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I started with one village, just as an experiment. It was a remote village, only visited by Pattern Masters once each year.

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"It's so empty. I can't remember the last time everything was so quiet," Mia said.

"It's been a few crazy days, eh?" Matt answered, looking up from the book he was reading, and smiled at Mia.

She leaned back in the massive chair. “I don’t know if I can ever get back up. I’m so sore…. Just moving a single arm–” she winced as she demonstrated by lifting an arm, “Is painful. I have no idea what we would have done without Pete.”

Matt nodded, sending a silent thanks to the extra Strength Pete had gained from the system. They had spent nearly a week preparing the city for new arrivals, exploring and searching for valuables, weapons and armour. Everything they found was moved to the vaults they had found in the Council Palace in the middle of the cavernous city. They had found several handcarts, and moved from building to building as they filled up carts that Pete pulled through the deserted streets to pile high in what had become the largest concentration of wealth in the kingdom. They had also agreed to leave behind many useful tools and other convenient items in the buildings as they searched them, for the new settlers to find and claim.

When the magical light had faded with the coming of evening, they had spent the evenings in the Council Palace. One of the many sitting rooms had become their favourite; large and with windows overlooking the garden and with a massive fireplace dominating the room. The only furniture in the room was several absurdly comfortable chairs spread through the space. They had pulled five of them over to the fireplace, arranging them in a half-circle. With bowls of buckwheat porridge in their laps, they had spent hours debating and planning, covering everything from logistics to economics, defence and food production.

Last night they had eaten the last of their bread and seen the bottom of the bag of buckwheat fast approaching. The decision they had been putting off was made for them, and they had spent the last hour before going to sleep in contemplative silence. If everything went according to plan, this would be the last day they had the strange magical cave to themselves.

Last night as he was laying in bed, Matt had struggled to find sleep. He was envious of Thor and Vic, who were heading out to Harl’s farm. Counting back, he realised he had spent more than a week stuck inside the cave without seeing real daylight. The magical lighting in the cave or the artificial feel of the dungeons did not count at all, and he missed the smell of the forest and the feel of sunlight warming his face. Perhaps he should have pushed harder to join them? Mia and Pete would be fine here on their own–especially now that Pete had two active warrior constructs.

He was still in fearful awe of the creatures. Glinting in metal, they stood taller than any human, with four equal limbs that could serve as legs or arms, depending on their orientation. Each of the limbs ended in a sharp blade nearly a foot long. The creatures… The constructs had no head, just a hard metal torso with an array of magical spheres embedded in the metal in repeating circles. And the way they moved… Matt felt a small shudder as he remembered the first time Pete had found the right command to activate them. His Marshall title had given him authority to control them, but as they were fueled by essence crystals, it had taken a few days before they had found enough essence to power them up.

After activation, the creature had fallen down to approach them on four limbs, moving across the stone floor almost soundlessly, its movements smooth and exact. They had all taken a step back then, reading weapons and falling into combat stances. But the construct had just walked up to Pete and stopped with sudden eeriness. One moment it was moving, the next it was still as a statue. As Pete moved backwards, the construct followed, keeping the same distance.

“I’ve got them in Follow and Protect mode,” Pete had explained as they made their way through the cave towards a red marker on the map. They had grown used to staying close to either Mia or Pete for access to the useful map, and every morning they would do a round of the cave to clear out any monsters that had escaped from dungeons overnight. They had been nervous before the first fight, with hands clutching weapons harder than was strictly necessary as they remembered the white lurkers, but their fear had quickly become confident determination. Their new levels as well as new skills and experience had them fighting with a deadly efficiency.

That confidence had been further boosted now, after the defence construct had proceeded to annihilate a white lurker in seconds. Matt had to review his memory of the fight afterwards to fully appreciate the speed and skill of the magical creature, as it rushed the monster and became a cloud of sharp metal.

“And now he’s using his fearsome Strength to make tea,” Pete grinned as he handed them each a steaming mug, before fetching himself one and joining them in one of the impractically big chairs.

They had dragged three of the luxurious pieces of furniture from the city down to the room which had served as their base for the first few days, just down from the room with the patterned ceiling. It’s nice being down here again, Matt thought. And it’s weird how I can be nostalgic about something that happened just a week ago.

He remembered the excitement and thrill of those first days as they found and explored this area. We were in such complete awe of this room. Matt remembered how this was the largest room he had ever been in. Now it was… Now it was a very practical place to wait for the return of Thor, Vic and the newcomers. The two defence constructs had been positioned upstairs, instructed to defend the large hallway from the city down here from any intrusion.

Matt looked back down at the book in his lap, before looking up at Verdant. “Can’t you just explain it?” He asked.

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“I could,” the Crystal Fae answered from where she was hovering, “but it’s better if you read it yourself first. The amplification array is… Well, you can’t just draw it without understanding the background. If you make a mistake without knowing the theory, the feedback can blow up in your face. So, theory–”

“Theory first, then instruction, then practise.” Matt repeated the now familiar mantra and looked back down, trying to keep his focus on the text. He was still so excited about finding the library, and normally he treasured the little time he had to study the symbols, but today neither his heart nor his brain was in it.

“Sorry, Verdant,” he said eventually after realising he had read the same paragraph four times and still couldn’t remember a single word. “We need to continue this later… They should be back by now, shouldn’t they?” He turned to Mia.

She grinned back at him. “They entered the cave a few minutes ago. Let’s head down to greet them.”

Ahh. Matt still kept forgetting about it. It must be weird to have a map in your head.

“Great! Let’s go,” he exclaimed and stood, slipping the small book into a pouch hanging from his belt.

As they made their way down the corridor towards the cave-in, a small pang of nervousness reminded Matt how important this was: how much all of their plans and goals relied on the people that joined them. He wasn’t worried about Harl and Duncan. They were good people, but the ones that would come after…?

He straightened his back and put a welcoming expression on his face as he heard noises from above.

So, it begins.

A large man–Duncan–was lowering himself carefully, his feet searching for and finding the boxes they had stacked to make it easier to get up and down. As he clambered down and turned towards them, Matt tried to read his expression. Scepticism flickered across his eyes for a moment before being replaced by surprise and excitement as he looked around the room.

“I’ll be damned,” the large man whispered to himself before focusing on Matt, who stepped forward and held his hand out.

“Welcome to Sanctuary, Duncan,” he said with what he hoped was a welcoming smile.

His hand was completely enveloped in a massive fist as Duncan returned the handshake with eager vigour. “Thanks, Matt. When those guys said…”

Duncan’s voice trailed off as he noticed a set of small legs climbing down their makeshift ramp, and he walked over to help her down.

“Hi Sofie!” Mia smiled at the young girl, but she ignored the greeting as she looked up into the darkness above.

“Dad?” she asked.

“Coming, Sof. Just catch Tal first!”

Another child was lowered down, and when he was safely down, the boy ran over and grabbed Sofie’s hand as he looked around the room with wide eyes.

A moment later, another child appeared, and then another. Quickly, all the children were safely down the ramp before Harl clambered down.

“Who knew…” Harl’s voice trailed off. “All this time, this was here?”

The man walked over to Matt and shook his outstretched hand with a grin. “So you were going to Brook, huh?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that, Harl.” Matt smiled back. “I’m sure Vic and Thor have explained everything?”

“Yeah… but it’s one of these things. Explaining it doesn’t really work. They did show off some tricks, but I still don’t know what to believe…” Harl’s eyes looked intently at Matt before scanning the corridor and trying to peer into the next room. “A cure for the wasting?”

“Yes,” Matt said simply, smiling, before noting that–“Where are Thor and Vic?”

“Oh, that’s right. The food,” Harl said with a grin and turned back up to the hole in the ceiling. “Ok, boys!” He shouted up. “I’m ready.”

A moment later, Harl caught a large sack that was dropped down. After four more sacks had joined the first, Vic and Thor climbed down and joined them.

“I think everyone is here. Let’s head in,” Matt said and smiled at them before leading them into the room with the patterned ceiling, registering how small the room suddenly felt with seven adults and eight children. As all the newcomers stared wide eyed and openmouthed at the ancient chamber below the mountain, he explained.

“This room has a…” He began. “We believe that there is something about the pattern on the ceiling that cures the wasting. When you lay down on the floor,” he gestured to the small indentations in the floor surrounding the statue, “and look up, you will get a very weird sensation. In your head, it’s almost like… Magic connects with your thoughts, and then… Afterwards, you will—”

Seeing the increasing confusion on their faces, he said, “Perhaps it’s best to just try it? Harl, do you want to go first?”

“Is it safe?” Harl said as he walked over to one of the indentations.

Matt smelled burned flesh and shook his head to clear it. “Don’t touch anyone when you do it. We think it’s safe… We’ve all done it.”

Harl pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, looking around the room, but the doubt faded when he saw the children standing in a row by the wall. His expression changed to determination as he laid down close to the statue.

“And now I just…” Harl said, but this voice faded as he looked up. Matt saw thin threads emerge from the intricate pattern in the ceiling, reaching down towards Harl in questing swirls. Oh, Matt thought as his eyes followed the thread up to the ceiling. That thread starts at an essence junction buffer that links to a Therion capacitor. So that other crossing line is for balancing the output against–

A sharp flash of light filled the room, interrupting Matt’s chain of thought.

For a long time, Harl just laid on his back.

“Is something wrong?” Mia asked, concern in her voice.

“No,” Harl said in a low voice as he slowly sat up. “Nothing is wrong… This is… How can…”

His voice trailed off, and he turned to look at them. “It’s gone. The weight. I didn’t even know… I can breathe. I can breathe!”

Harl rushed over to Mia and picking her up, he gave her a big hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you!” With a huge smile, Harl turned to Duncan and the children. “Come, lie down here! This is…”

One by one, Duncan and the children laid down and looked at the pattern. Again and again, flashes of light and hope lit the room.