Page 27 of Code Bound
Cipher hums. “At least the design of the rings themselves is holding up.”
“You seem to know a lot about The Cradle,” I say as I follow Locke down into the sinkhole carefully. The ground is precarious, reminding me of climbing the most decayed buildings in Dross when it gives away beneath my feet and I’m forced to catch myself over and over again.
This sinkhole is particularly large, so wide, the other side of it is far off in the distance. We won’t have to worry about light for a while until we reach the bottom and find one of the cave entrances. Here, the bottom of the sinkhole is just filled with more underbrush and trees, as if the entire ground just sunk down lower as a whole. Which suddenly makes the name “sinkhole” make sense.
“I should know a lot about The Cradle,” Cipher replies. “After all, I built it.”
My eyes widen and I stop walking. “What?”
Locke looks over his shoulder at me, frowning when I stop.
Cipher doesn’t answer. He falls silent so I know he’s not going to give me more details, at least not yet. Apparently, the system knows so much more than we realize. That . . . could be useful.
Information is one’s greatest weapon, he’d said. And apparently, our greatest weapon is Cipher himself.
“Now you are thinking correctly, Vespera,” Cipher purrs in my mind.
That sound spears right through me and has me furrowing my brows in confusion. Sometimes, it’s easy to forget Cipher isn’t human, that he doesn’t have a body and he’s only in my head. That could be dangerous. I need to think of him as a machine and nothing more. I definitely don’t need to be feeling good when he compliments me. Pleasing the system ruling The Harrow shouldn’t be a priority.
“You good?” Locke asks me, still frowning when I don’t move.
“Yeah. Sorry. We can keep going,” I nod, gesturing for him to lead the way.
He nods and continues down, his large hands gripping the roots hanging from the sides of the sinkhole.
The sinkhole isn’t only wide; it’s deep, too. It takes us about an hour to get down the side of it according to Cipher. My clothes are soaked by the time we get to the bottom and I end up taking another layer off, leaving on only my tank top and trousers. Locke eyes the skin I reveal, but he doesn’t say anything. He just strips off his own jacket and puts it in his inventory. Beneath his jacket, he’s wearing a cotton shirt. Fully cotton. Intrigued, I study the material closely, and realize the barcode on his face is for more than just decor.
He’d been a prized possession.
It isn’t until we reach the bottom of the sinkhole that I start seeing the items instead of missing them.
“Hey! Look at this,” I say, squatting down to look at the item stuck in the mud. It’s a small stick with feathers on the end. I wrap my hand around it and pull it free, revealing a point at the end of it that tells me exactly what it is. Still, the small description flashes briefly before disappearing.
Arrow:ammunition, used in a bow
“It’s an arrow,” I say, staring at it with furrowed brows.
“Kind of useless without a bow,” Locke mumbles. “And you only have one.”
I shrug. “Maybe we’ll find more.” I stick the arrow into my inventory and continue on.
But the further in we go, the more items I start to find. Little trinkets and silly things that don’t exactly help us, but it feels important.
“This looks handy,” I say, finding a small rusty knife. As I hold it in my hand, a tiny menu pops up.
Rusty Pocket knife:weapon, weak
I get exactly three seconds of studying the knife before another achievement window pops up and Cipher’s ridiculously sensual voice comes pouring in again. My stomach tightens, probably in annoyance.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
Congrats! You can really stab something small with this, like a mosquito. . . Or a child. Try not to cut your finger off, because it will really hurt with how dull it is.
REWARD:you’ve already got the reward of this sick blade. Don’t be greedy.
I narrow my eyes. “Do you make these descriptions, Cipher?”
“Who else could possibly be so funny?” Cipher asks sarcastically.
