Tanya removed the blindfold.
It didn't make a difference. The world around her was a pitch black void, a pit of undying misery that she was happy to share with Schugel. He deserved to see reality in its true colours, finally absent the protection of his veil of madness, whichever hue it assumed.
Like Schugel had said, her brooding was meaningless because life as Existence X had designed it placed her at the butt of the joke; Tanya put up her hand defensively in front of her eyes.
The switch came right on time. A bright electric lamp lit up dead ahead. The luminosity would have made quick work of her eyes after the prolonged lapse of being kept in the dark.
Her vision eventually adjusted to the change and began discerning shapes in what started as a soupy blur. She hadn't expected anything to surprise her this time.
Schugel has outdone himself yet again, however. This time by being absent from the scene. Tanya needed a moment to catch up with her surroundings.
"What is the meaning of this?" she asked indignantly. It was an act because she reached the answer as soon as she saw the MP in front of her toting a speaker on his chest, but she had to get the conversation going, if only to stall for time.
"Somebody has to carry your luggage, Second Lieutenant," the MP replied.
It was unusual for Schugel, whom Tanya believed to be on the other end of the speaker that the MP carried, to remain silent and let his stooge do the talking. In a way, she got the answer, even though the MP's humour was lost on her.
Tanya figured that Schugel's decision to accompany her via speaker system alone had to do with the tedium of the MP's role. Nonetheless, she had to be careful about how much she would let them know about her true state of mind. The MP focused on a sheet of paper in his hand when he wasn't tracking her movements with his lamp. If the sheet had Schugel's talking points for this assignment, the jokey line could be a hint about the challenges ahead and she shouldn't dismiss it.
Wringing her hands and looking over her shoulder to fortify the impression of nervousness, she continued probing the MP for information, "What's going on? Where am I?"
"Settle down, Second Lieutenant. We're in the old coal mine near Elin. This level has been abandoned, so it's just the two of us."
She pointed at the speaker on the MP's chest. "And Schugel?"
"Way to ruin the mood. Yes, and Schugel. He'll be monitoring your progress from a blast-proof station at the entrance." He peeked at the notes and bit his lip, having likely said too much.
A frown broke through Tanya's feigned vulnerable exterior, confirming the MP's fears. He put out his hand apologetically and intervened before Tanya could open her mouth to speak, "Trust me, Second Lieutenant, I like this as little as you do and chances are that I'll be the last to know if something goes wrong."
"Wrong, you say?"
The sheet of paper was shaking in his hand the entire time, so Tanya didn't manage to eavesdrop, and the moment he noticed her interest in the contents he brought it close to his face. His eyes darted from edge to edge in search of the line that would save him from her pending wrath. He half-smiled upon finding it.
"I've been instructed to let you activate the operation orb to proceed with the calibration. When the procedure is over, I'll guide you outside."
Tanya removed her cap and gripped it in her hands, a pleading look as her weapon. "Promise?"
"If you let me, yeah."
It didn't work. The MP was either blind to her plight or he ignored her per Schugel's instructions. If sound was the only way Schugel could monitor them, there was no harm in letting her see the sheet in full. Tanya was a soldier and would therefore avoid getting caught by masterfully controlling her emotional response, regardless of the idiocy of Schugel's instructions. She was confident in her ability to contain her indignation. Really.
Seeing that the MP wouldn't cooperate, she slowly paced around the cavern to examine her surroundings. The equipment supposed to return her to the surface was powered down and the MP held the only light source, possibly running on second-rate batteries. If she were in Schugel's shoes, she'd have provided no more than a few minutes of charge to let the point sink: she was trapped underground until she resorted to magic.
Tanya would have considered snubbing Schugel by taking flight without the aid of the operation orb, had it not been for the disorienting presence on this level. Calling it a presence was inaccurate, but she found something off about the mine and the sensation grew with every passing moment. It was too risky to cast a spell outright; the result could be unpredictable.
Hauntings, curses, hallucinations and blisters the size of one's fist–Tanya recalled the rumours circulating about the Elin Mine and hated the nagging suspicion in the back of her mind that at least a part of them was bound to come true on her watch.
She kicked a rock as she did her rounds, deep in thought. She could deal with ghosts. In a world of magic governed by a resentful self-proclaimed deity, she would have expected to see spirits and other supposed evidence of intelligent design on a frequent basis. Likewise, she had no problem with curses, which were essentially spells with elaborate triggers as far as modern science was concerned.
The other two, especially blisters, made her shiver.
Having reached a cave wall that the rock bounced off of, Tanya touched the obstacle before her and closed her eyes. There really wasn't anyone else around besides her and the MP. The earth was silent.
But it was not peaceful.
A Mage's senses were connected to the world in ways science was yet to explain. The power to shatter the bonds of reality came with an innate understanding of its founding principles. However, this was not a one-sided relationship; the world had a tremendous effect on those most attuned to its changes. As such, Tanya went to great lengths to analyse the initial conditions of her assignment in the Elin Mine. If anything sinister lurked in the shadows, the tiniest spark of magic would serve as a beacon that would expose the hapless Mage.
For all intents and purposes, Tanya was alone. The MP didn't qualify as a meat shield and Schugel made his opinion known by staying as far from her as possible whilst retaining a formal engagement to this venture. Schugel had little confidence in her success despite asserting that the calibration was safe.
Schugel had a funny definition of safety. Funny as in, "This fish smells funny." He wouldn't bat an eyelash about a lost limb if the rest of the body was fit to continue testing and Tanya had a feeling his tolerance for collateral damage was rising every time. As long as he could extract more use out of Tanya regardless of the outcome, his aspirations were safe. Ergo, his understanding of safety was limited to the potential effect an action would have on his plans. Caring for his squishy guinea pigs was no more than a chore.
A half-smile broke past Tanya's exterior as she became aware of having called herself Schugel's guinea pig. Schugel's fate was connected with hers as long as he had trouble finding a replacement. While he wouldn't be so bold as to forfeit her life because of this, he was unlikely to let go of her either.
Which meant that he expected her to survive this one. The jab at her wisdom and the reference to luggage, knowing Schugel, implied how close to the edge the baseline scenario stood.
Schugel had taken extra precautions to shield himself in the event something unexpected happened. The assignment wasn't classed as a test and Tanya hadn't been given any explicit orders upon reaching the mine's entrance besides holding on and removing her blindfold.
The judiciary would be compelled to take Schugel's side if Tanya were to speak up. Looking back at her agreement with Schugel, she had no right to complain about this assignment, further reducing his risks. In fact, the MP was now the biggest source of danger to Schugel's plans, but the danger would only materialise if he didn't splatter on the rocks as a result of Tanya's flashiest explosion yet.
Very shrewd.
Tanya lifted her hand and disposed of her glove. The difference in the earth's reaction to her touch was immediate. Sparks of crimson jumped to caress her fingertips, the ores still sealed in the mine reflecting the minuscule lights, until she pulled the hand away and everything ground to a halt.
The radiance was truly magical. Tanya scoffed at the display as she turned to face the MP, who has been following her. "There's a seam of elinium on this floor, isn't there?"
"I've no clue, Second Lieutenant."
No duh. She wanted to hear what Schugel had to say, not his stooge.
Schugel, however, chose to stay quiet whilst the MP seemed honest in his ignorance, leaving Tanya empty-handed and pushing her closer to accepting the next dose of punishment. Such was their intention as far as Tanya was concerned.
Her life may have been forsaken the moment she came to this world, but she would go down fighting and the same applied to her current assignment. With a fiendish glint in her eye and a smile to match, she turned away and reached out for the wall again.
A web of crimson, shimmering through the rocks, told her that she was right on point. She grasped a protruding piece of ore and tugged on it until it broke away.
So this is raw unrefined elinium ore…
Even disconnected from the rest of the seam, it sparkled in her hand, reacting wildly to minute changes while radiating warmth from within. This was a precursor of power mankind had not yet mastered. It thrashed in her hand, vying to disturb the natural flow of mana, much like the Type 95 whenever it was activated. Recollecting the things it put her through, she thought about crushing the chunk out of spite, but she already had a better idea.
Tanya glanced at the MP, about to become a guinea pig of her own.
"Catch!" She threw the piece of elinium at him.
He almost dropped his lamp in surprise, but managed to grab it.
"How do you find it?" she asked. He had seen the sparks, so she didn't need to elaborate; elinium behaved like no other substance she had seen in this world.
"It's warm. Strange."
Tanya nodded sagely. "Just as I suspected. Elinium is radioactive."
"Radio…active?"
"Radioactivity affects you on a fundamental level. Depending on the source, it can go right through you, damage tissue or cause horrific mutations." As she approached the MP, Tanya extended her hand to barely touch the ore, prompting it to light up crimson again. "In other words, don't expect to have kids if you keep holding that."
The MP threw it away, visibly dishevelled both by Tanya's lecture and the ore's reaction to her. She grinned at him in response. If elinium was what it felt like, holding one's distance was the smartest decision, like what Schugel did. Speaking of which, there was one more thing Tanya needed to verify.
"Can Schugel hear us?"
"Loud and clear, Degurechaff," Schugel's annoyed tone came through the speaker. Tanya appeared to have found a way to goad him more than with the Engineering Director moniker, a darling revelation that lifted her spirits.
She may have said too much about radiation to avoid suspicion in the future, but it was a necessary evil to show those two that she wouldn't blindly fall in line unless she had to. Schugel must have realised by now that he would have to put his neck on the line to get her to cooperate. The only problem was that the moment he did that, he would have to take responsibility for everything that were to happen in the mine.
"What are my orders, sir?" she provoked him.
No answer, as expected.
Tanya clicked her tongue as she stared down the MP. "Since Schugel isn't rushing me, I take it you're formally in charge of whatever this is."
"I'd rather not say."
A non-answer. Schugel had advised him well.
An outright rejection would have streamlined Tanya's thoughts about the case, but the MP was probably in too deep himself to avoid ambiguity at this point. The improvised mic check that confirmed Schugel was, indeed, monitoring the situation added another reason for the MP to exercise caution.
Tanya's running assumption was that Schugel had tricked the MP to act as the administrator for the procedure's duration. A tacit agreement was also plausible, yet it could have implicated the local Military Police garrison in case of failure. Higher-ups wouldn't have risked it and going AWOL individually sounded like a terrible career choice for someone working in the rear. Hence, allowing Schugel to trick him put everyone else in the clear. Some awkwardness in keeping up the charade aside, this scenario put the initiative in Tanya's hands at no cost to the schemer remaining on the surface or his stooge-slash-accomplice stuck in the mine with her.
Provided she didn't explode and cause the whole mine to collapse, which was not in Schugel's cards, it was probably safe for the MP to accompany her. Then again, if that were the case, Schugel's precautions seemed odd. He put too much distance between himself and Tanya for her to take avoidance of legal ramifications as the sole reason behind it. However, this line of thought raised questions about the MP's continuous involvement in Schugel's shady business. Barring world-class ignorance, why would anyone take him up on accompanying Tanya to a haunted mine?
Lying was not Schugel's style, so there had to be something that Tanya had missed, a condition which made the arrangement acceptable to the MP despite the obvious dangers posed by the Type 95.
It pained her to fail to reach the answer.
What do they know that I don't?
Even more so, it pained her that she was running out of time. Should she succeed, taking too long without a valid reason would give Schugel the excuse to berate her character in writing.
Tanya snapped out of her stupor and lifted her operation orb. She glanced at the letter Beta engraved on its back. Schugel had taken the operation orb away from her at the factory, so there was no guarantee she held the same unit as before.
"But you won't let me go back up until I do this thing, eh?" she asked the MP.
"Power's out, Second Lieutenant. I'm instructed to tell you that activating the operation orb should help."
Yes, activation should help, she mumbled sarcastically in her mind. Tanya felt like a sheep being corralled into a pen. She would find out what awaited her, be it a sheering or slaughter, when it was too late to change the fate intended for her. Schugel must have realised that creating a situation in which activating the operation orb was the solution to all problems wouldn't sit well with Tanya. She wanted assurances that there weren't additional strings attached.
"Is that all?"
"As far as I know, yes."
Tanya furrowed her brows. His reply meant that returning to the surface was not necessarily that simple and Schugel could step in at any point with another trick up his sleeve. As Schugel's subordinate, Tanya would have to deal with that, but Schugel wasn't the one standing in front of her right now.
She went over the bits of conversation she had caught on the way to the Elinium Factory and the anecdotes about the mine once again in hopes of pinpointing something to catch the MP off guard. Tanya had heard legends about curses and hallucinations from his dead colleague. What had this MP said in response back then?
"They couldn't find the body of the previous Mage who went in. The Engineering Director looked happy when he got back without a scratch, though."
Her eyes went wide at the meaning behind those words, the rest of her face suppressing the "Gotcha!" sentiment. She had to be careful because there was a chance the MP had merely repeated what others had told him, but personal involvement in a previous assignment of this sort would have explained his willingness to accompany her.
"It's not the first time you're down here, is it?" she asked, seemingly out of the blue.
He replied without hesitation, "That's right."
"What did you do last time?"
"I came to retrieve the body."
Tanya twitched. It had been going so well and he managed to throw her off without trying. By now she was positive that he knew what was going to happen to her and acted out of vindictive selfishness by refusing to share this information. It was inexcusable!
"Why?!" she exclaimed and immediately shut her mouth. The echoes blared her question from every direction, growing more distorted with each repeat.
"Orders are orders, Second Lieutenant."
With that, Tanya realised that she had blown her chance to pull anything useful out of him. Questions about Tanya's predecessor wracked her brain.
Why couldn't they find the body? Was the MP a part of they? Or was he sent down by Schugel after they failed?
The MP's expression didn't reveal whether he had found the Mage's body in the end. It wouldn't have surprised her if he did and forgot to report it before turning it over to Schugel, leaving Schugel to do as he pleased to satisfy his sick curiosity without any oversight. Tanya had to make certain that she wouldn't be subjected to such defilement.
"Of course. What are my orders?"
"Shall I go over the briefing again?"
Tanya has had enough of the farce. She asked for orders and didn't receive any. "No. I'd like to receive a direct order from someone with the authority to issue one."
The MP said nothing, as did Schugel. Tanya did not receive any orders.
She was…free?
Trapped?
Like a cocked gun, all she needed to be of use was a finger on her trigger. Without the promise of one, she suddenly found herself lost, directionless, inert.
In a cursed mine of all places.
A gun was supposed to fire. A soldier was to carry out orders. Tanya was to fire without being given the order to do so. A gun that fired of its own accord was defective. Tanya would never in her right mind use such a gun.
The operation orb dangling from the collar of her shirt came into her view. The sight caused a bitter smile to crack to the surface. She had been babbling nonsense to herself.
"I see. I see how it is." Tanya chortled. Her high pitch reverberated in the caves until it lost its energy and was mangled into a creepy otherworldly noise. "This is just perfect!"
"Perfect! Perfect!" echoed the mine. The response prompted more laughter from Tanya.
She twirled around her axis and pranced to the chaotic tune given life by her voice. "I can feel it in the air, the tingling intensity that grows with every breath I take. It won't be long until I'm done for, huh?" She flashed a grin at the MP, who looked away.
The echoes overlapped and intertwined, coming back at her distorted as one, "Perfect…feel it in the air…done for…"
Schugel had pulled a great joke, so why was Tanya the only one laughing? Wasn't laughter supposed to be contagious?
Even the MP's expression was funny. He had gone pale, frozen stiff, so his light barely followed Tanya on her hops and leaps in the empty cave. Has it finally dawned on him that Schugel was dealing with matters beyond his own understanding?
"It's everywhere! The walls, the ceiling and now my lungs. I thought the testing hangar was toxic. This…this is obscene!" Tanya fell to her knees, barely holding herself up with her hands. Her breathing was uneven and her focus was wavering, but it didn't dampen her spirits. Before long, she saw tiny electric arcs gather around the gloveless hand. "Ah, what a magical place! The possibilities here are awesome."
"What are you saying, Second Lieutenant?"
Awesome, I said. In a biblical sense… She was quite certain she didn't say that out loud. It would have been a problem if she did.
Seeing that the dense MP wouldn't drop the topic, she punched the ground angrily. She punched it so hard she left a red stain on the surface. Tanya, however, didn't feel a thing. In the meantime, sparks were beginning to coil around her fingers.
She sat up, her bleeding hand extended towards the MP to get him to lift her.
He gawked at it. Between the electricity of unknown origin and her erratic behaviour, it was natural for one to hesitate. In the end, he helped her up.
The crimson sparks remained on Tanya's skin, though. They didn't leave her from the jolt of being pulled up or being touched by another. Tanya figured that her original hypothesis about elinium was flawed. Elinium treated different people differently. To radiation, all people were just sacks of meat.
"This whole place is contaminated in ways you can't even imagine and once it gets inside you, it's impossible to get rid of." She blew at the sparks, made a fist and shook her hand–none of the actions freed her from the manifestation.
"But…you're a Mage! You can control this thing, right?"
"That's the idea, isn't it?" She nodded to herself. The MP's question told her what she had been missing. "I understand now."
That man had complete faith in her ability to succeed. Schugel probably didn't have to resort to fancy tricks to secure his participation. He was a believer. The fool wouldn't have lasted a day on the front with that attitude.
"I have a question of my own, then. What happened to that Mage?"
He glanced down at the speaker on his uniform before conceding to Tanya. "It's documented as MIA."
"Mmm…convenient." Tanya disposed of her other glove and connected her fingers. The sparks spread to the other hand without losing intensity on either. "Is the same going to happen to me?" she asked nonchalantly, preoccupied with the light show on her palms.
"I don't know, Second Lieutenant."
"It's Schugel I'm asking, not you."
Schugel didn't breathe a word. In his stead, the MP read something off of his sheet and said, "I've been instructed to inform that you will be entitled to additional guidance once your operation orb activates."
"So that's the ticket to make you talk…" She walked up to the MP while he was reading, startling him when he found her in his personal space, looking up with the glee of a predator about to score a kill. "What else do you have in those notes?" Her eyes flashed as she spoke.
The MP stepped back and reached for his sidearm in a threatening display, making Tanya sigh in frustration.
"I kid. Besides, it's not like that peashooter is going to help when I get serious…"
The MP emoted in agreement before returning to the broken record treatment, "You'd need to activate the operation orb for that."
"Precisely!"
Her exclamation boomed in the cave. It cowed the MP to actually grab his gun, aiming it slightly below Tanya's feet. He was still controlling himself, which Tanya found amusing. There was a great rift between them, which was about to grow because Tanya could afford to drop any remaining self-restraint.
"Schuuugel, are you still listening?"
No response.
"Fuck. You."
Tanya grabbed her operation orb and watched in awe as all the sparks were funnelled into the core, springing it to life.