It was a quick, bloodless coup. The guards refused to chase us out of the safety of the dungeon and there wasn’t anything they could do from inside of it. They had been complacent due to Justisius’ kind nature and diplomatic inclination, which gave me the leeway I needed to get ahead of the situation.

Not that everyone was on board with what I had done.

“All my hard work, ruined,” Justisius sighed, shaking his head. He was watching the minister exchange hushed, heated words with Kabare with his juniors nearby in case the Dwarf, now in handcuffs, tried anything. “You agreed to let me handle this.”

“I saw an opportunity, and I took it,” I told him without regret. “Besides, you helped immediately.”

“Of course I helped,” he replied, frowning. “You took action. I wasn’t about to start arguing with you while you were in danger. What if something would have happened?”

“I appreciate you, Justisius.”

“I'm always on your side, Badger,“ he sighed. “I suppose it was an inevitable outcome. It was fun, while it lasted. You never did like the overly diplomatic missions, but I found them quite rewarding.“

A silence descended on us as I glanced back into the dungeon. Some of the honor guards were trying to coax Damartan to the door. I had requested him since Kabare had become quiet. He was a mess, but he seemed to think that he would be exiled again. Or sent to prison.

“What do you think is going to happen next?” I asked, curious about it now.

Justisius mulled the question over for a few seconds before looking down at me. “Death, if I had to hazard a guess,” he answered. “Kabare broke his exile and basically declared war by taking over an entire wing of the palace. Sending him away for his crimes once was the proper way to do things, but now? The sultan will have to do it to save face and show his enemies that he isn’t weakened by the past few weeks.”

I grunted. That sounded about right to me. “He came in with the wrong crowd. It's as simple as that,” I said.

“Nothing’s ever that simple, Badger,” Justisius returned.

Just as I was about to respond, Damartan coughed. He was hiding halfway behind one of the doors, and I nudged my fellow Inspector as I walked towards the Dwarf. Justisius joined me along with Cojisto, who had been watching everything silently.

“This humble servant greets the Dungeon Inspectors,” Damartan said, bowing deeply. I could tell that fear drove his actions, and I frowned. The sniveling types were the worst.

“I don’t have the patience right now for the simpering servant act,” I told him, scowling. “We’re not agents of the Sultanate, we’re Dungeon Inspectors. Just answer our questions like a normal person and maybe, just maybe, Justisius will put in a good word for you.”

The Dwarf looked up at the dark skinned Human hopefully, and was given a strained smile in return. “Truly?”

“I’ll do what I can,” Justisius replied, offering no promises of success.

“What did you tell Kabare that made him yell? Who was ‘they’ and what did they do?” I asked. Damartan looked past me at his boss, and I snapped my fingers. “Come on, focus.”

He licked his lips nervously before answering. “The Elves and the moose,” he said, and I heard Cojisto shift beside me.

“Did something happen to my best friends?” the man demanded, taking a step forward.

Damartan cowered, and I pulled Cojisto back. “No, no! They broke out of the cages we had for them and, after dispatching their guards, sealed themselves in the crystal room!” he answered quickly, as if expecting the pugilist to hit him.

“Crystal room?” Justisius asked, confused. I was as well, but it still sounded like something to look into. “What crystal room? Is that in Kabare’s private living quarters?”

“Yes, Inspector.”

“How likely is it to be breached?” I asked, some measure of pride swelling in me that Ferrisdae and Moose managed to escape on their own.

“Not likely,” he admitted. “It’s one of the hardest rooms in the whole place to get into. It’s like a vault.”

“Take us there,” I demanded.

“Badger, that is still a dungeon full of enemies,” Justisius said, gesturing towards the guards and dancers who were now milling but still clearly watching. “Do you really expect them to let us through without any trouble?”

“Yes,” I answered confidently.

I looked into the room and set my hand on the hilt of my sword before walking in defiantly. The mood changed immediately as the guards grabbed their spears. Those who still carried their weapons tightened their grip, but didn’t point them at me. The dancers were wise enough to move out of the way without being told. I stopped around ten feet in.

“Do you know how many pages are on the forms I would have to fill out if my junior, who is being held hostage, gets hurt?” I asked. The confused looks on their faces was fairly amusing. “Sixty-three. It’s a long, terrible process where I have to go through detail after excruciating detail on what happened and how. Normally, I like filling out forms, but not this one. I don’t care to do paperwork that only serves as punishment. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering why I'm telling you this.”

“Obviously,” one of the guards in the back responded.

I smiled. “A subjugation is a very particular action performed by Dungeon Inspectors,” I announced. “It involves killing everything inside that doesn’t agree to leave beforehand and destroying the dungeon. You may have heard Kabare call me the Department of Dungeon’s faithful attack dog. In a way, he’s right; just last month, I completed my 79th dungeon subjugation. The next highest is 27, last I checked, because they keep sending me.”

The confusion dispersed back into nervous energy as my gaze panned across the room.

“Do you know how many pages are on the subjugation forms?” I asked. My voice was met with silence as I raised my open hand and waggled my fingers. “Five.”

“Five?” that same Dwarf asked incredulously.

“Just five pages,” I confirmed. Then, I let some of my anger into my voice. “With that knowledge, I’m sure you can imagine just how little thought I’m going to put into your deaths if I’m forced to cut you down to get to my apprentice and save myself some work later. Now, are you going to let us through? Or are you going to throw your lives away for that sulking, sorry excuse for a man who’s already lost?”

My gaze became more intense as I started locking eyes. Some people still looked defiant, but that quickly changed as I put my attention on them. Slowly, they started moving out of the way, giving me a clear path forward.

Not taking my hand off of my sword, I started walking. “Damartan, lead the way,” I ordered, my voice steel.

He quickly moved ahead of me, eager to do what was needed. Cojisto once again fell in line with me, but Justisius took the time to give his juniors a few orders before catching up with us. We walked through the wing’s foyer without harm.

It also seemed like the news had spread in the short time since I had tossed Kabare out of his dungeon. There were more people scattered throughout, though most of them weren’t dressed for combat. They hesitated when they saw Damartan with us, and decided not to give us any trouble.

I still watched our backs for an ambush, but I was sufficiently pleased by how little these guards wanted to get revenge for their once was prince.

“Do you know Abara?” I asked once we hit a flight of stairs and started ascending.

“I do!” Damartan answered quickly. “He was the one who helped Pri- um, the exile learn about dungeons and set it up.”

“Was he, now,” I said flatly upon hearing how quickly Prince Kabare turned into the exile.

“Yes, Inspector. I’m not sure what methods he had used to get everything up and running, but the crystal room seems to be Abara’s personal office,” he explained. “I’ve only seen it from the outside, but there’s desks and papers all over the place, as well as the cages.”

Justisius and I looked at each other once we left the stairwell. That sounded promising.

“What cages?” Cojisto asked, crossing his arms as he kept an eye on the dungeon’s denizens that we passed by.

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“For prisoners, I was told,” he answered. “The two Elven women and the moose.”

“His name is Moose,” Cojisto huffed.

“Moose the… moose?”

“Yeah, we’ve all been there,” I said, rolling my eyes.

“He’s got a name, Badger,” Cojisto defended.

“Yes, and it’s Moose, the moose,” I replied.

“I wonder why he thought it necessary to lock up Dalsarel,” Justisius interrupted. “Did she not go along with his schemes? Cojisto, you did say you fought her in the karst, did you not?”

The pugilist took a breath and nodded. “I did. Knocked her out, though, and she got sent away not long into our fight.”

“If she thought he was a Dungeon Inspector leading her to her new residence, then she might have thought she was on the right side,” I mused before frowning. “There were the forged signatures in the Consortium archives, but I don’t think Abara could have walked in there pretending to be one of us. Dorostreff knew him, and I assume at least some of the other clerks know his face, too.”

“Troubling, that,” Justisius said, and I could tell he was having dark thoughts. At the time, there were a few Dungeon Inspectors who had been in the area. It might have been one of them instead of an impostor, including Liddy's juniors. “But I want to hear more about this crystal room. Damartan, you said you hadn’t been in there, only seeing it from the outside.”

“That’s right, Inspector,” he confirmed.

“Who escorted the prisoners into the room, then?”

Damartan swallowed and licked his lips again. “Well, Abara called them the Thornguard,” he answered. “They’re Dwarves with four big, black spikes coming out of their heads, like thorns.”

My mind immediately thought of Dalsarel’s hand and the seed that had awakened her dormant bloodline. It had clearly been a part of the Blackwood Queen, and this sounded like more of her handiwork.

“They’re the strangest things,” Damartan continued, clearly unsettled. “They stand around all day, often motionless for hours at a time. Never eating, either, just drinking and standing by the window like the heat wasn’t touching them. Prin- the exile told us not to worry about them, so we didn’t give them much thought. They were the ones who took the prisoners and locked them up, but…”

“But?” I urged.

“They stopped moving last night,” he said.

I frowned. “Stopped moving?”

Damartan nodded. “Yes, Inspector. Not dead, just… stopped. They didn’t react to any orders or prodding of any sort, even when the exile tried punching one square in the face. He fell, but didn’t make a noise or try to get back up again.”

“Sounds like some sort of parasitic mind control,” Justisius commented.

“That makes sense to me,” I agreed. “Dalsarel was talking about how she dreamt of the karst and her new dungeon, and only her hand was infected. Having it spiked directly into your head would probably do a lot worse than mess with you while you're asleep.”

“She might have been controlled when I fought her, then?” Cojisto offered. “Since the Nymph is dead, she might be back to normal now. Or, at least, comatose. Hopefully not, though.”

“Hopefully,” I agreed. “But, Damartan, you mentioned them dispatching their captors. It sounds to me like the Thornguard were already out of commission.”

“It took them a few hours to stop moving after the Elves and... Moose arrived,” the Dwarf explained, leading us into another stairwell. This one went all the way to the fourth floor, unlike the last, but didn’t give access to the first floor. “We needed to give them actual guards, which was why the door to the crystal room was open and I saw what had happened. They waited until the exile was busy, having taken more guards to defend himself, and made their escape.”

“Probably Moose, right?” I asked.

He nodded. “Yes. The cages certainly were not made for an animal like that.”

“Awesome,” Cojisto said with a grin. “Even without his spells, Moose is still the best.”

Damartan’s eyes widened. “Did you just say spells? As in, he’s a magician?”

“He is,” I confirmed. “Definitely smarter than his companion, too.”

“Absolutely,” Cojisto agreed easily, not caring at all that he was the intellectual inferior in their strange relationship.

We made it to the fourth floor and started heading towards the suites. This area was far more luxurious than the others in the wing. They were meant for traveling diplomats, and no expenses had been spared. Each one was clearly lived in, too. Kabare had been sharing his wealth with what he probably perceived as his most loyal followers.

A fat lot of good that did him.

“And the crystal?” Justisius asked.

“Larger than all of us combined,” Damartan answered before frowning. “I’ve never seen one quite that color before. Orange, like amber. I honestly don’t know what to make of it.”

“Either Ferrisdae and Moose will know what it is or we’ll figure it out when we get there,” I said as we walked into a wide, open room.

It had been cleared of all but a few pieces of furniture and horseshoe arches in the wall led to a balcony outside. I recognized the white stone and ceramic tile as the location I had seen through the portal when I first sighted Dalsarel.

There were eight Thornguards standing against the wall, as if someone had moved them there. Just like Damartan had said, four thick spikes stuck out of each of their heads. It was painful to even look at. We approached cautiously, hands on our weapons, but they didn’t respond to our presence at all. Their eyes were blank, as if they had no thoughts in their heads at all.

“Those men are going to need a miracle, I think,” Justisius muttered as he saw them. I grunted in agreement.

On the other end of the room was a large, metal door. It looked very out of place compared to the rest of the decorations, and Damartan stopped in front of it. “This is the door to the crystal room. There’s no other ways in, not even from the balcony. Once it’s sealed, I’m afraid only Abara can make it in with his tricks.”

“Can anyone else use magic here?” I asked. “Or just Abara?”

“I’m… not sure,” he admitted, frowning even deeper at the question. “There are no magicians here in Laroda, as I’m sure you know.”

I looked at the pugilist. “Cojisto?”

He looked down at me, a question in his eyes before he realized what I was asking. “Oh! Oh, right,” he said, lifting his arm. Cojisto stared at his hand, a look of concentration on his face, and the barest streaks of purple, arcane lightning appeared around his fingers before disappearing. He sighed, as if that had taken a lot of effort out of him. “Yeah, I’ve been regaining my magic power. I’ve been empty since I hit the desert, but I guess I’m getting it back since we’re in the dungeon?”

“And that wasn’t something that you could sense before?” I asked, frowning.

He shrugged. “I don’t know what to say. I punch things, not cast spells.”

Rolling my eyes, I looked back towards Damartan. “How do we open it?”

The Dwarf looked nervous. “Um, knock?”

“Knock,” I repeated.

“It can’t be opened except from the inside,” he said again. “You could try yelling, I suppose, but Abara had given us instructions to knock so I’m not sure if that would work.”

Justisius had been close to the door, examining it. There was a handle, but no keyhole. “It’s sealed tight,” he stated after checking for any hidden latches or levers. If anyone could find them, it was Justisius, so I trusted his judgment.

“He said knock, so let’s knock,” Cojisto said, shrugging as he approached the door.

“And they’ll probably just think we’re guards,” I told him.

“Silly Badger,” he started.

“Don’t do that,” I immediately replied.

“We just have to knock in a way that Ferrisdae recognizes,” he finished, and I arched an eyebrow.

Cojisto began knocking with two hands. Not at random like I expected him to, but to a specific melody. I frowned, trying to place it, before it came to me.

“Gaius Stopherlyn’s Violin Concerto #3?” I asked.

“Yeah, man, after that trivia night I asked Ferrisdae how it went,” he said, smiling. “She didn’t have a violin or anything, but she hummed it out for me. Then, Moose and I paid a few bards to play it in Athir. Her grandmother played in the first performance, so we wanted to hear it.”

“That’s…” I hesitated before nodding. “That’s good work, Cojisto.”

He finished knocking as his smile turned into a grin. “Nah, you’d have thought about it eventually, I’m sure,” he said, though he was obviously pleased.

Knocking from the other side interrupted him, playing the next piece of the music, and Cojisto started drumming on the metal again. It wasn’t very good, but it was clear, consistent, and it worked. Once they finished, the door creaked and moaned before it was pushed open.

Standing there, a big grin on her face, was Ferrisdae. Moose was right beside her, wearing a very similar expression. Dalsarel was far behind them, frowning before turning her attention back to some parchment she was reading. Given the way the Forest and Dark Elves got along, I was glad to see that the two had been at least civil towards each other.

Cojisto immediately stepped forward, hugging the both of them. “I’m so glad you two are safe!” he exclaimed. Moose croaked and stomped his hoof once.

“Looks like you don’t have to worry about her,” Justisius whispered as he watched the reunion, a hand on my shoulder. “She may have had help, but it seems Ferrisdae can take care of herself.”

I said nothing as I took in the moment, watching her for any signs of stress or injury. Her body moved naturally, and she didn’t seem to mind Cojisto’s crushing one-armed hug.

“We’re fine, Coji,” she assured, patting him on the back. Her eyes fell on Justisius and then me, and her smile faltered but didn’t leave her face. “I have to talk to Badger.”

“I know,” he replied, letting her go to hug Moose with both of his arms. Ferrisdae moved around him and approached.

“Dungeon Inspector Badger, Justisius. You all made really good time, considering where we got kidnapped to,” she greeted, trying to be formal with us.

“Ferry,” Justisius returned with a nod and a smile.

Her robes had some blood on them, but they weren’t torn. It seemed to have been someone else’s. Perhaps Moose or Dalsarel’s or the guards. That didn’t matter. The only thing that did was her safety.

Ferrisdae smiled down at me, her eyes confident and proud that she didn’t have to be rescued. “I’m glad you- EH!”

She squealed as I pulled her down into a hug. At first, she was surprised, but then she relaxed and wrapped her arms around me in turn. The dam holding all of my worry and anxiety broke inside of me. I tuned everything else out, focusing solely on the young woman in my arms.

“I was really worried about you,” I admitted in a hushed tone.

“I’m okay, Badger. I'm safe,” she whispered soothingly, rubbing my back as if I were the one who needed to be reassured. “But, gods, do we have a lot to show you.”