The three of them hit rock bottom like stones thrown into a well.

Air hammered out of the crater in a hot ring; grit sleeted back down. Above the crater, the sky was smothered by a hanging cloud of dust and smoke, sunlight obscured before it could reach the ground. The smell down here was old iron and boiled resin as well. Metal tanks were split open, pipes were hissing their last, and cables were sparking against flooded grates.

Somewhere, a pressure gauge tickled itself to death. Somewhere else, a fan coughed and surrendered.

Vantari's underground lab was as destroyed as it could be with just a single shot from Enki.

Both of them landed softly—Zora with his wings, and Enki with… something—and Enki immediately took a crouching position, reloading his rifle on instinct. In an instant, Zora knew the boy was ready to release another shot of the exact same calibre if he needed to, and that was just a little terrifying.

I don't have an attack nearly as powerful as that.

What was that, anyways? What'd he call it?

A… 'railgun' shot?

He was no military man, but he'd never even heard the word before. Enki didn't care to elaborate. Right here, right now, the two of them kept their focus ahead at where Eria had crash landed in the middle of the crater—but Zora had been expecting a fight to subdue her, not a fight that was over before it even began.

The dustcloud in the middle of the crater began to dissipate, and Eria clawed out of the hole in the ground. Zora heard every twitch: the scrape of her own nails across her cheek, the clumsy rake of her giant bug legs against the ground, and the spasming of flesh and fat and muscles under her amalgamated bug parts. Her upper body—her human half, at least—was hunched forward, small hands clawing at her own face the way a child would rub at a fever.

Enki lined up his rifle at her stomach, where her lower body disappeared into the giant grafting bug's body, but Zora lifted an arm to stop him.

There was no need to wear a hardened expression against her.

So, Zora tapped his staff once.

The thock rang outward, took the world's measure, and came back with a map of echoes: twisted catwalks, shattered vats, and a fallen scaffold to the right like a rib cage. More importantly, even though she was doing her best to keep it hidden, he could tell her breaths were shallow and jagged. Gone was the berserking bug; there was only a child in front of him.

He began forward.

"Tread lightly," he murmured. "But let the earth know your name."

At three paces, Eria snapped. The noise tore out of her—not a roar, not a scream, but a broken, unwilling screech—and her giant bug body reared, legs scything the air in front of her.

"G—go! Away! D—don't!"

The warning hit like a thrown plate. Zora let it shatter on his chest and kept moving.

"That is what another student told me once," he said. He stopped at five paces, judged the arc of those black forelegs by the way air trembled before them, and dodged them by a hair's breadth. "But the moment I step back is the moment I give up on you, so I must decline."

Eria's monstrous legs continued carving the air before him, each strike a warning to step back, but he let the swipes whisper past—his staff still ready to block—as he kept his pace even, deliberate. He made it a point not to flinch or falter, because that was the worst thing he could do to a child who already feared themselves. He'd never flinched back in Amadeus Academy, and he wouldn't flinch now.

Slowly, he closed the distance until he stood directly before her towering half-giant frame.

She loomed over him, her human torso straining against the grafted chitin, her breaths ragged with pain. He had to stand on his toes to set his palm lightly upon her head.

"... Good job," he said. "You reined yourself in as well as anyone could, so focus on my hand. Focus on my warmth. Tell me: what food do you love the most?"

For a moment, her golden eyes swirled—lost in a storm—but then a few hoarse words slipped through.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

"I like… copramint biscuit sticks."

"What sound do you love hearing the most?"

"Ha… Hammering. The sound of the forge."

"And what colour do you love the most?"

"Black. I like… black."

Her giant body eased lower, plates loosening as if her breaths were softening stone.

"One more," he pressed gently. "What memory warms you most when you think of 'home'?"

Eria's eyes flickered, and for a moment, her tone was almost clear.

"When Kita… when she…"

The rest dissolved into silence. Her strength failed her, and she sagged, her giant bug form collapsing forward with a terrible crash that rattled the ground around them.

Her upper body fell unconscious, breaths still shallow but slightly steadier, so Zora made sure to catch her while she descended to his level.

…

Air folded beside him, and Enki stepped out of a wormhole, rifle poised. Zora immediately traced a hand against the awful seams where Eria's human torso fused with the grafting bug body, and his jaw hardened when he felt her human lower half was still in there—but there was no way for him to get her out.

I'm not Julius.

How do I get her out of there without cutting off her legs?

Just as he was about to ask Enki if there was anything he could do—however unlikely it may be—footsteps hopped down the debris slope behind them. Light, quick, and sure. Not a soldier's heavy march, but not a panicked student's clatter either.

A servant's cadence drilled into efficiency.

He and Enki turned together. Machi descended the broken catwalk as if it were the polished stair of a manor, skirt gathered, and hopped across the debris of the crater until she came to them. She didn't even flinch at the sight of Eria's monstrous form.

"... Where are Kita and Ifas?" Zora asked.

"My lady is safe," Machi answered, breath even. "She's still leading evacuations on the surface and routing the wounded to the infirmaries. As for the driver…" She allowed herself the smallest shake of the head. "Unknown. I left to find you before the smoke thickened, but I can tell you this: you and the Worm Mage have set half the Divine Capital's heart to beating at once."

"Yeah?"

"The damages done to the academy are… contained, compared to what they might have been, but many Noble-Bloods are dead, still." She lowered her voice further. "And with this chasm gaping in the middle of campus, even Decima would not be able to bury this laboratory. Word of what has been happening down here will climb the city walls by sundown, then follow the roads to the further outer marches."

Her gaze passed over burst tanks and crushed consoles. "Sooner rather than later, everyone will know what was done here. I can imagine only one outcome: an inevitable war between the Outer Regions and the Divine Capital. From this hour, the two of you will be named enemies of the Attini Empire—equal in rank to the Swarm in proclamations—and harsh measures will be taken against any suspected of sheltering you. The Salaqa Household will be inspected, too, Harried, and perhaps struck. For a time, even Lord Baya's hands will be bound."

Then she looked at Eria.

And when she finally spoke again, it was the smallest question he'd heard asked over and over all morning.

"Was it worth it," she whispered, "starting a civil war for the sake of one girl?"

Silence settled, full as a held breath.

Zora rubbed Eria's hair once with his thumb, as one might quiet a fevered child.

"... If war is the coin this empire insists on spending," he said quietly, "it was going to be spent regardless—by Decima through her army of Grafting Bug Soldiers, or by us for refusing to be puppets. But I do not intend to rehearse Amadeus Academy's tragedy on this greater stage."

Then he exhaled, the sound soft as chalk on slate.

"I am Zora Fabre, the Thousand Tongue. I would rather rip out my tongue a thousand times before I even think about sacrificing a single human," he said. "A humanity that wins by eating its young against their own will does not deserve to win."

Machi's eyes lingered on Enki, gauging him the way one measured a blade—yet the boy did not avert his gaze from Eria's monstrous body, his stare flat as steel.

At last he spoke as well, voice cold and metallic.

"Humanity does not need the child of a grafting bug," he said plainly. "I alone will defeat the Swarm."

And the certainty in his tone was like a lock clicking shut. Zora allowed himself a small smile, faint but genuine at the corners.

Machi was quiet for another beat, eyes narrowing as though testing the weight of Enki's claim. Then, slowly, her expression softened into the smallest smile as well.

"I see," she murmured. She bowed to both of them, a small curtsy as the dustcloud over their heads began to disperse. "I am glad it was the two of you who chanced upon my lady, but now you must go. Leave the Divine Capital with the girl before the rest of the Spore Knights and more soldiers descend upon the academy to secure the campus. I will explain everything to my lady and to Lord Baya, but you should know this: when next we meet, it shall be at the edge of civil war."

Zora dipped his head. Enki only stepped forward, helped him support Eria's upper body, and opened a wormhole next to them.

Before the two of them could drag Eria through it, Machi asked, "And the girl? What will you do with her? How will you save her?"

Zora furrowed his brows. It was a question he didn't have a clear answer to, but…

"I know someone who might be able to separate her from her grafting bug body," he said, pinching the whistle he still wore around his neck. "Just have to call him first."

He laid one last hand on Eria's head, then stepped into the wormhole with Enki.

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