"Alright," said Agrathor. "So they are grown and harvested. But still, wouldn't you have known about the larger breeds? If you say Kash is so forthcoming about his plans, why would he not share this information with you?"
"That, I cannot say," Sev answered. "Yes, the Underlord is open with his ideas and goals, but I did not mean to suggest to you that he tells us everything. Would a lord discuss the dinner menu for a feast with the town's blacksmith? Perhaps if one had known to ask, Kash would have shared details concerning the new Monstrosities. How can one know to ask, though, when such plans are beyond or outside of one's station?"
"Fair enough," said Agrathor. "Might have been nice for us if you did know though."
"Indeed," said Sev.
"So either he sought these things out," said Ess, "or found them by happy accident. They must be as easy to control as the smaller ones, so of course he saw fit to capitalize upon their great power. Why use them to invade, though? It seems that he has used a combination of structural durability enchantments with the great height and strength of the ultra-Monstrosity -"
"I surely hope there's only one," Agrathor interjected.
"- to literally push portions of the Underlands up to the surface," Ess continued. "That has its own implications on our cosmology, but let's set it aside for now... Why not just tear all of Overland down? And why even do that? There is little on our small continent that amounts to more than what he already controls. We have the sun, but beyond that I can think of nothing else he would desire strongly enough to make the conquest worthwhile."
"It has to be the people," Pierce said. "Whatever his goal, he must need slaves or subjects to see it through."
"That is a good thought," said Ess. "It may be that he simply desires a greater empire. Someone to build monoliths in worship to his name. Human slaves to carry precious materials from the far reaches of the world back to him in his fortress."
"He wouldn't be the first madman to harbor that simple lust," said Agrathor. "But there's something to the supplanting of one city with another. Especially the Temple with his Testadel. I can't say what that something is, but it's just too specific an action not to have a meaning to him."
"You can ask him when my hands are at his throat," Scythia said lowly. It was the first time anyone had heard her speak in hours. She ceased her march and sighed.
"Alright," she said, "you've made your point."
"Who?" asked Pierce.
"Yeah, I sure didn't say anything,' said Agrathor.
Scythia looked at each of them in turn. "All of you. You didn't have to say anything, surely you know that."
Ess nodded.
"My grief is far from sated," Scythia said, "but we need a plan. Kash himself is the heart of the machine. Even setting my husband's death aside," she had to take a moment to breathe deeply, "and that of the First, this invasion must be stopped. If possible, we must also eradicate his holds on the surface. The sheer power of that ultra-Monstrosity shows us how dire the situation really is. Given time, Kash could dismantle or supplant the entirety of Overland if he wished."
"Good to hear you talking again, Scythia," Agrathor said. "What do you propose?"
"We have to figure out where we are, and get back up to the Underlands," Scythia said.
Pierce started. He should have thought of it, but his mind had been drawn to other things. Namely he was still trying to work out what felt wrong about the assassination atop Chasmverge. Meanwhile, Scythia had worked out something vital that should have been obvious to everyone else.
"Up to the Underlands," Pierce said. "We've been here for hours, and there's still no moon."
"Ess, can you fold someplace familiar and tell us where we are?" Scythia asked.
Ess shook her head. "It is a peculiar Skill, which requires knowledge of both origin and destination. I cannot use the power to leave this place since I do not know where I am."
Scythia nodded, thinking.
"We got thrown down from the surface," Scythia said, "but I've never known or heard of the Underlands being quite this dark. The moon is always in the sky. That foul giant must have brought us down even lower."
"I had no idea there was anything lower," said Agrathor.
"I don't think anyone did," said Scythia. "Unless the forgemaster knew?" She looked to Sev.
He shook his head. "If the Underlord were to keep anything from his people," said Sev, "it would be something as earth-shaking as that revelation."
"Makes you wonder how deep the world does go," said Pierce. Everyone looked at him.
"You'd have fun finding out, wouldn't you kid?" Agrathor asked. "While the rest of us just worry what things worse than Monstrosities might crawl up from the Chasmic depths."
"And why it would go so deep," Pierce said. "I guess that would be Ess's domain."
"I've only ever considered notions of Skill and ability," Ess said, "never subterranean geography."
Pierce was beginning to get a picture in his head. The world as a series of layers, shells within shells, condensing downward. Expanding upward? He knew it was pointless, but he spoke the words anyway.
"What if there's more above Overland?" Pierce said. "What if what we call the surface, really isn't?"
"Now don't go making up new myths just for the fun of it, kid," said Agrathor.
"Just thinking," Pierce said. "We would be someone else's Underlanders."
"A strange and humbling thought," Ess acceded.
"Kash found out about this lower level," Pierce said. "Maybe he discovered a higher one too. Maybe he needs a foothold on Overland to push up even further."
"This is all beside the point," said Scythia, uncharacteristically impatient. "Whatever arcane knowledge Kash has gained, he is harming innocent people. We have to stop him."
No one disagreed with that.
"So we have to find a way
