The woman's eyes rose from the deteriorating paper for the first time, looking into Liam's own. She gave and closed them, rubbing them from beneath her glasses before speaking,

"Did he come in recently?"

"Maybe about a month ago?"

Her eyes met Liam's again before falling back to the familiar paper. She shook her head as she did so.

"I'll have to check with the records. Come back tomorrow after your shift." She explained. She brushed the air with her hand to shoo him away. He was about to oblige before he remembered a crucial detail.

"Do you have a map?"

- -

The boy maneuvered along the purple stone streets. He swerved around many traveling groups: some which hauled wooden carts containing crystals and minerals he had never seen before, cages of live, or sometimes dead, Magical Beasts, or injured mages. Every now and then there would be vendors with shoddy stands made of scraps of wood and sacks of sand selling their recently mined goods, or even Mystic Codes that they created outside of the Materials Branch. Liam figured they barely got any business, considering everyone down here was trying to make money, not spend it.

The city of Magisfair was split into four sections: north west, south west, north east, and south east. Each corresponded to the appropriate exits to the surface. At the northern sections were tunnels which converged on each other, leading down further to where the mining was done, as well as the Great Magic Circuit. It was essentially a gigantic underground ley-line, which was unbreakable.

Liam's barracks were located at the northwest section, whereas he had entered through the southwest. Many of the excavator barracks were located towards the north for easy access to the mining tunnels. His building sat up against the border of the city, tucked neatly against the dull purple rock. It was constructed out of black bricks-although they were in actuality purple bricks painted black, rather horribly in fact. The dark purple bled through the paint in several spots, making the black paint almost resemble blood in the poor lighting around it.

The roof, by contrast, were made out of a bright and pristine purple tiling. Above the entrance hung a sign, or more accurately, a shard of wood. "B2" was burned into the surface, the dark soot making it almost impossible to make out the writing.

Crumpling up the small map in his hand, he stuffed it into the small opening in his bag and approached the door. At this point, his feet were practically numb. He had spent all that time coming to the entrance above ground, combined with the small scuffle he got into, and further combined with the hour walk it took to get to this section of the city. His arm was only now starting to feel functional, assuming he felt like simply enduring the pain. Liam pushed on the wooden door with a sigh.

The initial layout had seemed odd to the boy at first, but he figured it was some sort of geomantic magecraft, like Feng Shui. In the center of the building was a single, clear tube with a small purple light within it. It pulsed slightly, each time becoming microscopically dimmer and dimmer.

Around the tube were five bunk beds, the ends of the beds forming the points of a pentagon. In the corners of the room were the rest of the bunk beds, four for each corner.

A few dark figures shuffled slightly in their beds, but besides that, the barracks were practically empty. Seeing so many beds empty spawned a conflicting emotion within Liam, as if he should be working rather than being here. Nonetheless he crept inside, taking note of the bed assigned to him on the slip of paper the woman gave him.

He dropped his bag onto the wooden floor before sagging onto his hard mattress. Despite its hardness, it seemed oddly comfortable. As if he would like nothing better to do than to just sleep right here right now. He pushed that feeling aside as he dug through his bag in search of some books he packed-research material, mostly. His hand curled around the hard cover of-

The world went black for a moment. Liam shot his eyes open upon realizing this fact, his heart speeding up its pumping of blood. What just happened?

But he could already feel himself relaxing. That shot of adrenaline wore off instantly, his muscles losing their tension, his blood slowing its movements. 'Am I really that tired?' Liam thought to himself as he looked at his hands-more accurately, the faint outlines that suggested his hands were their. They seemed to get darker and darker, harder to see. He tried to crane his neck over to behind his bed, where the black tube stood, but he realized the everything was black again. His thoughts had stopped. He had unknowingly crawled into the bed fully, pulling the thin and ragged covers over himself.

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

And before he could protest, his mind slipped into sweet slumber.

- -

The boys eyes shot open, leading to immediate regret. Bright purple light filled his sight, causing his eyes to instinctively close again, squeezing from the sheer overload of his senses. He blinked a few times again as his eyes adjusted to the sudden increase in light.

Liam felt... abnormally awake. As if he didn't sleep at all, or as if it was just another afternoon. There was no grogginess nor protest to moving out of his bed. It didn't feel "right" by any means, as if his body was taken over by some force, while his true exhaustion was kept deep inside. His head turned to all around him as men and women emerged from their beds, slipping into the separate bathrooms at one end of the building to get ready and change clothes.

The mostly black tube behind his bed had now been illuminated. A bright purple light shown from the glass, as if it was a gigantic black light. Albeit several shades lighter.

Liam found his body move while his attention was occupied. He recognized all the other mages readying themselves for their day, so he himself had to follow along. He made a heavy frown as he realized he slept in his shirt and jeans. He pulled another pair of clothes from his bag and shuffled over to the bathrooms.

The process was over rather fast. All the other people had perfected their routine, leaving out all unnecessary motions or usage of energy. They bathed themselves efficiently, brushed their teethes efficiently, even chatted efficiently. Liam found himself mimicking them rather quickly, aside from that last part. The seriousness in everyone's demeanor kept him from socializing in any capacity. He was glad when he finished cleaning up, stepping out of the now cramped barracks.

The streets of Magisfair had erupted with activity. Mages roamed the streets, covering them with floods of humans. More and more vendors popped up along the edges of the roughly formed buildings, and newly awakened excavators all left their barracks, dragging themselves along to their jobs.

Liam, of course, followed the pack to the top of the northwestern section of the city, where the Excavation Branch was located. A collection of differently shaped and constructed buildings stood between the workers and the main tunnels. Excavators funneled into the large building, entering from all sides. However, Liam continued onwards as he remembered the woman's instructions from the previous day.

The mage instead swung downwards to the center of the city. There, the Composite Workshop Criegula stood.

A horribly large tower stood before Liam, hundreds of meters wide at the base, while slowly getting thinner towards the top. It was built from smooth white stone-or perhaps even marble. It was probably the tallest building in the whole city. Several large entrances were cut in into its base, with doors two meters wide and four meters tall. Liam quickly discovered why, as he saw carts of minerals, plants, and organisms being wheeled into the Workshop.

Criegula was the Materials Branch of the Secret Autopsy Divison. It was essentially a massive workshop made out of hundreds of thousands of other workshops, where the tools used for excavation were created.

Normally, this would never occur. Mages collaborating at such a degree on the surface would always lead to Mystery being leaked and exposed, violating the very first law of the world of Magecraft. However, being below ground, where there is nobody but mages, such a conglomerate of workshops would be capable of manifesting.

After several seconds of taking in the sheer magnitude of the building, Liam continued forward, entering through one of the only human sized doors in the building.

Everything was constantly moving. Materials were being shuttled into the bottom of the workshop, where people or automatons then took said materials to distribute amongst the magi. Pulleys and conveyor belts were always moving, transporting goods from one mage to another. Liam entered the excavator entrance, where new tools were acquired.

The small room was sectioned off from the first level of Criegula by a simple wooden desk. A line had already developed from the doorway to the desk, where a middle aged man and a woman were currently having a shouting match over what model of Mystic Code she would be given. Although, considering the amount of noise being generated from the rest of the building, it was probably all they could do to hear each other.

The line moved at a snails pace, making Liam regret the fact he didn't bring a watch with him down here. After what he assumed to be at least an hour of waiting, he approached to flimsy desk.

The man had darker skin, and a beard which used to be black, but now was transitioning to gray. The boy held out the slip of paper to the man, shouting over the noise,

"I'm a new excavator, just came in yesterday. I was told to give this to you?"

"Yeah, yeah. Hold on."

He took the paper and shoved it into his pants pocket, walking away and behind a wall Liam could see past. After a minute he returned with a thin, brown bag, throwing it onto the desk. The man reached in a pulled the bag open, revealing its contents to him.

"This is a watch." He pointed to, well, a watch. It had no clock face, and instead was created purely out of a purple gemstone with brown leather. "It's synchronized to your shifts, and the time in general. This is for inorganic, and that one's for organic matter." The man continued, pointing to what Liam could only describe as a handheld jackhammer and a pair of enlarged tweezers. "Ask someone at Excavations how to use them. Shit changes every week, I can't keep up."

"Thank you." Liam shouted back as he took the bag with his left hand, almost dragging it behind him as he walked out of the line. He found he could move his right arm without much pain, albeit slowly.

The mage pushed through the line towards the entrance, scooting between three or four people. The face of one caused him to pause before leaving, however, unable to keep himself from looking back.

"Ben? B.L.C?" Liam shouted. The boy ragged and long brown hair turned back to the sudden voice, a scowl apparent on his face. It melted quickly upon seeing a familiar figure.