The newly formed expedition crew left the hill immediately after Fire was done talking to Steve. If the map he had seen was any good it would take them roughly a day of travel time if they rode there directly, this time did not include resting and assumed that nothing unexpected would happen on the way. They were reasonably close to the Tower, so bandit attacks were improbable, however a whole lot of people had escaped from the Tower's prison recently so there was no guarantee for safe travels.

The horses Fire had bought were sturdy enough to carry two people. Destiny and Lucy took one, Rose and Urist the other. Fire was quick enough on his feet to keep up with them and Voidblade could teleport hundreds of meters at a time. Voidblade was now also wearing his armor, which looked functional more than anything else, Fire assumed that he had filled the role of infantry in his homeworld.

While they travelled they didn't talk much, they were focused on getting to their destination as quickly as possible. After the first few hours they took a short break to eat, drink and let the horses rest for a short while. After two more such rests they decided to set up camp for the night.

The next day they got up early and started riding again. The sun was already starting to set when they arrived at their destination. The mountains towered in front of them. No clear path was visible and the terrain was too steep to continue on horseback.

Fire said: "Alright everyone, time to dismount. Just leave the horses, they won't be of any use underground."

Rose spoke up: "How far is our destination?"

Fire said: "It should be about one to two hours of hiking until we arrive at the entrance of the cave system."

Rose nodded.

As Fire turned to go ahead he looked back to see Lucy give her horse a pat on the head before following. Destiny seemed quite eager to get going and Urist was predictably thrilled to be in his preferred terrain. Voidblade and Rose seemed mostly ambivalent, but they'd get their excitement soon enough once they would start clearing out the caves.

The lower parts of the mountains were densely forested with various species of coniferous trees and thus made ascending the mountain fairly easy since they always had something to hold onto once the terrain got steeper.

Eventually they had climbed far enough for the trees to be replaced with shrubs growing on the rocky debris slopes. This terrain was significantly harder to traverse, especially for Lucy and Rose, who didn't seem to have much mountaineering experience. Urist on the other hand had quickly taken the lead, doing his best to find a path that was easy for his companions to traverse. The few times where someone got close to stumbling and sliding down the mountain in an avalanche of rocks, Voidblade had been ready to save them with two quick teleportations. Fire watched with satisfaction as the groundwork for future cooperation and trust was being laid. Of course he knew better than to let his guard down, a lot of things could happen, especially once they began their work.

All of a sudden the slope came to an end and in front of Fire was the plateau he had seen on the map. The plateau was bordered by yet higher mountains, the mountainside they had climbed up was just about the only safe entrance to the plateau. This was one of the reasons Fire had chosen this area, the main part of the shelter would still be underground but the plateau offered a relatively safe space for facilities that needed to be outside.

The ground ahead of them was covered in a layer of dry moss with smaller rocks poking through, bigger boulders were scattered throughout the plateau, evidently having rolled down from one of the taller mountains.

Fire walked a few steps and then waited for the others to reach the plateau as well. They had all fared quite well, especially Urist and Voidblade. The humans of the group looked a bit exhausted, especially Lucy.

She said between panting breaths: "It's been a while since I last did anything like this."

Fire let her catch her breath before speaking: "Just a bit ahead of us is the entrance to the cave system. We will start exploring it tomorrow, today our goal is to barricade the entrance and set up a more permanent spot to sleep outside." He turned to Urist. "I assume you have some experience when it comes to construction."

Urist grinned. "Ye could say that. Been some years since I've been employed in a keep but some things ye never forget."

"Excellent." Fire said.

Fire then lit a torch with a little bit of magic and once again took the lead. Behind him he could hear Lucy and Rose talking.

Rose asked: "So, you haven't actually told me why you are here. I know I'm here because I can stab things, but what about you?"

Lucy replied hesitantly: "I don't know. Fire says I'll find out soon enough." Her tone changed to be brighter. "What I've been meaning to ask you, I know some basic self defense but not with weapons. Would you mind… teaching me a bit?"

Rose replied: "Huh, I guess I misjudged you a bit. Didn't take you for the proactive type. We might be able to work something out."

"Really?" The joy in Lucy's voice brought a smile to Fire's face and seemingly some of it got through to Rose as well.

"Yes, really. Not today though. Honestly, I'm quite exhausted as well."

Just a few minutes of walking later they had reached the entrance to the cave. It gaped in front of them, dramatically illuminated by Fire's torch.

Fire passed his torch on to Voidblade and nodded to Urist. Over the course of the next half hour the two of them used some of the wood Fire had in one of his enchanted bags to construct two layers of barricade, one right at the entrance and one some meters into the cave, each one with a door in it. They then went on to construct six adequately comfortable beds in the newly-formed enclosed space. They would certainly build better lodgings later but for tonight it was all they needed.

When they were finished they returned to their companions outside.

Destiny said: "Normally I would be impressed but it seems that this kind of construction speed is quite common."

Urist said: "Och, that's nothing. I've seen entire forts built in hours, or taken down for that matter."

Voidblade had been very quiet for more or less the entire time. Now he spoke in the human tongue, a bit slowly but otherwise flawlessly: "Now I know it was a good idea to go on this expedition."

After they had stood there talking for a few more minutes, Fire lit a campfire in front of the cave, if they were going to talk they might as well do so comfortably.

Urist had deflected every time someone had asked something related to his backstory so Fire didn't want to press him on it. The one person left who Fire didn't know much about was Rose.

He asked: "So, Rose. Would you mind telling us a bit about your world and how you arrived here?"

Rose shifted into a more comfortable sitting position. "I don't know if there is much to tell. I never was one for stories but I'll try. My world seems to be a bit more… developed than where most people I've met come from. We had big cities, paved roads, electric light, things like that. But most importantly we still had a bit of magic from the old days. I'm not very good at it aside from making more blades but there were some people out there who understood more of how the world looked once you peeled the skin away. I was employed by one such person, he paid me and I would make his problems disappear. I only recently found out that he wasn't just some eccentric esoteric with more money than morals, he had a concrete goal."

Rose paused, waiting for someone to ask what that goal might have been. Lucy was the one to cave first.[/p]

Rose said: "The goal was simple and complex at the same time. My employer wanted nothing less than immortality. And he was willing to go very long distances to attain it. Well, technically his followers were the ones who went the distances, he just pulled the strings. My job usually was to get rid of the people who looked too closely at his organization. This went on until one day he took me aside and asked me to participate in a ritual of sorts, all I would have to do was stab some poor fool who was tied to an altar."

Rose paused again, this time it seemed to be out of rememberance.

"It turned out that this ritual was supposed to summon some creature that would assist my employer in some matter, instead it summoned me to this place. From what I gather not many come here that way, most people I talked to claim that one day they just woke up and found that their house had moved to another world."

Lucy said: "That's what happened to me."

Fire said: "It's actually more common than you might think to come to Nexus through some kind of teleportation mishap, many of the people I know are from worlds further out, myself included."

Destiny flinched, probably reminded of David. Fire decided to steer the topic to something less dangerous. They spent the next hour discussing the cuisine of their respective worlds, some of the things Voidblade told them about were surprising but definitely something Fire had to try to cook when he had the opportunity.

When the moon had risen high above them they decided that it was best if they went to sleep, after all they had a lot of work to do the next day.