I burst awake in a flurry of confusion and panic, reasons for both which were ill-remembered for about a second before the rush of memories overwhelmed me and I fell backwards. I remembered the shadowy pair of wings and falling into the flowing river; trying desperately to keep my head above water as I was dragged to and fro like a swallow in a storm.

“I didn’t drown,” I said with a voice barely above a croak stating the obvious as I stared up at a crude stone ceiling. I vaguely recalled climbing onto land at some part but even that felt like a dream. Did I move afterwards into this place? No, I didn’t. Even my brief and fragmented memories didn’t recall anything outside of the time I pulled myself onto the muddy bank. My entire body thrummed with overstrained muscles and I felt a bone deep weariness that caused my body to shudder with every breath I took. No somebody carried me here, but who or what they are is the question.

I closed my eyes focusing on the field generated by my Magite crystal only to find nothing. Was the crystal field on the fritz again? Was I too tired to focus? Where was my Magite? How could it be gone? I pulled myself up off of the bed desperately looking around the dimly lit room. I wasn’t wearing my original clothes, maybe the crystal was there. I struggled to my feet feeling pangs of pain from my overworked muscles. I felt myself start the gesture necessary for Detect Magic before I put down my hands feeling very, very vulnerable. I had held that crystal for over a year now and even though I had only learnt one spell with any offensive ability I still felt immeasurably weaker without it by my side.

“You better lie down right now sonny boy,” a voice that resonated with the rigours of old age said and I whipped my head around immediately wincing as the sudden movement brought a fresh wave of agony. “Lie down boyo before I tied you down,” the voice continued closer to myself and I felt strong muscles like steel wire push me down into the bed with a strength that I couldn’t have resisted even if I was fully rested. Maybe I could have after one of my___

“Better not fall asleep boy,” the voice sharply tugged at my ears, rousing me from the slumber I was barely aware of. I opened my eyes to find the oldest looking lady I had ever seen in my life. She was looking down at me while shaking a glass bottle vigorously. Her face was nearly all wrinkles that scrunched up as she gave me a smile filled with many missing teeth. “I would prefer for you to drink this but if I have to insert it another way I will.”

“What is it,” I whispered feeling my throat burn as I tried to make my words heard as the woman leant over me pulling out a small pinch of powder from a pocket in her leather apron and dropping it into the mix.

“Something to repair those torn muscles of yours boy,” she said lowering the bottle filled with a brown goo to my lips. I smelled a horrific smell, like rotting produce and I almost instinctively closed my mouth. “Drink,” she commanded in a voice that brooked no disobedience and after a moment’s hesitation I opened my mouth and started to gulp down the liquid. The taste nearly made me retch for a moment as chunks of what felt like cartilage and plantflesh slipped down my throat. After a few seconds in which I managed to chug down the vile concoction.

“That’s vile,” I whispered in a voice that hopefully didn’t come out as whiny as I envisioned. I was about to ask her the important questions such as just where my Magite crystal was when I felt a wave of bone-deep exhaustion. My thoughts grew sluggish for a moment as I tried to move but none of my limbs were responding and so I fell into a deep darkness.

xxx

When I awoke again it was in far less of a panic. My muscles no longer feel like they had been tilled. On the other hand there was a bottomless hunger that gripped me like little I had ever felt before and I found myself automatically getting up before losing my sense of balance. I pushed myself up from the floor only to notice something very, very weird about the situation. It felt like I weighed less than I normally did. Sure I had done a few push-ups previously when I was younger just to keep in shape but even when I was at my fittest, before learning magic became my overriding priority, I had never felt it that easy.

“Enhancement Drink,” a familiar voice said and I turned to see the woman who had fed me that liquid standing in the room, in a place that I swore she hadn’t been before. “Good for repairing muscles and making them better. All your muscles were so blighted that it seems to have done wonders. Now stand up boyo we have things to do.”

I was more than a little confused at this point but I decided to go along with her. She had healed my wounds and housed me and I owed her for that at least. Besides I still had no idea where I was and I would rather not irritate somebody who did.

“Do you have my Magite crystal,” I said hoping and dreading the answer in equal proportions.

“It’s gone along with the rest of your pack,” the old lady replied instantly and I felt my hope shatter. My spell book given to me by a former member of the Imperial Army. My book of facts about the monsters of this world, my new equipment, my money, even the Writ that proved my ability was gone. Without even my Magite crystal I had nothing left. I didn’t even know how I could get another one. Lindon had said that they were incredibly rare. While it was by no means the most stable crystal I had worked hard to try and work with it and now it felt like all my work had gone to nothing. My clear future looked muddy and I could no longer see my way forward.

A sharp burst of pain on my cheek knocked me off balance and sent me tumbling to the stone floor. The old lady stood above me before she reached down and picked me up bodily placing me on my feet with trivial ease. I had gotten lost in my thoughts and completely missed the world around me.

“Green as grass I tell you,” she mumbled to herself. “Is this really the first setback you’ve ever had? Stone’s breath I tell you I’m really scraping the bottom of the well looking for water.”

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“What do you want me for,” I said stirring my thoughts as I focused on the woman in front of me. She reached into her brown leather apron and pulled out a foul smelling batch of leaves which she waved under my nose causing my mind to run cold and clear.

“Got a hold of yourself boy,” the lady said letting me go to stand on my own two feet. “Life is full of setbacks and if you’re going to fall to pieces at everyone then you won’t have a very long life. Right now in front of you are two paths. In the first you whine about how you’ve lost your worldly possessions and in the second you get a chance to chance to regain them and even more. Are you interested?”

“I’m very interested,” I said. “But I can’t cast magic without my Magite crystal. Do you know where I can get a spare?”

“There’s no need for that,” the lady said with a smiling certainty in her face. “Where you’ll be going you won’t need to rely on any Magite crystal to bathe in the magic around you.”

“Really,” I said raising my eyebrows. I had heard of cities like that where the entire area was surrounded by a Magite field but I had never seen one myself. Maybe some parts in Answerh would have one.

“Yes, really,” the old woman said turning around. “Maybe in there you can find another one of your crystals or even something else.”

“Where is this..?” I started asking only to stop as we walked into the new room and I saw Lindon wolfing down what looked to be quite the spread. Meat, fruits and pastries littered a stone table adorned by a grey cloth and it only took me a moment before I took my place at on a wooden stool situated at the table, my hunger redoubled by the heavenly aroma, and started devouring the food as well. It was a while before I had eaten my fill and I eventually looked up to see Lindon already finished.

“How have you__,” they started to say before hiccupping abruptly; reminding me that I should perhaps stop eating my food so quickly. “How are you recovering,” she said.

“I feel okay,” I said. Truthfully I felt better than I had ever been. At least from a physical standpoint. “How long have you been up?”

“About a cycle already,” Lindon said trying to get their hiccups under control. “Those potions that Madame Green gave me really fixed me up proper. Otherwise I would still be in bed.”

“Consider it a down payment for the service that I wish for you to perform,” the lady I now knew as Madame Green said taking her place at the third stool.

“What do you wish of us my lady,” Lindon said with a charming smile before he covered his mouth once more as he hiccupped.

“Why aren’t you the charmer,” Green said before she reached once more into her apron before pulling out a small circular orb that smelled incredibly spicy. “Eat up child it will get rid of those.”

“Then I will accept them gratefully,” Lindon said as he took the small orb and swallowed it down in one gulp, his face only showing disgust for a single moment before it returned to his typical smile.

“So what would you have us do?” I asked. Despite my apprehension I felt eager to get into this job and gain a Magite crystal.

“No patience the youth of today have,” Green said as she shook her head before she smiled causing her wrinkles to shift. “That’s good, the youth should be vigorous. Just make sure you complete my task before you go off and die.” She reached once more into her apron pulling out a square piece of metal and placed it down on the table in front of both Lindon and myself.

“What is that?” I asked curiously as I looked at the silver thin metallic piece, unlike anything that I had ever seen before; it had an otherworldly presence.

“That is a key,” the medicine woman said as she placed it firmly into my hands. “Do you know where you are right now?”

“Somewhere in the Tulpa Forest,” I said. “While the river was fast flowing we couldn’t have travelled that far. The Tulpa Forest isn’t known for high records of monster instances or powerful monsters.”

“Then why have they not cut down all the trees,” Lindon was surprisingly the one who refuted me. “You and I have both seen the maps. There are no village anywhere near the centre of the forest. I presume that is where we are Madame.”

“You’re a smart child,” Green said. “Or you are simply well-travelled. Welcome to the Alta Basin the centre of the Tulpa Forest and the place to where all rivers will eventually flow. You were swept underground and right into my house. If you were a bit unlucky you would have run into one of the monsters and been eaten.”

“So you are powerful enough to live here in the middle of these monsters’ habitat,” I said getting my thoughts in order. “But you are unable to perform this simple task.”

“As you would be unable to make a living as a merchant and this child would be unable to cast a single spell. Learn to be content with what you can do and seek help with what you can’t. The place which I will have you travel to, boyo; is to a place even deeper underground. That key opens up a dungeon beneath our feet.”

“A dungeon,” I repeated at the same time as Lindon. What would a dungeon be doing in the middle of a forest? Furthermore what was the dungeon imprisoning and why would it have a Magite field? Why would Green be so apprehensive about entering the dungeon herself if she was so powerful?

The last question he had a guess as to the correct answer but it left me more apprehensive about trusting Green. Unfortunately my trust wasn’t required by the ‘old woman’ and the idea of finding a Magite crystal to replace my missing one was enough to get me to choose.

“What do you want us to find in this dungeon,” Lindon spoke up. “I will accept on the condition that you provide me with potions to the value of five gold at per the Imperial Market Price; as well as first rights to do any trading with you in future.”

“Deal,” Green said before turning around to face me. “And what of you boy? I cannot provide you with any Magite but I have got a copy of one or two spells lying around. Maybe they can help you to start your own spell book.”

“What about the recipes for those potions?” I asked somewhat boldly. If I was correct then the potions would have far more value than any magic spell formulas she could provide me with. Her eyes grew sharp at that moment and I realised with a sort of dull alarm that she saw right through me and probably guessed my thoughts. I almost started casting before I realised my position once again.

“Alright then boy,” the woman said surprising me. “You have a good eye. Hopefully that will get you out of as much trouble as it gets you in.” She raised her hand out and after a moment’s hesitation I grasped it. We shook before in an instant she drew me in until her mouth was right by my ear.

“All my research is yours if you succeed with this one job,” and then she was away and turning to shake hands with Lindon who looked at me with great curiosity. That brief moment of distraction gave me no time to ponder the greatly changed circumstances before Green had once again stepped back leaving a perfectly initiated deal.

“So what are we supposed to do anyway?” Lindon asked perhaps too late, but neither one of use would have likely strayed from our job at this point. The very human emotion of greed had bound us both together; the opportunity to regain what we had lost and even surpass it was a powerful motivator.

“Simple,” Madame Green said turning away and leaving the room through a stone door that I had paid little attention to previously. “I need you to go down into the bowels of this dungeon and retrieve the body of my husband.”