Duke stood by himself in front of the dungeon. It had been closed for the past week following the attempted robbery. He had to turn away a few very upset people, but they wouldn’t be able to open the door even if they had tried. Most of them had before giving up and going home.

A cat stopped in front of Duke and stared.

“Are you a normal cat or are you a dungeon cat?” Duke asked.

The cat just meowed at him in response.

Duke sighed.

“What am I doing here?”

***

“WELCOME TO SHOP OF SPREEN- oh it’s just you,” Spreen exclaimed before dropping the act.

“Nice to see you too, Spreen,” Jasper said.

“So what do you want now?” Spreen asked.

“There’s been a powerful wizard poking around the dungeon and we want to find out what she wants before there’s a problem,” Jasper explained, ignoring Spreen’s attitude.

Spreen’s eyes grew wide.

“Oh, what does the wizard want?” Spreen asked cautiously.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out,” Jasper explained, “we were wondering if you could ask the same people to pass on a message to Hilda the wizard if they run into her.”

Spreen rubbed her chin.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

***

“Ok you can do this,” Zee told himself as he put the finishing touches on his magic circle, “The first eight tries didn’t work, but with a few adjustments, the ninth time is the charm.”

Zee waved his wand above the circle, lighting the sigils as he went.

“Oh I think it’s coming into focus,” Zee said as he made some final adjustments.

“Ah yes there it is!” he exclaimed.

Nothing but the sound of a low rumble could be heard from the magic circle.

“Well everything is working, but it’s not like this gives us anything to really work with,” he muttered as he continued to listen.

***

“Hilda, I don’t want to be rude...” Alma began as she double checked the apparatus Hilda had dragged out of some corner of the tower.

“Ask away Alma,” Hilda said with the patience of one who had been over the same topic several times in the past.

“Well the luck detector was so hastily constructed, but why have we taken over a week to make sure that this… helmet is working properly?,” Alma asked with a pause.

“Excellent question,” Hilda began, “you see dear Alma, mind altering magic tends to fall into one of two categories. The first is the dominating type. It is designed in such a way that it compels the victim to perform an act by inciting fear, pleasure or some other strong emotion. It’s immediately effective, but also incredibly easy to detect. The second type is much more insidious. It takes an idea and implants it into the victim’s subconscious. Over time, not even the victim won’t be able to tell if the implanted idea is their own or not. The second type is also much more difficult to detect. Anything in between is typically not powerful enough to be effective, like a bad intrusive thought.”

“And this device is designed to detect the second kind?” Alma asked, glancing at the odd contraption.

“Precisely,” Hilda said, “If it’s not tuned just right it can miss the subtle spell lattice amid the incredibly complex natural mana flow in a person’s brain.”

“Aren’t you worried that the dungeon might do something in the meantime?” Alma asked.

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“Subtle mind control works on a timeline of months,” Hilda replied, “we’ve got enough time to make sure we don’t miss anything.”

There was a momentary pause.

“So how much longer until we’re done?” Alma asked.

“Sometime today, I’d imagine,” Hilda replied.

“Finally,” Alma whispered under her breath.

***

“Ok I think that does it,” I said “thanks again for all of your help.”

“No problem, Mr. House,” Carmen said cheerfully.

“If it means getting an appropriate defense, I’m glad to help out,” Midnight yawned.

“Now time for the grand re-opening!” I exclaimed as I opened the magical lock on the front door.

To the surprise of no one, there wasn’t a flood of people demanding to sell me junk and gamble.

I sighed, “I know we didn’t exactly get a ton of people coming by, but this is just sad.”

“Is that man Duke still waiting out front?” asked Carmen.

The cat that I had assigned to watch him confirmed that he was still out there.

“Yep, he’s been coming by pretty regularly for the past week or so,” I said.

“Well what are we waiting for?” asked Midnight, “let’s invite him in.”

***

“Another day of staring at that cat,” Duke thought to himself.

He knew it was the same cat because the stripes were in the same place. At least he thought so.

“Maybe I’ll call it early today,” he thought before the cat suddenly got up and dashed to the front of the dungeon.

Duke stood up as he watched the door open and the cat slip inside.

He fully expected the door to slam close, but the door remained open.

“I guess it’s open for business again,” Duke muttered before marching to the door.

Duke stopped at the entrance. Not only because he wanted to assess why the dungeon had been closed for the past week and a half, but there was now an iron fence that barred entry.

The two scions were sitting calmly on an elevated platform with a small, single person door next to the white cat and a large door big enough for a wagon next to the black cat.

“Well I see you got some security since the break in,” Duke said, not quite sure of where he needed to look when addressing the dungeon.

The white cat meowed happily at him while the black cat simply stared.

“Mind if I take a look around?” Duke asked as he addressed the white cat.

The cat meowed again and opened a small antechamber.

“I guess I head in?” Duke thought as he took a step forward.

The gate shut slowly behind him before he was enveloped in a glow.

His sword tugged at his belt as a drawer opened at his feet.

Duke looked at the white cat, “are you serious?”

The cat meowed at him again.

Duke sighed again before taking off his short sword and after a moment’s hesitation put it in the drawer. The drawer slid closed and opened again and in the sword’s place was a key.

Duke picked up the key and put it in his pocket.

“I guess I’m getting that back later,” Duke muttered as the gate in front of him slid open and he was allowed access into the gambling hall.

He couldn’t be sure, but he was almost positive that the dungeon had gotten bigger since his last visit. The coin cabinets had turned into the main attraction, but the humble Blind Hydra booth still remained except near the entrance so all the white cat would need to do is turn around.

The floor had also changed, going from a smooth stone floor to a tiled stone floor.

Duke felt naked without his sword in the dungeon with the ever present feeling of being watched.

He wasn’t sure if it was his nerves or if there was something with the new tiling on the floor, but his adventuring instincts were acting up again.

“Well it looks like you changed some things around,” Duke said in a controlled tone.

Duke wasn’t sure how a cat could meow sarcastically, but somehow the black cat managed to pull it off.

Duke sighed.

“Look I’m not sure how much you care, but the orc and goblin are all right. We even got the orc’s arm reattached,” He said.

Duke could have sworn that there was a change in the air. Relief maybe?

“Anyway I’m going to go. Everyone was worried when you decided to close up shop,” he said as he turned around and started for the door.

“You’ve been helping out a lot of people whether or not you realize it,” Duke said as a parting comment before exiting.

***

“Well it seems like the new bouncers are going to be a resounding success,” Carmen grinned, “looks like Duke didn’t even notice they were there.”

“I’m almost looking forward to the next time someone tries to disturb us,” Midnight chimed in as several dark panther-like figures seemingly materialized out of nothing.

“Yeah,” I said absentmindedly as I chewed over Duke’s words.

Tom’s new purring rumbled like thunder around me. Strangely enough it was still comforting.