Underrealm

L’yophin

A Dugrum spider was shrieking like a tortured animal on the inside.

I don’t know what I’m doing!

Skreee!

That moldy chitinhead, Onsort is not budging!

Did he accept the deal? What the moldy chitin hell!

Why did I use the part Soltana gave me!

That was my part to keep and treasure!

Adamantite was worth how much??

Skreeeee!

They accepted the deals! What will I do now!

Be calm, we can get the parts! Soltana will be sad and happy!

How did that happen?

Skreeeeeeeeee!

L’yophin was having a tough time. He was way out of his element. He went in expecting fair prices, but everything had exploded due to scarcity. He had to use the adamantite too early.

Trading was not his strong suit. He did specialize in many areas and was good at them. Trading always stumped him.

But he wanted to repair Soltana.

Calm! Calm. Good. We’re halfway there. Get the parts, deliver them to Bird’s Inn, fill the cart, rush home.

L’yophin looked at the nacelles in front of him. He gently stroked his chin in thought. He was impassive as stone.

They’re too big! We can’t get them home!

Skreeee!

“Are these to your liking, L’yophin?” Onsort asked, shaking L’yophin free of his distraught.

“Yes, these are good for what is needed.”

“I am afraid your cart will be insufficient for the task. I have a wide array of transportation for you to purchase or rent.”

This is where it will start to decline. Rot in my chitin! L’yophin swore.

They will make sure to take everything from me!

“Oh L’yophin, my baeidae, you said your trade secret?” Zenner began.

Onsort scooted in alongside the crab, looking intently at L’yophin. They glanced at each other with knowing, then turned back to the Dugrum.

Ah, it had been a ruse the whole time. They aren’t rivals.

They are business partners, L’yophin concluded.

“Anything short of the truth that we find acceptable will null the deal you made with Zenner. And with me,” Onsort warned.

And the trap was set.

L’yophin felt the stress fall away. He got this far with boldness and blundering.

He didn’t know which of the two were stronger.

“I found it. Mining deep underground.”

He decided to go mysterious to off balance them.

“That’s where I found her.”

“Her?” They both said in unison.

“Yes. Her name is Soltana and that is why I am here. She is a strange Anform, but I suspect she is more than that. She is damaged and needs repair. She’s at Bird’s Inn, immobile.”

The tradesmen glanced at one another then back to the Dugrum.

“If you don’t want to tell us, then the deals will have to be nullified,” Onsort said with a frown.

“Oi, oi! He’s no’ lying. I seen’t her. She’s a strange one she is!” Ruth spoke up, vouching for L’yophin.

He was glad Ruth was along.

“If she is at Bird’s Inn, will you retrieve her?” Zenner asked, pointing a claw to the Trow.

“Yeah, I’ll ge’ her,” Ruth disguised as Mik replied, grabbing the cart and preparing to leave.

“I shall chaperone our Trow friend,” Zenner replied while scuttling after.

Now it was just Onsort and L’yophin.

“Why do you need ship parts?” Onsort began his questioning.

“Not a baeidae has left in the time since we arrived, all of those thousands of cycles ago.”

“So why would you leave?”

“As I said, Soltana is special. I found her deep underground. She is special.”

Onsort skittered in close, his large mantis eyes peering at the Dugrum.

“You keep saying that. What makes her special?”

“She is beginning to remember her past, even though she’s damaged,” L’yophin began, revealing a large secret.

The deal was not based on just resources, but information. L’yophin suspected Zenner and Onsort had two-way communication.

“Ah, fascinating.”

“And why are you and Zenner collaborating?”

“Boredom. The ease of it,” Onsort replied with little hesitation.

Understanding flooded to L’yophin.

“You’re not like the other Proturan. You acted like them, but now, I see that you’re too-”

“Aware,” Onsort replied, tapping his head.

“Zenner and I are latecomers to the Underrealm.”

L’yophin nodded, narrowing his eight eyes. He had just assumed they were from Hive Cicatriz or Hive Askepios. Merchants would tend to flow where their niche led them.

“After the Great War’s end, Zenner and I traveled without a destination. Sojourners. We sold our services as mercenaries. Then as time wore on, we discovered the truth.”

Onsort looked away, outside of the storeroom.

“The horrible and hopeful truth that others were alive. Alive and yet not.”

“Drones,” L’yophin stated.

“Just.”

“It did take us time to notice, but notice we did. That our neighbors went about their day without any thought for the future. They could not comprehend it. They would redirect the conversation, deflect, or stare blankly. As if the Great War never happened. They toiled without thought. No reproduction, no building or constructing, no maintaining.”

“Drones,” Onsort said the word, clicking his mandible in frustration.

“In our sadness and boredom, we stirred up controversy, trying to awaken others.”

“Your rivalry.”

“Correct. Proturan trade and barter, but they take the price at face value. You and the other Dugrums are the only ones arguing for better deals. You who have the mind that is independent of the Ancath.”

“We niched ourselves, buying out others and then publicly fought and blustered at one another in a poor attempt to shake others awake.”

“It didn’t work.”

“No.”

“Of course you have others. Bird is one, but she has accepted it.”

“While you and Zenner cannot,” L’yophin added.

“A poor imitation of Ancath we were, trying to somehow guide the masses through controversy, through artificially raising prices. Anything to cause the pain we felt that had awoken us.”

“And when Praetarca left with the strongest and never returned, we knew Proturan were consigned to haunt the Underrealm.”

Onsort felt at the nacelles, their orb-shaped containers glowed with a bright green light.

“I remember the stories of ancient humanity burying their deceased. Funny that we would imitate them.”

L’yophin understood early that something was wrong when he arrived. When he could put it to words was the day he left. He absconded with his vessel, found an empty plot of land, sold his vessel parts and built up his estate. Seventeen times he repeated this. There he toiled to this day until he found Soltana. Then everything changed for him.

He felt a redirecting of desire. The more he helped Soltana, the more complete he felt.

It felt like a calling.

“There is another reason she is special. Existence feels complete as I help her.”

“Ah, now that would be a good reason.”

“A calling is life to a Proturan.”

“More so than the mining and Dekapillar ranching.”

“Mining? What veins?” Onsort asked, turning back to the spider.

“Silver, Iron, Fae Steel, Tin, Mithril, Rhodium, Platinum, Carbon Crystal, Gems of all sorts, what I thought was a vein of Adamantite, and some fowl Antozonite.”

“Oh, ho ho! That’s a good motherlode. You mined it yourself?”

“A Dugrum needed his hobbies,” L’yophin explained with a shrug.

“I’m sure the fae steel was difficult to mine.”

“I couldn’t mine it. I know where it is, but I cannot get it without a way of making the abstract a reality.”

Fae Steel was a wily thing. It both did and did not exist. L’yophin knew from his Fae neighbors on what signs to look for. Either Fae could gather it or enchanted equipment could mine it, turning the ore from an abstract to reality. Then it could be processed. It made for incredible magical equipment, something Proturan had little use for.

“A disappointment I’m sure.”

“What will you do with your mine and estate?”

“Don’t know,” L’yophin replied, genuinely unsure what he would do.

“We’ll discuss that at a later time, I hear visitors,” Onsort replied as he skittered out of the back room. L’yophin.

Zenner scuttled in, his eyes wide.

“Onsort, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” Zenner said with a blustering chitter.

Ruth, disguised as a Trow, pulled the cart in and removed the tarp, revealing sacks, boxes, bags, and a large head made of ornate filigree adamantite.

Onsort’s eyes went wide at seeing the beautiful craftwork.

“Hello, my name is Soltana,” The head spoke.

Everyone was silent, with L’yophin skittering to her side.

“No matter how much I travel, the galaxy is still full of surprises,” Onsort broke the silence with a wispy chuckle.