“Alright, how did you forget to hire security?”

-Question directed at Gelip Bile, Architect of the Nikolan Research Institute

*=====*

“Damn, this is huge,” Mori said as she walked beside Aetra and Fara. In her hand, she held a ball of light that hovered just a bit, letting her less sight-able companions take in the cavernous tunnel.

Aetra gave a content smile as Mori spoke, taking visibly smaller strides than she could to let the other two keep up, “It is indeed. The original plan was to make a small tunnel and go from there, but your wyrms are making this a quick job. Too bad none of the mages can talk to them; it would be helpful.”

“I don’t know how it all works,” Mori replied, “But I do know that the only person my undead will actually listen to is Fara. Other than that, how far have we gone so far? A few thousand feet?”

“About that,” Fara said, “Not so bad for a week’s worth of work. You were still wrong about that promise, Mori.”

Stopping for a moment, Mori groaned as she rolled her eye-flames, “I know. I didn’t think it would take this long. But how was I supposed to predict every setback?”

Aetra and Fara laughed as Mori grumbled, “You know I’m teasing you,” Fara said, “Don’t pout so much.” Mori simply pouted harder.

“It’s still quite impressive. A tunnel this large would normally take months of work to complete, not days. Even then, teams of experienced fortification mages would be needed,” Aetra said, smiling.

“LIke we do now,” Mori countered.

“What we have now is a team. A normal dig this massive would take eighty people at the least for fortifications. I think it might be some sort of wyrm-specific biological adhesive, because it keeps the walls in place long enough for them to be reinforced. Add the leadership of your death knights, and it works quite well,” Aetra praised.

“Aww… thanks Aetra.”

The lycant paused for a moment, “But they can be really dumb. Really, really, dumb. It’s to the point that I’m wondering if you’re doing it on purpose…” Aetra stared at Mori for a long moment, eyes boring holes into Mori's skull, “But from what I’ve seen of a few of your zombies, it’s just what your undead do.”

Mori winced as she remembered one of her creations, the second prototype for her warcasket project, and how it was so unsteady on its feet that it fell through a wall and nearly killed a man. Fortunately, the man was not killed and the building did not collapse, “Well, not all of them are like that. Tisi and Pride-”

“And Avar,” Fara cut in.

“And Avar are all pretty serious,” Mori continued, “Besides that, I have a feeling that at least a few of my other zombies are smart enough not to cause constant trouble. I just have to figure out which ones they are.”

Fara rolled her eyes, gesture unhidden behind the mask, “Good luck with that,” she muttered. Mori responded with a light elbow in the ribs. “Anyway,” Fara continued, ignoring Mori’s stink-eye, “We’re getting close now, aren’t we?”

“We should be,” Aetra answered, shrugging, “But they may have gotten a hundred feet forward since I last checked.” They continued on, pausing when they finally found the end of the tunnel. In its place, a jagged cavern entrance just large enough for a pyrausta to fit through opened like a hungry maw, “Or they could find a cave leading to Creators-know-where.”

“I’m getting a sense of deja vu here,” Mori sighed, “Well, do either of you want to stay out here? There could be some scary stuff in there. Like monsters or Clockworks or even the fabled dwarves.”

The two women giggled a bit, Fara stepping back, “I’ll let you handle this. I’m getting a couple death knights for backup just in case. I’ll be waiting outside for when it sounds like you're finished.”

As Fara began walking away, Mori held her shoulder, “Do you need a light?”

“No thanks,” she replied, pulling a small slab of metal from her overalls, “I came prepared.” The small slab suddenly lit up with a bright glow, revealing the area around her, “I’ll be fine. See you in a bit.”

Fara walked away and Aetra turned to Mori, “I’ll stay. I don’t want to miss out if you do find the dwarves,” she laughed. Mori joined her as they began making their way into the crevice.

The cave was, to Mori, bright as day. She could not tell how her wolf-like companion could see, crowded into the ceiling from her tall lower body she was, but the woman was able to avoid most if not every obstacle in their path as they moved. The cave soon widened and grew taller, allowing Aetra to stand fully upright and walk forward without bending her back. Soon, though, signs of the mages were evident to them.

Luckily, they were only human and pyrausta footprints in the dust on the ground and they were spaced out as if the group was walking casually, if not carefully. After a few more minutes of silent walking, they found a fork in the tunnel, one leading upwards to their right and one leading straight ahead. Mori noticed that there was only one group of footprints going down the straight path.

“So, do we just keep following them?” Aetra asked, “If we do, we can join their group and map out the caves together.”

“And we can help if they’re in trouble,” Mori added.

“They won't be,” Aetra stated, “The Clockworks don’t go underground very often and if they do, it’s only an infiltrator or two. They should be fine.”

“Should,” Mori emphasized, “Either way, we’re both in agreement, so let’s go forward.” She followed the footprints, Aetra following along without external hesitation. It was a few more minutes before they began to hear voices come from the tunnel in front of them. Sharing a look, they rushed forwards and to the voices talking.

A few more turns later and they reached a medium sized space in the cave system, their targets clumped around a spot on the floor. “Ah, mistress,” Desire said as she stood off to the side, “How’s it going?”

“Desire… I’m fine, but I still want to ask why you guys are roaming a cave system without telling anyone first,” Mori replied, “I get it that you don’t want to waste any time, but I’d rather you all not risk life and limb for something like this.”

Desire looked away guiltily as one of the mages made his way over to them, “Ah, sorry about that. We’re running with the skeleton crew today, so we didn’t feel safe just sending someone out to find help.” He smiled at both her and Aetra, giving a grin like a young boy would give after pulling off a prank.

Aetra gave a sigh, turning back to the crowd of mages looking at the floor, “That’s… fine, but don’t go off exploring random caves without telling anyone again, please. Now that we found you, I have to ask what you are all so fascinated by,” she said, nodding her head at the crowd.

“Oh yeah. That. We found a skeleton in the dirt,” Desire said, “They’re trying to figure out how to get it out without breaking it. Last I listened, they were planning on softening the dirt and digging it out with their hands. Bad idea, I say, but what do I know?”

Aetra and Mori shared a look for a second, Mori hoping they were on the same page, as they stepped forward into the crowd. The mages parted, letting them have their room. As they approached, they caught a glimpse of the skeleton as its skull and arm stuck up from the dirt in the cave. Its skull was cracked, spider web-like fissures spread out over the upper half of it and a large slice cleaved in the top. 

The hand was not in a much better state, with three fingers gone and a deep cut running through the palm and nearly cutting the whole thing off. There were just as many cracks in the bone as the skull, but Mori had no clue what did it to either. With a sigh, she sent a small spell into the ground and at the skeleton. 

With a small bit of rumbling, the skeleton was ejected from the ground and splayed out in front of them. Aetra, gave Mori a flat look, “If you could do that, then why are you not helping with the tunnel when you are free from the other project.”

“Because,” Mori began, “I can’t just dig. I can move stuff, but that’s beside the point. What’s important is this body here.” After another glance, Mori noticed a number of burn marks all along the body, with only a few parts being untarnished, “So this poor guy or girl was sliced, dismembered, and burned, either before or after death. Aetra, do you have a guess about this? Especially with your mysterious past you have going on there.”

“Clockworks,” she said simply, “The infiltrators are known to use bladed weapons while they can sometimes burn bodies in remote locations to prevent rotting and alerting others to their presence. There might be one in this very cave system, actually.”

A long silence blanketed them as they realized the amount of danger they were placing themselves in by being there. After a few more moments, Mori walked through the crowd and looked for another entrance to the room. She found nothing but natural stone walls and a few scuff marks near the entrance to the room, “Alright,” she said, “Anyone who’s not a fighter, go back to the outpost and wait until we give you the all-clear. Tipping them off that we’re around here is bad enough, but losing a few mages is even worse.”

They hesitated for a moment, looking back at the skeleton with sadness, before shuffling their way back into the caves. The only one to stay was Desire, standing near the doorway. When Mori gave her a questioning look, the pyrausta tilted her head, “What? I may not be the best at it, but I can still fight good enough.”

Nodding, Mori led them back out, “That’s fine. Just don’t get hurt and ruin those pretty looks you’ve got going for you. I’m sure Eva would appreciate it,” she laughed, jabbing the zombie in the ribs as she pouted, “Oh don’t be like that. I’m happy you two are so happy with each other.”

Desire stopped pouting and gave a warm, sweet smile, “Thanks mom.” Mori laughed at that, nearly keeling over as they walked, “But, anyway, what’s the plan? To just go and find whatever left that body and kill it?”

Mori shook her head, “No, for now, we’re waiting for some backup. Just in case.”

Desire nodded, walking alongside them until they reached the fork in the road once more. It was a small change of pace for Mori, to simply wait for something to happen. For almost her entire unlife, she had been able to do something to pass the time and be productive, but she was left without an outlet for her accumulating boredom. She could not test her psychic-magic integration, a subject of study she had not made good progress on, because she did not want to break her promise to the gods not to share it with others; no matter how well she hid it, she had a feeling that Aetra could guess what she was doing. She could not play with magic, as she did not want to exhaust her mind right before going after an infiltrator. 

Beyond magic and psychic powers, she had no clue what to do. She was not one to find enjoyment from physical activity for many reasons, not the least of which being that there was no real point in doing it. She had left her notebook back on the Kharon because she was working on another version of the not-warcasket undead spell. In the end, she simply leaned against the wall and counted the grains of sand she could see within the cave despite being a bit underground. By the time Pride and Jel arrived, she had barely found two hundred.

“Hey mistress!” Jel greeted, “We heard you had a Clockwork problem? And Dessy’s here! Are you here to get the blood pumping and stuff like that?”

“I have to get into a real fight eventually,” Desire replied, “The mistress and Aetra found signs of infiltrator activity up here. I might as well see how small-scale fights like this happen before anything else.”

Pride nodded, standing next to Mori as he waited, “Fair enough. For now, we have to deal with the infiltrator.”

Mori nodded along, “Yep! Now then, let’s get moving!” she called as she walked onto the upward path. The others soon fell into step behind her and she smiled as she imagined what she could do with the husk of the infiltrator.