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Voreese nodded. ‘We know it sounds like bullshit to you. You’ve been taught your whole life that the whole world has basically been explored to its fullest. But it hasn’t.’

“H-hold on a second,” said Hector. “You’re saying... I don’t... What?”

‘It would help if you asked a clear question,’ said Garovel.

“Well, but... I mean, isn’t it, like, super hot down there? Molten lava and stuff?”

‘Sure is,’ said Voreese. ‘They’ve developed a variety of methods for dealing with that. Heatproofing, heat funneling, supercooling--I’m a little curious to see what else they’ve come up with since I’ve been gone. It helps that Sermung and Sai-hee both live down there a lot of the time. From what I hear, those two are like walking safe zones. And the same is supposedly true of a lot of their strongest supporters.’

‘Some of the residents are also flat out immune to the temperatures,’ added Garovel. ‘You should close the hole back up now, by the way.’

Their nonchalance was more than a little befuddling. Hector wasn’t sure whether to believe them or not. He returned to the lever and started cranking it back the other way. The slit in the floor slowly scraped shut again. “You guys, ah... I really don’t see how there could be a whole different civilization living that far underground. I mean, if that’s true, then wouldn’t we have discovered them by now?”

‘It’s too difficult to get there from here,’ said Voreese. ‘That pit right there is almost four hundred kilometers deep. But that kind of vertical distance is difficult to imagine. The tallest mountain in Atreya, for instance, is only about three kilometers high. The tallest mountain in the world is barely ten.’

Hector’s brow rose. “Huh...”

‘And those mountains are sloped, making them a little easier to climb and descend. This pit goes straight down, more or less. Servants can reach the bottom simply enough by falling to their death and then reviving, but how the fuck is a normal person supposed to make the trip? And supposing they did somehow survive the journey, they’d still have to make it all the way back up again, which is even more difficult.’