Around 20 days after entering the tunnel

  Lou gasped, opening his eyes. He coughed faintly, air rushing into his lungs in a great big gasp. His mind was reeling from sheer astonishment. What had happened? His mind raced frantically, trying to find out what had happened. It was like he had been a completely different person. Lou never existed - only Lothe did. Who was Lothe, anyway?

  His neck ached, so he turned it to the left. He saw the skeletons. Then, it hit him. There were three people in the vision/dream, and there were three skeletons. Those skeletons had been the people in the vision! A cold feeling seeped through him. Those people were powerful! They were powerful enough to record memories using the three helmets, and they and their civilization had been vanquished. Could they had fallen to the God of Rain?

  A grunt of discomfort from Eri caused him to turn his head. The tall, strongly-built young woman was lying on her back, rubbing her fingers through her close-cropped black hair. The decently-tall Kane was lying beside her, his hands buried in his long, brown beard.

  “What was that?” Kane groaned. “How? I was some guy called Leif, who liked tinkering.”

  “Must have been the helmets,” Eri sighed, grunting as she sat up and massaged her back. Lou realized that he had fallen hard, due to the fact that his back and rump felt raw and sore. After a pause, she continued. “I was some sort of priestess. I knew a lot about the magic, but I forget most everything that happened.”

  Lou realzied that he was having a similar experience - he no longer felt that Lothe was the same person. Those memories weren’t his - it now felt like he had simply viewed them.

  “Lou! Kane! Eri!” shouted Thyrian. He looked around and rushed over to the trio, his eyes harrowed and shocked. “Are you okay?”

  “How long was I out?” Lou asked.

  “I don’t know,” the older man replied. “I heard a crash not ten seconds ago, and then I saw you all lying on the ground. Were you unconscious?”

  “It was the helmets,” Kane said. “They knocked us unconscious and made us three all experience some shared vision.”

  Thyrian immediately tensed. “What vision?” he said firmly.

  “It was so strange,” Lou groaned. “We were part of an advanced and utterly alien society. Our civilization was destroyed by metal monsters who drove us three underground. There was some sort of powerful being that caused them to attack us and kill our friends and families - It was called YLD-4, the ‘terraforming AI’. We moped around for a spell, then prayed and recorded our memories.”

  Thyrian squinted and scrunched up his face. “To whom did you pray?”

  “We prayed to Gaia,” Eri answered. “I led the prayer.”

  Thyrian visibly relaxed. “Well, I guess that civilization isn’t completely alien. Are you three okay?”

  “We’re fine,” Lou said. “Just got bumped when we fell.”

  “I don’t think we should wear the helmets anymore,” Kane said. “They were designed with the purpose of causing this vision to occur when three people worre them. If they knock us unconscious at an inopportune moment to replay the vision, it could cause us to die or worse.”

  “You’re right,” Thyrian said. “Nonetheless, we should bring them with us.”

  “Why?” Eri asked. She was the first of the three to stand up, massaging her back and stepping unsteadily in her boots.

  “Maybe the heathens need intel on the Theocracy or the God of Rain,” Thyrian said. “If what you recount is true, these helmets hold a veritable treasure trove of information. If we can record and analyze it, we could gain a significant edge in our fight against the Holy Kingdom and even save our families.”

  “Good idea,” Lou said. He felt grief at the mention of his family. Mom, Dad… Van… All the people on Green Rat and Rat Boot Streets. They might all be sleeping with the worms now.

  Noticing the sorrowful expression upon his face, Eri and Kane walked over. The young Fire Castemen each put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

  “I’m grieving too,” Eri said. “Sun, I hope Sye is okay. Sye… My own sundamn little sister. Dead. She’s dead.”

  “Don’t say that,” Kane countered. “We killed Dale, and he was the only Rain Casteman in the village. Some of them might have avoided death.”

  “But the Rain Caste might send more people to kill them,” Eri said.

  “Or the Wind Caste,” Lou interjected. “They… attacked us in Urbs Sacer.” He choked up speaking the last part of the sentence as tears welled in his eyes.

  “Wait,” Thyrian exclaimed. “You killed a Rain Casteman? How!?”

  “Sun dammit, Thyrian,” Kane said. “Can’t you see we’re having a moment here? Now’s not the time for discussion!”

  “I’m just as sad as you folks, and you don’t see me moping around!” Thyrian shouted harshly. “I’ve suffered more than all of you combined! None of you have had to live on the streets! Beg! Hide under corpses, lose all your loved ones to disease! Hide your beliefs for decades! Get sunfuckingdamn backbones already!”

  Lou stammered in shock. Thyrian never was like that. He was a stern mentor at times, but he never belittled anyone’s emotions.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “What’s your sundamn problem?” Kane yelled. “I was a fucking Sun Casteman! I fought and watched my friends die! I lost family members, as did these two!” He gestured to Lou and Eri. His face was contorted in a mask of rage, tinted red with anger. “Just because you’ve been through more sundamn trauma than me and these guys doesn’t mean you get to rub it in our sunfucking faces!” He stopped, panting, his hands on his knees.

  “Thyrian!” Lou exclaimed. “That was very harsh. I thought you understood what we’re going through, but turns out you’d rather yell at us than let us sundamn grieve.”

  Thyrian growled, his hands on his knees. Then, he let out a long, deep sigh. “You’re right,” he said. He continued after a pregnant pause. “I’m so pathetic, I didn’t realize that I, too, was grieving. I said I was, but I didn’t fully understand my emotions.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Kane. I shouldn’t have been so harsh.”

  “That’s understandable,” Kane said. “Sometimes when we’re sad, we let anger become our god. We mustn’t give him any prayer, but we still do it. Considering I was a Sun Casteman, I understand the suffering you went through.”

  Thyrian joined the group and got down on his haunches, burying his face in his hands. “I’m so sorry,” he moaned. “I’m so sorry.”

  “You haven’t done anything wrong,” Lou said, patting his shoulder. “It was the Theocracy that messed up - treated you like trash when your mother died, sentenced you to death for no good reason, forced you to cover up your identity, killed your newfound community… Focus your grief into a beam of anger, and imagine yourself letting loose on a Rain Casteman with imaginary eye beams.”

  Thyrian sighed and closed his eyes.

  “So I never got to answer your question,” Eri said.

  “What?” Thyrian asked.

  “About how we killed Dale,” Eri said. “Well, we already told you, but it wouldn’t hurt to recap. Essentially, he killed himself. He was trying to roast us with eye beams, and he hit the roof of a tunnel and buried himself under veritable tons of rock.”

  “So it was chance,” Thyrian said. “He died due to no actions of you.”

  “We ran away,” Eri said. “We didn’t condemn ourselves like crabs to the slaughter. We ran to fight again another day. That day may come quickly, if we can survive to get to your alleged heathen allies.”

  “Not alleged,” Thyrian protested. “Truth. I lived with them for years.”

  “Well, he’s our only hope,” Lou said. On the inside, he didn’t feel it. His mentor who had both lied for years and had handled his grief poorly wasn’t the most trustable individual. But he was a better alternative than being sacrificed by the Rain Caste. Much better.

  “Well, let’s get going,” Eri said. She paused. “Say, how are we going to carry these helmets?”

  “We can strap them on our packs,” Thyrian said. He reached into his original pack and procured a roll of twine. “Just give me a few minutes.” He took Lou and his contemporaries’ backpacks and tied an intricate lace of twine through the straps of the packs and the mesh and straps of the helmets. When it was done, the headsets were affixed to the packs.

  “If we want to take them off, we’ll need to cut the twine,” he said. “Not like they’ll be of much use until we get to safety. Let’s also grab the knife. We may need it.” He picked up the knife and stuck it on a loop in his pack.

  “Right on, then,” Lou said. “Shall we go?” In truth, he didn’t feel like going. He wanted to curl up into a ball and cry.

  “I think we should take a moment to grieve,” Kane said. “Just get that out of our systems.”

  “Agreed,” Eri said. “We really haven’t had any real break time since the new year’s massacres.”

  Lou smiled. His new companions were good people - the strong-hearted Eri and the stout-hearted Kane. If they were genuine, they would make for excellent friends to share the daunting trek of the future with.

  He slumped down on the wall and buried his face in his hands. He allowed himself to cry, shaking and sobbing. He heard Kane do so as well. Eri and Thyrian made less sound, but when he looked up, they were visibly weeping.

  The “moment” they had set aside lasted for nearly an hour. When Lou felt no more tears come, he stood up with a great sigh. “Are you ready?” he asked in a steady voice.

  “Aye,” came Eri’s clarion call of a voice.

  “Yeah,” came Kane’s deep bass.

  “Of course,” came Thyrian’s stern, fatherly tenor. “Let’s move out.”

  The four companions did just that. They ambled out of the storage chamber, staying in a diamond-shaped column. The experienced, watchful eyes of Thyrian took the lead, Lou and Eri walked side-by-side, and the towering figure of Kane brought up the rear. They walked down the corridor extending from the storage chamber, careful to check for hazards.

  “This door just leads to the tunnel we came from,” Eri said as the group passed the door from where she and Kane had come from. “We can’t go this way. Unless we want to go back to Mossflower Hold.”

  “Oh yeah, I totally want to be roasted to death by a mad Rain Casteman along with my whole community!” sarcastically exclaimed Kane. “No, sir.”

  “Where do we go from here, Thyrian?” Kane asked.

  The older man pensively pursed his brows. “Let’s head to the square chamber and figure it out from there.”

  The group walked into the square chamber, then down the ramps. They came to the four large doors at the base of the cavernous room.

  “This one here is the one we came from,” said Thyrian, gesturing to one of the doors. It was ajar, a clear indicator of its status.

  “Where should we go?” Lou asked. “Which one takes us closer to safety?”

  “We were travelling slightly southwest,” Thyrian said. “Over a vast distance, it led us out into the ocean. This structure is presumably under the ocean floor.”

  “In the vision, this area was under land,” Kane said. “How could it be underwater?”

  “The God of Rain probably severely messed up the world,” Lou suggested. “This area could have been completely flooded, creating this ocean.”

  “Good point,” Eri said. “That probably explains how the hole from which we caught fish was created.”

  “If we take the door in the front, we go southwest more. This leads us farther into the ocean, precisely where we don’t want to go,” said Thyrian. “To the left, we go southeast, which means both going into the ocean and closer to the Theocracy. So a big no-no. This leaves the door on the right. It leads northwest, into the forests west of the Are district. The forests in which the heathens I lived among reside. Therefore, we go right!”

  “Let’s do this!” Lou said. He walked up to the door that Thyrian had pointed out, and opened it. It was surprisingly heavy, and it took all his strength to push it outwards. Lo and behold, it revealed another tunnel, virtually identical to the vast tunnels from which the two parties had came. The terraforming tunnels, Lou thought. I wonder what ‘terraforming’ means.

  “Good, it’s not flooded,” Eri said. “That would be quite a disaster.”

  “Indeed it would,” Kane replied. “Let’s make haste.”

  The group walked outwards, packs jangling on their backs. The tunnel stretched endlessly onwards into the distance, narrowing with the horizon. There was no telling how long it would go on, but Lou felt safer and happier with his new travelling companions. Whatever happened, it would happen as a group.