Chapter Forty Two

Lilia and Cinna followed their Deepfolk guides down the side hall they’d emerged from, soon arriving in a small hub area of sorts with several rooms branching off of it. Gratht scurried off to the closest one while Klicksun remained with the two women.

“This guard complex looks designed for many times more people,” Cinna observed. “Why make space for such a large number of guards at such a minor location?”

“Oh, you didn’t know? The entrance here used to be part of the territory of another cluster to the north. They used it to trade with your people much like we do at the one to the south,” Klicksun explained.

“Until attacks from the surface increased and they withdrew to the tunnels beneath the earth fingers,” Gratht added sourly as they returned with two cloaks. Both were brown. They didn’t appear to have been dyed like the ones worn by the two Deepfolk.

“Earth fingers?” Lilia asked,

“The Geirarjötnas, I believe.”

“Because our cluster pushed them there while they were weakened! Let’s not go rewriting history just because you hate Surfacefolk, Gratht!” Klicksun corrected, snatching the cloaks from his companion and handing them one each to Lilia and Cinna.

“I knew your people stopped using this location, but I never knew the reason why. Nor that we were trading with another group entirely here,” Cinna admitted. “But I suppose the Deepfolk have their own conflicts just as we do ours.”

“Why’d the other Deepfolk suddenly start getting attacked more?” Lilia wondered.

“I imagine that was around the time the Clovician Empire solidified its southern border. They must have found a way into the Warm Roads as well,” Cinna theorized.

“Why have these entrances at all if they’re so dangerous?”

“We usually don’t,” Gratht rasped. “Most clusters know better than to stick their necks out so far. But occasionally greedy Surfacefolk forget where they belong and dig deep enough to find our food mines. Once they know where we are, they just keep digging. Now put your cloaks on. The sooner you’re on your way, the better.”

“My advice may be unnecessary, but I’d recommend you collapse this entrance. We have reason to believe undead necromancers watched us enter. It’s possible they may seek to follow us,” Cinna suggested. Gratht seemed like they were about to launch a scathing reply, but Klicksun cut them off by loudly talking over them.

“Sadly we can’t make that decision on our own, but maybe we can meet with our superiors while we’re escorting you!” Klicksun replied.

“Who said anything about escorting them!?” Gratht demanded.

“If anything, I’m surprised you’d be the one to suggest letting Surfacefolk into the Warm Roads unmonitored!” Klicksun shot back. Gratht let out an inarticulate warble, almost like a sheet of metal shaking violently, and then stomped out of the room. Klicksun watched them leave, humming happily. “This is a great day.”

Regardless of Gratht’s obvious hostility, Lilia still needed to put the cloak on. She examined it in her hands. The so-called cloak seemed closer to a priest’s robes on a closer examination, as the latter typically didn’t have sleeves. That said, sleeves were usually open-ended so that the wearer’s hands could reach out of them. These were just tubes of leather with a bit of a crease like oven mitts for manipulation.

The built-in hood was too stiff to be lowered, and the cloak had no clasps or buttons; the garment could only be slipped on over the head. Lilia did exactly that, then slid her arms into the sleeves and experimented with moving them around. It took more effort than she was used to, almost like wearing several layers of winter clothing. She noticed a slight drain on her mana, too, even though she hadn’t done anything to activate the cloak’s effects. It must have been activated just by putting it on.

“It’s heavy, and uncomfortable, and I can’t use my hands,” Lilia complained immediately.

“Sorry about that. These are made for Deepfolk, and they’re as much to protect us from the environment as they are to protect the things we touch from us when we’re up here,” Klicksun replied contritely.

“Please bear with it for now, Lilia,” Cinna said. She had already pulled her own cloak over her head. Even with the hood up Lilia could still make out Cinna’s face, so there didn’t seem to be any shrouding effect worked into the cloaks themselves.

“I know. I don’t want to burn to death,” Lilia responded. Just because she didn’t like wearing the cloak didn’t mean she planned to take it off. She’d just been stating facts. “Remember, Directions, Cyclops, stay under the cloaks as well!”

“Who is she speaking to…?” Klicksun wondered.

“Her undead familiars. Apologies. I don’t think I specified, but this woman is a necromancer. The reason we need safe passage is because she may by the last of her kind, and I believe her to be essential to our continued survival as a nation,” Cinna explained to the Deepfolk.

“I thought that was supposed to be a secret,” Lilia noted.

“It is. But we aren’t exactly hiding Mr. Bearbones right now, and it wouldn’t have been practical to do so. Best we be up front about things now to ensure the Deepfolk’s continued cooperation,” Cinna replied.

“That creature is undead, then?” Klicksun asked, looking at Mr. Bearbones. “I don’t know much about surface creatures. Do they look different when they’re alive?”

“…very,” Cinna said with a sigh. “Perhaps I needn’t have said anything after all. Regardless, the truth is in the open now. Will this be a problem?”

“I don’t see why it would be. My people have never relied on necromancers, but we have nothing against them,” Klicksun answered.

“There aren’t any Deepfolk necromancers?” Lilia asked. She hadn’t thought about the possibility before, but now that she knew there weren’t any, she felt disappointed.

“No, no, of course there are Deepfolk necromancers. I mean my cluster, the Zoic Cluster, specifically. We believe death is a time of repose, and that it would be an intrusion to take the dead away from their rest. Not all clusters follow the same beliefs, though,” Klicksun clarified.

“Are you lot coming!? I’d like to be rid of you as soon as possible!” Gratht yelled from somewhere down the hall.

“We’re coming, but feel free to erupt while you’re waiting!” Klicksun shouted. They shook their head. “Let’s continue this along the way. Much as I’d love to see that one’s head explode, it would be awfully hard to explain.”

“Can that…really happen?” Lilia wondered.

“If you hold a wish in your core dearly enough, anything is possible!”

Klicksun led Lilia and Cinna back out to the main hall, then further down it until they arrived at a large staircase descending into the depths of the planet. The stairs curved around an open space the size of a house. There sat an abandoned loading area at the edge of that gap with several empty pulleys hanging from the ceiling above.

“There used to be a freight elevator here, but no one wanted to bother with the upkeep once our cluster took over the entrance,” Klicksun explained, heading for the stairs instead. “It’s a long way down. I’d stay away from the railings if I were you.”

The warning came a little too late to stop Lilia from peering over the side. She thought she’d be able to see the bottom because of the omnipresent glow that seemed to be coming from the walls and floors, but it turned out to be such a great distance that the stairwell almost seemed to narrow into a pinpoint. When Lilia heard Klicksun’s words she backed away from the railings, deciding it wasn’t that interesting of a view anyway.

“You said your undead were called “cold ones,” right? What’s different about them compared to normal undead?” Lilia asked.

“To them those are normal undead,” Cinna reminded her.

“Oh, right…I guess you don’t have a lot of other undead underground.”

“We call them “cold ones” because their very touch is so cold that it’s harmful to us,” Klicksun explained, unbothered by what Lilia had said. “Cold ones don’t generate their own heat. Their cores are as cold as the bedrock of the surface. Normally their bodies should be too hard and rigid to move like that, but…somehow they do.”

“I bet it’s because undead use mana to move. Their mana must be softening their bodies somehow…” Lilia theorized, feeling a sudden desire to examine one of these undead Deepfolk. “Do you think I can see one?”

“Lilia, that’s not an appropriate thing to ask our hosts!” Cinna hissed.

“Why not? I’ve never seen one before. Think of how much I could learn by studying one!” Lilia protested.

“If we have a chance, maybe,” Klicksun said noncommittally. “We try to smash them as soon as we see them, so it’s not like we have any inside our borders you can examine. They keep popping up in the upper flows, but it would be much too dangerous to take Surfacefolk so deep.”

“What’re the upper flows? And why would cold ones be there?” Lilia questioned.

“They’re the upper layers of Ennos’s mantle, where the magma is at its coolest while still remaining mostly liquid,” Klicksun explained. “That’s where we lay our dead to rest before committing them to the deep flows where the temperatures are hot enough to melt even ours bodies.”

“Why not just take them straight there if it’s a problem?” Lilia heard Cinna sigh when she asked the question, but the princess had apparently decided to let Lilia ask her questions without further interruption. Maybe since Klicksun didn’t seem to mind them.

“It’s not that simple. As we age, our bodies become less effective at maintaining the temperatures needed to move. Sometimes our elders cool down and enter a sort of torpor indistinguishable from death. We have to leave them in the upper flows for some time to warm their cores and see if they’ll wake back up or not before consigning sending them to become one with the planet’s core,” Klicksun answered, using their hands to mime out the things they were describing…though Lilia had a hard time following what motions were meant to indicate what.

“But…nothing dies anymore, so they all get back up,” Lilia said, identifying the obvious problem with that particular Deepfolk custom. Klicksun sighed in response, the sound reminding Lilia of a sheet of metal wobbling in the wind.

“Yes, that’s exactly what’s been happening. Many Deepfolk died when it first began. The sudden surge of awakenings just looked like a happy coincidence until they began attacking. We’ve started isolating the bodies of our elders to be safe, but that isn’t much help against the cold earth-speakers…those, we’ve had to start sending directly to their final rest because we can’t risk allowing them to come back like that,” Klicksun lamented.

Lilia realized she’d done something similar with Javert. She’d killed him because she couldn’t risk letting him come back to life and cause more damage. So she understood what Klicksun was feeling at that moment to a greater degree than she might have normally. Especially since those earth-speakers, which she assumed were Deepfolk earth mages, knew at least as much about their arts as Javert had about necromancy.

“That’s too bad. I could probably tell them apart, but you said I can’t go down there,” Lilia said. Klicksun paused mid-step, then turned to face Lilia.

“…did you say you can tell if a body is truly dead or not?” Klicksun asked.

“Yes. I just have to look at their souls and check if their mind conduit is still intact,” Lilia replied.

“Look at their…? Please, explain. How can one look at a soul?”

Lilia scrunched up her face as she tried to think of a way to explain that. She’d tried to explain if before, though, and no one had ever known what she was talking about except Master. Not her parents, not the other children in her village, and not even Cinna. So even if Lilia wanted to tell Klicksun how to use soul sight, she simply didn’t know how.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t think it’s that simple,” Cinna interjected, stepping between them. “Lilia is something of a genius. She is able to do certain things without fully understanding how, and this is one of them. Furthermore, we lack the time needed to stay here until she manages to teach your mages how to see souls. But I swear to you that the moment our own mages learn this art from her, I will send word to your cluster. And if it is feasible, you are more than welcome to send your own people to study with her once our own situation is settled.”

Klicksun seemed to study Cinna’s face for a few seconds before turning away. They probably couldn’t read Cinna’s face any better than Lilia could read a Deepfolk’s body language.

“I’ll accept that answer for now, but I hope you’re telling the truth. Our own circumstances are…somewhat more dire than I’ve let on.”