When Marra Falk waved what might be a final goodbye before turning and walking into the massive Delve, every one of the seventy or so — some had died, and many were still out after being injured — fighters surrounding the entrance tensed. They had no idea what might happen, and they were prepared for the worst.

  She’s in, the Wayfarer whispered, but I could only see her enter. Now… we’ll have to see.

  What’s with all the uncertainty, anyway? Aren’t gods supposed to be omniscient? Ana asked. She looked at Drisa, who was only there because Marra was in the same Party as her. If Marra died, Drisa would know.

  Wherever did you get that idea? I’ve never known a mortal who was half the ignorant fool that some of my fellow gods and goddesses are. A big part of why I made the Splinters was to get some mortals to match my achievement and reach apotheosis! You have no idea how— Oh! She’s back!

  Ana blinked and realized that the goddess was right. There, standing before the entrance to the Delve, was Marra Falk, looking confused but no worse for wear.

  “Well, that was uneventful!” Marra sounded almost offended as she reported to Captain Pirta, Ana, and the gathered officers. “It’s a Delve entrance like any other. It’s big, with lots of passages, and it looks like an abattoir and stinks to the void, but otherwise there’s nothing remarkable. I don’t know what to make of it, but I say we send in a proper scouting team.”

  After some discussion they decided to do as Marra suggested, provided the scouts retreat the moment they faced any opposition. Sira volunteered her team, and an hour later they’d finished their short mission.

  “It’s like Marra said,” the Peacekeeper reported. “Lots of dead demons. Some dead cra— changelings. One dead sapient, male, human or elfin, too badly rotted to identify for sure, and I don’t wanna guess. We saw some live demons down one turn, strong bastards, 20s to 30s, so we took a different passage, and it led us back to the entrance. You want my guess?”

  “Speak,” Pirta said. Marra had finally coaxed the elf out of her tent, where she’d apparently been staring blankly at an effigy of the Sentinel.

  “I think the expedition faced more than they could handle, took a bad turn retreating, and ended up cut off. Maybe they split up searching for the Chamber and got picked off, but we didn’t find any groups of bodies. And now they’re too weak to fight their way out and are hoping for rescue. They’ve got all kinds of mages with them, so as long as they don’t get attacked, they may be able to stay alive forever. Nobody wants to crap in a corner and use Life-magic to grow food in it, but it’ll keep you from starving, you know?”

  There were some snickers at that, and some of the tension in the air bled away. What Sira said was plausible, from what Ana knew. Water-mages to keep them hydrated, Life-mages to keep them fed and healthy. Sounded awful, but you could put up with a lot if your life was on the line.

  “I say we go in, full force. I mean everyone, civilians, too,” Sari continued. “There’s almost a hundred of us fighting fit, not counting the extras who know how to hold a spear. We roll the rotting bastards, get our friends and family out, and use the Crystals to get some people to milestone Levels. We’ve got too many Level 8s and 14s and whatever. Mistress Touanne’s been 23 since she got here; doesn’t seem right. What do you say, Marshal?”

  Ana kept her face carefully neutral. She knew what she wanted to do. Sari’s report had changed things. If they had a chance to rescue Kaira, Tor, Omda, and the others, bolstering their numbers for the fight against Karti, she thought it was worth the time. That, however, assumed that it would be quick, and that they didn’t lose more than they gained.

  There were times for decisive action, and there were times to step back and admit that you didn’t know enough to make a decision. And Ana had been inside a grand total of one Delve.

  “I think,” she said carefully, “that we’ll have to put it to a vote. Is there anyone here besides me who has never been a regular Delver?”

  “Not me,” Sari said with a shrug.

  “Or me,” Petra said.

  “Nor I,” the Captain added, making Ana’s eyebrows rise in surprise. The woman was Level 41 for God’s sake! But then, killing sapients gave crystals, too. The captain was terribly comfortable with killing changelings, and she hadn’t raised an eyebrow when Ana executed their prisoner.

  Ana’s first impression of this woman had been that she was dangerous. It seemed like everything she learned about Pirta only reinforced that.

  “If I may?” Tarkan said, and Ana nodded. “Miss Petra probably has more Delves under her belt than I do. Lower lever, sure, but more of them. I’d call her a Delver, no matter her Class or profession.”

  “Alright, I can see that,” Ana said. “Then, if there are no objections, Sari, Captain Pirta, and myself will sit the vote out. For the record, I’m for going in. The rest of you are our most experienced Delvers. Take five, think it through, and we’ll decide by simple majority. Agreed?”

  There was a mix of “Yeahs” and “Sures” and the like, and the group drifted apart for a short while. When they came back together, it was unanimous — they were going in. It wasn’t exactly a perfect vote; some of them clearly delayed to see how many others would raise their hands in support, before raising their own. But they were few enough that it wouldn’t have made any difference.

  “The ‘Ayes’ have it,” Ana said. “But we’re doing this right. Marra, Sari, can the entrance hold four hundred people?”

  “Easily,” Sari said, and Marra agreed.

  “Alright. Let’s talk this through.”

  Over an hour later, Ana clapped her hands. The discussion had reached the point where they were discussing pointless minutiae, and it was time for action.

  “Right, here’s the plan! We’re taking everyone in, and we’re leaving guards at the entrance. We’ll move deeper in overwhelming force, and we’ll send scouts down every passage to pull any hostiles back to the main group. Saving the expedition is the primary objective. We can’t just get to the Crystal Chamber and collapse the Delve — we have too many civilians around to risk dropping any remaining demons on their heads, and we don’t know if the expedition members are combat ready. That means we search and destroy, and then we close the thing. Am I missing anything?”

  “Rewards,” Halmer said.

  “Thanks. Afterward, everyone has the right to keep any Crystals they’re awarded, but we encourage helping people gain milestones. And the Crystals in the chamber will be distributed based on that principle.” Ana lowered her voice and looked around. People had been listening, and the officers hadn’t tried to keep any secrets, but this part she wanted to be a surprise. “We’re all agreed that we’re getting Touanne to 25, right?”

  “Of course, right,” a few of them replied, to grins all around.

  “Good,” Ana said, affecting a smile back. “Just wanted that out there.”

  It was criminal that Touanne wasn’t a higher Level. She barely made any Crystals of her own, and she constantly undercharged for her products and services. Sure, she’d only been in the Splinter a little longer than Ana, but she was one of only a handful of Life-mages, and the only Healer. Frankly, there should have been a tax or something that was funneled straight to her. It was only fair, with how much Touanne did for the outpost.

  But that, Ana knew, wasn’t why she’d argued for Touanne to get a significant cut of whatever they recovered. Fairness meant nothing. Making Touanne happy mattered only so far as it would bind them closer to each other — and maybe get some of those awful dark emotions out of the Healer’s aura. No, her reason was that Ana needed Touanne to be stronger. It was as simple as that. People were getting hurt. People were dying. And Touanne was two Levels away from the milestone at 25, where she’d get some powerful Ability or other, and the people and officers of this guild hadn’t seen fit to get Touanne there.

  Ana needed Touanne to keep people alive.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  When the word went out about their decision, a wave of fear swept across the camp. It was understandable; the majority of the people here had never been in a Delve, and they knew that the expedition was trapped. It would have been strange if there weren’t any doubtful mutterings.

  Ana hid any doubt she may have had, and quashed all dissent ruthlessly using reason, shame, and non-verbal intimidation as necessary. Was it not their friends, she asked, who were trapped inside that Delve? Would not the addition of dozens — goddess, she hoped it was still dozens — of their best fighters give them the best chance of success? Had they come this far, only to turn tail now? Would they rather remain outside, while all the remaining fighters risked everything for them?

  This was becoming routine by now. She was Stasia almost full time, with Ana relegated to short conversations with Touanne or Jisha or others who considered her a friend, not a commander. Angel was reserved for quiet moments with Messy. Ninety percent of the time, she needed to be the marshal. There had been fear and doubt since they left the outpost, and Ana had been putting out little fires day and night. And while she never convinced everyone, she always convinced enough of them that herd instinct, or peer pressure, or whatever it was did the rest.

  She both was and wasn’t surprised when she got a notification as she played at commissar, and it wasn’t her Charm, Command, or even Intimidation that had gained a Level.

  It made sense. In many ways she liked Stasia. Stasia was useful, and people listened to her without arguing. But Stasia was a role. She wasn’t her.

  Preparations took some time. They had to strike the camp, raise the spearmen again, and then organize everyone in front of the Delve. The spearmen would be guarding the entrance, in case anything or anyone came in behind them; with mass of numbers and the element of surprise, even untrained conscripts should be able to deal with most demons. They’d be supported by Part’s Party, to which Rill, the themion Horde Breaker, belonged. Part was a large, bald, surly man, but he was damned reliable, a Bulwark like Tellak, and he didn’t mind holding down the fort.

  The rest of them would be going in hot — prepared to fight the moment they stepped inside. Sira and her Party were already inside and hadn’t reported anything, but there was enough strangeness going on that a little more wouldn’t surprise anyone. For all they knew, bringing so many people inside would trigger every demon there to rush the entrance — if that happened, they’d be ready.

  When they were all ready, Ana stood in front of the rift, or portal, or whatever the entrance to the Delve actually was. “Alright, listen up!” she called, her voice carrying easily over the murmur of the assembled crowd. “You should all know the plan, but one last time: we’re going in two abreast, Party by Party. Captain Pirta has offered to be our vanguard — appropriate, I guess, with Mistress Falk in her Party.”

  There was a scattering of polite laughter at her play on Marra’s Class.

  “After them, Tellak’s Party, then Petra’s — that includes me — and so on in the order you’re lined up. Once through, clear the entrance! If you don’t face any resistance, line up in a wide semi-circle in the order you came in, left to right. Sira’s Party scouted the damn thing, so they’re going just before the non-combattants. Non-combat officers, Sira will come back out and tell you if it’s safe to enter! If you bring a single person through without her say-so, you’d better have a damned good reason for it.”

  Ana didn’t make any explicit threats, but she pushed hard on her Intimidation, locking eyes with any of the civilian leaders she could see, and to a person their body language told her that they understood her perfectly — if they risked any of the non-combattants, there would be consequences.

  “Spearmen, you’ll follow Part in behind the non-combatants. As soon as you’re through, line up and about-face, weapons ready. And finally, to our brave volunteers who are staying out here to watch for approaching enemies: thank you. Don’t hesitate to come through! If you see a single demon, changeling, or person you don’t recognize, don’t wait for them to attack. Come through and warn us! Better ten times too many than one too few.

  “Now, are you ready?”

  There was an enthusiastic chorus of “Yes, Marshal!”

  Ana said, “We’re the Bluesky Guild! We take care of our own! Right?”

  The crowd answered, “Right!”

  Ana said, “And we’re going to win, right?”

  The crowd answered, louder this time, “Right!”

  Ana cried, “Of course right! And how are we going to win?”

  The crowd roared, “Don’t lose!”

  “Damn right!” Ana stepped to the side, clearing the way for the first Party. “Captain Pirta, Mistress Falk, and every brave one of you! See you on the other side! Move out!”

  As the captain and Marra nodded to each other and jogged the short distance to the Delve, Ana was struck by a sense of unreality. It had been a while now since that happened. Standing there, though, watching over four hundred people ready to run through a rift in space to kill demons, rescue their trapped friends, and collect strange crystals with substance but no noticeable mass which made you magically stronger, she found it hard to believe that any of it was real.

  Tellak passed her, an armored man carrying a shield by her side. Close behind her was Jancia, paired with another mage. They each had a good grip on their auras, their emotions mostly under control, but as they passed close by Ana could feel them. That itself was almost vertigo-inducing if she thought about it too much. She’d long ago learned to identify emotions based on people’s tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language, but to actually experience those emotions vicariously was a whole other thing, one that she couldn’t do anything about. And the things she felt from them worried her. Not because of the feelings themselves, but because of what they represented. Tellak was terrified, but you’d never know it, because above that she was as stable as the earth and stone beneath their feet. Jancia, meanwhile, was excited, carefree, and cheerful, but those feelings lay like oil on a deep layer of shame. It felt wrong.

  From what Ana had been told, it was likely due to their dedication to their respective Crafts of magic. Sure, she could feel determination and vengefulness and more nebulous things from both of them, too, but those feelings that aligned with their respective Crafts were strongest. For just a brief moment, it made her entirely reconsider learning magic herself — she didn’t have a Craft yet, so she shouldn’t be affected. But if she kept practicing her Shaping, it was only a matter of time, and the thought of her personality changing to fit whatever magic she might wield was disconcerting.

  Then Petra approached and it was time to focus on the now and the immediate future. Ana fell in beside the Custodian with a nod, the Delve only seconds ahead. Behind her was Messy, who quickly squeezed Ana’s shoulder — Messy’s Connection was low, but with direct contact Ana could feel her anxiety. Beside Messy was Waller. He remained distant and unfriendly, and Ana didn’t give half a damn — he was good with most weapons, did what he was told, and hadn’t caused any trouble. Then came the Ters sisters, Dilmik and Sendra — the Water-mage was patient and determined. Behind them were Rayni and Denikla — who was excited and spoiling for a fight — then Sylt and Trig, and finally Braggie and a recovered Sadie bringing up the rear with their spears.

  This time, when Ana ran through the distorted void that was the entry point to the Delve, Ana didn’t lose any time. Probably because the Wayfarer didn’t mess with my Abilities this time, she thought as loudly and pointedly as she could. Instead the world became a blur, impossibly out of focus, and when things became sharp again she was on the other side, right on the heels of Tellak’s Party. She stood again in a place that looked like a large cavern made of glass, hanging in the void of space, illuminated by a light that cast no shadows and seemed to come from the floor, walls, and ceiling, or from the air itself.

  Their entry hadn’t been entirely uncontested. That much was immediately obvious. But it was nowhere close to as serious as it might have been — barely worth mentioning, really. Some unfortunate demon had wandered to the entrance, gods knew why, and in the few seconds that had passed since Pirta and Marra had come through they’d closed with and disabled the thing. They were now standing by as their less experienced Party members did their best to dispatch the thing. It was messy.

  It also wasn’t Ana’s problem. The insignificant resistance was well in hand, so Ana and Petra followed Tellak’s Party, taking their place at a distance from the rift. The rest of the Party followed, and then the next Party, and the next, and so on.

  When the Wayfarer spoke it took Ana by surprise. Ana, can you hear me? the goddess said.

  Loud and clear, Ana answered.

  Good. Ana, I can’t see you, or anything around you. I could still sense our connection, but otherwise it was as though you’d fallen between the planes. Something is extremely strange about this Sink — sorry, “Delve” — and I’d bet my divinity it’s the Sentinel’s doing. Be careful!

  Right, Ana thought as flatly as she could. Because I’d planned to just sprint down the first passage I saw.

  I’m serious, Ana, the goddess said gravely. This whole situation makes me uneasy.

  Should we abort?

  No. The goddess sounded thoughtful. No, I don’t think so. But move slowly.

  As Ana conversed with the deity in her head, Pirta’s Party had taken their place in the semi-circle. The rest of the Parties had come through, and now civilians were flooding in, some stopping and gawking at their unreal surroundings. Those who came behind stumbled into them, leading to people pushing and shoving each other, some falling and at risk of being trampled as those still outside moved in. Thankfully, a few quick-thinking individuals stepped up to pull people out of the way, and things cleared up before anyone got seriously hurt.

  Finally Part and the spearmen came through and took their position. Everything was ready. Everyone was as prepared as they were likely to get.

  “Alright, Bluesky!” Ana called out, and the unreal space swallowed her words without echo. “Let’s go get our friends!”

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