Impression, Sunrise

The Crucible turned out to be less than an hour's walk away from the border.

The massive cave’s entrance sat at the base of a set of flat-topped hills. The gaping hole sent shadows on the now pale-yellow grass that stretched miles away from the base, covering the obsidian and stone with a dark mass.

Aila took a cautious step forward. With every minute move we made, the cave’s echo sent it back five-fold. Even the simple nudging of a pebble sounded like a cannon blast.

“You ready?” I asked, hesitant.

“Never been better,” she took a deep breath. “Let’s go.”

We took our first few steps inside. I lit a small light on my finger, just enough so we could see a few feet into the base.

If this was Riverlight’s base, they sure didn’t do much to decorate the entrance. Five minutes in and the twin suns’ light had vanished, leaving my Senn as the only way to navigate through the dark abyss.

Each step we took sent a shiver up my spine, the only sounds in this damp place other than the occasional droplet falling from a stray stalactite. If I stayed still for long enough, I’d probably be able to hear both our heartbeats. Though I’d rather not get into that sort of experimenting.

“Look,” I softly pointed toward the ground. This place may have given the appearance of being abandoned, but occasionally we saw signs of life.

“A footprint…” Aila’s voice trailed off. Traced by the rough stone floor, a set of wet footprints led deeper into the cave. “Whoever made this is a decent size, a brickweller if I had to guess.” She leaned down, touching a finger to the water. “They sure were in a hurry.”

“Do you have a timeframe?”

“Less than a day,” She got back up, stretching her tail into the dark. “This place is less abandoned than it wants us to think.”

The next while we continued to walk down the tunnel. Time felt hard to keep track of down here, it could have been an hour or three and I wouldn’t have been able to tell.

What I could tell was how populated this cave really was. More footprints kept appearing, this time belonging to a lot more than one person. Men and women, children too—it felt like we were following a whole town’s worth of people into the cave.

I slowed my walk. “You see that?”

“Cristal clear,” Aila whispered back. At the end of the tunnel, the faint orange flicker of a torch caught our eyes.

Luckily or not, there wasn’t a single person to greet us as we reached the end of the cave.

Well-fueled torches lined the stone walls. At the cave’s end, two grand stone statues stood side by side facing one another, both of the same tall woman with long flowing hair and needles in her hands.

“She’s beautiful…” Aila's voice echoed through the cave as she touched the leftmost statue’s foot.

I had to agree. Even compared to statues on Earth these stood out as masterpieces. The needles in her hand felt like they’d snap at a single gust of wind, every strand of her long flowing hair felt real, not to mention the lifelike expression of conflicted rage she held.

“What now?” I stood between the two lifelike statues. Carved in the stone was one last hole, covered by what looked to be two metal doors with massive circular hinges.

BOOM

Before either of us could react, the doors swung in, casting massive piles of dust into the air. I covered my nose as the fog cleared and the clicking of electric lights flushed the cave with light.

A singular man stood at the entrance. His biceps were easily the size of my head, with a massive mess of dark orange hair and a well-groomed beard. His brown eyes stared like daggers at my Senn.

“Seth…” His face was an exact match for the wanted poster. I took a step back as I analyzed the man. His height reminded me of Thien, though this man felt several leagues stronger—not near Francis’ level in either department, that man still remained an anomaly of anomalies.

“You must be Rin then,” The man spoke with a deep, weathered voice. “Lilly told me you two would be coming.”

“Yes-”

“Follow me.” The man interrupted, turning back the way he came.

I glanced toward Aila, who gave me a quick smile. I remembered back to when Lilly said Seth wasn’t the most friendly person. She’d been on the money.

He didn’t say a word as the doors slammed closed behind us. What I’d assumed were electric lights I now realized were powered by riverlight. A clear tube ran across the ceiling, connecting the lights as water slowly poured into the white vases holding them up.

It wasn't just the ceiling that had water pipes. They ran like snakes around the halls, dipping in and out of the rooms behind the closed doors that lined the hallway.

“In here,” Seth shuffled us into a massive, lit room larger than a school gym. Here, uncarved rock covered the walls and ceiling, all lit with the same clear tubes that ran across the ceiling. A light brown stage sat at the end of the room with simple chairs covering most of the floor.

At the end of the room, he opened a second door hidden behind the stage. Inside was a rather simple room with a large wooden table and what looked to be several computer monitors.

He took a seat at the end of the table. “Sit.”

From his tone I gathered that it wasn't a request.

Aila and I took our seats at the opposite end, neither of us that willing to talk. Lilly had sworn up and down this man was an ally, but he wasn’t exactly giving us much to trust here.

“I-I think these belong to you.” Aila gingerly reached into her pocket, pulling out nine pristine crystals–each a different color.

“Thank you,” Seth caught the gems as Aila slid them across the table. “How much has Lilly told you about us?”

“Barely anything,” I said. “Just the reason for collecting those gems.”

“Good,” he relaxed his shoulders a bit. “Don’t take her reluctance personally, I was the one who ordered her to keep quiet.”

“Why?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Why do you think?” he scoffed. “Rescorge are fickle. She may have vouched for you Rin, but how could I trust that you would see things the same way she did? Thien got to you first as well. For all I know he’d hidden you these past few years as a spy. Not to mention the cat-eared woman with you. Lilly couldn’t vouch for her.”

“Then… why trust us?” Aila asked. “I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors about people like me.”

“You think this planet is the only one where people are part cat? Never considered that once, she would have killed me.”

“She?” I asked, hesitant.

“My boss, she hates when I call her by her title. Ask… Shit what’s his name here? Francis, ask Francis if you really wanna know. They’re the same type of god. Anyway, to be completely honest I still don’t really trust you, but considering Thien tried to kill the three of you, I have to hope this wasn’t part of his plan.”

“You still don’t trust us? Not after hearing that?” Despite my anger I understood where the man was coming from. There was no proof Thien didn’t tell me beforehand about the attack so we would survive, all to convince Lilly to lead me here.

“Convince me,” he held up one of the jewels to the artificial light, appreciating the purple gems glimmering. “Let me take you on a tour. You two kids have a lot to learn.”

֎ ֎ ֎

The first thing that became clear on our tour was that Riverlight’s headquarters were a lot more massive than I’d assumed.

Well-lit caves made up most of the rooms, with more and more people around the further we went in. There were soldiers, children, people clearly summoned from all over the earth. If I thought of a country, at least one person here was born there, all with a variety of Senns that I’d never seen before.

Though not a single one shared the flame pattern that Aila and I had.

“This is the training room!” Seth led us into another massive cavern. The sound of clashing metal and screaming made the lights shake above. Random explosions caused pebbles to fall as more people than I could count sparred.

There were swordsmen, archers practicing against leather targets, and Senn users throwing magic I’d never seen before around with ease. One man snapped his fingers, turning a nearby rock into liquid. Another leaped up and touched his hand against the ceiling fifty feet above us.

“How has this place never been discovered?” Aila asked, staring in awe at the room. “This is massive! It has to be at least twice as big as Gallai’s training center.”

“There's more protecting this place than either of you could imagine,” Seth said, sounding proud. “Half the Children couldn’t find this place, much less a lowly sailor like Thien Blackwell.”

“Everyone keeps mentioning Sailors, first Francis, now you,” I said. “What the hell are those?”

“Cosmic sailors serve East, as well as a few other beings on his level, sailing the stars to find undiscovered places, though that’s a gross oversimplification.”

With that, Seth led us out of the room without another word.

The rest of the tour consisted of more extravagant rooms straight out of a fantasy novel. The cafeteria was twice the size of anything else I had seen, with water powered ovens and even a microwave. There were more rooms here than in most hotels, all with modern furniture and designs straight out of a hotel.

He led us to two identical rooms after ascending what seemed like an endless set of metal stairs. “Curfew is at ten and the wake-up call is at seven. I’ll see you them.”

“Thank you,” I took a simple brass key from the man before he turned back down the stairs without another word.

“He’s… interesting,” Aila said after a few moments had passed. “I think Lilly was on the mark with him.”

“Yeah,” He didn’t come off nearly as bad as I assumed. “We need to get some sleep. I’m not sure what’s next.”

“Same,” Aila sighed. “Well, if they gave us these nice rooms, it would be rude not to enjoy them.” She walked in the room, looking around in awe before closing the door. “Night, Rin!”