“My, my… So it is true that a pair of daring young Clays have found their way into this old tomb. Never thought I’d see the day.”

  As Nika took in the thin, wrinkled limbs sticking out from white robes, she thought that her thumb and index finger would easily be able to close around his upper arm. There was something incongruous about the old man, though it was hard to put her finger on it. A deeper voice than she would expect from one so frail, certainly, and perhaps a grin that was too wide for greeting a stranger?

  It would cost nothing to take precautions, so she gathered her Ki and kept her face carefully neutral as her eyes flicked to the exits, quickly concluding that diving through the rightmost window would be the fastest escape route. Attack from the rear was impossible, given her position, and she had a clear view to both flanks.

  “Ah, apologies, I seem to have lost my good manners over the years,” the old man continued. “Not too many visitors of late, you understand.”

  His smile grew wider still, revealing unexpectedly white and healthy teeth for one so old as him.

  “I am known as Uso. Am I right to assume that you are a daughter of the honored Houjo clan?”

  His presence was highly suspicious, but to greet an elder with false accusations would be not only unvirtuous, but worse, had a chance of damaging the name of her clan. Though the chances were low, the potential cost of offending an honored member of another Great Clan would be high, while politeness again cost her nothing. As long as she had no idea of his status, she would have to proceed with caution.

  “The honored elder has keen eyes,” Nika replied with a nod of her head. “My name is Veronika, of the Houjo clan. I’ve entered this floor by accident and found myself to be lost and looking for answers, so that I might return to the floor above.”

  “Answers…” the old man repeated slowly as he nodded, drawing the word out so that it ended with a soft hiss. Her eyes roamed over his body once more, looking for any clues as to his standing or origins, but there was not a single mark on his pristine white robes.

  “If you don’t mind me asking, elder, have you been staying in this residence? I hope that I did not disturb your rest.”

  Though she would be offended to learn that he’d been using her ancestor’s home as a place of rest, she was unsure about the rules that governed the occupation of abandoned structures after so much time had passed.

  “My rest? I was resting, yes. But not here.”

  “Then-”

  “So many questions,” he said with another stretched smile. “I’d forgotten the impatience of the young. Would you be so kind as to indulge me with a question, before I provide your answers?”

  She bowed her head slightly to indicate agreement, seeing no harm in it. If the old man would refuse to answer direct questions afterwards, he’d be breaking his promise and that would be at the same time a clear indication that she should stop wasting time as well as grounds for ending the conversation.

  “These old eyes of mine are telling me that there is a strong flame of ambition in you. Would you tell this tired old man of it? Would you share with me what it is that makes you want to risk your life and climb to ever higher floors?”

  Nika blinked, taken aback by the unexpected question. Something about this absurd situation was making her uncomfortable, but still, she failed to see the harm in answering him. There were six paces between the two of them, so she could strike in a matter of seconds. That would, however, not be prudent as long as she had no clue to the old man’s advancement.

  “Of course, elder. As you have noted, I’m a proud daughter of the Houjo main family. As such, what drives me is simply a desire to create value for my clan. I wish to strengthen its name and improve the prosperity of its members, both now and in the future. Might I inquire as to which Clan the elder belongs to?”

  Before, when she thought of those goals, she’d felt that spark of conviction and ambition warming her chest, but now there was a sliver of doubt, creeping in through unseen cracks. During the test, the color had been muddied. Was there a falsehood? Or was it perhaps not the full truth?

  The old man’s eyes lit up as he licked his lips. “Such noble convictions. Your parents must be proud.”

  She forced a smile and a nod of acknowledgement, though she couldn’t be sure that statement was entirely correct. It had been a full year since she’d last seen them and many more since her father had said that he was proud of her.

  “I remember the Houjo clan as an important and powerful party on this floor. In the lowest depths of Tenjou, they said, was where the hardest minerals were forged. Many of the buildings of this once proud city were created by its stoneshapers.”

  Nika perked up, chest and chin rising as she took in the praise of her clan.

  “Even among the Great Clans, they held the most sway on this floor. The trade in basalt and Boron was a key part of the economy, you see.”

  She nodded - there had appeared to be a high volume of top quality stone here, even in the cave where they entered. It made sense that it would have strengthened the position of the Houjo.

  “Did the elder’s clan have grounds to interact with-”

  She broke off as the old man kept speaking, his voice growing louder.

  “That is why, when they advocated for isolating the plague, the other clans listened. In fact, as I recall, the Houjo were among the first to flee,” Uso said, his wide smile taking on a vicious edge.

  “Plague? I- I don’t understand-” Nika said with a frown, pulse rising as a sickening feeling crept into her stomach.

  “They quickly saw things for what they were: a battle that could not be won. So they ran, locked the door behind them and threw away the key. A rational decision, but one that doomed countless souls. Many called them cowards.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  “That cannot be true,” she protested immediately, feeling a flash of hot anger next to the growing nausea. She thought she saw a flicker of something behind the old man, a black blur in the air, but then it was gone.

  Uso licked his lips again, smacking with satisfaction.

  “No? Would you claim it beyond the analytical mind of a Houjo, to apply cold logic and decide to cut their losses? Would you perhaps characterize your clansmen as warm and compassionate people?”

  “I- I don’t have the necessary information to judge-” she stammered. She was feeling light headed. Something was wrong. Should she flee? Strike? They were just having a conversation-

  “No?” Uso leaned forward, expression eager and hungry. “Tell me of your parents, then, as an example. Were they warm and compassionate, in the way they raised you?”

  “They raised me… well… They were… busy.” Her voice was strained, sweat breaking out over her skin. “I couldn’t have asked more of them.”

  Something was deeply wrong. She felt weak and light-headed, putting a hand on the doorway to the vault to steady herself. There was something calling for her attention, like a muted scream, she glanced down and-

  “Mmmm, delicious. More, tell me more.”

  Something was horribly wrong. The voice was deep and rough now, thick with hunger as it reverberated through the chamber.

  Auburn Ki bubbled violently up from her chest, leading away in a steady stream to a monstrous form-

  “Fangs of the firefly!”

  Three blinding flashes of light followed by the sound of arrows clattering to the floor. Nika blinked away the spots of colour - there was Dario, back near the courtyard, bow drawn, bleeding through torn clothes, his face a wide-eyed mask of horror-

  “Nika! Snap out of it!” he screamed.

  Only now did she see it in full. Distorted by a haze of brown Ki was a mess of wicked black claws and sickly brown tentacles, all wrapping around to the old man’s back. His frail body was suspended in the air, held up by the many claws. His cheeks were sunken, his eyes dead and hollow. How had she not seen-

  “What’s wrong, young lady?” The increasingly distorted voice echoed through the room. “Tell me about your parents, share with me your dreams. Tell me more!”

  Nika pushed through the dizziness, stumbling forward as she gathered her Ki. After two lunging steps forward, she struck with a Ki-fortified fist. A claw moved in to take the strike, was knocked aside, but then a tentacle flashed and-

  Her world turned into a blur of stone as she hurtled through the room and crashed into a wall. Her vision was swimming as she pushed herself up from the debris. A sharp pain ran through her side and leg as she swayed, fighting to steady herself.

  Dario was shouting and gesturing wildly at her to follow him back out, but the ringing in her ears was too loud to make out the words. Her gaze was drawn back to the monstrosity. She could see it clearly, now. Auburn Ki swirling around a twisted form, claws like giant spider’s legs, thick tentacles like writhing worms, a flash of dirty white robes around a dried-out husk of a man in the center of it all.

  That thing had insulted her clan. Implied that her parents were-

  After a quick glance through the rubble, she picked up a steel rod connected to a thick piece of basalt. With each step forward, she breathed in deeply and channeled her Ki in a pattern she’d often practiced. The solidity and hardness of Boron ran not only over her skin, but also through the whisper-thin seams she’d painstakingly hewed deep into her muscles.

  After one last breath, she launched herself forward.

  ***

  Dario stopped shouting and breathed a sharp curse instead. Warm drops of blood were rolling down his torso and legs. First he had to dig through that cursed thorny tree and now there was some twisted demon to deal with.

  He gaped as Nika exploded forward, wielding a massive piece of rock on a bar as a hammer. There was something to say for being fearless, but now she was just being dumb. At least she’d been freed of that strange spell she seemed to be under. That nasty brown Ki was bad news.

  The monster was easily twice her size and had countless claws and tentacles that lashed around at the speed of a whip. Nika wouldn’t even be able to see many of the blows coming, as plumes of brown Ki covered much of its twisted form. It hadn’t even acknowledged the arrows he’d shot at it, two of them sticking uselessly from one of its tentacles.

  At least it doesn’t look like the brown Ki can be used to absorb blows, he thought as he watched it take a heavy swing of her weapon on a tentacle, moving it back at just the right time to soften the blow. Still, there was no visible damage. If that wasn’t enough to harm it, he wouldn’t have any chance at all with his arrows and dagger.

  “Such righteous fury!”

  Dario winced as a distorted laugh thundered through the chamber. Somehow, the voice sounded at the same time as high as a bird’s call and as low as the rumble of a heavy cart on stone tiles.

  “There is no need for violence. Let us talk! Tell me your stories!”

  Nika caught a claw on a forearm, knocked another out of the way, then snapped her foot around in a heavy kick. Dario watched with glowing eyes as the dark brown Ki flowed through the demon’s limbs, knocking Nika’s foot aside. She twisted along with the force, putting the momentum into another sweeping kick, only to have it caught by another tentacle and be hurled through the room again.

  This time she was ready, Ki-fortified fingers digging thin lines into the stone until she came to a stop, pausing only a heartbeat before blasting forward again.

  This isn’t going to end well, Dario thought, mind racing as his eyes scanned the room. He had only one explosive trap left and it wasn’t likely to help much here. His arrows hadn’t hurt its tentacles and it was next to impossible to hit the main body through this whirlwind of violence. Maybe poison would be able to damage it? Only one way to find out, but then he’d need to trigger the trap and keep that demon in place for a while…

  He began to scatter vine cuttings at the base of the only exit, which was the doorway he’d entered through, then focused on preparing a new trick as he spread light Ki through certain areas of the room. It was kind of a wild thought and it might not work, but it was worth a shot.

  Meanwhile, Nika was exchanging a flurry of rapid blows with the monster, moving with impressive speed and precision for someone who’d just been launched into a wall. For some reason she was pushing a trickle of her Ki into one of its claws before pulling it back, each time she clashed with it.

  But no matter how often she struck its claws and tentacles, it didn’t seem to affect Uso at all, the demon continuing to taunt her with its horribly warbled voice.

  “Have I offended you? I have spoken only truths, young Clay, or do you deny it?”

  Dario was nearly done pushing light Ki through the room, filling every nook and cranny and covering the doorway, so he grabbed the chest with the poison traps from his pack.

  Nika took a blow from a tentacle, skidding back half a meter before lunging forward, her fist snapping out like a sling. This time, when it hit that same claw, it cracked.

  Uso pulled the bleeding claw back with all the sudden speed of an injured insect, before the dark-brown Ki billowed out from its body. It covered Nika before she could retreat, so she failed to see the next attacks coming.

  One long, black claw raked across her arm, cutting her even through her rock-hard skin to leave a bloody gash. A tentacle whipped out of the brown cloud, sweeping her off her feet, before another smashed her down into the ground. She bounced up from the force, spittle flying as the air was knocked out of her.

  Even before she came back down, a long needle-like claw stabbed her through the stomach, nailing her into the ground.