Chapter 203 The World Below part 3 (1/2)

Her hands hurt like h.e.l.l.

Mirryn leaned against the parapet of the Legion HQ and took in the view, resting her forearms on the stone.

”How are you holding up?” a voice came nearby.

Mirryn turned to see Donnelan approaching from along the wall.

”Couldn't sleep either, huh?” she asked him.

”Not a chance in h.e.l.l” he muttered.

Neither of them wanted to talk about their baptism but they couldn't help thinking about it. When they had finally been taken out of the basin the trainees had immediately lost consciousness, their minds longer supported by the complex enchantments that had surrounded them.

Upon awakening they learned that three of their friends had died.

All things considered it wasn't a bad number. Below average. She could see the relief in the officers faces that they hadn't lost more. It seemed stupid, to be thankful of only three deaths but she understood their logic. Would the situation be somehow better if four had died?

No.

The commander and the rest of the Legionaries had been past to visit them in the days since. The trainees had been placed in a convalescence unit, comfy beds, good food, medical staff around the clock, counselling specialists, the works.

On the surface Mirryn would have been shocked to think of the cost of the lavish treatment, the Legion was legendarily thrifty, they made most of their own equipment, ate nutritious but brutally unflavoured food. It was a regular sight for the trainees to be seen cleaning their leathers and polis.h.i.+ng their swords outside the barracks in the dawn light right next to their officers.

The trainees were learning just how many things they had thought they'd known had been an elaborate deception. The Abyssal Legion they thought they'd known, the Dungeon they'd thought they'd known, indeed, the world they thought they had lived in were so far from the truth.

”Did you ever think that something like this could exist?” Mirryn asked Donnelan as he joined her.

”Absolutely not” he answered flatly, ”In fact I specifically remember being told such a thing was impossible”.

Even though she was looking at it, Mirryn still thought it was impossible.

It was a city.

In the Dungeon.

A vast egg shaped cavern of impossible size, kilometres across and many more high, filled with people. The buildings covered the bottom of the cavern and then extended up the walls, carved into the rock face. A gigantic glowstone at the top of the s.p.a.ce provided illumination in the day and faded at night, regulating the time for the thousands of citizens here in Railleh.

Through some mechanism she couldn't imagine the cavernous s.p.a.ce managed to keep the Dungeon veins out. There was no risk of monsters sp.a.w.ning within the city itself. Such safety within the Dungeon felt weird to her. She'd spent every moment underground up to this point being completely alert. To be this relaxed down here felt, unnatural.

From her vantage point Mirryn could see the city bustling with activity day and night, the people moving like ants in the cramped streets below. Even now the light of thousands of lamps lit the city at night like a sea of candles in the darkness. It was incredible.

The Legion headquarters was about halfway up, a citadel that occupied a position of great standing, looking down over the rest of the city. She hadn't been able to explore much yet, the trainees were basically confined to recovery. Not the trainees actually… Full Legionaries now.

Mirryn had longed for that for so long…

”How's your hand?” Donnelan asked.

She glanced down at the heavy bandages that wrapped her forearms all the way to the tip of her fingers.