Chapter 348: 348. And The Expeditions Begins Now! (I Need To Be A Smart-Ass About This)

Elizabeth’s briefing was like all of her others in that it covered everything that needed to be covered without going overboard.

She stood at the head of the assembled group with the map Pavellia had supplemented during the Underlayer session, the one Rex had quietly ensured was in the Academy’s expedition documentation by the time Iris had finished her debrief the previous afternoon.

"The primary mission objective is the retrieval of two individuals," Elizabeth said. "Aurelia Nightwing and her partner Veylor, along with any surviving members of their subgroup."

"That is the first priority, and it overrides everything else including the artifact that will lead us to the Underlayer..."

Rex stood at the back of the group and looked at them with the exact look he always had on his face when he was listening and didn’t want to say what he was thinking.

’That map went through three different hands before it landed in the Academy’s documentation,’ he thought, watching Elizabeth trace the canyon’s approach route with two fingers. ’Pavellia gave it to me in the Underlayer."

’I had Lilith run a clean copy through Mordecai’s cartography unit to strip the monitoring notations....’

’...then I slipped the finished version into Iris’s debrief materials before the session started so that when Elizabeth pulled the expedition file, it was just there, already sourced, already formatted, and nobody asked where it came from because it looked like it had always been there.’

He watched Elizabeth circle the canyon’s third descent level with the focused precision of someone who believed the intelligence she was working from had a clean chain of custody.

’The whole thing took about forty minutes.’

Elizabeth said something else about formation protocol for the first descent, and Rex filed it and returned to the more interesting part of the briefing, which was the war comment.

"And if we really get that key, then we need to be ready for the upcoming war."

’War,’ he thought. ’They think there’s going to be a war.’

The corner of his mouth did not move, which took a small amount of effort.

Everyone in this group, which included Elizabeth, Alexander, Apollo, and Iris, who were all very skilled and experienced, thought that getting the Key to the Underlayer back was a smart way to protect themselves.

Having the Key meant that the Underlayer’s access points could be controlled. Controlling these access points would make the impending conflict with Mordecai’s forces more manageable instead of chaotic.

Every part of that reasoning was technically coherent and completely beside the point.

’There isn’t going to be a war,’ Rex thought, ’because by the time we come out of that canyon, the Key is going to be destroyed, the access point question becomes moot, and the Underlayer’s threat profile on the Academy’s assessment board drops from active to theoretical overnight.’

’And nobody in this group is going to know why it happened that way.’

’They’re going to think the dimensional resonance just stabilized on its own...’

’Pavellia will file a report saying the secondary stratum pressure signatures have decreased, and the Academy will conclude that the threat was overstated.’

’And that fucking fraud Mordecai is going to sit in his hall following my instructions while the surface world slowly stops looking in his direction.’

Rex looked at the back of Elizabeth’s head while she talked about war preparations.

’You did all of this work,’ he thought, with something that was not quite affection but was in its general neighborhood, ’and you’re not going to get the ending you’re planning for.’

’You’re going to get a better one and never know it... that includes your stupid fiance.’

She looked right at Apollo.

"The artifact is the second goal," she said next. "We get the artifact if we can get to the lower chambers of the canyon system without splitting up the group."

"If we have to choose between the artifact and the safety of the team, we leave the artifact and come back with more resources."

’Heh... still needing to care about lives, even if they hold the key to changing Aethelgard’s future.’

She stopped while looking at the documents.

"The canyon system isn’t well mapped out below the third level..."

"Iris has the most up-to-date survey data, which shows that the intersection point of the ventilation shaft network is about four hours of descent from the main entrance..."

"That’s where Aurelia’s group was probably going when the ambush happened."

Iris, who was standing at the edge of the group with her arms crossed, didn’t move, which was her way of agreeing to something.

"Like I said yesterday... it will take three days to get to the carriage." Elizabeth said, "We’ll be in the canyon on the third morning, well... hopefully if there’s no ambush or anything."

"I want everyone to be well-rested, well-fed, and ready to go when we get there."

She saw the two carriages that were waiting at the gate on the east side. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Distribution of carriages: the first one includes myself, Alexander, Apollo, and Mireya; the second one includes Rex, Iris, Talyra, Aisella, and Nerith."

She said this without any bias, as if she had only made a choice based on logistics and not any other kind.

"We’re leaving now," she said. "Questions stay in your head until they have to do with something right now."

No one had any questions. They walked toward the carriages with the organized purposefulness of a group that had understood the briefing and was ready to take the next step.

"And the expedition begins now," Rex thought, hoping that something interesting would happen.

...

The second carriage had the same comfortable interior as Academy expedition gear, which was made to be useful over long distances rather than comfortable in any way that would make it feel like home.

There were benches on both sides, storage under the seats, and a window in the front that let whoever sat closest to it see the road ahead.

Rex sat down in the front window seat without saying anything and watched the city as they drove through it.

Iris sat across from him, creating a situation where two people who understood each other’s capabilities were trying to determine what the other was currently aware of.

Talyra and Aisella sat down on either side, and Nerith took the last spot, sitting carefully as if she were still figuring out how much of the space she could use.

The carriage went through Aethelgard’s eastern gate and onto the main road. The city fell behind them, and the things that had remained still while everything else was in motion were still there.

Talyra started the conversation, which was typical of her style of working: she would find the natural entry point of any group dynamic and use it.

"How bad is the canyon terrain?" She asked Iris, "Well... I want it, not the short version, but the more honest one."

Iris looked at her the way she did when she was trying to decide if a question deserved a direct answer. "A longer one, you mean?"

"Yeah~!"

"The first two levels are normal descent work." Iris said, "Some parts are tight, and two specific drops need rope management, but nothing that would stop a skilled field team."

"Things change on the third level."

"The ventilation shaft network is easy to get around, but you can’t see as well because the natural light doesn’t reach it."

"You’re working from portable sources, and the sound travels differently in there."

"Your instincts about distance and direction will be wrong for the first hour until you get used to it."

"How did Lady Aurelia’s group handle the ambush point?" Talyra asked, "Before it all went wrong."

Iris’s face looked like someone who had been going over the sequence over and over again and was ready to give a true account instead of a comfortable one.

"They were at the second approach to the third entrance," Iris said. "The ambush was planned, not random."

"Whoever set it up knew how the approach would work."

"They used the rock overhang at the junction point as a channel, which forced a split response." Iris clenched her fists. "Aurelia read it right and led the attackers into the deeper system so that the rest of us could get away."

She said this in a flat way, like she was reporting on something that had happened, without the softening that could have made it easier to say.

Rex said, "She made the right choice."

Iris stared at him. "Yes."

"And Veylor."

"He went with her." Iris said, "Because that was the only option he had."

Rex filed the last sentence without saying anything about it because of the way she said it.

"The attackers," Rex said. "Four-person unit, system signatures that didn’t match any standard reincarnator taxonomy."

Iris stared at him. "You’ve been told more than what Elizabeth told you this morning."

"I’ve been looking into it myself," Rex said.

Iris held his gaze for a moment with the exact look she used when she was deciding how much of her judgment to show.

"The signatures were old," she said. "Not in the way that old system users read old... it has something structural about the frequency band."

"Primordial-class," said Rex.

Iris was silent. "How did you—"

"I understand what it is," Rex said. "I also know their current location, and they have agreed to hold off on any actions until we complete the retrieval."

There was no noise in the carriage except for the sounds of the road coming through the walls.

Iris looked at him.

"You negotiated with them," she said, and the word "negotiated" sounded like someone was confirming something they had not thought was true.

"Someone did," Rex said.