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You previously had a vague conception of Anthea as a friendly-but-uptight rules stickler. (Maybe that's why you never invited her to anything.) It's not as though she's disrupted this, precisely, but you may have underestimated the friendliness and overestimated the stickleriness. What else have you underestimated? What do you even know about her? She's president of Spelunkers Associated (Corcass chapter), she's Ellery's ex-girlfriend, she was in on the dark secrets all along... but how? If Ellery was supposed to be stuck in exile, how did he even meet a girl? You're sure you could use your master detectiving to work this out, but you could also ask. Richard would approve of asking.
You clear your throat. "No. I was wondering, Anthea... uh... I haven't talked to you very much. I don't know anything about you. Who are you?"
"I told you she was nosy," Ellery says.
"Knock it off! I have nothing to hide. And now you don't either, Ell." Anthea smiles up at him. "I don't know if there's that much to know, though. Was there something specific...?"
"She wants to know about me," Ellery continues, as Gil says: "How'd you get down here?"
"Me? Oh, murdered. About Ellery and I?"
Damnit. He has you dead for rights. "Sure. Yes."
"Ell, do you mind if I—?"
"It doesn't matter."
"Doesn't matter! Alright! <span class="mu-i">Well,</span> it's been... gosh, I don't know how long, actually. I lose track."
"Five years for me," Ellery says, a touch bitterly.
"Okay, five years. Five years ago, I was spelunking all the time. Just for fun, you know. Seeing the sights. This was mostly in Headspace manses, because they're all wired similarly, and the security is usually shoddy-to-none. Meaning you can sort of... you're non-technical, right? Um, you can kind of throw the dice and delve whatever comes up, as long as it's abandoned, which most of them are. So it's a normal day, I'm doing my normal thing, I wind up in a normal abandoned manse. And it looks abandoned, to be clear! Everything's in ruins. But there's a <span class="mu-i">weird</span> atmosphere, so I poke around, and then I find that it's <span class="mu-i">not</span> abandoned."
"She found me."
"I found Ellery! Sheer dumb luck! Or <span class="mu-i">fate.</span> Only, it's not— er— he was in a bad state."
"What Thea is trying to say is that I was bugfuck insane. This is after a couple years of zero outside contact, so I'm sure— actually, you might understand, Gil. You were mansed for a while, weren't you?"
"Me?" Gil frowns. "Er... yes. Not for years, though. I think it was six months, give or take, and I... um, I am glad Lottie showed up when she did. I don't know if I would've lasted too much longer."
"Aha. Yeah. See, I remember being six months in. I do not remember two years in, because I <span class="mu-i">didn't</span> last. Nobody would last. That was the point of it, to be a fucking inescapable deathtrap. And it worked, because I fucking died. Isn't that right, Thea?"
(2/6?)
