The blue light of the blade was blinding at first, lighting up the area as well as any torch. His eyes adjusted, and he could see that the ground was of stone, and flat. His eyes were frustrated to see only so far, and be caged by the dark.
He looked up. All was black. There was no sign of the moon, no haze of a distant town. If he had fallen into the Underlands, it was in deep wilderness. He'd never heard of the moon being absent, but he supposed it could be part of the cycle here.
Pierce had no food or water, only his weapons and wit. He needed to find his friends.
He picked a direction and started out, watching the ground carefully to be certain he wasn't about to step off an edge and into the Chasm. Would the banshees rip him apart before he hit the bottom, if there was one? He could only hope that the rest of Gorgonbane, or even some of the garrison men, would see his light and come to him.
He could only hope that some foul denizen of these depths would not spot him first.
He guessed he'd walked a mile or so before he came to the edge of the Chasm. At least, he had to assume it was the actual Chasm. It could be some lesser crevice for all he knew. If it was the true abyss, that meant the ultra-Monstrosity had thrown the earth under Eff's tower inland, or this part of the Underlands stuck out further over the Chasm than Overland above it. There was no way to know. He decided to assume the former was the truth. That meant his comrades could, and should, be somewhere between here and the place where he'd awoken. It was a large area to search in, especially in the dark. Again he had to hope that the terrain was all as flat as it seemed, so the others would have a chance at seeing the light of his sword.
Pierce started back in the direction he'd come. This time, he called out names every thirty steps or so.
"Scythia?"
"Axebourne?"
"Aggie?" he used the hated nickname to increase his chances of a robust response.
"Ess? Sev?"
He didn't call out to the First. He was certain the man must be dead.
He came across Ess first.
Her response was weak, so soft he might have missed it if he hadn't paused to listen as a part of his search pattern. He kept calling her name as he approached the sound of her scratchy whispers. He found her.
She was lying on a slab of rubble, eyes half-lidded, their white paint tinted blue by his sword. She reached up toward him. He grasped her hand. Though a certain electric heat shot through his body at the contact, her skin was deathly cold. He helped her up and she fell into his arms.
"Legs are weak," she rasped. "I do not think anything is broken though. I think I managed to levitate some of the momentum away."
He felt guilty, his hands enjoying the feel of her shoulder blades beneath her robe. He had the ridiculous urge to hold her around the waist, as if they'd come together at the dance after a feast. He would have slapped himself into sense if he could.
"You look no worse for wear," she said with a wan smile.
Pierce couldn't look right at her. "Just a little sore," he said.
"You remind me of Agrathor in his younger days," she said.
"I've heard that before. I suppose it's an honor, though I don't plan to be quite so grumpy in my old age."
Ess laughed softly, coughed when the laugh scratched her dry throat.
"Or to lose your flesh, I would hope," she said.
There was more rubble to negotiate in this area, mostly broken earth from Overland, occasionally a stray block of stone from Chasmverge. A precious few of those still shone with a weak green glow, as if holding onto their lost identity.
They searched painstakingly in the dark for some time, Pierce trying to memorize the sights of each area they passed through. Keeping to a search pattern would be difficult in the endless dark, but the piles of rubble grew in this direction, creating more landmarks to make note of. Eventually, Ess was more steady on her feet and added the light of her orbs to that of Pierce's sword. That helped a little with keeping their bearings. The liquid surface of the strange spheres shone silver now, like the light of the absent moon.
Pierce had been worried about the Second, had waited to ask what he was dying to know. He couldn't wait anymore.
"I saw the enchantment almost work," he said. "Why did it fail?"
She was a long time in answering, but Pierce let her have the silence. He imagined she must be in mourning for the failure, for the loss of her master. She must be worried about her comrades.
"I believe," she said at last, "that the magic simply was not compatible with the nature of the sky. It tried to work - we all saw it light up blue - but then it failed. I will not know why for certain until I speak with the First."
"So it didn't have anything to do with the attack of those shadow people?" Pierce asked. He'd been worried they were the cause of the failure, worried it was his fault for not finding a way to stop them.
"Ah, the supra-gen," Ess said. "My kin, but those who still serve Kash. No, Pierce, they clashed with us after the enchantment failed. You saw the explosion?"
Pierce nodded.
"Simple fire magic, but effective. They needn't have tried so hard to stop us," Ess said thoughtfully. "Though
