Chapter 5:

I was eight before circumstance and inevitability caught up with me. That first Ruin had been a treasure trove for all present - my Papa had gleaned new iterations of old runes, that he spent months experimenting with before sending via courier to his university for further study. My mother had managed to find sealed clockwork devices that she referred to as difference engines, and while they were extremely delicate and the worse for the immense time they had spent underground since the collapse of the world, she was able to coax some life out of the ancient, enchanted metal, and had found diaries, technical data, and a library of books hidden within.

And my father had found many, many things to hunt. The ruin was riddled with dangerous undead and clockwork constructs, and along with the other adventurers, he had spent long months clearing out the lower levels and making sure it was safe for the rest of our family and the other researchers. I was nearly six by the time we packed up to move along, and Mia had recently turned seven. Her genes had finally kicked in by that point, and she was going through a growth spurt - though I was too - and almost none of our clothes fit us. While there had been a plethora of merchants who had followed the boomtown of adventurers and archaeologists to the ruin, any that sold clothing were few and far between - especially for growing children. I remember being very embarrassed over my ankles and wrists protruding so far from my cuffs. It wasn't just a growth spurt, either. With a plethora of bored adventurers waiting for spots within the ruin, the two of us had found a range of very enthusiastic teachers over that year, and I had quickly learned to use not only the knife and catapult to a deadly degree - for a child - but had also learned to use my fists, feet, a bow, and even a small sword that a gregarious blacksmith had made from scrap iron for me. Others had taught us running and tracking, the importance of weights and callisthenics, magic theory, history, geography (very biased) politics, and to my parents anger, some atrocious language that Mia and I had none the less found hilarious. As such, both of us had put in muscle and weight, and our clothes, though baggy and loose for desert travel, had just not managed to keep up.

While I had the brain and body of a child, there was a very self conscious adult buried within me, and I had vague memories of the anxiety clothing had given me in my old life. I had the feeling a lot of things had made me panicky and afraid. Most days I was very glad Kintsuji had blocked off the most painful parts of my past.

Eventually, though, it had been time to leave the ruins to other, more permanent researchers, as the Boomtown of caravans had begun to turn into an actual, settled town. As we had gone through the last week's of work, we had been somewhat surprised to see not just taverns and merchants building permanent places of business, but housing, churches, and a school. It surprised Mia and I greatly that families had begun to move to the new town - now called Maxwell Ridge - and it looked like the ruin had ended in creating a new and very profitable place to live. Even just the ultra hard, magical metal that the pyramid was made of would eventually be mined out and turned into money in the merchants hands - not that my mother or Papa approved. Exploration and recovery of artefacts was perfectly fine, but the strip mining of ruins of everything of value was too much for them and they knew then it was time to leave.

So, we had returned to Eto, the walled city that our family called home, and our semi-regular city based lives. The three of them owned a small, two level house with small gardens and a few trees keeping it separated from its neighbours, near the walls of the city. It had looked so big when I left, but coming back even for just a brief pause and a resupply, it had looked tiny now I had slept under the open stars and the endless desert plains. The walls of the city had felt confining, rather than safe.

Of course, now that we had travelled successfully with our parents, they were loath to leave us in care while they worked, and from then on we would pile into the caravan with them and head out into the Divide whenever they heard of a new site that needed their expertise. Years passed, and before I really knew what had happened, I was eight, and Mia was nine, quickly approaching her Awakening ceremony in the new year. The last few weeks specifically had been full of nothing but our theories and conspiracies as to what would happen and what class Mia would receive - as well as the increasingly frustrated denial from our parents refusing to share anything.

It was like this that we came to a small, previously uncovered ruined complex in the far north of the Divide, where there was as much choppy scrubland as there was sand. The site was one that had been picked clean by wannabe adventurers for decades - but due to some recovered records that my Mother had stumbled across, we had come to believe there was more to the ruin than what had been seen - so we had come with just the five of us - six if one counted Boone - to clear it of any new pests and to see if we couldn’t find the entrance to more levels further below ground.

Speaking of Boone - he had gone through some changes since the event with the scorpion. Somehow, against all odds, he had torn open something inside his half of our soul, and had gained access to what he and I believed would be abilities from his Class, that he would hopefully unlock at the same time mine did.

As it turned out, Boone was able to move things with his mind - from tiny pebbles, to things the size of the scorpion, although the latter drained him of energy still, to the point of collapse. We had taken to calling him a Telekineticist, for although most of what he could do was weaponizing kinetic force, he was also more than capable of fine manipulations - which meant he could now pilfer his own eggs, and I was constantly having to cover for him.

We had been at the site for three weeks, and Mia and I had spent most of our time studying or sparring. Of the two, I was still far better with a book in hand, and Mia could easily trounce me in a fight. So that morning found her practising her favoured fighting forms - that of using a pair of long knives and a natural, effortless agility that she had started to develop - against various wooden and stone dummies that father had set up for us to practise against, while i was busy transcribing rune sequences from Papas’ books to my own journal.

It was my third such journal, the first that I had received when I was five being filled over the year we stayed at the sunken pyramid - as the ruin came to be known, before the growing town gained it's name - came to be known - with whole sections of 7th age runes and their meanings and uses. The second was still usable, but it was a much less useful affair. I had developed a fascination with 2nd age elemental runes for a while, and was convinced with all the surety of a five year old and a thirty five year old at the same time, that i could make use of the exceedingly tricky and patchy knowledge of the 2nd age language to make something new and unique in the world. I had even begged Papa for an accumulator for my sixth birthday - an exceedingly expensive relic of the 7th age that could gather essence from the air and condense it into a liquid form so that I could test the spells without access to essence of my own. Of course, unsurprisingly, he had not been able to get one, them being worth their literal weight in gold, and I had spent weeks inconsolable that I wouldn't be able to make my plan work.

It seemed the longer I lived in the body of a child, the more I acted like one as well, and I would occasionally catch myself falling into poor behaviour over one thing or another. Equally though, I was loathe to grow up, as my previous life informed me that I would miss the freedoms of childhood, and to make them last as long as I could.

“Arcadia, tell me - what do you make of this rune sequence?” Papa called from further into the ruin, and I hurried to find where his voice was coming from. I found him standing on a set of steps examining a row of circular runes inlaid with the trailing fragments of bronze, high up on a storeroom wall. I climbed up beside him and stood on tiptoes to see what he was looking at.

"Let's see. That primary rune is an air rune, yes? And it has a rune for circulation, followed by branching runes for heat and ice, and a cleansing rune. Papa, was this sequence used to blow hot or cold air through the building?" He nodded, impressed. While I had studied a lot of 7th age Runework, practical application was still supposed to be very difficult.

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“It is, although you skipped a few Runes - specifically there is a central receiver rune - which means the main body of the enchantment is somewhere else - and there is also the directional rune for the next enchantment; which points down.” That made me look up and double check. Of course, I knew he would be correct - he was the expert after all - but still, I had to wonder: “But aren’t we already on the lowest floor? So where does it go?”

“An excellent question. I don’t know. But, if we can find the central enchantment, there may well be a map that could help.” He smiled at me and I realized what Papa was saying. If we could find it. He wanted me to help. “If you take that direction, I'll take this one. Make careful notes and meet back here if you find something, or at noon, whichever comes first”.

I projected my thoughts down through my core, along the link to where Boone lay on top of the Caravan sunning himself in the desert sun, and sent him the impression that I needed his help. He was lazy and comfortable, but he was also my friend, and after much mental grumbling, he came to me in the ruins. “Thank You, my friend. I’ll make sure to leave out some bacon by accident if we can find what Papa is looking for.” The feelings from the fox were a mix of deep longing for the cosy spot he had found in the sun, a sense of duty simply from being my familiar, and a greedy hunger at the mention of free bacon. I wouldn't let him know, but I had actually been hiding strips of cooked bacon in my magical Travelers Bag for months, and I had a small stockpile ready as treats and bribes for my friend. Of course, once he knew they were there, he would most likely do anything to weedle them out of me - so it was best kept as a surprise. but I also felt him huff and stand up, and begin making his way toward me. “Can you help me find the enchantment, Boone?” I asked him when he showed up a few minutes later, and though he looked at me with an annoyed expression for disturbing his rest, he acquiesced to help me.

I knelt down to let him climb onto my shoulders so that he would be at the same eye level as me, and I began tracing the faint flecks of Bronze back the way I had come.

Together, with two pairs of eyes - one already magically attuned - we began making steady progress while I began to write out a route on a scrap of paper, trying to plot a map of where we had been.

Unfortunately, after an hour, my efforts only finished at a wall of fallen debris. “This route led nowhere, it seems. Shame. You’ll still owe me bacon.” Boone looked at me through the waving strands of my hair that had been caught in a stray breeze. Damn stuff - Mother had cut it back to near my ears the first day we had gotten here, and it was already at the centre of my back.

“We’ll have to see if Papa has had any better luck I suppose.” I was turning around to leave when I realised. Wind. in an underground tunnel next to a collapse. “Wait - if there's airflow coming from behind there, there has to be a space on the other side!” I approached the wall and began to climb to the top, trying to remove small stones where there’d be the least chance of a collapse.

“Perhaps we should get your Papa, he will undoubtedly know more about this area than we do.” Boone had leapt to the floor and was looking at the wall of stone doubtfully. “We don’t know that there's no danger behind there, Arcadia.”

“This ruin has been clean for decades, at least Boone. You’ve met adventurers - if all that was holding them back was a fallen wall, I’d bet the farm that they would have gone straight through it. This wall probably came down long after they went through this place - but if i’m feeling airflow, there might be a working version of the Runework back there and that would make Papa so proud.” I removed another stone and could see a gap forming behind them. It looked like the deadfall wasn’t a collapse, but just a blockage. “C’mon, Boone - those powers of yours could help a lot here.”

The fox huffed, and rolled his eyes in a distinctly un-foxlike way, but before I had pulled another stone away, rocks began to float out of the wall and be deposited to either side of the corridor.

Soon, there was a dark hole, just large enough to squeeze through if I was careful. I pulled a tiny rune-wrought torch from my belt and shined it through the gap, revealing a slightly less dusty corridor beyond. “C’mon then, Boone. We’ll take a quick look and come right back, I promise.”

Boone nudged me to one side and squeezed his way through ahead of me, jumping down to the ground silently, while I struggled and pushed my way through. It took a few minutes of effort, but I eventually rolled into a new corridor. I was surprised to feel fresh, cool air blowing much stronger, and there was no smell of dust or decay in the air.

I pulled myself to my feet, and together we began to creep down the corridor. I made sure I had my slingshot out, and a rounded pebble already loaded in the cup. Papa had continued to work on the runes of the weapon, and it now held a very small reservoir of essence to empower a few shots. He had used it as a teaching opportunity for me, and I was very proud that some of the core runes had been carved by my own hand. It wouldn't be able to punch through rune enhanced armour, but it could still do a nasty amount of damage for what was, essentially, a children's toy.

We passed a few doors which I tried. Some were blocked, some were open, and some had clearly had locks damaged long ago. To a one, those that opened revealed bare rooms, or rooms with smashed and rotted remains of wooden furniture or boxes that had petrified in the dry air over thousands of years. At the end of the corridor, however, was a sharp, left hand turn which led to a short, downward facing staircase, with a set of double doors at the bottom - where the cool air was coming from.

We crept closer and I walked the small beam of my torch over the walls as we passed, but there was only silence and empty rooms as far as I could tell. The double doors led to a room with actual furniture that hadn’t decayed - at least some of it. A Bronze wrought desk and the skeleton of a chair stood in front of a number of blank glass panels with inactive Runework around the edges. On another wall was a wee large series of Runes, in a distinct pattern. I compared the page I had in my hand to a section of the map, and saw that it matched. It was a centralised - and customisable - airflow system. And it showed a whole load of levels beneath this one.

“This is it, Boone! A map below!” I leapt in the air, and as I came down I felt the floor shift under me, just a little, with an ominous creak. “That was weird.” Boone looked at me in alarm and started to pace, shaking his head at me and glancing back the way we had come.

His thoughts drifted into my head “Okay, you’ve got what you wanted and I'm sure your Papa will be thrilled, but we should really go back now.” I waved him off and approached the wall a little closer. I thought that if I could just write out this map to show Papa, he’d be so pleased with me. Mom too - this was Complicated runework, akin to the things you saw in magical defences and difference engines - and all it did was make cold air flow to all the different areas of a building. The floor creaked again, and I made sure to move my feet away from the area making the noise. There was a chance - a very slight one - that the floor wasn’t all that stable.

Maybe it would be better to come back another time? With more people and better tools. “Perhaps you’re right, Boone. We can come back later, I-” Right as I began to walk back to my friend, I heard the sudden, ear splitting sound of metal snapping, and saw the ragged end of a cable disappearing into the ceiling. I saw, suddenly, the universal Rune for a device that the ancients used quite often, but modern people had stopped having buildings big enough to need - an elevator platform. The floor Screamed and the platform on which I was standing tilted, and I slid, falling on my behind and sliding out into a sudden yawning void that opened up before me. I tried desperately to grab for a handhold but couldn't catch anything before I began to fall. “Boone!” I yelled, as he began to fall upward away from me, as I disappeared down the sudden hole that had appeared. I felt his Telekinesis try to grab me, but the field almost instantly popped and I began to fall again.

The metal platform boomed as it impacted the concrete wall of the shaft on top of me, and with another earsplitting screech, the whole mechanism came apart and began to fall, with ear splitting concussions every time another piece of ancient concrete or metal began to fall. Suddenly, though, I felt Boone rapidly approaching me, flying through the falling debris as darkness quickly swallowed me.

The blue fire of the Fox spirit rapidly approached, and I realised he had flung himself at me, rather than lose me to the hole. “Hold on Arcadia - I have no idea if this will work!” He shouted into my head as I pulled him close and began to scream. A marble of blue fire appeared around us, solid as he could make it, and I heard Boone begin to scream as we both fell, and hundreds of tonnes of counter weights fell on top of us. The world went completely black, and we continued to fall.