air. She tapped Tyson’s and Yelena's shoulders, pointing, and the three of them doubled back to meet up with Ayden and Troy.

The stairs were wide enough for three men to walk abreast, with what looked like a covered gutter running down the length. Yelena said that it was probably for easily draining water towards the reservoir.

Ayden walked down first, leading the way with the torch held high and his spear at the ready. Aliyah and Yelena followed together, with Yelena taking Aliyah's left side to free up her spear on the right. Troy and Tyson brought up the rear, ensuring that there was a spear wielder in each row.

The journey downwards took longer than Aliyah expected. Soon, she could tell it wasn't just her; she felt the group's curiosity bleed into frustration, and they wordlessly picked up the pace. Ayden pointed to a broken part of the stairs with his torch, ensuring the others saw it as they walked past it.

"You'd think WellWardyn would bother maintaining their main reservoir," Troy muttered under his breath.

Yelena shrugged. "It's just one broken stair."

"I don't like it," Ayden muttered. "It feels as though this gives credence to the rumors about the state of WellWardyn's finances. That they aren't doing their duty of maintaining a healthy reserve requirement"

"Please don't say that," Yelena pleaded. "I need this job."

"If you get let go, you can come work for my ma." Ayden winked. "She says you're already a good enough cook."

Yelena made a face at Ayden, then punched Tyson on the shoulder when her brother snickered. "And risk poisoning all her customers? I don't think Yelena can pay for that!"

"I'll remind you that sound travels," Aliyah hissed. She looked back up, but couldn't see through the darkness; they must have turned a corner seven times by now. Then Tyson's hand barred her from moving forward — Aliyah started, breaking free of her reverie to notice Ayden had also stopped.

"We've arrived," her brother announced, pointing downwards. Aliyah's reflection stared back at her from the glassy pool of water, and so did the reflections of the others as they looked.

"That's it?" asked Troy, leaning down with a frown. He held out his torch over the water. "Aren't we at the bottom?"

"That's impossible," muttered Aliyah as she also knelt down to confirm. "This is WellWardyn's main reservoir. They manage billions!"

But it was true. The light illuminated the dull gray bottom of the reservoir just under the water, not the pitch black emptiness Aliyah would have expected of a deep well.

"Either that water is very clear and we're seeing straight to the bottom, or Troy's right," Tyson muttered. "What's happening here? How can WellWardyn's reserves be so scant? There can't be more than a hundred thousand bucketsworth of water here. Is this not the main reservoir?"

Ayden also knelt, touching the butt of his spear into the water. It hit the bottom immediately with a dull konk. He paused, then looked up at them incredulously.

Troy shrugged, handing his torch to Aliyah. He then pulled down one of his buckets and knelt down to drag it through the water. The liquid sloshed into the metal vessel as Troy pulled upwards, then lifted the dripping vessel and sniffed it.

"Water," he confirmed, turning to them. "This is what we're here for, right? Clean and potable water, so everyone take a bucket. There's only so much we can bring back, but we can't be going back to the Lower Tiers empty-handed."

"Hush!" Ayden waved a hand wildly, then gestured to Aliyah's torch as he extinguished his own. Aliyah followed suit, and the last thing she saw was Ayden pointing silently upwards.

A door opened above, the sound reverberating throughout the dark. Footsteps, more than one. Then some muttered voices floated down and they saw a light source flicker far above on the other side.

Aliyah hunkered down, as though minimizing her body could help her in the dark. She heard the light breathing of her companions around her, and knew each of them was wondering the same thing: had they been found out?

Her fingers gripped tightly around her spear, and she realized her throat was dry.

"I wouldn't dare accuse you of being mistaken," said a male voice respectfully. "But as this is our reservoir, the security regarding entry is very tight."

"I certainly hope WellWardyn takes their namesake seriously, but the aura barrier seemed to have rippled earlier," said a woman's voice. Relaxed and unhurried. "Or do you ever have rats?"

"Never. The entire area is carved into bedrock. No rat could ever tunnel through here, nor would they want to. We purposefully do not keep or allow food down here to deter pests and any possibility of contamination reaching our water."

"That doesn't necessarily mean inquisitive rats won't find their way in."

Aliyah felt her blood chill. They had all heard the woman's voice at some point in their lives, but three of them knew it especially well. It had led them, guided them, admonished them, encouraged them. It had honed them into Oasis’s SandSpears.

The Spear of Oasis.

A hand tapped her on the shoulder and she almost flinched. Her eyes had barely adjusted to the gloom and scant light from the torch above to see Ayden. He held a finger to his lips, then pointed upwards. Aliyah nodded.

The new light began descending opposite them. Aliyah realized there were two sets of stairs that led downwards into the reservoir. She tiptoed back up the closer set of stairs with her group, keeping her eyes trained on the other light as they went. Ayden led them carefully, pacing their group to always be opposite the other side of the two who had entered. They were still in conversation and hadn’t given any indication they’d noticed them. The man was still talking.

"As we all rely upon the Lord's Domain, we've resorted to physical and alchemical measures for controlling access to the reservoir. Even the Stewards themselves would need adequate justification and several weeks' notice to enter unless they had a writ signed by another Steward. I'm allowing you specifically because of our friendship and your station, SpearMarshal."

Aliyah kept quiet, only focused on the movements of Troy ahead of her. They rounded a corner again, the fifth one. By her count, that meant only two more corners, right?

Troy stumbled in the dark, slipping sideways on the broken stair they had passed on the way down. Tyson and Aliyah's hands shot out, grabbing him by the shoulders as he almost tumbled into the depths. Aliyah's eyes, now fully accustomed to the dark, watched as a bucket handle slid off the end of Troy's spear to plummet into nothingness. Yelena stifled a gasp.

A moment later, a large splash and a loud metallic konk echoed throughout the reservoir.

The light opposite them stopped moving.

"And that?" asked the female voice.

"Impossible," said the man, whose voice rapidly became higher pitched. "No one should be in here! Guards!"

Ayden's voice rang through the dark. "RUN!"

Tyson and Aliyah pulled Troy back, who let his buckets run down the length of his spear to shed the unnecessary weight. The five of them broke into a run, their pounding feet echoing throughout the reservoir alongside the crashing buckets. Aliyah glanced at the other side — it was very far and a level below, but she could make out the sight of a nervous man holding up a lantern while a woman peered up towards them.

"It appears you do have rats."

Something whistled through the air. A streak of gold collided with someone in front of her — Aliyah saw a body jerk to the left and crumple to the ground.

"TYSON!" Yelena screamed, dropping to help her brother.

"No! Don't stop!" shouted Ayden, "Keep running!"

A high-pitched hum. More spears flew through the air, made of shining golden aura. Aliyah planted her feet firmly as she whirled her spear in a circle around Yelena to protect her friend. Two, four, maybe five spears clattered against her own, one narrowly missing Yelena's head. Meanwhile, Yelena struggled with her brother's body, trying to break the spear shaft so they could move him.

But Aliyah saw Tyson's urgent expression. His eyes flickered at her, then to Yelena, then back to Aliyah with a pleading look that conveyed what he would have said if his neck hadn’t been pierced through. Aliyah nodded, then checked to make sure there were no more spears flying towards them before bending down to drag Yelena away. "Yelena, we need to go!"

"No! Tyson! Tyson!" The woman struggled frantically against Aliyah's grip. "Let me go! Tyson needs our help!"

Aliyah wanted to slap her friend. "Ayden!" she roared, hoping her brother was listening.

A strong hand reached past Aliyah to pull Yelena off the ground. Ayden tossed Yelena over his shoulder, taking one sorrowful look at Tyson before jerking his head upwards at Aliyah. "Move. Now!"

They sprinted up the stairs as fast as they could, Yelena's sobbing cries echoing alongside their pounding footsteps.

"Aliyah, below!" Ayden warned as he shifted Yelena onto his left shoulder, couching his spear in his elbow with one hand.

Aliyah looked down to see the pinpoints of golden aura form before arcing up towards them. She stopped on the stairs, once again flourishing her spear in a circle to defend herself as she knocked away the onslaught.

Ayden was doing the same nearby, but with one hand. Aliyah had to admit Ayden was better than her at the spear in certain aspects. She couldn't do that yet.

"Stop struggling!" Ayden snarled at Yelena as he slowed down his own defense.

Yelena pounded a weak fist into Ayden's shoulder. Aliyah's patience snapped and she slapped Yelena on the cheek. "Get it together! Live now, mourn later!"

The barrage over, the two of them began running up again.

They reached the top to see Troy battling two guardsmen. His opponents had probably come in through the double doors once they’d heard the shouts of the man accompanying the Spear. The doors were closed to prevent escape. A nearby fallen lantern must have been theirs, dropped in haste when they had encountered Troy.

In a breath, Aliyah reinforced, aura surging through her limbs. Ayden stepped to the side and she dashed past him, her speartip flashing silver. She chose a moment when Troy sidestepped a spear jab to duck in and aim for a guardsman's eye. The man flinched and she only managed to cut his cheek, drawing a thin line of blood down his dark face. The two men retreated warily, holding up their shields and short spears meant for indoor combat.

Troy stepped forward, catching their attention with a flourish of his own spear. Aliyah took the chance to leap onto the guardrail and vault over their heads, her spear jabbing downwards to bounce off a shield. A man grunted. Troy had used her diversion to stab past their defenses, impaling a thigh.

Landing on her feet, Aliyah twirled to sidestep a jab, kicking the spear away and turning her own weapon around to meet the man in one fluid motion. Spear met shield once again, with the two guards seemingly more interested in defending than attacking.

"They're trying to delay us!" Ayden's shout echoed towards her. "We need to — look out!"

Aliyah could not miss the streaks of gold entering her peripheral vision if she wanted to, and even the guard she was fighting seemed distracted. As she turned, she gasped. The cavernous dark had become brightly lit by an innumerable amount of spears glowing in the air, raining towards them like a blazing storm.

It was at that moment that both she and the guardsman understood the same thing: the Spear of Oasis did not care about casualties.

She dove behind the guardsman as he held up his shield against the new bombardment. The light of each auric spear threw the battle into sharp relief a moment before they hit the shield. The cacophony staggered her senses as several spears crashed into the wall behind her, breaking off their points and leaving the reinforced wall undamaged.

Aliyah was on her feet before the silence fell, readying her spear to attack the guardsman as she stepped back to regain reach. Then she paused. The guardsman keeled over, falling to the ground with blood pouring from his mouth. Several golden spears had pierced the shield and him behind it.

"Ali!" someone hissed.

She looked up, seeing Ayden dragging Yelena with him as he bent down for the other guardsman's shield. "Are you hurt?" he asked, holding tightly against Yelena's faint struggling.

"No! You?" she answered, glad that her brother seemed to be unharmed. She looked for Troy, then gasped. "By the Sands, Troy!"

Troy's body had collapsed against the wall, two spears protruding from his chest.

"We're going!" Ayden pointed behind her. She turned, seeing the tunnel Tyson had created earlier. He hadn't closed this one. She ran to it, shoving her spear through and crawling in headfirst, no longer caring about the hard stone on her elbows and knees. After she slid out the other side, Aliyah picked up her spear and turned to help Ayden as he tried to unload Yelena towards her.

Then a golden spear pierced Yelena from the side, knocking her friend from view.

"Yelena!" Aliyah screamed, followed by a panicked, "AYDEN! BEHIND YOU!"

Ayden swiveled around, knocking the spear away at the last moment with his own.

"So, a rat can use a spear. One of my own?"

Aliyah found herself crawling back through the tunnel, reaching vainly for her brother. They came into this world together.

They would die together.

Several more spears flew through the air; Ayden knocked away multiple before his spear cracked against the last one. The top half flew off into the air and out of Aliyah's sight. Ayden immediately brought up his borrowed shield, parrying two more launched weapons at an angle so he didn't risk being pierced.

"Ayden, here!" Aliyah reached a hand towards him, still trying to crawl through the tunnel. Why had Tyson made it so small?

Her brother turned around, a frantic look in his eyes upon seeing her coming back. Then his expression became calm as he shook his head. "Not a straight tunnel in front of the Spear. You remember the way out right?" he asked with a weak smile. "Get home. Lyka's coming back soon, remember? I'll block the Spear off for you."

He pushed the shield against the entrance, shoving her backwards and locking her out.

"Ayden!" Aliyah screamed, pounding her fist at the shield in vain, trying to push it off so she could get through to help her brother face a Titled One. Frustration, anger, fear, panic, dread, anxiety, anguish desperation despair hysteria frenzy —

"AYDEN!"

Something thudded on the other side. A weight crashed against the shield, the impact reverberating through the dark tunnel she was in. Aliyah caught her breath then flinched as several more thuds carried through the dark, the unmistakable wet sound of torn flesh. Then a golden glow pierced the shield, the speartip stopping just before it injured Aliyah's eye.

Blood dripped down from its golden tip, and a warm drop splattered over her clenched fist.