PHANTASIA

by R. Atlas

  “She’s probably resting while practicing energy trance techniques, or something,” Red offered, although he knew how unlikely that was. Butz gave him a doubtful look, suggesting that he also thought that it was improbable for her to be taking a break to practice controlling her energy at a time like this.

  “Well, her vitals don’t indicate that she’s in danger or anything,” Butz added hopefully.

  “Yeah, I guess not,” Red agreed, but he still had a bad feeling about her sudden inactivity. It occurred to him that he had never felt this way before; he could not remember ever having to worry about Raven. There was never a doubt that she could take care of herself, but now things were different. They were out in the wild, and far deeper underground in the Alloy Desert than he imagined anyone had ever come. It was his fault that she had ended up here, and she was the only one on their team that was still alone.

  “I’m sure she’s ok. There doesn’t seem to be anything dangerous here, besides whatever I saw before, but I don’t even know what that was. I haven’t seen a single real critter.” Butz said assuringly.

  “That could be a very good thing or a very bad thing. What if everything alive that comes here —” A flicker of movement in the foam cut Red’s sentence off and made him jump. He saw it from the corner of his eyes; something that leaped out of the foam and then fell back in one swift movement.

  “Did you see that?!” Butz asked.

  “Yah… it just looked like… a moving stream of liquid or something? Was it just the foam?”

  “No, definitely not,” Butz replied firmly. “It was a different color.”

  “Well, Linx still seems relaxed,” Red said. The Aeyz Cat was grooming itself in the foam and seemed disinterested in their surroundings.

  “You’re right, I guess it was nothing,” Butz said uneasily. “Either that or Linx has been plotting my death for years and doesn’t want to jeopardize this opportunity,” he added.

  “Think we can we drink this?” Red asked as he scooped up some of the water from the lake with his left hand.

  “I don’t see why not,” Butz replied. “I’m sorry, by the way” he added sympathetically after a moment while gesturing at Red’s other hand.

  “Yeah, it’s fine, I’m okay. Sorry for dragging you into this.”

  “It’s okay, I always imagined a heroic death for myself. When you jumped into the whirlpool, I figured it was a good way to go out. Couldn’t let you guys have all the glory, right?”

  “Hah!” Red laughed. “How’d you get Linx to follow you?”

  “Follow me?! I dragged that sucker in, held him as tightly as I could. I already spent too much coin feeding and raising this fat cat. If I’m going down, I’m taking him with me.”

  Red laughed again, and then followed Butz as he led the way towards Magnus and S. Linx dragged on behind them. The Aeyz Cat seemed to be in love with the foam and its texture, constantly rolling around in it or submerging himself fully underneath it. Red wondered if it was safe to do so, but then decided it was unwise to try and remove the cat from its glee. He probably knows better than me anyways.

  They climbed over a wall and then through a narrow chute into a larger chamber like the one Red had first landed in. There were several lakes here, all of them bigger than the first one they saw. At the far end of one of the sides was an enormous umbrielfall, hundreds of times larger than any of the ones he had seen so far. The umbriel flowed so powerfully from this one that it crashed into the ground below with the sound of a planet being torn apart. The oversized cataract seemed perfectly structured, like it was carved into place by the hands of a titan. Red couldn’t help but wonder if all of this was truly natural, or if someone had built it from the ground up.

  It took them nearly an entire day to walk halfway across the chamber, but when they got there, Red could make out two tiny figures walking towards them from the other end. He felt inclined to run, but his legs could barely move. The exhaustion from two sleepless nights was adding up. Adrenaline could only carry him so far. They were closer to the giant umbrielfall now, and the deafening white noise made him all the more sleepier. I have to keep going he thought to himself while glancing at his microAI to see if Raven had shown any movement. Her location marker remained exactly in place since the last time he checked.

  When he was finally close enough to recognize Magnus and S, he saw that they were laughing as they walked along. The image lifted his spirits, and Butz seemed to walk with a lighter step as well. Linx ran ahead of them to greet S; the cat seemed much more loving than usual. After getting closer, Red saw that despite their enthusiasm, both of them seemed just as exhausted as him and Butz. Their eyes looked too heavy for their sockets and drooped unhealthily below their brows.

  “Well you guys seem to be in a soaring mood,” Butz said cheerfully when they finally met.

  “Yup, it’s the flazb,” S replied.

  “The what? Is that this foam thing?” Red asked.

  “Yeah, Karth is filled with it in its subterranean environments. Makes me feel like I’m back at home. I’ve never heard of it growing in Avalonia though,” S answered.

  “Oh right, I forgot you’re from Karth,” Butz remarked. “That’s where umbriel is from as well, right?”

  “Yup -” this time it was Magnus who replied. “Flazb and umbriel go hand in hand. In dark places wet with umbriel, flazb begins to grow, like fungus in dark places moist with water. Umbriel has never been discovered in Avalonia though, or anywhere outside of Karth for that matter. Who would’ve thought that there was an entire world of it hidden somewhere in the twilight caverns?”

  “Ah right - I was trying to remember what this place was called” Butz sighed. “The caverns underneath the Alloy desert.”

  “Yeah, but we may not even be in the twilight caverns, technically,” Magus replied. “I think we might be far deeper underground than what ‘the twilight caverns’ normally refers to. This place is brimming with Cron, we’re probably somewhere near the South end of the desert where the MegaCORP extraction plant is. And I haven’t seen any machinery or signs of a settlement, which means we’re far beneath how deep the extraction plant has gone in the desert.”

  “In Karth, flazb is a luxury. The substance heals and nourishes you when you go to sleep in it. It restores your energy,” S said, changing the subject back to the foam and stretching a handful of the material carefully with her fingers. “It can take decades to grow, and dies out from the slightest touch of starlight. Its incredible that there’s this much of it underground right here in Avalonia, and that its gone undiscovered for who knows how long.”

  Red bent over and took a handful of the foam himself and studied it intently. It was almost too hard to believe, although he’d heard of stranger things that existed. It was more so that running into a substance that could restore his energy seemed to be too big of a stroke of luck to believe in, especially after all the misfortune the field test had brought them thus far.

  “Well we still have to find something here to kill and eat, even if this foam can somehow restore our energy,” Butz replied skeptically. The thought of eating hadn’t occurred to Red. Every passing moment he felt more eager to find Raven. He opened his compass again to check her status. As still as ever. Maybe she just fell asleep from too much exhaustion. But the energy flux? His stomach grumbled as he felt the sharp pain of going hungry for too long, but he tried ignoring it. He wished Butz hadn’t reminded him that they needed food. His stomach had not pained him thus far; it seemed to have forgotten as well, until now.

  “All of her vitals are reading fine, even if they’re abnormal,” S chimed in, looking at the compass along with Red. “I don’t know why she’s standing still. We noticed that too, I think it started about ten hours ago. She just suddenly froze in place.”

  “Can you feel her?” Red asked.

  “No, we’re too far. I have to be closer.”

  “We have to keep moving,” Red replied. “We can’t make camp until we find h
er.”

  “You look tired enough to pass out at any moment. You have to get some sleep, all of us do. We can’t go further until we’re rested. If we run into anything dangerous, we’ll be much worse off if we’re delirious from exhaustion,” Magnus said. The three of them looked at him reluctantly but knew he was right. Red felt like he could collapse at any moment.

  “I know…but Red has a point too, any moment we waste could make us a moment too late…” S broke in.

  Butz began to lie down exactly where they were and wasted no time in getting comfortable. He seemed to agree with Magnus’s suggestion, or more likely, was too exhausted to agree with anything else. “Am I the only one who realizes it’s Raven Maestro? She’s fine. We have a lower chance of survival with us four here together, with supplies and a source of fresh water, than she does even if she were blind and stuck somewhere deep below, tied to a Xenosite hive cluster.” Red couldn’t help but smile at the comment, and thought hopefully that Butz was right. “Are you absolutely sure this stuff is safe by the way?” Butz asked S while poking the flazb testingly as if the foam might attack him at any moment.

  “Positive,” S laughed. “In Karth, people spend months sleeping in artificial chambers that grow flazb to cure themselves of ailments.” Butz hummed questioningly at her response but seemed to decide he would take her word for it.

  “I’ll keep first watch,” Magnus said. “We’ll head out as soon we’re each at least somewhat rested.”

  “Okay, fine. Wake us if we’re asleep for too long though,” Red said as he closed his eyes. His body felt like shutting down but his mind continued to race frantically.

  “So what about food?” Butz asked as they lay down. “We haven’t solved that yet; I’m starving.”

  “Oh right - you won’t need any,” S laughed. “The flazb will take care of that, trust me. Now go to sleep, fast.”

  “What do you mean? You want us to eat it?” Butz asked with a grossed out face.

  “No, just go to sleep,” S said impatiently. Butz looked like he wanted to press her for an explanation but instead turned around and dozed off without another word. Red felt the marshy substance seep in through his suit as he lay there next to them, and then into his body through the pores of his skin. He imagined the process to be some strange form of osmosis. He hoped that S was right about the flazb being safe, but then suddenly remembered what they had seen earlier. The thought of something hiding underneath the foam and entering his body through his pores made his skin crawl.

  “We saw something here earlier by the way,” he mumbled with his eyes closed. S and Butz were fast asleep and didn’t hear.

  “Like a critter?” Magnus asked.

  “No…like…a moving blob of liquid or something. Have you heard of the things that grow in umbriel?”

  “Yeah, of course. They’re called supragens. The ocean in Karth has been explored for only a fraction of its depth, and they’ve already found lifeforms that challenge our understanding of the critter versus being distinction. The microbes aren’t like critters that evolve from one stage to another, nor like sentient beings. They seem to be able to combine into super organisms that are sentient, but by themselves they resemble bacteria or viruses as we know them. Some of them have exhibited bizarre qualities. Like when they touch other organisms, they turn them into clones of themselves.”

  “And that’s only what’s been discovered…” Red whispered. “Imagine what could be even deeper down there. You think any of those things can be growing in the umbriel here?”

  “I don’t know to be honest, but I suppose its a possibility,” Magnus replied. “I’ll scout the area while you guys sleep. Linx seems to be pretty awake as well; he can help me keep guard and spot anything dangerous.”

  “You always seem to know exactly where we are or what we’re facing, don’t really know what we’d do without you. How do you know so much about the world?” Red asked. “Even for someone who studies so much, you retain an awful lot.”

  “Never thought I knew that much…always thought it was just… common knowledge to be honest…” Magnus chuckled.

  “Definitely not common knowledge,” Red laughed. “After we find Raven, how do you think we can get out of here? Will we have to scale the walls?”

  “Yeah, or we can find a geyser. S and I saw one back where we first landed. They’re pockets of pressurized air. The currents are usually powerful enough to carry large amounts of weight. They’re sort of like reverse whirlpools. I doubt there are any that will take us directly to the surface from how deep we are, but we may be able to get to a much higher level of the caverns.”

  “Alright then,” Red mumbled, but was halfway asleep between the words. He realized that over the last few minutes, the flazb had created a sturdy concave underneath him. The foam seemed to know his body intimately, creating a bed of hard mesh that perfectly catered to the curve of his back. It was the most comfortable thing he had ever tried sleeping on. His mind soon felt relaxed - at least as relaxed as he imagined it could be under their circumstances - and he drifted to sleep while listening to the thundering crash of the umbrielfalls all around them.

  By the time Red awoke, he felt like days had passed, and worried that he may have overslept. To his relief, he saw that S and Butz were still asleep, which meant that he was the first one up. He looked around and saw Magnus a short distance away, playing with Linx and his mallet. The cat seemed to be paying close attention to all of the human’s movements. If Red didn’t know any better, he would say that Magnus was teaching Linx how to use a mallet.

  “How long was I out for?” Red asked, as he walked over with a yawn and stretched his arms out.

  “About three hours or so,” Magnus replied.

  “No way! That’s incredible… I feel like I’ve been asleep for more than a day. S was right; this stuff is amazing.”

  “Yup… it costs a fortune to stay in a flazb chamber in Karth. I heard they want to build one right in Areopa.”

  “Good call by the way, on resting. I felt like I was going to pass out before.”

  “Thanks, I figured we couldn’t go on otherwise.”

  “Raven would’ve forced us to go on,” Red smiled. “I wish she hadn’t overworked us the night before the field test. I feel like things may have gone differently… if I was up to par with my senses.” He looked at his right hand regrettingly but tried not to think about what could’ve been. It was always terrible to let one’s mind wander down that path. But it was true; if he had dodged that swipe just a second earlier, things might have turned out differently.

  “She can be a tough leader…” was all Magnus replied. “Are you okay, after all that?”

  “Yeah I guess. How come you never offered to be captain?” Red asked curiously. The question seemed to come out of no where, catching Magnus off guard, but Red had wanted to ask it for a while now. “I remember you were captain of your team during our first year at Crest,” he added. “When professor Miles kept making us spar against each other for some reason.”

  Magnus nodded distractedly. “Never wanted to do it to be honest. Plus I’m classified as a warrior, we typically don’t make good strategists.”

  “But it comes naturally to you, doesn’t it? I mean, the Basil’s rule each of the two human cities in Areopa, don’t they?”

  “Sure, but that doesn’t mean I want to do it. If we go to Raven now and find that…well…that something’s happened to her that we could’ve prevented if we had gotten there earlier, suddenly it won’t be so smart that I made us all take a rest.”

  “Yeah, I guess,” Red related. He tried to block any negative thoughts about her circumstances. He glanced at his microAI - still no movement at all. She definitely couldn’t have been asleep for this long.

  “People think that it’s a great privilege to be a leader, but I always found it to be a burden,” Magnus continued.

  “Maybe that’s what’ll make you a good leader one day.”

  “What do you mean?
”

  “I always thought that only bad leaders would think of it as a privilege. It’s more of a duty. You’re a servant to those that serve you, not the other way around. Maybe it’s not a privilege that someone’s lucky to have, but a duty that someone’s unlucky enough to have to take on. And something you shouldn’t turn your back on if you have a gift for it. You’d be doing a great disservice to those around you.”

  “Never thought of it like that,” Magnus smiled. His face beamed and Red had the sudden feeling that something had just clicked in his friend’s head. “For some reason, seeing it as a duty makes me feel better about it than seeing it as a privilege.”

  “Makes sense, doesn’t it? Anyways, go to sleep, I’ll take next watch,” Red replied.

  “Yeah… thanks,” Magnus said as he walked over to S and Butz and settled down right next to them.

  The four of them rotated guard duty so that by the time everyone was ready, Red had two more chances to sleep. He found it impossible both times around — partially because his three hour nap in the flazb had left him so well rested, and partially because he felt too guilty about wasting any more time. Instead, he meditated while Butz kept watch, and then took over S’s turn to let her sleep longer. It wasn’t until they were all awake and preparing to head out that Red realized his hunger had gone. He wasn’t full, but his body felt restored, like all of its resources had secretly been replenished without him knowing. He mentioned it to S, who smiled in return and began a lecture on the rejuvenating properties of flazb.

  When they finally returned on their quest towards Raven, they found out that taking a break was a much better idea than they had expected. They still had a while to go, but now that they were well rested, they were able to travel at a much faster pace. They went on for an entire day, traveling between chambers of different sizes, running through dark caves that seemed to have no end, and crawling by way of tunnels that were nearly too narrow for Magnus to pass through. When they arrived at a chamber the compass indicated was directly above Raven, they split into four directions to search for a chute wide enough to climb down. When they found one, they ascended to the lower level as quickly as possible. Linx seemed to have no trouble at all, flitting from rock to rock down the vertical tunnel as if the danger of falling was no more than an afterthought.