A few minutes later, Angela and the others are on the second floor, where the fireplace is, and Angela taps at the wall with a silvery puff. Not a single spark of arcane barrier is left, and there is now a slight seam in the brickwork.

“Very good enchantment work. Never would have seen that without the goggles that allow you to spot mana currents,” Levine muses. He stoops down to get into the fireplace and pushes open the entryway, and there's a grinding of dust and stone. Along with a dusting of soot that drifts down onto his hair, and he shakes his head in annoyance. The fireplace does work, Angela notes silently. He takes a step back. “Well, it’s one giant drop. Can’t see the bottom.”

“Are…bottomless pits a thing we need to be concerned with?” James asks and continues to glare at Jackie. “Also, is anyone going to explain why the female Jonaleth clone is here?”

Angela winces. No one had told James a thing, and Evan tried to punch her in the library before Drenar intervened. “Change of plans. We need her, and she helped protect people at the Promenade.”

“Or, you could say we're just keeping her close, so she can't wander off to rat us out,” James growls. She sighs at her brother's barbed remark. “Don't give me that. I'm not hiding it, Jackie. I don't trust you.”

“Hey, before you nerds threw a wrench in the works, everything was fine! Now I've got people shooting at me!”

Julia gives her a clap on the shoulder. “Dearie, you get used to it. But seriously, turn on us, and I'll fry–”

“Julia, enough. You want to keep her on our side, I suggest you be a little nicer,” Drenar interjects. He peers down at the opening, and Angela can see the ladder with a safety cage just by his feet. “Jackie, just know this could be perilous. Aside from saving your own skin, do you have a reason to stick around?”

She pauses for a moment. The reluctance of her answer gives Angela more reason to put weight on her words. “Remari. My sister. I don't want bad things happening to her. My mom's broke as hell, and my dad spends his days drinking. It's a real spectacle over at the Carriage house,” she responds with a forced smile.

“Then focus on that. The Talons don't care who they hurt. To them, everyone is fair game.”

“Bro, seriously, she mauled me–” Evan starts to say, but Drenar cuts him off.

“Yes, I get it. But shitty scenarios seem to be all the rage lately, Evan. We just walked out of a firefight that we didn't plan for, and we saved the garrison by dumb luck. The Talons were expecting minimal resistance, and not three pissed-off dragons. They won't make that mistake again.” Drenar looks at Jackie with determination. “Evan, you're staying with her, topside.”

“What the hell, Drenar? Are you serious?!”

“Oh, you can't be serious!” Jackie hisses. Angela is tempted to slap her across the face but holds firm.

“It's either that, or we bring you into a potential battle neither of you are prepared for. Levine, assessment?” Drenar asks with emphasis.

“Ironically, I believe that their distrust will serve to anchor them. Evan, I'm setting up an arcanlink beacon. It will extend the range of the links, get back to Nick's house, if we ring the panic button, that's your moment to call in the cavalry,” Levine instructs before sticking a small antenna connected to a flat, silver device onto the brickwork of the backside of the fireplace, away from prying eyes. “Evan, listen carefully. You all know the stakes. If we ring the panic bell–”

“Drenar, come home alive. Bring everyone home alive.” He gives his brother a tight hug before gently letting go, and Angela is left wondering if they’re going to their deaths. She subtly shakes her head, at her intrusive thought. They could do this. They’d done truly difficult things already.

They had to do this. For the sake of so many others. “I'll go first.” She peers down the chimney and sees a faint, glimmering light. She winces. “Is this…bigger than the envelope would suggest?”

“Light folded space. It’s a permanent enchantment, it's baked into the brickwork. Interesting,” Levine murmurs. Angela lowers down the ladder and notes the safety cage around the ladder. There are larger spaced railings where one could relax, but it’s recessed into the side–the chimney seems to be almost three or four meters in diameter. At least mages had some safety standards. She focuses on climbing down, with Drenar right above her.

“This seems…familiar,” he mutters.

“How so?”

“Dunno. Just does. I think there's a platform down there. Levine, I think there's a lift or elevator platform at the bottom. Is there a switch by you?” he shouts upwards.

“Don't see one. Perhaps this is designed as a service area, or emergency escape,” he replies. Angela keeps climbing down, and the dim LED lights give some illumination but are widely spaced.

It triggers her creativity, and she starts humming. Drenar picks up on it and starts singing.

“What a thrill…”

“With darkness and silence, through the night…”

“What a thriillll…”

“I’m searching, and I’ll melt into you…”

She can't help but grin when Drenar leans into making it a duet. He's okay at singing, but it's her voice that carries the tune. She hears lamentations from her brother, and cheers from Julia up above. Each step down brings them closer to true unknowns.

“I'm stiiill in a dreeeam, Snake eater,” Julia joins in a moment later, and this pushes her brother over the edge.

“Are you three dorks singing Snake Eater, while we're climbing to our inevitable teenager deaths?!” James shouts down.

Everyone starts singing louder. She almost bursts out laughing when Nick joins in a second later, much to her delight.

“I give my life…not for honor, but for yoooooouu…”

“At least you sing better than Val! That psycho carries a decent tune, but there’s something next-level creepy about her,” James growls. He's given up protesting, and at this moment of calm, she has a notion it might be the last bit of it they're going to have for a while.

They're almost at the bottom, and she can make out a console just below them. This lift could carry ten people, maybe twenty, tightly packed. The warped space is still playing havoc with her visual sense, but she's mapped it out mentally. She touches down and takes a deep breath before grabbing Nick's bag off her shoulders. There's a metal utility door just off to the side, dimly lit and rust spotted. Everyone makes their way down, and Drenar speaks into the arcanlink once he's clear of the ladder.

“Evan…wish us luck. And Jackie…thank you. I know it couldn't have been easy to make the choice you did,” he says after contemplating his words.

“You nerds are gonna be the death of me, and not at the hands of the Talons,” Jackie says in resignation. “We’ll lock up here, hope the librarian is still buried in her coursework.”

“Yeah man, seriously don’t die down there? Because If I have to bury another family member…I don’t know what I’ll do,” Evan says distantly. He sounds choked up, even despite knowing his brother has a will of steely determination. “Don’t die on a hill you know you can’t hold.”

“You have my word, Evan. We’ll make it home.” He lets go of the arcanlink and nods to the gathered team. “Nick, it’s party time.”

Everyone gets geared up in the heavier armor sets, and though it’s a little more cumbersome, Angela notes the fabric outer shell and metal breastplate don’t restrict her movement. She does spot a shiny short sword in the casing that she takes out, and motions to Nick. He takes her cue. “Mage barriers are vulnerable to close-up attacks–momentum has a major impact on the ability to pierce them. Let’s hope that we don’t have to use them.” She belts it to her back for safekeeping.

“Knowing our luck? Val’s men are already lining up for the attack,” Drenar states before gearing up with his dagger on his thigh, along with that silvery broadsword and an autobow, and some of those resin grenades. Julia takes a heavier autobow variant, and Levine grabs a rather odd choice piece. A SCAR-H marksman rifle, and he places one of several magazines into the webbing of his armor vest. He loads the weapon, and pulls back the charging handle to chamber the first round in a crisp mechanical sound.

“We have no idea what to expect, so we go in prepared. Nick, I’m using HV rounds. That’ll pierce through armor inserts, got your autobow set?” Nick nods at his ‘senior’ officer.

“Barrier-piercing plasma rounds. Julia can transmit a charge and it holds in the mage steel,” he replies warmly. “Just keep in mind, if it’s all clear, we need to make sure the staff of Asqualia recognizes us as friendly. So do not wave these around.” he gives more than a wary glance at James, who grunts.

“Teens with weapons. What could go wrong?” he asks rhetorically. He pulls back the bow string gently, but doesn’t engage the latch, and examines the simple red dot sight on top. “You realize if we pull this off, and piss off Crosomer, Valosterla, and King? They’ll be gunning for us until the end of time. This is a point of no return.”

“We were already there, James,” Angela says without a hint of tension in her voice. “The writing was on the wall the second we Awakened. I couldn’t possibly stand to the side and stay safe when so many others are threatened by what they’re doing. We have the power to enact change for the better, and we already have. So let's continue to do so.” Drenar and Julia nod in unison, and she smiles politely. “You two aren’t the only ones who can do little speeches. Shall we?”

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“Let’s go cancel Val’s party,” Drenar states firmly before hitting the latch on the heavy door and pushing it open, keeping the autobow pointed up ahead. The room beyond overwhelms her sense of imagination when they enter the large hallway that opens up to a natural cave, lit intermittently by navigation lights

But they don’t need the lights for long when they see the large, craggy chamber illuminated with crystals that glow blue in the darkness, and she lets out a low whistle. “This…the peril is almost worth the price of admission of this.” The cavern continues for some distance, dwarfing them in size–they must have climbed down a few hundred meters by her guess, because the air is chilly and damp…but the spectacle she sees fills her with warmth.

Small bats flitter by, encrusted with tiny crystals of various iridescent shades. A lizard with crystals encrusted in its scales looks at them lazily from some little alcove, and spotty green moss and lichen are draped throughout the entire expanse, and occasionally hang down from little outcroppings. She can hear a faint air current, somewhere. There’s also an opening to a natural cave somewhere in the darkness, a faint hit of late afternoon, maybe? The lizard she saw a second ago peers at them lazily with glowing yellow eyes, then skitters into the dark. Tree-like growths that look like a conifer, but with veins of glowing blue light, dot the ancient chamber. She sees another faint glimmer of light, somewhere far above.

She isn’t the only one to take in this small wonder, and Drenar’s grim look melts away for a few precious minutes. Julia stands closely by him, hand gently on his shoulder. “Remember how I asked you how I’d want you right by me in that magical realm? Where we'd be fighting megacorporations and saving the world? Well, I think we got our wish, Drenar.”

“Yeah, except for one variance, you weren’t a magical fox girl, after all,” he chuckles. Seeing them acting like this--acting whole again...it's a small but critical moment for Angela, knowing they would always have each other's backs, no matter what.

“You two dorks are likely some demigods, warping my reality to suit your nerdy trends. I’m putting it on my bingo card,” James sighs and keeps his weapon aimed down and away. But they’re not here as tourists. They have a job to do. The soft carpeted moss and blue grass adorns the cavern floor, and it slopes downward, deeper into the earth. There’s a trickle of water from somewhere, but in the distance, she can hear water running. A large volume of it, possibly at high speed. Her hearing is notably better than it used to be, as is her eyesight. And the smell of that alien vegetation…it smells of pine and cedar.

“Natural cave, entrance somewhere. I’ll set up a sensor, but we don’t have time to explore it.” Levine sets down a small sensor that aims down a narrow pathway where there may be a hint of daylight, burning orange as the day reaches its conclusion. The clouds must have finally burnt out after the rain. “Nick, that passage down there–looks like more safety lights.”

“I see it.” He's using that silvery illuminated sight on the rail of his autobow, and peers forward while taking the lead. He’s tense, as he should be. There is no telling what they could run into. “No sensors. Just another one of those steel-clad doors. This place hasn’t seen service in a long time. Decades, maybe. Not even a spot of foot traffic. We’re the first to come through here in a while.”

“So that means they couldn’t have come this way,” Drenar concludes. He’s anxious, too, in the face of true unknowns. “Time to unpack the golem. Send a signal. I think based on our orientation we’re under the lake by now, below the bedrock. We have to be getting close.”

The pathway narrows down, and Angela can see another one of those hatchway doors. Someone had put them here with deliberate design, and when she turns the handle, it offers only the grinding of rust before giving way, and she eases it open, autobow pointed for threats. None are present, just another one of those strange lizards with glowing yellow eyes that yawns lazily before skittering into a crevice in a scramble of soft-clawed feet. More of the mana crystals adorn the wall, and she swears she can hear them…humming. Brimming with energy. The urge to touch one on the cavern walls is almost overwhelming. Maybe just to feel that slight vibration that permeates all around her–

Julia taps her shoulder when she reaches for the tip of one crystal. “Are you sure that’s safe?” she asks, and looks to Levine for input. He nods.

“For us, mana crystals give off a slight bit of energy, but not like radiation. Aetherial energy. Mages have no issues being around them, not at these concentrations. But for non-mages who don’t have mana in their body, it can cause harm over time. Especially in higher concentrations. It’s like mana burn, it causes damage to the soft tissues. Too much exposure, and it can lead to permanent damage to the body. Even death, in severe cases.”

“So if they magically accelerate the magical biozones, and they encroach on populated areas…” Julia trails off and her face twists into anger. “If we ever see Crosomer again, we need to make it clear to him that this is going to end badly for everyone in the world. Not just the Conclave.”

Angela pulls away from the crystal.

I hear her calling…pleading…she’s trapped…

What?! Angela’s focus is broken when her brother starts speaking after a few seconds.

“Or we should just shoot him,” James says dryly. “Save ourselves the head-scratching of talking the monsters down. Because that never works,” he directs to Drenar.

“Keep it down. I hear running water,” Angela interjects and takes the lead, along with Nick. her danger sense is still dead calm, so that’s a good sign so far. She doesn’t quite know how it works, but right before the Talons launched their attack at the promenade, she felt her body flood with adrenaline, and time slowed down. It had been preceded by an alarm bell reverberating through her nerves. Almost like the humming of these crystals, strangely.

But here, it’s tranquil. There is no threat. Yet.

Sam…who is trapped?

Gaia…locked away…the followers say she died…but she is just trapped…I feel this. There is an undercurrent of sorrow in Samarina’s words, and she can feel the clench of that feeling in her own heart, too.

She wants to inquire more, but Nick interrupts the thought train. “Look at that door. It’s made of solid stone, and there’s a console,” Nick states and points out the far end of the branching corridor. They pick up the pace, and they’re about a hundred meters from the door when the ground trembles. There’s a thunderous booming sound, sudden and sharp, that sounds distant.

“Oh hell, that couldn’t have been good. Let’s move!” Drenar barks.

Now it's onto the scramble as they dash to the door, and Nick examines the console. He runs his finger across the display of small arcane runes projected into the air. “Alright…looks like some kind of safety is engaged. Levine, this might need a password."

“It says ‘speak friend, and enter,” Levine interjects. “It’s written in old draconic. Interesting choice. Not exactly common knowledge these days, either. Wonder if it’s a riddle.”

“Joey knows a little,” Nick offers.

“Speaking of, get that golem running, right now,” Drenar interjects. Nick pulls it out of his pack, and quickly replaces that brass wound crystal battery into the heart of the device. It lights up, but it’s not animated when he sets it down. “Joey, Kyle, we’re near you guys, we’re making our way underground to Asqualia. If you guys can respond, you need to do so right now. The Talons launched a preliminary attack on multiple teleportal hubs. Call us as soon as you get this.”

Silence is his answer. Nick taps the grip of his autobow, and looks worried. “Joey, c’mon, I hope that whatever that sound was earlier, didn’t involve you guys,” he says with faltered words.

“Decrypting,” Levine states, while Drenar and Julia eyeball the door, keeping weapons trained on it. “Need a minute. I’m looking up the translation. It is a riddle, the draconic word for 'friend'. I swear, this is something Zameren would do, and I just realized something stupid. The library name is an anagram of his real name.”

Julia titters at that. “You mages have no common sense, do you?! An anagram?! That is the stupidest operational security of all time!”

“Is that why the place was renamed about ten years ago?” Nick sighs. “That is so stupid, Julia’s right.”

A few tense minutes go by while Levine reads through a small book of his. “Almost got it. Hang on. It’s not just a password, it’s a passphrase. I think.”

“Times’ ticking,'' Drenar states. He’s refused to keep his focus off the door. “C’mon Joey and Kyle, we’re almost there.”

“I’ve got it! Bring the little golem and let’s go!” Levine barks as he taps a number of the runes in a slow pattern. They flash green in the air, dissipate, and the stone door slowly grinds away–rock creeping upwards and melting away to reveal an opening, and a cavern on the other side! Angela focuses her attention on the overwhelming sound of water nearby, and the tunnel slopes upwards. They move at a hustled pace, and she’s checking her corners, looking for signs of…anything.

A smell of something acrid catches her attention. Something is burning. They might be too late.

What they don’t expect is a large creature to dart out of one of the branching paths, and she looks at the three-meter tall bird with blue iridescent feathers and little claws on its half-formed wings. It squeaks with a parrot-like beak of a ruby tone and sharp blue eyes, with an elegant feather crest of iridescent red and purple, and paws the ground with massive black talons. It’s a raptor of some kind, and it eyes them warily.

“Nick, is this thing hostile?” Drenar states warily. “No one fire. Not yet.”

“Feralaz Draconis. She’s a big one, too…and do I spy with my dragon eyes a lake hovering overhead?” he asks casually while going loose with his posture. Angela does the same, and the bird peers at them and tilts its head. Almost as if it recognized what they were doing. Drenar also lowers his posture, and everyone else follows suit.

“Focus on that later. Nick, it has an RFID collar on its leg. It's being tracked,” Drenar points out observantly. “We must be close, Asqualia is a research center, which would suggest they also study wildlife!”

“Oh, my Fates. I want it. It is so fluffy and cuuuute!” Julia practically squeals. The raptor bird chirps lightly, and lowers its elongated neck. “You are so adorable, you’d fit right in with the rest of us dragons!”

“Great. Julia, the monster tamer. I’m gonna be out of a job,” Nick sighs. “It eats fruits and insects, so we aren’t on the menu. But it can bite pretty hard, so watch it, and those talons will disembowel you.”

“So, it’s cool?” James asks while trying not to sound tense.

“James, we all need to be cool like little fonzies,” Angela says with barely a breath in her voice.

“You did not just paraphrase Pulp Fiction–oh hell. Why’s it getting closer?” James asks with a slight anxiety in his tone. The bird has lowered its head to examine him, and his backpack–that stupid backpack she told him to leave behind, with its eight million straps.

“James, do you have any citrus or anything sweet in your bag?” Nick asks as he tries to edge closer to him. But the Feralaz is in the way now.

“Uh…I packed a couple of oranges?”

“James, very slowly, open your pack and give them to this thing. They love citrus,” Nick states, and tries to edge around past the taloned feet. James does so, but as soon as he gets the zipper open, the bird sees the prized little orbs and dives in, and past all those straps. When it pulls back with its tasty treat, James comes along with it. The bird is strong enough to lift him with it, and then the beak gets tangled in the webbing amidst its cheery warble, which gives way to a panicked shrill. It backpedals and nearly kicks Julia with a clawed foot before bolting out into the large expanse where, indeed, a lake bottom is hovering over their head.

“Aaaah! I’m about to be eaten like bad comic relief!” James screams as he’s bounced around and everyone dashes to pursue. Drenar decides that’s not dangerous enough and leaps onto the back of the bird in about the craziest thing she’s seen him do all week!

And that’s after he yeeted the deadliest dragon of the realms into a crash landing in a forest. She dashes off after them, shouting at both of them to stop being idiots and cut the straps!

This day is just not going to plan in any way, shape, or form.