A Tune of Demons Box Set: The Complete Fantasy Series

by J E Mueller

  “Sorry,” I muttered.

  Mare waved it off and stood silent for several moments before replying. “Nearly there. What’s got you preoccupied?” She glanced back at me, more curious than upset I slammed into her.

  “The bracelet.” I held up my arm and noticed the bracelet wasn’t loosely hanging around it but rather form fitted to my wrist.

  “Oh that’s weird,” Mare stated the obvious.

  I couldn’t get it to move up or down, let alone get it off now. “Um, what?”

  Mare laughed. “Whatever you were doing seems to be on the right track.”

  “That doesn’t mean I want it stuck to me!” My voice hitched up as I gave up trying to get it to come off.

  “Sad bit of luck. If you figure out what it does you’ll likely be able to figure out how to get it on and off.” Mare didn’t seem bothered at all, and started to walk off, continuing once more toward the kitchens.

  “How can you be so calm?” I quickly followed behind.

  “I’ve had a few things stuck to me before. It happens.” She waved off. “It’s not doing anything negative, just hanging out there.”

  Well, forget you too, I mentally screamed at her.

  Mare stopped causing me to crash into her here, again.

  “What?” She turned to look at me. “I heard you, but there wasn’t... I mean. It was in my head.”

  I looked at her in surprise but tried once more to direct my thoughts at her. For real? Or?

  Mare groaned, “Telepathy? Ugh. Can you hear my thoughts?”

  I hadn’t considered trying. I wasn’t sure if I wanted that sort of power, but still. I quieted my mind and concentrated on her.

  I hate telepathy, I hate telepathy, I hate telepathy...Continued on a loop.

  “Yes, if I concentrate, I can,” I replied honestly.

  Mare cursed, and cursed again before looking me firmly in the eyes. “I know you’re new here, and I’m more than positive you haven’t considered a team yet, but no matter what you do, please do not tell either Benz or Clove what that thing can do.”

  I saw the pleading look in her eyes and knew she was serious. “Why? I believe you, but why?”

  “They would abuse it, and if it doesn’t come off you, they would abuse you.” Mare admitted without hesitation.

  I held my arm close to me. “They wouldn’t try cutting it off would they?”

  Mare shook her head. “Artifacts are tricky things. You can’t steal them, they have to be freely given. If they were to try and do something like that, or if you were to either die or vanish from here, it would actually disappear and someone would need to hunt it down again. The locations are always changing.”

  This was certainly an interesting mess. “So, the collaborative story is that its stuck to my arm and we have zero idea what it does. No surprise powers have come up.”

  Mare gave a firm nod. “That sounds perfect to me.” She turned to continue on once more as she talked, leaving me to follow. “I am sort of glad it is you who has it. You’re not rushing to pick sides and are questioning everything up front instead of pretending to go with the flow. Hopefully you use it well, though you’ll have to be careful and not accidentally use it.”

  That was something to really take in. If I accidentally heard a bad tidbit of information it would be harder to keep in. I could equally accidentally mentally say something to someone. Darn bracelet. How could I remove it?

  I stared down at it and had the sense it did not want to come off. Or maybe I didn’t actually want it off. I’d hate for someone to use it for something evil or terrible. Curses. This is exactly how you end up on an adventure in those stupid books. Though, all things considered, I was technically already stuck in an adventure in another realm.

  “Mare?” I asked suddenly. She glanced back at me and I continued, “If you don’t trust either of them with it, why are you even on a side?”

  Mare made a noncommittal sound before replying, “Protection really. Doing things in groups is better than alone. There’s only the two safe zones, so if you want to ever rest peacefully you need to at least pretend to pick one and not wiffle-waffle about it. It’s very complicated.”

  “What about those weird zones, like how you couldn’t track me yesterday for a few minutes?” I asked curiously.

  “You can’t stay there for long. The tiles you were crawling on will eventually just drop you out and you’ll end up wherever that is.” Mare smirked, “I think the longest we’ve had someone manage to stay up there unmoving was eight minutes.”

  “Oh.” I nodded as we finally reached the empty kitchen. “I suppose there are perks to several people being here for a long time. You just all know these things.”

  “Yes, the Creators don’t like it though. This was designed to be a place to help us move on, and most of us are much more firmly not moving on.” Mare shrugged and went over to a cabinet. “What sounds good for breakfast?”

  We put together a quick breakfast of cheese and bread. As we sat down, I debated my next series of questions.

  “Is it where the food comes from?” Mare asked as she cut a slice of cheese and placed it onto a warm piece of bread.

  “Was I thinking at you again?” I asked sheepishly as I did the same with my cheese.

  Mare shook her head. “Too easy to guess that question.” She took a bite and chewed for a moment before she finally swallowed and replied. “There are a lot of weird things here, but it can all be summed up by the Creators. Everyday, things reset more or less. New food always reappears. After so many hours of being ‘dead’ the creatures reappear. There’s a lot of cycles and timers that get reset for different reasons.”

  That answered two things at once. So the creatures weren’t really dead. “So, yesterday Clove kept her sword in the Agmon’s head to delay the restart time?”

  Mare nodded. “Exactly. Sadly those bat faced creatures like to revive a bit too soon for our tastes. Usually an hour.”

  “That doesn’t sound fair at all. So you have to continually be on the move up there. Where was it?” I should have been paying far more attention yesterday.

  “Third floor.” Mare supplied between bites. “And yes, which is likely how they ran into trouble in the first place. They probably lost track of time.”

  “So Cane, Lo, and Sans can take them on too?” I asked curiously.

  Mare shook her head and snorted. “Goddess no. They aren’t very strong at all. To be honest, it’s likely they teamed up with the group from the other team to artifact hunt. Together that would have been easy enough to take a few of them on.”

  I sat there for a moment trying to figure out what was going on. “So, there’s two teams, and they hate each other.” Mare nodded. “But really they don’t hate hate each other, except maybe Benz and Clove?” Mare nodded again. “So really people possibly team up all the time but probably try to find the thing faster and take it back for their side?”

  “Exactly.” Mare smiled widely. “However, there are exceptions. Some are fully team Clove or team Benz, while the rest are more…” She motioned vaguely. “I’ll do what it takes to survive and make things easier for me and my team, even if it means helping out the other side for a moment.”

  I nodded slowly. “So for things like artifacts, everyone turns a blind eye until the thing is found and then they fight over it, hoping to get it back to their team safely.”

  “Seems like you’re up to date enough on the basics,” Mare agreed.

  “Except I still don’t have anything magically figured out.” I groaned. “How did I break the magic people that tell other magic people what magic people they are?”

  Mare snorted. “Well, that is one way to put things, but I bet it’s a bit more simple than that.”

  “Why do you say that?” This clearly wasn’t that simple.

  “Two weird things are going on with you, and there’s no way you can know it,” Mare stated simply. I motioned for her to continue. “One was very easy for me to tell. C
love knows something. She may not like Kaden, but she knew he didn’t know anything. The whole thing with Sans was simply to confirm her thoughts. The second fact is that you mentioned Benz and someone with a gravelly voice. That would be Canton, and he is a very dangerous person. Normally Benz wouldn’t give two cents about a Dreamer. I’m betting he saw you before you went into hiding. He helped you get around the Agmon too right? Benz knows something.”

  “What could they possibly know?” I gave a small laugh. What an odd thought.

  Mare shook her head. “They’ve been here a long time. Started out as friends even. So, nothing is really impossible. You mentioned dreaming of here before. What do you remember?”

  I thought for a moment as I finished my bite of food. “Well, I had been keeping a dream journal. Honestly, it seemed like I once knew people here, but whenever I recently ran into anyone, they’d comment that I don’t remember them or anything.”

  “So, was there something in your life that could have made you lose some memories?” I stared at Mare until the silence visibly made her uncomfortable. “So is that a yes?” She finally asked.

  “Yes, it was a complicated event…” I looked away toward the hall leading to the entrance way. “There was a war. None of it reached us until the end. I’m not sure what exactly happened, but something hit me hard from behind while I was in the woods with some others. Eventually I was found at the base of a small cliff with the others. Only two of us survived.” I looked back at Mare and gave a shrug. “I thought I had all the memories back. I guess dreams took less importance over some other things.”

  Mare gave me a sad look before turning sharply at the entrance way. “We need to go.” She abruptly got up so quickly her chair fell over.

  I got up quickly and moved to follow her the other way out of the room. “What’s wrong?”

  “To put it simply, that saddle-goose Canton and his goons. They will start trouble.” Mare summed up as we moved quickly.

  “Great. I can’t even defend myself.” I grumbled, as Mare ducked down a side hall and then up a cramped, winding staircase. “Where are we going?”

  “Canton can also track, so we’re going an annoying route until he gets bored,” Mare explained.

  “How many times have you done this?” I didn’t like the way this conversation was going.

  “Depends on who I’m with, and really who he’s with, but often enough,” she continued on with ease, “I’ve no problem beating his butt.”

  “You can take him?” That was a good feeling at least.

  “Of course. I’ve beat him several times. I’m just not a terrible person and haven’t murdered him, though I wouldn’t be surprised if someone eventually does. He has it coming.” Mare clenched her fists before stopping, and quickly changed directions. “Tracking is sometimes annoying. I can’t actually sense things on other floors until I get there. Whatever keeps things where they are, blocks my gifts as well.”

  I nodded and followed her silently as we went up another set of stairs, sprinted down two halls, and down another flight of stairs. I again lost track of where we were and was thrilled when we finally stopped in a room. Mare shutting the door firmly behind us.

  “What now?” I breathed heavily.

  “We have some time.” She relaxed easily, leaning back on the door. “So I’d like to continue my theory.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “About Benz and Clove knowing something?”

  “Yes.” Mare nodded before continuing on. “I wonder if they were the ones you had interacted previously with in your dreams. Maybe you can mention the dreams again to one of them and see what their thoughts reveal? Any information you can get, we can use to figure out your gifts. Eventually you will accidentally stumble upon them anyway, so why not speed up the process if possible?”

  I debated the idea. “Well, it really isn’t nice intruding on someone’s thoughts, but, if your theory is true, then it’s equally as bad to withhold this information.”

  “Exactly.” Mare smirked. “Sure, if they don’t know something, that does raise some moral ethics into question, but I’m confident Clove knows something. It would make sense that Benz knows something, but I can’t say I know him as well.”

  “You said the two of them were friends. Why did they split up?” Maybe there was some sort of clue to things here in that mess.

  Mare shrugged. “That I don’t really know. I didn’t know Clove at that time. This all happened just before I ended up here. Maybe a few weeks, but not more than a month before I appeared.”

  “It would be super useful if I remembered my dreams.” I sighed as I paced the small office-like room. “Or at least had that freaking journal.” I grumbled for a moment before shaking my head. “Well, I suppose we could at least start trying to accidentally figure my gifts out. How does one do that?”

  “Let’s get back to everyone and they’ll explain how they use things and then you can try. Nothing will likely work, but at least you’ll have the information for when something does finally snap into place.” Mare pushed off the door. “Shall we?”

  Nodding, I followed.

  The day seemed to be long and uneventful. When we arrived back in the safe zone, Mare introduced me to some of the others who were hanging around. I listened to Kendell talk about shooting fire, and Perrin describe how to summon a sword. While their insight was interesting, I didn’t feel any fire call from my core, nor was envisioning a sharp blade productive for creating one.

  Still I did feel something, like a tingling from within. I tried to call the feeling forward but it didn’t seem to have the motivation to budge, and I had no clue as to how to compel it out. The comforting fact was Mare insisting no one got it right straight away.

  “It’s true,” she said firmly once again as we lounged in the safe area. “Even knowing you can do something doesn’t mean it happens right away. You had to learn how to walk and talk just as anyone else. Why would learning magic be instant knowledge?”

  Because I technically might already have learned it, I said to her magically.

  She crossed her arms and frowned. “And your memories are shot, so time to move on and accept that you’re starting fresh.” Her words were stern, but not unkind.

  “Hey, Mare,” Clove called, appearing from the painting.

  Mare turned to look at Clove as she approached. “Yes ma’am?”

  “There’s something weird going on with the second floor. I keep seeing Canton and Benz stalking the area. Let’s go find out what they’re doing.” Clove waved for her to get up.

  Mare frowned. “What could they possibly have found?”

  “Exactly my concern.” Clove started walking back toward the painting.

  “Come with us,” Mare stated, causing Clove to turn.

  “She’ll be a hindrance.” Clove glanced at me and shrugged. “No offense, you’re just not up to speed yet.”

  “Probably true,” I agreed, remaining seated.

  Mare shook her head. “Best way to learn something is to be pushed into it. Might be exactly what we need. Anyway, she’s proven she can at least get out of bad situations if she needs to.”

  Had I proven that? It seemed like it was all luck and voices -which I hadn’t bothered to mention yet. “I don’t know about that.”

  Clove gave me a weird look and I couldn’t help but get the feeling that this might be a moment Mare was talking about listening in on. Might be useful. She doesn’t remember a thing and possibly could be molded to good use. If we can get her to figure out how to use her attacks we’d also have range on our side again… Clove nodded after that moment. “You might have a point. Let’s get going.”

  Mare tugged me up to follow. Frowning, I followed closely. So, Clove did know something. Even worse, she didn’t seem interested in me at all as a person. Just another possible talent in her arsenal. Well, at least this might help me figure out something, and I now knew I had some form of ranged weapon. There weren’t an impossible number of possibilities but t
here were still enough. Spears, throwing knives, long swords, bow staff… what could it be?

  Instead of worrying too much, I tried to pay better attention once more to where we were going. I hated the idea that there might be a moment where I’d need to know my way, but it was very likely that I would need to know this house soon.

  Mare wasn’t making it easy. Clove gave a vague description of where she kept seeing them and with a nod, Mare was off. Her hands sparkled for a moment with magic but she never once stopped to consider things. I wondered why Clove didn’t ask anyone else for help. If the other team was up to something, would it really just be Benz and Canton? Wouldn’t they need a bigger group to be up to something truly bad? I wasn’t sinister enough to honestly know. Maybe one or two people could do more damage than an entire group.

  I was finally starting to get the hang of the exit route. Mare seemed to favor the spiral stairs in the back hall, and I wondered if it was the quickest or just her favorite. I wished the quick walking, almost running, was easier. While I had done a lot of physical activity in my life, I hadn’t done nearly this much constant running.

  At least Clove would occasionally glance back. While there was certainly something going on with her, she didn’t seem all that bad. Maybe she hadn’t bothered to tell me anything since we had likely had the same intro conversations over, and over, and over.

  I thought about that fact for a moment and wondered. Mare stated that Clove and Benz had once been friends. Was it possible I did know both of them, and possibly was friends with both? Was that why, despite not wanting to get into details again, and again, and again, they still did more or less look out for me?

  It was a curious thought, but there wasn’t enough proof of my thoughts and -I slammed into the back of Clove.

  “Sorry.” I mumbled at her, wondering why we stopped

  Clove didn’t say anything as we heard voices ahead. They weren’t loud enough to exactly make out, but gravel voice -Canton -seemed to be there. He would be a hard one to miss.

  “I can sense the remains of a Taggollur… no, make that two.” Mare whispered so softly I hardly caught the words.