Dibbuk stared into the distance. She’d stopped stomping through the darkness for a moment. Not out of exhaustion, or fear, but curiosity. Something had happened. The bell had sped up. She felt waves of fear emanating from the rapidly growing pressure difference.

No longer a monkey. Worse. Much worse… New spore…

A voice, crass, and vile, cut into Dibbuks mind. It felt like the eyes in the dark, yet somehow even less pleasant. If an animal could talk, she could only imagine it would sound half as wretched.

Dibbuk took another few steps, a sort of concentrated patch of the dark coming into view. She took another step. She didn’t have to think about whether she could or not. She somehow felt the pull of curiosity stronger than her own need to survive. She may have wanted to live, but she needed to know.

* * * * * * * * * * *

As the trip boat pulled apart the strands of the universe, Lemmy pinned the throttle, pushing the boat to a screaming five miles per hour. The vessel shook as if it were re-entering Liberums atmosphere. For a moment before the bow of the boat broke through the portal the team could see the hundreds of warrior ants below them like a porthole into hell.

The thing inside of Dibbuk turned, giving it just enough time to switch its expression from glorious purposeful hatred to abject fear. It made eye contact with Harvel for a moment. Before it could move to run, the bow of the boat pierced the portal and slammed into the nose it was borrowing.

“Keep going! We’ll catch up!” Harvel yelled, releasing Yiddek and closing the gap between himself and the bow of the boat nearly instantaneously. He flew through the portal, the boat having only made it halfway through. He whipped himself over the side, keeping one hand clasped around its unused anchor.

With unnatural speed Harvel shot towards the ground directly under the bow, landing on top of the now prone and flailing form of Dibbuk. The entity attempted to raise its massive bolter, seeking to fire on the trip boat above them. Harvel slammed his foot into Dibbuks wrist and pinned the hand along with the weapon.

“Don’t you even try… Did you think I would forget?” Harvel growled, clasping a spindly hand around the pale orange growth protruding from Dibbuks forehead. Those were the first words he’d spoken since the change that felt like they were truly his. Filled with all of the rage his mind could loose upon the evil little creature. The world began to go black.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Dibbuk drew closer to the concentrated darkness. The wretched little voice had been spewing obscenities for nearly an hour now. Dibbuk had initially thought the darkened patch was massive, but as she walked her perspective changed. Now, only a few feet away, it seemed almost miniscule. Curiosity still tugged at her mind.

“What are you?” She whispered, letting the words fade into the stillness of the water. She took another step.

“An animal. Nothing more.” She heard, suddenly feeling the presence of something next to her. Dibbuk looked over at the presence, seeing nothing with her eyes, yet feeling that the being was there none-the-less.

“And what are you?” She asked, barely able to sense the size of the being.

“That’s a good question. I suppose I’m an animal too.” The being answered. Dibbuk turned back to the origin of the little voice.

“Are you the help that big Tar-Khal told me about?” Dibbuk asked, taking another step forward. She felt the being shrug its nonexistent shoulders.

“You might have to be more specific. Most Tar-Khal are big. I am here to help either way.” The being answered, placing a hand on top of Dibbuks head and patting the top of her head crest. Dibbuk looked back up at the barely visible form.

“Sorry. I’ve always wanted to do that. I was never tall enough before. I have to say, for the first time since I was twelve I feel like a big brother.” Harvel answered, letting his hand rest comfortably in the crook between Dibbuks annoyance laden brows.

“Harvel, I don’t know how you grew seven feet, but if you keep patting my head I’ll make you five eight again.” Dibbuk stated, shaking off Harvels hand. She wasn’t in the mood for this, not tonight, or this week, or month, or year. Whichever it may have been down here in this endless sea, she wasn’t in a joking mood.

“I figured if I gave you shit you’d know it was me. That being said, what are you going to do about our little friend?” Harvel asked, making the spirit version of finger guns towards the patch of concentrated darkness and expletives.

“What do you mean? I thought you were here to help me. Help me kill it or something.” Dibbuk asked, gesturing towards all 12 feet of her brother standing next to her.

“No, no, no. I help after. I already did all of this. Right now you’re doing this part on your own.” Harvel answered, gesturing for her to keep moving.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Well, did you have help?” Dibbuk asked, sheepishly glancing at the darkness.

“I had Boris. You’ve met him. Only thing I have to say is this: think about why you’re here. Then, think about why you’re really here.” Harvel said, giving his sister a slight push between the shoulders.

Dibbuk looked back at her brother for a moment. That, all of that, hadn’t sounded quite right. It had made sense, just not coming out of Harvel. She remembered why she could be here. What the ancient Tar-Khal had said.

“Why are you allowed down here? I’m about to die, but you… You just showed up, like you were already here.” Dibbuk said, shooting her brother a confused, yet accusatory look. If Harvel could deflate, he would have. He’d been hoping to avoid confronting the topic until this was over. Then again, they had plenty of time this far down.

“We both thought this job would get us killed. I was just a little ahead of you.” Harvel admitted.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

In the tunnel the trip boat continued on its five mile per hour journey above the heads of the davisian ants. Parker and Aldon kept their pistols aimed down the pipe towards a line of ants advancing on the position of team 5. Occasionally one would look as if it were making headway towards the wastewalkers and one of the pair would lay down more fire until it was no longer a problem.

Lemmy kept glancing back at the pair of oversized beings, stock still on top of a hillock of mycelia. Harvels arm was getting longer and longer as the boat pulled away from the siblings, and Lemmy couldn’t help but wonder if there was some sort of elasticity limit. As soon as he had laid his fears aside, Harvels arm became taught.

The boat lurched at first, but kept moving after a moment. Lemmy looked back in horror to see that the two were being dragged through the mass of ants, slowly crushing the infernal insects as they steamrolled behind the boat. They left a wake of twitching legs and antennae behind them.

“I don’t think that’s a part of the plan!” Lemmy yelled, catching Yiddeks attention.

“I don’t think there really is a plan! I think it’s all just supposed to happen, and we get to figure out why later!” Yiddek answered, watching his siblings as he readied the rope ladder for the team. The line of crushed ants and gore the two had formed behind them began to fill in with still living ants. They seemed to be following Dibbuks body like some sort of idol. The only other ants moving were focused on the team, about fifty yards ahead of them.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

“So, just like that huh? You just, choked on your own goo, or whatever?” Dibbuk asked, a little distant. She had been asking her brother questions about what had been going on for the last few hours. She had told him her side of the story but it was almost like he’d already known it.

Dibbuk wasn’t sure she liked “new” Harvel all that much. He was a sort of overly wise know it all. She missed the old Harvel. He was starting to come off as condescending.

Every time he talked it was as if he were imparting some sort of otherworldly knowledge. World shaking, reality shattering type stuff. Really he was telling her about how he’d destroyed a restaurant bathroom, made a beautiful woman vomit, and nearly caused Yiddek to shit himself.

There were of course the world shattering bits, but those deserved the sense of grandeur. The parts about the infinite life among the cosmos was particularly to her liking in the revelation department. The parts about how he could taste floors probably deserved slightly less. At this point she was beginning to wonder if he was trying to irritate her.

“Oh! Good, you’ve noticed. I’ve been trying to get you to stop asking questions for about an hour now. Have you thought about why you’re really here?” Harvel said, tapping on an imaginary watch on a non-corporeal wrist.

Dibbuk stopped being angry for a moment. She had. She’d thought about why she was here since she’d started being here in the first place. All she had come up with was because she couldn’t leave well enough alone. She always had to do something, even when something didn’t need doing.

Harvel hadn’t told her to get involved with the police, that was her choice. She hadn’t needed to move the boulder in the cave in, but she’d wanted to know if she could do it. She hadn’t needed to reach into the green ooze to see what the object was, but she’d wanted to know. She could have just stayed next to the shore of this pitch black sea, but she’d wanted to know what was down here.

“Exactly, curiosity. That compulsion to know what’s in the dark, even if it will kill you. You’ve always been like that underneath the anxiety.” Harvel commented, pointing to the concentrated patch of darkness.

“It knows something. I know it too, but I can’t be the one to tell you. You have to find out for yourself Dibbuk.” Harvel continued, patting his sister between the shoulders.

“If that’s why I’m down here, and how I’ll get out, how did you? What was your reason?” Dibbuk asked, watching the spot like an animal in the dark. Harvel almost felt embarrassed. Then again, what was there to be embarrassed about now?

“Well, it was you, and Yiddek, and mum, and dad. I’ll be honest, I’d given up. I was there, just waiting to die. I’d accepted my fate, but when it started talking about you, about doing to you what it had done to me. That couldn’t happen.” Harvel answered, pulling his hand back.

The experience of dying slowly had revealed quite a bit to him about himself. He’d been too busy trying not to eat Parker at the time to really process it, but once he’d had time to digest things it had all become quite clear. He’d never really valued his own life. He’d tried not to die, of course, but he’d never done it because he felt like he had so much to live for.

He’d done it because if he died then who would be Dibbuk and Yiddeks big brother? Who would look out for them? Who would stand between them and the rest of the world? He would, even if it meant giving up whomever he'd been before.

It occurred to Harvel that without being their big brother he wasn’t anything at all. At least, there was nothing else he had ever wanted to be, not since he was seven. And as his lungs had filled with mycelia and the world had grown dark he’d understood. He didn’t care. The only thing that had mattered to him was making sure they were alright.

He was lucky to have kept that piece of him when he’d woken up. He’d only been able to keep hold of two. One, his past and present, and the other his future. As things stood, one was certain, and the other woefully unlikely.

“But, that was my reason. What’s truly important now is yours. I can’t pull you out of here unless you want to pull yourself out, and that’s only going to happen once you take the next step. You don’t need to be afraid of your purpose Dibbuk. It’s yours. It's always been with you up until now.” Harvel continued. He gave his sister a final push between the shoulder blades and took a few steps back.

“But, what’s that supposed to mean? My purpose? Curiosity? Is that really a purpose? Is it supposed to be this unclear?” Dibbuk asked, turning back to her brother. Harvel stayed silent. He was done giving her answers. Finding them on her own would be the only way forward.