I swallow hard as the ghastly visage of a desiccated corpse half-coated in salt crystals comes into view. Parts of it look crushed. Others bubble and scar with horrible burns. And there’s one very specific… hole… in it that looks like it could’ve been made with a corkscrew.
Ursula hisses out a curse and watches as I walk up to the corpse and press my hand to it. “Shit. Guess we weren’t the first to come here, huh? You think these two were alone?”
My fingers brush up against leathery skin littered with tiny salt crystals. It’s more than a little macabre to leave something like this around–and no well-meaning people would leave it as anything but a warning. Unless they were forced to leave it. By… whatever could be around here.
“Alone?” Ursula shakes her head. “Definitely not. Nobody’s stupid enough to come here without an army–or someone with the firepower of one. Question is what happened to the rest of ‘em.”
I stand up and dust off my hands. “Well, that probably depends on how unstable this place is. Do you think it’s possible the rooms could constantly shift around?”
“Not after they started forming. We’re in the possible last few-ish days before this thing’s birth–damn near everything’s set in stone. That’s right, right Architect?”
“Yup. Nothing should be shifting around anymore. That only happened right when the apocalypse started taking this place, which could’ve been a long time ago.” March replies. “Whoever you found definitely came here after the real instability finished up.”
“So they’re gone, dead, or deeper in?”
“Mmhm.” March confirms. “Can you tell if these people died on the way down, or on the way back up?”
I frown down at the corpse, not wanting to crouch back down to get another, closer look. There’s definitely more than a few signs of struggle–that’s for damn sure–but I’m not smart enough to tell if they mean the person was running in or out. I raise an eyebrow at Ursula, who scratches her chin while deep in thought.
“It looks like this one was killed by the apocalypse-touched stuff, then preserved by the salt. And that other one–” She nods at the one impaled on a wall, “looks like it was one-hundred percent murdered by the elementals. My guess is that wall-woman got killed on the way in, and the ground-guy got done in by apocalypse-spawn that appeared after his group already went down.”
“It’s as good a theory as any. And it really drives the point home about how we’ve gotta watch our backs and our fronts.” I carefully step around the ground-guy and glance over at the wall-woman. “So the salt elementals are going to be more sharp and thorny, and less huge and crush-y?”
Ursula shrugs and nudges the corpse with her foot. “Probably don’t assume anything until you’ve seen it with your own eyes.”
Yeah, yeah, good advice and all. I take a few more steps out into the darkness, Ursula hot on my heels, and try to ignore the obvious signs of combat. Dents in the floor, long scratches and gouges, and more than a few kinds of magical damage. I swallow hard and adjust my shirt against Ursula’s magic as the lights of the salt elementals glow off in the distance like warm candles.
I gesture for Ursula to slow down a little as one of the lights starts to grow closer. It starts off as a simple sphere–one no bigger than my fist–but with every passing second it branches off into a strange shape. Spires of salt branch off the core like a porcupine, but that’s all there is. A core in the middle and a bunch of thorns surrounding it, each barely glowing with their own thin line of magical light.
“It’s like a sea urchin.” I note as it lazily floats closer and closer. “That’s… honestly kind of boring. I guess I was expecting a little more?”
My awareness flares as the core of the salt elemental flashes bright. Warnings come at me directly from the front, and I call on the coin in my left hand to put up a shield from whatever’s happening. Dozens of thuds ring out at once–like a spray of gravel churned up by a lawnmower pinging against a metal shed–as countless salt thorns shatter on my shield.
I nod to myself and send my shield away to give Ursula a bead on the core. Two quick shots echo like the ringing of a massive stone gong, and the core detonates into chunks of magically-infused salt. Thorns slough off the now dead core as it crumbles to the ground, rolling away uselessly to illuminate parts of the ground before they too lose all their light.
“Yup, weird magical porcupine sea urchin. If one of these isn’t what killed the wall woman, I’ll lick one of these thorns.” I kick away a spine for emphasis and start towards all the others. “Not super interesting, though.”
“No, definitely not interesting.” Ursula sighs in a tone that implies an eye roll. “You know, other people with as much experience as you would’ve been shitting their pants at the sight of that thing. Hell, I thought you were frozen in fear until you insulted it to its face. Glad that assumption was completely wrong.”
“Yeah, not much can surprise me these days. Physically, I mean. Like, in the sneak-up-on-you kind of way. I’ve had a shit ton of mental surprises this month.” I chuckle knowingly. “So, all these other ones down here have the same kind of light bleed as this one. I’d bet they’re all anemone types, which means we shouldn’t get close to them if we can help it. Unless you’re willing to provide the shields and the firepower?”
Ursula shrugs, then takes a breath and steadies her gun. Four more shots ring out with bursts of magic, and four elemental cores shatter into luminescent chunks. She flips open the barrel and reloads with her fingertip, then snaps it shut and continues firing. I watch as she repeats this a few times to deal with all the floating salt elementals, then tilt my head in question when she finally lowers her gun.
“We safe to move?”
“Hell if I know.” She says as she reloads once more. “That’s your job. And Architect’s. Speaking of–how’s this room’s layout coming? Do we need to wait much longer?”
“No, I’m done here. The next room’s already starting to get mapped. Thanks for making that thing quieter.”
“No problemo.” Ursula nods off into the darkness with a small, excited smile. “You heard the overseer. Want to scope the rest of this room out or move right on?”
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I raise an eyebrow at that. “That sounds like the kind of decision someone with way more experience than me should be making.”
“Well, that person wants to see how you do things.”
Alright, I guess. I turn around slowly and scour what I can see of the room, but most of its clouded by this annoying cover of darkness. The weird salt formations light everything up around them, but depending on how big the formation is, ‘around them’ is just a few inches of light. Most of them almost look like plants–flowers, to be specific–but only if those flowers were way more jagged and dangerous than anything else. One in particular looks like a flower you’d see a hummingbird drinking out of; complete with long luminescent antenna-like things poking out of the center and ‘petals’ that curl back like noisemakers ready to be blown.
It doesn’t call to me at all. My brain insists that it’s not important–or even dangerous. But it’s such a strange formation, especially for where we are, that I want to get a closer look. Want–not need. Something tells me that’s a very important distinction for my awareness to make.
“Let’s take a look around.” I decide and start towards the salt flower. “There’s got to be a reason these things took these shapes. Architect, can you… send us the map or something?”
“No. If I could, I wouldn’t have to be here.” March says with an inferred ‘duh’ at the end. “But I can explain it to you. The room you’re in is a little more than a hundred feet by a hundred feet wide, and it’s a perfect square. You already know about the super huge hole. And there’s four exits, each one in the middle of the four different walls, but the one on the left is wrong.”
That doesn’t sound good. “What do you mean by ‘wrong’?”
“It doesn’t work right. There’s nothing through it, but you can still go through it. Maybe it just drops off the side of the krarig.”
“So don’t go to the left. Gotcha.” Ursula chuckles from right behind me. “Any insight on whether the right or straight exit leads where we want to go?”
“Nope.”
I wait a few seconds for an explanation, but none comes. Hopefully that means either of the exits are just as likely to lead us in the right direction. Magical light from the floral salt formation finally hits my skin as I get within spitting distance, and I can feel a slight graininess pressing against Ursula’s magic. Almost like the salt is trying to scrub it away.
Except it’s way too weak for that. I reach in and snap off one of the flower’s inner antennae with a twist of my wrist, then turn around and present it for Ursula to study along with me. She leans in and brushes the tip of it with her finger, taking off a thin layer of salt that glows brighter than anything else.
“Huh. Salt pollen.” She muses as she stares at her finger. “Looks like you snapped off one of that thing’s stamen. Stamens? The pollen producing part; you know what I mean.”
Is that what it’s called? Some part of me remembers hearing that back in middle school, but all those memories are clouded with cringe, regrets, and grunge music. So they’re a little hard to actually access.
“Why would a magical formation like this try and accurately reproduce a flower?” I wonder as I swipe a finger across the salt pollen. The glow almost feels like it wants to seep into me, but that seems like a really horrible idea. “Couldn’t it just replicate the shape?”
“Magic is weird. It could’ve latched onto the idea of a flower and that’s it. Now you’ve got magical salt that crystallizes into the shapes of flowers.” Ursula points a thumb over her shoulder at the entryway. “You saw all those thorns on the doorway. Very plant-like. In fact, I’d bet we’re going to see a huge variety of salt-plants the further down we go.”
“So what about the elementals, then?” I ask. “That one looked like a sea urchin. Unless I’ve been wrong my entire life, I’m pretty sure a sea urchin is an animal. …It is an animal, right?”
“Some kind of sea life, sure. But need I remind you?” Ursula grabs one of the flower’s ‘petals’ and rips it free. A trickle of molten salt drips free, as bright and magical as the heart of a forge. “Magic. Is. Weird. It’s completely possible the krarig made a bunch of plants for the scenery and a bunch of sea creatures for the elementals. Or the elementals don’t actually have any forms at all, and they’re just… making sharp things on themselves.”
She sends the petal away, then leans in to rip another off. “Don’t ascribe logic to something illogical. It’ll only frustrate you.”
I watch with a frown as she completely harvests the flower. Only the trickle of molten salt remains after, dripping down a small stem that connects to a chunk of salt crystal coating the wall. There’s something here. I just know there is.
“Well, this one’s closer to the right exit, so let’s go there. Maybe it’s a waymarker or something.”
Ursula nods and readjusts herself into a ready stance. I tear my eyes away from the crystal wall where the flower once was and make my way into the darkness, footsteps echoing like rain as the humid chill takes on a slightly more sinister undertone. Pearls of light flicker somewhere in the distance, but unlike the hole room, this one is mostly visible. Rickety metal stairs spiral down, down, and down some more towards something at the bottom so littered with salty light that my eyes start to water.
The stairs groan under the weight of one of my feet. Shuddering metal sends a pang of fear deep into my spine, and I can’t help but shudder at the thought of all this collapsing with us on it. I look back at Ursula to see how she wants to go on, but her face shows absolutely no worry at all. So I suck it up and put my entire weight on the first step.
It creaks and whines, but holds strong. I swallow hard and shift my knife from one hand to the other, then settle on strapping it to my forearm. There’s no way I’m impaling myself if I fall. The salt elementals will have to fight me a little more for the privilege of killing me.
I slowly take a few stairs down, grasping for handrails that don’t exist, and pause to nod back at Ursula. She returns the gesture and confidently steps onto the deathtrap. Somehow she maneuvers the slippery steps with the grace of a dancer–meanwhile, I’m taking it as slow as a snail stuck in molasses. It works for the both of us–but it takes me way, way longer than her.
“Sorry for the delay.” I chuckle reluctantly as I glance over the edge. Still a long, long way to go. “How’re you latching on so easily? Is it a skill?”
Ursula laughs and leans down to pat her boot. “Boot spikes. Bought ‘em from Gil last time he was in and had someone in the other world make me a pair that’s got enough magic to make a wizard choke. I can recommend you to them once you’ve got enough Worth to pay their absurd fees.”
“Not sure I want to ask this, but how much?”
“Eighteen thousand Worth flat.” Ursula says, then chuckles at my expression. “Yeah, I know. Highway robbery. But the people who run it are the best in the business–lifetime warranties, free repairs, and more enchantments than you can imagine. Only thing that would be better is if one of the Worth classes ends up being something like a Craftsman.”
“Yeah, that’s a little too rich for–”
My awareness latches onto something airborne and drags my mind to it. I snap to the point in space where it screams something is, but all I can see is an extremely slight shimmer in the darkness. Something I would’ve missed a hundred times out of a hundred if I didn’t have my awareness looking out for me.
I point directly at it. My awareness splits into a spray of dark tendrils, each touching a different thing and alerting me to its existence. All of them feel exactly the same as the first–which means all of them are nearly invisible to the naked eye.
Ursula raises her gun and aims directly where my finger’s pointing. “Call it.”
“Thirteen of them. Don’t know how big.” I say without moving my arm. “I’ll tell you when they’re dead.”