Dion wasn’t the young man he used to be. Being close to death’s door wasn’t new — just another Tuesday — but he didn’t bounce back the way he used to. Sure, he survived the fall, but his bones ached something fierce. He was sure his ribs were fractured again. The sharp pain was unmistakable. It took a few seconds for the wind to come back to his lungs as he lay sprawled out beside Atticus on the floor. 

“You’re okay?” He asked, struggling painfully to sit up. As agonising as it was, they weren’t out of danger yet. He didn’t have the luxury of waiting.

Atticus nodded. “The burning is gone. Just a bit foggy.”

“Burning?”

“It felt like I was on fire. The mana—”

“Probably a panic attack,” Dion grunted dismissively, holding his side gingerly. “Tell me if you feel it coming again. I’ve lost the syringes. I need to be ready to help you.”

Atticus’ blue eyes stared into his, unspoken words swimming in his expression.

“Atty?” Dion prompted firmly.

Finally, his brother nodded. “Okay.” The word was soft, resigned even. He was avoiding an argument. One they’d had a million times already. Atty turned away, cutting their conversation short.

Dion didn’t want to be the bad guy, but he didn’t have much of a choice. No matter how often he pointed out that Atticus only ‘felt mana’ right before a seizure, he was still adamant. It was impossible for the human anatomy. There had been many attempts over the last 600 years, of course, but the results were never pretty. One only needed to see the way the powder ruined a mind to realise how impossible it was. 

Dion’s gaze instinctively locked onto Ember. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to be in his presence for a while. He might be just what he needed to prove a point. The human menace was perched at the edge of the hole, poised as though he was about to jump in. 

“Where are you going?” Dion asked, carefully getting to his feet. Apparently, he was the only one who got injured in the fall. 

“Down there,” Ember stated, nodding into the hole. 

“You’re going to go down there without a plan?” Dion asked, peering into the gloom. He could barely make out the faint hint of ground underneath. There wasn’t as steep a drop to the next floor. A lot of the rubble had piled up in a way that would make it easy to climb down as long as it was stable. 

“My plan is to find Echo.” 

“We need more of a plan. If there’s no way out down there, we might need to come back up quickly.” 

“We?” Ember repeated, staring at him blankly.

Dion only responded with a quick nod. In truth, he didn’t want to go anywhere with Ember. He would have preferred to have nothing to do with him, but sometimes other people were useful; like when you needed someone to test if a rope made of tablecloth could hold a human. Even if his brain was made of stardust, a local had his uses. All Dion had to do was play the part. You didn’t get anything from helping other people out of ‘the goodness of your heart’. It wasn’t worth the hassle.

“Alright! Let's go together then!” The giddy smile that emerged on Ember’s face was unnerving, like he didn’t have his guard up at all. It made the hair on the back of Dion’s neck stand on end. He couldn’t tell if he was genuinely naive or incredibly good at acting. 

Atticus crouched beside the hole as well. “How are we going to get down there, then?”

“I still think we could make it if we jump in.” Ember shrugged casually.

Dion held up the remainder of the tablecloth rope. There was still about half left, based on how far he’d fallen. Despite the torn edge, the other pieces were still tied securely together. “We could use this again.” 

“Okay, but that’s way less cool,” Ember grumbled, rolling his eyes.

“He’s right, it would be less cool,” Atticus agreed. 

Dion glared daggers at him, but his brother just grinned. The brat was absolutely fine if he was well enough to push Dion’s buttons. Despite the sass, it was a relief; one less thing to worry about.

This time, Dion made sure to tie the rope with a few extra knots. There was a conveniently placed metal beam, exactly the right distance for the rope to be a workable option.

“I think it’s fine,” Atty said, crossing his arms impatiently.

“That’s what we thought last time, too.” Dion huffed while he tugged on the rope for the hundredth time. It had already failed once. The irony that he was both the person who insisted on using it and the person who trusted it the least wasn’t lost on him.

Ember was shouting into the hole again. It wasn’t in Centra, the language used on core planets, but Dion recognised the concern. It was the same tone he used to speak to Atticus earlier. The odd pair had to be siblings, given the vast similarities in both appearance and behaviour.

“Do you think we can find them?” Atty asked quietly, watching as well.

There was no doubt in Dion’s mind that Ember’s brother had died, but he couldn’t blame the man for holding out hope. If anything had happened to Atty…

“We’re not trying to.”

“Huh?”

“We need to look out for ourselves. Finding a corpse is an easy trade-off for an extra hand on the outside, but what are the chances we will find one buried under several floors of concrete? Our priority is a way out.” Dion explained, placing a hand on his brother’s shoulder.

Atty’s eyes widened. He opened and closed his mouth several times before finally settling on, “but what if he’s alive?”

“That was a long fall. Speaking from experience, I don’t think it’s possible to survive that. If the landing didn’t kill him, being crushed definitely did.” Something Dion had to come to terms with a long time ago was that the universe was kind to no one. 

The crestfallen expression on Atty’s face made Dion feel a little guilty, but the sooner Atticus learned, the sooner he would realise Dion was right all along.

“I’m going down first,” he called to Ember. “I’ll let you know if it’s safe.”

“Here, take this!” Ember held out a pistol. “Don’t know how many creepies are down there.”

Dion didn’t need convincing. It was an unusual design, almost as if it were homemade. The mana gauge was full, and that was all that mattered. He quickly tucked it into his belt before their new ‘friend’ could change their mind.

There was a slant to the mountain of rubble that made it significantly easier to scale down without much difficulty. He just had to watch his footing. By the time Dion reached the end of the rope, it was sloped enough to stand on. He crouched carefully and slid the rest of the way until his feet hit the floor harder than he intended. His hand shot to his ribs as he winced and stifled a yelp. It was difficult to differentiate between solid surfaces and gravel in the gloom. He couldn’t shake the feeling that the floor could still give out any minute. 

The rest of the level was still intact from what he could see, but that was only a few steps ahead. The darkness stretched out into oblivion while his eyes adjusted. He gave himself a few extra seconds to make sure nothing was moving before calling back up, “safe. Come down.”

Atticus descended next, also armed with a pistol. 

When Ember came down, he was only carrying a piece of bent metal instead of a firearm. Dion wasn’t sure whose idea it was, but he felt a small wave of relief knowing that Atticus had a way to defend himself. He was surprised the stranger would be willing to give up his weapons so easily.

“Whoa! It’s dark in here,” Ember commented. “I can’t see anything.”

“Me either,” Atty added. Unlike when they were on the upper level, he seemed to be more anxious. His shoulders were hunched slightly and Dion could see his eyes darting around in the dull glow of the pistol’s mana gauge.

“Keep your voices down and watch your step,” Dion instructed, sticking close to Atty’s side. “Don’t take risks. If something moves, don’t ignore it. We don’t know what’s down here with us.” He told Atticus in a hushed voice. Atty nodded obediently. 

Ember wandered ahead without a care in the world, “Imagine if one of those things was down here, too.” There was almost a bounce in his step as he disappeared into the dark. He didn’t have any ManaTech. Nothing that glowed to give away his position. Suddenly, Dion was acutely aware that he and Atticus stood out like a holodisplay in the dead of night. The mana gauges were like beacons. 

That’s why he gave us the pistols? Ember was using them as much as Dion was using him. 

“Where did he go?” Atty whispered, closing even closer to Dion. He was close enough that Dion could feel his breath. He must have realised it as well. 

Every part of Dion’s brain was screaming at him for making a stupid mistake. It was Dion’s fault. He shouldn’t have trusted someone from Agafra to have their survival in mind. They’d walked straight into danger with a big neon sign. Mother Earth have mercy, don’t let those things be in here…

He grabbed Atty’s shoulder and gestured to go back the way they came. It wasn’t too late to look for another route. Atty looked back into the darkness where Ember had wandered off, the conflict on his face clear as day in the glow of the mana gauges.

“He was planning to go alone in the first place. I’m sure he knows what he’s doing.” Dion assured him, nudging him along with a sigh. “Let’s not waste time. We don’t know when the building will collapse again.”

He had to give Ember credit. He was convinced that the man was an airhead, but it turned out that he was more intelligent than Dion realised. 

Suddenly, almost instinctually, he pulled Atticus back against his chest, wrapping his hand over his brother’s mouth.

Something moved.