(Audrey’s point of view)

Emilia had questions, questions I wasn’t ready to answer. Fortunately for me she understood and didn’t push. Unfortunately for both of us, she assured me there was no way out of this cave, or whatever it was, without permission from Kisanna.

A day later, Mai was brought to the cave. She was unconscious, but under the care of Kisanna, it didn’t take long for her to wake up.

Mai was shocked by my horns, but didn’t react much. She was too worried about Fey to care about much else. We had no idea where he was or what happened to him and Grey, the man who saved Mai, wouldn’t say.

A few more days passed uneventfully, then Kisanna, her two guards and Grey came to our room.

“Come in,” Emilia said, stepping out of the way.

Once inside, Kisanna took a seat on the sofa. Aside from our beds it was the only sitting space we had, and despite it being solid rock, it was quite comfortable.

Grey spoke first. “I have news of your friends. Four of them made it safely to the mantis. The other was taken by the Ghost clan.”

“What are you talking about? It was your kind that attacked us and took Fey.”

Grey shook his head. “Your friend was taken by Ghosts. We are spirits.”

“My sister’s children are wild and ruthless. They’ll do anything to achieve their goals even if it means hurting innocents.” Kisanna said with a frown.

“You can tell them apart from us by their masks.”

As far as I could tell, their masks were all the same—carved from wood, covered in glowing runes and designed in the image of a beast. I wasn’t about to argue about it, Mai however…

“Your masks are all the same. The only difference is the kind of beasts you wear!” She yelled.

Grey pointed at her, nodding. “Exactly. Ours are all herbivores, theirs are carnivores. Anyway it doesn’t matter, what’s important is—wait, have any of you heard of something called the Architect’s Legacy?”

We hadn’t, so we shook our heads.

“Do you know what a bleed is?”

We did, a bleed is where the spirit realm and physical realm bleed together. They are almost exclusively underground, and very dangerous places to be.

“Great, that'll save some time. To be honest, we don’t know exactly what the Legacy is, or what’s inside it, but there are three known entrances to it. All three are deep inside a bleed.”

“Not important Grey.” Kisanna groaned.

“Right…well, to get right to the point, Your friend is an architect.”

I was skeptical. The stories I’d heard growing up spoke of an ancient race that created and designed the world. They were called architects, but like fairies, they’d all been hunted down by Pyro and his enforcers.

No one knew how he managed to kill them, some didn’t believe he did, but the architects disappeared all the same.

“There’s no way.” Mai’s lips pressed flat and her gaze intensified on Grey. “He’s inept, how could he possibly be an architect?”

If Emilia had any doubt, she didn’t show it.

“Let me rephrase that for you. How could a being that created the world, magic, and everything, alter its appearance and completely hide its abilities? I can’t answer that, but I can tell you what I saw before I carried you back here.”

“Grey!”

“Apologies, my lady.” He said with a bow to the fox woman. Then he turned back to Mai. “Look, the point is, those Ghost reapers are likely trying to use your friend to open the—”

“Unauthorized attempt to access legacy.” A computerized voice blared through speakers I didn’t know existed. “Non Alteri life forms detected on premises. Elimination protocol, initiating.”

The two bodyguards tensed up. As if they expected enemies to come from the walls, both tightening their grip on their spears.

Emilia’s hand rested on her CAD. “What’s going on?”

Kisanna and Grey looked as uncertain as we felt. “I don’t know.” They said in unison. Then, Kisanna continued. “Grey, go and check things out.”

Grey nodded and was out the door in the next second.

“Are you sure we should be waiting?” Emilia asked. “That computer, or whatever it was, sounded pretty enthusiastic about that elimination protocol.”

It was after replaying the automated message in my head that I realized another key detail. This structure we were in, must’ve been near the entrance to the legacy. If that was the case, we were in a bleed.

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“This is an architect structure. It’s long been dormant and their relics are all left lifeless. I don’t expect much.”

As soon as she finished, the cave shook. A rumbling in the distance, too strong to be from simple spells, seemed to contradict her statement.

Kisanna, bit her lip tentatively. When another tremor rocked the cave, she bit harder then clicked her tongue. “Let’s go!” She said, already hurrying through the door.

Outside, about thirty yards down the tunnel, a wreckage of mechanical humanoids sat crumpled against the wall.

Grey, wielding an amethyst blade, sliced through two androids in one stroke, then kicked a third out of the tunnel with crushing force. The machine skipped across the moon pool, making large splashes, then crashed into the rocky wall before sinking under the water's surface.

Grey rushed on, to the next machine, and we hurried after him.

In the large chamber, hundreds of spirit reapers were grappling with what seemed an endless flow of mechanical soldiers. Like a swarm of smorps, the robots came up from the tunnels wielding strange weapons that I could only relate to the unique CAD an enforcer used against the flaming beast when they rescued us.

I didn’t have a lot of good experiences, but my time underground had definitely been the worst.

A surge of energy filled me with power. Unconsciously I’d begun drawing it in. As the energy circulated, a pair of shimmering wings grew from my back.

Looking into the distance, I felt something—a connection like when meeting eyes with a stranger, only I didn’t look away. My heart quickened as a zing worked its way through my body. All on their own, my wings began fluttering. A ghostly whisper consumed my mind, blocking out everything else.

He spoke a language with words no human could replicate; I didn’t understand them individually, but I knew what he was saying.

Without direction, I was carried forth. My wings knew the way and if it hadn’t been for Kisanna grabbing me by the arm and slapping me out of my daze, I’d have gone on to meet him.

Looking at her guards, Kisanna ordered, “keep them safe, I’ll handle the fairy.”

Grey was nowhere to be seen, though a trail of metal bits and scorch marks led around the moon pool and down the tunnel where the most machines came from.

The only remaining evidence of spirit reapers in the vicinity were dull wood masks littering the floor, their runes no longer glowing.

Grabbing my cheeks, Kisanna came so close to my face I thought she might try and kiss me. “This isn’t the place to use your powers. In case you hadn’t realized, this whole place is inside a bleed. That means it’s as much in the spirit realm as it is the physical. I’m sure you recall who you’re supposed to be hiding from.”

I nodded, though I wondered how she knew I was hiding.

“I know, it wasn’t intentional.” I said as I let go of the energy I’d gathered. My wings faded and I felt a sense of vulnerability knowing I couldn’t defend myself if something happened.

With stern eyes Kisanna instructed, “come.”

She bounded off towards a spiral tunnel leading up and, I hoped, to the surface.

It didn’t. Instead, the spiral path ended in a room covered in purple runes.

Under different circumstances seeing so many of these strange characters in one place, might’ve been exciting; however, these weren’t the kind one could simply take and use.

Energy flowed through them facilitating some process I couldn’t fully grasp or understand. All I knew for sure, was they were connected to a platform at the center of the room.

On the platform there was a creature resembling a human, only it had skin like metal. It was lacking certain anatomical features, and differed from the automated killers only in that a constant current of spirit energy was flowing through it. Perhaps that was the purpose of the runes, or maybe they just kept it in a state of sedation. Either way, its presence was unsettling, but since it seemed to be lacking vital organs; I didn’t think we had to worry about it waking up.

“Take these, and put them on.”

Turning away from the platform, I realized Kisanna was handling out black robes, each embroidered with a strange looking rune—some sort of eye with a line through it.

When Emilia put hers on, she vanished. Mai and I both jumped, wondering what had happened. Then, Emilia reappeared again with the hood flipped down.

“It’s an illusion rune,” Kisanna said, “but don’t dally. These can hide you from humans, but spirits will notice the disruption of energy.”

We nodded and put on the cloaks.

Without delay, Kisanna headed back down the spiral path. The moon pool room was still clear of androids, but the clink of heavy iron soles on stone echoed through the cave.

“This way!” Kisanna demanded, yanking me along by my arm.

Her grabbing despite me being cloaked in the robe seemed to confirm what I already suspected, she was some kind of spirit.

We hurried down the same path Grey had taken earlier. Lifeless reaper masks and ruined machines made the path an endless tripping hazard, but we didn’t slow our pace.

At the next large chamber, there was a heavy shadow hanging over the room. Light was swallowed in the darkness, but I didn’t need the light to see.

A dark foot hare darted around the chamber using a purple blade to hack at androids as they fired blindly, sometimes destroying each other. Kisanna joined in on the carnage, while her guards led Mai, Emilia, and me along the edges of the room until we found another path down.

The curtain of night lifted when the hare and fox disabled the last machine. The hare stood, morphing into a person, then Kisanna and Grey joined us.

It made no sense to me why we were going down until we reached the bottom of the spire. We were never underground.

Only a handful of spirit reapers remained. They were completely encircled by machines, then a moment later, they were no more. The sound of their masks clattering on the floor was like the toll of a bell, ringing in my ears endlessly.

A violent shift in the air filled the room with malice. Kisanna stepped forward, with heavy steps, burdened by her own rage. The force of her will brought me to my knees, but the androids weren’t affected.

Grey reached for his master, but stopped short.

The robots turned their weapons toward us. Metallic footfalls rapidly approached from behind. We were effectively cornered. Even if the machine couldn’t see Emilia, Mai, or me, their energy bullets would still strike us.

Short of a miracle, we were all as good as dead.

“gnev drhti me pre” Kisanna’s words rumbled through the space like a destructive force.

In response to her voice, the mechanized soldiers crumbled into dust. The way forward was clear, but Kisanna and Grey didn’t follow us out of the spire.