by D. R. Rosier
Cory nodded grimly, and he cringed again when they got to Selwyn’s cell. It didn’t take long before his cleric was healed up, and they headed toward the exit.
Diana whispered, “Any chance of recovering our weapons, and armor?”
Shit. He’d forgotten, but Diana’s sword was a relic, a very powerful one with an active dispel magic on it. She’d taken it from that asshole Salvatore after his death.
Norris sighed, “Maybe, we can check the store room by the exit, but we can’t tarry long.”
He didn’t know why, but he was shocked when they walked into the guard room and saw four dead paladins, no doubt the guards. He didn’t doubt they deserved it though, not when they allowed the torture going on right down the hallway. He opened up the door to the next room, which had several cabinets and weapon racks.
A quick search yielded Diana’s and Cory’s weapons and armor, and his and Selwyn’s robes, though some of their stuff was missing, enchanted jewelry and the like. That stuff was probably put in the vault. Nothing irreplaceable, but expensive items nonetheless. At least Diana got her sword back, that thing was priceless.
He started to feel a little better as his magic recovered, and they moved to the exit. The courtyard was dark and he tried to see into its shadows.
Norris cleared his throat, “Quietly, but it should be clear. I put the guards on the side gate in a deep sleep.”
He felt completely exposed as they moved across the courtyard, every sound they made seemed extraordinarily loud. A small part of him hoped they’d be discovered, so he could kill some of the bastards, but common sense won out and he kept quiet.
They moved across the city slowly, keeping to the shadows, until Norris led them to an old house that looked like it’d seen better days.
When they got inside Norris said, “I’m getting too old for this shit. This place should be safe, it isn’t registered on the rolls of the church, but belongs to an old mage friend who passed last month. I’d suggest you get out of the city as soon as possible, in the morning as soon as the gates open in fact.”
He frowned, “No. I have a better idea.”
Norris groaned, “You want to die?”
He laughed, “No sir. I was thinking the guard’s confession might be proof enough. If we can get in to see the king, and the court mage is willing to cast a truth spell on us, it might be enough to make the king take action against Verin and his conspiracy.”
Truth spells were recognized as evidence, but usually not second hand accounts since it could have been a setup. Still, he thought it was likely the king would take the accusation of insurrection seriously. Kings tended to frown down on that sort of thing.
Norris sighed, “Fine, but don’t expect my help again if you get caught. They’ll be more alert next time. Be careful, I think you’re in over your head. Best idea is to get out of the way, see what can be done when the dust settles.”
He knew that was true, but he also knew he couldn’t let Verin’s evil spread and take hold. This was past ambition, Verin was truly a twisted bastard. He could hardly believe there were torture chambers underneath the church of light.
“I’ll be careful, and I’m going alone.”
Diana objected, “Sir!” while Cory and Selwyn didn’t look any happier about it, but held their tongues.
He shrugged, “I’m going to ask for an audience, I don’t need support for that.”
Selwyn said, “Maybe, but we should be close. It might help your case if the king hears several versions of events.”
“Alright, but only if I send for you, and stay out of sight.”
Diana sniffed and made a face, “I’m going to find a tub, and get some sleep before morning.”
That sounded like a great plan…
He knew he was taking a chance, as he headed toward the castle the next morning. The church and nobles shared a wanted list. If Verin had reported him as rogue, there was a good chance he’d just be arrested and turned over to the church when he declared himself to the King’s guards. If that was the case, there would be no meeting with the king. Hell, the king wouldn’t even learn about him if that was what happened.
He believed it was worth the risk, he also trusted that he could escape if they tried to take him in custody. Especially since he wouldn’t have to worry about his protégés, all he’d have to do is get himself out. It was a gamble, but hopefully not a foolish one.
He never thought Verin would anticipate this move, which made him more the fool.
He was halfway across the city square before the gates, when he noticed a flash of white fabric behind the guards. He looked around as he muttered a spell under his breath, and cursed himself as a fool when he detected several light magic sources in the immediate area. Shit, he should have listened to Norris, but he hadn’t wanted to just give up either. The only good news was that there weren’t any master level magic detected by his spell
He muttered a few more words, and there was a flash of bright light so brilliant that it made anyone looking his way stop. He ran for it, and heard several cries of people yelling for him to stop. There was a chase, but he had a good enough lead, and when he ran into a busy street, he muttered a few more words which covered him with an illusion. He looked like he was dressed as a merchant. He started walking normally then, and the guards passed him right by.
A few blocks later, he modified the spell and became a peasant. Then he slowly made his way back to the house.
“Norris was right, we should have left this morning.”
Cory asked, “Time to go?”
He shook his head, “No, that bastard has both paladins and the king’s soldiers looking for us, things are too unsettled. Let’s decide what we’re to do next and we’ll lie low for a couple of days until we can safely get the hell out of this city.”
Selwyn asked, “What about food and drink? We didn’t get back any of our coins.”
Diana laughed, “We’ll have to get honest jobs. Damn it.”
Cory said, “What’s wrong?”
Diana said mock sadly, “I joined the paladins to avoid that sort of thing.”
He laughed, but he didn’t believe that was her true reason for a second…
Chapter Nine
I felt a surge of affection as Lila turned her attention toward me. I could hardly tell which of us it came from, so maybe both?
“Hi Lila. Nice fight,” I complimented. I knew it was a few days ago, but I hadn’t talked to her since then.
Lila laughed, “It was kind of fun, but none of them were close to level five master.”
“So, what’s going on?”
She must have heard it in my voice, because Lila sighed and said, “I miss you too, I’ve been under observation the last three days, which is why I didn’t contact you. I’m a servant of the church of Jennesar right now, still waiting for a good opportunity to question one of the inner circle of the highest. About all I can tell you is the Master Council for the capitol city is much like in the towns. Don’t worry, I look like an old woman right now, bringing around food from the kitchens, it’s safe enough.
“Anyway, the masters and their lawmen, who are made up of normal warriors and mages outside the church, don’t know a damned thing about the plans for the future, or really much of anything. All they know is they get laws and orders, and they follow them.”
I asked, “Any clue why they’d put up with that?”
Lila replied, “Because for a church they’re amazingly good at appealing to the baser natures of evil men, I doubt I could have done much better when I was a corrupting demoness. The council and lawmen are very well paid, get to bully anyone they want in town, and do other less savory things to anyone that breaks the law. Anyone with a conscience usually disappears quickly, before they gain any real power. Only the smart compassionate ones live to flee the kingdom, and usually end up in the guild.”
I pondered that for a moment. I wasn’t sure how useful that information would be to my goals, but I also felt
a little sorry for the people of Jennesar. I also realized it might be a while before we could be together again, if she had to be cautious about merely using the bond link to talk.
“Just be careful, I know I say that too much.”
She sent a smirk, “Trust me. I’m being very careful, and I’ll contact you again soon. I’m actually having a lot of fun doing this, if I didn’t miss you so much it would be perfect.”
Her presence left my mind, and it felt like she took a piece of me with her.
The gnomes finally finished the warrior deathtrap puzzle and reward room, and I started to add it to level eight. I’d just put the door in last, when no adventurers were nearby. The mage puzzle had only had a few mages try it, and only one so far managed to figure out the puzzle. I knew the guild had warnings posted about it upstairs, exceptional danger, exceptional reward.
Since the room was off the main path so to speak, as would the warrior one be, it was easily avoided for those that didn’t want to take an all or nothing chance without an opportunity for retreat.
Ebony popped into the room with a smile.
“I think you’re going to like this one.”
She did the spell and the information flowed into my mind. It wasn’t until it finished that I realized the information had not gone down our link, and I eagerly dove into the knowledge and ripped it apart. The spell book was on dark magic, and had been written a long time ago by a master of dark magic.
I was excited, since I’d been sure dark magic wasn’t all about just evil spells, and I’d already kind of proved it with several of my own creations and experiments. The theory was dark magic worked contrary to nature, being the opposite side of the coin from light magic. Which explained why fell creatures used it, since their nature had been twisted.
But magic was all one thing, and despite the stigma dark magic wasn’t truly evil in itself. There were several spells listed, including the one Ebony had just used. It was a way to share knowledge, and even teach by transferring knowledge, which was clearly a form of twisting nature, or twisting memories to include new information.
A good spell with positive results. There were also spells for cures, dulling emotions and pain, shadow movement, which was a short range teleport between shadows, a stasis spell, which was a time slow spell in a defined area that was better than the one I made up, which would be good for preservation, and attack of course. There were others as well, but not so beneficial. I broke all the spell forms down to their base components and started some more of my own spellcasting experiments.
This time I used the undead for test subjects. I was definitely changing, since I was feeling guilty about using the demons, ever since taking down the sex demon cavern, even if they simply returned to hell when I was done. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but I was reluctant to use them for that stuff anymore.
Ebony said, “So, I did good?”
I replied with affection, “You always do sexy. Are you enjoying yourself?”
Ebony bounced on her toes excitedly, thank the darkness I wasn’t in a human body, or her bouncing assets would have made my brains dribble out. Her slinky red dress, backless of course for her wings, looked like it was straining mightily to prevent an escape of soft nubile flesh. Even so, it was giving me ideas about a certain spell.
She gushed, “A blast. I love learning and gaining power, and serving you. So… twice the pleasure. I’m being really careful too, no one has seen me and I always return everything the way I found it.”
“Is there anything you want?”
She stopped bouncing and looked thoughtful for a moment.
“No, not really. I… I’m pretty happy right now with what I have.” she seemed rather stumped at the thought.
“Oh, I meant to ask you little imp. A few days ago…”
I filled her in on the visit of the old elf woman, and asked for her opinion on what to do if or when she came back. Despite my growing awareness, and even showing reluctance to experiment on demons, not to mention the illusory dream body and couplings with my servants who I loved, I didn’t really understand humans, elves, or dwarves all that well.
Maybe that was for the best, since my dungeon killed them on occasion.
Ebony flew up on my crypt and stretched out lazily, then leaned back on her elbows as she crossed her legs. To call her alluring would be insulting, she was far more than that.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea master. She promised to keep your secrets, but she really meant keep the secrets of a dungeon core. You’re not a dungeon core.”
I replied, “But she did swear on her magic to keep my secrets, that applies even if she didn’t know what I was.”
She pondered that, “Yes, but what if she decides you’re an abomination that must be destroyed. She can keep your secrets as she kills you.”
That thought brought me up short. She hadn’t seemed hostile, but then she’d believed I was a dungeon. A new and different kind, a little weird perhaps, but a dungeon. But that didn’t mean her attitude wouldn’t change if she learned the truth. Of course, in a lot of ways, I was a dungeon, at least by definition and by choice. It’s just that I was more as well.
She asked, “What’s the benefit to talking to her anyway? Can she really help you? Sounds like she’s just a curious old bat that wants knowledge for herself.”
“Knowledge. She had a spell that let her walk through everything without taking damage. She’s also very old.”
I was being greedy.
She started to rock her leg a bit, the one that was crossed overtop the other. Her face was thoughtful for a moment before she spoke.
“I remember it, and we’ve learned a lot since then. Sounds like a globe of invulnerability. It’s a high-level light spell, but it also goes both ways. With that spell on her she was safe, but so were all your mobs. She couldn’t harm anything either. It’s powerful, but hardly ever used for that reason.”
I pondered that for a moment, “I probably couldn’t use it then, it would cut off my connection to the dungeon, mobs, you, and Lila.”
Not to mention the large elemental stone. That would all be very bad.
She smirked, “Well, you could try being a dungeon if you really want to talk to her that badly, tell her part of the truth but not all of it.”
I considered that, to just hide I was a higher being. I was horribly curious about the elf, and what knowledge she might share with me. Was it worth the risk? I wasn’t sure yet, but I’d have to decide soon. I expected her back soon.
She asked sultrily, “Anything else master?”
Well, when she put it like that, yes, yes there was…
Catalina was a hot mess. They’d cleared most of the seventh level again, and she was having a lot of fun. She still felt a twinge of guilt at her renewed enjoyment of life, but it was much easier to ignore now. The imps weren’t that tough on this level, but they were sneaky as hell, and they liked to set up nasty traps which was what raised the difficulty to just below adept at journeyman level five.
The excitement, the magic, and the close proximity of the very beautiful Mina was having an effect on her, just as strong as it ever was in the past. She felt ridiculously horny as they passed under the arching stone entrance to the seventh-floor boss room. Fighting in the dungeon with her party was just such a rush.
They stopped there and looked around, knowing they wouldn’t be attacked until they were fully inside the room.
There was a twelve-foot-tall demon who was well armored in black steel, and carried a particularly large and nasty looking two-handed spiked mace. She knew from experience it was extremely tough, and very resistant to magical attacks because of its armor’s enchantments. By looking at him, she’d have thought the demon would be slow, but in truth she knew he was wickedly fast.
There were also at least three imps in the room for support of the boss, possibly more, but she didn’t see any of them. There were so many shaded alcoves and positions they could be hiding in that i
t was impossible to tell which ones they were in until after they’d attacked. More often than not, they threw offensive fire or dark magic spells, or dark magic curses from a distance, but last time one of them had an enchanted crossbow. She winced as she remembered they’d almost lost Jerrold that day.
They’d taken the time to shield up with their own protective spells, and of course they had much better equipment than when they’d started as well. Enchanted robes for her, Suzy, and Mina, and enchanted armor for Jerrold. Suzy’s protections were probably the most important, they’d completely block the dark magic, as long as the fight didn’t take too long that is.
Jerrold asked, “Ready?”
Oh, she was ready alright. She blushed at her own thought.
“Ready,” she and the other two ladies answered.
They stepped out from under the arch, which started the fight.
She waited a split second, and then cast her modified air bolt as a stream of water left Mina’s hands, and froze the large demon’s legs and feet to the floor. It was only effective because the armor didn’t go that far down.
At the same time, Jerrold charged the demon, while Suzy started to cast a mass banishment spell. It wouldn’t work on the larger demon because of the armor, but it was really the best way to get rid of the smaller and less powerful imps. The only problem was the spell was one of the longer ones.
The ice wouldn’t hold the demon for long either, but it didn’t have to, as thousands of needlelike air bolts shot from her hand, and at the demon. None of them made it past it’s protective enchantment, but when the magic failed there were a thousand tiny explosions of decompressing air, which hit hard enough to push him back. It wouldn’t have knocked him down if he could have simply taken one step back, but with the ice holding his feet the giant demon lost its balance, and fell back with a loud boom as he hit the rocky ground.
She grinned. She might be insane, but she was enjoying herself.
Several bolts of fire and darkness went for the charging Jerrold, but he ignored it trusting her air protection to handle the fire, and Suzy’s protection to handle dark magic. As Jerrold got there he swung his sword with the full range motion of his body, not at the demon’s body, but at the demon’s arm, which caused the demon to cry out in anger and pain as his two-handed mace went flying. The demon’s arm wasn’t quite severed at the wrist, but the cut was deep.