With the Inferno growing safer to traverse, Wayward Station sent out a team to begin officially mapping it. Sea led the expedition, with Kingsblade coming along for security and Kukimbia insisting she be present, simply to see more of the world. All three gasped as the gilded door opened and released a stifling wave of heat, earning snickers from others who had already visited the final ring.

Sea was already looking over the current map of the ring, tracing a finger along it until she reached a point where an offshoot had been noted, but not explored. "Here," she said to the others, holding out the map and tapping the offshoot. "This looks promising!"

Kukimbia glanced at the map and nodded, eagerness lighting in her eyes, but Kingsblade looked at it with more concern. "That looks a long ways out- are you sure we should be going that far?" she asked.

Sea read over the annotations again, then replied, "It should be unguarded. Multiple volcanics have been, er, cleared out of that area." She winced. What the colonies were doing felt a bit like a hostile takeover, beating the opposition into submission. She told herself it was in the name of freeing the volcanics as a whole. Looking around at this barren, dangerous landscape, surely it would be better for them if they left, returned to the surface and the sun again? The volcanic leadership weren't letting them free until they'd been beaten into agreeing to it.

Kingblade frowned at the map, not fully convinced, but eventually she nodded. Sea smiled, and began to walk. "Alright, this way, then!" she called to the others.

Black stone grated under their feet as they walked, some of the tunnels becoming so narrow it was a wonder the larger volcanics had even managed to squeeze through. They wound through turn after turn, eventually coming to the unmapped area. There, Sea gestured to Kukimbia to hand her the heavy bag the tsabhua had been carrying. Since she wanted to come along but didn't have any scientific experience, she had been conscripted as a pack mule. Kukimbia slid the bag off her shoulders and Sea pulled the scanner out of it. Kingsblade stood watch as the little drone lifted into the air, a laser beaming out of it to wash up and down the walls, mapping every contour. It began to float down the tunnel, the three Xunari trailing after it. Sea kept an eye on the map as it was automatically updated, pulling up a secondary window to view the more detailed scans.

Some time passed that way as the trio walked in silence, the only sounds the distant rumble of rock and the drone occasionally beeping. The tunnel sloped down, eventually ending in a pool of lava- surely it went further, but the drone was not lava-proof. Instead, they turned around and began mapping side passages. Despite Kingsblade's fears, nothing jumped out at them, though she remained clearly on edge, ears twitching at every sound. One offshoot opened into a larger chamber, and within-

"Is that a nest?" Kukimbia asked. The other two immediately focused on what she was pointing at: stones arranged in a ring, with sand in the center. Rounded lumps peeked out of the sand- or at least they used to. A rock had fallen from the ceiling, crushing most of what must have been eggs. Dried yellowish fluid leaked from where their shells had been cracked open. The trio stepped closer, and Kingsblade lifted up the rock so they could examine the damage. One egg had survived, protected by the edge of the ring. Sea gently pried it out of the sand, revealing that it was, indeed, fully intact.

Kukimbia stared at it. "Is that a volcanic egg?" she asked, voice hushed. Sea turned it over, running her fingers over its roughened surface.

"I think so."

"Are we keeping it?" Kukimbia pressed, and Sea looked at her in surprise. "I mean, the rest are gone, and, well, it looks like they haven't been back in a while. Maybe they thought all of the eggs were broken and abandoned it," she reasoned.

Sea hummed. "Maybe, but if we bring it home, who will care for it?" she asked.

Silent up until this point, Kingsblade spoke up, "Me 'n the wives might. We already have four, what's one more, right?"

Kukimbia nodded enthusiastically, but Sea gave her a skeptical look. "Are you sure? You should talk to them first," she said.

Kingsblade shrugged. "Well, sure, but we can't just leave it here anyway, can we? We'll bring it back to safety and then figure out who cares for it," she replied.

"I suppose you're right," Sea mused, staring at the egg in her hands. "Alright. We'll pack it up and head back straight away, let the rest of the colony know about this." She looked to the others, who nodded agreement, and they all set about preparing to return.