---James---
James rested and stretched then began to wander. He had found himself in a forest once again – one with really thick trees and large ferns.
Large bugs buzzed about his head – dragon flies the size of a small bird and monstrous looking beetles – but all he could think was how safe it felt here. A distant crash sounded out and James pivoted trying to pinpoint where it had come from.
That way?
Picking the most likely direction, James began to walk – pulling around his backpack to check his supplies.
All his spices were safe. They had survived the journey strapped to his back.
Pulling it back around, James hiked for a while breathing deeply at how fresh the surroundings felt. He needed water soon – his bottle was empty and he had sweat out plenty of fluids.
Continuing on mindlessly for a bit James found himself slowly getting more focused – a nagging sense that something had changed stood up and tried to gain his attention.
It took a few minutes of careful walking to realize what the change was – the sound of the forest was gone.
All the little things – the distant chirp of birds or small animals. The occasional sound of a fighting monster or trickle of a stream or rustle of leaves.
It was silent and suspicious because of being silent. Was there something dangerous nearby? Something strange?
Clapping his hands together James felt both like it was a gunshot echoing in the silence…as well as the fact that it sounded quieter than it should be. A slight muffle – what had changed?
Slowly spinning around and squinting at the surroundings, James spotted a flash of yellow.
There?
Making his way over to the bit of colour, James found what looked like a small yellow tent tied to a massive tree. It looked out of place in the forest. A man made structure in what was otherwise almost a prehistoric landscape.
Carefully making his way towards and then opening the flap – half expecting to be jumped by a camper or some clown or something – James found a large empty room on the other side.
The first time he had seen something of the like it was clearly bigger on the inside than the outside. The outside looked almost like a flimsy fabric structure that needed to be tied to several branches just to keep it upright. In comparison the insides were a comfortably wide area complete with solid wooden supports all around the wall.
One wall was solid wood – the part that had been facing the massive tree was open the flaps of fabric nailed to the wood on all sides.
James carefully explored – the tent was relatively empty. There was a single wooden table covered in some papers and books all written in a foreign language. There was a lantern at the ceiling and a box filled with fruit and cheese. Another box filled with what looked like a hundred sticks of different shapes colours and sizes. A third filled with some different powders and some gems James recognized as what appeared near the end of dungeons. Chips he recognized along with a few larger ones.
The most important part of the area however was not any of the man made supplies. What drew the eye was definitely what was attached to the base of the tree – something that tipped this whole tent into reminding James of a dig site or some archaeological study.
Near the bottom of the tree two thick roots split out and then wrapped around creating a mostly circular shape. All across this natural ring bits of root split and twisted into strange almost fractal like patterns. And, of course in the center of the ring was a shimmering void.
Dark Dark liquid rippled slightly in the light of the lamp – the bottom of the pool hidden from sight. Inside the pools tiny specs of multicoloured sparkles shifted and flashed in the light…the whole pool of sprinkle filled oil seemed to be constantly churning and shifting. With a closer look the trunk and inner section of this ring seemed to be filled with carved words – the only man made part of this setup. Were they part of the pool? Something the researcher or research team who made this site had added?
James looked about once more. A unbidden thought urged him to jump in the pool and see what happened but the eerie lack of any people made his rational side warn him against it.
The portion that wanted him to take the plunge argued it was probably an achievement and the risk would definitely be worth it. The rational side mentioned there was a limited number of lives left and if he died there was no guarantee he would appear on this side of the badlands…he should try and find a town or something to set his respawn point.
James argued with himself as he sat and watched the swirls move about. The two parts he was ruminating on boiled down to the lack of sound and sign of life being a pretty good warning vs he had found something and just turning around and leaving without gaining anything from it would make this seem pointless.
He finally reached out and dipped the tip of his finger into the pool feeling a slight chill and fuzzy sensation.
Slowly the fuzzy sensation moved down his arms and began swirling about his stomach. It reminded him of the feeling etching some monster parts gave. A sort of contained potential?
Dunking his entire arm down and feeling around, James braced himself half expecting something to reach out and grab him.
Instead all that happened was he found he couldn’t reach the bottom of the pool – he couldn’t even reach the sides. It was like the pool extended out underground, the entire floor resting precariously on some underground chasm that opened up and extended underneath his feet.
As James felt around, the liquid began to swirl faster – pulling his arm out he watched the swirls continue agitatedly spinning before slowly settling down once again.
A drop of liquid from his hand fell onto the carved words lighting up the entire ring in a mystical glow. After a second a blue box appeared.
Please insert information crystal to attempt artifact analysis.
James stood up, went to the box of dungeon crystals and pulled out a few different sizes.
Bringing them back to the pool he noted a glowing circle on the root and placed one of the small crystals on it.
The runes flashed brightly as the crystal crumbled to dust. A short empty pause of nothing and then – as if it had been loading or processing something – a box appeared.
Unknown well
Limited analysis:
This pool of potential has unknown uses but seems soaked in strong naturally crystalizing concepts and contains a large amount of unknown properties.
Dropping some drops of liquid on the runes once again James pulled out his biggest crystal – why not – and shoved it onto the consuming section of the spell.
A moment later the whole thing flashed – much more brightly then before – and a new blue box appeared.
The well of wandering wishes.
Partial analysis:
An unnaturally natural formation, the well of wandering wishes can grant a minor desire. Unlike a standard wishing well, this link to true magic will only aid you in achieving your wish instead of outright granting it. By stepping into the well you will be transported to a place your wish can be achieved. This might not be the best place you can achieve, nor the safest or easiest…however it will give you the chance. Because of its limited scope, the cost it enacts is smaller and more predictable. Due to an opportunity provided, cost is likely to be a small removal of an opportunity. Due to the opportunity presented being variable the end location may contain unknown dangers part of the cost being taken from the suboptimal placement. Cost scales with difficulty of gifting the opportunity but remains relatively low.
Well contains a fragment of [redacted]’s [redacted].
James looked at this much more useful lore snippit. “Alright then, so a portal pool?” He asked the surroundings then nodded to himself. Might as well use it right? If what he wanted was something he could do easily enough without the pool it wouldn’t be too bad of a cost…and just ignoring the pool and moving on felt wasteful. The box was only a partial analysis but it seemed pretty trustworthy…had a box ever lied to him yet?
More importantly James was tired of running away from things. Strength came from facing the unknown head on.
“I want to learn of magic. Of mana and how it works. I want to learn as quickly and painlessly as possible.” James spoke to the pool then waited. He noted the liquid began to swirl and churn faster as he spoke – with any luck the pool would bring him to a magic library or something and then he could scroll through some books like he had when he researched aether on the computer. Maybe there would be a giant owl or something to fight and that was the danger?
Watching the churning pool for a moment James shrugged. Nothing ventured nothing gained. He stepped up onto the edge of the ring then took a deep breath and jumped.
Jumped into the unknown.
----------------------------------------
---Maddy---
Maddy stepped into a strange looking silk building near the edge of town. A solid crystal eye hung above the door and the insides were decked out in a weird mix of items. If Maddy had to describe the building/tent in a few words she would have said it felt like a church had been crossed with a gypsy caravan. There was an alter and several stone benches as if set up for a sermon, but instead of a place to rest a religious book there was a pedestal containing a crystal ball swirling with silver smoke.
The hard benches were covered in soft red pillows and in the corner a comfortable looking nook looked like somewhere a wise old man might meditate in spiritual harmony.
Incense sticks lined the walls – all burning despite the group having only just entered the room – was there someone here constantly replacing them? The sweet and exotic scents filled Maddy’s nose causing it to twitch slightly as she breathed and looked about.
Covering every wall was tapestries. Hand weaved and painted murals depicting what looked like folklore or fairy tales – but also strangely enough, mundane scenes from the village. Maddy recognized the stage in one tapestry and noted what looked like both her and Jess standing and watching from further back. Another had her stabbing a shadowy figure holding a bow. A third had Jess caging what looked like a being of darkness in chains of gold as it fought to escape.
The building clashed slightly with the savage wedding they had witnessed. It felt comfortable and inviting – if this was a shaman church where were the severed heads in jars? The tablet proclaiming commandments all must follow or risk divine wrath?
Coming out from a back room the priest who had brought them here held a thick bundle of burning herbs. Sage and several unknown exotic smelling and looking wafts of smoke filled the air – the scent overpowering the small tendrils from the walls and making Maddy cough as they filled her mouth.
“What’s this for?” Maddy asked even as the woman responded for the first time. “Parrot tongue and thistleweed plus some singing sage to mask the scent. Just a trick to break down some language barriers. Nothing more.” The woman spoke gesturing towards the benches and sitting down on her own.
Spoke in English. Responded to Maddy’s English question. She hadn’t even translated herself yet.
“So tell me, do you wish to re affirm your task? Learn what fate has in store for you so you may face your destiny with acceptance? Or do you already know and simply need me to give you the tools you might need. As a humble cog in the grand design I’m able to help all who may be lost or confused.” The priest spoke. The woman managed to look both regal and comfortably relaxed as she sat and spoke ‘towards them’ like a teacher.
“What’s up with that wedding?” Jess chimed in. “The woman didn’t seem thrilled to be there.”
The priest smiled kindly at her outrage. “Everything happened as it should be. Tyrissa found her soulmate – the one she was destined to marry and have kids with and quite obviously fell in love. She asked to see what fate had in store for her and grew dismayed to learn her destiny led her into a unhappy marriage with no escape. Attempting to rebel against fates grand plan she wanted to call off the wedding and attempted to run away. The ceremony you witnessed was simply a correction. A simple spell to keep her bound to her husband – nothing dangerous.
“Now if her blasphemy was allowed to continue? That would be the real danger. She would have brought ruin to our village. Her children you see are destined to save us from the shattering that will happen in twoscore years…and fates plan tends to be the most benevolent of outcomes for the majority. I too empathize with her fate but nothing can be done,” Shaking her head in sympathy the priest ended her explanation – as if it made perfect sense.
“She wanted to escape a miserable life! How could you blame her?” Jess’s voice rose in anger even as Maddy felt a twinge.
She’d run away from an unhappy marriage herself after all – this random women’s situation brought bad memories to her mind. Could she really stand by and let them do this?
…it’s a dungeon. Maddy tried to convince herself it was just some lore.
She found it hard to move past – what was the difference between the natives to this dungeon and the natives outside the dungeon? What was the difference between her and them? Were they simply people being mind controlled and forced to act out a play? Were they humanoid monsters? Did it matter?
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
A part of her focused on the conversation and added her own question.
“What did you mean by our task?” Maddy asked.
Smiling and nodding the woman answered. “Since long ago, your arrival was foretold. You will appear signaling hope but also revealing a hidden evil. For somewhere amongst our number there is a calamity. A calamity not even I can scry – one that will grow and spread corrupting more and more of our people. You are destined to stop this evil. ‘To appear from far away, route out the corruption and then leave within but a single moons cycle’. The prophecy names you and your companion ‘The inquisitors’.
“We have been expecting you.”
…
The two girls left the church with mixed feelings. In their hands a positive wealth of herbs and trinkets had been given. Bundles of translation incense they could burn to speak to people. Bundles of future sight incense the ‘holy’ blend containing deep concepts that could help them scry the future on their ‘quest’. A locket that could be used to contact the priest if they were unable to come back and ask her questions, a metal tag they could show as ‘proof’ they were the inquisitors. A dagger that could be used to stab the ‘great evil’ should they be unable to kill them on their own, an old fashioned pair of handcuffs inlaid with ruby gems in case they decided to take the evil alive for whatever reason. A bag of marble sized herbs they could burn to cleans themselves of ailments, a small bag of strange looking coins they could use to rent a place or buy food while they routed out the problem.
It was a lot.
A lot of free tools and both of them were conflicted over both their task and and the amount of help they were being given to complete it. Was this really it? Was this really a rank 3 dungeon? One that told them exactly what to do and then gave them all the tools to complete it?
…was the real goal to fight this destiny and ignore the future?
All the warning they suddenly received was a few small pebbles landing nearby. With a deafening crash a massive boulder suddenly impacted the payment in front of them, smashing deep into the ground and peppering them with shrapnel.
Jess jumped forward and expanded a barrier to catch most of the blast, but Maddy still came away with a streak of blood running down her cheek.
The two stared in shock at what had just happened. They could be attacked at any time – this was a dungeon after all – just a few more steps and they would have been squished ‘randomly’.
A closer look at the impact sight saw something even stranger. All around the embedded boulder a scribble of chalk moved – almost like those lines of chalk you saw in crime scenes.
Looking around Maddy pointed at another chalk circle. One of the ones drawn by the child.
Jess turned and stared between the two putting together what Maddy had just realized. Jess then nodded holding her barrier in front of the pair keeping them both safe from any further shrapnel.
They waited in silence for a moment before with a crash another boulder obliterated the cobblestones around the marked area.
“We have to figure out a permanent sort of future sight as soon as possible” Maddy muttered staring at the impact in dread. This dungeon had a theme and boy was it committing to it.
…
Maddy trickled mana into her wooden eye pushing more and more until her spell activated. This time she followed her future self’s tip and created a churning lightlife middle then wrapped it in a shell of darkness. The darkness seemed to hold the light contained and around the pupil a thin film of transparent darkness lay. The viewing light seemed to pass through this film of darkness and…polarize? The view of the world through this eye was dark as if she were looking through strong sunglasses, but alive with smoke that swirled and showed stuff happening about.
Future her had definitely upgraded the spell even if Maddy didn’t understand everything that had been written down. Was the dark shell reflecting the light around inside? Maddy didn’t have a reflection concept how was that working?
Even incredibly boosted and optimized, this spell still cost too much. It lasted much longer than her first attempt, but Maddy could still only run the spell for a dozen minutes before it broke apart and she needed to wait the 20 or so minutes for both pools to refill with one cannibalizing the other.
Maddy would have preferred the spell either cost as much as her regeneration to maintain letting her keep in on constantly…it also sucked how vulnerable it left her to be empty. She still had her life and death pool to draw upon and react to something she saw…but it felt weird to walk around as nothing more than an infrequent scout.
The two explored the entire village Maddy spotting several boulders – all but one landing on chalk circles – as well as several interactions between villagers happen right before they ‘happened’.
More importantly, the smoke of her spell showed her and Jess enter and leave buildings shaking their heads feeling like it was invalidating the search somehow. If she had entered and not found anything in the future why did she need to enter and not find it the second time? future her had shown off they hadn’t found anything there.
Not following in future Her’s footsteps, had first given an ominous feeling and then nearly had them walk into one of the boulders falling off the impossibly tall cliff beside them.
If they had just followed future her they would have missed the boulder completely – it felt almost like a warning shot of some god smiting the earth right in front of them.
Besides the on again off again exploration Maddy had time to think. On one hand she didn’t like the goal of the dungeon on the other it felt like there was a lesson it was trying to impart? In terms of the destined hero plotline they had been given…it was strange in a few ways. For one Troy hadn’t been mentioned once. Just Maddy and her companion. The fact it was her and a companion and not just the pair of them was also weird – was it just because she was party leader? Why…why wasn’t Troy mentioned.
Was…was he the “Hidden evil?” was the path to dungeon completion actually beating him?
The thought flickered into Maddy’s mind unbidden and unwanted.
As soon as it entered her mind, she couldn’t ignore the bad thought. Was…was that what the dungeon was leading up towards? It slotted suddenly into place – if they could only scry the dungeon and Maddy brought with her the ‘great evil’…the pictures had a shadowy figure, was that Troy using his dark mana?
Was the intended way for this dungeon to be completed to turn on her companion?
It made a sick sort of sense to Maddy as she continued to be led about the town by her future self. The real question was what happened if she refused. Would refusing to kill off her party member kill them all? Would that switch the dungeon to hardmode as she fought against the ‘absolute’ power of ‘fate’?
Troy had two lives left, if it let them complete the dungeon maybe that was a sacrifice they had to take.
What the hell is wrong with me? Maddy stopped in her tracks. Had she really just entertained the idea? A part of her placated that through, whispering they didn’t know if Troy was the great evil yet anyways. She didn’t want to be this type of person. She would not step over her friends just to succeed no matter how easy it might make things. She had just been thinking about things practically. That was all.
A shadow moved across the world at that moment.
The sun had reached the cliff behind them and the shade cast by the sun plunged the village into darkness.
A chill fell over Maddy as she stood there blinking in the sudden shade. Darkness had come…in seconds. How high was the cliff that it could shift its shadow that quickly?
It felt like an omen.
“Want to…call it a night and try and find a place to sleep at eat?” Maddy asked Jess turning to find her friend gone.
“Well that’s a good sign” She muttered to herself.
Maddy did not understand how she had missed Jess leaving. She looked about for the part of herself that was supposed to be keeping an eye on the surroundings and found there was nothing there…had she forgotten to leave some focus there?
Maddy missed her scythe more than anything else in that moment. She could imagine feeling it in her hands – could imagine gripping the smooth wood for comfort – the blade and knowledge of how to fight with it a potential weapon even without mana.
The future version of her began to walk away in that moment. It seemed she had made up her mind to head that way instead of standing in the streets? Not understanding the strangely solid version of her selves thought process – but, realizing movement was better than anything else – Maddy followed her ghost. Her hands were held tensely at her sides fingering the attack runes on her robe.
Future her stopped and nodded to a figure ahead receiving something and as Maddy approached she found an old woman exiting her house and nodding to her.
“Alk, ish-ahn mally” the woman said as soon as she passed.
“Pardon?” Maddy paused at the woman watching as she passed a small tart across to her.
Two thumbs up and a warm smile was all Maddy got from the old lady before she turned and Maddy continued on.
Where was she going? Did she even know? Was future her following a future future her endlessly none of them knowing where they were going but following each other blindly in a conga line?
The solid ghost in front of her opened a door to a house and entered it confidently. Maddy paused and entered after her the already opened door closing as she entered the room.
In the middle of this house a giant mirror sat the mirrored version of herself sitting in front of it calmly.
“Why am I about to do that? Maddy muttered as she stepped towards the ghost.
“Delineate,” Her copy smiled reaching out her fingers snapping shut in a pantomime of scissors.
A sharp pain caused Maddy to jump back as her fingers fell off the stumps gushing an incredible amount of blood.
“Wha-“ Maddy yelped in absolute shock even as her mirrored copy rose her fingers up towards her and spoke again.
“And that’s too dangerous as well…Delineate,” Maddy’s copy had grabbed Maddy’s tongue as soon as she opened her mouth. The twisted copy pulled it out even as she snipped it with her second hand.
Maddy’s mouth filled with coppery blood, the liquid running down her throat even as she struggled to both comprehend what was happening and react. She was under attack – she couldn’t used sound. She only had death mana to defend herself with and life mana to heal herself with. A flash of life mana shot towards the self healing runes in her shoulder and then cutting it out after a second Maddy pushed death mana towards her only non sound attack spell embroidered into her hip.
Her copy did not let up her attack for a single second – as soon as she finished cutting off Maddy’s tongue, the copy had stepped back and begun to chant. The copy had a cruel mocking smile covering her face as she watched Maddy try and fend her off. “Destroy and rip and tear my weakness, Rend cloth spellwork in tawin, delineate the past and sever fate. Delineate” Maddy’s clothes ripped and shredded even as the death mana began to condense into a method of defense. Maddy desperately grabbed at the fading spellwork tossing the full might of her imagination and visualization skills at completing the spell without a source. Attempting to grab the unstable maggot with her fingerless hand Maddy tossed the maggot towards her copy. She couldn’t be this outclassed – this was her she was fighting after all wasn’t it?
The copy let the maggot impact her front and watched it wiggle into her stomach.
“Phase” Maddy’s copy spoke even as she stared at her stomach a slight grin appearing as the wound closed. “Thanks for the healing dear but that was unnecessary,” Maddy stood naked and vulnerable and shocked before mirrored self.
What was she supposed to do? Why was she this outclassed? How was her future self using this many spells in rapid sequence – why would she ever do this to herself?
Blood trickled down Maddy’s front and sides dripping from her mouth and stumps. The short burst of healing had not been enough to fully close her wounds and most of them had reopened.
Maddy’s copy grabbed her roughly – manhandling her own body in surprising cruelty as she pulled Maddy down and grabbed the handcuffs they had been given earlier. “Aww, don’t worry. I know I’m dumb, I’ll give you a minute.”
Maddy’s copy handcuffed her hands behind her back even as Maddy struggled fruitlessly. Her copy pushed her to the ground and held her on her side even as the copy rifled with practiced ease and removed the knife they had been given.
Slowly carefully Maddy’s copy began to cut a rune into her side.
Maddy screamed as her shade worked – this slow burning sting hurt more than losing her tongue and fingers. It hurt more than any of the cuts or bruises she had gained adventuring. It somehow hurt more than melting her own flesh with death mana had.
The spell was drawn out in a torturous – frankly unnecessary feeling – way.
Maddy found it hard to pull herself together and try to react. Her copy finished the job and pulsed her own healing spell across Maddy. A slow, incredibly weak sort of healing that closed the cuts leaving scars. A slow healing that finished sealing over her fingers and stopped Maddy’s severed tongue from killing her from bloodloss.
A slow healing that left scars.
Maddy’s copy stood up and began to drag her down stairs in the corner. She was being brought to the buildings cellar – her copy seemed to be struggling at least to drag her even if Maddy wasn’t struggling anymore. Her bare skin scraped across the rough stone floor and painfully hit each stone step as they descended into the darkness.
“Light banish the night” Maddy’s copy spoke as they descended, causing the cellar to glow slightly the walls themselves hit by her light mana.
“hhrsk” Maddy choked trying to speak through her lack of a tongue even as she was pulled off two steps to land painfully on the floor below.
Her copy laughed as she continued bringing Maddy to a wall producing ropes and somehow cutting a looped hole into the stone wall to fasten her to.
“Why you ask?” Maddy’s copy asked looking down into her eyes. “Ah well, I have to regenerate my mana anways. Might as well pass the time. I…am the real you.”
Maddy looked questioningly at that even as her double finished chaining her to the wall and stepped back to admire her handywork.
“Time travel…isn’t a part of reality you see and I’ve already completed this dungeon once. It’s a long affair even if it's easy. The married woman you saw? Yeah she’s the ‘great evil’ you are supposed to defeat. She tries to fight against fate and fate sends you to put down her rebellion. Simple enough plotline. Takes a few days for her to start cursing people and the only hard part of taking her down is keeping her alive when you do it. Her children still need to stop something in the future after all and killing her results in a fail condition.” Maddy’s copy talked.
Maddy had wanted information…but not like this. It was good to know the dungeon wasn’t planning on turning her against her party. Just…act against a trapped woman and perpetuate its helpless story.
“And then we left the dungeon, we got our reward from the mage queen running this place and learned of domains and magic…to paraphrase domains are our truth. The way magic works for us and those in our domains. Remember how that necro bastard had us use soul magic, his runes working for us? That’s because we were in his domain. His rune wouldn’t have worked for us if we weren’t gifted it through the truth of how magic around him works. This dungeon also has a domain that can gift its concepts of stupid helpless destiny and inside of its domain – its truth that time travel exists and its prophetic concept can see it...well that breaks reality.” Maddy’s copy explained herself even as the last signs she was a shade vanished her form looking as real as Maddy.
“The truth of the matter is, you are nothing more than a conjuration…a creature created by the dungeon the ‘truth’ of its domain telling everyone you are my past self. Within the world that is this dungeon you are real, but as soon as I leave again, that ‘truth’ shifts to a ‘lie’. Your existence will fade once more. Maybe you’ll fade before that as well as my own domain starts resisting this stifling world. I reject this domain. I reject this truth.” Maddy’s copy yelled that last line her eyes flashing as she walked across the room to pick up a scythe.
Maddy’s scythe…returned?
Her copy continued to tell its story returning to its seat and stroking Maddy’s scythe. It was her scythe - she could feel it...hers in truth. maddy tried to reach out for it but the focus was too far away...it wasn't hers. She should have been able to activate a spell on it from this distance but...it felt like her scythe was ignoring her to snuggle up closer to the fake in front of her.
The story continued.
“Right now…even through you are a conjuration, the truth of this dungeon and truth of ‘you being my past’ means anything I do to you happens to myself. Has happened to my self more like. If I kill you I will die as well, the truth of time means you ‘have’ to gain the rewards of this dungeon and leave to talk to the queen and get your scythe back like I did. Of course, before it reaches that point I’ll have broken this fake truth. I can already feel its hold over me weakening. My goal…my goal is to break this dungeons shitty domain over me and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. This helpless story of a damsel trying to escape a desperate situation? Acting like a puppet to fates whims – forced to suppress the freedom of one for the good of some bastard group? Forced to play out this story any act against it an unavoidable fail condition and death? That’s what this is about, I’m replacing the past to change the future.” Maddy’s copy finished her monologue in a matter of fact manner and went still. A cool rage had simmmerd just under the copies tone and yet she hadn’t shouted again. Her rage was calm and controlled. Instead of raising her voice her copy had calmly described the situation while clenching the scythe hard enough to leave her knucles white.
Maddy knew her own ticks and saw half a dozen signs her copy was angrier than she could ever remember herself being…and yet it was all wrong. Maddy knew herself – she knew she wouldn’t do this in this situation. This copy…this copy wasn’t her.
…Maddy’s mind reeled over the revelation of magic even as she glared back at her copy matching her angry eyes. Even if she wanted to break fate Maddy couldn’t imagine herself acting like this. She couldn’t imagine this copy was her – of course Maddy was real, this shade was the fake created by the dungeons truth or whatever.
That wasn’t a full description. It hadn’t explained everything properly. Maddy was missing something important…but this was enough.
So this was a ‘her’ that had already beaten the dungeon. A ‘her’ that had gained whatever rewards and concepts the dungeon had given her. A her that…a her that had managed to get her scythe back from the lake below.
A her that was stronger than her in every way…this was a Maddy who had everything Maddy had and more…a Maddy who had been able to prepare spells specifically to beat herself. No wonder Maddy had lost.
…”What?” Maddy’s copy seemed annoyed by her glare. “Don’t tell me you wouldn’t do this too because you did and will. I’m stronger than you because I learned the real secrets of magic and committed.”
Maddy’s copy jumped up and stared down at her with wild eyes. Broken eyes. “I committed, I finally went about gaining a third affinity. There’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing I could do and now that’s you! That’s you because you are nothing more than a fake past!”
Her copy rapidly began sounding more unhinged as she backed away and walked up the stairs continuing to stare as if afraid Maddy might lunge at her as soon as she stopped looking. Her copy kept glancing down at Maddy’s breasts as if they were triggering her somehow.
“I’m not you anymore. I’m not going to be helpless. You’re not her! I’m the one who controls people – I’m not going to be controlled by others!” The copy’s voice continued to float down to Maddy. The mirror image of her smashed the mirror in the room above yelled something about Maddy “not being her, not being me” and then left the house the slam of the front door cutting Maddy off.
…
What was Maddy supposed to do now?