Chapter 4

When Lees and Meshi arrived at the ready room, the equipment manager didn’t even bother looking up from their work to acknowledge them. They remained hunched over their tiny desk, jotting down notes on a clipboard. The wide ready room was more or less a glorified locker-lined cage bolted onto the cave wall. Half the lockers were open, each revealing a pneumatic drill – some pristine, others well-worn – dusty safety gear, and a chisel. Lees quickly crossed the room to a locker in the back corner and gathered her gear. 

“You doing another shift, sparrow?” The woman asked Lees without looking up from her paperwork. Lees glanced at the woman, a hardened mine veteran who had worked her way up to the EM position in record time. 

“Got sent down by the chippers, figured I’d make a show of it,” Lees responded. She shoved a harness and dented orange helmet into the boy’s chest before beginning to strap herself in.  

“Can’t pay you overs.”

Figures. 

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Lees grumbled. She cinched the chisel harness around her thigh a little tighter than intended. 

The boy stood unmoving in the center of the room, staring down at the dirty leather straps and rope in his hands with a look of disgust. His lip curled as he examined the sweat-stained lining of the helmet and studied the harness with mild bemusement.  

“What’s with soft hands?” The EM asked, jutting her chin in the boy’s direction. 

“Got his ass kicked. Chippers sent him down here with me.” 

“You got a name?” The EM called over. She had stopped filling out the paperwork and was rolling a pencil between her calloused fingers as she gave the boy an appraising look. A miner was only as good as the pile of Hyper he could mine, and this boy didn’t look like much of a hard worker. 

“Meshi,” He responded, enunciating carefully and loudly. Lees snorted.

The EM studied him for a second longer before clicking her tongue in disapproval. 

“Don’t you die in my mine, Meh-sheeee.”

“How welcoming of you,” Meshi muttered under his breath.

“This mite is your responsibility, little sparrow. Mistakes won’t be comin’ out of my paycheck,” The EM extended her arm toward Lees and held out a tiny slip of paper.  

“Yeah, yeah,” Lees groaned. She snatched the slip of paper bearing their assignment, then tightened the band on the back of her helmet and gawked at Meshi, who still stood dumbfounded, holding the bundle she’d handed him. 

“Quit standing around, soft hands, and grab some gear!” EM barked at Meshi. She slammed a hand down on her desk, and the sound rattled around the ready room. He jumped and scrambled to the nearest locker.

“Not that one!” Both women shouted in unison.

“Do you want Reggie to kill you?” Lees griped.

“Reg is probably the second worst person to snag gear from, right after little Miss Particular over here,” The EM chuckled to herself before returning to her clipboard, the two mites forgotten. 

“M’not particular. Don’t mess with my stuff; I won’t mess with you,” Lees said. She slung her coveted drill over her shoulder, its neatly placed labels matching those on her helmet and harness, and watched the boy – Meshi – fumble to fit the harness and other gear around his pristine outfit. Lees noticed with satisfaction he was already wrinkled and smudged. 

The rusty cage squealed and shook as it descended into the mine. Meshi’s face drew tighter and tighter with each passing floor. He had flat-out refused to get into the cage at first, calling it a metal death trap (a fair point, Lees had to concede), but the EM barked at him to get the hell down into the mine before she threw him down the shaft and he had acquiesced, turning a delicate shade of green as he did. 

“Shaft’s deep,” Lees said in a thick, folksy accent. “Quite a bit-a Hyper comes out a-here.”

Meshi stared at Lees for a moment. “What is that? Are you doing an accent?”

“I was trying to be charming!” Lees said. Meshi turned away without a word.

“We actually do process a lot of Hyper from this mine. Even before coming here, I knew about Last Light. This is one of the most profitable mines in the whole kingdom,” She continued proudly.

Meshi didn’t respond. The lift operator raised an eyebrow, waiting for Lees to continue. She wondered if it was the word “profitable” that had intrigued the man.

“Well, when you pull Hyper from the tunnel's walls, you’re actually… kind of chipping off a piece of a longer vein. For some reason, Hyper forms in wavy ribbons,” Lees had now turned to face both men.

Meshi stole a glance at the other man in the elevator before responding. “I’m well aware.”

“What’s strange about ours, though, is the size of the veins.”

“Why? Are they bigger?” The lift operator piped up. Lees smiled. At least someone was interested in what she was saying. 

“You’re getting it!” Lees shot a finger at the man with a smile. Meshi furrowed his brow. “They’re so much bigger, like way, way bigger than any other Oppri mine. And no one knows why.”

“Wow,” The lift operator nodded thoughtfully. “You sure do know how to puzzle the old noodle, Lees.”

“You sure know a lot about Hyper… for a mite,” Meshi said softly. 

Lees eyed him, certain the comment was an insult. There was a bite to the word when he said it, a tone she’d heard plenty before but never from another mite. 

“Yeah, well, I learned it from my mom. Her father worked on some of the early processing machines.”

“Your grandfather worked for OpLabs?” Meshi looked astonished. He finally turned to look her in the eyes, and Lees realized with a start it was the first time they’d made eye contact since she’d seen him on the train. 

“What of it?” Lees asked. Her stomach twisted at the look he was giving her. She regretted saying anything.

Meshi’s expression changed, his face softening as if in apology. “No, no, I'm impressed. It’s a rare honor to work there. You must be proud of that.”

Lees could feel her face redden with frustration. Nobody ever complimented her mother’s family. Even as a kid, her dad and grandmother dismissed her mother’s work every opportunity they got. To finally hear a kind word about it, from this entitled boy, nonetheless? She gritted her teeth. 

“What’s it matter, anyway?” She snapped. 

Meshi’s eyes darted toward the floor of the cage. Then, perhaps realizing he could see straight through the metal grid to the yawning chasm below, his gaze settled on the railing. He reached out to twist a small bolt on the side of the railing. Was he embarrassed?

“I’ve always liked machines,” He admitted. “But I was raised in the High Court.” 

“The High Court? No wonder you’re so – wait, you’re from one of the high-nine families!?” Lees blurted out. The lift operator’s eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline as he whipped around to stare at the boy. Meshi lowered his head again and waved a hand as if to shut her up. 

“Doesn’t matter down here, does it? Privilege will only get you so far. I was…guided…to focus my studies on the art of Hyper, not machines. Forcefully. Because it was a more noble pursuit for someone of my standing,” He practically spit out those final words. 

Guided to study Hyper. Boo-hoo. I was guided to throw my life away in the mines for the rest of my life, Lees thought bitterly. 

Meshi looked crestfallen now, his eyes unfocused and lost in thought as he absently twisted the little bolt, and Lees’s anger fizzled into something closer to shame and pity. Truth be told, they were both down here now. Whatever golden life he’d lived before didn’t matter anymore. They were both victims of those in control deciding how they would live and what their lives would be like from now until their last days.

Lees considered patting him on the shoulder but couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she cleared her throat before trying to comfort him. 

“Sounds like your family… well, they suck,” She finished lamely. 

The cage screeched as it slammed into the ground, much sharper than was strictly necessary. Lees rocked backward on her heels to stop from tipping over. The operator chuckled to himself again. Meshi steadied himself on the railing before whipping around. 

“Shut up! You don’t know anything about them!” Meshi growled, eyes flaring. He balled his fists at his side, and Lees took half a step back out of surprise. “They’re just traditional. Wanted what was best for me and the family.” 

He stomped off of the cage and into the main shaft. Lees stayed behind and watched him go, shoulders hunched and face twisted in anger. 

“Seems you hit a nerve,” The lift operator drawled. She glared at him before stepping out of the cage. “See you in six hours!” Lees waved him off and followed Meshi into the mine.

The cage rattled and clanked back upwards, the sound following Lees as she headed deeper into the shaft. She hadn’t been down here in at least six months, and as she rounded the corner, she remembered why that had been such a blessing. Each drift had its own foreman who had near complete control of how the work got done, so long as they delivered results. Eria’s particular brand of control was notorious, and she’d never once gotten on his good side. 

Is this our punishment for the kitchen brawl? Is the chief actually that cunning? What – 

Lees’ thoughts were interrupted by a loud, frantic noise echoing further down the drift. A flurry of voices followed. Her bulky equipment banged awkwardly against her legs as she ran forward and rounded the corner just in time to see Meshi being pinned against the wall by Eria. The foreman’s sinewy arm pressed against Meshi’s sternum was crisscrossed with X-patterned scars. She could never quite figure out what caused them and was far too smart to ask him directly. 

“Get your filthy hands off me,” Meshi hissed. He clutched a small satchel draped across his chest, the straps pulled taut by Eria’s forearm. The foreman slid his arm up to press at the base of Meshi’s throat. The boy made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a growl. From where she stood, his eyes looked almost black. But he didn’t seem scared. He had the same look on his face as when he was cornered in Jez’s kitchen. Wild, furious, unrestrained. Lees’ stomach dropped. 

“Hiya, boss!” Lees practically shouted as she continued toward the group. Two other workers stepped sideways to intercept her. She recognized one of them as Eria’s unofficial right-hand man. Both reeked of liquor as they leaned over her. She ignored both and caught Eria’s eye between their swaying bodies. “Ah, I see you got to the new bug before I had a chance.” 

“What’s it to ya, Lice?” Eria barked. He pressed his weight further into Meshi but kept his eyes on Lees. She took a deep breath in an attempt to slow her racing heartbeat, willing her voice to remain steady.

“Came in with him. Got him talking up top, and he told me he’s worth quite a bit of money,” Lees replied. 

“Is that so?” Eria grinned and turned back to Meshi.

“Wh-how dare you!” Meshi snarled. Eria flexed, and Meshi choked on whatever he was going to say next. 

“Figured I had to get him quick. Rich mites don’t stay in the mines very long, you know that,” Lees continued. “A mite like me, from the Quarters? Nobody cares what happens to me. But a high family kid?” Lees gave a low whistle and patted one of the miners’ shoulders. “Well. This one’s got a burly bodyguard topside, so someone must care what happens to him. Wonder what he’ll do when his little lad comes back all bruised up? Or not at all? It’s not like he can go back to the kid’s family empty-handed without reporting at least a little revenge.”  

Eria’s eyes narrowed as he took in Lees’ words. He looked from Lees to the satchel Meshi clutched, then at the clothes he wore beneath the ill-fitting harness. Lees watched the foreman’s resolve trickle away. He loosened his grip on the boy’s neck. 

“What’s that matter?” One of his cronies barked. Lees ignored him. 

“Let her go,” Eria said. He stepped back from the wall, and Meshi crumpled to the ground. 

“What’re you doing, boss?” 

“Don’t need that kind of heat on me,” Eria snapped. He jerked his head, and the two miners shuffled toward him. Before walking away, the foreman jabbed his finger at Lees and hissed, “You two better work until you dig up a pile of Hyper as tall as me.” 

Lees waited until they were out of view before rushing over to Meshi. He sat propped against the wall, one hand still clutching that satchel and the other massaging his neck. 

He hurriedly gathered the equipment he’d dropped in the altercation and mumbled, “Thanks.” 

“Don’t thank me. Stop getting yourself into situations where I have to help you. You’re going to have to learn how to fend for yourself down here,” Lees scoffed. She consulted the slip of paper with their assignment again, then wordlessly beckoned him to follow her down the shaft. 

Meshi didn’t speak as they walked. Lees’ frustration rose and fell with each footstep. She shouldn’t be here. She wasn’t on duty, and she wasn’t getting paid. She shouldn’t be here, but something in her chest pulled at her as if drawing her toward this pathetic, entitled highborn. 

Not pathetic, Lees told herself. That wasn’t quite the right word. It wasn’t fair. 

No, this wasn’t like the feeling of needing to save a hurt, soft animal. This feeling of protectiveness was unshakeable, inexplicable. 

Is this what I was like?

Her brain shouted NO out of indignation, but hadn’t she been just like him not so long ago? When she first stepped off that train in Last Light, there hadn’t been anyone to chaperone her through the city. She’d taken one step onto the platform and froze. The chippers shoved her forward, and she nearly fell over, watching any hope of returning home screech back up the train tracks. Lees was terrified. Broken. Alone. 

Nobody wanted to be down here. Certainly not a mite, who didn’t even know here was their fate until they arrived. This unwanted kinship had to be what she felt, right?

Lees pulled herself from the confusing swirl of thoughts and finally turned to look at Meshi. That tug in her chest tightened as her eyes trailed down to the bag he still held tightly against him, as if afraid now that Eria or someone else might sneak up and snatch it away. 

“You should’ve just handed that over. Nothing’s worth getting thrashed and left for dead down here.” 

Meshi’s grip tightened almost imperceptibly. 

“I’m not joking. People get hurt down here. People die. You need to be smarter about this stuff.”

Meshi’s eyes bore holes into her. He looked as though he was weighing his options, as if an important decision depended on the moment. Lees shifted away from him. 

What the hell is that about?

Meshi peered over his shoulder in such an exaggerated gesture that Lees almost laughed. He turned back, his face dead serious, and unzipped the bag. She caught a glint of brass or silver before he withdrew his closed fist. 

“You’re wrong. Nothing is more important than this. I can’t lose it,” Meshi whispered. He unfurled his hand and revealed a deep orange gemstone mounted in an intricate gold setting. The gemstone was looped on a delicate golden chain. 

The hair on the back of her neck stood up as she stared at the necklace. This was undoubtedly the most expensive piece of jewelry in all of Last Light. Lees’ chest swelled with emotion, overcome by its beauty. Even in the dim lighting of the shaft, the gemstone sparkled and shone brightly. She tilted her head side to side and watched the light dance off its surface. The effect was mesmerizing, and it was almost as if Lees could see reflections on its surface moving as gracefully as the light. Goosebumps prickled across her skin. Almost unconsciously, she reached toward the pendant. 

Meshi quickly closed his fist around the stone. He looked alarmed. 

“Uh, sorry,” Lees stammered. Her head felt suddenly heavy, and a low rumble filled her ears momentarily. She shook her head at the sensation, then laughed. “You really are an idiot.”

“I am not! This is important,” Meshi said, clenching his fist harder around the gemstone. He shook the fist holding the necklace, and the golden chain dangling from his hand flew back and forth. “It’s a family heirloom.”

Lees opened her mouth to reply, but Meshi suddenly squealed in pain and wrenched open his fingers to drop the necklace. 

“I- I think - it burned me!” 

The moment the stone hit the ground, the area erupted in an eye-wateringly brilliant orange light. It bathed the duo and seemed to stretch the entire length of the corridor. 

“What’s going on up there?” Eria’s voice boomed through the shaft.

Lees was transfixed again. The stone looked different in the orange light somehow, more alive. Those reflections she’d glimpsed on its surface before seemed more pronounced. As she leaned forward to try to make out the shapes, a wave of joy and excitement shot through her body. Confusion gave way to comfort and happiness as the competing thoughts swirled through her mind. Another wave ran through her, her mind flitting between images and sensations – the feel of the sweater her mother had knitted for her as a child, the burning taste of Teeg’s spicy curry, the cooling rush of air coming out of the tunnels, the smell of Jez’s perfume – and Lees realized she had edged closer to the necklace. She wanted to reach for it, to touch it, to hold it close to her. 

Meshi dove to the ground and jostled Lees to the side. Just as he reached out to snatch the necklace, it shook and jumped on its own, then rocketed down the mineshaft. The blinding orange light tracked its path as it zipped past Eria, who had just come up the incline. 

“HEY!” He screamed, shielding his face. The necklace – visible only as a bright orange light – cascaded down the shaft and out of sight. 

Lees and Meshi locked eyes. Without saying a word, they both decoupled their drills and chisels, Meshi throwing them to the ground and Lees gently setting hers down, before bolting down the tunnel after the necklace. 

The duo bounded through the busy tunnel, dodging other miners and their carts. 

“You’re headed the wrong way, that area’s not marked yet!” One of the miners yelled after Lees as the two raced past him. Lees barely heard him. The pendant’s light was growing dimmer by the second. Faster. Faster! 

Lees was bewildered, but the feeling took a backseat to the more urgent directive. A voice in her head was shouting to follow it, to fight through the stitch in her side, ignore the chunks of rocks flying through the air as the other workers drilled around them. Her vision narrowed. Nothing mattered but catching up to this glowing gemstone. 

Soon, it was just the two of them. No rail carts, tracks, or mounted lights had been installed in this unexplored section of the mine. The dark, dank, silent tunnel brought forth an equally urgent voice in her head that was screaming danger! Danger! She still had enough sense not to die sightless and crushed in an unused mine corridor. 

Lees slowed just enough to grab at the utility belt around her waist. Her hand skated across the miniature pickaxe and worked her way around to the flash box hooked near her back. She clipped the box onto her overalls and twisted the dial. A tinny yellow light, sickly and dull compared to the necklace’s shine, flickered on. 

Meshi had managed to keep pace with her. She noticed he didn’t even seem winded. He must be in better shape than she’d initially thought, but something felt off. She’d watched him struggle to move and fight earlier today. 

“Why’d you slow down? It’s getting away,” Meshi asked. All traces of aloofness gone. The edges of his words were more rounded now, as if his accent had somehow eroded. 

“Are you playing some kind of trick on me?” Lees asked, pushing ahead of him as the tunnel narrowed.

“Why would I be playing a trick?”

“You’re clearly a shaper pretending to be a mite,” She snapped. Meshi hesitated. Lees couldn’t tell if he was hesitating because she’d clocked the lie correctly or if he was listening for the sound of the necklace bouncing off something ahead. His jaw flexed as the necklace clattered to the ground just at the edge of her lightbox’s dim light, then dove to the right out of sight again. 

“To what end?” Meshi argued, breaking their moment of silence. He tried to sidestep her, but Lees slammed her hand flat against his chest. 

“I think this is a natural cave.”

“So?” Meshi said, trying to push past her again. 

“No, look, the drilling team kept moving straight and down,” She pointed at the larger path ahead of them. “Miners don’t make this smaller branch. They must have found it during the initial dig.”

“Why does that matter?” Meshi asked impatiently. The necklace’s light was fading down that side coordinator. He made an exasperated sound before shoving her to the side and darting ahead. 

Lees instinctively grabbed the back of his harness and spun him around. “Listen to me. We have no idea what’s down there. If we get hurt or fall or stuck, nobody will come after us. Nobody is going to find us.” 

Meshi gently pried Lees’ grip from his harness, stepped backward, and then ducked into the cave. 

“Are you even listening to me!?” Lees called. No response. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other. The orange light was barely visible, and the voice screaming at her to follow drowned out the other, more rational one. Lees pulled out a small piece of chalk and drew a circle with a downward arrow cutting through it on the shaft wall before following Meshi into the cave. 

Lees noticed the change instantly. The air felt thicker here, and the walls and ground were far slicker than the mineshaft. Her foot slipped almost immediately, but the rock wall was too slippery to steady herself. She fell and slid down a gentle incline on her butt. Her feet connected with Meshi’s back at the bottom, and she smiled in grim satisfaction at his yelp of pain. 

Her hand slipped on the ground beneath her, and she momentarily gave up on trying to stand. They both sat there and watched the orange light bound around the irregular corridor of the cave as it made its way further in. 

Why had he stopped? Was he waiting for her? Lees wondered. 

Meshi finally cleared his throat and awkwardly scrambled to his feet. He held out a hand to steady her as she did the same. One leg slipped, and she stopped short of doing the splits. 

“It seems to be bouncing off solid ground as it goes, so that’s good. No unexpected drops,” Meshi said, somewhat sheepishly. 

“We have to go back,” Lees insisted. 

“Why would we do that?” Meshi asked. He looked at her, genuinely confused, then pointed to the bouncing light ahead of them. “I’m not the one doing that, I swear. Aren’t you curious about what it is, though?” 

Lees didn’t know Meshi well enough. Was he just an exceptional liar? Was he a thief? Was he trying to lead her into a trap? What he was saying seemed impossible. 

However, Lees couldn’t help but think. 

Meshi’s name was on the mining roster. He was at least registered as a mite. If he really wasn’t a shaper, that would mean this gemstone truly was moving on its own. Either he was working with a shaper to concoct an elaborate plan to rob her of a pair of half-decent work boots and some dust in her pockets, or…

Or what?

“Fine,” Lees said through gritted teeth. “But you’re walking first. I deserve better than to die falling down a hole to the center of the planet.” 

Meshi smiled broadly and nodded, then turned to follow the light. 

Lees kept one hand on her pickaxe as they walked. The pull in her chest was almost an ache now, but something still didn’t feel quite right. The weak light from her light box illuminated just enough of this natural cave to let her know they were too deep for help to arrive in time.