He couldn't have been falling for more than an instant.
Something slammed into his back. The breath went out of him. Everything went white. He tumbled across rock and somehow came to a stop just short of an edge.
"...Hk—hah."
He was alive.
Luca lay on his back, unable to move for a while. His back throbbed. But nothing seemed to be broken.
He had landed on a second ledge, jutting out from the wall of the shaft. Looking up, he could see the ledge where he'd picked up the purse, about three grown men's height above him. Beyond that, the light at the mouth of the shaft peeked down.
"Luca! Luca, can you hear me?!"
Celes's voice came down on the wind.
"I'm alive!"
"Thank goodn— Are you hurt?!"
"My back hurts! And I dropped my things!"
His pack must have slipped off his shoulders on the way down. When he peered over the edge of the ledge, he heard something splash into water somewhere in the darkness farther below. His food, his water flask—everything had been in there.
"I'll go find a rope! Ours went down with you! Don't move from there!"
"Understood!"
Celes's voice faded away.
Luca hauled in the rope still tied around his waist. Dangling from the end was a chunk of rock with the hook still stuck in it. He worked the hook free and wound it back around his waist along with the rope. If something's dropped, you pick it up. Scavenger habit.
He wondered if he could throw the hook up and catch it on the ledge above. But a strong wind kept blowing up from the bottom of the shaft without a break, and he didn't think he could aim. His back hurt too much, besides. He couldn't lift his arm above his shoulder.
There was nothing to do but wait for Celes.
* * *
Luca lit [Lamplight] on his fingertip.
A small flame, about like a candle's. It lit only what was right in front of him.
The ledge was narrow, barely deep enough for a grown man to lie down on. In one corner, something lay on its side.
A leather elbow guard. Its surface was scuffed pale, and the tie cord had gone old and snapped.
Someone else fell here before me.
Luca took hold of the elbow guard.
◆ ◆ ◆
His foot slips.
The rim of the shaft pulls away in front of his eyes. He's falling.
Don't panic. Curl up. Tuck the chin.
The ledge rushes up at him. Shoulder first. The instant it hits, roll. Round the back, let the impact run out from shoulder to hip.
Once, twice, three times. Roll, and stop.
...That hurt. But nothing's broken.
Back in his days with the acrobat troupe, the master threw him a thousand times if he threw him once. That's what saved him.
The elbow guard's tie has snapped. He takes it off and leaves it behind.
From above, his comrades lower a rope.
◆ ◆ ◆
Echo inherited: [Breakfall].
"...I could have used this a little sooner," Luca muttered, rubbing his aching back.
At the same moment, his stomach growled—that long, rolling roar like a cart going over cobblestones. The usual.
That was his third recall today. The food taster's spoon, the climber's hook, and now this elbow guard. Celes's pie had vanished somewhere long ago.
I'm so hungry...
* * *
He peered down over the edge.
[Lamplight] couldn't reach the bottom. But [Sense Presence] told him what he needed. Below, there was another space, a wider one. About two grown men's height down. No sign of monsters. And the sound of running water.
His pack was probably in that water. If he went and fished it out, there might be a piece of jerky left.
Let's try it.
Luca stood at the edge of the ledge.
Two grown men's height. Normally, a drop like that would cost you more than a twisted ankle.
He curled his body. Tucked his chin.
And jumped.
Feet first. The instant he landed, he bent his knees and let his body tip forward. Shoulder, then hip. Once, twice, he rolled—
And came to a neat, clean stop.
"...It doesn't hurt."
Luca looked down at himself. The only pain in his back was from slamming onto the ledge before. The landing just now hadn't hurt him anywhere.
* * *
The bottom of the shaft opened out into a cave, wider than he'd expected. A thin stream of underground water ran along one wall. His pack was wedged in a gap in the rocks where the stream flowed on.
When he pulled it out, he found that most of what had been inside had washed away. No jerky. No water flask. All that was left was his notebook, a stick of charcoal, and some wrapping paper.
"...Nothing."
His stomach screamed.
His vision swam a little. The pie had long since left his stomach empty, and on top of that, the hunger from two more recalls was crashing down on him all at once.
That was when Luca noticed a sweet smell.
It was coming from deeper in the cave. Holding [Lamplight] out ahead of him, he went in. Against the wall lay the bones of a large beast. A gray bear. It must have died a very long time ago; the bones were white and dried out completely.
This had been a bear's den once. Gray bears must have lived around here, long ago.
And from a crack in the rock behind the bones, something was slowly oozing out.
Amber-colored honey. In the small flame of [Lamplight], it gave off a faint, soft glow from within.
Honey crystal...? No, it hasn't hardened.
Luca remembered what Grun had told him. The honey that gray bears hoarded in their dens soaked up the Labyrinth's mana and slowly, over a long time, turned to crystal. That was honey crystal.
This honey hadn't hardened yet. The back of the crack was always damp from the underground water, so it had never been able to dry out and set. And all that time, the wind blowing through the shaft had kept carrying the Labyrinth's mana down here, soaking it into the honey, year after year.
He scooped up a little on his fingertip.
Licked it.
His [Poison Tasting] tongue sorted it out on its own. Honey. The scent of flowers. And something so thick and rich it made the back of his tongue buzz.
...It isn't poison.
Not poison. Just very, very strong. Nowhere in his body did any warning go off.
His stomach growled.
Luca scooped up another fingerful. A big one, this time.
* * *
"Luca! Luca, where are you?!"
He didn't know how much time had passed.
A rope came down from the top of the shaft. Then Celes's ball of light, and then Celes herself.
Behind her, on a second rope, came a delver in leather armor. It was the middle one of the trio who'd laughed at Luca on measurement day.
"We didn't have enough rope, so I asked every party on the eighth floor I could find. And these people said they'd help."
"Name's Dario. ...You're the ladle guy from the exam, right? Like I was gonna leave you down here."
Dario said it gruffly. Then he spotted Luca at the back of the cave, and his eyes went round.
"Hey, you... What are you eating?"
Luca was sitting next to the bear bones. His mouth and both his hands were sticky with amber honey.
"Oh, Celes. And Dario. Thank you both."
"Don't you 'thank you' me! What is that?!"
"Honey. It was in the bear den. I tasted it for poison, and it wasn't poison, so."
Celes held her ball of light up to the crack. Faintly glowing, amber honey.
The color drained out of her face.
"This is... mana honey. Raw mana honey, before it turns into honey crystal."
"Mana honey?"
"Honey that's soaked up masses of the Labyrinth's mana. Apothecaries would pay a pile of gold coins for it. ...But they say if you eat it raw, you get mana sickness."
"Mana sickness."
Luca tilted his head. Come to think of it, his insides had been feeling warm and toasty for a while now. Not warm, actually. Hot.
"I do feel kind of hot."
"Of course you do! How much did you eat?!"
"Until I was full."
"...You—you glutton!"
Celes put her hand on his forehead. Her cool palm felt nice.
"You're burning up...! Dario, help me get him up!"
"R-right!"
A rope went around his waist. His head felt light and floaty, and Luca thought:
It had been sweet. Out of everything he'd ever eaten, it was the second most delicious thing, after Celes's shortbread.
And there, everything went dark.
* * *
When he opened his eyes, he was looking up at a familiar ceiling.
The attic of Grun's Salvage.
"...You're awake."
Grun was sitting beside the bed. His pipe wasn't in his mouth.
"Boss. How long was I..."
"Two days. Two days you've been laid up with a fever."
Grun let out a long, heavy breath. Then he rapped Luca lightly on the head with his knuckles.
"Ow."
"Who stuffs himself full of who-knows-what at the bottom of the Labyrinth?"
"I checked it for poison, and it wasn't poison, so..."
"Not being poison doesn't mean you can eat it!"
Down came the knuckles again. But his hand was trembling, just a little.
"...Little Miss Celes stayed here two nights running. Make sure you thank her later."
"Yes, Boss."
"How's your stomach?"
"Really, really empty."
"Figures."
At last, Grun smiled a little.
* * *
When Luca went downstairs, Celes was stirring a pot in the kitchen. The moment she saw his face, she threw down the ladle and ran over.
"Luca! Are you all right to be up already? What about your fever?"
"It's gone down. Thank you, Celes."
"...I was really worried, you know."
Celes put her hand on his forehead to make sure the fever was gone. She let out a breath of relief—and then her eyebrows shot straight up.
"Don't you ever do that again."
"I won't."
"I mean it. Never again."
"I won't. ...Um, Celes. The pot's burning."
"Huh? Oh, no!"
Luca picked up the ladle and ran it along the bottom of the pot. A turn of the wrist. Once, twice, three times. The barley porridge that had started to scorch lifted away, light and fluffy.
Celes watched him do it with a look of deep frustration.
* * *
After three bowls of porridge, he finally felt human again.
Outside the window, it was already evening. The kitchen had gone dim.
"I'll make a light."
Luca held up a finger, the way he always did. Breathe in, breathe out. Gather the heat in his fingertip into one spot.
"Light, kindle."
A flame bloomed on his fingertip.
For a moment, neither of them said a word.
"...Isn't that bigger?" said Celes.
His flame had always been about the size of a candle's. The one on his fingertip now was about the size of a hen's egg. Its soft light reached all the way into the corners of the kitchen.
"It's bigger."
"It's bigger, isn't it."
Grun had very nearly dropped his pipe.
Luca decided to test one more thing. He opened the kitchen's back door and pointed a finger at the woodpile in the yard.
Breathing in, he built the shape inside himself. Gather it. Heat it. Sharpen it.
"Pierce."
Pop.
A spark of fire flew from his fingertip.
Not his usual fizz. The spark that used to be the size of his thumb was now as big as a walnut. The force behind it was different, too. Before, his sparks had wobbled along feebly. This one held its speed all the way to the woodpile ten paces away.
The end of a log scorched black, much more clearly than before.
"...It went pop."
"It went pop."
* * *
"Two, then."
The next day, at the Guild's front desk, Nora stared at the measuring orb. Inside the crystal, the lowest mark glowed clear and bright, and the second mark glowed too, a little fainter.
"You were a one before, weren't you? And the first mark didn't even light properly."
"Yes."
"...I've never heard of anyone's mana going up once they're grown."
Nora glared at the measuring orb for a while. Then she wrote 2 in the ledger and pressed her fingers to her temples.
"Why are my ledger corrections spreading to the mana column now...?"
"I'm sorry."
"Oho. So you ate mana honey, did you?"
The unhurried voice came from behind them. Luca turned around. Oldo the inspector was sitting on a bench in the hall, sipping tea.
"Oldo."
"I've heard all about it. A boy at the bottom of a shaft who ate his fill of raw mana honey, they said."
Oldo beckoned him over. When Luca and Celes came closer, the old man peered into Luca's face with his sleepy eyes.
"A mana vessel, you see, has its size settled while you're still a child. By fifteen, it doesn't grow anymore. Normally."
"Normally."
"Take raw mana honey that's soaked up plenty of the Labyrinth's mana, and pour a great deal of it in while the vessel is empty. Then, very rarely, the vessel itself gets pushed a little wider."
Oldo sipped his tea.
"Normally, nobody uses up their mana until the vessel runs dry. And raw mana honey is so strong that most people spit it out after a single mouthful. As far as I know, lad, you make three."
"Empty..."
Something clicked for Luca.
That day, he had done three recalls. Every time he recalled something, he felt something inside him drain away in a rush, and then he got ravenous. Maybe that hunger hadn't been just hunger.
"And one more thing."
Oldo held up a single finger.
"There's no second time. Once a vessel has been stretched, the body remembers it. Do the same thing again and all you'll get is a bellyache."
"...May I try it?"
"Suit yourself."
Looking exasperated, Celes took a small jar out of her pack. That day, while everyone was getting ready to haul Luca up out of the shaft, Dario's party had filled an empty jar with mana honey from the bear den.
Luca scooped some out with a finger and licked it.
Sweet. The back of his tongue buzzed.
But that was all. His insides didn't heat up at all. He only started to feel queasy, somewhere around his chest.
"...I've got heartburn."
"I'd imagine so."
He put his hand on the measuring orb once more. Two. Not one line more.
"It went up by one, by pure chance. That's all there is to it."
Oldo laughed, looking thoroughly entertained.
"From one to two. Think of it as doubling and it's quite something, but as a mage, you're still a babe in arms. Don't go dreaming of becoming an Archmage."
"I won't. I can read a book by my own light now, so I'm happy."
"...Not a greedy bone in your body, is there, lad."
* * *
They sold the mana honey they'd brought back to an apothecary's shop. Even after splitting it half and half with Dario's party, their share came to five gold coins.
"Three of these are for you, Celes."
"What?"
"You went looking for a rope, and you nursed me for two nights. And it can go toward your debt."
Celes stared at the gold coins and said nothing for a while.
"...This isn't even a hundredth of my debt."
"Then let's pay it back a hundredth at a time."
Celes turned her face away with a huff. Then, in a small voice, she said, "Thank you."
* * *
As they were leaving, Oldo spoke up, as if something had just come back to him.
"Oh, yes. You two—you're planning to take on the Gatekeeper, are you?"
"Yes. After we've had a look at the ninth floor."
"Then be careful. The tenth floor's Gatekeeper is a bit of a nuisance at the moment."
Oldo set down his teacup.
"The Stone-Eating Lizard. In the past half month, three parties have challenged it and come running home. ...Swords won't go through it, they say."