A flickering orange light glowed far under the powdery surface, smothered by a layer of grey ash. A jagged fragment of black glass churned the pile of ash causing hundreds of sparks to erupt into the air illuminating the surrounding area in bright orange light before dimming again back into twilight as the sparks flickered out of existence.

Moving her head, Iris could see Kia was still awake as her eyes lazily followed one spark's short lived journey. She couldn't help but notice the way the spark seemed to dance in the girl's eyes. The flickering reflection made it seem as though the dimming spark was alive inside her eyes. It was as if she was in a trance, completely lost in the hypnotic glow of the burning ember. As the spark died upon gracefully landing, Kia's soft skin regained its ephemeral beauty hidden under the veil made from the warm and alive light. The girl raised her hand and touched her other hand, causing her body to jerk forward.

"Iris?" The girl quietly whispered to Iris so as not to wake up the sleeping fox opposite to them.

"Yes?" Iris gave the hurt necromancer a small smile while she began to scratch the girl under her jaw.

*Purr* "I want you to become stronger." A blunt directive came from the cooing undead mage.

"Is that an order?"

"Nooo... I-I don't want to dominate you ever again," The girl resting against the elf's chest looked much more mature than before. "You were soo cold after I fixed you I thought I had broken you. I felt like something wanted to change me while I forced you to be annoying."

"I can even become a hero if that is what it takes to keep you safe."

"Us safe."

"Us," The elf repeated Kia's words, igniting a furnace inside of her. "But first we have to find a way to patch up your mana links before anything else."

"Yes! I'm tired of not being able to stand up," The girl's eyes twinkled like a night sky as she spoke before dimming once again. "Iris?"

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"You want something?"

"Can I eat?"

"When did I forbid you from eating?" The elf frowned at the strangely acting necromancer.

"You never did but like- it's not like I actually like it but... *Grrr*" The adorable kitten struggled to speak as her pale skin became redder and redder. A brown circular cookie appeared in the girl's hands which the girl handed to the bewildered elf "Don't look at me like this, it's embarrassing. It's all your fault anyway."

"Smells nice," Iris watched as a face of utter fear appeared on the pouting girl as she lifted the sweet treat toward her mouth. "You are as hopeless as ever." She dropped her playful mask and began to indulge the girl a little, basking in the delighted glow her saviour radiated.

Throughout the night the two demi-humans changed shifts to watch over the camp even with an untiring undead also keeping watch over it. The two women appeared to need far more sleep than normal humans but looked to not need to sleep in one long sitting to rest properly.

"You never take rest?" Shiro asked the elf in the middle cleaning Kia's face as she laid a water skin next to the ash inside the campfire.

"Sometimes." The risen answered. She didn't feel tired in a conventional way. Her mind got strained the longer she stayed up but it was unnoticeable before resting and realising how much better she felt after.

"That must be hard livi-existing with barely any rest."

"I barely notice it." Iris said before wetting the edge of her shirt and rubbing it on Kia's cheek trying to get rid of the dried-out blood.

"I'm curious, wouldn't the years of making mistakes, both small and large not weigh on you?"

"I-I'm not that old." The almost four-month-old undead said with a bit of embarrassment.

"Same here."

"I am only 19 years old."

The warrior's red eyes frowned at the undead elf before Shiro showed Iris her sharp teeth in a strange form of an amused smile. "Good one bone rattler, you gave me quite a chuckle," The woman's amused smile slowly vanished. The undead hoplite contemplated correcting the demi-human but she herself wasn't sure what her actual age was. Her system told her she was almost four months old, her body was one-hundredth and nineteen years old while her mind was filled with only nineteen years worth of memories. "You are jesting aren't you?"

"My age is a complicated thing." Iris replied to the warrior who seemed to not look away as she poured herself a cup of hot water.

Four figures walked through a tunnel for the past four bells without stopping, rarely a plant root would hang from the sealing reminding them of the lush green grassland far above before one of the demi-humans would cut it off. The walls around them turned to stone as the never ending tunnel delved further into the earth.

"We reached the middle stratum." Shiro said.

"Should we slow down now?" The shaman turned to her guard, letting herself catch a breath.

"There shouldn't be anything dangerous here except an occasional hopper or a cave goblin but we do have to be careful this path leads us nearby the entrance to the lower stratum and I'm unsure if something won't try to come up to greet us," The forked tail hit the fox's back in encouragement. "Just listen for the earth humming and we will be fine."

"Why is that?" The tall risen asked from behind the two women.

"Wyrm."

"You mean the wyrm's larvae?" Nakatei chimed in, giggling nervously.

"Oh yeah that too Tei but as long as you don't get ambushed they are easy to deal with." As the senior warrior turned around on the heel of her boot her ward gulped before following the cat.

Not even a bell after Shiro announced their arrival to the middle stratum the small and dark tunnel suddenly opened up into a gorge split between an underground river flowing with pristine water. The river gleamed with the unexplainable silvery light shining from far above keeping the cave in silvery twilight permeated by the murmur of the water flowing.