Dan was floating. Not in water, but there was definitely something underneath him. He hadn’t checked what it was because it didn’t seem to matter. Nothing seemed to matter right now. That didn’t feel right, but Dan couldn’t bring himself to worry about it, even if he wanted to. Which he didn’t.

His eyes remained closed. If he didn’t open them, nothing would change. That didn’t make much sense, but things didn’t have to make sense in a dream. Dan had realised he was dreaming a short while ago, but the dream hadn’t seemed to notice and react, so he remained floating. There was a light on the other side of his eyelids which was bothering Dan slightly, but moving his head might break the calm, so he stayed in deadlock with it for a long time.

Distantly, Dan heard a clap of thunder. That seemed to be a cue, because then the light that hovered in the air vanished. Chancing a peek, Dan squinted out of one closed eye. As he suspected, he was lying on a cloud. Obviously. There was a bounce to it as he sat up. As far as the eye could see was open space, an eternity of fluffy cotton that rolled on and on forever.

Looking around, no longer fearing the end of the dream, Dan could not see anywhere that threatened thunder. All the clouds he could see were the same creamy peach colour, like those as sunset nears. Seeing nowhere to go, and no reason to leave his spot, Dan lay down again.

“You always were a sleepyhead.” As though the clouds themselves had spoken, Dan heard the words from everywhere at once. The voice was the very definition of warmth and beauty.

“That’s not true,” Dan said with a smile, “You must have the wrong Dan.” As this was a dream, it felt sensible to correct the clouds.

“Ah,” the clouds sighed, “I suppose that’s right. You’re not my Dan. Not any more.” Now the clouds turned dark. Thunder clapped again, but not the distant rumbling Dan had heard before but the entire bed of fluffy cloud seemed to explode around him. “That doesn’t matter though, does it? Even if you’re not my Dan, you’re still him. Still going to beat the game, aren’t you Dan?”

Each word was like the splitting of the earth, the dream quickly becoming nightmarish. Not knowing what else to say, Dan lost himself to fear. Primal, desperate, clawing fear that had him tearing at the cloud below him. He needed to fall, if he fell then the clouds wouldn’t have him any more. “I’m sorry!” He wept, scooping darkening handfuls of clumpy clouds from beneath himself.

“Sorry has never, ever been enough.” The cloud layer disappeared, and Dan began to tumble. “I know I’ll see you again, but I wish you’d stay away.” The beautiful voice held within it such sadness and anger that Dan felt shame within himself. Not quite knowing why, as he hurtled towards the ground, he shouted.

“Whatever I did, I’ll make up for it!”

“Ha,” the clouds let loose a scornful laugh, along with a sky splitting arc of lightning “you really won’t ever change.”

The lightning hit Dan’s chest, and the dream ended.

That’s when the pain started. No longer in the blissfully comfortable clouds, Dan’s back was against hard stone. Before he could even begin to cycle mana, there was movement beside him. The last thing Dan remembered was the horrific face of Steel Fever, and as he flinched at the noise he could not help but to cry out in pain.

“Dan! Shhh, it’s okay, you’re safe.” The soothing words were hard to trust, as Dan could not make out who said them. “Well, as safe as you can be given the circumstances. Really none of us are safe, I suppose.”

“That’s probably not helping, Mei.”

“I’m just being honest, Hyun.”

“You’re both being annoying.”

As the banter continued, and Dan’s discomfort was forgotten, he realised what must have happened. “We made it?” The words were like fire leaving Dan’s chest. He would do whatever he could not to speak for the foreseeable future. Apparently his words were too quiet anyway, because the argument continued around Dan regardless.

Not sure whether to laugh or cry, he instead cycled his energy. By the time Dan felt confident in his control, the three others had devolved into a loud type of silence that involved a lot of huffing and puffing.

“Is everyone okay?” Dan projected his voice through his mana. From what Dan had worked out while his mana scattered around, the group had chosen to stop at the first opportunity. Waiting at the bottom of the stairs into the labyrinth, they had decided to catch their breath and maybe wait for Dan himself to wake up.

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“Dan! I forgot!” Xiaomei rushed to his side, Hyun Soon joining her quickly. Fa Lian kept a distance, seemingly unworried. “Yes, we’re all okay. You really are incredible, it’s unfair that you’re the one so beaten.”

“I dunno,” Hyun Soon laughed, lightening the mood, “he should get better at dodging maybe.” He grunted as Xiaomei struck him in the solar plexus. It wasn’t a hard hit, but she aimed for the vitals and he went down.

“We’re all mostly okay, don’t worry about this lunk. We were waiting for you to wake up before moving. There’s no rush though.”

“That’s good,” Dan answered, “because I really don’t think I can. There’s a room down the hall just to the right, I can’t see inside though.” Dan was hoping that there was a specific reason he couldn’t see through this door, but a sinking feeling had him fairly certain that the labyrinth’s magic was going to be nearly as annoying as the vault’s magic had been.

Fa Lian cursed, the first noise she had made since Dan awoke. “So, there was no point waiting? Can I go and see what’s inside now?” Clearly the others had talked her into waiting for Dan to scout ahead before they started opening doors. Without waiting for an answer, Fa Lian stalked past the other three and made for the door.

“Go with her.” Xiaomei told Hyun Soon, who had been looking between the two girls worriedly, unsure what to do. With Xiaomei’s permission, he joined Fa Lian as they explored what was to come.

“I agree with you, by the way.” Dan told Xiaomei.

“What’s that?” She asked, unsure of Dan’s meaning.

“I don’t think we are safe.” Dan still couldn’t move much but as the door to the next room opened and the journey into the labyrinth started in full, he made the effort to push himself up slightly. Using mana to fuel his movements had worked against Po Shang, and it was going to help him keep their forward momentum now. “We can’t get split up. We’re not safe, yet. We’ll get through this.”

Xiaomei just looked at Dan with a sad look on her face. “Mmm,” she nodded, “let’s hope there’s no surprises for a while. Maybe this room is like a starting room, right?”

Hyun Soon came flying out of the room, crashing into the wall opposite the open portal to the next room. “We’re going to need help here!” He shouted, summoning his gauntlets. Orange light flickered around his arms, solidifying.

Xiaomei looked at Dan who she had been about to help walk. “So much for that,” Dan said, “I’ll catch up, go help them.” Xiaomei sped away, stopping at the door to gawp at whatever was inside before launching inside. The sounds of some kind of battle were happening, but as Dan had worried, his mana did not pierce the door. It took him over a minute to hobble his way over to the open door. As he grabbed the doorframe, a carved space in the rock with a wooden door frame thrown open, Dan’s mana was no longer barred from entry.

It entered the room with him, and he gasped. They had walked through an impossibly massive vault into a labyrinth of dark purple-ish stone, so the sight before Dan could not possibly exist. Yet, as his mana settled on the flowers and grass, there was no arguing. They had walked out into an open, gorgeous field, complete with sunlight, smells of nature and even wind. As well as the huge killer plants which were batting Hyun Soon and Fa Lian around.

Knowing he was no help, Dan slumped into the grass and watched. Standing well over twenty feet tall, the bulbous plant creatures were slightly gruesome to behold. The bulb at their base sent probing roots forward to pull itself around. Whenever someone got close enough, a vine would whip across and defend the plant. There was no real danger to them, but Dan could see they hit hard enough to send even Hyun Soon skidding across the floor. Once the surprise was over, Hyun Soon was able to combine with Xiaomei in an acrobatic move while Fa Lian simply aged another plant into nonexistence.

The tall boy grabbed Xiaomei’s hand as she was thrown away from one of the massive plants. Swinging her around using the momentum, he launched her high over the murderous flower. A trail of ribbon stayed with Hyun, Dan could see that she had slipped it into Hyun Soon’s hand as he grabbed and swung her. As she landed, she continued running in the same direction. Hyun planted his feet and between the two of them, the ribbon snapped taut, bisecting the flower vertically.

“See?” Lian was being belligerent as she rounded on the rest of them. “Told you we would be fine. We need to keep moving.”

“No, we don’t.” Xiaomei snapped at Lian. She had a nasty welt across her right cheek where one of the whipping tendrils had caught her in the jaw. “We were fine, but we might not be if we keep pushing it. Let Dan rest.”

“Staying here won’t help.” Lian said simply.

“And why are you so sure?”

Hyun Soon had wisely decided to stand next to Dan as the tensions rose once more. Fa Lian looked like she was going to say something, before making herself angry and simply storming away. She shouted a series of “fine” and “whatever” when anyone tried to assuage the argument, but they took the fact she stayed in the room as agreement to at least stick together.

Dan watched her, but did not try to console. He had no energy. Dan fell asleep again. For the first time in a while, it was his own volition and he fell into a dreamless sleep.

When he awoke, they would challenge the labyrinth proper.

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Ryong Aang was angry, and that was seeping out to the girl. That was not good, but there was nothing he could do. The labyrinth was of her make, and so it would be conniving and dangerous. Truly a perfect place to train his new young dragon, but it would be unpleasant for any not willing to be forged in fire.

It mattered not. The children would need to deal with more than just frustration in the labyrinth.

A whole world of dangers stood before them.

Ryong Aang wished them luck, and tried to sleep.

———————————————————————————

On the steps of the Guan family entrance to the labyrinth, a small piece of liquid metal pooled and waited. It would wait as long as it could, hoping the boy wouldn’t see it. One day, it would get its revenge. Until then, it waited.

———————————————————————————

In a place both above Jaia and somewhere much further away completely, the empty god watched one of her worlds. It had been a long time since she took notice of anything at all, and this was not particularly different. She did not take notice of the children in the labyrinth, nor the war brewing upon the surface of the world.

She watched with the eye of someone far too tired to be awake.

Hoping that one day, someone would help her sleep.

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End of Book One.