“Provisions?” asked Hannes, lowering a finger.

Felix browsed his backpack. He had mombars and water for days. “Check.”

“Containers?” Hannes lowered a second finger.

The main pocket of his backpack had two three liter metal canisters. “Got them.”

“Climbing gear?” Third finger lowered.

Felix tugged his harness to make sure it was tight, patted his spool of wire, and checked his climbing picks hadn’t ran away from his waist. “Yup.”

“You have my shaxe.”

Every delver’s favorite shovel-axe-shortspear-and-pickaxe multitool, shaxe, rested in a holster on Felix’s belt. “Still there.”

“And you have the rabbit.” Hannes lowered his last finger, and nodded at the pet carrier attached to Felix’s backpack. Inside slept a fawn-furred floppy ear named Snoozy. “All check.”

Felix heaved the pack on his back. Clothed in his work overalls, Hannes’ old clay-red jacket, and cowl, Felix felt like an imposter among the real delvers crowding the piers’ hangout spot.

Linda pulled on his oversized sleeve. “Psssst. Feeelix, please ask him?”

Felix sighed. “You had days to ask it yourself. It’s too late now.”

Her dismay was noticed by Hannes, who spoke up. “Too late for what?”

“Shhh,” Linda hissed.

Felix ignored her. “She wants to come along.”

“Traitor.”

“You wanted me to ask him...”

Linda, with much struggle and fidgeting, managed to plead her case to Hannes. “Dad took Felix down when he wasn’t half my age. There. I said it.”

Felix chuckled at her pouty face. Bravo, truly you’re the height of bravery.

Hannes placed a hand on his sister’s shoulder. He spoke after a moment’s consideration. “I’m sorry you have yet to see the Abyss. Father was a far better delver than I am today. The only reason I am able to ensure Felix’s safety is due to his body enhancement relic.”

“But Bii gets to go?” Linda pleaded, throwing a bitter look to the denizen riding Felix’s shoulder.

Hannes glanced at the denizen. “Bii is from the Abyss. I’m certain he can handle himself.”

Bii pinged confidently, and puffed his chest.

“Safe delving my sons.” Mom wrapped Hannes in a hug, and squeezed him dearly. “Safe Be careful. Watch out for each other. And, should anything go even slightly wrong, pull out no matter what treasure the Abyss tries to entice you with.”

“We will, mother,” said Hannes, returning her affection.

“Mom, it’s just four turns deep in the safe zone. We have a rabbit for emergencies, and Hannes is an iron torch. It’s no more dangerous than a grocery trip.” Despite his assurance, Felix received a smothering hug.

“The Abyss takes without a warning. I won’t regret not speaking out my heart in a goodbye ever again. I love you, Hannes. I love you, Felix. My precious sons. Take care, and be safe.”

“Okay.” Felix’s voice quavered.

Hannes gave mom’s shoulder a squeeze, “We love you too, mother.”

Linda ran up to first embrace Felix, then Hannes. “Bhy-hyhyeeee… Y-yhou have to.” Sne sniffled, her words melting into one sob. “Come baaaack. Youhaveto.”

Further reassurances to Linda delayed the brothers’ departure by some minutes. They kept waving at her, up until the moment they boarded a box of Abyssal timber fitted with chain-link windows.

For the first minute of their descent, the deafening rattling of pulleys kept conversation dead. Felix didn’t mind it much. A fuzzy uplifting spirit lingered where mom had hugged. He only wished he could’ve been as honest as Hannes.

Sounds settled. Air thickened under the gentle fog, which lingered between the border of Abyss and Surface. Felix squeezed the handholds tight.

Hannes studied him. “Nervous?”

“Yeah.” Felix admitted. “Excited too.”

A bang sounded from the rafters below the piers. Felix jumped. An inhuman grey figure peeled off a support pillar and plunged into the Abyss. Smoke wafted from one of the multiple barrels extending from a young liftmaster’s sleeve. Noticing the brothers, the man raised his non-relic hand in greeting. Hannes gave him a stoic thumbs up, which Felix imitated.

After a brief quiet, Felix broached a topic that had been on his mind all morning. “So, was Marja too busy to see you off, or have you not told mom about her yet?”

“I have not.” Hannes let out an exhale. “It’s a recent development.”

“Mm.” Felix nodded, taking in the scenery of lightless ravines and cave-mouths in the overgrown Abyss below. “She seems cool. You two fit together. I hope it works out for you.”

“I’m glad you think so.” Hannes’ expression softened. “I hope it does.”

Felix smiled, glad to see his big brother finally displaying human emotions.

The lift descended into a chasm in a cyan grassland grasped by veiny black roots. Earthy smell of Abyssal moss, soil, and faint scents of decaying plant life grew the deeper their lift plunged into that hole. Sunlight shrunk. The pale silverlight of Hannes’ lantern, and Bii’s faint glow became the sole sources of luminance. Alien plants rustled with tiny denizens. Something chirruped in the Abyss. Other things croaked in a way that made it sound like distant chatter.

Groaning, the lift landed. Felix followed Hannes onto the squishy moss, his eyes darting from strange sounds to flickers of light; distant laughter, moans almost human, and branching tunnels illuminated for a blink by something glowing on the other end. Cave-mouths surrounded them. Scores of them. And only one led to the Ball of Water.

When Hannes waved his torch towards the Surface, the lift began retreating back to the piers. “Now then. Time to work,” he said. Without further explanation, Hannes crouched and began turning plants over.

“Wait, I have a better idea.” Felix pulled out his canteen.

Hannes paused to watch Felix pour a splash on the ground, and stare at it intently with Bii. The water began moving.

“It’s moving!” Felix grinned. “Hahaa! Knew it.”

It slid down the plants’ stalks, and onto the moss, and then remained there the way regular water does, when it sits still in the most anticlimactic way imaginable. After a moment, tiny denizens rushed in from underground and nearby plants to gulp up every last drop, swarming the spot.

“Huh,” Felix furrowed his brow. “It’s not working the way the log said it would?”

“Rules of the Abyss don’t always apply to true-matter the same way,” said Hannes.

“Yeah, I knew that on a theoretical level, but my brain still thought it sounded smart.” Felix put the canteen away. “Well, it was worth a shot.”

Hannes returned to manually combing through the undergrowth. “It’s fine here, but you’ll need to be more cautious as we delve deeper. Even in the safe-zones, there are potentially dangerous denizens, which may be attracted to true-matter.”

Felix swallowed, pulling his hood on tighter. “Should we put the face masks on too?”

“Unnecessary. Covering nine-tenths of the body with Abyssal materials is enough to fool almost all denizens into thinking you’re of the Abyss.”

“Why do some folks then cover their faces?” Felix tentatively loosened his grip on the hood.

Hannes moved to a different spot. “There may be foul smells, toxic gases, denizens who like to attack faces...” Felix zippered a face-mesh onto his hood in record time. “...or ones that recognize human faces.”

“Geez. Good to know!” Felix faked half of his exasperation. “Years of reading and somehow I’ve caught none of this. Why is this not written on the logs?”

Hannes leaned closer to the ground, squinting at a plumb plant. “Hm. I suppose we take it as common sense after the first few delves. Furthermore, Delver’s Code requires us to keep certain things from civilians.”

“Oh, to one day be a delver with brain bursting of secrets and random Abyssal trivia that I can casually call common sense,” Felix mused dreamily.

“Well.” Hannes let out a deep exhale. “We can start by finding water.”

“Right. Haha! Sorry about that.” Felix knelt and got busy.

He checked under leaves, peeked inside cup-like flowers, and turned stones to find fuzzy boys hiding underneath. Bii wasn’t the most convenient light-source, since he kept pinging and bouncing around, but on the flipside it tried to help by poking things with its feelers. More often than not, it messed up the spot Felix was examining, but the thought was much appreciated.

Felix found himself absorbed in the tiny details of the ground—the texture of plants, the veins on the rocks, and the limbless flat creatures burrowing in the soil. Everything was different, slightly off compared to their Surface counterparts. A purple bushel of bladed leaves turned out to be an easily frightened worm that fled Felix’s touch. Similarly, many legged blobs with eerie howling faces on their black backs collapsed into gently twinkling spores. Every time Felix so much as rotated on the spot, he seemed to find new species of denizens, natural Abyssal flora, or new curiosities!

“Felix!” Hannes’ shout was distant, barely audible.

Felix blinked, scanning his surroundings. His jaw fell open, as alarm gripped his chest. How? Some hundred meters of bumpy ground—moss, caverns, plants, and rocks—stretched between Felix and Hannes, who stood at the lift-site.

Felix felt the lively darkness of the Abyss around him, as if it were physically creeping up on him. He hurried back to Hannes with more than a few running steps.

“Staying still is a sure way to get lost in the Abyss,” said Hannes.

Felix caught up to him. “I thought it was just an inside joke!”

Hannes’ lips pursed tight to suppress a reaction. Was that a snort? “Try to avoid standing still or focusing on the details, or the Abyss around you might change. A good way of tethering yourself, is to keep your perception wide. Make sure to glance at your surroundings often, and they’ll be less likely to change on you.”

“Damn. Any other essential life-saving tips, before I go get myself in trouble?”

“Too many to count. Well. There is one. Never walk around a corner, without someone watching you,” Hannes started towards a cavern entrance thick with spiral coiling vines.

Felix stuck close by. “That one’s common sense to me too.”

“Excellent.”

“Anything else you can think of?”

“If you get lost. Release the rabbit and follow it.”

“Thanks. I know how bunnies work.”

“Then you are all set.”

“Come on. Knowing how to navigate the Abyss could give me an edge in the interviews,” Felix insisted.

Hannes shook his head. “It’s not something I can teach on a single delve. Hm. But, if you insist, I can let you take the lead in guiding us to Ball of Water.”

“Sure.” Felix perked, excited to learn. “We take that entrance first?”

Hannes’ stern head-tilt was enough to say it was the wrong answer, before he asked, “Why that one?”

“Because you already found it was the right way?” Felix quirked a brow.

“The same path leads to different places, depending on where you’re going,” said Hannes, quoting someone. “A strong sense of direction is required to navigate the Abyss. You must not only be absolutely certain you’re going the right way, but your belief must be backed by truth. That’s why logs often mention unique quirks of locations as navigational tips.”

“Aaah, I knew that!” Felix punched his palm.

“On a theoretical level?”

“Just so.”

Hannes gave Felix a thumbs up. Felix smiled back. He wasn’t sure if Hannes had always had a subtle sarcasm to him, and he hadn’t noticed, or if this was a new development. Either way, Felix liked it.

A couple moments passed, before he found the ‘truth’ Hannes had been following. Every so often, a droplet of water would come into view. They dragged slow trails across the leaves, drip-dopping sideways from plant to plant.

“There,” Felix pointed excitedly. “I see them.”

Hannes nodded, and gestured for Felix to lead the way.

Bubbling with at least ten sorts of enthusiasm, Felix crouched to fit into the low cave. Plants crunched softly underfoot. Critters scurried on the walls. Droplets of water reflected Bii’s ghostly glow, joining each other, forming small rivulets, which ran along the walls and ceiling, leading Felix closer to his prize.

After a turn, now two turns deep into the Abyss, the tunnel expanded. Bright light filled it from the above, and the rivulets headed up. Following their trail made Felix feel weak in the knees. Beyond the hole in the ceiling, hundreds of meters above head spread a mossy valley of rapids and waterfalls. Big boulder-sized creatures shuffled on the ceiling, as if it was Felix who stood upside down and not them.

“Climbing time,” said Hannes, handing Felix a wire.

“Thanks.” Felix attached it to his harness, tied a spare wire to his backpack, and began challenging the cliff of water-slicked rock and treacherously loose patches of moss. The seven incline was a battle of slipping boots and constant returns to square one. Felix had to unzip the face-mesh for better visibility, and even take off his gloves and grip the cold smoothed grooves of stone barehanded. Hannes could've easily thrown or carried Felix. But Felix was thankful for the chance to fumble and learn, to experience proper delving.

When he finally hauled the backpack up, Felix had sweat on his brow and a smile on his lips. He sat on the edge to rest, and took in the humid musty smells of the vast cavescape.

If Felix thought of himself as an ant, the cave resembled two mossed gutters glued together. Pale dimly lit mist obscured both the up and downhill of the chute. Overgrown rocks and boulders of various sizes shuffled uphill on crabby legs, seemingly at random, until Felix noticed them pausing before Abyssal plants. Pincers reached out from underneath the rocks to pick up plants and place them atop the rocks. There was also a small group of tiny rocks stealing plants from a large boulder, who seemed unaware of their antics.

If made into a relic, would they grant gardening abilities, or would the abilities depend on the kinds of plants carried on their backs? They might make for a crazy good foundation to build a plant based relic ensemble on.

“Do you need a break?” asked Hannes, climbing up with his backpack on like it was no big deal.

Standing up, Felix brushed his pants. “I’m good to go.”

“Hm.” Hannes nodded, gesturing for Felix to lead again.

Navigating became easy. Trickles were now rivulets, all of which led to a tall crack in the side of the valley. The crab-gardener posed the only almost-issue of their journey. They came to investigate the brothers and attempted to nip at their clothes. Each time, Hannes manifested his relic and kicked them with the ease he might kick a ball.

Air cooled further inside the crack, where an uphill incline led towards darkness of dribbling water. Rivulets joined into slow meandering streams. Unusually slow. Unnaturally meandering. Rather than carving into the stone, the streams bulged outward, writhing over mossy stone and algae like snakes of water. Snakes, which eventually lifted completely off of the ground, rising high and dispersing into waterfalls of leisurely drifting droplets.

“We’re there,” Felix realized.

Hannes lifted his torch, failing to illuminate the vast tower-like space yawning above them. Clear silverlight wobbled against the shadowy surfaces of floating bodies of water. They bounced off the walls, splashed against each other, and twirled as two dancers. Ribbons of water fluttered between the spheres. The mysterious rhythm mentioned in the log was present, both in the flow of water and the soft melody of lapping water. Bii pinged to the tune.

“Hm. Interesting little place,” said Hannes. “Water higher up seems to dance faster. We should try to get it.”

“Oh? Now that you mention it…” Some four stories high, where blue darkness began to drown out the silverlight, two blobs bounced around rapidly, a little out of tune.

Surface of a blob broke with a splash. A shadow darted to another mass of water, and from there to another, jumping between them.

“Something’s swimming in there.” Felix’ gaze narrowed to follow it.

Bii pinged in alarm at something behind Felix. Turning, he realized what the creature had to be.

In a low floating sphere level with Felix’s face, a long spindly body swam coiled in the dark water. Tattered flag-like webs fluttered behind the mane of spines coating it. Felix caught a glimpse of multiple shrimp-legs, before a face appeared inches from his own. A flat bony fish-face, uncomfortably human, and made worse by the lack of eyes.

A low hum drowned all sounds inside Felix’s skull. “Deeeeeeeeeepeeeerrrr…”

“What in the—” Felix had only begun to manifest his relic and jerk backwards, when the spineharrow lunged at his face.