Hermione is tying her silky black hair into a bun.

I don't understand why she cares so much for her hair.

“So you got the plan Nik? Or do I have to go over it again.”

“No, I think I got it the sixth time you explained; if anything other than us moves, run back. If anything makes a weird noise, run back. If that something is behind us we run forward then when it's safe we run back. If we get separated, mark the walls and try to make your way back to the start. When we find an artifact, even if it's just one, we turn back. When we- you get hungry (I'm always hungry.) it means it's morning and we turn back.”

Hermione finishes tying her bun and smiles.

“Wow, you remembered. I thought I'd have to go over it at least another four times.”

I don't understand what changed over the last month to make insulting me so fun for her.

“So which crack do you want to crawl up into Hermione?”

She scrunches up her nose in distaste.

“You should use more elegant language around a lady.”

I have to smirk at that.

“I'll keep that in mind for when I see a lady.”

“Hmph, you wouldn't know a lady if she were right in front of you. Whatever, I'm not crawling into any crack, we go into a cave.”

It's too dark to see more than a few feet ahead of us even with the Emberite. The walls near the staircase are solid and flat, but the further out we get the more openings into the true Abyss there are.

The light that the Emberite emits casts shadows off of all the small debris and protrusions on the Abyss floor. It's mesmerizing to watch all the shadows revolve and swivel around us as we walk deeper into the Abyss.

“So which one do you want to go in?”

We've gone far enough from the staircase to encounter a few decent sized caves.

“One that we can walk through without ripping our clothes, I spent too much on mine to have to fix them already.”

“You shouldn't waste money on fancy clothes.” I shake my head.

“You didn't think about that when you bought those boots?”

I quietly reply, “These were gifts from people long cold.”

“Oh.”

We walk on and soon come across a suitable cave.

“Well, let's try this one.”

A few hours of walking later Hermione looks up.

“The light doesn't reach the ceiling anymore.”

I look up and see that's true, I can't even see the light reflect off of the water on the stalactites.

“Alright, so the cave gets bigger. What there's going to be a cavern soon?”

“Widening in a cave does not necessarily mean there will be a cavern, but I think in this case there will be - I hope there will be, this is boring.”

“It's good that it's boring. It means we don't need to run yet.”

We continue to go forward, and sure enough, the tunnel begins to open up.

“Slow down Nik, and cover the light a bit, we don't know what's in here.”

I take her advice and close my hand over the Emberite. The light just barely reveals the ground we stand on. We slowly move into the cavern. I feel a sudden chill as we step into the cavern.

I would have said it's amazing, but since we don't actually see anything it wouldn't be very believable.

The only thing that changes is that I can't see the walls anymore, so all we see is darkness. I uncover the Emberite slowly, letting more light out.

The light finally reveals something, not too far from us, about a dozen stalactites come all the way down from a ceiling the light does not reveal, they connect to the stalagmites on the ground forming columns. At the base of the columns, there is a shallow pool of water.

“Is it just me or is this exactly the kind of place where an artifact could be found?

“I don't know, go find out.”

I move to get to the columns.”

There's probably something in the middle of all those columns.

“Careful Nik.”

I hear Hermione and I force myself to slow down even more as I walk through the puddle.

I reach the first columns and I squeeze through to get closer to the center, the rock is cold, slimy, and rough. I make sure to be careful to not add any more bruises or scratches to the already large family of injuries I have.

“What? Hermione, it's just a hole.”

The center of the cavern is just a crack with no bottom in sight. There's a cold wind blowing from it, giving me goosebumps as the wind dances over my skin.

“Nikolai, are you sure?”

I can hear the slight worry in her voice

“Yeah, I can't even see the bottom, it's just a hole.”

I say with disappointment and I wiggle back out from the columns.

Now I can hear the panic in her voice.

“We have to go back. Right now Nik.”

At that point, I start to hear things.

Click-click. Click-click-click.

I freeze and listen.

What is that?

Hermione is now pale.

“Nik, run.”

And she bolts back into the tunnel with me running after her lighting the way as best I can.

I'm not sure why we are running but it's probably because that sound spooked Hermione. Now that Hermione is scared, I'm scared.

But we are both so fast, what's there to be scared of?

We make it back to where the tunnel started and Hermione slows to a stop, hands on her knees and panting.

I'm in slightly better shape.

“What was it, Hermione?”

She pants a bit more before replying.

“Didn't you hear it? That clicking. Those were the legs of Cave Spiders.”

I blink and look at her in open-mouthed astonishment.

“We ran all the way back because you were afraid of spiders?”

Hermione shakes her head.

“Not spiders, cave spiders, and not just any cave spiders. Those were big enough to make noise when moving. Use your brain, we are in the Abyss, nothing is normal. They were at least as big as a cat, but most likely the size of a dog.”

The image of dogs with six legs runs through my mind.

I think I hear something again. I cock my head and try to catch it again.

Click-click.

“Didn't you say abyssal constructs can't come near here?”

Hermione frowns.

“They shouldn't be able to. Unless they can survive in low Aether concentration.”

“Can we fight them?”

Hermione shakes her head.

“Maybe if there were one or two. But it sounds like there is a lot more. Those legs adapted to be really sharp, they use them to climb rock walls and cut up prey.”

“Then we run.”

“Don't go back to the staircase, they are faster than us on difficult terrain. Run to the other end of the Abyss.”

I can see shadows moving at the edge of the light. There's a lot more than one, at least a dozen. Slightly smaller than a dog, so Hermione was right. Maybe I could have fought one or two, but not twelve.

Her accuracy is scary.

I grab Hermione's soft hand and run.

I head to the other end of the Abyss. I want to get a lead on the spiders so I can think of something.

Running over the debris brings back memories.

Running over the rooftops, uncatchable, invulnerable, invincible. Wind through my hair, kissing my face, pushing me faster. Running through the streets on dark nights with only the moon to illuminate the way. The world seems to stop when I run, it's only me and the wind.

“Nikolai, slow down.”

Hermione gasps.

I realize I was dragging her behind me and I slow down.

“Sorry.”

A bit later the Abyss wall looms out from the inky blackness.

“We've gained a bit of time but not much.”

There's a small circular hole in the wall which I glance at.

“No, no way, I won't be crawling into any hole if I can help it.”

“Well, you can't help it. We(you) can't run forever you are already tired. It's this or fighting the spiders.

“Fine. You're fixing my clothes.”

The gap is about chest level, so I have to help Hermione up.

I definitely did not think about how soft her skin is or how well defined her rear is as I was helping her in. I would never do that.

She got in on her hands and knees, leaving me a great view considering she's wearing hard leather pants, the best we could get in the Grimes.

“Stop ogling and get in. You'll have time to get beat up later.”

I grin as I push myself up after her.

I hope this tunnel is long.

“Pervert, give me the light.”

Shoot.

“Of course, lead the way.”

I hand her the Emberite with a tinge of regret.

“You better hope this tunnel is short, I'm pretty sure those spiders won't take long to figure out were in here.”

We start crawling down the tunnel.

“We should be able to get back to the staircase through another cave; all of these caves should be interconnected.”

The crack we are currently crawling through isn't nice and smooth like I was hoping. There are plenty of protrusions that scape us as we squeeze through.

Luckily, it turns out the crawley hole was not very long so I didn't die of blood loss, a few minutes after we started Hermione jumps out with me following behind her.

We land in a cave tunnel similar to the other cave tunnels around here. Rough, damp walls covered in moss, and bugs most likely. The ground has a few large stalagmites near the edges of the cave, creeping ever upward.

“So what are we going to do about the spiders, they may not be able to catch up over open ground, but caves are where they are most dangerous. They'll just climb up and crawl through the hole like us. Then they will eat us.”

I acknowledge her statement with a long, “Hmm.”

I look around the cave, thinking.

“All we have to do is block this crack, right?

I move over to the stalagmites and put my hand in one. Wet and slimy. They are probably big enough where I can just hug them.

I give it a little push.

“Oh. That's right we can just shove that into the crack, but it's a rock Nikolai, you need to do more than give it a light push.”

Hermione walks up to the stalagmite and gives it a solid kick at about waist level.

The stalagmite breaks off with a loud crack and falls over onto the floor, leaving a rocky stump in the ground.

Hermione gives a self-satisfied smile.

“There I did all the work, now shove it in.”

“You didn't need to do any work, I would have done it myself.”

I huff at her as I pick up the rock and push it into the crack as far as it will go and then some.

I lean against it and let out a long breath.

“I didn't expect to run into anything like that so soon.”

Hermione walks up next to me and leans against the wall with me.

“I didn't think we would either. That hole you found was probably leaking a bunch of Aether from deeper in the Abyss letting the spiders survive. And adapt to the lower Aether levels I guess, they shouldn't have been able to leave that cave and get so close to the staircase otherwise.”

She frowns, wrinkling her forehead.

“In fact, there should not have even been a shortcut down so early in the Abyss, they usually appear in the middle floors in large Abysses.”

“So does that mean this one is big?”

Hermione shrugs and leans her head back against the stone wall.

“I don't know, I've never heard of an Abyss being so weird. If I had to guess this one might be the biggest. But don't take my word for it, it's not like I know that much about Abysses, I just attended a handful of hastily cobbled together classes.”

I take the pack off of my back and rummage around for that food I had. I find it, break the bread and cheese in half and offer it to Hermione. She accepts.

“Well, it doesn't matter weird or not we will get out and then try again tomorrow.”

I take a bite out of the bread and out of the corner of my eye I see her studying me with a weird look on her face.

I turn to look at her.

“What?”

She looks away from me and at her cheese.

“Nothing.”

She digs into the poor cheese and bread.

“Is it morning already?” I say with a smile on my face.

She pauses.

“I guess it is.”

She continues eating the cheese while I do the same albeit with a smile.

“What if there are more constructs in this cave?”

Hermione asks after finishing off the bread and wiping the crumbs off her face.

“We fight, or we run, what else could we do? Didn't we come in expecting this kind of thing?”

I say this as I swing the pack back over my shoulder

Hermione picks at the tear in her sleeve.

“I guess we did.”

“Ah, don't worry too much Hermione. Just think about leaving the Grimes when we come back out as real Delvers, with artifacts spilling out of our pockets and admiration from all those people.

Suddenly motivated I bump off the wall and head further into the cave, Emberite in my fist, lighting the way ahead of me and my loyal sidekick behind me, just like Rothfusst in his later Delves, not many people Delve without a full team of six when first starting out.

Not that I'll ever tell her she's my sidekick to her face.

The excitement fades after what feels like an eternity of boring walls and soggy socks, still wet from the puddle.

“I think I have a hole in my sock.” I share with Hermione.

“Of course there is a hole, how else would you put your foot in it. You're lucky you only have one hole or even socks in the first place.”

I squint and blink in slight confusion before nodding.

“That's true.”

The boredom vanishes when we come up to something different in the cave. The cave splits into two.

“Which way do you want to go, Nik?”

I don't know, but I know how to find out.”

I take the bag off my shoulder and put it onto the ground so I can dig through the contents.

I take out the not-compass.

I smile as I slide my fingers over the dings and scratches on the sides of it.

“Isn't that the compass that you showed me before, the onw that doesn't point north? How would a broken compass help?”

I let loose a wild smile and a short laugh.

“Hah, this is the compass of the Gods! The Pathfinder! The Future Bringer! The Waymaker!”

I strike the same pose Benjamin always used to strike, with the same wild smile and enthusiasm. Compass in my fist pointed ahead and my other hand holding the Emberite in a crook at my hip.

“What. Are you doing?”

“I'm remembering Ben,” I say with a smile and tears welling up in my eyes.

“To Benjamin, the wielder of the Waymaker! May your paths be straight, and future bright!” I yell with as much enthusiasm as I can muster. The sound echoes off the walls as I hold the pose for a few seconds more.

I relax and wipe away the tears with the back of my hand.

“Benjamin was the third member of my core. He was the happiest, and he always knew where to turn next. He made it all the way to the thirteenth run before his feet failed him and he turned cold.”

Hermione stays quiet.

“Thanks for not prying.”

Hermione nods.

“You'll tell me more when you are ready. So why trust this compass?”

I hold the compass up, it's pointing slightly to the right, directly into the center of the cave the splits off from the cave we are in.

“Ben told me his compass always points to where he needs to go. He told me that's where the future is. He never said where he got it from though, we always assumed he was just playing around; He was always playing around. I haven't used it since he gave it to me, right before he turned cold.”

I look intently at the compass.

"It doesn't matter which way we choose to go anyway."

I place the compass back into the safety of the pack and sling the pack over my shoulder.

Hermione and I head into the cave that goes right, towards the future.