They stepped out of the cavern for the first time in over a day. Though dimmed brown and red by the Tainted sky, the light of the noon was still bright enough to cause Adelle to squint after readjusting her eyes from the darkness. It was the first time she saw the Taint from within the continent. Where it was a rust-grey blob from afar, it looked akin to storm clouds of fire from the middle of the land. Occasionally, portions of the sky would light up in bright orange flames. Luce explained it was the rust in the air sparking off each other and igniting the metallic dust.

Standing within visible distance of the base of Reveries Mountain, the Titan's Graveyard stretched south and southeast expansively. The flat basin was littered with the bodies of mechs and golems as old metallic machines and drooping stone arches. In the far south, a pile of maybe 5 or 6 of the giants' bodies looked as if they had fused together to form a small mount.

Rumbling.

Adelle turned towards to sound from the west. A line of 5 golems ten times her height and as wide and long as mansions crawled across the landscape on all fours, hunched on their backs. Aside them, the groups of soldiers were barely ants, scrambling around the large moving creatures.

"Varicks," Josh noted. "Excavator golems meant for clearing mines. See the front legs with its shovel-like hands? Those things can dig up vast chunks of land and they are reinforced to take the blasts of explosions."

Luce asked, "So are they mine clearing?"

"No. That road isn't used by any army. Probably just sent out to scout or something," Talia answered. "Not our problem, and definitely not mine with such worthless information. We have to get to Altaro, she gestured to the horizon. It's a small town where we can resupply and we're about three days away with only two days worth of food left."

Adelle sighed. It was definitely getting hotter and less humid the further south they went. Her lips were cracking and she was sweating much more than she expected. Luce and Josh seemed to have adapted much faster to the dry, barren climate, likely due to having lived on the continent for extended years.

For about an hour, they made their way down the mountain in silence, occasionally glancing over towards the golems which had started digging the dirt of the land. Then she noticed a bulge of men sized figures moving across the landscape towards the Titans.

"Hey," she called out. "What's that?"

Josh raised a curious brow. From his large bag, he pulled out a telescopic telescope and trained it on the group.

"Huh. It's the Pyrerai."

Talia added in confusion, "That can't be right. The Pyrerai never leaves the city." She snatched the telescope from his grasp and followed the view. "Well I'll be damned. It really is her. Barely see it, but I won't miss that bombastic cloak anywhere."

Luce asked, "What does this mean?"

"It means," Talia began excitedly as she lowered the telescope. "That once I've delivered you to Altaro, I'm heading back to report this to Eca and getting me a cart of credits!"

"Just hold your horses," Josh said. "You can't just-"

"What are horses?" Talia cut in, returning the telescope.

"I-that doesn't matter right now! You can't just leave us midway."

"I'm not leaving you midway. It's more like a quarter."

"Talia!"

"Don't worry. I know another Guide that's currently in Altaro. I'll pass you off to him and then I'll get off!"

"And give up your share of the money?"

Talia shrugged. "Guy's new. He's cheap. And the info drop will be worth more for the amount of work than delivering you guys."

Josh groaned. "Why are you always like this?"

If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Money makes the world go round, my dear. Besides," she laughed. "You guys don't really have much of a choice."

"What about your reputation?" Josh threatened. "I could ruin you."

Talia laughed. "Cute threat, Joshy. But you're not one to do that. I've known you long enough. Besides, you're a Guide yourself. Nobody will take a Guide trashing another Guide seriously."

The stunned man could not reply.

Adelle grunted. "I don't like that she's right."

There was a lot more that she didn't like. The mysterious digging through none combat areas. How the Pyrerai was moving in an unusual fashion. Eca's behind the scenes manipulation.

Talia reassured them. "Don't worry. The other Guide's new, but he's good. I'm just undercharging him because I'm thrifty."

"Well," Luce huffed. "At least you admit it."

"I am nothing if not consistent," Talia admitted, readjusting her pack and restarted leading the way down the path.

Towards Altaro they continued. Occasionally, Adelle would throw glances towards the Titan digging in the far distance. On one such occasion, she found Luce catching her in the act and quickly looked up to the sky instead, pretending to be fascinated at the scenery.

But she could not shake the sense of dread. It ate at her and must have shown on her face, for Luce asked in worry.

"What's on your mind?"

For some reason, Adelle felt forthcoming to her. "I don't know." She wanted to follow her gut, but her gut was wrangled. So she did what The Watcher would do in these situations and followed her curiosity instead. "Why is it called 'Titan's Graveyard?'"

Luce shrugged. "I'm not sure. It was already named that when I was born. Josh?"

"I heard you," the man answered from the front. He spun on his legs and begun walking backwards. "I'm not sure either. My best guess would be due to the numbers of dead Titans there. It is a last line of defence, after all."

Talia corrected, "Nope. It was called that even before the war, hundreds of years ago."

Adelle's mind began to think, something which she still was not comfortable with, causing her to groan before saying, "Urgh... wait. So, a graveyard is where you bury things. What Titan's old enough to be buried for hundreds of years?"

"No mechs," Luce said. "They weren't invented until the war."

"Can't be golems either," Talia added. "They were not combat ready until a couple of decades before the war began."

Josh finished, "That leaves sentient Titans."

"What's the point of that?" Talia exclaimed. "You can't control those things. They'd just run around doing whatever."

They stopped in their tracks and Josh muttered, "Unless someone pilot's them..." He looked to Adelle.

"Lachesis's a sentinel. She's like me."

Luce added, "You piloted the Leviathan."

"So she can probably do the same with some other sentient."

Talia threw her arms up. "What are you three talking about?"

Luce explained, "Sentinels can pilot sentients."

"No they can't. That's just an old ground's tale."

"Adelle did. She got in Leviathan and told it to move and it did."

Exasperated, Talia tried to reason away the lunacy. "Even if she could, why would the Pyrerai dig one up from the grave? Why not just go after one that's still functioning?"

"Grotslang's underground," Josh explained. "And Arklut's all the was in The Burning South. Not exactly easy Titans to locate, which is surprising given their sizes."

"I can't just take your words for it."

"Fine then," Luce retorted. "Don't take our words for it. Not like we're here to play the hero or anything. Just give the information to Eca. If he thinks it's valuable, you get paid. If not, no harm done."

Talia thought the idea over before finally shrugging. "Fine. It's not a big thing for me either. Let's just get to Altaro first, shall we?"

The rest continued down the path, but Adelle hung back for just a moment. With one last look towards the Titan digging in the distance, she teleported to catch up to the rest of her companions.

----------------------------------------

The giant shovel-claws dug straight through the crust of the earth, pulling apart mounts of rocks and stones as easily as one does flesh and blood.

Lachesis stood at the side, watching with arm's crossed. She waited anxiously for the news. They had been scouring the Graveyard for years now, searching for the sentient from legends. Now, with only less than a tenth of the land remaining to dig, she was itching for results.

Most sentient Titans were larger than life. Easy to spot even if you were to be flying high in the skies on a glider. But she was looking for just the core of one. An ancient Titan monstrous in size in its own rights, but with just a titanium sphere no larger than perhaps a small room for a body. The ultimate contradiction. The ultimate weapon.

The Varicks swung its arm into the dirt again. But instead of slicing through like before, a loud smash echoed out. The golem recoiled, almost as if in pain. Lachesis scoff. Weapons should have no use for pain.

Her soldiers ran up to examine the dig. After a moment, they began calling in mortal excavators armed with shovels and wheelbarrows. An hour passed. Then, two. What were a few hours for a woman who had waited centuries for her vengeance?

Finally, one of her 2nd ranked ran up to her. "My Pyrerai, we've made a discovery."

She abandoned her cloak to one of her servants. At the left of her hip hung a gunrifle, the ceremonial mace nowhere near an effective weapon on a potential battlefield. In a cloud of rust, she teleported over to the edge of the dig site. Staring down into the hole, the silver glint at the bottom caught her eyes and she smiled. The archaeologists parted to let her through and she teleported into the ditch.

Immediately she felt the whispers like a million flies whizzing in her mind and she smiled. The ground around her seemed to tremble, but there were no shakes of the earth. Dust particles began rising around them but only floating to her shin like a low hanging mist.

"Patience. We'll fix you up real good." She grinned. "Exodus."