12 Miles Below

Book 3. Chapter 34: It's the neighbors again

So. The citys invaded. A little more than a week ago.

Are there survivors? I asked nervously, You said the city surrendered, not that it was wiped off the map. Kidra was ridiculously strong as a fighter. Shed have survived the fight one way or another.

Hecate gave me a strange look, head tilted. Yes? That is the definition of surrender. The majority of the city remains intact and casualties are low. The machines have taken the majority of armors and are making demands for the citizens to convert to the Chosen within three weeks. Otherwise the city remains functional.

Hecate seemed to know the details, so taking a wild guess that she was there fighting at the forefront. And if she was at the forefront, then its almost certain Hecate fought side by side with Kidra against the machines. My sister, she was a surface knight named Kidra. Kidra Winterscar. Did you run into her at the battle? Did she make it down here in the first place?

A set of emotions passed through her features, but they were gone before I could pull answers from those. Yes. She finally said. There was a surface knight named Kidra. She currently leads the rebellion that remained in the city. They were still active, last I heard.

Relief sprung through me, unwinding tension I hadnt noticed before. Of course, shed be the one leading a rebellion. Thank the gods. Shes both alive, and I know where she is. The hardest parts of this mission are done. If a full invasion wasnt able to kill Kidra, she certainly isnt going to keel over anytime soon now that things are more quiet.

I took a deep breath, and the world seemed just a tad bit brighter than before. I just need to get to the city now, find a way to get in contact with her, and drag her out of here.

Youll attempt to withdraw back to the surface? Hecate asked, sounding interested.

No point staying down here. My clan needs everyone recalled. I said, before realizing I was being rather rude. Hecates city had been invaded and here I was saying we didnt need them for anything so well be jumping out the airship. My fat mouth again.

If the Deathless was disturbed by this, she made no show of it. The opposite even. Yes, I belive it would be best for Kidra to be returned to the surface and leave the current city. Its no longer as safe as it was. She said, completely deadpan serious in her delivery.

I gave her a grin. So you do have a sense of humor in there. I was getting worried.

She seemed confused. Which made me think her deadpan delivery was actually deadpan for a reason - she was serious that the city crawling with killer machines was no longer as safe as it used to be, given the killer machines crawling all over the place now. I shook it off for now, For my clan, our neighbors are also making a racket.

A racket? Why does that tool present any kind of danger?

Not a racket racket. Theyre not here to play wall ball with us and sulk around like sore losers. Its more a figure of speech. Something about wanting our complete annihilation and submission, you know, the usual. So thats why Ive got to grab Kidra and drag her back to the surface.

She still seemed confused for a moment, and I decided to swap the topic rather than continue confusing her. Im more surprised youre okay with losing the head of your rebellion for your city. No Undersider pride or anything?

I was not originally from that city. And while I was present in the combat, I do not hold much patriotism. I am simply being realistic. She said, sounding very careful about her wording.

I jabbed a thumb at the ceiling. I can always appreciate a bit of boots on snow logic. Talking about that, I dont want to drag you into my own affairs, so since we both need to refill our power supplies, I say lets travel together for that part, and split ways after. You can go find your mite-speakers and Ill continue on to the city. I still owe you a lifedebt for saving my life, Ill leave you coordinates for where my clan is. Anytime you want to call up that favor, come see us. Im kind of a big deal up there now.

The deathless nodded. We can travel together for the moment and decide future plans at the mite terminal. She pointed, In that direction is the nearest working power station thats been mapped. If we begin tomorrow morning, we should reach it by sunset. We will have to walk to conserve energy.

Should we play lots for who gets first shift? Im not sure if well need to turn off our armors overnight to conserve battery or if their sleep mode would be good enough. Dont have my helmet to talk to this buckethead. I said, knocking on my chestplate.

Rather, I had no means at all to talk to Journey. All the fractals within the armor were unpowered, I think it was in some kind of power-saving mode where only basic features were active. And those basic features didnt consider the newly added fractal system I had going on.

Hecate nodded. You can power down your armor completely. I have enough energy to remain operational and alert. She stopped for a moment, and then clarified. I mean, my armor has that feature. Of course, I will do the sleep like you while we remain here until night has passed.

Will do the sleep? I asked, eyebrows raised. Undersider jargon was so strange. But I suppose we had a lot of idioms on the surface that wouldnt make much sense to Hecate either. I should consider toning those down since it might confuse her, same way as it was confusing me slightly. I got the jist of it, but Im going to guess that if I started talking about tumbling around in the snow or telling someone to lick ice, she probably wont understand what that really means beyond the literal.

On her part, her cheeks flushed slightly before she stuttered. I mean, Ill be sleeping too, like a normal person would, yes. She stopped again, was about to say more before, but changed the topic. Anyway! Well rely on my armor to wake us if there is danger, and otherwise sleep. Thats the important part, yes.

This is going to be a learning curve.

--------------

Things Ive learned about Hecate in the past day hiking:

She never gets hungry, but when she does, the most dangerous place to be is between her and her food. She eats fast enough that a finger could be chomped on and eaten before shed notice the screaming.

Second, Im starting to suspect shes an actual witch of some kind. Often, shes looking across the distance, somewhere far off as if she were listening to the wind or communing with nature. If it happened while we were making headway I wouldnt find it too odd. Except she keeps doing that mid-conversation, usually staring off to my right or left as if checking if somethings following behind us. If she stopped to taste the stone in order to tell me the history of what animals had passed by with exact timestamps, Id take it as fact and not bat a single eye. My bets were that she had some kind of passive Deathless sight that let her see far more than humans would.

The armor she wore only added to my theory that shes a witch. Sleek, ending with small spikes, it looks very different from the more utilitarian plates Im used to. The part that really grabbed attention was the folded up metal blades at her waist. Now that she was walking along in bright lights instead of sitting down by a dim campfire, I saw more of the detail there. Like ToAacars hand, I realized the blades werent held or attached to anything. Rather, they were floating. Occasionally theyd shift around, especially when she sat or had to redress them. Her armor handled it all, moving them for her without prompt. I think it was a different variant then the Undersiders had access to, possibly something more powerful from the lower stratas. She was a Deathless after all, so only makes sense theyd get the best.

Id bet they could stretch out wide since they werent moored to anything. I havent seen them unfurled out like wings yet, so it was still a dice roll if they were the actual wings she said she had or if they were just another part of her armors strange looks.

Third thing about Hecate is that when she was confident in something, she was utterly unwavering and had no shred of self-doubt. Traversing the area was like following a tour guide, since she seemed to know exactly where she was at all times.

In contrast, shed often stumble on her words and get flustered easily. When I mean flustered, I mean the whole package - hands wringing, looking anywhere else, trying to change topics in the most awkward way possible and only getting more flustered. Couldnt win a poker game even if she could wear a helmet.

Problem is that every time she said something that made her go red like this, it made no sense to me why shed be embarrassed about it. Shed had every tell in the book, except all the wires were crossed. Drawing a winning hand in that proverbial poker game might not make her react at all for all I knew, but someone else standing up for a glass of water could.

And shes fast. Much faster than Lord Atius. We had no ranged weapons with us, so hunting down meat for food required chasing down and putting in the work. Shed spot animals from a distance, casually walk up until they got spooked, and then simply dash forward with a single stab, perfectly dead center on their head every time. Moved like a predator in that sleeker armor and didnt hide her skill either. Her speed was on par with a Winterblossom user, so if all the new Deathless are at that level, I can see why everyones been making such a big deal out of them.

ToAacar let slip that they were peasants, just common folks who got Deathless powers and remembered who they were before with the only other advantage from the previous generation being their sheer numbers. Then again, he was a Feather whos definition of challenge was fighting teams of veteran immortal demi-gods as a starting snack. A lot of knights would rank as slightly stronger than peasants to him, so its possible hed throw them all in the same bucket in terms of power levels.

Father had told me a few other snippets, almost two months ago when we were caught underground. Told me they were unhinged, and had no true loyalty to anyone. Theyre known to fight each other mostly, and to be motivated by greed - weapons, armor, trophies, or just general glory. Make their own little in-groups and guilds, like what warlocks did. What hed heard could be survivor bias where the only rumors making it to the surface were the most dramatic ones. He might have never heard about the other Deathless that rejected the call of arms and tried to return to their old life, only the ones that embraced the new powers and shook it for everything its worth.

That left Hecate in a strange place. I could make an argument for unhinged, but not in a dangerous way. And if her speed and skills were commonplace, those would absolutely have already reached the surface as rumors that they fought better than anyone else - but there hadnt been a mention of their skills being any more or less dangerous than the current Deathless. Cathida had told me the only people she knew that could consistently match that sort of speed were the Imperial Imperators, which were the most dedicated elites of the imperial army. Likely working in her order.

Hecate did say she was once a soldier, although something must have happened to make her desert the army. And she doesnt seem to be in any rush to kill machines either or get into any fights, despite the nearby events. In fact, she might have been in hiding this whole time, only forced to help the undersider city grudgingly, hence why she didnt care I was here to pry Kidra out. Thats another point for the retired veteran trying to find peace in their life, away from fighting.

My running theory was that shes a wayward Imperial Imperator, whos developed moral objections to the machine war, likely involving the Chosen in some way. Atius had treated them like people who were caught in a crossfire, it could be Hecate ran into the same wall and this was how she chose to handle it - by leaving it all behind. That made discussion about the undersider city very awkward between us as it turned out.

The citizens there are safe and the machines are not interfering with their lives. She said as I prodded into that subject. I do not see a reason to intercede or fight. Hecate was stubborn about this point. Rather it just seemed to annoy her further. The pillar heart has been destroyed. Even if the city were to eliminate all machines in the area, they have no means to hold the city anymore.

Ahead, the path was blocked by a set of cubical rocks all stacked chaotically on one another. Each cube was a little taller than I was. Hecate didnt slow down, walking straight at the obstruction.

I know that, but we could at least help them evacuate, maybe? I said, following behind. Or at least some of them?

She paused at the foot of the cubes, and began to jump up, tiny hops that hardly used even her calves and yet launched her straight over and onto each cube. Made it look effortless. What did I say, witch? Shes a witch. From what danger would they need evacuation? The machines have kept to their terms. The witch said. Your goal was to find your sister and extract her from the city. Why does the citys fate matter to you? Can you not leave them alone?

She had me there. Youre right that I dont technically owe these people anything. I said, taking a more grounded leap forward and using my hand to help pull myself up the rest of the way. I didnt want to strain Journeys leg sections too much. Both arms being broken was something I can work around. But if one of my legs gave out Id be deep in the scrapshit. I wont stay in the city for long, but who knows what I could do while Im there? Besides, machines have been trying to exterminate us, and have been for as long as weve known each other.

And humans are better? She said, looking down on me with a slight frown. As youve mentioned, on the surface, the only enemies you fight are your neighbors, other humans. Who are willing to do far worse than what the machines occupying CapraNor are currently administering. Are you claiming that to be a better fate? This is objectively false.

Look, if you line up a group of ten humans together, one of thems going to have a problem because someone stole their wallet or seduced their wife, but at least its not something on an extinction level threat. Line up ten machines, and youve got ten killer toasters looking to strangle your neck, guaranteed every time.

Statistically, most humans do not steal wallets or seduce someones wife in their lifetime? She asked and I could hear the trailing question mark to that. I admit I do not have enough evidence to confirm my claim. My archives do not have any records of socio-economic data points on this specific crime statistic.

Hecate. I said, slowly, clapping both my hands together, taking a deep breath and putting my resolve together. I know you saved my life, and I want you to know that Im very grateful for that. However. If we spend more than a day together, I swear to all the gods Im going to find some way to teach you a sense of humor, even if it kills me.

I have a sense of humor. She said, puffing out her cheeks and narrowing her eyes. All my friends have confirmed I have a very good sense of humor.

Is that before, or after, you threatened them with your swords?

I would never threaten my friends. She said, clearly insulted. Then her eyes widened, as if shed just come up with an excellent idea. If they cede to my demands before I threaten them with my swords, it does not count as threatening. She turned, grinning.

I gave her a thumbs up. Solid start. Ten points.

I dont know how I ended up on this war path, however it has to be done. It cant not be done. Someone as wide-eyed and by-the-book as Hecate cant be left to her own devices. Talking about evidence to back up her claims? What sort of nonsense was a dirty word like that doing anywhere near me?

Forgive me, all gods above and below but you lot must have known this was a bad idea from the start when you sent her my way, so everything that happens next is squarely on you. I absolve my hands of all responsibility.

Almost as if the gods were smiting me for my heresy right this moment, we ran into problems within moments of my personal resolution.

Were approaching the terminal. She said, up ahead. However, somethings not quite right. Please approach with caution. And then she drew swords. Both of them.

When a Deathless is drawing their weapons, thats when youve got a problem on your hands. Someone in need of threatening? I asked, hoping the answer was something more lighthearted. Then again, this is my luck were talking about and Im pretty sure Ive used up all the good part of it, having a Deathless with healing abilities just happen to pass by the same area I was about to get killed at.

No. Maybe. The terminal isnt responding. I must take precautions.

I sighed, drawing out Atiuss blade and taking my own post. Fine, lets go threatening together. The old weapon felt on its last legs occult wise, though the edge lit up bright blue as any occult blade would. Technically speaking, the blade was in perfectly good shape. If it was good enough for the clan lord to use in combat, itll have to do for me. So long as I dont use the blades secondary abilities.

Pretty soon the trees became sporadic as the two of us silently creeped up to where the fountain was supposed to be. The mites hadnt hidden it, at least. It was front and center on the top of a white granite cube, wide enough for me to pace around a few times without issue.

The reason why Hecate had thought something wasnt adding up right was equally obvious.

A good portion of the cube had a perfectly round void cut into it, going straight through the fountain, into the pedestal, and out the other side onto the ground where it dug a few more inches before fading out. As a result, the entire structure did not look like it would work. At all.

It seems our actions have been anticipated. Hecate said calmly.

Id seen this sort of damage before. Thats a drake. I said, pointing the tip of my sword at the damage.

I dont understand how that could be, that model shouldnt be here. Hecate said. The battle for the Undersider city eliminated all of their kind in the sector.

Speaking of the wayward new fan wed attracted, her hand dropped a sword before I could answer with anything, reached out to my chest and yanked me out of the way right as a beam cut through trees and leaves, zipping straight through the air where my chest had been a moment ago.

Thats twice Id escaped death by a narrow few inches in one day.

I gave a look backwards, spotting the violet glow of the enemy far above a cliff-side. Exactly the suspect I thought Id see. The reptile skull seemed to almost leer at me before shambling away, out of sight.

It will try to assassinate us again. Hecate said, looking very concerned. We need to seek shelter where it cannot see you. I dont understand how one could be here.

Ive amassed a good amount of enemies on the way down here, might have pissed off a certain someone whos ordered up the banners to come after me.

The Deathless looked over to the cliff-side again, but the drake was long gone, looking for another good sniping spot. I belive you are correct. It must have been recruited from a different section.

She turned and pointed in a direction, starting off in a jog. I followed behind, hoping Journeys energy reserve would survive the additional strain to wherever we were going. Forest quickly shadowed us. "Shouldnt we keep an eye on where it slunk off to, instead of showing our backs to it? I asked.

Their kind do not attack from the same location unless forced to, or ordered to. They are ambush predators that rely on killing targets before the target is aware of their location. Having failed, it will be currently relocating. I am, however, not certain about its full objectives.

That was probably looking for my body, if my guess is right. And when it didnt find me, it knew Id be looking for a power terminal next. I said, keeping an eye on the ridge lest it try to take another cheeky shot at me. I dont think I told you the gritty details of why I fell off a cliff in the first place, did I?

You have not. She said.

Take a guess.

Combat.

Well yes, but thats a cheap answer. Zero points.

She stayed silent for a moment, keeping her pace steady with me in tow. Then her head bobbed up as if shed come up with an acceptable answer. Unsuccessful combat. She amended.

Two points. You can do better than that.

She frowned, thinking further on it. I am hoping you didnt fall off that cliff on a dare.

First off, a lot better, ten points. Second, youre right that it wasnt on a dare, there was a dispute that I admit could have been resolved more amicably, with me stabbing someone else faster than he could. And lastly, are you insinuating Id jump off a mile long cliff if my friends dared me to do it? What sort of idiot do you think I am?

The kind that fell off a cliff. She said, proudly, as if answering a trivia question.

Praise Urs, there might be hope for you after all. I said, Where are we going by the way?

There is another registered power fountain further away that is buried in a smaller sub-cave system of this area. I have calculated that it fits all criteria for safety we need as of now, more specifically is is unreachable to larger machines. Once I have restored my armors power, Ill be able to fly to and dispatch the pursuer without issue.

Great, the best place to hide underground is to hide even further underground.

Mites had their own twisted sense of humor it seemed.

Next chapter - Regrets