Everyone besides me was in motion before the Night Manager finished talking. The pronouncement over the speaker continued, naming everyone who was there, and a few other names that hadn’t been mentioned. I had no idea who Bolvin, Morrow, or Kurscheck were but they were getting lumped in with the rest of us. And I didn’t know what being an Assistant to the Night Manager meant but it was one of apparently many things being offered.

“Get the equipment from storage, we will be leaving imminently,” Sofi said, setting everyone to task. I moved to help, while Laverck scurried off towards the door.

"What should we do about her?" Karvek hissed, grabbing her sword. I got up myself, hand going for my tiny knife.

"Do you think I told the Night Manager about all of you, in the about five seconds I knew your names before she announced them?" She didn't seem to have an answer, her expression turned contemplative for a second before angry again.

"Maybe not you, but we still have a problem Sofi."

"We can figure that out later. It might not be one of us." The look on Sofi's face was clear she didn't believe that. Karvek seemed to notice as much as I did.

"You don't believe-"

"Karvek, enough," Ildat barked. "Help us with the gear. Indigo, you too."

That at least seemed to get Karvek moving. There were wooden double doors at the back which we were sent through, to a stone room. It looked like it was not part of the rest of the warehouse, with solid stone walls to contrast with the rotted wood outside. A rack on one side carried a variety of weapons, most of them medieval ones of various types, but there were a few guns as well. Packs littered the floor, as well as bundles, a few crates, and an entire other wall devoted to coat hooks and coats of varying types and sizes.

“Going to leave most of this behind. Pity. These are yours,” Ildat said, moving a crate out of the way to reveal a pair of familiar-looking cases. They hadn’t been lying about both being down here then, although I didn’t know how. I reached out and tentatively grabbed the handle of the larger one. It felt lighter than it had before. Like there was an entire body inside missing. I hoped that was the case. I flicked the locks.

A grand total of nothing inside it greeted me. The stains of blood from before were gone. How?

“Stop gawking. We don’t have time.”

I slammed the case shut, quickly locking it. Ildat was right. The others were collecting packs, weapons, and packets of something from the crates. I could smell something. Chicken my mind told me.

“Can you carry anything else?” Ildat asked. He was going through another crate and pulled out a long metal stick that carried the smell of smoke.

I lifted both cases. Without the monster in one, the large case was surprisingly light. “Maybe a pack as well?” I ventured.

Ildat grunted, then started going through a group of them set beside the door. While he did that I opened the smaller case. Inside, among all the other items, was the gun once again. Resting in it’s holster, the metal gleamed from the light above.

So, people couldn’t die here. Did that mean the Ant-person from before had been reborn from being sucked into a black hole? Maybe I should ask for a weapon less likely to permanently kill someone?

I started to ask when I saw the weapon racks were empty. How? There had been easily more weapons alone up there than could fit in the packs and cases people were getting ready. Confused, I just grabbed the holster and put it on, while Ildat came over with a backpack.

“You can run with this right?” He asked, passing it over.

I nodded. It was heavier than either of the cases. But it still felt light enough that I could run.

Everyone else was already done. They must have had this planned out. Or I was just very slow. Sofi came in, grabbed a pair of packs, and gestured for us all to follow. Back through the main room, through the hallway, to where Laverck stared at the outside from that front small room.

“No one out there,” Laverck observed, squinting as opened the door a little wider.

“Looks like they're congregating at the house on top of the hill. No one saw you on your way down boss?”

“I took a tunnel. This means we will have till someone communicates with the elemental. We depart now.”

I frowned. There were still people within sight of the building. “Won’t we be spotted immediately?”

“They’ll find us eventually,” Ildat growled. “Waiting longer just means more time for the cargo elevator to bring people down.”

“Cargo elevator?”

“On the cavern wall. You’ll see them now that the storm is gone. Sofi?”

“We leave, now. Ildat, you lead, then Laverck. Indigo, Kostnikov, Karvek, and I are in the middle. Helvor and Molk at the rear. We make for the caves.”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“The-you know what never mind,” I muttered to myself. Asking what the caves were was just wasting time. Hopefully, answers would come once we reached them.

We all lined up, one out of every two of us with a glowing lamp on our back. Laverck stayed by the door, peering out, then nodded. Everyone moved.

Outside, things looked different. Not only were all the lights from the town illuminating the area, but something was shining above. Bright, artificial light fell all over the town. I couldn’t see it, my eyes watering just looking upwards. Not a cloud was in sight.

Five seconds after we started running, someone yelled off behind us. Laverck reached the corner and spun around, rusted musket aimed behind us.

He pulled the trigger as I passed. The shriek of metal screeching filled the air, trails of rust following the bullet as it sped off. I didn't stop to watch, running past even as the sound of metal shrieking continued. Was every weapon in this place some strange kind of contraption?

We had fully rounded the destroyed warehouse. Ildat hadn't lied, now that the remnants of the storm had completely cleared out, it wasn't hard to see the elevators. Set in the wall was a truly massive set of elevator doors, two, maybe three hundred feet tall. Two metal sheets slammed together, massive hydraulics that had to be for moving them on the sides. And there was a good four hundred feet of docks between us and them.

Ships of varying sizes and designs were docked, everything from paddleboats to steamers to a civil war ironclad. Where did all of these come from?

What was more important was the other fact though. There were easily a hundred people who up till now had been working on loading or unloading those ships. From the crates all over the docks, that’s what I guessed. Now, they were all looking at us.

No one moved. No one said anything. It was surreal. It seemed to stretch on, and my eyes flickered over to Sofi. “Are we going to run? Fight?”

“Neither,” she whispered back, then raised her voice. “You have been offered a position in return for my capture. Assistant to the Night Manager. An important position. The question is, what kind of condition do you want to be in when you claim it?”

Okay, I hadn’t been expecting a threat towards them. Calling on them working with her for so long had been more what I had thought. But the dockworkers were backing off as Ildat took a step forward, cleaver gripped in his hand.

Why was I working with these people again? Right, no other options.

We made a few dozen paces into the docks before someone tried to rush us.

I didn’t see it, only heard the sound of the gun. I turned in time to see someone fall to the ground, their momentum taking them to within a few feet of Helvor. Blood was already spreading from the hole punched in their shoulder, spreading across the ground.

Gun trained on the prone body’s head, Helvor continued to walk onwards. They didn’t get up. No others among the dockworkers moved. Eventually, we made it past, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding. Okay. A hundred more feet. I could see cave openings around the elevator, ranging from man-sized to truck-sized. Some looked natural most did not.

“We’re going for that one,” Helvor informed me, pointing to a man-sized one maybe a hundred feet to the right. “It leads to-”

The cargo elevator began to open with a shriek. A head pressed out in between the two opening doors. It towered above all of us, the head as tall as I was. It was more a skull than a head, with four sharp, thick, and short horns sticking out from the top and bottom of it. The skull itself was almost a cross between a pig and a bird, beak sticking out of a more porcine structure. Strips of flesh hung loose off the bare bones.

It turned to look at us, empty eye sockets staring until something orange welled up in them. Like tears, magma poured out of the creature’s eyes. A wave of heat washed over me, making me stumble. It had gone from cool to roasting in seconds. Its mouth opened, releasing a scream that made me clap my hands to my ears.

The cavern entrance looked like it was a mile away. I just focused on running, even as the shrieking stopped and metal shrieked. In the corner of my eyes, the slowly opening door was suddenly slammed all the way. A skeletal hand gripped it, before moving out of sight. I redoubled my efforts. Molk and Helvor passed me. There was no effort to run as a group now.

A bony hand grasped my bicep. I spun around, throwing a punch. It connected with a jawline with a painful-sounding crack as something broke underneath. Reeling back, a humanoid who could be the cousin of the monster in the elevator shrieked in pain as they let go of my arm. He was the frontrunner of an entire pack of maybe a half dozen but I didn’t spare more than a glance.

I had seen the towering monster. Too close to stop.

I kept on running. How many feet? A dozen to the cave entrance. Helvor was there, almost as big as the entrance itself, aiming a rifle. It cracked and someone behind me squealed in pain.

Then the earth shook, flinging me from my feet. I landed hands first on the ground, both of them bursting into pain as they scraped across the rough stone floor. A hot wind blew over me. The ground burned me. Screaming I turned over as a shadow fell over me.

I stared directly up at a face as it leaned down toward me, fire streaming from its eye sockets. A three-fingered hand reached down, white skin stretched over the bone to the point where it looked like it would split at any moment. I dove into the cave, making it a half dozen feet inside as the hand grasped just above me. A second later one of the fingers tried grasping in, thick as I was, scrambling as it tried to reach me, the wall shuddering as it did.

Someone grabbed me by the shoulders and dragged me. I scrambled to my feet, moving down the tunnel. The grasping finger was left behind.

The roaring of the creature continued to echo as we scrabbled further inside, the walls and roof around us shaking as it continued to hammer, trying to reach further inside. Please, luck, do me one goddamn favor today, and let’s not have this place collapse on top of my head. A rock clattered down right next to me, easily the size of my fist and coming within inches of the front of my face. Well, it seems I had my answer.

“I don’t suppose you know what that was?” I asked as we continued forward, funneled down this small passage. If it was small for me, it must be hell for some of the others. They were still moving ahead though.

“He is a member of the security force for the hotel, although they only break Ka’denz out when they have a big problem,” Helvor said.

I winced, having noticed which word he had chosen to place the emphasis on. “Sorry. Most people from where I’m from, look a lot more uniform than people here. And when I see something like him, my mind immediately goes to-”

“It’s fine,” Helvor cut me off. “I didn’t mean to snap. It’s hard on travelers. I’m just used to thinking of you as someone else.”

I nodded, noticed something else, and frowned. “Where is everyone else?”

“Ahead. Let’s go. Before Ka’denz tries digging his way deeper.”

The sound of the thrashing finger still echoed behind us, even if it was out of sight. So I nodded, and off we went.