Soreness woke Felix. His body felt as if someone had stuck needles inside his muscles. His lungs ached, and his mouth and throat were parched. “Water…”

“Bibibibiii!” Bii bounced around him.

“Here you go, son.”

A bottle appeared in Felix’s hand. Fresh cold water fell down his throat in greedy gulps.

“Oi! The boy’s awake,” the old man shouted to someone.

“Thanks.” Felix tried to hand the bottle back.

The man pushed it back. “You keep it. It’s from them Knights.”

“Oh. Okay.” Felix held the bottle and peered blankly at the world around him.

Chatter of hundreds filled the fortress courtyard. Smell of soup and rain and smoke suffused the air. Here and there, younger people and knights mingled among the crowd of Forttown elderly. There wasn’t a single familiar face in sight. Felix turned to pinging Bii, and noticed his beaten and muddy backpack.

He reached inside. Half a thermos of lukewarm coffee. A change of clothes. One meatloaf flavored mombar.

Felix stared at the laughing bird logo of Anderson & Anderson for the longest time. A lost, empty void hollowed out his chest.

“Felix Andersson.” A brusque woman’s voice snapped Felix from the daze. “Annette Siren, Arch Templar of the Half-Valley fortress,” said the older buzz-cut woman, reaching down to shake Felix’s hand. “If you have a moment, I’d like to ask you a few questions regarding the looters you ran into.”

“Ah’ll go get me some soup,” said the old man, excusing himself.

Felix gave him a thankful smile, and turned back to the lead torch. “Sure. I have time. What do you want to know?”

Annette let go of his hand. “Everything.”

So he told her almost everything. Annette made a few notes, asked clarifying questions on the thieves’ relics and how they might’ve obtained a potency orb. Felix feigned ignorance.

Ten-fifteen minutes later, Annette put away her notebook. “Thank you . That will be all.”

“Do you think you’ll catch them?” Felix asked.

“With our current resources, unlikely. Stefan the Smiler has evaded us and the Scandie’s military for months.” Annette’s jaw tightened. “The Knights will do what we can.” She began to leave.

Felix reached to stop her. “Wait! Did anyone find my family?”

Annette pursed her lips. “If they are not here, they fell with the Half-Valley.”

“How? Why did Sofie take them?” Felix clutched her sleeve.

Annette pulled her sleeve free. “It is not a discussion to have with civilians at this point in time.”

“Please.” Felix’s voice grew desperate. “You have to stop her. She can’t just take a whole island of Surface like that.”

“That is a matter between silver torches and Abyssal Lords.” Annette sighed. “When the word gets out, they will no doubt stop her and recover what was lost. Now. Was there anything urgent that bars me from returning to managing the chaos.”

“I might know someone who…” Felix stopped his mouth. He couldn’t begin to explain the note with mysterious person ‘S’, the potency orb, and Bii without getting imprisoned for theft and who knows what else. And, if it turned out ‘S’ could help. If it turned out Felix had wasted their chances of stopping this madness. Fingers would point at. Everyone would curse him to the lowest Abyss, if they found out that he could’ve stopped this, but didn’t.

“Yes?” Annette gestured for him to hurry up.

Felix put on an apologetic smile. “Nothing else. Sorry and thanks for the water.”

“To the weary and lost, the Knights provide,” said Annette, before striding to a group of knights trying to calm down an angry old lady.

Felix sat back down to stew in guilt. Should’ve told her, he muttered, should’ve told her. He put a hand on Bii’s head when it pinged, scratching the silky fur, while wondering if he should redraw the note and turn it in anonymously. Besides being mad at himself, Felix seethed with quiet resentment towards ‘S’.

Why in the Byss would he write something so important so ambiguously? How hard would it have been to make an official letter and address someone important, instead of sending Bii with that hastily scrawled doodle? Not very.

“Byss damned S, is all your…” Felix bit down the anger, drawing a deep breath.

He shook off the dark thoughts. Even if mom and the others were taken, others he knew could have been left behind and needed help.

“Let’s go see if we can find anyone,” Felix said to Bii, picking up his backpack. His stiff muscles whined. Felix told them to tough it up.

He wandered the maze of huddled groups, injured lying on mats, and long queues snaking towards the toilets. His eyes were peeled for distant relatives, old friends, neighbours, peers from his academy days, heck, for even Mrs. Gunhild. Not a single familiar face caught his eye.

“Hey, aren’t you the guy who helped me save my hun-buns?” a lanky brown-haired man waved at Felix. Stacked around him sat piles of pet carriers. Beside him, a tall blonde lady in a brown raincoat stirred a pot of green soup on a portable imp cooker. Between the two wiggled a little girl with the man’s soft features and her mother’s hair. An oversized brown brimmed rain hat sat on the child’s head.

“Hungry?” the man asked. “If you want a taste of Reclamation Day, my wife managed to save a pot of spinach soup from the elderly home. You’re free to join.”

Felix glanced around busily, several excuses ready, when he stopped himself. The soup looked good.

“Sure. Why not.”

A blanket wearing elderly couple shuffled closer to make room for Felix. The ground was hard, cold, and wet, but the people were a breath of warmth. They didn’t ask him anything, or prompt him to talk. The bunny rancher fed a chip to the big red larvae trapped within the imp cooker. It gulped the chip and continued blowing out a steady blue flame. Soup pot stirred gently, slowly steaming.

Felix found his gaze wandering Abyssward. Rifts and chaos dotted the view above. True sky was barely visible, a thin sliver squished between a sideways climbing landscape of rippling green mountains, and a sea of dark purple clouds concealing floating islets. He used to dream of going there.

He used to fantasize about bringing back relics to mom and Linda, of competing with Hannes, of bonding with the delvers at the piers, of making a name for himself, of seeing Abyss’ deepest wonders, of finding the awesomest deepest spot in the Abyss, and keeping his dumb old promise.

Felix’s fingers ghosted over his shirt to feel the pebble necklace. He’s gone. They’re gone.

Now what’s the point of the Abyss?

Of anything?

Cawing, a pair of crows hopped near an overflowing trash-bucket as they picked at a ration wrapper without a care in the world.

Whiff of creamy Reclaiming Day soup trailed from a bowl that the bunny man offered to Felix. “Here you go friend. I’m sorry we don’t have any spoons.”

“That’s fine. Thank you.” Felix’s stomach growled and he took a sip. It was salted well. Milk and butter softened the robust taste of spinach just right. It was tasty, except… “Mom’s had garlic.”

Felix blinked as his eyes began to water. He wiped them. To add to his embarrassment, his breath began trembling.

“S-sorry, it’s tasty.” Felix cursed at his shivering voice. “It’s tasty.”

Small arms wrapped around him from the side. The little girl, a stranger, looked at him, sniffling. “Is okay mister bunny hero. No cry.”

The man rubbed Felix’s shoulder. “If you want to, you can camp here with us for now. It’s the least we can do.”

Felix put the plate down and buried his face in his hands.

“You don’t have to decide yet,” added the man’s wife softly.

The fact that he might never see home or his family again bled out of Felix in a flood of sobs and tears. Seemingly without end, despair, confusion, and loneliness bubbled out. His soup grew cold. By the end, his eyes were red, cheeks wet, and his heart empty, but calm.

The family gave Felix space, and he found himself again enraptured by the Abyss. Though this time, his mind didn’t wander with his eyes.

“Bii, I’m sorry for trying to take your orb. If I hadn’t, maybe I would’ve had the guts to turn it in. Maybe I wouldn’t have kept telling myself it was some dumb cipher.”

Bii pinged supportively, then bit Felix’s pants and tugged on them.

“What, do you need to go to the toilet?” Felix looked down at the little denizen.

It kept pinging with a purpose and pointed its paw at the Abyss, then continued tugging Felix’s pants. “I can’t go to the Abyss. I don’t have a torch. Besides, isn’t it too late now?”

Waving its feelers and paws, Bii launched into what must’ve been a rant of some kind.

Felix blinked. “Your friend. ‘S’ still needs help?”

Bii pinged affirmatively.

Mysterious S. The person who could’ve stopped this all, but didn’t. The mysterious delver with wealth to throw around potency orbs and promise a hundred more for a favor. Could Felix had judged him too harshly? What if S was somehow barred from helping. Could he do something?

“Could he help save Half-Valley?” Felix thought out loud.

After a moment’s hesitation, Bii nodded. It was uncertain, but Felix didn’t focus on the maybe not. ‘Maybe yes’ was more than he had, more than enough.

An uplifting buzz sparked in his chest.

He had hope.

Yes, the note and S were suspicious as the backside of Byss, but Felix couldn’t exactly go back to foraging chips. He knew he’d regret it his whole life, if he didn’t grab onto this sliver of light.

Felix pulled Bii into a conspiratorial whisper. “Okay. How do we do this?”

“Bibibii!” Bii pointed at itself, Felix, and the Abyss.

“Sure. But I’m a human. I can’t just walk into the Abyss with you or I’ll die. I need equipment, food, water... human things.” Felix tapped his chin and opened his backpack, arranging his possessions and thoughts, while pondering his options.

Knights of the End might lend help. On the other hand, they might blame him for not warning them earlier, if they believed him at all. Without the note, or the potency orb, Felix’s story would be taken as a vivid imagination of a heartbroken boy trying to make sense of his loss. He wasn’t even sure if Saga would believe him, after all the little lies that had broken their relationship.

He couldn’t ask them for help directly, but Felix was certain joining the Knights was his best move. Once inside, he could feel around to see if he could confide in a few of them, or trick them into arranging an expedition to the Hollow Conservatory. Plus, he needed a torch and equipment to delve.

“Alright! Come on Bii.” Felix stood up. “Hey, thanks for the soup and everything. It was delicious. I’ve gotta go now.” He waved the family goodbye, and began searching for Saga, certain that she would help him join the Knights of the End.