by Ramy Vance
“You’re a monster.”
The lich looked up, staring into her own eyes. “No, I’m not. I’m not a monster.”
The girl spat at the lich, “An abomination.”
The lich crawled over to the younger Rasputina, who tried to run, but the skeletal hands reached up from the floor and held her down. “I’m a necessity,” the lich growled as she crawled onto her younger self.
“How are you, if nothing matters?”
The lich stared down at the girl, who had so much beauty in her face.
So much hope.
Life.
The lich screamed and reached into her side, pulling out a bone sharpened to a razor point. She drove it into the younger Rasputina’s chest as the girl begged for mercy. The lich continued as the room became filled with screams, and eventually, gurgling and choking.
Bennington opened the door.
Rasputina looked up, covered in blood and smiling psychotically. “I know what I’m feeling.”
Bennington walked into the room and pulled a towel from his waist, draping it over the girl. “Yes? You’ve figured it out?”
Rasputina caressed the corpse. “He was responsible. The Dark One. Odin. The Death Without Names. He killed them. My family. My friends. That’s why I needed to learn how to stop him. That’s why I became this.”
The lich looked down at her younger self. “She was beautiful, wasn’t she? And so strong, so good. She was a good person.”
Bennington grabbed the hands of the dead girl and began dragging her away. “She looks to have been.”
As Bennington took the corpse out of the room, Rasputina leaned over, crying and shaking before screaming, filling the body of the dead god with her cries. “How could I forget all this?” she whimpered. “By the gods, how could I forget why I sought the knowledge to begin with?”
Chapter Five
Abby opened her eyes, slightly afraid of where she might have been transported. The last thing she had seen before the flash of light was the riddle door staring menacingly at her.
One eye creaked open, letting in a little bit of light. Now the second. Abby’s vision was blurred, but it was starting to sharpen.
She was in her room, lying in bed. “What the hell?” she muttered. “That couldn’t have just been a dream.”
“No, Mother/Creator, that was not a dream.”
Abby jumped at the sound of the nanobot consciousness. Unlike Martin, the consciousness always caught Abby off-guard. It was like having someone barge into her room. At least Martin had the decency to knock. Abby wasn’t certain how Martin did it, but whatever he was doing made a difference.
After Abby took a few moments to gather herself, she went to brush her teeth. She stared at her reflection as she tried to piece together what had happened. The door had asked for a riddle, and she had delivered the only one she knew. Something from Plato, or maybe it was just a Greek myth. Either way, it didn’t matter. The door had figured out the answer before she’d even finished.
Abby looked down at her HUD, the nanobots in her body building it instantly. They worked on an instinctual level, just as easily as Abby’s brain relayed the command to raise her hand and tilt her head.
It was a little past one. That meant at least four hours had passed since she and the DGA had entered the tunnel. The dungeon crawl had definitely happened.
Abby’s HUD pinged, and a holographic rendering of a recent email appeared in front of her. She swiped her hand to open it.
It was a group chat message from Terra and Anabelle. “Everybody back?” the elf asked.
Abby typed that she had just woken up. Terra said something similar.
“Everybody to the war room,” Anabelle texted.
Terra and Anabelle were already in the war room by the time Abby arrived. Roy was there as well.
Roy looked exhausted, but nowadays, he always looked like he’d given up on sleeping. His eyes were so sunken that it didn’t look like they were ever coming back up for air. “So, what I hear is that you guys didn’t retrieve the item.”
Anabelle shook her head as she explained what happened. “Like I said, we asked the door a riddle, and then there was a lot of pain. Next thing we knew, we were back at HQ. I have no idea what happened.” Anabelle’s voice went distant. “There’s got to be a better way. Maybe we can reach out to Myrddin and the guy he was with…José…and see if there’s another way in.”
When Anabelle had first told her and Terra about receiving visions from Myrddin and some guy named José, neither she nor Terra had questioned Anabelle. Weirder things had happened. But Abby had been interested in finding out who José was. She didn’t recognize the name from any briefings she had read. And when she asked about the guy before, no one had any answers. “Any updates on who this José guy is?”
Roy pulled up José’s file and projected onto the war room’s holoprojector. The photo was of a large, broad-shouldered man with a face full of scars and long, flowing hair. Abby thought José looked like what you would expect a Hollywood version of Jesus Christ to look like.
The armor that José wore looked familiar to Abby. She knew she’d seen it someplace before but couldn’t quite place it.
Terra was the one to call it out. “That’s MERC armor, isn’t it? Like those kids who helped you guys bust me out of the arena, right?”
Roy nodded as the projector started to list José’s accomplishments. “Correct. It took a while to find his file. He was one of our top MERCs. You know about them, right? One of Myrddin’s pet projects. We had to crack into Myrddin’s files, and let’s just say that a firewall on a wizard’s computer is more literal than you’d like.” He didn’t chuckle, which meant he was serious. “MERCs operate outside the main Middang3ard channels, typically doing shit that is considered too insane for anyone else to attempt. Few got more insane than José. Unfortunately, he died during a mission. Lucky for us, he was strong enough to retain his consciousness in the astral plane. We don’t hear from him often, but when we do, it is important.”
“We are taking advice from a dead guy. Is that a good idea? I mean, he did end up dead.”
Roy turned off the projector and sat back down, giving Terra a look that could easily be read as stop talking now. “The conditions of José’s death were extreme, and he died a hero. He’s just as trustworthy in death as he was alive. Speaking of failing missions, what the hell happened with you guys? You obviously didn’t give that door a hard enough riddle. I mean, don’t you have a supercomputer in your head, Abby? How hard is it to stump an ancient door without access to the Internet?”
Abby blushed as she stumbled over her answer. She hated being called out like this. What made it even worse was that she hated how slow she felt since her body was closer to normal than when it was bursting with nanobots. “We have significantly fewer nanobots than before. Our brain is closer to a normal human’s, and our contact with Martin got cut while we were in the dungeon.”
Roy brushed off his pants as he stood. “Well, you guys better look up riddles because you’re going back.”
“Wait, what do you mean?”
Roy looked over his shoulder as he stopped at the door. “It’s a riddle door. That means the whole place is enchanted. Imagine you’re playing a video game and you die at the end, right before you pick up the key from the last boss. If you do that, you go right back to the beginning and play through the whole thing again. That’s you guys.”
Anabelle put her head in her hands. “Are you saying we have to fight our way through that dungeon again?”
“Yep. Try to pick a hard riddle this time.”
Roy left the DGA to themselves. “Looks like we’re going to be running a training simulation after all,” Abby said quietly.
Anabelle walked over to the holoprojector and leaned against it. “This wasn’t what I had in mind, but it’ll do. At least we know what we’re up against. How about we take a couple hours, do some research, relax a little bit, and head in. It’s not like we
have any pressing missions right now.”
Abby’s heart leapt. Downtime was exactly what she had wanted. Being in that dungeon had been stressful. She’d gotten used to the amount of ass-kicking power she’d had before. This reminded her of her least favorite Metroid games. She had been at the endgame level, and now she hardly had any useful upgrades. “Yeah, that sounds good. We were going to watch a movie with Persephone, actually. You know, something to distract me from, well, what happened in that dungeon. Either of you wanna come?”
Terra jumped out of her seat, smiling widely. “Hell, yeah! What are you guys watching? Please don’t tell me it’s something sappy.”
Abby shook her head enthusiastically. “Classic gnomish horror movie.”
“Oh, I’d love to see what those optimistic little dudes think is horrific. You in, Anabelle?”
Abby looked at the elf, who was staring blankly at the holoprojector. “Hey, Belle? You wanna hang out for a bit before we leave?”
Anabelle jumped. “Huh? No, I need to make some preparations. I’ll see you guys when it’s time to leave. And don’t forget to research riddles.” She breezed past Abby and Terra.
Terra clicked her tongue while she stared at the door. “She’s doing a real good job of avoiding us.”
Abby shrugged. “Belle went through a lot with Grok. She probably just needs time to process all that. I know I would.”
Terra punched Abby in the shoulder as she walked by. “Give yourself some credit. Not everyone could deal with growing a new personality in their head. Come on. Let’s go get our movie on.”
The DGA gathered at the hadron collider a few hours later. Creon was waiting for them. As the goblin went ahead and punched in the coordinates, Abby watched Anabelle. She couldn’t help but feel sad for the elf.
When Abby had first met Anabelle, she’d thought the elf was the most beautiful person ever to walk the Earth. As Abby got to know Anabelle better, those feelings changed. Abby saw a woman who wanted to be known, yet the way for the elf to do that was by doing the one thing it seemed like she didn’t feel comfortable with: leading.
Over the last few months, Abby’s crush had faded, but she still respected Anabelle tremendously. For someone who didn’t want to be responsible for the lives of humans, the elf had come a long way.
Now Abby saw a shadow of that person. Anabelle had hardly seemed to be engaged with their last mission. She could see something darker in Anabelle’s eyes, which disturbed her. The blank expression was one thing.
But that darkness, the way Anabelle’s eyes would sometimes flash as if madness were hiding, waiting for a chance to escape, terrified Abby. She hoped it was just her imagination.
As if Anabelle could tell Abby was staring at her, she turned to face the girl. “You guys ready?”
Abby jumped at the elf’s sudden question. “Yeah, yeah, we’re ready.”
The hadron collider opened and the DGA stepped through, instantly transporting to the beginning of the dungeon.
Abby pushed the door open, thankful that even if she didn’t have as much firepower as she used to, she still had increased strength and stamina. She wasn’t nearly as strong as Terra, but she knew she’d be able to hold her own against a couple of orcs. Maybe a troll, but that might be pushing it. “Who wants to lead the way?”
Anabelle pulled up her HUD and withdrew three torches. “Figured we might as well learn from the last mistake, right?” She passed them around, and the DGA began their steady descent into the dungeon.
This time, they managed to avoid the first trap that Terra had set off, but a little way ahead, they picked the wrong tunnel and ended up opening a door to a room of goblins. “If we have to come back, let’s remember not to go this way.”
Abby, Anabelle, and Terra made short work of the four goblins. Even with their decreased power, they were still easily able to handle the challenge. Plasma bolts flew, scorching a goblin’s skin, while Terra pounded two to a pulp with her fists (the only thing she said would make it interesting), Anabelle torching the last with her hands.
They backtracked, this time choosing the right tunnel—the one that led down to the prison. As they walked, Anabelle stopped them. There was something up ahead.
Once more, they found Maurice sitting in a cell, looking miserable. “I see you’ve returned,” he said as he stood and extended his hand.
Abby shook it and stepped out of the cell to give Maurice a way out. “Planning on joining us this time?”
Maurice pulled up his mask to make sure it didn’t fall. “Yes, I will accompany you.”
The four of them went to Cerberus’ chamber. Knowing what lay ahead of them and having an extra person who had fought the hellhound before made the battle fly by. Terra complained she didn’t even work up a sweat.
Abby, who was floating, looked down at the grate. “We were fighting on top of fire. How could you not break a sweat?”
Terra stretched and touched her calves. “What can I say? I’m just too fit.”
From there, the DGA went to the riddle door, honoring Maurice’s request and leaving him behind. They stood before it, and it lazily opened its eyes and smiled at the agents. “Ah! Glad to see you decided to return. This is the most excitement I’ve had since the cloaked fool stopped trying to get out of here.”
Abby was intrigued. She had assumed Maurice hadn’t attempted the riddle, but the door’s words made more sense. Why would anyone spend all their time in a cell if they had the choice of leaving? “How long has he been here?”
The door wiggled its nose as it thought. “Hm, maybe two hundred years? Give or take. Now, please, the riddle.”
Anabelle motioned to Terra. “Your turn.”
Terra puffed her chest out as she stepped forward. “I have no voice, but I cry. I have no wings, yet I flutter. Ain’t got a tooth, but I can bite. Don’t even have a mouth, but I can mutter. What am I?”
The door smiled widely. “The wind.”
“Goddamn it!”
A bright flash of light followed the cackling of the door. With that, the DGA was gone.
Chapter Six
Cire, Persephone, and Nib-Nib were traveling via convoy to a prospective Dark Gate. They were covered from head to toe in light fabric cloaks to help deal with the gnomish desert’s sandstorms. Persephone sat in the back of a truck, watching the sand dunes roll past her.
It had only been a week, and she was already sick of the sand creeping into every crevice of her body. She felt like she was going to need to shower for at least a month straight.
Cire and Nib-Nib didn’t seem to have a problem with the sand, which somehow made it worse for Persephone. She was worried that she was making too big of a deal out of nothing, but that didn’t change how uncomfortable she felt.
If Abby was here, it wouldn’t be too bad, she told herself. Upon thinking more about it, even if Abby were here, it would still be a shit situation. The last few days had been dedicated to running around, trying to hunt down a portal signature. Unfortunately, the sandstorms were wreaking havoc with the survey information HQ was using to pinpoint the Dark Gate’s location.
At the end of the day, Persephone was annoyed, but it wasn’t as bad as anything she’d experienced under the Dark One’s control. She at least had a say in this mission.
The convoy stopped at a refueling station. Gnomes who were once part of the resistance poured out of the camp and started to take care of the vans and trucks in the convoy.
Persephone snuck away from all the noise and war talk. She commed Abby, but there was no answer. It made sense. The two of them were putting in a lot of effort to get in touch with each other, but between their missions, there was little time that they could talk.
Still, Persephone felt like this would have been a lot less irritating if she could just hear Abby’s voice.
The drow made her way back to the convoy, trying to avoid Cire’s eyes, which followed her anytime she strayed too far from his line of sight.
Cire’s comm
rang, and he picked it up.
Sarah was on the other line. “You make it to the Dark Gate yet?”
Cire shook his head as he watched the holoprojection of her face. “No, we’re still having a hard time hunting it down. I don’t know why you sent us to the gnomish homeworld. It would make more sense for me to be with the orcs. We would be able to find it easier.”
“Because we’re trying to build ties. Orcs on gnome worlds, humans on orc worlds. This is how we learn to work with each other and build trust. Luckily, we’re in a situation where we don’t have to deal with any offensive measures from the Dark One. We need to take these chances to lay foundations.”
Persephone watched Cire look out at the desolate desert. “Understood. It isn’t pleasant, but I understand.”
“Send me a report when you make it to the Dark Gate. Good luck.”
Cire nodded, disconnected the comm, and turned to Persephone and Nib-Nib. “We still have the next set of potential coordinates. Let’s hope that we can find this soon enough. Check with the vendors to see if they’ve got anything you might need.”
The orc headed toward the convoy, no doubt to speak to the drivers about the direction they were taking.
Nib-Nib stood there, looking from Persephone to the direction Cire had walked off in. Finally, she chittered and snapped her claws. “We shop. Find useful tools maybe.”
Persephone shrugged. She wasn’t sure what useful tools they were going to find in the middle of the desert, but it wouldn’t hurt to look. Being grouchy about her assignment wasn’t helping anyone. She couldn’t understand why she’d been given desert duty instead of an exciting assignment like Abby. Dungeon-crawling seemed like so much more fun.
Persephone and Nib-Nib walked over to the refueling vendors, who occupied a row of gnomish tents with an assortment of gnomes in each of them. There was even an underground gnome, much more covered than the rest, trading with his fairer-skinned cousins. I wish elves could do this, Persephone thought as she gravitated toward the underground gnome.
