“I’ll do it,” said Ceglar and added with a tone that left no room for negotiation. “We’ll talk about just what you owe us when we reach the surface.”

Zan-adar hurriedly accepted and his face grew brighter.

“Y-Yes, of course!” he said nervously. “The guys behind me will get right on it, just give them a few minutes.” He hesitated for a moment and continued with a careful tone. “I told you everything now, but just who are you? What’s your business here?”

“We are scouts for a new settlement,” said Blake with no hesitation. “We wanted to check how the Pyron are doing and if you were interested in some strategic cooperation.”

The pyron cocked his head hearing that.

“How did you not know about our catastrophe?” Zan-adar asked with confusion all over his face. “This is one of the three big pyron cities, news should have spread everywhere.”

Blake awkwardly scratched his head.

“There is a good reason, but let’s talk about that when we are somewhere safe,” said Blake. “How are the wards progressing?”

Zan-adar turned back for a moment and replied.

“They’ll need a bit more,” he said. “They don’t have to give us the absolute cloak the lab has provided, but we do need the protection and long range cover-up.”

He seemed to have more to say but he stopped because Ceglar shook his head at those words.

“You can’t call it absolute cloak,” said Ceglar displeasedly. “It leaks the smell on occasion, that much I can say at least.”

Zan-adar immediately turned back again and exchanged quick, loud remarks with someone behind him.

“If what you are saying is true then our wards are growing weaker without us noticing,” said Zan-adar with a disturbed tone. “I have no idea how much good the portable wards will do for us.” He stopped, noticing the panic in his thoughts. “Well, we need to try at least. You did clear the way on your journey down so that’s something.”

Doubt plagued Blake’s thoughts but he just nodded with an absent mind, wanting to reassure the guy. The deformed pyron were easy enough to take out, but something about this whole city didn’t sit well with Blake. He couldn’t wait to get out and judging by Ceglar’s restless behaviour in the background he felt the same.

Blake waited patiently for about fifteen minutes which were necessary for them to get ready. During the time Zan-adar passed Blake a few meters rope which the latter used to tie two unconscious pyron to Ceglar. The werewolf had to approach the collapsed wall and be very close so that the pyron wouldn’t go past the ward boundaries, prompting complaints because of the heat which was emanating from within. After checking the firmness of the ropes Zan-adar took a few engraved black stone slabs from the lab and put them between the ropes, making sure they wouldn’t slip down.

Having finished all that, a voice finally came from the lab and the party was set. The remaining five pyron came carefully from within, eyeing Ceglar with suspicion but remained otherwise quiet and were ready to depart.

Blake inspected the fiery newcomers for a moment, noting the black slabs each was carrying and some other necklaces and jewelry they were wearing.

“I guess you won’t be able to give a hand if we need to fight?” asked Blake, not really waiting for an answer. He looked at Ceglar who nonchalantly stood next to him with two pyron and a couple black slabs strapped to his shoulders. “My friend here also won’t be able to fight…”

Blake’s tone was mostly neutral, just stating the facts but there was a dose of uncomfort beneath. Zan-adar didn’t notice any of it and made a final check of the few supply bags he decided to bring along.

Now that he was out of the light Blake took a better look. He wore a black robe made from a weird matte material. His body was consisting of various tones of yellow, orange and red but reminded otherwise strongly of a human body. His head was the same except for the long shoulder-length hair which seemed to be made partly of ash and a more dark glowing red.

“I’m sure it will be fine, I remember you humans packing quite a punch,” said Zan-adar as he rummaged through the contents of his bag. “You also seem to be the first free speaking one I met so you are probably especially strong.” He looked up, nodding and gave the rest of the pyron the signal to go. “Okay, I’m all set.”

Blake and Ceglar walked along, each covering a side of the little convoy. The hall and all of its details were now much more visible because of the convenient light that came from the pyron but Blake didn’t pay too much attention, being intrigued by the previous remark.

“What do you exactly mean free speaking?” asked Blake, not understanding.

“You know... the thing about all of you... “ said Zan-adar, struggling to find the right words. His face grew a bit awkward and the brightness changed a little. “Your sort doesn’t exactly… live in the moment?”

Blake’s patience was a bit thin with the eerie situation and he urged him to go on.

“Are you asking me?” he said. “Just tell me some general scenario or something.”

Zan-adar still acted awkward about the topic but he continued.

“Well… Humans went everywhere and just offered their services, not really saying much outside what was going on immediately,” he said with an awkward tone. “When I tried having a conversation with someone the guy just didn’t seem to understand when I wanted to talk a bit more, for periods of time I even got ignored. I guessed that you humans just, uhm… thought in a special way. No offense.”

Blake shook his head with an amused expression and let the pyron continue, suspecting the cause of what he was describing.

Zan-adar stopped, trying to remember something.

“There really were some weird times with you people. It’s not even that rare to get an answer to something completely unrelated to what you were asking for,” he said, now free of the awkwardness and getting more into describing. “Even stranger were the times when humans do talk right after accepting a job, seemingly with more information than they were told. And when I asked about how they knew?! No answer or they simply say it will be done soon. Oh, and the common sense on those guys…”

Blake motioned him to stop, chuckling about the frustration which leaked in the man’s voice.

“I understand what you mean now,” said Blake and carefully picked his words. “What you saw were apparitions. Fueled puppets in a way. Strong in combat and useful for errands but quite restricted.”

The group just continued walking through the halls and corridors of the level. Blake didn’t continue immediately, giving Zan-adar and the other surprised pyron a chance to stomach what he said. It wasn’t the first time he had this time of conversation so he just patiently waited for the other side to show some kind of reaction.

“If… humans really were conjured… By whom? Why?” asked Zan-adar, trying to gauge the implications. “Can you show us some proof?” He seemed hesitant to ask for the last part but Blake noticed how all the other pyron looked up, sharing the notion. They were also quite restless from the revelation, but they remained silent, waiting for Blake’s answer.

“I can only give guesses to why, the who is also something I just know the general answer of. I’m fairly certain that we were conjured by order of your Alliance, they did organise all human action in the area,” said Blake. “ I didn’t really have the luxury to investigate, there were assassins after me even in the wilderness.”

All the pyron shone brightly, alarmed by the Blake’s accusation of the Alliance. Zan-adar continued talking but he was a lot more cautious than before. Blake didn’t seem to be bothered by it, he had enough evidence to prove his point once they get out. Even if they decided to strike him down, burdened by the wards and the stasis they wouldn’t pose that much of a threat.

“Those are some serious accusations… you are aware that the pyron are one of the eight senior partners of the Alliance?” said one of the scientist pyrons. Blake didn’t bother to take a look at him as they just ascended to the next level. He responded calmly as he glanced at the frozen carvings along the stairs which were now nicely visible under the pyron light.

“Are you aware that I’m saving you as we speak?” said Blake. “Also, I think I’m quite decent as proof even on my own. As Zan-adar said, I’m a free speaking human. There is nothing puppetlike about me, just normal meat, bone and blood. I’m not as strong as what you know as human nor do I learn abilities and magic as easily or at all in some cases.”

The pyron scientist from before was listening carefully.

“You are different, that much is for sure,” he said, thinking about the situation. “I will wait for the answers of why and how until we are safe, but tell me, if what we know aren’t humans but puppets controlled by someone then why did that someone use a species unknown to us and what is your origin.”

Blake scratched his head as he took a moment. He understood the pyron for wanting answers, but this really was the last place he wanted to stop and tell the whole story,

“The puppets really did look like humans and they had human pilots,” said Blake, avoiding to go into detail. “We have a world of our own, another realm, and some organisation started selling a product which they said… would let us control our dreams.”

He paused for a moment, trying to translate the situation into something the pyron would understand. “Actually it was something which would let us enter a collective ongoing dream in which we could control our actions so people went and came here as a sort of hobby for adventure, relaxation and similar things…”

A female scientist interrupted Blake with disbelief and confusion.

“Wait, wait!” said the female, halting Blake and getting him to turn to her.”They weren’t aware they were piloting in a real world? And they did manual labor for us while they wanted to relax?”

Blake held back a chuckle and took a look at the rest of the scientists, they all waited for his answer with confusion and suspicion. He couldn’t blame them, humans really did whatever task in order to gain experience, no matter how much they’d hate it in the real world. Saying they relaxed while doing it really seemed nonsensical.

“Well they didn’t feel the fatigue as much but there’s also another side to that,” said Blake. “The system your Alliance set up gave us various rewards for tasks. There “quests”, as we call them, gave us certain amounts of power which is needed to get stronger and learn new abilities.”

“You gained power by doing mundane tasks?” asked female unbelievingly. “Every task gave you power? And the Alliance made that possible.

The pyron were startled and started whispering between themselves. Zan-adar wasn’t as startled as the rest by the revelation and he chimed in.

“It would make sense based on everything I saw on my travels…” he said. “But as much as I’m not a fan of the Alliance myself I can’t really take your word on everything.” He cleared his throat and looked at Blake. “You said you were targeted by the Alliance so I don’t know if you’ll let me, but I have a few trusty informants in the cities. I could confirm your story with them and I’m sure we could put them to good use for you too.”

The whispering grew silent as Zan-adar talked. The pyron tensely looked at Blake. The latter squinted slightly and shook his head. What Zan-adar was suggesting was impossible in more ways than one.

“I can let you try, disregarding the fact if I trust you or not,” said Blake. “It’s not like I’m holding you hostage. However, with your small group you wouldn’t survive two days of journey and you are aware that many more are needed to get to the next big city.”

“I think you are underestimating us…” said Zan-adar, not sure what Blake meant.

“Actually, that was a generous estimation,” said Blake, already a little bit tired of getting the pyron up to date. “A year ago pretty catastrophic events started happening everywhere. Monster attacks started to happen more often, amongst other things. New sorts of monsters appeared, ridiculously strong and on the move. They spread everywhere and journeying grew to be impossible, even whole cities were threatened by the monster attacks.”

Blake paused and shrugged. “ And that’s when we had to centralise our territory and strengthen our defenses. I didn’t see any adventurers or merchants from the big cities but the ones I met afterwards said the general communication network collapsed and each city either strengthens their defenses or mass moves, searching for allies.”

The pyron listened to him with shocked expressions, their light dimming considerably. One of the scientists even started shaking which prompted Zan-adar to put a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. The merchant was behaving surprisingly calm considering how riled up he was when he first met the two.

“You are giving us quite the news,” said Zan-adar with a tired voice, looking at his shocked comrades. “It’s probably for the best if we continue this on the surface, but I can’t help but wonder, what is your settlement? Did you humans come to our side?”

Blake shook his head lightly while scouting the area, they were near the stairs to the upper level. Two more and they were out.

“I’m the only real human in this world as far as I know,” said Blake, while he waited for Ceglar to give the go sign for ascending. The latter was still sniffing the air. “ It’s a mix of a few races, you’ll see when I get you there. Obviously the werewolves are one of them, but you haven’t really seen much of them before, right?”

Zan-adar answered with a slightly complicated expression.

“Well I heard about the few which came to their senses about two years ago, but I never met them. Regretfully I only had contact with the other kind, quite brief and nearly lethal.”

Blake glanced at Ceglar but he just ignored the conversation and shifted his head in various directions, twitching his ears.

“Actually both are in my faction,” said Blake to Zan-adar absentmindedly and turned to Ceglar. “Do you hear something?”

Ceglar nodded, but remained silent for a few more moments as he listened.

“There’s trouble. Massive movement under us and the upper levels are also starting to stir,” said Ceglar. “It’s not exactly organised but they are getting closer.”

*********

Thanks for reading, if you enjoyed review/comment/follow.

So, now that enough content of the remade Alteration is released I decided to put the old chapters back up. The part where they had a similar start is long over so if anyone does go through it he/she won't spoil anything of the future story. There are some minor background spoilers and similar stuff, but for every one thing that is in there and went unmentioned(for now) there are two which I decided to change(and also didn't mention for now). When you see both major and minor differences in characters do remember that the remade ones are the correct ones and the old ones are in the past.

If anyone decides to give it a read keep in mind that the writing is terrible, though it's a good reminder for me of my past mistakes.

If I see that the new readers are getting confused I'll soft delete them again (though I did make it pretty clear what's old).

Regards,

Crow