Chương 26: The Blueprint of a Face

They strode forward, heading in the direction of the corridor between the two Pillars, the nearest way to the descent tunnel into Floor 2. Lio had also decided on a small thing to do when they got there. He had already written instructions on a small, yellowed piece of paper, consisting of how Walker was to ascend to the surface, find a boy named Scillo Oncidia, and wear a face he wouldn't recognize.

The second half of the note was a few lines on how to act human, and what types of personalities Scillo would most likely warm up to. The last line told Walker what info to extract from Scillo, specifically anything the organization had communicated to him since the night at the Brass Lantern, any new instructions, any change in their assessment of the situation, or any mention of Ophila. Walker would then need to get that information back to Lio. Which was the main problem.

They were descending while Walker would be going up. The distance between them would only grow, and there was no reliable method on Floor 1 or 2 for passing messages between the surface and the depths. Lio knew this, and still went through with this plan as there was a simple solution. It was waiting for them somewhere in the deeper floors. A creature on Floor 8 that could carry messages across extraordinary distances, provided you knew how to compensate for it properly. For now, the note would have to be enough.

They soon reached the corridor entrance. Ophila led the way first, holding her lamp out high. Meanwhile, Lio quickly and effortlessly folded the paper into a narrow dart and sent it with a flick of his wrist toward the right wall. As to not gain any suspicion, he continued walking forward without pause. But in his peripheral vision, he caught a dark shape on the corridor floor move as delicate fingers closed around the folded paper without a sound. Then it went completely still again.

Lio kept walking, the dark passage passing along them. His mind meanwhile was elsewhere, thinking about the newfound revelations from yesterday. According to the Skinwalker, it had followed a man with a long beard up from the deep floors because of a mysterious something the man had. He frowned. Was it possible that Ophila and the man were connected?

Ophila had left Millhaven because a dying Delver had told her something before he died, something important enough that an unknown organization had deployed multiple teams across weeks of pursuit to find out what it was. Could it be that the dying Delver was the same Delver the Skinwalker had followed? He turned this over carefully. While it was possible, he didn't have enough evidence. He didn't even know the old man's name after all. But the direction was probably right.

Lio glanced at Ophila, then pushing the thought to the back of his mind, he looked ahead at the corridor's far end where the amber light of the forest was beginning to show. They emerged from the far end of the corridor into a much broader and wider fungi forest, the Pillar stalks much less apparent around them. They walked in silence for a while. The forest floor was much more uneven here, due to the majority of fungi species in this area being small, preferring thick roots that dug deep into the ground.

After a couple of minutes, William began to slow down, his ribs clearly giving him some trouble. This left Ophila right next to Lio, and after a moment her eyes caught on something at the base of the nearest Pillar stalk. It was a cluster of small pale flowers, thin-stemmed and delicate, their petals ghostly and impossibly thin. She stopped, a big grin spreading on her face.

"My father would lose his mind over these," she said happily. Lio looked over at the flowers. Ghostly Annies. The species grew at the base of older Pillar stalks where the root system ran deep enough to pull mineral water up from the lower floors. Raw, it was highly poisonous. But boiled long enough, it was edible, though it would also begin to secrete a terrible smell, similar to rotting flesh. She squatted down beside them, careful not to touch anything.

"He collects pressed flowers," she explained.

"There's a whole wall in our house covered in them." She grabbed a small stick-like mushroom from the ground and gently poked at the flowers.

"He always loved pale flowers like these." Reaching into her pack, she produced a small folded cloth, inside of which was tucked a portrait. She held it out, revealing a slightly creased image of two people standing outside what was clearly a farmhouse. The man was broad-shouldered with a wide honest face and a rough, wild beard. The woman beside him was more on the smaller side, barely reaching his shoulder, with strawberry blonde hair pulled back and a warm, motherly smile.

"They look like good people," Lio observed. Ophila looked at the photograph for a moment longer before tucking it carefully back into the cloth.

"They are," she said quietly, straightening up.

"That's why I didn't tell them that I was going to become a Delver." Lio raised an eyebrow. That was rather sudden. He glanced back as he continued walking.

"Would they have tried to stop you?" This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"My father would have," Ophila admitted, falling back into step beside him.

"My mother would've just told me not to do anything stupid." She gave a small, private smile.

"She's more practical about things." The edges of Lio's lips twitched.

"You and your mother sound very similar." Ophila frowned gently, tapping her chin thoughtfully.

"People do say we look quite alike," she said.

"But I don't think I'm that practical." She cocked her head.

"In regards to personality, my father's the one I take after. We're both so curious about everything, so much that he'd probably descend into Ghenna himself if his knees weren't bad." She paused, giving a small giggle.

"Actually, never mind. He'd find a couple of flowers on Floor 1 and completely forget to go down deeper."

"How long has he been collecting them?"

"Since before I was born," she said.

"He started when my mother was pregnant with me, actually. He said he wanted to document everything he could find before his life got too busy." She snorted softly.

"Then it never stopped."

"Did his life get too busy?"

"Extremely," Ophila replied, rolling her eyes.

"Three kids and a farm…" She glanced at him sideways.

"Do you have siblings? Mine are so annoying."

"No," Lio said.

"Nobody? So you're an only child?" Lio nodded silently. Ophila folded her hands behind her back, humming acceptingly. They walked at a slower pace, in a comfortable silence for a stretch of the forest, until the fungi opened up slightly around them. Then, from the Pillar behind them, the sound of uneven footsteps grew until William rounded the stalk, one hand pressed to his ribs and breathless.

"You two," he gasped, "why are you walking so fast? Can't you see I'm injured?"

"You're not that injured," Lio deadpanned, without turning around.

"You're just slow." William stared incredulously at the back of his head.

"I… I have broken ribs."

"They're cracked," Lio corrected immediately.

"Not broken."

"That's the same thing!"

"No it isn't." William's mouth opened in exasperation, then closed as he realized that it just wasn't worth it. Instead, he turned to Ophila with an expression of pure appeal. Ophila, to her credit, had already slowed down and was waiting for him to catch up.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her voice of genuine concern.

"Do you need a minute or something?" William pointed at her, throwing a dirty look at Lio.

"See," he said breathlessly.

"That. That's how you talk to someone who is injured!"

"Barely injured," Lio called out again, from ahead.

"I'm… I'm going to—" William shuddered with anger, the veins on his forehead pulsating. Lio simply shrugged, and just kept walking. Scowling, William fell into step beside Ophila, making sure to breath carefully so as to not inflame his ribs. He looked at her with an expression of exhaustion.

"How on earth," he said quietly, jerking his head toward Lio's retreating back, "did a sweet girl like you end up partnered with him?"

"Well, he seemed competent," Ophila said simply. William's mouth opened.

"What? But… but he's so mean! He called me a liability."

"You were being a liability," she said, though not unkindly. William gave her a long, suffering look.

"Even then, does he ever say anything normal? Or behave like a regular human?" Ophila appeared to think about this with a serious expression.

"Well, he can communicate with Caplings," she offered. William stared at her.

"That's not a normal thing!"

"He did say it took a lot of practice. That shows he's not perfect."

"That doesn't make it normal!" In reply, Ophila smiled gently and said nothing. William, however, just seemed even more pissed. He looked up ahead at Lio again, his hands curling into tight fists. Then he let out a small sigh, and let the tension leak out of his muscles.

"Fine," he said.

"Fine. I'll just walk with my broken ribs."

"Cracked," Lio corrected again, from several feet ahead, without turning around. William closed his eyes briefly.

"How did he even hear that?" he whispered. They walked like that for a while, William occasionally muttering obscenities towards Lio, until the forest began to thin around them and the eastern wall of Ghenna came into view. The descent tunnel was set into the base of it, a wide circular opening reinforced with iron supports that had gone heavily rusted with age. A series of iron handholds were hammered into the stone beside it, descending into the dark below at a very steep angle.

The air coming up from it was noticeably different from the floor around them, cooler and drier, carrying a faint and sharp metallic smell that was clearly different from Floor 1's earthiness. Beside the tunnel entrance, embedded directly into the wall, was the Checkpoint of Floor 1. It was enormous, easily twice the height of a person, a single glowing and pulsating mass of crystal that had grown directly out of the stone. Its surface was irregular and faceted, glowing with a bluish ambient light.

Ophila slowed down when she saw it, biting her lower lip as she eyed the surface cautiously. Next to her, William just looked tired. Lio barely looked at it. He'd seen and studied it so much he could probably point out where every single imperfection was located. After all, the Floor 1 Checkpoint was the most important structure in all of Ghenna, though almost nobody understood why, including the Union scholars who had spent decades studying it.

And neither did Lio, who had dedicated loop after loop researching it, trying to find the source of power that had branded him with this curse of immortality. The principle of it was simple enough. Touch it, and you might get a rune or not. But there was a sole rule. Touch a Checkpoint, and that Checkpoint was closed to you forever. The crystal simply wouldn't respond a second time to the same person. Which meant that if you wanted another rune, you had to go deeper. Floor 2 had its own Checkpoint.

So did every floor below it. Each one offered another chance. But still, without a rune, descending past Floor 1 was close to impossible. So it was basically one singular chance. A small cluster of Delvers had gathered near the Checkpoint, which wasn't unusual. The area around a descent tunnel always attracted a certain level of loitering. Some were resting before going deeper, while others had just come up and hadn't quite summoned the energy to start moving yet. Lio scanned the group out of habit, then stilled.

Ahead of them were the two irregularities he spotted in the cart queue. The close-cropped dark hair woman with iron gauntlets etched with curling red marks and the heavyset man with the shaved head. They were both standing apart from the main cluster, gearing up quietly. He studied them for a few seconds. They were moving like people who had done this many times before, with no wasted motion or hesitation. Veterans, clearly. Well, well, what a stroke of luck.

"Wait here," he said to Ophila and William. Then he began quietly making his way over to the strange duo. And as he walked, he very deliberately sculpting his face. It was a careful and conscious process. He softened the set of his jaw, eased the tension around his eyes, and let the corners of his mouth curve upward into a warm and open smirk. He manipulated each microexpression with inhumane control over his facial muscles, all for the singular purpose of making himself appear more presentable.

By the time he'd crossed the distance between them, he looked like an entirely different person.

"Hey!" He greeted them with a bright and cheerful smile, raising a hand in greeting.

"You two heading down?"