May was lost, that much was sure. The fading light of her lantern did little to stave off the creeping darkness that swallowed the crumbling grey walls of the catacombs. The thick dust and many large chunks of concrete on the floor indicated that this path had not been traversed in a long time, either that or this particular hallway was almost ready to cave in.

In this case, it seemed to be the former, which was neither good nor bad. She wanted to find the exit, but she also wanted to not have a hallway almost collapse on her for a second time today.

Skeletal remains of those long passed lay where they perished once high-quality clothing items now tattered rags draped the corpses like grim testaments to their owner's lavish lives. Broken down machines untouched and collecting thick layers of dust sat motionless, stopped during whatever mundane task or chore the Old Ones deemed beneath them.

May shook her head absentmindedly, she could never imagine commanding an army of metallic servants such as the Old Ones did. She had read and heard many stories when she was a child about the great machines of war that the Old Ones fought with and the metal men they conversed with.

May shuddered as she passed one of the metal monstrosities, this particular one vaguely humanoid in shape, save for the boxy head with a round singular glassy "eye" staring dully at the floor and the freakishly thin arms ending in hands consisting only of two thick "fingers" perfectly adjacent to one another laying slack on the floor. Those particular ones were called "Gripping Bills" named after the man who discovered them, the story of Bill and the Gripping Bill was a well-known tale that taught children not to go putting their fingers or toes in contraptions of ANY kind especially those that were left behind by the Old Ones.

"I think I'd prefer talking to beings of flesh and blood than any of these "metal men" thank you very much." She thought quietly stepping over the fallen form of a second Gripping Bill. Normally she would stop and take the time to dissect and scavenge parts from these machines especially when her scavenger's bag was barely quarter way full. But there were a few reasons why she did not.

The first reason was that it was bad luck to scavenge within the sight of the unrested dead plus if the Church ever found out you scavenged in front of the corpse of an Old One, they would certainly ensure that you got that "bad luck". She would have to pay a priest to "put the dead to rest" if she wanted anything from here.

The second reason was that May wanted to find an exit first, she did not want to tire herself out by walking around the catacombs with a heavy burden, that would accelerate the drain on her already dwindling supplies and if she needed to move quickly a single "Shock Box" or "Drive Plate" could be the difference between life and death.

So, May pushed forward, the words of the veterinarian scavengers fresh in her mind. "If you ever get lost pick a direction, follow it, avoid rooms, circular tunnels and dead ends. You'll be sure to eventually find a way out."

She remembered Calfus specifically stating that: "Despite their name the Catacombs were designed by the Old's to be efficient living spaces, not unnavigable labyrinths. You'll find its the crumbling walls, collapsing roofs, Burrowar tunnels and the numerous abominations that stalk those halls that make them true catacombs, plus all the magnetic interference down there renders compasses useless."

May stopped musing on the wise words of her elders as her keen ears suddenly picked up loud shuffling sounds from around the corner. She stopped dead in her tracks, fear freezing her in her footsteps. May was a no fighter, the quarterstaff strapped to her back was more of a deterrent for thieves and slavers, but thanks to her brother's training she knew enough to recognise that using it in such an enclosed space was not wise.

May quickly gathered her wits and slowly moved towards the greying walls as quietly as she could manage, avoiding corpses of man and machine alike. She willed her breathing rate to lower in a vague attempt to calm her beating heart which currently felt like it was about to leap out of her throat, she quickly blew out her lantern and stood perfectly still.

A giant hand with tiny palms and long skeletal fingers ending in dirty brownish-black talons, gripped the corner of the passageway's end as the beast pulled itself around the corner, revealing itself in all its horrifying glory.

With pasty white skin that was practically glowing in the pitch blackness of the catacombs, the creature had a featureless ovoid head on a thin and unnaturally long neck that dangled its head over its chest so that its skull did not graze the passage's roof. Its chest was broad but malformed. The left side of the chest packed with muscle and covered with calloused and extra leathery skin, but the right side appeared malnourished and just as skeletal as the rest of its body. Its stomach was bloated like an overfilled Glutnid bladder, looking ready to burst at any moment. Its forearms alone were longer than her body lying down, its legs appeared to be extremely stubby versions of its arms that barely held the large creature's deformed frame.

This was a creature May had only heard horror stories of. It was called a Dead Immortal. She watched as the unliving horror dragged itself through the passage using its gangly arms to drag its bloated figure across the floor with the assistance of its stubby legs, crushing remains of the dead with little care as it went.

May's body could not decide whether it wanted to retch or scream as the beast moved closer accompanied by the sound of snapping bone and groaning steel trampled under its heel. The monster suddenly picked up speed its featureless head seemed to be facing her way, the skin on its body had begun to secrete what looked like saliva which began to spray against the walls as it ran.

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"Oh god, it knows I'm here. Oh God, Oh God. Please no!" her mind raced. There was no way in Eggrest she was getting out alive even if she made a run for it. She was not even going to think about fighting it, the "immortal" in its name was there for a reason.

She closed her eyes and prepared for her demise. When suddenly a massive cacophony of sounds erupted through the catacomb passage and she felt the very floor she was standing on tremble. She opened her eyes to see a gaping abyss where the floor in front of her once was.

The Dead Immortal was nowhere in sight. By some stroke of luck, the beast's own immense weight had caused a weakened area of flooring to collapse taking the monster into the lower floors. May breathed a sigh of relief and shakily re-lit her lantern to survey the damage. As she did, she realised that she was currently standing on a large piece of concrete that was teetering over the edge of the gaping hole, her being the counterweight keeping the piece on the current level.

Still in shock, not thinking clearly and not wanting to follow the Dead Immortal to wherever it fell, she foolishly attempted to leap off the concrete piece as if it had teeth. In doing this she stopped being the counterweight to the chunk of stone, causing it to violently rocket forward in a catapult-like motion, hitting the woman in the back of the shin while she was still airborne, making her stumble forward, straight through the hole in the floor and dropping her lantern as she did.

Thankfully, it appears that the rubble had filled in the floor below the second, so the drop was only one story tall, and the Immortal was buried under all that rubble on the third floor. Unfortunately, when she landed, she landed in front of a pure black table, which is to say she ended up smacking her forehead on the glassy surface of the said table on her way down.

Most Magi consider their forehead their greatest strength and greatest weakness. Imbedded in their foreheads is their "Focus" a natural weapon that allows the natural generation and channelling of the ancient force harnessed by the Old Ones to power their Machines: Electricity.

This ability is largely regulated by a Magi's subconscious and as a result, is connected directly to the brain. However, this results in their weakness, which is if the gem is destroyed the Magi could die or at the very least become brain dead. If it is damaged it just results in a really bad migraine and possibly bleeding around the rim of the gem.

This is exactly what happened to May as her head hit the table. She fell back to the floor and curled up into a ball "Ow-ow-ow." she whined. Holding her hands to her head, a familiar pounding ache assaulted her skull. "Stupid focus," She quietly moaned into the darkness "all the weaknesses none of the perks, Ow-ow-ow." She peeked at her hand a confirmed that yes it was bleeding. "I'm starting to believe I really am forsaken." She sighed.

Although she thought it odd that she had not been knocked out by the fall, she remembered a time when her brother had been smacked in the focus with a stick by her sister. It was not even that hard of a blow, yet it had knocked him out stone cold. The memory as funny as it was made her frown, it had reminded her of what followed after the incident. "They stopped horsing around when I was near them after that, worried that I'd be punished for their foolery again." Gods she missed those two.

"Maybe it's a forsaken thing, less weakness for no strength, which is not a fair trade at all," She muttered, "Guess that's why they call it forsakenness." She shook her head which did not help her migraine at all. "Here and now. Here and now" she chanted wincing through the throbbing ache.

She got up by putting a bloodied hand on the glassy table to assist her in standing up. She shakily walked up to her lantern, finding that the light had blown out during the fall and some of the glass had shattered she relit the oil lantern once again and looked around.

It appeared to be a cylinder-shaped room. In the middle of the room was the black glassy table, now slightly cracked thanks to unfortunate heads smashing against them. To her right was a large boxy machine with a massive black screen and connected to it a human-sized cylinder wrapped in metal.

To her left was two separate steel panels that appeared to be sealed shut in a doorway, she did not have the tools or know-how to open one of those doors. She looked up to find that if she stacked a pile of rubble and her bag on top of the table, she would just be able to reach the first floor, but she doubted the fragile furnishing would survive plus there were not many safe-looking pieces of rubble that could be safely stacked or climbed.

She sat herself down with a heavy sigh, "So, this is how Maya Ferie-" she paused, the name brought up memories again. No that was not her name anymore, her father. No, the Earl had said so.

"So, this is how Maya the Forsaken. Died in a ditch after getting lost in the easiest areas of the catacombs thanks to a sudden cave-in. Sounds the punchline to a bad joke." She chuckled sombrely "Would have liked to say goodbye to Janie and Loisp though."

That is about when things started happening. A loud whirring and clicking noises started coming from the machine in the back, its black screen began flickering and the many little lights that still worked on the machine turned on.

"DNA SAMPLE SCAN COMPLETE."

A voice devoid of emotion stated out of thin air. Making May jump, "I may have just incurred the wrath of the guardian of this place," She thought. "Although I cannot really bring myself to care anymore, I'm sure that whatever instant death this thing can provide would be better than dying from dehydration or being consumed by one of those abominations."

"STATE DESIGNATION."

"Pardon?" May asked unsurely while stupidly gaping at thin air as if something was there.

"ACCEPT DESIGNATION "Pardon?"."

For a second Maya was a little deturbed at hearing her own cowering voice played back at her. She knew of technology that could do that, but she had never come in contact with one before.

"uh, No?"

"STATE DESIGNATION."

"Maya?"

"ACCEPT DESIGNATION "Maya?"."

"Yes."

"CONFIRMED. SECONDARY ADMINISTRATION OVER UNIT HA-019 GIVEN TO DESIGNATION: MAYA BY FIRST ADMINISTRATOR DESIGNATION: ADAM WALKER."

"Thank You, I guess?"

"RELEASING SUBJECT IN T-MINUS 5 MINUTES."

For some reason, Maya got the feeling that she had just signed up for something and she didn't know what.