The path that Kuzu took us on led deeper into the forest, with the loose canopy above of blackened leaves thickening rapidly. The once glorious light that had come through dwindled as the leaves proved terrifyingly efficient at catching every ray. For Kuzu who led us it wasn’t a problem, her natural eyesight able to handle the dark, but for the rest of us it proved difficult.

To that end I produced a cylinder from my duffel bag that I’d scrounged from my home. When I snapped it a dull orange light was produced that helped us to see, while also being dim enough to not bother Kuzu. The Wolfe brothers had looked at me with curious expressions when I produced it, but I had no interest in explaining the origins of one of Lute’s creations.

I had so far been impressed with how Lance and Adam acted, as they not only kept weapons at the ready but also remained silent. Instead of asking questions about Kuzu or myself they instead focused all their attention on the forest. If they could maintain that degree of discipline throughout the dive we stood a great chance of surviving.

After we’d walked for a short while I casually lobbed the glow stick back to Lance, who managed to catch it even without warning. He cursed a little and raised an eyebrow at me, but I ignored his unasked question and stepped up to Kuzu.

“Did you finish everything?” I asked as I matched her pace.

“Yes,” Kuzu said as she lifted her left hand up, the red crystal embedded in it glistening in the dull light from behind us, “this checkpoint gem is really nice.”

“Between the return crystal and that it definitely makes moving through the floors a lot easier. Did you have a nice time with your family?”

“It was great seeing them again,” Kuzu said, but her tone shifted into a depressive one.

“What’s the matter?”

“Four years ago when I decided to leave them I knew they wouldn’t be happy about it.” Kuzu’s ears drooped. “When I showed up a few weeks ago though they acted almost scared of me. Lexy said I didn’t even act like I used to.”

"Four years," I reminded her, though I avoided admitting that she had changed. She wasn’t so stupid as to not already know that her time with Lisa and I had warped her.

"Lexy was still happy to see me, but Ivan and Lucas acted scared of what I could do,” Kuzu muttered.

I couldn’t resist the urge to reach over and pat her gently on the head. “Don’t let it bother you, they’ll get used to you again,” I said in an attempt to encourage her, “besides they’re your family. No matter how much you change they’ll always love you.”

Kuzu smiled, though whether it was due to the pat or my words I wasn’t sure. “Thanks, by the way why’d you want me to ask Lexy about her parents?”

“It’s a hunch I have, one that could be very useful to me,” I replied, “so what’d she say?”

“I don’t know, why don’t you try kicking me off another cliff,” Kuzu said with a sniff before she hastened her pace.

I had a bit of a mixed reaction to that, struggling between smiling and sighing, but in the end I shrugged and followed after her. When it came time to need the answer I’d push her for it. Instead for the moment I focused on finishing our journey through the twenty-first floor.

During our trek we’d encountered no other wolf-bears which made sense to me. Unless something had changed drastically over the last thousand years, the wolf-bear packs tended to maintain ownership of an area. Any territorial incursions would often result in large scale fights, ones that the wolf-bears instinctively knew were bad for all of them.

So all four of us touched our hands to the sphere and focused on the next floor without a concern. Far off in the distance a howl could barely be heard, but it was obvious to all of us how little it mattered.

Floor 22

Gremlins in the Gears

Our arrival on the twenty-second floor was how it usually went for that floor. Beneath our feet the metal platform we’d appeared on opened up instantly. Kuzu had already leapt to a wall and dug her claws into it, while Adam and Lance had thrown hooks up at the piping on the ceiling.

I was the only one who was caught by the trap, and so I was dumped down a chute toward one of the lower floors. My descent was rough, a tumble that ended in me being face first against the ground when I finally stopped moving. I stood up and brushed off the dust and dirt that’d gathered on my clothing and then reached up to lower my hood.

From above I could barely make out the sound of Adam’s voice, “Are you okay? Stay there and we’ll find you!”

I glanced up the chute and gave a small shake of my head. I’d forgotten to warn the brothers about my plans for this floor, in fact I hadn’t even warned Kuzu. It had been a sloppy mistake on my part.

To rectify that error I lifted the watch on my wrist up to my mouth, “Lisa I know you can hear me,” I said into the embedded microphone, “put a message up on Kuzu’s glasses that I’ll meet them at the exit.”

As I turned away from the chute Lisa replied to let me know it’d happened, and I began to walk through the floor alone. Around me I was surrounded by hallways of metal and machinery, the consistent thrum of equipment a tedious backdrop. It was a promise of what was to come in the deepest parts, or perhaps a threat.

It wasn’t long before the thin arms and legs began to emerge from the gears on the walls. Creatures that were impossibly thin and flexible slipped out into the hallway, some in front and the others behind. Their limbs all connected to a small core that had two eyes and a single mouth, with a thin layer of fur covering every inch of flesh. Bladed nails stretched out from ghastly thin fingers.

As the gremlins walked forward on their slim legs I let a surge of electricity course down my arms. It was an act that caused the gremlins to pause in their advance, but they had reacted far too slowly for their own safety. I swung my right hand out in a wide arc and scattered lightning across the entire hallway.

The thunder that it caused blasted away the sound of the machinery, while the gremlins behind me audibly whimpered. All of the gremlins who had stood in front of me were gone, little chunks of their bodies sizzling from the heat of the lightning. I glanced over my shoulder at those behind and they quickly slipped back into the walls from whence they’d come.

I had never found the gremlins to be hard to fight, but even so I’d much rather eliminate the prospect of a fight as soon as possible. While I believed in Kuzu I didn’t care much for leaving her alone with the Wolfe brothers.

I continued to walk through the metal hallways, though the gremlins tried to attack me one more time. They came out quicker than before and even managed to run at me, but the result was the same. It was after that second demonstration of superiority that the gremlins gave up on me.

Every so often I’d come across a ladder, one that led up to the higher walkways that connected to the entrance point. I stepped past each of them since I’d come to the bottom of the floor for a specific reason, though I made certain to remember exactly where they were in case something unexpected happened.

Eventually I came to the intersection I’d wanted to find, and I turned left and stepped into a dead end. Most people would have looked at that and gone back, but I knew there was more than merely a wall in front of me. Nearby a mark had been embedded into the side wall, one I was quite familiar with.

"System activation requested, username master zero one. Password five six five eight nine one two two four."

A loud roar erupted from the machinery that surrounded me, as the gearwork covered wall splintered down the middle. The dead end began to change as a doorway opened up, one that had no lighting inside.

I didn’t hesitate as I strode into that inky black, and after I’d passed through the doorway closed behind me. After I was enclosed in darkness new machines began to whir to life, and then lights started to flicker on around me.

With the new illumination I could see that I’d ended up in a far smaller hallway, one with no gears visible in the walls. Instead it was a smooth dark metal that was very familiar to me, and as I stepped forward part of the walls slid open with a quiet whoosh.

Whereas my home had a certain degree of elegance to it, this new place I’d come to was crude. Ventilation ducts ran openly alongside piping for water and other types of liquids, all of which hung above in a chaotic cluster. One corner of the room had a cot, while a large machine with a darkened display screen sat right next to it.

I knew from personal experience that it was one of Markov’s creations, a type of food fabricator that you could put almost anything into in order to get something edible out of it. I had witnessed Markov in the past dragging gremlins in and shoving their corpses into the fabricator, a sight that still sent a shudder of disgust through me.

Shoved into another corner was a work table that had all types of tools, including ones that I’d never be able to understand. A pile of papers sat on the table, but time had worn away at them and left only a pile of dust and scraps. From what little pieces remained and were still legible I could barely make out complex blueprints for unknown devices.

I walked away from the table. I had no hope of ever knowing what Markov had been working on, and even if I stared at the remnants of his blueprints for days I’d make no progress on them. Instead I walked over to a flat wall that had a single screen on it, one that glowed with a dull light blue.

I wiped off the grime from the screen with the back of my gloved hand, and then I tapped gently at a single red icon. More icons appeared on the display and I worked my way through Markov’s silly layers until I finally reached what I wanted.

A single press of a green icon on the screen caused a loud clunk from somewhere behind the wall. Two compartments slid open and produced long tubes, ones that had a green hue to them. Each of the tubes were about two and a half feet wide and four feet long, and quite transparent.

"You crazy idiot," I muttered as I stared into the tubes, “you actually did it.”

Though I had plenty of time, and also had hoped for what Markov had done, there was still a degree of eagerness and nervousness that plagued me. With shaking hands I pulled a canvas bag out of my duffel bag and unfolded it, and then opened it as wide as possible. I emptied the contents of one of the tubes into the bag and then tied it closed.

I put one hand against the other tube and stared for a moment, and then gave a sigh as I walked over to the display and forced the compartments to close once more. The rest of the room was pointless to me, and so I grabbed both bags from the ground and headed for the door.

“I’ll be back,” I promised the empty room before I walked out.

When I stepped back onto the metal walkways I noticed the gremlins were completely gone. Before I’d heard them in the gears, a consistent presence that lurked but didn’t interfere, but at some point they’d vanished. I could only guess my opening Markov’s lab had caused so much noise it’d bothered them.

I headed back with my two bags to one of the ladders I’d passed by already. When I reached it I slung the duffel bag and, with my left hand holding the canvas bag, I began a tedious ascension. The ladder rungs were solid enough, but the gremlins seemed to almost sense that I was a bit occupied and had begun to gather nearby me once more.

I glanced at the watch on my wrist mid-climb, and made note of where the compass in it pointed. When I reached the top walkway I reoriented and started to head to the exit, though with my two bags it made for a bit of an awkward trek. A few gremlins actually popped up to try and get in my way but a few more bolts of lightning put a quick end to that.

After a quick jaunt through the walkyways I came across an open platform, one that held the sphere I sought. The portal sat dead center and was surrounded by Kuzu and the Wolfe brothers. Before I’d even come into view Kuzu had already started to stare in my direction, most likely because she’d heard me coming with her fox ears.

When Lance noticed me he took a step forward before his brother caught him on the arm. A murmur that I was unable to make out passed between the two, and then Lance stomped over to the portal and glared at the white sphere.

“Where’ve you been?” Adam asked after I’d gotten closer to the trio.

“I needed to pick something up,” I replied as I hefted the canvas bag, “it’s delicate though so we need to be careful with it.”

“What is it?”

“An important present from an old friend of the family.”

Adam adjusted his monocle as he stared at me before he let out a sigh. “Listen, if you want us to help you need to warn us before you do one of these little side adventures. If you can’t do that Lance and I are going to bounce right back to Heron.”

“I suppose that makes sense,” I admitted, “but if that’s the case I’d better warn you now. I need to make a stop on the twenty-fifth floor.”

“Da hell you talking ‘bout?” Lance angrily asked from his spot near the portal, “ain’t nothing worth nothing on that floor.”

“I need to break into the warlock’s citadel.”

The Wolfe brothers stared at me as though I’d said I was going to jump off a cliff. Adam lifted a finger up and started to speak, but then he stopped and instead started to stare at the side of my head.

“Long ears? But...an Elf? Are you an ELF?”

“Obviously,” I said, while I tried to ignore Kuzu as she started to laugh behind Adam.

“I don’t think there’s ever been an Elf in Heron though!”

“It’s not like Elves strut around shouting that they’re visiting.”

“Alright, whatever.” Adam shook his head. “It doesn’t change the fact that you want to run into a place filled with magic wielding monsters and the only person we have that can use magic is your kitsune.”

“I don’t recall saying you’re going into the citadel with me,” I said as I walked past Adam, “you’d just slow me down.”

“Why’d you hire us then?” Lance growled at me.

I put the duffel bag down on the ground next to Kuzu and glared at the large man. “Because everything I know comes from hundreds of years ago, I don’t know where the safe places to hide are, I don’t know what type of new traps there are, or what type of changes have happened. For all I know the ratkin could be extinct.”

Adam once more moved over to his brother and put a hand on his arm in an attempt to calm him. “I understand, but if you end up dying in the citadel we won’t bother coming to drag your body out of there.”

“That’s a deal, now can we get moving? The sooner I can get a crystal heart the happier I’ll be.”