“Huh? Dallion blinked.

The fact that he was technically asleep toned down the horror he should have felt. It wasn’t the first time that Felygn had grumbled at him, but never had there been a warning this serious.

“Free will, free consequences, free ability to mess up,” the Green Moon said. “No more hand holding, remember? I tried to nudge you in the right direction, and you still have the consistency of a stack of billiard balls after a break.”

Dallion just stared, desperately trying to figure out where he messed up. There was a wide selection of things to choose from. Maybe he should have taken Cleric’s offer after all.

“You bet you should have!” Felygn snapped. “Did you think that was made just because you knew each other? Even bishops don’t get to invite people to the Order just like that. I made the request and was hoping you’d be smart enough to accept.”

“But the limit…” Dallion began.

“Would have been better than what you have now! If you were there, you’d have learned the answer to a lot of the questions that had been plaguing you; I’d have trained you to get to a point at which you could fight the Star and win. You’d have been able to talk to all your friends anytime, Jiroh and everyone from Earth included. Instead…”

The Moon didn’t finish. Even without his music skills, Dallion could feel the regret in his voice, mixed with anger and disappointment. Jiroh seemed to have picked it up as well, for she quietly looked at Dallion, the smile gone from her face.

Silence continued for several seconds. No one was willing to say anything more, as if biding their time in the hope that someone else would come with a solution.

“You shouldn’t have accepted the deal,” the Moon said at last. “The Star always takes what’s his and we can’t stop him.”

“I didn’t make a deal,” Dallion said instinctively. “I can just ignore—”

“You accepted the information, so the deal was made. You think you can trick him with semantics? You’re not even an amateur compared to him. You can only delay it. If you miss this window, he’ll present you with the next and he’ll keep increasing the ante until your only choice is to do as he says or give up and die. It’s not like you haven’t made your share of enemies in the world.”

That sounded like something Arthurows would do. The Star had proven he could send cultists after Dallion. While one group had failed to achieve their goal, there were more of them hiding like cockroaches in every major city. There was every possibility that sooner or later they’d end up getting lucky. But even if they didn’t, the Star could easily make another deal with another person wanting something in return. The nobles had noticed Dallion, and it would be easy for them to lend their ear to anyone willing to do him harm. The Archduke’s son was a prime candidate, as was the noble who’d tried to keep Diroh from leaving.

“I can accept the offer,” he said after a while. “I’ll return to a temple and stay there.”

“No.” The Green Moon shook his head. “You can’t. If you had taken the offer, all would have been fine. Now that the Star has gotten involved, you can’t become part of the Order even as an apprentice. When I said you’d messed up, I wasn’t kidding.”

“What options does he have?” Jiroh asked.

Even in this situation, she kept taking on the role of the big sister. It was a nice gesture, though not one Dallion appreciated at present.

To be honest, there was only one option remaining: if hiding was impossible, and fleeing would just delay the inevitable, only fighting was left. For that, though, he was going to require another boon.

“He knows what options he has. I’m just here to make sure he doesn’t go through with the deal.”

“You think I’ll work for the Star?!” Dallion jumped up, anger filling him like a flame.

“You won’t be the first. Those that are adamant that they’ll never make a deal with the Star usually end up doing so.”

“That doesn’t even make sense! I—”

“I’m here to offer you a way out,” the Moon interrupted. “Not the mess with the Star. I know how to get you out of the south. I can tell you how to get to the mountain, how to get to the dragon’s area, or to return to the north you came from.”

“Why can’t you tell me all three and leave me to decide?”

The teen narrowed his eyes, then grabbed one of his rollerblades and slit it along the table. As he did, marks formed on the wooden surface. The marks turned into lines, which then merged together, forming a map. It was a lot more complicated than one would imagine, but somehow Dallion was able to make things out.

“At one point, the entire south was its own kingdom,” the Moon said, still adding details to the map. “Tunnels connected all points of interest, allowing even non-awakened to go from one end to the other in a matter of hours. Back in the place you visited, these tunnels were destroyed by the calamity that occurred in this place. Those that were deep underground remained, though.”

Finishing his “sketch” the Moon, then pointed at a section of the map.

“You’re here. Go deep enough and you should find a tunnel. Moving along south and you’ll reach the mountain. A few sections are close to the surface, so be careful that the shardfly doesn’t spot you.” The teen pulled his hand back. “If you go north, you’ll eventually get to a whole lot of smaller tunnels. None of them will take you directly out of the south, but if you move from one to the other, you’ll eventually get there.”

“And there’s a tunnel that leads east too?”

“No. There’s a tunnel at first, but it changes into a road that later drills through rock. That’ll take you to the other crater of the south.”

The directions weren’t detailed, but Dallion felt he couldn’t miss it. The entire map seemed perfectly clear, as if he’d been here hundreds of times before.”

“That’s all the help I can give. You’re free to make a choice. Make sure it’s the right one.”

“Thanks, Felygn. Can I—”

Dallion suddenly woke up. He was back in the ruins, feeling the cold nibbling at his skin.

“Damit!” he hissed.

It would have been useful to have a chat with Jiroh, but the Moon had other plans. Dallion suspected that the whole encounter with the Star had put the Moon on edge. If there was a way to obtain the spellcraft gem from the phoenix, and Arthurows managed to claim it, there was every chance that he found a loophole through the rules that governed him. While it was unlikely, that would be enough to make him equivalent to a Moon, we well could become unshackled to roam freely throughout the world.

What’s wrong? Gleam flew up to Dallion.

“Nothing,” he replied curtly. “Everything’s fine.”

You don’t look it.

There were many ways Dallion could have responded to that, but he chose not to be confrontational. Things were difficult as it was.

“I know how to get out of here,” he said instead. “We’ll avoid the shardfly, though there might be other critters along the way.” Dallion stood up, then stretched for a few moments. “Get Ruby. We’ve got some work to do.”

According to the map, the entrance to the tunnel was several layers beneath Dallion’s current position. Reaching it required a bit of slicing through stone. Given that shardflies excelled at that, it wasn’t an issue. In the spots where razor winds alone were not enough, Dallion resorted to his Nox Dagger to weaken the problematic areas.

Initially, the chambers they broke into were similar to the last—full of stale air and the occasional group of rats. The deeper they went, though, the material composure began to chance. Stone was no longer stone, but concrete with metal rods added to the mix. While Nil and the familiars found it unusual, even surprising, Dallion knew exactly what this was: reinforced concrete following modern Earth construction methods.

This hardly looks like a good idea, Nil muttered.

“All routs start from there,” Dallion reminded.

How can you be sure about that?

“A Moon told me.”

It took over an hour to slice through the concrete and the mesh of steel beams that it encased. Whoever had built that had put in a lot of effort to make sure the tunnel wouldn’t collapse. After Dallion’s involvement, the prospect became a lot more likely.

“Lux, I need some light,” Dallion said.

The dartblade levitated down, surrounded by blue flames. As far as one could tell, there was nothing down there. Drawing his harpsisword just in case, Dallion leapt down, accompanied by Gleam and Ruby.

The drop was twenty feet at least—nothing serious for an awakened of Dallion’s level. The more interesting bit was that the floor wasn’t stone… It had metal tracks on it.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Dallion uttered, as the realization hit in.

This wasn’t a normal corridor, it was a railway tunnel. The south had a functioning subway connecting all parts of the domain. The technology was way too advanced for anything this world could offer. It was obvious that the Star had created that, but given the number of tunnels—if Felygn’s map was to be believed—the people of this kingdom must have used it a lot. If that was the case, however, how come the knowledge of such advanced technology was lost? The only answer was that the Moons had forbidden it, causing it to disappear from the people’s minds. Or maybe the massive fireball strikes had killed the majority of the people involved. Those that remained had gradually reverted to the medieval society that continued to this way.

The phoenix used to live in a city before the start of recorded history, Dallion thought.

What if that history had been recorded, but forcefully forgotten? It looked more certain than ever that the Star had used his expertise in technology to challenge the Moons, and had lost. If he had the chance to make a second attempt, though, would the outcome be the same? If the firebird was the key to his free reign, he could well restore the fallen south and use his cultists to create a new empire, one that would challenge the Moons themselves for dominion of the world.

What’s this? Lux asked, floating above the side of a rail.

“It’s a road,” Dallion explained. “For a very special device. It’s similar to a carriage, but uses magic to move.”

And it needs this road to move?

“Yes.”

There didn’t seem to be any sign of anything resembling a subway car, or even a broken-up wagon to indicate that this section had even been active. It was entirely possible it was abandoned even before the kingdom’s demise.

Dallion grabbed the dartblade from the air, then loaded it and shot a bolt deeper into the corridor. Like a torch, the bolt flew forward, illuminating the tunnel with its blue light. The unmistakable sound of dozens of small claws scurrying away was heard.

Stay close, Dallion thought. I’ve no idea what’s hiding here.

But you’re still willing to go, Nil commented. It was obvious that the Star’s technology scared him more than anything else. From the echo’s perspective, Dallion had taken them into the belly of the beast.

“You know the answer.”

Dallion let go of the dartblade, then played a chord on his harpsisword. The sounds echoed throughout the tunnel, spreading calm and confusion. Now all that was left was to make a choice and fight to follow it.