Koruk stumbled forward through the brightly lit hallway, passing dozens of cells. Most were empty, but some held animals both familiar and unfamiliar. He passed direwolves, humpbeasts, and strange lizards he had never seen or heard of before. With every step forward his brain told him that he was climbing a hill, while his feet told him he was descending one. Gradually he got used to it, and as the stiffness in his legs began to work out his stumble turned into a march, and then a run.

  He felt as light as air, as thought he was half floating. Cells whipped past, and he spared only a quick glance at their inhabitants.

  There was only one he cared to find.

  And soon enough he did, stumbling to a halt in front of Semthak’s cell. The old orc sat crosslegged, as nude as the day he was born.

  “Took you long enough.” He grumbled. Koruk looked offended, but then laughed, and Semthak laughed with him.

  “Quiet down, there’s guards about.” The old orc cautioned, rising to his feet.

  “How do I open the door?”

  “You’re asking me? How did you open yours?”

  “I… had help. But it’s gone now.”

  “… I think the guard has some sort of key. He passed it through that slot when they came to interrogate me.” Semthak gestured, and made a sort of swiping motion with his hand. Koruk nodded.

  “Wait here.”

  Semthak snorted, and Koruk ran off again.

  After rounding a couple of bends, he halted, pressing his back against the wall. Someone was approaching. Soft plodding footsteps.

  Koruk moderated his breath. He swung out from behind the bend, fist raised.

  The human guard never knew what hit him. His eyes bulged from his head in shock even as he slammed to the ground, neck broken instantly. Koruk rummaged about his body, finding a thin bit of material that looked similar to what Semthak had described. Most of what the human had on him didn’t seem useful, but then he noticed a device hanging at his waist.

  The way it was slung, and the way the human had reached for it before a green fist sent him to the great beyond... could it be a weapon? Koruk plucked the small thing out of its scabbard and looked at it. It was like a bent piece of metal and that strange light material the humans seemed to use for everything, with a hole in one end. He swiftly undid the human’s weapon belt and strapped it to his arm, finding it much to short to wrap around his own waist, and placed the strange weapon back in its place.

  Standing back up, he glared down at the dead body of the man. His heart was beating in his chest, and he could feel blood coursing through him. He felt different. As though he had crossed some sort of boundary. But there was no time to dwell on that now, nor was there time he realized, to perform any proper death rites for the dead warrior he had slain. He reached down, and opened his eyelids to the sky, so that his soul could leave his body. That would have to do.

  Koruk returned to Semthak’s cell, and after some fumbled attempts, managed to insert the card correctly. The door buzzed, and slid open automatically. Semthak clapped him on the shoulder in thanks.

  “Were you seen?”

  “No. There was only one guard. He’s dead. How do we get outside?”

  “How should I know? Just pick a direction, and we’ll find the edge of the building eventually. Then follow the wall until we find a door I suppose.”

  Koruk nodded, and they headed off down the long corridor together, eyes and ears trained for enemies all the while.

  They found the facility to be larger than they expected: a sprawling network of corridors and passageways leading in all directions. Occasionally they passed a ladder or staircase leading to another level, and they climbed down when they could, towards what must soon be the ground floor. The pair had never before encountered an artificial structure of such immense magnitude. It even made the Great Hall in Orc’gar look like a puny hut in comparison.

  “How much further must this blasted place go?” Semthak grumbled. He stumbled, still offbalance, and cursed to himself.

  “I think we’ve been here before.” Koruk replied.

  “What?”

  “Look. The symbols on that door. They look familiar.”

  “… You’re right, damn you. What is this madness?”

  Koruk approached the window in the door. Thus far they had encountered no opposition. It was as if the entire building was abandoned, save for the solitary guard in the cell block. The orc rubbed the condensation off the window with a thick finger, and looked inside at what seemed to be some sort of barracks. Rows of berths lined a narrow hallway, stacked up four rows high, each with a small bed.

  “Must be where the humans live.” Semthak noted, peering over Koruk’s shoulder.

  “Then where are the humans?”

  “Off fighting no doubt.”

  “And what of the woman, and the children? This makes no sense.” Koruk said, turning. Semthak shrugged.

  “Maybe they don’t have women, and just grow out of the ground like weeds? I’m sure the answer is very interesting but we should get a move on. I don’t like this place one bit.” Semthak said, glancing over his shoulder.

  “I’m sure we’ve been here before. Look, doesn’t that look like a window in the floor? That shiny bit over there.” Koruk pointed. “Help me get this door open.”

  “Who puts a window in the floor?” The old orc griped, but he lent Koruk a hand, and with a great effort they managed to heave the door aside with a groan of tortured mechanisms.

  They passed the beds, each of them neatly made with identical grey sheets and identical white pillows, and approached the window. As they peered through it, their eyes widened.

  Outside the glass was a vision of the night sky, with stars twinkling in the distance. Semthak knelt down to look closer, and laid his hand on the glass in disbelief.

  “We’re… upside down? The sky is below us.”

  “No.” Koruk said. “I think we’re in the sky. Oben said that he came on some kind of sky boat. Like, a boat that drifted through the sky. We must be on one now, sailing through the great dark.”

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  “It’s as good an explanation as any. Well, what now? If we left the… boat? Whatever this is, we’d just fall out of the sky. Bah, this is crazy. This must be some kind of illusion.”

  The two orcs sat down and stared through the window for a time. The stars beyond seemed to slowly drift past.

  “Well, what do we do now?” Semthak asked. He crossed his arms. Koruk didn’t think he’d ever seen the old man look so… pensive.

  “You’re asking me?”

  “Well… yes.”

  Koruk thought for a moment.

  “That flying thing that brought us here. If we could find that, I bet it could take us home. Although, finding anything in this place...”

  Semthak nodded.

  “Then let’s go ask for directions.” He grinned.

  They heard the humans before they saw them, talking some ways ahead. Koruk had no idea where they were; they had just wandered at random through the labyrinthine facility. They seemed to have left the barracks area and entered some sort of… workshop district. They passed strange machinery of metal and glass that they couldn’t make heads or tails of, so they didn’t even bother trying.

  A pair of humans turned the corridor. They halted, and their words trailed off into a stutter as their eyes bulged wide. The orcs were on them in an instant. The one on the left, a tall human in white with square pieces of glass on his head reached for a device under his coat, but died before he could retrieve it, falling to the ground with a snapped neck. Koruk turned on the remaining human, barking orders at him in Orcish.

  “Don’t move!” He said, and looked down at the figure. His eyes narrowed. “You.”

  “Wait! How you escape!? Where is alarm?” Oben blurted out frantically in the bad orcish Koruk remembered so well.

  “Well now!” Semthak laughed. “Of all the humans we could have run into, look who it is! It’s like a bad joke.”

  “I’m not laughing.” Koruk said.

  “Wait! You not know! I have no choic…” Oben blurted out, his words cut short by the back of Koruk’s hand slamming against his mouth. He fell to the ground, nose gushing blood.

  “I don’t give a damn at this point, Oben. We need to get out of this… place. Help us, and I’ll let you live. Got it?”

  “Oh, and bring us to our stuff! It’s getting a bit airy in here, if you catch my meaning.” Semthak said.

  Oben nodded, glancing at the hard eyes of the orcs. If he was expecting to find sympathy in them, he was disappointed. Turning away, he motioned for them to follow.

  “Where are the guards?” Koruk asked.

  “Asleep.” Oben replied. Semthak snorted.

  Arriving at a low door that looked the same as any other in the alien facility, Oben pressed a few buttons and it slid quickly open, revealing some kind of workshop. There were objects of clear glass on low tables, and metal lockers lined the walls.

  And set upon a plinth in the centre of the room, illuminated by intermittent beams of light that scattered off its surface like fairy dust, was the Heart of Stone. It was much dimmed, faded to a dark indigo, but there was no mistaking that precious lump of rock. The humans had clearly taken some interest in it as well, given how much equipment had been arranged around it.

  Semthak wasted no time in sweeping said equipment aside, sending it clattering to the floor in a cascade of angry beeping and sparking. He plucked the precious stone carefully out of its prison, and gripped it in his hand.

  “Where are my clothes?” He demanded, turning to Oben.

  “Uh, b-burned. They were... dirty?”

  Semthak spat and looked around the room. Seeing some white coats arranged across a wall, he grabbed one and tossed the other to Koruk. They were comically small, but after ripping the arms off they fit well enough as a sort of vest. Semthak deposited the stone the pocket of his new jacket and ripping another coat into a sort of loincloth, as Koruk slammed open locker doors searching for their belongings, and finding nothing.

  “Don’t worry about it. I think we left most of our stuff back at Brittle Teeth.”

  “Yeah. I just, that was my favorite cloak.”

  Semthak gave him a hard look, and they both laughed like idiots after a moment.

  “That’s what you’re thinking about right now? You’re crazy. You, Oben. Get us out of there before those giant warriors show up.”

  As if to punctuate the statement, a horrible noise began to sound. It seemed to be coming from the walls. Red lights and symbols flashed on black windows around the room.

  “They know here. You.” Oben blurted out. Fear crossed his features.

  “I guessed as much. Must have found the body.” Semthak said. “Get us off this flying prison.”

  Oben nodded in affirmation, and hurriedly led them towards freedom, or so they hoped.

  It was only a few moments into their escape that they were forced to flatten themselves against a wall as their ears picked up the sound of pursuit. A human warrior rounded a corner, brandishing a black device. He was unarmoured, and wearing a grey tunic similar to Oben’s.

  He shouted in alarm and his weapon barked twice and spat fire. Koruk heard something whistle past his head, and a pipe running above his head suddenly burst open, and began hissing alarmingly. Wasting no time, he surged forward with a bound and delivered a gut punch to the human that knocked the wind out of him. His barking weapon fell to the metal floor with a clatter and he heaved over, losing his lunch in the process.

  “I think that’s a good sign to get a move on, don’t you?” Semthak said. The three figures broke into a run, staying close behind Oben as he led them through twisting corridors and up ladders. The higher they climbed the more the floor seemed to distort and warp, curving in on itself more and more, and Koruk shook his head to try to dislodge the sense of unease that had come over him.

  Then they opened a door, and concepts such as up and down suddenly ceased to have any meaning whatsoever. The corridor beyond the door was rotating.

  “Jump.”

  After delivering his command, Oben leapt through a circular hatch into the doorway, grabbing onto a railing for support. He seemed to be floating. Semthak looked at Koruk dubiously, and the two orcs followed.

  Koruk’s stomach lurched in his chest as he floated, and it took every ounce of willpower to avoid throwing up as he pushed himself along, floating through the air down the narrow corridor, occasionally bumping into things. To keep his mind off the sudden rearrangement of his internal organs, he looked outside through the windows that were set into the walls every few feet. Outside the sun had risen in the black sky, shining white and reflecting halos off the clear glass.

  He could see parts of the structure they were in as well. He got the impression that they were inside the trunk of a great tree, from which branches of shining white extended out towards the blackness. On those branches were leaves of sorts, thousands and thousands of tiny cylindrical pods fanning outwards. He marvelled at the sight, his senses of danger and nausea forgotten for the moment.

  Oben halted at a small square hatch set in the wall. Beyond was some sort of orb, and Koruk realized that it was a dragon’s egg, like the one that had delivered Oben to his village so long ago. Oben popped the door open, and motioned for them to get in. Semthak slipped inside without a word, but Koruk turned to the human who had once been his friend.

  “Thank you.” He said, nodding his head.

  “You save me. Now we are… the same.”

  Koruk slipped into the egg, and the door sealed shut behind him. Semthak was already seated in a chair, staring at the glowing panels in front of him with bewilderment.

  “What are we meant to do now?” He asked.

  Suddenly the room jolted, and Koruk felt himself pushed towards the back of the chamber. From the hatch window he saw the sky-ship falling away behind them, and was able to appreciate the sheer scale of the vessel they had been in. It seemed to stretch on without end as it slowly spun in the dark void. Below it was a great barren brown surface, covered with craters as far as the eye could see. That too began moving away as they accelerated, and the sky-ship disappeared into the distance.

  “We’re moving. Where are we going?” Koruk asked, turning away from the porthole. Hanging onto a railing above him, he pulled himself up beside Semthak and took a seat.

  “Over there I reckon.” He said, pointing out the forward window. As they rounded the bulk of the brown cratered landmass, they saw a blue orb gleaming in the dark ahead of them. Like a shining sapphire, suspended in ink.

  “We’re better tie ourselves down. Something tells me this is going to be a bumpy ride.” Koruk said.