The bag Daisy looted had five gold worth of silver and copper in it. Which was awesome. That would be more than enough money for us to head to the capital and work on getting me a respec. I was suspecting how powerful the enchanter class could be, but it was only if I had others around me were willing to bond with me. From what I could tell, I leveled when I used my abilities on someone else, but they were base levels. I didn’t get any new abilities or new spells, not yet. I was the ultimate support class. Those I got from XP, like everyone else. It wasn’t like any mechanic I’d ever run into before.

As a warrior, I could hold my own with Alissa and Briana and make a real contribution. I was never much into playing a wizard, so warrior would do it. Besides, if I was a real warrior, I wouldn’t have to rely on luck. And I had gotten really lucky over the last few battles.

I wasn’t wearing any armor as we descended into the prison cells, since my black cuirass had been neatly sliced in half.

The stairs were wide enough for three people to stand abreast. Which we didn’t. We went with our standard formation of Alissa up front, then Daisy, me, and Briana following up the rear. She still hadn’t told us why she wanted to come down here, but I wasn’t about to push her. Since the throne room, she felt fragile. Like she was one bad moment away from breaking down and I didn’t want to push that.

“Lexi, a little light, please?” I indicated the bottom of the stairs.

“On it!” she said with her trademark enthusiasm. I had to say, one of the nice things since I got here was that little faerie-dragon. She was unabashedly on my side and it made me feel like I could do anything.

She zoomed ahead of us, activating her light spell and illuminating the bottom of the stairwell where it evened out.

You couldn’t really call it a dungeon. It was more of a prison, with cells evenly spaced out on either side. The first room on the right was the guardroom, even though it was constructed exactly as a cell.

The reason most parties didn’t bother with it was two-fold, the fade were already crappy for loot, and two, there was a above average chance of a banshee spawning down here. Not something most low-level parties wanted to tangle with.

As we reached the bottom, a palpable feeling of dread descended with us. As if the very air froze the life out of us.

“I have a bad feeling about this place,” Daisy whispered.

I had to agree.

“Let’s not go in any farther than we have too... Briana, this is your gig. Where do we go?” I asked the elf over my shoulder.

“A little ahead,” she said tightly.

I nodded. It wasn’t unusual to not know exactly where to go. If she were looking for a specific item or spawn, then we would just have to go in until she found it.

Alissa got to the bottom first, and by the time we were all on the cell level I was shivering from the cold. But it wasn’t cold, since I couldn’t see my breath. It was some kind of spell or curse.

“I’m just saying, if I die, you better make sure I don’t come back as a ghost,” Daisy said in a whisper. “Or I’ll haunt you forever.”

“Silly human,” Lexi said. “You’ll come back as a zombie. Not a ghost,” the winged woman said with a wink.

“Funny,” Daisy muttered.

We all had our weapons out and were ready for anything. Lexi flew ahead, trying to get her light out as far as she could, but it was almost as if something was making it darker, dark enough to absorb the light her spell put out.

“What’s that?” Alissa asked.

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We froze. Ahead of us, in the darkness, blue light danced in the air like it was on strings, jumping up and down and side to side. I squinted, trying to make out what was out there. That feeling of dread multiplied, and I had to focus on my breathing to make my stomach settle. It had a knot in it larger than my chest.

“I don’t—“ Daisy said but was cut off by the oppressive wail coming from ahead.

“Banshee,” I yelled. Dammit, I knew that would happen. After all, if we got the rarest spawn ever in the throne room, then, of course we would get the damn banshee.

Briana charged past us, blades out, running right at the creature. Lexi flared her light higher to fight the darkness, and we saw the fierce undead.

If it weren’t for the horrific disfigurement of her face, she would be beautiful in a Russian ballerina way. Thin, tall, and with the right shape for a woman, but her skin was wrinkled and weathered. Her face, even worse so. She had huge eyes that were pits of blackness.

Her mouth distended, opening wider than a snake. Air rushed by us as she breathed in. Alissa’s hair fluttered in the sudden gale, stretching out toward the banshee.

The creature’s chest expanded with the massive volume of air she was taking in. Briana darted around Alissa, running full tilt toward the banshee. I saw a flash of steel as she drew her new sword and her remaining old one. Then she leaped, her swords up and pointed down like knives. She slammed into the banshee’s chest with both blades sinking into the hilt.

There was a second of silence, then the creature exploded in a ball of magical energy that felt like a grenade going off. Alissa was blown back into Daisy who shouted in surprise. I dove backward a second before the blast hit. Instead of taking it in the face, it hit my back, slamming me into the ground.

When it passed over us, and I could breathe again, I pushed myself up to my knees with a groan.

“Everyone okay?” I asked with a cough.

I heard Daisy and Alissa groan their reply. I searched around, looking for Lexi. That was a powerful explosion, and the little faerie was—

“I’m okay,” she said, flying out from under an outcropping a single brick had caused when it came loose from the ceiling. “Cover,” she said with a smile.

Briana!

I staggered to my feet, swaying like a drunk as tried to keep upright. The explosion, the noise, and the shockwave played merry hell with my inner ear.

I expected to find a blown apart corpse with bits of banshee everywhere, but I found something completely unexpected.

Briana was on her knees next to a beautiful Elven woman. Her chest rose and fell with each tortured breath. Her hair was black instead of blonde, but her amethyst colored eyes were a dead match for Briana’s.

“I’m sorry Tamil. I’m so sorry I didn’t get here sooner,” she whispered while holding the elf’s hand.

“It’s okay, little one, you made it... you made it.”

Briana nodded, not speaking as the former banshee took her final breath.

The beautiful Elven woman’s chest fell and her head rolled to one side. Briana shook as she cried over the body. Clearly, the banshee had been someone important to her.

I knelt down next to her quietly, waiting for her to reach out to me. After a few moments, she sniffed, wiping the tears from her face with the back of her hand.

“She was my older sister,” Briana said, explaining. “Elves are not... we’re not the nation we once were. We haven’t been for some time. A few years ago, Tam, myself, and my younger sister, Chloe, were...taken by a wizard. He experimented on us. I escaped when he moved his tower from the west to up north. I’ve been looking for my sisters ever since. She was the reason I was here. I was hoping I could save her, but...”

She placed a hand on her sister’s face, closing her eyes.

“I’m so sorry, Briana,” I said. “I speak for all of us when I say we’ll do whatever we can to help. This is an awful burden and you shouldn’t have to bear alone. I don’t know what I can do to help, but whatever it is, I’m willing,” I said.

She turned to me. Her tear-streaked face, even in the dim light of the prison, was gorgeous.

“Don’t... you can’t... how can you mean such a thing? We’ve just met and I’ve been awful…”

I reached out and touched her face, cupping her exquisite cheek. “Since you joined me, you’ve saved my life, and the life of the others. You’ve been a source of information and a cool head—“

“But upstairs—“

“But nothing,” I interrupted her. “You’re our friend. I don’t care that it’s only been a couple of days. Fighting together, almost dying, it bonds you to people. Adora sent me here for a reason. Of all the places in Mystaria she could’ve sent me, she sent me here.” I looked over at Daisy, Alissa, and Lexi. “She could have sent me to the great southern cities, or to the tribes in the north, but no, she sent me here... to all of you. If I’m going to help this land, I can’t do it by ignoring those around me. I think it is why she picked me.”

I looked hard at the three of them, letting my eyes linger on each for a moment before I continued.

“I don’t know how we’re going to beat Kojiman, not yet, but I know we can do it... together.”

Briana placed her hand over mine and closed her eyes while pushing her face against my hand. “Thank you, Nick, thank you,” she whispered.

I let her stay there for a moment before I spoke again. “Come on, let’s get your sister out of here. She deserves a real resting place, not the cells of the condemned.