Torbin led Alan through the hidden door, which Brenna closed behind them immediately. They found themselves in a narrow maintenance tunnel, dimly lit by occasional luminescent minerals embedded in the walls.
"This way," Torbin whispered, setting a brisk pace through the tunnel. "We need to put distance between us and the refinery before they realize you're gone."
As they hurried through the maintenance passages, Alan clutched the data crystal Brenna had given him. It might contain crucial information about interdimensional travel—perhaps even the key to understanding how he could return to Earth before the cosmic window Marcus had described closed forever.
But the Great Crystal's reaction to his presence raised new questions. Why would it respond to him specifically? What did it "recognize" about his energy signature? And what did that imply about his presence in this world?
The tunnel branched repeatedly, with Torbin confidently choosing their path at each junction. The air grew cooler as they moved deeper into the mountain's infrastructure, and the sounds of the city above became muffled and distant.
"How far do these tunnels extend?" Alan asked during a brief pause to orient themselves.
"Throughout the entire mountain," Torbin replied. "They were originally mining shafts before Ironhammer was built, then repurposed as maintenance access when the city expanded. Few know the complete network—even I only know the major routes."
They continued onward, the tunnel gradually sloping upward again. After what felt like hours but was probably less than one, they reached a junction chamber with multiple passages branching outward. A large conduit ran along the ceiling, marked with red symbols at regular intervals.
"Junction W-12," Torbin confirmed. "We follow the red markers from here, as Brenna suggested."
As they prepared to continue, Alan noticed something odd—a subtle vibration in the floor beneath them, gradually increasing in intensity.
"Do you feel that?" he asked, placing his palm against the stone wall, which was also beginning to vibrate.
Torbin frowned, pressing his ear to the wall in a gesture that suggested Guild training. "That's not normal maintenance activity. It's too rhythmic, too... deliberate."
The vibration continued to intensify, now accompanied by a low humming sound that seemed to come from all directions at once. The data crystal in Alan's pocket began to glow more brightly, visible even through the fabric.
"Something's happening," he said, withdrawing the crystal, which was now pulsing with the same rhythm as the vibrations around them. "Some kind of resonance effect."
Torbin's expression grew alarmed. "We need to move. Now. This feels like a focused detection sweep—Academy methods for locating specific energy signatures through solid matter."
They hurried along the passage following the red markers, but the vibrations and humming followed them, growing stronger rather than fading with distance. The data crystal's pulsing increased in intensity, becoming almost painfully bright.
"They're tracking the crystal!" Alan realized. "It must be resonating with whatever detection method they're using."
"That's impossible," Torbin protested. "Guild crystals are shielded from Academy detection techniques. That's fundamental to our security protocols."
"Unless they're not tracking the crystal itself, but its connection to the Great Crystal," Alan theorized, remembering Brenna's words about its reaction to his presence. "If they detected that connection during the surge event..."
The tunnel ahead of them suddenly filled with a blinding flash of light, forcing them to stop and shield their eyes. When the light faded, a figure stood blocking their path—tall, imposing, with a cold intensity that seemed to radiate from him like a physical force.
"Dr. Alan Chen," Enforcer Drake Darkblade said, his voice as cold as his appearance. "Or should I say, the anomaly from beyond the Void. Your deception ends here."
Alan felt a surge of panic, looking for escape routes, but the tunnel behind them now also contained figures in Academy attire—they were trapped.
"The Guild granted us sanctuary," Torbin declared, stepping partially in front of Alan. "You have no authority to interfere with Guild personnel."
"Your 'consultant' is not Guild personnel," Darkblade replied dismissively. "He is an interdimensional intruder whose presence coincides with expanding Void Rifts and whose energy signature matches patterns detected during the initial breach." He focused his gaze directly on Alan. "By authority of the Arcane Council and under direct orders from Magister Shadowveil, you are to be contained and transported to the Academy for examination."
Alan's mind raced, seeking options. The data crystal in his hand continued to pulse, its rhythm now accelerating as if responding to his distress. He remembered how the tuning crystal had disrupted the Void Knight's armor—perhaps this crystal could be used similarly?
Focusing his concentration as he had before, Alan visualized chaotic wave patterns flowing into the crystal, disrupting its orderly resonance. The crystal's pulsing became erratic, its glow fluctuating wildly.
Darkblade noticed the change, his eyes narrowing. "Cease your manipulation immediately," he commanded, raising a staff that glowed with ominous energy. "That crystal contains restricted data. Attempting to destroy it will only add to your charges."
"I'm not destroying it," Alan replied, continuing to focus his intention into the crystal. "I'm just... changing its resonance pattern."
The crystal suddenly flared with blinding intensity, emitting a pulse of energy that expanded outward in all directions. The wave passed through Alan and Torbin harmlessly but struck Darkblade and his team with visible force, staggering them momentarily.
"Run!" Torbin shouted, grabbing Alan's arm and pulling him toward a side passage that had been invisible in the darkness until now.
They sprinted down the narrow tunnel, the sounds of pursuit quickly building behind them. The passage twisted and turned, occasionally branching, with Torbin making split-second decisions at each junction.
"Where are we going?" Alan gasped as they ran.
"Emergency exit route," Torbin replied breathlessly. "Leads to the outer terraces. From there... we'll have to improvise."
The crystal in Alan's hand had dimmed significantly after its energy pulse but still provided enough light to navigate the increasingly rough tunnel. The sounds of pursuit grew more distant as the passage narrowed further, forcing them to slow their pace.
"They're too large to follow efficiently through these maintenance crawlways," Torbin explained as they squeezed through a particularly tight section. "Guild architecture favors our stature."
After what felt like an eternity of crawling, climbing, and squeezing through narrow spaces, they emerged onto a small terrace cut into the outer face of the mountain. The sudden transition from confined darkness to open air and daylight was disorienting, and Alan blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted.
They stood on a narrow ledge overlooking a breathtaking vista—the sprawling foothills below Ironhammer, leading to forests and plains that stretched to the horizon. The sun was low in the sky, indicating late afternoon, and the air was crisp and cold at this elevation.
"Maintenance access point E-17," Torbin said, catching his breath. "Used for exterior repairs to the eastern façade." He pointed to a narrow stairway carved into the mountain face that led both upward and downward from their position. "Up leads to the upper city, down eventually reaches the main road at the mountain's base."
"Which way?" Alan asked, still clutching the now-dormant data crystal.
Torbin considered their options. "They'll expect us to go up—to return to the safety of Guild territory. Down is riskier but might be unexpected."
Before they could decide, the crystal in Alan's hand suddenly pulsed again, a single flash of blue light that seemed to respond to something in the distance. Looking in the direction the pulse had seemed oriented toward, Alan noticed a strange distortion in the air above the forest several miles from the mountain—a shimmer like heat waves, but with an unnatural purple tinge.
"The Rift," he realized. "It's visible from here."
Torbin followed his gaze and nodded grimly. "It's expanded since the initial reports. That's concerning."
The crystal pulsed again, more strongly this time, and Alan felt a strange sensation—a pull, almost like gravity but not quite physical, drawing him toward the distant distortion.
"The crystal is responding to the Rift," he said, studying the object with renewed interest. "There's some kind of connection."
"That makes sense if both involve interdimensional energies," Torbin reasoned. "The Great Crystal has always been sensitive to boundary fluctuations between realities."
A sound from the maintenance tunnel they had exited interrupted their discussion—voices and the clatter of equipment, growing louder.
"They're following our trail," Torbin said urgently. "We need to move. Now."
Alan made a split-second decision, based partly on logic and partly on the inexplicable pull he felt from the crystal. "Down. Away from the city. The crystal is trying to tell us something about the Rift—something that might be key to understanding my presence here."
Torbin looked uncertain but nodded. "Down it is. Stay close to the mountain face—the stairs are ancient and not well-maintained in sections."
They began their descent, moving as quickly as safety allowed on the narrow, weathered steps carved directly into the mountain's vertical face. The stairway had no railing, and in places erosion had reduced the steps to mere suggestions of footholds. A fall would be fatal, a fact that kept Alan pressed as close as possible to the reassuring solidity of the mountain wall.
They had descended perhaps a hundred feet when shouts from above confirmed their pursuers had reached the terrace they had just left. Looking up, Alan could see figures at the edge, pointing down at them.