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After a few minutes, we passed the hanging vines and found ourselves standing at a precipice. We peered down; the bottom was lost to the mist. There was no way around. We couldn’t climb down, as we had before, because fungus didn’t line the sides. The sides were of smooth rock the entire way down, with no handholds.
“What now?” Ruth asked.
“Throw something down there,” Makara said. “See if it hits anything.”
Samuel looked at the rock he’d been using to mark our tunnels. He shrugged, and tossed it into the hole.
We waited, the seconds passing by, but there was no sound.
“Great,” Makara said.
“Turn back?” Ruth asked.
I didn’t like the thought of having to go through that hell again.
“We need other options,” I said.
“Well, there’s Cthulhu’s forest behind us, or the Pit of Doom ahead,” Ruth said. “Pick your poison.”
“If we go back through those vines, we’d have to climb back out and backtrack,” Anna said. “Should we try climbing down the abyss?”
“What do you mean?” Makara asked. “This is an abyss.”
“The fiery one, not the infinite one,” Anna said.
“The only way down this hole is jumping,” Makara said. “And that would be supremely idiotic.”
“Supremely?” Michael asked.
“Yeah. Supremely.”
“No one’s jumping,” I said. “We’ll have to turn back.”
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was where we were supposed to be, that somehow there was a way down there. We just hadn’t found it yet.
“Alright,” Anna said. “Where to?”
I stood at the precipice, still looking over the edge. Trying to climb down would be suicide.
There was nothing but to turn back.
But as I turned, the ground gave a sudden lurch beneath my feet. I cried out, falling backward. Anna grabbed my arm, but I had too much momentum. As I fell into the hole, she tumbled over the edge with me.
We screamed and fell through the misty air. The seconds stretched for what seemed forever, and I saw nothing but the white mist.
And then, something elastic pushed against my back. The pressure increased until I was no longer falling, but was now going up. I sailed high into the air before falling back down, landing on the springy substance.
After a couple more bounces, Anna and I came to a stop. At seeing what had stopped us, I wanted to scream. It was those vines again, only they seemed to be coming from the walls, forming a tangled web stretching horizontally across the hole.
High up above, the muffled voices of our friends echoed downward.
“Alex! Anna!”
“We’re okay!” I yelled.
“Okay” was a relative term. We weren’t dead, but we were also stuck at the bottom of a hole with no way out.
But a way out appeared soon enough. The vines retracted into the walls, and Anna and I screamed once again as we fell. Above, the vines reformed their web, blocking us from communicating with the others.
It was just a few seconds before Anna and I splashed into cold, dark water. The shock of it sent my heart into overdrive. I swam upward, and when I broke the surface I sucked in a lungful of air. Anna emerged beside me.
My main fear wasn’t for my own safety, but whether the others would jump after us. I looked above, but whatever was up there was lost in the mist.
“We need to get out of this water,” Anna said, teeth chattering.
I looked around, but the fog obscured everything. There was nothing for it but to pick a direction and go.
Anna swam straight ahead, and I followed her through the fog. It looked like we were separated from the others for now. We had to continue our journey alone.
Thankfully, a shoreline materialized in the foggy darkness. It was hard to tell where the light was coming from, but it seemed to be shining from the walls themselves. Without it, we would have been completely lost.
My feet found the bottom, so I stood and walked to the shoreline. Anna emerged beside me. Everything was soaked – our clothing, our boots, and our packs.
“We need to keep moving,” I said.
We walked ahead, leaving the water behind. The thick fog obscured everything, but it was still bright enough to see, making flashlights unnecessary. Fungus coated the floor, emitting a pink, ethereal glow. Our boots squished on the ground.
After a few minutes of steady walking, the mist thinned. At some point, we entered a tunnel. I looked back, only to see fog. There was a deadening of all sound. The tunnel continued straight, veering slightly downward.
A few minutes more, and the tunnel opened up into a small chamber, the walls of which gave off a slight glow. A perfectly circular pool of pink, glowing ichor sat in the center, perhaps ten feet in diameter. There were no other entrances or exits.
Somehow, I knew we had to go in that pool.
I stepped forward, but Anna pulled me back.
“Alex...”
I looked her full in the face, holding her hands. “That’s the way out,” I said. “Together?”
She hesitated, but nodded after a moment.
We went to stand at the ichor’s edge. As we peered down into that pink, clear liquid, it seemed as deep as infinity.
I tried to calm myself, but I couldn’t. I was afraid, even with Anna standing right there next to me.
“If we get separated, how do I know where to find you?” Anna asked.
I paused, thinking for a moment.
“Just call. I’ll hear you. We’ll need to hold on tight. I think this stuff might take us somewhere. Whatever happens, nothing can hurt us as long as we’re together.”
I didn’t know if that was true, but in that moment, it seemed true enough.
“Alright,” she said.
“I’m going to count to three. Then we jump.”
I waited a moment, feeling my nervousness rise.
“One. Two. Three.”
We jumped and were swallowed by the pink liquid. The warmth engulfed me, and for a moment, we floated beneath the surface. Before we even had the chance to move, the pool sucked us down.
I held Anna tightly as we sunk deeper and deeper. We lurched through twists and turns, my lungs burning for air. When I felt I couldn’t hold my breath much longer, we began to ascend.
A moment later, we broke the surface. I gasped for air as the ichor pushed us onto a bed of fungus.
After we lay there for a moment, catching our breath, I struggled to my feet and helped Anna up. The ichor receded from my body and clothing, retreating into the glowing pool from which we had emerged. The shape of this pool was exactly the same as the one we had jumped in – a perfect circle.
“You alright?” I asked.
Anna nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
“Let’s keep moving.”
We walked ahead, the tunnel curving and seemingly coming to a dead end. But as we neared, I could see the path had merely narrowed to a thin crack in the wall, just wide enough for one person to squeeze through.
I decided to go first. I turned myself sideways, wriggling myself between the two walls. At the narrowest point, it became so tight that I had to release all the air in my lungs just to squeeze through. I fell to the other side, landing on the fungus. I scrambled up and peered back through the crack.
Only, it had completely closed.
“Anna!”
No sound came through that wall. If she was yelling, too, I had no way of hearing it.
I dug my fingers into the fungus covering the wall, where the opening had once been, trying to rip it apart. It was no use; the fungus held firm.
Alex?
I heard Anna’s voice in my mind.
Anna...are you there? Are you alright?
I’m stuck over here. It just...closed.
I didn’t know it was going to close like that. If I had, I wouldn’t have gone through.
She was waiting for this, for the chance to separate us.
No. We’re not separated. We’ll find a way. We have to get this wall open.
Let me try to cut my way through. The walls themselves didn’t close. The fungus just grew between them.
I stared uncertainly at the wall. I didn’t think that would work, but it was better than trying nothing.
I waited another moment, staring at the wall and willing it to open. Of course, it wasn’t going to obey me. The fungus was controlled by the Radaskim version of the xenovirus.
I wondered, though...could I perhaps convert it? If the Elekai version dominated the Radaskim version, then if I could somehow infect this fungus, I could command it to open. I didn’t even know if such a thing was possible, but if it was, how exactly would I do that?
It was worth a shot. I had nothing else to go on.
I reached out and touched the fungus lining the wall. I closed my eyes, feeling the soft, spongy substance beneath my fingers. It was warm, at first, but felt strangely cool as my hand kept contact. Soon, my fingers began to feel numb. I did not remove them, willing the fungus to change, emptying my mind and trying to establish contact.
Then, my fingers began to burn.
I gritted my teeth and kept my hand there. I could only hope that something was working. I cleared my mind, finding the void in my consciousness, the place where I could distance myself from pain and watch it from afar. Stabs of pain from the fungus continued to enter my hand, spreading through my arm and chest.
I connected to the Radaskim xenofungal network, and at every moment, more of it entered my awareness. I knew Askala might be able to find me, so I needed to work quickly.
I saw immediately that it would take a lot of my strength to permanently convert the fungus surrounding the crevice, but it would take significantly less if I only temporarily took control. That was what I opted to do.
Change, I thought. I just need ten seconds.
Nothing happened at first, but slowly, feeling returned to my hand, warmth outspreading from my fingers. A wave of brightness radiated outward from my fingers on the fungal surface. It began to glow brightly and hum.
I’d done it. It only awaited my command.
Open. Now.
The fungus unfolded, revealing Anna at the other end of the crevice, hacking with her katana. Her eyes widened upon seeing me.
“Run!” I shouted.
She ran into the crevice, turning her body to squeeze through the narrow bit. The fungus now fought back against my mind, wanting to crush Anna in the crevice. The attack on my mind came suddenly, and my control nearly slipped – it was as if the fungus knew how vulnerable Anna’s position was. I fought with everything I had, my mind straining with the effort. Just as I was about to black out, she dove to the other side. I allowed the opening to seal shut. I collapsed to the ground next to Anna, my vision dimming.
“Alex?” Anna asked. “Alex, get up. No, don’t close your eyes. Please! Get up.”
My eyes had closed – I didn’t remember when, or how, I had lost consciousness. I forced my eyes open. Anna’s face above me swam in waves. All I could do was breathe, one slow lungful after another. For one brief moment, I had been a part of the Radaskim collective consciousness, and its energy was like poison.
Anna knelt beside me, talking, but I couldn’t understand her words. My hearing had somehow been affected, and all I could feel was my heart beating, my pulse pounding in my ears.
Then, water splashed on my face. With that sensation, my paralysis seemed to melt. I sat up, and Anna handed me her canteen. I took a couple swallows.
“You alright?”
I nodded, pushing the canteen away. I held Anna close, both of us on the ground.
“Wasn’t expecting that,” I said.
“How did you open it?”
“I connected to the Radaskim consciousness, somehow,” I said. “I didn’t even know if it would be possible.”
“It fought back?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Like hell. It almost closed on you, but I held it open, just long enough. It burned my hand.”
I looked at my right hand. It didn’t appear hurt or any different than usual, but it might as well have been on fire touching that fungus.
“If controlling the fungus is this hard, I can’t even imagine controlling Askala.”
“Don’t think about that,” Anna said. “What matters is we made it.”
Anna helped me up, and we continued down the tunnel. There were no more obstacles for now, only an oppressive watchfulness that seemed to mark our every move.
We were getting close. I felt it. If Askala didn’t know where we were before, she definitely knew now, and so far, things had not gone according to her plan.
I knew that she would have plenty of opportunities to change that, all too soon.
***
WE ENTERED A NEW CAVERN, so large that it was like an entirely new world. The glittering ceiling rose at least a thousand feet above, from which glowing stalactites hung. Stalagmites rose from the ground, covered by xenofungus. Ichor dripped from the ceiling, forming pools among the rock formations. There were no tunnels, no doors – just this vast maze.
We climbed a large stand of rocks, putting ourselves above the cavern floor. In every direction, shining pools, twisted rocks, and earthen pillars spread for miles. This vast, underground realm seemed to be empty of Radaskim life. On one side of the cavern, a lake of magma glowed red in the distance. In the opposite direction, through twisting tunnels and jagged rock walls, stretched a flat expanse filled with small pools, boulders, and rock formations. A similar underground landscape spread in the other two directions.
“Lava Lake,” Anna said, “or the Endless Plain of Icky Ichor?”
“Both sound like lovely options.”
I sat down on a flattened boulder, staring at the magma lake. Through all the twists and turns on the cavern floor, getting there would be tricky. Not that I had a mind to go that way.
“I think that might be the bottom of the abyss,” I said. “If it is, that probably isn’t the right way.”
Anna oriented herself as if she had come from that direction. “We can rule out the right, because we came from that way. Which leaves straight, or left.”
We were thinking in terms of the four directions, but really, there were much more down here. The entire cavern was gigantic, and its directions weren’t limited to the four points of the compass. For all we knew, we could have missed our turn already.
Anna turned in the direction of the magma lake. Her eyes widened.
“Down!”
I dropped to the ground while Anna fell behind a boulder. I crawled until I was hidden with her. I heard the flap of wings, enough of a reason to keep my face and body to the ground. A moment later, the dragon swooped overhead. I only dared to look when it had gone a good distance.
The dragon was huge, already obscured by shadow. It continued beating its wings and gaining distance. It flew in a direct line, never turning.
I realized what we had to do.
“We need to follow it.’
Anna nodded, understanding. “You think it’s going to her?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “But I think so.”
I looked in the direction of the magma lake to make sure no more dragons were coming. Once I was sure the coast was clear, I stepped from the safety of the boulder, facing the direction the dragon had flown. By now, it had been completely swallowed by the darkness.
“A straight line in this place is going to be hard,” I said.
“We’ll have to climb some rocks every now and then to make sure we’re going the right way,” Anna said. “We can look back to this formation to orient ourselves. It’s the tallest thing around.”
“And after that?” I asked.
“We’ll figure it out as we go.”
We made our way down the outcrop, taking care not to fall. Even so, the descent was difficult. I placed my right foot down on a hold. It fractured, and I slipped, falling toward the edge. Anna grabbed me by the shoulders, pulling me back to the rock wall.
“Careful,” she said.
From then on, I tested each and every step, not letting myself relax until we were on the cavern floor. We began walking in the direction the dragon had flown.
“The trouble will be staying on track,” Anna said.
“Easy,” I said. “Every fifteen minutes, we can climb something to reorient ourselves.”
“You mean I can climb,” Anna said. “No more climbing for you.”
“You could fall just as easily as me.”
“Yeah,” Anna said, looking at me pointedly. “My life isn’t as valuable, though.”
“That’s not true.”
She shook her head. “No use arguing. Besides, I’m lighter on my feet than you.”
I knew she had me there.
We navigated the twists and turns of a jagged canyon. The rock was porous and black, but there were areas where surfaces glinted, with edges as sharp as a blade.
“Obsidian,” I said. “Watch where you step.”
Anna nodded.
Five minutes later, we took our first break. Anna climbed a promising rock formation, only going halfway before peering into the distance.
“We’re still good,” she said. “Keep going.”
“You see anything different over there?”
“Much the same. There’s an entire world under here.”
“The Underworld,” I said.
“I guess that’s fitting.”
Anna climbed down and we continued on, entering a chasm that cut between two rising plateaus. Somewhere in this place, Askala lurked. Quietus had said she was at the meeting of the Two Seas, wherever that was. I hadn’t seen anything down here resembling a sea, except maybe the magma lake, and it was a stretch to call that a sea of any sort. We just had to keep following the line the dragon made.
I was just grateful this place was empty, because there was evidence of its once being full of life. We passed molted chitin shells and dark burrows carved into the rocks. This must have been where the Radaskim swarm had laired.
“This entire place was filled with them,” Anna said. “What did they eat?”
That question was answered as soon as the chasm ended, placing us before a large pool glowing with ichor. Along the banks of the pool grew a thick layer of xenofungus.
“Here,” I said.
“It’s hard to imagine those nasty monsters being vegans,” Anna said.
“They’ll eat anything they can get nutrition from. The fungus is their main source of food, but they wouldn’t shy away from a kill, either.”
“Gross.”
We walked past the pool, patches of fungus, empty barrows, and jagged spires. Occasionally, Anna would climb on top of a large rock or plateau and straighten our course. Checking my watch, I was surprised to see that it was evening. We’d been up all day, all night, and all through the day again. I thought we would have found Askala by now, but this place was far larger than I had ever imagined.
We stopped again, and I decided that we needed to take a rest. We hadn’t slept the previous night, and there was no way we could face Askala in such a state. Even Anna was moving lethargically. She stopped halfway up her climb, staring into the distance. She stayed there longer than usual.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s something over there,” she said. “Like a long, pink line on the horizon. The rocks end there.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll have to face it tomorrow. You’re going to fall asleep on your feet.”
She climbed down, sliding down the last twenty feet. Once she’d reached the cavern floor, she dusted herself off.
“Let’s find someplace safe to lie low,” I said.
We looked along the side of the cliffs, finding an empty hole that had probably been a burrow for crawlers, not so long ago. We walked by several of the holes, taking a pass because most of them smelled horrible. Hopefully, we’d be able to find a burrow that hadn’t been used.
After another minute, we were in luck. We found a small burrow, slightly hidden behind a stand of rocks, and the best part was that it had no smell.
We ducked inside, settling into the corner farthest from the opening. We set down our packs, digging out what little food we had: basically just some fruit we had picked from the grove. It didn’t take us long to eat it.
“Should one of us keep watch?” I asked.
Anna shook her head. “We didn’t sleep last night. If either of us goes without, it will be bad. This place is empty, so I think we’ll be fine.”
I didn’t have a mind to argue, especially now that I had sat down for a few minutes. I closed my eyes, and it wasn’t long before sleep took me.