The tunnel she had been trudging through at st, blessedly, opened up into a wide cavern. It had been three days of walking interspersed with rest by magelight, cmbering through caved in or cramped sections of tunnel and trying her best to avoid the few madly singing Sleepers that dotted the complex network of caves and tunnels that made up the Deep River. This entire venture would have been so much easier had she been able to enter the complex through the Hammerstrike Gate, but unfortunately it had experienced another quake and the entrance had been thrown closed. It would take days to clear all of the rubble and dispose of the things that had risen up at the tremor, so instead she had been forced to enter via the next closest gateway, Border’s End Fortress in order to make it to her destination before the injured passed away.
The cavern itself was vast, made of the same ink dark stone as the rest of the Void making it seem as if she stood upon the night sky. The shape reminded her more of a crater than a natural cavern though that may have been due to the rge structure embedded into the center of the space. It dominated her vision with its size, at least a kilometre across and reaching the ceiling of the space with ease, fused into the surrounding rock. For a moment she was so awestruck by the sight of the colossal wreck that the gentle tune she had been humming these st days faded into silence. A hollow absence of sound filled the chamber, no shifting rock or spshing water daring to break it, only her breathing and the gentle pulse of lights across the walls as the Sleepers shifted in their slumber. Her reverie was broken as the song began to creep at the corners of her thoughts, lyrics she had never learned and a tune she couldn’t pce. With a start she took up her own tune again, a small piece of superstition from the people above to keep the dreams at bay. Swiping a few quick gestures in the air, trailed by blue light edged with white, she found the direction she needed to travel. It would take another hour or two to circumnavigate the wreck and find the outpost she was to provide emergency aid for. The quakes had been a common occurrence for as long as the Wheel had existed and since its predecessor, whose husk she now stood a mere five hundred metres from, had been wiped from the maps.The people of the Wheel had created a small outpost in this cavern to monitor the wreck and hopefully determine the source of the quakes. Moments after the quake that had closed passage into Hammerstrike Cavern a communication had been received from its personnel that indicated multiple wounded and a need for assistance, Vi had been deployed immediately.
Every step of this hike had been utterly exhausting, no terrain in these caves was the slightest bit forgiving and she was beginning to despise it. The only things that had kept her going was the desire to help the people and the promise that she could remain at the outpost until those above cleared the gate again. Up ahead she spotted a chunk of ragged metal that seemed to have been blown away from the main portion of the wreckage, she dared not get close enough to that to investigate but if a piece was this close to her path anyway what harm could it do. With a childlike grin she rounded the piece of debris and came to a stiff halt at the sight of the skeleton. Her hand flew to her mouth in an instant, breath catching for a moment as she took in the sight. A single body, long since picked clean of flesh, y against the metal which may have been a door. The spine was pressed against the sb, fused in pce with the skull tucked against its curled up legs. This being had huddled against the door in its final moments, perhaps hoping to avoid whatever fate cimed them. She felt a wash of emotions before this fallen person, grief for their loss, sadness for their solitude and deep pang of curiosity. Curiosity for what had done this, for what had ended so many lives so long ago. As far as she knew, none with her talent had ever visited this ruin and none could get close enough to an intact body without alerting the Sleepers. She looked around conspiratorially before crouching and reaching towards the body with an outstretched hand. She closed her eyes and focused herself internally, on her form and the shape it had been holding. She loosened her tight mental grip on it and her skin rippled, like a stone disturbing the water's surface. Her fingers flowed like thick sap, spreading from their dainty shape into a mass of slowly congealing liquid. From the sky blue ball now resting at the end of her wrist, small tendrils slithered forward tasting at the stale air of the cavern. It felt like death and potential lost, the taste in her mind acrid and bitter as the tendrils shifted and circled one another. They touched against the skull and began to squeeze between the pores of the bone, careful to avoid the patches of oily bck which twinkled with stars within. The void had begun to recim the corpse but for now she could do her work. Probing masses of blue sap soon covered the yellowish white skull, pressing into the four eye sockets and cavities that may have once been sinuses. She held it up, a small pitiful snap as it detached from the spine, so she could look it in its eyes. Her substance filled it and she could taste it on her tongue. Her eyes softened, looking upon the dead being with a sad smile, the kind only reserved for those who had lost too much, one she wished she had less practice giving.
"Show me what fate befell you, so someone may remember your passing." Her voice was cool and calm, but the statement was a command that resonated with the world around her. The eyes of the skull glowed bright blue and her own matched it, the wall of the cavern bathed in a deep cerulean light. The memory of this being's final day washed over her like the tide and her mind was swept away into it.
I sat in my favourite armchair as the broadcast began and my heart started to race. This was the day we had been building towards for the st five years, the entirety of the Nail working for this. I could see the faint glow of the Weave crisscrossing the city like a chain link fence out of the window. I didn't quite understand how it had been done but the scientists and the mages had bound the city in the threads of the sky. They wanted it to cradle us as we made our great dream real. The screen showed a handful of council members outside of the complex that had been built to coordinate the four floating constructs that now hung over the top of the monolithic structure of the Nail. I couldn't help but stare in wonder at the construct I could see from my home, a great machine of metal and magick that wove the fabric of reality around us. They had been talking for several minutes now, expining the significance of this historic day. It was a speech I had heard nearly three times now, though it was a little different each time. There was a small timer in the corner of the screen counting down to the start of the process itself, having just hit one minute remaining when the st councilor finished their remarks. As the broadcast changed to a cycling set of views of a number of scientists and mages going through their final checks, I went to stand on my balcony so that I could see it all with my own eyes. The air was warm, tense with excitement, as I stood there. My neighbors had brought chairs out with drinks and food on a table nearby, they waved to me as I took everything in. I could hear the crowds shouting a countdown from one of the pzas on the level below, several of my neighbours took it up as well and I found myself joining in, smiling wide. The entire Station screamed out the st ten seconds and then everything became deafeningly quiet. The first of the constructs whirred to life.
A slowly growing dull thud began, growing faster and faster until it would surely be audible anywhere inside fifty miles of the Nail. The next construct followed and soon all four were thumping as the lines of light wrapping the Station began to grow bright and flex against each other. I stared around in awe of it all, I had never seen the threads move and dance like this, the spectacle was breathtaking. The ground shook beneath our feet all at once, I distantly heard a pte ctter to the floor and break but it was so quiet in comparison. The towering structure of the Nail began to shift and sink into the ground beneath us. That was the point of all of this after all, to become the first of the Stations to expand beneath the substance of the Void. I couldn't see it from my floor, being on the ninetieth level, but it wasn't hard to see the lights coming from further below, blindingly bright. The pnned outcome was to sink the structure fifty yers into the Void. It moved so quickly it felt like we were all in an elevator moving down at ludicrous speed. Soon the broadcast was saying the thirtieth level had been submerged and the fortieth was fast approaching. I wanted to go down to those levels and see the stars with my own eyes, perhaps I would take my son with me tomorrow.
Lost in thought, I didn't notice when the thumping of the constructs stopped. The cheering sounded like a thousand thousand drums across the tower city. We had successfully bent the ws of the Void to our will and sunken a structure into it. The winding chain link of the threads protecting it and keeping the ink-stained rock from crushing us. I went back to my chair and settled in for the broadcast from the lower levels. It showed a view from one of the balcony pzas, an endless expanse of bck tinged with purple, full of twinkling points of light. It reminded me of the stars back home, I could feel my cheeks were wet with tears as I watched. The interviews and tours went on for a while after that and we were told that things would be safe enough for visitation in a day or so. During the closing speech, the project leader was remarking at how great a stride this had been and how much more we would go on to do, when the whispers began. It sounded like it was right by my ear, a song so quiet I could barely make out the words, and it made me jump. The people on the screen looked surprised, they must have heard it too, all of them looking around in a panic. The Station lurched hard in that moment, like the entire thing had shifted, exactly like it had felt when we began to sink. Moments ter, the broadcast cut to the emergency alert screen advising everyone to shelter in pce. I ran to my balcony to see what was happening outside.
The tower was moving, I could see the ground coming closer and closer and the sinking sensation in my stomach had returned. Scariest of all was the flickering of the threads we had woven to protect us, they jittered, flexing more with each passing second and then with a jolt that threw me to the ground they pulled taut. Through the arms and screams of panic I hadn’t heard the constructs start again but now I could hear the dull thump of the rge machines working. They were reeling the woven strands in, trying to haul the entire Nail out of the Void which was greedily pulling it further. The noises grew and grew, the thumping of the machines like blood in my ears. Above me I could hear what I thought was tearing fabric, looking up from my balcony what I saw was so much worse. The supports which kept the levels together were ripping apart, welded steel pulling like dough. I tried to think of what I could do, where I could go, where would even be safe? In the panic I simply found myself sitting on the floor of my balcony, staring numbly at the cage of taut energy as it snapped, the sound was like thousands of whips cracking and I covered my ears as my vision went white. When I could see again, my ears rang and I pulled myself upright. Below me was the ground, quickly approaching, I was mesmerized by the stars moving so fast like the fall of night in double time. Above me was a torn edge of ragged metal where I could see the upper floors hanging by scant threads of energy. I could see elevator shafts, the bottoms of stairwells and so many people hanging on for their lives. I wanted to scream, my hands shook so furiously I could hardly grip the railing of the balcony. In that moment I knew it was the end, that I would be consumed by the stars beneath and that this great dream had become a nightmare. For a few blissful moments, that whispered song in my ears growing louder, I felt at peace with the end until all at once I remembered a different world was ending. I scrambled off of the balcony, strength I did not know I had left flooding my limbs as I wrenched the door open and joined the river of scared souls pushing through the hallways. I made my way to the stairwell and flung myself down them as fast as possible. I only needed to make it down two levels and find the education wing, I could colpse there. I only needed to make it a little farther. When the lights died I kept running, when the walls began tearing themselves apart I kept running, when a tendril of deep bck rock sprung from the ground and speared three men I kept running. The air was screaming around us, singing a song to which I found I knew the lyrics, but I could not hear it over the blood in my ears and the thumping of my heart in my chest. I had to find it, I had to find the school, to find his cssroom. I need to find my son, oh Maker I needed to hold him and keep him safe. Please I need to find my son, where is he? Where is he, where is he? Be safe oh please be safe, please. I need to find my s-
The skull broke apart into fragments and dust in her grip, the mass of blue liquid that was her form spttering against the ground as she fell back, the vision ending abruptly. Her head swung around in panic, she needed to find him, to see that he was safe. With a shake of her head her mind cleared and she knew that the child must have perished along with his father but her eyes still stung with tears for a child she had never known. It took a few moments to reconstitute her hand from the puddle it had become, her sniffling echoing in the silent graveyard she now knew this pce was. Shakily, she climbed to her feet, unable to let her eyes fall on the pile of fragments that were the man’s skull and his remaining bones. She let her practice guide her, pulling herself to her full height and bending at the waist with fists pressed together. She had seen this gesture made many times along the banks of the river she had once called home, the people said that its current took their loved ones to the next life and the bow was a sign of respect and good fortune. She held herself there for a handful of seconds that felt like minutes, tears for people she never knew, for a father and a son, spshing to the cold stone. She resolved to return here to collect the remains and see them to rest in a proper way, standing and looking in the direction she had been moving. Her fingers cut the air, trailing blue and white again to show herself the path and moved forward. As she walked she began to sing under her breath, “The river has no currents…” She would save the souls who called for her aid and then she would set to rest the soul who had tried to save his world from the end of another.
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“The river has no currents,Its air is thick with dreams.It sings to those who walk its banksAnd isn't what it seems.
The river flows down to the depths,Where no folk ever tread.Its choir sings a joyous tuneAnd sleeps amongst the dead.
So if you must then venture downAnd plunge into the Deep.Remember now this simple tune,So your mind you do keep.
The river has no currents,Yet still it pulls you down.It draws you in with gentle handsAnd in its depths you'll drown.
The river flows down deeper still,Its bed is soaked in blood.Stay quiet lest the sleepers wakeAnd catch you in the flood.
So if you must yet venture downAnd plunge into the deep.Remember now this simple tune,So your mind you do keep.”
An excerpt from a folk song titled “The Wake”, it is a common tune among the workers at operations beneath the Wheel and throughout the Hammerstrike Cavern. It is said to ward off bad dreams and satiate the spirits of those nds.
FeralFeathers
