-- Begin Part 1 --

Like an undead soul searching for new life, stagnant air roamed the corridors in the Vaults beneath Ison. Dank and foul, the large, cavernous maze of chambers and hallways reeked of sweat and blood mixed with death and brimstone. They'd been here longer than anyone could remember, their origins shrouded in the fog of history.

For two years, two long years, Kaden had wallowed in these depths as a slave. Not seeing the pure light of day even once. The closest to such he had come was what illumination flowed down through the light wells in the space granted for him to use as his laboratory. Where he continued to distill emotions for the prince, just as his father once had.

At a rickety cart in one of the chambers lit by dim and flickering torches, Kaden toiled with a collection of his prepared wooden tubes. Mostly tipped orange and red—Fear and Rage. He'd also stocked up on as many vials of Courage as he could, but the brownish liquor was almost as hard to distill as the pinkish extract of love.

Not because it was rare. No, Courage was bountiful, but often highly impure and fleeting. More so than almost any other emotion. And that meant the required purity was significantly harder to achieve from its raw stock. Courage usually needed a triple distillation to obtain suitable results. How his father had been able to produce such large quantities was a feat Kaden had yet to match.

His mind constantly working, calculating ways to enhance his stills and performing mathematical computations at a furious pace, Kaden prepared each of them for use when called for. He tried to arrange them in some logical order while being careful to not break any of the wooden vials open on accident. But in the poor light, he couldn't see them very well. Instead, Kaden developed an alternative means for identifying the contents of each. Using a series of shallow markings carved on the outside of the tube, Kaden could pass his fingers over the wood and know its contents immediately.

"You always do have the best offerings for the soldiers," another boy with him said pleasantly. Two years older at eighteen, he was busy taking care of his own supply of extracts. "I can understand why the prince keeps you down here, Kaden. I don't know how many battles against the demons we'd have lost if it weren't for you."

The other boy didn't have anything as fancy as a cart, like Kaden did. Not that Kaden's was particularly well crafted. Kaden had fashioned it himself out of spare lumber he'd salvaged from supply crates. The wheels were as round as he could make them. All his companion possessed was a mid-sized rectangular wooden box with a handle to carry it by. Like something a carpenter might haul his tools in.

The other boy's wares were equally neat in arrangement. They had to be. Time was often of the essence. Compared to Kaden, however, his quantity was lacking.

"Don't paint me to be some sort of hero," Kaden said.

"Hero?" The other boy laughed. "No, the heroes are the ones down in the Abyss fighting the Koronai. And out in the Barrens defending us from the other savage tribes of Imeron. We're about as far from heroes as one could be. We're just slaves. And we're only slaves, because we know how to make these." He held up a single vial in the dimness for emphasis. "Otherwise we'd have been used as target practice for the Royal Archery Corps. long ago."

"Sahl," Kaden spoke once the tirade finished. "You're as good at distilling emotions as I am."

"If only that were true!"

"You may not produce as much essence as I do, but I know your purity is on par with mine. If not better."

The praise, even if it was exaggerated, caused Sahl to smile. "You are a good friend to say such things, Kaden."

Kaden shrugged. "To lie would be considered to be ignoble and in violation of the Decrees."

"If there's one thing you're not, it's ignoble," Sahl said. "You have more honor than most of those who fight to keep Ison secure and Prince Relastin first in line for the High Throne when the time comes."

"To beyond the Gates with Prince Relastin," Kaden cursed. "He's done nothing but cause suffering. For me, you, and so many others."

Sahl looked about. "Do not say such blasphemous things. Unless you are going to travel to the Gates themselves and lay claim to his title."

"The Prince hasn't made it to the Gates."

"No. But he's made it further than any other." Sahl pointed out. "Slayed the mightiest Koronai of any man other than the King himself. And that is impressive."

"He's killed more men than Koronai," Kaden said.

"That is probably true of all men who have fought upon the Barrens."

"And how many would he have killed," Kaden asked. "Without this?" In his hand, Kaden held up a tube of Rage. One he had collected off the stills just this morning. "Without these, he is nothing."

"He'd still be a man who possessed superb skills with the sword. With or without the power of distilled emotions, Prince Relastin, Son of King Arban would continue to be formidable." Sahl paused. "I know you harbor ill will towards him. What he did to your father? That would make anyone angry. But your father did short him on a deal. And by the Decrees, shorting anyone is a crime. But shorting the prince? It's considered shorting the whole of Ison. That is considered treasonous. If it had been me? I'd have spared your father. Orl was too good a chemist to put to the sword. Make an example of? Yes. But not kill. Ison has suffered since then."

"Because Hundu, Son of Watto became the chief supplier of essence to Ison. Man doesn't know a Goose Neck Flask from a pipette. And I believe he's probably color blind."

Sahl laughed. "This is true. And why I harbor ill will against your father. Not for what he did to the prince, but for what he did to Ison by elevating that fool to such a lofty position. No offense."

"I know you don't mean any. You're just trying to lighten the atmosphere."

"Is it working?"

"I don't—"

The ground quaked, ending Kaden's reply prematurely. Mortar between the stones cracked and dust careened down from above. Kaden had never felt anything like it.

Then the world around them rumbled a second time, this time backed up by a demonic roar that chilled blood into ice despite the heat it would have carried.

"That does not sound at all good," Sahl said.

"I've never heard a Koronai sound like that."

"Nor have I. Nor have I. Lesser Koronai are quite vicious, and vocal. But a roar like that? That is from no Lesser Koronai."

"Who are down past the Gap right now fighting in the Abyss today?"

"Don't know. I only came on duty an hour ago. Just as you did. Haven't seen anyone head down or come out."

The terrifying cry happened again. And again everything trembled. The force of it all threatened to upend Kaden's cart, but he was quick to steady his precious supplies.

"Do you think," Kaden pondered, "we should go down there and see what's going on?"

"Down there?" Sahl's voice was riddled with anxiety and fear at the suggestion. "You mean to the Gap?"

"Yes."

"We are not to go to the Gap. Our post is to stay here and supply the warriors heading into the Abyss through the Gap."

Unrelenting, another violent tremor came and another hellish roar.

"No one's come past in an hour," Kaden said. "What if the warriors fighting need our help? What if they need additional strength to fight whatever that is? Even you said that doesn't sound like a Lesser Koranai, and we should not hear something that big this close. What if it defeats Ison's soldiers and escapes?"

"We run?" Sahl replied, only half joking.

Kaden wasn't having it. He kicked the chocs out from under the wheels of his cart, grabbed the handle and started pushing it at a pace that mushroomed into a sprint.

"You'll be in trouble for heading down there!" Sahl cried after him. "They'll have your head! Like your father's!"

Kaden ignored him as his cart jostled through the corridor he traveled. The passage that headed down toward the Gap.

It wouldn't take long to arrive. Only two minutes in all. But it was two minutes filled with more ground shaking and horrific demonic wails. Ones that sent cobbles from the ceiling tumbling down and barely missing Kaden more than once.

When he reached his destination, there was only one man standing there. An older and fellow slave dressed in poor clothes who had been tending the jagged gash in the floor for about as many years as Kaden had been alive. Thin from lack of nourishment, his hair grayed and falling out, the man stared down at the top of a rope and wood ladder poking out from where his toes hung over the edge.

"Kaden?" he said, noting the boy running towards him down the hall. Confused, the man then rushed to meet him. "What are you doing here? You need to get back to your post," he warned.

"Loku," Kaden began speaking as he secured his cart against the wall in the presence of still more tremors and roars. "What's going on?"

"You should not be here," Loku chastised him again.

"What is going on in the Abyss?"

Loku sighed. "Sounds like one of the larger Koronai has made its way up from the deeper levels. Could even be a Koronai Night Terror. It's not safe for you to be here."

"Who's down there? Are there enough men?" Kaden asked. "Do they need supplies?"

The assault questions stunned Loku, but he answered. "Prince Relastin, Son of King Arban, took a squad in three days ago. They're the only ones down there. Have been for some time."

"Three days? Only the prince and a single squad?"

"Yes. He was trying to get to the Gates again."

"With only a single squad?" Kaden's surprise was unable to be contained.

"He's bold," Loku observed. "Doesn't want there to be any question about his right to lead Imeron."

"But a squad is not enough," Kaden rebutted. "Even his father, King Arban, Son of Xorvis, employed an entire company of his finest soldiers to accomplish that feat. And even then, only after years of constantly dwindling the Koronai's ranks."

"As I said, the prince is bold!"

"Too bold," Kaden grumbled. He wanted to say something else out loud about foolishness, but Loku was too loyal and too much of a traditionalist to not tell the prince of the insult later. Assuming Prince Relastin made it out of the Abyss alive.

Kaden figured at first he should just allow the prince to suffer whatever fate would befall him. But that would not be good for Kaden. Not good at all. If the prince died, all his slaves would also be put to death. And that included Kaden.

He could plead his case to the next in line to the throne. That would have been Shar Xenar, another of King Arban's children. The King's sixteenth born son, or something like that. And maybe the Shar would see wisdom in keeping Kaden around. But Shar Xenar also knew how much Kaden hated being a slave and that he would have to deal with that attitude should the prince pass on.

Having taken stock of his precarious position, Kaden made a decision. He snatched a camel skin pouch from his cart and began filling it with tubes and an assortment of the distilled emotions he'd brought.

"What are you doing?" Loku questioned. All while the world felt as though it were being torn apart.

Kaden drew the strings of his package tight. "Probably something you'd consider stupid."

"Something that will get you killed! Either by the claws of a Koronai, or by Prince Relastin's sword."

"If the prince dies, Loku, we all die."

Loku exuded a low growl at the all too true statement. "If I let you go, I'll be executed."

Kaden approached the ladder, taking note of the distinct gashes from clawed hands that scarred the edges of the Gap. He looked down into a world foreign to him. One he'd only heard stories of and never laid eyes upon before now. The hole was deep and dark. He almost lost his balance and tumbled in upon the next shaking of the ground.

How far down was it, he thought? A hundred feet? Two hundred?

Below him, Kaden saw what looked like a cavern lit by a red glow that did not waiver. Hot air rushed up past him as the demon's roar continued to call. Kaden heard the distant sound of steel ringing.

"Tell them I snuck up on you," Kaden replied to Loku's concerns. "If anyone questions you, tell them I knocked you out from behind."

"Knocked me out?"

Kaden flipped himself onto the first rungs of the rope ladder, preparing to descend. It swaying more than was comfortable. "If you question the lie, how will anyone else believe it?" He quoted an old saying that seemed apropos.

"I do not like the prospect of lying to my prince."

"Like you haven't done it before." Kaden's accusation would have been a sting to his fellow slave, had it not been true.

"Aye," Loku admitted. "And I cringe every time I do."

"Then cringe one more time. And pray luck be with me."