“Don’t know what’s going on, but I don’t want to be trapped in here when we find out,” I said, pulling at Bevel’s sleeve as the continuous echoing of cracking shells filled the long corridor.

She nodded, backing up beside me.

When we reached the stairway entrance where we’d come in, we paused. I took a moment to Sculpt the stone that blocked most of the passage into a transparent barrier we could watch through.

“Aw, no fun,” Bevel muttered, crossing her arms.

I rolled my eyes but finished just in time. Not a second after I’d finished Sculpting the wall, the first of the baby skeleton dinos hatched.

I’d thought they might be alive, but no, they hatched fully undead. They didn’t delay once free, either.

The little deer-raptor-skeleton creature that emerged from its egg started feeding on the shell, the crumbling bits floating down along its frame to reinforce it as it went. Once it was finished with its shell, it started on the skeleton of the larger inert skeleton nearby.

With every bite, it grew a little larger, until it was the same size as the skele-dino that had donated the material. It snapped at any of the other skele-dino babies that got close, ensuring it got the entire thing to itself.

By the time if finished, there were hundreds of smaller ones roaming the room. A pack of them had taken down the skele-dino that’d been bashing its head against the wall, each of them now standing just under two feet tall.

“Two spells,” Bevel said after they seemed to come to some sort of equilibrium. The smallest of them started scratching at the corners, as if hoping to escape and find something to consume.

“For all of them?” I asked, looking about the room again. “Don’t think I could manage that. Not when they’re so small.”

“Not you, me,” Bevel said, rubbing her hands together.

“Yeah? You figure?”

“Just need a gap to work through,” she said, gesturing at the solid wall in front of us. Then she held her hands roughly six inches apart. “About this much.”

“Just large enough for one to crawl through,” I said even as I started sculpting out a gap for her.

As if waiting for us make a move, every single one of the skele-dinos paused, turning their heads in our direction.

The large one was the first to act, charging at the wall, only to find its efforts thwarted.

Bevel’s first spell, Whispering Wind, slipped past it, spinning into the room, nearly invisible as it took effect. Technically, it wasn’t a spell, since she’d never recorded it in her grimoire and she couldn’t teach it to others. Still, I figured it counted, since she’d had to put more effort into figuring it out than most ensouled had to put into their own copy and paste efforts.

Even if those efforts did take a decent amount of skill to pull off.

The name of the spell had more to do with how subtle it was, than its actual effect. Figured it was Bevel’s right to name it as she pleased, especially since she was the only one who’d ever use it.

As the winds built up, the little skele-dinos tumbled inward, swept forward by the gathering wind.

Realizing what she was about to do for part two, I cast Aegis on each of us.

Two seconds later, she cast her second spell, which forcefully compressed everything that was caught in her first. Bevel’s Ball of Boom.

I’d seen her use it outside, where the effects were impressive, but not particularly dangerous to the caster.

Considering we were in an enclosed space with very few directions for the incoming explosion to expand…

Even as she cast, I gently pulled her out of the way.

Despite only having a six inch diameter hole to hit through, hundreds of high speed bone shards shot past us, dozens ricocheting off our Aegis barriers, pink flashes of light filling the tunnel as the energy was converted.

Dust filled the room in front of us as Bevel blinked, staring at the now impenetrable cloud.

“That…” Bevel said, turning to look up at me, my hand still on her shoulder from where I’d pulled her back. “Was fraying awesome!”

“Could’ve been bad, if we didn’t have Aegis up,” I noted even as I started pulling the wall down, keeping my eyes open for more the things. “Did you notice how different the air behaved when it didn’t have anywhere to go?”

“Yeah,” Bevel said, her grin slipping away as her forehead scrunched up. “It’s kinda like the Gust spell, except instead of hard air, its all rock.”

“Close enough,” I said, peering down at the half-obliterated skull of the large skele-dino. I picked it up, handing it to her. “Souvenir?”

“Nice,” Bevel said, accepting the half-skull and turning it over in her hands.

Was pretty sure it wasn’t an affinity material, which was a little weird, considering how much magic would’ve been needed to animate the being. Then again, it might’ve consumed any material it had to fuel its transformation.

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The rest of the room was similar, with very little of use. The patterns in the smashed bones allowed me to trace other places where air or water could flow through at least.

We spent the next few hours continuing our exploration. Every time we entered a new section, there were more of the skele-dinos, though the presence and density of eggs varied wildly.

None were quite as thick as that first room, but Bevel got lots of opportunities to fine-tune her spell combos.

Unfortunately, it seemed the place was more expansive than I’d expected. On the plus side, the collapsed corridors meant the danger was trapped. Considering it was located in the heart of our transit network, I really wanted to get it cleared. I also didn’t want too many people knowing about it.

Which meant Bevel and I would be coming down and exploring together for a couple hours every other day in the evening after dinner.

Dinner. Something we’d missed while we were exploring the depths.

Not giving Tamrie a chance to get upset, I embraced her immediately, whispering an apology for missing dinner.

Once she’d been appeased, I reported what we’d found. Or more accurately, what we hadn’t.

Honestly, it was a little disappointing. Most places in Cape Aeternia, it felt like danger and reward came hand in hand. Then again, our exploration hadn’t been dangerous. For us.

The next day, I went to the crystal chamber to see if our exploration had unlocked a better map for the mountain. No such luck, unfortunately. Didn’t even show the new tunnels we’d explored.

However, with the Waygates connecting several more points, I found a new metric on the screen. One I wasn’t excited to see. A power meter.

Less than a day since we’d connected all the Waygates and already we’d dipped a solid two percent. A more thorough report indicated that each activation of a Waygate consumed a fixed amount of power. A surprisingly low fixed amount.

Which meant our use wasn’t the primary drain on the network’s power. It was the constant maintenance of the bridges that was eating up most of it. There were two notes about possible ways to address the issue.

Primary Mana Reactor online. Tertiary Transfer Nexus connection failed. Re-establish connection to Primary Mana Reactor.

Was pretty sure I’d need Utility Access for that but I’d still take a minute to visit the Golden Halls to check. Might be useful for more than solving a bit of mana-drain.

The second possibility would’ve taken even more work, if we were using the original Waygates.

Transfer Nexus network unbalanced. Balance network to reduce compensation mana draw.

There were six more outer ring Waygates we would’ve needed to repair to have them all online. And despite having the coordinates, we hadn’t found the actual Waygate sites for most of them, even if they were all ready to repair, thanks to Banya’s work the day before.

Good thing we’d added those emergency disconnects. Could just shut down the extra Waygates for most of the day until things were working properly.

It kinda defeated the point, since they’d still need me to activate the Waygates, but we’d expected to run into troubles of some sort. Besides, once we had as much of the network active as possible, we could tweak things until we found a new balance.

The day was spent repairing the rest of the Waygates, three of which we were able to activate. Unfortunately, they made the drain even worse. By the time we finished with our testing for the day, we were down a full ten percent from maximum capacity.

Even so, while we’d been working, we’d found a balance that didn’t leave everything shut down. Turned out the Golden Halls was the worst offender. I wasn’t sure if it was dealing with the ocean, or if it was the location, since there weren’t any working Waygates on the opposite side of the ring from it.

Either way, it remained shut down. I still had to personally escort the Tethered into the Halls anyway, so it wasn’t a big loss.

Instead of going exploring, Bevel and I put it off for the evening to help Tamrie with her spellwork. My love had decided to dedicate a couple evenings a week to it, and working on spells together made it a lot more fun for everyone.

In the morning, Bevel and I set out to the Golden Halls, flying so we could clear out the Sahevin that had gathered there without being at risk. The glider loving Tethered were keeping the rest of the perimeter clear by simply dropping crude napalm bombs on them, a device Inertia’s apprentices had reinvented on their own.

I’d almost suggested Nails get his name upgraded to Burning Death before remembering that Inertia’s sister’s name was Calamity. Best not to go down that path.

The napalm was a temporary solution, since we still didn’t have any wells, which meant they were using the stores we’d found amongst the other supplies we’d acquired when we first took the village. Yet temporary was all we needed. Some of the Tethered were spending their days in Mistvale, using the higher ambient mana there to unlock their first slots faster. Once they did, they’d be able to achieve similar results without needing napalm.

Napalm wasn’t going to be enough around the Golden Halls. While they’d been completely cleared out a few days ago, they’d returned in force, thicker than ever. And they had ensouled to protect against the simple attack.

“That’s a lot of fish-walkers,” Bevel said, her voice carrying over the wind with the sort of ease that only a wind sorcerer could achieve.

I trusted that same ability to carry my words back. “Too bad they make horrible eating.”

Even though I couldn’t see her face, I imagined her face scrunching up at that. We’d tested Sahevin meat exactly once. It was bad enough I’d needed to use Restore Form to heal us as the poison tore through us.

We’d given up on it after that.

Well, most of us had. Tanis was still experimenting, swearing there had to be a way to make it palatable. The rest of us didn’t have his fortitude. I indulged him, healing him whenever he staggered in clutching his stomach.

“Never again,” Bevel said, tilting her glider, leading the way towards the edge of the Sahevin crowd, mana gathering in a thin spinning construct.

Something she claimed was very mana efficient, despite how destructive it was.

For me, a similar construct would cost almost a fifth of my mana.

Benefits of a high specialization.

She released the built up energy, firing off a dozen spinning blades, nigh invisible.

Their effects were very visible. They tore through the assembled Sahevin, leaving wide bloody paths wherever they struck, before exploding. Bevel’s Ball of Boom, with a twist.

Well, more like with a spin.

While they might not have been able to see the projectiles, we didn’t enjoy the same invisibility. Part of the plan.

Not wanting to sit around and let us whittle them down, they gave chase.

Straight into the first of Bevel’s kill zones. One we’d prepared just before making our assault.

It was simple, making use of the nearby terrain and my ability to sculpt stone. A thin layer of stone overtop of a twisted canyon full of jagged outcroppings.

There were a few hundred Sahevin atop it when the stone finally gave way. The resulting roar was loud enough to be heard from high above as we circled back.

“Not very good,” Bevel grumped as we flew over.

“It got a third of them.”

“A third of the ones on the trap. And they’re just gonna feed most of ‘em back into those tentacle mouths. The important ones aren’t even on the way,” Bevel complained, waving at where several Sahevin were setting up some sort of group spell.

Couldn’t let them get that underway.

I nodded even as I let loose with a powered up Lightning Bolt. Even with a full fifth of my Paragon-levels of mana, it only caught two of the Sahevin.

“Well, this might be a little tougher than we were expecting,” I said as I pulled Soaring Wolf to the side, gaining altitude.

“Good,” Bevel said. “Lots of spells to test.”