12 Miles Below

The crusader had set this as something important to guard. I couldn’t know her motives until I could read the logs. Since this was her armor, I could at least try to protect whatever she’d marked important as a sign of respect.

Reaching down, I pried it out of a long dead hand.

On first glance, it looked like a file storage device of some sort. It didn't have any seams that showed it could open, except at the edges. Whatever this was, it was mechanical. That guess about it being a file storage got thrown out the airlock once I noticed no ways to connect the brick to any power supply. That means it had an internal supply, if it was electric in the first place. I started looking for openings.

What I had found instead were buttons on the handle. Possible on-off switches? Flicking these did nothing - the item was probably out of power. Unlike occult knives, this device probably didn’t store power like backup generators did so there would be a finite lifecycle. Searching further, I found what I’d been looking for: On it’s right side was a small valve and inscribed sigil for power. Jackpot.

All I knew about this item so far was that Cathida died protecting it and that power was required. Fortunately, we did have plenty of power to spare.

I shuffled over and grabbed one of the three spare power cells we had in stock, graciously donated by less than reasonable folks.

A quick twist on the valve opened it up and power flowed freely as I dropped a small trickle of liquid, charging up the device in a few seconds. Since the the brick was small, it didn’t take much out of the power cell before capacity was reached.

Now I flicked the power switch back to what was probably the activation. The brick lit up a few stylized runes in dim blue on its flat surface, but nothing else besides that. I rotated the device, looking for points of egress and found that there were a few seams that were now more visible with the dim lighting, where the thing would probably open. All four corners and right under the handle. That part opened up with a tug, showing the plate had protected two buttons. One was labeled ‘Capture’ and the other ‘Connect.’

I pressed the connect button but the box just flashed red and the switch flipped back. I guess that was a dead end for now or required something more. I toggled the capture button next and saw a telescopic tube shoot out of the front followed by the sound of air being sucked.

Looks like it was a mini-vacuum cleaner. This could be a science kit designed to study small samples of material, at least from my first thoughts. I flipped the switch off and the tube retracted smoothly, the vacuum turned off. I'd have to dig into the logs to find out more about what this thing was.

“Keith.” Father said to my side. A quick glance and I could tell what was on his mind without more words.

We had to go. We’ve been here for too long.

“I need to take this with me.” I said, hooking the black brick to my belt. It fit snuggly, clearly made for this.

Father shook his head to himself, “What’s your reason this time, boy?”

“The armor’s owner, she’s marked this as priority one. I don’t think this was a pilgrimage Father, I think they were on a mission. And maybe I might be able to help complete that mission, once we’re back on the surface.”

That seemed to convince him. “Fair enough. And now I suppose you will ask to follow the gold light further down into the depths?”

“Got a better idea?”

“No." He sighed. "All my instincts are calling me a fool for following the unknown, but it led us to relic armor. It has proven trusthworthy. I only don’t agree with the direction we're going."

If that light wanted to kill us, leading us to a second armor was the polar opposite of that plan. I don’t know the destination or the exact goal the light had, but I can make a good case it wants us alive - and able to stay that way. We hadn’t ascended at all, but until we found the lit tunnels again we’d have no way of knowing where we were going besides that light.

We turned to the only tunnel leading out which still had that golden light active. One quick thing to check before we continued forward: “Journey, are you the one causing that?” I asked again, pointing. I didn't expect a yes.

“Query must be specified further.”

“The yellow light there, we followed it to get here, was that you?”

“Negative.”

“Do you know who did?”

“Negative.”

It hadn’t even known about the lights in the first place. In hindsight this made a lot of sense - Journey had been dead to the world, powerless. From it’s perspective, Cathida had just died a few hours ago and power had run out. Next thing it knows, a new user is taking over and it’s been a few centuries in the intermediate time.

The AI was taking it well in stride, all things considered. Or it truly wasn’t capable of caring. It certainly gave off the impression that this was business as usual. Maybe Cathida really was just another name on a long text file somewhere in it’s memory banks as far as Journey cared.

“Prepared?” Father asked from the side, knife tucked securely to his boot and rifle in a relaxed carry. I’d been left with my scavenger pistol and Cathida’s occult knife.

“As much as I’ll ever be. I suppose this will double as running practice.”

“Aye. Keep up, but don't be a fool and push yourself over the edge either. Your calf muscle is still wounded.”

“I don’t think I’ll forget about that anytime soon.” I chuckled.

"You might. The painkillers will make it seem as if nothing is wrong. Keep it in your mind." He turned and jogged off, following the yellow light. I made my way behind him, Journey matching my movements smoothly and letting me keep up. The suit had about seven hours per power cell, and we had just about three left. We'd be cutting it close I think, but should have enough to make whatever side detour the gold light wanted.

We moved after it, vaulting over obstacles and leaping chasms and rivers as we crossed through the tunnels. The first few times were a little nerve wracking. Journey made the whole process easy and soon I was moving around like the armor wasn’t there at all.

Since we’d be on the run for some time now, I might as well do some investigating. Maybe I'll find out more about that black box. “Journey, open up the last logs of Cathida please.”

“Input password.”

“Ah bend me over metal, not this again.” I sighed. “I’m an administrator right? I should have full access to everything, it's in the title.”

“Affirmative. Negative. Logs were user locked. A password is required. Password hint has been attached.”

“A hint? What hint?”

What I heard next was a woman’s voice.

It sounded like an old voice, with the tell-tell signs of age where each breath and word had a crinkle to it. Not ancient, but certainly on her way. Cathida... might have been an old woman. I hadn't expected that.

“My name is Cathida Langg, a crusader of the fifth drann. I fear that I and the two disciples I’m charged to protect will be soon dead in this cavern. I’ve encrypted all my logs with Journey, my armor, and set the password as the fifth vow. If you are imperial, I command you to bring these logs straight to the nearest cardinal. They will know what to do with the information. If you are not imperial, I pray to the goddess that you might do the right thing anyways. Indulge an old woman’s last wishes. And take care of Journey for me, whoever you are. He can be a capricious child." She cackled, then returned to a somber tone an instant after. "Solaris imperium, stranger. Do better then we did.”

The recording ended abruptly, leaving me alone in my thoughts again. A lot to unpack in that, more especially is the lack of things to unpack. She didn’t mention anything about the priority one item, and kept things vague - likely on purpose.

I hardly knew the first four vows of the crusaders and I had no clue there was a fifth vow.

Welp, nothing to do about it now. The black box had been attached to my hip easily, clearly made to be snapped to a belt like this. Whatever that box and logs were, we could worry about them later once I was back on my bed.

Getting her logs to the nearest cardinal would be my next task once I got back home. High chances that the mission's data had long ago become irrelevant, but this wasn’t about that. It’s the principle of the thing.

Also, getting haunted by the ghost of an imperial was not on my to-do list.

It was an hour in that I saw a notification on Journey’s heads up display. ‘New connection established.’ it read.

Lord Atius’s voice burst over my helmet, “Tenisent, is that you? Gods above, do you hear me?” It sounded crackled, filled with static, but understandable.

It was the best thing I’d heard in my life.

We’d done it. Comms were in range to the expedition. We both quickly skidded to a stop and Father answered straightaway, not even pausing to celebrate. “Aye. I hear you. We survived the fall and have been making our way back up to the surface since. I’m relieved to hear your voice, m’lord.”

“I swear Tenisent,” Atius laughed, “You’re practically Deathless already you tenacious old bastard.”

My sister’s voice cut in right after. “Father, where’s Keith? His comm signal isn’t showing up with you.”

“Kidra?” Father replied in disbelief. “How are you he-- nevermind, I’ll ask later. He’s with me and doing fine. We discarded his environmental suit a while back and replaced it with a new relic armor that we found.”

The comms went dead quiet as everybody processed through the implication.

“You... found a relic armor down there?” Lord Atius spoke through the silence.

“Aye. The armor’s name is Journey, an old crusader’s relic. Keith is currently its owner now.”

“Gods above... I’ll buy you the first round myself.”

Another voice piped in, slightly higher pitch. I recognized it as the shadowsong prime, a prim and proper accent to his words. “With respect my lord, he stopped drinking years ago.”

“Slipped my mind in the moment Ikus! I’m getting old these days, you know?" He laughed through the comms, joy in his voice. "We’ll damned get him something else, details for later. And how’s the young whelp, is he on comms yet?”

“Yep, I read you all loud and clear.” I answered. Journey showed the icons on the top right were working correctly, mine lit up as I spoke.

“Switching your tracker signal over to the new ping.” Kidra said, dealing with the administration issues right off the bat. “I’m really happy to hear your voice, Keith.”

“M’lord,” Father asked carefully, before I could answer back.

“Question?”

“No disrespect intended - Why is my daughter among the search team?”

He might have sworn no disrespect, but there was an edge in his voice when he asked about his family. However, while Father was seething in his armor, there was only laughter over the comms from the other relic knights.

“She’s... let’s say, extremely persuasive.” Atius sheepishly answered. “Kidra made a clear and unambiguous vow that she’d come down no matter if we barred her way or not. Somehow Ankah and Calem both backed her up. While I’m heartened to see a show of comradery this early in their careers, they all disobeyed direct orders from myself. I couldn’t afford to send any of my knights to drag the three back to the convoy and lock them down, time was essential. So it was a choice of either bringing them with us or having the three fall behind alone and on foot. I had enough knights to carry them around, it wasn't a hard question to answer.”

Either she’d get a low chance to survive accompanied by relic users, or absolutely no chance by getting left behind on foot. Atius had decided the former was better. Though given his massive lifespan, I wondered just how much he valued a single life?

“I see.” Father answered bluntly, unsatisfied, but unable to argue further.

It made sense to me. Retainers literally had ‘sacrifice’ in our vow of duty. All three were honoring the call.

I'd spent my life making fun of that vow, believing it to be misplaced idealism at best. In hindsight, that hadn't been fair to the vow of duty retainers took. My selfless and stubborn sister was going after me no matter what. And her worst enemy had set aside their own agendas to honor their vow. Can't exactly have a dim view on that anymore when I clearly see the nobility it can inspire in people.

More likely, thinking critically, I'd probably attached the Winterscar name to that vow over time without noticing. And I really didn't want to be a Winterscar. That's likely where all my animosity was coming from.

“Make no mistake Winterscar, your daughter is going to see all kinds of storms once we’re back with the clan. Ikus, that goes for your own whelp too - and her friend. Disobeying a direct order from me does not go unpunished. Gods save me, this is the part I wish surface clan culture didn’t venerate duty so much.”

“Understood m’lord. You will, of course, see no argument from me.” Father answered back, mirroring the shadowsong prime's own answer.

“I knew the risks I took." Kidra said coldly. "And I would pay that price again if I had to.”

“We’ll deal with your insubordination later.” Father said, with even more ice.

“For what it’s worth,” Another knight added in, “If she had more equipment to work with, I wouldn’t be surprised if she really could handle herself alone down here. I don’t think your daughter is capable of missing a shot, Winterscar. She's able to nail them even after they've adapted and started dodging.”

“She’s got more kills than Ironreach.” It seemed the knights had their own sense of humor, their voices cut in.

“By one! And I was about to destroy it too.”

“She doesn’t have relic armor.” A different voice noted. I think that was the Windrunner prime, I'd heard his voice before.

“She’s Tenisent's gods damned daughter, a mini-monster on her own, you can’t-”

“Cut down on the chatter, let’s focus on getting them home.” Atius cut in, all business now. “Winterscar, full report, inventory first.”

“Three clips of ammunition left, one working rifle, two occult knives and a longsword, one grenade, one pistol. Enough rations for three more days. Water is low, but we can resupply on route once we find a stream. Power can last us a day and a half at current reserves for us both.”

He paused here for a moment, but continued.

“I took a booster four hours ago, estimating sixteen to twenty hours before... permanent damage sets in.” Father answered back.

“Copy. Critical situations like yours are exactly when they’re supposed to be used. We’ll get you out before psychosis sets in. From the scanner it looks like you’re about three clicks away from us. Confirm distance?”

Journey brought out a three dimensional map of the tunnels we’d explored so far, along with a glowing light further away in unknown territory, slightly higher then we were. Distance showed three point two miles. I noticed it had also shown the territory we’d traveled before I’d donned the armor.

“Confirmed distance.” Father said. “Have additional items to report besides inventory.” Then he launched into the details. “We’ve recovered an imperial artefact that needs to be returned to the pilgrims. Additionally Keith discovered information I’m noting as priority one. It’s a sensitive topic that needs to be discussed face to face.”

“Too sensitive for comms?”

“Aye. It could change everything we know about relic armor.”

“Understood. Any other item to discuss?”

“We were guided to the new relic armor by yellow-gold lights that opened doors for us. We’ve been following since. We don’t know who or what is behind the lights.”

“Get me the path history,”

I saw a notification that Journey sent out the data package. The armors were listening in to the conversation, assisting automatically when they could. It was uncanny how smart these things were, given how limited their personality had been.

Lord Atius paused, then spoke up, “It looks like your path is taking you away from us, however it’s leading you in roughly the same direction as the original mission coordinates.”

“Orders, sir?”

A pause followed as Lord Atius considered the best plan of action forward. “While following the yellow light might seem like a safe idea, it’s directly opposed to the main goal of reuniting as fast as possible. Additionally you’re on a timer, Winterscar. Set a course to meet up, once we’re all grouped up our chances of survival increase significantly. We can knock you out of commission safely at that point, the earlier we knock you out, the faster your recovery will be. We’ll bring you back up for medical attention first, the airspeeder has a dialysis machine we can use. I can lead another team back down to track the yellow light at a later time, and without non-relic knights in tow. Our objective hasn’t been disturbed in centuries, I doubt a few more hours will change that.”

“Understood.”

“Get moving, three clicks should be less than an half-hour, but the winding tunnels could increase the time. After that it’ll be another three hours of travel to reach the airspeeder. Atius, out.”

The comms clicked off. Father glanced at me, and nodded. He started jogging down the tunnel, the one distinctly not lit by the yellow light. The gold flashed quickly at the side but we’d been ordered to ignore it for now. “Sorry, we’ll come back in a bit,” I muttered, and turned to join my Father, following the doors that weren’t lit, in the general direction of Atius.

The light followed us, appearing at the next few rooms, always insistently pointing in one general direction while we continued to move on course to meet with the rescue party. It never stopped with that intensity, as if pleading us to continue behind it.

Soon, using Atius’s coordinates as a guide, we’d reached the green lit tunnels once more. After that, our underground tour would reach its end.

As far as adventures went, solid five stars out of five - can't complain considering the loot. A holy mission, relic armor, an occult longsword and companion knife.

We were hauling real treasure.