Alisa moved swiftly within the crawl spaces. Almost as proficiently as Eem. Vivi crawled after her as fast as she could. She was on the brink of requiring ether to move faster.

There was something awe-inspiring about Alisa’s movements. The woman moved quickly yet gracefully. Every simple action she made was done with practice and intent. Her way of crawling was silent, almost artistic. If Vivi looked away from her for a second, Alisa could have disappeared from her vision entirely.

After a short while, the crawl space grew wide enough to fit two people next to each other. Alisa waited, and Vivi joined her side. Alisa lifted off her mask.

“Are you a fan of redfruits, Vivi?” Alisa asked.

“Um, I find them interesting. But I don’t eat them often.”

“Mhmm,” Alisa said. “What about pastries and sweets? How often do you eat those?”

“I don’t eat pastries,” Vivi said. “They’re too expensive.”

“Never tasted them?” Alisa asked.

“I tried a toffee once,” Vivi said. “It was good.”

“Toffee, huh.” Alisa grinned. “That’s a good one. Anything else?”

“What kind of questions are these?” Lucius asked. “Is she sane?”

I don’t think anyone in this gang is sane, Vivi thought. And that referred to Lucius as well.

“Why are you asking this?” Vivi asked.

“A person’s taste palette says a lot about them,” Alisa said. “In Zand, pastries and sweets, even redfruits, are considered fortunes. Eating them regularly is associated with gluttony. Some call it betrayal, wasting ether on something so useless. But to dislike the taste of pastries because they’re gluttonous and expensive? That’s just plain weird. By telling me your preference in pastries, you’ve told me more about your character than an interview ever could have.”

“Sure,” Vivi said. “I’ll taste your baking if you want me to.”

“And what makes you think I’m a baker?” Alisa asked with an amused smile.

“Only a baker can think about pastries when crammed up in a crawl space.”

Alisa laughed. Her laugh was heavy, almost like a man’s laugh. “I’m awful at baking. I prefer stealing cherries from cakes.”

The crawl spaces ended, and Alisa put her mask back on. The path led them to the upper levels of the hidden dungeon. Vivi didn’t recognize her surroundings. The area was quiet with a musty smell of dirt and stone. Vegetation was dry and dying. The ground and walls were a boring brown, but subtle shiny spots were visible. Metals?

The ominous feeling was back in the air. As if someone was watching her. Hunting her.

“We’re in the gnoll mineshaft,” Alisa said. “The mineshaft is the safest level to traverse in the hidden dungeon. For most trips up and down, we will traverse through the mineshaft.”

Safe? Vivi thought. The area certainly didn’t feel safe. “Are there monsters?”

“Gnolls,” Alisa said. “They’re deadly. Even a maxed out swordsman can die if they step in carelessly.”

“But you said the mineshaft is safe?”

“When a Phantom talks about safety, we are not referring to the safety of an individual, but the safety of our home base. The mineshaft’s danger is precisely why it’s safe. Guards rarely patrol here. Their patrols never reach deep, and they tend to skip entering here when possible. It’s relatively safe to kill monsters here if you have to. Especially when accounting for the gnoll’s common fights with their own kind.”

“The guards wield runeswords,” Vivi said. “The mineshaft is still too dangerous?”

Vivi felt something in the distance. Her head perked up. An ether-aura was charging at them from above at the speed of a raging waterfall. Murderous intent filled the whole cavern.

Lucius summoned Vivi’s runesword, left hand growing to claws without her asking. The monster’s presence was strong enough to spook him into action.

The gnoll ran on four legs, carrying a hatchet in its mouth. It was a hairy dog-like monster wearing a leather harness. Its devilish red eyes gazed into Vivi’s soul as it launched itself at her with terrifying speed. The gnoll grabbed the hatchet and swung it mid-air, aiming for her throat.

Vivi blocked the hatchet with her sword.

While still mid-air, the gnoll grabbed onto Vivi’s blade with its crooked fingers. It lifted its feet, slashing at Vivi with clawed toes.

Vivi panicked. She slashed wildly with her claws. The gnoll was too fast, and her weapon was at a bind! One of its clawed feet was aimed directly at her stomach.

An explosion went off next to Vivi. The gnoll’s head was replaced with Alisa’s dagger. The gnoll died instantly, turning to ether.

Wisps rose from Alisa’s eyes beneath the mask. For a moment, her presence was visible, until the wisps stopped flowing, and Alisa hid her presence.

“I did warn you,” Alisa said. She collected the gnoll’s ether. “The mineshaft is entirely separated from the main pathways. That’s why far more ether concentrates here. Some of that ether dwells in the walls, forming metals, though metals take years upon years to form. Sometimes decades or lifespans.”

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Vivi watched the gnoll’s body turn into wisps of ether. The monster had been totally insane. It grabbed Vivi’s weapon from the blade.

“The gnoll dropped 387 ether. In total, its aura held around fifteen hundred. Without me, it could have defeated you, or at least damaged you. Your weapons give you an advantage, but you’re far too inexperienced to be fighting serious monsters.”

“Yes…” Vivi said. “I should have already been attacking before the gnoll jumped on me.”

“A lucky swing could have defeated it,” Alisa said. “But your fighting has problems. You don’t know how to defend or how to throw a proficient attack. You swing as hard as you can, hoping your enemy takes the hit. Those swings have serious firepower, but they will not land against real enemies.”

“We’re not weak,” Lucius said from Vivi’s core. “My wielder is just inexperienced.”

“Exactly,” Alisa said. “Some call inexperience a blessing. Not knowing anything means everything is free to be practiced. For someone that has been fighting for a week, your courage is incredible. If you learn swordsmanship, if you hone your control over ether, I can’t imagine the fighter you’ll turn into.”

Alisa continued further. The ascent consisted mostly of a straight slanted tunnel with occasional gnoll-built structures. Wooden platforms, supported by crude pillars. Ether flowed within the wood, marking the structures as self-repairing. The ether inside the wood consisted mostly of nature’s elements, the same ether that grew plants.

Vivi still struggled to understand how a dungeon was formed. Which anomaly of nature decided what monsters spawned where? How did nature’s ether build the shape of a wooden platform for the gnolls to use as a hangout spot?

In Zand, nobody cared about that. Monsters spawned, and they were killed, ether collected.

Alisa dealt with the remaining monsters. She claimed that she liked to avoid gnolls, sneaking past them by hiding her presence, but she made short work of them through fighting as well. Alisa easily outmaneuvered the gnolls, cutting their throats before they could fight back.

Watching Alisa work, Vivi couldn’t help but feel outclassed. Alisa didn’t need to activate her skills to defeat gnolls. She was maxed out with ether, but her presence was nothing like the intimidating auras of most others. Her control over ether was reserved and calm like a silent drizzle of venomous rain.

“I said I would be teaching you to sneak around,” Alisa said. “That was mostly a lie. I’m the only one of the Phantoms who practices concealing my ether aura. The others tend to do the opposite; they push their auras with enough power to drive fear into their opponents. If you wish to conceal your aura, be prepared to practice endlessly for years.”

“It seems practical,” Vivi said. “The monsters don’t sense you coming. It’s harder to feel you moving when you’re not coated with ether.”

“Exactly,” Alisa said. “Four of the Stewards know this technique. Uundref is the most proficient at appearing invisible. For us, the sixth sense is an advantage, but relying on it for information can be a death sentence. That’s why every Phantom follows the rules, no matter how strong we think we are. You can never know who is hiding their presence behind a corner.

“The guard patrols routes are mostly consistent, but they’re not absolute. The Stewards might not bat an eye seeing a group of dead monsters, but they might become suspicious seeing a little flower cut in half. You never know what might trigger an investigation. When killing monsters in the hidden dungeon, we do it after we are absolutely certain that the room has been left to brew, and that the room has enough time to reform before the Stewards come back.”

“They will come back in two weeks, right?” Vivi asked.

“One or two,” Alisa said. “By then, any damages we’ve done have returned to normal. Guard patrols come weekly, sometimes randomly. You will start memorizing the map and layout of the dungeon later today. If you wish to one day move alone, you must know the entire map in and out. Every crawl space, every point of exit. Every guard patrol area. The next time we return down, I expect you to lead the way, and I expect us to move without damages.”

“I should be good at memorization,” Vivi said. “Runesmiths have to memorize the structure of a wisp of ether.”

“The dungeon is almost as complex,” Alisa said. She stopped near one of the crawl spaces. “Memorize this entrance. This one is important.”

Vivi looked around herself, trying to place the sight into memory.

“I lied,” Alisa said. “That one isn’t important in the slightest. It leads nowhere. You’ll have to memorize it anyway. This is the important one.”

Alisa jumped fifteen feet up, climbing into a crawl space on the ceiling. The crawl space led directly upward. She pressed her feet on both sides of the crawl space, holding herself in the air.

“Try jumping here on your own,” Alisa said.

Vivi looked up. Can I make that?

My previous wielder jumped forty feet with some ether, Lucius said. You should be able to make that.

Okay… Vivi’s legs filled with ether. She could feel the superhuman strength surging through her body. Her jumps had already been enhanced in the fangling lair to help her escape monsters. But to jump over fifteen feet? She didn’t know if it was possible.

She loaded her feet and jumped awkwardly. The jump reached high, but not nearly to the crawl space. She took a breath, then tried again a little more confidently. She reached higher, but the ceiling was still far off.

“You’re doing it wrong,” Lucius said. “You need to release the ether all at once, just like you do when swiping with my claws. Try to imagine you’re really thrusting yourself at the sky. Take it slow.”

Vivi took a breath. She lowered her legs, feeling the ether building up in her muscles. Then, she blasted the ether at the ground through her feet, shooting herself upward.

The jump shot her at the sky with force. She flew high. Too high. And too much to the side. Her head was headed directly at the cavern ceiling.

Suddenly, her flight stopped. “Whoops, there,” Alisa said. She pulled Vivi to the hole with her gravity spell.

“Thanks…” Vivi said. Jumping was another thing she needed to practice. She climbed into the crawl space after Alisa, as if she hadn’t just nearly crushed her neck with a reckless jump.

“This crawl space leads to an interesting place,” Alisa said. “We’re only allowed to use it on special occasions when preparations have been made. This time, Ven and Rohan have ensured that the landing is safe.”

Safe… Vivi didn’t trust the word anymore. Coming from Alisa’s mouth, it could have meant anything.

Alisa pushed at a specific spot in the wall. With some ether and strength, the wall twisted out of place, revealing a hidden crawl space within.

“Another one?” Vivi asked.

“We are the Hollow Phantoms,” Alisa said. “We make places hollow. This one is hidden less optimally than most of our exits. But it’s also inside a crawl space. Realistically, which one of the Stewards will move up here?”

The hidden crawl space was tighter, but the surface was smooth. Vivi followed Alisa for another few minutes, until the crawl space ended.

“This leads us to the public side of the dungeon,” Alisa said. “And as the rules go, we do not carry ether beyond three hundred anywhere near the hub. You and your spirit are an exception, but it’s still good to move with caution.”

Alisa grabbed three black orbs from her pocket. Ether containers. She transferred her ether into the orbs and stashed the orbs inside a small box-shaped steel case. The case slid nicely into a hole in the wall. “That’s a void container,” Alisa said. “Rensfig carved nothing runes on the inside. Those supposedly repel ether. Even though there’s thousands of ether inside the orbs, they can’t be sensed inside the container.”

With the ether hidden, Alisa took off her disguise, ordering Vivi to do the same. The disguise was only for the hidden dungeon. In the hub, members of Aang’s union used different, more convoluted disguises.

With everything done, Alisa opened another hidden trapdoor underneath them. Vivi peeked down to see a cavern packed with monsters—stone leafs, ghost blades, gremlins and all sorts of monsters Vivi didn’t recognize. There must have been over a thousand collectable ether worth of kills in the cavern.

A maniac in steel plate armor ran around the room, being chased by every monster at once.