Chapter 1

Darkness.

Cool and muffled. Shadows dancing into the shimmers of light from above. Eyes scrunched shut. An awareness of the burning in the lungs. An involuntary spasm.

Breathe.

Wait, water? Can’t breathe. Don’t inhale. Hold it. Bubbles on either side of the cheeks, crackling loud against the ears.

“-Miss?”

There was a tap on her shoulder as she pulled her head out of the container of water. She coughed, spluttering water as she tried to gulp at the air. A large figure leaned in next to her, a stopwatch held calmly in a hand that seemed too big, even for him.

“That was meant to be your thirty second tap,” rasped a voice through the speakerbox on the man’s chest,” are you really sure you do not want to invest in a fine set of gills for your journey ahead? It would be far better than drowning.”

“I- I, no. I’m fine,” she coughed, grasping the braid of auburn hair she had tossed between her shoulders to attempt the task, running her fingers gingerly across it as she settled it back across her chest. A habit from long periods of hiking through the dark forests.

Linah reached for a small towel stuck to the side of her squared pack, patting her face dry as the man continued, in a low tone,” what has made you interested in the caverns?”

“Out of the way please,” came another voice, this one not as raspy as the first, but still humming through the electric voice box in the center of his chest. Unlike his peer, this man’s eyes could be seen above his respirator, little emotion behind them as their green flashed at Linah. His Guild Clerk’s cap was held straight on his head as his voice box rumbled low, ending in a hiss,” please move along miss.”

“My name is Rygarh,” rumbled the speaker on the larger figures chest, tapping the glass of the eyeholes to his breathing mask, causing his own Guild Clerk cap to fall slightly further along his head, where he gently nudged it back into place,” find me later, if you still want to continue with the application for a permit.”

Linah smiled at Rygarh, hoisting her pack onto her back before smoothing out the leather apron that covered her waist to just below the knees of her thick canvas trousers. “Thank you Rygarh,” she said, stepping aside as the next entrant placed his head into the bucket between the two Guild Clerks. The smaller Guild Clerk glowered at his peer as Linah picked her way back into the crowd that had gathered.

“Don’t forget Rygarh,” the Guild Clerk grumbled,” we are here to keep corpses out of the Caverns, not add to their increasing number. That girl needs quite a bit of help, and there isn’t enough to go around, least of all if she is going to be cheap in her preparations.”

“I suppose you’re right,” crackled Rygarh’s speakerbox as he absentmindedly clicked the stopwatch in his hand.

—

Linah picked her way through the crowds, slipping between passersby, tourists, bureaucrats and other explorers, surveyors, scientists and mercenaries. There was the clamoring of the bells as another crew entered the Caverns at the center of town, followed closely by a more sinister bellowing pipe as a lucky few staggered out, their clothing soaked, tattered and singed all at the same time.

The sound of the pipe had made Linah flinch, and she shuffled quickly to the side of the crowded street as litter crews ran towards the entrance, their long supple legs gliding over the ground as they leapt between open spots in the street to get to the explorers that had just emerged. Linah felt the breeze as a litter crew leapt away from just next to her.

As the litter crews continued to work their way towards the Caverns, the bustle of the street that had subsided at the sound of the pipe slowly resurged. Linah had been all over the island and seen other entrances to the Caverns, but many of them were filled with saltwater that bubbled up from deep within the ground or were dangerous or inaccessible for a mulititude of reasons. Sometimes, the entrances would simply close up at the approach of an explorer, or worse would seal shut behind one as soon as they had entered. She began to regret not taking Rygarh up on his initial offer of gills. Despite how expensive the procedure was, it would also mean she could enter the Caverns from places other than the Guild’s entrance.

She tapped the metal tank on the side of her pack reflexively, listening to the hollow ping of the metal. It had been a while since she had found a Guild Clerk that would be able to fill an air tank, and the first ones she had come across in town were putting on a display of the gills procedure that had become popular. She rubbed ruefully at the sides of her neck before trailing her hand back down along her braid, slowly feeling the criss cross of the bound hair.

Gills would be nice, but they brought their own share of problems, the respirators and speaker boxes the two Guild Clerks wore were proof enough of that, not to mention the distorted body of Rygarh. One of many possible side effects of the Caverns, including the gills and even the long legs of the litter crew. Some of the side effects were more beneficial than others, the beneficial ones offered as a “procedure” if the results were repeatable enough in the Caverns. Many simply resulted in the death of the host. Those side effects weren’t advertised.

The entrance to the Caverns here in the town was the largest she had seen, larger even than the rumors that had sent her across the island towards the bustling town. Carved out of the ground years ago by the Guild and managed as a dedicated entrance to the Caverns nearly twenty meters around and plunged 100 meters into the ground before the Caverns had any ability to twist, change or close shut. This more or less guaranteed entrance to the depths below without requiring respirators, gills or air tubes.

Once you got into the Caverns themselves, the routes were much more stable, though still unpredictable. The first 2-300 meters underground were the most consistently dangerous, though this was mostly from the risk of the Caverns walls simply closing shut around you.

The town that had sprung up from the support of the Guild around the entrance to the Caverns quickly became a bustling trade center as expeditions into the caverns returned with precious materials and discoveries. Just as quickly though, the dangers of the caverns were brought to the open world as more and more individuals survived the treacherous depths. Their stories swirled to the surrounding continents, bringing more and more explorers of all sorts with both good and bad intentions.

Linah placed her hand to the ground, feeling the warmth that bubbled to the surface from deep inside the island. It was a strange comfort. It was what made her decide to stay on the island when she had first arrived, long before she had come into contact with the Caverns or even the Guild that tried to manage them. There were plenty of other mysteries in the world, but Linah had decided that the Caverns would be her mystery to uncover. She adjusted the pack on her back. For the time being, she needed a place to stay now that she had finally made it to the Caverns entrance.