“What is it girl?” Owyn stage whispered like he was talking to a dog. “Did Timmy fall down the well?”
Abby gave Owyn a look, but he just chuckled.
“Clyde called Lucid human.” Abby told him as quietly as possible.
Owyn grinned.
Abby nearly dropped her stone.
“Don’t tell anyone else.” Owyn said. “He’s trying to keep it a secret. Even from his own thralls.”
“That’s not possible!” Abby whispered harshly. Though admittedly, she didn’t know much about dungeons.
Still, Owyn nodded. “It’s not. But it happened. Somehow. And he really is trying to help us. So.” Owyn picked up yet another rock, carrying the heavy thing off to a pile on the side.
Abby held her tongue, even though she had so many questions. She was uncomfortable enough as it was. In the distance, she could hear people screaming out for help, and the monsters and knights that pursued them. She heard metal on metal as knights clashed in the distance. The King’s knights versus the church’s. With what little information she knew of the city, Abby was able to point out exact locations and areas where the church held control, blatantly centered on the church buildings scattered around town. Living people were being herded into the church buildings.
She heard armored footsteps run their way into the open area down the road. Abby halted her work, just for a bit, to watch a small group of church knights run onto the street and look at them. These knights weren’t enthralled. They spoke to each other quickly, talking about whether or not they should inform the God Core about Lucid’s operation, before reasoning that the God Core would already know. They decided to continue on through the streets, looking for more stragglers.
Abby tensed, wanting to chase after them with the full force of the bloodlust she could muster.
Calm down. Lucid told her. Defeating the God Core will do more good than chasing some knights.
They’re going to kill more people. Abby fumed, but resumed work picking up a boulder far larger than herself. Below the boulder was the first streak of blood. Who’s it was, she didn’t know, but it still created a tightening feeling in her chest. They need protection.
A humanoid mimic crab wandered up to her, holding a basket of bread. It offered one to her while munching on another. Abby set down her boulder and accepted the food. She tore out a large bite before stuffing the rest in her mouth to free up her hands.
There’s always more than one way to do things. Lucid told her. Everyone has their roles to play. Leave the defense of the city to the King or whatever. Our job is the God Core.
The Baron and Baroness’s voices were raised higher, probably still too quiet for Owyn and the others, but Abby heard them perfectly. There was a lot of arguing. Isabelle’s name was brought up.
Owyn passed on the bread when it was brought around to him. “I’m starting to get a little worried. The church isn’t pressing us on the surface, so I’m thinking we’re digging our way into a trap.”
“The church’s monsters are all around the churches. There’s a bunch of big ones too. I can’t hear anything below us.” Abby told him.
The fliers came down to the ground again. Abby smiled at Arianna and Tyler, the dungeon rat kids, but she didn’t recognize the other two. A demon and undead-bat hybrid.
Hey Abby! Grant’s voice came from the undead, who waved. Need a hand?
Abby was taken aback at Grant’s voice. Happiness started to fill her when she recognized he was still alive, but sadness returned when she remembered that she had failed to protect his teammates.
Hey Grant… I’m sorry.
It’s ok! Dad’s dead too. But he died well! What about Barry?
Ah, yes. Of course he would have overheard Abby talking to the Baroness about Isabelle. He died protecting Isabelle and me.
Grant nodded sadly. Good for him. He died doing his job then. It’s very- Abby caught his voice hitch. -honorable.
Abby’s throat tightened, but she didn’t have time to mourn any more than that. The demon spoke aloud. Probably for Owyn’s benefit.
“The city has more fighters than we thought it would. People dressed like you lot are fighting the monsters while the city’s knights fight the church’s.”
“Adventurers.” Owyn informed the demon. He nodded in satisfaction. “Good, that’ll buy us time. What about the underground? Have the Sneakies found anything?”
Clear! A chorus of four voices called up from below. The demon relayed it to Owyn.
I’ve got an opening! A mimic crab shouted from nearby.
I’m going in first. Lucid said quickly. Clyde came over, speaking aloud so Owyn could hear. I’ll secure an area for us and help scout with the Sneakies.
“You sure you’ll even be able to?” Owyn asked. “You got your ass handed to you when the God Core invaded Setterton.”
I’m not sure. Lucid admitted. But I’m itching, so I’ll bet that’s going to give me an advantage. Besides, the God Core wants mana right? Doing this’ll give ‘em some.
“Good luck.” Owyn nodded, picking up another rock. Clyde and Lucid slipped down into the small opening, followed by a small contingent of mimic crabs.
Almost instantly, Abby felt the God Core’s presence again. This time, through a muted connection with Lucid. She felt a small fervor of single minded focus course through her, encouraging her to get back to her dungeon and slay the opposing dungeon. The feeling was apparently mutual, as the rest of Lucid’s monsters dug faster into the rubble. In particular, Owyn’s giant mimic crab Mycroft shoved aside large slabs of the street and fallen buildings, exposing more area for the fish monsters to dig. Abby, not one to feel outdone, used this new rush of energy to lift even larger rocks.
Mycroft noticed, and smugly lifted a boulder much too large for Abby.
Abby’s eyebrow twitched.
Owyn had to step back as Abby and Mycroft began ‘accidentally’ bumping into each other. Their little competition grew out, encouraging the fish men to push themselves in the effort to get back to their dungeon even faster. Without the connection to Lucid anymore, Owyn wasn’t able to silently coordinate with the others, making him an obstacle and a liability.
He gracefully accepted his new, isolated role within Lucid’s dungeon. Now that Abby was a dungeon monster, he wanted to be one as well. It trumped even his desire to learn magic, no matter how much knowledge Lucid could impart. His desire to become a monster himself, while certainly influenced by his desire to study monsters, was never, ever, about anything more than-
“Ha-HA!” Abby shouted, stabbing her hand into a soft part of the rock to lift it. The glorified clump of dirt crumbled in half when she went to throw it off to the side.
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Yeah. Owyn kept his expression neutral. He had to look away before he couldn’t any more, keeping an eye on their surroundings like a good archer. Gunner, now, technically.
The city knights weren’t doing their jobs, paying attention to the surrounding streets. They warily eyed Lucid’s lookouts, who actually were paying attention. A few of them seemed to favor the side where the other villagers were standing, watching the monsters dig out a tunnel to the underground. Owyn’s eyes tracked over them, eventually landing on the Bellamy’s outside the circle of protection. Still arguing, though much louder now. Owyn shifted his grip on his rifle so he could pick out a comfortable handful of core fragments out of his quiver.
Thirteen. He reminded himself. Plus the big one. Thirteen shots.
He hated having so little ammo. As soon as he was able to, he’d consult the Baroness about creating more stable explosions, hopefully saving the cores that produced them. The largest problem was the fact that as soon as a core was out of mana, it became dead, no better than a shard of fragile glass. He wondered if there was a way to supplement explosive cores with his own mana.
The Baron slapped the Baroness with a gauntleted hand.
Owyn immediately snapped his gun up, clicking the explosive core in place behind the pre-loaded ammo. All sounds of burrowing stopped, making the whole street quiet enough for them to overhear the Baroness’s quiet words.
“Lucid is not like other dungeons. He cares for his own, and that involved our daughter.”
The Baron’s eyes rolled over Owyn, and the monsters stood quietly behind him. All staring at the knight, daring him to make one more move. He leaned in close to the Baroness, spitting one last word filled with venom.
“Your daughter.” He stepped back, swirling his hand in the air, gathering up the knights.
They left without another word, leaving Lucid’s monsters alone in the street.
No. Not Lucid’s monsters. His followers.
Owyn rushed over, lowering his gun. “Baroness, are you alright?”
“Felecia, now.” She corrected, rubbing away a small streak of blood from her cheek. “It appears I am no longer desirable.”
Owyn didn’t feel bad for her. From what he’d seen of the Baron, he wasn’t impressed. “It’s probably for the best.”
“Agreed.” Felecia said. She marched over to the hole, now large enough for the majority of Lucid’s followers to fit through. Mycroft was the last one to go. Felecia stopped long enough next to the villagers on the surface to give them some final words.
“Past here, we’ll be going into the largest dungeon on this planet. No one will blame you for seeking shelter now.”
“And miss having my name in history books?” Mr. Mayflower chuckled. “Mrs. Brook would kill me herself!”
Felecia nodded. “I’m planning to get enthralled again. Properly this time.” She marched down into the underground below.
Owyn followed quickly after. And soon, so did the rest.
----------------------------------------
Lucid’s monsters seethed, pacing mindlessly around his core like insects that had lost their way. Abby stood near the center of it, resisting the urge to do the same. Owyn approached her, placing a placating hand on her shoulder. Together, they faced down the tunnel below. Streaks of blood marked where corpses had once been, but it was the smell of charcoal that permeated the air. With their backs to the entrance, the daylight cast their shadows down to where the tunnel curled in on itself.
Owyn adjusted his gun barrel, like he used to do with his bow and arrow.
Ok?
Abby glanced over her back at him. She stole a shield from one of the near frenzied fish men. Getting into position, she responded.
Alive.
Their secret language had many limitations. Even so, they had motions that said good, middle, and bad. So for Abby to describe herself as merely ‘alive’ was concerning.
Safe? Owyn asked.
For now.
An invisible force washed over the gathered. Though Owyn couldn’t tell the difference intuitively, Abby and the rest of the monsters certainly calmed down slightly. Lucid had established his dungeon.
What Owyn could feel was the mana that exploded out of Lucid. It wrapped into the walls to every side, and across every living being within his domain. To call it overwhelming would be an understatement.
“He’s going to hurt himself.” Owyn grumbled, but he didn’t even know if that was possible. It was simply too easy to assign human idioms to Lucid.
“We’re not advancing quite yet.” Abby told Owyn. “Lucid is… relieving himself.”
Owyn scrunched up his face. “Do you have to phrase it like that?”
Abby smirked. “Not my words. Is he really human?”
“You tell me.” Owyn said back. “You’re his thrall.”
Abby’s shoulder drooped imperceivably. Well, to anyone other than Owyn. “I’m sorry.”
“You already apologized.” Owyn assured her. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You weren’t his thrall when we… you know. What changed?”
“What do you mean?”
Abby half turned to face him properly, still keeping her stolen shield between them and the depths of the tunnel below. “Did Lucid ever ask you to become his thrall?”
She asked in such a way that Owyn knew it needed a direct answer. “He offered. I refused.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m not stupid.” Owyn lied. “Becoming a thrall means losing everything there is about what makes us human.”
“It removes our free will.” Abby said straight. “That’s what you tell me. That’s what everyone says. But you and I know, knew even before this whole deal with the church, that Lucid isn’t like that. He doesn’t remove our wills.”
Owyn couldn’t look Abby in the eyes. He turned to watch the Baroness… Felecia, collect Lucid’s core from Clyde. Between the flow of mana swirling around them, Owyn couldn’t tell if Lucid claimed her as a thrall again. But he knew.
Abby grabbed Owyns wrist, forcing him to look her in the eyes. He had to tilt his chin up, just slightly, even though she stood on lower ground to do it. Her eyes were beginning to take on that deep amber color of Lucid’s core. Like stars scattered about the deep brown of her eyes. Owyn removed his hand from her grip.
“Why didn’t you enthrall yourself.”
“Why did you enthrall yourself?” Owyn challenged calmly.
Abby puffed up. “Why do you think? I needed to become stronger. I needed to be someone… someone that could be depended on.”
“The thought of being enthralled used to disgust you.” Owyn said. “Monsters used to disgust you. And you became one in order to protect Barry and Isabelle. You don’t think things through.”
Abby’s face betrayed her emotions of shame and sadness, as well as her rising fury at the fact that Owyn seemed to be intentionally starting a fight. But that wasn’t Owyn’s goal.
“What happens next, huh? After this? Say we survive, how are you going to achieve your dreams of becoming an adventurer- a real adventurer!” Owyn’s voice rose with his own anger. “You were the one who said you wanted to go to the capital and fight the large dungeons! You were the one who roped me into becoming an adventurer when all I’ve ever wanted to do was read books! I forced myself to become an archer, because that’s how I could help you achieve your dreams! I’m the one who managed our money! And the whole time I was locked in the dungeon with Lucid, all I could think of was what I wanted! Of how I wanted to become a monster, but I couldn’t because then you wouldn’t be able to become an adventurer!”
“And the second I showed up, you offered yourself to Lucid!” Abby angrily shot back.
“I want us to be together!” Owyn shouted. His face fell as soon as he realized what he’d said.
Abby’s face fell too, blinking in surprise. Owyn grit his teeth and looked down, angry at himself for losing control. But what was said was said.
“I… was hoping, that once you came back, you’d come back to me. That everything could somehow go back to normal, and we could…” Goddess above, was he really about to confess this? Now? It wasn’t like he was asking for her hand, but he may as well be.
Softer this time, Abby raised her fingers up to Owyn’s chin. Forcing him to look her in the eyes. They both betrayed no outward emotion, but it was impossible to hide. The frustration, not anger, beneath Owyn’s hard stare, and the expectant pleading behind Abby’s.
She asked again. “Owyn? Why did you become Lucid’s thrall?”
Owyn stumbled over his first words, trying to find coherence within his own thoughts. “It wasn’t about becoming his thrall. The opposite. It was about staying human. I…”
Abby lowered her face, just slightly, so they could see each other evenly.
Owyn swallowed, looking away and blushing. “Monsters can’t have children…”
Abby’s face fell completely. Her lips slowly parted in a way that Owyn just couldn’t bear. The corners raised, just a bit. Her head lowered, and she leaned into Owyn, pressing the top of her head to his shoulder. Her own shuddered. Laughter.
“Please don’t.” Owyn begged.
But it was too late. Abby stood back up to her full height, pulling Owyn into an embrace while she laughed openly. For all to hear.
It was Owyn’s worst nightmare.