Erramir, already unsettled by his gut, immediately pulled his long sword and shield, moving out in front of his friends. Val stood in close, on his right shoulder. Carson edged in on the left.

“Virg is freaked. He just started repeating ‘Bad bugs… bad bugs.’ It’s making my damn skin crawl,” whispered Val.

Erramir didn’t like the sound of that. “Bugs don’t sound like a fight we’re set up for. Car, you got anything for bugs?”

“Ahhh, no.” He was obviously alarmed. “Need mechanic, remember. We haven’t fought bugs yet. The hailstone AOE spell might work. I don’t know, depends on the size of the bugs. If they’re tiny, it’ll do nothing.”

He looked at Val, “My gut is in high alert, but it’s confused. You got anything on your threat map?”

She shook her head, “No, nothing. And Virg is still saying the same thing. I suppose I could keep working on our connection. If I can get through, maybe I can ask him to explain a bit more.”

Erramir noted Val had used the masculine pronoun to describe Virg instead of the neutral it but dismissed commenting for now. “Good, but let’s not count on that. Carson, can you at least work on a preliminary spell idea to fight bugs?”

He closed his eyes and lifted his hands. Erramir saw a bit of essence distortion around them. “Yeahh.” Carson murmured; eyes still closed. “I think I can, but I need to sit still and focus.” He looked at them. “Let’s stay here for a bit so I can work on it.”

Erramir considered that. His gut wasn’t clear but sitting here didn’t feel right. “Val, can you watch over Carson while he does that? I’d like to scout ahead a bit, get a close-up look at the canyon bottom. There’s some kind of a half-buried pipe out there I want to put eyes on.”

She nodded, “Yeah, no problem.”

“I won’t go far,” Erramir said as he activated Predator’s Steps, instantly feeling lighter and more agile.

He then doubled down, enhancing his twitch, and his body awareness heightened again. The difference was significant. He felt fast, nimble, and light. Just standing still, his weight shifted subtly forward, poised to explode into motion.

Like this, he glided down the passage. Approaching the end, he considered his monstrous shield. It felt clunky with his dexterous attributes boosted. He set it leaning against the wall a few paces inside the passage entrance. His offhand felt naked, so he pulled his dagger and felt more natural.

Duel wielding dagger and sword, he moved against the left side wall and crept to the entrance. This gave him a long view down the canyon to the right. He held there, taking a good minute to wait for any movement. There was none.

He stepped back several paces and crossed to the right, repeating the same slow creep up to the passage entrance. He held again for a long minute, peering down to the left and waiting for movement. Again, there was nothing.

Erramir’s gut was insistent in its ambiguous warning. He couldn’t see it, but something was down here.

Backing half a step from the opening, he studied the rounded bulge running the length of the canyon. It was only twenty feet away now and clearly looked like the half-buried pipe he’d guessed at before. He kept inspecting it, looking for anything that would give a clue to the amorphous danger that his gut sensed.

The pipe was completely smooth, without unions or bolts that he could see. It also did not appear to be metal. Instead, it seemed to be made of stone that was a shade lighter than the surrounding rock.

It was clearly not a natural occurrence, although the absence of any seam or connection made it hard to imagine how it was built. Magic was the only thing that made sense. He just wasn’t accustomed to thinking in terms of fabricating with magic. This whole complex could have been built with magic for all he knew.

He moved forward, dropped into a low crouch, poked his head out just beyond the entrance, and looked straight down the bottom row of homes closest to him. Seeing nothing, he quickly spun his head about to get a view down to the right. Thankfully, it was clear.

Erramir slipped around the corner on nimble feet and crept along the stone cut home fronts toward the first window opening. Approaching, he saw it was a tall, broad window with a sill at hip height and devoid of frame or glass just as all in the entire city were.

He noted one difference: this opening was considerably larger than any of those they’d seen above.

He dropped to a crouch again and looked in from the bottom corner. The entry room was long, and only a couple paces deep, which was also different from the upper-level homes. It had the rough feel of a front porch.

He darted across the opening, keeping low, and looked back into the blind corner; it was empty.

Looking over the sill, he could see through a second window opening in the interior wall. The room beyond appeared to be as wholly vacant as every other structure they’d seen. Still, he wanted to be sure and slipped through the adjacent door to investigate.

Ten minutes later, Erramir stole out from a second unit. This one had been the first two-story structure he’d come across in the mining colony. It had the feel of a retail store with living quarters above.

It was just a guess, but the bottom floor was dominated by a single room, and it made sense to him. If the canyon bottom was the main thoroughfare for this community, this would be the best location for a shop.

He wanted to cross over to the opposite side and look through a couple of those units as well. But he’d already been gone from Carson and Val longer than he’d intended. So, Erramir headed back to check in with them before exploring further.

When he rounded the corner into the passage, Val tensed and raised her staff. He raised his hands in a calming gesture before gathering up his shield as a precaution and joining them at the passage rear.

Val spoke first, “Did you find anything?”

Erramir shook his head, “No. How about you, anything new from Virg? Or progress on two-way communication?”

She seesawed her head, indicating fractional progress of some type. Erramir tilted his head, raising a brow in inquiry.

Val expounded, “Virg hasn’t changed his tune, but my link to him is changing; I’m getting images now along with his words. They’re indistinct, though. From his perspective, most things are new, so context is difficult, but he seems to imagine himself immersed in a kind of fog made up of really tiny bugs.”

She tilted her head and closed her eyes as if to get a better view of the projection from Virg. Eyes still closed, Val bobbed her head ever so slightly, “Yeah. It’s a fog, greyish maybe– Ohh.” Her expression turned to shock, which immediately began to melt. “He can perceive my hands. They’re comforting to him, help him feel safe.”

Val’s face fell into compassion. “He’s scared,” she said softly. “And clinging to my hands in terror.”

She stood quietly for a long moment, then Valerie’s posture tensed.

Erramir could see resolve gather around her eyes and in her jaw. He could guess what that shift was; the awakening of a protective maternal instinct. He was glad for Val but immediately saw a potential problem.

“Val, will you be able to use Virg like you have been up to this point? Will you be able to launch him in ranged attacks and use your essence to manipulate him at a distance?”

Val opened her eyes and regarded him fiercely. Erramir withdrew slightly. “Hey, I’m just asking. No pressure, but this place has the feel of a fight. I need to know what you’ll be able to bring.”

Val looked away; she saw the validity of his concern immediately. “No.” Her tone was apologetic. “I don’t think so. At this point, if I did that, I think Virg would feel abandoned.” She grimaced, then met his eyes. “I can’t risk the long-term damage to our bond.”

Erramir railed against that answer internally. Fuck. Virg has been critical in every fight so far. This just got a whole lot more dangerous. Aloud he was less severe. “Okay, well, that makes any fight a bit harder. Can you at least use him as a normal fighting staff?”

She nodded, “Yeah, that shouldn’t be a problem. Also, Virg gets really excited for fights. Maybe I’ll be wrong.” But it was half-hearted and nothing to hang their hope on. Erramir acknowledged her and squatted down to be at eye level with Carson, who was sitting cross-legged with his back to the wall.

Eyes closed, hands and fingers moving in intricate gestures, Carson was fully immersed in his process. Erramir spoke in a bare whisper, “Hey Car, how’s it going?”

The mage nodded his head slowly while his hands keep up their cryptic dance. “Good, it's good. Really slow without a threat. Need more time.” He spoke softly, distractedly.

“Okay, you got it.” Erramir stood and addressed Val again, “Carson wants more time, and I want to scout on the other side of the canyon some. You good to stay here? Maybe comfort him,”–he indicated Virg–“while you keep Car safe?”

Val nodded. Erramir turned to go, but she caught his arm.

“How did you know Virg was a he? I didn’t tell you that, did I?” she whispered, looking a touch suspicious.

He smiled back at her, “You started referring to Virg as a he as soon as we got to the bottom.” He indicated the ramp with his chin. “I just didn’t mention it.”

“Oh, I did?” Val said, surprised.

“Yeah, you did. Seemed natural enough to me, and it also seemed like progress for your bond.” Val’s gaze drifted back toward the ramp bottom and she released his arm.

“I’ll be back in ten,” he whispered and left.

Erramir set his shield as before then repeated his check for movement, this time with less rigor, checking both ways from the right side of the passage. Satisfied, he slipped around the corner and surveyed the canyon once more.

It remained deserted, at least to his eyes, although his gut continued to roil indecisively. The area around the pipe was active with the air distorting essence effect that he’d seen previously.

He approached it with cautions steps.

The wide, shallow trench on the far side was distinct up close. It looked like a dry stream bed, which seemed odd. But thinking about it, Erramir supposed it could have been the source of freshwater in the canyon, although not a sanitary one being so exposed.

Also, canyons, even underground canyons, were typically created by the slow erosion of running water.

The pipe came up to his hip. Erramir crouched before it for a closer inspection. Up close, it looked basically as it had from the passage, made of a lighter stone and completely smooth.

Viewing down the length of the pipe, it was almost perfectly straight, but not entirely. There were slight deviations where it rose or dipped just a little or curved out to one side. They were so minor as to be invisible from any perspective but this long, inline view.

The distorting essence stood out clearly now. It rose in intermittent waves, causing areas to blur briefly before clearing again. His curiosity overrode caution and Erramir reached to run his hand along it.

Fingers hovering inches away, his gut suddenly spiked with danger. Erramir shuffled back, hand shooting to his sword hilt.

Below where he had nearly touched, a dense cloud of the distorting fog rapidly collected. He stepped further clear.

It was the first clear signal from his gut since entering the canyon–the fog of strange essence was not friendly. He looked down the length of the pipe again. Flickers of the warping energy had definitely increased. Whatever was wrong down here, this pipe was connected to it.

He jumped it and did the same over the dry trench for good measure. Distorting fog wasn’t evident in the shallow channel, but he was better being cautious than accidentally triggering something ancient and sinister.

At the far side, the nimble warrior ducked into the first door. This unit had the same front porch layout as the others. He’d started mentally referring to each separated structure as a unit, as they clearly weren’t all homes, and it felt more accurate. He cleared through this one, finding it similarly empty and with the same layout as the first single-story unit from the other side.

Leaving, he headed in the opposite direction from his first scouting foray and quickly scouted through three more units.

The second and third had two stories, and a foyer in the back-left side of the second, had a rear entrance that exited into a passage. He explored down that passage, finding other unit entrances as well as a ramp that went both up and down.

He took the ramp down, creeping to just inside the exit to the canyon bottom. Motion inside the passage where Carson and Val were grabbed his attention.

Alarmed, Erramir slipped out and skirted down the façade toward them. As he neared, he saw they were talking with heads close. Carson’s back was to the canyon, he motioned emphatically toward the pipe. The discussion was too animated to be anything but urgent.

Val, facing out, caught sight of Erramir one unit from being directly across from them. A split-second later, Carson turned and started waving his hands excitedly.

Erramir’s battle sense came alive. He took off, crossing the gap on a diagonal toward them.

He felt a flare of protective anger, redirecting his perception talent from Twitch to enhancing Strength for a fight. Mid stride, his feet became a bit clunkier, and he stumbled, then tripped, tumbling toward the pipe.

Danger blazed in his gut. Stumbling toward a collision with the pipe, he jumped, thinking to dive head-first over it, then duck into a roll.

Sadly, reducing twitch also reduced his jumping ability. Erramir was going to impact the pipe chest first. Shit!

Instinctively, he threw out his hands to vault it.

“Noo!” Carson’s voice broke the silence.

The warning was too late. Erramir’s hands landed on the pipe just as his eyes met Carson’s.

A jolt of power surged from the cool stone beneath his hands. All about him, the distortion of swirling essence turned dark and gathered thick as soup. Panic grabbed Erramir as he saw horror spread across his friend's face just as everything became tinted violet by the cloud.

He tensed and time crawled forward.

Then his feet were swinging between his hands. He was vaulting clear of the pipe and landing in a dead sprint back toward Valerie and Carson. “I think I fucked up!”