“What in the world do we do now?!” Pleseln hissed at them. They’d found refuge a few hours ago in an out of the way corridor, unwilling to be trapped in a room again with only a single entrance. That had been… unpleasant.
Reiav felt the new pain in her arm, and she fully suspected that the wounds would only increase as narrow escapes got thinner and thinner until they started getting picked off one… by one…
Reiav closed her eyes, remembering Fora. Poor poor Fora. She’d acted like nothing could hurt her, to the point where Reiav had started to believe her.
“Without Fora we don’t have a chance to figure out what’s causing this, she could somehow see the source, but now we’re just stumbling about like idiots. We can’t even find the surface anymore!” Pleseln continued ranting, her voice still low.
Reiav curled in on herself, wincing at the pain in her arm again. Thankfully, her leg had mostly healed by now. Whatever Fora had said, she’d certainly been capable of healing. Fora was gone, the sorrow returned. Probably eaten by those monsters… if they even needed to eat. She shuddered.
Eloi was sitting beside Reiav, staring forward into nothingness. He’d been caught twice while they’d been fleeing, and on top of his already stressed out state, Reiav wasn’t surprised that he was finally starting to just shut down. She didn’t know what to do, she wanted to help, she really did, but how was one suppoed to help with wounds you couldn’t see?
Tosono on the other hand seemed more fired up by their hopeless situation. He’d lost an eye before, but he was the only one who hadn’t been caught more than once. Perhaps that was a connection?
She shook her head slowly, “If we keep heading upward we should eventually find the surface again, right?” The fear that the dream realm had made these corridors endless was prevalent to Reiav. Never to see the sun again, never to feel the breeze, to see Arithren in the sky…
She squinted. It was getting harder to make anything out; things had grayed entirely, and after that, the darkness and light had… gotten confused. If something wasn’t bright enough, all she could see was a pitch black, but if it was bright enough, all she could see was a stark white.
She glanced in Tosono’s direction as he began to speak, “We’ll be okay guys, it’s only been a day or two.”
She scowled. “And no one is hungry still?” She reminded them. Everyone probably shook their heads, only Keshel was enough in the light for her to actually see it though. She paused for a moment, “Great, so we probably won’t starve to death then?”
“Wouldn’t that be better?” Eloi asked quietly; she could barely hear his words.
Something was wrong.
“Why are we all giving up hope all at once?” Tosono said, “Did we get infected by something from those demons?”
As if just to interrupt the rest of them from getting some common sense, the ground beneath them shook. With how nothing had been moving besides the nightmares and demons, it took Reiav by more surprise than Fora just dying like that earlier. “What the squall was that?” Tosono hissed; it sounded like he stood up.
“I think the city is—” Reiav started, only to see the darkness and light around her begin to melt away, “—moving…” she trailed off slightly as the room around her melted into stark white nothingness.
The return of color was shocking, but as she blinked at the brightness and looked at her companions, she was struck by their vibrancy.
They were still alive.
No matter what it might feel like at the moment.
“WHAT THE SQUALL!” Pleseln had fallen over when the world melted away. She’d been leaning against a wall after all. The experience didn’t seem to agree with her. “WHERE THE STARS ARE WE?!”
Reiav squatted down beside her, “Could you calm down? There might be more monsters here.”
Pleseln perked up at the mention of monsters. She probably wanted to beat up this whole situation, but demons were the closest thing to that. “Alright, alright, you guys make some kind of plan, I’ll stand here menacingly with my sword and MURDER ANYTHING THAT COMES OUR WAY.”
Reiav was at a loss for how to respond, so she just nodded slowly and helped the murderous mercenary to her feet. “Just ah- give us some warning first, okay?”
Keshel was frowning out at the white void, “I really don’t like this place, does anyone else feel like they’re about to start falling upward…?”
“We’ve been here for five minutes, tunnel boy!” Pleseln shouted at him, which didn’t help in the slightest.
Keshel glanced at her, frowning, “No seriously, this is terrifying.”
“At least we can finally SEE the monsters coming!” Pleseln shouted, unsheathing her blade and walking off some distance.
The others watched her go, concerned, “she uses anger then…” Tosono observed, tilting his head. He glanced at Keshel, “you use confined spaces.” he glanced at Eloi, “and you use research.” he stopped on Reiav, “You use other people, right?”
She blinked at him, “For coping?”
Tosono nodded.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Ah… I don’t know, I’d certainly be panicking more if I were alone.”
Keshel continued to stare off into the nothingness, “Can we… go back? Is that allowed?”
“We don’t even know how we got here,” Eloi reminded him, still speaking softly.
Keshel shuddered and closed his eyes, sitting down, “Just let me know when this is over…”
Reiav watched him, worried. She looked over at Pleseln, who was… still walking off into the distance. Great. “Let’s just sit tight, we might… we might think of something.”
--
Reiav’s eyes shot open as the air changed; everyone else seemed to notice it too. Keshel sat straight up, blinking with confusion, Eloi yelped and clutched his bag—which he somehow still had—tighter and Tosono let out a sigh of relief.
And Pleseln was still gone.
But the world around them was changing again, a haze poured in around them as the whiteness melted into color; railings and pipes sprouted out of the ground like flowers and the sky up above was covered with a huge ceiling. Gears and pulleys covered nearly every surface of the grand, enormous… ship.
As the moments passed, the feeling that it was a mirage lessened, and the world solidified. The ground seemed like ground and the sky seemed like sky.
It looked just like the place where that memory from Teisel had been.
“Oh wow!” Reiav shouted, her eyes widened and her mouth shifted into a round O as she tried to take everything in. There were planters along one wall, even a few trees. There were walkways and lifts and complicated machinery in every direction.
Keshel relaxed visibly, but Reiav wasn’t paying attention to her companions anymore, she was rushing over from one piece of machinery to another, ogling at the masterful craftsmanship and the various amazing ideas they represented.
Eloi was doing something similar, except he was watching the plants with wide eyes, “These… don’t exist on Arendi, the implications…”
Tosono and Keshel were left to hastily follow after the two of them or be left behind.
Pleseln was still nowhere to be found.
It was during these moments when the voice Reiav remembered from before returned to her mind, ~Do you want to know more? You are a learned woman, yes?~
Reiav paused, blinking several times before the voice continued.
~If you want to truly learn, then ignore that memory.~
What? Why would she…
Teisel perched precariously atop two pipes and a sturdy rod of iron. The ladder was kind of useless for this type of job; really, there were much less dangerous ways to do this, but Teisel was confident in both her balance and her ability to readjust the high-up vents. Besides, this was the way that took the least amount of time.
She tightened the bolt and tugged on it, feeling satisfied for a moment, and then inched her way across the rod before looping her arm through another pipe and carefully removing another vent. She made the mistake of looking down and sucked in a quick breath, focusing back on the task at hand before she had a chance to freak out. Teisel was approximately too high up, but again, she’d done this every week for as long as she could remember, and replacing the filters wasn’t that hard.
The girl glanced to the right as she put in the new filter, tucking the old one into the bag so it could get cleaned for next week. She used to wonder why no one just… made better filters, but well, she was the only one who probably realized just how bad these ones were doing.
And so Teisel continued onward.
She examined the roof above her, noticing for the millionth time that this section had holes in it. It was also really close to the railing. So sometimes the people that passed by above her would tell her to keep up the good work or thank her for her service. Some people were just so nice…
Teisel began to hum as her movements reached a rhythm. Remove the vent, replace the filter, and put it back together. Remove the vent, replace the filter, and put it back together. There was a familiarity with those actions as she did her part to keep the SUI-12 running. A familiarity that Teisel clung to with all she had.
Teisel scooted toward the next vent and felt a request for connection; she smiled, it was probably someone wishing her a good day again. The people were really so nice. She accepted the connection.
~Why are you doing that?~
She reached the vent, still humming, ~Sorry I don’t understand, what specifically?~
~Your humming broke my concentration.~ The reply was venomous.
Teisel stopped humming. ~I’m very sorry, I’ll work without doing so from now on.~ She scooted to the next vent, replacing the filter.
The connection didn’t dissipate though.
~Is there anything else?~ she asked curiously after several minutes, putting the wrench in her back pocket with a frown upward.
~Are you mocking me?~
Teisel blinked, ~What? I’m sorry, does it seem that way? I can change how I talk if that helps.~
~Why are you so submissive?~
~I… don’t like making people mad. Do you know what I can do to make you happy?~
The voice didn’t respond for several moments, so Teisel moved on to the next vent. The voice finally spoke, as if he was having a grand revelation. ~That’s what I hate about you. You’re acting happy about everything.~
Teisel sent confusion, to let him know that she didn’t understand. ~I’m sorry, I don’t pretend to be happy, that would be ridiculous.~
The voice sent certainty, ~Yes, you do, I can see it now. You’re a ball of sadness that can’t even see the sadness.~
~I need to get back to work, will you please excuse me?~
The voice sent contemplation, and so Teisel began to scoot toward the next vent. She was getting to the spot where she always took the longest since the metal beam stopped for a foot or so. It wasn’t hard to get around, but it was certainly annoying. ~What's your name?~ the mystery voice asked as Teisel finished another vent.
She didn’t even hesitate. As far as she was concerned, the question must be a good sign. ~Teisel. And you?~
The voice paused for a long moment and Teisel finished the last vent before she had to work around the metal beam she’d been sitting on. ~I feel like I’ve heard that name before, curious.~
Teisel didn’t respond, spending a moment to get onto a lower beam so she could get past the break.
Suddenly, an enormous amount of hivemind energy was slammed into her. Teisel gasped as she lost grip of a nearby beam, reaching for a different one. She flailed around for a moment, having no handholds, standing on a slippery pipe.
She felt the dread of the moment as her flailing arms put her off balance. ~My name is Ulenik.~ The voice finally said. It was the last thing Teisel remembered as her feet slipped out from beneath her, and she fell down into the depths of the ship.
