The Dungeon

by June Leung

  He chuckled dryly, seemingly a bit forced. “You think the King has to explain himself to me? Feel free to do whatever you want, as long as it doesn’t require leaving. I have stuff to catch up with before the King gets angry with me.”

  Fine, I’ll try again later. “Sure, I will just spend some time with the sea view outside.” Lia walked out of the room and Benjamin closed the door behind her. On the way to the window in the living room, she walked by the door. There was the low humming of a magical forcefield around, she could feel the spark when she slid by.

  Standing by the large window, she looked around the living room, her memory rushing back: the time when she started exploring her power, how she seemed to get along with Adrian at times, how he pushed her away, and how they fought each other about their relationship. Those seemed to be so far in the past.

  She turned to the window, the sea calming. With each breath, she slowed her mind, focusing on the pressing matter on her hands.

  There was finally internet. Now she just needed to find a way to one-up Adrian’s plan. She spent a few more minutes by the window before retreating back to her room. She made sure to lock the door before she sat by the desk, taking out her phone from below the pillow. She messaged Helen.

  > Finally you can get hold of me!

  The reply came back quickly.

  > LIA! YOU CAN’T BELIEVE HOW HAPPY I AM! Please tell me this is not a dream!

  > C’mon, this is not a dream. You can go pinch your face.

  > I couldn’t find you before. What happened?

  > Let’s just say he doesn’t get internet where he kept me.

  > Really? I can’t imagine that kind of place exists. Where were you? In a cave?

  Lia rolled her eyes; she could imagine how much Helen was laughing at the message.

  > Of course, spending time with grumpy dinosaurs. Important things first, William really is looking for them?

  Helen sent a bunch of crying emojis before the text.

  > Yes… I am trying my best to delay their progress, but I don’t know how long I can drag it…

  Lia sighed heavily, typing with shaky fingers.

  > Sadly, A is doing the same. He doesn’t know I know. At least that’s what I think. He wants the Elders dead.

  > Really? What should we do? Helen must be worried as there were ten messages of only scared emojis in a row. Lia rolled her eyes.

  > Although I can find you now, I can’t get out of the penthouse. Ben locked the door with magic. And you also can only get out with William next to you?

  > Correct. I can sneak out. But a magic on the door…

  > Not to mention Ben is too strong for me to beat… Can you do something on your end?

  > I will see, how much time do you think we got?

  > At most two more weeks before A will strike. The Elders?

  > As soon as they find out… I don’t even know…

  Lia sighed, rubbing her temple.

  > We will screw both of their plans. I will find a way to get out. Same for you.

  Helen sent back an OK sign.

  Lia took in a deep breath. She would have to wait, at least until Benjamin was certain she wasn’t going to escape anytime soon.

  Chapter 29

  Helen

  Helen was sitting in her room in the clan, facing the desk, toying her hair with her fingers. It had been a day since Lia messaged her after she escaped a boring dungeon. Helen hoped she could come up with a plan quickly.

  Adrian was planning the same thing William was. Only, Adrian seemed to be capable of doing things more efficiently; he already knew where the Elders were while William was still trying to figure out where Adrian was.

  Now she and Lia had to stop both Adrian and William. When compared to Lia, she could at least sneak out of the clan. But she still had to find a way to provide help to Lia. It was not like she could just show up at Adrian’s penthouse and barge her way in. Even with Lia, they probably couldn’t beat Benjamin, not to mention Adrian may be there. And what would they do after getting Lia out?

  Helen rolled her eyes, sitting back and crossing her arms behind her head. She already messed up William’s documents a few times, mixing in irrelevant details and swapping the reports. But she couldn’t keep doing that, otherwise, only a dummy wouldn’t find her suspicious.

  William wasn’t that dumb; he would soon find out. Benjamin’s bar wasn’t going to vanish into thin air anytime soon. As much as the dark magician could hide their power, there was still a chance William could sense it.

  She twirled her hair thinking about things she had no idea how to do and their importance. She sighed heavily, picking up her phone and scrolled mindlessly through the social media site she frequented. As she cursed under her breath at the advertisement, waiting for the skip button to show up, something about it caught her eyes.

  It was a short advertisement video she usually wouldn’t pay any attention to. “Just for today! Get your sleeping schedule fixed! This all-natural stress relief is what you need! Send us a message to order!”

  Helen’s eyes lit up—maybe she could find something like that. Not at all what the advertisement was selling, but maybe something that could divert Benjamin’s attention enough that his magic would fail. If the dark magic was not too far from the Elements’ magic, if Benjamin was unconscious, the magic would fail. She jolted up, knocking over the chair.

  She quickly texted Lia, and her reply came quickly. Lia was onboard. Helen shoved the phone into her pocket and ran to the library. She wasn’t sure what she could come up with, but if she was to use her magic in some way, that was the place to go.

  As Helen approached the entrance to the library, she took a deep breath. She wasn’t quite a fan of books, but if this was the only way, she had to do it. For Lia, Helen could get that bit of patience to dig through the piles of books.

  Helen walked past rows of bookshelves, trying to find the books for her magic. When she walked past the counter, Sophia wasn’t there. Helen sighed. She walked past the books on the history of magicians, myths about unknown creatures, and even how to fix a car, but she didn’t seem anywhere near the guidebooks for magic.

  Maybe there weren’t such books. If there were, Eric would have taught her more about her magic. She shook her head, knocking on her forehead gently with her hand. Come on, Helen. You said you would be patient for Lia. You haven’t even been here for an hour. Keep it up!

  She turned around a corner with her eyes still on the row of shelves behind her.

  “Whoa!” Helen halted just in time not to bump into Sophia. “Sorry.”

  “It’s fine. What are you looking for?” Sophia smiled warmly, putting down the book in her hand onto a small cart beside her.

  “Thank goodness I found you. By any chance, do you know of any books about nature magic?”

  Sophia paused a bit too long before she said, “Sure.” She led Helen down the rows of bookshelves. On the way, she asked, “Why are you searching for a book like that? Isn’t William taking care of your training?”

  “He doesn’t have my kind of magic. And I don’t know any other magicians, so books may be my best bet. There could be some more tricks for me to learn. The dark magicians sound scary, so I thought maybe I should learn something new to help tackle them.”

  Sophia’s smile faltered slightly, but she schooled herself. “You think dark magicians exist? William has been taking books out, but staying in here most of the time. I don’t know a lot. Do you know how the investigation is going?”

  “Like you said, I think he is still trying. He sometimes looks confused. I’m not sure if he’s found anything solid yet. I tried to help, but I don’t even know what dark magic is like, I doubt I am of any help…” Helen shrugged. Sophia nodded with a solemn look.

  “Do you know about the dark magicians?” Helen asked.

  “Mostly from rumors and myths, like you. I don’t even know if they really exist. All the books about magic other than ours seem to be a mix of fictio
n and history.” Sophia shook her head, fixing her braid.

  “I don’t even know whether I want them to find them or not. Nonetheless, getting prepared would never go wrong.” Helen sighed, peeking half-heartedly at the shelves they walked past. Finally, they walked to a row with different guidebooks, separated into different types of magic.

  Sophia gestured at the bookshelf. “I just hope everyone will be safe, I guess. The Elders know what they are doing. I think you can start at whichever seems interesting to you.”

  Helen couldn’t shake the feeling that Sophia was avoiding her gaze by looking at the books. Maybe she was too anxious because of Lia and everything happening. Hopefully Sophia wouldn’t tell William she was there. It was almost the team’s knowledge that she had no interest in books; and she was worried that would be suspicious.

  She thanked Sophia and took a closer look at the books. Trailing her fingers along the spines, she rubbed her chin with her other hand. There were quite a lot of books about the nature magic, making it hard to pick one out. There were even books written in languages she didn’t know.

  There had to be a way to sort out the one or two she may need. She frowned at the rows of books. A bit frustrated, she decided to close her eyes and just pick one at random. Her hunch had been quite accurate anyway.

  She took a deep breath and picked one. The spine felt like cloth. She opened her eyes at an illustrated handbook of different types of plants. She raised her brows, pulling out the book. It was titled 100 Types of Medicinal Herbs. The title looked nothing magical, but if her hunch picked it, she should at least take a look.

  The library was quiet as she wandered to find a seat. Sophia had disappeared into the sea of books again. She arrived at a sofa, opening the book. There were beautiful and detailed illustrations about different kinds of plants with handwritten text nearby that pointed out how to differentiate the plants and their uses. Helen flipped through the pages. While it was amazing how people in the past could draw with such detail, it seemed to be nothing close to what she needed. The plants were beautiful, but it didn’t seem like she would get a chance out of the clan to actually find them.

  Helen flipped through the pages and was getting ready to pick another book, when she got to the last part. It was a page with only one sentence: “To the savior of our village, the one who brings everything when there is nothing.”

  From nothing to everything? That sounds magical.

  On the next page, there was an illustration of a woman with wavy light brown hair, sun-tanned skin and beautiful brown eyes. The woman gave off a similar vibe to Lia. If the picture was accurate, Lia’s hair was a shade or two darker than this woman. The woman had her hand held out, and above it, a few plants floated. She was standing on barren land with a few farmers in old-fashioned clothes sitting on the ground around her, looking upset.

  Helen read the description under the illustration. “Our village doesn’t deserve her. None of us know where she came from. There was nothing left when she arrived. We tried to chase her away, having no food for another mouth. But we were so wrong. She saw our land, reached out her hands, and our land that gave nothing in the year was filled with harvest and all kinds of plants.”

  Helen’s eyes widened. Maybe that woman was a magician like her. Maybe she could also create plants.

  On the next page, the same woman was drawn to be talking to a few teenagers around her. There was a bag in her hand, her other hand holding up a plant Helen didn’t recognize. The caption below read, “I am blessed to be able to learn from her. As she described the plants and taught us, she always pulled them out from the bag. This must be some kind of magic, or she was sent from the Gods to save our village.”

  The following few pages included some notes on what happened when the woman was in the village with the author of the handbook. The book detailed how she taught and how the village was revived, written and collected when the author was learning under her. She was with them until one day she disappeared, and none of the villagers saw her again.

  Helen sat back after finishing the last page about the mysterious woman. She drummed her fingers on the table, supporting her chin with the other hand. Her eyes lit up as she remembered Adrian creating a sunflower from nothing a while ago, when she was there watching Lia’s training. If Adrian was using the nature magic instead of the dark magic, then she could probably do it too.

  She looked around her, switching to a seat by a corner in the library, making sure Sophia wasn’t around. There’s no telling whether the librarian would be on her side and wouldn’t tell the Elders. She’d prefer the Elders knew nothing about what she would be doing. She opened the book again, at a random page, there was a plant with pale green jagged leaves and purple fruits that looked like tiny cranberries. Helen opened her hand with palm up, furrowing her brows.

  It probably worked in similar ways she’d already been using her magic. She held out her palm, focusing her power. She stared at the illustration, picturing the plant in her hand. Slowly the plant appeared like when she summoned the vines. There was a tingle from her torso to her arm, then to her palm. Her heartbeat quickened as the plant slowly appeared. After the plant fully formed, Helen let out a relaxed sigh, holding the plant in her hand.

  It seemed to be working. The plant looked almost identical to the one in the book. Its fruit was meant to be sweet and the author added them to bread. It could increase appetite, or at least the book said so.

  Helen picked one fruit off the stem. It was the size of a blueberry. She sniffed at the fruit and, closing one eye, put it into her mouth.

  The fruit was juicy and sweeter than she expected. If this was working, then she should also be able to create more types of plants.

  Helen flipped to another page. There was another plant that looked like the branches of a Christmas tree. Seemingly this plant’s leaves should be sour when they are raw and upon cooking, the sourness would leave and they would taste like rice.

  This was unheard of for her. While she was a nature magician, she wasn’t very keen on learning about plants. Helen scratched her head, setting the book down on the table. Could she only create a plant that existed? Or could she create something from pure imagination? She started to dream of a new type of plant, holding up her palm.

  Um… I guess its leaves are red, the color of tomatoes. They are round like a lotus. Maybe it will taste like celery. I guess it will also have small white flowers that look like broccolis. She closed her eyes, trying to imagine such a plant, picturing every detail of it in her mind before willing it to appear. She took a deep breath, it was harder than before. Her hand shook slightly, but she kept focusing on her palm.

  Finally, a leaf and a small bunch of flowers that looked like what she imagined appeared. Both confused and excited, she took a small bite of a leaf. She winced; it tasted more like celery than celery did. Maybe she should cook it. She stuck out her tongue, shaking her head.

  It seemed creating an existing plant was easier than imagining a completely new one, not to mention she needed the plant to perform a certain type of duty for her.

  She traced her fingers along a page with a dark green vine that looked just like the ones she used to trap monsters. The text on its side said that the leaves of the plant could make a beast fall asleep in minutes, or seconds if the juice was extracted.

  Did Benjamin count as a beast? Maybe she could use that. Now she had to find out a way to get the juice from the plant. Helen took the book with her, heading back to the shelves. She scanned through the rows, searching for one she needed. She could use a potion book, or maybe it would be a cookbook. She walked around the shelves until her eyes went back to the empty spot she pulled the illustrated handbook from. The book beside it was called Introduction to Herbs.

  Helen took it, flipping through the pages. It turned out to be another book like the one she found earlier, filled with pictures of plants and their descriptions. She put the book back in its spot and looked at the book next to it. Using Med
icinal Herbs.

  She grinned. That one looked like the book she needed. Looking at the index, it turned out to be more than she expected, including a list of potions she could make with different plants. She chuckled when she read a line of smaller text under the index page that read “No magic required.”

  She lifted her brows. Did it mean people in the older days knew about magic? Or was it just a joke?

  There were a lot of potions she could make. She wondered why no one told her before. She scanned the index until she reached Types Of Sleeping Potions. A few required some type of bugs. She winced, quickly looking for something not as scary.

  A few potions tasted sweet, used when young babies had problems sleeping through the night. But something sweet may make it difficult to use without Benjamin knowing. Something tasteless would be more convenient.

  She flipped to the next page, skipping over a potion that was green until she finally reached one that was colorless, had no special taste, and wouldn’t give off any kind of smell. She read the description: it was used to hunt large animals, with a warning to be careful of the amount used, otherwise the game would make whoever ate it also fall asleep unless treated with another kind of herb.

  She reached for her phone to take a picture of the recipe, but then remembered that it was at the entrance of the library, as required by the Elders. She grimaced, why was she always a follower of rules? She stared at the list of herbs. She thought of borrowing the book, but then set aside the plan. She didn’t need Sophia knowing her interest in herbs and potions. Maybe old-fashioned pencil and paper would work better.

  Helen walked over to the counter. Sophia wasn’t there. She looked around, making sure nobody was watching before she snatched a piece of paper and a pencil. If Sophia thought she was using potions on the Elders, she wouldn’t have a chance to give it to Lia… Maybe she was a bit too paranoid, and Sophia actually didn’t find her suspicious at all, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.

  She headed back to her table, quickly copying every detail of the ingredients needed and the procedures. It took a bit longer than she would like to search for the plants she needed from the illustrated handbook.