My heart hammered uncomfortably against my chest.

Jaslynn walked in front of me and Freda behind, there to cut me off if I decided to run. I had my gun, they had weapons and ability, and yet I didn’t feel any safer. My body was primed to run and it felt wrong to be cut off.

You’re not supposed to be running. Your survival depends on how brave you can be.

But though rationally I understood that, my instincts had other ideas. How did I expect to escape if I could be brave while engulfed in a safety blanket?

Cybill walked up ahead, her sword glowing red and the light shifting in ways that made it hard to see. Norbert formed the rear-guard, two swords wrapped in pink-purple light hovering behind him; the light hit his silver armour and bounced off, illuminating more of the tunnel the Cybill’s sword. Red and purple mixed together, stretching shadows to form shapes that I mistook for animals more than once.

Water dripped onto the ground, adding and almost wailing sound to the melody of a thousand feet clacking against the stone floor. The pounding came from a centipede, and with nothing else to do but wait, my mind built on the image of the thing barrelling towards us: bigger, stronger and faster than animal in my world and probably with powers.

There was no saying if it was more powerful than the alabaster lizard, but at least there, there had been space. Now we were in a narrow tunnel without much room to manoeuvre.

“It nears,” said Norbert and the words had me stop breathing for a second.

The sound of a myriad of feet was louder and sharper, with other noises joining it – the clack-clack-clacking of mandibles; stone grinding against stone but the groan stretching longer; and a hiss that came and went without rhyme or reason.

As before with the snail and lizard, the impression of the centipede had only appeared after I’d been told what it was. Why?

Much like I could meditate to focus on only one thing I did the same here, using the scientific method as my anchor as I tried to figure out the particulars of how the spatial stone worked. It had been the gnats first, followed by the snails; I had thought about them, conceptualised them, and after that they’d appeared as a group. It had been the same thing with the lizard and its babies.

Except, that wasn’t right, with the gnats I’d been able to sense others in the distance. I had assumed that those were every other bug in the area, when it was possible that it had just been other gnat clusters. Did that mean, then, that there needed to be intentionality with the things I was detecting? Or had I been so narrow – wanting to sense the gnats, the snails, the lizards – that everything else was filtered away?

How useful is this really? a part of me thought. Its not like you’ll be able to use it when the time comes. You’re just a runner. You’re just a coward.

Panic seized me and made it harder to think.

My eyes darted around, taking in the dark stone that surrounded us, with water worn wooden beams jutting up and keeping the tunnel from falling. In the low light I was surprised to see that giant bugs weren’t the only species in this world, because I could see the movement of smaller shapes.

And I’m not sensing them, I realised.

Metal screeched as it skidded against stone and my attention went upfront. Owain had moved, his stance widening as his sword pulled back, prepared to thrust. A second later I saw it: darkened by the red light it almost looked black, it was wider across than I was, probably three times longer than I was tall, and moving at speed.

“Fuck,” I said and took a step back. A hand settled on my shoulder, gauntlets squeezing my armour, keeping me from running. Ahead of me Leonard had glanced back. Norbert’s attention staunchly faced forward, his gaze unblinking.

“Give me leave, Your Highness,” Owain said, voice low and eager. “I can fell this beast with one swing.”

“Then go,” said Allycea, something strange about her voice.

Owain thrust himself forward with increased speed, closing the distance and swiping his sword. He didn’t hit the centipede but its antennae — as long, if not longer, than my arms — were severed. Not losing any forward momentum the centipede curled, becoming a giant wheel that rolled forward; Owain’s sword disappeared and a tower shield took its place, the baron knelt as he brought up the shield. Purple light flashed and the centipede was thrown back.

“Ladies! On the attack!” Allycea bellowed. She leapt and landed on a wall, running as her swords appeared in her hands. The ground shuddered as the centipede landed, still spinning forward, quickly finding traction and coming at us again.

Ellora shot water at the ground, creating a slick floor; the centipede slipped, wobbling as it tried to right itself. Allycea leapt, curled and thrust her feet forward; she fell with great speed and landed on the centipede’s armoured side with force. Between the slippery ground and Allycea’s weight the bug fell, crashing into the tunnel’s side. The tunnel rumbled.

Allycea stabbed but her sword rebounded off the bug’s exoskeleton.

Cybill ran forward, feet slapping against a coat of water.

The centipede unfolded, legs stabbing out as it tried to right itself. Allycea jumped off but she wasn’t fast enough, and a shriek cut through the air as legs ran over her armour.

Cybill threw herself to the ground, using the water to slide down, shield up and sword prepared to stab. The centipede must have sensed her coming because it moved its head, mandibles snapping shut only to be blocked and batted aside by her shield; her sword slid into the underside of the bug, cutting into flesh and stretching the wound as she continued to slide. A shriek cut through the air and the bug started to curl, more legs threatening to stab or cut Cybill; Ellora fired a beam of water that hit Cybill in the back, thrusting her away from the bug as it started to roll.

Owain stared dumbly ahead as Allycea and her ladies-in-waiting worked with surprising coordination.

“We have company behind us,” said Norbert, his voice calm.

I turned and saw them, white spiders cast in pink light, probably ten of them, and I couldn’t sense them.

Spiders, I thought and they appeared.

Why? Why couldn’t I sense them? Why did I have to keep doing this thing over and over?

There are bugs all around me and I should be able to sense all of them, I thought frustrated.

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And with that new impressions bloomed in my head, answering my earlier questions.

Creatures, I thought. Everything living.

More impressions appeared, so much information that it was just noise – nothing useful I could pull from it. This was why this was a skill, because it had to be something I constantly did in the background, pulling and pushing in different directions, casting away the broadness when it wasn’t useful and narrowing my focus so I had a good sense of the coming dangers.

“Waroo!” Leonard said and I squeaked as water roared, slamming into the walls and riding up to the ceiling. I caught sight of a dark form as it slammed into the wall and bounced off, then felt the shudder of the tunnel as the centipede hit the ground.

The wall fell and freezing water slammed into my knees as it flowed down the tunnel behind me.

“Sprinting spiders,” said Jaslynn. She had two discs and Freda had her sword ready. “They are fast and reasonably smart. Keep them at a distance, Champion, those legs of theirs would puncture your armour as easily as a hot knife through butter.”

Don’t screw up, I thought as I narrowed my spatial sense. The spiders were the size of my head, with big abdomens and small heads, standing on thin, spindly legs.

My gun pointed, hand shaking, and I squeezed the trigger. My eyes closed at the flash, my ears rang at the bang, and the recoil was harsh. I missed and the spiders spread out so I wouldn’t hit them with one shot – they kept coming.

The hammer cocked back with a click and, eyes still closed, I squeezed again at the nearest spider – it successfully dodged the shot. I opened my eyes to see that the spider had leapt from one wall to another, and now it and its compatriots were crawling higher, blending into darker spots to hide.

Norbert gestured and one sword shot up, illuminating what looked like a second level to the mine, though the floor that had been up there had been removed. One spider was too close and it leapt. Jaslynn grabbed me by the shoulder and thrust me forward, directly under where the spider would land.

I stared up, watching the pale white shape at it dropped, its legs coming forward, ready to pierce me.

I’m gonna die.

A vision of the future appeared before me: the spider’s legs would extend and it would stab into my chest, its mandible would open and it would go for my neck, cutting through it like butter, and then there would be blood. I would die, in this world I didn’t know, with people who were all using me for one reason or another; Grandma wouldn’t see me again and she’d be left wondering where I had gone and why I hadn’t come back. This far from home, I wondered if I would even make it to my ancestral home to join Mom, my grandparents and my ancestors — something I hadn’t considered before, but now felt pressing.

I don’t want to die, I thought, and it was filled with all my desperation and all my will.

My hand came up and squeezed the trigger. A ball of fire bloomed; spider and fire met, there was a huff as the flame ignited and the spider was thrown back. It landed on the ground as a ball, rolling over the thin blanket of water that quenched the fire. Even so the spider was severely hurt and it only shuddered, unable to move until it finally stopped.

I’d killed one.

I’d killed one. There were more than twenty of the spiders speeding towards us.

My body coursed with too much energy, my heartbeat with too much strength, my teeth were clenched and my jaw hurt. The focus on my spatial sense was still narrowed, and I knew with certainty which direction and how far each of the spiders were.

There was a rhythm to it. Pull back the hammer, point, then squeeze the trigger.

Three shots, one after the other, I missed twice and a shriek cut through the air as a ball met its mark. Two spiders were too close and they leapt, only for discs wreathed in pink light to fly forward and spark, shooting lances of electricity that caught the bugs and killed them on the spot.

“Do not shoot me, Champion,” said Freda and she pounced forward, too-long and too-broad sword swinging.

“I will go high,” said Jaslynn. “The water greatly diminishes my power. Freda will go low. Pick off those in the middle.”

The words sounded so far away and when they went into my head I couldn’t fully grok them. There were spiders and they seemed to be coming out of the woodwork, easily twenty and more still coming in the distance; behind us the others were still fighting the centipede; and the tunnel shuddered every time the centipede slammed into something. Above and beyond that was the noise: metal against metal, hissing from the bugs, the hiss-pop of the water from Ellora, the crack of lighting and the crackle of fire, and sometimes the screams of those on the attack — hopefully just people who were attacking.

My own gunshot joined the fray, fireballs that missed more than they hit because the spiders were fast and they were very good at dodging.

One spider flanked Freda who was busy with three others. I pointed, fired and missed, but the ball of fire made Freda aware of the threat and she spun like a top, cutting through the spiders and spilling blood everywhere.

She smiled at me, light and mirth in her eyes.

My stomach shifted uncomfortably with a strange feeling I couldn’t place, almost like happiness and pride but ugly and dulled.

“Wae-krull,” I heard, followed by a roar of water and the whipping of wind. The impact made the tunnel rumble. A spark of electricity pulled my attention back to the fight where Freda had thrown her sword like a boomerang, sending it spinning to cut spiders before it flew back into her waiting hand.

Focus, I thought before squeezing the trigger and catching a spider as it tried to flee.

Jaslynn called back her discs and stowed them on her back. She slapped my shoulder and gave me a small nod.

I should have been happy. I’d proved myself a warrior and hadn’t run. But I was drained, like I’d run a thousand kilometres and wanted nothing but to sleep for the next few years. Worse of all, it wasn’t even over yet. We weren’t here to kill bugs, we were here to find spider eggs and we hadn’t found those yet.

What happens if we don’t find it today? Are we going to stay longer? Are we going to have to sleep in this place?

I shuddered.

There was still a way to go and then the return trip.

Turning around I saw a mess, the centipede was torn in half and blood was splattered on the ground and walls, chunks of its guts strewn across the tunnel. Cybill’s armour was torn in places and viscera clung to her hair. She smiled as she and Allycea clasped hands.

The smile dimmed though as Owain joined them.

“You are keen of sight, Champion,” said Norbert.

“Sorry?” I said, my voice a monotone. I widened my focus and felt all of the bugs and people in my range again.

“You missed a great deal,” said Norbert, “however you have a knack of spotting them even when they try to hide themselves. It is a skill not many have.”

I swallowed. “Good genes, I guess,” I said, shrugged.

“The commoner fashion from the Southern Commonality?” said Leonard, he was wet from his attack, his hair dripping.

“No,” I said. “It’s…complicated and I don’t know enough to make it simple.”

“Huntmaster,” said Allycea, using that to disentangle herself from Owain. “Cut our quarry into smaller portions. We can send this shell to our armourers.”

“Yes, Your Highness,” he said. He got to work, directing his swords with gestures towards the fallen centipede. Norbert knew just where its weak points were because he dug under the overlapping bits of exoskeleton, cutting at flesh and using his swords to tear the chunks free.

When he was done, Norbert went through a series of hand movements, muttering a spell under his breath; the air rippled and a long sigh reverberated as a large box fitted with spatial gems appeared. He had done something similar when we’d been resting to eat, though the box then had been a trunk filled with food; this one was empty and he dropped pieces of the centipede’s carapace into it. They disappeared, teleported elsewhere.

“…different than I am used to, I will admit,” Owain was saying to Allycea. “I am used to open spaces, where we flank the beast before we fell it. Your methods require a manoeuvrability that I am unaccustomed to. Perhaps…it would do me good to regularly attend these hunts with you, and in turn I might teach you of how we do it in the west.”

“Perhaps,” said Allycea. “Though that would have to be at the end of the war with Washerton.”

“The knights of the Elemental Line are well up to the task of protecting you, Your Highness,” he said. “And the Champion as well, should he wish to see the front lines.”

I jumped a little, my mind had been drifting. It took me a bit to take in what he’d just said. “That is for His Majesty to decide,” I said.

“Of course,” said Owain, high energy and intensity. “Of course. I admit to being excited to see this carrier mother of yours. In our region we are cursed with gulping toads, though they fetch quite the price. Their stomachs make for good purses.”

“We are not far away from the caves they roam,” said Norbert. He flicked his hands and the giant box disappeared. Without word he took the lead and we kept walking, deeper into the depths and into narrower spaces that needed us to walk one at a time. A few times Jaslynn sent her discs ahead of us and sparked the area to kill some critters.

The tunnels grew narrow, so much that the bulky metal screeched as stone scratched against it, we had to chart through waist high water at one point — Jaslynn sparked it too so we didn’t get a repeat of the lizard incident — until finally we reached the cave.