Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child

Book 7-14.2: Secrets

Damien said as Yuriko and the others walked down the branching hallways. ‘The what now?’

‘What are you talking about Damien?’

The man sighed.

‘And you just remembered it now?’

Damien said softly,

‘You know what this city…fortress is for? In the first place, what’s this doing in Rumiga?’

‘Pre-Shattering then? Not that I doubted that. The Warforged alone…’

She lay her hand against the metal door and prompted Damien to tell her how to open it. Instead, it felt as if she recalled an old memory, one made when she’d been a toddler. But the pattern her Animus needed to pulse to open the door, any door really, was obviously from Damien.

Her Animus sunk past the metal door, most of its volume compressed to bypass the substance. The door was mostly solid, with a chamber behind where her palm lay. There were mechanisms along the edges that probably had to do with how it moved. She also realised that with a bit of a push, she could extend her Anima for a couple of inches or so beyond the door. It was as flat as the outside though, no knobs or levers. A pity, if there had been a latch on the other side she could have simply flipped it.

As it were, she made her Anima pulse. Three short pulses, a long pause, two short pulses, a short pause, and a final long one. The door slid open and Yuriko sighed. Through her Anima, she saw the others freeze with their jaws agape.

“What are all of you waiting for? Get in.”

Gwendith gave her a lingering stare as she passed through the entrance. Yuriko kept just outside, ready to fight if need be. As soon as the dozen teams, nearly sixty people entered, Yuriko stepped inside and palmed the door close.

The long rectangular room was a communal bedroom of sorts, with a dozen double bunk beds against the wall. Each bed still had mattresses and blankets and looked as if they were just made up. Everything was covered in a layer of dust though.

“Achooo!” Marron sneezed, and he was echoed by nearly everyone. He fished out a kerchief from his pocket and used it as a mask.

There were three other doors in the other corners of the room, and Yuriko was about to head towards the one directly opposite when Faeril stopped her.

“Please keep that door unlocked,” he yelped.

The door they entered had slid to a close. An auditble beep indicated the lock engaging.

“Can you…?” he started.

“Of course,” Yuriko answered. He was probably worried about the return path. But since she could open and close the doors, there shouldn’t be an issue, right?

Either way, she repeated the pattern and added another one to set the door’s default to unlocked rather than locked whenever it closes. Afterwards, she headed towards the opposite door and opened it, which revealed another branch hallway. All of these branches led to the same hub cluster didn’t it, and they’d have to pass that centre to go to a different cluster? Or did it go to the trunk hallway that would eventually lead towards the Inner Court?

Which did mean they’d have to fight at the hub one way or another.

Ah, well, that was why there were a lot of them. One or two teams per hub would try to lure the Warforged away while the rest go through. There were five such hubs they had to go through. The other option they had was to just fight through the horde of Warforged and forcefully get to the panel that Lucian and his ilk had tripped a couple of years ago.

That was probably the easier way, Yuriko mused, but would probably wipe out everyone in the team. If she went alone, she could do it, but then, she didn’t know where to go. When she brought up the idea a couple of days ago, not only did her brother and Gwendith protest vehemently, Faeril also said that the guide didn’t want to suicide. It made more sense when she found out this morning that it was Lucian and his group who were the guides.

So, instead of doing this the easier way, they were stuck with the hard way.

She could probably follow the miners from the chasm as they made their way into the Inner Court, too. Oh well.

They went across several blocks, with Yuriko opening up the way half the time, until they finally reached one of the paths that Lucian had used two years ago. Then, they arrived at the hub area. If they’d just gone down the branch hallway, they would have reached the hub that much sooner, but each hallway was nearly a longstride, and the risk of early detection was too great. Once they reached the hub, though, the plan proceeded without a hitch.

Five warriors ran directly across the hub, then into the side hallway that they had initially entered from. The drones went after them, with the pelters shooting their arm casters. The rearguard projected an Animus Protective Field which stopped the solid slugs cold, though it only took less than a dozen hits to exhaust his Animus. That was more than enough time, however, and the rest of them hurried through the now empty hub and into the main trunk hallway.

Soon enough, they came to the next hub and followed the side hallways to go around the cluster. Then, they repeated the distraction and another team lead the guardian drones away. Unlike the first team, they would circle around the block and barricade themselves into a safe room, hopefully after the pursuing drones were out of sight.

The pattern repeated three more times without issue until they arrived at the gate between the garrison and the Inner Court.

‘We’ll have to rush through here,” Lucian said.

The garrison was more or less underground, although the entire city was technically that. The other districts were inside the huge cavern with the projection of the Radiant Sun. The Inner Court was segregated from the other three districts with tall walls, but the garrison area was strange in that it seemed both part of, yet different from the Inner Court.hen, they collapsed back on the floor, shivering and squirming in clear pain.

Yuriko’s Anima blocked the light, and she called Fri’Avgi to hand, pointing it at Lucian. The man smirked but slowly shook his head and held out his hands.

“You led us to this trap,” she spat out, her knuckles whitened from her intense grip.

“It’s not a trap,” he said firmly. “Look, they’re recovering.”

“Yuri.” Gwendith grabbed her shoulder.

“Eh?” Yuriko gasped. Gwendith hadn’t been affected at all. Ah, neither was Desire. Marron and Saki were on their knees, and her brother was struggling to his feet.

“You all should thank me,.” Lucian said grandly. “I’ve made all of you stronger.”

Yuriko snorted and sheathed Fri’Avgi before turning to help her brother and Saki to her feet. What happened?

Damien said,

‘That can’t be ideal,’ Yuriko said to him.

Yuriko just shook her head. She’d rather get back to Faron’s Crossing right now, but…a part of her enjoyed exploring these old places, too.