The company traveling to Cuahalan assembled: Juan, Libra, Xicarus, Orlando, and Cancer. Juan asked, "Who wants to travel on foot, and who wants to stay in the pocket dimension? It can hold several people. Pisces is in a healing chrysalis within."

Cancer raised his hand. "I'd like to stay in the pocket. I still haven't adjusted to all of this; returning to life, the vale of tears, the death of so many wizards, my sons in rebellion ... it's so much for me to adjust to. After our mission is finished, I don't know if I should reunite with my wife or seek some quick death and return to the Empyrean."

Libra looked at him with deep compassion. "You may never forgive us for what we've done to you. I am sorry; I wish that it wasn't necessary. I'll travel with you so that we can talk, and you won't be alone."

Cancer sniffed, and said, "I'd like that."

Juan opened his dimension, and they stepped inside. "Anyone else?" He asked.

"I want to see everything," Xicarus said.

"All right," said Juan, closing his dimension. . "So, it's the three of us on foot."

"Four," said Scorpio in his mind. "Wait for me, I'm back from Tartarus and almost there."

"You're monitoring our meeting?" Juan asked mentally.

"Never hurts to be vigilant," she answered him.

Juan turned to the group. "Scorpio's incoming. We'll hold on for a moment." He surveyed the guild, watching Virgo confer with the Pillars, and Bucephalus pick through the wreckage of his house with Atla. Juan sighed, wishing the conflict could have been avoided.

Scorpio came into view, walking briskly from the castle. "Let's go!" She shouted. "What are you waiting for?"

Juan grinned as she joined them and clapped her on the shoulder. "Glad to have you by my side."

The group approached the mineshaft and began descending the ladder underground. The blue sky and bright light of midday soon disappeared, and they stepped down into a tunnel lit by pulsing green lights.

"Foxfire," Orlando explained, gesturing to the lights as they began walking. "Natural bioluminescence emitted by fungi. Fuel only needs to be replenished every fifty years."

"So, Dad," Juan said, "what should we expect here? Some sort of train system to Cuahalan?"

Orlando laughed. "I'm decades past train travel. No, the Faceless have a network of vortices that run between distant locations on the planet. The vortices are gravitational anomalies, like wormholes, that transmit the traveler or materials thousands of miles in seconds. Bucephalus and I utilized them to transform solar energy into the equivalent of fluid karma, so the planet's balance could be restored."

"You are a genius," said Scorpio quietly. "Will we need to travel to Xibalba?"

Juan coughed. He hadn't been to the capital of the underworld since he escaped twenty-three years ago.

Orlando looked at Juan. "We'll pick up a vortex in a few minutes that will take us to Xibalba, and then we'll get another one to Cuahalan. No need to spend more than a few minutes there."

"Bad memories?" Scorpio asked Juan.

"Just a place I was never going to return to," he answered. "I'll be OK."

"I do want to know what happened to you down there, son. Would you tell us your story?" Orlando asked.