"Nikolai!”

I hear a furious female voice echo off of the moonlit streets of the Grimes that I'm currently scurrying across.

“You can't! You aren't ready yet, you’ll only get yourself killed!”

Shit. She’ll attract everyone within a hundred miles.

“Shut up Hermione!” I hiss as I quickly turn around on my heel and face her.

I attempt to look intimidating as I loom over the red-faced girl.

“I know what I'm doing!”

“No you don't! If you did you wouldn't risk going in so early.” Hermione hisses back at my face.

Obviously my attempt at intimidation failed.

“You know full well the mortality rates of going in so early, you stuck around in class long enough to know that at least.”

Why does she always have to rant like this when she's angry?

“You have no maps, no information, no team, no experien-”

“So what? We will never get out of this shit hole if we don't take every chance we can! We can't wait, every moment we wait is a door out of here that we miss. Can't you see? They want to keep us here, They use pretty words and fake promises to tie us down. They use the hope and the fear to keep us relying on them. And out of gratitude we hand over to them everything they ask.

“I know! I know! But getting yourself killed won't help! We just need to be patient for a little longer. Nikolai don't be stupid, just think about this more.”

I step back, preparing to run again.

“I'm done waiting and thinking and hoping, Hermione. I'm finally going to do something.”

A shutter from a dilapidated old hovel slammed open.

“Shut up ya damned shites or I'll shove me blade down your throats and drag ya ta da damned Abyss and threw Ye down.”

The shutter shut with a loud bang just as suddenly as it opened, leaving the street silent except for the occasional rat scritch-scratching its way across the filthy cobblestone street.

I wait for a moment and then turn my back to Hermione and continue running.

The only problem is that Hermione is still following me.

I keep running in hopes that she will give up, but I know she won't.

She’s the only one from the Orphan “Academy”, or really the entirety of the Grimes, who can keep up with me and she was always the most stubborn.

I make my way around the labyrinth that is the Grimes, cursing the insane architect who thought streets should be mazes and then I curse every architect who thought he(or she) could fix it and made it worse. Now it's just layers and layers of streets that don't have names and all look the same. I'm one of the lucky ones that lived long enough to learn how to get around.

As I weave my way closer to entrance of the Abyss I get more and more conscious of my shadow.

She hasn't spoken a word since she started following me. Probably thinking of what to say to convince me to go back. But I'm done with that, I won't be convinced.

I slow to a stop as I reach the place where the Abyss opened.

I stop and look over the mile wide circular chasm in the middle of the Grimes. Collapsed hovels and shacks line the entire circumference, even the best stone houses on the less grimy side of the Grimes bow down to the Abyss.

Everything that used to be inside the area where the Abyss opened? Gone.

There are stories of Delvers sometimes finding things that don't really belong inside some of the smaller and older Abyss’s (Abyssi?); furniture, homes, streets and household items became part of the walls.

No one knows what happens to people during an Opening other than the fact that nearly none come back out. There are a only a few people who survive. Every single one of those people become S class Delvers and join the elite sub-guild of the Delvers called The Abyssals. And they have never talked about what they saw during their Opening.

Anyone who becomes a Delver gains recognition and money even the lowest rank, E rank.

I will become one of them. One of the best too. Maybe good enough to join The Abyssals.

I peek at Hermione standing next to me, she caught up while I was looking at the Abyss, and see her looking out across the abyss with the same expression of awe that I show.

She looks at me and sighs.

“Fine.”

What?

“What?”

“I said fine! I won't stop you from going.”

I wasn't expecting this.

“But I'm going with you.”

I really wasn’t expecting this

“What? No way. You can’t go in there. You’re... You’re…”

“What, I'm me? I'm a girl so I can't delve?”, She purses her lips and stares at me.

God, she's pretty.

I hope she doesn't see me blush.

“Uh.. No that's not it. Uh, I mean, if you wanted to go then why were you so against--”

“I don't want to go. But someone has to look after your dumbass. Unlike you I actually attended all the classes when they told us not to go into a dungeon so early and why, and so I actually know what to look out for. Stupid.”

“I know what I'm doing and I don't need you to look after me. If you want to come with me then fine, but don't use me as an excuse.”

I start making my way through the rubble as I hear her growl in exasperation.

“Do you even have a way to get down to the staircase?”

“Of course, I wouldn't be here if I didn't.”

We climb through several rotten beams from a fallen hovel (probably rotten before fallen) as Hermione fills the silence with her usual ranting.

“You know, they don't let people down when Abyss’s first form because no one actually knows what it's going to be like. It's only been 2 months, there aren't any A rank teams close enough to have come and check it out yet. So the terrain is unknown, the depth, the entities, pretty much anything you need to know to survive in a Abyss. And we are going in.”

“The A rankers survive. And besides do you know how many people already went in? A bunch of people want to strike it rich by discovering something amazing.”

“And how many did you see come out?”

“I don't watch the Abyss all day, I'm sure some of them came out when I wasn't looking, and yes I did see one guy leave with my own eyes.”

I won't tell her was tripping over himself in his haste to get away or she will be annoying me about this for days.

“Alright so a few guys got lucky. The surface floors of the Abyss are not usually impossible to survive, but who stops at the first floor? It's like you said, the reason people go down in the first place is for the money and fame from the discoveries and the first floor won't have much things to discover.”

Makes me wonder why I only saw that one guy, anything is better than nothing after all. Maybe they enter from somewhere else?

“Yea, but anything is better than nothing, and all we need to get out of the Grimes is Anything, after all the people who live in the Grimes have Nothing.”

“Well you're not wrong, and that's the only reason I even considered coming with you, but there is no way we are going deeper than the surface floor.”

I roll my eyes as I move towards a pile of rubble twice my height at the edge of the Abyss with Hermione following behind me. She stares into the Abyss with probably the same feelings that I have. Excitement, fear, hope, greed even. The only difference is that I don't need to stare into the Abyss anymore; I've already burned the image of it into my mind.

I crawl in between the two collapsed cobblestone walls to get to my raggedy backpack filled with essential Delver gear: Rope (frayed), waterskin (half-empty), rations (old cheese and a rock solid piece of bread), weapon (sharpened dagger), Compass (not sure where it points to but definitely not north), a couple sheets of parchment (only slightly used, and maybe a little crumpled), pencil (piece of charcoal), and a fingernail sized piece of Emberite hidden in a small shoddy wooden container.

Emberite, even just this small piece, is my most prized possession. I naturally had to show Hermione now that she will be Delving with me.

I crawl out of my hidey-hole and plaster a grin on my face as I slowly open the box. I see her confusion for a second until she notices what's in the box.

“How in the Abyss did you manage to get your hands on Emberite?! Can I... hold it?”

Her face, hah. Priceless!

“Yea, but be careful with it, I just found it laying around here, glowing, i'm kinda surprised no one else got to it before me… ”

My grin widens as I watch her slender fingers dip into the box and pull out the gently glowing rock. The darkness around us retreats as she brings the stone closer to her face, gently illuminating her face. Her brown eyes, focused intensely on the Emberite, turn amber as the orange light caresses her visage.

I blush furiously as I catch myself staring at her from an uncomfortable distance. I move back a little, catching her attention in the process. She looks up at me focusing on my face.

Ah, what do I say now?

“Thank you for showing me, Nikolai.”

I release a breath I didn't know I was holding. I then proceed to smile the most charismatic smile that I have ever smiled.

“Ah, it's no problem. So, I guess down we

go.”

“Yup.” She smiles back at me as she puts the Emberite back into the box, leaving us in the darkness. “Down we go.”

I put the box back into my pack then begin walking, careful not to trip over any rubble, to the very edge of the Abyss where I have a coiled rope in much better condition than the one I have in my pack. It's tied to a short column of cobblestone, probably a corner of what may have been a relatively luxurious house considering it probably had walls.

I kick the coil of rope over the side of the Abyss, it's not as easy to kick this much rope as I had thought, though, and so I lose my balance and let out an undignified squawk as I jump back away from the Abyss as the rope fwip-fwips it's way down.

Oh God, I'm going to have a heart attack.

I hear Hermione snort at my failed attempt to look cool.

I quickly straighten and salvage what's left of my dignity. I cough and begin to speak.

“Anyway, I've been around this whole thing, and it's huge. But this is the only place where I saw anything that even resembles a staircase. It's actually directly below us.”

“I kinda gathered that already Nik.”

I can see her suppress a laugh.

Great job Nikolai, why not state more of the obvious. How about: The sky is blue, or better yet, the Earth is round, hell, even you're pretty Hermione. Wait, where did that come from. Mutiny! Traitorous brain!

“So, what? Now you expect me to climb down this shitty rope?”

I can see she's actually serious now, the moment having passed.

I shrug, miffed at her poking fun at me then complaining.

“You're the one who wanted to come, and I'm going to climb down this “shitty” rope. Besides, this rope is definitely safe, well, definitely safer than anything in the Grimes. I “borrowed” it from the Inner Fringe”

“Wait, Wait. So that time last week when you were gone all day and came back the next morning all bruised, bloody and barely conscious, forcing me to look after you that entire day--”

“Uh-huh.” I innocently nod.

She purses her lips in that cute way again and squints at me.

Uh-oh

“You told me that you got caught up in a gang fight, you liar. I should have known, you never get caught except by me, and I guess the Fringe Patrol now.”

“Yea, well it was worth it for this, even though my balls still shrivel in memory of that beating. They know how to make it hurt. Hah.”

I give her my best shit-eating grin.

She laughs, just like the wind chimes they sell in the Fringe market.

Oh thank the Abyss, she laughed. It doesn't look like she'll gut me anymore.

“Nik you can talk a beggar into giving you alms.”

“Well, technically--”

“Oh yeah, technically you are a beggar since you refuse to stay at the Academy like the rest of us. How could I have forgotten?”

I keep my mouth shut at that.

She looks like she wants to gut me again.

“I just don't understand why you insist on going to the Outer Fringe to play the starving child. That's nothing to be proud of.”

“Well I really am starving most days though.”

“Again, that's completely your own fault, if you would just listen to me. All you need to do is attend the class and get a meal and a bed, but you’re too stubborn, paranoid, cowardly, and stupid.”

“Well Hermione, that carriage has passed. After this we won't have to ever go back.”

I fit my pack more snuggly onto my back and grip the rope. I make my way over the edge and begin down.

------

I sit on a relatively flat rock next to the cobblestone column that the rope is attached to. The only movement is that of the rope fidgeting slightly as Nikolai goes down.

Gah, he's such an idiot. Everything will change? He’ll be able to leave the Grimes? Only naive idiots like him… I guess sometimes I want to be a little more like him, if only for the hopes and dreams.

I can't believe I'm going to follow him down.