Death.

Fae were such contrary creatures. They lived lives that spanned centuries. Or longer. But just because they could live so long did not mean that they always did.

Where there was life, there was hope. But the opposite rang true as well. Once death had claimed someone, no matter how powerful, no matter how mighty, Death would not return the soul.

So when the little golden key flew, from the non-existent eleventh ledge, the vague outline of Kenton present for just a moment grappling with some white entity, before pulling the white entity off the ledge backward, Daniel felt like his world broke. “Hey, Elswith! Hands up. Catch it!” still echoing in the air.

Kenton was a nobody. He wasn’t important.

Kenton’s voice as he threw the key was so…real.

He wasn’t a spy. He wasn’t secretly a trained person who could survive such a fall.

Kenton had just jumped off the ledge. So far up that even Elswith would have needed to be careful, with power far exceeding a lowling.

Pain in Daniel’s chest blossomed, like the drawing of blood, like something crystalline breaking.

Kenton meant nothing to anyone important.

What about his fiancé, Sarah Beth? Whose last visit had been before Elswith was born. Kenton had waited almost a century and a half to get to midling fae. Who very decidedly never played little games, but kept himself clean. For a century and almost a half. Thirty-seven years was almost halfway to a hundred. He had made it halfway to a hundred almost three times now. He had worked hard, diligently. One hundred and thirty-seven years.

And Kenton threw it away for someone who had only lived nineteen years.

Cold hands as Daniel clutched the key. The Law of Fae was loud and present now. The Game was in attendance as well:

Escape

He glared at the key like it was poison.

The Fear of Self slingshotted itself onto the twelfth platform, between Daniel and the door.

Good.

Now he didn’t need to chase it.

“I’m going to kill you,” Daniel said. The Law of Fae was panicked. This was something it did not support.

“I am a transient entity. I am a primordial fear. Death has no hold on me.”

Terrible images of Kenton broken on the hard floor below flooded Daniel’s mind. Death certainly had a hold on Kenton.

“All that means is that no one has killed you. Yet.” Daniel said. Twice.

Law of Fae roared at him to stop.

Elswith would have stopped.

Daniel did not want to.

He clutched the key.

“Enough talk.” Said the entity, sounding like Elswith again. “Seize him.” And the long-limbed creatures began to move again, as red tendrils from the Fear of Self began to attack.

And Daniel moved.

He ducked and dodged, faster than before, quieter than before. Fury drove him as it had on that night when he held Witness in his arms.

He was going to destroy that Entity.

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One month ago, after the Tournament.

Witness, laying her lolling head against his armored chest, red human blood seeping out, smiled at him. The moonless night in the Citadel, enemies fast on his heels. He needed just a minute, to plan. The movement of his allies and his enemies unfolding before him was faster than he could comprehend. Where to go, with a bleeding human?

“This reminds me of when we first met.” said the girl.

Elswith clutched her tighter and ducked out of sight as the Citadel was rearranging itself around them. “Hush.”

“You said that then too. Of course, it was a library, so it was more appropriate then.”

“You weren’t bleeding out then. Save your strength.”

“Thank you.”

“Save your strength.”

He’d get help in time. He couldn’t have an innocent person die just so he could get his true name.

“Can we save everyone?” whispered the human.

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He didn’t know if he could save himself.

“We’ll try.” He said, and the Law of Fae heard him.

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Back in the Dungeon, Daniel moved forward, fury and anger and sadness. He was so used to being a powerful Lordling. Powerful enough that death seemed so far away.

But now he wondered if his arrogance had allowed another person to be hurt.

He was going to destroy that entity. He would have revenge. Was the Game even winnable?

No Bells. Said the Game, as Daniel pushed through the long-limbed creatures, moving to attack the Fear of Self.

What did that matter? He thundered inside. The Fear of Self seemed so self-satisfied as Daniel maneuvered and ducked and threw the featureless creatures off the sides.

Doorbells.

Why couldn’t the Law of Fae ever just say what it meant? Had Elswith's attempt to save Witness propelled him down this path of Kenton sacrificing his own life? When Daniel had heard the bells earlier, he had felt relief, as the thoughts of something ringing for him to aid him.

If he had known that Kenton would be risking his life…

Doorbells.

Bells.

If Kenton had fallen, then he would have struck the bells at the bottom, unless he fell exactly in the path cleared through the middle.

Had Kenton caught a ledge further down? Perhaps…he was injured but not yet so broken that he could not be saved.

When someone died, no matter how powerful, they were gone forgive. Where there was death, there was no hope.

But while there was life...there was hope.

Images filled Daniel's mind of Kenton, clutching onto a ledge, limbs broken and slowly slipping, dangling over a great height below.

Daniel could not waste time anymore.

Not when the Game was on the line. Not when Kenton may be bleeding out, waiting for him to escape.

Daniel focused his gaze upon the Entity, through the swarm of metal limbed creatures. Eager eyes, satisfaction on 'Elswith's' face.

He realized that the Entity was enjoying this.

Of course. For the first time that he was here, Daniel was not trying to flee the Dungeon. He was trying actively to destroy the Entity, which was closer to what it wanted all along.

No reason to reveal his hand, not when he had the key to the door.

Kenton was still there.

Witness had survived. Mostly. She had survived. And she would live and go back to her kingdom as soon as the Game was won. He had his True Name now. Witness had survived, and Kenton would survive too.

There were enough allies and enemies who would help Daniel. Parcel himself would help with the healing because he was that kind of rival. The Name Elswith was dead, but there would be those who would still jump at the chance to see the former Heirling of the Red Sword on his knees.

“How many innocent people wander into this place, to be destroyed?” Daniel said, clinching his teeth.

"Who says the intruder was innocent? I know your fears. I know what your feared. Even now."

It could see Daniel's fears, but not the convictions of his heart.

Because while fear lingered even now, muttering and shifting and plotting endlessly, a stronger hope had blossomed in his chest.

Daniel was also very certain that Kenton wasn’t a spy. Elswith had been nearly assassinated at least a dozen times. Half of those times, a trusted servant or bland staff member, had revealed themselves to be operatives. Even people who he had known for five, ten, or fifteen years, revealed themselves.

But never had one put themselves in harm's way so blatantly, so sincerely. If Kenton was a trained operative, he wouldn’t have clumsily climbed onto the white entity’s frame and chucked the key, then pulled another Fear off the ledge. Unless it was a long-con. Unless everything that had happened to Daniel in the last hour had been staged and masterfully, perfectly, manipulated.

Fear distrusted.

Hope believed anyway.

And the hope in Daniel's heart also believe that Kenton had survived the fall.

Swipe. Clash. Grab.

Daniel felt a long-limbed creature seize his arm, twisting it painfully. He roared, pushing and pulling and bearing the assault and at last slammed the featureless creature into a comrade, having several topple together. Regret filled him as Daniel wished for the Red Sword. Just one swing of the Red Sword, even inert. Just one. If he had the Red Sword, could he even cut the Entity?

He pushed forward, angling away from the door and toward the Entity. The Featureless creatures swarmed in that direction, in an attempt to hamper him perhaps? It was clear the Entity controlled them.

"Will you find anything to distract yourself from Questioning an Answer?" Asked the Fear of Self. "Just half the thoughts that you've had for the deceased invader may have carried you forward."

Anger filled Daniel. The Entity seemed so dispassionate about the potential death of a good man. Even though Daniel now was preparing to escape, he felt his old resolve fill him. “I will find how to destroy something like you, something that can’t be killed. By the Law of Fae, I do swear, I will find the way to unmake and destroy even a primordial fear.”

The Law of Fae flared, bold, and enacting. It heard him, for better or worse. And it heard him with his True Name. This was a Promise he would need to keep.

“So did someone else. Long ago.” Said the entity. “For you see, on this day, nigh generations uncounted…” The Entity wearing Elswith's face seemed especially punchable now.

And then, while it looked like it was ready to start a monologue, Daniel darted, fast. Under and through the long arms of the creatures and their hard metal bodies.

Straight toward the door.

“Catch him! Stop him!” Said the entity, like volcanoes erupting and dams breaking. The sheer volume made Daniel wish he had ear protection.

But Daniel slid, the slick carpet aiding him, through the tangle of limbs and swipes and red tendrils. He tumbled as he went across the last of the chalky ceiling tiles, metal popping out of place.

And then he reached the door. He did not look back. He was ready to leave the dungeon. The door, which had been plain outside of the doorknob before, suddenly shimmered and a silver keyhole appeared beneath the knob, more elegant than before.

“It was the First King of the Fae who made that Promise before.” The Entity said as Daniel jammed the borrowed key into the door.

“I will succeed where he failed,” Daniel said, as he felt the mechanism of the door shift and begin to open.

The Entity was suddenly behind him. Not physically, but still present. “You misunderstand. You have just become more interesting. Because he didn’t fail.”

And Daniel pushed through the door.

The gold key grew warm and glowed bright gold. It merged and melted into the door, shimmering, and shifting, and the entire space changed as Daniel exited through the Dungeon Door and found himself stumbling into the Stable.

The Stable was warm and friendly. The lights were constant and warm. He had fought so hard and so long to get back here, away from that twisted place of the Dungeon. The Law of Fae embraced Daniel, the Game enacted. The Bindings tried to make themselves known as well, suddenly free to enact pain again. The sounds of life and animals sounded all around, drifting down the long, changing winding corridors.

The Grant Stable. One of the Wonders of the First King.

And the First King had eventually known the Entities.

“I’ll see you again. Soon. Dan.” Said the Entity, from nowhere.

Because Daniel was in the Stable. And the Dungeon retreated.

Daniel stumbled out, and collapsed on the ledge, covered with grime, that fluid, and white chalk from the strange tiles. Miraculously, he was not cut anywhere, though he felt hard bruises forming.

Kenton. Was Kenton yet alive?

“Kenton?” he called, stumbling to the edge.