LIVERS FILLED WITH BLACK TEA, Zan and his party set themselves up for an action-packed day, making sure to securely place, and hide, their camping gear and belongings, while they made their way back into the bunker.

  "Shouldn't we bring in with us our gear?" Whiskey asked, halfway into the first room.

  He groaned. "I don't want to become distracted. If we bring in all our gear, we are committing to setting it up somewhere. And we would still need to cook outdoors anyway... I say, no, in fact, I will go further: I order, for us to leave it out there!"

  Jiehong laughed. Smiling, he said, "If that is your official command, then we shall leave our stuff outside."

  "It is... let's get a move on with this bunker. I sometimes feel like the closer we try to move to and understand this bunker, the closer we move to some other issue. You know? First, with how MAC gave us a list; finding a translator for the list; our activity with Winters while Luxley translated; then just getting up to here, finding it, buying the land... yada-yada-yada... and now fae creatures. I want to get this stuff done and be finally done with it. If this bunker can help defend the province, this needs to be our top priority. End of story, yeah?" he said, feeling fed up with the many distractions along the way.

  "I see what you mean! When you put it like that. Our lot in life has been confusing of late. Making sense of the chaos it never easy, you forget methinks. We're doing our best with what we have been given. And given what we have been given, I think we've done well for ourselves and our home," Jiehong said.

  Not sure if he shared Jiehong's positive outlook, considering the fact the enemy seemed to only be sparing their province because they had bigger fish to fry, he focused on just moving into the bunker. They moved fast through the opening five rooms which preceded the hub-room with Screen Master MAC. When they entered the hub space with MAC's cabinet, the exchange from moments ago had all but been forgotten.

  "Greeting: Welcome Back. Statement: You have come ready to operate within the Order's standard of conduct, I see. Very good. With all of you at perfect conditioning standards, I will be able to watch you fight and at times offer suggestions on how to improve your combat functions," MAC said, greeting them.

  Each member of the team chattered their support of MAC's function. These Screen Masters really were handy, he thought. Creating devices for them, studying their martial prowess and suggesting feedback, taking on minor tasks so they themselves didn't have to focus unduly on trivial matters. Great guys, all of them!

  "Thank you, Screen Master MAC. For right now, though, we should be getting to our purpose. Could you be so kind as to unlock the doors to our sides, please?" he asked.

  "Answer-Statement: Unfortunately, I cannot unlock those two doors," MAC said, referring to the two locked passages at the far end of the room and which he had seen the other day.

  "Why not?" he asked. "Is it a System repair issue?"

  "It is not a System Repair issue, no. I cannot unlock those two doors because one of you, an Order Initiate, must be the ones to unlock them. Each of these doors have been sealed with a basic but powerful incantation. In order for the incantation to break, you will need to imbue the door with enough energy to overload and break the incantation locking it in place," MAC explained.

  "That is odd," Whiskey said. "Is this truly a reliable anti-theft measure? I guess the idea is that some thief in the night is not going to make it very deep within -- assuming he makes it inside -- when he has to use all his magic on doors?"

  "It is not, strictly speaking, an anti-theft measure. Merely an emergency measure meant to ward off fae creatures developing network of power within the bunker. Fae creatures sap magical energy, consuming it from sources. This is how they support their consciousness and evolve. Although not impossible for a fae Creature to give energy to a lock, and thereby expand deeper into the base as a larger organism, it is extremely unlikely for any single organism to claim more than a single room as its territory."

  Speaking up, Jiehong said, "So, the doors are a failsafe, then? I get it. Clever."

  Turning to the door on the right, he walked toward it. "Focus," he told himself. Within a couple of breaths, he saw the lock and chain image from the other day materialize over the door, his headset manifesting the whimsical sound and image. He touched the door, as if to confirm its 'locked' status, to which his headset had the padlock and chain image vibrate rudely as if to say, 'you can't pick my lock, so don't even try!' A brief red aura flashed from the locked door. Moments later, he saw a number appear over the door: [One (1)].

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  "Don't leave us in the dark! What are you seeing?" Whiskey asked.

  He spoke to his team: "I see a padlock and chain. I saw this yesterday. When I touch it, it shakes. Now, I see a number. That number is one. I am going to guess this number somehow relates to the magic amount we have to imbue the door with?"

  Screen Master MAC spoke quickly: "You are correct. My systems are still processing your Command Center Headset and its advanced functions. Screen Master Simulacrum sent me a data transmission not long ago. If I am understanding the concept of your headset in the way which you should be experiencing it, then the way this door should work for you is this: press your palm to the door; begin channeling energy into the door; once you start channeling energy into the door, you will see a number go up from zero until it reached the number on the door; once the amount of mana has been met, the door will unlock."

  Muttering a 'thanks,' he refocused himself to the door. He did as MAC instructed and placed his hand palm-first on the door. Then, seeing the zero appear underneath the number he needed, he channeled energy from his reserve into the door.

  Expecting a quick work of the door, since it only needed one unit of mana, he was surprised when he saw numbers to the right of zero. After a decimal -- he thought it was called, the little period -- he saw more numbers. Much like his progress bar on his so-called 'Skills,' what his headset called his 'skills,' numbers here were on an extremely small scale. From the furthest over he could see, the number quickly went up and up, eventually filling every decimal place. Eventually, after a protracted, concentrated effort at filling the door, the target goal he met.

  Once he met the target, the image on his HUD changed from a padlock and chain to the padlock unlocking and the chains falling away. A green aura came from the door signaling its unlocked status. His pal still on the door, he gently brought his hand back, then flicked his wrist to the right, as if to say, 'begone, servant!' The door slid away into the wall, leaving he and his teammates to see within to the next room.

  Which was a hallway!

  It was a completely ordinary hallway. Whiskey used this uneventful walk to ask him, "Are you feeling good, Zan?"

  "Yeah. I'm fine. A little beat from the magic use. I will be good, though. I'm already nearly back at full strength," he said, truthfully.

  "Good. I wanted to check in and make sure. Don't feel like you have to open every of these locked doors yourself. I am no slouch when it comes to magical stamina. I can go all night," she said, laughing at the unintended implication.

  "Same, here," Jiehong said. "We're part of this team. Use us as any commander would. Just don't push it!" He could tell Jiehong was kidding, but for a brief moment, he thought his brother was being sincere in his saying of him not to push his authority.

  They approached the door, the eighth room they had seen in total since entering the bunker complex. He was relieved when he saw the door's green pulse and how it moved to open at their approach. It swooshed wide to reveal a modestly sized space, large enough, perhaps, to fit a couple of dozen adults with space to spare for essential goods. Yet with the low ceiling, the space took on a mildly claustrophobic atmosphere. This was because, he realized, odd wires and cords from beneath the floor snaked their way at and through the room at strange angles. With the low-ceiling and his friends by his side, his peripheral vision consumed, the room gave an appearance of being both smaller as well as more demanding of them, as if the bunker space willed them to procced one and only one way.

  "Weird, right?" he asked his teammates.

  "Yeah. I think? I feel weird being in this space. Like... it's breathing? I feel like the bunker wants us to go deeper. Which is ridiculous! Gods! Listen to me talk!" Jiehong said.

  "It's not absurd. I don't think... I feel the same. But maybe that is just because fae are nearby?" he said. "Screen Master? Do you sense any nearby fae?"

  "I sense nothing. I will alert you to any nearby fae activity until you order me otherwise," MAC replied.

  His team and he moved through the room with confidence. Hearing the Screen Master say the room was free of danger gave them license to explore the room to their heart's content while peppering MAC with questions about the bunker, such as: 'What are these wires?' 'Where do the cables go?' 'Why are the cables sticking up through the floor like vines?' And many other questions beside.

  The answer to every such question, however, was the same: "Unfortunately, I do not know," MAC said. "The installation has been dormant for a very long time. Damage from magical decay and superstructural breakdown is the likely cause of the bunker's current state."

  There was only a single exit point in the room other than the way they had come. With their curiosity satiated, they left and walked through the door and into another long hallway. Like the previous corridor, they traversed, it took them about three minutes to walk from one end to the other. They entered the tenth room from the left side of the hallway (which was, in turn, the ninth room). Keeping track of where they went through the use of his headset, he marked each passing room with a number, so he could easily refer back to the rooms at a moment's notice. Watching as his map-in-miniature expanded to include many rooms on its simple grid, he thanked his lucky stars the Wardens had gifted him the strange device. Painful thought its integration had been, he found it extremely useful.

  They had only just crossed the divide from the ninth and into the tenth room when MAC suddenly pinged in their ear. "ALERT: Fae Activity Detected!"