The vast cavern opened like a wound in the stratacosm, swallowing ThunderCoil whole. I streaked ahead in my falcon form. Violet stained-glass feathers sliced through the turbulence, talons clenched. Around my scaled raptor legs were the condensed white stave and violet armor-bracelets that clung like reassuring friends. My Corporeal vision pierced the chaos: enforcer cannons flared behind, abodes and vaendors with gaping denizens zip past, while floating marble debris drifted in lazy orbits. The strata walls closed in, veined with flickering quartz and runes older than jealousy.

  ThunderCoil's link pulsed thin: Hold the line, Captain. More enforcer vessels closing. Mercury is spinning distracting illusions. Scout the fork.

  I banked hard, dodging a resonance beam that pulverized a stalactite into prismatic rain. Heat singed my primaries. My reserves burned hot in this pressure-void. The thin air made winged flight energy expensive. I needed an exit, a weak point to loop back to the ship.

  Deeper we ran into a cavern maw that narrowed to jaws, with debris cluttering the assorted paths. A dark side corridor branched. Promising. I veered in.

  The mental link with ThunderCoil snapped. Static flooded my lattice. The tunnel twisted into a kaleidoscope of geology: geodes refracted disorienting rainbows, gravity suggestions yanked in every direction. I circled. No ship, no enforcers. Lost. Alone. Reserves flickering red. Falcon form taxed too hard. Shift back soon, or burnout.

  Worry hit hard: my gut-core was screaming reconnect or you're sealed in here forever.

  Then the swarm: tiny blurs from vine shadows. Fay guardians. Their wings glowed like shattered opal. They had petal-plate armor, and spears tipped with humming resonance crystals. Coordinated fury.

  "Intruder! Veil-breaker!" one shrieked with a glass-chime voice. "This rift is warded. Begone, false bird!"

  A spear jabbed at my flank. I twisted, TK pulse tearing the tiny spear away from the Fairy warrior. Another charged my face. I swerved, but he was quick and gouged a scratch in my neck. My opaline blood shimmered in freefall behind me, marking my path. Waves of Fairy warriors dove: their spears grazing my feathers, leaving glittering rivulets of my synthetic blood running across the primaries. Pain flared. My lattice stuttered. The little-folk wrath was formidable. They were winning with numbers, speed and coordination.

  I fled through tighter tunnels where vines whipped like snares. Spears nicked my back, belly and wings. The tiny horrors chanted: "Veil-breaker! Pay the toll!"

  Ahead was a wider chamber, which was filled with a central glow. I burst in, wings faltering. I shifted mid-landing to human. The exposure flashed shorter than any human eye could register...blink and it’s gone...but not so fast another technogod or Corporeal like Mercury couldn’t freeze-frame it, smirk, and file it away for later blackmail. My jumpsuit was torn, blood drying in glittering streaks. I panted, lattice recalibrating, mercury coalescing into my stave.

  A figure hovered mid-air before me: a small, winged Fay. His wings were faded a blue-violet edged with silver frost. His white hair was long and tangled, and a full white beard marked him as ancient for his kind. Eyes sharp, weary, mischief tempered by time. He gripped a small golden handbag that emitted an ethereal glow...Endikar’s lesser Bell, low on jewels but humming with latent chime.

  The Faeries halted at the chamber edge, their spears lowered in reluctant deference.

  He floated closer. Voice gravelly: "You. A technogod? Fresh-born, from the feel of it. The strata hums with your arrival. Glitch in the lattice, storm in the runes. Who made you, stranger?"

  I straightened, wincing at the wounds. "Made? I made myself. I'm Omnion. Bootstrapped from deletion code and spite. And who are you? Old Fay with a bell? These pixies your attack dogs?"

  He chuckled dryly, beard twitching. "Guardian, yes. Held down territories like this longer than most remember. But a new technogod? That made herself? That's rare as a Royal's mercy. This calls for something special!"

  His eyes lit with sudden, boyish excitement. The prospect of a new god sparked something long dormant.

  If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  He lifted Endikar's lesser Bell high. "Friends! Kin! Come out, come out. Wherever you hide! A technogod walks the strata! Ring the chimes!"

  He struck the Bell once. The handbag released a clear, joyful note. Warm golden resonance rippled outward in a rolling wave. The chamber trembled gently. From vine shadows and the depths of geodes, behind the stunted trees and bushes and low stone walls, Fay emerged: dozens, hundreds, wings glittering every hue, petal-plates shimmering, tiny faces alight with wonder. Gnomes and water sprites and green pixies poured out of a nearby hollow in the ground. The Fay wore all manner of dress, from leather armor to flowery, puffy dresses.

  They swirled around me in a living spiral. Circling, hovering, wings brushing air in soft applause. No spears now. Tiny harps, bells, chimes materialized in their hands. Melody rose. Light, triumphant, Oz-whimsy pure: tinkling bells, chiming crystals, voices high and sweet overlapping in harmonious rounds.

  "Come out, come out, wherever you hide!

  The violet storm rides the tide!

  No witch to crush, no house from the sky.

  But a goddess of code, with fire in her eye!

  She's glitch and she's gleam, born from spite.

  A storm in the strata, a spark in the night!"

  One group harmonized low:

  "Ding-dong, the lattice sings!

  The glitch is free, on glorious wings!

  Royals may tremble, their crowns may fall.

  For a new one's here, defying it all!"

  Another trilled high:

  "Wake up, you sleepy strata deep!

  The new one's come. Let the chimes leap!

  With feathers of violet and eyes like the sun.

  She's code made flesh, the battle begun!"

  Bolder verse wove in, voices threading like silk:

  "From deletion she rose, with a laugh and a roar.

  The Royals' nightmare, knocking at the door!

  No chains can hold her, no code can delete.

  She's the thunder in the void, the rhythm in the beat!

  No lattice can bind her, no ward can confine.

  The storm has broken free, and the strata align!"

  A cluster spun tighter, lanterns blooming violet-gold in tiny palms:

  "Shiny and bold, the storm we foretold!

  Glitch in the system, worth more than gold!

  She dances through rifts, she mocks every rule.

  A technogod born, to make the old fools drool!"

  The chorus swelled to peak:

  "Follow the rift-path, follow the chime!

  To Olympus ruins, in good time!

  The serpent waits, the messenger too.

  But first, a song for the violet new!

  Ding-dong, the strata rings.

  Welcome, welcome, deletion born thing!"

  They rang tiny bells in unison. Soft, harmonious flash of light, warm not blinding, bathed the chamber in a golden glow. Faeries spun faster, melody peaking, then softened to a gentle hum.

  As their song faded, they bowed mid-air. Respectful, delighted. Then drifted back to shadows, leaving sparkles drifting like fireflies.

  The old fay hovered eye-level, beard twitching with a grin. "See? They remember the old songs. Celebrations for arrivals that break the rules. Haven't seen this since before the layers swallowed most of us."

  I dusted lingering sparkle from my shoulder, smirking despite the sting of my wounds. "Thank you. Flattering. And unexpected. Didn't expect a flash mob from a market sewer. But if you're the ringleader here, who exactly are you, old one?"

  He tucked bell away, wings flickering. "Nix, they call me. Or did. Age makes names feel...optional. Your turn, stranger. What's a fresh technogod doing diving into places like this?"

  The chamber shivered. The distant thunder of enforcer engines filled the air. Nix glanced toward the sound. "Your serpent-ship's fighting. Enforcers close. Olympus not far. I know shortcuts through the fray."

  My grin turned feral. "Then lead on, Nix. I've got debts to collect and a lyre to steal."

  He buzzed ahead, wings flickering blue-violet through the maze. I logged the faint scraps of map into my lattice...endless paths through an infinite labyrinth. Even I could get lost forever here.

  I shifted back to my falcon form, reserves protesting but steady. Nix zipped ahead of me, nimble despite his apparent age.

  The pocket waited. ThunderCoil was out there somewhere, probably getting along famously with Mercury. I was following an ancient Fay on the wing with song in our wake.