by Allan Joyal
“I said I wasn’t going to charge you one,” Kalacho replied. “Now, I have to ask why the dungeon came out to talk.”
“The dungeon? We were just inside the dungeon. And how can a dungeon come out?” one of the men said.
Everyone turned to look at Faestari. She stood there quietly as the five adventurers with Kalacho all stared at her.
“Who is she? What is she? I’ve never seen a woman made of stone. Is she some kind of wizard’s creation?” the injured man Kalacho had helped down the mountain asked.
“I’m guessing that we are looking at an avatar created by the spirit of the dungeon,” Kalacho said calmly. “Which is extremely unusual.”
“How unusual?” the same injured man asked again.
“To the best of my knowledge, no other dungeon talks with the adventurers who enter their caverns,” Faestari replied.
“You’re the dungeon?” Jasiae asked.
“The soul of the dungeon,” Gee’if responded. “And she was here to let us know that a new dungeon has formed some distance to the south of us.”
“We can’t look into it,” Kalacho said. “I received a message when Narhert last visited the village. Our main chapterhouse was set up at the old dungeon known at the Primal Gate. It is gone.”
“Gone?” Faestari asked. “How can a chapterhouse vanish?”
“The message did not say much. Only that the chapterhouse had burned to the ground. The writer was a man called Broidure. He is a retired adventurer who now owns an inn in the village near the Primal Gate. The letter said that none of the officers of the Impaled Cats could be found after the chapterhouse burned,” Kalacho said with a sigh.
“What does that mean for us?” the one uninjured man in the group of young adventurers asked.
“Will your group be able to pay for the building of the chapterhouse next year like you planned?” Koltiss asked.
Kalacho nodded towards the young adventurers. “Don’t worry Krandt. We planned to found a chapterhouse here. The dungeon is generous with treasure and the first couple of floors are an excellent place to bring inexperienced adventurers.”
“But can you pay for it?” Koltiss asked.
Kalacho looked over at Koltiss. “We made a large initial payment. We also have the winter to gain more treasure. We’ll make the payments when it is time. Besides I could ask if Lord Dared is going to have the town walls ready in time.”
Koltiss looked over at the town. “Joward says they are ahead of where he expected to be, but there is a lot more to do.”
“The first snow is probably a bit more than thirty days away,” Faestari said as she looked up at the sky. “If its anything like last year, the storm that brings it will last a couple of days, and the snow will be knee deep. Within twenty days after that drifts will be taller than a man.”
“It snows that much here?” Gee’if asked. “I’m not sure we’re ready for that.”
“Joward said he’ll make sure the inner wall for the city is in place in twenty days. The question has always been if his workers can complete the outer wall. If they can’t we’ll have to hope that the inner wall remains standing,” Koltiss said.
“I’ll have to warn Betrixy and Jyxton. We found a sheltered campsite. But we should probably make a few improvements before the snow starts to fall,” Gee’if said.
“Not Salene?” Faestari asked playfully.
“If I tell Jyxton, she’ll know,” Gee’if said. “What will happen with the dungeon?”
“I’ll do what I can to keep the path to the entrance clear. I might not clear all of the plateau though,” Faestari replied.
“I just wish you would calm the spiders,” one of the injured men complained. Faestari looked over at him and realized that a spider must have bit him in his left calf. The man’s leg was clearly starting to swell.
“The kobolds raise and train the spiders,” Faestari said. “I only control them if I need to eliminate an adventurer. I hope I never have to do it again.”
“You don’t like killing? Why are you a dungeon?” Jasiae asked.
“Most dungeons wake up because of a lot of conflict near them,” Faestari explained carefully. “The fighting generates mana that will be absorbed by a magically inclined gemstone. If the gemstone absorbs enough, a dungeon soul emerges.”
“That much I knew,” Kalacho said. “I would have taught these children, but they arrived with Narhert with the last caravan. I wanted to try introducing them to your caverns without giving them any notions of what to expect.”
Faestari nodded. “Wise.”
The young adventurers looked confused. Koltiss shook his head. “Look,” he said. “I don’t know the whole story. I think Faestari is the only one who knows most of it, but not even she knows all of the story.”
“How can she not know?” Krandt asked.
“Because I was ten when some wizards attacked the small farm I lived on with my mother and father. My mother was born as a dungeon. For some reason, she decided to abandon her caverns and marry my father. How I was born I don’t know,” Faestari said.
“So you’re?” Patris asked with a gasp.
“I grew up thinking I was a human girl. Well, half human. My mother’s avatar, all the time I knew her, was of a lovely elf maiden. I looked like a miniature version of her. However, when the wizards attacked, my mother somehow put my spirit back inside a gemstone. She then sent me away. I woke up more than a hundred years later, in a cavern deep inside this mountain,” Faestari said.
Patris had tears in her eyes. “You must be so lonely. I thought I had a bad life. But to know your parents are dead, and to have been unable to do anything for them.”
“My mother loved me,” Faestari said. “And I think she loved my father very much. And I do have a companion now.”
“Who?” Patris asked.
“Did someone ask for me?” Aylia asked from just outside Faestari’s domain. The water spirit had solidified part of her body, but her hair and arms looked like water rather than human skin.
Koltiss jumped back. Gee’if bowed to Aylia. “I’m not sure I remember your name. But I seem to remember that you were with Faestari on the plateau that one day.”
“That one terrible day,” Aylia said. “When I learned that there was a group of adventurers determined to kill Faestari, I was terrified. She offers me protection from wizards who might want to force me into a contract.”
“It won’t happen,” Faestari said. “Although should you be standing outside my domain? I thought you needed to be inside my domain.”
“You’ve accepted me fully,” Aylia replied. “Unless you repudiate me, you now effectively hold my contract.”
Faestari shrugged. “I can’t see why I’d ever do that. You can be a bit pushy about new chambers you want me to put in, but you make the dungeon more interesting.”
Aylia turned her whole body to water and splashed downward into a puddle. “Interesting,” the puddle said in a bubbly voice. “I try to show you how loyal and caring I am and you say I’m just interesting.”
The adventurers looked completely confused. Gee’if just laughed. “The more I get to know about you Faestari, the happier I am. You have a heart.”
“All dungeons do,” Faestari said.
“No, I mean you aren’t just a spirit powered by mana and death. You have a sense of humor and duty,” Gee’if said.
“From what I’ve heard my mother had a reputation for playing tricks on adventurers,” Faestari said. “I don’t do that. I’m not comfortable with that.”
“I didn’t say you play tricks,” Gee’if said. The adventurer looked over at Koltiss. “Help?”
Koltiss laughed. “He’s describing it totally wrong, but I have an idea. I don’t know if you know much about nobles, but many are only concerned for their personal power. They ignore their own servants, and rarely show much emotion. You don’t appear to be anything like the nobles I knew.”
“He’s right,” Aylia said as she reformed her
body. This time her arms were the color of flesh, although her hair remained blue. “You are wonderful to serve. You never really do more than offer the opportunity to do our best.”
“So she doesn’t control the monsters?” Krandt asked.
“I don’t try,” Faestari said. “I do control where they can go within the dungeon so that they don’t fight each other. The rest I leave to their own instincts.”
“Can you teach us?” Brandt asked.
“No,” Faestari said firmly. “The only reason I was here was to tell Gee’if and Koltiss about the new dungeon. I can’t do anything about it, but the spike of mana when it woke was massive. I have a feeling that warning the village will end up being vital.”
Faestari turned back to look up the mountain. She sank the avatar body she was using into the ground. Once it was below the surface, she pulled her spirit back to her heart, leaving the stunned adventurers behind.
Chapter 7: Empty Countrysides
At the time that Faestari was vanishing back into her mountain, Dared, Jerisa and Roquel were riding just ahead of the four wagons they were escorting. The trio had slept on the ground the night before and Jerisa was playfully complaining about being sore.
“I can barely feel my legs,” Jerisa said. “Why are we doing this?”
“I thought you wanted to purchase some cloth and thread so you would have something to do once the snow falls,” Dared said lovingly. “Besides, you must be lonely. There aren’t many women in town.”
“No,” Jerisa said derisively. “Just the few female adventurers. How many are there right now? The one who turned out to be a priestess of Cuan Bi quit adventuring didn’t she?
“No,” Dared said. “I believe she is working with Gee’if’s group. After all, she used to delve with Salene and Salene is partnered with Jyxton. Right now I can only think of Salene, Betrixy, the priestess, Roquel here and the one lady from the Impaled Cats. I can’t remember everyone’s name though.”
“Just the five,” Jerisa said quietly. “And they are often too busy to just sit and chat. Sometimes, I spend some time talking to the maids working in the tavern.”
Dared growled. “You’ve talked to them?”
Roquel bit back a laugh as Dared kicked his horse into a trot. He pulled ahead of the other two as they began to climb another of the many rolling hills, they had been passing for the last two days.
“He’s running away,” Jerisa complained.
Roquel shook her head. “He’ll be back. He just needs a moment. The women who work in the tavern do some things he doesn’t want his wife doing.”
“He’s my man,” Jerisa said quietly. “I don’t need to do anything like those women. They have no husbands.”
Jerisa paused and looked over the landscape. The hills they were riding through had a lot of rocks. Many areas were bare expanses with a few small and twisted trees growing in the few patches of dirt.
“I should have paid more attention,” Jerisa said quietly.
“It will be like this for three more days,” Roquel said. “Then we’ll drop out of the mountains and start to see more fields.”
“Is that why we have to travel so far before we encounter a village?” Jerisa asked.
“It is,” Dared said calmly as he pulled up on the reins and stopped his horse. “It also makes this route a bit safer than it might be. We could possibly run into some monsters, but the area is so barren that bandits don’t find it welcoming.”
“What about when we get closer to Fairview?” Jerisa asked. “I came out with one of the heavily guarded caravans you were financing. Now we just have four mostly empty wagons.”
“This will be the last time we send an unguarded caravan,” Dared said. “Narhert has said that the villagers have noticed that he has been moving back and forth.”
“Great,” Roquel said. “I’m not going to be a caravan guard for you.”
“I wouldn’t want you to do that,” Dared said. “For now, I just want to get to Fairview. There is a lot we need to get done and not much time if we want to beat the snows when we return.”
“At least we are making good time,” Roquel said. “From what you said we are about six days from the first village.”
“We could try to go faster,” Jerisa said. “Didn’t you say that the Narhert and his family can handle the wagons without us?”
“Perhaps once we are closer to the villages. For now we’re relying on the wagons to carry our food,” Dared said.
“Wise,” Roquel said. “So, what more can we talk about? Just watching the land around here is boring.”
Dared just shook his head and maneuvered his horse so we was riding next to his wife. The couple said nothing as the trio continued to travel towards Fairview.
The trio found that conversation was not something that drove them over the next five days. Occasionally Jerisa would ride closer to Roquel. She would ask questions about some of the stones they were passing by.
Dared occasionally rode ahead of the group. On two occasions, they found him stacking stones when they caught up with him. Narhert laughed as he watched Dared finish assembling the marker tower.
Finally, one morning Dared looked over at Narhert and shouted. “We should be a day away from the village. It’s Oersteglen right?”
“That’s what they call it. Keep heading towards the rising sun until about midday. By that time, you should see a forest in the distance. The village sits on the south side of the forest,” Narhert replied.
“You don’t know?” Jerisa asked Dared.
“I only came out the one time, and back then I was trying to organize what we needed in order to get Montgar started. Most of the time I was deep in conversation with your father, Sergeant Koltiss or Master Builder Joward,” Dared replied.
“So you weren’t paying close attention?” Roquel asked. “Was that why you keep building trail markers?”
Dared blushed. “Yes,” he said quietly.
Jerisa giggled merrily. “So if I ever worry that you’ll find a woman distracting, I just have to get you talking about something you want to do with Montgar?”
Dared turned to look at Jerisa. “Why don’t you test that as we ride? I thought you wanted to move faster today.”
Jerisa smiled. “I’m not hurting anymore. And I do want to go faster. It would be nice to have a meal not prepared by Narhert’s family. It’s filling and hot, but it’s the same stew everyday.”
“Let’s go then,” Dared said. He kicked his horse into a canter.
“Hey!” Jerisa said with a squawk of protest. She stood up in the stirrups and kicked her heels into the side of her horse. The horse appeared to ignore her for a moment, but then began to canter after Dared.
Roquel watched the antics and laughed. “That brings back memories,” she said softly as she coaxed her horse into a canter.
It took Roquel some time to catch up to Jerisa and Dared. The couple had pushed their horses into a full gallop at one point while engaging in their chase. When she did catch up, she was surprised to hear Dared and Jerisa talking about the manor house Jerisa wanted.
“I don’t want it too big. I know that most kings end up in massive stone buildings, but do we really need all of that?” Jerisa was asking.
“It’s more than just a home. Once its built, most of the government will also move in. We’ll be keeping the treasury there. Court will be held there. If we entertain other nobles, we’ll need a room for the feast and another for the reception and dancing after the feast,” Dared said. “And I want protected rooms for our children. I don’t expect problems, but if the dungeon continues to richly reward visiting adventurers, Montgar will attract attention.”
“So we might entertain in the future?” Jerisa asked hopefully.
Roquel snorted. “Unless the nobles around here are unusual, entertaining of other nobles will be painfully dull. Most have rarely left their citadels.”
“You mean?” Jerisa asked.
“You travelling like this
is something I’ve rarely seen a noblewoman do. Most travel just one time in their life. They leave their parent’s castle when it is time to marry,” Roquel said.
“But?” Jerisa said with a mournful gasp.
Dared nodded. “I forget that your father was just an alchemist when we met. Roquel is sadly correct. I have two sisters. One is still a teen and father is already planning on marrying her off if he can find her a worthy husband. The other is married to a Duke. She left the castle when I was five to get married. She’s never returned.”
“Do you miss her?” Jerisa asked sadly.
Dared shrugged as the horses slowed down slightly. They settled into an ambling gait. He glanced back over his shoulder and nodded. “We’re probably still moving twice the speed of the wagons. We might reach the village by midday and have time to stop for a meal.”
“I want a bath,” Jerisa said quietly.
“If your palfrey can maintain this pace, we can probably reach the village at Fall’s Pond right about sundown. That will allow us to push to reach Fairview tomorrow,” Dared said.
“But,” Jerisa said. “Isn’t that bad for the horses?”
“I don’t want to speak for Roquel, but I’ve made sure your horse was exercised regularly. She should be able to manage two days at a fast pace. We did walk quite a bit yesterday,” Dared said.
Roquel started coughing. She leaned to the right in the saddle for a moment. When she sat back up there was a huge smile on her face. “Oh, now you explain why you had us walk. Not because the wagons were holding us back, but to rest the horses.”
“I wanted to offer Jerisa a couple of extra days in Fairview,” Dared said fondly. “I was hoping we’ll find an inn where a bard is currently staying. We aren’t on a good route to interest a bard.”
“If you can extend a road to the west, following the path that the Flame Vultures took, you will. Bards love moving into new territory,” Roquel said.
“Mostly to avoid angry nobles,” Dared observed absently. The young noble was scanning the countryside. He had a worried expression on his face.
