(Dyn)

  Wedge finally took a moment to examine his soaked and torn outfit, the fabric ging heavily to his stone-like skiuck a fihrough one gash. “We should pause and hydrate.”

  Eury frowned, hugging herself as it rained again. The steady pitter patter against the leaves above filled the air before the drops made their way dowrees to join the puddles below. “We’ve hydrated enough already…” She cast a wary eye up at the open sky. Dyn suspected she was talking to Perun.

  Thunder rumbled in the clouds above and fshes arced i-too-far distaorms like this one forced them to skirt along the tree line, just far enough from falling branches and trees, but close enough to be a more attractive target than them. With nowhere but the ground to sit, they took a standing break, cooling off with refreshing sips from their everflow fsks.

  Having a moment to himself, Dyn gazed out at the open field, notig an unusual profusion of flowers—vibrant bursts of color dotting the meadow, their petals swayily in the rain. It was by far the de cluster of flowers he’d ever seen.

  “Something’s ged.” Curiosity pulled him away from the group to ihe floral anomaly. The storm persisted, growing strohe winds now tossed sheets of water at sharp angles into his face. Even the flowers surreo the storm, swaying at the stem to the chaotic rhythm of each gust.

  The soil in the field had reached saturation; puddles of water pooled across the dense meadow floor. The tightly packed pnts provided a springy, woven pad beh Dyn’s feet. Too te, he realized the grou unnervingly simir to an inftable bouncy house.

  “The storm is getting worse,” Wedge called out, his deep voice cutting through the roar of the wind. He waved for Dyn to return to them.

  Dyn turo head back, but the ground under his feet ed and wobbled, rippling like a waterbed about to burst. The tightly wovework of floral roots was the only thing holding it together. A low groan emanated from below, followed by the faint tang of somethialli the air. He flung his arms out for bance, his breath catg as he froze in pce.

  Wedge picked up on Dyn’s ay. “What is the matter?”

  “I’m standing on a bubble. I don’t think it’s safe for me to move.”

  A growing pressure from beh pushed up against the surrounding ground. It felt like standing on a balloon stretched too thin, about to burst.

  Dyn sed the area, but all he could see were the flowers swaying iorm. Wedge and the other initiates stared at him from he tree liheir growing at his increasingly odd as.

  Wedge took a step toward him.

  “Don’t!” Dyn cried out. “Stay where you are.”

  There was a slow creaking under his feet, like leather tearih the soles of his boot. The ground trembled faintly as the root system holding the surroundih together began failing, pulling apart like ripping Velcro.

  ‘I’m on top of a gas pocket,’ he thought. The gathered water weakehe earthen membraween the space below and above, but it was his weight that upset the delicate bance.

  Dyn had little time and spoke fast. “Find a big branch, tie a rope to it, and then toss it to—”

  That’s as far as he got before the bubble popped. A deafening hiss erupted as warm, noxious gases burst from the hole and into the air, hitting Dyn like a bst of sulfurous wind. The force of the bst knocked him off his feet. Opening his mouth to scream had been a terrible idea; his voiever stood a ce against the vile spewing and bck soil that quickly filled his mouth. It tasted bitter and foul with a gritty texture.

  The hole blew open wide enough to swallow Dyn. He learned four things before he died. First, he realized his cloak didn’t work while falling on his back. Sed, the area underh them reeked of rot and decay. Third, there was something enormous down there, glowing faintly in the darkness. And fourth, any fall sting more than three seds was deadly. Dyn died as he hit the bottom of the cavern with a bone-crushing finality.

  Death 7 – Curiosity of the Void

  Void, an a Celestial older than Time, had seen tless souls slip through its grasp—torn away by the forces that ruled over life, death, and uh. But this soul was different. It had been pulled baot once, but repeatedly, in a short span of time.

  Curious rather than annoyed, Void lingered, the patterns and disruptions this anomaly caused. It had no need for haste. After all, it was eternal. For now, Void watched, looking for opportunities where others saw nuisance.

  [Time orb]: [Dejavu] triggered. Wait.

  “We should pause and hydrate,” Wedge said.

  [Time orb]: Twe Resets remain.

  Eury hugged herself in the rain. “We’ve hydrated enough already,” she grumped.

  Dyn practically ran to the tree line, his heart pounding as he put distaween himself and the ominous field, not stopping until he was sure he stood on solid ground.

  “What are you doing?” Eury asked, watg him as he ran past.

  Dyn pointed over to the flowers where he’d fallen through. “There’s something uhose flowers.”

  “Dirt?” W’itney asked.

  Dyn shook his head. “No, there’s a cave or something. It’s big, smells terrible, and there’s something down there.”

  W’itney narrowed their eyes at him. “And how do you know this?”

  Dyn chewed on his lip, thinking. He still hadn’t figured out how to ahat question. “I just do.”

  Wedge took him more seriously, and asked, “Like the arc beetle?”

  Dyn poi him excitedly. “Exactly like the arc beetle.”

  “Wedge, you survive a—” He stopped and did some mental math—out loud. “Three seds squared is nine. Half of that is four point five. Multiply that by gravity’s velocity.” He paused. “Jesus, I hope it’s still nine poi. Fuck it, I’m rounding. That’s like, forty-five-ish meters. vertiers to feet, that’s—” He stopped ting on his fingers and looked up at the lithkai, rain dripping into his eyes as he squinted.

  “Wedge, you survive a one-hundred and fifty-foot drop?” His brai him do all that work before it reminded him that Wedge jumped off the damn airship and survived.

  The big guy was about to answer when Dyn cut him off. “Sorry, wrong question. you get back up from a one-hundred and fifty-foot drop?”

  “No.”

  “That’s… going to be a problem.” He frowned. “There’s a chamber uhere that’s at least that deep. I already know it’s a terrible idea, but I think we o go down there.”

  “How do you propose we ehis hidden chamber?” Hay’len asked.

  “That’s the easy part. Throw something big and heavy right there.” Dyn poio where he’d fallen and then held up a hand. “But not yet. We need a pn first.”

  He caught himself fidgeting, feeling the wet fabric of his cloak between his fingers, and it gave him an idea. He turo Eury, the lightest of them all.

  Eury noticed his ‘thinking face,’ took a half-step back, and gave him a side-eye. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Wedge, how much rope do we have?” he asked, ign her question.

  “How much do you want?”

  Dyn pursed his lips and guesstimated. “Three-hundred feet?”

  Eury leaned on her hip. “That’s an infernal amount of rope, Dyn.”

  Realization caught up to her. “Oh no, no, no, no. You’re not sending me down there. You said it yourself. It smells terrible.”

  “Are you speaking as Eury the initiate, or as Eury the p—”

  “Fine,” Eury huffed. “What do you have in mind?”

  Dyn expined his pn to the group. Wedge was the only person he really o vince, but it saved time to expin it just once. His pn hinged on teamwork—and a lot of trust.

  Wedge crossed his arms, nodding thoughtfully befiving his blessing. “This is a det pn.” They waited for the storm to pass, and after twenty mihe team got to work.

  Wedge didn’t have a rope per se, but he had a on-ranked magical item: a rusted metal . Wedge held the foot-long to Dyn. It was warm to the touch, the e dust staining his fingers. One end had a three-pronged grappling hook, the other a regur metal hook. The was much lighter than expected.

  Dyn lifted the to eye level. “Where’s the rest of it?”

  “That is my cambion climber. A bination of infernal and time magic—”

  “Hold up. I thought Time magic was illegal, or evil, or something?”

  “Tools are her good nor evil. This magic item utilizes the temporal-exge effect—doubling its length at the cost of halving the duration.”

  Wedge pulled an imaginary part with his hands. “You repeat the effect many times until the duration runs out. While in this resting state, it stores time; up to two-hundred hours. I am excited. I have not found a reason to use it until now.” The ers of his stony mouth upturned slightly.

  Dyn examihe and then lifted it to look underh again. “How do you know all of this? I don’t see it written anywhere, and nothing es up when I touch it.”

  “Purchased items should be fully expined by the mert.” Wedge adjusted his stance. “Items received from a lootbox, like my cambion climber, will dispy a notification, expining what it does before you accept the item.”

  “What if you… skip the notification? How do you go bad read them again?”

  “It would be very foolish to skip a notification. Do not skip them.”

  “Got it, but what if you… fet? Is there a way to repy the notification?”

  “No.” Wedge gave him a ft look. “Dyn, did you skip the notifications from your orb?”

  “Maybe…” Dyn busied himself with the cambion climber, purposefully avoiding Wedge’s scrutinizing gaze.

  Wedge pced his stony hand on his hip. Dyn reized this as his ‘I’m waiting for the truth’ pose.

  “Kinda?” Dyn winced, slumping his shoulders in shame a.

  The big guy wasn’t buying what Dyn was selling. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck before ing . “Okay, yeah I did. But in my defense, I thought I was dying and the afterlife was trying to get me to read some end user lise-thingy.”

  “And you did not think an afterlife notifiight be important?”

  “So, ba Earth, they have EULA—”

  “Don’t spell.” The four of them said in unison.

  ‘It’s like they practiced,’ he thought, narrowing his eyes at them.

  He sighed and tried again, waving his hand dismissively. “Sorry, they have end user lise agreements for just about everything. Nobody really reads them. We just click accept a on with our lives.”

  “And afterlives, apparently,” Eury said.

  “I ’t believe you skipped your ability notification,” Hay’len said, looking genuinely fused.

  “So, you do not know what your ability does?” Wedge asked.

  “Nope.” Dyn hung his head.

  “Or your passive?” W’itney asked.

  With no other recourse, he just shook his head.

  Wedge tapped his thoughtfully. “Perhaps there are other ways to find out what they do. I will ask Guildmaster K’hab wheurn.”

  Dyn didn’t feel fortable talking about his ability, even peripherally. “So, how do I use this thing?” He held up the cambion climber.

  “You pull on both sides of the ter link at the same time. That will start the duration timer and double the length of it.”

  Wedge’s voice lowered slightly as he tinued. “But remember, each time you double the length, you will half the remaining duration.”

  Dyn nodded, scrutinizing the as he mentally ted in binary, ‘1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256… not enough. I’ll have to go to 512.’

  “I’ll have to double it imes to have enough length. That’ll give us 512 feet to work with. How much time did you say we started with?” he asked.

  “Two-hundred hours,” Wedge said.

  Dyn put on his ‘thinking face’ again as he calcuted how much time they’d have. Eury raised an eyebrow as she watched him use his fio t.

  “100, 50, 25, 12.5, 6.25, uh…. 3, 1.5, 0.75, 0.37ish. What’s 37 pert of an hour?” Dyn asked.

  “Twenty-two minutes,” Hay’len answered.

  Dyn gave them a nod. “Thank you. We’ll have about twenty mio get down there, poke around, and the back up.”

  “There will be no poking around,” Wedge said. “Observation only.” He looked at Eury, who nodded in agreement.

  Dyn wahem to keep their distance, so his pn was to throw something to mark the spot. He threw a sto where he’d fallen. The roded with a wet thud, falling short. “Crap, that’s not where I wa to go.”

  “Perhaps you should try aiming,” Eury said smugly.

  Dyn wasn’t sure if she was grumpy because she had to go down into the stinky cave or because she was soaked. He’d also hogged the deathwash mae st night… Holy, it could’ve been several reasons.

  He gave it three more tosses, nding too far oher side, and the st one overshot his mark. “Okay. Admittedly, I suck at throwing, but if you aim for the area iween all of them…”

  Eury sighed audibly, exging a gh W’itney, who wasn’t hiding their amusement.

  Wedge uood the assig, pig up and tossing a rock the size and shape of a lopsided basketball. It nded on target with a squish instead of the expected thump.

  “Perfect, a couple more and—” The rock sank with a wet slurp, disappearing into the ground.

  Wedge tossed a slightly rger os weight opening a he enough for them to see from the tree lihe explosive pressure spewed noxious fumes into the air as built-up gases escaped. It didn’t take long for the stench to hit them. The rest of the group gagged, some c their mouths, as the noxious smell carried notes of acid aal so overp it felt like they could taste it.

  “Something died down there…”

  “That’s… terrible.”

  “Why’s it smell like sweaty feet?”

  Dyiohat st remark, c his nose as he turo Eury. He slipped out of the e cloak and held it out to her. “Do you want to use my cloak? It lets you glide if you fall. Just… don’t fall on your back. It doesn’t work that way.”

  Eury gnced down at his offered cloak, her expression softening at his thoughtfulness for a moment before the smell reinforced the grima her face.

  Dyn grasped the cambion climber in both hands before he asked, “How will we keep track of the time?”

  Wedge held up his wrist and poio the leather band. “I’ve got a eter.”

  “Give it to Hay’len. They’ll be in charge of letting us know when fifteen minutes have passed so Eury get back up in time.”

  “What am I supposed to do?” W’itney asked, the only one who didn’t have an assig for this mission.

  “I don’t know. Stand there and look pretty,” Dyn said.

  W’itney smiled, funting the remark to Hay’len. “Dyn thinks I’m the pretty one.”

  “You’re identibsp;twins…” Eury said.

  Hay’len marked the time when Dyn pulled the apart imes. Wedge took up his end, dragging most of it past twe trees. The gave a soft metallic k as he anchored the grappling hook around the furthest one, using the closer tree as a fri hitch to lower Eury. Not that he’d need ao hold her weight, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

  The determined elf ed the around her waist, weaving it through her belt to make sure she wouldn’t slip out. Her boots squelched softly iurated ground as she approached the hole. She kept tension on the in case the caverrance suddenly expanded with a rger colpse.

  Almost to the aperture, Eury let out a cry. “Mother help me!” She buried her fa the crook of her elbow. “Dyn,” she gagged. “This is by far the foulest—Oh, I think I might…” She coughed, the acrid stench burnihroat, and posed herself just in time to keep her st meal down.

  Dyn watched the anguish on Eury’s face as she turoward them to rappel down into the tunnel. He wondered if his mouthful of dirt saved him from the full force of the putrid st.

  Eury’s vengeful gre told him she’d never fet this. She took a deep breath and desded into the stinking darkness.