By the time Vayra reached the other end of the Night Vale Chambers, she was limping and thoroughly, deeply exhausted. The tiredness crept into every inch of her body and out to the tips of her limbs, until they wanted to hang loose and do nothing. She hadn’t managed to sleep for more than a few hours in the last few days, and everything felt fuzzy.
‘If the Chambers were easy to get through, they’d be empty of treasures already,’ Phasoné said. ‘The upper sections already are, sure. Maybe one day you can go a little deeper…but for now, just go a little further. The exit is up ahead.’
Vayra limped to the end of the hallway, her leg stinging from a newly-earned gash that she was working on healing. It’d be easier to move the Arcara if she could concentrate, but that was a massive ask at the moment.
As soon as the light from her seer-core illuminated a wall of small bricks up ahead, she stopped and reached out, then ran her fingers down it.
“Yep, that’s an exit,” she whispered. Hopefully, it wouldn’t drop her out at the top of a tall mountain.
She pressed her hand against the edge of the brick frame and poured Arcara and mana into it, and an archway of runes lit up. She didn’t have much mana left—it had been a few days since she’d found a little creek with Stream water in it—and even putting mana into the runes around the door left her mouth parched and dry.
As soon as the bricks began to immaterialize, she turned her shoulder forwards and pushed out into the open daylight.
It wasn’t cloudy except for a dusting of ash on the horizon, and the bright midday light seared her eyes. She nearly staggered backwards into the Chambers, and she would have if the brick door didn’t snap shut as soon as she passed through.
She stood…halfway up a summit, immersed in a blanket of spindly gray pine trees that crept up the mountain’s flanks. She took a few steps forward and reached for one of the branches, trying to catch her balance. When her fingers brushed the needles, they crumbled into ash, leaving behind just a black branch and a few dark brown pinecones.
Vayra grimaced, feeling mildly guilty for disturbing the tree, then took a step down the path.
The gateway had deposited her on the edge of one of the first shortest mountains, and the furthest north. Ahead, there were only foothills. A path wound through the forest and across the land. She figured she could follow it, and eventually, it would lead her to the shore, but that wasn’t her destination.
The Narvelpeare Facility. That was what the two companymen had called it.
She ran to a rocky outcropping. It reached out through the trees, allowing her a clear view of the landscape for miles ahead. First, she looked at the sun to get a bearing, then rubbed her eyes. She was used to the darkness of the underground, and the bright light stung her eyes.
‘Do you know what the Narvelpeare Facility even looks like?’ Phasoné asked.
Vayra clutched onto the trunk of a tree and leaned as far forward over the valley as she could. “Nope. No idea where it is, either, if that was what you were going to ask.”
‘I was going to suggest that you ask someone who does know.’
“How?”
‘Do you see that smoke in the distance?’ Phasoné asked. ‘North, northwest.’
Vayra squinted, then looked in the direction Phasoné had mentioned. Over the foothills, a couple of smoke columns rose up from the gray forest. “That could just be a lava flow or burning trees.”
‘They’re arranged too neatly.’
Vayra slapped the side of her head, trying to get her eyes to focus. At least there was no mana or rogue Arcara here for her spiritual vision to get clouded by—she was certain that she’d be unable to control it.
The columns of smoke had been arranged in a grid-like pattern. Too unnatural.
“A village?” Vayra guessed.
‘Whatever it is, there will be people there. Ask them for directions.’ The goddess paused for a moment, then added, ‘And maybe put your feet up and sleep. You’ll need your mind put together when we go to the facility, just in case.’
It was a decent enough plan. Vayra stepped back onto the path, then followed it across the landscape. It wound back and forth down the side of the mountain, then back up across the hills. She followed it as far as she could—until it started to curve away from the columns of smoke.
She had to tromp through the undergrowth, then. She lowered her head and pushed through the small, black bushes and charred twigs, progressing slowly towards the village. The branches grew thicker further from the path. As she pushed through them, some inevitably snapped back towards her face, but she held her arms up, and they bounced off her bracers.
As she got closer, the true scale of the smoke became apparent—and it was small. Barely campfires. Which, the more she thought about it, was probably for the better. Small fires, small village, less eyes on her. They were on the north side of the mountains, now, and she didn’t need news about her travelling around.
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It was safer, then.
As she walked, the adrenaline faded from her limbs. She stopped glancing around at every shadow, and her chest felt empty. Without constant danger around every corner, her nerves calmed and her eyes felt heavy—as though they were made of stone or metal.
The feeling spread to her forehead, then to her shoulders and thighs, and she wanted nothing more than to lay down.
‘Just a little further…’ Phasoné said.
“Yep,” Vayra said, blinking fast to keep herself from falling asleep. It didn’t work. “Yep…yeah…” She bent her legs and leaned against a tree. Just a short break, a short rest, and…
‘Vayra, you’re not just…nope, we’re sleeping here? Oh, you are. Not a great place, but I guess I can’t stop you now…’
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Vayra woke up in the middle of the night with two silhouettes leaning over her. She gasped and tensed, then leapt to her feet, nearly knocking the short forms over.
When she stood up, she was nearly four times their height. They both leapt back in surprise and yelped.
Vayra pointed her hand at the sky and absorbed a little bit of starlight, ready to unleash a Starlight Palm if she needed. Her palm began to glow, and she pointed it at the two creatures, illuminating their faces with a pale light.
Two halfling children. They had small pointy ears and bushy clouds of brown hair clinging to their head. One, who wore a tattered red coat, scampered back a few steps and hid behind a tree. The other, the younger one, who didn’t wear any sort of coat at all, stayed firmly in place with her arms crossed.
Vayra shook her arm out, dispelling the technique before she could launch it at an innocent child. Nervously, she looked up at the sky to try to tell what time it was. Without being able to see a moon, she had no idea. The sky was pitch black, without even a hint of twilight or sunrise, and the stars glimmered fiercely.
“Hello, miss!” exclaimed the halfling girl who hadn’t hid. “We thought you were dead. Are you dead? Are you a zombie?”
“Come on, Rono.” The other halfling girl reached out from behind the tree trunk and grabbed the first’s blouse, trying to tug her back as well. Judging by their appearance, they were sisters—same hair, same eyes, same jitter in their voice.
Vayra blinked a few times, then rubbed her eyes. “I’m—I’m alive. I’m good.” She still felt sleepy, and a sleep-debt like the one she’d incurred couldn’t be repaid in a single night. And certainly not without a few good meals. But that could come later. She knelt down and looked at the two little girls. “I’m not going to hurt you. I promise, you’ll be safe with me.”
“Is that because you’re all starry and glowy?” the first halfling, Rono, said. No matter how hard her sister pulled, she didn’t budge. She looked up at Vayra with wide, glowing eyes. “Are you a Goddess?”
Phasoné chuckled a little, then said, ‘She sounds like you, just a little.’
Vayra rolled her eyes, both at the halfling and Phasoné.
“I’m just a traveller,” Vayra whispered. She stroked her chin, then saw an opportunity. “Can you tell me which way the Narvelpeare Facility is?”
“The Narvel…Narvel…our camp?” Rono shook her head, her curly hair flopping back and forth.
“No, no, the—” Vayra cut herself off and groaned. “A mining station. It’s really big and there would be lots of people there, and…”
“I’ve never been out of these woods!” Rono chirped. “And there’s nothing big here!”
Vayra stared pointedly at both of the halflings. “Yes, I can see that.” She raised her eyebrows, and looked up at the sky. If it really was the middle of the night, what were two children doing out in the woods alone? “Wait, wait. Where are your parents?”
“They’re back at our camp!”
“The Camp?” Vayra asked, recalling the resistance camp. She didn’t think she’d travelled that far north—or these two halflings were really far from home.
‘There weren’t any children in the resistance camp, Vayra,’ Phasoné said.
Rono put her hands on her hips and pouted. “It’s just our camp.”
Not the resistance, then. Vayra sighed. It was probably where she had seen the smoke rising from earlier. “Can you take me there, please?” There would have to be an adult there who could tell her where the Narvelpeare Facility was.
“No,” Rono asserted. Her sister stopped pulling on her sleeve, and now, the older halfling approached from behind, holding a stick like it was a sword. Rona snapped, “Fora!”
Rono and Fora (that had to be the older sister’s name) leaned closer to each other and took turns whispering in each other’s ear. Vayra knew they’d stop if she tried to lean closer, so she tried to strain her ears and listen. She barely caught something about sneaking out of camp.
“We’ll take you to our camp!” Rono proclaimed, and for a moment, Vayra’s spirits rose. “If you help us find the Ignimaids!”
“I—Ignimaids?” Vayra tilted her head. She looked up at the sky, trying to spot the columns of smoke she’d seen earlier. The sky was too dark, and though she could wait until morning, she didn’t want to—nor did she like the idea of letting two children, maybe eight or nine years old, wander about the woods on their own.
Bremi had been a pain enough when he was their age, and she was sure she had been the same way.
“Ignimaids!” Rono grabbed Vayra’s boot and began to pull on it. “The loggers were talking about them! This is the closest we’ll ever get to seeing a real mermaid!” The halfling girl stopped for a moment and tilted her head. “You’re not an Ignimaid, are you?”
Vayra raised her eyebrows, then ran a hand through her orange hair. “Don’t think so.”
“We’ll never see anything!” Rono stomped her foot down and crossed her arms. “We’ll never do anything fun!”
Vayra took a deep breath, then put a hand on Rono’s shoulder. At first, she planned on begging the halfling girl to go back to her parents—thus leading Vayra to the camp—but she couldn’t bring herself to.
Besides, Ignimaids? She hadn’t seen one before, either…
“Tell you what,” Vayra said. “I’ll help you find them. But then we have to go to your camp, alright?”
Rono jumped in a circle, then cheered, “Deal!”