It wasn't long before the temperature went from borderline survivable for a normal human to completely inhospitable. The only things that could survive at these temperatures were shrouded and monsters. It got so bad that everyone except for Cat had to increase the amount of shroud they were putting into their physical enhancement just to remain comfortable.

When they passed the 400 (204 C) degree mark, the orange veins of energy around them shifted. The lines started visibly pulsing and throbbing like actual veins. The 'blood' flowing past them and heading farther out behind them. It was a visible representation of the amount of energy that was being pumped out into the tunnels under Black Reach.

If there was any doubt they were headed in the right direction to find the source, that was put to rest. It was in the air around them, pulsing through the stone beneath their feet and over their head. A tremendous amount of power was flowing through every inch of this place, seeping into everything. Whatever was going on, the source was very, very close.

The inhospitable conditions increased by orders of magnitude the further they got. Soon the ground began to heat up to such a degree that it was borderline painful to walk on. Lily created a small cloud to float around on, carrying Erik with her. Caeden's Physical Enhancement shroud allowed him to reinforce himself further than they could ever hope to, and much more efficiently, so he just boosted the amount of infusion he was using. Cat's spectral Cloak managed these conditions just fine. However, if it got much hotter, they would all be pushed trying to deal with it.

So it came as a surprise when they began to hear the sounds of mining. Metal against stone, the sound beating out in a constant rhythm of pick on stone rang out through the tunnels. Obviously, it wasn't impossible for people to be down here. They had made it this far after all. The situation just didn't make much sense. Any shrouded strong enough to come down here and begin what was probably an illegal mining operation would be strong enough to not need a pickaxe to get ahold of the ether abundant in Black Reach.

These questions were answered as they carefully crept down the tunnel and peered into a new cavern. When Caeden finally saw what was happening, he dearly wished they had never come down here.

"Seriously?!" He whispered furiously. "What the fuck are they doing here?! Why?! Just why?!"

The cavern was smaller than most they had encountered in their time down here. Only a hundred feet or so across and twenty feet from floor to ceiling. Caeden wasn't interested in the cavern itself. He was paying more attention to the dozen men walking around in silver suits studded with blue and white-green ether crystals. The full body suits covered them from head to toe with small sight glasses for eye holes. But even through the ethertech covering, Caeden could see a bulge around each of their necks, like they were all wearing collars underneath.

"The fucking Revolution!" Caeden whisper-moaned. "Why do I keep running into these pricks? Are they just all over the place? What in the unshrouded hells is this?"

Everyone in the cavern was a normal human. Caeden could only assume that the suits were what allowed the men to survive the unbearable heat. They were standing in the equivalent temperature to a conventional oven. No normal human could survive down here unassisted. Just how much advanced ethertech did the Revolution have?

This at least explained one question Caeden had had for a while, ever since first seeing the Revolution's special collars and ethertech weapons. Where did they get all that ether?

Now they knew.

Caeden was sure if he went looking in places similar to this, locations that were rich in ether but had an environment inhospitable to traditional mining methods, he would find even more revolutionaries. It was a smart operation. They had ethertech seemingly decades or even centuries more advanced than what was commonly available. Leveraging that tech to get more ether without being noticed by the CA or having to compete with traditional operations was fiercely intelligent.

Which had him concerned.

To a man, every revolutionary Caeden had encountered had a demeanor more in line with a religious fanatic than a calculating business type. There had to be people like that among their number to even think of an operation like this, let alone the hidden ethertech engineers they must have to build all this innovative tech. It made Caeden think that every operation he had ever seen was merely on the periphery of the Revolution's plans.

If none of the intelligent members the terrorist organization obviously had were involved and they were farming the work out to mindless grunts, then the work couldn't be that important. It entitled a sense of creeping dread in the back of Caeden's mind, feeling like he knew very little about a group that was such a clear and obvious threat to him and the people he cared about.

Now they had stumbled across another operation by this group. Hopefully, this one would shed some more light on what their ultimate goals really were. Their stated goal of shrouded genocide was starting to feel like cover for something more complex.

With a bit of silent communication, the team decided to loop around through the tunnels to try and find the center of this operation. Caeden refused to believe that this was a single mining team. These underground caverns were expansive, and there was plenty of ether to go around. The Revolution would be stupid to limit their mining to just one chamber.

Over the next hour, they moved through the tunnels, running into several more mining teams, all in caverns of various sizes. They grew more confident about moving around the revolutionaries, as their protective suits seemed to limit their senses to a degree. They didn't seem to be able to see very well, and their hearing was abysmal. Multiple times they saw revolutionaries gather to shout at each other through the protective material.

The shouting conversations also gave them some ideas of what was going on here. They heard multiple conversations alluding to the Revolution moving their people and equipment out of this location soon. They seemed to be aware of the problems in Black Reach overhead and the growing presence of the orange energy. Nothing they heard alluded to them knowing the cause of these changes, but no one seemed confused or afraid.

Finally, after a few more run-ins with mining groups, they found an opportunity to slip through one of the less populated caverns and head farther into what was apparently enemy territory. Caeden was surprised the more they saw. This was a fully established, long-term operation. He could tell from the body language and the visible level of boredom most of the workers had that they had been doing this for a while.

Heading further inside and paying careful attention to not getting caught, Caeden and company finally emerged into a massive cavern, one of the largest they had seen in their time down here. It was nearly a mile across, longer than it was wide, and the ceiling half as high as it was long. Here they saw what looked like lodging houses, sorting facilities, and even a vehicle bay. This was the heart of the operation; they had no doubt.

"Well, at least we know we can leave now." Lily sighed. "If they're down here and actively using this place as a mine on this scale, they must have an exit to the surface somewhere around here."

Caeden's head jerked up. He hadn't thought about that yet. "You're…Correct, as usual. In fact, it must be a pretty big exit to haul loads of ether from this far down. They would need heavy equipment for that, I would think. Which begs the question, where does the exit go?"

"Well, it would have to be hidden somewhere outside town, I would think. But that's a long distance to cover. By my estimate, we're nearly directly beneath the center of the mountain right now. This operation has to have been here for a long, long time for them to get the kind of setup they would need to manage that large an excavation project in secret. Unless…"

"I don't think any of the leadership from Mining Station 003 is involved." Caeden caught on to her line of thinking. "If they were, the mayor would have never sent us into the mountain. Plus, if they had that kind of local support they wouldn't have to be mining down here. They could just skim some of the resources mined above and probably gotten more for much less effort and expense. This has to be a secret from everyone not in the Revolution. Otherwise, why would they go to all this effort?"

"That's assuming they can get what they wanted up above. The different conditions higher in Black Reach might not produce the type of ether they are looking for." Lily offered up a counterpoint.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Fair." Caeden acknowledged the possibility. "But that doesn't eliminate the fact that the mayor invited us to go into their mountain when he didn't have to. He could have just told us to fuck off into the wilderness around the down like we were originally planning. If he was in on it, sending us into the mountain was a massive risk with no reward."

"Ok, so the town isn't involved, or at least the people in charge aren't. So the tunnel comes out somewhere hidden, away from town. How are they moving it off-continent?"

"Why don't we find out instead of sitting around talking about it?" Cat huffed. She and Erik had been watching Caeden and Lily's back-and-forth speculation session.

"How would we do that?" Caeden asked. "Stealth isn't exactly something this team is good at."

"Speak for yourself; you giant gold 'attack me' sign." Cat sassed before vanishing. "My Cloak can do the spectral assassin invisibility thing."

"I'm not that bad at stealth either," Lily said. "I can just formshift into a cloud of some invisible gas."

"Well, I guess you ladies get to do reconnaissance in the cavern full of shroud haters with ethertech weapons. Have fun! Me and Cae will just stay here and hang out." Erik gave the two of them a jaunty wave before creating a hammock out of Stitch and hopping into it.

Lily and Cat looked scandalized after realizing what they had just signed themselves up for. They looked to Caeden, who just shrugged. "We do need to know more about what is going on, and I'd rather not attack blindly. There are a lot of people down there. Those weapons hit hard."

Lily and Cat groaned.

{}

"So," Cat said as she and Lily sneaked farther into the Revolution compound. Lily was following her with aura sense, as Cat had no way of finding her roommate. The lack of aura was one of her greatest gripes about her shroud.

"So what?" Lily already sounded defensive. Cat was sure she knew where this conversation was going.

"So, you and Caeden." Cat couldn't help smirking. She knew Lily could hear it in her voice, but it was just so funny! The two of them were so awkward with each other. She and Erik talked about it all the time. Watching their two friends move around each other with no idea what they were doing was hilarious.

"What about me and Caeden?" Lily was pouting, even as a cloud of carbon monoxide. Cat could hear it.

"Oh, don't be so obtuse. You're not mister golden, dark, and handsome. I'm not buying it." Cat was relentless. Admittedly some of her insistence was for personal amusement, but some of it was a genuine desire to help her friends through this awkward phase they were in. Both Caeden and Lily were sheltered until they joined the Academy, and they had no idea how to be in a relationship.

Cat remembered when she was just starting to become interested in others romantically and how confusing that was. She liked Caeden and Lily and wanted to help them through the initial weirdness that came when you first realized you like someone else beyond a platonic friendship.

"I don't think this is the time to talk about it." Lily tried to redirect.

"Oh, please. We're invisible, and these guys are basically deaf in those suits." They walked right past two men in those reflective ethertech full-body covers, and they didn't even glance in the direction of two disembodied voices talking at only slightly below a normal conversational volume. The revolutionaries could hardly hear anything below a loud shout.

"Well, maybe I just don't want to talk about it." Lily huffed.

Cat chuckled. "Lily, hun, I've been where you are. I know what it's like. You definitely want to talk about it."

"Ugh, you aren't going to leave me alone, are you?" Lily groaned.

"Not in a million years. Spill. And just in case you think I'm picking on you, Erik is having a similar conversation with Caeden right now."

"What?! What in the unshrouded hell, Cat?! That's not ok!" Lily sounded panicked.

"Relax, relax. He's just going to ask him how he feels about you, not vicariously profess your undying love or something. Caeden doesn't seem to know you're interested, so we're not going to clue him in unless you want us to. We're your friends, Lil. We're not trying to fuck up your relationship, honest." Cat soothed.

"Haaa." Lily let out a massive sigh. "He's not nearly as oblivious as you think."

"Oh?" Cat tried to maintain a neutral tone and failed miserably. This was too damn interesting!

"We already talked about this almost three months ago. Caeden, the dork, just tells me he was interested in me flat out and asked me if I was interested in him." Lily admitted.

"What!" That was unexpected. "When did this happen? I never noticed. So you two have been a thing this whole time?"

"What? No!"

"What do you mean, no? You like him; he likes you. That sounds like the recipe for a relationship to me."

Lily groaned like someone was stabbing her. Just an expression of deep, guttural pain. "Because I told him no!"

"You said you weren't interested?"

"Yes."

"Were you?"

"Yes."

"Then…?"

"Because he surprised me!" Lily exploded, yelling much louder than she probably intended to. Luckily, no one was around the buildings they were moving between to hear it.

"What do you mean 'he surprised you' because that's not really an answer," Cat asked. This was adorable! She wished she had popcorn to eat. Who knew the love lives of her friends would be so entertaining?

"He surprised me!" Lily repeated. "I wasn't expecting him to just say it like that, so I panicked and said that I like him as a friend, but I wasn't interested in anything more."

"What happened then?"

"He apologized for making things awkward and dropped it. He hasn't brought it up a single time since. It's like he just forgot about it. Which…it just… ugh!" Lily let out a sound of pure frustration.

"It made you happy that he respected your words and dropped it, but also sad and a bit angry that he just let it go so easily. You didn't want him to be pushy but also felt like he should have fought harder if he actually wanted you." Cat guessed.

"Yes! That! Exactly that! And then I feel like shit for thinking of him like that because he's just being as nice and considerate as he always is, and I'm getting angry at him for nothing." Lily explained, her conflicting emotions bleeding through every word.

"Oh, you poor girl." Cat sighed. "You got it bad."

"I don't know if I'm feeling like this because he's the first man to express any interest in me that my brother didn't immediately make disappear, or if I'm actually, genuinely that interested in him. I don't want to start a relationship with him only to realize I like him because he was the only option I saw. He deserves better than that. He deserves someone who knows they like him and isn't going to just change their mind when they stop being such a mess."

"Do you think you'll change your mind?" Cat asked, genuinely curious.

"I don't know! I don't know what I'm doing! All I know is that damn near everything he does makes me happy, from the way he values my input, even though he could just ignore me and run this team, and we would all still follow him. He's charismatic without even noticing it, kind without thinking about it, and he's actually, genuinely working to fix his own demons and become a better man. I see it in him whenever he gets those nihilistic thoughts seeping in and forces them down. Every time it just makes me respect him more." Lily rushed out every word in a flood.

"I don't want to change our relationship just to find out that this interest I feel is some aftereffect from my fucking mess of a childhood and drag him into all that. He deserves better. He deserves better than me." The last sentence was full of melancholy regret.

"But do you want him now?" Cat asked.

Lily took a deep, audible breath. "Yes."

"Well, then I say you should go for it."

"Really?"

Cat laughed. "Lil, love. The best relationship you'll ever have is one where both parties involved think that the other deserves better than them. The fundamental basis of every relationship is respect and trust. You respect him; you trust him. His own actions make it painfully obvious he feels the same way about you. Go for it. Worst case, you don't mesh, and it burns out. That doesn't mean your friendship is gone. Some people make great friends but terrible romantic partners. I'll tell you this."

Cat shifted her tone, trying to impart as much sincerity as she could. "If you let this go and never even try, you're going to regret it for the rest of your very, very long life. Get a hold of him before someone bolder than you figures out what a catch Caeden is and beats you to it."

"Oh, you think he's a catch, do you?" Lily's tone dripped with amusement and sarcasm.

"Girl, I don't go that way, and even I think he's a treat. That whole unassuming, casual badass thing he's got going on is sexy as hell. You need to get on that." Cat shot back.

Lily laughed. "You seem to have it all figured out. Why aren't you in a relationship then?"

Her tone was light and teasing like a weight had been lifted from her shoulders.

"Lily, not everyone wants a steady partner for the rest of their life like you and Caeden. Some people are more free spirits." Cat said lightly.

"You mean you like to get around." Lily corrected.

"You know it!" Cat said with as much pride as she could muster. "There are too many beautiful women out there for me to stick to just one."

BANG

"You've got to be kidding me! We can't pull out in anything less than a week! Do you know how much all of this equipment is worth?!" A voice screamed out from a nearby building, one that looked much more important than the others on second look.

"I think we should go check that out." Cat stated the obvious.

"Yes, we should." Lily concurred. "Also… Thanks."