“Considering I don’t even know what an ‘Inheritor Candidate’ is, you were definitely expecting too much,” Jay said.

  It would not be the first time someone made that mistake, Agnesyx commented.

  Jay turned to give him an offended look. “Did I do something to you? What’s with the hostility?”

  The chandelier asked the question before Agensyx could respond.

  “Compared to what exactly?” he asked.

  Jay laughed. “I’m going to guess that you’re stuck in here, since that really isn’t the way things happen anywhere I’ve been.”

  “It is when I’ve heard nothing but bad things about the Class since I got it. Including a curse that’s apparently giving me cancer made of my abilities.”

  “You don’t know…” Jay let the sentence trail off in disbelief. “Tumors. The curse is growing tumors in my body that might or might not be talking to me.”

  No shit.

  “Apparently more than you have already. It might stick a little bit more if you gave me more details on what you actually are,” he said.

  Jay sat, stretching out on the stone-tiled floor. It was warmer than he’d expected given the expanse of pure darkness beyond the edge.

  “I’ve got nothing but time,” he said.

  “Then you had better explain at least the basics before it becomes untrue, huh?” Wait. “What would make that change?”

  Jay tapped a finger on his leg. “And that would stop you from handing out the information?”

  “Like what?”

  The chandelier-construct didn’t respond for a while. At first, Jay thought she was just mulling things over, but the eventual response that did come proved the gap to be something different entirely.

  The [Necromancer] looked over at Agensyx. The familiar looked back, placidly, but there may have been a small glimmer of agreement in the depths of his mind.

  “Something related to the Divinity you’re made of?” Jay asked.

  “Not the first time it’s come up, sadly,” he said. “But you were getting ready to explain some things?”

  Jay nodded. “Sure. Unless it seems like it is.”

  “Wait,” Jay broke in. “There was dust down in the entryway to the city itself. Did they not put enchantments in there?”

  The moment he said it, the shards of magic that made up the construct froze. The pattern that formed when they resumed movement was different by leagues, becoming less intricate swirls and more harsh lines.

  When the locus cogi spoke again, her voice was devoid of the personality that had been present.

  Asking that question had definitely been a mistake.

  “No,” Jay said, though he’d be the first to admit that he really meant ‘not right now.’ After all, probably the only way out of this place was if he had managed to assume complete control and could unlock the doors from the inside with it.

  The sphere’s more organic set of patterns returned and the seeming personhood filled the words again.

  “In my defense,” Jay started, “I didn’t know that was going to happen.”

  The sphere got a thumbs-up in return. “I’ll do my best.”

  Jay was interested immediately. A graveyard? He hadn’t been able to stretch his necromantic muscles in a while except for filling up the Pillar. He decided to ask a question that should be safe.

  “Are the Twin Palaces also where the gateways are?”

  “They’re probably active again,” he said.

  “I activated the Tower at the center of the city.”

  Uh oh. That didn’t sound like something that would end pleasantly.

  “Is it blood? Is it leaking blood?” Jay asked, pretty sure he knew the answer already.

  “Oh thank God.”

  Why was that the first place your mind went? Alister questioned.

  “Red, blood, leaking, you know how it goes,” Jay said.

  “So I have to go look for what it is and try to contain it again?” Jay checked.

  Arus’s voice went dead again, the angular pattern taking over the clinking crystalline shards.

  Jay denied it again, the denial message returned, and the locus cogi returned to her previous form once it had faded.

  He protested immediately. “You can’t blame me for not knowing every phrase that will turn that mode on. I only found out about it like five minutes ago!”

  “Alright, fine. Where’s the Red Palace at, then?”

  “At least I’m getting my steps in,” Jay joked.

  You could use it, Alister said, the joke clear in his thoughts, after Kallin carried you here. Wouldn’t want you getting lazy.

  The [Necromancer] briefly considered shaking his traitorous resurrection off of his arm before dismissing the idea. Just because the parasite rode everywhere didn’t mean the sentiment was wrong; he’d fallen into aimless laziness enough times before to know the risk was always there.

  “Wait, how many layers deep is this thing exactly?”

  Eleven levels, at least three of them forming a full-on city. It reminded him of the nuclear bunkers that had been made in decommissioned missile silos, just a lot larger. Was this black space everywhere around the necropolis, then? It didn’t seem like the kind of thing that should have been possible in a normal underground space, especially given that the forcible movement of an entire continent should probably have collapsed the roof.

  “Any chance there’s a map around here? Preferably one I can label,” Jay requested.

  That made a lot of sense. Where else would maps be available? Anyone deeper than that would have had to pass through and probably get handed one as they did.

  “Thanks. It seems like that’ll be very necessary.”

  [Sense Magic] pinged once, with a volume and intensity that normally wasn’t present in single chimes. Not a good sign in Jay’s opinion, so he almost asked Arus about it before getting distracted by just how clear it had come through. Every other time he’d had the sense tell him something, there had been something hovering around the background. A far quieter almost-sound, buzzing in the background constantly but only truly audible when the other noises forced him to pay attention.

  Now that interference was gone and the tolling of magic usage was clearer than ever. Interesting. Regardless of that, the best option was to just leave and try not to end up in another place that whichever of the other inhabitants had caused it could corner him.

  He was pretty sure the source wasn’t Mirdun. Something about the way the not-quite-sound had felt had seemed like a kind of magic Jay had never interacted with before. He might have been imagining it due to the sudden quietness of the background “noise” throwing him off, but there was more detail in it too. It felt both deep and twisting, neither trait lining up with Mirdun’s seemingly ice-focused abilities.

  Jay thanked Arus and left that odd room of darkness. Agensyx didn’t follow immediately, but caught up by the time he’d made it back to the lobby and grabbed one of the general maps the locus cogi had referenced. It went into his storage ring alongside the bucket of pens and a few of the more specialized maps that had been under the desk as well. It was kind of a shame he didn’t have a map hanging in his vision the same way the System boxes did. Checking a paper map seemed… archaic.

  But he’d make do. At least it had the entrance to the Palaces listed on the portions of the city. It looked like there was a staircase at the very far end of the final layer of the city. Should be easy enough to find.

  The loud knell came from [Sense Magic] again. It faded just as quickly this time as it had before and carried the same sharp feeling. Whoever that was, they were doing something major. Not a good sign. If anything, being out of that room made it feel louder.

  There was an extra edge to it out here too. Something that made the hair on the back of Jay’s neck rise, not out of any sense of threat but because it felt so familiar. It was pure, vital power flooding out from whatever spell the other person had cast.

  It really was another [Necromancer] down here. He had a sneaking suspicion that that was a very bad thing for him, at least if they ever crossed paths.

  On a scale of one to ten, he asked Agensyx as they went down the stairs, how well do [Necromancers] work together?

  No better or worse than any other group of corporeants, the familiar replied. Some have always gotten along better than others and some have always been enemies on sight.

  Jay sighed. So no inherent intra-Class loyalty?

  Not that I have ever heard of or witnessed.

  Yeah, that had been too much to hope for.

  When they stepped out of the columnar staircase, Jay half expected the mysterious whisper to repeat itself, but it didn’t. The only thing that was different was that one of the pathways – second from the left – was now clear of the dust entirely, as if something huge had dragged itself through and swept the street clean.

  That would be where Mirdun had gone, then. Unless there were two beings down here with that kind of bulk. The way his luck had been going, that wasn’t out of the question.

  He found the stairs between the city levels and descended twice more, the buildings growing more strictly organized with each drop. Harsh lines and squared-off blocks emerged from the gentle, almost organic, melding between buildings. That wasn’t the kind of choice that was made accidentally; he had no idea what the reason could be behind it.

  [Sense Magic] tolled one more time as he stepped off the final flight of stairs, so loud it seemed like it should have pushed him back. The sharpness in it was overwhelming, the sense of pure resurrective energy pushing along in its wake. Goosebumps spread over Jay as it washed over him.

  It probably wasn’t a good sign that it felt like it was coming from exactly the direction of the entrance to the Gray Palace. It was definitely not a good sign that upon reaching the labeled entrance, which looked like nothing more than a grate over a sewer pipe, he found it already gaping open. Half of the gratework had been shorn off and was now laying on the ground in the area it had once blocked off.

  That was the only slightly reassuring part of it; the fact something – someone – had broken in instead of forcing their way out, meant at least that it wasn’t something from the Red Palace finding its way into the necropolis at large.

  But it did still mean that someone else was down there.