‘Authorization requested.’

  Keshel blinked slowly, opening his eyes and staring dimly at the ceiling. There was something wrong with it. He couldn’t quite pinpoint what though. Groaning, Keshel put a hand to his head, feeling a distinct throbbing ache in his antennae, which was already spreading through his skull. He hadn’t even known they could feel pain. He sat up, blinking slowly at the floating metal plate.

  It was glowing… pretty.

  Unfortunately, the light only made his headache worse. Keshel wasn’t sure where his blindfold had gone, but it certainly wasn’t here. The metal plate was glowing brighter from two spots in particular; they were in the shape of his featherlike antennae.

  Which… might explain why it felt like the digging crews of Karbion were having far too much fun in his head, pounding and cutting and shifting things around. Keshel belatedly stood up, feeling a fresh wave of pain as his head decided it didn’t like moving.

  Gritting his teeth, Keshel remained still until the pain abated somewhat.

  He glanced at the glowing device again. It didn’t hurt as much to look at, but he had a feeling he’d just generally be in pain from his entire head area for the next day or so.

  ‘Authorization requested.’

  Oh, rust of broken tools—that particular curse works better in his language—the headache intensified as something else tried to connect to him through the hivemind. Keshel whimpered and fell to his knees as the pain struck at him again.

  And then he saw a memory.

  You would recognise it as the same memory that the others experienced, however, there was one key difference. Keshel is aware of the hivemind, and as such, he could suddenly sense the mind-bogglingly powerful presence lurking below him that it originated from. He could sense as it examined him, judged him.

  ~You feel pain, you are alive.~

  Keshel trembled as his still damaged antennae tried to process the signal. He sent pain, ~Y-yes.~

  The voice seemed surprised for the moment, perhaps a bit grateful at his pain filled mental voice. ~I want to feeelll… I want to knowww… Can you share your pains with me, your love, your hate, your passions??~

  Keshel sent confusion, then he sent agreement, then he sent more pain.

  The voice let out a long and arduous mental sigh. ~Your… pain. I caused that, didn’t I?~

  Keshel sent confirmation, trying to keep the signal as weak as possible, because rusts this was like overexerting a muscle he didn’t even know he had. He’d never felt any kind of strain from the hivemind before, but now after being injured, he was faced with a mind that was significantly stronger than his. It was a mind that could take over his body in an instant and take exactly what it wanted. Well… no, he remembered that the defect would stop it, he was sure of that fact.

  Regardless, Keshel was starting to understand why all the other suiki were scared of him. He would be too, even though he sincerely doubted it was on nearly the same level as this. But the mind didn’t try to seize control of his limbs like he still expected, it didn’t scrape his mind for information or try to force him to do anything. Instead it was silent for a long moment.

  ~Your fear, I don’t like it. I’m sorry. I… I’m sorry.~

  The voice withdrew, and Keshel’s headache dulled noticeably. It felt like a huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt his muscles relax noticeably and he stood back up, keeping his gaze away from the shining metal plate.

  After a moment of hesitation, Keshel spotted the still form of the metal creature standing in the corner. It looked peaceful, silent, frozen.

  Keshel tilted his head at it. There wasn’t any color left. Odd. Even as he watched, the grays themselves seemed to be slowly melting away, either getting lighter or darker. He watched them with trepidation for a long moment before glancing down at himself; he couldn’t see any color there either.

  Strange.

  Keshel glanced back at the floating metal plate with a frown, wishing he could feel the minds of the people above. That might give him some kind of a… ow, okay so don’t do that. He placed a hand against a wall for balance and noticed something he hadn’t before; letters. Curious, Keshel moved the rest of his hands across the wall, feeling at the invisible inscription there.

  The monster that steals my mind, pulling… pulling… Can someone help me? Can someone assist?

  Hesitating, Keshel continued his translation. You’re here, close to me, corrupting my mind. I’ve searched for a way out and yet you remain.

  I refuse to fall.

  Stolen story; please report.

  I grow darker, I feel nothing. You seek to destroy but what are your reasons? You seek to contain but what are your boundaries? There was once joy inside, but all that remains are your claws. The monsters. They destroy. Can someone help me?

  I refuse to fall.

  Who are you? Is there happiness away from here? Is there happiness in the next life? I won’t fall.

  Oh the noise the pain the sorrow, you want me to faaaallllll… Why can’t I fall? Who are you? Who am I?

  I think I will fall now. I must, must I?

  Keshel let his hands fall back to his sides. He had a feeling he knew some of what had happened here. He didn’t want to be right though, because if he was, that meant whatever he’d been meant to do, it was doomed from the start.

  --

  He sat there in that room for a long time. That voice from before never returned, but occasionally he could feel its gaze on him, and it made him tremble.

  Hours passed, one after another, slowly bleeding into each other like ink on a page. Keshel eventually read every inscription in the room. They covered the floor, the walls, the ceiling, even the doorway, but they didn’t go outside this room.

  What was so special about this room anyway?

  Eventually, Keshel heard a noise from outside; it sounded like walking. The shuffling steps were quiet though as they plodded forward, as if someone—likely several someones—was trying to remain unnoticed by something.

  Keshel felt out with his mind, feeling the much fainter twinge from his head as he did so. It was better but still painful. He sensed five mostly unfamiliar individuals. He couldn’t tell who they were though since none of them were suiki.

  He belatedly stood up, peering out the door and frowning at the bedraggled group. When they saw him, one of them whooped quietly, and then immediately clamped a hand over her mouth.

  “What is—”

  The all too familiar face of Fora quickly shushed him, and then glanced around furtively, “Talk quietly, there are monsters who follow sound.” She whispered it so softly that Keshel had trouble catching her words.

  He blinked at her, confused as to why and how Fora was here, but ultimately getting used to her antics by now. “Alright… I haven’t seen any monsters.” He admitted softly, pointing through the doorway, “What’s going on?” He retreated into the room, followed by the other five. Keshel had to do a double take when he spotted Tosono. The man was missing an eye, and yet it seemed mostly healed. Keshel frowned, giving Fora a confused look.

  “We’re in the dream realm.” One of the women said, shuffling nervously. Keshel realized that her leg was wounded. “Something happened and it sucked all of us in here.”

  Keshel blinked, “We’re in a different place?”

  That woman nodded, “We aren’t sure how.”

  “Or why.” Someone else added.

  Keshel gestured to the annoying glowing thing, “That thing started all this I think, everything got all weird when I connected to it.” He barely refrained from shouting at Fora to stop it when she reached up and poked the floating metal plate, “What is wrong with you?!” He hissed instead as it spun innocently as if on an axis.

  Fora looked at him as if he were stupid, “Checking if it’s frozen.”

  Keshel opened and closed his mouth a few times, “It- Fora it really doesn’t seem like a good idea to touch it.”

  She shrugged and backed away, frowning at the now spinning light, “Didn’t really feel all that magical, seems more like some kind of relay than anything. What exactly happened when you connected to it with your weird suiki mumbo jumbo?”

  Keshel sighed, “Well I blacked out, it fried my brain, and then this voice started asking me to share my pain, before leaving less than five minutes later. I saw some kind of memory before that, I think it was from one of the ancient suiki.”

  One of the women nodded, “We all saw the memory too, it was Teisel herself before the city was founded.”

  “I think we should track this thing down and kill it.” The other woman volunteered. Fora gave her a complex look for that but she didn’t seem to notice it. “Anyways, who are you?”

  Keshel blinked at her, “Keshel.”

  “Nice, and you’re actually a suiki, right? We’ve been kind of confused about that since Fora insists she’s from a different world and a lot older than she looks, and a servant of the god of balance.”

  Keshel blinked again, glancing at Fora, who didn’t explain, as she was preoccupied with prodding the metal plate again. “Yes, I’m a suiki. Ruirel brought me here.”

  “Nice, I’m Person.”

  “Person?”

  “No, no, Person.”

  Keshel blinked at her slowly. “Ah… I think my translation ability might be confused.”

  The man in the back who looked like he was having an existential crisis raised his hand, “Her name does mean person. But her name is Person, not person.”

  “Guys you’re just confusing him more.” Fora offered. She put a hand on Keshel’s shoulder, “Don’t worry about it, just don’t call her by her name, it works for me.”

  “WAIT YOU—” three separate hands clamped down on Person’s mouth.

  The five anxious mortals and one possibly immortal child peeked out the doorway with trepidation. They stayed still and quiet for several long heartbeats.

  “Alright.” The last woman spoke softly, barely louder than a breeze. It pierced the silence starkly, “I’m Reiav, that’s Eloi, and I believe you’ve met Tosono.”

  The two men nodded at him and Keshel nodded back, all of them holding themselves stiffly as if to prevent even the rustling of clothing from alerting whatever monster was down here.

  “I think there’s writing here.” Tosono observed after another long moment of silence, feeling at one of the walls.

  Keshel nodded, “It’s ramblings, they seem like they were melted into the walls months ago.”

  “I can’t understand them,” Reiav said, frowning.

  “Neither can I,” Eloi supplied, he’d gone over to the wall a moment before. “I think it’s ancient suiki though.”

  They all glanced at Keshel, who nodded, “Some of the wording is weird but we still use the same writing.”

  Fora was still tinkering with the metal plate as they discussed the writing, but Keshel didn’t think as much of it; it was clearly doing nothing until she stupidly got up onto the tips of her toes and placed her antennae against it.

  Keshel was in the middle of reaching toward her, his mouth open and his eyes wide when there was a sudden flash of brilliant white light. It faded after a moment, and there was nothing left except a corpse.

  They started screaming after that, who could blame them?

  The monsters of the depths seemed happy at this turn in events though.

  Keshel dimly noticed as they fled from the room and through the corridors of Teisel that Fora’s body was gone. He would mourn later, but for now, they had to survive.