Moving Day

This place… The MOLE, they called it, seemed to brighten up a bit after Cain followed Rina up several flights of stairs. It seemed like the room they performed the ritual in was below everything else—for security reasons, Cain guessed. His steps felt heavy with the weight of his new situation. There was also what had happened only a few moments before they left the room. Cain couldn’t get his mind off of it, replaying the event over and over in his head, trying to convince himself that it hadn’t happened. Try as he might though, he couldn’t forget the face that Rina had made: eyes wide, gleaming with one part fear and two parts curiosity. Even stranger was the fact that it didn’t happen again, their hands simply met like normal and they left the room, leading up to where they were now. Cain dwelled on it for a few more seconds until he was snapped out of his trance, suddenly realizing that Rina was trying to speak to him.

“Cain? Caaaaiiin?”

“Huh? What? Oh, sorry, I was just…thinking about earlier. What is it?” He apologized.

“Sorry about…all that. It’s just that we’re in sort of some dire straits at the moment, like Valerie and I said earlier.”

“Right, well, it’s not like I have much choice in the matter, so don’t worry about it too much.” Cain replied, his words like knives.

Though he was a bit behind her, he could see the girl’s sheepish smile fade, and he felt a reluctant satisfaction. He didn’t particularly want to upset her, yet after everything he had just gone through, he wanted someone, anyone, to feel a fraction of the displeasure he felt at this whole situation.

The two walked down a long corridor for a few awkward minutes. With each passing step, Cain became more aware of the humming that echoed inside the stone hewn walls. Soon, he took notice of a soft, almost electrical buzzing that accompanied the hums. Together, they became a small, ethereal chorus, serenading the hall with rhythmic, almost mechanical tones. The rattling of the conduits lining the ceiling occasionally joined in as they carried an odd light blue liquid to its destination. It was almost like this entire place was…singing. Cain recalled something that Rina had mentioned before—that the MOLE was a mobile base. All of these different components that Cain heard inside the walls served one purpose, to keep the MOLE operational. It was like this place was alive. A beast carved from stone, whose mechanical organs were constantly working to keep it moving, their song proof that they lived.

The corridor was lit by glowing runes drawn on the walls intermittently. They looked like simple pictures, designed to communicate the idea of light pictorally. Cain wondered if perhaps this had something to do with the Manasketching that Valerie mentioned. As unbelievable as it was to him, it seemed like this world he had been brought to was governed more by some sort of magic rather than any kind of physical laws, such as Earth was. At least, not any physical laws he was used to. Besides the conduits on the ceiling, the occasional door, and the runes on the walls, the hall was very bare and utilitarian, bearing no sort of decoration or carving. The air was lukewarm and stale, like in the entryway of a house with a fireplace burning in a nearby room during the dead of winter. Comfortable enough in the moment, but would quickly become unpleasant if one was to stay there too long.

The two continued down the corridor in silence until they reached a small chamber at the end. A bronze hued metal cage waited for them, hanging from a thick chain. As they approached, its door swung wide, welcoming them inside. It appeared to be some kind of elevator, but its appearance left at least a few doubts in Cain’s mind about its safety. Rina stepped inside without hesitation, however, leading Cain to follow her lead. Once they were both inside, she pulled a switch to the side of the door, and the cage whirred to life. Cogs and gears that were dormant moments before locked into place and began to turn. Cain heard the chain above him rattle and shake as it was pulled taut, and the elevator started to rise off the floor. A small bronze cone attached to the ceiling serenaded them with soft tones akin to elevator music. A strange thing to be universal, Cain thought.

The awkward silence between Cain and Rina continued to fill the air for most of the elevator ride. Chains rattling, gears turning, and the faint elevator music just above it all were the only sounds that echoed through the elevator shaft. As their ride reached its terminus, Rina sighed and finally opened her mouth, wearing a slightly aggravated face.

“Look, you’ve been through a lot already, and I don’t you any more exhausted than you already are since your training starts tomorrow. Keeping that in mind, I’m gonna try not to keep you too long, so we’re just gonna do a short tour so that you don’t immediately get lost the first time you step out of your room. Then, I’ll take you to your room so that you can…adjust to things.” She said, forcing a smile.

“Yeah, sure, fine.” Cain grumbled as he stared at his feet.

Finally, the elevator reached its destination, a chamber that seemed to serve as a central hub for the MOLE. The elevator station was flush with one of the room’s four walls, and three other tunnels branched off from the room’s other walls. Each one, labeled with a peculiar foreign script that Cain didn’t recognize. Despite not knowing the script, Cain seemed to perfectly understand what each of the inscriptions said, to his surprise. Operations and Infirmary, Barracks, and Research and Engineering. He must have been making a strange face upon realizing this, as he caught a glimpse of Rina smirking at him.

“I guess we’ll swing by operations and the infirmary first, those tend to be pretty important places in our line of work.” she stated, already walking that way.

Cain followed her, suddenly a bit more eager to learn about this place after his odd epiphany.

“So how is it that I can understand whatever language those signs were written in? They weren’t English, but I somehow knew exactly what they said.” he inquired to Rina

“I assume this Engglisch is the language that was spoken in the world you came from? Well, the ritual circle had a few glyphs inscribed that would allow whatever was summoned to speak and understand our language, Fantian, since there was no guarantee that whatever came through would be able to understand us.”

“So we’re speaking Fantian, but to me it sounds like English? Weird.”

They continued through the tunnel to Operations and the Infirmary in relative silence, but Cain caught a faint, yet warm smile forming at the corners of Rina’s mouth. Before long, they reached a branching path, one that led to the Operations room and the other leading to the Infirmary.

“I’ll let you choose this time. Which one do you want to go to first?” Rina gestured at the two paths before them.

“Um, Operations first then I guess?” Cain replied, unsure if his choice actually carried any weight.

“Sounds good, but we’ll only be quickly popping in and out. I think Valerie’s in the middle of planning for a mission. We got a request for aid earlier, so I don’t want to disturb her too much.”

Operations was not at all what Cain expected. He expected a parchment and quill style office setup, where long letters were both written and received, and where maps of battlefields were painstakingly drawn. Instead, he was met with a sight straight out of a battleship control room. Control panels, levers, buttons, and dials lined the walls. Glyphs flickered and flashed, displaying maps, diagrams, and charts that Cain couldn’t even begin to understand. Valerie stood in the center of the room, staring thoughtfully at a console with a glyph that displayed a large 3D map of some unfamiliar landmass. The vast majority of the map was a murky green, with only a few places left untouched. A model of a curious drilling machine occupied a space floating above the map. Rina must’ve seen Cain eyeing it, because she spoke up, albeit at a whisper to avoid disturbing Valerie.

“That’s a model of the MOLE. It lets us keep track of all of its systems and everything from one convenient location. Neat, huh?”

“Yeah…” Cain replied, peering around the rest of the room in awe.

“This is the place where all of our moves are planned and organized. Not much we do doesn’t pass through here first. Valerie may be our leader, but most of the decisions get voted on by our Council, which consists of the Vanguard and a few others, myself included. Oh, the Vanguard being our main group of frontline fighters.” Rina began to explain. She paused when her eyes passed over the map at the center of the room. “So far, we’ve only barely managed to hold off the Bottomless. Protecting towns and villages whenever we can, and taking those we can’t protect into our care to keep them safe. As many as we can at least…” She turned to Cain and flashed him a smile. “But with any luck, you’ll help us turn it around.”

She turned to exit the room to head towards the infirmary and Cain felt a pang of guilt in his chest. These people wanted, no, needed his help. And yet, he didn’t think he was capable of what they wanted him to do. Clearly they thought he was some kind of savior from another world meant to rescue them in their darkest hour. But he was just…Cain, a high school kid with no grand dreams or ideals outside of wanting the world to have a little more justice in it..

Once they reached the infirmary, Cain’s nose was assaulted by the smells of both sterility and sickness, much like a hospital back on Earth. He tried to enter, but Rina quickly put a hand out to block him.

“The doctor’s not in right now, so I don’t want you going in there just yet. I just wanted to show you where it was in case you needed to come here for anything.” she mumbled, glancing back and forth between Cain and the door.

Cain raised an eyebrow. “What? Why? Isn’t it better if I get a little more acquainted with the layout of the place?”

“I just…I don’t wanna lie to you Cain, we’ve got some pretty bad cases in there right now. Some folks from the last village we went to got pretty badly injured from the Bottomless. I don’t really want you to see that when you’re still adjusting to everything is all.”

He wanted to disagree, to tell her that he could handle it, but something about the look in her eyes told him that at least this time, he should take her at her word. Against his better judgement, he did just that and walked away from the infirmary with her. As they passed the window, a curtain fluttered, and Cain caught a glimpse of someone in a hospital bed squirming restlessly. Whoever they were, they looked malnourished and clearly in pain. More than anything else about them though, Cain noticed the glowing green gash on their side, the same color as what was on the map in Operations. In that moment, he was thankful to Rina for convincing him to leave.

Their next stop after the Infirmary was the Research and Engineering wing. Throughout the tunnel, Cain noticed pipes similar to the ones he saw earlier crawling along the ceiling once again. Some rattled as steam and water flowed through them, while others creaked and groaned, carrying more of the blue liquid Cain saw down below to the Research and Engineering wing. Rather than splitting off into two separate corridors like the tunnel that led to Operations and the infirmary, this tunnel led into a single large circular chamber. Each side of the chamber had three doors. One side seemed to belong to the Engineering wing, while the other belonged to the Research wing.

Rina turned to Cain once again. “Alright, your choice again for where we go first.” Cain noticed her hands down at her sides, not-so-subtly pointing towards the Research wing.

A light smirk appeared on Cain’s face. “In that case, let’s check out Engineering first.”

“Ugh, fiiiine.” sighed Rina, now pouting. “But we’re just gonna pop in. They’re supposed to be working on a new prototype for me, so I don’t want to keep them from their work for too long.”

Before Cain could ask who she was referring to, Rina opened one of the doors to Engineering. A warm wind rushed through, washing over her and Cain. The smell of oil and metal permeated the air. A huge, open chamber lay before them, filled with machinery and noise. Conveyor belts carried all kinds of materials into a variety of different machines and devices. The hiss of steam being released from pressure valves across this strange factory reverberated through the chamber. Machines clanked, whirred, and rumbled as they each performed their unique tasks. But perhaps the most striking thing to Cain about this whole factory, was the pair of robotic humanoid birds crouched behind crates throwing tools at each other.

“The press is malfunctioning because of your carelessness, Ravel!” One of them shouted, grabbing a wrench in their birdlike hand and tossing it at the other one.

Narrowly dodging the wrench, the other one struggled to find something to throw until her claws touched a hammer. “No, it was your negligence that caused it to break, Eagrin!” She squawked, chucking the hammer towards Eagrin’s head. The hammer met his head with a clang and he fell to the floor, before shaking it off and screeching.

“Ahem!” Rina loudly cleared her throat, causing both of them to freeze in place. “Good to see you two working hard on what I asked you to make. Cain, these two are the Wanoggi twins, Ravel and Eagrin Razordown.”

The two humanoids standing before them were, remarkably, both avian and mechanical in nature. Cain hadn’t noticed it while the two were fighting, but each of them also seemed to have a smaller second pair of arms. These “Wanoggi” seemed to be quite the interesting race of people. The one named Ravel had a rather hefty build, and was covered in a dark, alloyed metal plating, causing her to appear a deep grey or even black. She wore a pair of mechanic’s overalls that seemed tailored specifically for her. Her scarlet eyes glowed and her beak hung open as she seemed to panic a bit when Rina made her presence known. The other one, Eagrin, was built a bit more lightly. Bronze plating covered the majority of his body, intriguing runes etched on every other plate like tattoos. He wore a jumpsuit with a red handkerchief wrapped around his neck. Similarly to his sister, his eyes widened

“Ah! Miss Rina! We were just…” Eagrin began.

“...trying to fix mechanical press A9!” Ravel finished.

Rina put a hand on her hip and raised an eyebrow at them. “Right, and I’m sure that’s why you were throwing things at each other?”

The twins stiffened up, ready to receive a scolding. Luckily for them, Rina just sighed and turned to Cain.

“They’re good people, but they can be a little hard to work with at times. If they ever give you any trouble just let me know and I’ll come knock some sense into them.” she advised Cain.

Cain opened his mouth to introduce himself, but before he could get a word out he felt Rina dragging him away back towards the Research wing.

“Not now.” She said “If you start talking to them now, they’ll drag you into some sort of sparring match or scheme before you can blink.”

Cain wanted to protest, but he glanced back at the twins to see they were staring straight at him and had closed half of the distance between himself and them in the time it took him to turn his head. He decided that Rina probably knew best in this case and went along with her. He followed her back outside until she suddenly stopped in the center of the chamber.

“On second thought,” She said, spinning on her heels to look at Cain, “I think I’d rather wait to show you the research wing. I’ve already taken up too much of your time thanks to the twins, and due to personal bias, I’d prefer if your first impression with the research wing wasn’t tainted by exhaustion and overstimulation.”

“Are you sure? I feel like I can go for a little longer if we need to.” Cain pointed out.

“I’m positive. Your shoulders have started to slump and your posture has gotten worse the longer we’ve been at this. I can tell you’re tired. As much as I wanna figure out what’s going on with you, it can wait until tomorrow.”

Cain quickly straightened his shoulders and back, not wanting to let himself seem too relaxed. He hadn’t even noticed his posture had worsened over the course of their tour. Cain realized he had unconsciously lowered his guard around Rina during their tour, probably due to her calm and friendly demeanor. Whatever the reason, he had to be more careful. He had just met this girl, who knows what she could really be like. After all, it seemed like these people were trying to recruit him to some kind of war effort. Cain shook his head. He couldn’t afford to get distracted like this, any weakness he showed could be used against him. He began walking behind Rina once more, trying to be more wary of her behaviors.

Cain paused for a moment. “Wait, did you say you want to figure out what’s going on with me? What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nope, sorry. You gotta wait ‘til tomorrow to find out. Don’t worry, it’s nothing to be anxious about. Probably.” Rina giggled in response.

The barracks were different than Cain expected. A small cafeteria and leisure area greeted the touring duo when they first walked in. Even though he had eaten just a few hours ago, the smell of recently put away food made his stomach growl. Past the cafeteria and leisure area was an intersection of hallways that diverged into three separate ways. Straight ahead was, for Cain’s lack of a better description, a gym. The branching hallways on the left and right sides appeared to be living arrangements for the members of Last Bastion, quite different from Cain’s expectations. The organized army bunks from the military movies he used to watch with his dad were nowhere to be found. Instead, there were private rooms, enough for around forty people by Cain’s estimate.

“There’s a lot less lodging space than I would’ve imagined for a resistance army, yet somehow more than I’ve seen the people to fill.” Cain observed as they turned down the corridor on the right.

A sad smile crossed Rina’s face. “Well, like Valerie said earlier, we’re really lacking numbers at the moment. We’ve…lost some good people lately.”

“I see, sorry for bringing it up.” Cain apologized.

“Don’t be, you couldn’t have known. Besides, even when we had more people we prioritized quality over quantity.”

Rina stopped in front of a weathered wooden door, a bit before the halfway point of the hallway.

“Here we are, your new home away from home.” She gestured with a half-hearted laugh. “Val wanted you in between me and Gunnar so we could be close by in case you needed us. I’m to the right, Gunnar’s to the left.”

She stood next to the door expectantly, waiting for Cain to open it, which he obliged. A wave of stale air rushed out as Cain was greeted by some living arrangements that were, under the circumstances, quite agreeable. A decently sized bed, a desk with a lamp and a chair, a closet, and even a private bathroom. All things considered, it wasn’t unlike some of the dorm rooms he’d seen when touring colleges with his parents a few months back.

“So? How do you like it?” Rina asked from the doorway.

“It’s definitely not what I’m used to, but it’s better than nothing I suppose.” Cain mumbled.

“I guess bearing with it for now is all I can really ask of you.” Rina said, thrusting a small bell into Cain’s palm.

He looked back at her, puzzled. “What is this?”

“It’s a glyph infused bell that I made. If you get lost, have trouble with something, or just need someone to talk to, just give it a ring and I’ll be there.” She explained. “Just don’t go too crazy with it, I’m not your maid or anything like that.” She added, tossing Cain a wink.

Cain smiled, perhaps his first genuine one since he’d arrived here. “Thanks Rina, I appreciate it.”

“No problem, just try to get yourself some rest. As much as you can before your training in the morning anyways.” Rina called to him as she left, shutting the door on her way out.

“Yeah right, get some rest.” Cain scoffed to himself, his smile now a fleeting memory.

He gave Rina a few seconds to get some distance, then twisted the door knob. It wouldn’t budge. Locked, probably by magic or something like that, he surmised. Couldn’t have their new recruit escaping on them, after all. Cain sighed, walking over to the bed and sitting down on it. It was softer than he expected it to be. He laid back, letting himself collapse onto the bed.

For the first time since he had gotten summoned, he was alone. His outing with his friends earlier that evening felt like it was an eternity ago. Everything from Earth seemed like a distant memory, getting fuzzier by the moment. Or maybe that was just the exhaustion. Cain felt uncertainty, fear, sadness, and regret. But most of all, he felt tired. His eyelids grew heavy, and despite his earlier doubts, exhaustion overtook him, and he drifted off to sleep.