The new room was barely different from the old room. Except for the lack of furniture, the walls, floors, and ceiling held no discernible changes from where I’d just come from. There were a few massive reservoirs of water, which were a little more suspicious now that we weren’t in a break room, and the rest of the place looked absolutely empty.

Okeria’s light created a slightly smaller bubble of visibility than before, and from a grunt of effort that elicited no change in the light, it wasn’t on purpose. My hydra plodded along right before the portal closed, and instead of coming over to me, it decided to nuzzle up against Mortician’s legs. Who looked down with palpable excitement, then over to me as if to ask for permission.

“You can pet the monster. It hasn’t bitten yet.”

They nodded rigorously, then fell to their knees and shook the hydra’s shark-like face as if it were a shaggy, happy dog. And it responded just like a shaggy, happy dog. Mortician backed up slightly and shifted one of their legs to better balance themselves, then continued to play with the hydra without a single thought at what we were about to look for.

Okeria glanced over at them and chuckled fondly. “Reminds me of my own kids a little. Well, one of ‘em–not so much the other. Sebastian, Juniper, any new notifications tellin’ ya where ta go?”

I shook my head, even as I pulled up my interface to check. All it did was confirm what I’d thought. “Nothing new. Can you push your light a little further out?”

“That I can’t.” Okeria sighed in frustration. “This ain’t no normal darkness; there’s somethin’ in it that’s stoppin’ the light from going any further than it is. Probably an atmosphere meant ta foster growth, or somethin’ like that, and that’s got a secondary effect of stiflin’ functions and items like mine. Or we’re in a safe place that’s meant ta stop people from fightin’ in general.”

“It could easily be both.” Jun suggested. She swiped away her own interface, then gestured off to the right. “I’ll go check over there. You two check somewhere else, and we’ll meet back here in a few minutes.”

“We should check how unnatural the darkness is first.” I said with a tap on Jun’s shoulder to keep her from leaving. She stopped and thought for a split second, then nodded. “Back away slowly until you’re completely out of Okeria’s light bubble. See if you can see anything inside of it.”

“Sounds good.” She confirmed and turned so her back was to the darkness, then began to slowly back away. “I’m going to keep talking so you can hear me when I get into the darkness, so we know if it cuts off more than just–”

Jun backed into the darkness. “--the light around me. Oh, wow. I can’t see anything at all. Can you still hear me, Seb?”

“I can.” I said as I walked toward Jun’s voice. “You seriously can’t see anything at all? Okeria’s light just… disappears?”

“Completely and utterly.” She replied through the darkness. “It’s like it doesn’t exist at all, and you’re talking to me through a wall of darkness. Okeria, can you make more of those lights? So we’re not running around completely blind?”

The quiet buzzing of Okeria’s drone burst into being, and with it came a dome of light exactly the same size as the one Okeria held. Even if the drone was so much smaller, it still revealed Jun and cut through the darkness like a sort of luminescent mellon-baller. She waved at me, then looked up over her shoulder as another drone popped visible over her shoulder.

“Already on it. And already done.” Okeria said simply. He tapped the side of his head, and my communicator crackled in response. “I’ve got all of your locations on my map, including a drone I’ve got hovering over Mortician’s shoulder. Ya happy to stay here with Sebastian’s strange thing, Mortician, or do you want ta look around as well?”

Mortician rubbed one of the hydra’s heads and ran their fingers along its horrifically sharp teeth. They giggled. “We are more than happy to stay here for a few moments. With the new knowledge imparted from the hazard, and the increase to stats we have yet to master, we benefit from being allowed to stop and simply think rather than being a part of the search party.”

“Well, that’s news ta me. But good on ya.” Okeria nodded and gestured at a spot over Mortician’s shoulder. “If ya change your mind, give me a shout and I’ll activate that little thing’s light. Oh, and I forgot ta ask, how’s the book workin’ for ya? Is it changin’ like we thought it would?”

“It is, and thank you again for making it.” Mortician said seriously. “Our path to strength is not quite as… simple as we had expected, and we are still not fully in control of what we have gained. Hence, the request for downtime. But we feel the need to state that, when we do get a handle on what we have gained, we will be an even greater asset to the team than we currently are.”

The hydra knocked one of its heads into Mortician’s sides and let out a low groaning that almost sounded like a rusty high-rise trying to purr. I smiled at the strange camaraderie that had come out so instantly, and parceled away one use I hadn’t thought of for the hydra; Mortician’s protector. For now, at least.

I gently nudged Okeria’s drone, then gestured for the hydra to stay put. It completely ignored me, but looked like it would do what I wanted anyway. “Alright. If anyone finds anything, report through the communicators. And if you need to fight, try to warn us beforehand so nobody gets caught in the crossfire.”

“Will do.” Okeria said as he wandered off away from us. “Oh, and be careful of those big containers of water. Somethin’ tells me there’s more to ‘em than we can see on initial glance.”

“I think so too. Be careful, Seb. Acasiana didn’t say this place was going to be safe.” Jun agreed. She turned slightly to me, pulled me into a quick hug, then broke away and walked into the darkness. The strangest thing happened, which had probably happened with Okeria too, but I hadn’t been paying attention to him as he left.

Her bubble of light didn’t instantly disappear when her drone left my bubble’s radius. It kept shining and revealing the room around her until the edge of her bubble hit the very edge of mine. Only then did it disappear, cutting off a chunk of light in a way that really shouldn’t have worked. Almost like the light was a conductive surface, and as long as it touched light, I could see through all of it. Or it was the opposite, and the darkness was a perfect resistor, of which only a single inch of it prevented all light from shining through.

Or I was overcomplicating this completely and it was the result of an old function that was somehow still in place. Most likely, though, was that the real answer was a combination of all three. I raised my arm and summoned my weapon as a smaller shield than usual, which I tapped to where my wrist met my forearm to hold it in place.

Then I turned to Mortician, a few words on my lips, but decided against them when I saw them playing with the hydra. Instead, I decided on a short warning. “If it turns out the darkness is dangerous to be in, remember that Okeria can turn on a light for you with one word into the communicator.”

Mortician nodded absentmindedly as they ran their hands down the hydra’s necks. “We know. Thank you for reminding us, but you do not have to worry. We cannot sense any danger, and if this place truly was sealed from Acasiana’s time, there is a very low chance that anything would be able to enter it and subsequently pose a threat to us.”

“I’m not worried about anything that came in after Acasiana abandoned this place.” I said as I mentally prepared myself to reach for Endless and my blood-oil. “It's the stuff she left behind herself that scares me.”

“Oh, like the reservoirs. That is understandable.” Mortician nodded and summoned their book. Without speaking a word, their protective shield wove itself into being around them and the hydra. “Would you like to be protected as well? Or will the darkness unravel our function just as it does Okeria’s light?”

“Only one way to find out.” I said and started marching toward an outline of one of the reservoirs in the darkness. Somehow, it seemed both inviting and terrifying at the same time. “If you lose your grip on it, don’t bother trying to reattach it.”

The glow of their function wove around my body as well. “We will not.” They said easily, and then the sounds of them playing with the hydra resumed. “Good luck with your search!”

I glanced over my shoulder as the bubble of my light grew closer and closer to Mortician. When it finally crept over them, their shielding function died out with the light. Which was about what I expected. They grunted in surprise, but quickly recovered and continued with the hydra. Which somehow managed to stay in one piece even though I’d left the range their function worked at. I opened my map and checked to see if they were just playing with an expanse of empty air, but no, the hydra’s own little location marker was still up and running. And the passive cost to maintain it was still draining from my battery.

Darkness crept in from all sides, completely cutting me off from everyone else. Even though I could hear Mortician, and the crackle of my communicator reminded me that Jun and Okeria were just one word away, it felt isolating. Suffocating, even. I rolled my shoulder and pressed my hands together, attempting to push the sensations that didn’t feel natural out of my mind. Mild success followed, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was alone. Even though I knew I wasn’t.

I shook my head and slowly made my way through the darkness. My steps were slow and certain, with every one of them made with the caution of someone walking on thin ice in the early spring. Nothing about the floors made them seem unstable or weak, and even though this was supposed to be the rest area, I wasn’t going to let my guard down. A tile could sink into the floor and trigger a trap at any moment, or a root could grow from a tiny crack and snap my leg off at the knee.

The glow of the reservoirs called to me. I found myself unconsciously walking toward the nearest one, like a moth to a flame, and a quiet little voice in the back of my mind whispered for me to drink. To drown my worries and be baptized in the precious, shimmering waters of Rainbow Basin.

“Do Staura get baptized? Or… is that just a translation of the feeling of getting welcomed into the fold?” I wondered quietly as I stepped up to the reservoir and pressed my hand to the strange container. The water inside shimmered like liquid crystal, with countless colours dancing in the beams of Okeria’s drone’s light. Something was… heavy about it. Important.

I called on my interface and ordered it to analyze the strange liquid, fully expecting it to come back as some form of purified water. Which it didn’t. Not in the slightest.