1.99//THERMAL-VENTS (Patreon)

Jun tilted her head to the side. “When I found out she didn’t really care if you drowned or not, Seb. That she doesn’t really care that Nia died, or that Inopsy went crazy, or about any of the other Keratilys who’ve been hurt by… well, the other Keratilys. We still need her, and she’s not a bad person, but it doesn’t feel right to call her ‘rootia’ anymore. She’s just Keratily now. Nobody else.”

That was brutally logical, and I couldn’t find anything wrong with her logic. “Harsh, but fair. Good to know I can still count on you.”

“That won’t ever change.” Jun said seriously. “On another note, can you already tell where all the slyk pods are in this place? Or do you need to find one here first?”

“A good question.” I said. I opened my interface to the map screen and swiped through it, trying to feel out the same connection I had to the other slyk pods. Nothing much happened, even when I pulled out one of the many slyk pieces and tried to focus on it.

Jun leaned to the side and crossed her arms. “Nothing?”

“Nothing.” I confirmed. “Let me ask Mortician if they know–”

{We can sense many pods in this space.} Mortician’s message interrupted my train of thought, and from how Jun rocked on her heels, I knew Mortician had sent it to both of us. {Your connection to us is severed thanks to the slight difference between the pods within the trawler and those you will find in this massive thermal venting ground. We have marked the closest pod to you on your map. Good luck!

-Mortician}

“Helpful.” Jun laughed. “Can’t wait to actually meet the person behind all those words. Let’s not keep Okeria and Keratily waiting.”

With that, Jun jumped from the trawler. I heard her boots slam against the building below in a puff of dust, waited a few seconds for her to clear the landing area, and jumped down after her.

My knees almost buckled from the sudden stop, as I’d stupidly forgotten to bend them. Jun and Okeria both grabbed one of my arms to steady me, and I nodded thanks to both of them in turn before I noticed Keratily looking out towards the smokescreen around the arena.

“We have two hours before the first wave begins in earnest.” She decreed as if she’d seen something in the unchanging curtain of smoke. “Until then, we will only have to deal with smaller slyk. We should use this time to spread out and find a proper base of operations.”

Okeria looked between Jun and I before responding. “Sounds good ta me. And I’m assuming you’ll want me ta group up with ya so I don’t go wandering off?”

Keratily hesitated for a moment as she glanced at Jun before sighing and nodding. “That would be for the best, I suppose. Sebastian, Juniper. Stay safe and stay in contact with Okeria. If anything at all happens that would put you,” Keratily stared directly at Jun, “in danger, then I trust that you will retreat. This is not a life or death hazard, and it is one that Okeria and I can certainly help you clear. Do not risk yourself.”

“Don’t ya mean ‘yourselves’?” Okeria pointed out.

“That’s what I said.” Keratily said with a tone that brokered no arguments. “Come. We have plenty of time, but that is no reason to waste it.”

“You’re the boss.” Okeria shrugged. “Ya know how ta contact me if ya need me, Sebastian. And ya too, Juniper.”

With that, Keratily and Okeria jumped from the building, leaving Jun and I truly alone for the first time in a good long while. Well, as alone as we could be with a camouflaged drone hovering somewhere around us.

“It’s nice not having to watch what we say when we’re alone anymore. Now that Okeria knows and all.” Jun said with a stretch. “Speaking of things we couldn’t say before; did Mortician mark the pods on your map yet?”

“I don’t see a reason why they wouldn’t have.” I said as I opened my map to see a slew of little oily dots littered over it. The closest of which was almost covering my own marker. “Looks like there’s one somewhere in this building.”

“Then that’s where we’ll start looking.” Jun decided. “Can you tell what floor it's on?”

I zoomed in on the map, trying to get a sense of how big the blip was compared to all the others. It looked a little smaller than others, which I knew from experience meant it was lower than the bigger ones.

“Somewhere below us, I’m pretty sure.” I said. “If we go down and it gets smaller, though, that means it was actually above us. Not that hard to find out.”

Jun hummed understanding and started walking towards a ramp that led further down. “Seems easy enough. Let’s get moving.”

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The pod was harder to find than either of us had expected. It only took a few minutes of constantly staring at my map to determine which floor it was on, but after that, we scoured every inch of the floor to no avail. Every locker and cabinet was forced open, every board ripped off the wall, and every mirror removed or shattered to look for secret passages. All for nothing. We couldn’t even knock down any walls to check for hidden compartments, since the raggedy and decrepit-looking building somehow stood up to everything Jun and I tried to throw at it.

“Is this thing hiding in the abyss itself?” Jun muttered in disbelief as we met up once again without finding anything. “How can a huge pod of oil even hide itself?”

I shrugged and leaned back against a wall. “I don’t know. And since Mortician hasn’t piped up yet, I don’t think they know anything either. Which is strange, since they’re part of the…”

Something skittering along the edge of my vision caught my attention in a stranglehold. “Jun. There’s a little slyk ant under your left foot.”

“What?” Jun asked in confusion, then looked down at the creature with a bloated abdomen that looked strangely pod-shaped. Just much tinier. “This little… don’t skitter around so much… got it!”

She dove for the ant, swiping it up in one hand triumphantly. “Little bugger thought it could keep running from us! That explains why we couldn’t find the pod, yeah?” Jun presented me the slyk ant as if it was the most precious thing in the world. “Here you go. Do whatever you need to get Mortician’s piece out of it.”

“Thanks.” I said as I accepted the slyk. It struggled weakly in my hands, thin legs of stone wrapped in pulsing veins of thick oil pushing against my armor to try and get away. I adjusted my grip so I held all of it except the pod-abdomen in one hand, then pressed my fingers through the feeble resistance the pod posed to fish out Mortician’s piece.

Once again I was bombarded with visions. But these were far more chaotic than those on the trawler; each and every one of the pods in the layover were constantly moving. Some skittered along the ground while others hovered in the air, and still others burrowed through complete darkness. What I didn’t feel, however, was a slyk shard inside of it.

Because the ant was the shard. I withdrew my fingers to see that the rock parts of the slyk had wound themselves around the pod, creating an almost egg-like trinket that felt much like all the other shards I’d touched had. The oil writhed and shimmered inside the constraints, and when I put my fingers to it once again, I found myself sucked into the visions once again.

“That’s going to be really helpful.” I said approvingly, sending the shard into my inventory with a thought. Jun cocked her head to the side in a silent question, reminding me that she hadn’t just seen what I had. “The ant lets me see all the other slyk shards in this place. So finding all the others won’t be anywhere near as annoying as this one was.”

“Ah.” She said with a nod. “Convenient. Should we try and find more of them now, or should we actually look for somewhere safe to hole up like Keratily wants us to?”

That was a good question. A better question, however, was if we could do both at once. I opened my map to see how many of the blips coincided with buildings, and was pleasantly surprised to find out that at least half of them were in individual buildings. Absolutely none of them doubled up.

“We can do both at once. After I see if The End somehow knows how long we’ll be here for.” I said as we walked out of the main building. “Maybe there’s a method to this place’s madness, and maybe not.”

The End’s reply wasn’t quite instant, but it was quick.

//YOU ARE CORRECT; THERE IS A PATTERN TO THIS PORTION OF THE HAZARD’S WORKINGS.

//THOUGH IT WILL TAKE A FEW HOURS FOR ANALYST TO DECIPHER SAID PATTERN, THEY ASSURE ME THAT THAT SPECIFIC TRAWLER WILL NOT COME FOR AT LEAST TWENTY-FOUR HOURS.

//SOMETHING ABOUT THE ORDER WITHIN THE CHAOS OF THE HAZARD THAT I DO NOT HAVE THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND.

//WHAT I WOULD RECOMMEND, HOWEVER, IS THAT YOU CHECK THE AREA DESCRIPTION FOR THIS LAYOVER.

//THERE ARE DETAILS WITHIN THAT WILL AID YOU AND JUNIPER ON YOUR SEARCH.

Right. I’d almost completely forgotten about that. I told Jun to keep walking while I checked my map, and she slowed down to match my pace as I read what came up aloud.

//DREDGED SWITCHPORT SUB-AREA: THERMAL VENTING PLATFORM.

//The oil-drowned sea of the slyk has belched out a smoke-wreathed section of respite. Drips of slyk oil from the sea above pose a danger to those who wish for sanctuary, and the thermal vents which spew smoke only serve to hold back the most dangerous of the slyk.

//Fluctuations within the thermal vents coincide with advents of waves of slyk that sense the electrical impulses of the armor of those within. Increased electrical activity draws the attention of more and more slyk, and as such, restraint is highly recommended when engaging.

//WARNING: what seems to be air within the area is actually a concoction of superheated gasses and minerals that are deadly when inhaled. Unless the removal of even a single piece of armor is absolutely necessary to continue living, do not expose any of your body to the ‘air’ of the thermal venting platform.

“That’s it? Nothing specific to help us look for Mortician’s pieces?” Jun asked when I closed my interface.

“Maybe there’s something we have to read a little deeper into.” I suggested. Not that it mattered at that exact moment, of course, as surviving the oncoming onslaught of slyk was the first step. “Let’s go find a few more pods.”