“Can we eat now?” said Woods, who couldn’t seem to care less about the contents of his cup. “I’ve been hungry for ages, so it was torture cooking all this up with Mrs. Lawson hovering over my shoulder.” When Zech made a snide remark, Woods said, “What? She doesn’t let me pick at the food while I cook. Do you know how weird it is to get beaten by someone else’s mother?”
“He said, motherless.”
“Shut up, Jaden. You’re an orphan, too.”
“Just eat if you want to,” said Anice, who was already munching on a roasted chicken leg. “Hey, this gravy is delicious, Woods. Maybe I can convince my papa to let you cook for us.”
As the big-bellied boy’s rounded cheeks began to redden, the others at the table rushed to dig into their food with gusto, even Corrie tackling a larger helping than usual.
Alistar found his appetite after a few cups of ale. After helping himself to a forth plate, he couldn’t help but agree with Anice’s idea of asking Caedmon to consider hiring Woods to work in the estate’s kitchens. The portly boy had been working very hard in recent months, a change in temperament that likely came about from seeing the results of his friends’ labours.
“How you boys eat so much, I’ll never know,” sighed Lessa, who subconsciously wiped a bit of grease off of Alistar’s cheek with a cloth napkin. “At least pace yourselves.”
“Are you talking to everyone,” smiled Alistar, “or to me?”
“She’s right,” said Lily, whose eyes were glued to the healthy plate that Jaden had just fixed for himself. “I know you’re eager to spend your earnings, but isn’t five helpings a little much? You’re going to upset your stomach.”
Zech shrugged, finishing off the last of a roasted drumstick. “We can’t help it. Training takes up too much energy. Honestly, most of the food we eat seems to disappear in our stomachs. At least that’s how it is for me.”
“Let me eat,” muttered Jaden. “You hardly eat anything, and I don’t judge you for it.”
“I eat!”
“Ms. Parsnip eats more than you, Lily.”
As his friends continued to joke around, Alistar caught Lessa looking at him out of the corner of her eye. She didn’t avert her gaze when he glanced over at her, but rather put on a little smile and ran her fingers over the navy blue crystal that served as the centrepiece of her silver necklace. He had gifted the fine piece of jewelry to her a few weeks back for her second Name Day—just two weeks after the triplets had turned fifteen—pure silver with a hexagonally-cut, medium-class magic crystal at the head. Since then, he’d noticed that she only ever took it off on Sundays, strictly for the short amount of time that it was necessary to wear the holy oval in its place.
Eyeing the few braids in her light blonde hair, Alistar was captivated by her innocent beauty. Although the eye contact caused him to blush, he believed that it was necessary to be brave both in matters of the sword and also of the heart. With an odd, fluttery feeling in his gut, he returned her smile with one of his own, which caused her to turn away with a reddened face. Noticing the subtle look of discomfort that Anice had on, he returned his attention to the conversation that had just taken hold at the table while wondering how to handle the mutual affections of the two girls.
“The Iron Dungeon?” Zech was saying. “No, I doubt I’ll ever try it. You’d have to be a fool to venture in there at this point.”
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“Good,” said Rosa in her quiet voice, relieved as she played around with the tip of her ponytail. “Knowing you guys, I thought it might eventually happen.”
“If Team Tempest, a black badge team with two stars couldn’t do it, then what hope would we have? Not to mention the thousand or so others that’ve also gone missing after trying to tackle the damned place.”
“Is a black badge that much better than yours?” asked Emely, who had been nibbling on a carrot up until then.
“Well, yeah. We’ve got brass badges, which are novice ones. After brass is copper, iron, steel, silver, then black. To get a new badge you need to complete about forty tasks in a row—we need ten more to get our third star, then another ten to move up to the copper ranking—but it’s really common to have to turn down tasks for all sorts of reasons so it’s pretty hard to earn even an iron badge.”
Woods washed down a mouthful of potatoes with a long swig of ale. “They were that amazing?” Stifling a burp, he added, “I wonder what kind of creatures are in those caves.” He shifted his stare towards Alistar and Anice, pudgy cheeks forming a frown. “People are saying that the count of Melsian tried the same thing that your uncles did. You know, trying to make a new crystal mine. Apparently none of the people that entered the tunnels were ever seen again.”
Jaden took on a thoughtful look. “To think that a Great Labyrinth Dungeon would appear so close to home.”
“Papa said that Grandfather got a letter from Providence Region about those tunnels. He’s been forbidden from—”
“Anne,” said Alistar, a bit stern.
“Oh, sorry guys. I wasn’t supposed to say anything about it.”
Let alone a matter between Distan and Melsian counties, the Iron Dungeon had drawn the full attention of both empires. As of last week, nobody was permitted to enter the tunnels or to even attempt to develop the areas around the only known entrance, regardless of their social stature. Alistar suspected that the holy delegation that was scheduled to visit Distan the following year might be related to the infamous labyrinth, which meant that if he eventually resorted to venturing into those treacherous tunnels in search of high-class magic crystals, it would be best to do so before the delegation arrived.
“I wish it never appeared,” said Violet, walnut gaze idling on the still surface of the liquid within her cup. “It’s kind of scary knowing that the labyrinth is so close to town. It seems like there’s something dangerous living inside of it. What if it comes to the county one day?”
Corrie threw a small piece of carrot beneath the table for Ms. Parsnip to eat, the eldest member of the Dozen no longer as withdrawn as he used to be. “That won’t happen. If it was able to kill so many people, then it’s likely a danger beast. That means it’ll be staying in those tunnels where there’s more natural energy than anywhere else. Danger beasts don’t think, after all, they just act on instinct.”
He’s right, thought Alistar, a bit more anxious as he was reminded of the fact that whatever horror it was that the dungeon was currently harbouring, the creature would likely gravitate towards any magic crystal lodes that might have formed within the tunnels. In the event that Alistar did attempt to harvest said crystals, there was a strong chance that he would have a run-in with the deadly beast.
Is it even possible? Although the madman had told him that his aura would stave off any dangers that might be lurking within the labyrinth, he wasn’t willing to take the risk of delving into its depths on that alone. Thinking of the concealment spell that he already knew along with the light bending spell that he was just beginning to learn, he resolved to do more research into invisibility magics and to re-educate himself on the behaviors of the unique predators in the region before he decided to make any monumental decisions.
“Guys,” said Emely as she noticed that more and more of the Dozen were tossing vegetables beneath the table for her furry friend. “Don’t feed Ms. Parsnip too much. She’ll get fat.”
Alistar considered Emely’s honest eyes, which were framed by her shoulder-length curls. Maybe I can bring her with me? If what Mr. Herst had said about the ‘gift of nature’ was true then even a dangerous creature like the one that had settled within the Iron Dungeon would become docile in front of her. No, he thought as he watched the short girl chastise Woods for trying to feed the rabbit a piece of roasted chicken, I can’t risk putting her in danger for my own gain. Let alone his own conscience, his mother’s soul would never forgive him if he were to treat a friend in such a way.