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Solanum, Gabbro, and Chalcedony crowded up the wooden ramp to the lantern tower built into the stone gorge wall. Soggy wood creaked dangerously under Solanum’s heavy boots as she followed the two Hearthians up to the entrance, marked with a lantern symbol and lit by the thin light of the artificial sun in the Stranger. Thick, dank air flowed through her mask, much heavier than she was used to either on Ember Twin or Brittle Hollow, even thicker and wetter than the crisp air on Timber Hearth. Her suit’s filtration system could only do so much.
Solanum perked to attention, gripping the handle of her lantern-like metal artifact as Chalcedony bounded up the last few steps and ducked into the tower, Gabbro close behind. She heaved a deep breath and forced herself up after them, into a small, dark, cramped cylindrical chamber lined with faint lanterns stood on little inlets illustrated by tall paintings of rivers and groves lit by starlight.
Gabbro tilted their head, antennae on their helmet swinging around with the motion. “Nice paintings,” they commented idly, low and smooth, as if the darkness didn’t bother them at all. They swung their arm, artifact’s handle creaking.
Chalcedony hissed, “Don’t swing that around, you’re going to hit some- ow!” They swatted at Gabbro playfully with their free hand. “Now look carefully. Do you see anything different about any of these paintings?”
Gabbro hummed. “Some of them are about rivers and some are about ponds?”
Chalcedony swatted them again.
Solanum picked up one of the lanterns to examine the painting behind it in more detail, bringing the lantern just under eye level. “They are different waters,” she agreed. “But…” Her third eye narrowed, flitting around between the paintings as she lifted the lantern to each of them in turn. “Ah! There is planet here.” She held the lantern between her outer finger and thumb to tap the painting with her index finger.
She heard Chalcedony move to rub their hands together, but their artifact took up one hand. Their grin warmed their voice, though she could tell they were still on edge. “Exactly. And you know these guys’ technology operates on light, so…”
Gabbro turned toward Solanum, the pale stripe of artificial light from the doorway reflecting off their zippers and visor. “Put all the lanterns on that shelf,” they suggested.
Solanum snorted. “They hide their secrets in dark,” she retorted. “Take two lanterns off.”
Chalcedony tilted their head, and Solanum couldn’t quite imagine what face they might have been making beneath the visor, but they obliged, and with a creaking scrape the wooden panel pulled back into the shadows, revealing a staircase that spiraled down the inside of the tower. They bowed and gestured toward the opening. “We can use our flashlights now. I just wanted this first part to be spooky.”
Gabbro leaned their head back, but slunk toward the opening and climbed through, and offered a hand to help Solanum as she struggled to lift her wide boots up to the ledge.
“So,” Chalcedony began, as the three of them descended, boots thump-thumping against each aged wooden stair. They tapped their artifact. “These things are how you get into the simulation, as I said. You might notice that there are two buttons on the handle that your thumb fits over. You might want to play with those now and get used to holding them.”
Solanum lifted her artifact into the flashlight’s beam, watching the little contraptions at the front spin and narrow as she pressed either button. The smell of decay grew more obvious the farther down the stairs they got, but Solanum figured it may have been because they drew closer to the water level, or the wood at the bottom had rotted away.
Chalcedony continued, “You can tell when you’re in the simulation because they’ll light up. One of the buttons focuses your lantern’s light into a powerful little beam, and the other hides the flame.”
Solanum hummed. “What is ‘powerful’?”
“Strong. Sorry.”
“And ‘simulation’?”
Chalcedony glanced back. “The fake world. Computer world.”
Behind her mask, Solanum frowned, but made an affirming noise. “And ‘beam’?”
Her question died as she caught up to the two Hearthians at the bottom of the tower, where a ring of small green lights lingered around a larger green bonfire at the center of the room. When her eyes adjusted to the change in light, she gasped as she discovered the source of the stench: each green light sat in the chamber of a lit artifact, clutched in the long-mummified claws of huge aliens in a circle around the wall of the chamber. The aliens had hooves and antlers like the Nomai, but the proportions were all wrong, tall and stretched thin, with too many fingers, and they only had two eye sockets. Patches of colorless feathers clung to leathery, dried-out strips of skin left behind on the bodies, reflecting the green light with an eerie sheen.
Chalcedony sat themself down cross-legged on the floor near the fire. “Okay! Now all we have to do is go to sleep.”
Solanum balked. “With the dead- the dead?”
Gabbro sat next to Chalcedony, planting their gloves on the puffy knees of their suit. “I can’t think of a chiller place for a nap. The Corpse Chamber? Nine out of ten on the Gabbro Relaxation Scale.”
Chalcedony put a glove to their helmet, as if to scratch their head. “Well… it’s the only way in. You have to sleep or meditate by the fire. They just… stopped waking up. Left their bodies behind a long, long time ago.”
Solanum eyed the corpses with sympathy.
Gabbro pulled their flute off their belt. “Here, I can play some music, if that would help.”
Solanum finally lowered herself to sit next to her two friends. She missed her staff; it might have helped to play more homely music as well. But, she nodded, a distinctly Hearthian gesture, and Gabbro lifted their flute to the outlet in their helmet.
She didn’t recognize this song; it wasn’t one of the ones the whole community tended to play together, but it was slow and relaxed and calm. Chalcedony went slack, helmet slumped forward against their shawl, and their artifact lit up within seconds. Solanum smiled and shook her head, and tried to at least close her eyes. Between the fire’s quiet crackling and the steady flute, Solanum felt her breaths even out.
Then, everything stopped.
Solanum blinked awake. She glanced around, but the two Hearthians were no longer at the fire, and the ring of lights had gone dark. Solanum moved to flick her flashlight back on, and found that she had none. She glanced at her arms, bound in Hearthian cloth and leaving her fingers bare. The artifact was nowhere to be found.
Solanum frowned down at her empty lap, then stood and glanced around. Her ears flicked forward, straining to pick up any sounds besides the fire. That’s when she noticed it:
The bodies were gone.
Solanum startled badly with a distressed little bleat, but quickly smoothed her mane over with both hands, tugging at the short braids. She took a few deep breaths, turned toward the entrance, and closed her main eyes, letting her third eye adjust to the darkness. Unfortunately, when she rounded the corner to go up the stairs, she realized that the light did not carry up the staircase, and the smooth wooden steps led into complete blackness ahead. So she took another deep breath, put her hand to the wall, and felt her way up one step at a time.
She reached the end of the staircase and felt to her right, and noticed with relief that the ledge still had an opening leading to the main chamber of the tower. So she climbed out, careful to tuck her hooves in, and landed with a gentle clack on the wooden floor. She turned and found the entrance to the tower, but it also led into darkness instead of the strained light of the Stranger.
Outside of the entrance, she could hear quiet padding footsteps on natural dirt, and the eerie green light of a lit artifact danced around the rim of the wooden frame. Solanum crept forward, touching down each step gently and spreading her hooves to muffle the sound.
She let out the breath she’d been holding when she heard Chalcedony’s voice, though they sounded hushed and worried. “It’s been a good ten minutes… Ugh, I can hear the strangers in the house from here. We should have stayed down there.”
Gabbro replied, easygoing as ever. “She might have had trouble falling asleep. You know, for some reason.”
“Well, keep playing the flute. The silence would be worse I think.”
“Can do, time buddy.”
Solanum leaned out from the entrance. Gabbro, suitless, who happened to be facing toward the entrance, caught sight of her with their primary eyes and smirked. Chalcedony had turned away to pace along the entrance to a wide wooden bridge leading across a chasm.
Small orange candles in papered bundles lit the bridge, all the way to an enormous wooden lodge set into the other side of the canyon. Sleepy candles and lamps lit the house from within, and with the acuity of her third eye she could just see vague shadows passing across the dim windows. Between Gabbro’s and Chalcedony’s silence, Solanum could hear twittering alien speech.
On this side of the bridge, little collections of candles dotted the cold grassy ground. Chalcedony and Gabbro both held lit artifacts in one hand, outlining their scales and hard-worn clothes in little strips of green against the deep blue of the night sky, fashioned after the stars of the old universe.
Chalcedony folded their arms. “I don’t know how you manage to play and meditate at the same time.”
“I, uh, had lots of practice.”
Chalcedony unfolded their arms to throw them in the air, artifact swinging wildly with the motion. “Where is she! She can’t have gone far…”
Gabbro’s grin widened. “We could probably go look back in the tower.”
“But what if she got here before us and got lost?”
Solanum cleared her throat, and Chalcedony hissed out a strangled scream.
They whipped around and gawked at Solanum. “Where is your- your lantern?”
Solanum shrugged. “Did not see it.”
Gabbro put a hand to their cheek. “Well, ain’t that a mystery.”
Chalcedony shook their head. “No, that’s impossible, you would have… well, I guess the bottom of the tower is still technically within range of the top… come step out this way, Solanum.”
Solanum followed Chalcedony out along the ridge, stepping between ferny plants and the collections of candles, but nothing else of interest happened.
Chalcedony stared. “Huh…”
Gabbro’s voice lowered. “Do you think she… became quantum again? When none of us were observing her? Even she had her eyes closed.”
Solanum scratched at the tuft of fur on her chin. “You think I follow that way?”
Chalcedony tapped the toes of their sock against the ground, free hand on their hip and head turned downward. “But that doesn’t make any… Well, can you hear Gabbro’s flute?”
“No.”
“Huh.”
Gabbro shrugged. “Guess I can stop playing.” Their lantern brightened, and they turned to Chalcedony. “Your guess is as good as mine, buddy.”
Chalcedony shook their head again. “But this world is inside of a computer. It’s not a physical… our bodies are still in the hidden gorge. And, if you did teleport into here, where is your suit?”
Gabbro leaned their weight on one foot. “Eh, probably for the best, if you said we have to be quiet and sneaky. The Nomai suits are pretty bulky, especially on wood.”
“Oh, whatever.” Chalcedony shook themself off and lifted their lantern to gesture toward the rim of the chasm. “We’re going that way. Stay close.”
The two Hearthians began picking their way through the plants, but Solanum hung back, examining the house further, eyes narrowed. She wondered what the strangers were doing in the house at this hour, or if they were nocturnal. Would the trio need to go in the house? Burning curiosity within her demanded to know what the strangers looked like alive.
Just then, a slippery wall of static pressed against Solanum’s side, shoving her into a stumble across the cold damp dirt. She gasped, careful not to cry out, and pressed against the wall, but it continued dragging her after the two Hearthians even as she dug her hooves into the dirt.
Then, the wall faded. “Solanum?” Chalcedony appeared through the ferns, lantern lifted high. “Are you coming?”
“What was… that?” she marveled, pushing her hand out in the air and finding no resistance.
Gabbro poked their head above Chalcedony’s. “What was what?”
“That wall… it follows you.”
Chalcedony’s ears perked. “The wall?” They put their lantern down and picked their way over to Solanum. “Show me the wall.”
They followed Solanum until she bumped into the wall of static again, while Chalcedony walked past, their image fading into a ripple of static as they passed the boundary. They turned at her grunt of exertion, trying to push through, and hummed thoughtfully. “Oh, that’s the range of my lantern… I wonder if… you can’t get too far away from it? The world isn’t rendered, out this far…”
“What does that mean?” Solanum huffed, pushing against the static.
Gabbro stepped closer, and Solanum fell forward into the dirt as the wall receded. “It means things don’t exist outside of our lanterns. So there must be some amount of physicality…”
Solanum climbed to her feet, the dirt tickling against her fur as it dropped off. “Fake world,” she scoffed.
Gabbro grinned. “Yeah, say it. Get it.”
Chalcedony shook their head and retrieved their lantern, leading the way along the ridge. Solanum stepped over the little tangles of plants as Chalcedony lit the candles ahead along the path, and Gabbro followed behind.
Chalcedony whispered, “There’s a bridge leading across the canyon here. It’s invisible if you have your lantern, but it seems like you’re not going to be able to see it either way. I don’t even want to think about what would happen if you fell off the bridge, though… So you should maybe… stay close?” They held out their hand.
Solanum took it, and Chalcedony pulled her closer until they huddled up together, and led her through some ferns to the right.
Gabbro grinned, lifting their lantern. “What about me?”
“You, um… you stay close too. Really close. That’ll keep us safe. For sure.”
“Yeah, sure, alright,” Gabbro agreed, cozying up to Chalcedony. It was hard to see in the dark, but Solanum caught Chalcedony’s blush, and bit back a snort.
“Okay,” Chalcedony began. “Only step where I step. I’ll get us across the canyon.”
With Solanum in front, they nudged against her hooves with their feet, leading her from behind step by step across thin air. Solanum looked down at the serene river far below, current gentle and surface undisturbed. Chalcedony could not reach to rest their chin on Solanum’s shoulder to watch ahead, so they wrapped their arms around her sides and bent to the side to look around her. Their artifact pressed against her tunic, but she didn’t find it too uncomfortable. The three of them shuffled along, heading straight for a pair of candles on the other side of the canyon.
Solanum’s ears perked as she heard sounds inside the huge house along the canyon’s wall to their left. Someone had begun playing music, alien and mournful, and it echoed across the whole canyon. Soon enough, a chorus of howls and hoots accompanied the music. Chalcedony shuddered against Solanum’s back, but they didn’t slow down.
As she slid one hoof along the path, Chalcedony whispered to Solanum. “Are you sure you want to do this? If we’re caught, we’ll never be able to try again. We only get one shot at this. And… if something goes wrong when we get there… well, you know. No loops.”
Solanum shook her head. “You know I have dream about this stranger. I must meet them.”
Chalcedony stayed quiet, focusing on guiding their two companions.
Solanum stared down at the water far below. “You have meet them. How… are they?”
“Shh,” Chalcedony hushed her. “We’re almost there.”
When they safely reached the short, cool grass on the other side, Chalcedony gasped for air against Solanum’s back, and she realized they’d been holding their breath.
So she turned and put her thin digits on their shoulder. “You do good. We are safe.”
Chalcedony huffed, putting their hand on hers, voice low. “I need to… make sure the coast is clear. So we can make noise with the elevator.” They glanced at the house and groaned. “The furniture has moved… Stay here.” They set their lantern down on the ground and walked along the ridge to the side of the house.
Gabbro turned to Solanum as Chalcedony disappeared into a doorway and rounded the corner. “I wonder how advanced this technology is, that one of your quantum positions here was inside the computer, and it just looks like you’re in the simulation with us.”
Solanum squinted as she attempted to parse their sentence. Gabbro tended to talk slower than other Hearthians, but still too fast for Solanum most of the time. They almost never chose easy words in her vocabulary. “It is not real place. That is what Chalcedony said, yes?”
Gabbro leaned forward eagerly. “Oh, no, not at all. I was still playing my flute in the real world up until a few minutes ago when I left it behind. It’s all a trick of the mind.” They tapped their head for emphasis. “But that can’t be all there is to it, if you’re here without a lantern, even if it looks like you can only exist in the lantern’s light.”
Solanum made an uncertain little mumble. “I am not sure.”
“I wonder where else your quantum positions would be, if left unobserved… Or… could you make something in here quantum with you?”
Solanum frowned. “Like… take out of fake world?”
“Exactly.”
“But… it is not real?”
Gabbro smirked. “I’d love to find out.”
Solanum glanced at the house. “Chalcedony has gone for too long. I want to look for them.”
Gabbro shrugged, plopping down in the dirt and patting Chalcedony’s artifact. “I don’t think they’d like that, but, I won’t stop you. You have to stay within the lantern’s light anyway, and both of ours are out here.”
Solanum chuffed and made her way around the side of the ravine, past the wooden elevator to the doorway into the enormous lodge. Running her digits up and down the wood of the entryway, she wondered if twelve or fourteen creatures really took up all this living space. Then again, she reasoned, if she needed to live here for all eternity, she’d prefer having the freedom to go somewhere different every now and then.
Once again her third eye struggled to make out any details in the oppressive darkness. She rounded the corner and took in a sharp breath as her hoof found nothing for a brief second, until it tapped on a step down from the landing. And, from there, she found she could go no further- her hoof slipped and slid on the air before she could touch the next step down, as if caught on the surface of a bubble.
Then, she froze at a shuffling in the dark. Her ears strained, breaths shortening as she tried to figure out if the sound came from above or below. One shot, Chalcedony had warned her. And if she was physically within this world… if something happened to her… Solanum began to sweat, gripping the wooden railing to the side.
Clammy, cold hands grabbed her shoulders from behind, and when she moved to yelp, one of them clapped over her snout. The hand gripping her shoulder tugged on her tunic until she stepped backwards up the stairs, and when she made it back to the landing she whipped around to find Chalcedony, looking gobsmacked and irritated.
Chalcedony shook their head and signed something she couldn’t parse, grabbed her hand, and led her out of the house, to the platform leading to the elevator. They waved at Gabbro, who grabbed both lanterns with a sigh and brought them over to the pair.
Chalcedony wiggled with the effort of keeping their voice down. “What were you thinking!?” they hissed.
Solanum tapped her fingers together. “I want to look for you. You were gone too long. And I really, really want to see what they look like.”
Chalcedony rolled their eyes, fondness burning through the anger. “You’re about to find out. No need to rush. They’re all on the other side of the house playing music in the garden, I think, except for one or two stragglers. But we don’t want any run-ins at all. Let’s go.”
“Here,” Gabbro said. “Since Solanum can’t operate the elevator, she should go down with you, and then you send it back up to me.”
Chalcedony gave them a thumbs-up, and then dipped their head to Solanum and gestured to the elevator. So Solanum climbed into the little cage and crammed herself against the wooden bars, so as to not block the light-absorbing mechanism at the back. Chalcedony followed, lifting their artifact to the mechanism, and Solanum rested her head on top of theirs. The whole wooden machine rattled and dropped them to the bottom of the canyon, down to a wide dock at the river’s edge.
“Sorry,” Solanum whispered into Chalcedony’s scales.
Chalcedony sighed and leaned their head back so she could rest her chin on their brow. “Please be more careful. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
Solanum nuzzled against their forehead and stepped out of the elevator.
Chalcedony sent the elevator back up and gestured for Solanum to follow them. “Here, look,” they said as they approached a dark mound with a hole in the middle. “You can only operate these with a lantern, but it summons the raft we’re going to use to get down to the Vault.”
“What is ‘vault’?”
Chalcedony grinned. “It’s where you lock something important away. You’ll see.”
As Gabbro descended behind them, Chalcedony focused their lantern’s light through the hole in the device. Within the beam of light, a raft drifted into view, silent and gliding along the water’s surface without disturbing it. Not even ripples reflected the light of the little candles or the ringed blue planet taking up a large patch of the sky far above.
The three of them clambered onto the raft as it approached the dock, and it did not rock in the water. Solanum leaned over the side, though the river’s surface returned her reflection choppy and distorted. Chalcedony gripped the back of her tunic, so she conceded and went back to standing straight.
They drifted into a cave that plunged them into total darkness. Chalcedony lifted their lantern. “Okay, now jump off.”
Gabbro spluttered. “Into the water?”
“Quick, the loading zone isn’t very big.”
Gabbro hesitated, so Chalcedony shouldered them from behind until they tipped and fell off the raft into the water. Their yelp cut off the minute they passed through the water’s flat, calm surface.
“Come on,” Chalcedony said, taking Solanum’s hand. She squeezed their fingers and stepped off the raft, pulling Chalcedony with her.
They descended through the dark water, and then the stone flooring beneath the water, and as they fell through the ceiling of a huge cavern Solanum’s eyes widened. The two of them fell without tumbling, slow enough for her to get a good look around at the various undersides of the different simulation zones. They all held massive libraries, shelves upon shelves of little glittering slide reels lit from within by golden lanterns.
Between the libraries stretched an expanse of motionless water, broken here and there by jagged stone spires. And below them, a little island sat low to the water’s surface, with some kind of locked metal door leading into the stone spire at the far end of the island. The chains keeping the door closed glowed pale green, and reaching out in three directions the island broke off into three islets, each protected by plain gray stone and mud curled around some kind of device at each center.
Gabbro landed backwards in the water below them with an exaggerated splash, though the water did not spray. Solanum and Chalcedony landed more gracefully on their feet, and Solanum shuddered at the cold flat crisp feeling of the water against her hooves. Gabbro sat up in the water, shook their head, and stood.
Chalcedony pushed gently against Solanum’s back. “Okay, okay, okay. This will work out. It’ll go fine.”
Solanum glanced back at them. “You are nervous?”
“Well,” Chalcedony replied with a little laugh, “this isn’t really my idea of a romantic getaway.”
Gabbro barked out a laugh at that, and Solanum snorted, putting a hand to her nose.
Chalcedony led the two of them to the center islet, guarded by a raft on the islet’s side and one of those summoning mounds. Chalcedony gestured toward the device. “You don’t need a lantern to blow out the light. Would you like to do the honors?”
Solanum bent down to examine the mechanism, spotting the three glowing chains through the hole in the center. She took a deep breath and blew, and the center chain extinguished into shadows.
Chalcedony smiled, nervous but encouraging. “Perfect. Let’s get across the water.”
The three travelers clambered onto the raft, and Chalcedony lit the panel at the front to get the raft moving in the completely still water. They hopped off into the cold sandy mud of the center island. Solanum took note of a cylindrical device stuck into the mud nearby with a series of rings stacked around it, with a dial nearby: a password wheel.
Chalcedony stepped back toward the third islet, dropped their lantern, and marched toward the first islet. “Come on, Gabbro. Sorry, Solanum.”
Solanum stepped to the edge of the lantern’s range, feeling the dark cold sand tickle the undersides of her hooves. She watched with fascination as Chalcedony and Gabbro faded into swirls of static beyond the lanterns’ range and approached the first password wheel. One of them began spinning it with purpose, as if they swiftly figured out the password as they went. Then, they crossed what appeared to be another invisible bridge. At the far end of the islet one of them blew out the first chain, which faded into the shadows with a whirling wind around the island, brushing against Solanum’s mane.
The two Hearthians returned across the bridge to Solanum and their lanterns, and picked up their devices on the way to the final islet, which sat across a bridge guarded by two towers that cast red light across the wood. Built into the towers, Solanum could see huge bells.
Chalcedony spun to address Gabbro and Solanum as they walked backward up the sandy hill. “This last one is guarded by towers that will wake you up in the real world if you get too close.”
At the beginning of the bridge, the three of them paused, and stared at the towers.
Gabbro tilted their head. “So, neither of us can cross. Solanum could, though.”
Chalcedony shook their head. “No, I think if Solanum gets too close, we’ll still hear the towers and get woken up, and who knows what would happen to her without either of our lanterns?”
Gabbro raised a brow. “How are we going to get Solanum out at all?”
Chalcedony blinked. “Um… By all of us closing our eyes and hoping for the best, I guess…”
Gabbro grinned. “So what did you mean by ‘romantic getaway’?”
“Well!” Chalcedony squeaked, back going straight. “You know! Um, you know, I just thought, since, well, the three of us are pretty close, you know…”
Solanum snorted, nuzzled her nose against Chalcedony’s cheek to make them squeak again, and walked over to the password wheel nearby to begin spinning it. “These will turn off the towers?”
Chalcedony pulled up the collar of their shirt to hide their ruddy-purple face.
Gabbro shook their head fondly. “That’s how we decoded the matrix bridge. I imagine there’s technically still a password even if the actual code isn’t written down anywhere anymore.”
Chalcedony sighed. “I wish I’d had the time to just do it Nomai style during the loops.”
Solanum finished trying out the first wheel’s combinations, and moved down to the second wheel. “Nomai style?”
Chalcedony hid their face again. “Brute forcing it. Like you did with the Eye.”
Solanum tossed her head back and laughed. “Nomai style! Yes. We will do this now.”
While she worked on the fifth and final wheel, she heard Gabbro speak up again from behind. “So that’s why you wanted me to come along.”
Chalcedony’s voice cracked. “N-no! Or, well, I guess, not just that.”
“Oh?”
“We need someone to stay back here and catch the Prisoner if they try to run out into the water. They won’t… well, no more loops, you know?”
Solanum ticked the first wheel along one symbol and began again.
Gabbro’s voice. “And you think I’m going to stop someone from doing what they want? Let alone someone twice my size?”
The sand shifted behind her as Chalcedony seemed to begin to pace, or shifted their weight. Discomfort strained their voice. “Well. You’ll have to, this once.”
Gabbro’s voice lowered. “What are we supposed to do with them after I stop them, buddy? Where are they going to go?”
Chalcedony fell silent.
Solanum spoke up. “Gabbro. You think I can take things out of fake world.”
“I do. Let’s say you reincorporate them.”
Solanum sighed. “What is ‘reincorporate’?”
“When you take things out of the fake world.”
Solanum rolled her main eyes.
Chalcedony gasped. “You would make something solid by quantum positioning back out of the simulation. Or, someone. If they came with you.”
Gabbro spoke casually, smoothly. “It’s the only idea I’ve got.”
Solanum moved the second wheel along by one more symbol, and began again. “How are they?” she asked again.
A subtle scratching. Chalcedony must have scratched their head. “Like, what are they like? I didn’t spend a lot of time with them…”
Solanum turned her head enough to catch Chalcedony with one eye. “You spoke to them in dream.”
Chalcedony hummed. “Uncertain about their place with us. They thought they would taint the new universe, or at least my observation of it, by bringing their people’s fear with them. But otherwise… wise. Calm. Open to the possibilities. They’d like Chert and Riebeck, I think. And you. But we might have to force them to give us a chance.”
Gabbro pouted. “Not me?”
“Nope,” Chalcedony teased. “Definitely not.”
As Solanum worked, the underground cavern began to lighten at the horizon. Chalcedony walked closer to the shore, to get a better look.
“I’ve never seen the simulation in the day before,” they breathed.
Gabbro shuffled in the sand, but did not pass behind Solanum. “It seems like the strangers weren’t that concerned with, you know, accuracy of how the sky works.”
Chalcedony huffed out a laugh. “You should see the vault. There’s a telescope down in there. It might always be nighttime through those windows, you can see their ringed planet. I wonder if they thought they were being polite, leaving the Prisoner with a view like that.”
Gabbro hummed. “Or passive aggressive.”
Solanum muttered, “Could be both.”
“Could be both!”
Chalcedony groaned. “If it’s light out… Hornfels probably expected us back by now. It’s been hours, hasn’t it?”
Gabbro’s voice raised with interest. “Hours? Really? Does time pass the same way in here?”
Solanum glanced back; Chalcedony rubbed their hands down their face.
“Well, twenty-two minutes outside is about twenty-two minutes inside. I think they would want time to pass the same way in both worlds; would have made it more practical back when they were all still alive.”
As Solanum turned the final wheel to the half-moon symbol, the lights on the towers across the bridge sputtered and died with a loud clang, plunging the bridge into the calm half-light of the ring of gentle dawn around the underground horizon.
Chalcedony clapped. “Alright, now we’re getting somewhere! Solanum, you’ve earned that one.”
The three of them walked across the dead bridge and Solanum blew out the final chain, leaving the vault unguarded. Chalcedony ran back across the bridge and approached a wheel in front of the vault’s zippered doors, and looked to Solanum.
They scratched at their chin. “Alright, Solanum. We are opening a box you will not be able to close again. We have a half-formed plan to maybe get the Prisoner out of the simulation, and no idea what they might know or remember about the Ancient Glade. No more loops- only one shot at this. Are you sure you want to go in?”
Solanum squared her shoulders, straightened her back. She put her hands on the wheel. “Let’s do it.”
She cranked the wheel until the vault’s doors creaked open.