Dungeon Imperiled: Dark Dungeon 02

by D. R. Rosier

  She smiled and said in a carefree voice, “Thank you sir, for letting me share my personal problem with you.”

  He didn’t say anything or move, as she stood up, dismissed her privacy spell, and walked out of the building. Did that really just happen? Did she want him that badly and only if he took the initiative? He knew he was attractive, as was his power. She wouldn’t be the first to throw herself at him, and she actually hadn’t. She’d just… let him know if he got his shit together he wouldn’t be taking advantage, and she wasn’t reluctant at all.

  He sat there for a while thinking about it, mostly because it would be undignified for him and his position to walk around with an obvious tent in his robes. He hadn’t been this hard in years, and he could still smell her alluring scent. Her fantasy of him just going into her room one night, and claiming her as his, accepting her submission to him, as he honored her as a partner, wasn’t helping his cock calm down either…

  Chapter Seventeen

  “Hey gorgeous.”

  Ebony frowned, “I’m sexy.”

  “Hey gorgeously sexy,” I flirted.

  Ebony laughed, “What is it master?”

  “I just realized how badass you must be getting. Most imps only know a few spells and their inherent magic. You know… almost as much as I do. I’ve also felt your magic grow lately.”

  She posed for me, arching her back and pushing her chest out, she even flipped her gorgeous hair.

  “You think so master?” she purred, “I can only cast fire and dark though.”

  “Most only have one affinity. I was thinking though, if you wanted, you should schedule some daily time for practice. You could reach master levels eventually. Small package, big boom. I could even teach you my invented dark and fire spells, as well as the base configurations for those elemental spheres if you wished.”

  Her eyes widened, “You would do that?”

  “For you? Anything. Not that I want you fighting, but being as capable as possible of it, just in case, isn’t a bad idea. You’re also highly intelligent, which means you can not only learn, but probably create better than any mortal master as well.”

  She said, “I won’t turn that down.”

  I cast the teaching spell, and transferred all the knowledge I had that she didn’t for just the two spheres she could use. She was strong already, but I didn’t want to encourage her to fight. It just didn’t match her personality. She was more the intellectual, which is what a dungeon imp was supposed to be. She wanted power, but more in the realms of knowledge and understanding.

  The new levels weren’t quite finished up yet, but there was no rush. There still weren’t powerful enough adventurers here to take on level fifteen, much less the work in progress levels, sixteen through twenty. I was confident that was only a matter of time, as the guild got the word out to their higher rated members.

  I felt a familiar aura come in, and saw it was the old elf woman. I wondered where she was, since she’d told me she’d be back in a day or two, and it’d been weeks. I used a spell to move Ebony to her hidden home, the teaching wouldn’t be done for a while, and the old woman took the teleport straight to level fifteen. It wouldn’t take her long to get here. I took a moment to tell the dark elves to stay out of the core until the old light elf woman left.

  It was interesting, but also frustrating as she just waltzed past all the deadly demons and into my room with that invulnerability spell. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk to her or not, luckily, she was more than willing to talk for both of us.

  “Sorry it took so long to come back, but it was an unavoidable delay. I was caught up in politics, and had to take a trip to the crown city. King’s get touchy when foreign forces come in and set up shop. I’m also leaving again soon, as are the dwarves that have been poking around the elemental levels of your dungeon. We can’t afford to be caught up in the war that’s brewing between Jennesar and Nysten. We aren’t going too far though, just fifty miles to the west in the untamed forests. We’ll be back when things settle down, if we’re still welcome that is. If Jennesar wins…” the old elf trailed off, implying if that happened they probably wouldn’t be allowed back.

  She said, “So are you going to talk to me this time? I’m curious how and why you developed this outer coating of elemental stone, and so perfectly married with bands of crystal configurations for the six different affinities. I can feel them you know, their auras. You’re quite a young dungeon to rate a group of dark elves seeking knowledge for service. Will you not talk to me?”

  Shit. The woman could lay on a guilt trip.

  I cast the spell, “Are you offering service?”

  She laughed, “No, but you already know that. I offer to answer a question for everyone you answer though,” she smirked, “My turn then. Can you explain why you did this?”

  Damn, sneaky old lady.

  I decided to stick to the truth, but as little as I could reveal. I was also enjoying myself, it was a risk of course, but not a large one. I hoped, this woman did have a direct relationship with the guild head after all.

  “My crystal has a flaw, I couldn’t absorb more magic into the core without risking it breaking. I also can’t fix it without negative results. What I did was build the elemental magic bands around it to reinforce it, and for a place to store power without risking the flawed inner crystal. There is a layer of pure dark and light crystal to shield my core from the outside bands, and I suspect it’s what stopped your diagnostic spells the last time you were here. I’m very interested in your knowledge, including the spell you cast to get here, will you share it?”

  I wasn’t sure how to make that happen, she didn’t have dark magic at all, so can’t learn or cast the knowledge transfer or teaching spells. Light magic couldn’t be used for that kind of thing. Maybe I could make an enchanted dark magic object, which she could wear and trigger. It would even be a good gift and more than equal trade, wouldn’t it?

  She frowned, “You aren’t a normal dungeon, are you?”

  “Umm, what makes you say that?”

  She shook her head, “With the exception of that umm, you are far too refined of speech and thought. Dungeons are usually more… not dumb, but they don’t relate as well.”

  A memory popped into my head of Cylene’s surprise at my counter offer earlier in the day. I’d assumed at the time it was the fact I had haggled, but what if it was my speech that had startled her. I wished I’d have thought to ask her about it.

  “Well, you should answer my question first, then you can re-ask that when it’s your turn.”

  I felt like a lawyer.

  She laughed, “Fine. I would be willing to share an advanced spell or two. I can create illusions of the magical spell forms against the wall, as well as instructions on what they do,” she put the spell up and I eagerly absorbed the information, then she asked, “Now, what kind of dungeon are you.”

  Huh, that was a good teaching method I hadn’t even considered. Of course, the dark magic one is better. I also decided to tell the truth. I’d already screwed up, and probably should have listened to Ebony’s advice to hold my silence. But… I figured better for her to know the truth than let her own mind fill in the blanks with worried speculation.

  I said, “I don’t know what I am exactly, but I’m fairly sure I was put in this crystal and banished from the higher planes. I’m a higher being and my life force is dark magic. I kind of… just fell into this dungeon thing, and while I’m doing my best not to get labeled as runaway or unstable, the gods of Jennesar are my enemies, and the invasion force has two purposes behind it. Or maybe three. Expanding the church’s temporal power, expanding the gods power, and ending me as a threat.”

  She sat in shocked silence for a moment.

  I ventured, “My turn, will you still keep your word, and not seek my destruction yourself or through others?”

  That knocked her out of her shock, and she looked highly offended, “I won’t break my word, and I would not seek your
destruction unless you became power hungry and decided to rule over mortals. Defending yourself is more than acceptable, even if it goes beyond your dungeon’s reach.”

  She said more calmly, “That explains your affinity with all spheres of elemental magic, you must have been very high up. I wonder why the gods fear you.”

  I assumed that was rhetorical, because I didn’t have an answer to that. I had the ability to take their worshippers, sure, but didn’t any being on this plane?

  She asked, “What are you using for sources of power? I noticed your light and dark is the strongest.”

  I explained the dark magic was generated by me, the light magic source was a relic I’d been buried with and had hidden so it couldn’t be claimed by an adventurer, the underground river for water, and the minor source of surface winds for air. I didn’t reveal the gnomes, but suggested I had a stronger than normal earth source that wasn’t my secret to share.

  “Life force from death of course, and I harvest the extra lingering magic from adventurer spells. Those last two are my only sources of fire right now. Why are you so curious about, and study, dungeons?”

  Aleesia replied, “There are hints, and general rules, but I’m trying to discover why some dungeons are stable, and some runaway, sometimes after centuries of stability they go off the wagon track. Multi-elemental sphere dungeons are usually the most stable, but on the rare occasion they go rogue they are the hardest to kill.”

  Ebony had been done with the transfer of knowledge for a while, and I asked her silently, “Any ideas?”

  Ebony replied, “They probably just go crazy from loneliness and the long life. Especially those that lose their dungeon imp or for light dungeons, their dungeon fairy. My function besides teaching is companionship. I don’t think you’d be in danger of that, as a higher being your designed to be immortal, but most life forms including dungeons have a mortal life force. Technically, they can live forever since their body is a crystal, but as they age they will want more out of life. Some grow angry and hateful in the loneliness. I’d suggest a dungeon of many spheres of elemental magic would be inherently more stable and take longer to lose it. Single sphere dungeons would live at an extreme, which is just one more thing that isn’t healthy for a mind. Perhaps some dungeons even go rogue simply to commit suicide and end their unhappy existence.”

  I passed that on, which put a thoughtful look on the ancient elf’s face, as if it hadn’t occurred to her to consider the problem from that kind of psychological angle. People weren’t meant to be alone, and apparently dungeons weren’t any different.

  “Any insights in why I’ve been banished. I can’t figure out why they’d do that, if they wanted me dead why not just kill me?”

  She looked thoughtful for a moment, “Maybe it was the only way to truly kill you. If you were a higher being bonded to a god or even an entire pantheon in some way, the prayers of morals would ensure you’d regenerate from any damage. Banishing you to the mortal realm, would cut you off from that vital connection, and make it possible to destroy you permanently.”

  Of course, the answer had been sitting in front of my face for a while now. My required method of revenge was the exact same reason I’d been banished in the first place. It would be the only way to destroy me, without also destroying the rest of whatever pantheon I’d been associated with. It was also why they’d risk it, they both gave themselves an opportunity to end me, and gave me the opportunity to end them given enough time, and if I managed to overcome all the obstacles in such a large-scale plan.

  It still seemed stupid to me, because I didn’t think I’d be their enemy, if they hadn’t imprisoned and banished me first. But then, I didn’t remember my previous life so for all I knew we were already bitter enemies and my memory was stripped.

  Nothing was sure, and it was all speculation, but at least it was a start. In the end, I supposed the beginnings and whys didn’t matter, only the truth that I either ended them first, or they would destroy me. Anything else was immaterial. That didn’t mean I wasn’t curious though.

  She said, “I’d love to sit here for days, but I’m afraid my grandson will get nervous soon and plan an assault to free his crazy grandmother, he doesn’t know that dungeons are truly sentient. May I come back again to speak with you again?”

  I thought about it for a moment, and then planned out and spun up an enchanted ring before her eyes.

  “Take that, wear it and you may speak to me from wherever you are, instead of visiting me in person. You can also pass full mental pictures, so if you feel the urge to share more of your spell craft I wouldn’t stop you.”

  She laughed delightedly, “You’re as incorrigible as I am when it comes to knowledge. I thank you for this gift. I will keep your secret but be wary of who you trust with the whole truth. Many would consider it far too risky to have a higher being completely inside our realm, and unrestrained by laws of non-interference on the mortal plane.”

  I wasn’t sure how to do that, keep that secret yet accomplish my goals and form alliances. Maybe when I had my avatar I could simply not acknowledge the connection, and simply pretend to be the mysterious benefactor and powerful hermit mage, as the story Lila had already started to spread. The problem was that people weren’t stupid, if I started bringing out golems, undead, elementals, or demons similar to what’s in my dungeon, they’d eventually figure it out.

  Which meant if possible, I needed to find new ways to leverage power against my enemies.

  Aleesia stood up as she put the ring into her bag, and then walked out into the teleport alcove and disappeared. It was a risk to talk with her as I had, but I felt it was worth it in the end, it seemed like I’d made a friend of sorts at any rate.

  Catalina looked into the mirror. She looked like a princess, but the dress also seemed wrong. She was two people now, the princess heir, and the mage adventurer. The former seemed far too restricting now, but she knew she had to suck it up. The people at the ball tonight would be her nobles, and would help her run the duchy when her time came. Which would hopefully be many years from now. Her father was still relatively young, and thanks to his own power as a mage, he could last centuries more.

  She missed her mother dearly for the first time in years, she was sure that her mother would have good advice for how to deal with this double life. She was also angry but doing her best not to show it, her father had made it clear that she wasn’t to show affection for, or even dance with Mina tonight. There would be men seeking her company and she wasn’t to ignore them for political reasons. She hoped it wouldn’t cause hard feelings, Mina was a lady of the court as well, so she should understand. Of course, matters of the heart rarely yielded to logic.

  It was so hard to believe she used to like going to the balls, now it was simply another duty for her rank and position in the kingdom of Nysten. She was just eighteen, far too young to be so jaded already. She did enjoy dancing, music, and building relationships. It was just… she’d rather be dancing, talking to, and eating with Mina. It was going to be hell when she saw Mina constantly in the dress she was wearing tonight, and was forced to keep her distance.

  Catalina knew she was attractive, but she was hardly at the top that way. Still, she had to admit as she checked her appearance one last time, that the maids had made her look beautiful in the dress she had on.

  Mina agreed with her thoughts, “You look stunning love, I can’t wait until the end of the ball. Try to have fun, and don’t worry about me. At the end of the night, it will be me in your bed.”

  Catalina smiled and turned, “Same for you. I’ll try not to cut the men’s hands off with blades of air when they touch you.”

  Mina laughed, “And I won’t douse them in icy water when their hands wander too much on you.”

  Mina looked so beautiful it was almost unreal. Her lover was magnificent when she woke up without makeup, after the maids got done with her, and the way Mina’s dress made her figure even more flattering, she was just absolutely beyon
d words. She tried not to gape like an idiot, and she was actually moist down below thinking about later while looking at her, and her nipples were tingling with desire.

  She smiled widely.

  “What?” Mina asked.

  She shrugged and said mysteriously, “I haven’t cast any magic at all today.”

  Which meant her intense arousal was all about Mina, and the feelings she had for her lover.

  Mina tilted her head in question, but she left her lover guessing at her meaning as she moved to join the ball. It was only a fiction, all the nobles knew by now she was sharing a room with Mina, but the water mage would wait five minutes before following, so they wouldn’t arrive together.

  She was happy because her magic hadn’t had anything to do with her lust, or her body’s reaction to Mina. It was just her love and attraction that caused her body’s amorous reaction to her lover. Goddess knew this would be a long night, she already ached to feel Mina’s hands on her body.

  Point was, there was nothing artificial about her feelings, no adrenaline rush, no channeling magic which made her libido artificially high. It was just them as a couple, naturally. As for her duties, well she wouldn’t let the fact their relationship must end someday ruin what they had now. She’d live her life for today, and the joyous memories they could have and build together. There was no point in borrowing pain and anguish from the future.

  Her usual pasted on smile for balls, dinners, and other political events was actually genuine this time as she strolled into the ballroom, and after a brief scan of the room, she headed around the dance floor toward her father.

  She decided she’d have fun after all, and that her and Mina being separated would be more like extended foreplay than anything else.

  “Good evening father.”

  She smiled graciously as he welcomed her, and brought her in on the conversation with one of their earls. Perhaps she would have a good time tonight after all. She also felt a surge of pride that her father was more and more treating her as, and listening to her opinions as heir. Their relationship had greatly changed in the last few months.