"To town, to sea, through upended breeze! I state my case, I flaunt my ways, I travel for adventure!"

"Shut up!"

"I'm bored!"

"Then pull out one of your books or something!"

"Read 'em all."

"Hey, you two had better not crash the car," Christoph shouted back at his new companions atop his bike. "It'd be pretty lame to die not even two hours after leaving home."

Iggy's face contorted, as if she had just swallowed something extremely sour. "I'm starting to think maybe I should just head back if I'm going to share a car with you the whole way. And feet off the dash!"

Complying, Synthia rolled her shoulders. "You know, the actual travelling part can be pretty exhausting. I don't like sitting still for too long."

The wayward group beat on during the early morning. Iggy was driving the car while Synthia sat in the passenger's seat to her left. They were following Christoph as he rode on ahead, bent over the front of his bike with his shirt rippling in the wind. They had departed in a good enough mood, but with the sun out, the girls had quickly pulled the top of the car back on.

"Christoph, are we there yet?"

"I see the mountains up ahead. Should be another half hour."

That was the 17th time Synthia had asked that question. Biting her tongue, Iggy refrained from voicing her annoyance. She knew that they would keep bickering the whole way there if she kept rising to the bait.

Synthia's eyes widened. "Whoa, you swallow a bug or something? You're scrunching your face up."

Grin and bear it, grin and bear it, grin and bear it...

"Yikes! That smile's pretty forced."

She's just an idiot. There's no reason to keep responding to her. Nothing she says can hurt me.

Pulling out a lacy garter belt from her pocket that Iggy was very familiar with, Synthia peered at it inquisitively. "By the way, I've been wondering... what is this thing?"

"How the hell did you get that!?"

The argument took off from there. Christoph was beginning to wonder if he really should've just left the both of them back in town.

...

Half an hour later, they had arrived at the mine.

"Seriously, there should be no way you'd be able to get that stuff..." Iggy stepped out of the car, blushing. "How do you do it?"

Synthia stretched out, her movements catlike. "Trade secret."

Getting off his bike, Christoph eyed Synthia balefully. "You didn't pilfer any of my underwear, right?"

Synthia threw up her hands. "I'm not some kind of pervert, I genuinely thought that thing was a scarf or something!"

"If we're going to be travelling together, you need to keep your hands to yourself. Personal space doesn't just extend to your body." Christoph gave a small flick to Synthia's forehead.

Rubbing her stinging brow, Synthia sighed. "Okay. Sorry. Bad habit."

"Good. Now..." Christoph turned to crane his neck up at the mountain before them. "Let's see what we can find."

There was a sizable building out front, although it clearly hadn't been maintained in decades. It was almost as ramshackle as Synthia's house, with several sections crumbled down in an ugly, grey and brown mess of plaster and mortar.

"It's weird how this place is so far away from Asphodel. Even if the industry ended up collapsing, it would've been worth the effort to move out here before then, no?"

"Normally, you'd be right Iggy." Bending down, Christoph picked up a lumpen rock with a blazing orange underside. "But this is a firecrystal mine, meaning it's best not to get too close unless you're prepared."

Weighing the rock in his hand, he gave the girls a sidelong glance. "May want to cover your ears." He threw it in a high arc, far away from them. It hit the ground—

BOOOOOOM!

A man-sized explosion erupted from where it landed. Synthia had covered her ears immediately, but Iggy hadn't obeyed. She clutched the sides of her head.

"Owwwww! Ow, ow, ow, ow, owwww!"

Shaking his head, Christoph took his hands off his own ears. "I warned you."

"My ears... I don't know if they'll ever stop ringing..."

Christoph pulled out a small bag hanging next to the one with swords. Opening it revealed a collection of purple pellets. "That's why we have these: firecrystal suppressant. They concentrate anti-mana particles to cancel out the magic which leaks out of the mineral, stopping any extra radiation and preventing anything from going boom. Important prerequisite, right?"

"Oooooh!" Synthia was bouncing up and down. "We've got our own special adventurer's equipment! We heading in now, then?"

"You betcha."

"My ears still hurt..."

The three made it to the entrance. A wire holding a string of long-dead lightbulbs hung from the ceiling.

"Synthia, this is where your night vision could come in handy. Stick close behind me and only move where I tell you to. Iggy, stay with our vehicles."

"Haaaa... gladly. But what should I do if somebody does come?"

"If they start causing trouble you can always knock them out with your magic. I doubt anybody will though. Still, eyes sharp!"

Christoph threw her a small device with a button in the centre. "Emergency transmitter, just in case. Press it if there's anything you can't handle."

With that, he entered the mine with Synthia. Iggy was left to wince over her still stinging eardrums as she headed back to the car.

Christoph lifted up the lamp he had taken from his bag, the light illuminating the passage. It split in two directions up ahead. Sniffing the air, he turned right, Synthia following behind him, eyes replicating their gold effect in the dark by reflecting the light.

"Sure you're going the right way?"

"Positive. Spend enough time as an adventurer and you can smell where the deeper parts of caves are."

"How do you become one?"

"It varies where you are, but on Edretica, there's a special branch where you can sign up. Government funded. You pass a year long course and you get granted the bottom rank to work your way up from. But, if you do something noteworthy, they'll automatically bump you up a few ranks automatically."

Jumping across a break in the ground, the two made their way over to a ladder which they climbed down. It didn't appear too rusted over, as it felt rather steady going down.

"And that's what you did?"

"Yep! Wrote a whole dissertation on the limits of darkness magic and how we can change our understanding of it. There's always more to discover."

They got to the bottom. The light from the lamp reflected off orange crystals in the wall, bathing the pair in orange light.

"It shouldn't be too bad until we get further in, but all the same, stay close to me. Got it?"

Synthia looked around in wonder. "Still... it's beautiful. Hard to imagine stuff so pretty could be so dangerous."

"Mmm." Eying their surroundings more warily, Christoph kept taking the lead, on the lookout for anything man made.

"Ah... I'd guess this is the real mother lode."

"Wow..."

They had exited into a gigantic cavern. Far off to the other side, they could see thousands and thousands of firecrystals, all arranged like a massive field of underground flowers. They glowed dimly orange.

"You could mine here for a century and still keep finding more of this stuff... No wonder they staked their business on this. Come on, let's start searching."

Christoph took Synthia down a rickety set of platforms, supports still holding together somehow. Reaching the bottom, he turned off the lamp.

"What are you doing?" Synthia's eyes turned back to their natural gold.

"This is where I need you. This place is too big to keep searching it around with this measly lamp. So, if you'd please, take the lead. I'll use the suppressants as we go."

Snorting, Synthia took a hold of Christoph's wrist. "Sure you trust me with this?"

"If it helps you trust yourself with it? Then yes."

Synthia's blinked a couple times. "O-okay," was all she could force out. She wordlessly led him forward.

...

Iggy was busy relaxing in their car. She had opened her trunk to grab a book of her own (redepositing her underwear as she did so) and was immediately sucked in. It was one of her favourite romance stories and never ceased to set her heart aflutter every time she read it.

Honestly, if this adventure business was simply waiting by their belongings while the other two rummaged around for stuff on their own, it wouldn't be so bad. Not what she'd expected, but she certainly wasn't complaining.

The sound of clopping hooves made her perk up. Approaching the mine was a rider on a giant horse. Startled, Iggy reflexively hid herself down in the convertible as it approached. If her eyes weren't tricking her, the creature had to be twice the height of an ordinary man.

THUD! A pair of boot-clad feet dropped onto the ground. A female voice followed.

"Stop hiding. You look ridiculous. Come out."

Realizing she did look rather silly crouched down in the front, Iggy got out of the car. She had a difficult time masking her startled reaction.

A woman stood before her, but one far taller than any she'd ever seen. At roughly seven feet, her shoulders stood broad, even more so than Christoph's. Every part of her stance was firm and resolute as iron. A white cloak embroidered in gold hung off her, reaching just past her knees. With gold hair put in a high ponytail, frigid blue eyes and square jaw, Iggy was quite certain she'd never seen anybody more beautiful or terrifying in her life. Completing the image was a set of marvelous gold armour, an intricate carving of a lioness on the breastplate.

Her mountainous steed shook its large brown head, exhaling out of its nose. A goat drenched in blood laid limp on its rump tied to the saddle, making Iggy feel a little queasy. This wasn't unnoticed by the woman.

"Dinner. Meat's never as good as when it's fresh."

Iggy tried to smile. "Oh, is that so? Guess that's true."

The woman squinted. "Belt too tight? You seem nervous."

Taking a deep breath, Iggy tried to bring her heartrate down. "Sorry. Not used to meeting people outside of home. In fact, this is the first time I've left in years."

"You travelling with an adventurer?"

"Oh, yes! How did you know?"

"Abandoned mine? A bike and car with just one of you out here? You obviously being behind as sentry? Pretty easy to guess."

Iggy could only chuckle nervously. "Wow, you're pretty perceptive!"

An awkward silence fell, broken only by the horse's gentle snorting. All the while, the woman maintained that same steely gaze. Iggy felt a shudder go down her spine. It wasn't just her being anxious, right? Would it be too presumptuous to consider somebody she'd just met an enemy? She had no doubt that this was one person whose bad side she absolutely did not want to get on.

She decided to help break the ice. "Why don't you tell me your name? I'm Iggy Gardiner, out on my first real adventure."

The woman smirked, her eyes narrowing. "That so? Glad you've gotten a hold of yourself now. As for me, I guess you could say I come from a place not too many people know about. My name's—"

"BAHHHHH, BAHHHHH!"

"Oh God!"

Iggy jumped as the goat on the horse's back burst back to life. It was wriggling around frantically, trying to escape the rope tying it to the saddle. Smirk vanishing, the woman had a look of mild annoyance as she reached out with a single gloved hand and violently twisted the goat's neck. It's wailing stopped at once.

Blinking, Iggy took a few seconds to register what happened. The woman could only shake her head.

"Enough of this. I'll spell it out for you: I'm looking for something."