Miri came to awareness on the cave floor.
She was lying on her back, staring up at stone, cold water seeping through her clothes.
That was weird.
The thought drifted through her mind without urgency, like it was passing someone else on the trail. It took her a few seconds to understand why it mattered.
Her memory snapped into place all at once: stripped down to her swimsuit, the sharp thrill of discovery buzzing under her skin and swirling in her core, Mason grinning at her like this was the best day of his life—and then the jump.
Falling.
Weightlessness.
So why was she dressed?
And why was she breathing?
Miri lay still, forcing herself to slow down. Panic was a tool, not a reflex. She could deploy it when she needed it. Right now, she took inventory instead.
No pain. No burning lungs. No ache in her joints. No soreness from the crawl through the tight passage. Her body felt… fine. Better than fine, actually. Like she’d just woken up from a good nap.
That was wrong too.
She sat up, the beam from the headlamp strapped to her forehead wobbling as it swept across the cave.
The crystals were gone.
She blinked and turned her head slowly, deliberately, scanning again in case her eyes were lying to her.
Gone. All of them. No faceted walls. No soft glow. No impossible beauty humming just out of reach. Just plain gray stone overhead, cracked and uneven, split by a long fissure that looked old and ugly and aggressively mundane.
And worse—
It wasn’t the same kind of rock.
The thought slid in sideways, subtle but insistent. She couldn’t have named it if pressed, not yet, but the texture was wrong. The color was wrong. This wasn’t limestone. It wasn’t anything like the caverns they’d been exploring all day.
Her stomach tightened.
“Mason?”
Her voice echoed back to her, thin and lonely.
She was on her feet instantly, heart picking up speed despite her efforts. She swept the cave in a tight spiral, checking corners, shadows, the narrow ledge near the back wall.
“Mason!” louder now.
Nothing.
The cave was small. About the size of a two-car garage. Bare stone walls. Damp floor. Exactly one narrow passage leading out.
No lake.
No crystals.
No sign this place had ever been special.
Miri paced the perimeter, hands on her hips, jaw clenched as she tried to reconcile what she knew with what she was seeing. The last thing she remembered was jumping into the water.
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The next thing she remembered was waking up fully clothed, headlamp on, in the wrong cave, without her brother.
That should have sent her straight into freefall.
Instead, her thoughts stayed oddly… orderly. Concern was there, sharp and immediate, but it didn’t bloom into terror. Her chest didn’t tighten the way it should have. Her hands weren’t shaking.
That bothered her more than the empty cave.
She pulled out her phone.
Dead.
Her GPS unit too, even though she might have been close enough to the surface for it to work. Only the headlamp remained stubbornly alive, shining bright like it had something to prove.
She checked her watch.
When their grandfather died, they’d been allowed to choose a few of his belongings. Mason had taken the books, because of course he had. Miri had taken the wristwatch and the whittling knife.
The watch was simple. Gold face. Brown leather strap. Nothing fancy. Grandpa had worn it every day of his life.
Dependable. Honest.
It read 4:09.
AM or PM was anyone’s guess. It had been after four in the afternoon when they found the crystal cavern. At best, she was missing less than twelve hours.
At worst—
She cut that thought off.
That’s probably not the worst, she told herself firmly.
She should have been panicking.
She was lost. Her brother was missing. Reality felt crooked, like a picture hung slightly off-center. She shouldn’t even be wearing clothes.
Her heart rate stayed stubbornly normal.
Something was wrong with her emotions. They felt… padded. Muted. Like someone had wrapped them in bubble wrap and tucked them gently out of reach.
Miri noticed that, catalogued it, and made a decision.
Find Mason first. Freak out later.
She checked the cave one last time, methodical despite herself, then turned and stepped into the narrow passage.
[ Welcome to the System of the United Multiverses ]
Miri yelped and swung her arm instinctively, smacking straight through the glowing letters and into the rock wall.
She didn’t even feel it.
The words hovered in the air, bright and unreal.
[ Welcome to the System of the United Multiverses ]
“Oh shit,” Miri said.
Her brain kicked into overdrive and, blessedly, latched onto a plausible explanation.
Her shoulders loosened. She let out a short, shaky laugh.
Okay. That tracked.
Unexplored caves were full of unknown hazards. Gases. Spores. Toxins. Hallucinogens. She and Mason must have inhaled something nasty.
They were tripping. Hard.
The glowing text vanished.
Miri immediately sat down. It was not a comfortable realization.
If she was hallucinating, that meant Mason might be wandering around somewhere else in the cave system, also hallucinating. That was a great way for someone to get killed.
She needed to stay calm. Stay put. Hydrate.
She pulled out her canteen and took a long drink.
It tasted… off.
Well, yeah, she thought. I’m tripping balls. Of course it tastes weird.
She stared at the rock wall across from her, half-expecting it to start breathing or melting or turning into something with teeth. She wondered if she was about to have her very own “the snozzberries taste like snozzberries” moment.
She did not.
She checked her watch again. Five minutes passed. No glowing text. No melting walls. No sentient cheese.
She was hungry.
Okay. Still functional.
Miri stood and took a cautious step down the passage.
The text reappeared.
[ Welcome to the System of the United Multiverses ]
“Oh, come on.”
[ Name: Miri Anne Sutton ]
[ Age: 24 ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Level: 0 ]
“What— ”
Development (Simplified)
[ Body: 10 (1) ]
[ Mind: 12 (1) ]
[ Spirit: 18 (1) ]
…
[ Class: Unlocks at Lv3 ]
[ Element: Unlocks at Lv5 ]
[ Sub-Class: Unlocks at Lv10 ]
[ Affinity: Unlocks at Lv15 ]
“…the fuck?”
A soft chime rang out—not in her ears, but somewhere behind her eyes.
[ Note from System: You died. ]
