Rune Seeker

Hiral tapped the Yes button, and the plain walls dissolved into solar smoke the next second. No sooner had they vanished than the party was already formed up, ready for whatever came next. Would it be an attack? Another ground-shaking smash? Maybe a horde of undead? No, this time it was…

A flat patch of empty land…?

“Not… quite what I expected,” Hiral said, RHCs in his hands as he activated Foundational Split. Left and Right peeled off of him and likewise looked around.

“Anybody see anything?” Seena asked.

“Uh…” Yanily started. “Yes, but not something you want to hear about.”

“What is it?” Seeyela asked as Hiral looked in the same direction Yanily did.

Nothing there?

Another glance at the spearman showed his eyes glazed over. He wasn’t looking at something around them—he was looking at a status window.

“What did…?” Seena started, but then her words choked off. “They’re… gone?”

Instead of voicing the question, Hiral opened his own status window, and his eyes didn’t need to scroll far before he noticed what had upset the party leader. Nivian and Wule… Their names weren’t listed in the party window anymore.

A quick check showed them also missing from the standard Party Interface normally minimized in the corner of Hiral’s vision. Not there either. When? When did they vanish?

And what does it mean?

“Are they…?” Seeyela started to ask, but she couldn’t finish the question.

She didn’t need to. Hiral’s mind—and likely everybody else’s—did it automatically.

Are they dead?

“No way,” Hiral said immediately. “They aren’t dead. Not those two.”

“How can you be sure?” Seena asked, only to shake her head. “No. You’re right. They’re both too stubborn to die. Something else must’ve happened.”

“Something connected to us entering the wild dungeon?” Yanily asked. “Timing fits.”

“That must be it,” Hiral said. “And, as much as I hate to say it, that’s not our biggest concern right now.”

“I dunno, losing out on their stat bonuses seems pretty big…” Yanily muttered, though there was an edge of underlying worry in his words.

“Not as big as the drop off this cliff,” Right said, and Hiral turned to find his double standing behind the party. “We’re not on a flying island, but we’re still at least a couple miles up.”

Instead of going over to join Right, Hiral looked at Seena and Seeyela. “Once we get out of here, we’ll figure out what happened to Nivian and Wule. Like Yan said, it was probably something to do with us entering the dungeon. Or maybe they needed to leave the party for some other reason. We might’ve even just reached the maximum range of the Party Interface. They’re fine.”

“I know,” Seena said, forcing a small smile. Then she shifted over to party-leader mode. “First things first. Where are we?”

“The cliff goes as far as I can see in both directions,” Left said, standing beside Right. “It curves, though. If I had to guess, based on the dungeon’s name, this is the piece of land that will eventually become Fallen Reach.”

“I’ve got to see this.” Yanily dropped to his stomach to shimmy up to the edge of the cliff, then leaned his top half over the side.

“Oh, for the love of… Somebody make sure he doesn’t fall,” Seena said, Left and Right already moving to grab onto the spearman’s legs.

“Wow,” Yanily said. “The bottom is still connected. It’s like… this island is an upside-down mountain sitting on top of another normal mountain.”

“And it’s not the only one,” Hiral added, pointing out three more versions of the same thing. “Four Fallen Reaches?”

“Our islands?” Seeyela asked, and the question made sense.

“They’re too big. Much too big,” Left said, one hand on Yanily’s leg to keep the man from tumbling off the side, the other shielding his eyes. “Each one has to be at least thirty miles across—the same size as Fallen Reach.”

“None of our islands are even close to that big,” Seena said, one finger tapping her chin. Li’l Ur floated by her shoulder, mimicking her gesture. “Could there actually be four Fallen Reaches? Not all together, obviously, but the next one hundreds of miles behind?”

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“It’s… possible,” Hiral said, but then he shook his head. “Then again, maybe not. They’d need the sun, and it’s always directly above Fallen Reach. I don’t know if they’d get enough energy to stay up.”

“What else would explain the four islands?” Seeyela asked.

“Maybe they can tell us,” Right said, and all eyes turned towards the double, who was in turn pointing inland. There, just barely visible, was a group of people walking towards the party.

“Don’t forget this is a dungeon,” Seena said, her tomes floating out on either side of her. “They’re just as likely to be monsters.”

“We should go meet them,” Hiral said, pointing at the island’s edge with one RHC. “We don’t want the cliff at our backs if it does come to a fight.”

“Good point,” Seena said, walking over to Hiral and tapping his shoulder.

With Yanily already back on his feet, spear spinning lazily in hand, and the others nodding they were ready, Hiral started jogging towards the approaching group. Thousands of feet off, even with his high Atn, the group was little more than a silhouette as he headed in their direction. Each step that brought them closer revealed more and more details, though.

First off, the other group was larger, easily a few dozen people, and they had what looked to be horses with them. There was a wagon in the back, and small clumps of the larger group broke off to look at something from time to time before rejoining the others. No metal or crystal glinted in the sun—No weapons?—and it quickly became apparent Hiral was looking at people. Not Troblins, Squalians, undead, or anything else.

People.

And, he probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but he recognized the person at the front.

“That’s Dr. Benza,” Hiral said into the party chat as they got within five hundred feet of each other, and the larger group finally seemed to notice them.

“Of course it is,” Seena mumbled. “Still, we don’t know when this is or if they’ll be friendly. Keep your guard up.”

“You got it, boss,” Hiral said, continuing ahead, while Dr. Benza’s group stopped to stare.

Closer now, Hiral noticed most of the group wore clothes similar to Dr. Benza’s: a kind of robe like the Academics of Fallen Reach. A few others, though, were dressed more practically, with knee-high boots, pants, and short-sleeve shirts that showed off impressive muscles. It was these larger men who came up to stand beside Dr. Benza as the party closed to within thirty feet.

“Oy, who are you?” one of the bigger men called. “And what are you doing out here?”

“… don’t recognize them…” a voice drifted out from the back.

“… carrying weapons?” another added.

“… supposed to be alone up…” said yet another.

“It’s you!” a more familiar voice said, and a woman—Laseen—stepped out from behind the larger man. “Mr. Footnote!” She literally lifted her arm and pointed right at Hiral, as if he hadn’t figured out who she was talking about. Still, despite the moniker, it was good to see the familiar face of one of Dr. Benza’s two assistants.

“Mr. Footnote?” Hiral said while Laseen poked Dr. Benza in the ribs.

“Look, it’s—” she started.

“Yes, I see exactly who it is,” Dr. Benza said. “Despite their new… outfits.”

“Really, with your eyesight…” Laseen said.

“Which is fine!” Dr. Benza said. “It’s not my fault you hid the vial I needed in the fridge.”

“It was right in the front. In the middle,” Laseen said. “You should’ve…” She trailed off as Fenil put a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

“Dr. Benza, is that really you?” Seena asked, tomes still at her sides.

“Who else would it be?” he asked.

“Uh…” Seena started, but Dr. Benza waved a hand to dismiss his own question.

“You were sent up to protect the project’s construction?” he asked. “I shouldn’t be surprised, considering your performance back in Ratchett. Still, I should’ve been informed. Fenil, why wasn’t I informed?”

“Uh… because I didn’t know either?” the researcher said from beside Laseen.

“Ratchett?” Yanily whispered into the party chat.

“Must be the actual name of The Buried City,” Seeyela answered.

“Poor communication, but considering everything that’s going on, I guess it’s understandable,” Dr. Benza said. “Oh, well. Either way, I’ll feel better with you all here.”

“Dr. Benza,” Hiral said, sheathing his RHCs and holding up a hand to stop the doctor from continuing, “what project? What is… this?” He gestured around the barren landscape. There were no trees or bushes, let alone buildings, as far as he could see.

“Hrm? Didn’t you mention you were working on this project before? You were already using that horrible Fallen Reach name at the time…”

“He was probably only in the tunnels,” Fenil offered.

Dr. Benza snapped his fingers and nodded. “Of course. You wouldn’t have seen the surface much if you were part of the group setting up the tunnels and infrastructure within the bowels of the islands. Good work on that, by the way.”

“We didn’t…” Yanily started, but Seeyela shushed him.

“With the pipinglaid,” Dr. Benza said with air quotes, “we can now move on to the next and final stage of the project. It’s time to build a city. This”—he turned his back to the party and spread his arms wide—“is where the future of our people will live. Our hope.”

“Looks kind of empty,” Yanily pointed out.

“Ahem,” one of the large men coughed as Dr. Benza turned around. “We’re just beginning the building process now. That’s why we’re out here. Making sure our previous measurements are accurate, and that all the piping Dr. Benza mentioned is where it’s supposed to be. When we’re finished, you won’t even recognize this place.”

“This is Chief Engineer Derk,” Dr. Benza said, gesturing to the man who’d just spoken. “Everybody calls him Cederk for short.”

“I still say just Derk would be shorter,” Laseen mumbled, only Hiral’s high Atn picking up the words.

“When you’re finished?” Seena asked. “When will that be?”

“Two years; I stake my reputation on it,” Cederk said.

“Two years?” Hiral whispered into the party chat. “Just how long is this dungeon?”