“Storms and… that’s unfortunate,” Servant Ipoh cursed. “We’ll have to find an alternative. If Blue wasn’t already on her way, she will be now. We’ll have to start moving. No more grace period, and promises aren’t much good against another Ancient.”

A light flared in the darkness bright enough to illuminate most of the room, making me break into a squint. It came from a cluster of four spheres the same colours as the suns, suspended in the air above the Servant’s fingers. When he dropped the arm, the spheres stayed in place. I frowned. Nothing in my conceptual framework covered this.

We’d come through to a smallish cave. The circle under our feet was covered in a thick layer of dry dust, undisturbed prior to our intrusion. Clearly neglected, for good reason. That, and I didn’t imagine the stations would see much use if only ten people even had the chance.

The ceiling had crumbled away into old rockfalls, but its clean lines in parts showed it had once been artificial. One of the ruins Ipoh had mentioned. “Where are we?”

The older man shrugged. He tore off the strip of fabric that had come loose at the prison, tying the scrap around a wrist for safekeeping. “Could be anywhere. Deep, by the looks of it, though even that’s no guarantee. Our first priority should be getting out of here. Blue can’t be allowed to find us.” Done with the makeshift bracelet, he glanced up the cavern. The lights followed his gaze as if on command.

He caught my expression. “Magic. You’ll learn it. For now, follow me.”

I did so, passing under a drooping piece of rusty metal hanging from the room’s single exit. Rockfall had partially covered some of the path in a mound that rolled and crumbled under our feet, sending stones scattering behind us. At its peak, Ipoh held up a hand to stop me, then nodded to the centre of the chamber. I turned in time to see a low circle of wind pick up, shifting the dust we’d disturbed and removing traces of our footprints.

More magic.

“Might help,” said the Servant, turning back to continue on. “Not if Blue comes herself, of course. But if she sends scouts out ahead, it might slow her down.”

“How will they know which way they went?” I asked, nevertheless feeling the urge to put distance between us and them.

“I imagine they’ll have to check a few paths,” Ipoh said. “But scouts can find a trail. Iridescent strands shimmered among the grey in his hair.

“So,” he said as we walked, “you’re Black. Now everyone will hear the news. I assume you don’t know how you died.”

I shook my head, but the Servant was walking two steps ahead and missed it. It sounded rhetorical, anyway.

My promise to Orange weighed in suffocatingly, preventing me from voicing the follow-up questions I wanted to ask.

Ipoh seemed to take my silence as disinterest. “We’ll want to head up,” he continued after a few moments. “Making it to the surface will let us get an idea of the local landmarks. We’ll also better our chances of locating food. Not much to eat in a place like this.”

“Will it take long?” I asked, and the Servant shrugged again.

“Probably. It’s a big world. Unless you know how far the network took us.”

I had no idea. “What’s the worst-case scenario?”

“If we keep heading up? Many months on the tall side. A third that on the shorter. Most likely somewhere between.”

I stopped short, conscious our only known path of transport was back the way we came. “And this doesn’t worry you?”

“Not as much as an altercation with Blue, no,” he replied, not slowing down. “That only ends one way. Even allowing for you. We’ll take our chances in the unknown.”

I waited a moment longer, then lost my nerve and hurried to catch up to the only light in the darkness. “I could make another promise.”

“No need for that yet.”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Are you sure?” I asked sarcastically. “Because our current plan isn’t looking promising.” I realised the play on words after I’d said it and slapped myself mentally. “I mean,” I amended with greater contrition, “we just escaped the inescapable. What happened back there was a miracle! We could repeat it, get us out of here.”

“It’s funny to hear those words coming from one of you.” He sighed. “Aside from the permanent risks to yourself and others, you saw what happened in the prison. Promises are unpredictable, even when you think you’ve covered your bases. Sometimes they take the form of mundane coincidences. Sometimes, usually when reality needs more of a prompting, the adjustments are more dramatic. We asked to escape unharmed, and in doing so, alerted Blue to your presence faster, woke up a sleeper, and are lost. Hopefully it didn’t kill too many people,” he added with a low mutter.

“…right.”

“It’s done now, and we got what we needed.” His footsteps continued to echo in the silence.

I found myself growing twitchy, a little jealous of the fact I didn’t have my own light source to see by. Occasional jutting shadows and angles loomed out of walls and hung from ceilings; debris scattered across floors that looked man-made. Corners of things I wanted to examine. Ipoh didn’t slow down to let me.

I had more questions than I knew what to do with, and we had a long walk ahead of us. I tried not to think about what we were going to do about food and water, and was glad for having just eaten.

“What does a Servant do?” I asked, unsure if I was missing the obvious. “You don’t seem like a housekeeper.”

“I can be, if required,” Ipoh answered. The lights swung ahead of him, illuminating an area further up the passage. “Usually, my work takes me further abroad. Ancients taking up residence in another’s territory generally leads to complications. Mainly for the other people around them, but sometimes to the Ancients themselves. So they send others to deliver news from far reaches.”

“So you’re a spy.”

“And glad to be alive. It probably will be housekeeping duties for me, mind you. After this, I’m a known quantity. Blue knows me, and if the other Ancients don’t, they soon will. So I’ll head back to the Drift. Preferable to ending up as fertiliser.”

“And the Ancients. How… exactly do they fit into society?”

We’d come to a fork in the path, a pair of wide openings leading out into darkness with a sharp point of rock marking the divide in between. I watched as Ipoh approached both options in turn, sending the lights down each as far as could be seen, one after the other, before examining the debris on the floor. “They rule,” he said, licking a finger and sticking it in the air, then shrugged and set off down the left-hand path. “And they war. That’s been the way as far back as anyone knows. All trying to get the edge over the others by one means or another.”

“I -“

“Oh, don’t worry. You won’t be ruling over anyone anytime soon. Not in your state. And your death means a void in the power balance. The Alliance will love having you gone. They’ll move in, mark my words. Deal with Orange while he’s down his support. Then we wait and see what that means for the rest of the world.”

The mention of Orange made me do an inadvertent double-take, which didn’t escape Ipoh’s sharp notice. He slowed, not stopping entirely, and tilted his head. “Not completely in the dark, then. That name means something to you.”

“Well,” I floundered a bit, unsure if I should be telling another Ancient’s spy everything, especially one who I knew nothing about. “You said we were allies.”

“I did.” The curious expression didn’t budge. “I’d also like to think I’m your ally, regardless of any reservations you may have about joining up with Red. You’d do well to approach him, once you have a chance. He can protect you for mutual benefit. You may be tempted to pick up your previous ties, but Orange’s bloc has lost half its power overnight. Setting up with him would be a mistake. History plays it out over and over.”

“Why?” I was unable to keep the curiosity out of my voice. “Was he at war?”

“Hm. More like a stalemate. For the last two hundred years, the two main blocs have held a tentative peace. The Alliance on one side - Silver, Violet and Green - and Black and Orange on the other. Everyone else is independent. With you gone, that truce is doomed. Another reason to head home.”

The part about ‘two hundred years’ dimly registered, but it was overshadowed by the jarring disconnect suddenly playing through my head. In the grove, Orange hadn’t been a mighty power-broker, leader of factions. He’d been a dying man. A kind one, I thought, not that I had much experience to go by.

“It’s not doomed,” I asserted, not sure I was doing the right thing in admitting it. “It’s already dead. Orange… is dead. Whatever killed me also got him. I’m just glad I got to meet him.”

The echoes of our footsteps reverberated back to us in the cloying silence.

“That makes things easier, I suppose,” Ipoh announced eventually. “Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled about this turn of events, but it had to happen in someone’s lifetime. You’re a new person now, and you should accompany me. Red would welcome an ally, and he’ll certainly have some punishment waiting in store if he found out I let you go. But as far as I’m concerned, you saved my skin. You can make your own decisions.”

“I’ll consider it,” I said truthfully, glad I didn’t have to commit just yet. I knew what I wanted, even if my lack of experience meant my mind was lying to me. I wanted to find Orange, with or without his memories, and repay his kindness. It was the idiotic, stupid option, no two ways about it - but I couldn’t shake his words from my head.

Some will try to sway you with pretty words.

A dying man who knew he was dying wouldn’t bother to lie, I had a feeling.

But if the world’s most powerful people didn’t find him, how in the world would I?