Ember

"So," Coda said as she touched down in her Javelin. "This is Torchlight."

"Yep. Just like I said on the flightpath in."

"Right. So-"

"I mean, I don't know how you could have missed that," Owen added over the link. "Like, I made it very clear that this was Torchlight. A mining town based on Ember. A-"

"Owen!" Coda snapped.

"Oh, right, sorry. You saying it's Torchlight, that's just you clearing the air right?"

"Well done." Coda slowly clapped her hands together. "You're learning."

"Hey, if we're talking about learning, I'm still up for learning how to fly a Javelin."

"Shutting off, Owen." Coda terminated the link. Course, it wouldn't stop her cypher from contacting her again if he really wanted to, but hopefully he'd get the idea that she wanted a bit of peace and quiet.

Not that Torchlight had ever known peace and quiet for ages. Certainly it had been left in peace and quiet for centuries, but the ruins of the town showed that when it had met its end, it had met it suddenly, and met it hard. Through her visor, she could see the faintest outlines of where wooden buildings had once stood. The ones made of stone had fared slightly better, but not one of them was fully intact. They might have three walls, they might have a collapsed roof, they might have tiles still in place, but while one couldn't draw blood from stone, stone could certainly show the signs of spilt blood. Metaphorically in this case, Coda reflected. Any actual blood that had been spilt had long dried up.

"Coda."

So much for Owen taking the hint. "Yes?"

"You okay? You're just standing there."

"Duly noted."

"Is your suit okay? Are you freezing up?"

"No, Owen."

"Is Helena Tarsis whispering to you from the beyond, explaining the secrets of the universe?"

"What? Owen, no, I…sheesh!" She began walking through the town. "Can't a girl just stand still and take in the scenery for a bit?"

"Considering that we're on a contract and we've got bills to pay? Um, no."

Coda snorted. "Contract. You mean, get sent to Torchlight, enter the mines, steal as much loot as you can take, and cash in on that."

"Actually not as much loot as you can take, more get as much of the best loot you can find."

"Best loot being furthest down."

"Well, yeah."

Coda sighed. "Of course it is."

She got to the mine entrance quickly enough. It was with grim reflection that she noted that while the town of Torchlight had been decimated, the mine entrance appeared intact. The rails that extended from the mine were completely intact. Torchlight had been built to take advantage of the area's ember deposits, and fittingly enough, the mine had outlasted the settlement designed to exploit it. Frowning, she glanced back at the town.

"You know who did this?" Coda asked.

"What, you're contacting me now?"

The Freelancer sighed. "Owen…"

"Hey, no problem," he said. "The history of Torchlight is long and-"

"Short version please."

"It was destroyed by someone called the Alchemist," Owen said. "No, I don't know his name, any more than I know the names of those who fought alongside him, or the names of those who pursued him across the land. All I know is that he was corrupted by ember, and he did what all people do when corrupted by that stuff."

Coda remained silent.

"Evil things."

"Oh." She let out a chuckle, thinking of the Dominion, the urgoth, the Scars, and everything else that wished mankind ill. "Silly me. Should've known."

"Well, yeah, you should've," Owen said. "Like, come to a mining town to loot the mines, and don't even know its history? For shame!"

"We loot Shaper relics all the time."

"Yeah, but, they're Shapers. Torchlight was built by humans, for humans, and it lasted longer than most of these temporary settlements do. So, show a little a respect."

"Yeah. Sure." She let out a sigh. "Respect."

She remained standing there though. Looking at the entrance to the mine. Thinking of what was down there. Of what had been down there.

Her history wasn't perfect, but she understood the basics. There was a belief that Torchlight had been the last of many civilizations to exploit the ember here, that the shafts that had been dug were just extensions of ones made by those who had come before. Goblins. Dwarfs. Estherians. Names that were rarely uttered on the lips of those in Antium, but names found in the scrolls that Owen had retrieved for them to take this "contract." And beneath it all, the one named Ordrak. The dragon, the demon, the fiend. The one supposedly slain.

"Coda?"

Which was fine, she supposed. After the Heart of Rage, after that ash titan, after losing Haluk and Faye…she was fine taking on smaller monsters than bigger ones.

"Coda, you alright?"

"Yeah." She took a breath and walked towards the mine entrance. "Fine. Totally fine."

"Oh. Good. I was wondering if it might be PTSD or something, but that would be totally out of character for you, and if you were suffering that, one might wonder as to the ethics of sending you into a mine to kill things and loot things and-"

"Entering the mine now Owen."

He didn't say anything more. Which was good. Owen talked too much at the best of times, but when he talked ninety degrees away from the truth, nudging against it but never quite seizing it…that was when things got uncomfortable. Taking out her rifle, she activated her suit's lights and-

"Aieee!"

Began firing.

"Coda! What's wrong?!"

She was breathing heavily. Sweat trickled down her neck, and fire coursed through her fingers. And that was after she stopped pulling the trigger.

"Coda?"

"There…" She took a breath. "There were…"

"Monsters? What kind? Goblins?"

"No."

"Scars?"

"No."

"Then what?!"

"There were…" She took a breath. "There were rats," she whispered.

Owen didn't say anything.

"Rats," Coda repeated, looking at the bodies of the rodents she'd just slaughtered. "Really big rats."

"Rats," Owen said.

"Yes, rats!"

"Rats!" he exclaimed, and Coda could hear him laughing. "Man, first level of the mine, and you're afraid of rats!"

"I am afraid of rats!" Coda shouted, the word "rats" echoing down the shaft. "They spread disease, and they've got big tails, and they get everywhere, and-"

"You're wearing a Javelin and you're afraid of rats?"

"Rats are dangerous, okay? They're immune to being mutated by Shaper relics, but that doesn't stop them from spreading plague, or stealing grain, or-"

"Yeah yeah, I get it. Rats are horrible."

He didn't sound like he got it at all, Coda reflected.

"But, hey, don't worry. Few levels down you'll get to kill goblins instead. Y'know, little green monsters that want to kill you."

"Everything wants to kill me in this world," Coda murmured. She began walking forward again.

"Yeah, well, welcome to the club," Owen said. "Now, get to it. Treasures await, as does gold and glory."

Coda doubted that. Certainly about the glory part. And the truth was that in addition to any riches she plundered here, ember would fetch a much higher price than gold.

Nevertheless, she kept walking. She was a Freelancer, and after Freemark, this was what the order had been reduced to. Taking odd jobs, plundering relics, just doing enough to scrape by. One failure, and it had been burnt into the skin and steel of every Freelancer from now until the end of time. Which meant coming to places like Torchlight.

Which meant shooting rats. Because of course it did.

A/N

Ember is a resource in Anthem and Torchlight. Both games are ARPGs. Write oneshot based on similarity.

...what? Were you expecting some great insight into why I wrote this beyond "because I can?" Sheesh.