Exploring the Pit: The First Ai'Brone (Closed to Alyssa)

“Son of a bitch!” Vincent spat retracting his arms from the open maw of an oven. The young scholar cradled an injured arm as he inspected his singed skin. A light pink line was beginning to form where his tanned arm had accidentally brushed the burning hot edges. He growled and slammed the hatch shut trapping the pie to its slow cooked demise. He glanced around the decrepit kitchen and its rusty stoves before honing in on the sink. He quickly wandered over and turned the knob, shoving his arm under the faucet. Nothing. He growled a string of obscenities as he looked around once more.

His blue eyes set upon the ice box across the room and scampered quickly over to it, stepping agilely over piles of lumber and metal as he crossed the room. He threw the door open and thrust his arm elbow deep into it. A small rune in the back seemed to suck the very heat out of the container and kept the whole thing cool. The scholar glanced inside and pulled out a frosty flask of green liquid. Grinning he sank his teeth into the cork and ripped it free, spitting it out onto the ground. He quickly brought it to his lips letting the fizzy citrus flavored drink flow over his tongue. He gulped it down eagerly whilst his other arm rested against the cold wall.

He took this time to observe his work. Over the past weeks he had taken a break from his almost constant studies to begin restoring the kitchen to its former glory. Rotted wooden counters had been torn out and replaced with smooth polished oak. Several rusted wood burning stoves had been polished to the best of his ability, and those that couldn’t be saved had been scrapped entirely. Aside from the still busted sinks and perhaps needing a fresh coat of paint on the walls the scholar felt incredibly proud of his work.

When the burning sensation was gone from his arm the scholar removed himself from it and went to sit down on a nearby stool while he waited for his dinner to finish cooking. He had made way too much food and was willing to share with anyone who poked their head in. Hanging out in the library or kitchen all the time could be terribly lonely business.

"This goes here.... and, I think this goes here?" The young blonde muttered with a scratch of her head. She pushed a component into a much larger conflagration of wires, glowing bits, and whirring pieces. It clicked into place and the device she tinkered with began to rattle and chatter.

"Well, that's not good..." Alyssa curled her lip in thought while wiping a bead of sweat from her brow. She leaned back in her chair and fluttered her top to help cool herself in the stuffy workshop littered with all manner of contraptions and crystals. Meanwhile, the device grew louder and started to screech. Alyssa jostled forward and struggled to remove the piece she had inserted. Her nails could not grip, and smoke began to emanate from the glowing bits.

"No no no! Come on!" She mumbled through clenched teeth until the inevitable happened. In a flurry of sparks, pops, and hisses, the device sputtered to its death. Alyssa shielded her face with an arm until only the faint gurgle of some mysterious fluid bubbled out of it. The lights went dark and all motion ceased.

"Damn it," she swore as she pushed the mess into a bin of similarly destroyed contraptions. Alerian engineering still fell outside the girl's grasp. With a huff, she propped her chin in her hand and glanced to her pistols hung on the wall in front of her workbench. Her determined eyes ran over their polished chambers, fine crafted edges, and smooth alloy frame. Their secrets still remained tightly kept within. She was close, but still not there. One day...

"Ugh!" Alyssa ruffled her hair in frustration, blond locks tousled, knotted, and kinked. "I need a break."

Just then, a waft of something heavenly found its way over the aroma of burning metal, oil, and grime into her nostrils. Her body perked and righted. A few more sniffs and she was hooked. Alyssa pushed the chair from under her and stuck her head out into the hallway. A few more takes of the scent and her head cocked toward the kitchen.

The hunt was afoot.

Hair in a mess, clothes dirty, and hands black with grease, the teen gunner sauntered toward the scent which wafted from the kitchen. Her mouth salivated the closer she got, and Alyssa's stomach growled with a reminder of her lack of breakfast. She popped her head in while hugging the door frame and noticed a boy similar to her age by the ovens.

"Hello?" she called out timidly.

“Hello?” The words snapped Vincent from his idle thoughts as the scholar leapt to his feet.

“Hello!” he replied straightening his purple robes and running a hand through his messy mane of blonde hair. “You look familiar! Not that it’s hard if you live in dusty basement with a population of like six people…” he trailed off for a moment as he bit his lip and furrowed his brow. “Your name is on the tip of my tongue...Allllll, Alphonse? No no that’s the suit of armor from that one show…” he rubbed his chin for a moment. “Allydia? No! Alyssa!” He slapped his forehead. “Duh! You’re the Judgment Arcana!”

He paused for a moment, forgetting how to go about introducing himself. It had been simply him and his books for the longest time, not a lot of new faces when you live in the middle of nowhere. Finally after what seemed like ages of internal debate the scholar stuck his hand out to shake hers and gave her a goofy grin. “I’m Vincent Cain! Hierophant and number one chef in the entire Red Forest!”

Alyssa began to reach for his but then the both looked at the grease on her hands. “Perhaps I should wash up…” she began quietly glancing around.

“Oh yes there's a sink right over…” Vincent trailed off scowling. “Fuck! I keep forgetting the damn thing doesn’t work!” he growled. “There’s a bunch of pipes and shit under it but I have no clue how to go about even attempting to fix it.” he yawned and glared at the offending basin. “I think there might be some sort of water pipe or something downstairs that I need to go turn on…”

“Well, I’m no expert, but I might be able to figure it out. Let me see.” The girl shuffled to the sink, got down on her knees, and stuck her head under the counter. Her body shuffled to her back and sounds of metal clanging against metal rang out.

“This should go here, and this here… Hmm… Some kind of rune? Let me try…” The faucet began to sputter and cough to life. “This! Yes!”

Water poured from the sink, a sickly black and brown at first. Then, as Alyssa scrambled to her feet, the stream began to clear.

“How…” he paused for a moment as he contemplates the stream of water before he simply closed his gaping mouth and sighs. “Thanks!”

“Yeah, I like to tinker around with things. I should consider us lucky, my last project exploded...heh.” The girl scrunched her face into a weak smile as she began to scrub the dirt and grime from her hands.

“So, I couldn’t help but notice something smelled really good. What’re you making?” she asked. Alyssa shut off the faucet with the twist of a knob and pulled a hand towel from a nearby rung. As she dabbed her hands dry, her attention fell on the humming oven beside him and the source of the delectable aroma.

“It’s a dish from my home called Pizza. Basically it’s baked bread, tomato sauce, melted shredded cheese and whatever else you feel like throwing on it! Would you like some?” The scholar replied glancing at the oven door. “Should be about ready soon….” he sank to his knees and opened it gingerly glaring at the golden brown cheese.

The waft of heat and food flooded the kitchen like a tsunami. Alyssa involuntarily wetted her lips. “Really?! Could I? I’m starving…”

“Of course! I love to share with my fellow Hierarchy members! Plus I made way too much to eat by myself!” the scholar rose to his full height and glanced around until he found a pair of oven mitts hanging up above the sink and slid his hands into them. He bent over and carefully reached his gloved hands in to extract the stone disk the pizza was resting it on.

He righted himself clutching the burning hot plate and turned around to set it down on an island counter behind the oven. He quickly pulled out a disk like slicing utensil from a nearby drawer and expertly cut the pie into eight slices. The scholar quickly crossed the kitchen and pulled out two plates from a cabinet and returned to the young woman dishing each of them two slices to start.

“Careful” he warned. “It’s a little hot.”

Alyssa took the plate from him, full of steaming, gooey goodness. Her stomach gurgled softly in anticipation.

“Let’s grab a table,” she suggested as she walked toward the ice box. “and what do you like to drink? Grape or orange?”

Alyssa popped open the alchemical cooling unit and reached in to grab her choice of beverage, Raiaeran White Grape.

“Orange for me, thanks.”

The girl wrapped her pinky around the neck of the second flask and pulled herself out of the ice box. She turned to him with a smile.

“Shall we?”

Vincent nodded and they worked their way through the scrap, unfinished repairs, and into the dining area. Alyssa passed several wooden tables riddled with wood rot, tilted horribly to one side, or in pieces until she found one suitable enough for them. She set down the food and drink and fetched one of the better chairs she hoped would hold her weight long enough for a meal. Vincent similarly found himself a place to sit across from her.

“So how long have you been the Hierophant?” she asked while popping the cork of her beverage. “I feel bad asking because I haven’t heard too much about you and you already knew who I was…” Alyssa let out a nervous laugh.

Vincent paused for a moment at her question as he chewed on his piping hot slice of pizza. He swallowed and furrowed his brow. “Officially?” he asked scowling. “A few months or so…” his voice trailed off. “But when I first met Leona about a year ago she told me that it was my fate to become her Hierophant…” the scholar drummed his fingers on the table as his gaze found itself fixated on the orange drink. “As for not knowing much about me…it’s understandable really. I focus so much time on my studies I often forget to eat or sleep…”

He shrugged and uncorked the bottle after staring at if for several minutes and guzzled a bit of it smacking his lips. “It’s not often I even find my way out of my lair at all! Especially with my knee injury a couple of months ago…” he glanced around at all of the work he had yet to accomplish. He was no carpenter but he had read enough books on woodworking to make him confident enough to restore the tables he had thus far. It also helped that his culinary accomplice Ioder, and surprisingly Tobias Stalt, had been keen on helping him out.

Vincent paused and glanced back up to Alyssa realizing he had been more involved in a monologue than a conversation. “Whoops I didn't mean to hog the conversation!” he apologized running a nervous hand through his hair. “What about you? How long have you been the judgement card?”

“That’s okay,” Alyssa managed after a gulping down a bite of the new food. She made a mental note to log it away as something to ask Anvil to try and make. The thought of his over the top dwarf reiteration put a warm smile on her face.

“And I’m actually the Tarot of Justice, but I’ve had a few people confuse me with Leona from time to time. Justice and Judgement do go hand in hand after all.” Alyssa scrunched her lip at the thought. Lately, she felt more at odds with the seer than a companion. Much of Leona’s actions were questionable, but usually paid off in some positive way. Lately…

She blinked away the thought.

“Anyway, I’ve only been the Tarot of Justice for a few months now? I haven’t really felt like a fit for the role, though. The Hierarchy has been pretty quiet recently. Not a real demand for someone to drop the gavel if you know what I mean?” She awkwardly smiled at Vincent before silencing herself with another bite of his cooking. Warm cheese, tangy sauce, crisp bread, “pizza” as he called it was quickly becoming a favorite food.

“Sho...,” she mumbled before she checked her manners, swallowed her mouthful, and washed it down with a gulp of grape juice.

“Sorry, so… Ioder tells me you two have been exploring the other floors of our new home. Have you found anything interesting?”

Alyssa took another increasingly addictive bite..

Vincent winced at his obvious mistake. “Fuck I’m so sorry!” he yelped returning his gaze to the table between them. His cheeks flushed a bright red.

‘I did not just fucking do that’ he thought angrily to himself. ‘I did not just call her the wrong fucking card, that’s almost as bad as fucking up her name Vincent, you twat!’ The scholar bit his lip, suddenly he wasn’t as hungry as he had been just moments before.

He took a moment to try and calm himself down. It had been a while since he had had a flare up of his social anxiety; something about this world made such a thing less common. After a deep breath, he relaxed a bit and began to speak once more. He was vaguely aware of the rest of her half of the conversation but it was her question that had caught his attention in his semi-flustered state. “Yeah, Ioder and I have been snooping around a bit. The lower level floors are pretty dark, and it seems like whoever built this structure first simply carved the whole thing straight out of the rock…”

He took another bite out of his slice and pondered for a moment. “Well we did find this hot springs…” he grinned slightly. “Ioder and I were exploring after I had started to recover from my knee injury a couple months ago and we found it on...I guess you would call it the third floor.” he paused for a moment to let his thoughts catch up with him and saw Alyssa was beaming at him.

“Did you just say hot springs?” the excitement in her voice was readily apparent.

“Yup! There were some unexplored halls too! If you want we could go explore them a bit after we finish eating? Or before, pizza is pretty good when it’s cold too!”

“Cold pizza?” Alyssa looked down to her lunch and tried to imagine it at room temperature. “Cold, wet bread sounds pretty gross to be honest… Let’s finish first, I’ll get my things and we can go for an adventure. I want to see this underground hot spring.”

“Okay, but you’re missing out. Cold pizza in the morning is the breakfast of champions,” Vincent replied with a grin.

“Ew, gross.” Regardless of the frown on her face, Alyssa took a few more bites and chased them with juice. Her hurried pace let her new acquaintance know she was eager to stretch her legs and maybe enjoy a soak. Alyssa cleaned her plate first, but Vincent didn’t lag too far behind. Together, they cleaned up. Vincent tended to the oven and Alyssa the dishes.

“Alright,” Alyssa began as she dried her hands, “let me just run off to my room and get on something more adventure worthy than a tank and shorts. Shouldn't be but a few!”

Then, as suddenly as she arrived, she skipped out and disappeared around the corner.

Vincent paused as Alyssa left. ‘She’s kinda cute’ he thought to himself as he rose from his crouched form. The ashes had been scraped out of the oven and he took Alyssa’s lead and headed to the library. As he walked through the double doors he shrugged off his coat and tossed it aside into a pile of dirty laundry. He glanced at his white cotton shirt and frowned at the large tomato streak down the center. He quickly stripped off his shirt and glanced around. A very sleepy Stella poked her golden haired head out from the bundle of blankets she was wrapped in and cooed in her strange chime language.

The scholar chuckled and pulled a shirt on as he limped over to her and ruffled her hair. “Shhh go back to sleep.” He chuckled as he glanced around once more. He snatched his cane from a random spot on the ground and stretched his knee a bit. While his first soak in the springs had done him a lot of good, it was not necessarily healed all the way. It still throbbed after extended use, and he imagined he would need a long soak and several more months of therapy before he would ever be truly ok.

Leaning on his cane he limped out of the library and found Alyssa standing at the stairway descending deeper into the base. “Ready to go?” he asked cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah.” Alyssa nodded smiling slightly. “Lead the way Vincent.” She gestured to the stairs and the scholar. Vincent sighed a bit and leaned against the wall and began to descend.

Alyssa followed in his steps down the dreary stairway. Candelabras lit with magefire gave just enough light to guide them, but Alyssa hugged the rail in good measure. The steps seemed to go on forever, spiraling down and down. Surely if someone were pushed from the top step, they'd only find a meaty bag of bones at the bottom.

"How far down does this go?" she inquired.

"Almost there," Vincent replied.

Finally, they emerged to the second floor. Unlike the one above, light was sparse. Faint flickers danced across smooth walls. Shadows found the pits where the test of time chewed away at the polished marble. A fine layer of dust coated the floors, and myriads of webbing danced in the faint bellows of wind above. Alyssa took a few breaths and found the air stifling.

"There's a hot springs down here?!" she remarked, squinting to see past the expanding darkness in front of them. "Might explain the humidity, but what kind of place is this? A bunker?"

Alyssa extended her hand and opened her fist. She felt a tingle of warmth in her back that crawled along her nerves and up her arm. They collected in the middle of her palm and a small flame flickered to life. Its light reached to combat the darkness and give them bearing. Alyssa rest her free hand on the weapon strapped to her thigh and turned to Vincent.

"Where to?"

The scholar paused for a moment as he fished through his pockets. “Well…” he muttered softly. “I assume you would probably like to see the hot springs first so…”

His sapphire gaze darted around through the shrouded darkness as he pulled out a fist sized glass orb from his purples robes. “Illuminate!” he hissed as it sputtered to life, bathing the area in pale light. The two took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the bright light. Before them was a dark fog filled hallway with the vague impression of doors on either side.

“That’s handy…” Alyssa mused whistling slightly as she shifted her weight from one foot to another. “Where did you get that?”

Vincent nodded slightly as he watched the awed expression on her face. “Leona told me I’d find it from a vendor in Corone. So right after Toby whooped my ass into some semblance of in shape I bought it thinking about how useful it would be.” The scholar paused as he realized he was droning on. “It’s been very useful.” He added awkwardly, nodding in agreement with himself.

“So…which way?” Alyssa quipped.

Vincent blinked a few times and reoriented himself to face exactly the way the stairs had been facing. “This way!” he exclaimed. “Right at the end of the hall!”

Alyssa followed her partner in crime through the dark, dank, and dusty halls of the lower level. She took care to avoid tripping on the stone tiles cracked and upturned at her feet. At the same time, she tried to avoid a face full and, more importantly, a hair full of web hanging lifelessly from the ceiling. The occasional loss of balance and flailing hand proved the ability to look up while looking down rather difficult.

"How much further?" Alyssa demanded as she tried to spit out the web which had found its way into her mouth.

When he turned, she scowled at him. His face scrunched together as he struggled to contain laughter, but failed to capture the occasional he and haw.

"Yeah... thanks..." she muttered, firming her grip on her pistol.

"We're practically there," Vince replied after calming himself. "Nice hair accessory by the way."

Alyssa cocked a brow, but at the mention of hair accessory, she felt something stir on the top of her head. With the blinding speed of a viper's strike, her hand snapped to her scalp and swatted at the spot. Vincent laughed again.

"Yeah, he's dead. You got it," he chuckled.

Alyssa took a deep breath of frustration and sauntered on. After only a few steps, their light shined upon a pair of openings. From it, Alyssa felt a damp warmth and noticed a fragrant, earthy aroma.

The scholar passed his partner, a grin spreading across his face as she glared at him. After several steps he gestured with one hand to the opening on the right. "You take that entrance, I'll take this one." he quipped as he peered into the left entrance. "It's kind of a mess so watch your step." With that he vanished into a wall of steam. Alyssa paused for a moment and entered towards the left and frowned.

She found herself in the ruins of what appeared to be a changing room at one point. Ancient wooden benches laid shattered across the ground, their fragments long petrified by age. The walls were lined with small openings that seemed to measure a foot deep, possibly for storing clothes in. Carefully she stepped around the wreckage, keeping an eye out for any eight legged vermin. Her eyes scanned the walls and found her next passageway on the left side of the room where an ancient seemed lazily draped across the portal, its fastenings halfway given out with age.

The quickly crossed into the next room and stopped dead in her tracks. Before her stood an enormous pool of steaming hot water, steam billowing lazily from the surface. To her right and left ancient statues stood covered in moss, a testament to their age. At the far end of the pool seemed to be an ornate stone wall bearing several stone dragon heads with their mouths open in a tremendous roar. From each gushed a torrent of steaming waters, which seemed to be draining off elsewhere as the water level was not rising.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Vincent's voice echoed seemingly out of nowhere. "Notice how it's bright with no obvious source of light? I'm pretty sure all the walls and statues have some sort of enchant on them." Alyssa paused for a moment.

"How often have you been down here?" Silence filled the air.

"A couple of times...mostly with Ioder. There are some neat glyphs and such at the bottom of the water!" Alyssa opened her mouth to reply but was interrupted by a loud splash. "The two sides are walled of completely so feel free to take a dip while we're down here!"

Alyssa couldn't see her companion from wherever he spoke. From the direction of his voice a wall of petrified wood stood several feet high. The sound of a splash most certainly meant Vincent decided to indulge himself in a dip. The homunculus, on the other hand, walked along the water's edge. The old stone had been worn smooth from either natural means over time, or artificial means when this place was first built. Her slender fingers ran over the damp unhewn stone.

"Can you believe a place like this has existed this long without being discovered?" Alyssa asked, her voice echoing over the division between the baths.

Her attentions focused on a shimmering glyph that had been carved into the stone. She ran her finger along the groove of the glyph and it grew brighter at her touch. Alyssa startled when a roar came from behind. She spun about and pressed herself against the wall, then sighed relief. The otherwise still waters roiled over themselves as streams of bubbles spat from glyphs beneath the water's surface. She knelt at the water's edge to get a closer look. Heat from the surface washed over her face in humid, comforting waves. The homunculus closed her eyes with a smile and took a deep breath.

The water invited her.

Alyssa popped up from her kneel and walked quickly to the ruined room from earlier. She bit her lip at the opening which lead to the darkened hallway, feeling concern for the potential of exposure. She glanced back to the springs and after a deep breath, began to undo her clothes. The girl pulled her half dress, half uniform off her adolescent form and placed it in one of the cubby holes. She took extra care to ensure no creepy crawly had turned it into a home. Her chest bindings and undergarments soon followed until she stood as nature intended. Long blond locks draped down her exposed back, swaying over the massive scar that ran along her spine.

Once again, checking for prying eyes, Alyssa made way for the springs and ran at them with a giggle. Airborne she flew until her own splash echoed over the walls.

Vince floated for a moment, enjoying the pure bliss of soaking in the warm water as Alyssa apparently went about her own exploration. His ears strained against the silence as she seemed to walk around, apparently activating some sort of bubble feature before finally…

Splish.

The woman had entered the water with a loud splash, and Vincent’s laugh escaped from his lips without realizing it, echoing throughout the large chamber noisily. The acoustics of the chamber seemed to be superb, and the scholar entertained the thought that even a whisper could be carried clearly to the other side. He closed his eyes and let out a light hum as he mused over her question.

“Given the history of the Tarot?” he asked back, not bothering to open his eyes as he floated on his back. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this place is never found again after we’re done with it…” he paused and chewed his lips. “Leona said something about us existing in cycles…and apparently this place has served as their base since the start.” He opened his eyes and “sat up” in the water, his feet sinking back beneath him as he turned and began to swim to the opposite side of the wall before him. “It could be thousands of years before another set of people see this…” he paused and mused on the magic of this moment. Two youths, lacking in clothing, enjoying a hot steamy…

He shook his head and tried to get the idea of his company in the nude, which was easier said than done. His leg seemed to ache slightly with each kick, and he began to find it hard to use his injured leg to gain any momentum. Hissing ever so slightly, he reached the far wall and grasped it with both hands, pulling himself up and turning around to sit on the ledge. The warmth of the air was slightly less than that of the water, but still felt good on his glistening skin as he massaged his knee in a well-practiced manner. He looked towards the wall and called out.

“Hey, what does your side look like?” he asked. “Anything super cool over there?” he paused and turned to his left, his sapphire eyes setting upon a large statue jutting from the wall several feet up, water trickling out in a steady flow forming a scenic little waterfall. He mused on whether or not it was for a “shower” of perhaps just a nice place to sit and meditate.

Alyssa emerged from the water and slung her wet hair up and back. Water sprayed into the air in a perfect arch before blonde locks slapped against the horrific scar on her back. Steam rolled off her shoulders and she closed her eyes as the hot springs worked the tension out of her body. Stress melted like cold butter on a fresh baked bun.

"Ahhh~" she moaned with a smile.

Vincent's words filtered over the divider about the cycles. Alyssa wasn't sure what he meant, but placed little stock in finding out. Her mind focused on the amazing warmth that hugged her skin. The homunculus leaned back in the water, resting her shoulders on the stone edge and let the rest of her float weightlessly.

"I wonder what cycle we are?" Alyssa asked, but her tone sounded more as if she spoke to herself than the boy on the other side of the wall. "The second? Third?"

She watched her toes bob in the water, smiling in the tranquility this cavern offered. Moss grew atop stone statues and the humidity formed small stalagmites above. Occasionally, a small droplet would fall. One cold drop fell against Alyssa's chest and made her skin prickle with goosebumps. She heard Vincent's question and positioned herself back to her feet to look around.

"Well," she started. "There's some neat statues..."

She looked about. In the corner, covered with small sprouts of green vegitation were several wooden tubs. The wood planks held by rusted iron bands had come lose as the roots managed to pry them apart over the years. Similarly, a mound of something unusual sat beside it.

"I found some old tubs, but I think I found something interesting..."

Alyssa waded to the water's edge to get a better look. Like the tubs, small plants covered the majority of the mound. One part caught her eye and seemed like roots of maybe a tree. In curiosity, she reached out to touch it and it felt harder than she thought.

"Some kind of tree or weed?"

As she pulled harder, a cluster of the odd roots gave out. It broke free to expose yellowed stone beneath. Alyssa pulled the part closer to her, eyeing it with odd suspicion. Yet as she turned it over in her hands and clumps of dirt and plant fell to the water, shock laced across her face.

"A hand!" she screamed, dropping it. It splashed into the springs and lazily drifted to the bottom.

"It's a hand!" she repeated, looking up to the mound it came from. Her mind pieced together the shapes and she made out the shape of a body. Points and peaks were crested white or yellow and the dark valleys of eyes beneath the vegetation stared at the horrified homunculus.

"There's a dead person here!" Alyssa shouted. Sounds of wildly splashing water made its way over the divider as Alyssa jumped out of the hot springs. She clambered across the stone floor to make way for her clothes.