The air was heavy with the clatter of metallic legs. And with the sounds of the dying.

“Help!”

“Please… No!”

The tide of spiders was unstoppable, mowing Climbers with impunity as it steadily advanced.

Around him, the faceless Climbers cried and panicked, trying to run off the bridges. There was no cohesion, there was no strategizing anymore. The battle was lost. And from beyond the enemy lines, the gates were slowly closing.

“Nar!”

Nar whipped his head around, looking for the source of the caller.

“Jul?”

“Nar? Where are you?”

“Kur?” Nar shouted, trying to stand still against the stampede of fleeing Climbers.

Their lines had crumbled, and the spiders were coming in to finish their job. Before his eyes, a greater spider skewered Climbers with impunity and efficiency, simply carrying out the job it had been commanded to do.

“Nar!”

“Rel?”

“Nar!”

“Nar?”

“Nar… Where are you?”

Around him, his party called out to him, but no matter how hard he looked, he couldn’t find them amidst the fleeing Climbers. And despite his best efforts to stay and fight, the tide eventually swept him along, backwards, to where he’d come from.

“No!” he shouted, futilely fighting back against the current. “I’m not going back!”

And oh, how right he was…

“The entrance is closed!”

“Let us out! Please, let us out!”

“Crystal, have mercy! I’ll go back to my cubeplant!”

Behind him, explosions rang out amidst cries of pain, and Nar swiveled to watch a rain of electric blue projectiles come down upon the trapped Climbers.

We’re done for… It’s over.

And in the distance, towering above all other enemies, the Raid Boss rose, crawling with spiders. Broken, missing parts, it should have stayed down. They had destroyed it! They had brought it down to zero HP! What was this injustice? This cruelty?

Instead, the Raid Boss roared with dark blue jets of electricity of such power and intensity that Nar could feel their heat from all the way back where he stood.

How is this fair? Nar asked himself, as electricity rained down on the defeated Climbers.

It was to be a massacre now. Not one of them would live to see what was beyond the bright light shining in through the gates, so cruelly beckoning to them.

To him.

I’m sorry, dad. I really did my best…

And he caught sight of a particular blue projectile, as it slowly, lazily, arched its way above the final moments of the Climbers. Nar followed it with his eyes, knowing it was coming for him, and that there was nothing left for him to do.

His party was gone.

His dad would die of the Wasting.

He had risked it all, and he had failed.

Better to just end it quickly.

And the projectile came, its presence coming closer and closer. Becoming more real. More solid.

It was right there with him.

Someone was right there with him!

*********

Nar woke with a sharp intake of breath, drawing forth his sword even as he sat up on the bed.

“Hello, Nar,” a voice said, in the low-lit room he found himself in. “I’m senior healer-apprentice nurse Kit. You can just call me Kit. You are on the sickbay of the Apprentice-Ship Scimitar. You are treated. You, and everyone in your party, is safe.”

Breathing hard, it took a few moments for his sight to focus.

He was in a simple and clean looking room, soft lines of light glowing from under the wall, a foot or some from the floor. There was a bed, upon which he currently sat, and there was a small table of some kind at his side. Atop it was some kind of transparent container, filled with a transparent liquid. And jutting from it…

“It’s a flower,” the same voice said. “It’s a blue larias.”

“A… flower?” Nar mumbled.

Knowledge dripped into his brain and Nar’s face relaxed.

He leaned in closer, to look at the flower’s shimmering blue petals, and the little dark purple thin things that grew in its center. The flower had a long black stem, from which grew a single, perfectly shaped, dark blue leaf.

At least, to Nar’s eyes, it looked perfect.

“You can touch it, if you want,” Kit said. “Everything about it is good for recovery.”

Nar reached out with his left hand, his sword forgotten in his right hand and resting over his legs.

He hesitated before touching it, then he reached forward with just his index finger. The petals were soft, and they glimmered in the low light. Cool to the touch, a gentle caress beneath his skin.

“It’s alive…” he breathed, his eyes going wide.

“Yes. It's a plant. It grows out here in the Labyrinth. In dungeons and domains,” the voice explained. “And it's in a nutrient dense gel. As long as we keep replenishing it, it should go on living for many, many years.”

“Living…” Nar whispered.

The thought of the wondrous sight before him not lasting forever made his heart ache, and he continued to trace the flower with his fingers.

The dark purple things were less soft, and somewhat sticky.

The stem was strong. Firm. Made for the purpose of holding up the flower and it was fulfilling that job without fault. And the leaf… It was just so smooth. Delicate, but resilient.

Alive? He thought.

It was hard for him to comprehend that.

All his life he’d seen walls, metal and trash. The concept of plants was just… It might just be the most bewildering knowledge the System had ever granted him.

“Nar,” the voice called out again. “Can you put the sword away, please?”

The weight on his right hand suddenly became all too real, as did the knowledge that he was not alone, and he jerked his hand back from the flower.

Before him, standing a few feet away from the bed, leaning patiently against the wall, was a human woman, maybe a few years older than him.

She was dressed in a plain, black and brown garb, neither form fitting nor too big for her frame. Her skin was a slightly darker shade than his, and she had dark, shoulder length hair. From where she stood, she watched him with unmistakable patience.

She smiled at him when he finally looked at her.

“You’re safe here,” she said again.

“Oh… I… Yes. I’m sorry,” Nar said, feeling suddenly ashamed of his conduct, and stored away his sword.

“It’s alright. You’ve just woken in an unfamiliar place, and after a day like that, no less,” she said, coming away from the wall in a slow, purposeful single movement that he could easily read as non-threatening. “May I approach you? I just want to check on you and make sure the treatment worked.”

“Uhm… Yes,” he said, nodding. “Yes. Of course! I mean, please! Thank you!”

Kit’s smile widened as she approached him.

“Alright. I’m going to lay my hand on your chest and check your core and channels.”

“O-Okay!” Nar said, trying to relax as Kito placed a gentle hand over his chest and closed her eyes. “Hmmm. Core?”

“Don’t worry about it. You will learn everything soon, in your first aura class,” she said, her eyes still closed. “Now, please be quiet for a moment.”

“Yes. Sorry…”

“No worries. And just breathe normally.”

Nar did as he was told and kept his mouth shut and his breathing as regular and normal as possible. Whatever normal meant to the apprentice-healer.

For her side, she moved her hand from his chest after a few moments and placed it on his back instead, then she went progressively lower, following down along his spine.

After a while, he felt his tension melt under her soft, and strangely, but pleasantly warm hands. When she told him to lie back down and continued to examine his body, or his channels, like she had said, Nar simply did as he was told and let her do her work, remaining silent.

Did she mean my [Aura Channels]? He wondered. That would make sense. From his limited knowledge of the passive’s skill description, there were channels carved out throughout his body to allow aura to circulate through. Does that mean that the core is where the ball of light is?

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Your signals spiked earlier. Distress, and attempt to use aura. That’s why I came to check up on you,” she said in a soft tone. “Nightmare?”

Nar grimaced. “Yes.”

“The Ceremony, or something else?”

“The Ceremony. We had failed,” Nar said, feeling that he should tell her for some reason. “We were pushed back, but there was nowhere to go. I was going to die… We all were.”

Kit nodded with a solemn expression. “That was the fate of many Climbers today, unfortunately. I myself still dream of it, from time to time. I will never forget it… It went a lot worse than your Ceremony, that’s for sure.”

“You’re a Climber?” Nar asked, surprised.

“Ex-Climber, actually,” she said, smiling. “And so are you. Once you’re past those gates, you’re not a Climber anymore. That part of yourself is done, and stays behind as you exit, free and forgiven.”

Nar lifted his head to look at her hands, both on his left leg.

“I used to be an archer,” she said, correctly interpreting Nar’s confusion. “But combat delving wasn’t for me and I had some aptitude for healing. I much prefer this path.”

“Ohhh…” Nar said, laying back down, and unsure of what to say to that.

Kit withdrew her hands from his leg and walked around the bed, to repeat the same procedure on his right leg.

“Do you remember what happened to you, since coming out?”

Nar frowned at the question. “I do, but there’s bits missing.”

“Can you tell me what you remember?” Kit urged him, slowly making her way up his leg.

“From the fight?” he asked, frowning at the hazy memories.

“Afterwards. From the point you exited.”

“There… There were petals falling on us. A crowd. Our faces on a screen. Then a man came to talk to us… A priest! He said we were forgiven and something about not being paid by the hour?”

“Wow. A very materialistic priest, uh?” she said, chuckling to herself. “What else?”

“We kept walking… I wasn’t feeling great, but we needed to get… Rel!”

Kit placed a hand over his chest, and gently but firmly pushed him back down. “The alfin, right? She’s fine, she’s being treated. There is nothing to worry about. She’ll make a full recovery.”

Nar felt his eyes mist. “Thank the Crystal…”

And he was sincere. After all they’d gone through. After Rel had sacrificed herself for everyone to survive, it would’ve been too much if she hadn’t made it in the end.

“And then?” the healer asked him, drawing him back to his recounting of the events.

“Then? Oh, then we found a healer, but they couldn’t fix Rel. That’s when some men came in… They did something to us. I couldn’t move. Couldn’t speak.”

She made a face. “Yeah, I heard of that. Good thing the COO got there when she did. And don’t worry. Most of the people running security for the Ceremony are either ex-Climbers or descendants from Climbers. I doubt those goons left the place alive. They won’t be hurting anyone, anymore, ever again.”

Nar nodded slowly, somewhat unsure of what to make of that information. Given the grim fate that Tys had painted for them, he didn’t feel sorry for those men. At the same time, it felt somewhat not exactly right to kill them as defenseless as Tys had made them.

Then again, we were defenseless, and that didn’t stop them, he realized. They were just like the cannibals, preying on their own. And they got what they deserved for it…

“And then?” Kit asked him, placing her hands on either side of his lower belly.

“Oh. Uuuh… The rest is a bit more of a blur. We took the AetherLines. We saw the factory hub. Crisps, the COO said?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t know. I’ve never been there.”

“Ah. And then, we were walking into the ship and things got crazy, I think?”

Kit shook her head. “The captain went a bit crazy, and the pilots were all too happy to oblige her and let loose. And then?”

“Then, a guy brought me here. A healer?”

“A junior healer-apprentice. Pokas’ his name. And do you remember anything of what happened here?”

Nar licked his suddenly dry lips and shook his head. “Just… Pain.”

“Hmm. That was painful to watch,” she said, and moved her hands to the middle of his stomach. “Be quiet again now, please.”

Nar nodded, and let Kit continue to examine his stomach, then his solar plexus, his lungs and finally, she rested a single hand over the center of his chest, a few fingers directly below his throat.

Her hand radiated a comforting heat, and he felt himself dozing off as it spread across his chest, reaching deep down into him, towards where his aura was.

Unconsciously, he found himself drifting down after it, to where his aura existed, in that unknown place within him.

“How does it look like?” Kit’s voice came to him, sounding from afar.

Nar looked his ball of aura over.

“It’s okay now. Calm,” he said, then he frowned. “It looks bigger?”

“Possibly. You will all have received substantial gains from surviving the Ceremony and finishing the Climb. You probably have them in your notifications, but it's late, so rest tonight and look at them tomorrow. That’s a healer’s order, do you understand?”

Nar opened his eyes and found her staring sternly at him, her hand and warmth gone from his chest.

“I… Yes! I promise!”

“Good. Now, about your condition,” she said.

She pulled at a small, thin cylinder from the pocket on the left side of her chest, and held it in front of her. A screen of transparent, light blue grew from it. It was filled with words, diagrams, symbols and other things that Nar couldn’t make, presumably, because he was looking at it from the wrong side.

“When you came in, you were suffering from severe aura exhaustion,” she explained. “That last attack you did, it sucked up all the aura you had available across your entire body and core, triggering what we call a collapsing core.”

“What?” he asked, going pale.

“It’s bad, and it was caused by using that much aura all at once,” she said. “It was, and is, more than you can currently sustain, especially so close to the exit.”

Nar could only stare at her. “What-what do you mean?”

“Just wait until your first aura class,” Kit told him. “The Master of Aura will explain everything. In the meantime, don’t use your aura at all, do you understand me?”

Nar nodded slowly. “I won’t. And… That won’t happen again. It was a reward. A one-time use of an advanced skill.”

“Oh, I see,” Kit said, her eyebrows knighting together, and she started tapping and drawing onto her screen. “That’s good then. You also had a mild case of aura burning throughout your channels, which is surprising, given the sheer amount of aura that you cycled through to use that skill.”

“You saw that?” Nar asked.

“We did. The recruiters acquired all apprentice footage from the fight for assessment, and for us healers to know what happened and better do our work,” she said. “Now, like I said, the Master of Aura will explain all of this in depth during your aura classes, so for now, suffice to say that you were drained and burned and, well, dying… Not to worry, though! The master fixed you up in seconds.”

Nar exhaled in relief. Though he remembered a lot of pain for just a few seconds.

“At worst, you probably feel some soreness and tightness?”

Nar nodded. “Yes, and I'm tired. I feel heavy.”

“It’s to be expected. Think of your aura channels as like your veins, but for your soul, which inhabits your body. If you were to cut into your body, you would never find your channels, but they are there, and it's through them that your aura cycles through your body, empowering you, and allowing you to use it for your skills. But again, the master will explain it all in detail.”

“Okay.”

“For now, you are discharged. Once you leave the sickbay, there will be a path to guide you to the room you will be sharing with your party while aboard the Scimitar.”

She tapped and dragged her finger across the screen a few more times, then the screen blacked off, and she placed the cylinder back in her pocket.

“Alright then, follow me. You should be able to walk on your own.”

Nar swung his legs carefully over the side of the bed, and when he found nothing worse than soreness and some tightness, just like she had said, he stood up gingerly.

“All good?” Kit asked, looking him up and down.

“Yeah. Think so.”

“Alright, follow me then.”

The door slid open to grant them access into a corridor that was similarly also dimly lit by lines of light that ran across its length, coming from somewhere near the bottom of the walls.

“This way,” Kit whispered.

Nar looked up from the light, and noticed the long rows of doors identical to the one that had slid open to let them out.

She stepped forward, silently, over the smooth, light beige floor boards, and Nar marveled at what he perceived was the quality of it. He didn’t need to touch it to know that it would be incredibly smooth and cool to the touch. In fact, he almost did touch it. He was curious to know what material it was made of.

Definitely not metal. Or whatever the walls of the B-Nex were made off. Or our homes…

Soon, they reached a little open area, where a gray sentient with an androgynous face stood behind a high sort of table thing. There were also more things he guessed were plants, spread around the area, and some kind of mist was blowing up from behind a particularly dense and dark green plant, filling the silence with its soft sigh.

The sentient gave Nar a nod as they passed through and Kit stopped before a double door that slid open to reveal another corridor.

The contrast between the sick bay and the stark, bare and metal corridor gave Nar a moment of pause. And at his feet, a string of white arrows pointed him towards the left side of that dark corridor.

Before he could say anything however, Kit waved him goodbye. “Well, good luck tomorrow. It’s going to be busy. And I hope we won't need to see you again.”

“Uh?” Nar said, in confusion.

However, the door slid closed, and with it, the healer was gone.

Oh… She meant she hopes I don’t get hurt again, he realized, feeling somewhat miffed that he hadn’t at least said a proper goodbye and thanks to the healer. However, she was right, and he did hope he didn’t have to come by the sickbay ever again… Even if he doubted he would never return given his propensity to get injured.

Nar took a moment to take in the dimly yellow lit corridor he now found himself in.

The corridor was hexagonal in shape, and made out of some sort of rust colored metal. Above his head, through the grilled ceiling, he traced neat lines of wiring with his eyes, in bright colors that ranged from light-blue, to red, white and black. And looking down, he saw that he was standing under an identical grilled flooring, and that under his feet, thicker, dark gray tubes of some kind were neatly stacked side by side.

“Uh,” he made.

So, this is an aethership…

He had a vague memory of looking up to an imposing wall of brown red metal, so he assumed that the ship had to be quite big in size. However, that corridor wasn’t much to go by.

Well, I’m sure I’ll be able to see more of it. For now, I should get to bed.

Even though he had just woken up, the fog of tiredness was starting to spread across his mind again, and he was sore. All over.

And she said it was going to be busy tomorrow, so I better go get some sleep.

He followed the white arrows laid out before him and grimaced at the sudden memory of similar arrows, except in yellow.

He shook his head.

Right, let’s go find that room.

*********

The path took him along corridors that all looked pretty much the same, except for the strings of numbers and letters that one could find at the beginning, middle and end of each corridor.

At some point, he was directed to enter a tube of some kind, that reminded him of the blasters back home. Before he could figure out what was expected of him, the door had slid shut, and he had felt the pull of gravity that indicated that he was rising.

Thinking back, he did remember, very vaguely, about Tys talking to them about these things called lifts, which allowed one to go up or down, and even right or left, within buildings and ships.

On a small indicator on the wall, he could see a number counting down.

Shouldn’t it be counting up, if I’m going up? Then again, Tys called the outer level of the O-Nex the Level Zero. So maybe they count up to go down, and down to go up. Yep. That’s got to be it.

The lift came to a stop and a slight ding sounded from somewhere above his head. The door opened to reveal another brown red, hexagonal corridor and Nar dutifully set out after the path at his feet.

How much longer do I have to go, he thought, as he went past the corridor’s number on the wall.

4GH. Hmm. I think 4 was the last number on the lift, so I’m guessing that that's the floor I’m on.

Ahead of him, the corridor suddenly opened into a wider room, and his feet landed on a very soft and smooth kind of light beige material.

As he walked into it, he noted the tables, the chairs, and several round or long, light green pieces of furniture that had to be intended for sitting. On the far wall, there were several illuminated machines of some kind, with transparent fronts through which he could see rows and rows of different, brightly colored objects. A hum filled the room, and Nar had a feeling it came from those machines at the back.

Wonder what those are for…

Curious, he turned around and looked towards the other side of the room, expecting to see more tables and sitting. Instead, he found his vague reflection, and beyond it, a void of twilight deep purple.

Nar gasped and stumbled backwards, and his knees tripped on one of the long seats, landing him heavily upon the green, cushioned material.

Nar barely noticed it, as his eyes tried to make sense of the sight before him.

Instead of the second half of the room, before him, there was instead a wide section of the wall that was made of a different and transparent material. And beyond it, there was an inky purple dark, that stretched on forever.

And on that velvet twilight, as far as his eyes could see, were endless aetherships, leaving golden rainbow trails of glimmering color in their wake.

Mute, Nar stood up, and approached what had to be a window showing the outside of the ship.

His breath fogged the material a little, so close he got to it, but he didn’t even register it.

Aetherships.

Aetherships in numbers unfathomable.

All of them were pointing in one direction, presumably the same one as the Scimitar.

The Endless Labyrinth.

Nar was on a delving ship, about to go on a two year delve.

The majestic sight before him blurred.

I did it… Dad. I did it. I’m out. I’m on an aethership. And I’m going to get stronger to come for you.

He touched his hand to the cold window, touching it with his nose as he sought to take it all in.

The ships in their infinite shapes and sizes. Their glimmering wakes. The beauty of the twilight color of the endless void.

One day, my dad will see this. One day. And I don’t care what I have to do or suffer to make it happen. One day he’ll be here. He’ll be free.

And his goal of reaching his room was forgotten, and for a while, all that he knew was the wondrous sight before him, and the tight fist of longing and loss within him.