Icarus Awakens

Daniel could see the auras of Hunter and the rest waiting for them at the entrance to the mine as they walked the short road from the city to the mountain opening. If he were honest with himself, he hadn’t expected to be accompanied by Tlara. She was doing everything to make him regret it. “Who was the first person you fucked?”

Really? Daniel thought wearily. He’d fended off the questions that might have led to Earth, but the avianoid had extracted all of what he knew about his class. Those questions let him filibuster other sensitive ones, and it was safe to tell her what his powers did. Daniel had to stop her from leaving in disbelief as he reiterated his dual advancement and the recent advancements he’d gained through studying.

She’d run out of those questions, though, and had turned back to embarrassing personal ones. “Claire.” The name was given begrudgingly, but it was necessary to keep Tlara walking.

Her questions paused as she assimilated that. “So you two were a thing before the Upswell? Damn, does she know you cheated?”

“What?” Was she trying to misinterpret his answers to justify lying to Claire? No, that was dumb, she’d just do it regardless if that’s what she wanted. “No, she’s the only one I’ve been with.” He was not going into any more details.

“But didn’t you…” Tlara’s eyes widened and then she laughed. “Oh. Oh! I can’t fucking believe I didn’t see that earlier.” This was the closest Daniel had gotten to pulling out the talons, but Tlara’s self-satisfaction was distracting her from asking any more questions. “You couldn’t close the deal with a Bard!”

“I don’t see you in any relationships.” Daniel kicked a loose rock. That shut Tlara up but didn’t stop her walking. Had that of all things touched a nerve? Tlara’s crest of feathers wasn’t standing up, and that was the only sign of honest emotion she tended to show. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand her.

The sight of Kob towering over the rest did cause Tlara to puff up. It was a completely different look compared to her normally smoothed over feathers, like she was wearing a fan attached to the back of her head, though not like a peacock. The colors were wrong for one, Tlara’s feathers were a mix of browns and whites reminiscent of a hawk. For another, her feathers did that out of anxiety rather than showmanship. Daniel took it as a refreshingly honest look into Tlara’s thoughts. It was a perverse pleasure given what had happened to inspire the change, but the interrogation on the way here had lessened the Artificer’s desire to play nice. She hadn’t learned anything important, nothing that could be used to make mobs reach for torches and pitchforks. Regardless, she had dug into personal things just to have control over him again.

Thoughts on the matter halted as the abyss closed in. The entrance of the tunnel dwarfed even Kob, cut cleanly into the side of the mountain as it descended into darkness. Eight tracks ran in parallel, their way guarded by spent torches. Daniel’s mind was drawn to stories of trapped miners, videos of cave diving gone wrong, and the overriding fear that closed in on him. Tlara’s antics had been enough to distract him right up until this point.

The others hadn’t noticed yet. They were talking, and Hunter was thinking something to him. He couldn’t sense any of it. He, he couldn’t do this. Daniel had put off thinking about actually going down, rationalizing that the mine would just be like a long tunnel and ignoring the obvious. He’d handled the skab fight fine, right? But now, for all he had said to Tlara about owing Lograve, practically dragging her along to do so, going into that cave was impossible. No future, near or distant, would see him do it. Maybe if his wisdom was properly leveled he could overcome it, but the penalty from level disparity wasn’t doing him any favors.

Claire was the first biped to notice Daniel. She, and her friend Parduc, were part of the garrison detachment that escorted the rescue team to the mine entrance. Her voice broke through the fog enveloping Daniel's mind. “What’s wrong?”He couldn’t tell her. If Daniel was in control of himself he’d say something. But he couldn’t even think of what he would tell her. Walls were closing in and-

The Arcanist poked him with a glowing finger, and suddenly he could breathe again. “What did you do?”

“Calming spell,” she whispered back. “You were under the fear effect?”

Whatever ability she had used had ripped his claustrophobia out like a weed. It was strange, looking at the mine and suddenly not dreading the descent to come. Was this permanent? Probably not, but it was strange all the same and for more than one reason. “I’m a higher level than you, how could you affect me?”

She narrowed her eyes, another sign he’d asked something that should have been obvious. “It’s not a healing ability?”

“R-right.” Daniel turned his attention back to the other conversation in hopes of changing the subject.

A woman casually bracing a huge sledgehammer on her shoulder was mid-explanation. “Of course, I can’t go into specifics. No one that mined on the regular stayed after the Upwell and we stopped everything after your team went in. Heh, I don’t blame them. They were paid to dig in the dirt, not get buried in it.” Kob’s mass shifted slightly, preemptively freed from the stone armor to fit in the tunnel. Perhaps it was the gestalt equivalent of clearing your throat because the titan didn’t say anything. “Anyway, we sent your boys down the main shaft after a rumor. There were a few carts that didn’t get pulled amidst the panic, and there were a few known monster warrens good for training. Win win.”

Tlara joined the conversation, incredulous despite how nervous Kob was making her. “You sent the other team into this Crest mouth for carts?”

“Full carts,” the burly woman emphasized. “At least one had some andorite in it. I don’t know about you, but most people here don’t have much to look forward to besides getting out of the Thormundz. Might be nice to have some coin to celebrate on the other side. Anyone from Thest who had a claim to those minerals left with the Spoke, so it’s finder’s keepers. Problem is we’re not sure which track it was and they could be on the other side of the mine from those carts. No one here to tell us and your friend didn’t specify. Might be able to follow the blood though.” She scuffed the ground with her heel to indicate a patch of dried blood left from when Tak had escaped.

“Seems like a gamble.” Parduc’s voice was hesitant, though it carried well. “Sending the four of you in there. Might already be dead’s all I’m saying.”

Daniel was most surprised by how Claire nodded in agreement and spoke up. “We have to look for them! They can’t, they can’t all be dead.” It was hope that inspired him, not certainty. The only people he could trust in this world were the ringcat standing next to him, and two among the team trapped beneath the earth. He was getting there with Claire. Things had been going well enough until this dragon friend of hers had shown up and things had gotten tense.

“Doesn’t matter,” Tlara said dismissively. “We’re going down there to look regardless of what anyone fucking thinks.” She clenched a fist and used the other hand to smooth down her feathers. “And you owe me for what you did. I-“ she faltered for a moment, but persisted, “I need to replace my tools. You’re going to string up any level three I want for what you did.”

Damn. She’s annoying as hell but she’s something, Daniel mused. Lograve’s earlier monologue about the hierarchy of levels would suggest that Tlara was being suicidally brazen, although he was sure by now that that speech had been exaggerated. Still, everyone else had fallen silent under the same impression. Kob was now at least ten times her size, and the stone of their armor was broken into hundreds of shards capable of blocking attacks and shredding enemies simultaneously.

Without the face of the armor, there was nothing to clearly show Kob’s emotion. Perhaps, if they were just the brutish mass they appeared, they would lash out at her. The giant was anything but predictable and just started slithering towards the mine entrance.

“Wait, don’t we need to know more before cave diving, like what kind of monsters are down there?” Daniel asked as Tlara started walking behind him.

“You’re the one who was making noise about getting down there. We’re going now.” She lit a torch that sparked blue against the darkness of the mine.

“How long will this spell last?” Daniel asked Claire quickly as he strung the crossbow.

“An hour at most, but re-exposure shortens the duration. Is it a phobia?”

“Y-yeah.” He trembled slightly despite the absence of fear. “I guess I’ll just have to deal with it when it wears off.” And ask her how it works exactly. He turned his thoughts towards Hunter. Are you going to be ok with her for the next day or so?

I do not like this. Hunter growled. He wasn’t coming. While the ringcat had recovered to the point of being able to walk, it was only slowly. He was close to a full recovery and might even get there after tonight, but it was too risky now.

“That’s admirable, but be careful,” Claire admonished as Daniel was about to respond to Hunter. Carrying mental and audible conversations at the same time was a complicated art Daniel was barely a novice in. “Just because I like a man who can put himself back together doesn’t mean I want you to end up like the other one.” Her cheeks paled just as much as they had when she’d found him at Tak’s side.

Who to respond to first? Daniel had limited time and risked losing sight of the torch. It was like his fear had been numbed, but that didn’t stop him from worrying about losing sight of the others. He settled on both. “I’ll be back tomorrow at the latest. Maybe sooner if I can’t handle that.” He gestured ahead of him, the point directed at both the mine and Tlara. “Or if we find them. Keep each other safe. I’ll toggle the tag on myself if we need help. You do the same,” he told Hunter. Their telepathy was short ranged, but Identify Creature shared information in a much wider radius. Theoretically limitless, though only because that limit hadn’t been found yet.

“How will I know Hunter’s gotten the warning?” Claire asked.

The last sparks of Tlara’s torch were fading in the distance. It was time to go. Even with three auras in the tunnels to go by, that didn’t guarantee Daniel could find his way to them in the maze of the mine. “He’ll let you know. See you soon.”

She grabbed him. Her strength wasn’t enough to slow him but Daniel stopped all the same. She gave him the briefest of kisses before warning him. “You better.”

…

“Hammer, Claire, I still don’t know about this,” Parduc said uneasily as he and the half dozen others from the garrison watched Daniel descend. “And that ringcat, you’re sure it’ll stay tamed with him gone?”

Hunter growled at him and remained sitting by Claire. She held her hand above his head for a moment before stroking an ear, just long enough to make sure the creature wouldn’t bite her. “It’ll be fine. I’m more worried about Daniel in there. The story is a collapse, but I know a little about how construction powers work. What could have happened down there to break the tunnels?”

“Dunno,” Parduc shrugged. “I mostly do above ground stuff.”

“The main tunnels were dug by a level 4,” Yedra, the Berserker with the hammer, said. “They’re decades from breaking down naturally. The side passages, ‘specially those dug by hand, those could fall easily. If it were the main one though…” She trailed off.

A sound came from Hunter again. Still a growl, but carrying tones of worry. That drew attention, though most assembled assured themselves the ringcat wasn’t following the conversation. Monsters couldn’t talk or comprehend language, everyone knew that. Even those dominated by Beastmasters only really understood their controller, and that was because of their powers. Everyone knew that. Except Claire. It was a time for things that had never happened before. She idly traced a small ring in the pattern of Hunter’s fur and pondered with mixed concern and intrigue at the man she’d found herself ensorcelled with. Maybe, just maybe, what he’d told her about the ringcat wasn’t exaggerated.

The sound of Daniel’s clattering pack stopped echoing from the chamber in front of the group after a minute, long after the torchlight had winked out. “Guess that’s it then,” Yedra said. “Back to the fort before a wyvern finds us out here.”

“This one would warn us before that.” Claire gestured with her non-petting hand at the ringcat staring into the mine. “We worked out a system for alerting the city while he’s gone.”

That didn’t mean they were completely protected out here, but Claire wasn’t worried. She wouldn’t even be here if she couldn’t quell the fear inside herself as easily as Daniel’s. Using Calm Emotions around the clock had a mana cost she couldn’t completely ignore, but it was necessary. Especially after the Upswell. Especially after Lyander. Could he still be alive? she wondered but shook her head as she turned to walk with the rest of the group. Everyone knew that those within Eido during the Upswell were gone. Even if Eido appeared again, as quickly as it had left and with all that had been taken, could she be blamed? Others had pursued new bonds far sooner. She had waited a month. Surely that was enough to know he wasn’t coming back.

Claire dug her nails into her palms and tried to drive the thoughts out with pain. She’d been trying to resist using the power on herself again before dusk, but it seemed she’d need it sooner. The ringcat at her side noticed this but did not understand. Hunter had supposedly been granted language by whatever strange power Daniel wielded, but there were still some quirks of mortals that escaped the creature. The two walked together, back towards the city, and thought of those they had left behind.