— CHAPTER FOURTY-TWO —

  Numah

  +Leo+

  - Dec. 3 -

  I crouched at the base of a giant mushroom, watching as corruption oozed like syrup from a hairline crack in its stalk. We'd been working at it over the weekend, and it was now Tuesday, according to my clock, anyway. It could have been Christmas for all I could tell - my sense of time was thoroughly destroyed by the glow of the mushrooms. The perpetual half-light made it difficult to focus on anything for too long, and my sleep schedule was completely thrown off. I was constantly tired.

  I was alone out in the forest, not on any specific errand; just... thinking. Absentmindedly, I drew my sword and poked the tip into the goop, then watched as it ate through the metal, leaving a roughly-cut chip on the edge.

  It was odd how it didn't damage the infected plants while disintegrating through most other substances - you'd think it would kill the host faster then it could infect them, or even melt right through the ground like an uncontrolled nuclear reactor meltdown. Could the melting be a consciously-activated behavior? What could give the command? Maybe the parasite source sent out a coating of protective material before spreading the corruption? There were always more questions than answers.

  Ah well, just had to keep working at it. We'd get a breakthrough eventually.

  A rustling sound from somewhere in the forest snapped me to attention. I froze, listening intently. The sound came again - something moving between the mushroom stalks, displacing the carpet of mycelium that covered the ground.

  "Hello?" I called out, scanning the surroundings.

  No response came. Just the distant dripping of water and the soft, constant hum of forest critters.

  I thought maybe the cannibals had found us, only this time they probably wouldn't wait until we were asleep to attack. I stood slowly, hand tightening around my sword.

  "Geiger? Ted?" I called, louder this time, hoping it was just one of our team returning from an exploration.

  The silence stretched on. I adjusted my grip on my sword, assuming a defensive stance and scanning between the glowing trunks. The shadows seemed to shift and move between the pulsing neon rainbow of the giant mushrooms.

  "Hey!" a voice called suddenly from behind me.

  I spun around, sword raised, then immediately lowered it as Lily came running through the forest, waving cheerfully. Her black hair reflected the bioluminescent glow with tints of blue and purple.

  "Hey, you're back!"

  Lily glanced past me in the direction I'd been looking. "Something there?"

  I hesitated, scanning the darkness once more. "... Probably not." Despawning my sword, I said, "Let's go back to camp."

  As we started walking, I cast one last glance over my shoulder. Nothing moved in the shadows, but the feeling of being watched lingered.

  "Did you walk all the way down here by yourself?" I asked, focusing back on Lily.

  She nodded. "Yeah! It's a cinch with the right spells."

  "Ah, right - your magic! Man, I need to put aside a few days to grind those spellcasting classes." I hopped over a fallen mushroom stalk. "Anyway, how's your brother?"

  "Good, good - he found a friend at school." Lily said, smiling. "We went to a fair in the Capital."

  "That's awesome to hear."

  "What about you? Have you guys found anything while I've been gone?"

  I sighed. "Well, nothing groundbreaking. I got a message from some friends yesterday, so we'll have a few more bodies to throw at the problem soon. We still can't find the source of the corruption, though." I ducked under a low-hanging luminous cap. "No trouble, though - still haven't had any encounters with the locals. It doesn't look like they come out to this part of the caverns."

  "Do you think they're afraid of the corruption?" Lily asked.

  "Maybe. We haven't exactly had a chance to ask."

  The pair of us returned to the base camp, passing through the gate in our wooden wall. The space inside was increasingly chaotic as the expedition went on - equipment and supplies slowly spreading out as we forgot and put off proper tidying. Ted was sitting by the heat generator, sorting through the remaining rations. He looked up as we entered, offering a wave and a tired smile.

  "Hey, welcome back." he said to Lily, setting aside a pack of preserved meat.

  "Glad to be back; sorry for leaving you all like that."

  "No worries; we've all got our lives." Ted shrugged. "We haven't exactly been swept off our feet here."

  A violent coughing fit erupted from one of the tents, growing more intense until it sounded like someone was trying to expel their lungs.

  Ted frowned. "Need some water?" he called toward the tent.

  The only response was more hacking. Ted stood up with a sigh and walked over to Slim's tent, ducking inside.

  "What's wrong with him?" Lily asked quietly, eyes fixed on the shaking canvas.

  I crossed my arms, keeping my voice low. "We don't know - he collapsed a couple days ago and hasn't gotten out of bed since."

  "Is he sick?" Lily asked.

  I shook my head. "We shouldn't be able to catch diseases - you know, aside from debuffs, but we'd see that on his nameplate."

  Ted emerged from the tent and sat beside the heat generator. "We've got to do something about him - he is not getting any better."

  I nodded. "You're right - we should get him back to the city. But how the heck are we going to move him?"

  "I don't know. Maybe tie him to someone's horse?" Ted suggested. "Either strap him to the saddle or tie him to a stretcher and drag it like a sled."

  "Let's talk about it with the others tonight." I said. "Is there anything we can work on before Geiger gets back?"

  I walked over to the table that held all our records and notes. Page after page of observations, hypotheses, and results. I flipped through the checklist of experiments we'd run over the past few days. We'd tried everything we could think of with our limited equipment - boiling samples of the corruption, freezing it, aerating it, even putting it into a blob to see if it formed one of the sentient creatures seen in the Star Marshes. But so far, nothing remarkable - though we did learn some fun facts! The stuff worked kind of like oobleck - that starch-based stuff that is only solid while it's being handled, then turns liquid if you let it sit.

  Anyway, there was a note in the middle of the list - 'Magical Interaction'. The corruption goo didn't interact with its surroundings like most materials - it wasn't an item, it wasn't a mob, not a part of the terrain. Geiger then had a theory that the goo was the same type of actor as spells. That was important because there were items that completely fizzled spells and various ways of chemically altering them with other magic.

  Tapping on the list, I said, "We thought of this after you left - could you try casting spells at the goo and see what happens?"

  "Sure, I can give it a shot."

  We headed outside the camp, finding a nearby mushroom with corruption pooling around its base. Lily positioned herself a safe distance away, a little ball of fire appearing above her shoulder.

  "Let's start with fire." she said, sending a bright orange bolt streaking toward the goop.

  The spell hit its target, causing the corruption to bubble briefly before settling back to its previous state. Lily frowned and tried again with an ice spell, then lightning, earth, wind, and water in succession. Each spell elicited a momentary reaction - ripples, bubbles, or brief color changes - but nothing substantial.

  After the sixth attempt, I sighed. "Figures it's not that simple."

  I wondered if maybe we needed a special kind of magic, like high-level stuff. Or if it was possible to get our hands on some of that crystal material we had in the Heart fight in the gardens. I didn't know where to start looking, and I didn't know how to explain that fight in the first place, so I couldn't even bring up that idea.

  "If only we had one of those anti-magic weapons." I said instead, scratching another dead end off our list. "Back to the drawing board, I guess."

  Lily lowered her hands, the magical glow fading. "Sorry I couldn't be more help."

  "Hey, it was worth a shot." I said, leading the way back to camp. "And now we know. That's how science works!"

  As we were walking back into camp, I saw Geiger and Starling returning from another scouting mission to the hill. Whatever they'd found on their latest excursion had certainly lit a fire under them - especially Geiger, who practically skipped over to the heat generator and immediately cracked open a can of beans. He shoveled a heaping spoonful into his mouth.

  "You'll never guess what we found!" he exclaimed, bean juice dribbling down his chin as we gathered around the heat generator. "It's riddled with caves! Honest-to-god spooky ones that go deep - really deep! We only checked out the entrance, but there's definitely something worth investigating there. There could be a second layer of caverns even deeper down!"

  I'd been out to that hill a couple times myself. It was a barren, jagged rocky outcropping smack dab in the middle of the corruption zone. Pitch-black too, since nothing could grow on it. Odd thing was, despite being surrounded by the corruption, the hill itself didn't seem to be directly infected. However, the only way we knew how to find the corruption was based on the presence of infected living things. In the Star Marsh, too, the main signs of corruption were the plant colonies, but the source was located out on the coast.

  "Do you think the source is underground?" I asked.

  "Oh, I hope not, but I suspect so!" Geiger said, cramming another spoonful into his mouth. "That would explain why we haven't been able to find it by surface exploration."

  "Then let's go!" Lily bounced on her feet.

  Geiger swiveled toward her voice, nearly choking on his beans. "Lily! Welcome back! Oh, you have that light spell, don't you? Perfect!" He jumped to his feet, the now-empty can discarded beside the generator.

  Ted asked, "You want to go out again already?"

  "Of course!" Geiger was already gathering some things from the research tables. "This game isn't an opportunity we can let go to waste! Eat while the eatin's good; youth is no longer wasted on the young!"

  "I'm game!" Lily said.

  Ted sighed deeply, exchanging a look with Starling. "You need a break?" he asked her. "One of us should stay with Slim."

  Starling nodded toward the tent where occasional coughs still emanated. "If you want to get out, I'll stay."

  And so the four of us - Geiger, Lily, Ted, and myself - set out across the cavern toward the hill. The further we got from our camp, the dimmer the bioluminescent glow became, until we reached the boundary where the forest ended abruptly. Ahead lay only darkness - the true darkness of the unmapped cavern.

  "Lux!" Lily shouted. A ball of yellow-white light materialized in front of her, bobbing along and sweeping around the area ahead of us. We had our flashlights too, of course, using them to watch our step on the uneven terrain, but the wide-angle coverage of the faerie light was a godsend.

  The light ball zipped forward and scanned across the sheer, craggy walls of the stony hill. Then it paused, hovering over a skinny, dark crack in the rock face, maybe two feet wide and ten feet tall.

  "There it is!" Geiger exclaimed.

  Lily directed her light orb toward the opening. The magical sphere floated into the crack, revealing a long, narrow corridor that sloped steadily downward, disappearing into darkness beyond the spell's range.

  "Oh, I hate that." I muttered, eyeing the claustrophobic passage with growing apprehension.

  "So!" Geiger clapped his hands together. "Who wants to go first?!"

  The silence that followed was broken only by the distant drip of water somewhere in the cavern.

  "I, uh..." Lily shuffled her feet. "I have family I need to take care of..."

  Ted and I exchanged a glance, then threw down rock-paper-scissors. Expecting Ted to be one of those 'always rock' people, I played paper... into Ted's scissors.

  "Best two out of three?" I asked hopefully.

  "We're not getting any younger!" Geiger shouted.

  Defeated, I took a deep breath and approached the crevice. The opening looked even narrower up close, barely wide enough for my shoulders if I turned sideways. I pressed my back against one wall, inching my way into the passage with my flashlight held out in front of me. Lily's ball of light hovered above, illuminating the immediate path ahead until the end of her range, then it fell behind, and I was alone.

  The passage descended at a steep angle, forcing me to brace against both walls to keep from sliding down too quickly. The rock was cold and slightly damp under my fingers, and I tried not to think about what might be growing on it. After about thirty more feet of uncomfortable shuffling, I felt the passage widen. Ahead, the tunnel expanded into a more oppressive, complete blackness of a larger chamber.

  I emerged into an open space. Sweeping my flashlight around, I found myself in a roughly circular chamber about thirty feet across with several dark tunnels branching off in different directions, all sloping further downward.

  A slight breeze stirred the stale air, causing the hairs on my neck to stand up. I swung my flashlight toward the source, but found only the gaping mouth of one of the tunnels, a perfect circle of darkness that seemed to swallow my light beam.

  Then came the sound - small pebbles clattering to the ground somewhere to my left. I jerked the flashlight in that direction, heart pounding in my chest, but again, nothing visible moved in the beam.

  I backed slowly toward the crevice I'd entered through, keeping my flashlight moving between the tunnel openings.

  "Find anything?" Lily's voice echoed down from outside.

  "Oh, screw this!" I called back, scrambling into the narrow passage and beginning my awkward sideways climb. "There's something moving down here! We need... a spotlight or something!"

  "We've got those storm lanterns at camp!" Ted shouted from above.

  I stumbled out into the beautiful, open air of the main cavern, gasping in deep lungfuls of air as I tried to catch my breath. The dim glow of the distant mushroom forest suddenly seemed as bright as daylight compared to that oppressive darkness below.

  Geiger was practically bouncing on his toes. "Did you find something? What did it look like?"

  "I didn't see it, I heard it!"

  "How do you know there was something there, then?" Ted asked skeptically.

  "Look, if you want a picture, go down there yourself! I thought you guys were going to follow me!"

  Ted held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright - let's get better lighting, then check it out."

  As we headed back to camp, I couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, and I found myself jumping at every unexpected sound. I had to keep reminding myself not to give in to fear - it was just my imagination.

  That is, until we heard a woman's startled yelp - that was definitely real. It was followed by a man's snorting laugh, then the woman joined in.

  We exchanged puzzled glances and changed course to investigate. Following the giggles, we found Percival, completely straight-faced, walking through the forest with one of those faerie lights. Behind him, Fritz and Lucy were chuckling uncontrollably.

  "Guys!" I waved.

  "Hey, man!" Fritz waved back.

  I jogged over to meet them. "You messaged me last night - how'd you get here so fast?"

  Fritz smirked mysteriously. "That's not my story to spoil."

  "Well what's been going on? You just finished another job, right?"

  Percy said, "There's something wrong with the two of them."

  "Us?!" Lucy scoffed. "You're the one being a stick in the mud!" She playfully shoved his shoulder.

  Ted finally reached us. His eyes widened as he recognized our unexpected guests. "Hey! Look who's still kicking it!"

  "Ted!" Fritz waved. "What's good, man? Been a while!" They clasped hands and pulled each other into a half-hug, clapping each other on the back.

  Ted stepped back, his smile fading slightly. "I hope you're not trying to steal anything for the mob this time."

  "Oh, those guys have tried to kill us several times now - they wouldn't take anything from us if we offered."

  "Good to hear it!"

  Lily and Geiger weren't far behind. I waved the whole group over. "Well, come on - our base is over here."

  We led them back to camp. I grabbed some cans of beans and set them on the heat generator to warm up.

  "Hope you don't mind beans - it's pretty much all we've got left."

  We definitely skimped out on the food during planning. We thought it'd be fine - we didn't technically need to eat, but it turned out having something warm in your belly was about the only comfort there was down there.

  As we all settled around the radiator, Lily was stuck frowning at Fritz. "Hey... are you the guy that was with my brother in the tutorial? Captain Galactic?"

  The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Fritz did a double take. "Oh hey! Small world, huh?"

  As the two of them caught up, I sidled over to Percy and gave him an update on what we'd tried with the corruption so far. But our conversation was suddenly interrupted by a scream from Slim's tent. Ted and Starling bolted over to check on him.

  "What's going on there?" Fritz asked.

  I sighed, rubbing my forehead. "Slim's been sick. Looks like we're going to have to take him back to the city. I was planning to tie him to my horse and ride up to the surface in the morning."

  "I could take him tonight -" Percy offered, "- shouldn't take more than an hour."

  I blinked at him. "How're you going to manage that?"

  "Let me see him."

  We all went over to Slim's tent. Inside, Ted and Starling helped Slim back into his sleeping bag. The man was a wreck - pale, sweating, his breathing labored. Without a word, Fritz stepped forward and scooped Slim up, blankets and all.

  As he carried Slim out of the tent, Fritz glanced around at all of us. "Turn around."

  Lucy waved her hands, shooing us all to face away. "Everyone, turn around! Give them some privacy!"

  Baffled but curious, we obliged.

  About... ten seconds later, Fritz said, "Now look."

  I whirled back around - and gaped. Percy was gone, along with Slim. Lucy and Fritz were making exaggerated shocked faces, Lucy with her hands clapped over her mouth, Fritz clutching at his head in mock disbelief.

  "Where did he go?" Lily asked, eyes wide as saucers.

  They just kept looking around in shock.

  "No, seriously, where did he go?" I asked.

  Fritz looked like he was about to bust out laughing. "I don't want to spoil it."

  "A magician never reveals her secrets!" Lucy added with a flourish of her hand.

  I shook my head, torn between amazement and frustration. "... Alright, guys. Is Slim safe?"

  Fritz nodded reassuringly. "Oh yeah - trust the kid."

  And sure enough, about an hour later, Percy came strolling back into camp, sans Slim, hands in his pockets, completely normal. "I handed him over to some of the NPCs - they offered to take care of him." he explained nonchalantly.

  "Thanks, but... what are you guys hiding?" I asked.

  Percy just shrugged and jerked his thumb at Fritz and Lucy. "They've got it in their heads that there needs to be some grand reveal."

  "It's called whimsy!" Lucy proclaimed with a grin. "The magic of life!"

  "Well... let me bring you up to date on what we've found so far."

  - Dec. 4 -

  I woke with a start, my internal clock so thoroughly confused by the perpetual twilight that I had no idea if I'd slept for two hours or twelve. Pushing myself up from my sleeping bag, I checked my actual clock - 4:30 AM on the surface. I knew I wasn't going to be able to go back to sleep, though.

  The others were stirring too. Fritz sat up with a dramatic groan, stretching his arms wide enough to nearly smack Lucy in the face as she passed by.

  "Oh man." he moaned, rubbing his eyes. "It feels like midnight."

  I gathered some cans of beans from our dwindling supplies and set them on the heat generator. "Yeah, you have to re-learn how to wake up down here. Your body never gets the right signals." I wiped sleep from my eyes, willing them to stay open.

  "Got any coffee?"

  I shook my head. "Sorry, ran out a few days ago. Should've told you to grab some on your way over."

  Percy didn't seem to need any - he was just as collected as last night. "So your next target is this cave?" he asked.

  I nodded. "Yeah. Real spooky place. Couldn't see much with just flashlights yesterday. You want to check it out?"

  "It can't be worse than the last cave we were in."

  "Let me get the lanterns. We'll need better light this time."

  As the others ate breakfast, I sorted through our equipment chests, pulling out three storm lanterns. Not quite as good as Lily's magic, but any of us could use them.

  Geiger was still asleep, and Ted had volunteered to stay back with Starling to monitor the camp. That left five of us for the expedition - me, Lily, Percy, Lucy, and Fritz.

  We set out twenty minutes later, with me leading the way through the twisted, glowing forest. The caps of the corrupted mushrooms dripping goop around us as we walked.

  Stepping around a shower of sludge rain, Fritz said, "We should have made a stop at the Citadel gardens to pick up some lichen before coming down here. We're gonna need Brynn's Solution to clean this place out."

  "You need a, uh, 'spawn' to trigger that, right?" I asked. "We haven't even found the source yet."

  When we reached the narrow fissure that marked the cave entrance, Percy walked right in without hesitation, his thin frame slipping easily into the darkness. The rest of us exchanged looks before following.

  The squeeze was just as uncomfortable as yesterday, forcing me to turn sideways and inch my way down the steep decline. Behind me, I could hear the others grunting and muttering as they followed suit.

  Finally, the passage widened, and I emerged into the central chamber. Percy stood in the middle and made two quick hand gestures, conjuring a pair of faerie lights. They hovered near the ceiling, illuminating the whole space. Six tunnels branched off in different directions, their entrances like black mouths waiting to swallow us.

  I turned slowly to examine each tunnel entrance. "Which way should we go?"

  Percy suggested. "If we can split up, we can tackle almost every direction at once."

  The thought of wandering alone through these tunnels sent a chill down my spine. "I don't think that's a good idea."

  "Yeah, safety in numbers." Lily agreed.

  Percy shrugged. "Then let's start with the one immediately left of the entrance and go clockwise. Logical progression."

  He set off down the first passageway, one of his light orbs drifting ahead of him, and we all fell into step behind him. The rough stone walls seemed to close in as we descended deeper, the tunnel twisting and turning. I could only hope it dead-ended soon.

  Suddenly, Percy held up a hand, bringing us to a halt. The tunnel had opened up into a small antechamber with even more branching paths. But it wasn't the additional tunnels that made my blood run cold.

  From one of those dark passages came the unmistakable sound of something whimpering.

  Percy tilted his head, then pointed to the rightmost passage. "It's coming from there."

  The whimpering came again, distinctly human this time. Without discussion, we moved toward the sound.

  The passage curved sharply before opening into a small alcove. Percy's light orb floated forward, illuminating a figure huddled against the far wall.

  It was a young man, skeletal-thin and dressed in a tunic made of mushroom leather, like the cannibals we'd seen in the village. He was lying on his side, curled tightly in a fetal position.

  Fritz stepped forward cautiously and crouched next to him. "Hey man, you good?" His voice was gentle, like he was talking to a frightened animal.

  The man didn't respond, continuing his shivering and whimpering. Fritz rolled the man onto his back, and I swallowed hard.

  Patches of his skin had turned a deep purple, like a bruise but more vibrant. When he shifted slightly, I caught a glimpse of his face: one eye was normal, but the other had turned a stark yellow with a black iris that seemed to absorb light.

  Fritz waved his hand in front of the man's face. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

  The change was immediate and terrifying. The man let out a scream, scrambling backward until he hit the wall, staring at us in abject horror.

  "Whoa, whoa!" Fritz held up his hands. "We're not here to hurt you. What's going on, man - talk to me."

  The young man shivered violently, pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. "I...don't..." His voice was hoarse and uncertain. "Where am I?"

  Then, like someone had flipped a switch, his demeanor completely changed. He straightened up, stopped shivering, and looked at us with curiosity rather than fear.

  "Who are you?" he asked calmly. "How did you get here? You're not from the village."

  I exchanged a confused glance with Lily before answering. "We're from the surface - looking for the corruption here. Do you... need help?"

  The man nodded absently. "Oh, yeah, I need help." A pause, then he tilted his head. "What did I need help with? I need help." His voice grew increasingly distressed. "What do I need help with? I need help! What do I need help with?!"

  Just as suddenly as before, he calmed again, his face relaxing into a neutral expression. "Actually, I'm fine, thank you very much."

  Fritz backed away slowly until he rejoined our group. We huddled together, keeping our voices low.

  "What do we do here?" I whispered, keeping one eye on the man, who was now examining his own hands as if he'd never seen them before.

  Fritz ran a hand through his hair. "You think we could make him vomit up the corruption? Like, get him back to the surface, give him some syrup of ipecac?"

  Lucy shook her head skeptically. "I don't know; it looks ingrained in his body. This isn't just something he ate - it's changing him."

  "I say we capture him," Percy said, "bring him back to the city, and observe how the symptoms progress."

  Lucy nodded in agreement. "I agree; we need to see what happens. This could be valuable research material."

  Fritz frowned deeply. "I don't know, guys; I don't think that's a good idea. He's clearly suffering - we should be looking to cure him, not study him."

  "We can put it to a vote." Lucy suggested. "Those in favor?"

  Percy and Lucy raised their hands without hesitation.

  "Those against?" Lucy asked.

  Fritz and I raised our hands.

  "Lily?" I asked, turning to her for the tiebreaker.

  She shook her head, wrapping her arms around herself. "I don't want any part of this." Her eyes darted nervously around the cave. "This whole place gives me the heebie-jeebies. Can we just go back?"

  Fritz suddenly frowned, looking around our small circle. "Hey, where did Percy go?"

  We all turned to where Percy had been standing moments before, finding only empty space.

  Before we could react, the NPC man's terrified shout echoed through the tunnels, followed immediately by Percy's voice: "He's getting away!"

  I spun around, trying to determine which tunnel the shouting was coming from, but the acoustics of the cave made it impossible to pinpoint the source. Even worse, I suddenly realized I couldn't tell which tunnel we'd entered through - they all looked identical in the dim light.

  "This way!" Lucy shouted, pointing down one of the passages before taking off at a run.

  With no better option, we followed her, the sounds of pursuit growing louder ahead. I caught flashes of spellfire reflecting off the walls.

  A brilliant orange glow suddenly illuminated the tunnel ahead, followed by a yelp of terror. Rounding a corner, I glimpsed a wall of fire blocking one passage, and the corrupted man scrambling down another route. Percy darted after him.

  We ran after them. I turned another corner, expecting to see the others ahead, but found only darkness. I slowed, realizing with growing dread that I was completely alone. I could hear the others somewhere nearby - shouts and footsteps echoing through the stone passageways, but I was standing alone in the tunnel.

  "Percy?" I called out. "Fritz? Anyone?"

  No direct response came back, just more distant shuffling and what sounded like Lucy's voice, too far away to make out the words. Had I accidentally turned on a fork? It was so hard to see anything down there.

  I pressed my hand against the damp stone wall, using it as a guide while I continued forward.

  "Guys, I think I took a wrong turn!" I shouted.

  "I think I took a wrong turn!" my voice echoing back at me mockingly.

  I swept my flashlight across the passage ahead, looking for any sign of which way to go. The beam caught something that made me freeze mid-step.

  A figure stood about fifteen feet ahead, just at the edge of my light's reach. I raised the beam higher.

  My heart nearly stopped.

  It was... me. Not a reflection, but a person - my face, my hair, even the dirt smudges on my cheeks and the tear in my sleeve from earlier. His nameplate even said 'Leonard'. The figure stared back with wide, shocked eyes and a slack mouth that mirrored what I imagined was my own expression.

  "Um, hello?" I managed to get out.

  The other Leonard blinked, raising a shaking hand to point at me. "Are you... me?"

  I took a half-step back, flashlight beam shaking slightly. "I was hoping you would know."

  "What are you?" the other Leonard asked, his voice identical to mine, down to the slight nervous tremor.

  "What am I?! I'm me! What are you?!"

  My doppelganger tilted its head slightly. Its movements were fluid but somehow off, like watching a recording played at the wrong speed.

  "I'm..." it started, then paused. Something shifted behind its eyes - a flicker of confusion, then clarity. "I don't know what I am. I must fulfill my directive."

  "Directive? What kind of directive?"

  It took a step toward me, and I instinctively stepped back. Its eyes never blinked, fixed on me with an intensity that felt predatory.

  "Survive by any means necessary." it said flatly. "Do not allow humans to intervene."

  My mouth went dry. "Intervene with what?"

  The other me paused again, seemingly processing the question. Then it took another step forward, head tilting at an unnatural angle. "With..." Its face suddenly contorted, features twisting into something inhuman despite looking exactly like me. "Ahh!"

  It lunged forward with unexpected speed. Before I could react, its hands were around my throat, fingers digging in with crushing strength. My flashlight went flying, spinning through the air and landing somewhere with a clatter, the beam cutting out as we fell to the ground.

  I clawed at the hands around my neck, kicking and thrashing against my attacker. But it squeezed tighter.

  Desperation gave me strength. I managed to bring my knee up hard into its stomach, loosening its grip just enough for me to swing my fist up, connecting solidly with its jaw. It reeled back, and I followed with another punch - but instead of hitting flesh, my knuckles slammed into solid stone wall. A jolt of pain shot up my arm.

  We rolled across the cave floor, grappling in total darkness.

  "Leo?!" Fritz's voice echoed through the tunnel, accompanied by approaching footsteps. A beam of light swept across the passage further up.

  The weight on top of me suddenly vanished. In the brief flash of light, I caught a glimpse of my doppelganger's face - no longer a perfect mirror, but something shifting and indistinct - before it scrambled away into the darkness.

  The light found me a moment later. I lay there, battered and dazed, unsure what to even say.

  Fritz's worried face appeared above me. "You good, man? What happened?"

  My hand went to my throat, feeling the tender spots where fingers had dug in. How could I possibly explain what just happened? Would they even believe me? What the hell was that thing? ... Was this the real Fritz? I shook my head - that was... not going to be a helpful line of thinking at the moment.

  "I'll, uh..." I coughed, my voice raspy. "I'll tell you back at camp."

  He hauled me to my feet and slung an arm around my shoulders, steadying me as we started walking.

  Percy, Lucy, and Lily were also there. That was good - either this was the real Fritz, or they'd replaced them all. In which case, they probably wouldn't pretend to be friendly.

  "Did you get the infected guy?" I asked.

  Percy shook his head. "No."

  "Maybe if we planned for another minute before jumping in." Lucy gave Percy a pointed look.

  "He was running before I tried to grab him!" Percy shot back. "And- and if we planned all you guys wanted, we'd still be outside that warehouse in Faustenburg!"

  Fritz sighed. "I think it's for the best - I don't want to take that guy back to the Capital. What if it can spread? Come on, let's get out of here before this turns into The Descent."

  "Seconded!" I agreed enthusiastically.

  I was in a daze, but we arrived back at the narrow crag, and Fritz helped push me along. The fresh-ish air of the main caverns was a welcome relief.

  But our respite was short-lived.

  Lily's gasp cut through our ease. Her arm shot out, finger pointing toward the distant canopy of mushrooms where a plume of dark smoke rose up and dissolved into the cavern's gloom.

  "Is that... smoke?" Lily asked, her voice pitching higher with each word.

  Fritz squinted into the distance. "Yeah. That's coming from camp."

  No further words were needed. We broke into a run, weaving between the phosphorescent stalks. The closer we got, the stronger the smell of burning wood became. Percy darted ahead, light-footed as a ghost between the mushroom trunks.

  We skidded to a halt at the edge of a clearing. Our wooden barricade was on fire, steadily eating through the wall. But worse than that - surrounding the camp was a heaving mass of cannibal villagers. Not just any villagers - their skin mottled with the same purple patches we'd seen on the man in the cave, many with that yellow taint to their eyes. The corruption had gotten to the whole town.

  Behind the wall, I caught glimpses of Ted and Starling jabbing with spears through gaps in the burning barrier. Geiger was rushing back and forth, shouting and waving his arms.

  "We've got to help them!" I lurched forward, reaching for my sword.

  Fritz's hand clamped onto my shoulder, yanking me back. "Hold up! There's way too many of them." There had to be at least thirty of them, pressing forward with single-minded determination. "We need a plan or we're all dead."

  "But the others-" I struggled against his grip.

  Fritz looked to Percy. "You got this, kid?"

  Percy gave a nod, then turned to Lily, who was staring at the chaos in stunned silence. "Lily, you're a mage, yeah? You got telekinesis?"

  Lily snapped out of her shock, blinking rapidly. "Telekinesis? I- yeah, I do!"

  "Then I'm going to need your help." Percy raised his voice, calling out into the darkness above. "Ashley, to me!"

  Beating wings answered his call. A streak of white plunged downward, resolving into a snow-white pegasus.

  The creature landed beside Percy, pawing at the ground and snorting. Percy immediately swung himself up onto its back.

  "You found a pegasus!" I exclaimed.

  Fritz grinned as he boosted Lily up behind Percy, who had already swung onto the creature's back. "Yeah, we did! Now go get 'em!"

  Percy nodded once, then the pegasus lunged forward, powerful wings spreading wide before launching them skyward. They climbed rapidly, then banked sharply before diving toward the mob. The infected villagers scattered briefly as the pegasus swooped low over their heads, buying just enough time for Lily to slide off and hop into the burning camp.

  Percy wheeled the pegasus around in a tight circle, hovering above the camp. Inside, I could see Lily gesturing wildly, throwing out spell balls. Suddenly, Geiger shot up through the air like he'd been fired from a cannon, sailing in a high arc. The pegasus darted forward, Percy leaning to one side to snatch Geiger out of the air mid-flight.

  Instead of landing, Percy urged the pegasus higher, circling until they were just specks against the cavern ceiling. Then, Percy shoved Geiger off. I gasped, then let out a breath of relief as I saw Geiger drifting slowly down like a leaf, far beyond the reach of the infected horde.

  Slowfall, of course.

  "I told you to trust the kid!" Fritz shouted, already moving. "Come on!"

  We ran toward where Geiger would land, keeping one eye on the camp where the pegasus was diving back in. Ted came rocketing out next, arms pinwheeling, followed shortly by Starling. Each time, Percy swooped in for a catch, climbed high, then sent them gliding down to safety well away from the camp.

  Finally, Percy landed inside the compound one last time, emerging moments later with Lily clinging to his waist. The pegasus beat its powerful wings, gaining altitude, then executed a steep dive directly at the mob. The infected villagers scattered, howling in frustration as their quarry escaped.

  By the time we reached the others, they were all safely on the ground in a quiet clearing far from the burning camp. Geiger was brushing dust from his coat, looking positively delighted despite nearly being eaten alive.

  "Well, that was certainly intense!" he exclaimed, eyes bright with excitement. "Did you see them? The progression of the corruption is absolutely fascinating!"

  "What happened?" I asked.

  Starling leaned against a luminous mushroom stalk, catching her breath. "They came out of nowhere, about an hour after you left. First just a few, skulking around the perimeter, then more and more showed up until they charged the walls. They... they're not right in the head. They weren't even using weapons, just... clawing at the wood with their hands."

  "The corruption must have spread to the village!" Geiger was practically bouncing on his toes. "Absolutely fascinating! Did it get into their food supply, or has it moved that far outside the original zone? The speed of transmission suggests-"

  "Save the theories for next time, will you?" I cut him off. "Is there anything left at the camp?"

  Ted shook his head. "We grabbed what we could, but most of our supplies were already running low. The only thing we're losing is the wall and the heat generator."

  I said, "Then maybe we should cut this trip short. We tried what we could. We've got plenty of new information to go over. Now we need to resupply and come back... with flamethrowers."

  "There's a flamethrower spell in the Pyromancer class." Fritz said. "Percy used it back in the Star Marsh."

  I snapped my fingers. "Yeah, mages - that's what we need!"

  Geiger's eyes lit up. "You're right - we need to start on the paperwork for the next expedition! More personnel, more plans, more funding!"

  "I'll, uh, leave that part to you." I said. "I'm going to train my magic classes."

  Together, we began the long trek back to the surface ramp. Percy and Lily caught up with us halfway, descending from above on their pegasus.

  As we walked, I couldn't help but look back over my shoulder at the darkness behind us, wondering if my doppelganger was still down there, watching me. What was it? Some manifestation of the corruption? And what had it meant by 'directive'? Were there more?

  Hopefully I wouldn't be the one to have to find those answers.

  But that wasn't quite the end of our troubles. When we finally trudged back into the tree city, there was still the matter of Slim. Phrasing it like that makes it sound dire - he was fine! Well, fine-ish.

  We stepped off the elevator partway up the shaft of the tree trunk, and Percy led us out of the heart of the tree to the exterior walkways. Warm amber light filtered through the canopy above, the first sunlight I'd seen in about a week.

  When we reached the house, Percy knocked on the door. It swung open almost immediately, revealing a middle-aged woman in a nurse's uniform, complete with a little cap on her neatly pinned hair.

  "May I help you?" she asked, her voice professionally pleasant to a robotic degree, even for an NPC.

  "We're here to see Slim." Fritz said.

  "Mr. Slamberly is currently sleeping and unable to see visitors." she informed us.

  "How is he doing?" I asked.

  The nurse folded her hands at her waist. "Mr. Slamberly experienced an unfortunate reaction to medication in his physical form. The doctors have resolved the issue, and he will recover soon. In the meantime, I will be assisting him."

  "Geez, that's... fortunate." Fritz mumbled, scratching his head. "That they caught it, I mean."

  It was great news, but that left me with the sudden dread that our real bodies were out there somewhere, wasting away, completely vulnerable.

  The nurse must have sensed my unease, because she added, "Measures are being taken to keep all of you in the most physically healthy condition available given the circumstances."

  I nodded numbly.

  Fritz gave me a slap on the back. "Come on bud, nothing we can do about that right now. Let me buy you a drink - you still go for IPAs?"

  "Yeah." I replied absently, letting him steer me back out and over to the tavern.

  As night fell, our group rented rooms at a cozy tavern. Most of the expedition members staggered straight to the soft, plush beds, but I found myself sitting at a table with Percy, Fritz, and Lucy.

  "So," I began, "you found a pegasus, huh? Is that what you've been working on this past month?"

  Fritz grinned, tipping his chair back on two legs. "Yep! Already handed all our notes over to the Protectorate. It'll be released to the public soon!"

  "Nice! So what is it exactly - a class? Unique pet?" I asked.

  Percy said, "It's a flight license for Cavalry and a free mount."

  "Where'd you find it?"

  Lucy's eyes lit up at the question. She set down her mug and spread her hands wide. "Ah! Now that is a tale of danger and gallantry! Of sordid manipulation, treacherous traps, and bravery against those who slither in the darkness!"

  ---

  Next Time:

  In the skies above the Mistral Mountains, the pegasi roam, flying among the clouds as delicate as the fresh-fallen snow! Alongside them, an order of knights dedicate themselves to the art of flight - soaring with their partners, striving for new heights, and free to engage in errant adventures across the countryside. But in the cold winds, darkness lurks.

  Episode 12 - Up in the Air