The group's attempts to explore the Castle were becoming increasingly frustrating.

"I do not recognise any of this!" Genoes said as they turned down another dead end.

Donal, Eliud and Daine hung back slightly, allowing the boy, Kirstin and their two animal companions to range out in front. At first, Daine had argued against this, worried about what encounters with other denizens of the Castle would bring.

"Oh, I do not think you need to worry about that," Eliud had said cryptically.

The speed in which a pack of giant rats were, first, eviscerated by a combination of energy bolts from Genoes and then consumed by Savage, with Josul barking enthusiastically, convinced the Templar that she could probably afford to worry less about letting them take the lead.

"I am not an expert in such things - oh, no, wait, I am - but it would seem to me as if this Castle is doing its best to ensure we do not leave," Donal said.

Daine glanced up at the man's grim face, still not used to the lack of mischief in his voice. She still was not sure what to make of his latest incarnation. For sure, she appreciated his increased use in a melee - she doubted, even with her own enhanced talents, she would have prevailed alone in the mountains - but it felt like he had lost some of his essential 'Donalness' during the Class change. She even thought she might have preferred the Dark Warlord version of him from the siege of Swinford.

"I was thinking the same thing," Eliud said, and Daine did not miss the wariness in the Pendragon's eyes when he looked towards Donal, nor that his hands were constantly filled with mana. It seemed the Duskstrider was not comfortable around the man either.

"Well, you know what they say about great minds," Donal said.

"That they rarely differ?"

"No. That I have one. Why would great minds rarely differ? Surely, the point of having 'great' Intelligence is that you are capable of reaching for unique solutions. I am pleased that our companion - a man who is doing his level best to hold lightning bolts in the palm of his hands surreptitiously and failing at that subterfuge - is having similar thoughts to mine, but it would be best none of us pretended he is reaching my levels of insight."

Daine wanted to smile at the snark, but there was something in Donal's tone that made it feel like he was going through the motions. That he was reading from a conversational script, rather than having an actual conversation.

There was a roar from up ahead, a series of explosions and then a sound that Daine was coming to realise was Savage feeding. "We're fine!" Genoes shouted back to them, and this time, Daine did smile. There was such an easy enthusiasm to the boy's voice that it was easy to forget he was no longer the carefree young man she had met in the Village.

"And do you have a solution to propose, sir?" Eliud asked, allowing some of the mana he was channelling to dissipate into the air.

He did not know what to make of Donal Assay. When they had first met, during the failed attempt to confront the Trellecs - when Genoes had been stolen from Eliud's care by the Dark God - he had recognised there was something profoundly unusual about the Secretary. During a life filled with incidents, Eliud had come across all manner of beings - human and supernatural - and there had been more of the latter about the man than anyone else he had met outside of the Pantheon. Daine seemed quite unconcerned by the regular Class changes that the man had gone through in just the last month alone - Secretary, Dark Warlord, Druid, Frontiersman and now Doom Reaver - but Eliud had never heard of anything like it.

There were Skills - the King had one, for example - which could cause Class changes to occur, although not without considerable cost to that ability's target: there was a reason Hanya used that Skill as a punishment rather than a boon. And, of course, the gods could confer new Classes on those who agreed to follow them. But for - at least to all appearances - a mortal to be able to change Class with the ease of a maiden choosing a new dress? No. Such a thing should not have been possible.

"A solution?" Donal's eyes when they met the Pendragon's were flat. Eliud had only seen their like when, briefly, tangling with a great fish with serrated teeth. It was the cool regard of an apex predator debating whether you were its next meal. "I would have thought that the way out of this difficulty would be obvious to a man of your talents."

The three of them rounded a corner and caught back up with the rest of their little group. Genoes, sat stroking Josul, turned to give them a cheery wave while Savage, sat on Kirstin's shoulder, was cleaning her paw with all signs of being perfectly at ease.

For her part, the girl gave a helpless little shrug. "I didn't even see what it was this time. It was dead and gone before I even drew."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

"I would not worry about that. We will not encounter anything friendly in the heart of the Dark God's realm." Daine said, smiling reassuringly, even as she found herself alarmed at the devastation around her. Had the release of Genoes' power scorched the stone in such a way?

Eliud obviously felt the same way, as he knelt next to the boy and began explaining the principles of mana conservation. "One of the things you will learn, as you get older, is that you do not need to blow the doors off it in every single fight. Think of it this way . . ."

Daine put her back to the impromptu lesson and spoke softly to Donal. "Speak. How do we return to our own realm?"

"Seems obvious to me," Donal shrugged. "We have two mages that can create portals in our party. The boy summoned us here, and from what I've read about that fancy Dan, teleportation is very much his thing. Even if the lad isn't up to another go yet, I'm sure Eliud Vila must be. I don't understand why we're wandering around looking for an exit when we have a way out right there. Sooner or later, we're going to bump into something nastier than a pack of rats, and then things will get . . . unpleasant."

Kirstin joined them, eyeing Donal suspiciously. It might have been Daine's imagination, but she thought Savage was hissing at him, too. Or, at least, muttering the word 'hiss'.

"An interesting bow, my dear," Donal said, his unsettling gaze falling on the weapon in the girl's hand. "But I do not think you've used it yet, no?"

Kirstin shuffled slightly to the side, putting Daine between her and the man. "As I said, there has not been any need. Genoes, Josul and Savage have been more than enough for everything we have come across thus far."

"Ah, but it is more than that, is it not?" Donal continued. "You're carrying a thing of beauty there, and it wants to be bound to you. I can feel it, calling out, frustrated with you for keeping it at - heh - at arm's length. What is your hesitation?"

Kirstin glanced at Daine, feeling immense reassurance in the older woman's presence. She would not have exchanged her time with Eliud for anything, but 'safe' was the very last thing that she had ever felt when travelling with him. The Pendragon seemed to view life and death situations as training opportunities. It was very different being stood in the Lady Darkhelm's presence. "I don't know what you mean, sir," she replied, raising her chin.

"Come off it, girl!" and there was raw steel in Donal's voice now. So much so, that Kirstin took half a step back in surprise, and Eliud glanced up from where he was helping Genoes smooth out his mana usage.

"Take a care, sir," Daine murmured, her hand dropping to her sword's handle, "we are not on the battlefield now. You will speak civilly."

"Oh, will I?" Donal's lips drew back, exposing his teeth in a snarl. Then, there was a flash of light behind his eyes, and his expression softened. "My apologies," he said, voice gruff. "It has been a while since I have spent much time in this Class. Far lower Charisma than I am used to, you understand?"

Daine's hand did not move. "If you wished to change into something more . . . comfortable, that would be fine. After all, we have less need for - " she gestured towards his twin axes - "brute Strength right now. Your more thoughtful counsel may be more useful?"

Donal stared back, and for a moment, Daine was struck by the certainty he was about to attack her. Then, the tension cleared, and he smiled. "Maybe. However, let us not count our chickens before we have even purchased our eggs. I see some use for this Class in our futures."

Kirstin cleared her throat awkwardly. "Sir, what did you mean about my bow?"

Donal's gaze swivelled to the girl who, once again, quailed under the intensity of his regard. In response, Savage's yowl increased in volume. "Be quiet, hellcat," he growled, then continued, staring unblinkingly at Kirstin. "Unless I am mistaken, that beautiful piece of workmanship is a threshold bonus? Ah, I thought so," he said as her eyes widened. "Very well done. It has been an age since I heard of someone moving a Skill to Rank 2. I was beginning to think humanity had got soft. Lost its edge, as it were."

Thinking about the agony she had gone through to evolve her Kirstin could believe it. "You know about Rank 2, then? Eliud said he'd never heard of it?"

"Well, as surprising as this may be to hear, the Duskstrider is not the font of all knowledge. If you want, say, a mountain blown up, of course, he is absolutely your man. However, if forbidden and esoteric information is your heart's desire, then you will need to look elsewhere."

In his previous incarnations, such a speech would have been wryly amusing. Delivered with a glint in the eye or a smirk on the face, it would have lightened the increasingly dark atmosphere around the man. However, spoken in such a gravelly, flat tone and with no humour in his face, it was not just Kirstin who found it disconcerting.

"Her bow, sir?" Daine prompted, trying to mask her disquiet.

"Ah, yes. Unless I am much mistaken - and I am not - the girl has somehow earned a piece of soulbound equipment, which she has not yet bound to her soul. Impressive, especially at her age. I would encourage you, child, to make use of it at the next opportunity. Not everyone who comes across an unbound threshold bonus will be as sanguine about it as I. People have been murdered over much less. Trust me, I should know."

There was an awkward pause. Donal did not seem anxious to break it, and Daine was unsure what words to use to diffuse the tension.

Then, Genoes gave a delighted shout and clapped his hands. "Daine, Daine, look what I've done!"

Relieved, Daine walked up to where the boy was sitting next to a kneeling Eliud. Before them was a small, glittering gold circle. "What is it?"

"Well," Eliud said, pride etched all over his face, "it appears our budding little powerhouse here can understand the principles of transdimensional spatial confluence manifestation. And, what is more than understand them, he can actually put those principles into practice!"

Genoes beamed at the praise, and Daine's heart ached to see how much the kind words meant to him. She did not think he had heard anywhere nearly enough of it during his life.

"Well, I'm glad he understands, because I have no idea what any of that means," Kirstin said, also smiling.

"It means I can create a stable portal. It means I can get us all home."