Of all Talam’s mountains, Ergil was considered one of the more impressive. Despite its relatively smaller size – not even among the top ten in Neirea, let alone all of Talam – it was often considered a holy place. Not officially sanctioned by the church, but tourists from places like Linick, Yoularnon, or a host of smaller towns and villages always described the region as primal, as if the Titans themselves walked among the surrounding verdant trees and solid stone structures that permeated the area.

Julio could see what the people meant, but what did he care? Mount Ergil was topped with a small slope, suggesting it had once been a caldera. Julio’s men were surveying the area, aiming to find evidence of volcanic activity. Even if the volcano had gone extinct thousands of years ago, there would be precious minerals beneath the behemoth.

And that was something worth caring about.

Julio made for a patch of sunlight, a clearing with a large outcropping greeting him. Strange. Julio had been around dozens of locations while surveying for possible mining sites. Never had he been to an area where large stones propped themselves up to form a massive, rugged cone naturally.

Please, be nothing.

Julio inspected the structure. For the most part, it only looked like an impressive pile of boulders. However, Julio’s adept eye soon found a break between some of the rocks, difficult to see unless one was right upon it. It could lead somewhere in the middle of this structure, or it could simply be nothing of note. An old stirring returned in Julio’s stomach, the one that swirled whenever he saw a tight space that yearned to be explored.

That feeling returned to him frequently, whenever he noticed a store’s door standing ajar leading to its warehouse, or a wealthy resident’s house window opened about an inch. He’d stayed that temptation to “explore” out of respect for his friend and boss, Colton Colbert, but today he let that drive bring his feet toward the opening.

Again, it could be nothing – needed to be nothing – but he had to check.

Julio slipped between the rocks. He was tall, so he had to bend down slightly, but thankfully his skinny frame allowed him to pass through the small opening without much issue. Were Colton here, he’d have to suck in his gut a bit to travel where Julio could easily tread.

Darkness stood within the outcropping bearing an oppressive silence. Julio turned on his wristband’s light and glanced around. His heart leaped to his throat and he sneered.

He was within a cave with too-smooth walls, ceiling, and floor. Along the wall and ceiling, lines carved into the structure, displaying squiggles that – upon closer inspection – were letters in an alphabet Julio had never seen.

Julio’s heart raced. The forest had been beautiful, sure. He could imagine – with its towering trees swaying gently in the breeze, moss-covered rocks with scuttling bugs over it, wildflowers decorating the forest floor wherever the trees’ canopy allowed for ample sunlight, and the cacophony of various animals chittering about the area – that this forest was how Talam had been before humans civilized the region.

Legally speaking, that meant nothing. If they could get a profit from this place, the Republic would be more than happy for CC Corp – the mining company Colton ran and Julio worked for – to dig whatever precious minerals which lay within the mountain.

This, however, ruined everything.

This cave would turn the entire mountain into some religious archaeological site. Upon discovery, the Titanian Church representatives would cordon off the entire mountain, leaving only the church to interact with it and – of course – profit from, like they had already done with dozens of other mountains and cave structures across Talam.

If there had been anything to profit from in the first place. Julio hadn’t been around this mountain long, but really, if there had been something to find from it, then why hadn’t another, larger, mining company already dug it up?

Julio’s wristband buzzed. One of his workers was calling him.

“What is it?” Julio answered, placing an earpiece into his ear.

Muffled and garbled static responded.

Julio groaned. “One sec.” He left the outcropping, the reception growing clearing up once he returned to the sunlight. “What is it?”

“We found several sites worth investigating,” Karen said. “They all look pretty promising. Should we set up the equipment and see what’s underneath?”

Julio took a breath, then glared at the outcropping. So, the mountain likely had something for him to excavate. Since their latest job was just about finished and all the other sites Julio was looking at had already been taken by the competition, they needed a win.

This outcropping could ruin that completely, if the Titanian Church discovered it.

But that would only happen if Julio reported it.

“Set it up,” Julio said. “And tell me what you find. I’ve got a good feeling this mountain is holding something wonderful for us.”

“Alright, what’ve we got,” Julio said

“Good news and… interesting news,” Jacob said, the tiniest of smirks curling the corner of his cheek.

Julio paused just as he entered their makeshift campsite – really just a bunch of tents for Julio’s dozen surveyors on one side of a small clearing while they put up a portable kitchen and small, single bathroom on the other side.

“Define interesting,” Julio said.

Please, let it have nothing to do with the outcropping he’d found a few hours back. Keeping that to himself would be one thing. Not reporting it after his crew discovered it would be an entirely different matter.

“Just take a look,” Jacob said.

So with a blaring heart, Julio joined Jacob, who presented a tablet.

“Pretty much every one of these scanners found veins of what is likely sphalerite,” Jacob said, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet.

From which zinc could be smelted. With how in-high demand batteries were to extend the life of Talam’s technology, that would fetch a pretty credit. And where sphalerite was, there likely was…

“And all of these found what we think is galena,” Jacob said.

Jackpot. Sure, there appeared to be more sphalerite than galena, given the initial readings, but that was only a start. They could sell the galena not only for lead production, but more productively for silver smelting.

This site was easily the greatest source of production Julio had ever found for Colton.

“Excellent,” Julio said. “Then–”

“Actually, Julio, we found one more thing,” Jacob said, swiping to another picture.

Julio drew his face closer to the screen. With their spatial tech – which was impressive enough to see up to a thousand feet beneath the surface, but not nearly advanced enough to detail every layer of strata – the previous readings had been of a reddish brown color for the sphalerite and a soft leaden color for galena. This next picture, however…

“It’s… glowing?” Julio asked.

In a brilliant white – though the closer Julio peered, it seemed there was a host of the different colors of the rainbow blended into the white, extremely faded – the vein glowed in the surrounding dark rock.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Jacob said.

That they might have stumbled upon a vein of one of Talam’s most legendary ores. It could have been titanite – the ore responsible for size-changing tech and a host of other technology – chamaerite – a mysterious ore with untapped potential which holds its own source of eternal light – or even mutonium – an incredibly valuable ore that somehow, through complicated smelting processes, can allow an unextraordinary ore take the qualities of one of Talam’s legendary ores.

There were several more types of legendary ore, but none – to Julio’s knowledge – glowed with the slight sheen of a rainbow on scans like those three did.

It didn’t matter which of the three the mountain held. This site just became a lot more lucrative.

“What should we do, Julio?” Jacob asked, a slight edge to his voice.

It was almost overwhelming, the possibilities this mountain held. Sure, that outcropping he had found was likely linked to this incredible find – he’d heard that plenty of chamaerite veins couldn’t be mined because they were within the vicinity of ‘spaces sacred to the Titans’. Not every legendary ore deposit was linked to a religious site, however, and even if this was, it wasn’t like his crew had to know.

At this point, with the evidence displayed before him, Julio would let the entire cave crumble, even let the entire forest burn, if he could reach this legendary ore.

“Expand your search around this vein,” Julio said. “And tell Karen she’s in charge. I need to tell Colton about this, personally.”

It had been a long twenty-six hours – a sleepless one spent driving, rushing to the train station, traveling across half the province of Neirea, then taking another bus to CC Corp’s current mining site, only to discover that Colton had gone back to his home on the other side of the province to deal with some political bullshit from a previous job, so then he caught another bus back to town, then traveled via train until he needed to take a taxi to reach Colton’s abode – but Julio was too wired to grow weary. More and more information came to Julio during his travels about the glowing site. It was larger than Julio ever could have imagined. They’d clearly surveyed much of the mountain and surrounding area, though none had reported anything about an outcropping, sacred or otherwise.

It was time for them to strike. First, however, he had to inform Colton of everything. He banged on the front door, growing antsier with each second Colton didn’t answer.

“Julio,” Colton said, his beady eyes wide and puffy white mustache tufted. “Why aren’t you at Mount Ergil? Is everything alright?”

“Fine,” Julio said, stepping into his friend’s house. “More than fine. I have so much to tell you.”

Colton listened with rapt attention the entire time, sitting on his plushy couch, chubby hands resting on his portly belly. He clearly understood how large a job this was, though his response wasn’t what Julio expected.

“Why didn’t you just call me?” Colton asked.

Julio threw his hands in the air. “This is too important for a video chat! And now that I’m here, I can immediately start working on the bid. If I had just called you–”

“Then we could have talked about this yesterday and, if we decided to bid for this site, you could have gotten here last night and gotten to work on it hours ago this morning.”

Julio narrowed his eyes. “If we ‘decide’ to bid for it.”

Colton looked down, breathing a heavy sigh. “This job will be very large, Julio. Larger than anything we’ve ever done. Ever even attempted. The amount of loans we’d need to incur, the number of employees he’d have to add, all their livelihoods would hang on us over a gamble.”

“You knew that was a possibility when you let me survey the mountain. Why are you getting cold feet now?”

Colton twiddled his thumbs. “In truth, a part of me… hoped the rumors were true.”

That Mount Ergil really did have religious significance to the Titanian Church and thus to all of Talam. Julio pursed his lips. Not that he’d planned on informing anyone, but Colton would be the last person to tell about the outcropping and the cave within.

Instead, Julio leaned forward. “But most of you wanted me to find something good.”

Colton’s bushy white mustache wriggled as he worked his jaw.

“You’ve taken bigger risks before,” Julio said. “One in this room, more than a decade ago. How has that worked out for you?”

Colton’s beady eyes seemed to twinkle. “It wasn’t that risky.”

“I can’t think of a possibly more dangerous decision you could have made!”

It had been when Julio was in his early twenties, twelve years ago, yet the memory remained in Julio’s core. How could he forget, when he thought about it almost daily?

He and his crew had been combing through neighborhoods for an easy score. They never aimed for the most affluent neighborhoods, with lots of security and city cameras around, but every now and then they’d find a dead-end street with minimal surveillance which held houses large and well-maintained enough to suggest they held at least some wealth.

Julio was their scout, looking for empty places and easy break-ins. One day, he’d marked a relatively large house – two stories, built from red brick, with a small open porch in the front – which had a window that would not close all the way. There was no security system, so he snuck his boys in, then went to frisk the place.

The owner was normally gone from the house the time of day they stole into the place, but it seemed on that fateful Thursday, the universe had decided something had needed to change.

A short, portly man with more grey in his beard than brown came down the stairs, glaring at Julio and his crew, and raised a pistol.

“I’ll give you five seconds,” the man had said, pulling the hammer and aiming it at the closest thief to him. “One.”

Julio narrowed his eyes. Something seemed off about the firearm, but before he could let his crew know – hell, before the man could count to two – they bailed. One jumped out the open window, two took the front door, one charged from the back.

The man glared at Julio. “What? Do you not have sense like your friends?”

“Hard to kill someone with a timing pistol,” Julio said.

The man cocked his head to the side, his beady eyes squinting. He huffed, then shook his head. “You’ve got a good set of eyes on you, boy.”

Julio had been the farthest away from the man – standing at the end of a hallway – yet he could still make out the lack of an opening on the pistol’s barrel. The older man had not been the first to point out his observation: that was why his crew made him the scout.

“And you’ve got a good straight face,” Julio said. “Thanks for not insisting it’s real, too. Hate it when people insult my intelligence.”

“Not really intelligent to try and steal from people, son,” the man said.

“It gets me what I want.”

The man’s glare softened and he put the timing pistol in his pocket. “Want some tea?”

Julio doubled-back. “What?”

“Tea,” the man said, walking down the stairs. “I got a lot of kinds, so I probably have something you’d enjoy.”

Julio scoffed. “Like I’d wait around for the police to get here.”

“I haven’t called them.”

“Bullshit.”

The man removed his wristband and tossed it to Julio. He scrambled to catch it.

“Check my recent calls, if you must,” the man said.

Julio blinked. He was maybe five feet from the front door, still open after his crew ran away. The wristband wasn’t the most expensive one on the market, though it could still fetch him a couple hundred credits.

“Just sit down and have some tea,” the man said. “Five minutes of your time and then you can be on your way. The worst that can happen is you lose a few minutes of your life.”

Julio looked at the wristband, the open door, then the man. Never in his life had he met someone so… innocent? Naive? Foolish?

Or, a small part in the back of Julio’s mind said, kindhearted.

Julio stepped to the front door, then closed it. “Five minutes, then I’m out of here.”

The minutes expanded to hours. By the end of it, Julio had essentially given Colton his life’s story: how his family’s destitution led him to dropping out of Upper School and into a life of theft; how he’d gone from town to town, joining various groups and then leaving as they, one by one, were arrested by the police; how he was tired of having to be constantly on the run and sneak funds to his family who still relied on him.

And Colton had offered him an out. He had some connections, a few with law enforcement, who could help him get away from this life and work on something more fulfilling. Julio didn’t buy it at first, but after several more hours, he was ready to give it a go.

He felt it was a risk for himself, but it had turned out well in the end. Julio went on probation and worked community service, all while getting his Upper School degree online and then going through University. Colton became his Guarantor, aiding him through his education and helping to watch over his probation.

The whole ordeal took nearly six years, but by the end of it, Julio had a University degree in Surveying – which utilized his sharp senses to finding spots to mine – a clean slate, and a job with Colton’s mining company that was a steadier flow of income than his rag-tag bands of thieves ever provided him.

“You took a risk on a punk,” Julio said. “I could have used your good heart against you and ruined your life. Instead, you saved mine.”

“Don’t be so dramatic, Julio,” Colton said. “There was a lost, brilliant talent in front of me who needed a guiding hand. What else was I supposed to do but extend one?”

Julio took a labored breath. “You’ve helped me so much, more than I deserved. You deserve this win. And the risk won’t be on you alone. I’ll also take out a large loan for the job. And you know Theresa will, if we both do it.”

Theresa was in charge of all the large equipment at CC Corp and quite the risk taker herself, if she knew she wasn’t alone in it.

Colton’s mustache did its little dance again. “I just…”

Julio leaned forward. “Offer the bid, Colton. Call the governor’s office and give the offer. The worst that can happen is you lose a few minutes of your life.”

Colton breathed a laugh, then smirked. “Alright.”

The train to Linick, Neirea’s capital, wasn’t nearly as long as Julio’s venture to Colton, but the wait for his current meeting felt even longer than that grueling day.

Julio ran his hand through his curly brown hair, let his hand curve over his scalp around his ear until his cheek was resting in his palm, his eyes focused on the door in front of him. The seat on which he rested was cushioned, but Julio barely felt the padding as he was on its edge. The heel of his foot began tapping on the carpeted floor.

“When is he–?” Julio began.

“As soon as he’s done, sir,” the receptionist said, the air of her earlier patience gone.

Julio scowled. What right did she have to get snippy for? She wasn’t the one who’d had to wait for hours after an appointment’s scheduled time with still nothing to show for it. If he wanted to know when he could actually have this talk, then he had every damned right to–

The receptionist’s eyes widened. “Mr. Boyle will see you now.”

Finally!

Julio practically sprinted past the receptionist desk, so fast he nearly bumped into the door before it completely slid open, then was in a seat facing a large desk and a somewhat impressive view of Linick’s skyline – somewhat, because they were only about halfway up Linick’s largest governmental building, the Spire, but impressive because even then, they were still higher than any other skyscraper in the city.

Julio wouldn’t have given a half-a-glance at the backdrop he’d seen many times before, but he had to, given the man he was looking for was standing, back to Julio, at the window and staring into the distance.

“Won’t you please come in,” the man said, voice dull, as if they’d already been speaking for hours and he was tired of it. “Have a seat. Get comfortable.”

“Let’s hurry this up, Dillon,” Julio said. “I have places to be.”

The man sighed, his shoulders sagging. He mumbled something, then turned to his desk. Dillon Boyle seemed reluctant to leave the sunlight angling through the window, which felt strange to Julio, as Dillon’s skin was so pale it appeared Dillon never embraced the light of day. Or at least if he had, he would burst into a flame greater and more orange than his hair.

Yet still, Dillon held a high position in Neirea’s Land Development and Management organization. In previous bids, his voice had swayed the majority of the board to deny particular mining companies from a job. Or, as Julio was hoping to achieve today, to allow one.

“You are not the only man busy here, Julio,” Dillon said. “By all rights, I shouldn’t even have the time to meet with you. If this slot hadn’t opened up…”

“Yes, yes, I get how lucky I am,” Julio said, taking a size-changing tablet from his pocket. “But I’ve always found it to be lucky rather than skilled.”

“Something you may know full well at this point, given Colton’s most recent bid.”

Julio smirked. It was true, Julio’s luck had, over the last decade, given him incredible opportunities. It was luck that had him try to steal from Colton’s house on a day he was still home, as well as luck that let him find those precious minerals beneath Mount Ergil. The first was an event that had changed the course of his life, the second an event that could not only benefit him, but Colton, as well.

That was why Julio had called in one favor with one of his more debatable contacts in the government. One quick, mostly fake emergency later and Dillon’s intended meeting for this time suddenly had to cancel, allowing Julio to sweep in immediately and fill the space.

Sure, Julio did believe luck was more important than skill to get ahead in life, but one had to be in the opportune place when luck struck to capitalize it.

That, and he wasn’t above creating his own luck.

“That’s actually why I’m here right now,” Julio said.

“Never could have guessed,” Dillon said. He tapped the screen on the side of his desk, swiped a few times, then sighed. “It’s a big job. Bigger than anything CC Corp has ever tried before.”

“Oh, don’t worry, we can handle it. Or didn’t you read the full document Colton sent? I can read it to you, if that’ll help.”

Dillon’s mouth thinned. “You’ve always appeared an intelligent man, Julio. Intelligent enough, that is. So you can understand how a mid-level mining company doesn’t have the experience of dealing with a job as large as you’re suggesting. Equipment and funds or not, but a group like Mitsui Mining is far better suited for this kind of job.”

“Of course you already let them know,” Julio said, seething. “What? Gale Corp turned you down, or are you bickering with each other again?”

“We take our relationship with all of our private sector companions quite seriously, Julio.” Dillon’s face dropped. “Including CC Corp. Colton and Theresa have never been anything except affable to me. As thanks for bringing this to our attention, CC Corp will get a percentage of the profits that Mitsui Mining brings in.”

Profits, not revenue. Even when “kind”, these government goons would always find a way to fuck Colton over.

Julio grinned. “That would be fine for Colton.” Julio expanded his tablet and plopped it on the desk. “Not for me.”

Dillon gave Julio a confused stare, then looked at the picture on the screen. His mouth dropped, eyes bugging out, and had grown so pallid it appeared that his blood simply ceased flowing.

Julio’s grin widened. Several years back, Dillon had done what he’d tried to do today: deny one of Colton’s bids for a job, instead giving it to Gale Corp, with the promise of a percentage of the profit. Only back then, Julio hadn’t taken it lying down. He’d investigated Dillon closely and even hired a few private agents – one of whom was an old contact – to tail the guy. What they’d returned to him, only last year, was more than enough to end Dillon’s career.

Possibly even his life.

“It would be a real shame if this got out there,” Julio said. “Can’t have someone in the government scorn the Titanian Church, now can we?”

Dillon’s lip twitched, his nostrils flaring, as he resumed staring at the picture. It was angled a little awkwardly, as Julio’s PI had to take it secretly amidst a small crowd, but everything else in the picture was perfect: Dillon knelt, clearly under an ancient pagan symbol which resembled a lower case “t”, eyes closed and hands folded as if in prayer. The room was a dingy basement and a few other kneelers were around him, following suit. 

Dillon Boyle, influential figure in all things land development in Neirea, was a Narrower: someone who claimed to follow something called the Narrow Way, a pagan belief not only scorned by the Titanian Church, but also illegal to worship.

Dillon’s fingers clenched. “As you can clearly see, this is edited. The lighting is poorly darkened to hide details, and–”

“Are we really talking about the same picture?” Julio said, pulling out another size-changing tablet with the same photo. Dillon’s mouth dropped again. “What? You think I’d give you my only copy of the picture? And you called me intelligent.”

Dillon’s mouth worked in vain.

“Any scan through this will show its authenticity. And you know that.”

The tablet slipped between Dillon’s quivering fingers and landed with a thud on his desk, his eyes wide in horror. “Please… I have a wife and a daughter.”

“Then accept our bid,” Julio leaned forward and snatched the tablet away before he could come to his senses. “And this stays our little secret.”

It wasn’t like he cared what this man’s faith was. The Titans had created the continent and everything around it, sure, but they’d never done anything to help put food on his family’s table. He wasn’t about to let Dillon think he’d have any sympathy or support from him, however.

“I’ll…” Dillon mumbled, “I’ll do what I can.”

Julio stood. “That’s what I like to hear.”

“But if it’s too much for you, there’s nothing I can do about that. If something goes wrong, then this goes to Mitsui or Gale.”

“That’s nothing to worry about.”

With that, Julio left the shaking man alone.

“It’s in,” Colton said, pausing in the middle of typing at his computer. The kind, portly man was always oldschool like that. “I just received a message from Land Development and Management.”

Julio looked up. He was leaning back on a couch in Colton’s office, scrolling on his tablet. Several weeks had passed since his fruitful meeting with Dillon Boyle. Even though he was confident his blackmail had worked, he couldn’t lie that with each passing week, his nerves grew more and more steadily. He was ready to pull the trigger and leak the photo his PI had found, but he’d rather get the bid.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” Julio said, putting the tablet down and rising. “Open it up.”

Colton’s pudgy fingers twitched and he licked his lips. “You know what? How about you open it?”

“Colton.”

“It’s just, I don’t really think it would be right, since you worked so hard while surveying to find it and all.”

“Colton?”

“Y-yes?”

“Open the damn message.”

Colton breathed out, the bushy mustache bristling. “You’re right. Fine. I got this.”

It still took another few seconds, but eventually Colton closed his eyes, opened the message, then peeked at the screen. Several more seconds passed as he read the message, then exhaled, all tension leaving his shoulders.

“We got it,” Colton said. “They accepted our bid.”

Julio leaped off the couch. “That’s awesome!”

All at once, the tension returned. Seemingly tenfold.

“Eternal Titans,” Colton breathed. “It’s really happening. I need to call the loan offices and get all the… but first, Theresa needs to know. I have to call her, but before that I should–”

“Colton,” Julio said, shaking the man’s shoulders. “Relax. It’s alright.”

“But Julio, this job–” Colton began.

“Is yours, because you deserve it,” Julio said. “You’re the hardest worker and kindest man I know. If anyone can handle this, it’s you, Colton. And you’re not alone, so don’t worry about it. You, me, and Theresa will figure everything out along the way.”

And if anything unsavory needed to get done in order for this job to be a success, then Julio would make sure it would happen.

Colton nodded, his beady eyes brightening. “You’re right, Julio. And thank you. I wouldn’t be here like this without you. I’m so very happy you decided to break into my house.”

Julio smiled. “That’s my line. Now, let’s call Theresa first. She needs to hear the great news.”