Oh wonderful. I thought. A jumping puzzle.

I looked around the chamber, biting my lip. Nothing here but the pit, the broken stairs, and grey stone walls.

Nothing for it then. We’ll have to handle this on our own.

“Come on, everybody! We’ve got a goddess to catch!” Eshaan shouted enthusiastically, and leaped for the stairs, moving with lithe grace from step to step heedless of the black void yawning beneath him.

I took a deep breath and then let it out in a long sigh. Lakshmi leapt after Eshaan, followed closely by Daniyel and Camaxtli.

Well, I guess there’s something to be said for my dumb boyfriend after all.

I shared a glance with Soriya, a nervous smile on my lips as we started down the stairs, my little {Light} spell overhead casting a bright glow across ancient stones.

I nervously picked my way down the stairs, screwing my courage as tight as it could go to make the leap across missing stairs. Eshaan and Lakshmi called encouragement to me as I made the leap. Overhead, the shouts and cries of the cultists came to a head.

“They have descended the pit!”

“They sacrifice themselves?!”

“No, you fool, we must follow them! They profane the goddess!”

“Paki, we were going to throw them down the pit ourselves, how is this a problem?!”

“Well…” the voice said uncertainly.

I hurried down the shaky steps as quickly as I dared, my heart in my throat. The sounds of the argument over the proper methods of sacrifice slowly fading into meaningless echoes in the black pit.

The first gap wasn’t so bad, but as the stairwell grew deeper, the gaps grew further and further apart. My heart was in my throat as I lept, and I was grateful that Eshaan was there to catch me. His reassurances helped, though my heart was still beating a mile a minute.

I wasn’t sure if the plot thread would demand that I miss my jump, so that the hero could pull me up.

Would I even feel it if the plot pushed me? I wondered.

I stopped, looking at an even larger gap, then turned to Soriya. No, this is foolish. There must be a way to short circuit this! If I want Eshaan to hold me, I can just ask for honey sake!

“Soriya, can you use an air ritual to cushion our landing? Can we maybe just float down?”

Soriya blinked, and then pulled out Ægishjálmur. “I can try!” She smiled brightly.

The group stopped. Soriya and I focused, she led the spell and I fed her mana. A few minutes later, a misty pale blue-green disk appeared in the center of the pit, hovering just below us.

Soriya opened her eyes and smiled in satisfaction. “All aboard wind express!” She said, and stepped out onto the disk of hardened air.

I was just about jump, when there was a sudden trembling in the air, a feel like the world was shaking around me, and then a sudden massive roar of mental energy. A very familiar energy, rage and pain and words mingled into a mental shout.

“AAAUGH! BRIGHT! LOUD! PAIN! NO! TOO LOUD! TOO MUCH! SILENCE!”

I staggered forward, tripped and fell hard onto the hardened air platform, shaking as my body shuddered from the psychic assault.

Oh. I thought inanely, staring face first down the infinitely dark and endless pit. There, plot. I tripped for you. Ow.

Overhead, there was a rumble, and then the sounds of multiple loud shrieks, and suddenly a cultist landed on one of the nearby stairs with a sickening wet smack.

Oh. Oh dear! I… hope he’s…

The cultist dissolved into whisps of smoke, followed by the sound of items clattering away down the pit and bouncing off stairs.

Oh. I suppose not. Oh that poor man. I thought sadly. I blinked and shook my head. Focus Lily. That ‘poor man’ probably wanted to kill us all! Still…

My thoughts were interrupted by a loud crack from the stone stair the cultist had landed on, and the stair itself suddenly gave way, tumbling downwards into the darkness below us. Loud crashing and cracking sounds of stone on stone heralded its progress as it fell into the darkness, unseen but very much heard. Several more bodies, no longer shrieking, tumbled past us and vanished into the darkness below.

“You know, I was going to say if you don’t look down, it helps.” Said Lakshmi shakily.

I looked over at her, realizing that the rest of my friends were scattered about the platform with me. A drop of wetness splattered on the whirling disc of air below me, and I stared in confusion.

Is that… coming from me? Why is it red? Blood? I’m bleeding?!

I touched my nose in confusion, my fingers coming away smeared with red. I looked up in horror at my friends, suddenly seeing small streams of red dripping from their nose and ears.

Oh no! How much damage did that shout do?!

I looked inward, focusing a {Study} on myself.

{Name}: Lilyanna of Breezewood {Level}: 32

{Classes}: Spiritist 10/Orator 10/Arcanist 9/Gourmet 3

HP: 439/586 MP: 435/870 DEF: 137 M.DEF: 222

Current Status:

DEX: 147(-10) INS: 218(-20)

MIG: 143 WIL: 218(-20)

Ooooh, honeysuckle! That’s not good! Even as I watched, my HP dropped by one, then another, in a steady trickle.

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The air-evator platform gave a little lurch, and then started to descend smoothly.

Of course, why one disaster, lets go all in! I thought angrily. I groped for my staff, feeling another stab of pain echo through my head as I focused.

Soriya leapt across the platform and tackled me to the ground.

“No!” She shouted urgently, then forcefully pushed a healing potion and remedy potion at me. “No magic! No magic at all!”

No magic… what…? I thought woozily, as I took the potions and swallowed them. The raging headache and pounding burn of ‘ow’ started to fade, and I could suddenly think clearly again.

Oh. Oh of course. No magic. I thought, wincing.

“I don’t understand.” Said Eshaan in confusion. “Why won’t you let Lily heal us?!” He protested.

I blinked slowly and then wiped the blood from my nose. “Because the shout was caused by magic.” I said wearily. “The shout. The Arcanum was angry because Soriya’s ritual hurt it.”

“Oh!” Said Eshaan, his eyes wide. “So that’s why we’re bleeding?”

I nodded, then looked down at the empty bottles in my hand. “It’s going to be a long trip without spellcraft.” I said grimly.

I did another quick {Study} to confirm that I was status clear once more, then went to treat my friends’ injuries.

Everyone had a little trickle of blood under their nose, or from their ears. Camaxtli seemed to have the worst of it, the circuit and panel pattern on his skin was especially prevalent.

No blood though, that’s interesting. I wonder if he even bleeds? Or bleeds a color not red?

“I will be fine. Self-repair procedures are already underway.” He insisted calmly.

“Just drink the potions, Camaxtli. Please. For Lakshmi, if nobody else?” I said

“Hey!” Lakshmi protested. “I can speak for myself!” She paused then nodded. “But you really should drink the potions, Camaxtli. Please?”

Camaxtli gave a tiny smile and nodded. “As you say, Lakshmi.” He took the bottles from my hands and drained them in two quick gulps. The circuit pattern faded from his skin and his color immediately improved.

The worst of the psychic backlash dealt with (and a massive laundry bill racked up, blood stains are so hard to clean!) the rest of the ride down the shaft was largely uneventful. My little light ball was still going, and I supposed that given I shouldn’t cast spells, I could afford to keep giving it mana to provide light enough for everyone.

The walls of the shaft started to change the deeper we went. The grey stone walls slowly morphed into a glossy grey metal, shimmering rainbow circuit patterns shooting through it from time to time.

Camaxtli nodded to himself, then said “This is in keeping with expectations. This temple was certainly a weapons development lab during the war, or project development for the Goddess project.”

The platform dropped still lower, and now the shaft was ablaze with brilliant rainbow lights shimmering through circuit patterns and panel lines were obvious everywhere. Further down, damage began to appear. Several vast doors, that at one time were clearly supposed to close off the shaft, were warped and twisted, blackened-

Well, I’m not even sure it’s metal honestly. Some strange hypertech material, I guess?

The air-evator approached the bottom of the shaft, and below us, I could see an unpleasant but unsurprising truth. Drops. A great many pieces of equipment, gear, and little bottles had formed a mound at the bottom of the shaft. Blackened and twisted material lay under it, and the walls of the shaft flickered with fitful rainbow displays.

Corridors spread out from the pit in a radial pattern, with flickering overhead lights illuminating the wreckage. Under the snapping buzz of the lights, I could just make out the sounds of shuffling and motion from the corridors, echoing weirdly through the strange labyrinth.

“Last stop, all off!” Soriya said cheerfully. “Now, everyone good to go? Lots of potions in stock?”

Daniyel turned to her. “I am concerned about your role here. If you are unable to use magic, then that will cause a significant problem for all of us.”

Soriya nodded easily. “I have an idea.” She smiled. “It might even be good!” She turned to Lakshmi. “Ancient engineering uses mana, right? As spellcasters, we should be able to just charge the devices!”

Lakshmi blinked and then her eyes widened. “You want… to recharge…? Are you planning on blowing off the entire energy cell in that monstrosity of a gun you call a staff!”

Soriya nodded confidently. “Multiple times, if possible. Lily’s not going to be doing anything with her mana pool. The best defense is a good offence.”

“You’re insane.” Said Lakshmi in disbelief.

Eshaan grinned. “Now you know how we feel when you’re in the middle of a creative frenzy and insist on dismantling an Ancient mech while it’s trying to kill us.”

“That is completely different!” Lakshmi protested. “And was totally justified that one time.”

“And yet” said Camaxtli. “You have done it more than once. Curious.”

Lakshmi shot him a glare and shook her finger at him. “You…”

I coughed. “Lets take a look at the drops, ok? Maybe we can replenish our equipment here?”

“Hm, ghoulish. Unexpectedly practical, from you.” Said Soriya.

I glared at her. “I prefer my friends to have weapons, thank you. There’s mecha still active in these corridors, you can hear them! And it’s probably filled with traps and other dangers!”

Soriya shrugged and nodded easily. “Almost definitely.”

“In the meantime, perhaps we can start looking?” I said again. “It looks as though this is a maze.”

Soriya turned to me. “Do me a favor. See if your mother’s journal mentions this place.”

I blinked at her in disbelief. “You’re kidding right? A death cult that takes no prisoners in the middle of a jungle?”

Soriya shrugged. “Sewer maps. Plural.”

I sighed, and pulled out mother’s journal. We hadn’t exactly had a lot of uses for it once we left the eastern continent. I flipped through the entries. Mother had come to visit the jungles of Nanwe. There was indeed a sewer map for the town of Mabanu. Mother and her party had cleaned out a serpent cult of some kind, apparently. But there was no mention of any temples. I shrugged and closed the book, shaking my head.

“Ah, too bad.” Said Soriya. “I was hoping your luck would hold.”

“Hold on.” Eshaan said, and stepped over to me, careless of the gear and wreckage on the floor. “This was a military outpost. A military research outpost. And if what Camaxtli said is correct, there were a lot of these. And speaking as a former trooper, all bases are always built to a same plan. Makes it really easy to find the mess.” He grinned.

“Seriously?” I asked.

He nodded. “A few variations, but… look for Alberia. Near Sylvania. There was a ruin there I was stationed at for a few months.”

I frowned, but flipped through the book. There it was. ‘Ancient ruined temple complex in the Mountains of Light.’

I looked up at him, my eyes wide. “How did you know?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Seer’s luck? You break things, and they just work out for you.”

I huffed, and then returned to the book. My friends gathered around, and we compared the ruin described in Mother’s journal to the one around us. It wasn’t an exact match, but just like Eshaan said, it was close enough that we could set off without too many wrong turns.

Aside from the killer robots, rogue monsters, and insane Arcanum, of course. I thought to myself. You know, the easy stuff.

There were a host of useful potions to be found in the debris, though a great many had broken in the fall. And, exactly as I expected, Ancient weapons and armor, in exactly the styles that Eshaan, Daniyel, and Camaxtli preferred.

I smiled happily as they equipped themselves, though I had to admit I was just a tiny bit disappointed that my friends no longer even considered it strange that I could predict events like this, or the extreme unlikeliness of their exact weapon choices being found in a temple midden.

The complex was indeed a labyrinth, and lethal traps abounded. Without the guidance of the journal, there was no feasible way that we could have done this. Not without a lot more health and restoration potions!

Ancient machinery, half repaired in a bungled and awkward way. Traps that froze halfway through swinging bronze-gold blades at us.

Lakshmi pounced on the half functional mecha, and disabled them, and the boys kept the rest of us out of the pit traps, spike gates, and other nasty surprises that opened up unexpectedly. It was strange to see a complex that clearly should be rusty and dusty, to be so weirdly clean. Bronze-gold didn’t rust or degrade over time, and something was clearly cleaning house. I started to get the feeling that the bottom of the shaft was not entirely the responsibility of the cult overhead.

The further we moved into the complex, the more signs of obvious battle started to appear. Scorch marks on the walls, twisted bronze-gold metal, and the strange grey ‘stone’ that the temple complex overhead was made of.

Deeper in, mental attacks started to take their toll on us. Moaning and shrieks from the damaged Arcanum, made me wonder if we could get addicted to healing potions, at the rate we were downing them. The sounds of tearing metal and broken traps and mecha interspersed our journey as we slowly wended our way towards the heart of the complex.

Hours later, we found ourselves facing torn vault doors, wrenched from their place in the wall. Enormous vast things that I wasn’t even sure could be opened by human hands. And deep within, lit by flickering and intermittent light, a clockwork monolith that shrieked and gibbered and moaned in agony.

I took a moment to share a glance, then nodded. “Right. Lets do some healing.” I said with determination.