Chapter 391: Beyond the Broken Walkways

Chapter 391: Beyond the Broken Walkways

On Saturday night, Jin checked Glitch’s avatar before he did anything else.

[Avatar Condition — Glitch: 100%]

He’d kept the avatar out of hard encounters while it recovered from the ram’s forty-one percent. Each evening he’d checked its condition before doing anything else. Tonight the reading was full, and Glitch’s short walk along the entrance passage showed none of the stiffness Jin had watched earlier in the week.

He checked Flicker’s avatar too, out of habit.

Her avatar remained at its developed level. The recent Sync had brought her real body two Stars closer using stored progress; it hadn’t weakened the avatar or awarded it the same growth again. Jin checked her condition, then brought both controls into view.

Good, he thought. I need her good tonight.

He sent them both up the branch passage to the Pillar Court.

The court was empty now. The ram’s recess was dark, and the broad stump in the middle still had the scrape marks from that night.

At the north end, beyond the last broken pillar, a rough stone ramp climbed into the dark. He’d seen it in every fight and never followed it.

He sent Flicker ahead while Glitch followed slowly. After about fifty meters, the ramp opened into a tall, narrow shaft, its bottom lost in darkness. Old quarry walkways ran around the walls.

Ledges had been cut into the rock, with carved steps between them. In places, stone spans crossed the open shaft to the opposite wall.

Many were broken. Walkways ended in jagged stumps, and crumbled steps left gaps against the wall. Far above, a greenish glow reached into the shaft.

Up, he thought. Something’s up there.

Flicker scouted first, flying slow circles up the middle of the shaft. Jin watched through her avatar.

Twenty meters above their ledge, a stone span crossed to the far wall, where a wide walkway climbed toward the light. Flicker landed on the span’s middle without disturbing it, but her weight told him little about how it would bear Glitch.

He brought Glitch up the carved steps to the near end of the span and stopped him there, with all four feet on solid ledge. Then he had him put one forefoot out onto the arch, slowly, and press.

A tremor appeared on the Engine’s readout as his foot met the span. Jin couldn’t tell from that whether it was sound stone carrying vibration or something beginning to shift. He kept Glitch’s weight back and brought Flicker’s view closer.

Grit spilled from a joint near the middle. The movement was slight, but he had seen it.

Jin looked at the span through Flicker’s eyes. There was a dark line across the stone near the middle. He’d taken it for a shadow.

"Back," he said. "Off it. All four feet on the ledge."

Glitch withdrew. Jin kept him on the broad landing while Flicker rose above the arch.

Perhaps it could have held him. Jin wasn’t going to find out halfway across, with nothing beneath his avatar but the dark.

He marked the span as unsuitable for Glitch and sent Flicker along the wall instead.

After ten minutes of scouting, Flicker found another way. A ledge just below Glitch’s landing followed the shaft clockwise, climbing by steps and ramps until it met the far walkway. It was at least three times the distance, and two rubble falls interrupted it.

This route followed a broad shelf at the base of the wall. From below, Flicker’s view showed rock continuing beneath it rather than a thin span across open space. Jin traced its edge, looking for breaks and undercut sections before bringing Glitch down.

The first stretch gave him room to walk close to the wall, with spare width between his outer feet and the drop. Jin kept him slow. It was a better prospect, not a promise that every part ahead was sound.

At intervals, the shelf widened into landings. Jin had Glitch turn on the first, checking the space his tail needed, then marked it as a place to retreat. He kept Flicker within reach of the next stretch rather than sending her all the way ahead.

Tremor Sense showed no approaching movement. He still checked the stone through her view before committing Glitch’s weight.

At the first rubble fall, he stopped. Broken stone lay against the wall in a heap as high as Glitch’s shoulder, narrowing the clear way to less than his body width.

Flicker circled above it, then passed along the edge. The fall came from a broken walkway higher up. No fresh pieces moved, and beyond it the shelf widened again. Jin checked that stretch before deciding what to shift.

He didn’t ask Glitch to climb. Instead, he positioned him on the level approach and had him nudge a loose outer chunk toward the drop. The stone scraped across the shelf and tipped away. Glitch stayed planted while Jin checked the space it had left.

A second piece could move the same way. A third was wedged beneath the heap, and Jin left it alone. They only needed a passage around the edge, not the whole fall cleared.

It was slow work. Each time a piece went over, he waited for the heap to settle before moving closer. Eventually enough of the intact shelf showed for Glitch to pass with all four feet well inside its edge. Jin kept Flicker above him until he reached the wider section and turned without difficulty.

The second fall was smaller. A clear strip beside the wall already gave Glitch room; Jin left the debris where it lay.

The ledge climbed the last few meters and came out onto the wide walkway, below the green glow.

There was a last short ramp. Then the walkway turned into the rock, opened, and Jin found himself looking into a grotto.

[Quarry Depths — Upper Grotto]

The grotto spread well beyond the width of the Pillar Court, rising through several levels until its ceiling disappeared into shadow.

Ledges rose up its walls like seats in an amphitheatre, some of them broad enough to walk on, some only wide enough for a bird.

The green light came from pale moss growing thick on the lower ledges. Its steady glow brightened where a passing creature brushed it.

Water dripped somewhere, a slow, patient sound.

Things lived here. Jin saw them the moment Flicker’s avatar flew in under the roof: small, quick, sure-footed beasts on the high ledges, leaping from one to the next with a click of hooves.

Something with long, pale wings hung from the ceiling in clusters and stirred when she passed.

Far across the grotto, near the floor, something larger moved slowly between two boulders and went still when Glitch’s footsteps reached it.

None of it came at them. It watched.

A crust of crystals caught the light on one wall. Across from it grew clusters of fat, ribbed fungus; higher up, small dark berries hung among narrow leaves. Jin couldn’t identify any of them yet.

There were at least four ways up. Jin could see the ledge paths going off in different directions, some up to the crystals, one round toward the fungus, one up toward the high ledges where the hoofed beasts lived.

Jin leaned closer to the phone, trying to keep all four routes in view. He wanted to follow the crystals first, then changed his mind when the pale-winged things shifted above them. He marked the entrance before sending either avatar farther. They had a way back now; he intended to keep it.

He walked Glitch onto the first broad ledge, into the green light, and let him stand there.

Flicker’s scouting view caught a different patch of moss high beneath the roof. There it grew in a narrow line along a seam, leading to a dark slot in the wall.

Jin guided her closer without letting her enter. Fine strands at the opening stirred outward, though nothing in the grotto was moving near them. Beyond the slot, the passage continued out of sight.

He saved the location, then called Flicker back to the broad ledge. The crystals could wait a little longer. He wanted to find out where that air was coming from.