Chapter 14

  When bravery fails you, look to your companions and be reminded that you are not alone.

  -Collected Teachings of the Exalted Sovereign

  Phaidros stood armor clad in a large elevator shaft while the lift slowly carried him and his companions downwards into the earth. Dom stood beside him, hammer on one shoulder as he looked up to the last wink of natural light that shrunk further and further above. Every twenty feet or so they would pass some fluorescent lighting that kept the shaft lit, with the metal cage that was the elevator also having lights set up in the corner. They had to be at least two hundred feet below and he still saw tree roots, though those were slowly starting to fade into solid rock. “I have a bad feeling about this, Phaidros,” Zenovia chimed in from the side, hands busying themselves on putting a hefty-looking suppressor on the end of her rifle, though her attention was on their fourth, Daxia. The longshi was currently lounging inside of a large cart that was hovering beside the three. It took up most of the free space on the wide platform and inside were several chests that Daxia had told him contained ‘important tools’ and didn’t explain anything further.

  “Bah,” Dom said, looking to the other Ignited, “it is a good thing to see the ruin layer! To see the Teyhozkin is an honor, to meet one in battle even more so.”

  “Phaidros still needs to learn life sense,” Zenovia countered. “That’ll make the ruins especially dangerous.”

  “Nothing like training under pressure, eh? Little friend?” Dom gave Phaidros a playful shove on the shoulder.

  Phaidros wasn’t sure whether or not he was going to regret being trapped in a cave with Dom and Zenovia for however long they took. When they had returned back home the other day, the three immediately went their separate ways. Phaidros had used all of his spare time to work on agility training in his armor until the next morning. The three of them met and went on another commission, Dom and Zenovia argued on how to tackle the problem again and the same result happened, near death for all parties. This happened again the third day, then the fourth. On the fifth day however, while the two were bickering, Phaidros continued to look at the board right as a new commission had popped up for diving into the ruin layer to retrieve more chitin for the smiths to use. When he had suggested this to the group, he had never seen Dom look so excited and then so crushed when he learned that Daxia was going to be there too. Zenovia was wary, but had been trying to let Phaidros take some of the reins away from her in training and thus agreed reluctantly. It was a show of trust that Phaidros was thankful for, he just wished that she and Dom didn’t feel the need to disagree on everything. He thought Daxia might help in this situation, but when he looked at her in the cart it looked like she was taking a nap.

  “They aren’t Ignited, Zenovia, can they really be that dangerous?” Phaidros offered. He could feel her frown through her helmet.

  “They aren’t stories to scare children for no reason,” she said with a sigh, “They aren’t just big bugs, they’re… something more. It is hard to explain.”

  “In old times,” Dom cut in, “my people used to think they were our gods. This was way before our time now, back in the second age.”

  That answer caused a flood of new questions to fill Phaidros’ head but he subdued the urge to ask all of them at once and instead asked a more urgent question. “What should I expect?”

  Daxia finally decided to join the conversation from the cart, so she was awake. “They’re completely silent. Even when they’re moving across loose rubble, they just don’t cause any sound. So keep your eyes peeled and your night vision filters on.”

  “If you see your reflection, or anyone else you have seen recently, it might just be them oh and do not get too frightened or else it will just get bigger,” Dom added.

  “If one runs from you, let it run, you do not want to accidentally be led into a nest of the things,” Zenovia added further. Phaidros was starting to wonder if Zenovia was right about this being a bad idea.

  “Okay…” Phaidros began warily. “Any helpful tips on how to deal with them?”

  “They try to avoid light and fire. The trick here is going to be to isolate one of them so I can grab all the chitin while making sure we don’t get ambushed by more,” Daxia said, finally opening one glowing ember eye to look at Phaidros, the look seeming way more sinister than she probably intended. “So watch my back.”

  Dom nodded. “And it is just like hitting Ignited armor, the plates will still crack if you hit them hard enough.”

  That put some ease to Phaidros’ fears. “Is there a reason why we don’t bring them up to the surface?”

  Daxia shrugged. “Despite all the children’s tales, they can’t exist on the surface. People have tried but they just fade into smoke the second they even leave the ruin layer.”

  “Okay, one more question… Why is having life sense so crucial to this?” Phaidros asked.

  “Because life sense shows you the true nature and soul of what you’re looking at. Most Ignited are seen as like a star burning white hot, shapeless until they become shaped. The Teyhozkin do not look like that in life sense, they look like giant centipedes or spiders or anything else you can imagine skittering around in the dark—hence the usual reference to them as such.”

  Phaidros nodded, taking a deep breath. “How much longer?”

  “We should be hitting the ruins any moment,” Daxia said and, as if on cue, the mine shaft opened up into a vast cavern, three of the walls disappearing around them. The lights atop the cage swivelled outwards, bathing the area they were descending into with light. Phaidros now saw what the others were talking about by ‘ruin layer.’ Here, thousands of feet beneath the surface, Phaidros saw the shape and impressions of a crumbled city, weathered with time and preserved beneath the stone of the world. If he squinted hard enough, he could make out individual buildings that were now smashed and crumpled together. Perfect rectangles of open space dotted the landscape, windows, Phaidros assumed, each a portal into an infinite abyss of darkness. A second glance made Phaidros realize that buildings were stretching from the ceiling as well, as if a city had been folded in upon itself and shoved into a cave haphazardly, the natural formations of rock crushing all in its way as it was placed.

  The lift reached the cavern floor with a dull thud, the cage lifting in front of them so they may enter the lost city before them. It was quiet, eerily quiet. Phaidros had grown up to the white noise of the ever-moving and screaming jungle around him or the sound of city life in Dasos. Here there were no birds chirping, bugs buzzing, trees groaning, vines snapping. There was only a lonely, eternal silence. Zenovia clicked on a flashlight attached to her rifle and was the first to step out of the lift. “I’ll take point,” she said, her voice echoing throughout the cavern.

  Dom quickly moved up beside her, jerking a thumb to himself. “I think it will be best if I take point. If anyone comes close I’ll crush them.” He lifted his hammer for emphasis.

  Zenovia only sighed in response. “I need you close to Phaidros and Daxia since he can’t use life sense. If one of those bugs slips past all of us you’ll be the last line of defense.”

  Dom grunted his disagreement. “Which is why we need your keen eye to make sure no one slips behind us, yes? You leave the front to Phaidros and me.”

  Phaidros sighed, already they were at it. He spoke up a bit louder than he intended. “I’ll take the lead, that way you both can watch my back. Zenovia, can you stick with the cart to make sure nothing gets to Daxia?”

  Both of them looked at Phaidros, tension in the air before Dom grumbled and stepped in behind Phaidros while Zenovia sighed, “Alright, Phaidros, just be careful where you step.” Phaidros looked to Daxia to see her appraisal of the situation but all he could see from her was a furrowed brow and her tail flicking behind her in what he could only assume was annoyance. With the matter settled, Phaidros led their way out into the ruins, sword in his hands, night vision on and head on a swivel for any of the Teyhozkin. The hovering cart followed behind him, with Zenovia standing beside Daxia who returned to lounging and Dom behind the cart. When they stepped up to the ruins proper, they looked even more massive than from the elevator. The windows were big enough that he could stand on Dom’s shoulders and still have room before they hit the top of it.

  He wasn’t sure what he was looking for, but it had been less than five minutes before he was beginning to see things. He’d sweep his head across an open window they were about to pass and swear he saw tinted eyes glowing in the dark through his visor before they scattered away. Without any sound to follow, he wasn’t sure if he was hallucinating or if he actually spotted them. When he called out the sighting to the others, Zenovia or Dom would check, then follow with ‘clear,’ before they moved on. Time passed and they had to walk through one of the ruined buildings to continue exploring the cavern, the inside of it was a featureless, slate grey room tilted on its axis with hints of plaster and marks on the walls. On one side of the room was a staircase stretching up further with another trailing downward under the surface to who knows where. At the other end of the room was another wide window or door frame, Phaidros wasn’t sure at this point, and the group passed through and were in the open cavern again. Around them was what looked like a courtyard with clearly marked pathways and entrances into buildings that surrounded the main square. “Contact,” Zenovia said over their internal comms, switching off her light as she gestured ahead. Up on a small building, pressed against the sheer wall was a large silhouette with too many legs. It had been curled up in a circle on the wall and when Phaidros tried to squint to get a better look at it, he noticed that at the end of those legs were not the usual pointed legs of an insect but the hands and feet one might expect on a human. Its back was covered in layers of armored chitin, with two feelers lazily waving about in the air. The thing looked like it could make the armor of two dozen Ignited at least from its sheer size. He didn’t notice any mandibles or pincers or stingers, so he didn’t see anything immediately dangerous. “We need to get it to engage without scurrying off.”

  “I can handle that,” Dom said, carefully stepping to the front of the formation.

  “Dom,” Zenovia said with annoyance.

  Dom looked back at her with disdain clear through the helmet covering his face, waiting for her to continue.

  “There has to be a better way,” Zenovia said, her tone growing more impatient and once more the two descended into bickering.

  “You guys…” Daxia hissed as quiet as she could while still making her voice heard, “are clicking too much.”

  Phaidros had practically tuned out their voices as he stared up at the creature warily, the clicks of their armor reaching a fever pitch that was beginning to echo throughout the cavern. The insect’s head turned and lifted towards them, and instead of the face of a centipede or a spider like Phaidros expected, he saw his face. No, that was just him seeing things, it turned back into something more befitting of an insect. It peeled itself off the wall silently then faded into a vague silhouette and then reappeared on the floor as if it had just landed from a fall. There was a slight tremor from the impact but otherwise it made no sound. Phaidros looked back behind him to his arguing companions and Daxia, then behind them to see that another insect was fading in and out of sight from the building they just came from and skittering down the wall. “We’re surrounded!” Phaidros finally managed to shout over the noise and turned to face the insect coming straight for him.

  When he completed his turn though he did not see the centipede-like creature from before, instead it was his father barreling towards him with two blades shimmering in the dark from an unknown light source. Phaidros brought up his sword just in time to parry the blow as it went for his midsection. The blades clashed soundlessly and Phaidros was forced from his feet. He stared up in horror at the visage of his father, no not his father, the bloody corpse of his father left to die alone in the wilderness. Zaharias’ mouth moved but no voice came from it, a single bloodshot eye staring down at him with indignation as he reared up for another strike. Phaidros was paralyzed, the past week and a half of emotions shoved down deep inside bursting forth just as a flood of light blanketed the cave. The insect returned where his father had once been, though it wore his face with large mandibles gnashing and bite marks lining his features. It scurried off into the dark and he heard Dom swinging his hammer behind him just before there was another flood of light, followed by silence.

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  Phaidros’ heart pounded in his chest. He wasn’t ready for this, he wasn’t ready, in a few weeks he’d die just like his father did. His body was shaking, and the air that filled his lungs never seemed to be enough as his breathing quickened. A hand went for his arm to pull him to his feet, muffled voices ringing through his ears before he finally recognized them as Dom’s, they were in open communications now.

  “Phaidros? Are you alright?”

  Phaidros jerked away, scrambling to his feet. His final tie to sanity snapped. “No! No, I’m not alright. I just got attacked by my dead father. You and Zenovia are supposed to be helping but when I’m not screaming at you both to stop fighting for five seconds you’re back at it again. I’m going to die, I’m going to die down here,” he spat in both accusation and panic, voice echoing through the cavern while his gaze snapped between Dom and Zenovia who were both trying to avoid eye contact.

  He was about to say more when Daxia cut in, in her hands looked to be a giant flood lamp. “Phaidros, you need to calm down or this’ll get worse.”

  Phaidros bit back the urge to throw or break something in frustration. “Oh it’ll get worse? How can it possibly get worse?” His head was starting to feel light, as if those words stole the last of his precious oxygen, and all around him he swore he saw twinkling eyes traveling through the dark. They were surrounding him now, he knew it, this was going to be his end. “I can’t– I can’t.” He backed up away from the others, one hand clutching at his helmet as if it was the thing suffocating him. That was, until his boot hit a section of stone that crumbled beneath him. In an eyeblink he reached out to grab the edge of the stone but that too crumbled and Phaidros fell into the abyss. When he looked up towards the hole he saw Dom carefully peering over the edge of the rapidly shrinking hole before he hit the ground with a crunch of chitin. He had landed square on his back in a new room, though it didn’t look to be the one that the staircase from before led down into. The new room was massive, with empty frameworks hanging against a wall, counters sectioning off one corner with a line of stone blocks separating one portion of the room from the wider space. On the opposite side, the floor indented into two deep pits that extended to either side and into domed tunnels. The crater he now lay in was right beside it, stonework cracking beneath him as he stared up at the ceiling above.

  He lay there for a long moment. The panic rose in swells, he was about to scream before he heard a voice crackle in from his helmet, “Do not worry, friend, I am coming for you!”

  “Wait, Dom, we have to stay with–” Zenovia tried to cut in before a silhouette of black chitin fell from above. Phaidros snapped out of his trance to throw himself out of the crater, the call to act becoming a clarion call through the chaos of his anxious mind. Dom came crashing down where he had once been lying feet first. The man staggered, fractures crawling up the legs of his armor.

  Phaidros stared, unsure of what to say before his mind settled on, “Dom, what are you doing here?” Phaidros asked, exhausted.

  “You said your dead father attacked you, yes? I was not about to let you have to face more of those things alone.” A moment of hesitation followed before he added, “… and this is not the first time you have been upset with me since I have joined your hunt. I wish to make amends.”

  Phaidros wanted to be angry, he felt it rise in his chest but he forced it back down with a sigh. “You’re trying your best, Dom, but after we’re out of here? I can’t have you and Zenovia butting heads anymore. Don’t do it for her sake or your own, but my sake, please? You respect me because I beat your challenge, respect my wish for this.”

  Dom stared at him in silence before nodding. “I will try,” he answered, finally.

  Zenovia spoke over their comm channel, “You both alive down there?”

  Phaidros looked up, seeing Zenovia peering down now alongside Daxia. “Yeah, we’re alive, I don’t see a way of getting up easily without clawing our way back out the roof but that just might make more of it crumble away. Is there any way to bring the cart down?”

  Daxia’s voice joined the channel; she must have had some sort of external setup for it. “Not unless you want it in pieces and to make an even bigger crater. You made a lot of noise going down, so you’re gonna have some friends heading your way.” That made Phaidros’ stomach lurch, but she continued talking, “We’ll make our way down to you, just stay put.”

  Zenovia spoke up next, “Just try to stay calm, Phaidros, we won’t be long.”

  Dom and Phaidros exchanged glances and even though helmets hid their expressions, Phaidros hoped Dom could see the fear in his eyes, begging him to save him from the uncertainty that surrounded them. Dom gestured down. “They will be coming soon, if you want to see them for what they are, now is the time to learn life sense.” He turned his head. “Here they come now.”

  From all entrances apart from the roof, they came. Dozens crawled out, fading in and out mid-motion and when Phaidros looked at them, he saw a myriad of images take the space where their forms were. He saw his father, a corpse dragging itself along the wall, another the same man but in his armor crawling on all fours, a young man with determined eyes and gnashing fangs. He saw himself both young and impossibly old, a warrior, a cowering animal. He saw the beast of his nightmares loom higher and higher like an impossible shadow with teal eyes burning like two globes of all-consuming fire.

  “Phaidros! Close your eyes and focus,” Dom shouted, the urgency in his voice compelling him to obey. Silence followed before a hammer crashed against nothing. “Listen to nothing else but the sound of my voice. What you see is not what is before you.”

  Phaidros could still see the images burned into his mind, “I can’t,” he said, voice strained as he could imagine those silent creatures swarming around him now. His father’s death, his brother’s disappearance, the stress of the impossible task that lay before him, how could he focus on anything else?

  “You must!” Dom exclaimed, Phaidros could hear the wind pick up and the earth tremble from the weight and strength of Dom’s blows, but no crunch of chitin or indignant hisses of insects ever followed. “If you do not, I will have to face these things alone and I will die. I do not know about you, but I have plans much bigger than a funeral here.”

  “I don’t know how!” Phaidros shouted back, his hands tightening into fists as he struggled to find some connection, any connection.

  “You do not need to know how! It is not a skill learned in a textbook but a feeling.” Phaidros heard Dom stomp by to the other side of him and another tremor followed. “Feel the fire in your soul, it is this light that makes all that is dark and horrifying flee before it, but it is not the only flame in this world. You are not alone in the dark, feel the heat of my fire, Phaidros!” Another quick series of steps past him followed by a rush of wind, echoed through the chamber. “It is the guiding light that will help you see.”

  Phaidros took deep, trembling breaths. Maybe he had a point, to try and connect with all life was hard, but if he could connect to just one other then perhaps it would be easier. He reached within himself, focusing on the warm heat of his burning potential, it centered him. The feeling was still unnatural to him and depending on his mood it was either a fire that made each step more certain than the last or it was a horrifying reminder of his impending doom. He tried to focus on the former, letting the warmth wash over him.

  A star lay within him. Without sight he could still see it. A mote of light, surrounded by white fire that flickered upwards soundlessly. The flame looked… weak, sputtering as if an unknown wind threatened to snuff it from existence at any moment. This was him, all that he was condensed down into a single, finite expression. A weak fire. Yet, even the weakest fire still fought back the darkness. And just like in the night sky where stars shone upon the world, his light was not the only one, even if the others felt so distant. With one final, deep breath, he tried to search for those other stars.

  Nothing happened at first, just the cold, empty void of uncertainty, but out there, in the dark, he felt the faint whisper of heat somewhere else. A fire similar to his own, alone in the darkness. Did it struggle like he did? Did it feel the same fear that he did whenever he stumbled? He focused on that heat, breath calming, and when he felt like he was ready he opened his eyes.

  The darkness surrounded him but there, clear as day, he saw a glowing white star burning defiantly. The flames around it licked at the open air. The flame itself was thinner than he expected, forming a small layer around the pure light of the soul it surrounded. The longer Phaidros stared at it though as the soul danced through the darkness, the layer of flame seemed to grow larger. Was that Dom’s potential? The fire grew thicker and fuller by the second yet there was an oddness to the flame. It looked like the tongues of fire were… scared? To burn their full intensity, the flames muted by choice. He tried to search for more flames and he could see two more above and in the distance moving quickly through the ruins, Zenovia and Daxia he was sure. The former’s flame was much like his own. A weak fire surrounded it, the flames like fingers desperately reaching out for life as potential slowly burned away. The latter seemed to glow more than burn with the tame flames meant to create where once there was only destruction. These were his companions, his friends, and seeing their light meant he was not alone in the darkness, not anymore. With more confidence, he tried to feel all else around him… and then he saw them.

  Dozens of insects close to his original first impressions. Some were shaped more like spiders, others more like centipedes. There were no more images of him or his father or other people he knew, only what they were. Phaidros wondered why he could see Daxia’s and Zenovia’s flames through the walls but not them, but there was most likely no answer that anyone knew. What he did know was that Dom had been keeping them off of him and it was time that Phaidros helped him.

  He rose to his feet, focusing on the warmth around him as he gripped his blade in both hands and kicked off to strike at one of the Teyhozkin that was about to flank Dom. The blow connected, cracking the chitin and sending it skidding off course. “Did you find your flame, friend?” Dom asked, a grin audible in his voice.

  “I did,” Phaidros said with more relief than he was expecting. “I’m ready to fight.”

  Dom laughed. “Good, good! My armor plates could use the break.”

  “I’ll watch your back, Zenovia and Daxia are on their way.”

  “And I will watch yours! Let us get to killing gods, yes?”

  Phaidros felt excitement well within him and the two set to work. Back to back in a twisting circle they struck and lashed out at the insects that came for them. They were strong, but Phaidros had nothing to back into but Dom and vice versa. They held their ground as horrors beneath the world assailed them from all sides. Two fires dancing in tune to one another. Two fires creating hope where there was none. Two fires that grew in heat and intensity in defiance to the world that sought to snuff them out.

  Time passed, Phaidros wasn’t sure how much, but light flooded the cave followed by gunshots. The remaining insects scattered into the tunnels and everywhere else they could find. Phaidros lifted his head to see that he was standing on a pile of dead Teyhozkin alongside Dom, panting heavily. Armor plates were broken and shattered, the exposed metal skeleton beneath showing through in a few areas. Smoke drifted from the corpses beneath their feet.

  Zenovia came running over as soon as she was sure the room was clear and Daxia hopped out of her cart to follow after. “Ash and cinders, you two, you look like you’ve been through hell. How are you both alive?”

  Dom fell back off his feet to sit down on the pile. “You do not need to worry, Zenovia, Phaidros can life sense now for sure. Though we are not shaped, so maybe this was less impressive than I thought.” He huffed, kicking the chitin of one of the corpses. “I was sure we had the moment.”

  Daxia waved her hands. “Hey, you three, have your moment off of the chitin, I gotta get to collecting before the bodies disappear.” Dom shot back up and hopped off the pile alongside Phaidros and Daxia called the cart over to her. She pulled out a large tool that was meant to separate shells from the creature beneath without breaking it.

  Zenovia was there to greet them at the base. “I’m surprised you’re both not dead.”

  Phaidros looked at Zenovia and she hesitated before adding, “…but I’m glad you’re not and, thank you, Dom, for saving Phaidros.”

  Dom waved his hand dismissively. “I was just going to get us both killed, it was Phaidros who rescued me.” Phaidros looked at him next and he lifted up a hand to scratch at his scarred helmet. “…but I am sorry that I jumped without thinking, Zenovia.”

  Zenovia hesitated before replying, “It’s fine, you got the job done.”

  Phaidros let out an internal sigh of relief. “Going forward, I’d like to call the shots. Both of you kept arguing because you thought your way is best, so we’re going to do it my way instead.”

  Zenovia looked like she was about to protest but then stopped. “Just take advice as you need it, you’re still young.”

  Phaidros nodded. “You both can give your suggestions, but I’ll make the final call. It’s my hunt, my say.”

  Dom hummed before nodding his assent. “You have done well for such a new spark, yes? You are brimming with potential! I will follow your words, little friend.”

  Phaidros smiled. “Thank you both.”

  They both nodded in reply. “What’s our next move then, oh fearless leader?” Dom asked.

  “Set up a perimeter around Daxia while she works, then let’s get out of here.”

  Both agreed wordlessly and moved into positions. Over the next few hours, Daxia painstakingly pulled away plate after plate of chitin from what beasts she could, however the bodies decayed at a rapid rate. The insects returned every once in a while but a quick flash of lights and strikes from the Ignited sent them skittering back into the dark. She was only able to get about three Teyhozkin worth of plates before she dropped her tools back into her cart. “Alright, that’s about all I’ll be able to safely grab. Good job, folks, aside from the almost dying part. Though I guess that’s what warrior Ignited are supposed to do.”

  “We’re ready to head out then?” Phaidros asked.

  “Yeah, I’ll keep the lights on, battery should be good till we get back if you all watch the other angles.

  “How long have we been out?”

  “Oh about a day or so, half of it was you and Dom fighting them off.”

  Phaidros could hardly believe that, but felt a small swell of pride that the two had managed to last so long. Perhaps they had more of a chance against the Shaped Beast than he thought. He switched back to life sense once more, seeing the fires within them all. He was not alone, as long as they were here he would not have to face the future by himself. With more confidence in his heart and a feeling of control over his destiny and the future ahead, Phaidros led the way out of the caves with the others to head back up to the elevator. When the light of the new day shined on them once more, Phaidros felt as if he could take on the world.