Amiri Senaka Cypher tapped her foot impatiently while the boys and Sarra debated on whether they should enter the ominous-looking passageway or not. Balliol wanted to just get it over with, Sarra wanted to remain cautious, while Virgil stared at the wall, lost in thought.
That's always the problem with Virg, Amiri decided, he thought too much. Or to be more precise, he tended to overthink. Craig on the other hand, like the good scout that he was supposed to be, had already started using his Facet to get a read of the passage. As for her, well, going either way was fine.
Amiri was honestly having the time of her life. Yes, she loved her husband Malty and her children. She missed them terribly, especially Mikel with his weird fear of fire. Sure, she might have burned him a couple of times as a kid when she got riled up but she made sure that he didn't suffer any permanent harm. Malty was a bit timid so maybe Mikel got it from him.
Somewhat bored right now while they continued to argue, Amiri materialized her fire-lotus, just a tiny, tiny one barely larger than the fingernail on her pinky and made it spin around her head. The cold air was horrendous but only if she lost focus. Her Anima resembled a furnace and the endless Chaos burned to fuel her power. Even if she dropped her Field, she wouldn't really feel cold. Not immediately anyway. Ballsy might complain. Yeah, she called him that in her head and there was nothing he could do about it. She held in a snicker though Craig looked oddly concerned about her.
"Are we going inside or not?" Amiri finally blurted out. "The day isn't getting any younger and neither are we."
"We need to make sure it's safe," Sarra insisted. "That thing might just lock us inside and then where would we be?"
"Why did it open at Virg's touch then?" Amiri pointed at him. "You'd think he could open another door if he touched the wall?"
"Well, why don't we find out?" Virgil said.
They stepped away from the passage, wondering if it would close. They waited a few minutes, according to her body clock, and the opening slid shut before their eyes. It was strange, really. A slab of stone from one side of the passage just slid out, hiding the entrance. Once it did, there appeared to be absolutely no sign of the passage.
Craig walked up to the wall and pressed his palm against it. A few moments later, right where he touched, the wall opened a new passage. He'd selected a point a few paces away and the door he opened revealed a passage identical to the one Virgil triggered.
The five of them exchanged looks.
"Let's just go," Amiri urged. "We've got enough food to last us a while and I'll be swarm fodder before I sit around here waiting or trying to figure out a way to get around it. Chaos would turn to order first before I try climbing this thing."
"Much as I dislike agreeing with you," Ballsy said, "I agree. Let's not waste any more time."
"You just wanna get back to pushing your nose into the Chaos seed," Amiri snarked.
"Yeah, well, it's not every day I find an Ennoia suitable for my Heritage. This is the closest shot I've got to advancing."
"Oh, Balls-liol, you have to find enlightenment where you can." Amiri shrugged. "Heck, even though it's not my element, I've discovered some interesting insights."
"Well, fine. So what, Davar? Are we going or not?"
"How're our supplies?" Virg asked Craig.
"Enough for a couple of weeks. Regular eating," he answered. Funny that Craig was one of the nosiest people Amiri knew yet, strangely enough, also one of the best at keeping secrets.
And, of course, the forever lovelorn and melancholic Virgil went off into a reverie to think about things. How he managed to have four kids, she didn't know. He'd been like that ever since Amiri had been put under his command back in Vagaris. He was much the same until he became a lovestruck fool over that Sorceress who got attached to their unit.
Of course, Centurion Davar cut quite the dashing figure back then--well, up until now, really. His caution in the face of the unknown had saved more lives than his fancy shooting did.
"Craig, lay down a beacon if you will. How many more can you sustain?"
"Two more without impacting my Animus recovery speed." Craig immediately started channelling his Animus into his palms. He pressed it to the ground for a couple of minutes then stood up, looking slightly drained. "Done."
"Thank you. Sarra, let's proceed. We're carrying as much of our supplies as we can hold and it's not as if we have a choice. This looks like the place Whisperer wants us to explore."
"You think there are God-king artefacts here?" Sarra mused.
"Who knows? This place looks too pristine to be an ancient ruin, well, it's functioning so…" Virgil trailed off.
"Are we really going to hand off a God-king artefact to a Chaos Lord?" Balliol asked.
"Do you think Anima Telum grew on trees?" Amiri scoffed.
"Well, if it's made of wood, then yes," he deadpanned.
Amiri rolled her eyes, groaning.
"We'll see what we find," Virgil cut in, then continued in an undertone, "and if we do find one maybe we can use it to get home."
"Only if the Telum lets us use it," Sarra said grimly.
"Ancestors watch over us," Craig said before he took a deep breath and stepped into the passageway. The next moment, they were blinded by a flash of light. As soon as he stepped past the threshold, the ceiling lit up with bright white light. It continued for a few dozen paces then turned an abrupt ninety degrees to the right.
As soon as Craig was fully inside the passage, the door slammed shut.
"Craig!" Virgil yelled, slamming his palm on the wall. The next second, it opened up, and there stood their friend with his hand raised as though to touch the wall.
"Oh."
"Get in, one at a time," Craig said.
Nodding, Virgil stepped inside as soon as Craig made room. The door closed. Sarra touched the wall as the other two had done and a door slid open for her. She stepped inside and the door closed. Balliol did the same but gestured to Amiri to precede him.
"Thanks!" she said brightly, but just as she was about to enter the door slid shut and she bounced back, clutching her nose. "Ow!"
"Are you alright?" Balliol held out a hand and helped her to her feet. "What in Chaos happened?"
"Rottin', barnin wa!" Amiri cursed while she rubbed her nose. A glance at Balliol showed that he was desperately fighting the urge to laugh. "You di' da on parposs!"
"Ha-how would I know it did that? Hie hie!"
Grumbling under her breath, she slapped the wall, hard. A moment later, the door opened and showed a bemused looking Sarra. The two boys had wandered down the hall and were just about to peek around the corner.
"What happened?" Sarra studied her face first before looking over at Balliol.
"Ballsy here thought it was funny to make me hurt myself!"
"Don't call me that!"
"Ballsy?" Sarra gave him an arched eyebrow.
"It was an accident, Ancestors!" he yelled.
"Whatever!" Amiri shot back. She stepped past the threshold and walked a few paces down the corridor. A couple of moments later, Balliol was through. When the door closed, he slapped his hand on the wall and watched in relief as it slid open, revealing the frozen waste outside.
"At least we now know that we can get back out," he muttered.
Amiri stepped back from the opening, spun on her heels and strode to Virgil and Craig. She ran her hand across the wall, finding it as smooth and seamless as the outside. Nothing opened though. The hallway was just big enough that if Amiri stretched her hands out to the side, her fingertips would just barely touch the opposite walls. It was also tall enough to give Virgil ample headroom.
Craig carefully peeked around the corner, stayed that way for about a minute then gestured at them. "Looks clear."
"At least it's warm in here," Balliol sighed.
"It's not that warm," Amiri disagreed. "It's actually quite cold, considering the Seasonal average for most Imperial Planes. It just seems warm compared to outside."
"It still feels warm."
Amiri rolled her eyes and followed Craig. The man held his Plasma Lancet in one hand, thumb nervously rubbing the trigger guard. Virgil held his slug-thrower instead of the Plasma Caster, the latter being too big and clumsy in the confined space. Amiri's fire-lotus continued revolving around her head, generating a little bit of heat. It gathered what limited ambient Chaos there was in the air and stored it within the flower, a seed ready to combust when needed. The petals fluttered as though touched by a breeze.
Hours went by as they walked through the passages. There hadn't been a fork or an intersection so far, and they must have walked about three leagues. It was a slow but cautious pace. They took a break soon after.
Amiri's fire-lotus had grown big enough that they placed a pot over it, filled it with water and plunked the smoked earthwolf meat inside to stew. Virgil plopped a ration bar in the stew too. Despite the taste, or lack thereof, those things were one of the reasons the Empire dominated so many planes. The bars provided enough nutrients to a person needed to keep themselves in optimum health. Cooking ate up some of her fire seeds though but it was that or eat the rations unprocessed.
Having enjoyed a quick break, they continued down the same passage until they finally reached an intersection or, rather, the passage turned into a large chamber that was at least five times as high as the one they were in. The lights in the hallways only turned on in fifty pace sections and only when one of them was in it. When they looked to each side, there was only darkness in the distance. A wall was directly across them, some thirty paces away.
Unlike the previous passageway, there were piles of rubble here, fallen stones, blocks of something grey, and dust. The light was also several shades dimmer.
"Think you can mark this part too?" Virgil asked Craig.
"Yes, but this looks like a labyrinth. My Facet would be useless after a few more intersections. I can draw a map though." He pulled out a crystal screen from his backpack and started scribbling on it with a stylus.
"Let's see what we can find here," Virgil gestured towards each of them. "Balliol, you and Amiri that way. Urm, was it south?"
"Southeast," Craig answered.
"Right. Sarra and I will check northwest then. Return in ten minutes or after a longstride."
"Aye aye, boss!" Amiri knuckled her forehead.
"Please don't do that."
"Hie hie! Come on, Balliol, walk in front of me!"
Grumbling under his breath, Balliol conjured a couple of wind knives and walked up front. Amiri stayed a pace behind and to the left of him, eyes dancing from shadow to shadow. After a couple of minutes, she looked back and realised that the huge passage curved ever so slightly to the right and the others were no longer visible.
The air wasn't stale, she noted with a start. Not in the smaller passageway or here. There was dust and she felt her hair fluttering from a breeze so slight she almost missed it.
"A breeze," Balliol said before she could say anything. He materialized a couple more wind knives and had them hover ahead of him by a couple of paces. They were reaching the end of the lighted section and when they crossed the threshold of where the sensors turned the hallway lights on, the area in front of them lit up and revealed a revolting mess of what Amiri's mind immediately identified as a hornet's nest. If the hornets were as large as wolves and the nest was made of stone fragments instead of wood anyway.
"Ew..."
Amiri blanched. The nest was up against a wall, and on top, there was a breach to whatever was beyond it. Light from the nearly Full Moon shone came from it. The things that came out of the hive didn't look like the hornets back home though. They had compound eyes, antennae, and mandibles, but the front limbs had grasping digits. Their abdomens looked like they had metal sticking out of them in odd places. Amiri recognized runescript etched into those bits, but she couldn't read them. They had vestigial wings, she noted with relief.
An angry buzz sounded from the nearest specimen and with that, more started crawling out of their holes.
"Burning Moon!" Balliol cursed as he slowly backed up. The hornets crawled towards them, a high pitched whine coming from the mandibles. A moment later, the nearest one pounced and was stopped cold in the air with Balliol's barrier. A wind knife bisected it before it could do anything else. That set them off, and the remaining hornets charged.
Amiri's lotus shot a seed from its centre, aimed at the middle of the crowd. It bloomed into a full-blown lotus in the next instant, then set off into a ball of flame. High pitched screeching came that soon dribbled off into muted groans and liquid murmurs.
Balliol finished off the stragglers and the two of them watched the hive for more. When nothing came out he heaved a sigh of relief. When the burning hornets stopped moving, Amiri held out a hand, red Animus streamed out to cover the flames and she pulled them off the bodies. She compressed the flames until they smothered, leaving the hall with a couple dozen half charred bodies.
"Well, that solves the ration issue," Amiri said brightly.
Balliol gave her such a horrified look that she cackled loudly.