The Queen of the Underverse - Chapter 23
- Donovan Evans-Foto Dono
- 5 days ago
- 11 min read
A Note from Foto Dono: So, here's the thing...
Ahem. Move aside, Dono. Scholar of Banned Books coming through.
A Note from Yuunral Naretar, Archivist of Questionable Accuracy, Interrupter of Authorial Intent:
So! Our dear Foto Dono claims he is “knee deep” in final edits for the book. Let me assure you, readers — I’ve seen the drafts. He is not knee deep. He is swimming in edits. He is marinating in edits. At this point, he is 73% caffeine, 12% panic, 9% misplaced semicolons, and 6% “WHY DID I WRITE THIS SCENE LIKE THIS.”
He insists the book will release on December 15th, “whether he’s ready or not.”That is a bold statement, considering he hasn’t been ready since 1998.
Now, due to this self-inflicted editorial chaos, he claims he must postpone next week’s Chronicles of the Underverse. Understandable. Editing is exhausting. (Especially when one has a Scholar of Banned Books constantly pointing out continuity errors from across the astral plane.)
He might post something else. He might not. He might ascend to a higher realm of existential dread. It’s really a coin toss at this point.
He also claims he’s hard at work on the second part of the book and will be seeking beta readers. I recommend volunteering — the screams alone are worth the experience.
Anyway, Dono appreciates your patience. I appreciate your willingness to tolerate him.
And once the book releases…Oh, the reactions.The chaos.The review bombs.The QUESTIONS.
I, Yuunral Naretar, eagerly await it.
Previously on The Queen of the Underverse…
Rebecca is trapped in a warehouse of memories in the Memory Farm and has been "interrogated" by Kai. Chalky and Lyries are descending into the Memory Farm to rescue her and the younglings, who were confiscated by the Memory Merchants.
Ye saga continues…
Book 1 - The Queen's Saga - Chapter 23 - The Memory Farm™ - Bad Memories
Kai decided to try a different approach once Asher collected Terri, an eleven-year-old Memory Orphan Shean had found two months ago.
He’d follow the scent from that last memory. If he blended his strength with the Gem’s power, he was sure he could uncover what the constant was—the answer humming just beyond reach.
He stood before Rebecca. She was shaking, eyes bright with rage and tears.
“No words this time?” Kai asked as he reached for her again.
She spat at him.
He stared at the saliva on his cheek as though studying an artifact, then smiled too calmly. “Empirical feedback. Good. Still some fire left in the sample.” He wiped his face with two fingers, then pressed them to his tongue. “Salt. Human.”
Rebecca thrashed against the bindings.
“I see. We’ll deal with that later.” He placed his hand on her head.
Asher noted she wasn’t screaming this time—just thrashing. He almost missed the screaming.
The mist parted, and Kai was standing in a field on Earth. The air tasted wrong—too clean. It looked like a painting, colors too patient to be alive.
“Okay,” he murmured, “this is different. Different is good. I hope.”
He saw Queen Lyra embracing a young woman with brown hair and green eyes. Except for the human skin, she could have been Lyra’s daughter. A man and two children played in the distance before a small cottage—pastoral, almost mocking.
Kai moved closer. Their voices carried on warm air.
“It’ll be a hard life here without your gifts,” Lyra said, sadness heavy in her tone.
“It would be harder with them, Mother.” The young woman’s eyes shone with determination.
“I could take them too,” Lyra offered.
“To what? Back home? And be what—frozen?”
“I don’t want to lose you.”
“You told me it was my life. I’ve chosen this—with them.” She hugged her. “I didn’t choose it over you.”
“I love you so much, Dorthy.” Lyra’s power wrapped around her like sunlight.
“Be safe, Mother. I love you.” Dorthy smiled mischievously. “I’ll tell them about their crazy grandmother.”
Lyra laughed. “Please do. Though I’m sure they’ll forget me after a while.”
“Humans do that,” Dorthy said softly. “But I’ll try to change that.”
“I’ll watch as best I can.”
“Don’t do anything stupid, Mother. I can’t protect you as I used to.”
“I’m stupid? I’m the Queen of the Underverse.” Lyra smirked. “Why would I do something like that?”
They both laughed, holding each other until Dorthy pulled away and walked toward the cottage.
Lyra watched her go.
“That’s it?” Kai said aloud, incredulous. “A sentimental moment? That’s what she’s hiding?” He chuckled bitterly. “Waste of potential.”
Then the sky shifted—from bright blue to bruised gray. The air thickened.
Lyra turned. Her eyes were no longer kind but burning red, molten with purpose. “You shouldn’t be here,” she said.
Before Kai could speak, she crossed the distance and seized him. Her grip crushed his shoulder; pain exploded down his side.
“How are you here? You’re locked up!” Her voice rippled through the field. “This is a memory—how did you breach it?”
She tore deeper into his shoulder as if she could rip answers from his flesh. Kai screamed, the sound cracking the painted sky. “What have you done?”
“Fuck you, Lyra!”
“Wrong answer.”
His body splintered under her grip. The field collapsed, colors bleeding into white noise.
He heard her last words echo as he dissolved: “I’m not done with you.”
The mist shattered.
Kai hit the floor of the Memory Farm, gasping. His right arm lay a few feet away. Black tendrils writhed from the stump, seeking connection.
Rebecca smiled faintly at him—except her lips didn’t move. Lyra’s voice came through her instead. “Like what you saw in there? When she wakes, she’ll kill you.”
Rebecca slumped, unconscious again.
Asher lay sprawled nearby, twitching. His own arm was half-eaten by shadow, tiny tendrils knitting over the wound.
Kai picked up his arm and pressed it to the tear, wincing as the tendrils crawled through skin and cloth, stitching him back together.
“Oh, Asher. Still functional?”
“I think so,” Asher groaned, sitting up. “That was a nasty memory.” He patted himself down, testing for missing parts. “Do you know what she is yet?”
“Are you kidding?” Kai hissed. “I haven’t a clue.” The pain throbbed through his ribs. “Abyss, take her—she ruined my shirt.”
“It’s nearly sunset. The Merchants’ll be checking soon.” Asher shrugged. “Not that I care. What’s the plan, boss?”
Kai stared at Rebecca’s still body. Something cold in him flickered to life—a seed of fear pretending to be anger. “This is taking too long. Fetch another while I think.”
“Any preference?”
“How about that one that was with her?” Kai gestured toward Rebecca. “Those two were bonded. Strong connections mean stronger charge.”
Asher nodded and left.
Kai looked down at his torn, mending shirt. “I just got this one,” he muttered. “Ruined by sentiment. Again.”
He laughed once—too softly—and for the first time, it didn’t sound like confidence.
Shortly Before…
Chalky and Lyrie’s descent came to an end about a few minutes after they stopped talking. Sensing that their journey was nearing its conclusion, Chalky gathered firecloak, preparing herself and Lyrie in case they needed to face any Merchants at the bottom. They listened quietly, exchanging glances that held a mix of tension and foreboding.
The opening of the doors proved anticlimactic as automatons filed into the chamber, swiftly gathering the crates and transporting them out. They cleared the space with remarkable efficiency.
During the silent descent, Lyrie focused intently on the sigil card, managing to decipher most of it.
Chalky peered down the storage room, where dim light pulsed at the edges of darkness.
Upon exiting the elevator, she pressed a sequence of buttons to keep it stationary.
Gesturing toward the control panel outside, she explained, “When we return, press this button once and this other one three times for a quick ride back to the top.”
“Why didn’t we do that before?”
“Because it wasn’t available while we were inside it. I don’t know why it wasn’t there. I didn’t
build the bloody thing.”
Chalky sighed and held out the tracker, which was still working, and it pointed the way for them.
“After you,” Lyrie said, gesturing.
“Oh no. You first. You’ve got the wards.”
Lyrie crossed her arms. “You’re indestructible.”
“Only mostly indestructible. There’s a difference.”
They stared each other down until Lyrie relented with a huff and began walking.
Chalky followed, muttering, “I swear, if something jumps out, I’m redecorating this place with its entrails.”
The Memory Farm Complex was large, someone had said. That was an understatement. It was a maze of hallways lit by memory-infused crystals that flickered with the thoughts of other people.
Occasionally, it opened up into bigger rooms—what you could call a field room—with rows of slowly spinning memory gems hovering like crops. You could hear the distant echoes of forgotten laughter, screams, and lullabies.
Massive columns were used to brace sections of the complex, which extended up to the top of the cavern where the complex was located.
Lyrie pulled them behind a column as a party of Memory Farm Merchants walked by. “Shh!”
Chalky whispered back, “I am being shh. I’m the shh-iest.”
Lyrie whispered with a hiss, “…You’re going to get us killed.”
The Merchants were caught up in their conversations and didn’t notice them. They heard them say as they passed: “I know he’s paid for the day, but the screaming. I mean, give it a rest already.”
“Everyone has a kink, they say.”
They soon were too far away to hear anymore.
They looked at each other and saw the same grim thought in their heads. Chalky held out the tracker and continued.
They passed an area where the smell of burnt sugar, ozone, and nostalgia lingered. Another room was full of memory sorters, gem rotators, and humming extractors.
“This place is nearly automated.” Lyrie was in awe of the horror of it.
“It’s probably why there aren’t too many people down here. Or we haven’t caught them on a busy day.” Chalky looked worried.
“We came in the back way, so we’re seeing what’s behind the curtain. I’m not sure this is the main area.” Lyrie looked around the hallway.
“Well, we must be getting close. Finally, the tracker is getting warmer.”
The tracker led them to a room where the walls pulsed occasionally with shifting images—living memories leaking from poor containment.
“This feels like it’s getting worse.” Chalky was looking at the tracker.
“Oh, you think?” Lyrie snapped back.
“We have to come back this way.” Chalky snarled at her.
“I was thinking the same thing,” Lyrie said, her eyes blazing. Then her eyes went wide with fear. “We have to get out of this room now!” She grabbed Chalky’s hand and left the room on the opposite side.
“Feeling better? Not so angry?” Lyrie asked.
“Chalky better. Not angry.” She smiled back. “What a strange room.”
Chalky looked up ahead. “We have another door up ahead, and the way this tracker feels, we should be right next to them.”
“We need to find another way out.” Lyrie shook her head. “We can’t go back through this with the younglings.”
Chalky bit her lower lip. “We will find a way.”
“And how will we do that?”
“You, with your negativity. You have to put some positivity out there if you want positive results.”
“You brainless marble-headed nimrod. We are going to die down here.”
“That’s the spirit!”
They opened the door. It was a typical hallway, lit by standard overhead panel crystal lights.
Chalky closed the door and looked to the side of it. “See? Think positive, and the Underverse will reward you.”
“Oh, what are you…” Lyrie stopped and saw the sign Chalky was looking at.
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY, USE THESE EXITS
There was a handy map underneath.
“I don’t suppose you have a spell of ‘Don’t Forget This Vital Map Stuff’ in that wizard skull, do you?” Chalky smiled.
“Wise ass.”
It took Lyrie no time to save the details for both her and Chalky. After they went through two more doors, they found themselves in a room filled with cages. There were about forty or fifty cages. Lyrie thought thirty of them were filled with Memory Orphans.
Chalky said, “Dip me in vinegar,” when she took in the sight.
One of the cages was calling for Lyrie.
It was S’Rah, and she was in a cage by herself. However, her cage was surrounded by other younglings in cages from Shean’s Provider Home.
Lyrie pulled herself together. She ran over. “S’Rah, you’re okay. How are the others?” She fumbled with the set of rune keys she had collected earlier.
S’Rah was quiet, then whispered, “They collected four: Lisie, Matthew, Terri, and… Toby.”
Lyrie’s heart skipped when she heard Toby’s name. He had been the oldest Orphan, over a year old.
Chalky came over. “Do you know where Rebecca is?”
“No, I don’t know. They took Becks somewhere else. This man, who calls himself Asher, keeps coming back and taking us. Only we from Shean’s and not the others.” She gestured around.
Lyrie looked around—so many younglings. What have they been doing?
“All right, I’m going to get you out of here.” Lyrie looked at the others in nearby cages. “All of you. I was hoping you could spread the word to others in cages. I’m going to give a map with the quickest way out, plus a destination where you’ll be safe. I’m going to do it with a glyph, so each of you will have to see me before you run off.”
“What about Becks?” S’Rah asked. “Who’s going to save her?”
“Well, it’ll have to be me. Hi, I’m Chalky. I’m a fun companion.” Chalky beamed at S’Rah.
“Plus, I’ll shoot anyone who gets in my way.” She pulled out Shean’s pistol.
S’Rah’s eyes went wide. “You have his ManaShard?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be bait,” S’Rah said without hesitation.
“Yep. I mean, what? No… bait?”
“There is no way that’s happening, S’Rah.” Lyrie crossed her arms.
“I want to help save Becks. You don’t know where she is. But when Asher comes back, I’ll make him take me. You can follow me.”
Lyrie and Chalky looked at each other.
“She does have the tracking glyph,” Chalky said.
Lyrie threw her hands up. “That does not mean she’s bait.”
“Wait, what tracking glyph?” S’Rah asked.
“The one Shean put on you.” Lyrie waved a hand at her, glaring at Chalky.
“Oh, for Lyra’s sake, he has no sense of privacy.”
“We found you with that, so shh. Adult time.” Chalky glared at Lyrie.
Chalky reached into her satchel and grabbed the firecloak.
“Make yourself useful and help S’Rah protect Rebecca.” She thrust the firecloak into the cage with S’Rah. “It’s a firecloak. They used to be friends, but had a falling out.”
S’Rah grabbed the firecloak. It was warm, and it squirmed in her hands. She could sense the reluctance in it. S’Rah instinctively reached out to pet it. “Please help me. She’s the closest I’ve had to feeling like I belong somewhere, to someone… to family.”
The firecloak was limp in her arms as if it were mulling over her words; then it began purring.
S’Rah hugged it. “Thank you.”
Chalky said, “You’ll have to shove the firecloak under your clothes. It’ll flatten out and hide there. It can change its shape a little.”
They heard the outer door open.
“Hide,” Lyrie and Chalky said together.
They dashed into the dark corners, and Chalky took out her pistol.
Asher walked in smiling and humming. He had tried whistling but couldn’t get the hang of it like Kai. One of the younglings spoke up.
“Asher, right? I want to see my friend Becks. Why don’t you take me to her?”
It was the girl that he grabbed last, along with the Human. He was sure of it. They all looked the same to him. He looked at the clipboard. “You’re S’Rah?”
She paled a bit but answered calmly. “Yeah. And I want to see my friend.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day, isn’t it, kiddo?” He walked over and unlocked her cage. She calmly walked out. He was disappointed by that; he liked it when they cried and thrashed. He bound her wrists with a leather strap tied to a longer strap and pulled her along.
“I had a family once, ya know. A wife, son, and daughter. They’re gone now.” He sighed. “At least they tasted good, so that’s something. Come along.”
S’Rah glanced over at the corner where Chalky was hiding, just before the door closed behind them.
Chalky and Lyrie came out of the darkness.
Lyrie looked sharply at Chalky, saying, “You’d better save her with your Earth girl.” She then turned toward the cages, twirling the keys with a determined look. “Lyra, please help us all,” she urged.
For once, Chalky had no snappy comeback to Lyrie.
She looked at the tracker. Alright, kiddo, let’s save your Becks.
––To be continued
Next Time on The Queen of the Underverse…
The final chapter.
Don’t miss: We Break Promises, Memories Break Us
Click here to buy ➡️ BOOK ONE now available – I’d love your honest thoughts on story flow and overall reader experience.
© 2025 Donnavon Evans
December 2, 2025
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