Jace jumped to the side. He wheeled his arms, nearly tumbling off the edge of the ledge, then ran back to the center of the walkway, where Kinfild and Lessa stood. The automaton’s body began whirring. It shuddered, and though it didn’t exactly writhe, it had the same effect in Jace’s mind.

  He took a few more steps back. The metal casing around its core dimpled, then imploded with a boom. A shockwave of white energy expanded from the shield-beam emitting core, and shards of the automaton scattered along the walkway.

  An influx of Aes poured into Jace’s chest. The golden dust appeared from nowhere and flooded in, a reward for defeating the guardian. He estimated it was about as much as he got for killing the Watchmen.

  The remains didn’t shift. After a few seconds of staring in silence and watching the remains, nothing happened. Jace stepped forward and brushed his boot through it, clearing away the debris and shards and searching for any sign of life. Nothing.

  “What’s an automaton?” he asked. “Aside from a tomb guardian, I mean.”

  “It’s not a kyborg, I can tell you that,” Lessa whispered. She poked a metal plate with the muzzle of her rifle. “No chuffing smoke, no machine speak. Lots of Aes.”

  “Automatons are ancient constructs,” said Kinfild. “Today’s engineers have studied them, but if someone has figured out their secrets, he hasn’t shared. They seem to run on some form of Aes.”

  “Were the Luminians…more advanced than the galaxy currently is?” Jace asked.

  “In some ways,” Kinfild answered. He prowled through the remains of the automaton, pushing aside debris with the tip of his staff. “And in some ways, they were less advanced. But we lost a great many things over the millenia, and not just technologically speaking.”

  Jace nodded slowly, then flicked off the Whistling Blade. A few hints of grease burned off. He slid it back into the sheath. “We need to get to the crust-lift before anyone catches us. We probably caused a bit of a scene.”

  “I think there’s another party of scavengers on the other side of the chamber,” said Lessa, pointing her rifle at a distant ledge higher up on the other side of the cavern. They’ll have seen us.”

  Jace squinted. A few black flecks moved on the other side of the cave, dipping in front of behind the lights. Maybe the scavengers would think he was just another one of them, ambushed in a trap, and in need of assistance, but the moment they got close, that’d fall apart. The effect was the same.

  “Can you hit them from this far?” Jace asked Lessa.

  “I’m good, but not that good.”

  “If we keep going along the ledge, we should reach the walkway,” Jace said. “Just a little farther.”

  They ran past the remains of the automaton, and circled around the ledge until they reached the steel walkway over to the crust-lift. Jace slowed down, then held out his arms. It was a few feet wide, but one slip-up, and they’d plummet to the bottom of the cavern. No need to take any chances.

  He crossed the walkway at a brisk walk. It clanked beneath his feet, but it didn’t even shift, let alone sway. There was no rust, no sign of decay. Whoever these Luminians were, they knew how to build things that lasted.

  As they crossed, Jace asked, “Kinfild, what was the automaton made out of?”

  “Aside from Aes-soaked steel?”

  “It couldn’t just have been regular steel,” said Jace. “I can cut through regular steel sheets with the Whistling Blade, especially when they’re that thin—comparatively.” They’d been about three centimeters thick. “And Lessa’s rifle could’ve shot through them with ease, any other time.”

  “They used certain alloys,” Kinfild said. “Alchemists have studied their composition, and it seems to be very similar to the bone of steel-wyrms. But simply, they call it Luminian steel. I can guarantee the scavengers will strip this place of it once they gather up all the treasures and crack open all the graves.”

  “What are we looking for?” Jace asked. “Aside from simply…acquiring Aes from defeating automatons, I suppose.”

  “That’s a question for yourself.”

  “I need new cards,” he asserted. “I don’t have enough to keep up with other Wielders in battle, and I can’t just rely on resetting.”

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  “That’s a start,” Kinfild said. “We need to get you a fortification card and a forging card.”

  “Fortification to enhance my body, forging to shape objects out of Aes?”

  “Precisely.”

  “What does…fuelling my blade with Aes count as?” Jace asked.

  “Fortification.”

  “Really?”

  “It will fall into the same class as bodily enhancement, because it is the same process. You will take on an aspect similar to your Aes, giving it different effects.”

  “I…I did sorta just fuel my sword with Aes,” said Jace. “Didn’t need a card, though it took concentration, and a card would be pretty helpful.”

  “You resonated with the blade, yes,” Kinfild said. “Enhancing your body will require different processes, and it will be much more complex. If you try to convert the process of resonating with the sword into a card, you could, but it would be a very simple, limited card. If you found a fortification card to modify and use as a base, you would end up with a much more powerful card.”

  Jace nodded. “I want a more powerful card.” He didn’t half-ass things when there was a chance to do better than that.

  “Precisely.”

  “Lessa?” Jace asked. “Are you able to make a base fortification technique card?”

  “I can modify and copy,” she said. “But making a card that complex from scratch is a bit too much for me.”

  Then they’d have to find one. “Did the Luminians use technique cards?” Jace asked. “Did they bury themselves with their cards, like they did with their other weapons.”

  “They used cards for combat, though not for machinery,” Kinfild answered. “I do not know why, though you’ll note that we found no function cards in the automaton’s corpse, nor in any of the traps.”

  He lifted his chin, motioning subtly toward the crust-lift ahead. “Then I don’t suppose this guy uses cards, either.”

  “Correct.”

  They crossed the rest of the distance to the lift and arrived at a round doorway. It was about two storeys tall, large enough to fit an automaton through, and fed into the rest of the crust-lift’s body.

  Jace monitored his senses, hunting for any sort of trap, but he felt nothing. Nothing except the pull of Aes-powere machinery, and the intense pressure they put on his Aes channels and core. Lessa held her head, like she had a massive migraine, and Jace paused for a moment. “The…deeper we go, the stronger the pressure, right?”

  “Correct,” Kinfild said again.

  “How deep will Lessa make it? And we can’t just leave anyone behind on, say, the third level. That’d be a death sentence.”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said. “I can ignore the pressure. It’s just spiritual.”

  Jace glanced at her, at first skeptically, but she firmed up her face and grinned in determination. “Alright,” he said. “But please, don’t hurt yourself.”

  “This is about more than just you…” Lessa said.

  “I’ll find another way to help the workers. Hell, all of the people on this planet.”

  “Not just here,” she whispered. “You’re a worldjumper, Jace. A herald of doom, and the only one who can prevent it. That means earning your strength.”

  Jace considered her words for a moment, then glanced at Kinfild.

  “Dungeons are the best way to gain strength,” Kinfild said. “Gain it quickly, that is. She’s right. The worldjumpers are critical to the survival of the galaxy. Your strength is paramount, and you will not gain it on the surface.”

  Jace swallowed. “I’ll do what I have to. Can’t be much good as a wandering knight if there’s nothing left to help. But you count as people as well, and you’re my friends. Both of you. I’m not going to let either of you fall behind.” Jace narrowed his eyes. “If the strain of the depths and the spiritual pressure becomes too much, Lessa, we’ll find a way to deal with it.”

  She clasped her hands together. “Excellent! Mortal scavengers made it about five levels down, though, far as we know, so the same has to go for us—us non-Wielders. I’d bet I can get about six levels, though.” She grinned. “Or farther. I’m not average.”

  Jace nodded, then continued down the hall. It was a simple, utilitarian passageway with tubes along the wall. They glowed blue with flowing Aes, lighting the way and funnelling him toward the center of the device.

  The three wound around hallways and descended flights of stairs. Metal clanked underfoot, and the entire facility smelled metallic. Maybe with a little grease and combustion mixed in, like a car’s cold weather exhaust.

  Finally, they arrived at a central chamber. The walls rose high on all sides, and a nest of tubes and wires hung from the ceiling. The floor was a ring of thin triangles, each made of perforated steel, and an orange glow emanated from below. On the wall stood a control panel, and Jace descended toward it.

  The panel had no labels, and it was at eye level for him. It had been designed with somebody much taller in mind. He rose up on his tip-toes to see it.

  “If this isn’t the way down, I don’t know what is,” he said, then reached up to the panel. “Any idea how to make it work?”

  The buttons were round, and filigree ornaments surrounded them. He ran his fingers through the grooves, but there were no hints of how to use it.

  “They only descend one level at a time,” Kinfild said. “Press a button and see what happens. I doubt they’d build a self-destruct feature into the panel.”

  Jace chuckled. In that case, chances were, the largest button in the center would be the right button. He reached over, and his fingers hovered over it for a few seconds. Taking a deep breath, he made a fist, then slammed the central button before he could talk himself out of it.

  His stomach rose to his throat, and the floor dropped out from beneath him.