Ted’s punch connected solidly, sending Jeremy staggering backwards.

That settled it. Definitely not the real deal.

Not-Jeremy caught its footing and pulled itself up to its full height. “Cut that out.”

Blood pounding through him, Ted lunged, thrusting his sword at the imposter’s heart.

The blade drove straight though the illusion’s chest. A smile formed on its face, and it faded away into nothing.

“How did you know?” Gramok asked.

“No way I’m landing a punch on actual Jeremy. Or successfully stabbing him, for that matter.”

A translucent figure glowed into existence—a wood elven woman, or least the image of one. Blood-red hair cascaded down her back, and her simple white dress fluttered as if caught in an unseen breeze. “This sacred shrine,” it hissed in Wood Elvish, “is not to be defiled by outsiders. Only denizens of the Great Forest may pass.”

Ted scowled. A ghost from the past wasn’t going to stop him. “There’s no point if only Cara can go in. I’ll see if Teleport works.”

And there it was, that look of Cara’s, telling him he was being an idiot. “Ted. Tolabar. So’aroaska. Tol-a-bar.”

Right. Ted turned to Gramok, and gave him a half-shrug. “Guess it’s just us. Try not to be too disappointed.”

“No worries—the spirits don’t want me anymore than I want the spirits. Catch you when you’re done.” He strode back up the path with a bounce in his step.

The gate squeaked open, revealing a stone tunnel that led down into pitch black.

Ted stared into the abyss. “It’s not too late to turn around. We don’t even know for sure there’s anything useful down there.”

Cara smiled at him for a few moments before uttering the words, “Illusion magic.”

He let out a sigh. Yeah, she knew he couldn’t resist that. The one type of magic that his dwarven friends still refused to share with him.

“Heroes first,” Cara said, gesturing into the void.

“Fine, fine.” Ted drew on his mana and imbued his falchion with Ignite. Fire spread up the blade, its dancing light illuminating the tunnel with a hellish red. “Let’s do this.”

“So,” Cara said, walking a little too close behind him, “what’s up with you?”

“Me?” Ted swallowed hard, trying not to let his mind wander. “Oh, you know, just worried about spirits ready to murder us.”

“You’ve been off for a while.”

Ted’s hand squeezed the grip of his sword tighter. “Now’s not the time.”

“We’re alone, and we’ve got time. This tunnel’s pretty dull.”

Ted stopped in the tunnel, his jaw clenched shut. She wasn’t going to drop it, was she? But how the hell to explain it in a way she could understand, without the universe ripping that understanding right out of her mind.

“See!” She prodded him in the back. “Spill it.”

“You being my Companion… has an effect on you.”

“Yeah—my skills and level actually go up faster than one of Reltan’s lectures now.”

“No, not that.” Ted sighed and turned around to face her. “I mean, your mind.”

She cocked her head and looked at him, swaying gently from side to side. “I don’t think so.”

“We’re going to have to fight the Divine Empire. The Emperor himself, even.”

“I know. It’ll be hard, but what isn’t? We’ll find a way!”

Ted stared at her, wishing she didn’t seem so damned enthusiastic about it. “Don’t you think it’s strange that you’re the only one willing to fight the Empire?”

“Besides you.”

“I’m a Hero. You’re a Companion. That’s the only reason we can even consider it.”

Cara took his free hand—his new, left hand—and held it in hers. “You’re my hero. You came and swept me away from Tolabar to see all these amazing new things. I’ve lived the better part of 144 springs, without ever visiting this shrine. Now I am, because I’m with you.”

“That’s exactly it—being my Companion has freed your mind in some ways, but what if it has caged it in others, in ways we can’t see?” What if you don’t really like me?

Her eyes narrowed, and time dragged out like chalk screeching on a blackboard.

“There’s a force that affects people’s minds. What if that binds Companions to their Heroes?”

“So you’re saying”—she prodded him in the belly—“that you are a mind-controlling dungeon spawn after all?”

“What?” Ted pulled back, but the prods kept coming. “No! I’m saying… I care about you, Cara. I want to see you truly free. I will see you truly free.”

“Aww. I care about you too. And we will get you home, when this is all over.”

Home. Ted stared into her eyes, pondering the question of home. What did that word even mean anymore? What had it ever meant? “Good luck with that. My apartment back home will have some other schmuck suffering it, and Tolabar’s getting abandoned.”

“You’re not… going back?” Her eyes went wide, like a puppy praying you’d let it keep the sausage it just stole. “To your world?”

Ted squeezed her hand. “Not if I can help it. Screw that world, it doesn’t even have magic.”

She squeezed back. “Guess we’ll have to pick a new village, then. Solanbar’s pretty.”

“Nah, let’s stay in Tolabar a while longer. I’ll get to call you Keeper.”

Cara shoved him. “Dream on.”

“What? I don’t want to be squeezed into some wood elven family’s living room.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Why would you be? There’s plenty of room.”

“How? Without Grow, they can’t make everyone new houses.”

Cara shrugged. “There’s plenty of empty houses.”

A chill passed down Ted’s spine. What if the Destroyer had a point? “Is the wood elven population declining?”

“Yeah. Everyone’s is. That’s what populations do.” She said it so casually, as if it were the most normal thing in the universe.

A dreadful hunch took form in Ted’s mind. “How old’s the youngest wood elf?”

“Eighteen springs, nineteen maybe? At least in Tolabar. Haven’t been many births at all for a while.”

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Ted frowned, trying to make sense of it all. What if the world was dying before his father had even arrived? Before the dungeon spawn. Before any sign that the Destroyer had awoken again.

Cara didn’t seem fazed at all by the declining populations, didn’t even seem to notice that it was insane.

He paused, and did a spot check on his own thoughts and actions. “Is it me, or is talking a lot easier than usual?”

Cara tilted her head to the side and slowly nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”

Magic, then. Ted looked around, but saw none. Whatever it was, it was well hidden. “Let’s move.”

They continued down the tunnel, Ted in front, his flaming sword lighting the way. After a few minutes, the tunnel gave way to a cavern. The cavern was around the size of a classroom, illuminated by a soft, eerie glow that left no shadows. In the center, a wooden totem stretched from the ground to the roof, engraved with Wood Elven writing.

Confront yourself, and learn.

The walls were bare rock, its jagged edges aggressively A simple rug laid out in front of the totem was the only other thing in the cavern.

For meditation, perhaps? Ted activated Archeologist’s Sight, and it confirmed his suspicions.

“What do you think it means?” Cara asked.

“One way to find out.” Ted dismissed his Imbue spell and sheathed his sword. Kneeling down upon the rug, he was immediately welcomed by its warmth and soft comfort.

Cara kneeled down beside him and closed her eyes, dropping into long, deep breaths.

Ted closed his eyes and followed suit, focusing inward.

Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Hold. Breathe out.

“Hello, Ted.”

Ted looked up to see himself standing over him. It was an exact duplicate—except for that judgmental sneer on the fake’s lips.

“You’re not real.”

Fake-Ted slow handclapped. “Oh, look who can still state the bleeding obvious.”

Cara was gone, as was the only exit, but otherwise the cavern was the same, with the same totem in the middle.

Ted pulled himself to his feet. “You’re not me.”

“Aren’t I?” Fake-Ted cackled and cast a Life spell upon himself. Heal. “I’m you if you weren’t an idiot. The you unburdened by fear. The you not crippled by guilt. The you who can kill their foes without all that hideous self-pity.”

Empathy for his enemies. Fear. Guilt. Ted stifled a chuckle. “You’re me if I’d taken Death’s deals.”

“Bingo! Ready to confront yourself?”

A fight? Ted paused. Without Heal, Dispel, or Protection magic, he’d be at a huge disadvantage. “We don’t have to fight.”

“Spoken like a true coward.” Fake-Ted drew, seemingly out of nowhere, the battlemage sword that had been stolen from Ted. “Such a whiny bitch that Father had to rob and murder you.”

Blood pounded through Ted’s temples and his fists clenched. “He chose to.”

“You’re the one who chose to be such a disappointment.”

Confront yourself. That could mean a fight, but it didn’t have to. Ted shook his head. “No. I’m not going to fight myself.”

“Of course not. Wouldn’t want to lose.”

Ted strode over to where the exit had been and thrust his arm through the wall. Or, rather, through where the wall appeared to be. “Illusions.”

“Dispel it then,” Not-Ted said, a smirk plastered across his face. “Oh, wait, you can’t!”

Ted shook his head. Even if he still had Dispel, he wouldn’t have used it. The whole purpose of coming here was to learn Illusion magic. He was exactly where he was meant to be.

Whatever magic there was, it was hidden. He had to find it. To do that, he had to make it visible.

“Cara?”

“Pathetic,” Not-Ted said, leaning against the totem. “Can’t even go five minutes without leaning on a computer program, can you?”

“Pretty ballsy thing to say, for a computer-generated illusion. Cara?”

“She can’t hear you.”

Ted growled, reluctantly having to admit that she probably couldn’t. The field that had made everything quieter must have been turned up here.

He returned to the rug and reached out, touching the invisible Cara. She jolted away at first, but relaxed once he took her hand and squeezed. Gently, giving her time to stop him, he pulled the now broken Ring of Return from her finger and deactivated its invisibility.

The invisibility enchantment upon the ring was intricate and hard to decipher. Without any other magic to compare it to, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to extract the effect and turn it into a spell.

He turned it off and on again repeatedly, studying which parts activated as he did so. There was a distinct difference between the two, with the far greater and more intricate part of the enchantment being dedicated to making it invisible than reversing it.

It took a while, but, eventually, he managed to craft a Visibility effect and turn it into a Touch spell. After checking it over in his mind a hundred times, he tested it upon the tunnel exit. “Enshirka!”

The image of a rock remained, but Discern Magic now highlighted a web of purple threads across its surface. Satisfied it was safe, Ted repeated the spell upon himself, and then on Cara, rendering her visible.

She smiled at him, and her lips moved, but he heard nothing. He tried talking back, and it was quickly clear she heard nothing either.

“Boring!” Not-Ted stood up straight and clapped his hands together. “I’ll catch you later—assuming you survive the banshee.”

He vanished, and in his wake came a woman’s scream that sent shivers down Ted’s spine. Sobbing followed—dreadful sobbing that echoed down to the depths of his soul.

“Can you hear me now?” Cara asked. “What about now? Now? How about now?”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you now.” Ted pressed his hands against his ears, trying in vain to block out the wailing cries. “Can you hear that?”

“I can hear you?”

“There’s this dreadful sobbing.” Ted gave up trying to block it out—whatever it was, it wasn’t coming in by his ears. “My duplicate implied it was a banshee.”

“Your duplicate said stuff? Mine just stared at me!”

“Lucky you.” Pain throbbed in Ted’s head, as the sobbing turned to a song of sorrow that dug under his skin. “Either we go on or back, I need this noise out of my head.”

“There has to be a hidden exit.”

“Right.” Ted prepared an Area version of the Visibility spell, and set about systematically working his way through the room.

When he cast it upon the totem, a tangled mass of Telepathy magic became visible. Ted leaned in close and studied it, struggling to follow the almost numberless threads woven together.

After studying it a while, it was clear that there were three main divisions. The largest, and most complex, was utterly indecipherable and inactive. No doubt that related to the illusionary duplicates.

The second largest was not only engaged but actively pumping as much power as it could muster into it. While more complex than the Ring of Return’s effect, it was clear that this portion related to the Invisibility effect. With its added complexity, extracting an effect from it in a reasonable time just wasn’t happening.

That left the smallest portion, which was inactive. Suspecting what it was, Ted returned to the tunnel.

The banshee’s wails dimmed, reduced, though not eliminated, by whatever magic was in the tunnel.

Ted stood still for a moment, wallowing in that quiet.

Alas, they had a job to do. He cast Visibility in the tunnel and, sure enough, there were two effects. The first was a weaker but active version of the effect in the cavern—Deafen, it had to be—while the second was a very complex version of Affect.

Ted extracted the Deafen effect and immediately cast a more powerful version of it upon himself. The banshee’s song faded into the background, and he breathed a sigh of relief. “Probably can’t hear you anymore, Cara, but if I had to listen to that wailing any longer, I’d have stabbed myself in the eye.”

He drew on his mana and cast Communicate on Cara, connecting her to him, and pushed a message to her. We might be able to communicate like this.

Silence continued. He looked at her, cocked his head, and asked if she heard him in her head.

A moment passed. Her lips moved, but he heard nothing.

Damn. He’d suspected that might be the case—Deafen blocked off magical as well as physical sounds. You can hear me, right?

She nodded, and her lips moved silently again.

A banshee’s more than we bargained for. Do you want to turn back?

Cara shook her head emphatically.

Alright. I’m going to get Illusion, then let’s go deal with that banshee and clear the dungeon.

Studying the Telepathy magic on the illusionary rocks, it didn’t take long to extract the Illusion effect. As a static illusion that applied to everyone, it was simple enough.

Casting Visibility around the walls of the cavern, he uncovered a small, wooden lever hidden in a cranny. After sharing an excited glance with Cara, he pulled it.

Golden Transmutation magic swirled the nearby rockface, and the rock parted to form a tunnel, again illuminated by a soft silvery light.

This was it. The path to the banshee.

Ted drew his falchion, re-imbued it with fire, and took the lead. The damp air in the tunnel became colder still, and a chill bit at him even through the protection offered by his robes.

After a few minutes, the tunnel widened out into a dark cavern, lit by a single shaft of moonlight. The circle of moonlight fell upon a beautiful, pale wood elven woman, with long red hair, clad in a white dress. The same one that had appeared as an image outside, no doubt.

A voice forced its way into Ted’s mind. Death. Death will visit you.

“What do you mean?”

I’m sorry for your loss. With that, the banshee threw back its head, opened its mouth, and silently screamed.

Cara crumpled to the floor, her hands held to her ears, her mouth open in a scream of her own, utterly incapacitated.

Adrenaline flooded through Ted. He pulled on his mana and hurled a Deafen Projectile at her.

Her mouth closed and she jumped to her feet, nocking an arrow.

His heart pounding, Ted turned to face the banshee. He reached deep, drawing 71 mana and weaving it into a lightning bolt spell.

End me, or I shall end you. The banshee turned translucent and charged at Ted.

Cara’s arrow flew through it, passing harmlessly through where its heart should have been.

The banshee leaned forward, its mouth opening into a gaping chasm hurtling towards Ted.

The air crackled with energy before him as he sealed the spell into a projectile. “Enmironak!”

The lightning bolt arc through the air, passed straight through the banshee, and sparked harmlessly against the stone wall on the far side.

The banshee ethereal mass barreled through Ted’s chest, biting down as it did so, ripping away part of his very existence.

48 dark damage received!

Maximum HP reduced by 48!

Ted turned just in time to see the banshee vanish through the wall. A moment later, golden Transmutation magic surged in power and sealed the exit shut.

Well, shit.