Alis led Klarric through the dungeon that was as familiar to her now as the cabin which she had reluctantly started to call home. The outer part of the dungeon was simple to traverse, and she led Klarric, hand in hers, through the second gigantic dome, which had been the home of the Dungeon Guardian.

The inner part of the dungeon looked exactly the same as the outer dungeon. With large domed rooms, that gritty floor, and dark tunnels leading between them. However, the monsters here were more frequent, more varied, and more dangerous. Still, none of the monsters had been a threat to Alis, especially after defeating the Dungeon Guardian.

Between the outer and inner dungeons, the major change was the appearance, or rather non-appearance, of a hidden passageway. It had taken Alis three whole weeks to map out the entirety of the inner dungeon, including finding the supposed central room of the dungeon where she found much useful treasure. Her sword, which Klarric had not seemed to notice, had been from that room. As was her new mail armour, which was lighter and easier to move in than her previous mail.

Maybe some parties could have found the hidden passage way sooner than her.

Maybe some parties would never have known about it.

It was because of Celameth’s message she was expecting something different than the central treasure room. She kept on searching and she found it. After running her hands over all the walls in the dark passageways and domed rooms, in one random passageway near off to one side in the inner dungeon, she felt a narrow gap within the walls.

And it was here that Alis led Klarric. She rushed through all of the dungeon, leaving behind the swirling dust devils which indicated new monsters. Finally, she reached the passageway where the hidden passageway was. Pretending reluctance, she thankfully removed her hand from Klarric’s, missing his touch and at the same time being grateful for being able to be close to him.

She did not know if he was aware of it, but it seemed to her that that one night, which she foolishly allowed, meant he had fallen deeper in love with Aggard. Aggard was now gone and her memories would be with him forever and there was no way Alis could ever compete with her perfectness.

In the darkness of the passage, she wanted to cry, so that he wouldn’t see just how much pain she was in. But she dared not, so instead she bit her lip and wiped her eyes. That hidden passageway would be somewhere around here. Alis ran her fingers along the wall and soon found the gap which indicated the hidden passageway.

With a curt command, she led the way into the hidden passageway. It was so narrow that she struggled to walk down in comfortably. At least it was tall enough that she didn’t need to worry about ducking down as she walked through it. After a long walk through the claustrophobic, dark passageway, she came out into another large passageway. This one was lit on both sides by domed rooms.

Here, within the inner part of the inner dungeon, she had seen no monster spawn. Beyond those two domed rooms were another three. Two more forming a square with these two, and a final one which lay though another hidden passageway which was straight ahead.

She headed straight forward without saying anything, hoping that Klarric would hear the crunching of her footsteps and follow her into the next hidden passageway. This one was much shorter than the previous hidden passageway and after a few random corners came out into a smallish cuboid room, not much larger than that strange bathroom she had finally gotten used to.

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Unlike the domed rooms, this room had four light sources, one in each corner of the celling. But like everything else in the dungeon, it was made of the same tedious, seemless sandstone coloured rock. Other than the shape, the other difference between this room and the other domed rooms was the presence of a central cuboid protrusion, the same relative dimensions as the room itself. In the middle of the face facing them was a small slot, into which Alis had tried to insert that strange key Celameth had given them.

Though she could insert it most of the way, nothing happened for Alis. She hoped that there was something Klarric could do, that she couldn’t. When he saw the slot, Klarric reached into his belt pouch and pulled that rectangle key out. He slid it into the slot. Unlike for her, when he slid it into the slot it went all the way in.

So there was something about the key which needed Klarric for it to operate.

As she watched, the central protrusion collapsed into countless small blocks, the largest no wider than her little fingernail. The walls of the room they were in similarly collapsed into even smaller blocks. As the multitude of blocks mixed together they formed a storm which rivalled in fierceness the greatest of storms she had heard about during the Tales of Dunkeltal.

Though it felt as if she would be lost to the depths of the never ending sea, the space around the two of them remained calm. Unwittingly she reached out to Klarric, holding his arm tight, hoping his calmness over the situation would reach her.

Before she could calm down the sea storm of blocks ended.

She found herself in a round, flat ceilinged room about the same size as the standard domed rooms from within the dungeon. In front of them, made from varying sized blocks, was a model of the almost round island of Netherfane. Unlike the rest of the dungeon, this model was coloured in many various colours. Most of it was coloured in vibrant colours, which made the island seem real, rather than just being a simple model.

Layered on top of the vibrant model was an almost transparent sandstone coloured model. This one showed a round fortress wall, dotted with rounded towers, around the permitter of the island. One formidable looking gatehouse led out to a long quayside. Bordering the quayside were two fortress walls which jutted out to sea, forming an artificial harbour.

This gatehouse was roughly positioned where the vibrant colours showed where the mudflats and stream were.

In the central field of the island, where the platforms were, were ten tall cylindrical towers. And where the domed hill was, was an equally tall, yet broader, cylindrical tower. The tops of the towers were linked to their neighbours, and the central tower, by narrow soaring bridges.

Klarric kept walking around the model, taking a long time looking at things from all angles, concentrating hard. It was almost as if he had forgotten all about her. Just like he had gone after Aggard and forgotten all about her after she had collapsed in the bath.

Klarric stood back and looked at the model. He then looked at her, with an annoying child-like glee. ‘Accept proposed changes, proceed to construction.’

She wondered what Klarric was on about when a faint shiver started running through her feet. It was not just her, but the grains of grit started shaking, too.

The once safe and stable dungeon no longer felt safe to Alis.