Cold.

Throbbing head. Pain in the right leg.

Pain in the bones.

Hard floor.

I’m alive, Nua thought and slowly opened her eyes. The view was hazy at first, then it gradually came into focus. She was looking at an intricate web made of silver thread, suspended above her like a tent. An oblong object, resembling a large egg, nested on top.

All right, she decided. Still sleeping.

But the world was becoming more defined, several minor and major discomforts making their way into her consciousness. And the sight before her, although strange, appeared real enough.

It’s not like it was the strangest thing she had recently seen, was it? If Anki explained…

“Anki? Are you there?”

No answer. But she was feeling his presence, emotionless and numb. He didn’t die and did not go anywhere. She hoped he didn’t also lose his mind forever.

Wait. A webbing and an egg? She twitched, alert all of a sudden. Was something trying to eat her?

“Don’t move. Don’t panic.” It was Raya. She sounded tired. “I used the healing artifact. It’s still attached to your arm, so don’t remove it on your own. Do you understand?”

Nua nodded.

“Is everyone…” she croaked.

“I do not know yet,” was the answer. “Zaina’s life was not threatened. Quintus woke up an hourglass ago. As for the other two… we’re still waiting.

Nua sighed and blinked very hard. Crying now wouldn't help them heal. Now that she was not in immediate danger, she was taking in the recent events bit by bit.

There was, indeed, a silver thread attached to the vein in her left arm. She shuddered and held off an impulse to remove it by force. The wire led to the egg-like object, which – now she recognized – was the same healing device they took from the workshops. The webbing was pulsing and shimmering all the time, or that was what she thought before she noticed that it was actually crawling with tiny silver insectoids. And, as a matter of fact, they were also all over her.

She shrieked.

“Don’t panic,” Raya said again. “It’s weird but it’s working. It can’t heal you completely, but it will let you survive. That’s what it’s made for.”

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As she was speaking, the minuscule insects started retreating into the egg, and the thread unraveled, each wire bursting into hundreds of them. Nua did not scream only because she was lost for words. In a few blinks of an eye, the webbing disappeared. The ovoid hovered above Nua for a while, then it settled down on the floor. The girl turned away from it and vomited promptly.

“I’ve had enough of ancient wonders,” she said when she was done.

Humorless, Raya collected the object. Nua sat on the floor, her entire being in pain. How much of it was from the wounds, and how much from the feelings, she did not know.

They were still in the corridor where the golem fell. Quintus was sitting propped against the wall, seemingly napping. Both his arms were wrapped in bandages and immobilized in slings. There were two silver tents nearby, one larger and another smaller, and if Nua looked up close, she would know the state Oswald and Lykomedes were in. She didn’t want to. Lykomedes was the first non-Unsaggan person outside of the Bottoms who treated her like a fellow human being. Knowing her didn’t end up good for him. She wanted to believe he would live, and if she looked, perhaps she’d have doubts.

She shivered. Without the tent, it was cold in here.

The golem was thoroughly dismantled. Someone disemboweled it, leaving a large mess of parts and wires on the floor. Its eye was broken, and the limbs had been hacked off with great determination. Nua guessed that after it stopped moving, others – Raya, Zaina, both of them? - made sure that it never gets up again.

Zaina was not around.

“Where is Zaina?”

“She went outside to shoot a flare,” Quintus lifted his head. “There was a hidden staircase like you said, and it was enough to use your blood to open the door. This place is only three floors beneath the ground.”

“Oh.”

“Word of advice. Stay away from her,” he sighed. “She didn’t take well to… all that.”

A weight formed in her stomach.

“Do you… do you think it’s my fault?” She whispered. Of course it is, said the echo.

“Yours?” Quintus gave her a mirthless laugh. “I wanted a good story.”

There was a moment of silence.

“We were a bunch of fools dazzled by lightning bugs. Don’t think you were the only one willing,” he looked at Lykomedes. “If he lives, he gets my share.”

“That golem,” she said. “It was after me. It sensed ether. I guess.”

“Good that you killed it, then,” Quintus said. “Without your help, we would not have a way out. Honestly, I don’t know if there is anyone to blame. There was nothing you could do better.”

Yes, there was. I shouldn’t led you here at all, Nua thought.

And then, there was also the bashmu in the room.

“You know, this thing, this killer golem, wasn’t ancient.”

Raya, who was checking on her companions, turned around.

“Yes, it was obvious. I've checked; it had the same sigil as the scroll we bought at the market. It’s Antiquarians’.”

“Of course, because who else would break in here with a freaking golem, to wreck my ancestors’ tower of healing,” Nua huffed, suddenly angry on Anki’s behalf. “I mean, how did they even get in? The goddess said it was an inner sanctum or whatever. How did they know? What did they look for?”

Is it possible that they knew? There were people who hunted any Unsagga showing skill with ether because they thought they were Autarchs waiting to happen. Did they literally hunt Autarchs? Even after a thousand years?

No. Unlikely. There were many reasons to break into an ancient temple. Maybe they were tracking artifacts with their new etheric shebang, then lo and behold, sleeping Autarchs on a golden plate. After all that time? These bastards just got terribly lucky. Or unlucky, since no one plundered the rest of the facility so far. Why? She guessed that the owners of this golem were dead. It would be good to confirm it.

“I want to go there. I want to see what happened.”

“I’m going with you,” Raya said. “Quintus, could you look out for Oswald and Lykomedes?”

He nodded.

“Will do.”