My legs had never moved faster in my entire life. One moment she was there and the next she walked into a vibration that shouldn’t exist. My wife vanished. No words. No thoughts. No emotions.

  I couldn’t feel anything. Our link was an open tunnel hitched up to the vacuum of space. And I was the one losing air.

  “Where’d, where’d she go?”

  For a split second, anger mixed with hate, burned in my core.

  How stupid that question was? How fucking dumb was it? Did Thomas have to fill the empty space with his voice? Was Sandra disappearing into the void not significant enough that he just had to be useless?

  The dirt beneath me trembled as loss fueled every bit of despair and anguish my suddenly lonely psyche couldn’t handle. My sense of self had been anchored to my wife, reinforced by our link. I knew where she was. I knew she was okay. I knew and could feel her thoughts and feelings.

  But not anymore.

  Instead there was a yawning emptiness where her warmth used to be. My brain shook, the underpinnings of that mental space wavering without her support.

  Mana poured out of me, searching, hunting through the earth, sending out vibrations that maybe could help me detect her but I got nothing. My powers didn’t magically provide any feedback.

  A glint of off-light caught my eye, like a sideways mirror reflecting distorted light. I stepped forward towards the tree, my hands held in front of me. For a moment, my hand pushed through a ripple, a softness before shoving my hand back. My second swipe passed through empty air.

  Neither did the rest.

  I whirled on Elvis, the dirt near him kicking the banjo case up into the air. He caught it, surprised.

  “Play it.” I growled, low and angry. “Fucking play it.”

  “Wha-?”

  Stone encased my legs, lifting me up as even more stone began to cover me like a suit of armor. It cracked under its own weight.

  “Play that-”

  “Bro!” Thomas landed in front of me, cutting off the looming figure I’d become. “That ain’t gonna bring her back. We don’t even know what that was. We don’t even know why, we don’t know shit.” His arms went up in the air. “You saw what I saw, she stepped somewhere else.”

  Everything in me raged. My instincts, my hurt pride, my loss, it all howled at me to bury everything. Bury it deep like I knew I would have to do.

  Elvis paled as the storm of emotion left me. He carefully put the case down next to the tree.

  “I’m so sorry, boss. I don’t know what to say.”

  My clenched hand finally relaxed enough to stop hurting as I walked away, a tiny diamond falling to the ground as I let my pain direct my steps.

  *********

  Earth - Tuesday - Day 10 - 17 May 2021

  Blood has a way of washing the mind free of concerns, of mortal cares. However, it doesn’t do much for emptiness. And it doesn’t do much for the stink.

  “What do you mean ‘we can’t eat it’?”

  Yeldin gave me a look that didn’t need translating. Aldin and Grimger leaned back, their dirty hands gripping their mining picks.

  Maelyin grabbed the translation medallion hanging from Thomas’ shirt.

  “You humans didn’t mess with these, didja’? This is complicated magic and no High Sages traveled with us. Our younger ones won’t be able to repair these very well if’in ya break’em.”

  Thomas let out a huff. “No, I haven’t done nothin’! I just don’t see why we can’t eat a normal deer? Just cut that leg off and we’re good.”

  The deer in question did in fact, look normal. Minus the long gash on its back leg that had an edge of gray.

  “Corruption.

  I watched them bicker back and forth, seeming more and more human as time went on. Sure, they’re squat and built along different dimensions compared to humans, and of course their eyes are different allowing them to see in extreme low light, but the way they drank, fought, argued, it was very human.

  Children played using rocks and sticks and handcrafted wooden tools. The elderly worked to manage the children who were underfoot. I noticed that female dwarves had a similar build to the male dwarves but they worked just as hard. I couldn’t see a difference in labor distinctions just yet.

  Standing there silently only made me notice how similar the dwarves were to us. My team and I stood at the back of the hill that the University of Mary Washington was built upon. The six story decline aptly ended at what used to be ‘Sunken Road’. Dwarves in teams of two worked at the hill, one skillfully using a pick to dig into the side of the steep hill and the partner using a shovel much wider than a human’s shovel to clear away the dirt. I saw cursing when fingers slipped or a shovel smacked the side of a foot. I saw a few taking a break and sipping from flasks that sat in pockets on their upper thighs.

  Arguments about hunting strange ‘Yerthen’ animals could be heard from far away and the slower conversations could be seen as the dwarves acted like humans trying to hide a personal conversation, whispering and using their hands to hide their mouths.

  “So, what do you think, boss?”

  I blinked, Elvis’ voice pulling me out of my observations. Grimger and Aldin left the deer-fox where it lay on a plain stone table.

  “Just call him ‘Grant’, already. Good grief. You’re part of the team. Stop walking on eggshells and use your man voice.”

  Dead eyes that used to be filled with joy and a thirst for life made my brother pale. A calm, banked anger burned in my chest and I didn’t trust myself to speak freely. I could still feel my very soul begging to just bring it all down. And I could. I could easily just bury everything I came across, wiping out any trace of humanity. Every building, every corpse, every person. How could they run if the very ground they relied upon could just turn against them, dragging their suffocating struggles down until the fight went out of them.

  Thomas snapped his fingers. “Bro!? You with us? Hey!”

  I blinked. “Sorry. What?”

  My brother sighed, his hand wiping down his face. “They, being the Dwarves-.” He said, speaking overly slowly to make me pay attention. It made me want to hit him. “Want us to go scouting with them. They also want us to outline a rough map of the area. I don’t live here, you do.”

  I reached down and pulled up a large rock, shaping it into a rough sketch of the area. The stone flowed underneath my gaze until it resembled a kindergartener’s attempt at a map. Frowning, I focused more on remembering driving through Fredericksburg and less on the perfection of the lines where roads used to be.

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  “You can do better than that.” Thomas said, flicking the stone.

  Growling as I worked, the dullness of the stone worked in my favor, making the many imperfections of my artistic ability look purposeful. Silently, I shaped the Rappahannock river and the general lines of the streets I could remember. Small buildings poked up where apartments used to be and larger plain buildings where the strip malls and grocery stores were. I took into account the patches of woods near the park and even notated the bridges as much as I could remember.

  Handing this to the dwarves, I snatched it back real quick to make sure that I had put down the new settlement that the dwarves were building into the base of the hill. Looking it over, I handed it to them again.

  Elvis watched me the way the police would look at a briefcase with a bomb in it. Paul lay strapped to the top Elvis’ back as if he were a rucksack and Eli stood next to him toting his First-Aid kit. Thomas was the only one really keeping up any kind of conversation and I was fine to let him do so. He seemed to engage the dwarves on any subject, even on the forbidden subjects.

  “See! I told you humans are barbarians!”

  Thomas held his hands up. “In my defense, slavery has been outlawed across most of the world for centuries.”

  Some lady dwarf I didn’t recognize glared at him. “Let me guess,” she snarled. “Humans also have wars over which gods to worship?”

  “Eh-hemmmm, well, that too was hundreds of years ago on a different continent-” He started.

  “By me father’s aged bootstraps! And your gods let you get away with that?”

  He looked over to us for help and I gave him none. He dug his grave.

  “Earth is big and our world has a long history.” Thomas explained quickly. “We’ve had wars, drug wars, political wars, wars for independence, wars against emus, crusades, the list goes on. Yes, as a whole-”

  Elvis clapped a massive hand over Thomas’ mouth, silencing the energetic digging. “We’re your friends.” He looked at me and I gave the barest nod. “That’s right. Nothing to worry about for us.”

  Further self-embarrassment was halted by the arrival of Maelyin with several other dwarves in tow. These ones were considerably smaller and wore robes of mostly white. Sashes of gold, black, and red yellow wound around their arms and core.

  Maelyin gestured with her non-mechanical arm to the new dwarves and bowed her head a degree or two in respect.

  “Clerics of the Forge-Father are here to see your friend at the request of Yeldin. Friends of the Tunnel Sergeant are welcome in our halls.”

  Thomas started to snicker but Elvis’ elbow jab cut that off real quick.

  She pulled herself up to her full height, ignoring the blood leaking out of shoulder joint. I could still see the raw flesh from where her arm cannon sealed to the skin. “These honored clerics serve on two fronts, first as healers for our people. The bones of the earth are tempered in fire and so are the children of the deep. Secondly, they serve as the purifiers of the Skarn’Vaul.”

  “We are here to see the truth.” The lead cleric’s eyes burned as they flitted from Eli to Paul, lingering on Elvis before moving to me. “And like ash, lies will burn away in the fires of the Forge-Father.”

  Still, I said nothing.

  Eli poked the deer-fox in the leg with a thin stick, its form stiff and unmoving. “Can you see if this is good to eat? Or is it corrupted like Yeldin said?”

  Under the clerics’ eyes, Eli didn’t wilt like I expected. Instead, he kept his back straight. His body was just in front of Paul’s most exposed side. He had the mind of a combat medic, using his body to shield the most vulnerable even if he was the weakest one here.

  “Fear not, young fire-born. We see you for what you are. It is good that it is this monster here, dead by the Skarn’Vaul instead of yourself.” The closest cleric pulled tools from a satchel at its side, approaching the deer-fox. Both the tongs and fireplace poker were made from something that looked like cast-iron but instead was pure silver. The tools did nothing as they traced over the dead body until they got much closer to the rent in the leg.

  Suddenly, the tips of both instruments burst into flame, scorching the rot from the wound in great pops of green and black smoke.

  We all fell silent.

  *********

  Leaving that way probably wasn’t smart but it was needed. Space, distance, they called to me. While the dwarves talked about the Abhorrent, or the Skarn’Vaul as they called them, I heard the basics and just moved on. Elvis, Thomas, and Eli paid attention to all the superfluous details and instead of doing the same, I just walked through the dirt. Earth and stone flowed around me allowing me passage through the hill as if I were a ghost. It didn’t take long for me to walk up through the ground that adjusted itself to however I wanted to step.

  So I walked up. Each step of mine went up like a hidden staircase within the hill itself. I slowly walked in a moving bubble beneath the surface of the earth like some kind of fish. Finally, the darkness broke away to reveal beautiful sunshine and a horrifying landscape. The beautiful marble of the columns in front of the brick buildings that were an architectural staple of this college were in ruins and the brick construction of the surrounding dormitories and classroom buildings were in shambles. It seems that Olde Towne Fredericksburg was not the only place subject to the giants’ tender loving care.

  Silence reigned here. Unsettling, as if the trees of Ball Circle were holding their breath. I turned, taking it all in. I could see what used to be the road in front of the college and the desiccated hulks of the small college town houses.

  Everywhere I looked, I saw ruin.

  It struck a cord within me, playing upon the banked anger, stroking the flames to burn hotter. Part of me didn’t know where to wander, only that I should. I knew this area like the back of my hand, like the little Catholic church where it used to be on the left walking down the street towards the grocery store. Or the large willow tree hanging over the Arts building. I kept walking half expecting to hear the sounds of people going about their business, filling the air with schedules and gossip or last night’s party.

  All I heard was the wind.

  “Where did everybody go?” I wondered, my own whisper startlingly loud in the oppressive quiet. I froze, pulling on my magic. That was the moment I expected to jump out at me.

  But nothing moved. I was alone.

  My footsteps left no trace in the dirt as I walked.

  *********

  POV: Elvis

  I like the dwarves. They’re pretty cool. If I weren’t so tall I would’ve fit right in. In fact, they reminded me of my dad. Back before the liquor made him mad. It wasn’t so bad sometimes. There were days he was hittin’ the bottle and just happy. Those were good days.

  Football games. Video games. Huntin’. Workin’ on trucks together.

  The bad days though, those were bad enough to almost not remember the good ones. Especially when the bad days outnumbered the good ones.

  “Drink up boy! Can’t be fightin’ on an empty stomach!”

  A heavy stone mug crashed into my hand so hard I almost dropped it. That’s how much they loved drinking, the mug actually fit in my hand. Thomas looked at me like I was crazy, the bone spears sticking out of his body covered in blood. The ugly rock-mole he’d impaled screamed so I couldn’t make out what he said but all the other dwarves were pounding mugs of something hot and spicy when they weren’t fighting.

  Figuring ‘what the hell’, I slammed back the drink. A cinnamon-like fireball exploded in my gut, blazing warmth shooting up my spine and invigorating my limbs.

  “AAAAAAAHHHHHH! THIS FEELS GOOOOOOD!” I roared, hurling the mug at the closest rock-mole. I didn’t need my hammer. Their bodies were solid enough to do the job. Bossman liked to spout old-people sayings like ‘kill two birds with one stone’. Well, I’mma’ gonna kill four rock-moles with two.

  Their tails were surprisingly good handles. Some dwarf told me the brush on the end is used to help clean themselves but I thought it was oddly long for such a stubby thing. Didn’t matter. They didn’t pop off when I swung’em. And I swung for the hills.

  Hill. Still didn’t matter.

  For once, I didn’t have to be careful. Paul’s safety didn’t really mean anything, strapped to my back. If he was strong enough to survive giants chewing on him, me cutting loose wouldn’t do anything to him up there. All I could hear were the dwarves cheering me on as I jumped over them to land in the mouth of the tunnel, swinging the now-dead rock-moles as if they were hammers.

  It felt good. No pain. No worries. Not even rage or anger could mess this up for me.

  I could just swing. And smush. All I had to do was watch out for those rat-like teeth. If they could chew through rock, they could chew through me.

  Chuckling at some stupid joke, I flung both rock-moles down, their heads pulverized from overuse. Availing myself of two more rock-moles, I whip-cracked their spines into obedience.

  “Elvis! The big one!”

  Turning to see the shattered remains of the nearby wall crumble underneath a much larger rock-mole, I didn’t feel that familiar pulse of fear. It turned its massive head my way and I answered its roar with my own. More rock-moles poured out of the new tunnel like a flood.

  “SUCK IT! BITCH!”

  I very clearly did not hear Thomas’ groan.

  “Where the fuck is my brother?”