Chapter 14: An Obvious Trap

Tobias and Riley stared up at Castle Venosimoor as red lightning leaped from spire to spire before dancing among the crenellations of its central keep.

Riley’s ears ticked and tried to track the sound of its crackling as it cooked the air, causing small thunderclaps that sounded like fireworks she was far too close to.

“Is it weird I feel safer out here than I do back at Castle Cinder? It’s called Castle Cinder, right?” Riley asked, looking up at Tobias.

“It’s probably because it’s safer out here. Everything out here just wants to kill you, and you were trained for that; back at Castle Cinder, it’s politics. It’s pretty clear we aren’t welcome there,” Tobias spat the word like the curse it was as the word usurpers drifted through his mind.

"Trained for it? I left my hat and whip in another life,” Riley snarked.

“Which is why you’ve been humming the Indiana Jones theme in your head for ten minutes,” Tobias observed with a wry smile.

"Ok, so I'm a little excited. That’s a dungeon! How cool is my life now? But you have to admit, it looks scary. It’s very supervillain chic,” Riley bounced on her hindpaws, riding the manic edge between anxiety and excitement.

“We do what we always do: find the monster, kill the monster. Find the crystal, and drain the crystal. It’s simple, direct, uncomplicated,” Tobias' greyblade sword appeared in his right hand from their inventory space.

“But you aren’t moving,” Riley prompted with a savage internal grin, recalling the memories of their first mission into the Antlion Den.

“I know," Tobias made a face before stalking towards the raised portcullis, “veil us."

Riley pulled at her power before slipping under the ethereal cloak of mana as colors became more muted, and her overlay posted an alert.

Cloak of Night- Active.

“Weird, there are no monsters. It’s quiet,” Riley whispered within.

It occurred to her at that moment how little she had been projecting outwardly lately. Tobias was the voice on the other end of her can and string deep within her soul.

“Stay close, and keep your head on a swivel and those ears up. If you hear something, don’t hold back; let it flow right to me,” Tobias ordered.

She could feel his seriousness and focus, acting like a brace for her own, firming her courage as they crossed under the portcullis.

“Something doesn’t feel...Oh....” Riley threw her paws over her head and hit the ground as a wave of vertigo ran over her like a cross-town bus.

Warn.... ERROR... ERROR! Flashed across her internal status screen, her world reeled, and Tobias went down on one knee as a shrieking wail ripped through their minds.

Tobias raised his sword in a defensive pose, covering Riley as their cloak spell sputtered and then failed.

A red box formed over their mana bar, with a red line through it, as their prompt came back online.

You have entered a hostile realm where the rules of magic are fundamentally different from all you know.

Tobias scooped up Riley and, with a titanic act of will, fighting the dizziness and the ringing in his own ears, dashed for the portcullis only for it to slam home as if it had a will of its own.

“Not good,” he said, as his world righted to the sound of slamming doors echoing through the halls, radiating out into the parade ground where they now stood.

Warily, he scanned around as Riley twitched in his arms.

“I'm ok,” she tried to say, but even within their own internal speech, the words were slurred as artifacts and broken bits of their prompt screen danced across his vision.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Carefully, he laid her out behind him before giving her a reassuring pat, “I'll hold the line; try to ride it out.”

Bracing himself, he dropped his form into the low, ready stance, planting his feet wide, eyeing the keep for any incoming threat.

An eerie quiet fell across the grounds like a blanket, as if something was devouring the sound. The silence grew, taking on the qualities of gravity.

Adapting... Rerouting...

With a violent purple flash, Riley’s prompt system surged back to function as the familiar status bar now appeared in the upper right-hand corner of her vision.

“Anyone gets the name of that train?” Riley groaned, stumbling up on her paws, as a new text window popped up.

Her whiskers twitched as she swallowed hard, wrestling with the feelings of nausea as her world pitched.

You have entered a pocket realm that is actively hostile towards you.

The laws of magic here are fundamentally different from all that you know or have been trained in.

Your abilities to cast have been substantially reduced.

Your ability to channel has been substantially reduced.

Be warned, this informational construct is running in emergency mode.

Riley, on shaking paws, took her place beside Tobias.

“Not good,” she said, looking up at him.

“Not good,” he agreed, like a cursed echo, “hold the watch.”

Riley nodded as Tobias took his left hand off his sword; fire sputtered to life, flickering in and out all as sweat broke out on his forehead, and their mana bar dropped like a cliff diver.

“By the dead gods, it’s never been that difficult, not even at the academy,” Tobias let go, only for his face to turn pale, “Riley, try to pull a cast, any cast.”

Reaching out to the power, something felt strange.

“It's like it’s fighting me,” forming her forepaws into an inverted V, her tongue stuck out beside her front teeth as she pushed with all her might.

A sickly white fireball took much of what mana they had left as the red box with a line flashed over their bar.

“Ok, I’m not liking this. I’m calling it,” Tobias said, stalking towards the portcullis.

Setting his hands on it, he pulled only for a red lightning discharge to spark into his chest, sending him flying towards the center of the parade ground, over Riley’s head.

Riley chased after him, all as he impacted the ground, rolling and tumbling until finally coming to a stop, his sword landing a few feet behind him.

He coughed, reaching out for his sword, using it to stagger up slowly, wobbling on his feet as Justian’s armor disintegrated, turning to dust, leaving only his mythril chainmail beneath.

Riley raced over towards him, “Do you need healing?”

Nervously, she sniffed him over, her nose twitching, trying to find any hint of damage.

“I'm ok, but it’s not like I have another one of those,” Tobias groaned.

In an instant, the portcullis sparked and discharged yet again. The air sizzled with electrical potential as it arced straight for Riley. It impacted her side as her shield bracelet pulsed white, then red, feeding on the energy and drawing it in.

An opaque barrier formed briefly around them before the arcing current finally dissipated.

“What? What’s different?” Riley boggled.

“This is the realm of a fae God, and your bracelet is fae magic,” Tobias reasoned.

“This dungeon sucks balls, so what do we do?” Riley asked.

As if in answer, one lone door off the parade ground opened, and the silence grew more oppressive as the world dimmed.

“Oh no, that can nope right to space and back,” Riley complained.

“Do we have a choice? Page Westphalia is missing, and we’re locked in. Let’s take a moment, see what we can manage, and then make a plan to go further in. We’re going to have to figure this out, one way or another,” Tobias replied.

“I hate it when you use that cool logical tone. It always tells me we’re in trouble,’ Riley grumbled.

"Wihtout that bracelet, you'd be hasenpfeffer.We are in trouble, Riley,” Tobias observed.

Riley glared toward the barred entrance and swallowed hard, “Shit.”

“Now let’s see,” Tobias reached out and called his pocket watch from their inventory.

With a flash, it appeared in his hand.

"So that works. Riley, can you access it?" He wondered.

A spear of tenganut appeared between her two front paws as she nibbled it down. "Good to go."

“Huh,” Tobias rubbed at his chin. “So our offensive spells are out, but that's all learned magic, an application of our talents and abilities, but our inventory system is like the prompts; it’s a part of us, and that remains unaffected.”

He paced back and forth before calling other items to hand. Explosive vials, a bit of rope, his black blade dagger...

"Yeah, but I’m up a creek unless we can take down the crystal by me binging on fruit," Riley complained.

“We can still kind of force the power, so you just became our healer. I'm only seeing one way out of this," Tobias said, holding his sword in a low, ready position as he began to stalk towards the door.

“You know this is a trap, right?” Riley called out as a scream echoed from the darkness within, followed by a faint voice.

“Is anyone there? Hello? I’m injured; help me,” cried a weary voice.

"Page Westphalia?" Tobias called.

"Help me. Please, I’m hurt!” was the only reply.

“It's definitely a trap,” Tobias sighed, stepping across the threshold of the door.

“Oh God dammit,” Riley shook her head, following him into the dark.