Aki guided the flat platform loaded with Welsh’s old machines down the river with Rhen’s guidance. As it turned out, Welsh had several machines Rhen could make good use of just sitting around at his dungeon, and when the auction notification went out, he was the first there. A few other owners of very small dungeons showed up to see what there was, but Rhen was the only one buying.

It was no wonder Welsh hadn’t bought Rhen’s dungeon plot. Everything in the area seemed to be tiny or dry. Rhen wondered if there was some longer string of fate guiding him along, or if he’d just been extremely lucky.

“Raise it up, rocks ahead,” Rhen noted as he led from the shore.

Aki pulled more water up under the platform and raised it a foot. The cement mixing machine creaked and clanked against the post-hole digger, but the straps held them tight. They were almost there.

A few fearful teeters later and they arrived at the charred shore next to his dungeon. There were several delvers waiting to help unload the goods, and Rhen practiced their names as they came to help.

“Jeremiah and Henrianne, could you start digging posts where Wyland has designated the transport building?” He pointed to the young man and woman—Shin’Baran’s by the looks of them with their dull brown hair and matching eyes. They nodded and stepped up to grab the tall but narrow machine.

“Sora, Sarina, and S… Sam…” Rhen snapped, pointing to the third Cadrian girl. He gave her a pitiful shrug that said, “Help.”

“Samari,” she said with a smile. “Thanks for trying.”

“Samari, could you three get the cement mixer set up near the pour site for that building and set up a few buckets for transport.”

“Sure thing, Deo,” Sora said with a confident swagger. The three Cadrians lifted the machine onto a dolly and started rolling it toward the dungeon entrance.

“Samari, Samari, Samari,” Rhen whispered to himself, watching the trio go.

Rhen hefted the pile of shovels into his arms and handed them out to the others who stood waiting. “Let’s dig some holes.”

Wyland and the two new architects, Lowt and Rend—Taalites who’d helped with the Ptahl nexus build decades ago—were set up with a table near the old burned inn, scribbling plans on plans. Lowt and Rend were both tall, lanky Taalites who were not delver material, but made themselves far more useful in planning the buildings. Wyland was grateful for the assistance, and the duo were grateful for a rest from the backbreaking work Welsh had them doing.

They had schematics for another inn, a garden with a greenhouse for the winter months that were fast approaching, and a stable for when horses and other ridden beasts became a thing that Rhen had to handle. Arannet stopped by frequently to make them aware of some regulation, or an accommodation that was required.

Rhen didn’t even have to do much to make it all work. They all wanted it to work, too.

He and the others dug up the area for the inn foundation, then expanded the below level pantry that was still roughed out. Within a few hours, the cement mixer was up and running with the garbage rock they’d mined out of the alpine chambers and some from the mastery node area.

Rhen was slowly digging the tunnels from the surface down the two and a half miles to the nexus node far below. He’d have to deposit the excess stone somewhere, and that dumping ground became the mastery node. Two teams of three mined up the materials with Wyland’s specialized drills, bringing the metal to Wyland’s workshop and the stone back topside.

Things were moving in the right direction, and at the right speed. They had just under three months left to get everything working. It would be tight, but Rhen was hopeful. He tried not to let that hope be dashed by the looming danger of Sen’s threat.

Later in the evening, when Rhen was exhausted but still determined to make progress, he headed into Yu. He checked with Matilda about his letter first, but she said it would still be several days before it arrived, and it had not been tampered with. At Rhen’s insistence, she showed him the means by which she tracked this.

It was a skull-sized control node that she kept tucked away in a vault that would display her magically infused messages in a complex map made of anima. Each body, dungeon, and node made up the web that connected the strings of the map. Rhen could see she had six or seven magically sealed letters that were out and about on their way, colored with pink, green, and blue amid the mass of white that was everything else.

She zoomed out, way way out, to the entire convoluted web of anima strings. It was hard to see the individual lines, and they all sort of clustered together that far out. There were seventeen distinct clusters, one for each realm, and a very tiny shimmering light that Matilda said was the eighteenth realm and its very small connection to Resplendare through his dungeon.

Then she zoomed in, and Rhen could see his little green letter moving along the tracks of an anima fueled train in Shin’Bara.

“Stop worrying so much,” she said, patting him on the shoulder. “It’ll get there in time.”

He’d scowled at this, but decided not to press. He had no idea what she knew, or how, but he doubted she knew when Sen would pull the trigger on Rhen’s identity… if he had enough evidence to. Sen and his goons wouldn’t be able to review the resurrection node logs themselves, but they would be able to submit time-frames for inspection to the civil affairs guild. If they had a lead on who he was… Maddox… it couldn’t take them too much longer to pinpoint the moment when the child died and the man disappeared.

Rhen shook those thoughts away and headed to Fennica’s. She’d cooked up several big loaves of father’s hakir bread—a recipe Jakira had been more than happy to share with the busty baker. The bread preserved the spell boosting effects a lot better than Jakira’s jerky did, and was divine for sandwiches, which they were having a lot of these days.

A chill came into the air as the sun set. Rhen whistled Tsu’me’s Farewell to the Fluffer tune, the one about Welsh, and walked the well-worn path back home. They were packing everything away when he arrived and heading down to the inn for Jakira’s new experimental roast beast: razor whisker.

The smell wafting up from the dungeon chimney was divine. Fatty, succulent, juicy meat was promised on the other end of that smoke.

“Hey, Deo!” one of the newer delvers—Nikito maybe?—called out to him. She was a sylph-like Entarck, from the realm of Gaia.

Entarcks were willowy creatures that were incredibly skilled with all things that grew roots. They themselves would eventually settle down for good, grow roots, and bear seedlings into the world. Their race was a mystery to Rhen, much like the Prelusk had been. He was excited to learn more about them now that he had the opportunity.

“Just call me Rhen, please,” he said with a smile as he caught up to her.

“Rhen, all right.”

She had silvery hair that shimmered pink as they entered the dimly lit tunnel to the inn. Her body seemed to move in slow motion, yet she glided across the ground, keeping pace with him. Rhen looked down to see thousands of root-like toes dancing over the rocks, propelling her forward.

She giggled as she noticed him staring. “Have you never seen an Entarck?”

“Never,” he admitted sheepishly. “You’re Nikito, right?”

“Yes, very good.”

“How do you like Zephitz I?” Rhen asked, feeling weird saying it that way. What if she didn’t like it at all? He was being a bit presumptuous.

“Very well. You treat your delvers with so much respect…” She hummed. “If I may be open, I hope this doesn’t change.”

Rhen nodded. “Me too.”

He tried not to let thoughts of losing his dungeon ruin the nice evening. The inn dining hall had expanded two-fold to allow the new delvers enough space, and still, they were tightly crammed in together. Two fires burned at either end, one of which stoked the kitchen ovens.

Jakira, Olliat, and Eli brought out smoking platters of dark meat on skewers, roasted ribs coated in a red berry sauce, piles of hardy looking meatballs, and sharp fins peeled back to reveal seared fatty bits inside.

Rhen brought Nikito to “his” table and made space for the newcomer next to him and Jakira. After the meat went down, out came trays of white, purple, and orange roasted roots from the forest above. Then plates of battered and fried dreadshrimp on a bed of dried seaweed, and bowls of steamed rice, and several different sauces ranging in color from brown to green to purple. Rhen delivered a loaf of bred to every table to accompany the meal, and they all feasted.

Jakira had outdone herself. The meal was incredible, and Rhen could feel his blood race at the anima boosting effects of something she’d used. She really was living up the last few months of comfort and exploring the culinary world of anima boosts. Rhen hoped with all his heart these wouldn’t be the last they’d spend here.

Tsu’me took the stage with Aki and the beguiled the crowd with mesmerizing light and sound. Jakira leaned into Rhen, closing her eyes and tapping her foot to the beat. He stroked her hair gently and wrapped his arm around her. What a perfect day.

He went to sleep with a full belly and bed, Jakira sleeping soundly beside him.

Then, he did it again at dawn. They dug out the rest of the foundation for the elevator system and started pouring the concrete. Wyland reinforced several key points of the building with Lafite at Lowt and Rend’s insistence that it needed to be anchored if they’d be pulling several hundred pound carriages up two and a half miles. They were probably right. Rhen didn’t know much about architecture, just enough to erect some simple buildings, but he knew the risks of building collapsing in on themselves.

They spent the extra materials to ensure it was safe, and by the end of the week, they’d built up the foundation, pulley skeleton, and the rest of the frame. Rhen made his way down to the control node where a heaping pile of the Magnite-Lafite alloy, Lagmite, waited for him.

Wyland’s spider bots had been farming the anima crystals far into the aquatic chamber, and the result was staggering. He had more than enough to do what he’d hoped to get started.

Rhen took a deep breath and laid his hand on the pile of metal. He put the other hand on the control node and entered into the control center.

[Load schematic: Elevator System?]

{Yes} | {No}

Rhen selected, “Yes” and Wyland’s design that he’d studied for hours appeared in the gray nowhere space of the control center. He did indeed have just enough of the Lagmite metal to make a chain all the way down to the cleared space at the bottom of the aquatic chamber. It was still closed off from the nexus node, and they would need to use this chain now to get down there for their work, but they were underway.

Rhen allowed the metal alloy to be deconstructed and flow through him into the control node. The flow of metal made his body feel heavy, but after a few minutes, he’d deconstructed the whole pile and loaded it into the dungeon. There was no trembling ground this time, since the build took place entirely inside a space that he’d already carved out. When it was done, he heard a whooping from way up the tunnel.

Rhen joined the others topside. Derk was holding one end of the massive circular chain, his feet digging into the ground. Jakira had the other end that was looped over the pulley at the middle of the structure. They were each tugging for dear life. Jakira’s face was strained in a gritted tooth grimace, and Derk roared as he pulled. They seemed evenly matched, at least so far.

“I’ve got five marks on Jak!” Rhen yelled.

Several of the delvers turned to look at him with surprise. Then another shout went up from Tsu’me. “I’ll take that five!”

“Ten on Jakira!”

“Five on Derk!”

The betting war started, and Tsu’me went around with a small ledger, writing everything down.

“I think the pulley’s been well tested now!” Rend yelled, waving his cane about to stop the tug-of-war.

“It’s too late now, Rend, let them have their fun,” Lowt said, patting his shoulder with a gap-toothed grin.

The two bruisers were at a standstill. Jakira’s feet were dug all the way into the dirt to get purchase. Rhen stood close by her, shouting words of encouragement. Finally, she cheated. In one massive splurk she transformed into a giant squid. She wrapped three tentacles around the chain and sent the other four out into the charred forest. With one massive jerk, she pulled Derk all the way up to the pulley.

Derk cartwheeled into the sky and Jakira caught him with deft ease, then set him gently back down on the ground. She dismissed her cephaloform and bowed for the clapping crowd.

“If I’d known we could use spells, I woulda beat you a long time ago,” Derk said clapping her on the shoulder. “Good catch, heh, didn’t want to splat.”

“You should’ve let go,” Jakira said with a cocky smile.

“Never,” Derk growled, grinning.

No coin was exchanged, but everyone laughed. The bets didn’t matter, in honestly. It was a good time, and that was what mattered. They hadn’t laughed like this in a long time. Rhen could feel life returning to them.

“Well, the pulley survived a giant squid, so it’s safe to say it’ll handle six carts at twelve hundred pounds, too,” Lowt said as she approached Wyland.

“Real good. I didn’t expect the alloy to be so performant. Maybe we can get a few more’a them carts on there…”

“We best not push it,” warned Rend.

“Yes, six will do. At twenty miles per hour, it’ll only take a few minutes to get the carts up and down each side.”

“Seven and a half minutes, barring the stops needed to disembark and embark. Not too bad.” Wyland nodded.

“It sounds like things are going well?” Rhen asked.

“Very,” Wyland said, clapping him on the back with his mechanical arm. “This dungeon’ll be ready for review on time, without a doubt. We’ve got it in the bag, as long as you keep up with the materials. We have a mighty need for more of both Magnite and Lafite.”

“And I need to get enough corraphine to get those hydrogenis funneling the water to power the barrier, right?” Rhen added. Through all the thousands of sheafs of paper he’d seen in the last weeks, he specifically remembered the hydro-generators.

“Oh yes! Nothing works without those. Good eye, Gerald.” Wyland said, grabbing his arm fondly.

Lowt and Rend exchanged curious glances and Rhen shook his head. His heart ached. He wished he knew who Gerald was so he could bring him back for Wyland. He wished he knew how to help him.

“Mr. Zephitz!” Came a panting cry over the rabble of the crowd.

Everyone quieted, and parted. Matilda Grandmeir stood with her hands on her knees, breathing deep, two letters in her hands.

Rhen went to her, and Jakira was at his side in an instant.

“You alright? Come have a seat, please,” Rhen guided her to an overturned bucket, and she plopped herself down.

Matilda held the letters out to him, still panting. “Here’s your post.”

The first on the stack was addressed to Maddox, aka Rhen Zephitz.

“Give us some space, please!” Jakira called, moving the crowd back.

Rhen ran his finger along the seal to pop it. The single-paged letter that emerged was clear. He was being summoned to stand trial for the man he’d stolen. If he didn’t appear in three days’ time, they would hunt him down like a dog, and there’d be no trial, only sentencing.

He steeled himself and flipped to the next letter.

It was addressed to Rhen M. Zephitz. He opened it.

I’ll be there. ~T.Z. Linphar

Rhen’s stomach dropped. He didn’t know if this was his doom, or his salvation. She must’ve received a summons, too.

No, it didn’t matter. Either way, he had another way out. Even if it meant losing all of this…

He would not be caged.