The figure was not so much dressed in white, Neb saw, as it was made of white, some kind of white-light projection. Its body and clothes and the satchel it wore were all the same color. Neb could faintly see the lights of the tunnel ahead through the projection’s body. It was like a ghost from old tales.

Growl wagged his tail energetically and barked, the sound harsh and loud.

The humans looked at each other, unsure how to answer the pale figure.

‘We want to get the printer,’ Buzz said, and once again Neb found himself somewhat in awe of how mission-focused Buzz was no matter the circumstances. He didn’t ask anything about how to navigate the tunnels or escape the centipedes or somehow get back out of here alive. He was just completely focused on the next step of the mission objective.

The Guide did not look at Buzz, and it was impossible to be sure it had even heard the question. In the overlay the Guide’s description was: A System projection.

Then it spoke again. ‘The compound doors are open,’ it said.

‘We know that,’ Buzz answered impatiently. ‘That’s how we came in. How do we get into the room with the printer?’

There was another long pause. Then it said: ‘Would you like to see the doors?’

‘Goddammit,’ Buzz said. He looked to Neb, who stepped forward.

‘Yes,’ Neb said to the Guide. ‘We would like to see the doors.’

Buzz glared at him. But immediately the map icon in his overlay flashed, and when he opened it the compound map had a lot more detail. The way back to the door in the temple where they had entered was highlighted, the complex layerings of the space shown in three dimensions that could be expanded and rotated. But the other passageways still remained as stubs, fading out into the unknown. The Game is telling us not to explore them, Neb thought, and he was almost certain he was right.

‘Guide,’ he said. ‘How do we fight the centipedes?’

‘I don’t know,’ the Guide answered. ‘I have a limited store of knowledge.’

‘What do you know?’

‘Many things. Ask me questions.’

Neb looked to the others, but saw only blank faces.

‘The long white creatures that attack,’ Neb said. ‘Their bodies are made of many segments, and they have many legs. What are they?’

‘They are invaders,’ Guide said. ‘They must be defeated.’

Neb glanced at the others again. Now they were getting somewhere.

‘Defeated how?’ he asked the Guide.

‘They are frightened of bright fire.’

‘Where… How do we produce such fire?’

The Guide moved his hand and there was a heavy thump. Neb stepped backwards reflexively and Buzz ordered ‘Steady!’ as Mallory came very close to firing. A large case had appeared beside the projection, Meathead opened it and found two flamethrowers inside.

‘But…’ Neb said, trying to think clearly despite his still-pounding heart. ‘We cannot burn them all.’

‘No,’ the Guide said. ‘They are many.’ The figure seemed to actually glance at him this time, as if to verify he had asked such a stupid question.

‘So what do we do?’ asked Neb.

‘The doors are open.’

Doors, Neb registered suddenly. Plural. Not door. He opened his map again and zoomed far out, and saw that there was another path marked to what must be another door to the complex.

‘How many doors are there?’ he asked.

‘Two,’ the Guide said. ‘The Temple Door and the River Door. They must be closed.’

‘How do we that? How do we close the doors?’

‘Only the guardians can do it.’

‘Neb,’ Buzz cut in. ‘Fuck the doors. We need to find out how to --’

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

But Neb took the risk of ignoring the commander. ‘How do we do it?’ he asked the Guide. ‘How can we make the guardians close the doors?’

‘You cannot make them,' the Guide said. 'You must ask them.’

Neb remembered the two huge forms inside the Temple Door, solid and timeless as statues, and simply couldn’t imagine trying to talk to them. ‘But how can we ask them?’ he asked.

‘In the Control Room,’ the Guide answered, and again it seemed to glance at Neb rather disbelievingly, as if no-one could possibly be this stupid. Neb scanned the map and found what he was looking for -- the control room was clearly visible once he zoomed in enough, located deep into the compound. It was labeled in Cluster Common. That gave him a thought, and he navigated back to where the huge tree was marked. His heart beat harder when he saw that the room with the creation device inside was called the Room of Need.

‘How do we open the Room of Need?’ he asked, his voice shaking slightly.

‘You must ask the guardians,’ the Guide replied.

Buzz’s eyes were bright, and he was already ready to move. ‘Good work, Doc,’ he said. ‘Let’s --’

But Neb felt there was still a missing piece of the puzzle.

‘The… invaders,’ he said, using the Guide’s term for the centipedes. ‘Why are they here? Where do they come from?’

‘Through the door,’ Guide answered patiently.

‘The door at the temple?’

‘Through the River Door.’

‘Can the guardians close that door?’

‘The River Door is unclosing.’

‘Why does it not close?’

‘I do not know.’

A glimmer of understanding was starting to form for Neb. Whatever was holding the River Door open was more than likely letting the centipedes into the compound.

‘Why are the doors open?’ he asked. ‘Where are the Emorists?’

‘That is a sad story,’ Guide said. He was silent.

There was a long beat. ‘Umm,’ said Neb. ‘Are you going to tell it?’

‘The story is not mine to tell.’

‘Well,’ said Neb, turning back to the others. ‘We need to see why the River Door is not closing. And we need to get to the Control room to open the Room of Need and get the printer.’

‘Fuck the River Door, Doc,’ Buzz snapped. ‘All we need is the printer and we’re out of here.’

But the projection answered him. ‘The Room of Need will not open while the River Door and the Temple Door are open.’

Buzz glared at Neb as if it was his fault.’ So... what then?’

‘Well,’ Neb said, trying to think it through. ‘If we close the outer doors, we can open the Room of Need and get the printer. But then we need to somehow get out of here ourselves.’ He turned to the Guide. ‘Once the outer doors are closed, can we re-open them?’

‘Only the Grand Magnate can order the Temple Door and the River Door to be opened,’ the figure answered.

‘Who is the Grand Magnate?’

‘The Grand Magnate is the Grand Magnate of the Emorists.’

Neb sighed in impatience. ‘Where is he?’

‘Gone.’

‘Gone where?’

‘It is a sad story.’

Neb held the bridge of his nose. ‘This seems impossible,’ he muttered.

The projection unexpectedly answered. ‘It takes time to close the doors. It is enough that it is ordered and can be done, and then the Room of Need may be opened.’

Neb looked up, frowning. ‘So… When the guardians are on their way to close the outer doors, it would be possible to open the Room of Need?’

‘It is so,’ the Guide answered.

‘Doc,’ Buzz snapped. ‘What is this bullshit?.’

‘I think what the Guide is saying,’ Neb answered slowly, trying to figure it out himself, ‘is that we should clear whatever is stopping the River Door from closing. Then we go to the Control Room and order both the River Door and the Temple Door to be closed, and order the Room of Need to be opened. We’ll have a short window to get to the Room of Need, grab the printer, and escape out the Temple Door before the guardians have had time to actually close it.’

‘Fuck me, Doc,’ Buzz said, staring at him. ‘That sounds thin.’

‘I know, sir.’ It sounds like fucking madness. He looked to the Guide. ‘How long does it take to close the outer doors?’ Neb asked.

‘About fifteen of your minutes.’

Damn. So once they gave the order in the Control Room, they’d have fifteen minutes to get to the Room of Need, grab the printer, then escape out the Temple Door. And if they didn’t make it, they'd be stuck in a compound carefully designed to be impregnable.

Thin indeed.

They had a brief discussion. Everyone agreed the plan was nuts, but they also didn’t have any other options, so they got ready to move. Meathead and Mallory equipped the flamethrowers, the tanks heavy on their backs. Growl was bouncing up and down and growling, his huge teeth smacking together in a way Neb found simultaneously off-putting and endearing.

‘All right,’ Buzz said. ‘Let’s do this fucking thing. First stop: River Door.’

They set off at a rapid pace that Neb immediately found challenging to maintain. It wasn’t long before they encountered a group of the centipedes, which at least gave him a short chance to catch his breath. The flamethrowers lit up the scene, projecting billowy jets of fire that made the centipede bodies pop and explode, burning brightly. Immediately some of the centipede wave broke off down side tunnels to escape the flames.

‘Excellent,’ Buzz said.

They moved quickly, leaving several more smoking piles of dead centipedes in their wake, until they reached the junction with the large tunnel that led straight to the River Door. They stopped fifty meters short of the main tunnel. If there were other players in the compound, this seemed a likely place to meet them.

‘Positions,’ Buzz ordered quietly, and gestured them forward. They were on high alert. Growl seemed to understand the risk and he moved low and quietly, his claws a whisper on the hard floor. The tunnel ahead was a main route through the compound. The River Door would be huge like the Temple Door, Neb was pretty sure -- the size seemed to be an important part of the Emorist symbology.

The team moved ahead cautiously, then Buzz raised his clenched fist and they stopped dead without a hint of noise. Neb gasped in silent shock, a mental reaction with no outward sign.

Ahead at the tunnel junction, a tall figure had stepped into view. For a fraction of a second Neb thought it was the Guide again, but this figure was very much corporeal. It stood stock still with a weapon in its hands, and it looked right at them with its glassy, elongated eyes.

It was a sawfish.