Dania didn't even bother cleaning up the dishes before going to bed. By the time she and Jake had both eaten, exhaustion pulled at her mind, fraying her thoughts. She had barely enough energy to drag herself into the shower and wash the dirt and sweat from her hair and skin before falling into her bed.

Contrary to what she'd told Jake, she didn't cry in the shower.

Her tears came later, leaking from closed eyelids as she lay curled in the fetal position and mourned her sister and brother-in-law all over again. As before, the memory of their faces danced behind her eyelids, and once again, rage kindled under her skin at the audacity of it all.

I don't care if I never make another level, she thought defiantly. I'm never setting foot in that dungeon again.

But even as the resolution crossed her mind, Dania knew it was a lie. Because she would do anything to protect Jake… even face the pain of losing her family all over again if that was what it took.

"Let's hope it doesn't take that again, though," she whispered as she swiped the wetness from her cheeks and rolled over to her other side. "I'm not sure we'd make it through again."

"Youuu woullld, my deckbearrrerrr. Youuu arrreee sssstrrrrong."

Fatigue clouded Dania's mind, so much so that she wasn't sure if she really heard Hush's voice, or imagined it. Either way, the thought that he was there—beneath her bed, ready to wake her if something happened—provided a weird kind of comfort, and between that thought and the next, she slept.

Dania's next conscious thought was one of heat. She opened her eyes, and immediately squeezed them shut again as the afternoon sunlight blazed through her bedroom windows. She let out a groan and rolled toward the other wall, then blinked her eyes open and slowly got out of bed.

Her muscles responded slowly, sluggish with sleep and stiff from exertion, but after a couple of big stretches, she moved easily enough. To her pleased surprise, she wasn't sore, despite her adventures in the dungeon.

"Jake?" she called out, glancing at the ancient clock radio on her bedside table. It was a little after two, which meant that she'd slept for around seven hours and completely screwed her sleep schedule.

Eh. I needed it, she thought. And Jake did too, if he's still sleeping. I might wake him up though. He probably needs to eat something, and I want to check that he's doing okay.

A few minutes later, after throwing on a pair of leggings and a hoodie, Dania padded barefoot out of her room and down the hall to peek into Jake's room. There was no sign of him in the unmade bed, and she didn't hear his shower running.

"Jake?" she called again, turning toward the stairs and closing his bedroom door. Once the inescapable teenager bedroom funk was blocked off, Dania realized something.

She smelled coffee. And it smelled good.

"Jake? Are you making coffee?"

"Dani?"

Relief surged through her as his voice drifted up. She clattered down the stairs to see him pulling his earbuds from his ears and tapping something on his phone. He sat on the same stool as the night before, with a large bowl of cereal and milk in front of him.

"Hey!" Jake grinned up at her. "I was going to make you breakfast, but I was afraid I'd burn the bacon. So I made coffee instead."

"Thanks," Dani said as she went to the cupboard to get a mug. "When did you learn to make coffee?"

"Just now. University of YouTube."

"Look at you, so resourceful."

Jake slid off the stool and walked around the island to grab her up in a hug. Dania froze in surprise, and then wrapped her arms around the kid and hung on.

"You okay?" she whispered after a long moment.

"Yeah," he said. He squeezed her briefly and then let go and returned to his stool. He inhaled deeply, sighed, and then nodded. "Yes. I am. You were right. I'm glad I let it out last night, because I woke up feeling a lot more… centered."

"Good," Dania said. She reached for the coffee pot and poured some into the mug. She gave it a sip, and then headed to the fridge to grab some milk. "Do you want to talk about it some more?"

"Not really," Jake said. "Not unless you need to. I… I'd rather just focus on what's next."

"Sounds good." Dania took a moment to add milk and sugar to her coffee, and then slid onto the stool beside Jake. "So. What's next?"

"Cards," he answered quickly. His eyes gleamed with excitement, and his foot bounced on the crossbar of the stool.

"You're like a kid on Christmas morning," Dania said, shaking her head.

"It's exciting! You still have them, right?"

"Yep." She pulled the single card and the foil-wrapped pack they'd gotten from that last floor of the dream dungeon out of the pocket of her hoodie. "Figured you'd want to look at them right away."

"You know me so well. Let's start with the single card my dad—I mean, the monster—had."

"Sure." Dania flipped the single card over and pushed it in his direction. "You read it."

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

#

Dream of Wonder

Rare Tier-1 Shadow/Psychic [Dream, Meta] Persistent

1 Meta Power or 1 Psychic Power

All power costs of all cards for anyone on the field becomes ‘Any,’ and all creature cards played gain the [Dream] typing. All cards' length of play becomes 90 seconds.

“Dreams Defy Reality, for a short while.”

#

"Wow!" Dania's eyebrows went up, and she looked over to see Jake staring at the card with his mouth half open. "That sounds…really pretty powerful."

"It's a Meta card," he said. "Those are really rare. I could easily take a Psychic power and add this to my deck, but I'd have to think carefully about how I'd use it. Or, if we sell it, we could make quite a bit of money."

Dania nodded, and then tapped the foil-wrapped pack.

"Let's see what else we got, and you can think on it some more."

"You open them," Jake said. "Then you'll have a chance to change them to fit your set."

"I don't think it matters," Dania said. "Remember how I changed the one dream card earlier. I think I just have to touch them." But she picked up the deck and angled it to see the information stamped on the foil. It was identical to the earlier pack, except that this one said "rare" instead of "uncommon".

"Oh, snap," Dania breathed. "I think this is a rare pack."

"Niiice," Jake said. "Let's see what we got!"

Dania unwrapped the cards and laid them out, face down. As she did so, she noticed that one of the cards shifted to an icy green color, and another shifted to beige. The other four retained the dark, iridescent purplish-black that Dania had learned to associate with the Shadow/Psychic cards of Dream subtype.

She reached to flip over the green card, and gasped, then slowly began to read out loud.

#

Era of the Ice Age

Rare Tier-1 Nature [Ice Age, Era] Persistent

2 Nature or Ice Power in any combination

All [Ice Age] subtypes gain +2 to all non-health stats. All Ice and [Ice Age] cards cost 1 less power to play, and lose all type disadvantages.

“The Beast builds of another era were far more suited to that time… and vice-versa.”

#

"No freaking way!" Jake exclaimed, his eyes round and wide. "Dani! That synergizes perfectly with your deck! That's going to be huge for you. What's the next one?"

Dania blinked, swallowed, and then flipped the beige colored card. She skimmed her eyes over the words, and then frowned.

"What is it?" Jake asked.

"It's… Indiana Jones?" Dania said, spinning the card and pushing it toward him so he could read it.

"Who's that?"

Dania gripped the counter and stared at Jake. "What? You don't know who Indy is? Archaeologist, fedora, whip, Nazis-I-hate-these-guys?"

Jake scrunched up his nose and squinted at her. "Dani, what are you talking about?"

"Ugh. Nothing. Don't mind me while I quietly die of old age over here. It's an adventurer subtype of the Lost World cards. I'm not exactly sure what I could do with it, but we can probably sell it. Also, I've got a movie series you need to watch, stat."

"Whatever. Looks cool, though. It'd be a shame to sell it, but you don't have any Mortal power…" Jake trailed off and leaned in to look closer at the card. "Oh! That's no problem. You can just play one of your Extinct subtypes and this guy's cost comes down to 1 any power. That's pretty significant."

"Yeah, but his attack and health stats aren't much."

"There are other virtues besides brute force, Dani," Jake said. He picked up his spoon and started eating. "The ability to pull from your deck instead of your hand could be clutch."

"How about table manners, are those a virtue?" she shot back. "Nevermind. Flip your cards, kiddo, let's see what else we got."

Jake shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth before reaching out and flipping the four remaining cards.

"Dreamcaller, a persistent that reduces the cost for dream cards," he said, touching the first card briefly before moving to the next. "Shadowdancer Nightingale, another rare Dream card that looks like it could really be helpful. I'd have to take some levels in Psychic, but it looks like it could be a healing card?"

"Seems like it," Dania said. "That's wild. What else?"

"An equipment card called Secret Whisper that would let me pass telepathic messages to someone—that could come in handy!"

Dania nodded and took another sip of her coffee, now that it had cooled to a comfortable temperature.

"And Sleep Cuddle," Jake finished. "A Dream persistent that gives a bonus to Dream cards based on the non-Dream creatures on the field. Holy smokes, what an incredible haul!" He grinned at her and shook his head.

"Yeah," Dania said. She paused, and then shrugged and looked down at her coffee before looking back up into Jake's eyes. "Too bad we had to murder monsters that looked like your parents to get it."

Jake sucked in a breath and rocked back on his stool.

"I'm sorry," Dania said. "I know that was raw, but this is serious, Jake. I don't want you going back in that dungeon without me, do you understand? This is a matter of your safety."

"No, you're right," he whispered, looking down at the cards spread on the counter. "I hadn't forgotten, but I know why you reminded me. I won't go in there without you, I promise. Believe me, I have no desire to go back right now anyway!"

"Me neither, kiddo," Dania said. "But you're right, this is a good haul. We've got some good cards for our decks, and some solid contenders for sale—"

"Wait, we're missing some," Jake said. "This pack and that card came from the last floor, right? Where is the card from the high school dream?"

"Oh!" Dania put her mug down and slid off her stool. "You're right! I totally forgot about it. Let me run upstairs and grab my jacket."

When Dania returned, the card she held had a bizarre, iridescent sheen that shifted through just about every color in the visible spectrum. Her hand trembled just a little as she laid the card down next to the Adventuresome Paleontologist card.

#

Expedition Charter

Uncommon Tier-1 Meta Equipment

1 Any Power

This equipment has an unlimited time in play.

While in play, 1 non-unique [adventurer] in the deck gains the special Expedition Patron: All allied [Adventurer] cards gain +2 to all non-health stats for every [Point of Interest], [Ruin], or [Hoard] Building in the deck or Persistent on the field. This does not stack with other Expedition Patron specials.

Expedition Goal: Designate 1 [Point of Interest] card. Its power cost is reduced to one. If any dungeon floor boss is defeated while that [Point of Interest] card is in play, this card is destroyed and the [Adventurer] with the [Expedition Patron] designation becomes unique and gains 4 tiers equivalent.

“I look forward to your glorious return, my boy.”

Jake read the card out loud, and then burst out into laughter.

"This shit has got to be fixed," he gasped through his mirth. "Are you kidding me? This is Nyx's dungeon, and she just so happens to include a bunch of cards that suit you perfectly?"

"The card changed," Dania said. "My Fossil Bloom again. It was black and purple when I picked it up."

"Right," Jake said. "But still… I think she's tipping the scales in our favor."

"Can the gods do that?"

Jake shrugged. "They're gods, right? They can do whatever they want, so long as they don't get caught."

"But they don't interfere directly in the Great Game."

"And she didn't," Jake said with a satisfied smirk. "She just built a dungeon, just like any other."

Dania shook her head. "But how could Nyx have known that we'd even come out here? You just contradicted your own argument, kiddo."

Jake shot a withering look her way and shoveled another heaping spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"She's a god, Dani. I'm sure she could figure it out if she wanted to…and had a reason to care."

Machairi chose that moment to sit up from where he'd been reclining on the couch.

"My mother is the goddess of secrets and hidden things," he said, his eerie voice sending a startling jolt down Dania's spine. "And she does nothing without a reason."

Dania opened her mouth to retort—

And someone began frantically pounding on the front door.