It seems Theo’s first day in the dungeon went poorly. He’s got a few cuts and scrapes, which I take care of right away. Marika is fussing over him like a mother hen and it’s kind of funny, but it’s clear that Theo is demoralized.

“First floor is a system of tunnels, and it’s filled with goblins,” he says between bites of food. “I only made it about ten minutes before I had to flee. Turns out fencing is fine against nobles and people in general, but monsters don’t follow the rules!”

“I suspected as much,” says Marika. “You should have worn more armour!”

Theo’s deepsteel breastplate sits on the floor beside him. It’s completely unharmed, of course. He taps it with his knuckles. “Wish I had a full set of this. They broke their spears and blades on it when they hit. Too bad they didn’t all aim for my belly. I would have been fine.”

“What do you think about my new outfit?” I stand up and twirl, not that it does anything for my appearance. Also, when I lift my hands over my head I hit the ceiling. Being tall isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

“Looks good, but how’d you get it done so fast?” Marika is examining the seams and fit of my top while I stand there.

I tell them the story of Ash and her apprentices, and then demonstrate the self-repairing property of my clothes. Theo groans.

“I had to buy new breeches and a tunic today because the goblins absolutely wrecked mine. I wish I had an in with a magical clothier.”

“Magical?” I tilt my head. “I assumed it was just a… thing.” Even as I speak I realize how dumb that sounds.

“Most clothes don’t mend themselves, you know? It’s a bad deal for the tailor. Or leatherworker, or seamstress, or whatever. They make money from repairs as well as sales. But there’s things the Guilds sell in limited quantity to their favoured journeymen that can add wondrous properties to crafted objects.”

Theo chimes in too. “I’d love a self-sharpening sword. Better yet, one that never needs to be sharpened at all!”

Hmm. I might be able to help with that. Something to consider in the future. It’s not like I’m running out of teeth.

We finish our meal while discussing what would be the best kind of magic for our clothing would have. I am strongly in favour of bottomless pockets, but that’s apparently not a thing. There’s rings that can store items, and Marika has two, but you can’t just make pockets of holding. That’s kind of a letdown, honestly.

As Marika couldn’t find a new place to stay, we book another week in the Bedrock. This time we have to shift our rooms around a bit due to a larger party needing more space. I wind up across the building from the others. It’s all right, though. I know they’re there.

The next day we convene over breakfast. It’s time to make some plans. Theo is scarfing down eggs and salted meat as fast as he can.

“I’m meeting a couple people this morning to see if I can join their party. The dungeon isn’t a place for loners.”

Marika nods. “Make sure they don’t take advantage of you. You’re green but you’ve got skills that they can use.”

Theo puffs up with pride at her words. She glances at me and winks. Boys. I nod, not that I’d know.

“Ellie and I are going to check out a property. It’s a shop with a home above. Very cheap.”

I gulp my food too fast. “What? I thought I would be a…”

Marika blushes. I smell embarrassment and a little shame. “I was wrong the other day. I should have taken you with me. I never planned to leave you behind. I know we’ve only been friends for what, a week or so? But…”

She trails off and I nod. It’s cool. I understand. “I don’t really have a plan at all, so I’m happy to tag along with yours. Let’s go check this place out.”

The town smells. I’ll never get over it, I think. But there’s a spring in my step and I’m happy to be with a friend. Marika, for her part, also seems chipper.

“So why’s this place so cheap?”

Marika tilts her head. “I’m not sure. Seems too good to be true. But I’d be a fool not to check it out. A merchant looks for every opportunity.”

That sounds like a line from a company training manual but I don’t say anything. Marika’s excited and why wouldn’t she be? She’s taking a step toward her dream.

What about me, though? What do I want? When I learned what Jinx did to me—for me—I thought it’d be a cakewalk. I’d make potions and sell them and just live easy. But instead things got kind of… complicated.

“What if…” I let myself trail off, which satisfyingly shows up as ellipses on my transcription.

“Hmm?” Marika slows to read my words. “Don’t be shy, Ellie. Spit it out.”

“What if I used your storefront as a front for selling potions? Wait, I don’t want to say used, exactly. Like, I don’t want you to think I’m taking advantage of you. But with all this guild silliness, and me being kind of blacklisted all over the place, I don’t have a way to really make use of what I can do.”

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“That’s not true at all. You could sell potions to adventurers in the dungeon. The guilds don’t have any mandate over what happens in the dungeon, even if it happens in a town in there.”

“Wait, what? Towns? in the dungeon?”

“Well, of course. There’s at least two that I know of, one on the second stratum and one on about.. the tenth? The one with the enormous windmills everywhere.”

“Enormous what?”

It seems my understanding of the dungeon is not only limited but mostly wrong. Marika gives me the quick rundown.

“The dungeon is made up of a number of floors, or strata. First stratum is a maze of tunnels, but it’s mapped out near the entrance points. There’s four known entrances to that stratum, and nobody has ever walked from one to another. It’s believed that the stratum might be impossibly large. Second stratum is called the Endless Fields, and it’s only got one known entrance. That entrance is controlled by something hostile, or at least nobody has ever left via the second stratum and returned. The Fields are almost completely free of hostile life and there’s a whole bunch of communities that live there. It’s good farmland but you can only grow dungeon plants on that floor. So there’s a lot of weird foods that you can’t get up here.”

“If there’s only one entrance and it’s dangerous, how do you get there?”

“Ah, sorry! I meant there’s only one entrance from that stratum to exit the dungeon. You can get to the second stratum via the first or third. That’s how they name the strata; by the strata that connect them. So if a stratum can be reached via the first and third floors, it’s called the second stratum because it’s logically between the other two.”

“That’s all neat, but it’s not that helpful to me. I can’t enter the dungeon, remember?”

Marika lowers her head. “Oh, yes. That’s a problem. I forget sometimes how much is tied to guild membership.”

We arrive at the address. There’s a lady waiting outside wearing a long dress and carrying something like an attache case. She’s probably the agent who found the place for Marika.

“Yoo-hoo! Marika! It’s me, Hayley!” The woman waves to us and shakes Marika’s hand. Then she turns to me. “And you must be the famous Ellie.” She doesn’t shake my hand, but she doesn’t seem intimidated by me either.

At least, not on the surface, I can smell fear on her but she’s doing a great job keeping it hidden. How professional! I nod. “That’s me. I promise I don’t bite.” I flash my teeth, but she still doesn’t break her collected demeanour. Very impressive!

“So as you can see, this is…”

Hayley explains everything to Ellie. I listen with half my attention, but there’s something funny about the place. I can hear water flowing and smell something a little off. Rotten meat? Maybe. The smell is just strong enough for me to smell it, so I assume Marika isn’t picking up on it.

“Excuse me. Where’s the water coming from?”

The agent freezes. “There’s an old aqueduct behind the building. It runs underground for most of its length but it surfaces here. Let’s go take a look!”

Marika and I follow her. Walking through he shop and house shows they are in good repair. Out behind is a small yard and yep, there’s the water I heard.

It’s constrained by stonework and disappears into the ground just before it leaves the yard. The water seems clear, but I can smell that scent still.

“The water isn’t safe to drink, or at least nobody’s tested it. Don’t worry, though. The shop and house both have their own cistern that is filled weekly. That’s included with the rent!” She shows us where the filling station is for the cistern, and then the pump for it. That’s a nice bonus, not having to fetch water from a communal well.

“Let me talk to my partner here,” says Marika. After a moment I realize she means me, and we step aside. “What do you think, Ellie?”

Marika wants my opinion? I feel pressured but also proud. “Well, there’s room for everyone. Even Caine and the other two, if they share a room.”

She nods. “That’s important. Caine’s been pretty antsy about staying apart from us, but he also didn’t want to be a burden on our finances. Anything else?”

“When she says the water in the old aqueduct isn’t safe, she means it. I can smell something there that isn’t pleasant.”

Marika tilts her head. “Really? I didn’t smell anything. You’ve got a good nose, Ellie.”

“Other than that it seems.. fine? You said the rent is reasonable?”

“Yes! Although, we do have to lease it for a full year to get that rate. And pay half in advance.” Marika winces, but when I’m about to voice a concern, she shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. I have the money. It’s just a big commitment. Also, it’s the only place I’ve found that has room for all of us. You included. After all, you’re the reason I’m here at all.”

For a second I can’t breathe. I didn’t realize how hard I’d been hoping for this, that Marika would let me stay with her. I have nowhere else to go, but all my life I was someone’s burden. It felt wrong to just outright ask, and now she’s offering me a home. It means more to me than I ever imagined.

I draw a deep breath. “I say do it. It’s just a year. Worst case you make Theo pay the rent from his dungeoneering riches.”

Marika laughs. “No, worst case you and I busk out front doing the trained troll act for coppers!” She looks at me and I stare at her. Then I smell panic. “It was just a joke, Ellie! I don’t mean—“

I grin and snort a little. “No, it’s fine. I just didn’t want to scare Hayley with the sound of a troll laughing.” But I wind up laughing anyway at Marika’s face when she thought I was angry at her.

Hayley is standing a polite distance away. No doubt she heard Marika’s side of the conversation but she couldn’t have read mine. When Marika shakes her hand, the woman looks like a huge weight has fallen from her shoulders.

“All right! Then shall we settle up here? I have the contract already written and enchanted.” She pulls out a wooden tube with a cork on the end and from it draws out a scroll. “Just need your blood here and here.”

“Can I borrow one of your nails, Ellie?”

Marika pokes her fingertip on my talon and dabs her blood on the scroll in two places. The agent does the same, although she uses a tiny silver knife to prick her own finger. There’s a weird flash and then the scroll duplicates itself. Wow! That’s the most magical thing I’ve seen since I got here, I think. Other than the monsters and the portal to the doom dimension and the whole thing with me making potions from thin air, of course. Now that I think about it, that’s the most mundane magic I’ve seen so far. Mundane magic—that’s got to be an oxymoron.

“Keys are here. Move in any time. Please pay the rent directly to me on the first of each month, Failure will deduct from your initial deposit and once that runs out, the contract penalties will kick in.”

Hayley leaves us. I turn to Marika. “Penalties?”

“Indentured servitude. Bond slavery, basically. Don’t worry!” She can obviously tell I’m a little concerned at her words. “It’s just me that would be bound. You didn’t sign anything.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about!” I sigh and shake my head. “Let’s go tell everyone. We can leave a message at the guild for Theo. Oh, and I know just the place for lunch.”

Everything went better than expected, which means I’m already suspicious. In my head I hear a little giggle; was that Jinx, or did I imagine it?