Bones rattled from a cloud of green smoke, growing thicker and thicker, as flecks and flickers of opalescent mana floated in towards the center, like a galaxy folding in on itself, about to -

Whack!

The blade of a great axe cut through the fog, sending bones flying, bouncing across the grassy ground, resting only a moment before they disappeared into nothingness.

“Branimir, you idiot!” Graverra shrieked before the first bone even hit the ground. Spell ruined. She whirled to face the axe’s wielder. Branimir dwarfed her in comparison - all gleaming plate armor where she was frills and lace - but she still reached out to give him a smack on his armored bicep. “I have to summon her out here first!”

“Actually, you don’t.” Branimir stowed his great axe and crossed his arms. No reaction to the slap. He probably didn’t even feel it. “We are literally just junking inventory and swapping gear. You do not need a Bone Fiend for that.”

“This way I don’t have to do it later and my mana regens while we shop!” The tutu-like ruffles of her skirt bounced as she stomped her foot. The mana would have to regenerate regardless now, without the benefit of already having summoned her fiend. An absolutely avoidable waste of mana. But then, she wouldn’t expect a half-caster to think about things like that.

“This way somebody gets to flirt with the ‘no necromancy in the city’ law…” Valerae’s voice in Graverra’s ear felt like it materialized out of thin air, causing her to shy away with a squirmy roll of her shoulders.

“It’s a stupid law!” Graverra maintained. “And besides, the bounty wears off if you wait it out.”

“Oh, come on, Graverra.” Branimir growled. They’d had this conversation before. A lot. She didn’t enjoy it any more than he did, but then, he didn’t have to go ruining spells for her all the time either. “Nobody wants to wait out a bounty with you.”

“Well, I don’t have one now!” Graverra whined.

“Do you want one?”

“No,” Graverra drew out the word. Why was this so hard for either of them to understand? “I wanted to summon my fiend, so my mana could regenerate while we were in the city, where I’m not supposed to do that.”

“We are right outside the gate!” Branimir gestured to the group’s left and the city gate merely yards away.

Meanwhile, Valerae rubbed at her forehead through the fabric of her hood. She liked to claim necromancy gave her a headache, which had always struck Graverra as ridiculous. “There is literally a guard around the corner and you know this.”

Graverra rolled her eyes, then sneered in Valerae’s direction. “Oh, like you aren’t going to hit up some towns person for some neck sucking.”

At that, Valerae’s pale cheeks almost regained some color of their own. “That’s different.”

“Yeah,” For a moment, it sounded as though Branimir meant to defend Valerae. “You don’t need a fiend in order to live.”

“Don’t they make potions for that?” Graverra knew they made potions for that, it was part of why she asked.

“She hasn’t had time to level alchemy, Graverra. Unless you’re volunteering your neck…”

“Oh, so Valerae’s allowed to bite me, right here, in front of the city, with the guard right around the corner, but when I-”

“Well I think it’d be a more productive use of your mana…” Valerea said under her breath.

“Oh my gods Val, I have picked you up so many times! I have to kill stuff with the scythe if you want the healing to trigger! It’s basic necromancy!”

“Say it a little louder, ‘Verra, I don’t think everyone heard how cool and edgy you are.”

“Not this again…” It was Branimir’s turn to rub at his temples. It served him right though. He’d started this.

“It’s not about that! I do just as good damage as you and I can heal, and I’m not completely incapacitated by fire damage!”

“Just as good? Ha!” Valerea clutched her stomach like she was really about to laugh.

Graverra balled her fists at her side and growled, too overcome with frustration to even find words. She knew exactly which one they wanted her to pick.

“Yes, you’re both very scary.” Branimir stepped in between them. “Really though, can we please just run errands?”

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“You never get mad at him for not picking you up.” Graverra leaned around Branimir to continue the argument. “He has mana. He’s a caster.”

Valerae rolled her eyes. “Oh I’m sure you’d love his Blessed Touch again, but that doesn’t do it for everyone.”

Graverra scoffed and looked up to Branimir. He was supposed to say something more about that being enough, or to flat out tell Valerae to lay off - That was usually how these things ended.

But he didn’t say anything.

“Just go then!”

“Graverra…” Now he said something.

“No, no, you two go on. I’ll be out here, quietly, by myself. No party. No fiends. I mean, who wants to associate with a necromancer within city limits, right? You just come get me when Val gets weak with hunger, I guess.”

Valerae huffed and rolled her eyes again.

“Yeah, and then you’re gonna get bored and pull aggro on something and come crying to me, anyway.” Branimir didn’t even sound upset, just tired. “Just come with us. You know that’s not what anyone was saying.”

“Well, you know…” Graverra couldn’t help her voice lifting an octave, even though she definitely wasn’t about to cry. They argued like this all the time. It was fine. She knew they didn’t mean it. Bran had just said so. “Maybe it’ll be good practice for me!”

To emphasize her point, she pulled out her scythe and took a harmless swing in her party’s direction. The force of it sent Graverra stumbling backwards to maintain her balance, but the heel of her boot couldn’t quite keep up.

Because that was all she needed; Another dramatic display that just ended in her falling on her ass in front of her own party. Except… She should have finished falling long before she could be this angry about it.

The last thing Graverra heard or saw before falling into darkness was her party’s gasping, startled faces.

It served them right.

✨ 💀 ✨

Despite how she had fallen, Graverra landed flat on her chest with an ‘Umpf!’ and a puff of dust rising all around her. The brim of her pointed hat didn’t allow for her to see where she had fallen until she sat up to adjust it.

The surrounding space looked nothing like just outside the city gates. A crooked beam jut out of the wall just above her, rubble piled up at the base, while the dimmest of torchlight flickered around her.

If she didn’t know any better, Graverra might have thought she had just walked into a dungeon. A really sad dungeon, with no quest giver, hardly any theming besides, she guessed, the fact that it was obviously trying to be some kind of mine shaft… And that could have been any number of dungeons she’d been through.

“Hello…? Guys?” Graverra called while she got back to her feet. As she stood, the sound of a heartbeat thumps loudly around her before fading into the background. It was typical for some kind of sound to signal her entry into places like that, but no title or description followed.

“Glitchy.” She mumbled as she finished brushing herself off. Nothing to panic about; Though she hoped the startle might work in her favor with her party. At least Branimir was honor bound to care about distressed damsels or something like that. Granted, if he had cared before, she wouldn’t be in this bizarre situation.

Graverra summoned her grimoire to hand and flipped through pages until she found her maps, picking out the port in the city they had all just been trying to enter. They probably went in without her anyway.

You cannot fast travel while enemies are nearby.

“But there… aren’t.” She frowned down at the map. When she looked up again, back down the dark tunnel, it was tinged with worry. How was she supposed to go crying back to Branimir if she couldn’t get out of there? Not that she did. Very often. But it would serve him right this time.

Before dismissing her grimoire, Graverra tried to locate herself. Maybe she’d jumped back to some dungeon she’d already run? It happened to people, she’d heard about it… But when her marker finally showed up, the rest of the page was blank except for ‘Untitled Dungeon’ written up in the lefthand corner.

“So it’s… new?” Graverra cocked her head at the idea. The last time she’d been able to find a brand new, never run before, never cleared before, dungeon no she hadn’t because it turned out somebody had beat her to it anyway. But if the only way in was melodramatics then for once, maybe, she could draw first blood.

That would really show Val and Bran.

She swapped out her grimoire for her scythe. The blade glowed a faint green ahead of her, further lighting the way.

“Get good, Graverra.” She mocked, dropping her voice for a terrible impression of Branimir before bouncing back to exaggerated femininity. “Okay!”

She didn’t need them. She could already hear them getting on her case for wandering off even though this time they had literally seen it wasn’t her fault.

Something hissed from further ahead. Graverra held her scythe up at the ready, on high alert. But all that barreled down the tunnel was a rodent. A bit large for a rat, maybe decaying? But not enough to make it count as undead. She would know after all.

“Really?” When it came within range, Graverra tossed the rodent up in the air with the flat of her scythe blade, bouncing it once before batting it into the tunnel wall to disintegrate into a puff of blue mana. If she had taken any damage recently, the scythe would have turned it into healing for her, but as only EXP it was a pittance she hardly felt the effects of.

If that was all this dungeon had to offer, then was the achievement of being the first to clear it even worth it?

Graverra flicked her wrist and the scythe was replaced with her grimoire, turned to the map again. If that had been all that kept her from porting back to the others…

You cannot fast travel while enemies are nearby.

“Where?!” Graverra banished her grimoire as she howled down the tunnel. “Are you seriously going to just send one rat at a time until I’m allowed out of here?!”

She began stomping down the tunnel, hoping that would at least trigger them quicker if that was the case.

“No wonder I’ve never been down here before.” She sent a puff of necrotic energy down the tunnel, even if it was a waste of mana. She’d get it back in a few moments and it wasn’t like she had any real mobs to contend with. “This is just sad.”

Something further ahead chuckled in response.

Graverra slowed to a stop, tilting her head even as she held her scythe back up in defense. Was she supposed to groan at that dramatic timing or genuinely feel afraid? It hadn’t sounded like it meant to be a menacing laugh…

“Don’t let me stop you, girlie.” Who or whatever it was called back.