The marble doll was white marble with blue striations. It wiggled and moved slightly. Cleary it hated the current situation. There were small, smashing sounds, like two stone surfaces grinding against each other. Clearly, it boiled with rage and anger.

Kenton was certain he would too if someone so much larger than him did what the redhead did, using her fingers and tickling the doll's tummy.

"How do you like it now? Tummy scritches! Tummy scritches!" She said, and kept applying vigorous finger movements to the doll.

"Um...I don't think you should be doing that..."

"Kenton, I know this looks like bullying, but not long ago, everything was flipped and I was super little and this little falla was trying to kill me. Well, I was the same size now that I was then, but this thing used to be huge, like a giant. Now the turns have tabled. It's my payback. This thing almost killed me like 3 times. Which is lower than my normal average of attempts on my life by the same creature in a given hour, but if I don't extract my revenge now..."

Kenton wanted to leave. This was not going to be good for him...

If only he didn't see that she had a golden key as well. His fear for Elswith would be greatly reduced if he knew the boy had a way to escape the Dungeon at all times.

"So, Kenton, what do you plan on assigning your stat points on anyway?" she asked as she tired of scratching playfully at the doll's tummy. Instead, she put the doll into her bathrobe pocket.

Wait...she had used his name before.

Kenton started backing away. Forget trying to either borrow her key or even purchasing it. Elswith's safety was tomorrows journey. He had become complacent. Kenton should have run away at the first moment the Stable had moved.

She didn't say anything as Kenton reached the door. Once Kenton was away, he darted, running at full speed, feeling his age. He started seeing familiar hallway outside, and he knew he was getting closer and closer to an exit. He raced by a few unlucky late night workers, a group of Lordlings looking very depressed, one room where it was still somehow daytime despite the late hour. Finally, the exit was before him. He tucked his head down, and sprinted, clutching his key. He imagined leaving the Stable, like he used to when he was a full time mapper.

The sounds of the Outside World got louder and louder.

He was nearly there...

Until he sprinted back into the large room with the cheery little terracotta red tiles and the large but shallow pool.

The girl was gone though. Kenton sighed, breathing heavily.

"What do you want?" He asked the Stable. "I retired. I'm done. I don't want to play."

The Stable rumbled, almost sadly.

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

"Hey, I know today was probably stressful, but you don't need to take it out on the Stable." Said the girl, reentering from the other side. She had changed from her bathrobe, pajamas, and slippers. She now wore a somewhat stylish muted blue gown, with practical brown leather boots. On one hand was a thin leather glove, though it hummed with some current of power. She had also put on a little hat on her head that only covered half of the top of her head and revealed pinned curls leading to a sturdy bun .

She must have used magic, because Kenton had only been gone for less than a few minutes. Perhaps 10 minutes at the maximum amount of time.

"What do you want?" Kenton asked again. He kept his arms from rising combatively, but only because he had remembered he lost every fist fight he had as a child.

"Me? I don't know. I mostly have everything I want for right now. And wanting stuff is dangerous. There are things out there that feel your needful thoughts. So, I try to be happy. I want to keep my 4.0 GPA, but I also acknowledge that as long as I do my best, that's enough. This is kind of my gap year, so I'm making the most of it."

Kenton debated leaving again and trying to escape the Stable, but finally sighed. "Why did you bring me here?"

"I didn't bring you here. I didn't come here on purpose either. But after you made a runner, I realized that the...what does Sir Conan Doyle say? The Game's afoot! So I went back to my suite and grabbed some better clothes for adventuring. Trust me, adventuring in a bathrobe is really hard to do well."

"How did you know my name?" Kenton asked her.

"You have a screen. 'Player: Kenton, Level ↑ Up ↑, Assign new stat points. I was just curious if you had a plan for your stats or not. I have several strategy guides from my time in...let's call it Seoul for now. It's not the same, but it's so close..."

"You can see the blue box?" When Kenton's already pale face went paler, she held up a hand in a calming way.

"It's annoying. It will keep popping up until you clear all the messages. Can't you see mine?" She gestured at nothing.

Kenton squinted his eyes, really trying to see.

But he didn't see any kind of screen around her at all.

"Okay, it might just be a me thing then. If you can't see mine, let me introduce myself. I'm Shelby." said the red haired girl. "I am currently a maid at the O'Tells, but I think I might get fired. I'm just traveling through this region."

Kenton eyed the door longingly. He was so close! But there was a certain unsettling confidence to the stranger that made him realize that he had very little power in this current affair.

"I'm Kenton. Though, you already knew that" he said, feeling his freedom leak from his body. It wasn't captured by the Law of Fae, but a sense of dread was growing in his chest. He actually vaguely felt that he was stronger than the maid, not that the power disparity seemed to faze her at all. It was an attitude he recognized from himself after the years he had worked in the stable. He had worked amongst creatures so much stronger than himself that their danger hardly registered. It helped that as a Mapper, he normally had a way out of every situation. But there were times when a creature strong enough to blot him from ground nuzzled him for extra oats or meat cubes.

Kenton had always wondered where the meat came from.

He had also decided he never wanted to know.

"Kenton. Nice to meet you. I will now tell you exactly what you are wondering about that little blue box, what it means, and the true purpose of the Stable..."

She was interrupted by a crashing sound in the distance.

It came from the inner Stable.

The least stable region of the Great Stable.

"Oh, well, I'll info dump later. Let's go check that out." She said, as though she had expected her speech to be interrupted.

No, she had been...about to share information to hurry some ongoing lower case g game along.

His respect for her rose massively.

So did his trepidation.

If she was truly just wandering through...

Where had she wandered from? And could she please go back there at once.

"Are you coming," she asked, as she left and the room itself pushed Kenton forward. He glared at the Stable. Why did he even need to walk if the Stable was just going to move him anyway.