“I can’t help you Felix. Since Grand Templar Gunnson was murdered, we don’t have anyone left who can grant new torches. For the time being, Arch Templar Siren has closed recruitment,” said Saga, pulling a wire taut to hoist a tent canvas over a makeshift shelter.

“But… I don’t need a torch. I just want to do something to help.”

Her eyes tensed. “You’re free to help, whenever you want.”

Felix rushed in to keep a tent-pole upright. “Sure, but I think I could do more as a Knight.”

“How exactly? A torch doesn’t change what you can do.”

“Well…”

“Felix.” Saga fixed him with a weary look. “I’m tired, angry, hungry, and lost my parents to that Byss damned liar of a Lord. If you don’t want to be honest with me, don’t bother me. I thought we established that already.”

Felix paused, and let out a sigh. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“Can you set up another pole there?” Saga pointed at a piece of flapping tarp.

He picked up the metal beam and dug one end into the ground. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” Saga came up close to tie the tarp to the pole, and began to attach ropes to the ground. They continued working on the shelter.

“Aren’t you going to ask why I want to join?” Felix asked after a while.

“Nope. I’ve got work to do.”

“Will you listen?”

“Maybe if you’re honest.”

“I want to look for them,” Felix’s voice wavered.

Saga’s hands tied a knot and paused.

“I know that’s not what you’re supposed to do, but if I don’t join the Knights, I’ll never have a chance to look for them. I know they say the other Lords or silver torches will fix it, but I don’t want to wait. I need to feel like I can do something. Like I’ve got a chance to look for them.” Miraculously, he managed to keep his tone firm. It wasn’t the whole truth, but close enough.

Saga sniffed and wrinkled her nose while blinking rapidly. Her voice was that of a small little girl, when she said, “Alright. Go find Arch Templar Siren. I think she might let you join, if you point out that you passed the first two rounds of the Interview, and tell her I recommended you.”

“Where can I find her?”

“The mountainside bunker. Second floor.” Saga wiped her eyes.

Felix almost gave her a hug, but paused and instead patted her shoulder. “Thanks. Should I stay and help you finish?”

“Just go.” Saga brushed him off. “I’ll manage.”

Felix scaled the tiers of the fortress with hurried strides, asking instructions, and pleading for doors to be opened. In the mountain’s bowels, at the end of a lamp-lit tunnel, he found Annette Siren’s office.

She pored over documents spread over an ornamental pine desk. Behind her back spread a shelf bursting with exotic relics, and a few liquor bottles that wouldn’t have been out of place in Mrs. Gunhild’s collection. On her side-desk sat a large military-grade radio and a half-finished woolly sock with a pair of knitting needles.

“I am busy,” Annette said patiently, though an undercut of stress strained her voice. “Take a seat and wait outside, unless you have an emergency, or pertinent information regarding Sofie’s plans. I’ll have a moment to spare in an hour and a half.”

Felix and Bii took a seat each without a word.

Hour and a half crawled to the slow tick-tock, scratching of pen, shuffling of paper, and an occasional muffled curse from the Arch Templar. Felix spent it studying the faded Knight of the End propaganda posters glued around the hallway, and read through the delving news section of a three week old newspaper he found lying around.

A loud sigh startled him upright. A glass hit the table and Annette Siren stormed past Felix, pulling on the vest of her delving suit while walking. “Walk and talk. You have three minutes.”

Felix sprang up. “I wanted to enlist as a Knight and help. Saga recommended that I should come straight to you, and ask for an exception, since I apparently passed the first two rounds?”

“The interviews.” Annette chortled. “I’m glad someone has their priorities set.”

“That’s not it. Ma’am, I want to help. I’m ready to do anything to help the Knights to bring Half-Valley back.”

“Firstly, don’t Ma’am me. I’m thirty two.”

“Sorry!” The scars did age her up.

“Secondly, if guts were the only quality required of a Knight, my grandma would be one. Knights of the End are not a local nightwatch or a goodwill organization. We are an ancient order of knights sworn to protect humanity and Surface from threats of the Abyss, and those who would wrongly wield it. Are you joining just for the torch, or to help save your family, or are you here to pledge your soul to the Knights of the End?”

Felix studied the tiled ground, unable to lie in face of such firm dedication.

“Guts aren’t everything a knight needs.” Annette’s lips crept into a smile. “But it is an important hiring criteria. We don’t have time nor the resources for a full psycho analysis, so I’ll go with what I see. Come with me. Prove to me you have the body and mind of a knight. We can test your soul once we overcome this tragedy.”

Felix nodded sharply. “Yes m-. I mean, where are we going?”

“Yes Arch Templar Siren, or Templar Siren,” Annette corrected. She banged on metal doors they passed by, and raised her voice to a booming shout. “All available knights up! We’re heading to the Abyss! And someone bring with an extra set of climbing gear!”

They were joined by ten knights Felix hadn’t seen before, each of them brought an extra set of climbing gear, one of which was handed to Felix. Besides the knights followed also the short-haired athletic girl who had wrestled Rodmar’s catfish-snake. She was clad in a knight’s light armor and carried an ornately crafted copper vial, already filled with red-edged silverlight. Seemed like her victory had been decided even before she aced every round. Felix could smell the ‘rich and connected’ oozing off her posture.

Either way, he returned the girl’s cordial nod with a smile. He had bigger things to worry about than favoritism.

Templar Siren led them down into Forttown. Wreckages still smoldered and smoked. Every shadow and corner was infested with denizens that shouldn’t be there. Templar Siren pressed on through the ashen city all the way to the jagged cliff, where Half-Valley had snapped off.

She spun around, arms behind her back. “Knights and knight aspirants! You have a simple mission today. Delve as deep or shallow as you can, and salvage the remnants of Half-Valley for supplies. Food. Water. Medicine. Bring back everything you can. Now pair up. Coppers with coppers. Irons with irons. I don’t want your partners holding you back from reaching deeper. Remember to always keep an eye on each other.”

As the knights paired up, Felix and the rich girl looked at each other in silent understanding.

He approached her with a handshake. “Felix Andersson.”

“Julia Roos.” Her grip was firm.

Bii pinged.

“And this is Bii.”

“A denizen?”

“Nah, it’s a rabbit I dressed up as a denizen. What do you think? Is the disguise good?”

Julia shook her head, failing to hide a smile. “Let’s get to work.”

“Hold up. Need to charge my relic. Oh wait, what does the terrain look like?” He peeked over the edge.

The snapped off part of Forttown continued, straight down. An entire chunk of reality had tilted to a nearly sheer angle. Trees leaned downward and gravity had ripped off most of the buildings to their foundations. Copper and iron torches slid down past the area.

“Guess that spot is for us to salvage…”

Felix manifested Intent Bank, and began releasing the various stored intents to clean his slots. He spent a total of ten minutes looking silly. Afterwards, Felix felt pretty good about the intents he stored.

Both legs had eight charges of ‘go fast’ renamed as ‘speed’, because why change a winning strategy? Felix scrapped the violent charges. Going offensive against unknown denizens was a surefire way to lose a limb or your life. Regular ‘defend’ had also proved itself somewhat useless against superior opponents. Instead, Felix stored eight charges of ‘evade’-intent in one arm, and eight charges of ‘climb’ in the other. It overlapped slightly with ‘speed’, but better have too much mobility in a vertical environment than too little.

“All done?” Julia waited for Felix with hands on her hips.

“Yup.” Felix followed her to the edge.

Wood groaned within Julia’s body. Bark coated her skin. Her hair sprouted into a thicket of thorns and leaves. A thick barbred vine double her length sprouted from her lower back. Two gnarly wooden horns, barbred as well, sprouted from the front of her skull.

“Wow.” Felix whistled.

Julia turned away from him, giving him an offended look. “You’re three years older.”

“No, no, no. Lords no!” Felix waved his hands in panic. “You misunderstand. It’s a cool relic. That’s all.”

Julia pursed her lips, and pointed at a tall basement. “I’ll search over there.”

“Sure.” Felix gave her a thumbs up. “Seriously though. I did not mean it that way.”

“I believe you,” the girl said, and began scaling the tilted street with her vinetail.

Felix crouched by the edge, eyeing the sloped drop. “Bii, wanna lend me a helping paw?”

Bii slumped, and pinged in a condescending tone.

“What? No! Ew!” Felix recoiled. “You’ve got empathic sensory abilities, right? Can you tune in on any survivors or denizens that might sneak up on us. Or hey, if you can feel the mood of a nearby stack of food, that’d be amazing, but I’m not expecting miracles.”

Bii pinged and stomped its foot.

“Okay, that was unwarranted. My bad. Can you help me though? Please.”

Bii turned its beady eyes to the cliff. Its feelers lifted up, twitching and turning. After a moment, it pinged once, and hopped down to a sideways tree. Felix hurried after him as carefully as one could slide down a tilted street.

Holes in the cobblestreet gave him handholds. Verges of the road offered thin slivers to walk on. Trees and firmly rooted buildings were blessed respites. Going down wasn’t nearly as hard as it had seemed from above. It wasn’t hard, but each glance at the drop below did squeeze Felix’s guts.

Every now and then he checked on Julia. By the time Felix reached a house that Bii pinged about excitedly, the fellow knight aspirant was still rummaging through the remains of an enormous basement. Happy Flowerpot, said a sign standing sideways before the ruins. Maybe she figured that seeds and soil could come in handy if the crisis went on for years.

“Bibii!”

“‘Kay. What do you have for me Bii?” Felix secured a climbing pick to the foundation they stood on. He kicked down some of the loosely attached wall boards, and eased down along the now sideways floor. Bii rode on his back, and guided Felix to a padlocked cellar hatch.

Felix struck it with a climbing pick. Clang.

“A scratch. Nice. If we keep it up this’ll be open before Jul.”

Bii pinged as if to sigh.

“Agreed. We need another plan. You don’t happen to be a master thief and lockpicker?”

Bii showed Felix its fingerless stubby paws.

“Yeah, but I try not to judge people based on appearance. Hmm...”

A wooden crash came from Julia’s tail ripping off and tossing aside the floorboards. It didn’t look like she was finding anything on her own.

“Hey!” Felix waved. “Hey! Oi, Julia, Julia Roos!”

She paused, looked his way, and shouted back. “What?”

“We found something good over here, but it’s locked. Wanna lend a tail?”

A few moments later, she ripped the locked hatch off its hinges. The most pungent smell of unwashed feet and everything disgusting almost smacked Felix unconscious.

He pinched his nose. “Lords!”

Sniffed repeatedly, Julia leaned her head into the cellar.

“Wait! Don’t do it. The air may be poisoned,” said Felix.

Julia drew in a deep breath, sighing with pleasure. “It’s not poisonous, you dork. Frejen’s Gammelost cheese is a priced delicacy.”

“Gammelost?” Felix peeked inside, still pinching his nose. Julia’s silverlight illuminated a mound of brown wheels broken and whole. Pieces of shelves were mixed among the smelly rubble. Various tiny denizens crawled about the pile, stuffing their mouths faster than they could chew.

“Welp. Looks like we were too late. Shouldn’t eat food a denizen has pooped into, unless you want a weeklong vacation at the porcelain throne. A shame really. What a life it would’ve been to have enough gammelost to sprinkle it in breakfast, lunch, and dinner for five months straight.”

“Most of the wheels look untouched.” Julia stepped inside. “Come. Let’s salvage what we can.”

“Yeah, you do that. Me and Bii will look around for another cellar.”

Julia frowned at him. “Arch Templar Siren gave us a mission to keep an eye on each other. It’s too risky to split up. Besides, you can’t expect me to pack and haul all of this all by myself.”

“No. I guess I can’t.” Felix suppressed a groan, took a deep breath of outside air, and delved into the cellar.

A smelly operation of ‘save the cheese’ took place. Many a denizen were caught and tossed into the Abyss. A few cheese wheels were lost—thank the Byss—but a majority of them ended up riding up onto the edge in Felix’s and Julia’s backpacks. Both the ascent from the basement and descent to it had their own unique torments. One strained Felix’s arms to a point of burning tingles, and the other tested his resolve by cleansing his nose enough that his sense of smell was always fresh for a new round of agony. Hours, yes hours, of suffering lasted until afternoon began to darken.

Despite feeling as if they had brought in a massive haul, the pile of gammelost rolls looked very modest compared to the mountain of supplies the real knights brought up and piled on the wagons and pulleys. He could only hope it was enough to impress Arch Templar Siren.

“You are free to partake in the food that templar Heidi is serving.” Arch Templar’s voice startled Felix from a daze.

He spotted a group of knights chatting around an imp cooker. All manner of freshly salvaged ingredients sizzled on a skillet that a woman, presumably Heidi, tossed and stirred with a chef’s confidence.

“Oh. I didn’t realize. Thanks.” Felix got up, too tired to even ask if he had made it.

“What’s the most important quality of a delver?” The sudden question stunned Felix.

“Uh…” Drat. Is this the test? What do I say? What did Rodmar say was most important again? Bravery? No way could it be so straightforward. This was a trick, a trick that had caught Felix right at his weakest and tiredest. “Uhhh… Food? Sorry, no. Curiosity?” Aww Byss, wrong answer bonk!

Arch Templar Siren smiled. “An adaptive mind is my answer. One must always be ready for when the ceiling becomes the floor, or your doubts turn into flesh eating bullet birds. Be ready. Be clever. That’s your best shot of climbing back alive, delve after delve.”

Felix nodded groggily, unsure if he was in or not.

“Rodmar valued bravery above all. Our newest knight, Julia Roos provided us with a compelling essay on the importance of teamwork. Second newest, I should say. Knowing what lures our members towards the Abyss is vital for avoiding tragedies and weeding out incompatible individuals. I’m glad you answered honestly.”

From her pocket, she retrieved a copper chain attached to a tiny oval vial reinforced by copper bands. She put it on Felix’s palm, and said, “Welcome to the Knights of the End, knight apprentice Andersson. The reliquist can inscribe your name on it in the morning for inscription, but you’ll have to wait a while for the silverlight to be lit. Saga will pick you up in the morning and introduce you to the monastery, so make sure you are ready and well rested.”

She glanced at the group of knights. “Welcome once again. New admissions are typically celebrated with a Reclamation Day feast, but I’ll tell Heidi to fix you something congratulatory.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Felix continued to stare at the torch dumly.

It was lighter than he had thought. The metal was cold to touch. The glass was smooth. It was certainly real. Then why did it feel so unreal, like it might disappear if he so much as blinked.

Felix slipped the empty torch around his neck and took a deep breath, and waited for a sense of elation and accomplishment to flood him with jitters and cheer. I’m a copper torch now. He exhaled. Nothing changed. No rush of adrenaline. No sudden sense of accomplishment. Maybe it wouldn’t feel real until the torch was lit?

Felix gave a thumbs up towards the ever distancing silhouette of Half-Valley. He joined the group of chattering knights, who welcomed him with salutes, smiles, and a plate of grilled pork, fried bread, and a thick slice of gammelost. Actually, it tasted kind of good, once you got past the smell.