Mask of Humanity

‘Have you learned anything, anything at all that could be useful to us?’ Nicolai asked.

‘Let me think,’ said Harold, his eyes on the chunk of sky visible through the gap above, and he laughed, already infected by the mood Nicolai had thrust upon him. He looked to Nicolai. ‘One thing I can tell you, these undead don’t care much about security. Since they put this band on me—‘ he tugged at his band with a thumb ‘—they’ve just left me be. If I don’t stick with a mining crew, sometimes one of the Wardens will come and bother me, make me go back out, but often they just ignore me. We don’t actually have to do anything. I took the time to mine a few bits of crystal at the start, then I stopped and I haven’t since. I don’t even carry a pickaxe, now.’ He eyed Nicolai uncertainly. ‘Maybe we can use that?’

‘Yes, maybe we can.’ Nicolai smiled. Already it was “we” and that was good. ‘You must have been looking around, looking for a way out. What have you found?’

‘Actually, not a lot,’ said Harold, looking away. ‘I mostly just stick with this crew.’ He looked back and saw Nicolai’s decidedly unimpressed expression, which made him lean over, pushed him to explain himself.

‘There’s a monster in this place,’ Harold hissed. ‘A fucking… I don’t know. A centipede-thing. Luckily, it mostly keeps itself at a distance, creeping around up here, watching the undead, avoiding their notice. And that’s not all. There’s this hammer flying around, through the tunnels. A couple times I’ve been sitting in the cart, and it just spins right over my head. Terrifying. The undead attack the centipede but they just ignore the hammer, even when it smashes them. This place is dangerous. It’s safer to just stick with a crew, not stand out.’

‘I see,’ said Nicolai, doing his best to hide the vague contempt he was feeling, pleased at least by the confirmation this man had met the centipede. The hammer was interesting, too. From the description, it sounded like an Artifact. Kleos had told him he was a way off from having any chance of controlling such an item, and that they could be dangerous, so for now it would be best to stay out of its way. But it was useful to know one was here. When he was stronger, perhaps he could do something with it.

He considered the man in front of him. ‘So, it would be fair to say you’ve done nothing and learned only what’s obvious?’

‘Hey, I’ve been surviving,’ said Harold, frowning. ‘It’s not been easy for me, down here.’

‘Of course.’ Nicolai managed to re-ignite his smile. ‘I’m sorry if I suggested otherwise.’ He was beginning to think that Harold might be almost entirely useless.

‘But we’re gonna get out, right?’ Harold said, looking hopeful. ‘That’s what you said. Me and you, right? Together! We’ll find a way!’

‘Well, that might involve doing some dangerous things. More than just sitting in a cart,’ said Nicolai. ‘Are you capable of that?’

‘I…’ Harold frowned, and Nicolai watched with interest as his expression flip-flopped. Uncertain. Worried. Determined. Worried. Determined. ‘Yes, I’m capable,’ he said at last.

‘Ok, good,’ said Nicolai, pretending he believed in Harold. One item he was especially interested in was the Oma crystals mined in this place. Naturally, Nicolai intended to use them to complete his Seed, but compared to the vast amount available here, he would need comparatively few to do that. Oma crystals had a value all their own, and he felt it would be wise to start building a stockpile.

‘Do the undead react at all if you carry crystals around, when you aren’t with a mining crew?’ he asked.

Harold nodded. ‘Yeah, they do, actually. That’s the one thing they do seem to care about. Some of them are able to detect crystals, somehow. I filled a bag with crystals and had it taken off me as soon as I got to the top of the pit.’

Nicolai frowned, upset to hear that.

‘See, I do stuff!’ Harold was saying. ‘I’ve not just been sitting here. I learned some useful things. Right?’

‘Right.’ Nicolai nodded, appeasing. It seemed he’d pricked at Harold’s pride and the man now felt a desire to prove himself. That was good, that was useful. Perhaps Harold was worth something, after all. He glanced up through the hole to the darkening sky, his next area of question. ‘It will be nightfall in around three hours. What will happen then?’

‘At about one or two hours before night, all the undead start to make their way up out of the pits, mill around for a bit, then go into the prison area and into cells, watched by the Wardens. I’m not sure why the Wardens bother, the undead miners are very obedient.’

‘Maybe they’re checking for anyone taking crystals,’ Nicolai suggested.

Harold nodded. ‘That would make sense. Anyway, they’ve never stopped me. After that me and the skeleton prisoners spend the night in the cells. Come morning, back to the mines.’

‘It’s safe, in the cells?’

‘Yeah, well, I’ve heard some weird noises but nothing has ever happened to me. I picked a cell nearby to the mines, lots of Wardens and guards around that way. Figure it’s safer. I try to avoid going out further into the prisons. I think… the centipede might be out there.’ Harold licked his lips, looking nervous.

‘No whispering or strange creatures, in the night?’ asked Nicolai. It seemed to him that Harold’s clear fear of the centipede was what had kept the man stuck in this place. If it weren’t for that, perhaps the man would have already found Nicolai’s own way out. Although, the prison was staggeringly large, so by simply exploring randomly Nicolai supposed it was quite unlikely Harold would find such a way out, assuming they were rare.

‘Never heard any whispering.’ Harold shrugged.

It sounded like the night-crew, as Kleos called them, weren’t active down here. That was good, though a little confusing. How did they get into the banquet hall in front of his safe area, in that case? He’d assumed they must come up from the prisons. Were they small enough to fit through the collapsed hallway?

Nicolai shrugged the thoughts away and continued speaking with Harold, peppering him with various unimportant questions, getting to know the man better and working at developing a rapport between them.

When the miners reached the bottom and started work, Nicolai and Harold just watched, and talked.

‘Oops, uh-oh.’ Nicolai pointed out a chunk of rock being mined by one skeleton, right above where another was bending its head. The rock fell and cracked the skeleton on the back of its skull. It slowly straightened and gave the other a look that might have been irritated. ‘Not the brightest bunch, eh?’ Nicolai said, flashing a lopsided smile.

‘No.’ Harold laughed, and laughed, as though it were the funniest thing he’d seen or heard for days and days. Likely it was.

Nicolai, Harold, and the skeletons returned to the top of the pit as the torches began to turn red. As Harold had told him to expect, all the undead were now milling around in a great mass. After some time—Harold said it differed every night—the mass of undead began to move into the prisons, Nicolai and Harold amongst them.

‘In here, this is my spot.’ Harold waved, heading towards one side of the prison tunnel just outside the pit.

‘I’ll find my own place,’ Nicolai said, walking speedily away.

‘Hey! Are you sure? Hey!’ Harold’s voice was lost in the surging skeletons.

Nicolai was glad to be rid of him.

He headed through the prison tunnels, checking his map as he went. He had to move into a jog, pressing through the crowds of undead. He had almost an hour until dark, which wasn’t long. It had taken him two hours the last time to cross this distance, but this time he knew the route, and if he pushed himself he knew he could make it.

However, he did take five minutes to stop after turning a corner, hiding in a cell and watching. He’d left the skeletons, which were filtering out into the prisons in a slow mass, behind now, and the area was quiet.

No one showed up. Harold hadn’t followed him. That had been his primary concern. Harold didn’t know of a way out, and Nicolai had no intention of leading the man to his home. He wished to make use of Harold, and was planning to leverage the man’s desire to find freedom in order to help him do so.

Reassured that he’d lost Harold, he continued jogging on, making it to the same prison tunnel as he’d first found his way into. He glanced around and saw no Wardens nearby, so he climbed up the same stairs he’d used before, reaching the balcony providing access to the top level of cells.

He passed by Forgotten’s cell, opting not to speak with the strange creature, and found his tunnel. It was a small, dim entrance, easy to miss. Nicolai squeezed inside and headed out through his tunnel, lighting a torch with the chunks of wood and the tinderbox he’d left there.

He’d rather sleep in his safe place, and more importantly, he wanted to see about retrieving his Soul Trap. It would save a bit of time if he didn’t have to fashion one himself down there. The undead generally left him alone now the band was on him, even after he’d taken a few things. Carrying around a helmet hadn’t bothered them, so the Soul Trap would likely be the same.

That evening he had some time to listen to Maxine on the radio, but she had no updates on the wider situation to give, at least that he heard in the short time before she put music on.

###

The next day Nicolai returned to the prison area. In place of the pot-shaped helmet, which he’d left with Kleos, he now wore his Soul Trap. It looked a little different from before, as he’d tied cloth over its top to make a helmet cover, as well as putting padding inside of it and fashioning a new grip to tie under his chin, so it could actually serve its purpose as a helmet. He didn’t think it would be much use in that role as it was rusty and brittle and dented, and it didn’t fit well, but at least he could wear it.

The helmet cover that went over it served another purpose. Some of the undead were smarter, and they might recognise the runes covering the helmet as a ritual. If they couldn’t see those runes, then there should be nothing to give it away. Kleos had said that smarter undead could spot Imbued items with their own kind-of Soul Sense, but the Soul Trap was just metal with shapes drawn on it until the moment Nicolai pressed an Oma crystal against it, so it should be able to avoid their notice.

Nicolai was eager to begin, and as such glad that he wouldn’t have to spend the time making a new one. He exited the tunnel onto the metal balcony, glanced around, saw nothing, and headed toward the stairs.

There was a rustling of metal, and he spun in time to see a Warden unfolding itself from the darkness above the tunnel. It was pulling free chains that had dug into cracks up there on the ceiling, slowly creeping down the wall.

He moved quickly back, but it showed no interest in pursuing. It crabbed down and stopped in front of the tunnel he’d used. Then it bent its knees and sat down in the tunnel, its chains rising to grip the wall around it.

Blocking him in.

‘Oh,’ he said. ‘You sneaky...’ It must have seen him last night as he’d left, and he hadn’t seen it. How had it managed that? He peered up at the dark ceiling. Had it been hiding up there the whole time? It was a dark and roughly hewn ceiling, lots of crevices and ridges to hide in.

He’d just fucked himself. He let out a shocked little laugh. The Warden stared at him without any expression, though his imagination painted it with an irritating, smug air.

‘So be it,’ he said. ‘You can stay there. For now.’ He moved his mouth into the shape of a smile.

It seems I’ll be sleeping here tonight. He wasn’t too upset, because in a way, he’d won. The Warden hadn’t taken his Soul Trap. He was free to take the two elements that existed in excess in this place, mix them into his Seed, and complete it. What then? Who knows. Something interesting. After that, he’d find a way around the Warden.

He’d also thought up a use for Harold.

Back in the mine, Nicolai descended with the newest group of skeletons the tall one had directed him to. He didn’t see Harold but that was fine, he was in no rush.

Once the skeletons had settled into a side tunnel, he waited until they had hacked some Oma crystals from the walls. Then he set to killing them, and with each one he killed, he caught their soul in the trap.

The numbers went up.

User Interface 376 | Player #53,217

- Cultivation

> Seed Progress

Soul: 21%

Oma: 24%

‘There we go,’ Nicolai grinned, beyond pleased, and turned away from the scattered bone to begin hunting through the tunnels. He soon found another group of miners, and after slaying them his soul was up to twenty-two percent. Four more groups and it was at twenty-six, and he had his Seed consume more Oma from the crystals littering the area.

User Interface 376 | Player #53,217

- Cultivation

> Seed Progress

Soul: 26%

Oma: 26%

###

After a few hours of this he found Harold in one of the tunnels, lurking near a group of undead.

‘Where have you been?’ asked the man, staring at him in confusion and worry. ‘I looked everywhere this morning! I couldn’t find you!’ his voice had risen to a shout by the end.

‘Calm yourself,’ Nicolai patted at the air, a tolerant smile on his face. He was in a very good mood. His Seed was now over thirty percent in both soul and Oma, the most rapid and consistent progress he had ever made. ‘We must have missed each other, that’s all. Anyway, I have a job for you, for both of us.’

‘A job?’ Harold eyed him uncertainly.

‘A way for you and I to get free.’ Nicolai grinned at him. ‘There’s something we have to find. Down here, somewhere in the mines, there’s an item. If you examine it, it should have a name like Heart of Darkness, or Forgotten’s Heart, something like that. Apparently, it will stand out. Ever seen something like that?’

‘Never,’ said Harold.

‘Then get looking.’ Nicolai grinned bigger than ever. ‘And when you find it, come get me. We’ll split up, cover more ground that way, eh? You go off over there.’ He waved randomly. ‘I’ll be over here,’ he added, glancing at the undead in the tunnel. ‘Got it?’

‘How is this heart going to help us get free?’ said Harold, arms crossed, unmoving.

‘When I was up there, in the above-world, I met this creature. It’s like a big bird, one that speaks. It told me that its heart is down here. It wants it. It said, if I can find it, and stand down in the centre and wave at it, it’ll come and rescue me. It’s big enough to carry both of us. So that’s it, we just find the heart, stand in the middle, wave, and it’ll come grab us as soon as it spots us.’

‘A talking bird…’ Harold gaped at him, but it wasn’t the look of someone who thought he was lying. ‘This world is mad,’ said Harold, shaking his head. ‘Why didn’t you mention this before?’

Hadn’t thought up a good enough story. ‘Slipped my mind, was too worried about all of… this. You know.’ Nicolai made another vague gesture. ‘So. You going to help me find it, or are you going to sit around until the undead run out of food to give you?’

‘I’ll find it,’ said Harold, eyes seeming almost to burn with renewed determination. ‘I’ll find it. I want out of this fucking hole.’

‘Good man.’ Nicolai clapped him on the shoulder. ‘Get going.’

As Harold headed off, a real spring in his step, Nicolai turned to his latest targets, a fresh group of skeletons. He opted to wait before he struck until Harold was far away, and settled patiently against the wall.

Things were looking up.