Well, as far as job interviews go, I think that went okay.

I’ve been waiting in the corridor for Tiff for a while now. It sounds like things have gone back to normal downstairs, but I do not want to walk out of here by myself. So here I wait, in this poorly lit corridor.

It’s weird that this whole… this town exists here in the first place. You’d think this was a young frontier town, not a hamlet in hell. This… Red Abyss. On the surface, this place looks like it fits the bill for the common perception of “hell” as fiery and inhospitable, yet building materials are plentiful, there’s clean drinking water and fertile soil. Maybe some parts of the Underlands look as normal as my hometown did.

“Ooohh… You look very deep in thought…” Tiff says, startling me. When did she get right beside me?!

“I was just… I don’t know. This place is so weird but this town feels almost normal. The town feeling almost normal makes it even weirder.”

“It’s nothing like what they told you it’d be, isn’t it?” She asks.

“Well, I am suffering, but not in the way I thought I would.”

Tiff giggles. I giggle a little before catching myself. Tiff has this disarming aura about her that makes it far too easy to lower your guard without realising. She’s shorter than me, about a little shorter than the Chief is, with a mature figure and slightly muscular-looking arms. She wears a simple, pretty but utilitarian dark green dress that goes down to her calves, large leather boots, with a white blouse and a red shawl matching the colour of her vibrant red hair, which helps bring out her grassy-green eyes. Green is a rare colour down here, and it suits her well. She’s also, uh.

Big.

Not like, Chief big, but big enough that I feel somehow inadequate compared to every woman I’ve met here. She has sharp eyes, like the Chief, but while the Chief has an eternal scowl, Tiff has a warm, inviting, comforting smile. Maybe she smiles a little too much, if anything.

“Mia told me to take you back to your room, but if you’ll be her personal lackey, it’d help if you knew your way around here, mm~?” She smiles.

She has a point, I’ve never had a chance to really look around this place beyond being dragged up the main street by the Chief.

“Alright, but… can’t we take a side exit or something? I’d rather not go out through the tavern-”

“Come with me~” Tiff hums, dragging me towards the door by the arm. Great. Another dragger.

She throws the heavy door open with ease, practically pushing me down the stairs in front of her as I stagger down into the tavern, leaning against the wall when I get to the bottom. There are less people down here than before, but—

“Hey. Wing girl.” Aran calls.

He and a couple others had moved to the table right next to the stairs, waiting for me to come out. They get up and walk towards me, with my back already against the wall. Shit…

“Hi Aran!” Tiff jumps in between Aran and I, catching Aran off guard.

“T-Tiffany!? What’re you-” Aran starts, taking a step back as Tiff continues to invade his personal space.

“Oooh, cool scars Aran! How’d ya get them? Fighting some great beastie?” Tiff takes a step forward to match Aran’s step back.

“Get them? Didn’t you see she-” Aran shoots.

“I didn’t see anything, but those scars are cool! Girls like a man with a few scars~” Tiff shoots back.

“Wait- They do? But they came from-” Aran stutters out, crumbling under Tiff’s relentless onslaught.

“Anyways, I have places to show Marina here, so byeeee Aran~” Tiff sings, before dragging me away from a bewildered Aran.

Tiff pulls me around the outside of the room, paying no heed to the eyes following us, then yanking me out the door onto the main street. Looking outwards from the tavern, the town actually consists of three streets lined with buildings, all converging on the tavern that seems to double as a town hall on the first floor. The streets are busier, with people moving between the shops, carrying planks, food, new clothes, weapons…

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Tiff asks, standing beside me.

“Do I need to worry about money here?”

“Haven runs on a needs-based economy, where everyone gets the tools for their jobs, their clothes, and their food based on their role. If you want something in particular, you can trade personal items, or your labour in the form of promissory notes for it. Everyone is entitled to three meals a day and two drinks from the tavern, although more may be permitted at a superior’s discretion.” Tiff answers succinctly.

“That is impressive…”

“A lot of the work of our current economic system was put in place - and enforced - by Mia… er, the Chief. There used to be a lot of fighting over good equipment or decent food before she took charge after the previous Chief passed.” Tiff continues.

“Say, um…”

I move closer to Tiff, lowering my voice.

“Do you know what happens when you die here…?”

“Did you know what would happen when you died up there?” Tiff shrugs.

“I had a vague idea, but it didn’t involve… job interviews in town halls.”

“It’s good you’ve kept your wits, Marina~ Now, let us go on with the tour!” She grins.

Tiff puts her hand on the small of my back to pull me along with her down the rightmost of the three streets before me.

“This is Cellar Lane! Named so because the Cellars are at the end of it; a whole bunch of dark caves that you’re very lucky you didn’t end up in!” Tiff says very nonchalantly.

“Is it… do people often get locked in the Cellars?”

“Well, you may just be told to go down there to harvest some of the vegetables that grow underground, but if you get on the Chief’s wrong side she’ll drag you down into the deepest, dankest hole there is and leave you there until you’ve… err… learned their lesson.” She nods.

“And that lesson is…?”

“... Don’t get on the wrong side of the Chief.” She chuckles sheepishly.

Sagely advice. Tiff steps out in front of me, gesturing at our surroundings; houses on one side, and multiple fenced-off gardens and small fields on the other.

“But! Aside from the Cellars, the Lane is where our farms, gardens, the tannery, and the blacksmith are. Marina! Do you know why the tannery is as far as possible from the rest of town?”

I’ve never seen a tannery in person before, so…

“N-no?”

Tiff leans in close, putting an arm around my shoulder.

“It’s cuz it stinks of shit.”

I stifle a laugh at such a blunt delivery of such crass words from such a soft, girly voice. Tiff grins in triumph.

“Even if it smells, the tannery is just as important as every other part of town. We have to make use of everything to survive around here. Hunting trips are rare, but whatever is hunted, every part of it must be used. Meat, organs, bones, fur, skin. As Anton would say; It is imperative that we do not allow anything to be put to waste. After all, we are a civilised folk, and failing to act as such would leave us no better than the barbarians that stalk these unhallowed grounds!”

Tiff puts on a pretty decent impersonation of Anton’s gait and posture. After all, Anton is standing right behind her, so visually I have a good point of reference. Tiff doesn’t seem to notice this, despite me doing my best to convey this with my eyes.

“Henceforth, under the expertise and leadership of I, Anton Clemenceau, we shall all rise above the muck and grime of this crimson abyss, and ascend ever upwards to the greater heights of civility, decency, lack of humour, and… and… he’s right behind me, isn’t he.”

Tiff drops the act, turning to look up at Anton, who is flicking through the pages of his ledger, having paid no heed to Tiff’s performance.

“Miss Valm, I am concerned with the quality of blood potatoes supplied to the kitchen in recent weeks. They have been consistently decreasing in size and in taste, with the more recent samples tasting too much like blood for many resident’s pallets. Additionally, I am concerned with the quality of the most recent set of cooking knives supplied to the kitchen. Small amounts of rust have appeared on some of the blades, and the wooden grips are less durable and prone to causing splinters compared to the previous leather grips.”

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Anton raises his objectively fair concern. Tiff just sighs and looks at me.

“See? He doesn’t even acknowledge when people are trying to make a joke with him. He’s no fun.”

She turns back to answer Anton, her voice notably flatter.

“We haven’t had a successful hunt in four months now, so we’re very short on new leather. As for the rust and quality of the wooden handles, I’ll come round the kitchen later to check them myself to see which ones need to go back to Martin’s. Satisfied?”

Anton nods, and wordlessly walks away from us. Tiff lets out another sigh, before her mood perks back up.

“Right! Marina, do you want to see the secret of Cellar Lane?”

“Is it something in the Cellars…?”

“No, but it is near them~”

Tiff grabs my sleeve and pulls me across the road, through a path between the gardens and under a natural archway in the stone cliff. Rather than stepping into a cave, I step onto a wooden deck, and the sound of rushing water hits my ears. Before me is a large wooden waterwheel that dominates the room, turning a set of millstones on either side, with several bags of grains and flour leaning against the wooden support beams.

“A water-powered grain mill! With an overshot waterwheel for high efficiency, connected to not one but two millstones to grind multiple items at once! With one grinding grain to make flours, and the other grinding bark for the tannery to use, this is… I never thought I’d see something like this here!”

Tiff looks slightly caught off-guard with me gushing over the marvel of hydropower engineering before me. I’ve never gotten to see a mill like this up close.

“Well, you… I guess I don’t have to explain anything, do I? Haven is the only place you’ll find anything made with flour in all the Abyss. It’s one of the few things that make living here a little more comfortable for everyone.”

As I duck under the flume above the waterwheel, I step up to find myself face to face with-

“Who let you in here, girl.”

I jump backwards and hit my head on the flume, before falling down onto my backside. Above me stands Einar, glaring down at me like he always does. Tiff rushes around, helping me get back to my feet while shooting her own glare at Einar.

“I did, Einar. She’s working under the Chief now, so maybe don’t go creeping up on her.”

Einar blinks.

“I work here. The girl crept up on me.”

“Well! Marina seems to know as much about mills as you do, so maybe you won’t be working here much longer!” Tiff shoots back.

Einar looks back at me.

“You know mills, girl?”

“I… uh… I’ve never worked in one, but I had relatives that made waterwheels and my father had a book full of diagrams laying around which detailed how lots of things work, and some of it explained how mills worked…?”

Einar’s harsh gaze softens a little.

“Most girls your age wouldn’t be interested in how mills work.”

“I would constantly pester my dad with questions asking him how everything around me worked, aha…” When I had the courage to. I wasn’t exactly a talkative child, otherwise.

Einar moves his head slightly, in what almost looks like a nod of approval, before Tiff hooks me around her arm and starts dragging me away.

“Yes, very cool, you clearly know everything there is to know about this, so let’s just move onto the next thing, shall we?”

Tiff sounds a little annoyed that she didn’t get to really say anything about the super special secret mill of Haven that she was so excited to show me, as I follow her back across the garden path. There’s a few people walking along the street or working in the gardens further down, and while they stare, none want to make eye contact with me.

“They’ll warm up soon enough.” Tiff says, noticing the looks I’m getting.

“It doesn’t bother me that much.” I shrug. It does bother me a little, but… it could be worse.

If there’s anything on my mind, it’s that this is the third time Tiff has used the word “cool” in a sense not relating to the temperature. It’s an odd term for someone to use like that. Although, most of my interactions were with my family or when visiting high-class clients, so if that’s just how people talk where she’s from, then I wouldn’t really know.

We make it back to the centre square in front of the tavern, with Tiff stopping to ponder for a moment.

“Hmm… You’ve already seen the main street twice, I guess…”

“One of those times was when I was upside-down, and the other time I was dragged straight to the tavern by the Chief…”

“W-well! You’ll be seeing it enough anyway, but we have the markets, butcher, and carpenter to our left, and the bakery, tailors, and armoury to our right! The Chief put you in a room behind the armoury last night, but I thiiiiink she said you’d be in the side room of the library from now on… So, onto Crystal Road!”

I set off before Tiff starts yanking at my arm, following along beside her down Crystal Road as she points to the structures on either side of the road.

“On our left we have the library, which doubles as the Chief’s residence and thus where you’ll be staying from now on, then the schoolhouse beside it, and the bunkhouse across from it, with houses the rest of the way down. But, none of these are the source of the road’s namesake! For that, you’ll have to follow me~”

Tiff sets off running down the steady slope of the road, so I best start running after her. We get past the last of the houses, as the path narrows and starts to zig-zag down the hill, the horizon hidden behind a thick treeline. Tiff rounds a tree near the bottom, disappearing out of sight. Whatever’s down here, it better be…

Wow.

A sheer, obsidian-dark cliff rises before me, disappearing up far beyond the low-hanging clouds. From the unseen heights of this towering cliff face falls a great waterfall, a shock of blue and white in a world of red and black. At the base of this waterfall is a large, shimmering pool of water, feeding into a number of other pools on downward steps along the hillside. This slice of paradise, hidden away from the rest of the world, with flowing water as clear as…

“Crystal…”

“Crystalfall. The hidden treasure of Haven.” Tiff smiles, standing beside me.

I take a deep breath, and for the first time in what feels like an eternity, my lungs fill with the soft, cool scent of flowing water, not the thick, pungent odour that hangs over the rest of this land like a foetid curse. The air itself feels lighter. Further down, some gather buckets of clean water, while children play and splash among the ponds.

“This waterfall is where the founder of Haven first descended into. No one really knew this place was here, right up against the cliffs that trap us down here, surrounded by thick trees and impassable jagged rocks, with only a single path leading out. Sure we have pastries, alcohols, and other small comforts, but it’s this place that makes Haven feel like home.” Tiff says, looking up at the waterfall.

“My old home, near the mountains, was known for its waterfalls. There’s something… serene about just listening to the sound of rushing water.” Tiff takes a deep breath, enjoying the moment of peace.

“Hey! Who let you come down here?!” A young, familiar sounding voice calls out from behind.

Tiff sighs, giving me an annoyed look before turning around. Arshak is marching toward us, accompanied by the orange-haired girl who was with him earlier.

“Sorry, Arshak’s a little headstrong after recently joining the Expeditionary team with his sister.” She gives me a sheepish grin. Headstrong is definitely a fitting term for Arshak.

“That’s his sister?”

“Twin sister, actually. The two were found when they were both about 11. It’s terrible that they ended up here, but at least they have each other.”

Arshak gives a stern look at me, then looks at Tiff.

“I thought she was destined for the Cellars.” He says impertinently.

“No, actually. She works for the Chief now.” Tiff responds with a smile.

“She- What?!” Arshak looks shocked.

The girl beside Arshak stares blankly at him.

“Rann did say the Chief would be interested in her.” She even sounds like a female version of Arshak, just a lot… calmer.

“A-Arshiya…!” Arshak looks… shocked, that his sister would disagree with him.

Arshiya, hmm. Arshiya and Arshak. Cute.

Tiff smiles at me.

“These two are the youngest members of the Expeditionary team. They turned sixteen three moons ago. Arshiya, Arshak, I hope you treat your new junior respectfully.” Tiff stresses her final word, while staring straight at Arshak.

“J… Junior? What? She’s clearly an adult from some other roving tribe…” Arshak retorts, confused.

“Actually, Marina is new here, and she is only fifteen. The Chief confirmed all of that.” Tiff responds.

Arshak looks distraught. Arshiya gives her brother another look.

“She has wings with swords in them, but you’re hung up over her looking older than fifteen?” She asks, in a calm but inquisitive tone.

“Well the wings aren’t so in your face as… everything else!” Arshak shoots back, knowing he’s losing this battle.

Wings, be ‘in their face’.

My wings flick out from under my cloak and stretch out to their full length, making everyone jump back and Arshak go for his sword. I just smile.

“Aren’t in your face, huh.”

Arshak looks more and more distraught by the moment, while Arshiya steps forward, mesmerised with my wings.

“They look so soft… can I touch them?” She asks.

“Sure, as long as you don’t do anything to, uh… upset them.”

Arshiya reaches out, going to stroke the upper edge of my wing…

“Gyaah?!”

I recoil, just as Arshiya does. I felt that. I felt her touch my wing! I… I still can’t feel my own hand through my wing even as my hand feels it, but I feel when other people touch them?

“A-ah, sorry, I just… I didn’t expect to feel you touch them, see, I can’t feel through my wings when I touch them myself, so it’s weird that I can feel other people touching them through my wings alone. It’s… just this bizarre sensation that I haven’t gotten used to yet. I feel my wings on my hand, but I can’t feel my hand on my wings, if that makes any sense, aha…”

“Hmmm…” Tiff ponders.

She then grabs my arm, starting to drag me off for what I hope is the last time today. Or ever, preferably.

“Alright, that’s the Haven tour wrapped up, let’s get you to your room, say goodbye to the twins now~”

“Tiff, do you have to drag me around everywhere—”

Tiff cuts me off, dragging me away with her alarmingly strong arms.

“Be quiet. Come with me.” She says in what I can tell is an unusually serious tone.

I’ll behave, then. Off we go.