When Rosalind offered her hand to me I accepted it and shook. I smiled at her, and she smiled back, though I expected neither smile was honest. Behind her Eon had started to work on removing the corpses.

“Since we have control of this place you can send us to floor sixty, right?” I checked with her.

“Indubitably,” she replied as she motioned at the middle of the room, “Eon will interface and establish dominance of the outpost.”

I manipulated the systems of the shell to connect to Mika, and made certain to not transmit my next words to Rosalind. “Mika, can you hear me?”

“Father? Did you succeed with your plan?”

“Yes, the Architects and I have control of the relay station so bring your sister,” I told her, “but be careful and avoid any contact. Oh, and Mika?”

“Yes?”

“Don’t let your guard down,” I said, and then I cut the connection. I didn’t need to hear her complaining about how she knew what she was doing.

I glanced at the info from the shell to check that Rosalind hadn’t done anything, and once I felt certain of that I began a diagnostic. I’d taken a fair amount of punishment in the last fight, and even without the scan I knew repairs were needed.

By the time I’d accumulated a proper report on all the damage my daughters had shown up outside. Rosalind led them into the base, and all four of us gathered in a wide and deep room.

Lisa was kind enough to lend me a hand in moving around, as the battle had made it impossible for me to walk. When we had to climb up onto a platform in the transit room she hefted me up, my weight not a problem for her innate strength.

Once we’d all gathered near the center of the platform Rosalind looked up at the ceiling. “Eon, transfer us to floor sixty.”

Similar to my own base whenever we slid, the room grew dim as energy was rerouted to the transfer system. The platform we stood on began to vibrate, and a hum of power filled the surroundings. After a few seconds the noise built, and then the world turned white.

Floor 60

The Eternal Beach

Checkpoint Six

When we arrived on the floor we didn’t appear out in the open, but instead inside a room that looked identical to the one we’d just been in. If not for the fact that the labyrinth had alerted us on our arrival we might’ve failed to notice the transfer.

Before any of us could move Rosalind lifted up one hand. “Let me handle conversations.”

“Wait, aren’t we in another Architect base?” Lisa asked as she looked around, “is this a trap?”

Rosalind blinked, and then shook her head slowly. “If I wished to entrap you wouldn’t I have already done so? I must converse with the operator to clear our point of egress.”

“Oh, alright I guess,” Lisa replied as she glanced at me. When I didn’t respond she opted to remain quiet, something I was thankful for.

Rosalind studied the three of us, and then she turned and hopped off of the platform. She walked over to the door and slid one hand near it, a light illuminating temporarily as her fingers passed over it.

When we followed her out of the chamber we emerged into an antechamber with three doors, and a ramp that ran up toward the west. If there was one thing the Architects excelled at it was making the same thing over and over again, to a scary degree.

Outside of the transit room there was a single Architect, who stood flanked by a pair of drones. He watched us exit the room and lifted up one hand, his gaze lingering for a long time on my daughters.

“Declare intention,” he said with a monotonous voice.

At those words we all went still. “Laborer transportation,” Rosalind said.

The Architect pointed at the shell I was using. “Automaton purpose?”

“Executive Aug experimental prototype.”

At the mention of Aug the Architect took a step back, and then did a quick swing of his hand toward the ramp. No more words were passed between the two Architects, and instead Rosalind started to walk up to the exit.

My daughters were quick on the uptake and almost ran after her. Lisa was kind enough to lift me up and carry me, so as she followed Rosalind I was able to keep an eye on the other Architect.

At the top of the ramp we were faced with a door much like all the others. Once more Rosalind slid her hand over the wall near it, and the doorway opened up.

From outside warm air flowed in, and my daughters both smiled as they breathed in deeply. Though I was able to get a false smell via the system, I knew from firsthand experience that the shell had failed to properly capture the scent of floor sixty.

Outside of the Architect outpost was a beach, one of white sands and a brilliant sun. The sun was about a third of the way up into the sky, and beneath it stretched an ocean of sparkling crystal clear water.

I’d explored that ocean and all one would find were fish. The island we were on, one that was perfectly circular, was wide enough for a small town. However there were no land creatures on the sixtieth floor, and the invasive Architects had built the only structures.

“Oh wow!” Lisa exclaimed as she walked across the beach, approaching the water, “this is so pretty!”

“But dangerous,” I reminded her as I pointed over her shoulder.

When she turned she could easily see the Architect drones, each one atop a single metal pillar that were spaced out every fifty feet. All in all the floor had at least thirty drones, and that wasn’t counting the coordinator within the transfer building.

The sight of the drones caused both of my daughters to go completely still. I reached up with one hand and lightly knocked my mechanical knuckles on Lisa’s head.

“Don’t worry, we’re fine so long as we don’t try to do anything illegal,” I told her, “isn’t that right, Rosalind?”

“Absolutely. The portal is centered on the island, and observed by drones,” she said, and then motioned in the direction she’d mentioned.

It was easy enough for the four of us to walk over to the portal, and along the way we encountered no other Architects. Their absence bugged me, but what bothered me more was the fact that the floor was still predominantly untouched.

In the past when the Architects had spread they’d had a habit of overwriting the floors. They would lay down metal everywhere and pave out new cities, resulting in every floor becoming identical to the next.

Yet on all the floors I’d encountered signs of the Architects there’d been nothing like that. Something was stunting their spread, and I could only hope that it was the alleged rebels in their society.

The portal itself was out in the open, ringed by a makeshift metal wall that was far wider than it needed to be. Along the top of the wall stood numerous drones, their red eyes watching our every move, but none acted to interfere with us.

Rosalind was the first to reach the portal, and she placed one hand against the white sphere. She then paused, glancing back at us with one upraised eyebrow. “I will meet you on floor sixty-one?”

I nodded my head, but I chose not to speak any words. With the drones about it was difficult to tell who exactly might be listening in.

Rosalind vanished from in front of us a second later, and then my daughters approached the portal. Before they touched it I held up one hand to get their attention, and then extended all five fingers. I had no intention to move on to the next floor just yet.

It was time to regroup.

Floor 50

The Strays

Checkpoint 5

When we returned to the fiftieth floor we were immediately greeted by our companions. Lance and Lucas were on guard duty, and were aware enough to not attack us as soon as we appeared.

Once we’d safely arrived on the fiftieth floor I let my daughters know I was disconnecting, and then I turned off the shell. I once more regained awareness of my actual surroundings, and when I glanced to my right Kuzu was asleep in her own chair.

“Kuzu, wake up,” I gently said, but I gained no reaction from her.

I spent a small amount of time looking at her as she sleep in the chair. She’d chosen to wear a loose red dress, a modest design, and her hair had been carefully pulled back into a ponytail. Next to the chair she was seated in a book had fallen, most likely the one she’d been reading while waiting for news.

I shook my head, though, and tried to focus on the task at hand. “Kuzu, wake up!”

She snapped awake instantly, her body springing from the chair. In her hands two daggers crafted of pure ice had been manifested, and her eyes darted left and right rapidly. It was a reaction that gave me a bit of pride, but it was also unnecessary at the moment.

“It’s alright, I’m back,” I told her as I offered my hand in her direction, “do you mind?”

Once Kuzu realized that everything was fine she threw aside her ice daggers, and they cracked lightly upon hitting the floor. She stepped over to me and helped me up, while also making certain all of the parts of the shell system were detached.

“Is everything going good?” Kuzu asked me, as she brought over my cane.

“Maybe, maybe not,” I told her as I limped to the door. I needed to warn Alexia of the damaged machine my daughters were bringing back.

While I walked I also explained to Kuzu what had happened. Though it had felt like so much to me, in the overall scheme of things it was a quick conversation. When I finished she’d gone silent, a silence that I echoed.

Alexia was a bit more than annoyed by the news I gave her. When Lisa showed up with the shell in her arms, Alexia’s anger only increased and I ended up retreating from her makeshift workshop.

A few hours later and I was in my room, seated at the table with Kuzu. She’d prepared a type of quail for dinner, along with some milk that the nyanko had given her.

My daughters hadn’t joined us, though since they didn’t need to eat I hadn’t been too shocked. Mika’d turned down the offer with a bit of a distant look in her eyes, and Lisa was far too interested in following her sister.

As we ate I didn’t feel the urge to talk, so it was Kuzu who broke the silence. “What’s bothering you?”

I looked up from the food at her. “What do you mean?”

“We’ve been together for years now, do you really think I can’t notice when you’re thinking too hard?” Kuzu asked as she pointed her fork at me.

“It’s the whole situation,” I said, “this whole Architect thing. I knew they’d spread to this floor, but nothing is turning out how I expect with them.”

“What’d you expect?”

I had to resist the urge to slam my hand against the table in frustration. “Something more, like an army waiting for us. Anything besides this whole hidden resistance thing!”

“Isn’t it good, though?” Kuzu asked as she popped a piece of quail into her mouth.

“No, because I don’t trust her at all,” I said, “it’s all too coincidental to me.”

Kuzu laughed a little at my comment. “This coming from you? You showed up right when I needed you to, otherwise I never would’ve made it off of that goblin infested floor.”

I waved my hand at her in an attempt to dismiss that event. “You would’ve survived, and someone would’ve shown up eventually. No, it’s just a bit odd that someone who could help us sneak through so many floors popped up right when we needed it.”

“So it’s a trick?”

“A trap. They’re just failing to realize who they’re attempting to snare,” I declared, “once the snare is sprung Lisa and Mika will destroy it. Once powered up I doubt anything the Architects have could handle them.”

“What about you?”

I waved my hand again at Kuzu. “It’s the shell, I don’t mind if that gets broken again.”

“Lexy will,” Kuzu said, and then she started to giggle.

The rest of our dinner went smoothly, as Kuzu talked about the nyanko. She’d apparently managed to befriend them, and with the help of Ivan they’d planned out ways to recover the withered park in their city.

In the end we never touched on the subject of the Architects again, and after eating dinner we cleaned up and went to bed. Though I was worried, it wasn’t the first time I’d gone to bed full of anxiety, and so sleep came readily enough.

☗ ☗ ☗ ☗ ☗

I crouched down as low as I could get behind the waist-high rock. Sweat poured from every part of my body, as the waves of heat continued to pound away at me. I could barely breathe because of the ferocity of the flames.

“Over here you damned bastard!” Pierre yelled, his voice distant.

With a loud snarl the dragon whipped its head away from me, and instead turned to look back at Pierre. The serpentine creature reached out with one clawed hand to grip the ground and drag itself, slowly moving after my friend. The scaled hide slid easily enough across the rocky terrain, and the way its color shifted to match the surroundings made it hard to track.

As it moved blood squirted from numerous cuts that littered the body of the dragon. We’d managed to get in a few lucky hits, but when it started spitting flames I’d taken the initiative to draw it away from the other three.

I peeked over the rock I’d used for shelter, noticing that the ground in front of it had mostly melted from the dragonflame. I slowly moved away from the hazardous area, trying to get close to the cliff wall.

A rope snaked down the length of the cliff, a sight that made me want to run for it. I fought that urge, glancing nervously at the dragon that continued to chase after Pierre, and tried to move as quietly as I could.

My climb up the cliff was easy enough, though it was slow as I tried to avoid dislodging any stones. The sound of the dragon thankfully grew dimmer, and then vanished from my ears. By the time I reached the top of the cliff it was far gone, though we had if Pierre had gotten away or not.

A thin arm reached out and gripped my hand, helping to pull me up onto the top of the cliff. “Easy Theo, I’ve got you,” Eclair said with a grin, a smile ruined by the scars that ran across her mouth.

“And thank Luticia for that,” I commented, as I looked one more time down at where the dragon had been, “do you think he’s okay?”

“Pierre?” Eclair patted me on the shoulder, “I doubt anything can catch him once he puts his mind to running. But we gots something else to deal with.”

That was when I noticed someone else was missing. “Where’s Mirk?”

Eclair pointed over to a withered tree, one that had a dark blob next to it. “There.”

I gave her a questioning look, but she only shook her head. It was with hesitant steps that I started to walk over to the tree, and as I got close rI realized what the blob actually was.

An almost leathery looking misshapen blob had formed next to the tree, one that had the look of an egg if it’d been stretched out. I’d seen plenty of eggs in my time, but this was one that I couldn’t recognize.

I started to reach out to touch the surface of it when Eclair caught my hand. “Don’t,” she warned me, and then she pointed at a bundle on the ground near the egg.

I could feel my heart stop, as I recognized Mirk’s clothing. It’d been torn to shreds, but it was his, and that could only mean one thing.

“That’s him?”

“Yeah,” Eclair said, “while the dragon and Pierre chased after you he collapsed. He kept screaming, saying something about the blood burning, and then he started tearing his clothes off.”

It was the word blood that made me glance once more at the rags on the ground. The blood of the dragon that’d splashed on Mirk were still there, and though it looked like any other kind of blood I started to wonder.

“That’s not possible,” I murmured, and then I looked sharply at Eclair, “throw your sword away!”

She tilted her head in confusion at me, but then her eyes widened as she caught on. With a bit of a yell she tossed her bloodied sword as far as she could, the scarlet blade clattering loudly as it landed amongst the rocks.

“We need to warn Pierre!” Eclair cried, and she started to run away, before suddenly stopping and looking back at Mirk, “but...what about him?”

I stood up and backed away from the dragon egg. I aimed one palm in the direction of Mirk, and then I closed my eyes and did a mental prayer. A second later I brought the full power of gravity down upon Mirk, and the egg flattened.

“I’ll tell Sasha when we get back,” I told Eclair, as I turned and walked past her, “but come on. Pierre’s still alive.”

She tried to talk to me as we headed out after Pierre, but my mind was preoccupied. I’d thought the shifters had been scary, but a creature that transforms your allies? The mere thought of what that could mean brought a shiver down my spine.