The lily pads shook. "Get back," I shouted. Sage disappeared again. The others retreated to the edge of the woods. I stood my ground. I didn't want to interrupt whatever creature was about to make an attack. We needed information as much as we needed to survive this.

The water in the pond rose up in a wall, looming over me. It flung itself at me. I held until the wave started to break. Then I threw up an arm to shield my face. The weight crashed down, knocking me back and off my feet. My body was swept inland, carried by the waves. I scrabbled and fought blindly. My hand caught something. I grabbed tight. A tree-trunk, one of the spindly ones near the pond. The force slackened a bit and I fought to my feet.

"Get me eyes on...what's...casting this," I gasped. I popped a health potion at once and felt Sage’s Raise Your Spirits hit me like a warm shower. The combo brought me back up to full health right away.

The wave continued to wash over me, a torrent splashing up from the center of the pond and fountaining down onto me. My allies were far enough back that the water did not reach them. It rushed around my feet, lapped about a bit on the bank, then slid into the lake as yet more water crashed down on me.

The crushing damage had been in the first big hit. The continued inundation wasn’t doing more than keeping my coat soggy. My immunity to water-based damage was coming in really handy right about now. I wondered again if the reality engine was subtly putting its thumb on the scale.

"There's one creature at the center of the lake," Sage shouted. "I can see it through the drone, but I'm not getting any info on it. It's about 20 feet out. That's inside of 10 meters."

I took a deep breath. "I challenge you to single combat,” and I cast High Noon.

The fountain of water cut off. I hadn't been sure that would work. "Everyone stay clear."

For a moment, nothing happened. Then, a creature rose out of the lake.

She was female, there was no doubt about that. Her long, golden tresses clung to her shoulder and back. She spun until she was facing toward me. Her dress was a diaphanous white sheath clinging to her. It kind of looked like a nightgown, plastered against her chest and legs.

Her wide, sapphire eyes stared at me. She raised one pale hand and pointed. "Who are you and what have you done?"

Her voice was heavily accented. She sounded Eastern European to me, though I'm not a connoisseur of world accents by any means.

I kept my hands up at chest level, palms outward, and tried my best to look harmless. "My name's Shad Williams, ma'am. We're here to talk."

"How have you stopped me?" she demanded. "What spell have you cast over me, oh great sorcerer?"

Sage snorted. "He's no sorcerer," she called loudly. "Who are you, lady? You look like you drowned."

The woman sighed. She floated across the surface of the lake until she was about six feet away from me, then hovered over the water. Her bare feet were pointed, her toes dragging through the surface of the pond. "I am Evgenie, maiden of the lake," she said dramatically, sweeping a hand across her forehead.

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"Okay," Gabriel said in my ear. "I think you've got a Rusalka here."

"What's a Rusalka?" Frank growled.

“Female water spirit, usually a maiden who was drowned or spited in love or something similar, they're not always implacably hostile. Sometimes they want to be given a gift or have something returned to them, and then they'll leave you alone.”

"Right," I said. "Rusalka. Anything else we should know?"

"Keep her talking. We'll see what we can find out."

"So is this your lake?" I asked.

Evgenie nodded her head. "It has been my home for many years, mine and my sisters’, but they are gone now, leaving me with only my pets, and now you have slain them." She looked sadly at the pile of dog-goblin corpses on the bank of the pond. I wasn't about to apologize for defending ourselves, but something she'd said sounded like a clue.

"Sisters. What happened to them?"

"The sorcerer has stolen them away," she said, sighing dramatically and lifting her eyes heavenward. "He is a cruel, cruel creature. He has enslaved many of the creatures of forest and wood to his bidding."

"Sounds like the hook for a raid boss to me," I commented to my team. "Where is the sorcerer?" I asked Evgenie.

"His dwelling is not far from here. Follow the river northward, and you will find it without question."

"Right. So suppose someone was to do you a favor and, say, free your sisters. Would there be some sort of reward in it for us?"

"Yes, indeed," she said. "Any hero who would do such a thing would have my boon and that of my sisters.”

“How about free passage through your woods for me and my friends, and maybe a few flowers from your pond?"

"My creatures would be no threat to you any longer," she promised.

"Then we'll see what we can do," I said. "We'll retreat out of here, and then I'll cancel this duel and let you get back to your normal drowning people thing. Don't stop on account of me. All my people will stay clear here until we've decided what to do about this sorcerer. So anybody who comes by is definitely an enemy."

The Rusalka clasped her hands to her breasts dramatically. "Thank you, hero," she said. "I knew when my waters could not wash you away that you must be pure of heart."

"Yeah, not so sure about that," I said before Sage could comment. "But we'll be back. Have a nice day, ma'am." I tipped my hat. Been doing that so often to everyone I met in order to apply my buff, it had turned into a habit. We withdrew a safe distance into the forest.

I watched as Evgeny the Rusalka returned to the center of her pond, did a neat handstand, and then dove beneath the surface. The water lay still and quiet where she had been.

"How do you know she's not the boss we've got to kill?" Frank asked.

"That was too clear a narrative hook," I said. "We'll at least have to follow up on it, find out what the sorcerer's deal is. Might be we need to kill everyone anyway, but I think we should try to learn the whole deal before making a decision."

"Evil sorcerers are a motif in these myths," Gabriel said in my ear, "but I'm pretty sure these aren't Czech or Slovak variants. Something feels a little off. It might be Southern Slav."

"What's the difference?" I asked, running my hand through my hair. "You've apparently got similar enough creatures you recognize them."

"Sure, but that's like saying Greek and Roman gods were the same."

"They just stole the Greek gods and re-skinned them," Sage said. "Like when your angel healer gets a winged devil costume in a shooter game."

"That's not quite how it works," I said.

Gabriel laughed. "Okay, I get your point. I spent a lot of money on cosmetic packs during my Fortnite phase. It's probably something a little like that. You have to remember these stories were spread across hundreds of miles, even thousands, back in the day when you couldn't travel much more than two miles an hour. Stories from one village to the next would vary, let alone multiple countries."

"I'll put the word out looking for anyone with Southern Slavic background," Kirin said. "That'll be what, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, that region. But until then, Gabriel's our best expert."

"Sure, I'll do what I can," he agreed.

"Then let's go see the wizard," I said.

"Sorcerer," Sage corrected. "Unless you want me to sing 'We're Off to See the Wizard' the whole time we go, you should probably get that one right."