The workshop wasn’t the steampunk Barbie dreamhouse my sleep-deprived mind had conjured. It was an abandoned dwarven mine shaft. I dragged finger along one of the pick gouges in the wall on my way in. Faintly damp. Cool, leaving a grimy film on my fingertip.

  A cobbled facade stopped me short. It looked new, the mortar between the stones still drying. With an eye for a tight-fitting wall, thanks to my old job, I looked it over. No columns, no gaps, everything looked structurally sound, left to right, bottom to top. If I were scoring, I’d give it a perfect ten.

  I knocked on the wooden door set in the center.

  Frag opened it, his sullen, dead-eyed face warmed a touch when he recognized me. “Dathai, hi. Come in.”

  I stepped past him and into a rainbow. Literally. A colorful collection of glowstones had been applied to the ceiling and the sides of the tunnel. Maybe there was a little bit of a whimsy to this place, after all.

  Ten feet in, there was an alcove carved out for supplies. It was jammed full of parts and gadgets lifted from the Den. They’d gone full scavenger-mode while I’d been off handling my own chaos.

  Apparently, Akilah had been inspired by that crab cavern.

  Frag walked beside me, shooting me furtive glances that I found—off-putting. I stopped just before the open chamber ahead and faced him.

  “What?”

  A faint smile touched his lips, and he patted my arm. “Just glad you’re okay.”

  Tan’Fukshan, he was weird. I inhaled and nodded, gave him a tight grin of my own. He went ahead of me into the main chamber, where the others had gathered around the large work table they’d set up in the center.

  Maybe I was the weird one.

  More glowstones—this time white—hung from a ropes strung like stars above the large, thick table. It was second-hand, by the look. Scarred and roughened edges, burn and cut marks turned it into a map of its own history. I sauntered up to it and ran my palms on it appreciatively.

  “Now that we’re done, you show up,” Akilah smirked, but there was no anger in her eyes.

  “I have to be predictable, right?” I countered.

  Elora and Akilah sat on stools, sipping from cups. I caught the faint scent of tea, and a metal teapot sat on a gas burner on a section of stone embedded in the table. Elora poured me a cup.

  Off to the side, Jake and Fig snuggled, completely ignoring the rest of us. Ugh. New love.

  Everyone was here.

  My gaze paused at the far end of the chamber, on a tarp covering what looked like metal struts. Beneath it, metal struts outlined random shapes, unrecognizable at first glance. I tipped my chin toward it.

  “What are you building, Akilah?”

  “You’ll see,” she replied smugly.

  Frag grinned, his eyelids drooping like a cat being scratched under its chin.

  “They won’t say,” Elora shrugged and took a sip from her cup. “But they sure are proud of it, whatever it is.”

  “Cool,” I nodded. I had patience. I lifted the cup to my lips and tasted it. Simple green tea. After the long walk, it settled something in my soul.

  The walking shit was starting to wear on me. When I didn’t have to go around a mountain, it was less tedious and time-consuming. So few people had horses, wagons, that guy with the car. People moved goods. The Salt Spears only traded internally, and Barak went out to trade for anything the district needed, using buffalo lizard hide sleds to take things around. He was built like an ox.

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I glanced around at the parts, the junk Alkilah and Frag had gathered and stacked in piles of type. “How’d you guys get all this stuff here?”

  “Inventory, and hired a wagon from a man in Lacunae for the things that were too big,” Frag said, picking up a small diode-looking thing from a box of parts beside the worktable. He went over to a standing toolbox and pulled it open, grabbing goggles and a soldering iron, then walked right past the tarped mystery. Still keeping secrets, then.

  I sipped my tea and let my mind drift.

  It went from calm to angst. Glancing around the room, I felt restless. The Arena had a key to the bigger puzzle of getting to the Gateway, and I wanted some practice fighting. Being a weak little insect among warriors had been humbling.

  My goal to crush the System would not be sidetracked by the settling sense I felt in the room. Sure, I wanted them happy, but I also wanted freedom. I served up the idea. Cold.

  “What do you all think of signing up for Arena fights?”

  Jake’s head popped up from the shady snogging he’d been doing. He looked my way and shouted, “Dath! Yes!”

  Fig giggled and nodded.

  Elora’s eyes sparkled with mischief. “Sure. There are fat prizes for participants.”

  Akilah glanced at Frag, who nodded grimly. She gave a nonchalant shrug. “Let’s do it.”

  “Cool.” I clapped my hands together, glad to have a plan. Direction. “I’ll hang here and help you guys for a couple days, then go get Voj’Kasak for the tide thing. Does anyone know about that?”

  “I do!” Jake said, waving a hand. “I asked around the village, and they said once a month the Reptilians go to the shore and harmonize with the crystals. I guess it’s a new ritual since they came to Convergent City.”

  “Great,” I nodded.

  Glancing around the room, I locked eyes with Akilah. “Okay, tell me what to do here. Give me a job.”

  “Can’t relax after your long walk?” Elora asked, legs crossed, comfortably perched on her stool.

  “I did,” I replied, finishing the last of my tea. “Now I need to be busy.”

  Akilah’s slow grin told me she had plenty of things for me to do.

  After lifting, shifting, and carrying all Akilah’s heavy things—but not the thing under the tarp—Jake called for a break. Fig led us outside and pointed up the mountain. She started climbing up a narrow path that must have been made by mountain goats, narrow and gap-toothed, with sparse weeds trimmed down to stubs beside it where dirt found its way into rocky crevices.

  A small camp was there, complete with an eerily clean but abandoned cabin with a firepit and iron fittings for cooking. Inside, a functional water pump, basin, and dishes. Too idyllic. Likely placed there by the System for wanderers like us.

  I still couldn’t understand it. Not completely. It wanted us to be comfortable, and yet, it also made murderhawks and everything in Subterania. Why?

  I found a stack of firewood behind the cabin, and carried some to the front where the firepit was. Amazing view. I checked the dimming sky, but saw no giant shadows. Up there, we were out in the open, and too close to the giant hawk’s territory for comfort. It would have roosted by now. I hoped.

  Jake had fare from Lacunae and Shardshore. He and Fig giggled by the fire as they worked on making the food. I found a rock to sit on, away from the fire. Looking out at the ocean as the fading light cast long shadows on shimmering waves that broke on crystal spikes.

  Akilah came up next to me and handed me a cup of beer, which I took with a a half-smile and a nod. I sniffed it then sipped. Rich, bitter brew. Frag found a rock on my other side to perch upon.

  “We should train together. Get to know how to work our skills and spells against any threat we can think of. Frag, Akilah, you two are the ones that are the most analytical. Can you set up a training plan? Other than the Tidesong, I’ve got everything under control, now.”

  Why do I say things like that? Project confidence? Even if it can’t be true. The System’s habit of screwing me over when I thought like that was pretty high.

  Frag nodded, flicking a glance at me. The downdraft from the mountain blew the short fringe of his hair toward the ocean, catching in his jumpsuit as it did in Akilah’s robes, fabrics snapping and rippling to the tune of the wind.

  Akilah smirked and elbowed me affectionately, “At least you’re smart enough to know what you shouldn’t be messing with.”

  I chuckled in agreement and leaned to tap her cup with mine.

  “Frag, in order to make the Arena work, you and Fig need to make a disclosure on your skills and abilities,” I said, glancing at Frag.

  He was slow to respond, still staring down the rocky slope. When he did, he looked up with a small smile. “I will share everything needed to achieve success within the Arena. We should also study our potential opponents.”

  “How many players actually join the Arena fights? Does it pay well?”

  Akilah sat so she could look at both of us, cross-legged, with her cup in her lap. She leaned toward Frag eagerly. So did I.

  “Not many, but those that do have become powerful. As I understand it,” Frag paused, expression going slack. Did he have notes? Where did he get them? I needed to figure out how to do it on my HUD. I bought a journal and then somehow lost it. It’d be easier if I had an onboard spot for my own impressions.

  When Frag’s gaze returned to us, he said, “There are multiple forms of Arena. Many team, some duels. Lowbies like us would fight low-level monsters or other lowbies. Standard team-building scenarios, at first. It becomes more complex as you rise in skill level. There are few lowbie players, maybe a hundred, total. It does not pay very well, but you can relocate accommodations to the arena bunks if you wish.”

  Frag paused again, and I frowned. I didn’t want to leave Alga, or Old Fang. Not when I’d just gained my place with the Krual. He’d said can, not have to. I had to get over my attachments if I wanted to complete my personal mission.

  Somehow.

  “Arena item rewards are good,” Frag concluded, his attention returning to us.

  Item rewards? My face cracked a huge grin.

  “Can’t wait.”

  -ARCHIVE-