The column of rodentia led by the cloaked prince entered the cave through the chiseled rectangular archway. The engraved writing was similar, yet this cave was distinctly unique from the one Mari had awoken in back in Long Valley.

  Daylight faded quickly as the formation progressed into the cave. Their eyes adapted. Pupils expanded to allow the faintest light to enter. Even in The Burrow, there was at least some ambient light from the bioluminescence. This was different. A deep darkness, an unnatural darkness.

  The Guardians deployed the same autonomous drones that had patrolled the camp earlier. Their faint glow provided a brief reprieve from the utter darkness as they swept down the chiseled corridor, then returned and hovered in place.

  Lukyaza passed a tiny disc to Mari, like the one he had used for translation. The Guardians did the same for Jerro and Greg.

  “Place these on your temples.” The Prince whispered.

  They followed the order and were greeted with a mental heads-up display that cut through the dark. It did not just illuminate their vision. It organized it. A crisp overlay settled across the cave walls with thin brackets and clean lines.

  Information crawled over the stone in small, steady readouts. Rock composition. Fracture patterns. Structural stability that updated as they shifted and breathed. Faint warnings pulsed near the ceiling where the stone looked sound to the naked eye.

  A small picture in picture window opened in the corner of their sight, showing the drone’s vision. The feed was stabilized and annotated with distance markers and motion pings, and a simple route line traced back toward them.

  The Prince turned and continued down the hall, speaking in a hushed tone. “You are all now tapped into the psionic matrix transduction field. These devices interface with the psionic architecture that permeates the universe.”

  He slowed and looked back at them, letting the silence hang.

  A clean confirmation pulse clicked through their minds, like a lock engaging.

  His next words arrived without sound, plain and clipped, delivered with the flat precision of a system prompt. Comms are live. Keep your thoughts tight.

  Mari’s thoughts raced. Was this network separate from Lunda’s? Or layered on top of it? How did you even control what stayed private when thinking was the whole mechanism? She held still and waited for a response from anyone. Her friends. Lunda. The Prince. The Guardians. None came.

  This network felt different. Artificial instead of organic. Routed instead of shared. With Lunda, the psionosol frequency had felt communal, like stepping into the same room. This felt structured, more like you were plugged in, with hard edges and strict rules.

  Mari reached for the familiar thread anyway, the one that had always been theirs, and pushed her thought down it like she was testing a door. You two still with me?

  Yeah, Greg sent back at once. You feel it too? This Borruki layer. Same space, different wiring.

  Jerro’s reply came steadier. Still us. Different channel. A pause. And… Lunda’s gone. I shut down the core.

  Mari let the truth settle. So we’re on our own.

  They continued in a file, single and tight, farther into the network of tunnels.

  A squelch followed by a resisted sucking sound broke the silence.

  “Oh, gross!” Jerro blurted.

  Natal’s thought slammed down the line. Silence.

  Jerro winced. Sorry. Stepped in something. It’s cold. It’s… moving.

  Hold still, Lukyaza sent, already moving back toward him. Let me see.

  A black, tarry substance coated Jerro’s foot. It pulsed in a slow, wrong rhythm. He flipped down his sound-enhancing monocular and watched it reverberate at an odd frequency. A pattern emerged, like a waveform trying to become language. A group of A and W sounds.

  A—wa—wa, Jerro sent, confused. Awawa?

  Maxuun’s reply was immediate. Explain.

  Jerro swallowed. I don’t know. That’s what it—He frowned, focusing. I think I can invert the frequency. Collapse the waveform.

  He pressed a paw to his temple and produced a barely audible tone. The tarry black ichor answered immediately, vibrating in clean, tight waves. He pushed the frequency higher. The mass constricted, cracked, and dropped away in granules from his webbed foot.

  Interesting, Prince Lukyaza communicated calmly as the Guardians looked at him through their open visors.

  They went deeper into the cave system. The tunnel here was crudely carved, a stark mismatch to the carefully etched entrance behind them. The tarry substance thickened as they went, spreading across the walls and ceiling until only a thin pathway remained underfoot. Step by step it narrowed, then vanished entirely—soon the whole way was covered in tarry muck.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  With novel prudence, Mari was about to suggest they turn back when a faint red glow illuminated the tunnel ahead.

  The Prince stopped in his tracks and threw up a quick, fisted paw. Freeze. The two drones zipped silently down the cavern toward the source of the light.

  The display seamlessly integrated the drones’ views, creating a layered, multidimensional space as it mapped the cave ahead. A soft green hexagonal pattern overlaid the real-world structures, illuminating edges and contours just beyond their natural sight.

  As the drones moved deeper into the red glow, the foremost drone’s feed suddenly went static and dropped off. In the second drone’s footage, the first drone froze mid-flight. It slowly rotated toward the second drone, then accelerated at high speed toward it.

  The collision sent a jolt of feedback through the heads-up display that drove the entire group to shudder. Their fur stood on end as the sensation tore through their minds. The overlay collapsed. A deep darkness consumed the space again, lit now only by the red glow emanating from around the corner.

  Comms check, Lukyaza sent.

  Up. Visuals down, Natal returned.

  Jerro’s personal display showed the same modulated frequency coming off the deep, seeping muck. The waveform pulsed, flowing toward the source of the light.

  Jerro moved to the lead and turned back toward the others. Stay close. I’ve got a path. His confidence shook as he overrode the swelling fear.

  He focused on the substance and inverted the frequency again, collapsing the waveform into a linear path. The tarry sludge subsided through the center of the cavern, and Jerro pushed forward, paw to his temple, guiding the group through the sticky mess.

  As they approached the corner, the familiar wave of nausea swept through them. This feeling confirmed what they had already known. This was certainly hyrax activity.

  The crude tunnel opened into a sharply contrasting chamber with expansive vaulted ceilings. Suspended in the center of the room was a large egg-shaped object, emanating its own sapphire hue that mixed with the scarlet glow. Together they formed a violet boundary that ebbed and flowed around it, as if the colors were locked in battle.

  Within the egg was a silhouetted object, the details impossible to make out. The gooey substance coated the room completely, masking any architecture that might have existed beneath it.

  Below the egg stood the monstrosity. Jerro instantly recognized the beast from Deepworks. The one who murdered Keeper Aleese. Knowing what the creature was now made the scene somehow more disturbing than the first time. The behemoth hyrax stood on its hind legs, channeling a merged stream of energy that coalesced from the six smaller hyraxes positioned around it.

  Before any of the group could act, the bottom of the egg cracked and shattered as fluid poured out. A furless, bipedal creature followed. Its limp body slapped onto the wet stone floor.

  The tyrant looked over its shoulder at the group and let off a small sneer and, in its low throaty language, gave a quiet command.

  The smaller hyrax turned, emitting a series of deep red blasts towards the group. Jerro summoned a shield that deflected the blasts, sending them careening around the cavernous chamber.

  The Guardians ripped forward as their powered suits carried them through the air towards the formation of hyrax, their shoulder turrets deploying and returning a volley of their own. Of the barrage, only one blast contacted a hyrax, causing it to vibrate intensely and disintegrate into the sludge.

  The hyrax leader snapped his head toward them, whiskers flaring, lips peeling back at the audacity of it. He raised a paw. A column of jet-black ichor shot from the opposing wall, ripping through both guardians, consuming them in darkness. When it pulled back into the wall, nothing remained.

  Maxuun, Natal, report! The Prince commanded over comms. Silence was the response. Then a voice. The same gravelly words permeated their minds. They have been consumed, and your fates will soon align.

  “NOOO!” The Prince roared aloud and shot into the air. “Lukyaza, don’t!” Mari pleaded.

  In a flash, the Prince channeled a massive blast. His arms gestured with precision as the room shook, broken stone and masses of tar fell from the ceiling.

  They could feel the psionic energy—they could see it. Like it were a blanket that covered everything, a fabric that pulled inwards towards Lukyaza. He drew it in around him and through him.

  The three friends huddled together as the room rocked violently. The power from the blast drew everything into it—sound, matter, even time itself seemed to slow. Jerro channeled his shield. Aided by Greg and Mari, he expanded it just wide enough to contain the three of them plus Phlip, who pressed his fluffy body close into the group.

  Then it stopped, a calm returned and darkness resumed in the space. Lukyaza? Mari questioned over the Borruki net.

  He did not answer. Rubble encapsulated them just outside of Jerro’s barrier. Its faint yellow glow illuminated the rock as it settled in tightly.

  Mari reached into her pack and grabbed out her lantern, expanding and twisting it to activate it. She snapped it onto Phlip’s harness.

  Jerro grit his teeth, eyes narrowing. He pushed out a struggled thought. You see a way out?

  Greg was investigating the rock wall just beyond the shielding. “I’m not sure. There’s a seam here. Drop the shield—just here.”

  Let me try. Jerro responded and shifted his weight toward Greg. He moved his free paw over and made a grasping motion, attempting to reduce the shield.

  Rubble dropped through the area next to Greg. “That’s it, just a little more!” He let off a thunderous paw strike that sent the rubble flying.

  The crimson glow permeated ?the broken rubble.

  Mari moved up next to Greg, trying to glimpse the scene. “Are they still out there?”

  Greg started manually pushing some of the loose rock out of the way. “Must be.” He hoisted himself through the small hole to poke his head out.

  As he crested the rubble, he saw the large hyrax carrying the bipedal creature over its shoulder and dragging Prince Lukyaza by foot through a dark circular portal.

  “Guys, we gotta go quick!” Greg said to them as he pulled his body through and reached a paw down for Mari.

  She grabbed on and they pulled up Phlip behind her.

  The red glow snapped out of existence. Mari’s gentle blue lantern was now the only source of light.

  “Jerro, when I say so, release the shield!” Greg said urgently.

  He reached his paw back down into the void. “NOW!” Greg yelled.

  Greg and Mari pulled Jerro out as the rubble collapsed inward, consuming the temporary refuge created by the shield.

  The hyrax were gone, but the portal remained. Swirling with a deep oily darkness. Pearlescent hues reflected on the murmuring surface as it drew down. It was closing too fast.

  Mari reflected on Rufus’ brief lesson back on Station. Her body relaxed. Time slowed as each breath she took lengthened. The portal's closure halted. She had it—she stopped it.

  Mari locked eyes with her friends and then Phlip. She had been brash. Her decisions had put them in danger. Here though, her inaction and restraint had been equally hazardous. Decisions must be made.

  Mari swallowed. “No more waiting. We go for it.”

  They confidently waded into the portal. Following Mari. Following their instinct.