Jace couldn’t decide if the man sounded threatening or not. With that level, though?

  The amount of Aes it was taking to advance a level was getting greater and greater, and that meant higher levels would have almost exponentially more Aes. On paper, Jace and Kinfild combined could both stack up against this man, but Jace doubted it would ever turn out like that.

  “I know that voice,” Kinfild whispered. “Show yourself!”

  “Can your fancy…better-attuned senses tell you who he is?” Lessa asked. “If everyone leaves a different impression or something with their core?”

  Kinfild shook his head. “Only for people whose signatures I’ve been in the presence of for a long while.”

  Footsteps sounded down the hall as the man approached. “I should clarify, I mean you no harm, though you have been entertaining to observe.”

  Yeah. Because Jace could trust that so easily.

  “I am known as The Ashen, and I was sent here by my mistress Lady Fairynor,” said the man. “I believe you are acquainted, yes?”

  Jace glanced at Lessa, then back at Kinfild. “Yeah…kinda?” Jace said. Lady Fairynor had mentioned something about a warrior in her service named The Ashen, and the name certainly lent credence to this man’s claims. But Jace stayed on-guard. “What are you doing here? How even are you here?”

  The Ashen snorted. “You’re not the first person to enter the dungeon, and neither were the scavengers. Lady Fairynor’s contacts in the Parliament heard about the miners’ discovery through their insider channels, and I travelled here well before the Brakamen even caught wind of it.”

  Jace narrowed his eyes, then turned to Kinfild. “Insider channels?”

  “Parliamentarians often hear about corporate achievements before the news goes public,” Kinfild said. “In addition to their considerable pay, it allows them to make investments well in advance and pad their pockets.”

  “Wonderful…” Jace muttered.

  “As for what I’m doing here,” said The Ashen, “I seek to eliminate enemies of the state. There is a party of Watchmen delving deep in the caverns, who arrived before me as well, and I must eliminate them while I have a chance—no one will think twice about their disappearance, and it will be chalked up as an accident.”

  “Why follow us?” Lessa asked. She raised her rifle and pressed the stock against her shoulder, resting it under her clavicle.

  “Because you intrigued me, and the Worldjumper’s rise has been most impressive since I last sensed him.”

  “You…sensed me before?” Jace asked.

  “On Celacor, yes, I investigated a little.” The Ashen continued walking. He flicked his fingers, conjured a technique card, and a glowing turquoise sphere of Aes appeared above his hand. It tugged on Jace’s skin, and the edges of his vision blurred, and if the orb was drawing all matter toward it.

  “A repeller-aspect…” Lessa breathed.

  Repellers didn’t draw objects in. Jace scrunched his eyebrows, then raised his sword. The tug wasn’t intense, and it wasn’t going to pull him off his feet any time soon—especially not with his Resistance—but it was undeniable. “You’re sure it’s not gravity manipulation?” he asked.

  “My Path is a subset of repeller-Aes, but I have crafted a distinct tractor-beam Path,” said the Ashen. “Using the same Aes manipulation that a starship-borne tractor-beam would employ. Not gravity manipulation, boy, but a distinct function of repellers—force manipulation.”

  The orb of light, however, fully illuminated the Ashen. He still wore his Watchman’s cloak, and beneath it, his base Watchman attire—woven leather strands, overlapping like a wicker basket. At his hip hung a Whistling Blade, and a sliver of orange glass peered out from the crossguard.

  He pulled down his hood, revealing shoulder-length brown hair, greasy and unclean. Angular gray tattoos covered his face, tracing thick paths over his cheeks or around his eyes, and paving a straight line down the middle of his face, all the way down to his thin beard.

  That was probably where he got his name.

  Maybe he was human, maybe he wasn’t. Jace couldn’t tell, but other than the tattoos, there was nothing alien about him. At Jace’s estimate, he was in his late thirties, early forties.

  “What is your purpose in revealing yourself to us now?” Kinfild asked. “I am grateful for your past assistance, of course, but this seems…arbitrary.”

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  “I’m in need of guidance. Even my senses cannot detect the main core of the dungeon.” The Ashen crossed his arms. “But the Worldjumper’s abilities are of great use to me, now, and I need to find the crust-lifts just the same as you.”

  “We’ll be making detours,” Jace said. “I’ve gotta stop at the tenth level, at the very center….for, well, it’s hard to explain.” He lowered his Whistling Blade slightly. If Kinfild had had past dealings with this man, then he couldn’t have been too dangerous. Or, hopefully, held no ill will against them.

  “That is fine by me,” said the Ashen.

  “So…uh, Mr. The Ashen,” Lessa said, “are you a Watchman or aren’t you? Why do you wear their clothes?”

  “If you please, you may call me Ash,” he said. “It’d be easier.”

  “Alright, Ash. But…I don’t want to be putting him”—Lessa motioned at Jace—“up close with a devoted Watchman.”

  “I’m hardly devoted to their new order,” said the man—Ash. “But they were not always a corrupt, dark institution. I joined them many years ago as an outcast young boy with nothing left to lose, and they trained me. When they purged the light-aspect Watchmen and Wielders, I modified my Path. They wanted me to bend my core and roots to a dark aspect, but I took on this new aspect as a compromise. Now, I thwart their corruptive efforts from within.”

  “Why purge the light Wielders?” Jace asked.

  Ash chuckled. He approached, drawing closer, then knelt down before them. “That will take many days of explaining, and I’m not sure I have all the answers either. But I can say with certainty that I will not harm you, and I will protect you from the Watchmen. You are a Worldjumper, and I’m certain Lady Fairynor would request it of me regardless.”

  Jace raised his eyebrows. “She’s that important?”

  “She is like a mother to me, and that I say freely.”

  “Then…” Jace glanced at Kinfild. “I guess we keep moving?”

  “If no one has any objections to him coming,” Kinfild said.

  “No objections, but…” Lessa mimed the watching you signal with two fingers, pointing at her eyes then at Ash. “You hurt Jace, we’ll have problems.”

  Jace nodded. “Likewise, for both of those two. But I have no objections at the moment, as long as I get to gather any technique cards we find, and get a chance to destroy most of the automatons—they’re an excellent source of Aes for me.”

  “Excellent,” said Ash. “For the Worldjumper, I’d expect no less. Now…I have been curious to see that quest-making technique up close…”

  Jace stayed near the back of their group as they navigated the halls, keeping an eye on Ash. Really, they didn’t have much choice. He expected the Wielder—or Watchman or whatever he was—would follow them anyway, so better that they knew what he was doing.

  And, Jace told himself, if Ash chose to hurt them, he could’ve easily attacked whenever he chose. He was more powerful and could destroy them all.

  Unless it was true that he needed the card, and was using them to get to this Halcyon Spear at the core of the dungeon. But that meant they had time, and Jace could use it to catch up to Ash’s level—if it ever came to a fight. Ash couldn’t use the card without Jace; he wasn’t a hyperspace Wielder.

  So they continued onward, Kinfild at the front, Ash behind him, then Lessa, and finally Jace. Jace used the stim-shot immediately, and as they walked, he allowed it to work to fix the remaining damage from his fight with the hunter automaton. If it hadn’t been for his high Vitality, the hunter’s attacks would’ve killed him.

  But he was supposed to be a hunter himself. Was…well, tanky stats what he thought of when he considered when he thought of a hunter?

  He would’ve considered stealth and high damage, but there wasn’t really a stat for damage, and he had plenty of that with the Whistling Blade, but perhaps he could use a little more strength. His hyperdash allowed him to move quickly, though it certainly wasn’t a complete substitute for agility. Still, it had caught plenty of opponents off guard, and passing through object unhindered was helpful.

  So strength. Which meant, in their card hunting endeavors, they needed to find a fortification card. It’d allow him to deal more damage in a fight, and not be so reliant on Lessa and Kinfild to seek out vulnerabilities and do damage.

  Perhaps there was more than one sort of hunter. His own hunting ability worked more like a bounty hunting system…if his targets were criminals who’d offended a mysterious intergalactic system, that was.

  Perhaps that was what it meant. Or what he could make it mean, if he tried hard enough. His path and abilities were malleable enough, and he could choose.

  They walked for a few more hours, disabling traps, and they dispatched two more automatons—Jace got the final blow on both of them, registering the kill and absorbing the Aes. After each, they investigated for tombs and coffins, and found three more large stone coffins, each with a host of cards within them.

  After the third coffin, they paused and rested. That night, they didn’t let Ash take a watch, which he seemed more than alright with. None of them trusted him enough to let him watch over them as they slept.

  It was hard to tell when morning was, but Jace had taken the first watch, and it meant someone else had to wake him up when they decided it was morning, which was fine by him.

  The next few days continued on much the same, with them descending through the seventh level, defeating automatons, disarming traps, and opening coffins. They had to be drawing close to the next crust-lift, Jace was certain of it. The questforger sheet pointed directly ahead, and vibrations were starting to pour up from the ground.

  But, instead of arriving at the next open chamber, on the fourth day since they’d found Ash, they arrived at a door. It spanned the entire hallway from width to two-storey height, blocking their way with thick Luminian steel and golden runic engravings.

  Jace rubbed his forehead. “I…I think the lift is on the other side of there. Problem is getting us all through.”