“Faux?” Abby tried again, taking a step closer. Owyn’s hand immediately clamped on her shoulder.

“He’s enthralled.”

Faux rolled his head, clacking his teeth threateningly. He was clearly struggling. He was missing his overshirt, wearing only the thinnest bit of a shirt over his torso. The knives in either hand clattered against the stone floor.

“Shit, Owyn! Break the core! He’s still fighting!”

Owyn shook his head. “He’s dead. He can’t fight the core.”

The struggling Faux would seem to argue.

Two pairs of boney footsteps sounded from the exit leading deeper into the cave. Abby and Owyn watched as two thausen skeletons entered the dungeon. They waited patiently at the exit, holding a rock in either hand.

Owyn stretched his bowstring nervously, shifting his weight back and forth. “I don’t like that.”

“They’re still not attacking.” Abby felt the need to point out. “They always attack.”

A shift distracted her. Her quest changed. ‘Touch the core’. Yeah, right. As if she would do that again.

The room stood still, uncomfortably silent, if it weren’t for Faux’s gnashing teeth. However, suddenly, he quieted. He remained laying on the ground for a while, motionless. An eerie sight, considering motionless also removed ‘breathing’ from normal human actions. Abby was sure now. He really was dead.

Faux stood smoothly. Abby felt assured when she heard Owyn’s bow draw taught over her shoulder. A bow wouldn’t do much against a corpse, but it still helped. Faux bowed, one hand at his waist, and the other out to his side. Abby had seen him do the same motion in the library.

“Fuck.” Owyn muttered. “They really do retain their memories.”

“What do we do?” Abby whispered.

The thausen skeletons at the exit collapsed. Abby’s mana sight told her that they were no longer thralls of the dungeon. They were no more than simple piles of bones.

“It killed its own thralls?” Owyn whispered incredulously.

Abby considered her options. Then, making a move only Owyn would think of doing, she stood upright and sheathed her sword.

“Abby! What are you doing!”

“Exploring the unknown.” Abby reached a hand out for Faux. “Hello dungeon. I’m Abby.”

Faux’s expression did not change. He straightened out and took her hand gently. His hand was freezing. They shook.

Abby’s heart beat in her throat. She swallowed past it. “I assume you understand me?”

Faux nodded.

Abby’s heart skipped a beat. What was with this dungeon?

Owyn kept his bow trained on Faux. “Where’d you get those knives?”

Faux tapped his chest. He then sheathed the knives in his regular pants. The knives practically disappeared, they were so well hidden. Even knowing they were there, Abby couldn’t see them.

Faux took the knives back out again. He flipped them in the air, catching them by their blades expertly. He passed the handles to Abby.

“You’re… giving these to me?” Abby asked.

Faux nodded.

Abby thought for a second. “Is it because Owyn won tic tac toe?”

There was a pause between responses. Faux shook his head. Then, he held up two fingers.

“Two?” Abby asked.

Faux shook his head again. He got down on one knee and began drawing letters on the stone.

“P-E-A-C-E. Peace?”

Faux nodded his head.

“What the fuck…” Owyn whispered. His bow relaxed. Slightly.

“You. A dungeon. Want peace?” Abby couldn't believe it. “You killed Faux!”

Faux shook his head. He tapped his own chest, made a smashing motion, then pointed to the core within the new, fancy alcove it sat in. The core glowed slightly.

“You tried to kill the core?” Abby asked Faux. Not the dungeon. “And the core acted in self defense?”

Faux nodded rapidly, clearly excited despite the lack of expression.

Abby paled slightly. “If… If I tried to smash the core… would I…?”

Faux nodded again. Once.

Abby’s heart beat even faster somehow. She’d brushed that close to death. To enslavement after death.

“But you don’t want to now?” Owyn asked. “If I touch the core, will you kill me?”

Faux shook his head rapidly as Abby wheeled on him. “NO! Owyn, don’t you dare! We’re already risking a lot just trusting a dungeon! Don’t touch it! You didn’t feel it like I did!”

“Yeah, but-”

“This is not time for your stupid dungeon obsession!” Abby shouted. She gripped his collar and pulled him in close. “Promise me! Promise me no matter what, you’ll never touch that core!”

Owyn’s expression hardened. He looked off to the side, defeated. “Fine.”

And Abby knew he meant it. He had that expression every time Abby banned him from doing anything. Still, it didn’t stop him from stepping forward to confront Faux.

“Why’d you kill your skeletons? For peace?”

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Faux nodded.

Owyn’s brows furrowed. “You know you can’t get them back, right? They’re dead forever now.”

Faux stared at him. Then he looked to the floor.

“Didn’t know.”

“How old are you?” Owyn asked. “Do you know what time is?”

Faux nodded.

“Are you months old?” Owyn asked.

No.

“Weeks?”

No.

“Days.”

Faux held up three fingers. Then a fourth. Back to three. He shrugged.

“You only have the one room.”

Faux nodded. He shimmied along the floor, going to the center where the map was. He gestured to the core room. Faux pointed at Abby, then made a motion for a book, and finally tapped the map.

“You… you want my map?” Abby asked.

Faux nodded.

Abby reached for her bag. Hesitated. Was it really smart to give the dungeon this knowledge? She supposed it was going to find out eventually, considering the map it had already drawn. There wasn’t any hurting in gathering a bit of goodwill.

Owyn stopped her.

“No. We shouldn’t let it know-”

“But trust needs to begin somewhere. And I’m not touching the core!”

Owyn shook his head and finished his sentence. “For free.” He turned his attention to Faux. “We’ll give you the map, but you need to give us something in return.”

Faux nodded. This dungeon was surprisingly agreeable. He drew on the floor.

“Peace.”

“Peace.” Owyn repeated. “We give you the map, and you give us peace?”

“I vow to leave the humans alone.” Faux drew over the course of a few seconds. Before Owyn could agree, Faux stopped him with a finger. He then resumed drawing.

“As long as they do not harm me.”

It wasn’t a guarantee. There were many ways to twist those words. But Abby was right, and it would have to be enough. They would give Faux the map.

Faux took the map eagerly, opening it up. Abby didn’t want to get close to him, so she explained from where she stood.

“It’s not actually a map. It’s hard to do three dimensional things on paper. So that’s just a chart of all the pathways.”

Faux studied it. He then presented the map to Abby, tapping the paper, then the map on the floor.

Abby reached out cautiously. “Uh, you’re right here.”

Faux nodded. He gestured to one side. When Abby looked over, the floor had sunken in slightly, depicting her map exactly, with an ‘X’ marking where she had just indicated. Faux handed her back her book.

“Uh, thanks Faux.”

Faux wrote on the ground.

“Lucid? What’s lucid?” Abby asked.

Faux pointed at the core.

“Oh. Uh…”

“Greetings, Lucid.” Owyn said.

Faux clapped, catching their attention again. He wrote on the ground.

“We are now friends!”

Abby smiled nervously. “Yeah! Sure, we can be friends. I guess.”

“I would like to talk better.” Faux wrote. “Writing is time wasting.”

“Um, we could get you a book and a pen?” Abby offered. She was not going to offer to touch the core.

Faux clapped again, giving her a thumbs up. Apparently Lucid liked that idea.

“Ok.” Owyn said. “We’ll get you something to write with. We’ll be back later, but we have to go clear the other pathways. Otherwise other dungeons will start growing out of control.”

Faux nodded, standing. He held a hand out to Abby. Flat, like he was expecting something.

“Uh…?”

Faux made a cutting motion on his hand.

“I think he wants his knives back.” Owyn said.

“Oh! Yes, right. But, uh, you’re not going to kill humans with it, right?”

Faux nodded. Abby handed him back his knives. Faux accepted them, sheathing them instantly. The knives disappeared into his clothing, completely hidden from view. He gave a wave as Abby and Owyn left the dungeon.

Abby waited until they were long out of earshot before speaking again, in a quiet voice.

“Are we really going to clear the rest of the dungeons today?”

Owyn didn’t answer right away. “They’re going to grow if we don’t.”

“That dungeon is going to grow if we don’t do anything!”

Owyn glared at the path ahead of them. “I’m starting to think this is above us.”

“We need to tell the Baroness about Faux.”

“I’m thinking we need to do more than just that. We need her to bring in some adventurers. Real adventurers too, not just more kids. People with experience in dealing with larger dungeons than we can handle.”

“That seems a bit like over doing it, wouldn’t you think?”

Owyn growled. “Maybe… What do you think we should do?”

“Faux isn’t going anywhere.” Abby tried thinking pragmatically, like Owyn would with their money. “It won’t make a difference if we tell the Baroness now or in a few hours. In the meantime, we’re here now, and so are the dungeons. I think we should take on as many dungeons as we can in the next path over, since they won’t wait.”

“Do we rush through it?” Owyn asked. He didn’t like rushing normally, but the situation seemed to call for it.

“Let’s get this done as fast as possible.”

----------------------------------------

Abby and Owyn only stopped running once they reached the village border. They were both out of breath, Owyn more so than Abby. He collected Abby’s bag, as they’d discussed, and Abby was off again. She ran, despite the tingling feeling in her legs. If she stopped now, it would just make it harder to get going again.

She ran all the way through the village, cutting the time it took her to get to the Baroness’ mansion in half. She practically burst open the doors, startling Lady Bellamy, who looked just about ready to leave.

“Abby? You’re back early. Is the dungeons still dangerous?”

“It took Faux. Where’s your mother?” Abby puffed.

“It- Faux? I…” She couldn’t find the words. Her hand pointed in the direction of the Baroness’ office.

Abby jogged, leaving Lady Bellamy behind. Her exhaustion was truly setting in now. By some miracle, neither Abby nor Owyn had taken any injuries rushing through the dungeons. Normally, either Abby or Owyn would complain to the other about the lack of precautions they were taking, though for different reasons. Today was different.

Abby slowed to a stop in front of the office. Baroness Bellamy’s assistant for the day waited outside, and watched her approach.

“I have news about the dungeon.” Abby huffed. “We found Faux.”

“WHAT!?” Shouted a reply from inside the office. Abby flinched, unaware she could be heard.

The assistant let Abby in without a word. The Baroness was standing behind her desk, pen and paper forgotten in front of her.

“Faux went into the dungeon!?” She quieted herself down to a half shout.

“He did.” Abby confirmed. “We think he tried to subjugate the core. He lost.”

“Faux… He… But he had such a powerful will. I don’t understand. Did he not destroy the core before attempting?”

“The core looked intact when we saw it. Faux… he’s dead. His corpse is under the dungeon's control.”

“The dungeon! What monsters does it have!?”

“Right now, just Faux and two mimic crabs. It had two thausens when we went there last time, but they were turned into skeletons sometime between now and then.”

The Baroness collapsed back in her chair. “Yes. Yes, that makes more sense. They must have killed poor Faux and dragged him to the core.”

“I don’t-” Abby held her tongue. How was she supposed to say this? Owyn wasn’t here to talk for her.

“What? What do you think?”

“I don’t think they killed Faux. I think Faux killed them.” And before the Baroness could interject, Abby finished her explanation. “He had two giant knives on him. Probably more. His big knives were able to hide perfectly in his normal clothes. I… we think he always had them.”

The Baroness stared hard into Abby’s soul. Abby was so tired, that she could hardly bring herself to feel the weight behind the stare. Her own eyes shied away.

“That sounds like a serious accusation.”

“I’m sorry.” Abby didn’t know what else to say.

The Baroness sighed. “This has already gone on long enough. Isabelle cannot be allowed to exist in a world where such a threat exists. I’ll take care of this myself.”