Hedi ran south, parting wild grass gone feral like a flooded sea of blades. Exhaustion hit; she dared a glance back. A shadow slid far off. She didn’t look twice—she fled on.
Her chest and belly ballooned to the brink, like a fish bladder ready to burst at a touch. Better to stay with the mutated residents! She heard her own gripe leak out—less from her throat, more seeping from every pore.
“As… if only I could use magic!”
Hedi clutched her dull aching belly, as if it had been trampled in endless waves. Long flight drained her to the dregs; her legs stopped listening, and her head swam in thin air.
Sudden panic—her strength snapped, the run stripped away. She reached to steady herself. Nothing answered. With a dull thump she slammed down, all her weight knifing into a shoulder. Pain spread like current, sparking outward.
“Can’t… go on.” Hedi fought out a cough, her throat burning like a stove; each breath tore at her lungs. “I’ll die nameless in the Dark Realm, like those expedition crews that vanished without a ripple.”
Selina caught the sound and bolted back in one fluid stride. She swung Hedi onto her back and ran on. Endless stamina, speed unfazed even with a rider, calm nose-breathing like a steady stream—she made Hedi feel like dead weight, maybe worse.
“Sorry. I’m dead weight.”
“Don’t say that. You just don’t train enough.”
If I’d known you had lungs like bellows, you should’ve carried me from the start. Hedi almost said it, then swallowed it, fearing it’d sound pushy. She switched lanes. “When I can, I’ll repay this favor.”
“Can I choose when to cash it in?”
“Don’t push it.”
“It matters; don’t waste it on some trivial errand.”
Hedi smiled and settled quietly on Selina’s back. Her breath ran a little fast—maybe the talking mid-run. Good thing the goal was close. The crystal at Selina’s throat cast a needle of light, pointing at a structure that rose like a hill ahead.
The building sat in a green prairie, shaped like a low hill. Its walls wore dim gray-black; the whole outline leaned right, warped and off. Thigh-deep grass drowned its base, giving the sudden structure an eerie hush.
A yawning door gaped in the center, yet stayed dark as ink, as if veiled by a film. The inside was murk. Faintly, a long tunnel slanted straight into the earth.
Hedi shook her head side to side, letting the headwind comb her hair from her eyes. She studied the thing and felt a cold tide rise. “You sure it’s here? It feels even more dangerous.”
“The crystal points here, which means other Investigators went in.”
“If they were herded like us—”
She didn’t finish. The light around them dimmed in a rush.
Then the stone gate boomed shut, a rolling rumble that faded. After it died, only Selina’s steady pant and Hedi’s soft breaths crossed paths, two threads weaving the narrow passage.
Hedi slid off Selina’s back and nodded like she was soothing herself. “Unknown beats drowning in roaches.”
“We still have to keep going.”
“Can we rest a bit? I’m—beat to hell.”
“An Investigator’s drills are worse than this. Besides, you’re not heavy.”
With that, they moved single file into the throat of the corridor.
With the stone sealed, sight fell into total night. Only the crystal at Selina’s neck pricked a pinhead of light. The corridor walls felt thin; you could hear roaches rasp along the outer skin. Damp air rode each breath and needled Hedi’s lungs.
Before, Hedi could’ve lit the dark with a spell. In the Dark Realm, no mana stirs, so she set a hand on Selina’s shoulder, seeking warmth for the mind.
“No idea what Investigators do in places like this.”
“Like you said, maybe the roaches drove them in too.”
“Tch—don’t say ‘roaches’!”
“You’re that scared?”
“Roaches have broken brains. They don’t fear people; they fly right at you!” Hedi shivered without meaning to. “If I could, I’d wipe out roaches and mosquitoes together. You aren’t scared?”
“Just disgusted.”
Hedi leaned forward and pressed her forehead to Selina’s back. “You’ve got a real spine. No fear of dark, no fear of bugs. Worlds apart from me. Leave me alone here, and I’d go mad in half a day.”
“If you’re afraid, I can’t be. I won’t add extra bad feelings to you.”
“Ha. You went pale at the Shattered City’s residents—bold words.”
“That’s my worst fear. Looks like people but isn’t people.”
Hedi listened and went quiet. Apart from names of places and people, this world diverged in big events and research. Skip the tech branch peaking at steam for now. Complex systems—there’s the prime example. Back home, that theory coalesced after 1940; here, the Dark Realm dragged it forward by fifty-four years. Yet no one here has said “uncanny valley” to me so far. Maybe in days, maybe in decades, someone with a similar name will coin it. For now, better to steer clear of that kind of talk.
“I think I get you,” Hedi said. “But insects are still my worst. Or maybe it’s the no-magic thing making me… jumpy.”
“I’ll protect you!”
“You already are. Without you, I wouldn’t have made it here.”
Selina’s shoulders lifted, pride bright in her voice. “When I first saw you, I thought you were strict, meticulous—tight with everything around you.” She flipped the tone. “Now I see—you’re a little cute.”
“Cute?”
“Because you can’t use magic! The cute bits stand out—light as a bird, short and neat, figure a little spare, but your smile shows those little canine teeth, like a porcelain doll. Without me, you’d face a sea of roaches and wait to die.”
“Saying ‘wait to die’ is a bit… I’ll take it as praise.”
“It is praise!”
Selina suddenly turned. The crystal at her neck swung off-beat, its glow rippling like lake waves and shifting the light across her face.
Hedi stared, unsure of the intent. A joke rose to her throat, but the mood sat so delicate that the words wouldn’t take another step.
“You can be as clingy as you want with me!”
Selina clamped Hedi’s shoulders, her grip strong enough to scare her.
