The old ladder made some discomforting sounds as I descended. The type of sounds that echoed horribly in the stone basement. The kind that not only told me that the ladder could break at any moment… but that it was also decrepit enough that I was the only idiot willingly using it.

Ignoring its protest as I descended farther into the old well shaft was easy, but ignoring the stale air was hard. It was the kind of stagnant air that shouldn’t be breathed in. The type that poisoned and killed.

“Just don’t breathe then,” I scoffed at myself as I finally reached the floor of the basement. The ground was dry, thankfully. The storm had been pouring many inches of rain, daily, and had been for the whole week. It wouldn’t have surprised me to find it slightly flooded.

Yet it was dry. The air was stagnant, but not damp.

Stepping away from the ladder, I scanned the darkness and the stone walls that it hid. The circular well shaft extended outward, opening into a large room… I knew from memory, even though I hadn’t been down here in decades, that the door to the right of me led to a long hallway. One that led far out of the city to the mountain nearby.

That wasn’t the door I wanted to check right now, however.

A thicker, stone door, lay opposite of the wooden one that led to the mountains. This one was old, older than the Animalia building that had been built atop of it. The white stone was a little too bright in the darkness.

Glancing up the ladder, I was glad to see the dark well empty.

Renn had obeyed my request and stayed behind.

Good thing too, since the air was definitely toxic. My head was tingling, even though I was only breathing once every few minutes.

Renn was not human, of course, and far stronger than most of our kind… yet I wasn’t sure yet to what lengths I could push her. Even our kind couldn’t survive a lack of oxygen. In fact, most of our kind were more vulnerable to the lack of it than not. Even those whose bloodlines aided them in such things, like mountain animals or birds, suffered when entering such places. Likely thanks to the purity of the air, or lack thereof… And last thing I needed was for her to become deathly ill right now. Between Fly and Lamp, she had duties that required her to be…

Pausing before the stone door, I sighed as I realized I was using a foolish excuse to justify coddling her.

Putting my hands onto the stone door I shifted a little and began to push. At first nothing happened, but then the stone gave way and began to skid along the dark normal stone the door was built into. Pushing the stone door inward, it begun opened sideways and spun on the steel pillar within its center.

The moment enough of the stone door separated from the stone wall, the toxic air rushed into the new hole, expelling itself. It whistled and roared for a moment as most of the stagnant air rushed out of the basement well, and into the new section. Even my eyes couldn’t see where the air was flowing into, it was pitch black beyond the door’s opening.

Before the air settled I stepped through the opening and into the darkness.

My clothes rustled as the rest of the air rushed past. The stone hallway became a little loud as the air became wind, and many things began to stir. Dust. My clothes. My hair. Cobwebs. Pockets in the stones, and cracks, created whistling sounds…

The orchestra of sound quickly subsided as I stepped forward, heading deeper. By the time I left the white stone door behind, the air had settled enough to quite the place down.

As I rounded a corner, and headed deeper into the darkness… I reached out to place my right hand on the stone wall I was walking next to. Not for guidance, since I knew this hallway led only one direction and to one location, but simply to reminisce.

Beneath a tiny layer of dust, and other grime, the familiar feeling of the white stone began to scrape loudly against my calloused hand.

The sound, the feeling of the smooth stone that somehow felt rough… Here, in this darkness, deep below the earth and away from everyone and everything…

It gave me the strange feeling of peace, somehow. It made me close my eyes, not that they were much use down here anyway, so I could once again walk the halls of those looming palaces and fortresses.

“A lifetime forgotten,” I whispered as I reached another corner. This one turned left, a little abruptly. As if the hallway had been an afterthought.

Well, it kind of had been…

My memories teased me sometimes. Every so often, instead of seeing Lumen or the Animalia Company building… I saw the white fortress of the sun. One that shone, even during the night… and not just because of all the lamps and lights adorning it.

Yet those memories were me simply embellishing, even in my own mind.

The fortress here had been small. Barely able to hold a dozen men. A simple outlook outpost, for the army.

One I visited often, just to get away from the rest… yet not one that had much importance. Especially since this lake hadn’t been here at that time, and this whole land had been owned by…

Reaching the end of the hallway, I sighed out the nasty tasting air and stepped up to the ledge.

The darkness deepened as I stared out into the huge alcove. And my eyes blurred and fuzzed as they kept adjusting, then re-adjusting as I looked elsewhere. Some things were nearby, yet others were far away.

This hallway ended at a hole. One on the top of the ancient city, or well the dome that now surrounds it. Dome of earth and stone.

Little remained of the buried city. I could remember this scene from hundreds of years ago. Back then most of the buildings had still been standing, at least relatively. I could still make out the markets, the garrisons, and the hospital… the husbandry center…

Yet now I could only just make out the outlines of buildings. I couldn’t even remember where was what anymore. Surely that building there had been the main garrison? Usually they were in the center…

Shaking my head, as to try and clear my blurry eyes, I remembered the air was poisonous. I couldn’t succumb to it, of course… but while I continued to breathe it in it would affect me. Even if just a little.

Putting a hand on the wall, near the edge where the hallway ended… I looked down past the ledge. The submerged city far beneath the drop was probably a hundred or so feet down. And that was if I landed on one of the buildings. If I missed them, or went through the roofs because of decay… well…

“Two hundred maybe?” I wondered. It was quite a drop. One that could actually hurt me too if I wasn’t careful.

So it was a good thing I had no plans to go down there.

There was no need to anyway.

Scanning the large alcove, I tried to find any source of life. A fire maybe. Or reflections of some kind, like from eyes or metal…

Yet I couldn’t see anything. Other than the faint glow of water far below, from the sea and rain.

Lowering to the edge, I sat down upon it. To sit and wait. To watch. To listen, and if I could to hear and smell.

Though the odds of me being able to smell anything other than the stale toxic air was unlikely. No matter how long I sat and my body acclimated to the environment.

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Coughing the thick air, I groaned as I realized I’d ache for a few days after this.

I was resilient. In more ways than one… but this body still suffered. It endured, but with a price.

This poison wouldn’t kill me, or bedridden me, but it’ll make me feel sore. Part of the process of my body’s adaption.

While sitting on the ledge, the air from the hallway had a slight… push. As if the wind in the hallway was trying all it could to push me off the ledge. It couldn’t of course. The breeze was barely noticeable. Just enough to be there, but nothing more.

Studying the dark buried city… I sat and waited.

And waited.

Moments passed. Then minutes. And then after some time, I noticed I was breathing normally now.

Taking a deep breath, I knew it wasn’t because the air had suddenly become clean. My body had simply adjusted.

Which meant I’d been down here for an hour or so, already.

Scratching my jaw, I glanced around for any signs of life in the decaying city.

Still nothing. No fires. No lights. No noises, other than odd echoes of water or wind.

Every so often I could see the glistening of things in the air. Falling from the dark ceiling, to the city below. I knew it was just rainfall. Pooled water was seeping through the cracks up top, or the sewers, and falling down here.

Rain becoming rain again.

Which was odd. This city usually didn’t get much rain. Or well, the city that was buried here beneath Lumen.

Lumen got rain.

That one hadn’t, back then.

In fact most of the time when I had come here back then, it had been hot. Sweltering hot… My soldiers used to complain about their armor burning their skin and…

The thought amused me long enough that I barely noticed it when my mind had gone blank.

Blinking the numbness out of my mind, I huffed and slowly stood.

My body no longer tingled from numbness when sitting for extended periods, but I still felt as if it should. I groaned little, as if my back actually hurt as I got up and stepped away from the ledge.

“Stupid,” I laughed at my own foolishness, and wondered why I did that sometimes. As if on habit, as if my mind was replicating the feeling my body no longer remembered.

Renn would laugh at me too if I told her.

Pausing, I glanced one last time out to the buried city. A few moments passed of me thinking of those memories again. Then, my purpose of being down here.

Fly and her people didn’t live down here. At least, not visibly. Either they lived in darkness, or lived beyond the city itself. Maybe they really did keep themselves to just the sewers?

Or maybe I shouldn’t just expect to be able to see or hear proof of their presences simply by staring out for a few hours onto the city.

Not that it mattered even if I had.

The Society had once again voted to wait. To wait and see what Fly and her people do.

After all, Fly had not actually agreed to join the Society just yet. Everyone expected her to, and would accept it the moment she asked… no matter whom the question was flung upon, but until then…

Heading back to the old well shaft, I took my time in closing the white stone door. Mostly to make sure it was securely latched and in place.

Not so much in worry over someone sneaking in from the buried city, thanks to that hallway being so high up and away from anything. It’d be… very difficult to climb to that hole. Likely no one could even see it in the darkness, even if they wanted to.

Rather just in case someone from the Society snuck down here on accident. Don’t want them running down that dark hallway, half confused thanks to the noxious air and not realizing the hallway abruptly ended as it did.

Once the door was locked back in place, I returned to the shoddy ladder. Its main support beams were made of metal, but the rungs were wood… for some reason. Had I made it like this? I couldn’t remember.

It had to of been me. After all who else would have messed with it?

Why had I used wood? It was why…

Poking one of the lower rungs, one I’d not be needing, I watched in dismay as the thing crumbled from just light tap.

Wonderful.

Shaking my head at myself, I went to climbing the ladder.

As I ascended, I did my best to not notice how half the rungs I tried to use shifted or succumbed to my weight.

Had they been this bad while I was coming down?

Nearly at the top, I had to firmly grab the side rails as the rung my right foot on gave way completely.

The piece that broke off banged against the ladder and well walls, all the way to the bottom. I sighed as I realized that I’d have to fix this, and likely soon. Just in case it was needed again one day.

Not a pleasant venture. Not only would I have to deconstruct the ladder, I’d have to dispose of it too. It was as toxic as the air. If I tossed it out and some poor soul tried to use it as firewood, it’d just get them killed. Knowing my luck it’d take out a whole city block.

“Typical,” I complained as I returned to climbing, reaching the top with a little more haste. Not out of worry, but simple annoyance. The more I broke the more I’d be rushed to fix it.

Pushing up on the well’s cover, I heard muffled voices as the world got bright again. My eyes quickly adjusted to the brightness, and I clambered up out of the hole.

Before even addressing Renn, who was hurrying into the room, I quickly turned around to reseal the hole. The toxic air wasn’t as bad up here, and also thanks to my ventilating the well a little by opening the door, but I didn’t need anyone getting a lungful of the stuff.

Sliding the circular metal cover over the hole, I pushed it into its slot. It slid in easily, but it wasn’t until I pushed a little harder that it clinked into position. It locked in place, to where I knew no one would be able to open it without great force. Unless they knew how to open it, after all.

After locking it in place, I took a deep breath of fresh air for the first time since I had entered… and immediately began to cough.

“Vim?” Renn’s worry was loud in my ears as I bent over to heave and cough. For a good few moments, I couldn’t do anything but cough… but luckily nothing was coming out. No gunk. No tar. No blood. Not even phlegm.

Renn’s hand patted my back as I slowly stopped coughing, and I glanced at the cat’s worried expression. “I’m fine. Just give me a moment,” I said with a wheeze, and although was able to say it… I immediately went back to hacking after.

“Don’t sound okay,” she said.

I nodded. I didn’t. I sounded like I was coughing up a lung.

Well, in a certain sense I was.

My lungs had started adapting to the toxic air.

Yet now I was breaching fresh air.

Going from one toxin to another.

Walking out of the little room, I made sure to turn off the light before doing so. Renn was the one who closed the door for me, since I was still coughing.

“How long?” I asked between the softening coughs.

“You were down there for? About six hours I think,” she said.

That long?

She nodded at me, even though I hadn’t said my question aloud. “Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked.

I shook my head. “No,” I coughed.

Renn gave me a worried expression again, but I knew it wasn’t because of my coughing. It was starting to subside after all. Rather she was worried I had wasted my time and effort.

Patting her on the back, I took a deep breath and started to walk down the hall. Back towards the main section of the building. There was no need for me to hurry anywhere, of course, but I wanted to get moving. To get my body used to the air again.

“Sure you’re alright?” Renn asked as she stayed with me.

“I’ll be fine. Just takes a bit,” I said.

“I’ve never heard you cough before. Like that at least,” she said.

She hadn’t? I tried to parse my memories for a time when I had coughed. Surely once or twice?

Renn giggled as I slowed my pace, to let her walk beside me comfortably. “You really furrow your brow when you cough. As if you’re pissed off,” she said as she pointed at her forehead.

“Well… I’m coughing,” I said, and then coughed again.

“Definitely are… Why are you coughing so much anyway?” she asked.

“I told you. The air down there is bad,” I said. A passing window told me the storm was still here. And still pouring… yet gently. How long would it last? Feels like it’s been raining since I got back from the ship.

“It’s that bad? Then why did you think they could be down there?” Renn asked.

“The place that well overlooks isn’t as bad. It’s the buried city, from before this one. It’s habitable… at least more than the well,” I said.

Rounding a corner, I coughed again and then took a deep breath to hold it in for a moment.

“Nothing’s happened while you were gone. Other than Sofia getting in an argument with a customer,” Renn said.

Letting my deep breath out, slowly, I glanced at Renn and frowned for her.

She smirked at me. “He was being a jerk I guess. Also I like that expression, how are you able to make your eyebrow go so pointy?” she asked as she reached up to her own as to try and mimic me.

Coughing one last time, I shook my head at her.