Melumek’s Lady stood up tall and marched across the room, the flaming wisps of her dress swirling around her legs as she walked. She paused at the door and looked back at me with her bright golden eyes. The light she had conjured reflected off the Jeweled Scepter of Resurrection hanging from her belt.

“Don’t worry, I’ll give you a chance to think about it,” she whispered.

Something deep inside me was breaking. I looked at her and all the times we’d spent together rushed through my head. In the caves of the Fellowship of Fayum. Traveling to Oliver’s Rest. Raiding Castle Condamine. Me helping her strengthen her magic.

“Miranda, “ I said. “Please don’t do this.”

Her eyes flickered away from me for the shortest of seconds before her shoulders stiffened and she stood taller. “It has to be this way, Joe. You’ll see.”

“I rescued you from the cultist monsters. You know how evil Melumek is. You can’t do this.”

“They might think they speak for Melumek but they are little more than pawns for his real believers. I’ve seen the truth beneath their cruelty and arrogance. When the time is right they’ll burn for what they did to me,” She said, her voice shifting into bitter bile by the end of it.

“Please, you’re making a mistake,” I begged trying to force myself unsuccessfully to my feet.

She gave me a half-hearted smile and pulled out her jeweled scepter. “Promise me you’ll think about joining me, okay? Oh, and it goes without saying, but please don’t try to escape. This is too important. I really would prefer it if you didn’t join my undead army.

Just in case you get any thieving ideas though, I’m going to leave a friend behind to keep you in line. Don’t hate me too much for it, alright?”

Pink fire blasted from her scepter, filling a pile of bones by the door until its empty eye sockets took on an ethereal glow. The man of bones clacked and rattled until it stood taller than Miranda, its skeletal fingers wrapped around the grip of a wide steel saber.

The pain in the entirety of my body was beginning to dissipate as my health bar slowly replenished. I shifted to a seated position, rubbing at my aching legs.

The door shut with a loud bang behind Miranda. The skeleton stepped in front of it, aiming his sword in my direction. I threaded my fingers through my hair as I stared at it. I suppose I should have been scared of an undead monster but something about it just made me listless.

I gave the skeleton warrior a nod, “Hey man, what’s up?”

The monster lifted its shoulder blades with an odd clacking sound. I sighed and tilted my head, looking up at the trap door I had fallen through. I couldn’t hear Stella anymore but I knew she was up there. Boopzy whimpered and reached out with a tentacle, slapping the slimy appendage against my neck.

“Are you alright, little guy? Still got all your legs?”

Boopzy chittered. Tiny sizzles of Sob’s lightning flickered along the Tentarat’s whiskers. It would have been cute if I wasn’t still reeling over Miranda's revelation. It just didn’t make sense. I could still picture her trembling in that cage in the glow-worm-filled cavern with Cleric Avery standing over her. She’d been so scared and beaten down and all so the Fellowship of Fayum could misuse her gift.

How could someone who had been through all of that join the ranks of those same brutal people?

I looked up at the skeleton man, “are you really going to keep me in here?”

The skeleton opened its toothy mouth and let out a dull howl that I took to mean he was indeed going to keep me trapped.

I cursed and hissed as I stood on aching legs. Beads of sweat formed on my forehead. There was a weird smell in the air. Something I couldn’t quite place but it was musty and made my stomach turn. I limped toward the door, pulling my sword just in case the skeleton got a little too aggressive.

The bony warrior’s glowing eyes shrunk into two thin strips of light. How the hell a man without a face managed to look suspicious I’ll never know. I took one extra step and the skeleton raised his saber, waving it around uncomfortably close to my chest.

“Alright, alright,” I muttered. “ I get the hint.”

I turned away from him, using my Identify on the meager offering of the rounded room.

Cave Moss – Paralysis - ? - ?

I rubbed my hands together and started plucking the clumps of dark green flowerless plants. I pulled up one mass by the far wall and found a cone-shaped fungus growing under it.

Bullhorn Fungi – Enhance Stealth - ? - ?

I grinned as I plucked that one. Enhanced Stealth was a property I hadn’t come across often.

When I’d foraged the room clean my health was almost two-thirds full. I rubbed the back of my neck, wondering what to do next.

A noise behind me made me spin. The skeleton was dancing from one foot to the next, holding his saber in both hands as he pointed the tip of it at the rolling Tentarat.

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“Boopzy, get back here!” The skeleton roared and aimed his saber at me. I lifted my hands and snapped, “Easy there. I’m just going to grab the… ugh… slimy ball creature.”

The skeleton jabbed a bony finger at the Tentarat and then at me, its glowing pink eyes forming triangles.

Carefully, I leaned down and grabbed the ball. I yelped when thunder boomed and a blinding blue light seared my eyeballs. I stumbled back, clutching Boopzy to my chest. The skeleton dropped to its kneecaps, its once-white bones charred black.

Boopzy let out a belch, releasing another bolt of lightning that struck the skeleton square in the middle of its forehead. The pink fire that lit up the skeleton's eyesockets flickered and went out. Bones scattered across the floor.

Blinking past the spots clouding my vision I nudged the femur closest to me with the tip of my boot. I had expected the thing to magically rearticulate itself but instead, it lay there as dead as it had been before Miranda had cast her spell.

My mouth agape I looked down at the Tentarat. His nose was twitching as he sniffed the air, his small rounded ears alert. He was half the size he had been when swollen to bursting with Sob’s lightning magic.

“You are unbelievable,” I said.

Dumping the Tentarat on my shoulder because he could now fit there I approached the door. The lockpicking icon appeared and I did my thing, stuffing the four bouncing balls into their corresponding circles with ease. I opened the door a crack looking out on the darkened hallway on the other side.

“What do you think, Boopzy? Kind of feels like a trap to me.”

Boopzy chittered and hissed, stretching out a tentacle to slam the door shut in my face.

“Yeah,” I said. “That’s what I thought.”

I turned back, marching to the center of the room and looking back up at the square hole that would lead me directly back to my friends.

“Boopzy, I’m gonna need your help here. If you do a good job I’ll give you a wedge of cheese.”

Boopzy leaned forward, eyeing me with a pair of beady black eyes. I swallowed under his critical stare. I didn't exactly have a wedge of cheese but I would find one. I was a little afraid he would blast my ass with stolen magic if I didn’t.

Boopzy slowly moved back, looping two tentacles under my arms and gripping tight. He reached up, straining to the limits of his reach with his other limbs. With them pressed on each wall of the square tunnel, he began to lift my bulk. He let out a pained squeak. Blue lightning sizzled around his pointed nose.

With my head in the tunnel, I reached out, gripping the bricks with my calloused fingers. I started to climb. Between me and Boopzy, we were strong and sticky enough to not immediately fall. I gritted my teeth and changed my position, pressing my back hard against a wall and my feet and hands on the opposite one. Boopzy drooped a little, his tentacles shaking from the exertion.

“Okay, alright. I think I’ve got it now. Just, ah, be ready. I’ve never done this before.”

Boopzy slumped entirely, letting all his tentacles drop. My ass slipped half an inch. I squealed and tightened my muscles, digging my jagged nails harder against the brick wall. I awkwardly shimmied higher and then higher again. Sweat was dripping off of me as my chest became tight but I kept going.

All I had to do was reach the top, unpick a few locks with my singular lockpick, gather my friends, and drag them all to Sob for healing. I could do that. It was only four things. Who couldn’t do four things?

I heaved and moved higher before I paused, my arms and legs trembling.

“Boopzy… please…” I managed between desperate gasps for air.

The Tentarat chittered in a manner that was a little too close to laughter before stretching out. With his help, the climb went a little smoother but it wasn’t long before he was exhausted again and needed to rest a second time.

I banged my head angrily against the wall and looked up. It was getting darker the higher I climbed. Miranda’s magical light didn’t reach up this high. The trap door had to be very close now. It hadn’t felt like I’d fallen for that long before. It was unfair that going down had been so easy when going up was almost torture.

Digging my heels into the wall to brace myself I reached up with one hand. My sword dug into my back but all I could do was press harder. I flailed for a moment, almost letting out a pained cry before shuffling a bit higher. My fingertips brushed against the cold stone and I almost whimpered.

“Nora,” I bellowed as loudly as my lack of air would allow. “Help!”

I swore as the trapdoor swung open. The stone smacked my head and I dropped. Boopzy let out a squeal and flung his tentacles high, latching on to the rim of the tunnel. I jerked to a stop.

“Thank… you…” I said, turning my head to press it against the fuzzy part of Boopzy’s little body.

The creature chittered and tensed his tentacles until I managed to right myself and climb out of the darkened hole into the harshly illuminated room above. Stella started barking, her tail whipping from side to side so fast it was practically a blur.

I sprawled on the cold stone, pressing my hot face against it.

“Are you alright?” Nora asked.

I turned my head, looking up at her heavily bruised face. “I think… I’m dying.”

She laughed and kicked out with a booted foot, smacking me in the ribs. I groaned and rolled away from her.

“That was mean.”

“Stop being such a baby. Let us free, now. Miranda will be back any minute.”

I shuffled my knees up under me and crawled around the square hole of death to Nora’s side. I unpicked her final shackle before moving on to the still-unconscious Jacob and then finally, and most importantly, Stella.

Nora wobbled to her feet. I smiled at her but it dropped away when she folded her arms over her chest and glowered down at me. Stella curled into my lap, burying her head under my arm.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

Nora moved so quickly I would have thought she shared my Blink skill. My head jerked to the side. A burning pain seared my cheek. I lifted my hand, easing the pain of her brutal slap with some much-needed pressure.

“What was that for?” I bellowed.

Nora grabbed the neckline of my leathers and jerked me closer to her. I could see the rage burning in her eyes. “I thought you were dead.”

“I kind of was,” I said.

Nora’s face turned red as tears rolled down her cheeks. She dropped to her knees and wrapped me in the fiercest of hugs. Stella grumbled at being stuck in the middle of it but she refused to move.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to find you.”

“It’s okay,” Nora cried. “I’m just so glad you’re alive. I’m still going to kill you though.”