in the past, to the ______

The queen devoured her meal in record time, regarding the humans with utter disinterest before walking away—towards the walls, where she began to paw at the sediment as if trying to break her way through.

“This doesn’t seem to be a good nest for her,” Lucian said, frowning. “We were lucky we found any ore at all. Why is she here…?

Lucian wrung his hands together, before jumping as if zapped. “Um, Zane, I—thank you, for holding her off. You looked really cool, there… even after everything you’ve been through, your control over Rage is unparalleled.”

Zane sat on a rock, stretching his shoulders as he picked pebbles out of his skin. “It’s nothing. Every time I felt like giving up, I thought of Shay, and that fueled my Rage like no one else could.”

“Hope you both know, I was saving some of that ore for my investm—I mean, my hometown. So you two owe me for that now on top of all the hubaloo.” As usual, Shay donned a grimace. “Why didn’t you two just put the damn thing down?”

Lucian gasped. “She’s a mother! And she’s done nothing wrong! We stumbled into her territory!”

“And you stumbled into mine, so we’re even!”

“That’s… I don’t really get your logic, there…”

Zane stood up, looking the creature over. It hadn’t been hard to agitate it, which meant not great things about its condition. He didn’t consider himself much of a zoologist, though, never mind some kind of monster whisperer. “Let’s investigate this place.”

“Investigate? More like get outta here. Start carving us an opening and—”

“Um,” Lucian said, brows scrunched up, “No, Zane’s right. We don’t know what’s upsetting the queen, or why there’s no other Sparks here, or anything. If we start digging, there’s a chance we might agitate it again, or even—drive it into a frenzy. If this cavern collapses, and we don’t have a way out—”

“All right, all right, I get it!” Shay huffed, crossing his arms. “Fine. What monster-hugging plan do you two got in mind?”

Lucian hummed. “I don’t think hugging is on the agenda today.”

“Not literal hugging! Don’t be an idiot!”

Zane walked away, over to where the queen scratched the walls. “Lucian, can you check here? I think I’ve got a theory, but I can barely see much of anything around this place.”

“On it!” Lucian hurried to follow Zane’s request (Zane assumed because anything was preferable to arguing with Shay), casting his light over the walls while giving the queen a large berth. “That’s strange—she’s carving chunks out of the sediment. As if she’s trying to get to something…”

That’s it. “Her nest, maybe?”

“Oh—oh!” Lucian turned around. “That might be it! Maybe something happened, and the queen became separated from her kin, and now she’s trying to get to them. The male sparks are supposed to bring her food, so she must be starving, too… no wonder she’s so upset.”

Shay glanced between Zane and Lucian, baffled. “And that’s supposed to be our problem?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Zane said. “But think about it. Sparks gotta burrow down from somewhere. If we help her get back to her nest, we’ll get closer to getting outta here. Even better if we pop out somewhere away from town.”

Lucian drummed his fingers against his staff, still stuck with that tight face of concentration. “There aren’t any sparks nests within Udrefaust, are there?”

“Ugh… ugh.” Shay grimaced, clutching his head. “I really don’t wanna be around that damn bug longer than I need to be.”

“We don’t need to be her friend, we just gotta follow her instincts,” Zane said. “There’s a chance she’ll lash out at us again, though.”

“That may be so, but… but—”

Lucian pursed his lips, until his concentration broke and he smiled. “I have an idea.”

Shay groaned. “What’s it now?”

“I’ll keep her subdued here,” Lucian said, “and you both can dig further in. Once you find a path forward, come back and let me know. We can guide the queen bit by bit without making her anxious with a lot of noise.”

Zane couldn’t deny the plan made sense—only Lucian had the power to keep her calm, and Zane handled the digging just fine on his own.

“But why’s he coming with me?” Zane stuck a thumb at Shay, who made his offense obvious.

“Because he knows the area, if he sees something familiar, he’ll be the one to guide you to the right path! Besides, we all want the same thing. Why don’t we put our differences aside and join hands in the name of doing what’s right?”

Shay turned to Zane, sneering in displeasure. Zane knew for a fact that he must’ve been showing the same emotion. Lucian’s smile fell.

“…Please just get along until we’re aboveground. Truce?”

Lucian put his hand out first. After a pregnant pause, Shay sighed and shook his hand, before holding one out to Zane. Zane did the same—Shay wiped his hand on his shirt.

Yeah, sure, getting along with this guy. “Guess we’ll be going. Start harnessing Calm, and pace yourself. We might be a while.”

“Of course! I’ll do my best.”

As Lucian approached the creature, he hummed a gentle melody. The queen hissed and backed away, only to grow docile with each passing moment, even leaning into Lucian’s touch as he pet her hard shell.

Zane drew a fist back, taking a deep breath before plunging it into the wall.

—————————————

“They must’ve come here.”

An older man looked down on Udrefaust from high above. His staff lined with bells and glittering with blue jewels weighed heavy in his hands.

“It should still be around here… the path we carved together.”

He turned and left the town behind. He’d never be welcome here—God’s Calm forever an enemy to the heretics below.

But he couldn’t ignore his sacred duty: to protect Vitam’s Avatar, he had to bring the misguided young man home before he did something he might regret. Before he corrupted Rage and guided it down a horrible path.

As the oldest, he bore the responsibility of remembering the past—so that the future may be a better place.

So that peace would continue, forevermore.