"What is the hecking-shet that? An airship... why it is... are they following us?" Zan stuttered.

"It is an airship. As for the rest, I don't know. It could be coincidence. Until now, I did not even know the Expanse had airships," Winters replied.

"Does our strategy change any?" Zan asked, close to Winters.

"No. Good or bad, we keep our pace. We can't go back. Only forward."

Then, the supervisor's assistant came back out.

Despite the situation growing worse by the minute, the assistant kept chirpy. "Okay. Please follow me and I will bring you to your division. Have your readers take care to inform your group to not touch anything while we are heading to your division. Please and thank you!"

Winters nodded. He informed the civilian supervisors -- Whiskey and Jiehong included -- of the assistant's demand for nothing of the company to be touched, damaged, or even looked upon badly. 'Well,' Zan thought. 'That last part is all me. I thought it belonged, though. Considering their disregard for honor and overvaluing of themselves.'

Back on the horse with the colonel, Zan kept his guard up, as Winters had repeatedly told him.

Guard up or not up, there was not much to see in an ancient society tower. The building's construction material was easy on the eyes, cool non-reflective, and had lots of strange albeit garish movements inside the material, likely from some long ago absorbed magical energy. Other than gangs of laborers, however, Zan saw nothing of note while following the assistant through the maze-like structure of rooms and passages packed tightly into each floor.

The assistant brought them to a section of the tower which had an illuminated section and an un-illuminated section. While following, Zan saw similar things, darkened and well-lit rooms. He thought nothing of it.

"And here is where you will be working. Please direct your attention to the pickaxe rack on your left," the assistant said.

Following her directions, Zan took a look. He saw a line of pickaxes neatly nudged into place on a holding section of the wall.

"As you can see, the pickaxes here are not your standard pickaxe. These tools are coated with a special mineral which makes for the easy breakdown of Misermint. What is Misermint? Let me show you," the assistant said, opening a door and moving into a darkened room.

Following her while most others in their group stayed behind, Zan and Winters and a small select number, entered the darkened room and saw what the assistant meant. Misermint. It was a huge crystal, plant-looking thing!

"Yes. This is misermint," the assistant continued. "It is a special crystalline plant-ore. Although extraordinarily rare outside these old towers, it is a common resource within the towers. As you can all plainly see, the room we are in now does not lack the resource as it has it in spades. This is good. Because to secure your passage to the other end of the trade corridor you will be mining plenty of this. I will demonstrate the proper technique."

Requesting a pickaxe, the assistant took the pick and with an ease Zan didn't expect from a lovely lady, smashed away at a growth of misermint like she had spent her whole life mining. With the plant in pieces, the assistant said, "Now for the next step. Collection. Collect the pieces however you want. But there are dumping bins in the pickaxe wall. Please, bring me one." Word spread and from the tool wall to her, people passed a bin down the line. The assistant neatly swept the pieces into the dustbin and brought it over to the far-end of the wall.

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Zan followed. He saw a dark wall, overgrown with grime. The assistant spoke, "Once you have your pieces take and deposit them into your nearest misermint conversation slot. Like so," the assistant demonstrated by dumping the shattered ore into a wide-angle slot in the wall. As she did so, the wall glowed. It was faint at first but eventually grew until the whole wall illuminated and could be seen through the muck of whatever mold or fungal growth had claimed the stone-like building material the tower was forged from. Whatever force was at work, Zan saw sections of the moldy growth singe from flame before the illumination stopped.

"What is that?!" Zan said, no longer able to hold in his intrigue.

"Young man. Speak only when spoken to, thank you," the assistant said to Zan.

About to bite back, Zan remembered the indignation at the supervisor's office. He kept his mouth shut thought barely. Winters took notice of his challenge, though, and tapped him on the back in support. Later, when the assistant was out of earshot, he whispered, "Good! You controlled yourself well. Keep it up!"

For now, the assistant continued to drone on. Zan hoped the explanation was near it end.

"The tower needs this crystalline substance to function. In your assigned area, you will breakdown the ore, deposit it within slots like the one I used to demonstrate, and you will advance through the local section. You should not encounter any wayward dangers while employed with Sunstar Industries. Not on these base floors, that is. Should you encounter any danger, I trust with as many warriors as you have in your party, you will suffice regardless. In such a circumstance, however, please do inform I or another supervisor of the dangers you found," the assistant said at length. Zan was ready to get a move on and do something other than listening to a woman. Alas, the assistant was not done with them. Not yet.

Continuing once more, the assistant said, "Now, one last thing before I leave. You have noticed the well-lit rooms versus the darkened rooms? This is the other task your party will perform as you mine. If you discover any unlit rooms, you will take this device, hold it in the air, and turn the room on. It will register automatically. No magic needed. Once more, I will demonstrate." Holding in her hand a small star-like object, the assistant rose the tri-pointed object above her head. Using her free hand to tilt and spin the star -- "Yes, sorry. You do have to spin the object! Keep this in mind!" the assistant said while the device started -- Zan saw the device build energy while it spun. He knew it was building energy because he felt it in his skin and bones. While walking before, he hadn't thought anything was out of the ordinary, but now with the device disrupting the dormant energy, Zan felt an immense amount of inert energy become reorganized.

Then the device stopped spinning.

A gentle warmth from the room's stone-like material emerged. The warmth generated light and banished every shadow. From somewhere in the traveling party, someone exclaimed, "It's like those dwarven gas-powered lights. Wow!"

The assistant handed the device to Colonel Winters. "What is it?" he asked.

"We call it a Spark. Do you have any questions before I leave you be?" the assistant asked.

"Yeah. Where are we working to, and do you have a map? Will food be provided?"

Without missing a beat for a thought, the assistant said, "You are working to the end of the unexplored corridor. You will know when you've arrived at your destination because the corridor will lead out into the natural world. There will be another secretary there to confirm your progress. A map will not be needed as the zones of interest your team will focus upon will be marked by de-activated lights. Focus on the dark areas, move through the corridor, and you will be fine. Regarding food, there will be a small spread of preserved fruits and cheeses. Due to the size of your party, however, expect this to only be a snack and nothing more. If there is nothing more, I will point you in the right direction and send you off."

Zan saw Winters think it over. If he had any more questions for the assistant. When he thought over if he had any questions, Zan wasn't sure he did. It seemed basic. Mine this weird ore, dump said ore into slots, and spin a weird thingy in the air above your head. How hard could it be?

"I have no more questions. Leave it to us. We will get this done before long. I do have a question concerning the situation outside the tower, however, which I hope you can answer," Winters asked.

"I'm sorry. I cannot speak about the nature of outside events. Remain calm, do your job, and all will be taken care of; we here at Sunstar Industries have defense pacts with every known culture and geopolitical entity within our World Zone. Work first, then worry," the assistant said, taking her leave.

Everyone looked to Winters. He looked outside the room to the endless passages beyond. He said under his breath, "Boy. It would be nice to have a map..."