A surprisingly homey and relaxed mood had fallen over the meeting hall after Kai and Mirabelle found the break room’s kitchen. Selene had finally, if reluctantly, pulled herself away from the breathtaking cavern view and now helped Herald in the preparation of a much needed, hearty meal. The pantry had still a good number of nonperishables, or at least nothing that would rot, stored away and with what the group had brought themselves they had been able to eat better than they had expected. The Hazelnut Pot, Selene and Herald’s speciality, was served.
With their bellies filled, and a long night still ahead of them, the team sat together at the table. Probably the last time they would be able to enjoy a peaceful conversation for a while. Herald and Selene’s gazing out onto the cavern. Mirabelle and Kai sat on the other with Leora and Lagua at the head.
“Heh, my girlfriend will be so jealous she missed this.” Herald leant backwards with a wide grin, his spoon dangling from his lips like a cigar, and a chuckle rumbled from his throat. “Both for the view and the food~”
“What’s that squirrel up to anyways…?” Kai asked curiously, letting his own spoon dance between his fingers.
“Last I talked with her she planned to snoop around the Frontier, I believe…” Herald mused, now balancing the spoon on his lower lip.
“That’s a bit far away, isn’t it?” Selene sweatdropped before resting her head on her hands. “What’s the sitch there anyways? I have’t really heard anything about the Frontier in a while… last they still had to deal with the wildlife. And I don’t really believe the rumours we’ve got an entire shadow kingdom hiding out there.”
Her eyes twinkled over at Kai who snickered into his fist.
“Come on, you gotta know more, right?” Mirabelle smirked at Herald. “Even with that weird thing you and Lissy got going on… admit it, you asked around~”
“I’ll have you know that our thing isn’t weird.” The dark furred doberman managed to make huff seem somehow dainty. And then snorted. “But yeah, the Frontier’s just some small villages founded by the overly adventurous sort. Don’t know about the other sides, though…”
“Ah, so she’ll fit right in.” Mirabelle nodded sagely, earning a wide grin and thumbs up from Herald.
“Got it in one!” He laughed.
“So… when’d you think she’s gonna try and drag you along with her?” Selene asked with a teasing grin.
“Yeah, she gonna take you on a second honeymoon~? Honeymoon thing… date?” Kai joined with a wide grin only for his eyes to cross as their weird relationship thing still confused him.
While their chat about Ebenerz’ part in the exploration of the wild, unpredictable and dangerous heart of the Abyludian continent once again devolved into a rapid back and forth of teasing and bickering about, Leora was deeply engrossed with the facility’s guidebook. Already a variety of notes and markers poked out of its pages. Besides her, Lagua half listened to the chatter of his co-workers and half kept an eye on the avian cat. It wouldn’t do for their captain to forget to eat as she read after all.
Finally satisfied, Leora smiled and clapped the book close.
“So, what you got for us…?” Kai turned towards their boss, eager to escape the reunited teasing front of Herald and Selene. The duo smugly high-fived in victory.
Leora smiled at him, oblivious to the going conversation, and gave a nod.
“Well, besides the primary water pumps most of the machinery should be inactive at the moment. They used to analyse the water from the Crystal Well but since the facility has been vacated everything is supposed to be turned off. So, nothing we have to worry about there. Could you…?”
At her words the table was quickly cleared and Leora laid out the book and then a map of the cave system for them to study. Centred within core of the elongated ovoid stood the Crystal well with their current location noted at the flattened end of the egg shape.
“Only the Primary Pumps are connected to the surface. They are the potential entrance points we’ll have to guard.” Leora pointed at the seven red marked points on the map, denoting the seven pillars supporting the pump system. Each of them was close to or even located within one of the cavern’s lakes.
Seven potential entrance points. All spread across the entire cavern in a vague circular pattern around the Crystal Well.
“Oh great, this is going to suck.” Mirabelle groaned as she could already guess their plan. “I’m taking first shift!”
A smirk played over her lips as Herald and Selene were just moments too late and a resigned groan escaped the group, grumpy grumbling in begrudgery of her victory.
Leora snorted amused at their reactions.
“Heh, it’s actually not as bad.” She chuckled and flitted to another page in the book, giving Selene a direct look. “This place has a ton of sensors we can set up all over the place.”
Saluting playfully, the mouse grinned with mischief sparkling in her eyes.
“Aye, I’ll make sure they will wake us up with gusto~!” Saluting playfully, the mouse grinned with mischief sparkling in her eyes.
“Is it too late to go back up…?” Herald called out, an amused smile on his lips and hand lazily raised for attention. He grumbled softly under his breath and pouted as the others blithely ignored him.
“Anything else we need to worry about?” Lagua spoke up for the first time and Leora nodded.
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“Yes, mainly the Amber Crystals growing throughout the cavern. According to the warnings, they are all super-charged Water Elemental. There’s no risk of a chain reaction but any major impact is likely to cause a massive eruption of water. Especially if charged with Amber.”
Everyone nodded in understanding. Leave the dangerous Amber stuff to Selene and try not to flood the battlefield.
But there was one more thing that Leora was hesitant to mention.
“And here’s the part I find rather hard to believe.” She continued after a reluctant moment of pause, causing them to look at her curiously. “The source of all of this? If this guide is actually correct then the Crystal Well contains Primal Glyph of Water.”
A stunned silence fell over the group.
“What.” Herald drawled blandly, a blank look of disbelief directed at Leora. “Look, I can believe that we’ve got some kind of powerful, experimental prototype Glyph. But a Primal Glyph? Yeah, no way. There’s no Abyss damn way that anybody would leave a fucking Primal Glyph this unguarded!”
He looked downright insulted by that possibility.
“I did say I find this hard to believe, didn’t I?” Leora replied sardonically. “But even if it’s just a a really powerful Glyph, it’s still the source for about half of all the water used to power Dampfstadt. I think we know what the intruder’s are potentially after now, I would say.”
Then Leora blinked as a niggling feeling of something missing caused her to pause. Wait…
“Where’s Selene?” Leora asked confused.
…
“Let me go! Let me go! I need to see the Primal Glyph! This is the greatest moment of my life and I won’t let you ruin it…!!!” The mouse cried out as she clung tightly to one of the Amber Crystals, Kai and Mirabelle struggling to drag her back as the small woman demonstrated a rather disturbing level of arm strength all of a sudden.
“Come on…! Don’t make this more difficult than it already is…!” Mirabelle hissed through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, I betcha you will get to see it soon enough. Or do you want to get banished for insubordination…?” Herald mused from the side, a lollipop in his mouth as smoking wasn’t allowed down here.
“Muh…!” Selene moaned morosely and with a sullen look let go, making the dark-furred doberman chuckle as Kai and Mirabelle fell over each other from the sudden lack of opposition.
“Should I note this down…?” Lagua asked Leora curiously, a notepad in his hand as they watched the scene from the side.
“Haa… no.” Leora let out a groan and grimaced as she massaged her aching temples. “We still need her to set up the sensors.”
With Selene wrangled back into order, the group was dragged back to their table where they finalised their plan to survey the cavern. The planning was left to Leora and Lagua for the most part.
The sensors were egg-sized metal spheres that could be connected to any part of the facility directly or via cables. With the right settings they were able to activate any of the connected alarms throughout the entire facility system. How to do that was entirely opaque to the group outside of Selene and maybe Herald, even with the guide’s help. Which was why they had been assigned to just that responsibility. Herald was mostly just there guard the mouse.
And since the sensors didn’t need to be programmed directly on-site but safely from the main building… neither Selene nor Herald had to leave the research centre at all! The mouse in question had pouted prominently when she realised as much. She was grounded for the night. Which irked her even more since the other four would actually meet up at the Crystal Well to set up camp after installing the sensors
“You really should have thought that a bit more through.” Herald chuckled amused from her side.
The duo had set up a provisional command centre gazing out through the panorama window. A complicated switchboard was laid out on one of the break room tables, lights, switches and various gauges lit up its panels.
“Yeah, yeah. But an actual Primal Glyph? Even if it’s just a really good imitation, I’ve always dreamed of seeing one!” Selene whined, ears laid flat against her head.
“And now you have to wait a bit longer. Patience, young one~” Herald grinned wide.
“I’m older than you.” Selene deadpanned, giving him a flat look.
“Not mentally, you’re not.” Herald smirked right back which earned him a punch to his side, Selene maturely sticking her tongue out at him. He snorted and she smiled cheerfully.
Looking out from the lunch hall panorama window, the two were able to watch as the other four began their journey through the cavern. Kai and Mirabelle to the left, Leora and Lagua to the right. Each member would go for their own pump before joining their duo on their respective side’s third pump with all four regrouping at the final pump before making their way to the Crystal Well. Until then communication was impossible.
Selene and Herald returned their attention back to their job. Sure, a lot of the stuff went over his head, but Herald had worked with similar security stuff over the years.
Though there were a few hitches…
“D-DON’T!!! Do you want us to go deaf?!” Selene screamed in panic as Herald fiddled around with the speakers.
“… not particularly, no.” He answered, his hands freezing as he ogled what he had been working with, trying to understand where exactly he had been about to make the mistake.
…but nothing more.
It was a few hours later, marking it well into the night, when the main group arrived at the Crystal Well. Their finished set up was announced by the crackling of the research centre’s speaker and moments later Leora’s voice echoed through.
“Crystal Team here, we’ve finished with everything. Any problems on your side?”
“Nah, all good. Selene was good, too.” Herald replied with a chuckle.
“More like, I kept you from accidentally setting off the alarms of the entire facility at max volume.” Selene grumbled annoyed. It took all her willpower to not immediately ask about the supposedly Primal Glyph near them.
“What?” Leora blinked perturbed, rightfully confused and very concerned.
“Haa… Don’t worry about it.” Selene stated directly into the speaker system, letting out a heavy sigh. She nailed Herald with a hardened stare, causing him to give a nervous laugh and sheepishly rub his neck.
Deciding that she would grill the two about this later, Leora updated the two on the plan. Not that anything had really changed. The Crystal Team would stand guard in shifts while one member of the Research Team would keep in contact with them. Selene held the first two shifts… and Mirabelle the first.
“Uah… I’m pooped…” Mirabelle yawned wide, stretching herself.
“Ugh, shouldn’t have said to take the first shift.” She grumbled annoyed at herself. She should have taken the last shift.
The Crystal Well was so much larger than it had appeared at first glance, towering good halfway towards the rugged cavern ceiling. A wide, steep mountain. You could walk up its side at certain spots, even reach the top, but the research structure around the Crystal Well spared them this exhaustive trip. They had made camp at the administration station, a high security lock sealing the elevator leading up to he upper region. But even as they hadn’t been able to glimpse inside the well… this close to its blue glow they quite literally feel it. As if the light itself was water, a paradoxical feeling of being wet and dry at the same time, and a low hum akin to the rushing of the ocean waves echoed through the air as well. It reminded Mirabelle of her old family home near the eastern harbour.
The armadillo eagle stared out onto the crystal fields and let out a heavy sigh at the long and boring night ahead of her. Not that there was much of a way to tell the time.
“Mirabelle here.” She opened the communication. “No intruders yet.”
“Got it! So… didyouseetheprimalglyph?!” And immediately Selene’s excited voice broke through the speakers.
Mirabelle didn’t know if she should feel glad or despair that she would have to deal with an hyperactive Selene throughout her entire shift as well. And the fact that she hadn’t seen anything yet would in no way stop the in-coming torrent of questions.