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Chapter 2: Family

I shuddered as my mana hit zero.

"Hrmm," Katherine pulled me from the deep into physical reality, holding onto my side with her tail.

"Your mother's Echo is strong," she commented. "Very strong. Usually they're just half-empty things, shadows. But that one... that one has substance. She must have died thinking about you and you’ve been thinking about her a lot, feeding her. If you wish to dive without my supervision, you will need to beat her."

"I don't think that I can," I collapsed into a corner, shaking.

The Stollwurm sighed.

"There you two are!" Vespera declared, spotting us. "Told ya if you fed him bits of you he could totally..."

She saw that I was curled into myself like a sad snail.

"...learn Umbramancy," her beak snapped shut. She looked up at Kat.

"What'd you do to him?!" Cinder demanded, emerging from around the tunnel bend that our Guild employees had carved out with Lance's bricking wand.

"Taught him to fight his ghosts," Katherine shrugged. "He did well against your Echoes. His mom's... not so much."

"Our Echoes?" Vespera tilted her head.

"Imprints of you that exist in the deep," Katherine explained. "The manifestations of pain and fear he's caused you. He managed to devour yours quite effectively."

"He did WHAT to our what?" Cinder sputtered.

My heart was beating madly. I tried to slip on the Alexander Glock mask, but it wasn't fitting on correctly. The Echo of my mom unbalanced me, shattered my psyche, reminded me of everything I lost, everything I failed at.

"He consumed your Echoes," Katherine explained patiently. "The dark reflections of yourselves created by his actions in the deep. Emerald's was particularly satisfying to watch him destroy. Although I must admit, his solution for dealing with Omnids was... concerning."

"What solution?" Cinder demanded.

"Ye' wat solution?" Vespera clicked her beak curiously.

"Bringing Abystall dungeon core to Earth and releasing Duskbloom to unmake all Omnids," Katherine said dryly.

Vespera choked.

"WHAT?!" Cinder sputtered, then she noticed my ball-state and slid down on the floor next to me. "Martin? You okay?"

"Absolutely... not okay," I breathed out, unable to control my shaking body. "This is some dementor-level shit. Pretty sure some of my soul just got sucked out of me. Can I like… bring a gun in there next time or something?"

"No. Guns don't work against Echoes," Katherine stated bluntly. "Only willpower and intent. Only fear. If you want to go back you need to figure out how to hurt her, how to make that old Echo afraid of you."

"Don't push yourself," Cinder said, wrapping her wings around me protectively.

I looked up at Katherine.

"You know..." I said. "I didn't see your Echo there. Where was Katherine-pede?"

Katherine swallowed nervously.

"What, you didn't eat her?" I asked.

"No," Katherine's emerald eyes flickered away. "My Echo wasn't there because... because you haven't hurt me. Haven't caused me pain or fear."

"Bullshit," I said. "You rolled away totally heartbroken from my van after I showed you my passport."

"Fine," she growled. "I don't know where the Echo of me is. Happy?"

"No," I blinked tears out of my eyes. "Not happy."

"Come on. Let's get you back to the Guild," Cinder said softly, helping me up. "Sounds like you've had enough deep-ghost-fighting for today."

I buried myself in her feathers, for the first time in my life allowing myself to cry hard. She held onto me, functioning as my physical anchor to reality until I stopped feeling completely worthless.

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. . .

We made our way back through the winding tunnels, my legs still shaking. The hexasuits were doing their best to keep me upright, but I felt drained - physically and emotionally.

"You shouldn't have pushed him so hard," Cinder growled at Katherine as we walked. "He wasn't ready."

"He needs to learn," Katherine replied firmly. "The deep is dangerous. If he wants to use my Umbramancy, he has to face what's in there."

"By forcing him to confront twisted versions of us?" Cinder's feathers shifted through angry reds. "That's... that's cruel!"

"Life is cruel, the deep even more so." Katherine shrugged. "I didn't make those Echoes, they belong to him. He created them by hurting you. You two forced my hand, I didn't want to give my skill to him last night. You only have yourself to blame."

"Dang you're a cold beerch," Vespera clicked. "We all gave him our skills. All for one, one for all."

The Stollwurm raised an eyebrow.

"That's what family does," Vespera continued, her magisteel talons clicking against the cold-tunnel hexagrams, sending sparks as we walked. "We share. We help each other grow stronger."

"Family?" Katherine's emerald eyes narrowed. "Is that what we are now?"

"Yes," Vespera clicked firmly. "Whether you like it or not, dragon-cat. This is our Clan now. Our nest. Our home."

"And what makes you think I want to be part of your... nest?" Katherine asked.

"Because you're still here," Vespera pointed out. "You could have left at any time. Gone to an Inn upstairs, embraced your solitude. But you didn't."

"I'm still here because somebody needs to keep an eye on you idiots," Katherine growled. "Especially him and his ‘apocalyptic-disaster plans’. Did you already forget what I told you, you brainless bird?"

"I heard you loud n' clear," Vespera crossed her arms.

"And?"

"The concept of Abystall taking over the Earth is rather.... Ummm, shockingly thrilling," she said, "Kinda makes me weak in the knees just thinking about it."

"You find the apocalyptic destruction of all Omnids... hot?" Kat squinted at the Thunderbird. "The fuck is wrong with you?"

"What?" Vespera clicked. "Come on, gimme some credit. I'm not a knob, even if I sometimes act like one. It would honestly make for a pretty spooky Cradlefall blockbuster!"

Katherine's frown deepened.

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"Calm your tits," Vee shook her head. "In reality, Arx dungeons simply don't function on Earth. Our Aetheric density is 2.049. Skyfall's Aetheric density is 98.3253. Arx in general is 689.3245 for example. Abystall dungeon's Aetheric density is 884.2942 at the entrance and higher the closer you go into the labyrinth where sentinels and spooky squids guard the dungeon core. Duskbloom would just die out on Earth, there's no ambient mana for it to nom."

"Whatever," Kat huffed. "You didn't see him down there. The way he tore into your Echoes. The things he said... he meant every word."

"And?" Vespera asked. "Wasn't he supposed to do that as part of your deep-lesson plan?"

"There's fighting off Echoes and then there's outright stating he's gonna nuke all Omnids," Kat said. Do you not find this concerning?"

"Hey! Don't cut out the context. I absolutely would nuke all Omnids with mites… to save Vee from being mind-controlled," I let out.

"See?" Katherine gestured at me. "Listen to him! He's literally planning genocide!"

"For me," Vespera clicked her beak cheerfully. "Isn't he just the sweetest? My hero!"

She sent a flying spark at my head, blowing me a kiss.

[Stop teasing meeeeeee, youuuu devious smol creature.] Her whisper-static voice crackled in my brain.

I smiled with one side of my face.

"If you're trying to take my place as Primo-wife," Vespera shot at Kat. "you're totally failing at it."

"What?" Katherine nearly careened into a wall. "I'm not trying shit! How many times do I have to point out that I'm not interested in relationships?"

"Oh?" Vespera clicked. "Then what's all this hostility? What do you want, kitten?"

"I want less of this… Ughhhh… Ecchi bullshit around me and more serious discussion."

"Such as?" I asked.

"Such as why the inhabitants of Arx wear hexagonal bracelets nearly identical to our Lazarus bracelets," Katherine growled. "The Echoes showed me that their bracelets are basically cheap copies. But they still track Stats and translate languages."

"Hrm," I said, extricating myself from Cinder's feathers. "That is interesting. Can you show me one?"

"Here. Pried this one off from the remains of Grand Moloch Arkenish," Katherine pulled a dull, hexagonal bracelet from her bag. I examined it, carefully holding it next to mine - it did look almost identical to our Lazarus bracelets, but the texture was wrong, the hexagons slightly misaligned, the surface more matte, scratched up.

"Less ecchi, hrmmmm?" Vespera grinned as she circled Kat. "Dragon-cat, if you think THIS is ecchi, you should see what happens in my room when..."

"STOP!" Katherine growled, her tail lashing. "This is exactly what I mean! We have serious problems to deal with - the Arx Bank controlling everything through these bracelets, assassins trying to kill us, and all you can think about is... relationships!"

"Hey, unlike some boring cat-knobs, I can multitask," Vespera protested. "I can worry about impending doom AND plan my double-engagement party at the same time!"

"Engagement?!" Cinder sputtered, flashing with brilliant pinks. "What... when?!"

"Sometime between today and summer," Vespera said. "Try to keep up, Skittles."

"Aaaand I'm done," Kat melted into the shadows. "Voicecast me when you're done being horny idiots."

"Rude," Vespera clicked her beak. "She could have at least stayed for the party planning."

"There isn't going to be any engagement planning!" Cinder protested.

"Sure there is," Vespera said cheerfully. "We need to decide on colors, venue, guest list..."

She looked over the furiously blushing Cinder and me pawing at the bracelet.

"Okay, just me then," she said. "You two are obviously going to be useless. I'll decide everything as the Primo Sword. This is fine. I was trained for this!”

"Hrm," I said, snapping the bracelet to my right wrist and watching my stats slowly flickered above it in the air woven from white sparks on a blue window background. "This is like... a cheap Thunderland knockoff."

"Eh? Lemme see," Vespera unclipped the knockoff bracelet from my wrist and sent sparks dancing across it. "Ye. It's a magic duplicate. Modified with a bunch of extra shit. Better than a Thunderland knockoff."

"What kind of shit?" I asked.

"Mmmmm. Bunch of monitoring spellwork," Vespera closed her eyes and turned the bracelet in her talons, making electrical currents dance across it. "Data collection hexagrams. Translation matrices. Mana tracking arrays. Pretty sophisticated stuff actually. Whoever made these knows their magitek."

"Can you tell who made them?" I asked.

"Not really," Vespera squinted at the bracelet. "The way the matrices are layered, the efficiency of the power distribution... It's very advanced. Stores mana in it and feeds off the user's mana to reinforce itself. Hrmmmm. There's gotta be bazillions of these on Arx. They're all reinforcing each other too, like a giant-ass network. Dang. Okay now I'm impressed. This is clever. Dangerously clever."

"Would it work on Earth?" I asked.

"Pfff no," Vespera shook her head. "It's made for Arx aetheric density and the hexagrams aren't fluid like the Kitlix. It'd tots brick up on Earth."

"Could these be used in conjunction with Genesis fluid to bring someone back?" I asked.

"Nope. Laz' bracers are made from what we in the business call liquid immovable metal. It's what allows them to hold onto a soul via a whack-complex save-point algorithm that interacts with the blood of the Wormwood Star Leviathan trapped in pockets beneath the Cradlefall crater," Vespera clicked. "As I just pointed out, this copy is basically a solid artifact-style bracelet. It can make connections to souls to keep track of stats, but can't perma-clip onto a soul."

"So the Arx Bank has their own jank-ass version of Lazarus bracelets?" Cinder asked.

"Ye," Vee nodded. "With slightly different function."

"One that can't bring people from death? But why? What's the point?"

"Information. Power. These things are like... tiny spies on everyone's wrist. They know where you are, what you're doing, how much mana you have," I said.

"Plus they nom bits of everyone's mana and send it all somewhere," Vee said. "Unlike our Omnid bracelets. Very useful. Someone somewhere on Arx has a lotta effin' mana thanks to these."

"And now they have your information?" Cinder frowned at me. "On the account that you put it on."

"Eh," I shrugged. "I'm a level two human basically. I very much doubt that anyone is going to give a damn about me. How many humans are on Arx?"

"An unaccountably large number," Vespera said. "The nearest Citadel-city state is the Gold Dragon God Empire. Their 'god' basically prints infinite humans into existence with a magic spell and lobs them against his enemies."

"Their what does what now?" I turned to Vespera.

"Their God-Emperor. He's like... this really old, fat human who summons humans with his one maxed out skill," Vespera explained. "Emperor D’ basically uses the summoned as cannon fodder in his wars against other city-states. Sometimes he makes actual giant human-shaped spheres and drops them against other cities."

"That's possibly the most insane misuse of human resources I've heard about," I said.

"Das' Arx for ya," Vespera clicked. "The Gold Dragon God isn't even the worst of the self-proclaimed deity loons.”

"Hrm. So what prevents Emperor D. from making human-rain on Shandria?" I asked, feeling concerned for my newly acquired Adventurers Guild establishment.

"Shandria's Shadow Leviathan," the Thunderbird replied. "Nightingale eats everything. Especially people. She's sort of half-asleep during the day and super rowdy at night. Anything and everything in ninety S-clicks that's not under a certain runic hexagram gets eaten at night by her flock of Shadowbeasties."

"The guys that ate Sarah Nisteroff," I nodded.

"Yeh," Vespera clicked. "Leviathan's Nightingale's Shadow flock. That's why nobody upstairs delves at night, cowering in Inns behind steel shutters n' such. The flock eats anything that moves outside of hexagram-protected areas. Even high level delvers get nommed."

"I see," I said. "And Undertown is safe how?"

"Undertown is covered in the same hexagrams," Vespera explained, pointing at a red, faintly glowing pyramid-shaped rune on the wall. "These keep the Shadowbeasts away."

"Why don't delvers cover themselves in these red pyramids to go out at night?" I asked.

"These are static-type runes," Vespera sent sparks raining over the rune. "Moving 'em disables their function."

"Okay but can they be replicated to make a liquid-crystal rune?" I asked. "Specifically, could you replicate it?"

"Hrmmmm," Vespera considered. "Maybe. I'd need a sample to work with, plus the Artificery lab at Skyfall."

"Good," I said. "Pry that one out of a wall. I don't want Kathy to be confined to Undertown. She's max grumpy-cat as it is."

"Prying high-level protection runes out of walls seems like a terrible idea," Cinder commented as Vespera's magisteel talons ignited like arc-welding torches to begin cutting the red pyramid rune from solid stone.

"Everything I do seems like a terrible idea at first," I pointed out. "And yet here we are, taking over Undertown."

"This rune ain't that high-level," Vespera said. "Also, I can do better... when properly motivated."

"How motivated are you?" I asked her.

"How motivated am I?" Vespera's gray eyes sparkled with mischief as she twisted her head my way at an angle that would absolutely break a human neck. "Let's see... on a scale of one to motivated, I'd say I'm somewhere between 'will work for kisses' and 'will revolutionize magitek industry to impress my human pet.'"

"Pet?" I arched an eyebrow at her.

"A step up from property!” she grinned.

“Uh-huh,” I mused.

"Mhmm. My adorable little human who does tricks like releasing apocalyptic plagues and taking over criminal organizations. #BestHoomanPetEver," Vespera clicked her beak cheerfully, prying a chunk of wall with the red rune on it and shoving it into her side bag. She slipped down to my level and took a selfie with me and Cinder. “There. The rune is pawned.”

“Can you burn similar runes into this stone?” I asked her.

“I can,” she nodded. “It has decent aetheric density. But it’s an effort and a half to electrically ignite stone in the right way to crystallize it to conduct mana currents. I do wish that I had better strata to work with. This stone isn’t very electrically-conductive.”

“I’ve got a plan for this,” I said.

“Do you, now?” Vespera tilted her beak at me.