The Long Night Part One: Embers in the Dusk: A Planetary Governor Quest (43k) Complete Sequel Up

Omake: Chance Encounter (The Dice are Loaded)
Now (390 years after the founding of Avernus)

Tormod's head snapped up as the transport lurched, eyes darting around the hold. Gratifyingly, his guest and their respective bodyguards were miliseconds behind him in their reactions.

A few seconds passed in quite unease, as the passengers scanned their surrounding for a threat. Tormod resisted the urge to dart to one of the gunners slits. That would be his guards' responsibility. The growing tension finally broke with the chime of a hazard warning.

"Something spooked a thundabeast herd north of here," One of the Governor's Own read out. "They've started stampeding this way, should pass through this area is thirty minutes. In theory, we should be long gone by then."

His guest's bodyguards began to relax. In contrast, Tormod felt the gazes of his bodyguard and his guest fall upon him.

"I do not understand," one of her bodyguards said. "The briefings indicated that thundabeasts were terrestrial threats. How does the stampede relate to this turbulence?"

His guest beat everyone else in the hold to the response. "The briefings mentioned that the herd's telekinetic field can create pressure fronts. I am given to understand they can travel quite far," she said, her words and gaze questioning.

Tormod shook his head. "That wasn't thundabeast turbulence. That pushes up, and there's this taste that comes with it. Something else-" he was cut off as the transport shuddered again, and then warning klaxons filled the air. Emergency updates began to pour out along priority channels. Tormod tapped into the tacnet and was deluged with a torrent of chatter.

"Bravo four and six confirm!"
"Contact lost, bravo four!"
"Bravo six is down!"

Two icons indicating of the convoy's escorts winked out. Then another one, bravo five, vanished. Seconds after each went dark the transport rocked under the fury of their destruction. And for all that the sky remained clear of hostiles.

"Sky dragon," Tormod whispered to himself, seconds before the CaC barked out the same diagnosis. A pair of the remaining escorts veered off on a vectors meant to intercept anything coming after the transport from the point of the last attack, only for one of the trailing fighters to vanish abruptly. "Correction, a pair of utter bastards!" he hissed.

Then the transport jolted violently, throwing the passengers around in their flight harnesses. With a screech of tortured metal a rent opened in the wall of the hold, and baleful eye peered in. A gaping jaw replaced the eye, an orange glow flickering at the back of its throat.

Before it could exhale and flood the transport's interior with fire and death a hurtling power armored figure slammed into the jaw, plasma foils flashing. One of the Governer's Own assigned to protect Tormod had loosed his harness and hurled himself against the beast. The titanic strength of the pinnacle ancient power armor drove the head to the side, and the burning breath intended to gut the transport instead washed over the armored hull. With a roar the head pulled back, dragging the bodyguard with it. He clung to the beast, slashing and stabbing at its face as it thrashed. The creature swiped at its face with a claw, dislodging the warrior only for his jump pack to ignite and rocket him back into the beast's face. With a final heave the dragon clawed the champion from its face, and before he could strike again speared him with a lance of knight-slaying flames. With a roar it turned its gaping maw upon the transport, preparing once again to gut its prey from within.

And it was into that gaping maw that Matsu Ranmaru drove the blade of her power halberd. The building fire winked out as the princess tore the blade free from the top of the beast's palette and brought the axehead down on its tongue. The crackling power field tore through soft flesh, shattered bones and scaly flesh alike to finally embed itself in the adamant floor of the transport. Again the dragon jerked away, howling rage. She declined to follow, instead she leaped back, clearing the opening in the side of the transport.

Tormod had not been idle as his bodyguard had given his life, nor as his guest had placed herself in mortal peril. He stood, the Primal Orb held out before him, glowing with gathered power. The radiant power of the orb reached its peak as Ranmaru cleared the line of fire, and Tormod unleashed the fury of the storm.

A torrent of lightning poured from the orb, tearing into the sky dragon as it flailed. The scales ruptured, flesh seared away, and bones blacked under that onslaught. An arc of lightning lanced from the creature's wings into the sky, and drew down a second torrent of fury from the laden skies above.

The dragon exploded.

Something about the scene tickled the back of Tormod's mind. He had thought they were flying high through a clear sky, and yet far above roiling storm clouds raced across the sky. A sound hitherto drowned out by the fury of combat finally intruded.

"T minus 15 seconds to impact, for the love of the Emperor brace yourselves!" the pilot's voice roared.

As one of the Governer's Own slammed into him, pinning him to the bulkhead, he noted that Ranmaru was receiving similar treatment from her bodyguards. Braced as they were, when the crash came they merely lost consciousness instead of their lives.

----------------------

One month earlier

"No," Valria's voice was flat. "No, there is no way in whatever hells you choose to name that I am taking her into the caverns. I don't give a shit what affidavits she's signed to come to this world, those won't save my reputation if I bring an offworlder into the Caverns. That's the sort of shit that gets you a hit piece in the Gazette written by Sousal himself. No one would hire me as a guide ever again!"

"I didn't say bring her into the Caverns," Tormod said, his voice as placating as possible. "I said prepare her for the Caverns. Emperor willing it'll come to nothing, but, well..." he trailed off.

"But you're you and she's here to spend time with you," she sighed. "And the chances of you both not ending up stranded in at least the upper layers is as close to nil as can be conceived. Fuck." After a pause she shook her head in resignation. "I'll do my best Tor, but a month's crash course won't be anywhere near enough to ensure survival. Especially when I won't have her undivided attention. She's going to be busy with diplomatic functions."

"I'm not asking for anything more than minor miracles Val, and there's no one I would trust more than you with this one," Tormod said with a grin.

"All right, a minor miracle it is," she chuckled. "Just tell me straight, is Lord Klovis-Ultan playing matchmaker with you?"

"Empty Throne I hope not, but I'm almost terrified he is," Tormod said. "He's old guard, and you know how they think sometimes. Ranmaru has mentioned seeing him in conversation with one Shosuro Madoko. What exactly that means I'm not entirely sure, but there was a knowing aspect to the way she said it."

"Huh," Valria grunted.

----------------------

Now

Tormod came back to consciousness in a rush, thunder booming in his ears. He lay in the wreckage of the transport's hold he scanned his surroundings. Other figures were stirring; he counted both of his remaining guards, Ranmaru and two of her guards. Rain poured in through the gaping rents in the hold's bulkheads. As the thunder receded a pounding roar became audible, thrumming up from the earth. Tormod checked his chronometer and cursed.

"The thundabeast stampede," one of Ranmaru's bodyguards, the one who had spoken up before the dragon attack, said. "According to the time, we have less than eight minutes to get clear. With our jump packs we may be able to..."

"Thunderheads," Tormod cut him off.

The man turned to him quizzically.

"They're thunderheads, not thundabeasts," Tormod said. "Look at the sky. We try to use our jump packs, the energy signature will bring down the same lighting that fried the dragon."

"Perhaps we landed near the edge of the danger zone," the bodyguard said, fear rising in his voice. "If we run we might be able to make it clear."

Tormod let loose a bitter bark of laughter. "I'll be you the entire industrial output of every moon in this system for the next century if we're anywhere but in the center of the stampede's path," Tormod said. He had clambered to the top of a heap of wreckage and was surveying the wake of the transport's crash. On the horizon, so deceptively distant, he could see the vanguard of the stampede. Closer by he found what he had been looking for. "That's how these things work, you see."

"You have a plan," Ranmaru stated plainly, the calmness of her voice a rebuke to her retainer. Tormod pointed. She looked. She turned to him with a glare, raising the armored faceplate of her helm so nothing of the fury in her expression would be lost. "If I am to die, then I will do so on two feet with honor intact, facing my enemy till my last breath. I will not meet my end cowering at the bottom of some hole!" she roared.

Tormod laughed again. "Ranmaru, princess of the Matsu: to your retainer I have offered the produce of this system for a century if he is right. To you I offer this wager: should you reach the bottom of that hole, its true bottom mind you, and return, I will personally deliver dominion over the entire Imperial Trust, nay, the entirety of mankind, into your hands," Tormod said.

The intensity of Ranmaru's glare grew. "Impossible fool! You disgrace yourself with these wagers. What makes you so certain that we are in the center of the stampede's path? How can you possibly know that that hole goes deeper than a dozen feet?"

Tormod sagged. "Because Its an entrance to the Caverns," he said.

"The reports I read all agreed that the entrances to the Caverns are under Dis," she snarled. "Not in the hinterlands of Elysium. Are you saying that random fortune has brought us down by the one entrance to have, what, strayed from the pack?" Biting mockery had crept into her voice by the end.

Tormod shrugged and smiled sadly. "This is my life. You've heard about my luck. This is what it looks like. A transport torn from a clear sky, an oncoming stampede that can level mountains, a sudden entrance into the Caverns. I'd give it nine chances out of ten that the entrance will close behind us the moment we enter." He straightened, momentary exhaustion flowing back into resolve. "Now, someone check on the pilot, and lets get moving."

----------------------

Seven figures, two royal, four bodyguards and a sagging pilot, race across the plains where Tarrascon gives way to Elysium. Towards them thunders a great tide of armored flesh. With bare moments to spare the septet hurl themselves into the darkness. Strangely, only a single beast falls with them as the herd thunders overhead.

----------------------

One Month Earlier

"For the sake of clarity, I'd like to get it out in the open that I'm not teaching you how to be a Caverner. I'm here to teach you how to survive in the off chance that you find yourself in the Caverns. Yes?"

Ranmaru found herself in the exceedingly rare position of actually having to look up at someone who was not a transhuman angle of death. Her instructor was a giant of a woman, if not as tall as an Astartes then at least standing eye to jaw with one. That massive frame supported a build at least as powerful as Ranmaru's own. Although she bore the panoply of guns and blades common to all Avernites, pride of place was given to a pair of long daggers and a similar pair of pistols of unfamiliar design. Her brilliant red hair was cut close in the Avernite fashion, her features and complexion were fair. Her eyes were- something in Ranmaru rebelled. Her eyes were blue, but there was something off about them that Ranmaru could not place.

Ranmaru nodded sharply in a way that could be interpreted as ascent. Tormod had recommended that she come to this one for instruction, and out of respect for him she would allow this woman the chance to prove herself.

"That being the case," her instructor continued, "I think we can agree that if you find yourself in the Caverns alone, you're dead, yes?"

Ranmaru gritted her teeth at the casual arrogance of the woman's tone. Unfortunately if even half the things she had been told of the Caverns were true, then she was right.

"Therefore, the single most important thing you'll need to master if you want to survive is the ability to follow orders from whomever has the responsibility of keeping you alive."

Ranmaru's eyes widened at the insult. "Of course, of course. Two decades of education at the hands of the finest generals and warriors in the Dragon's Nest has prepared me perfectly to mindlessly follow the orders of a babysitter," she snarled.

"Excellent!" the woman beamed. "Then be happy tha-"

And then she slapped Ranmaru across the face with a staggering open palmed blow.

Long practiced reflexes kicked in. Her stagger flowed smoothly into a combat stance, her hand dropped to her sword hilt and the blade sung free.

Her chastising blow met the crossed guard of her instructor's daggers and halted. For a moment the two women stood locked, straining against each other.

"No, see, I said 'be happy'," the woman said. "That's angry. You just got us all killed."

----------------------

Now

As Tormod came back to consciousness for the second time that day his eyes darted to his chronometer. According to it, he had been out for less then five minutes. Unfortunately a second later the display flickered, show that hours had passed. Then it flickered again, indicating that the transport crash wasn't due to happen for another week.

A groan off to the side alerted him that he wasn't alone. Clambering to his feet he found the rest of the group coming to their feet as well.

"My chrono is broken," Ranmaru said. "It keeps flickering and changing."

"That can happen down here," Tormod said. "The comforting explanation is that your suit is trying to sync with the planetary network but experiencing interference. It might even be true."

"What else could it be?" One of the Matsu bodyguards asked.

"Well, the sync could be working just fine and we're in a pocket sink** that randomly aligns with external time," Tormod said.

The man groaned in fear. One of the Governer's Own placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"I'm going to send out a distress call," Tormod said. "Everyone, be on alert. There are some things here that can be drawn to cries for help on a conceptual level."

The bodyguards fanned out to form a box around the two royals and the pilot.

"Mayday, mayday, this is Papa Tango Roberts calling for help," Tormod broadcast. "I repeat, this is Papa Tango Roberts, mayday. Location unknown."

After four repetitions a crackling voice came over the line. "Papa Tango Roberts, this is Sierra Epsilon Actual, we hear you. Please describe your surroundings."

Before Tormod could respond, a second voice came over the line. "Sierra Epsilon Point here. Tormod, what the hell? I thought you were supposed to be topside visiting Yasssaakamativ with the princess."

Tormod groaned. "Stuff happened Val. We had to choose between facing a thunderhead stampede or coming down here. Here being a circular chamber, four and a half meter radius, three meters high, walls are grey and black with a rounded wavy texture. Looks sort of like pruney skin. I'm seeing patterns that look sort of like abstract screaming faces, not sure if they're moving or not. There's a spiral staircase going down in the center of the room, no other exits or features."

"The faces: humanoid or insectoid?" Sierra Epsilon Actual asked.

"Humanoid," Tormod responded.

There was a brief silence.

"We have a bead on your location. Assuming there have been no gross scale changes to the geography, best eta is... 48 hours" the voice was silent for a moment. "I'm sorry."

Tormod felt the bottom fall out of his stomach. That long in the Caverns might have been manageable had it been just him and the Governor's Own. With four dependents, there was no chance they would escape without casualties. "Understood Skyeyes."

Another pause, and then the crackling voice of Sierra Epsilon Point cut in. "I can be there in five minutes. I literally just stumbled across an entrance to Labrynthian Romeo. It'll be single person, one way, but manageable."

There was a hiss on Actual's channel. "Val, I don't think-"

"I've got this mom," Point cut in.

Another pause.

Finally Actual spoke. "Alright. Papa Tango Roberts, Sierra Epsilon Point will rendezvous with you in five. Until then, start descending the stairs. They're relatively safe, threats will be coming from up and down the staircase; walls, ceiling and floor can be considered jellowjacket*** secure. They do have a spatial element that will make them longer than they should be. We'll start making our way to securing your exit path, and we'll spread the news. Who knows, might be able to daisy chain a message to the companions."

With that, the line went quiet.

"My Caver Cant**** is not as fluent as I might like, given the situation," Ranmaru said with slow deliberation. "I am given to understand that we are far from reinforcement, but one can reach us... quickly?"

"That's about the gist of it," Tormod said, shifting from the clipped, information dense language of the Caverners into intelligible Gothic.

"And am I wrong in thinking I recognized the voice, this Point?" she asked in similarly measured tones.

"Ah, yes, that," Tormod coughed and then gave his most charming smile. "It turns our your favorite person in all of Avernus is coming to visit."

Ranmaru's groan wove a vivid tapestry of frustration and annoyance. "Valria."

** Sink: caverner slang, short for timesink, a location where internal time does not match up with external time.
*** Barriers that actively punish entities attempting to phase or teleport through them.
**** A dialect of Avernite Military Cant. AMC is a language that needs to be able to intelligibly convey that you have a Death's Head spider on your left forearm in as few syllables as possible. Caverner Cant needs to be able to convey that you are in a zone where your darkest secrets will manifest as giant flying brain eating leaches if you think about them with similar clarity and alacrity.

----------------------

One Month Ago

Valria tuned her grin for maximum smug irritation factor. Across their locked blades her prospective student in the art of not dying horribly in the Caverns glared at her. From the way the woman was driving against her, she was clearly unused to facing a foe bigger and stronger than her. Then the woman's stance shifted almost imperceptibly. Well, perhaps that could be amended to facing a human bigger and stronger than her.

With a cry the woman pivoted, sweeping aside the lock and diving to the side. Valria's kick caught her square in the jaw and sent her sprawling.

"You've trained with Space Marines I see," Valria said. "Good! That'll get you pretty far with any number of monsters in the Caverns. But you should also be aware that that specific trick is predicated on the altered proportions of the Astartes. Their arms, their legs, their torso, they don't have the same ratios we do. So if you're up against a human who knows that move, well, using it will get you kicked in the face. That said, not a bad effort!"

The woman had used the time it took for Valria to speak to roll to her feet, falling into a ready stance with her sword in a high stance.

"I will take that to heart," she spat, voice laden with acid sarcasm. "Tell me, do you intend to give the same lecture I have heard a thousand times? I am eager to hear yet again that the anger of the Matsu is weakness and not strength. Give me one reason that my 'anger will get us all killed' that I have not heard and thoroughly disproven, or we are done here." She was nearly panting with restrained anger by the end.

Valria blinked in surprise and tilted her head quizzically. "Has anyone told you that your anger could result in a half dozen berserk copies of you stepping out of the walls intent on killing everything they see?"

Her prospective student narrowed her eyes and bared her teeth in a furious grimace. "Your mockery is not welcome," she managed to grind out around gritted teeth.

"What mockery?" Valria asked. "I just described a Tybalt-class manifestation zone. They're triggered by all extreme emotion, but rage is the most dangerous for obvious reasons."

The offworld princess paused, the tip of her blade dipping. "You say this is really a thing in your Caverns?" she asked, anger trickling from her voice, concern growing in its place. "I have been warned of the bragging games your people play with outsiders. I have heard it goes double with regards to the Caverns."

Valria stared at her, all the affected cockiness and arrogance melting into horrified disbelief. "You think that people have been tour bragging at you about the Caverns. I- I- Just- I don't actually know how to respond to that. You are aware that tour bragging involves downplaying the threats of this world, yes?"

The offworlder regarded her carefully. "I have heard tell of a town that sank into the Caverns that now fishes horrible monsters from a great underground lake,"

"It's a full city, in the middle of an underground sea, and the things that swim in that sea are worse than the things in the above-ground oceans. I frankly find their survival even more ludicrous every time I think about them."

The woman took a moment to digest that. "I have heard things of the deep orks, that they are both mightier and more disciplined than the greenskins that plague the galaxy."

"Did anyone mention that they have neutron weapons, or say anything at all about n-orks?" Valria asked. The woman shook her head. "That particular bundle of weirdness requires its own lesson. Another time. Next?"

The woman eyed her warily. "I have heard of something called a Thorn Spiral-"

Valria convulsed as if she had been struck, her eyes rolled back, and every muscle on her body stood taught. It seemed that she should collapse in a writing seizure and yet she stood. It seemed that the spacious room seemed to contract and the bright illumination dimmed. The voice that came from her mouth echoed with terrible harmonics.

"The. Scars. Do. Not. Fade."

And as fast as the changes had come they were gone. Valria stood tall and composed once more. She tried to wipe a blood tear from her eye, only to smear it across her face.

"There are some among the highest towers of Dis that are far enough from the Caverns to speak of that safely. Outside those environs, there are very specific rules governing what can and cannot be said in the presence of a Thorn Eye," Valria said. "Until such a time as you have a full understanding of the appropriate etiquette, I would strongly council avoiding the topic entirely."

The woman stared at her in horrified silence.

Valria reached up to rub her temples. "Look, Tormod asked me to teach you what I can to give you a chance of survival if the worst happens and you end up in the Caverns. What kind of friend would I be if I intentionally undermined that by giving you a false understanding of the threat? And that's not even taking into account the damage it would do to my reputation. That's the sort of thing that gets you red lettered in the fucking Gazette."

The offworlder rallied, the subject of status and reputation possibly giving her familiar ground to stand on. "Teaching me poorly would result in a loss of face, then?" she asked.

"If it came out that I had deliberately taught you badly? Total loss. No one would hire me or take me on as a team member, I'd be barred from the auction houses, and Tormod would probably never talk to me again. I mean, even agreeing to train you would be a black mark if it wasn't explicitly and loudly clear that this is all just in case you get Unlucky." Valria sighed. "Look, I may have put the wrong foot forward on this one. The Be Happy Slap is traditional for prospective Caverners, but I don't think it translates well. Can we try a do-over?"

"I am willing to accept a fresh start, and am willing to forget the disrespect of our initial meeting so long as you act with honor in the future," the lioness replied.

"Excellent," Valria said, drawing up to her full height and addressing the princess. "Then allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Valria Dolsdottir, daughter of Dol Fargut and Solvi Haddarsdottir. I am the pointwoman for team Skyeyes and I have been published in the Gazette three times, twice for threat profiles and once for non-renewing bounty. I have been a Caverner since the age of six, when I accidentally stowed away in my mother's kit, and yes it was an accident. I first met Prince Tormod Rotbart roughly a decade ago when I rescued him from the Thorn Spiral. I have been asked to accept the task of preparing you for the eventuality of ending up in the Caverns, with the dearest hope that you never have a chance to put these lessons to use." With that, she bowed.

The offworlder stood tall, assuming the formal stance and cadence of a courtier. "I am Matsu Ranmaru, heir to the Lion Clan and loyal retainer to the Blood Dragon Space Marine chapter. I have come to this world as part of the diplomatic efforts aimed at binding the Blood Dragons more closely to the Imperial Trust. On the recommendation of Prince Tormod Rotbart I have come to you for guidance in case the winds of fortune see me delivered to the fabled Caverns of Avernus. And after what I have seen, I am inclined to accept this guidance."

----------------------

Now

Tormod crept down the spiraling staircase, senses straining to catch the next attack. The catlike things that swarmed out of the darkness were clearly endurance predators, striking without warning to inflict small wounds and then melting back into the shadows. All the while, Val's warning and instructions played in his mind. The moment they had descended into the stairwell, Valria had contacted him on a private channel. She had explained the nature of stairs he tread, and what would be needed to survive. When at last he heard the telltale scrabbling behind him, he struck.

The Traitor's Stairs were a durance and a gangland. Upon entering, each individual had been sorted into their own pocket reality, each receiving a compliment of dopplegangers to replace their companions. Of those dopplegangers only one would be a proper Actor, the rest would be Props. In order to escape the stairs, you had to take out your Actor. But, and she had been quite insistent on the point, any fatal wound dealt to the Actor would carry over to the original. The dopplegangers, Actors and Props alike, would have all the knowledge, skills and attributes they did when they entered the durance. Which is why she had waited for them to be in the staircase before telling them this on individual channels.

Figuring out which of his companions was the Actor was trivial. The sorts of ganglands where Actor/Prop terminology came into play were fairly predictable this close to the surface. Of the people in the group, only one really stood out as a person to him. The guards were just that, people who could be easily fitted into a mental slot based on their category. They maintained a professional distance from him for precisely that reason: the few times he had made friends with one of the Governor's Own they had been rotated out and replaced with strangers. The same was true of the pilot: Tormod didn't even know their name.

For him, Ranmaru was the only person in the group who he was really allowed to think of by name. For the guards it was almost certainly different. He would just be The Principle to them, and their Actor would probably be one of their peers.

So Tormod had schemed. While he had originally taken up position with the vanguard as the descent began, he had found an opportunity during a particularly nasty strike from the rear to hang back. Now, while their guards were distracted, he drove his blade into Ranmaru's back, aiming for a disabling blow.

His blade pierced through her armor and into her back. She whirled, tearing the blade from his hands. He could see the betrayal in her eyes as she realized where the blow had come from. Then she vanished like a popping soap bubble, leaving his bloody blade outstretched.

He had only a moment to stare in confusion before a stabbing pain in his side, tore his gaze backwards to find the pilot burying a dagger in his side.

As he registered what had happened, the shadowy staircase and the people sharing it vanished as Ranmaru had. Tormod found himself hanging in the air a foot above a smooth stone floor in a room lit by a dull red glow. Gravity took hold and he fell in a crumpled heap. To his left Ranmaru was trying to struggle to her feet, a task complicated by the bloody ruin of her back.

Just then the pilot and a Matsu bodyguard appeared in the air, cauterized neutron-beam wounds still smoking. One more second and a final figure, one of the Govenor's Own, appeared.

Then his view was eclipsed as Valria reached his side. She reached down and pulled the dagger free and pressed something in its place. The stabbing pain of the dagger washed away under the feel of a topical anesthetic, followed by the rhythmic pinching of an auto-suture.

"So, I may have told a tiny little lie about how the Traitor's Stairs work," she said, as a massive form loomed above her.

----------------------

Two Weeks Ago

Ranmaru's instruction in Cavern survival had not taken the course she had expected.

The first thing they had done after they had come to their agreement had been to give Ranmaru a surface introduction to the guild system Caveners lived by and intricacies of the reputation economy that pervaded it. This had involved discovering the name of the Caverner who had given Ranmaru her highly inaccurate understanding of the Caverns. After confirming that there had been no possible way he could not have been aware that Ranmaru was going to be visiting Avernus herself, Valria had had a quite word with one of the editors of a publication catering to the Guilds.

Less than an hour later the man had ceased to exist as a person in the eyes of the Caverner community. A handful of minutes after that Ranmaru had received her first apology gift from a random caverner: a small string of bone beads that apparently greatly aided the healing of the wearer. Ranmaru had managed to accept it gracefully, keeping in mind that no insult was meant by so practical a gift.

It an hour before the man's former Guild contacted her to present their apology, and by then a dozen Caverners had sought her out to make apologies for what one of their number had done, including several small gifts all designed to increase her chances of survival. The Guild, the Bourbon Delvers, had presented her with a spear made of crystallized sunshine and their internal emergency contact frequency. If she called for help, they would answer it as if she were one of their own.

That done, it had been time to evaluate her abilities.

A few bouts had clearly demonstrated her teacher's clear superiority in single combat*, but also earned her the assessment of meeting the physical requirements for survival in the caverns. Assessment of her understanding of the more esoteric threats native to Avernus had earned her an evaluation of well informed offworlder: well below the threshold expected for a Caverner. As such, her instruction would mostly consist of a crash course in a set of some of the more representative esoterica and more broadly applicable skills required to address them. She was introduced to various forms of moving meditation, the language needed to accurately and concisely convey the nature of various threats, and the ways various fine semantic distinctions could have massive consequences to her chances of survival.

While her teacher had a nearly encyclopedic mastery of the subject matter, even she couldn't cover everything. And so it was that Ranmaru found herself approaching Valria with a document in her hands.

"Valria, I have a question," she stated, passing Valria the report. "This report contradicts some of the things you told me about the Iriseco Path."

Valria glanced at the document and cursed. Her eyes snapped shut and she twitched. She stilled and then slowly turned her head, scanning the room. Her hands darted across the desk in front of her, poking and prodding.

"Ranmaru, is that you?" she asked.

"Yes," Ranmaru stated, confused.

"We're not in the Caverns, are we?" Valria asked.

"We are in the unsecured reference archives," Ranmaru told her.

"That's the last place I remember being," Valria mused. "Broad overview, no details, what made me trigger my Forget posthypno?"

"I was showing you a document," Ranmaru explained. "There were discrepancies between what it had to say about-" Ranmaru caught herself, "about something you had explained in the past. There are no memetic, cogito- or info-hazard tags associated with it."

"What're its indexes?" Valria asked.

"Vav and blue," Ranmaru answered.

"Shit, I think I know what happened," Valria cursed. "If I open my eyes, will I see it?"

Ranmaru blanked the tablet's screen. "Not anymore," she said.

Valria opened her eyes and sighed. "Vav index files are for civilian eyes only," she said. "Even knowing that a vav version exists for that file could fuck me up. How were you able to even get your hands on tha- oh shit, I see what happened. I didn't register you in the system as a Caverner, because you aren't actually training to be one. When you pulled that article, you got the public version."

"And the public versions contain inaccuracies?" Ranmaru asked.

"What?" Valria started. "No, they're accurate, its the Caverner versions that are falsified."

Ranmaru stared at her.

"Look Ran, it's like I've said. The Caverns are a study in contradictions. There's not one virtue that won't get you killed somewhere down there, and not one vice that won't save your life. In order to survive you have to be strong right up until the moment you need to be weak so the Gathkat will pass you by. You need to trust your allies right up until the moment they're replaced by dopplegangers intent on leading you to your death. And you need to be knowledgeable right up until you go up against a monster that can only be hurt by a being that doesn't know its weakness. So sometimes we lie to ourselves and each other. Write a fake report on the monster so that when someone goes up against it they aim for a spot that will incidentally tag the monster's true weakness as a side effect."

Ranmaru regarded Valria levelly. "Have you knowingly lied to me?" she asked.

"Three times so far, with two more planned," Valria said. "Standard part of the curriculum. They'll open a few paths that are closed to me. Just, try not to think too hard about what it means if we end up down there and I send you on ahead."

* Her attempts at a follow up conversation regarding strategy and tactics had revealed that, outside of the very specific application of small unit tactics in very hostile environments, Valria had all the martial acumen of a concussed potato.

----------------------

Now

The group stood in the red room, wounds tended and armor patched. Tormod himself hadn't required much medical attention, while Ranmaru had required one of Valria's limited store of biomantic healing items.
Of the seven who had started down the stairs, five remained. Two of the bodyguards, one Governor's Own, the other Matsu Guard, had never materialized.

"So, you might all be wondering why I told you to stab each other in the back," Valria said.

"One does wonder," Ranmaru hissed.

"The Traitor's Stairs aren't a gangland," Valria said. "It isn't populated by copies of people, everyone in it is themselves. And the only way out is to be violently betrayed." She gave a pained smile.

"Of course," Ranmaru seethed. "Of course such a thing exists. There is nothing sacred down here after all."

----------------------

Two Weeks Ago

"If there is truly nothing sacred in the Caverns, then why do you throw yourself into them?" Ranmaru asked as Valria began to calm down.

They were relaxing in the orbitals. As part of the diplomatic cultural exchange her delegation had put on a performance of an Ikoma bard. It had been a masterful recitation of the life and deeds of Matsu Shinbei, who had championed the clan through the days of the Fall and the reign of three mad Hantei. The bard was one of the greatest of the generation, and he had definitely set out to impress.

While most of the Avernites had appreciated the show, Valria had been particularly taken with it. For the last hour she had been enthusing on the subject, to the amusement of Tormod and the rest of the group. Ranmaru found herself a little uncomfortable with her friend's excitement. While every point she touched upon was perfectly valid, her insights were all surface deep. The flourishes and beats she was so taken with were all things that any bard worth even a moment's attention should be capable of, without any concern for the subtle mastery with which they had been woven together.

And so she asked the question that had been nagging at her since she had come to this deathworld.

The conversation died like a flame thrust into a sudden vacuum.

"I'm not always given a choice in the matter," Tormod was the first to break the uneasy silence. "When I was younger I desperately wanted to be like the Companions. There's a lot of glamour to it, you know?"

"I mean, the money's good," one of his friends, Danaan if she remembered his name right, said. "I was able to afford a suit of customized elite armor with what I've made on my dives."

"I think they're all mad," said another. "Things are bad enough above ground, no need to make it even worse for yourself." There was a murmur of agreement from most of the Avernites present.

Eyes turned to Valria as the silence rose again.

"I just love it," she said. "It's hell, a malignant pit designed to chew you up and not even leave the bones, and I love it. The thrill of finding something new, facing some new horror and winning, its almost indescribable. And there's beauty to match the horror down there. I mean, everything I've told you about has been the nasty stuff that wants to eat your face, but there are wonders down there too."

She paused, and then grinned.

"So, there's one in particular that makes me actually want to drag you down there just to see what would happen," she leaned forward, grinning widely. "Okay, so I've told you about Kirache's Drift, right? Place where Honor becomes literal weight that will crush you unless you let go of it, but if you do you can float like a feather on the breeze?"

Ranmaru nodded.

"So, its not the only place where conceptual Honor gets involved," Valria continued with obvious relish. "In the upper middle depths there's this cavern called the Amethyst Bridge. It is so named because it's basically a giant amethyst geode, maybe three kilometers in diameter, with crystals you could park a fellblade on. It gets its name from two formations in particular: jutting out from either side of the cavern are these two enormous crystals, klick and a half each, wide enough to march a knight-titan maniple down. They meet in the middle, thus Amethyst Bridge."

"That does sound impressive," Ranmaru said. "What particular flavor of madness comes with all that?"

"Its a manifestation zone," Valria said, her grin widening to worrying proportions. "In particular, its a manifestation zone tuned to the frequencies of Honor. Harmoniously tuned to Honor."

Ranmaru stared at her. "How does it manifest?" she asked.

"When you enter, those qualities that resonate in harmony with Honor will manifest as shining armor and arms," Valria said. "As you advance along the bridge, the bits of you that are discordant with Honor will manifest as crystal monsters that will try to kill you. When you get to the midpoint of the bridge there's a guardian. Beat it and you can harvest a crystal that's basically crystallized Honor."

----------------------

Now

Their exit from the Traitor's stairs had deposited them in the Mouth of the Betrayed. The name was fairly literal: the cave was, in fact, the interior of the mouth of a great stone head that overlooked a shaft that plunged into the depths. The shaft's walls were smooth obsidian, carved with millions of faces. Had they wished to reach the middle depths they could have braved the perilous climb down.

Since that was the opposite of their desires, they exited through a side tunnel.

From Valria's instruction, Ranmaru had come to imagine the Caverns as being one named landmark after another, a parade of bizarre existential horrors that would assail the mind and body without any hope for reprieve.

Her mistake was in thinking that it was so well cataloged. Hours passed as they pushed through the endless tangle of branching tunnels and caves. Things burrowed from walls, floor and ceiling, they appeared from shadow, they unfolded from where they had pretended to be stalactites, and Valria had names for less than half of them. When they came to a corridor of glassy black and Valria instructed them to hold the image of a candleflame in their minds as they crossed it was not some fabled site, it was just another thing in the Caverns. When they exited a cave only to find themselves back at its start, and had to follow a circuitous route wending through the forest of stalactites that filled, it was just another damned nuisance. After the tenth time it had happened, Ranmaru found herself starting agree with the sentiment.

Ranmaru could not say how long they had been traveling. She could have contended with the endless darkness and the disruption of her chrono, she had been trained to maintain her awareness of her surroundings even in the rage of battle, and time was one such facet. But the Caverns were not so obliging. Some of her experiences felt strangely doubled as if she had traversed them twice in parallel, once in a rush and once at a snails pace. She felt at once the hunger of a full day's travel and the fullness of having just set out. She felt the exhaustion of having traveled days with no sleep, and absolutely refreshed. And as maddening as it would have been to feel this all within her at once, the sensation was compounded by the feeling that they weren't residing in the same body. It was as if there were two Ranmaru's in the same place, each having experienced a different journey.

When Valria finally called a halt for the day Ranmaru was ready to collapse.

----------------------

The creatures from the stairs came during the third watch (or was it the second? she was standing watch, she just wasn't sure which.)

It was as if gobbets of shadowstuff from the darkness ahead and behind was being torn free, then molded into the silhouettes of cats, then every curve was stretched and straightened until the final angular form emerged. They came swarming on floor, wall and ceiling, clinging to every surface like a tide of jagged ink.

Ranmaru surged forward with a furious battlecry as the pilot (or was it the Governer's Own?) came to his feet. Her halberd sung as it tore into the first wave, the monsters exploding into liquid darkness under her scything blow. She held the front and her fellow watch-stander held the rear while the rest of the party came to their feet.

Tormod tore into the tide next to her, his Saurus blade tracing arcs through the swarm's vanguard that matched her own. Valria joined the rearguard, her pistols firing splayed fans of continuous beams that scoured the dark tide from the corridor.

One of the shadow creatures dropped from the ceiling onto Ranmaru's head. For a second it scrabbled at her helmet, its raking claws leaving deep scratches as it writhed. She caught it in her fist and crushed it with a wrathful squeeze. But two more were already upon her.

Her final retainer came to her aid, obeying a command she had not realized she had given. His own halberd skewere the one that clung to her shoulder then swept up to bar the tunnel's ceiling as she had planned. The Governor's Own (or the pilot?) was at Valria and the pilot's (or was it his own?) side. For a minute (a second? a year?) they fought before the tide abruptly broke, melting back into the darkness of the tunnels. It seemed for a moment that two human silhouettes lingered at the edge of the darkness before fading.

Ranmaru stood trembling with spent fury, her armor scratched and scored but otherwise unharmed (she could feel wet blood trickling down one arm where one of the things had bitten through her armor to graze her flesh).

Little was said as the party settled back down to rest. Valria might have muttered something to the effect of "that's new", but Ranmaru couldn't be sure.

----------------------

They had been marching for an hour (two? three days?) when the struck again. They struck as the group reached the intersection of three tunnels, boiling up from behind and from one of the tunnels ahead (Ranmaru wasn't entirely certain which they had come from). A barked order kept the group from pivoting into the clear tunnel and kept them fighting flanked. The tide spent itself against them this time, rushing them in a clawing, slashing mass until the last of them had shattered under blade a beam.

The two figures lingered longer this time, and were more distinct.

Once the injuries had been tallied and treated, with only the pilot having suffered anything serious (did Tormod suffer a cut to the leg?), Valria turned to glare at the third passageway. After a short time, it closed its maw and slithered away, giving off an almost sheepish air as it pushed past them (which way did it go?). Ranmaru thought she caught a glimpse of Valria giving it a reassuring pat as it brushed by her (did she toss it a treat?).

The creatures attacked once more (or was it three times?) before the group finally made camp. Valria suffered the only injury this time, a raking blow to her back that fouled her jump pack systems (Ranmaru wasn't sure if she had been bitten on the shoulder, the hand, or both. Even healed they both throbbed sometimes, although never both together).

This time the figures were almost recognizable. Gi forbade Ranmaru from lying to herself. Though their features were still indistinct, their outlines were clearly that of two figures in power armor, one with the distinctive contours of the Matsu Guard, the other the outline of the elite armor of the Governor's Own.

----------------------

"What's your mother's ETA?" Tormod asked as they ate (Ranmaru wasn't certain if she was hungry. Every time she checked her supplies they were different).

"From her perspective?" Valria said. "I'd estimate, maybe three to thirteen more hours."

"And from ours?" he pressed.

"Harder to say," her tone was mater of fact. "Depending on which one of us you're asking about, and which one of them in particular, I'd say," she paused to think. "Anywhere between thirty years and twenty two millennia, give or take."

There wasn't any shock at her words. Tormod just grunted and went back to eating.

"With luck we'll be out of this sink in a few subjective hours," Valria said. Her tone was far more bitter than the word suggested.

"To luck," Tormod said, matching her anger. The both raised their canteens in mock toast.

They lapsed into silence again.

"Have you heard of those left in the Traitor's Stairs coming back to hunt those who escaped before?" Ranmaru asked.

Valria shrugged. "Its new to me. I have some theories as to what could have happened Current frontrunner is that the particular orders I gave them to get you out constituted a betrayal, giving them a path to freedom. I'm maybe fifty percent confident that they're hunting me because they think I should be in the stairs instead of them."

"And you did not think to mention this?" the Matsu Guard asked, anger in his voice.

"Thought it was obvious," Valria said around a mouthful of ration-bar. Tormod nodded along with her.

Ranmaru surged furiously to her feet, bringing her halberd around in a brutal chop. The many legged thing that had thought it was sneaking up on the camp exploded under the force of her blow. She glared into the darkness, daring any of the things that followed them to try their luck.

"I hate these fucking caves," Ranmaru growled.

----------------------

Ranmaru slept through the fourth attack (despite all her efforts, the throbbing in her hand had kept her from sleep). The fight had been silent, Tormod and Valria holding off the assault while allowing the rest of the party to recuperate. Both had suffered injuries (Tiredness had robbed Ranmaru's strikes of their skill, and a sloppy swing had clipped Tormod with the haft as he fought beside her).

Afterwards she dreamed that she was watching Valria stand watch. She was tossing bits of food into the darkness and saying a word over and over again. Treats, or something like that.

----------------------

Ranmaru couldn't guess how long they had been in the tunnels. It could have been an hour or the first of the millennia that Valria had predicted. Her supplies were both full and empty. The endless waves of attacks had worn deep gouges in the armor of everyone in the party. The various wounds she wasn't entirely certain she had always suffered were at times long healed and at others fresh.

The figures of those who had been left in the Traitor's Strairs came ever closer, became ever more distinct, with every attack. Their features were rendered in shades of black and white, save for their eyes. Those were simply pits of darkness.

Only seething anger that such a place as this could exist kept her putting one foot in front of the other.

----------------------

They were at the bottom of a downward sloping dead-end tunnel when the final push came. The two figures stepped out of the darkness at the tunnel's entrance, their mouth's gaping impossibly wide. From those black pits the monsters poured, flowing down the tunnel to engulf them.

Ranmaru stood halberd high, her retainer at her left (or did she hold the leftmost flank?), Tormod at her right, his guard taking up the right flank, Valria and the pilot behind, to meet the swarm. Blades flashed and tore the darkness as beams seared it. Each accounted for half a dozen of the creatures with each strike. And for all that, the swarm came on.

Step by step they gave ground. In ones and twos the monsters slipped by the wall of cleaving blades to score nicks and scratches against their armor.

Ranmaru could see it playing out in her head. Four more steps back and the front line would be crowding the rear, fouling their shots. When that happened the force the swarmed down the ceiling would be able to literally fall upon them.

"Treats!" Valria roared. The tunnel that had been trailing after them since the second ambush opened its maw, jaws expanding far beyond the size of its body to perfectly seal the passage down. The tide reinforcements bolstering the shadow creatures cut off as the creatures began to pour from one dark, impossibly vast gullet into another.

"Push!" Valria ordered in the Caverner's tongue. The inflections of the word carried the added meaning: buy me time.

Ranmaru surged forward with the others of the front line. The two meters that had been lost since the attack began we reclaimed and then another was claimed before the tunnel's maw finally snapped shut. The diminutive creature warped and twisted, its mouth seeming to invert to swallow itself whole. Behind them she heard the report of Valria's pistols firing on overcharge, although no coruscating beams tore into the foes before them. The creatures were upon them, the onslaught renewed.

One of Valria's pistols flew over Ranmaru's head to land amidst the swarm. There was a blinding light and a thunderclap from in front and behind.

"Full retreat!" Valria commanded. The command in the caverner dialect brooked no argument, commanded that everyone abandon everything and run, without even the thought of a rearguard.

Ranmaru turned. The dead end at the bottom of the tunnel was gone, replaced by a scorched hole onto a black slope. As the darkness behind rallied, Ranmaru charged into the darkness ahead.

----------------------

Ranmaru lost her footing the moment she hit the impossibly slick slope, falling to her side. Reflexes kicked in, and she was recovering from her flailing slide into a tightly controlled luge. Around her her companions did the same. They rocketed down the near frictionless tunnel as the darkness howled behind them.

Ranmaru felt exhilaration coursing through her. It wasn't just the speed and the escape from certain death. The strange double existence was gone. Time flowed at one pace again. The fatigue in her bones was actually there, the hunger in her belly was a certainty, her injuries were real, not phantom things that might or might not exist.

Ahead of her in their mad slide Tormod hit a bend in the tunnel at an angle. He skidded up the wall, across the ceiling and then down the other wall. She took the turn sensibly, and so it was that he came back to their side of the slope he was on her other side. He turned to her, whooping with laughter.

Her chronometer suddenly snapped into focus for the first time in what turned out to have been forty hours, and the list of contacts in range suddenly populated itself. One particular contact saw the distance between its source and herself rapidly diminishing.

----------------------

The Bourbon Delvers were surprised when the VIP emergency channel crackled to life and the voice of Matsu Ranmaru came through.

"Coming in fast, hot pursuit by endless horde."

They had hoped that the recent expulsion of the-idiot-who-no-longer-deserves-a-name they would have had a chance to be the third to harvest this bounty. Those plans would have to be put on hold it seemed.

----------------------

A light in the distance heralded the end of the tunnel. Ranmaru got into position, and when they hit the bottom she was ready. She came to her feet, tumbled into a forward roll, came to her feet again and ran, bleeding off speed with each stride. She had hoped to come to a stop before passing through the illuminated crack in the wall, but she simply had too much momentum: her final step took her through.

Light blazed around her as her foot planted itself inside the chamber.

----------------------

The Bourbon Delvers were halfway to the exit in their fighting retreat when the nova of light erupted at their destination. As the crystaline constructs they were fighting scattered they turned.

Matsu Ranmaru stood at the base of the great amethyst spar the had been fighting their way up, blazing with light and clad in shining armor fit for the Custodes of legend. Five other figures stumbled into the chamber beside her, each igniting as they entered, the rents and tears in their armor filling in with silvery light.

The six charged forward up the spar. Orders came in on the VIP channel and the guild obeyed, surging forward to meet the tide of black, angular things that poured out of the darkness behind them.

----------------------

Ranmaru was in her element at last. She charged up the amethyst bridge, taking stock of the terrain and the forces at her disposal. Under normal circumstances her skill with the blade would have made her a champion, a powerful force that could stiffen the line and influence the course of a battle. Here, amidst the company of a veteran Caverner Guild, she would be the weak link.

That was fine. Champion was only one of her roles.

She watched as the Bourbon Delvers tore through the tide. Wave after wave of shadow creatures melted under their charge, until at last the two former bodyguards entered. Only then, with the source of enemy reinforcements slowed, did the Caverners slow.

And so Ranmaru began to give orders.

She saw how the shadow creatures were bunching for a breakthrough and directed the Delvers' ranged fighters to focus fire. The tide thinned and the Delver's pushed forward a half meter.

She saw the tide was shifting and gave an order. Two Delvers broke contact and rocketed into the air just as a second swarm tried to scale the cavern walls to fall on the Caverners from above. Instead they met blazing power axes and massed fire.

She spoke, and under her command the Delvers pushed forward inch by inch.

Then Tormod tapped her shoulder. She looked at him, and pointed behind her.

She turned, and found herself face to snarling jaws with a great lioness of amethyst and fire. They stood for a moment, glaring eyes locked. Then Ranmaru glanced down to her halberd, and then back to the lion. She grinned with feral glee and turned back to the battle.

In the momentary absence of her attention the Delvers had stalled, although they had lost no ground. Ranmaru gave an order.

Trusting her the Delvers split, creating a gap that the shadows could pour through.

Unfortunately for the shadows, that gap also allowed the lion to tear into them. Its very presence seared them from existence, and as it rampaged past their lines the Delvers closed ranks behind it. As the first of the former humans burned to ash in its mouth, she felt Valria's presence at her side.

"Okay, what just happened?" the Cavener asked.

"Why teacher," Ranmaru had to restrain her laughter. "I think that should be obvious. As you explained, within this cave the honorable aspects of one's soul manifest as shining arms and armor, while one's dishonorable aspects manifest a crystalline monsters that must be defeated, no?"

"Well yes," Valria said. "Thus your current very, very, very shiny gettup. Its the part where the giant rage-monster you're supposed to have to fight is apparently working of you that I'm having trouble with."

Ranmaru hefted her halberd meaningfully. Her very, very dull, not at all radiant halberd.

Valria stared at her. "Oh this is bullshit," she said.

Ranmaru grinned, reveling in the moment.

"Have I not told you that the rage of the Matsu is no dishonorable thing? That it is, in fact, our greatest weapon?"

She turned and struck with the halberd, spitting a small crystal crablike thing that had been crawling towards her.

"I think this is the manifestation of my dishonor," she said. "I wonder if its shape actually means anything. Perhaps it suggests an excessive degree of stuborness?"

"Eh, I wouldn't put too much stock in it," Valria said. "Defeating external manifestations of inner flaws is actually a pretty shit way to grow as a person. Either they're linked to your psyche, in which case you're performing ad-hoc brain surgery on yourself, or they aren't, in which case the exercise is basically masturbatory. Looks like your rage kitty is finishing up here, lets go deal with the guardian and get out of here."

----------------------


@Durin