Dungeon Champions

I looked at my party when I’d finished reading the text. It was clear that Nym and Britney were still lagging behind, but Zuri and Merielle were looking at me with worried expressions.

Thinking he might be useful, I passed the readouts to Skullie via message. He confirmed he received them, but then went silent.

Some help.

“This…isn’t great,” I said.

“Are you concerned about the quality of the…creatures that are contained below?” Zuri fidgeted, picking at her cuticles.

“That’s only one of my concerns. The other is… What if some of those elementals are people? It’s one thing if they are just raw mana. It’s another if a cabal of merchants, or whatever, have effectively enslaved beings capable of rational thought and emotion.”

Nym made an excited noise, then paused, sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth. She pulled up her Tablet again, perusing through the shared text. I watched her, amused. She made a humming sound as she read. Once she finished, she snapped her fingers. “I have an idea.”

Then she looked up and saw I was watching her and shrunk away, turning right red.

“Please, share your thoughts,” Zuri said, reaching across me to touch the catgirl’s shoulder.

Nym reddened more at our combined attention. But she swallowed audibly and found her voice. “My class isn’t scholarly like Skullie’s, but… I do know some magic theory. There are spells to read and interpret magic. Maybe… With his help, we can figure out what type of elementals are trapped? If it matters, that is.”

“It matters,” Merielle said, leaning her elbows on the back of the chair, “as long as Jordan is thinking what I think he’s thinking.” The elf looked at me, her green eyes boring into mine. “You’re considering freeing them, aren’t you?”

I didn’t try to deny it. “If we can get them somewhere safe, yeah.”

There would never be any hesitation to kill monsters or enemies that threatened my team. Keeping intelligent, unwilling beings—who’d done nothing to us—captive felt wrong.

I passed the idea to Skullie.

Skullie (to Jordan): It’s sort-of possible. Maybe. The elementals trapped in these orbs are incredibly dense, and full of mana. There might be a ritual we can perform to identify the ones with intelligence. But it’ll require a precision I can’t currently match. I’d need hands.

Jordan (to Skullie): And if I sent Nym down?

Skullie (to Jordan): That could work. She’s a smart girl, and nimble. We’ll need chalk and other magical implements. Send her down with the Key you captured from the shadow person. It might help.

Jordan (to Skullie): Sounds good.

“Skullie has a plan,” I announced before going over what he needed.

Before I finished explaining, Nym was nodding. Her ears were pulled back, worried and nervous, but she was smiling brightly. “I have the basics. He and I can discuss the details. I can get started now, if you want?”

Zuri frowned at the catgirl. “Aren’t you tired? It’s been such a long day… Shouldn’t we begin this in the morning?”

Nym’s ears drooped. “I’m fine,” she said, unconvincingly. Then she looked at me, instead of at Zuri. “The sooner we can begin the better. If he’s talking about what I think, the ritual won’t cast a spell. It’ll be passive, a way for us to detect what’s inside. That type of magic is super time consuming.”

“Plus, a second pair of eyes watching for the shadow-person wouldn’t hurt,” I said, more to Zuri than Nym. “Okay. Go ahead. Take Sadie. And a hammock, if you need. Come back if you get too tired to keep your eyes open.”

“I will.” She looked over at her cot, which now had the wand and pouch we’d captured from the sirens. “And once I’m done with this, maybe we can look into our loot.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

Nym gathered her things, including the grumpy Sadie—who yowled when she was collected—and left the cabin. As she closed the door behind her, I could see her tail twitching behind her.

For all her apprehension, she seemed to be excited about helping out.

The catgirl heading out signaled the others to take their leave as well.

“I’m going to go back up and see about recruiting some sailors to help me dredge up some bits for future meals,” Zuri announced, coming to her feet.

I nearly offered to join her, but decided against it. She had a thoughtful look that seemed to suggest she might prefer a little time alone.

Merielle and I agreed to catch whatever rest we could. “We need you as close to full health as you can get,” I said to Merielle. “Go to sleep. I’ll get up in a few hours and check on Nym.”

“What about me?” Britney asked in a haughty tone.

I shrugged. “What about you?”

“You gave everyone else something to do,” she said, pouting. “What should I do?”

I didn’t really have anything off the top of my head. “Why don’t you check in with the crew? You seemed to be making connections earlier.”

Britney wrinkled her nose at me. “Are you just trying to get rid of me?”

A sharp flare of anger rose up, and I remembered what Zuri said before. If she wanted to be treated like a petulant child…

I looked at my Tablet. The wall of text that the Tablet had summarized for me was still there. All the details we could want about elementals and Keys and islands. I pushed the text to Britney’s Tablet.

“Sit. Read.”

“Excuse me?”

“Now. Do you want busy work? Fine. Comb through the text and learn. Become our expert.”

“But—”

“No.” I fixed her with a stern look. “You demanded I tell you what to do and then rejected the first option… So here we are.” I pointed at her cot. “Sit your ass down and read.”

Britney flushed. She opened her mouth like a gasping fish, trying to figure out what to say.

I pointed at the cot again.

“F-fine,” she said, spinning around and marching over to it.

Merielle snorted with laughter, but tried to hide it behind her hand.

Jordan (to Merielle): Don’t encourage her.

Merielle (to Jordan): I should be saying the same to you. Poor girl already has serious daddy issues. You’re just going to make it that much worse.

It was my turn to hide a laugh.

***

That night passed fitfully, in starts and stops. Every time I heard a stray sound, or when Zuri finally returned to our shoebox of a room, I was certain it was the would-be saboteur. Finally, well before dawn, I woke to the sound of waves slapping against the hull and knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep.

Especially not when I realized Nym hadn’t returned. Despite the lack of telepathic warning, I felt a stab of concern and hurried through my morning ablutions.

Moving quietly, but quickly, I made my way down to the hold.

“Focus girl, focus!” Skullie said, his hissed words holding a lecturing tone. “Hold the mana in your mind. Press your palms near the ring. Sense how the vibrations interact with your magical field.”

I crossed over into the hold. Nym—at least I assumed it was the catgirl, considering Skullie was still just a skull and spine—had drawn rings of concentric chalk circles around the crates. Elaborate symbols and runes decorated the interiors. Lines connected some of the symbols, creating a constellation-like feel, or maybe a magical web.

Those lines then wove across the planks of the floor, connecting in yet another circle directly in front of Nym.

The catgirl was wavering on her feet, eyes puffy and heavy looking. One hand was in front of her, shaped to fit the contours of an invisible bubble, and the other held the elemental key like a talisman. Her expression was focused, eyebrows drawn as tight as trap doors.

Sitting on a barrel beside her, Skullie’s eye sockets had a faint yellow glow I hadn’t seen before. Sadie was curled up next to the skull, her snout buried under her tail.

“I… I think… Yes. I can feel something. A mind, maybe? From that one.” Nym pointed, indicating a crate where she’d written the words ‘Air/Storm’ on the side in a loopy script.

“Not the others?”

She hesitated, biting her lip. “I’m…not…” Her tail drooped, almost dragging on the ground. “I’m sorry, Skullie. I can’t be sure. That one…it seems brighter than the rest somehow. More active, maybe?”

Nym yawned and tears squirted from her eyes. She slouched, about to stumble, then righted herself. But a second yawn came quickly behind the first, and this time she didn’t catch herself when she stumbled.

I rushed forward, catching her before she could fall. She felt like nothing in my arms.

“Jordan,” Nym said sleepily, blinking up at me and smiling. “You’re here. I missed you.”

Lifting her delicate body, I turned to Skullie. “How’d it go?”

Nym started to mumble something, but Skullie spoke over the exhausted catgirl. “Impressively well. She lacks a proper, formal education. However, her mind is sharp and her hands steady. And she has a capacity for discipline, if motivated by…” He hesitated, twisting to look me over. “Proper emotion.”

I decided to not ask what he meant by that. Instead, I curled the catgirl close to my body and lifted her up.

“We should fix the gaps in her education.” Clacking his jaws together, Skullie gave me a gap-toothed grin. Overnight, a couple of his teeth had already regenerated. “With your help, it should go smoothly.”

I gave the lich a tight nod. “We’ll talk about it later. For now, I’m putting her to bed. Give me a few minutes and I’ll return so we can go over your findings.”

“Of course.”

Nym protested, tugging at my shirt. “No! Still not sure. Not yet. So close. Give me…five…more…” Her eyes drifted closed as her face relaxed into angelic serenity.

Chest feeling tight, I carried her up the stairs and through the halls to our room. No one was awake yet, which wasn’t a surprise. Tucking her into bed, I slid the key from her grip, then took a pit stop up to the main deck.

The creaking of wood and rope greeted me, along with the warmth of a single magical lantern. It looked like the crew had cleaned up from the festivities. Several small nets, each with various bits that looked like something Zuri might want to cook, were sitting on top of a few barrels, lashed to the far side of the deck.

A sailor, stationed at the main wheel, gave me a wave. “Not long till dawn, sir. We should be at the detour in another couple of hours.”

“Thanks.” I moved further down the deck, searching the horizon. For a while, the lap of waves and sounds of the boat were enough to lull me into a sense of peace. Inhaling the sharp, tangy sea air, my thoughts came to a point of stillness. It felt like my past and present—Earth Jordan and Changeling Jordan—had a chance to reach equilibrium.

New man and old…whatever I’d been, in harmony as I/we simply lived in our new world together.

Warmth glazed the horizon, lightening the sky from pitch black to purple-blue. Compared to the net of alien stars, pre-dawn was a surprisingly mundane sight.

Then I saw the outline of a pair of wings, barely backlit, and wide enough the owner must have been bigger than our ship.

That earned a chuckle, even as it brought me firmly into the present.

“Call if you see anything,” I reminded the helmsman, making my way downstairs to where Skullie waited.

My familiar watched me with those glowing eyes.

“Catch me up,” I said, taking a seat near the barrel he was perched on.

“About which parts?”

“Everything.”

“Magic theory, too?”

I made a rolling gesture. “It’s not like I’m going anywhere. Walk me through it. What did you and Nym do? What’s the goal?” Reaching into my pocket, I retrieved the key.

“No problem. Happy to educate.” His bone mouth flexed in a slight curve that was either a smile or a sarcastic sneer. I didn’t mind either way.

If anything, I found his growing familiarity comforting. It signaled that we were moving beyond a transactional relationship into something meaningful.

Over the next couple of hours, Skullie taught me about the fundamentals of magic. Even with my heightened attribute scores, the material was difficult. I could memorize what he said, but had a hard time interpreting it through the skills available to me. My class skills kept wanting to relate everything to dungeons, or activating wands, and not more esoteric concepts.

It became a fascinating dance, tugging against what the Tablet and Corey had given me to learn alternative truths about the world.

I surfaced from our discussion to the boom of thunder and a sudden rocking. Skullie began to roll. Coming to my feet, I caught him up an instant before a massive explosion sounded above.

Crack! THWOOOM!

“Is that a storm?” I asked, listening for rain.

In the hold, it was hard to make anything out.

“How astute,” Britney said, waltzing into the hold. She rolled her eyes, although she did so with a thin smile.

“Did you finish your reading?”

The celestial paled. “Mostly.”

“Mhm.”

The others followed behind; Merielle looked well rested and alert, Nym seemed like she hadn’t gotten enough rest, Sadie was bright-eyed and focused, and Zuri brought up the rear with a plate of fresh seafood and a mug of water, and a warm smile.

She held the plate out to me. “I assumed you skipped breakfast,” the half-gorgon said. “It’s lunch time. The captain says we’re due to arrive at the cove soon, assuming this storm doesn’t cause problems.”

Accepting the plate, I took a bite of fish. It was perfectly seasoned and damn delicious. The taste woke up my hunger, and I was suddenly ravenous. Moaning in delight, I shoved more fish in my mouth before I washed it down with some water.

As I ate, Nym shared her insights from the night before. The poor catgirl still looked drowsy, but most of the puffiness had left her eyes. She used more simplified explanations for things that were easier to follow, although I still felt like I was missing huge connecting points.

Eventually, she had to stop trying to talk. The sounds of the storm worsened, growing loud enough for us to hear the hammering rain even in the hold. There were more CRACK THOOMS as lightning struck, and the scent of ozone wafted down into the hold.

“Do you think they’re okay up there?” Nym asked.

In response, cries rose up from above. I jumped to my feet, as did half my party.

Captain Drake appeared at the doorway. He looked worse for wear, his eyes wide and clothes utterly drenched. It took him a moment to look my way, as if he hadn’t expected to find me down here. “We have a problem. They found us!”

Storing my plate in my extradimensional holding space, I grabbed Skullie and took the lead up the stairs, climbing three at a time.

We surfaced into an apocalyptic nightmare.

Rain was pouring in solid sheets, and lightning scoured the clouds that churned above. Off one side of the ship, barely a mile or two away, the sky was clear. Bobbing beneath the much calmer waves was an entire fleet of ships, all with black sails. Sailors swarmed the decks, and someone—an elf from my guess—stood at the prow of the lead ship, arms outstretched.

“Storm mage,” Skullie said like a curse.

I did the math. It didn’t take long.

No matter how capable my team had become, this was it. We were done. Maybe we can jump overboard. That wasn’t a good option, not if our opponent could summon sirens. Or surrender? Then I remembered the sole story that had informed our decisions. This wasn’t a group who wanted survivors.

That left one option. One weapon they wouldn’t expect.

Water running down my face, into my eyes and mouth, I shouted, “Nym. Show me that elemental you found.”

The poor catgirl, who hadn’t exited the hallway, gave me a look of shocked incredulity. Her damp ears flattened. “You can’t be thinking what I…”

Fwoom! A fresh bolt of lightning came out of the sky, striking just off the bow.

“I sure as hell am,” I said.

The catgirl tried to protest but I grabbed her by the arm and drug her back down toward the hold. Sadie yowled at the indignity of it all—either me manhandling her master or being wet or any number of other things.

The rest of the team followed.

By the time we got back to the hold, the ship was listing from side to side. Crates and boxes we’d turned into a maze became dangerous as they slid around, cracking as they slammed into one another.

Relying on every Tablet-gifted advantage I had, I made my way to the crate I thought was the one Nym had pointed to. Taking the Key out, I prepared to lift the lid and unleash what I hoped could become an ally. “Is this it? Skullie? Nym?”

Nym said, “Uh. I think so. It’s either that one or…” She pointed to another, one with a nearly identical symbol that had slid a few feet away.

I looked down, trying to find the looping chalk script to figure out which was which. The lines had already been so smeared. There was no hope of backtracking which of the two crates was the one I was looking for.

Skullie’s eyes flickered like candles. “Can’t be certain. The magic is too contained. Jordan, unless we know, this is too big of a…”

CRACK! FWOOM!

The ship lurched, seeming to fall from a great height, then bob to one side. It sent us all careening across the cargo hold.

“Nym, look out!”

But it was too late. I watched, unable to stop her, as Nym tumbled head-first into the second crate. She hit hard enough to knock it over, sending the orb within spinning out. It glittered with electric blue energy, seeming to react to the storm all around us.

And then the ship lurched again, sending the already off-balance Nym rolling.

I dove, catching the catgirl’s tail with one hand and the orb with the other.

Click.

The key I’d been holding touched the orb, activating the seal.

Brilliant amber light flooded the cargo hold.