Andrew had already gotten up and working on packing when Lyza awoke, blinking in the darkness as he'd suffocated the campfire overnight. The lighting was a little better with a series of glowstones placed around the area, but she still needed to move her hands in front of her and crawl around to figure out the best way to move. It was a good thing she had trained herself to wake up quickly, it could have been dangerous to be half-asleep trying to move around.
"How long have you been awake? How long until the light returns?" she asked, and he laughed, sitting cross-legged and holding up a knife to one of the glowstones, checking the blade for chips or smudges.
"There's still another six hours left before the light returns. You slept a long time, I've been up for quite a while." He hummed in satisfaction at the knife's quality, setting a plastic sheath over it and placing it in one of the many small pcokets surrounding the large pack he was sitting near, which was opened as he had yet to pack any big supplies. "I already sorted out my maps and planned a route upwards."
She blinked, shifting to stand up and letting her eyes adjust to the low light. "How could you do that if you have no idea how the layout has changed?" she asked, and he waved his hand.
"You saw those big statue things guarding the entrance to the city, right?" he asked, and when she nodded, he continued. "Those were the first iteration of Universal Automaton Systems, a type of robot that the ancient civilization designed. I've been trying to get them working, and I finally got one model to function. I sent it up to the surface yesterday, and it transmitted the path it took back to the console I got working. So, now I at least know the right path up, albeit I don't have the same capabilities or speed that it did."
The woman tilted her head at the statement. "That robot...It wouldn't happen to be a little kid, would it?" she asked, holding her hand beside her. "About...this tall, olive skin, weird helmet?"
He stared at her, before laughing as he turned back to work on picking up his tools, checking each one individually before setting them in their proper places. "So you met it already. It must have passed by when you were heading down. How was it handling? All I know is the path it took, I have no idea how functional it was."
"He didn't seem to recognize anything." she replied, kneeling to help him with his inspections as she tapped the stone in her helmet to see better. "He just sort of was wandering around, I thought he was a Narehate until his arms extended. I took him in for a couple days to rest before he disappeared. He must have just continued upwards without me, then. I wonder if he's okay?"
"His data's stopped coming in now." he replied, holding a couple items in either hand as he mused over which was a better choice for the journey. "Hmm, let's see...I'm not planning on doing any major climbing, so I doubt I need super strong carabiners. They'll just waste space, there's no mountains anywhere after all…" He glanced over at her, before chuckling. "Don't worry." he stated reassuringly. "The UAS are designed for the Abyss, but he's probably living a comfortable life on the surface now. I don't see why he'd bother coming back into the pit."
"I had to fix a problem you didn't notice." she stated, and he turned his head to look at her. "He couldn't speak, and I found an exposed wire. Was that due to you cutting it, or just a random injury?"
He laughed, standing up to walk over to another pile and kneel down to look at a group of papers he picked up, before sorting them out onto the ground in multiple piles. "I never said I was perfect, and I didn't actually know if he was sentient or not, so I only worked a lot on his motor controls and navigation system. Any communication or lack thereof is exactly how it was before I touched it. Hmm, though I did see a warning sign in the building they were stored in that said that UAS3 models run out of memory quickly and start purging themselves every decade or so, so maybe that's why his data hasn't transmitted recently. Oh, well, I'm sure I'll be able to figure out how to get up past the Inverse Forest, I knew that place like the back of my hand and I doubt it's changed so severely I'd lose my way."
He hummed in satisfaction as he stood up, taking one of the piles of paper and walking over to her. She accepted them as he headed over to his sleeping bag to roll it up while he talked. "Those are copies of maps I've made of the 7th Layer and the pattern the sludge moves in, in case you ever decide that you do want to go back upwards. You've been to the 6th Layer, so I assume you're aware that mapping it is pointless."
She nodded, shining the glowstone on her helmet in his direction so he could better see what he was doing, and he hummed happily at the help. "How long will it be before you go?" she asked, and he stopped to look up at the ceiling, quiet for several seconds before replying.
"The light will return in about four hours, maybe a bit more. I want to eat as much as I can before then so I don't waste too much food on the initial journey, and I need to show you the best hunting grounds and places to find spare equipment. If you know what you're doing, you can find anything you want here. This place was built to sustain an entire civilization after all."
~~~4 Hours Later~~~
For some reason, even though it was identical to how it was when they first met, Andrew's grin looked a lot more natural as he stood near the entrance to the city, his oversized backpack resting on his shoulders as Lyza, also wearing her pack out of habit, stood beside him. Just on time, the light had returned, bathing the city in its red glow as she smiled.
"Any farewells? You won't be coming back, after all." she said, and he mused over the question, before turning to face the city, inhaling deeply before speaking.
"I'll surpass you!" he shouted, a simple and loud yell that echoed across the Layer. "I made it to the bottom, and now I'm going back to the top! So you'd better be there, waiting for me on the surface!"
He laughed, a hearty sound void of anything but pure bliss as he turned to face her. "Well, is that an acceptable goodbye?" he asked, before blinking and tilting his head in confusion.
Something about his statement has resonated with the woman, and her smile had dropped as she silently took her pack off, setting it on the ground and unzipping it as he watched. "Er, Lyza?" he asked, and she shook her head, before reaching into her pack to pull out the egg she'd been carrying around.
"Sorry, it's just...I just realized how serious you were." she said, her voice quieter than before. "If you don't mind...I may be a mother, but monsters aren't my field of expertise. I want to take care of this, but since I know so little, it would only suffer down here on the bottom. Could you take it back to where it was for me?"
He blinked, stepping back in surprise. "Weren't you terrified at the thought of it being damaged last night? Why are you suddenly wanting to part with it?"
"I'm not a fool. I've seen what happens when you raise a child in the wrong environment. If I were to care for it, it would only end up food for some stronger creature, or turn against me and force me to kill it. I don't want to lose a child, human or not. I don't need to be drunk to understand that. You're experienced too, aren't you? You're young, but you have the eyes of a White Whistle. I don't know much about you, but you remind me of my mentor...Strong and capable, and fully aware of the dangers the Abyss really holds. Are you as good with kids as her too?"
He chuckled, before reaching behind him to unzip his own bag, which despite how much he'd crammed inside still had plenty of space for the egg if he rolled it into his sleeping bag. "Well, I don't really know who you mentor is, but if I meet them, I'll tell them you said hi...And don't worry. I may be strong, but I'm delicate enough to handle that."
She laughed in response as he took the egg, and though she hesitated to let go, eventually she gave in, crossing her arms to stop herself from reaching for it again as he set it inside his pack. "If you meet her, she'll help you get back to the surface. She'll understand if you tell her that I told you about the Cuse-Warding Vessel."
"How it brought your stillborn child to life? I'm sure that's something only you and she would know about it. Alright, I'll ask her if I see her. What does she look like?"
"She's a White Whistle too, but she's a lot taller than me. She's over two meters tall, and she's really pale and has a strange hairstyle. You'd know her if you saw her, she's very unique, and no matter how long it's been, I don't think she'll look any different. She has a lot more of those Thousand-Men Pins than you do, so she's looked exactly the same for decades."
"Oh, another pin collector? Funny, I knew someone whose goal was to find them all. What's her name?" he asked, and she smiled.
"Ozen." she said, before an expression of confusion crossed her face at the reaction of the boy standing in front of her.
His grin was exactly as it always was, but she could feel the weight of the stare he was giving her, an expression that reminded her only more of her mentor's immovable strength.
"...Ozen, you said?" he asked, and she blinked, nodding as he sighed, raising a hand to his forehead and looked to the ground, now taliing more to himself than her. "Ozen...So it looks like I really do need to keep my end of the promise, then."
Almost as fast as it started, the heavy aura faded as he looked up, shifting the weight of the pack as the egg was added. "Alright! I'm pumped up now, so I'd better head out before I get cold feet!"