"And I guess we're now finally here." I say, cracking my bones and getting up onto my feet with the help of my staff. By the gods am I thankful that the Grandguard gave me this headstart on the journey to Ioike. I do not even want to begin to imagine what it will be like on the way back. Honestly, I might even see if I can find some work to make the money for a luxury cabin or something.

A proper bed to rest in rather than a cushioned chair.

Picking up what I need, I march to the door and look back to my friend, "You should be fine leaving this stuff here. It's an end-of-route maintenance check anyhow. The spiral-train won't be going anywhere even then, we have return tickets."

"I don't feel comfortable leaving these lying around anywhere..." Liadanann mutters and I give her a slight smile and sigh mixture.

"Well, if you need me, I'll be heading into the dig site." I explain, hopping off the spiral-train and making good time across the utterly empty boarding platform. As I reach the stairs at the back of the young construction, a few guys come up a cargo lift. They seem to meet up with the spiral-train's quartermaster and disappear when I take more steps down.

Crunching underfoot, the gravel-coated path goes on by and the small checkpoint up ahead grows in size. The bored guards lazily get up and one shifts to resting on the armbar preventing entry, in theory. Minding the raised palm, I come to a halt and the man wipes his eyes before looking over a tablet. He slots it back into his appropriate belt pocket.

"Reason for being here?" the guard asks.

I bring up the box I am here to deliver, "I am here to pass on something to my friend, Ioike. She's one of the researchers here."

"Deliveries go through the proper venue." the man explains, yawning halfway.

"It's not that kind of delivery, just me dropping something off to a friend." I clarify, hoping this isn't him being difficult.

"Stop trying to cause a problem because nothing happens around here, Prick!" the guard in the control booth snaps and he puts in some details before the arm rises. His fellow resting on it stumbles away, the machine strong enough to set aside the weight.

"Fine..." the man just doing his job grumbles and I quickly go on ahead.

"The matter with you anyway? He clearly knows someone in the dig and he's clearly a witch from Suhurlodst!" I hear just before I enter the entrance tunnel. Words warp behind me and the argument breaking out becomes unintelligible noise. As I become increasingly shaded by the light of the many setups about the vast mountain chamber, it all changes. There isn't so much talking as there is the clicking of fingers at computers and the hammering away of the rock.

Moving up to what appears to be a viewing platform, I rest one hand on the handrail and set my staff down. Putting the box up here with my hand, I take in the vast sight that I have only heard of until now. It's not clear what it's meant to be, but dark, blue-tinted glass is rising up as high as the mountain, as wide too. All in a mountain that was already gargantuan compared to all that was around it anyway.

Looking down, I spot a small collection of skull-beetles and note how passive they are compared to the rumours and facts about them. One climbs up next to me and then gets onto my robe. Its wings flutter and it crawls off back onto the metal bar. It slips and drops to the ground.

The little thing flips back over and disappears into the dark underbelly of the platform.

Shrugging, I gather my things again and start the trek down to the dig proper. What seems to be the main research station comes into sight as does a group of students talking over what might be a cup of tea. They notice me and go quiet with one amongst them almost booking it elsewhere. Coming to an awkward stop, I stare back at these people filthy with dug-up mud while they look at my battle-born muck.

"Is Ioike here?" I ask, moving my shoulders about a little when a slight ache builds up in them.

"Uh, yeah, she's over by the scanners." a tall, lanky boy answers and I frown.

"And what way is that?" I ask firmly, his directions not all that helpful. He scoffs and walks away. The rest follow and I cock a brow as an insult fires off in my head. Useless morons.

Clicking my tongue, I pass on through towards what appears to be a place with lots of equipment. Only, it turns out I've walked straight into a storage area for either broken down or unused tools. Grumbling and turning, I stumble my way through several more areas until I hear someone mention 'scanners.' I sharply turn their way and head towards the beeping and what is clearly an abnormal red light.

Huffing up the short set of stairs, I find the one I am looking for and watch her from behind. She seems to be closely inspecting some kind of artefact and she's got more than enough notes from it. Hearing her mutter something, I move closer and closer until her head moves. She turns a little too quickly and I almost hit her face with mine.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"Hello, Baltanthan!" she goes, cheerily while I take a step back. I present the box and her face goes blank. She doesn't seem to get why I am here and goes back to work.

"Your lack of focus... One of these days..." I mutter before opening up the package myself and sliding the contents to her. She stops what she's doing and snatches it up, her face brimming with excitement.

"You! You! You! You! You! You brought the thing!" she goes, bouncing up and down before opening her arms up. While under normal circumstances, I might've refused her thanks. However, I am just as dirty as she is right now. I return the hug and bang my head on her careless item-holding grip.

"GAH!" I almost scream, the metal object provoking my head wound.

"S-Sorry!" she squeaks, putting the item down like it's just become something evil.

Shaking my head and gently touching the sore spot, I smack away her attempts to do the same, "I'm fine, I'm fine."

"Sorry..." she squeaks even quieter, face going down and hands coming together. She starts to blink and gets back to work. Moving up closer, I look over her shoulder and watch her take out some kind of preserved bone.

"So, what are you working on at the moment?" I ask and she puts a dirt-dusted palm near her mouth. She seems to breathe with it open and spits out whatever particulate she ends up pulling in. She rushes to some water, swishes and spits. My eyes linger on the wet patch she's made.

"Blegh... Why can't I remember to stop doing that?" she asks herself, chewing on her tongue for whatever reason.

"Ioike." I go again, catching her attention.

"Hm?" she goes, blinking with her usual clueless innocence.

"What're you working on?" I repeat and she 'O's.'

"We, we, we, we got a donation the other day." she explains, yawning and passing it onto me.

"Alright, what is it?" I ask, wanting to know more as I know there's something familiar about this shape. Looks like it's made of bone and ends in a natural point...? Hm.

"It's the external legbone of a deceased aelenvari given to us by the Medical Research Institute of Eodcher." she answers without missing a beat before she gets back to putting the bone away.

"This in relation to what you mentioned about the Patricide?" I question, holding some items for her when she suddenly tries to pick up more than she really can. Even then, we're both overwhelmed by how much she is gathering. I think I am lucky we only need to move a couple of tables down.

"Hold on..." Ioike mutters, rushing off before she even secures her stuff. I split my legs to catch everything and push it all up onto the table. Grumbling a little, I watch as she comes back just as quickly with a tablet. She holds it before me without a word and I take it up. Brushing the build-up of dust on it, I get to reading the immediately informing details.

'The Involvement of the Aelenvari Patricide and the Currently Unknown Godbot Buried in Glasscore Mountain, by Traditional Student Ioike of Suhurlodst Academy of Arcane Learning and Understanding.'

I pause my thoughts for the moment and breathe, that mouthful of a title exhausting even just to read. I glance up at my friend as she forgets that I am here and I use the magic in the tablet to flick through its details. Smiling a little at the sketches she's managed to hammer in, I skim the rest and put it down. I go back to grab my staff and miss her attempt to grab me.

"Baltanthan...?" she cries out, confused and not moving her eyes off of the table and its contents. Taking a step back towards her, she grabs me and yanks me in close so I too can enjoy whatever dusty old mudrock she has.

"What am I looking at?" I ask, not too sure what she's trying to point out. She hastily picks up a pair of tweezers and yanks something out, cracking the rest of the ancient item. That doesn't bother her, the little bit of magic-rich mineral, however, does. I blink and lean in closer, letting my eyes focus on the tiny thing to the detriment of the world around me.

Moving my head back and blinking the aches away, I watch her go off with what I delivered. Following her like a lost child, we reach another quiet workstation and she drops the small cargo into a petri dish thing. She slots in the item I delivered for her and starts to record some details. The gibberish on her right grows and my mind blanks out from a mixture of her strange writing style and the overflowing details within.

Taking a turning step back, I take note of all that covers the walls of this vast cavern. Deeper and further to the right is a team of people moving about what appears to be power tools. Looking to my feet, I note the signs of industrial smoothing and glance back to the walls and their markers. One happens to get hammered in right now.

I turn just in time to nearly meet Ioike's face again.

"What're you doing?" she asks, frowning as if I am being disrespectful.

"Uh, looking around?" I answer, unsure if I am doing this right.

"At what? It's all boring stuff out there." she whines, gesturing aggressively at everything else. Even at the workstation she was just so richly engrossed in.

I shrug gently, "All this is new to me. I've only ever seen it from the other side of a screen."

"Yes, but-"

"But nothing." I interrupt, smiling a little until she starts to smile back.

"Oh, that is right. Normally I don't get to touch you." she remembers now of all times and her closest finger taps my nose. She giggles and takes my hand, pulling me closer to her work before guiding me to the viewing port or whatever it is.

"Don't know what I am looking at." I remind her.

"You're looking at crystalised magic, infused onto a little shard of bone." she explains and my mouth opens to 'ahhhhhh.'

"And what's so interesting about this?" I ask, not being invested enough in the discovery.

"It means we are one grain of sand closer to figuring something new out! Not literally sand of course but you know." she goes, rambling on about the obvious while I huff and shake my amused face.

"Oh, thank you for telling me that. I would have never figured out without your wise help, O Great Ioike of the Muddy Hole." I go sarcastically, stepping back so I can bow.

"I have a hammer right above your head wound!" she barks, not taking kindly to my ribbing. I let her see my smile and the scowl vanishes in favour of a grin.

"Well, come on, walk me through more of it. I am spending some time off of a spiral-train, thank you very much." I tell her, shivering at the stiff feeling the journey left me with.