Spies: Dimitri, Rune
Enforcer:Raze
Torturer:Zuko
Arcane Specialist:Hawk
Tech Specialist:Slater
Intelligence Analyst:Aura
Healer:Koa
Diplomatic Envoys:Eleanor, Lorian
“Your only enemy in this barren part of the kingdom is an earth fae. He is aggressive and intuitive. The longer you’re in his domain, the more he knows about you.” Her gaze traveled along our squad’s lineup. “You have three objectives. As a squad, you will figure out who will do what. Locate the earth fae artifact. No, you may not know what it does. Your job is to find it. It’s a rock sphere. Avoid the faeorescape capture if the fae catches you. Evacuate with the artifact without triggering ancient security enchantments all over the area you will be placed in. Good luck.”
The Earth Kingdom’s landscape formed around us as Hunting disappeared as per usual. We stood at the entrance of a cavern with sharp, teeth-like crystals at the opening. It reminded me more of a large, worm-like creature than a cave.
The ground glittered with veins of crystals, reminiscent of buried stars under wild sunbeams spilling from three white suns hanging high in the golden-colored sky. Trees grew right side up and upside down, their roots visible in the ground and the walls that curved up like ceilings.
It was a living land that shifted and moved like the mountain simulation we’d been dropped in for an assignment earlier in the quarter.
Flora grew from the soil and from the stone. Trees made of bark and stone clawed upward in twisted columns, bark hardened like bronze, and leaves a mix of gold, red, and greens. Moss blanketed the cliffs in thick emerald carpets, luminous spores drifting in the air like fireflies. Vines hung everywhere, some still and some slithering around. Pretty blooms of flowers pushed through cracks in the rock. Some of the blooms were like the flowers in Kalista, but others were stone-blooming with translucent petals.
Fungi the size of bushes clustered in the shade, their caps glowing different colors that bled into the soil around them. Shrubs sprouted crystal-thorns, and even the grass grew with intent from the soil wherever we walked. The blades were sharp enough to draw blood if we hadn’t had on our protective suits.
Suddenly, the footies of the suit didn’t seem so silly.
The Earth Kingdom was beautiful and scary wrapped into one.
I breathed in its air, which tasted like moss, iron, and raw fae magic. To stand within the fae realm was to be measured, and there had been a reason my parents never let me visit.
This being a simulation only put me at ease a fraction.
“Look for triggers,” Dimitri said as the ten of us entered the cavern mouth to scout for any ancient fae traps.
“I’m assuming since we were placed here, the artifact must be in the cave,” I suggested.
“Agreed,” Dimitri said.
“Found one,” we said simultaneously as we reached for the same trap ward to mark it, and our fingers brushed.
“We’re not competing,” I told him, irritation blooming inside me at the fact that we had been on the same wavelengthagain.
We made a solid team, but I didn’t understand how we could be so at odds with each other one day, and then on the exact same page another.
“We always are,” he said, almost teasingly, and placed a stick at the trigger. “Mark the triggers with sticks,” he told the others.
I marked two more.
Raze tested the walls by throwing a rock off them. It didn’t bounce back. Itfloatedback into his hand. “That’s sick,” he muttered.
Slater had his palms on a stone console of sorts. Basically, an earth-magic terminal. “This system has zero tech,” he muttered.“It’s run totally on fae magic. I love it already. Do you think I could get one from the fae market?”
“Who is dumb enough to go there?” Hawk stepped near a broken cairn, and the cavern shuddered.
“My brother’s brother-mate goes all the time,” Slater mumbled under his breath.
