Detonation Day

With a dull thud, the elevator came to a stop, and the hum of the levitation sigil beneath its metal cage slowly grew quiet. The sound of sectional barriers replaced it as they rolled up, their racket echoing down the length of the mineshaft. As the dividers locked into place overhead, dust fell free atop the packed carriage.

“Took yuh’ long bit, eh?!” Avii yelled from behind his ten-tonne cart, having been waiting the better part of an hour. “Scrubbin’ yer arse, were yuh?”

“Oi, shove it Avii,” Beerk grumbled, the sound of metal scraping against stone grating the ears as he pushed his empty cart from the platform. “Gantry issues.”

Running a hand through his long black hair, Avii leaned his toned body back into the suit of his MULE as he waited anxiously for the elevator to be unloaded. The Magical Utility Limb Enhancer was what he and his people used to make the most of the workday. A metalworking miracle, the exoskeleton was forged of a mixture of steel and ground leystone. Alone, it weighed a tonne, but thanks to the latest innovation of arcanoengineering, artisanal sigil work and a fully charged arcanzcore, an operator could push a thousand times the suit’s weight with ease.

“Well get yuh’ gantries out of a twis’ and ‘urry it up!” Avii yelled out, reaching into the breast of his jumper and withdrawing a ciggy. “Some of us ‘ave hot dates tonigh’.”

“Heh,” Beerk remarked, stopping beside Avii and extending the gauntlet of his MULE out. “You and the lil’ lass? ‘Aving an ‘ot date? Piss off! Not with tha’ lil’ ankle biter aroun’. Now, lemme bum a ciggy.”

“Tch.” The man replied, flicking an extra spliff out and extending it to the operator. “Jeanine is four now. And ‘er Gran is missin’ ‘er somethin’ awful. So yeah, Kani and I ‘ave a night off.”

Avii watched as Beerk’s metal hand pulled the cigarette back. As the chest of the armour opened, the man withdrew an arm from the suit and plucked the slender stick from the gauntlet before slipping it between his lips. With a few snaps of his fingers, a flame appeared, igniting the tip. Following suit, Avii slipped his own spliff into his mouth and ignited it with the pale blue flame at the tip of his finger. Unlike his father before him, he had been raised with magic. The skills required to cast simple spells and operate MULES were second nature to him. Lighting the tips of his fingers was child's play.

“Well, I guess yuhz gonna get workin’ on making lil’ Jeanie a lil’ sist’uh. Maybe a broth’uh this time? Tch. Babies havin’ babies.”

“Oi, I’m twenty Beerk. I ain’t no babe. Now bugger off, yuh bum. You’re ‘oldin’ up the queue.”

“Righ’ righ’,” Beerk spoke, waving the comment off as he adjusted himself back into his MULE and continued on his way with the empty cart. “Send Kani my love. An’, when you see ‘er, tell mum I’ll be late. Pullin’ a double down shaft nine.”

“You tell ‘er yuh’ bum!” Avii yelled back as the racket of carts moving from the elevator once again filled the cavern. “And pick up ‘yuh call crystal every now an’ again! She’s been tryin’a reach ‘yuh!”

With a sigh, Avii leaned back into his MULE, grumbling as he took a drag off his cigarette. Looking down over the cart, he eyed the collection of contraptions that he had recovered from deeper in the mine. Almost forty years prior, while on a routine mining exploration, a group of prospectors stumbled upon the find of a lifetime. Deep beneath the mountain at the heart of Maldain, a small nation at the centre of the world, an ancient city filled with riches awaited the bold and adventurous. More than that, the day the doors were first cracked open to that forgotten realm was the same one that magic entered the world.

Since then, the nation to the west, Kovika and the land to the east, Estaria, have been vying for control of the mine and the wealth of magic held within. But Maldain, at the forefront of the charge and having first rights to the rare arcane wonders, was all but impossible to conquer. Their resolve to maintain control was unyielding, and their people, the blessed chosen, were naturally gifted to harness the magic. Still, allowing aid from the other nations, Maldain continued pushing deeper and deeper in search of more. For a long while, new shafts continued to be opened, coming with it opportunities for the MULE operators. Only lately, as the bottom of the mine seemed to draw near, had their discovery begun to slow.

A bell rang, signalling the operators to board the elevator, and Avii readied himself. With the cigarette half burnt and hanging from his lips, he reached down to the starter sigil on the panel before him. Like water filling a relief, magic flowed out and traced the groove of every sigil that had been carved into the armour before it closed around his chest. With a sniffle, he slid his hands back into the arms of the suit, taking hold of the grips and flexing the iron fingers before putting himself into position behind the cart.

Fifth to enter, he found himself at the center of the elevator as the metal doors slid shut and dust once again scattered the moment the platform began to rise towards the surface. Seven miles underground, the shaft Avii had been working had been one of the more recent discoveries. A high-risk, high-reward location prone to cave-ins, but the danger was outweighed by the haul of magical items that could be found. And for each full cart he returned to the surface with, he received a year’s worth of wages in comparison to if he had been a blacksmith like his grandfather.

Avii liked the job. Though it was hard work, he found purpose in it. Plus, it allowed him to take care of his growing family. Even if Kani wasn’t fond of the risk.

The elevator suddenly shook as the magical power drained from the levitation sigil and the carriage began to plummet. Kicking up sparks as useless brakes drove themselves into the wall, raining small rocks and dust over the men, the operators stabilized their hauls. After all, each of them was used to this. Occasional mountain quakes disrupted the flow of magic while cave-ins and traps sometimes cut it all together. Avii once dropped nearly two miles before the platform reinitialized, something he always reminded himself of with each magical disruption. The fact of the matter was that he wasn’t dead yet, though how long it took the elevators to go up and down was definitely one of the more annoying downsides of the job.

After a near two-thousand-foot plunge, the carriage continued its climb and, a moment later, Avii felt something vibrating around his neck. Opening his chest piece enough to free an arm, he slipped his hand from the metal sleeves, quickly plucking the cigarette from his lips and putting it out on the neck of his suit. He then pulled the necklace out from under his jumper and eyed the piece of crystal that rested beside the silver locket.

“Kani, ‘ey,” He replied, pressing his thumb to the crystal and activating the call. “Can ‘yuh ‘ear me? I’m still pre’ deep.”

“Where are you?” Kani’s soft voice asked, the sound of Jeanine crying in the background coming through.

“Still 'bouts three miles down. Everything alright? What’s going on with Jeanie?”

“Yeah, she’s fine. Just a little spook from the mountain quake. Did you feel it?”

“We los’ pow’uh, yeh. But ‘ere fine, only some hundred-foot plunge or so. Nothin’ bad.”

Avii hoped she wouldn’t detect his lie. Kani hated when he lied, but she hated it more knowing just how close his elevator came to destruction every day.

“It was worse up here. Third one today. I was worried about you. I’m thinking, maybe we should stay home with Jeanine tonight.”

“B-Bu’, Kani. Our plans? An’ Gran’ wants to see ‘er—”

“But I want us to be together…”

“I-I—okay.” Avii rested his head against the MULE. “Okay, Kani. Le-le’s talk about it when I’m ‘ome, ‘kay?”

“Alright. See you soon. Love you.”

“Yeah. See you soon.” Avii replied, releasing his grip from the crystal. “Damn it.”

With a sigh, he thudded the back of his head against the MULE, listening to the sound of the elevator’s metal scaffolding as it scraped against the walls. Around him, chains rattled, and the air grew warm from the idling operators who eagerly waited to disembark from the coffin they rode topside.

“Soun’s like she gotcha whip’, mate.” One of the men called out from the corner of the carriage, drawing out the laughter of a few others.

“Piss off, Jamie!” Avii replied sharply, calling forth even more laughter from the operators around him.

Eventually the elevator groaned to a stop as the levitation sigil pushed the carriage up into the surface locks before deactivating. One-by-one the MULES disembarked, pushing their carts of riches towards the warehouses where other operators waited to sort the newest findings.

“Crew Seven,” A dwarven man approached the team of MULES, waving them down. “Proceed to Warehouse Nine.”

“What happened to seven?” One of the front operators asked.

“Mountain quake dropped a gantry. No one was hurt, but it's out of commission. Also, we’re offering overtime for anyone interested. Shaft Nine needs a few more bodies. Anyone looking to—”

“Move!” A voice suddenly erupted from behind. “Move! Out of the way! OUT. OF. MY. WAY!”

A heavy shoulder connected with Avii, knocking him against his cart hard enough to force the wind out of him and send some of his haul scattering to the ground.

“Ack!” He grumbled, catching his hand against the heavy metal lip and glancing over at the fleeing figure. “Oi! Wach’ it, asshat!”

“Hey!” The dwarven supervisor yelled after the running MULE. “Hey, get back here!”

With a sigh, Avii looked to the objects around him. While most appeared durable in nature—swords with inscriptions or statues of metal and gemstones—he noticed a small orb that had broken free from the grasp of one of the larger objects within.

“Lover boy, you need help?” An operator asked as he moved alongside.

“Nah. Nah, get on wich’ yuh’. Finish out yuh’ day, Brandt—”

Reaching down, Avii took hold of the orb and lifted it towards the cart. But before he could let go, the orb swirled with arcane energy as the ground began to tremble and quake unlike anything he had ever experienced. The world groaned as, just beyond, in the elevator docks, magical clamps lost their energy and began to plummet.

“Warning!” A concerned voice appeared in the back of Avii’s head. “Cataclysmic disaster imminent!”

The ground near him split, tearing open like a mouth, hungrily eating the handful of MULES that had been there moments before.

“Activating safety procedures.”

The orb in Avii’s hand expanded, consuming him and his MULE within a barrier of opalescent light. And a moment later, a wave of white-hot energy expanded outwards from the mountain.