Aliandra

  Ali sat at the broad walnut table in the library with ‘The Fuals of Are Magibsp;lying open in front of her, but her eyes were not seeing the pages. It was still too early for her friends; Mato and Malika were still sleeping. and Ryn, of course, were still off in Ciradyl.

  Shaking her head, she tried to refocus oask – she had been studying this book, searg for new magiakier traps, but she was far too distracted, and her heart was simply not in it.

  It’s today.

  Today was the scheduled css adva for the guild. Today was the day she would be screaming to the world that she was a dungeon.

  I already have enough people ing dowo kill me. As if in respoo that thought, her notification chimed.

  Your minions have defeated Warrior – Zombie – level 3.

  Thanks, she told it. That’s ly what I meant.

  “Deep thoughts, child?” Lira asked, her body twisting a little as her mana rippled through the heavy brand she stepped out onto the deep-pile rug Ryn had bought for the area.

  “Am I making a huge mistake, Aunt Lira?” Ali asked, putting voice to the question weighing on her heart. Malika was quite ied in helping the guild recruits and had been the one asking if she could help out with her shrine. Well, her friend probably cared more about helping the poor and disenfranchised and saw the guild as a means to an end – but was it really smart to be doing something as public as this? It was a noble goal, but every time Ali had drawn attention to herself and her abilities, it had just heaped problems upon her head. Serious problems, like Roderik and his murderous iions. She barely had enough mana to make a passable defense for her domain – sometimes she wished she had cimed a far smaller, more defensible area far from civilization and the prying eyes and grasping ambitions that came with people.

  “What mistake?” Lira asked, trig a little mana into the pot to summon water for tea.

  “Obviously, it will be good for the recruits to get better css choices,” Ali said. “And probably good for the town in the long run, but is it smart to draw that much attention to myself and my css? I just wish people would leave me alone. I know the Guildmaster really wants it, and so does Malika, but …”

  “What does your heart tell you?” Lira asked. “I think everyone iown already knows what your css is, but they don’t necessarily know who you are. Perhaps this is a way to show them?”

  My heart? How is that relevant? “You think it’s a good idea to show them I’m a dungeon?”

  “Everybody knows what a dungeon is,” Lira said, looking up from the tea set tard her closely for a moment. “Who is Aliandra? I suspect they do not know who you are – you are not just some evil monster-spouting dungeht?”

  Show them who I am? Ali paused in the middle of making a face as Lira’s meaning became clearer. It was an ued perspective, and one of the things she appreciated most about her aunt – with so much experience, she had a unique perspective that sometimes shone such crity onto problems that ued solutions might simply leap out of the fusion.

  “I guess they’re already attag me,” Ali said, letting a little of her frustration color her voice. “I may as well be open about it.” But that was ly what Lira was getting at. People were afraid of dungeons and, without anything else to go on, they would be likely to support the people trying to kill her. If she stood up and showed them who she was, maybe some of them would want to help her? Would that be better? How closely does ‘help’ align with ‘take advantage of?’

  So, who am I?

  Whe it like that, it was a remarkably difficult question to answer.

  “I don’t know…” Ali said, looking to Lira for help.

  “What were you thinking when you saved that dear Goblin from the Ice Mage? Or rescued the neancer boy, Seth?” Lira asked, p the tea and bringing it to the table for her.

  “I…” Ali stopped as an easy answer failed to materialize. She hadn’t really been thinking at all; those things had just happened. She had dohe only thing that seemed right at the time. Like jumping off the city ring to save , sometimes things just had to be done. But then there were other times when she had o decide; saving Mato after he had savaged her, choosing to let her friends use the shrio unlock their csses before she evehem, or even trying to save Lira. In each case, there was an easier way out, but there had never been any doubt in her heart, so she had simply followed it without necessarily giving it much thought.

  What does my heart say? I’m basically good?

  Simplistic as it sounds, that’s what she means… and more. Yes. Suddenly, uanding flooded in. She wao help the novices get good csses because in her heart she k was the right thing to do. As to the rest, she would just have to figure it out along the way.

  But she suddenly found herself wishing she could sit with her father in his Grove and talk it over with him like she always had when she was younger, and the f warmth of the idea that she might do good splintered uhe weight of her grief. She was afraid of him – the Blind Lich. Afraid of his power. Afraid of his overwhelming presence, and the specter of his returning to finish the job. A… somewhere deep withihat defiant rage leaked through the cracks. Perhaps she had… other reasons to want to offer her shrine.

  “My heart says it’s the right thing,” Ali said, her stomach still ing with apprehension. Such idealism did not make the problems any less real, though – she was really going to o get her defenses shored up. There was no number of low-level adventurers with bat csses like Aiden and Havok that could save her. She – a dungeon – rong allies.

  “Your father would have been proud of you,” Lira smiled, joini the table and sipping oea. “He made the same choices. Occasionally, the paths he chose did cause him some big problems, but in the long run, he made an enormous differeo many people’s lives.”

  “Why did he do it?” Ali asked, wrestling with the specter of the mountain of problems she might be about to create.

  “He lived his life acc to his values,” Lira said. “Everything else, he said, would take care of itself. He was strong and had your mother, powerful friends, and allies ihree kings, but he always stood firm for what he believed was right. He didn’t talk too much about it, but I think it gave his heart a deep, abiding peace – at least, that’s what I always sensed and observed about his Grove and the life he made here.”

  “I wish it wasn’t so hard,” Ali said, but she had always goo him when her world had been shaken. She would have given anything for the steady rock of his fort and calm assurance right now.

  Sabri

  Sabri stepped down off the st rung of the rusty iron dder bolted into the side of the crumbling brick wall and found herself in a dimly lit chamber. She huddled back against the wall, slipping a little on the slick moss that carpeted the ground, trying to avoid the press of all the strangers chattiedly arouhreaded through the hubbub was the sound of trig water and the faint foul odor of sewage. Sabri pulled her eyes away from the small circle of sunlight fio the top of the brick shaft, briefly w if she’d ever see it again. Firmly, she pushed the unwahought out of her mind.

  “Wele to the Myrin’s Keep sewer, where those of you seeking to unlobat csses duct your trial. I’ve made the monsters back off for now so that ass through uninterrupted, but usually there are up to level five kobolds, goblins, or slimes in this area.”

  The musical voice had an unusual at and came from the Fae perched upon a small glowing magical disk, levitated to a height that everyone might see.

  Aliandra. The dungeon.

  She tinued expining, pointing out notable sights as she led the group deeper into the sewer, but Sabri anxiously searched the crowd. Somehow, she had mao bee separated from Rezan, Ha, and Basir, finding herself entirely surrounded by strangers. She hung back a little, giving herself a little more room by being at the back of the group. She shrunk back further and then yelped as she bumped into a hairy giant of a man who seemed to be all muscle and power.

  Druid – Beastkin – level ??

  Sabri bounced off him, but he might as well not have noticed given how little the ient collision affected him. Her eyes snapped up to his face at the sound of a sharp d the sudde of sweetness. He gnced down at her with smiling eyes and bit into a shiny red apple.

  Her stomach grumbled audibly, and she looked away as a burning flush filled her cheeks.

  “Catch.”

  The void a flicker of motiered her reflexes and, with a spping noise, she suddenly found a sed apple caught in the palm of her hand. She stared at the beautiful thing while her stomach ched with hunger. But she had nothing to offer in exge.

  “I ’t afford it,” she said. It took all her willpower to stretch her hand out to return the apple to him. But he just took another bite of his ole, spicuously ign her hand.

  “You remind me a little of Malika. She didn’t like gifts either.”

  He knows Malika?

  “Ali has a fele trees down in her forest, and I help cultivate them with my mana. I’d bet anything you’ve asted anything as good as a dungeon-grole,” the hulkikin added, seemingly not minding carrying the versation.

  Feeling stupid holding the apple out to him, Sabri withdrew her hand, gng at his face trying to dis if he was being serious or making fun of her. He just smiled and tinued mung his apple with great relish while they followed along behind the group. Her eyes returo her hand and the shiny fruit se she struggled to get her fingers around it. The st time her mother had been able to afford an apple they had split it as a treat – it must have been the summer before st, and she still remembered the sweetness. A sweetness she could still smell as the Beastkin bit into the apple again, already almost finished with his snack.

  Without her even being scious of moving, Sabri found herself holding the apple to her mouth, the faint st of it filling her nostrils. The crisp fresh ch of her teeth biting into it was followed by a rush of sweetness in her mouth as the juice sprayed everywhere. She gasped and reached up to catch the drops running down her , not wanting to waste even a tiny bit of the heavenly ar.

  He chuckled beside her. “Good, aren’t they?”

  But she barely heard him in her rush to devour it.

  ***

  “… and this chamber is where I made my first boss. It is a raid threat, so do not e until you’re prepared and have reached high enough levels.”

  Sabri tuned into the words of Aliandra floating at the front of the group as they all filed into a dank chamber lit by the mystical-looking glowing mushrooms that dotted the entire sewer. It was a strange pce with pnts growing up the walls, moss on the ground, and surprisingly clear and fresh water flowing through the els in the grouirely uhe dirty, smelly pce she had expected when they had told her it was a sewer.

  As she ehe rge chamber, her eyes widened, and her heart began to thump behind her breastboanding up against the far wall, silhouetted by the rising glow emanating from a jagged hole in the floor, were four of the rgest, mea Kobolds she had ever seen. The muscur green-scaled o the front bared its teeth, brandishing a well-honed shortsword and rattling a solid-looking shield of polished gray bone.

  None could be Identified which meant they were higher than level five, but Sabri did not need her skill to tell they were powerful. She could feel it. The sheer presehey emitted and the intense looks in their reptilian eyes sent shivers up her spine.

  This is a dungeon.

  Aliandra barked words in a guttural harsh nguage, and all four Kobolds stepped aside.

  “I have instructed them not to attack without provocation for today, so you plete your trials. I don’t suggest you test them.” A whisper and murmuring swept through the crowd as the powerful monsters respoo her ands.

  Even with the reassurance from the dungeon herself, Sabri still hung back, battling with a surge of fear triggered by the sight of sharp fangs and the powerful aura emanating from the monsters in the back. She briefly shut her eyes and used her Meditation to try to calm herself down, w why she was the only one who was afraid.

  The monsters bowed to the small Fae floating by as she led the way to the hole in the floor and the stairwell below.

  “How are you doing?”

  Sabri jumped at the sound of the familiar voice frht beside her, and wheurned, she found Malika standing beside her. Her heart still thumped ihroat, but she k was irely due to being startled. The first time she had seen Malika, it had been in the ring fag Basir. She had been curious, knowing most people who faced him tapped out after mere seds, but Malika had goo-head with him fes, never giving an inch, fag down his rod stones with a shog resilience. Sabri yearo be that strong. If she could only be as powerful as Malika, she would have no trouble earning moo help her mother. They wouldn’t have to work the fields all spring and summer, and still have to beg for food in the winter.

  “I… I’m scared,” Sabri blurted out. Immediately she blushed and covered her mouth with a hand. How could she betray herself to someone s?

  “I was scared the first time I came down here, back when it was a dungeon of bone ah magic,” Malika said softly. “I see you’ve already met Mato. We all unlocked our csses at Ali’s shrine. e, let’s walk together.”

  She stared at Malika’s back as she led the way forward.

  She was scared, too? Malika?

  It somehow seemed impossible, but Malika had sounded ho and genuine, and she acted like being scared was nothing special. She gnced up at the huge Beastkin, Mato, but he just gestured for her to go first. Sabri scrambled to catch up to Malika and walk beside her, gng nervously as they approached the four terrifying Kobolds but, while she felt their stares ohe whole way, the scaled and fanged creatures stood aside ahem pass.

  She put a foot on the golden magical stair, finding the floating step uedly unyielding and then she rushed down, following Malika. It seemed to be made from the same stuff that Aliandra was using to fly on. She was so preoccupied with the stairs that she only looked up when Malika spoke.

  “Impressive, isn’t it?”

  She froze o stair, gaping at the sight. The ground below fell away, drawing her eyes to a vast cavern that stretched out into the distance. A vast ke led among huge trees emitting a soft blue magical light and the entire space was filled with steltions of golden glowing pnts and mushrooms. As their group wound its way betweerees and along the moss and grass, monstrous bck wolves stood aside watg their progress with intense green eyes.

  A green light darted by, nearly bumping into her face as it zipped off into the trees. “What…” she yelped, startled.

  “A wisp,” Mato said, chug. “Pretty, aren’t they?”

  “Y… yes.” her he nor Malika seemed even slightly perturbed by the strange creature. Searg the trees, Sabri found dozens of them, darting bad forth, filling the air with the ethereal glow of their mana.

  The hike through the forest took quite some time, but Sabri spent all of it staring, trying to take it all in, taking fort in the fact that someone as powerful as Malika was beside her the entire way. Eventually, she emerged from the forest into a mossy grove dotted with fairy rings of glowing mushrooms and she saw it. The shrine! She had never seen a shrine before, but there was no mistaking it. The giant obelisk of polished bck stoowered above her – above everyone – led in the ter of the grove with a small stohway inviting them to approach. Vast power emanated from the artifact, a palpable hum that was felt in her bones rather than heard, and it positively shoh magical runiscriptioched all over its surface.

  The grouh her feet shuddered. And then again, and Sabri snapped her head to the side to follow the loud creaking and grinding noise. Gasps and yelps echoed from the recruits. Sloroag the shrine was a monster of wood and bark rge enough to crush them all, and heavy enough to make the ground shake with every step of the frunks it used fs. Trailing along in its wake were smaller monsters of various kinds, wood and mushrooms, and as they swept past, they left flowers dotted across the ground.

  “Stop.” The monster instantly ground to a halt at Aliandra’s and. “This is my sed boss, made to protect the shrine.”

  Sabri shivered at the sheer power of the monster. She stared, finally uanding how a deer felt gazing at a wolf. The Kobolds had been powerful, but this thing made her feel insignifit. Like a speck of dust in a storm. It was only when Malika touched her on the shoulder that she realized Aliandra was gazing at her waiting for a response.

  “I unlock your css experience before the trial,” she repeated.

  “I… mine is already unlocked. I have only one day left,” Sabri said, her gaze dropping to her feet worried that, somehow, she would not be eligible for the shrine because of it.

  “Oh. Would you like to choose your ow?” Aliandra asked. “Or did you want to attempt the trial first to try to earn more experiend improve your ces?”

  “I choose?” Sabri had not expected that she could simply walk in and pick her css immediately.

  “If you’re happy with the dire of your natural css and just want to look at a few other options, we take care of it now. The trial is necessarily risky; just because the monsters are mine doesn’t mean they ’t kill you. If I interfere in any way, you won’t earn experience for the trial. But if you really want to improve the ces of getting a good css, the as you take during the trial matter a lot.”

  Laborer.

  The whole reason she was here was because her natural css itted her to the same life of poverty her mother had endured. Unlog something like her natural css was the st thing she wanted.

  “I would like to do the trial?” she said. “Um… if that’s ok?”

  “Of course,” Aliandra said with a disarmingly pretty smile. “Malika, you give her some armor and a sword while I unlock everyone else?”

  “Sure. Here, this should fit you,” Malika said as Aliandra turo the didate. She turo find Malika holding out a sword, not uhe one wielded by the Kobold warrior in the sewer above, a small buckler, and a set of leather armor. She stared at the items, a flush rising in her ned reag her cheeks.

  Everyone will see how poor I am. As if her dirt-stained bare feet and torn shirt hadn’t already given it away.

  “Take them,” Malika insisted. “You will need prote for the trial. Unless you’re ied in an unarmed monk css? I get you different ons if you have a preference. You’re not the only one who needs equipment, I’m not singling you out.” The st part was said much softer, pitched so that only she could hear.

  Relutly, Sabri took the sword a Malika strap her into the unfortably stiff leather jerkin. She hated the attention of all the people watg her, but Malika had been truthful, and after she was done, she went to help several other people.

  “Sabri, why don’t you join this group?” It was the Guildmaster who led her to a group of several other applits, all of which were standing around in varying states of excitement or her own dazed bewilderment.

  ***

  Elder Rezan was gone. Basir and Ha were gooo, and so was Malika. Sabri would have been happy even to have Aliandra, or the Beastkin who had givehe delicious apple. She stood and stared down the dark sewer tunnel with four plete strangers, most of them wielding borrowed ons and armor without the csses and skills to give them true power. Sabri was terrified. The unfamiliar sword she held trembled lightly in her grasp.

  e on. I’ve trained for this. Elder Rezan says this is right. He must think I’m ready.

  “Let’s get this dohe tiny Gnomish girl with the shock of blue hair said, waving an expensive-looking wand around in the air. “I want to get my Lightning Mage css today.”

  They had all introduced themselves before setting out, but she had been so nervous about the trial that she hadn’t had the presenind to remember any of their he Gnomish girl seemed to be a little impatient and somewhat arrogant. Still, she was fortable leading, so Sabri simply followed along at the back of their group, trying to be vigint to everything, squinting in the dim light cast by the mushrooms.

  The tuwisted and turned haphazardly and before she k, Sabri was lost in the endless ented sewer tunnels. She turned a er and heard a strange sloshing sound followed by a plop. Another spt followed close behind and something wobbly and mottled-brown crawled its way across the mossy ground.

  Toxic Slime – Ooze – level 1Toxic Slime – Ooze – level 2

  Monsters! Even though they were explicitly searg for them, she had irrationally hoped they wouldn’t find any. Her heart thumped loudly ihroat and her sword shook as her grip tightened on the hilt. The creatures sloshed closer, their forms stretg and oozing along the ground as they pulled themselves forward with protrusions formed from their bodies. She wanted desperately to run, but her feet seemed glued to the mossy ground.

  Panicky yells echoed from the tunnel walls as the others charged the slimes, but Sabri stood there, uo even move. Three of her panions attacked the first slime, leaving just the tiny Go face the higher-level one on her own. Amid the frenzy of yelling and awkward g of swords, the Gnome leveled her wand, and a bright spark shot out, hitting the slime. But the monster hardly budged, flowing forward uerred as the Gnome scrambled backward until she ressed up against the wall. She fired again, her eyes growing wide with terror as the monster flowed up against her, enveloping her legs.

  Sabri stared in horror as the Gnome began to scream, battering the squelchy monster as it slowly enveloped her body. It covered her legs and then flowed up her chest while she thrashed iively, arms making pitiful sptting sounds against the greenish sludge. The screaming cut off abruptly as slime flowed over the girl’s head.

  She’s going to die. It was a certainty. But the thought floated around in Sabri’s head, unattached to any perception of meaning. The Gnome was going to suffocate and die, or drown, or be dissolved. Suddenly, time seemed to freeze between one pahud of her heart and the . Everything became clear, extraordinarily clear, and it seemed she had entered a waking dream.

  I shouldn’t be here. She could have just chosen her css, she should have. She should have avoided the danger, but she had the arrogahe temerity, to want a better css, and now she was going to have to wateone die.

  Will I be ? She still couldn’t move a muscle. Her gaze locked with the terrified eyes of the Gnome, seen through the transparent murky membrane of the muddy green slime’s body.

  Malika wouldn’t let her die.

  Sabri had no idea where the thought had e from, but the idea of Malika standing rooted in fear while someone was eaten by a monster was so unimagihat it snapped her mind right out of its fear with a sharp jolt of crity.

  I ’t let her die! Without a sed thought, Sabri rushed forward, waving her shaking sword at the mohat was trying to eat a Gnome. She screamed as her wayward ssh ected and toxic fluid spshed against her skin and the poison burned into her flesh.

  You have been afflicted with Poison.+0.15 Poison damage per sed.Poison – Duration: 10 minutes. t: 1

  She sshed again, and again and again.

  I have to get her out. Sabri tore into the monster with a single-minded fury, sshing with the bone sword and battering it with her fists, letting the endless hours of practig forms take over her body, reag to her will to tear the monster from the weakly struggling Gnome.

  Your Poison has increased to 2.

  Her sword pierced the slime’s membraearing a hole in its jelly-flesh. She dropped her buckler and thrust her hand into the hole, ign the searing pain, and pulled with all her strength, ripping it wider to free the Gnome’s head.

  Your Poison has increased to 3.

  The blue-haired Gnome sucked in a ragged breath, coughing and spluttering, while the moried to reform its body, but Sabri kept ripping and sshing, not letting up until the slime slid off the Gnome and colpsed into a foul-smelling, gooey puddle on the ground and a chime sounded in her mind.

  Yroup has defeated Toxic Slime – Ooze – level 2

  Sabri sank to the ground panting from the exertion, fear, and pain, trying desperately to keep the apple inside her ing stomach. The sword slipped out of her nerveless fingers. She would need a healer after this, her skin was severely burnt, but the Gnome was far worse off than she was.

  She looked over to find the Gnome on all fours beside her, coughing ag, her blue hair slicked down by the remains of the slime.

  Brena. Her name is Brena.

  “Thank you,” Brena said weakly. “You… you saved me.”

  Sabri sat stunned for a while. She had never imagihose words would be spoken to her. Saving people was for the heroes of the stories her mother told her when she was a child.

  “Here,” Brena said, produg two small vials of red liquid and oo her. “For the poison.”

  “Thanks,” Sabri said, taking it, but before she could exami, a sloshing spsh from the water interrupted her and a new slime loomed up behind Brena. Leaping to her feet, Sabri scooped up her shield and smmed it into the slime an instant before it reached the irl. Brena yelped and scrambled backward, leaving Sabri aloo tend with the monster.

  Desperately, she fe off with her shield but, right at that moment, something bright fshed past her shoulder, crag as it impacted the slime. Sabri gnced back, log eyes with the grim-faced Gnome who leveled her wand at the monster and fired again.

  “Let’s do this!” the Gnome screeched, sounding almost… happy? “Potion!”

  Dumping the potion down the back of her throat, Sabri discarded the vial and scrambled to snatch up her sword from where it had fallen. She sshed upward, knog the Toxic Slime backward. A soft glowing warmth pulsed from within her as the potion began to do its work. She might be outmatched, but she was not alone.

  ----------

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