Val liked to think that rifts had personalities.

Ashless Forest had the passion customary to fire, ceaselessly burning twenty-five hours per day. On the subtler side, Dark Mineshaft held the eeriness of a stalker’s shadow, like she couldn’t let her guard down for a second.

Currently settled in the Fleeting Woodlands, the rift gravitated to the unconventional traits of the airgate. For the most part, things bound to the element were like a harsh draft on a winter morning, cold and succinct. Rarely did Val witness the unrestrained freedom and frivolity of air.

Caws accented the swishing foliage of the patchy canopy, sunrays prickling the grass with radiant splotches. Val groaned as one particular beam of sunlight blinded her eyes, leaning backward on a grand oak to dodge it. The sound of coins jingling offset nature's pulsing heartbeat and her head slanted downward.

There were three types of small change in her palm—a dime, a quarter and a dollar. Each represented the fraction of one aether strand she was to emit. The act would’ve been impossible a month ago, but she’d grappled with the technique long enough to maneuver past the difficulties.

Aether already sat at the tips of her fingers, vying to break her skin. Val shut her eyelids and extended her will to her calloused pads. Trapping the energy inside her soul signature, she linked her flesh to the essence.

It was time to bridge the gap, to sew divergent sides of her existence together. Her mental grasp was like knitting prongs, used to produce the imbalance needed to draw energy out.

Knitting takes two things, Mom would often remark on those early, weekend mornings. Patience and practice.

Val always possessed the former, and the latter she obtained over weeks of struggle. Unifying the immaterial world and physical plane as one, a faint light breached her nail bed. Ever-shifting wisps of blue essence pranced on her index finger. Success.

She set a dollar on the glowing digit and focused on the steady flux of aether exiting her AV. A pang struck her core and she acted on it, severing the connection on her Aetherial Vessel. I should be 1 AS down. The urge to tap at her ink-formed ring to review her guess was strong, but she managed to hold it in. If she wouldn’t get the privilege in a battle, she wouldn’t give it to herself now.

The crimson coin’s colour bled away to reveal a pearly white, and Val cracked a smile. There we go. While not as smooth as she’d like, it served the same purpose all the same. One more completed task to submit to Master Winsford, and another step forward in securing her position in Runic Mead.

Though she wanted to try her hand at the other coins, she was well aware of her circumstances. The Fleeting Woodlands’ facade of calm didn’t fool her—a rift was a rift. An attack could occur at any point in time, and it’d be beyond careless to misuse her reserves.

An aether strand down, she shifted her limbs into the lotus position and fell into the Congruence of Prevalent Essence. The breathing technique did more than stimulate the abounding aether, it placed her scattered thoughts in order. Motes of energy fluttered to the Striker in periods, the tempo hastening during her inhales. In a matter of minutes, she was topped off. Twenty-five AS.

“That’s it!”

Aeron’s encouragement snapped Val’s eyelids open, discovering him beside the magma Striker under his tutelage. Caro shed the heavy components of her armour, donned in thin activewear. Near the feet of the only tree spared By Silann’s wrath inside the clearing, she resolved into a martial stance, feet wide apart and shoulders at an angle.

She pulled back a clenched fist and held it there, like she was loading an attack. Having been in her position, Val could read the thoughts behind Caro’s grimace. It’s hard work.

In the Dark Mineshaft, Aeron and Silann had mentioned Val using an Aether Art unconsciously. As great as that was, the skill would be miles better if she could use it on demand. Knowing they’d receive no more than a scoff from Silann, they’d pestered the water mage endlessly to teach them. It has been three weeks since then and his sessions proved fruitful.

Aeron focused on the straightforward subset of Aether Reinforcement: energy enhancement. Similar to Vague View, she’d flowed aether to the tendons and ligaments of her desire, strengthening the natural pulley system of the body. Her instincts took over once the energy arrived within the place in question. Though there existed methods to refine the process and cut the fat, none of it would be of any help to the learning mages.

Caro blasted a punch, her fist sailing for the tree in front of her. “Hup!”

The trunk rocked back and forth, raining leaves on the grinning pair. Extracting her knuckles with evident effort, she left a crater deep inside the plant’s wooden skin.

“Sure, go ahead and attract saints-knows-what to our direct location.” Silann jabbed a pair of chopsticks at them, a steaming bowl of East Continental ramen in her lap. The oil-infused liquid carried the slightest of ripples, a millimeter away from tipping over. “Nothing worthy to note.”

Caro sifted her fingers through her red curls, a hair tie clamped within her teeth. “My bad.”

“I know it’s your bad,” Silann muttered, mixing her noodles.

Aeron shot her an apologetic smile, returning his sights to the Strikers. “Do you two remember your B’s?”

“Breathe,” Caro named, slicking back the strands escaping her ponytail. “Make sure you’re relaxed, it helps your instincts flow.”

“Become.” Val cracked her stiff fingers. “It’s important to settle into the mindset as much as you settle your body.”

“Bait,” Cari finished. “It’s pointless to heed the first few rules if you don’t make use of the energy.”

“Wait. Lie low,” Val added. “And, as you taught, make every planned strike lethal, not every attack.”

“Good,” he nodded. “You cannot afford to squander energy,” he said, his hazel irises void of any triviality. “You can’t.”

“We found something,” a foreign voice interjected.

Silann jumped to the side, crossbow raised toward the bordering bushes. The air wobbled and Bo’s slender frame arose. Crouching within the shrubbery, he whisked down his mask and threw a thumb over the shoulder. “Rick said we’re to convene at the discovery.”

Caro huffed a laugh. “Warn a girl before popping up out of nowhere.”

The wind mage sighed, whisking away her spilled meal at the snap of her fingers. “Agreed.”

“Apologies.”

“Lead us to this ‘discovery’ of yours,” Silann grunted to a stand, trudging past the thick shrubbery and glancing back. “Are you waiting for a personal invitation? Let’s go.”

~

Pushing aside the final offshoot in her path, Val beheld Rick engrossed in the forest floor before him. He turned toward the rustling noise and nodded at his entering squad. “Glad to see everyone’s made the trip.”

“It was a two-minute walk,” Caro said. “I think we’ve survived worse.”

“I’d sure hope so,” he quipped, gesturing the group closer. “Take a look at this tunnel.”

Val inched closer to the Bulwark, examining a bottomless well, with no ending in sight. In the middle of a forest?

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

“See if you can detect anything,” Rick asked. “Get nearer to the edge if need be.”

She obeyed his request, ambling nearer to perceive the innards of the curious structure. The hole was broader than her bedroom, indicating more pages to the story. Could it lead to another core, making the rift a labyrinth? We’d have to report it to the CAU. She groaned, seeing a swift end to the day-long dive.

A force struck the small of Val’s back, shifting her feet from beneath. The heel of her boots sunk and the ground gave away, throwing her straight inside the mouth of the tunnel. Quick to react, she twisted as much as her body could allow, stretching an arm to the squad.

Not a single hand branched out to catch her—Silann went as far as to wave. Shock coursed through Val’s veins. By the saints. Fear didn’t register until the view of the forest blurred past her.

“Shit!”

Caro’s scream reverberated against the dirt walls, loud enough to be heard against the howling air rushing past Val. The yell chased her tumbling descent and the detail relayed one simple message.

Both Strikers were pushed.

She smothered the emotions threatening to consume her mind, prioritizing her physical well-being. She weaved the frames form, stretch, and sharpen in three seconds. “Metal Spike!”

Her spell brought forth a rod, and she stabbed it into the tunnel walls. She gripped the coldsteel rod with both hands, mustering all the willpower she possessed. Her muscles burned at the stress exerted onto them, using sheer strength to combat the force of gravity. Cutting through the hard ground for a few seconds, the spike’s descent ceased, and hers with it.

She foraged her tool belt, finding two aether potions and gulping them down. Energy surged through her body and she summoned another pike, thrusting it into the packed dirt for good measure. Her abdominal muscles flexed and she hauled herself onto it, downing another tonic. She activated Vague View, spotting a haywire blue blob stuck in rolling decline.

Caro.

Balanced precariously on a pair of thin poles, she took out a scroll and poured energy into it. Metal Chains splurged out of the paper, chasing after the plummeting Novice. At her demand, the metal links sped past her friend, slicing into the packed dirt and forming a lace.

Caro crashed into the safety net and Val winced. It wasn’t a pretty job, but she’d live with a couple of healing scrolls. “Caro, are you—argh!”

Blinding light stole her vision. She pushed through the discomfort, laying sight on luminous scripts inscribed over the entirety of the tunnel. Enchantments.

The tunnel walls liquified, turning into sloshy mud. Her spikes’ hold loosened, slinking out of the divot of earth she’d worked hard to create. No, no, no—

Thus, her descent began anew. A duet of screams saturated the air of the broad well, cutting through her blank mind. What was there to think about as imminent doom approached? By the hands of people she’d call friends, no less. Time flowed with a sense of levity—or did it speed up?

She couldn’t tell.

“Saintsdammit!” Caro yelled. What’s there to yell about now?

As if a yawn of the Air Saint, a powerful gust of wind ruffled her adventurer’s attire. Her dive slowed and light spilled into the pitch-dark insides of the tunnel. An end?

Nevertheless, she tousled with herself in the air, keen on landing feet first rather than the opposite option. Her efforts were successful, and as the heavensent wind lightly set her feet on a stone floor. The glimmering enchantments carved onto the stone floor dimmed, their job in preventing them from falling to their death completed.

Caro breathed in uncontrollable huffs, kicking aside the metal chains that landed nearby. “I’m gonna kill them.”

“You can talk to them later, we gotta get out of here first.” Val cataloged the belongings in her tool belt, only to realize she burned through a third of her tonics and an additional scroll. Already?

Applying a healing scroll to the purple-yellow blooming on her arm, Caro glanced around. “What the hell is this place?”

A kitchen-sized burrow led far into the distance. Misplaced lighting shed visibility onto the maroon clay walls, mould forming along its creases. There was no discernable source of the radiance, and the fact scared her. If she couldn’t find the torches responsible for illumination, what else in her vicinity remained obscured from her senses?

She craned her head and squinted upwards. The entrance was a ways above and the runes on the well’s sides sparkled, far from deactivating. Even if I try to head up, my spikes will slip out anyway.

A low rumbling rattled their very bones and the Strikers whirled around. The clay barrier at their backs crept forward, maroon dirt surging out of the wall. That left one route to tread.

Forward.

The earthen barrier lurched leisurely, on its separate pace to consume the remaining room in the underground passageway. Val tugged her friend from the sight, eager to put space between them and the deluge of dirt. As the mage bearing defence-related armour, she took the lead on the jog. The ground tremors waned as they continued to run, yet the tunnel seemed to have other plans—harmful plans.

“At your feet!” Val warned as a line wriggled its way across the ground. Caro hopped just as a gap yawned open, its aim to swallow the Striker whole. Pouring strength into her legs, Val grunted as she bounded over the meter-wide crevice. Her knees bore the brunt of the landing with practiced ease, a pleasant surprise in the grief-stricken circumstances. I’ll have to thank Magus Hawke if I survive.

Back on her feet, she squinted at a protrusion bulging out of the tunnel’s side. She didn’t think twice about the grove, these were far from smooth walls. But as they progressed through the area, she couldn’t shake the feeling that it trailed them like a living… writhing thing.

The world turned blue as she triggered Vague View and she sucked a frightful breath. “Watch your nine!”

Caro stepped right as a carnivorous mole peeked through the earthen sides, chomping down on thin air. Unsheathing her sword, Val stormed the beast and decapitated it in a compact, vertical slash.

Throwing her a glance of appreciation, Caro didn’t break her strides and continued to lunge forward. Val wiped the viscous splatter on her sleeve, shaking her head. She’d have to clean and repair her armour yet again.

“Above,” Caro warned. Sharpened cones hung from the ceiling a few feet overhead. Steady for as long as it took for the pair to approach the area, the batch of weapons plunged to the ground.

“Magma Pane!”

An offensive barrier of molten earth appeared overhead, and the air began to boil. The Striker directed the spell at the shower of stalactites, melting the narrow bottoms of the material. The residues clattered to the floor as smouldering chunks, smoke filling the gap.

“One sec.”Caro shut her eyes, and the embers in the burning pieces softened. The smoke followed, and eventually the traces of her spell diminished altogether. “Wouldn’t want a fire on our hands on top of everything, now would we?”

“It wouldn’t be that bad…” Val’s words trickled into silence.

“V?”

Val placed a finger on her lips, ears pronounced outwards. The hum of the dirt tide doubled as the minutes went by, shaking her feet through her boots. “It’s catching up, we’ve got to go.”

“I don’t know, Val. There might not be anything to find at the end of all this,” Caro sighed. “Hell, we could run into a dead end. Then we’d have nowhere to run to.”

“Doesn’t matter,” she answered. “We die if we stay here, either way.”

“Alright,” the magma mage popped an aether potion. “Just know that I'll be haunting you in the afterlife.” She showed the briefest of grins and sprinted down the tunnel, Val on her heels.

Despite the significance of the situation, Val was… detached from her own body. She watched someone else tread the cramped tunnel in third-person view, someone else placed one foot after the other.

The path forward was anything but a stroll in a park—aether creatures popped up at uncanny moments and the clay walls transformed into dangerous ordeals at the tick of the clock. It didn’t help to hear constant rumbling, a perpetual reminder of their time limit.

Running for what seemed like hours to Val, the tunnel broadened to a space large enough to fit fifty coach buses. Slowing their breakneck pace, the two heaved handfuls of air and settled into a cautious prowl inside. The girls were back-to-back, Caro’s front directed toward the new surroundings and Val’s oriented on the entrance.

Val’s breath hitched as red clay spilled out of the doorway. There wasn’t any noise, though. Death by asphyxiation wasn’t the way Val planned on going, and when the surge of mud came to a complete halt, a sigh of relief escaped her. That, however, was where the positives stopped.

“Bad news,” Val said. “We’re locked in.”

“Worse news.” The sound of Caro unclasping her greataxe turned the enchanter around. “We’re not alone.”

Val clocked the entire underground space—left, right, down, even the walls. On the verge of questioning the mage, she decided to place her bets in the last direction.

Up.

An arachnid horror sidled down a string as thick as her neck. Larger than a truck, it was a wonder how the sprawling web spread across the cavern ceiling held its weight. Numerous limbs hung tight to the white lattice, twelve red dots trained on the girls' heads.

Returning the favour, Val stared at the upside-down creature and gulped. Oh boy.