“Well, you’ll see… right about now.”
The column of rock that surrounded their lift finally gave way to a vast open space. For a brief moment, Vir thought he was peering into a bottomless abyss, but then he saw the lights far below.
There, at the bottom of a cavern of incomprehensible size, lay a city. An entirely subterranean city, blazing with bright white lights.
“Welcome, friend, to the Undercity,” the guard said, standing up.
“The city above is a facade,” Zora said. “Merely a sham for prying eyes and bigoted humans who seek to hurt us. This is the true face of the Pagan Order. Our hidden city, built by demons, for demons. A place where no one ever has to hide who they truly are. The name Balindam means strength. And so, I welcome you to our stronghold. Our sanctuary. The real Balindam.”
39THE UNDERCITY
When the lift finally stopped against the rocky earth of the great cavern, it wasn’t the four-armed demons bustling around that caught Vir’s eye first. Nor was it their looks of happiness and joviality.
“These lamps… they’re not magical, are they?”
“That’s the first thing you notice?” his Ashborn friend said. “Name’s Badal, by the way. Thanks for not killing me back there.”
“I, er…” Vir scratched his head and looked away, causing Badal to burst out laughing.
“Correct,” Zora said flatly. “These use an alternate source of energy. Something most of the Known World has no concept of.”
Vir crossed a cobblestone thoroughfare to stare up at the light on the lamp. It was true, Prana Vision, which he’d come to rely on to divulge secrets of the world, was dim to his eyes. Dim, but not nonexistent.
How is that possible? Vir looked around and noticed that the prana in his companions’ body was already growing stronger compared to when they’d been at the surface.
“I thought the Voidlands were devoid of prana?” Vir asked. “I feel stronger here. Like I do when there’s prana.”
While not entirely true—Vir always contained the prana inside his body, something Zora might very well have noticed with her Ghael sight—he wasn’t ready to divulge Prana Vision just yet. Not until he knew beyond a shred of a doubt that the Order could be trusted.
“Correct. But not correct. We have many secrets here. Secrets you will soon learn. Come this way,” she said, leading him down the main street of the underground city.
What’s going on? Vir thought. There was prana down here. Were the Voidlands only at the surface? That made little sense to Vir. Air was air. And the air down here did have more prana, though it was still less than Brij’s prana levels.
Vir walked up to another streetlamp and stared into the light. Though he had to put his eye right up to the light source, nearly blinding him, he saw tiny motes of Lightning Affinity prana.
Except they weren’t static. The motes of prana moved in a loop at speeds Vir could scarcely believe. What made Vir’s heart nearly stop, was that unlike all prana he had ever seen, this prana wasn’t bound to its carrier material. It moved freely across a thin metal strand, producing light, before proceeding through the rope-like material that connected to it on both sides.
It was the same as with magic. Lightning prana transferred from the air into an orb and was then fired out as a spell. Vir didn’t know why he never realized it before: Prana wasn’t bound to its carrier!
Except for one case—his blood. No matter what he’d done until now, his Ash prana refused to separate from his blood. He hadn’t particularly cared. Other than Parai’s channeling technique, there hadn’t seemed like much of a use for it.
But when he saw that Lightning prana cycle through the lamp, he wondered what would happen if he replicated that technique in his body. If he could cycle prana independently of his blood, and do it faster than ever, what would happen?
Well, it’s not like I’ve ever managed that before, though. I wouldn’t even know where to start.
“We call it electricity. A most recent invention, and one of our own,” Badal said, looking proud, as if he were the one to invent it.
“How… how does it work?” Vir asked.
Badal shrugged. “Ask our Thaumaturges. It all feels like magic to me, but you know, it’s not. Even if there wasn’t a shred of prana down here, the Thaumaturges say it’ll work just fine.”
Vir glanced at the Ghael.
“I’m afraid I do not comprehend the details,” Zora replied. “Suffice it to say that much steam is required. Luckily, this area is rife with geothermal activity. Our Thaumaturges harness this energy and route the power a great distance to power the city. With those,” she said, pointing to black ropes that connected all the lights together.
Hope I get to talk to one of those Thaumaturges someday. The light was more magical to Vir than magical light, and it piqued his curiosity. Moreover, it might very well lead to a breakthrough with his own understanding of prana.
Tearing his eyes off the lights, he forced himself to consider the city itself.
Demons roamed everywhere—individuals, couples, and even families. Most were red skinned, though Vir did spot one or two gray demons like himself.
“Something the matter?” Badal asked.
“No, it’s just… I’ve never seen demons walking around like this, without disguise. It feels strange.”
Badal laughed loudly, earning him stares from passersby. “Strange only because of humanity’s hatred for our kind. Fear not, it’ll grow familiar. And then, when you walk on the surface, you’ll loathe covering yourself.”
That was true. Demons ought to be able to walk freely without disguises. He doubted such a day would ever come. But even if that wasn’t possible, this city was…
“It’s a marvel,” Vir said. The buildings weren’t all that fancy, with most being square, two or three-story affairs constructed of stone excavated from the cavern itself. The fact there wasn’t a single human shocked him. It truly was a city of demons, where all were welcomed.
They soon arrived at a great plaza, with a circular fountain dominating the center of the space, around which demon children ran, playing a game of tag as their parents chatted nearby, keeping an eye on them. Couples shopped for food manned by four-armed demons. Another red demon with enormous horns that protruded straight up joked with a gray demon.
Vir did his best not to gawk. Though he knew there had to be other four-armed demons, he couldn’t help but wonder if one of them was the one Rudvik had told him about. The one who’d brought him to Brij.
But that one was a giant, and this one was just normal-sized for a demon. There were a small handful of giants that caught his eye, but thus far, Vir spied none that sported four arms.
“That it is, friend,” Badal said, clapping his shoulder. “That it is.”
“I, uh… gimme a sec?” Vir asked, stepping over to the fountain. In it, he saw his reflection—a pale skinned, average-looking human.
And suddenly, he hated that visage. Hated what it represented. There was no need for that here. At that moment, he felt as though he was suffocating. Drowning.
Scooping up the fresh, clean water, he splashed it against his face paint, rubbing vigorously to remove it as fast as he could. Finally, he removed his eye color lenses and placed them back into their carrying case.
For the first time in a very long time, Vir stared at his own reflection. His true face.
Vir took a deep breath and returned to his companions.
Even now, it felt wrong. Like he was exposing himself. That someone would see him and cry, Ashborn fiend!