They’d come out of the hole in the rock onto a tall hill that gave a clear view of a distant city.

  The towering pillar that rose in the distance was a reassuring confirmation that they hadn’t fallen into some cursed realm. This floor would be like the others, still firmly a part of Tenjou, only somehow forgotten to time. Over the years, moss had somehow crept along the pillar’s smooth surface, dimming its never-fading light and tainting it to a deep ochre color.

  Clustered around that ochre glow were tiered structures of stone and glass, stacked close together like honeycomb, with arched walkways bridging gaps between rooftops and spires. There were the remnants of a grand domed hall, what remained of its glass dome still catching the pillar’s light. Other buildings were half-swallowed by wild growths of plants, moss, vines and fungi creeping along the sides. Further out from the connected spires and temples of what must have been the inner city, the crumbling buildings grew more sparse and modest, until there was only a wasteland of stone, sand and shrubs.

  “Wow,” Dario breathed, mouth agape.

  “Wow indeed,” Nika said softly. “It is all real. I had still harbored doubts, thought that there had to be some trick to it. But for a city this grand to have been forgotten… How could it be possible for no one to remember it? I cannot make sense of it.”

  “Well, there’s only one way we’re going to get any answers,” Dario said, starting to make his way down the hill.

  He kept his eyes wide open, letting out a satisfied sigh as he drank in the light aura to refresh his reserves. While drawing in plant Ki took his full concentration, this was as easy as breathing. He’d never been in a situation where his seams had been that close to empty. Refilling them now was like a fresh drink of cold water on a hot day.

  The terrain was rough, a mix of loose rocks and tricky roots to step over, but before long, Dario got into a rhythm and began whistling happily again as they walked.

  “Treasure treasure treasure, that’s what gives me pleasure,” he began to sing.

  Nika loudly cleared her throat, giving him a dangerous look.

  “I believe it would be prudent,” she said with forced calm, “to move stealthily.”

  Dario sighed but gave a reluctant nod, focusing instead on scanning the surroundings. There was a long stretch with only sand, stones and shrubs, so they kept on marching until they reached the first houses. Most of them were barely standing, so when they finally spotted a few that were still mostly intact, they decided to explore.

  But none of the old homes they searched offered much beyond dust, rubble and rotted wood, let alone anything of value. There would be no clues to be found here, except for the clear signs of violence. Most of the ancient houses had their doors kicked in, rusted hinges and shattered wood spread over the floor. Some had burn marks, while others had lines in the stone that could only have been put there by weapons.

  “We must assume that this city did not suffer a slow and protracted death,” Nika said as she ran her fingers over a gouge in the stone, “But rather a sudden and violent downfall.”

  After going through well over a dozen houses, they finally found something of interest. Past pieces of shattered wood, long since taken over by fungi, there was a single human skeleton. Near its bony hand was a sealed cylinder, out of which Dario gingerly fished a piece of paper. It was not in the best shape, but still mostly intact.

  “Huh, the tube must have preserved it,” he said as he gingerly unfolded the scroll.

  The script was hard to read, the letters old and shaped differently than what he knew. But somehow, Nika could make sense of it.

  “This is the old tongue,” she said as if that explained everything. “It reads something like this: ‘For me there is no more hope. The Kiseichuu are coming. I pray only that Yumi made it up safely. If you ever read this, dear wife of mine, know that I always cared for you’.”

  Dario snorted. “That’s not ominous at all. Any clue about ‘Kiseichuu’?”

  “No idea,” Nika sighed, shaking her head. “This would be further evidence of a grand assault or something similar, though it only raises more questions.”

  “Yeah,” Dario said as they left the house again, both of them looking out at what had to have once been an impressive city, a few hours walk from where they were. “Looks like we’ll have to go in deeper.”

  ***

  “There we go,” Dario said as he put another piece of plant cuttings into a pouch. Based on some tips Hana had given him, he was collecting seeds or buds from any interesting looking plants along the way. And in this forgotten place, there were loads of weird plants. Nature had thoroughly reclaimed this city over the years, everything from mosses and creepers to grasses and flowers spreading over the streets and houses.

  It gave Dario plenty of plant Ki to draw in, so he’d already packed his seams full of the energy, letting it slowly dig deeper so that his channels would finally expand down through his legs. It felt strangely itchy, causing him to walk in funny ways to try and stretch his legs or shake them out in between steps. After staring at him a moment, Nika hadn’t even bothered to ask about it, just shaking her head and letting it go.

  “I believe we’re most likely to find clues in places of learning, or hidden in clan residences,” Nika said as they continued deeper into the old city. “It depends whether the requirement of this floor was held in secret, or was public knowledge like it is for the Basement. But either way, well-preserved historical records or training manuals would most likely be found hidden away in vaults or libraries.”

  “I wonder what they called themselves. In terms of advancement, I mean. It used to be that everyone started as a Talc, but I guess we’ve been skipping a step, huh?”

  Nika nodded. “It is hard to imagine what this foundational stage might entail. Perhaps something to do with strengthening the seams, or somehow preparing for improved Koto integration? What did you say were the first lines of that rhyme?”

  “The dream must start within our heart; with words so sweet, clear of deceit.”

  The rhyme hung in the air as they both silently pondered the words. Nika was first to shake her head.

  “I cannot yet make anything of it,” she sighed. “We can only hope that it will not be a work of time. Reaching Amber from Talc can be done in only a few days, but the journey to Coral takes years for most.”

  Dario skipped a step and nearly fell as he imagined being stuck down here for years.

  “No,” he said firmly, looking back at Nika with a confident smile. “It won’t be like that. There’s always a shortcut, and these eyes are going to find it.”

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  As promised, he kept a good amount of Ki circulating in his eyes as they walked deeper into the web of tiered structures, passing by overgrown buildings and underneath bridges that seemed on the edge of falling apart, the ochre glow from the moss-covered pillar casting everything in a warm, otherworldly sheen.

  They would enter each important-looking building as long as it was accessible, quickly scanning the contents for traces of Ki or anything of interest, scrolls in particular. But the few pieces of paper they found had been properly chewed up by the teeth of time, to the point of being useless.

  Closer to the pillar, there were even more signs of violence, including a few remains of well-armed warriors that had fallen in battle.

  “It must have been beasts that did this,” Nika remarked as she was bent over a skeleton. “An invading army would have eventually cleared out the corpses and burnt them, before taking over the city. Only beasts would leave the fallen to rot out in the streets.”

  Dario’s frustration grew as the hours passed without any results. He would spot traces of Ki every now and then, working to clear out debris in hopes of finding treasure, only to find that the artefacts had lost too much Ki to still be functional. They searched for hours and hours without finding anything at all, until finally they found themselves at the back of an impressive villa, standing in front of what looked like a vault.

  “My treasure-sense is tingling,” Dario said excitedly as he looked over the locking mechanism. There was some kind of strange crystal that seemed to be central to the lock, but he had no idea how to activate it.

  Nika sighed. “Again, our priority is to find information, not artefacts. But I concur that this vault warrants closer study. Trying to unlock it will likely prove a waste of time. I intend to create one of your beloved ‘shortcuts’. Kindly step aside and avert your eyes.”

  Dario turned his back to her as she got to work, pressing her naked skin against the stone to take away its hardness layer by layer, until finally a Nika-sized hole would form.

  “Hmm,” he mused, “I wonder if they might have installed-”

  There was a loud click, then the sound of an impact and something clattering to the floor. It took an effort of will not to turn around.

  “Are you still alive? Can I look?”

  There was a muttered curse, then some shuffling.

  “You may now turn around again,” Nika said.

  Two broken arrows lay on the floor, but as he looked Nika over, she seemed fine. When he asked if she was hurt, she just shook her head and ducked through the hole in the wall. He picked up one of the arrows, seeing how the point was dented and the shaft had broken on impact.

  “I’ve really been working with the wrong type of Ki,” he muttered before following her inside.

  It was a spacious and surprisingly intact room, with chests and cylinders displayed on adorned shelves.

  “Well,” Dario said as he rubbed his hands together, eyes blazing, “why don’t you read through the scrolls while I investigate the artefacts.”

  The artefacts sitting outside of the chests seemed to have lost most of their Ki, so he decided to open a chest instead. Most of the items laid out here looked like different forms of traps though, so he looped some rope around the latch so he could open the chest from a safe distance, pulling the lid toward him.

  “Starting to think this was a trapmaker’s house,” he said as a needle shot out and flicked off the ceiling, his eyes picking up dark, plum-colored traces of poisonous Ki.

  Inside were two more traps, untriggered and with a good amount of Ki left inside. From what the Ki looked and felt like, one would use poison, while the other would likely trigger an explosion. It was a flat disk with some kind of plate on the top. It was stowed in the chest in a special kind of rack that would stop both disk and plate from moving, so he decided not to take it out.

  “From these letters, they were indeed a modest clan, focused on traps. Most of these are dull and unhelpful, just inventories and old contracts. I do have here a mention of ‘costs related to sending our growing Clays to the Cupola’, which might be referring to young cultivators. If I could just find more references to this Cupola…” she trailed off as she went back to browsing through scrolls.

  Dario found one more each of the explosive and poison traps, then two larger traps which had pressure and air Ki inside, alongside some other stuff, so he thought they might be snares of some kind. His pack was bulging once he’d tucked them all away - not a bad haul.

  “Here!” Nika said excitedly. “I believe this to be a bill from the Cupola, made out to the head of the clan, for admission fees and such. That means it could well have been a school of some kind. And look at the stamp they used.”

  The stamp was still in good condition, clearly depicting a large dome flanked by two spires.

  “Nice! Great job, Nika! Now all we have to do is figure out the secret, maybe grab another treasure or two, and we’ll be on our way back home!”

  Nika cocked an eyebrow as she eyed his bulging pack. “Are you quite sure it’s a good idea to stuff so much… Never mind, I think I already know your answer to that.”

  Dario was grinning like a fox as he strode back into the streets, until they had to climb up to a higher point so they could get their bearings. He was panting and sweating by the time they got up onto the roof of a three-story building, which was just high enough that they could see a few streets further down. From there, it was easy to spot the giant, half-shattered dome, though only one of its flanking spires remained and even that one seemed to have its top broken off.

  A flitting shadow had him snapping his head around, but when he looked closer, there was nothing there. Nika shot him a questioning look.

  “Thought I saw something. A flash of red and black, but…” he shook his head. “Let’s just keep quiet and keep an eye out.”

  Before long, they were standing in front of what must have once been a huge gate, but was now a pile of rubble. The walls that remained visible were either half-swallowed by moss or covered in stains that might be dried blood.

  “I bet this used to look quite fancy. Now it’s about as neat as a trogsty during shitting season,” Dario said quietly.

  Nika frowned at him, lips thinning with disapproval. “Please refrain from using such vulgar language in front of me. It’s uncouth.”

  He gave her a surprised look. “You don’t swear? Like, ever?”

  “Of course not. The Hagakure clearly states that vulgarity is the mark of an uneducated mind. It is not compatible with the virtues of temperance and highmindedness.”

  She made it sound as clear and obvious a fact as that the pillar’s light never dimmed.

  “But then, what would you say if a situation is… bad? Or surprising?”

  “There is sufficient vocabulary to express the full range of human emotions, dear Dario, if only one is willing to reach for it. An exclamation of surprise need not be vulgar; I have heard things such as ‘by the pillar’, ‘good grief’, ‘my goodness’, ‘by the grace of the gods’. There are many other options.”

  “I see,” Dario said, looking unconvinced. ‘Tenjin’s balls’ is not acceptable?”

  She gave him a dark look. “I will not abide by sacrilege.”

  Dario let out an uncomfortable cough and suggested they get a move on.

  After scouting around without seeing an easy entrance, they eventually decided to climb up the neighboring spire and try to get it from the top.

  Nika was in the lead, a rope tied around her waist which went down to connect to Dario. Unlike him, climbing was yet another thing she was good at, stabbing Ki-fortified fingers into the wall of the spire if there was no good handhold. She moved far too fast for him to keep up and as a result, the rope never went slack, pulling Dario relentlessly up while he scrambled to keep pace.

  When she was high enough, she leapt without warning across to the roof where the dome started.

  “Aaah!” Dario cried out, flailing as he dangled at least a hundred meters high in the air.

  “Be quiet,” Nika hissed, “I am pulling you up.”

  With both feet planted firmly on the roof, she tugged in the rope bit by bit, until a grunting Dario rolled over the edge and onto the roof.

  “Could have given a warning,” he grumbled, panting. From the way her mouth curled up as she looked down at him, he got the sense that this was still payback for daring to speak of Tenjin’s balls.

  By the time he got to his feet, she was already circling the massive hole in the roof where most of the glass dome used to be. Dario walked over to the other side, where a part of the glass still held. He touched the interconnected hexagons that made up the dome, then leaned on to it to peer over the edge, looking down at a huge open hall, the white marble floors covered with shattered glass and rubble.

  “I think we can get down from here, sliding down this pillar!” Nika shouted from the other side.

  “Awesome! We’re so good at this adventure stuff! We’re going to crack this mystery wide open and-”

  The glass suddenly gave where his right hand was leaning on it and he stumbled forward, only just stopping himself from going over the edge. First only a few hexagons came loose, but then that triggered a chain reaction which brought a third of the remaining glass dome crashing down into the grand hall below.