DungeonFall – [A Dungeon Creation / Cultivation Story]

Angie’s parents, Aden and Trissa, did their best to hide their surprise when Nate and Lindsay walked in beside their daughter.

Jace, who was sitting between two people Nate presumed to be his parents, didn’t even bother with the act. “What are you doing here?” He snarled at Nate.

“Why can’t I be here? Is there a particular reason I shouldn’t be allowed here?” He returned, his hand snaking out to pull Angie closer to him in a pretend act of protection.

He was already getting into the act and had decided to have some fun with the role, if at all possible. It wasn’t often you got to do things like this in life after all, at least not in the poorer circles that he typically ran in.

“What are you- Remove your hands from her!” Jace sputtered with a red, angry face.

His parents watched all of this happen without saying a word. “Is this how the Chrighton family upholds an agreement between families?” Jace’s parents finally asked.

Aden slammed his fist through the coffee table and threw it to the side dismissively. “You know as well as I do that my wife did not have either my permission or our daughter’s when she made that deal.” He took in a deep, calming breath before continuing.

“That said, we would have figured something out if your wastrel of a boy had even considered taking it seriously. My wife only informed us of the deal that was made the other day because it should have been declared null and void when he failed to uphold your end of everything. Since there was never even a worry of it taking place, she had been keeping it from us. Now I want to know, why have you kept the official documents that void the engagement from being processed?”

Ahh, now Nate understood. While the McFadden’s had lost the agreement, proper channels still had to be followed for such things. That was why Trissa had said that Angie was engaged back then, because until that paperwork went through in the absolute strictest sense, she was. That meant he couldn’t play as her fiancé, only as her boyfriend.

It was a good thing they hadn’t said anything they’d regret already.

Jace’s father glared at his son, his fist clenching tight enough that they heard popping. “Janett and I have been talking and were hoping that despite our son’s failings-“ The word ground out painfully from his lips. “We might still be able to come to some form of equitable agreement. After all, we did help you back then.”

Aden forced himself to stiffly nod while Trissa kept her eyes on the floor. “Yes, you did, I will admit that… even if the initial deal was made without my daughter’s or my approval, it did help our family to flourish.”

He looked away from them, the muscles in his jaw flexing angrily. “Let’s cut to the chase here, Jaden, something is going on with your family. Just tell us what it is, and I’ll do what I can to help. My daughter’s hand is off the table, but surely there is something else we can do to help.”

Jace surged to his feet angrily before being abruptly slapped away by his mother before he could say anything.

“This is all your fault in the first place. You will sit down and not open your mouth for the remainder of this meeting,” Janett told him tiredly. Turning to the Chrighton’s she bowed her head in supplication. “You are right. There is something we need your help with, and we had thought to secure it through the promise made years ago. For those underhanded methods, I do apologize, however, you need to understand. This involves the continued survival of our family.”

“What happened?” Trissa wondered, looking up from the floor in surprise.

Nate shared a look with Angie and Lindsay, all three having the feeling that their little plan had just become pointless.

The three sighed internally and sat down on the sole open couch still available.

Jace curled his lip angrily as they remained close, but managed to hold back his outburst.

Janett reached for her drink, only to realize it had gone all over the floor when Aden had smashed the coffee table earlier. She pulled back her hand and clenched the side of her long dress instead.

“Things haven’t been going well for our businesses for the last year. The Pritchleys started to move into our territory around that time, and for a while we were fine. Then this blasted thing appeared in the middle of the dimensional zone, and everything changed.”

“I don’t understand. Wouldn’t that have driven more people to you? Pritchley’s name was one of the ones mentioned on the signs outside of it. I heard everyone started avoiding doing business with them afterward.” Nate pointed out, more than a little confused.

“It has to do with my maiden name,” Janett replied softly. “Before I married Jaden, my last name was Turner. Dean Turner is my stepbrother.”

Everyone’s mouth opened in a silent exclamation of surprise.

“Wait,” Angie objected. “It doesn’t seem like my parents even knew what your last name was. Why would everyone else?”

“That’s because your parents don’t have any dealings with us at the moment. When everyone saw those three signs, one of the first things they did was to check the background of who they were working with. That’s when everyone learned I was related to Dean, even if the relationship is strained.”

“They’ve never gotten along.” Jaden supplied, taking hold of his wife’s hand. “And we’ve never even invited him or his family over the entire time we’ve been married. As far as I was concerned, they weren’t related. She wanted nothing to do with him, and my family had enough influence at the time that we didn’t need to interact with them.” He glared at his son. “Well, most of us avoided them, at least.”

Jace met his glare without backing down.

“I think I have the gist of the problem,” Aden said after a moment, breaking the rising tension in the air. “Everyone is just refusing to work with you at the moment.”

The two parents nodded.

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“I’m not entirely sure what you hoped to gain by forcing the marriage between these two to happen? However, if you agree to let that go, then I am sure we can work something out. If it causes a problem, then I can only hope whoever created that structure is willing to talk before they take action against us.” Angie’s father told them after a few moments’ thought. “You did help us get to this position, after all. It’s only right that we return the favor.”

“The marriage issue was Jace’s idea,” Janett admitted, throwing her own son under the proverbial bus. “He has liked Angelica for a long time now, and while it apparently wasn’t enough to stop his bad habits or make him work for her… It was enough for him to come up with this plan.” She and her husband both bowed their heads. “We apologize for giving in to his desires and going along with something that has caused your family undue trouble.”

Trissa furrowed her brow and stared at Angie before sighing. “I admit I don’t know how to respond in this situation. A part of me is furious, but we were also able to see how her friends stood beside her. Even if it never truly got dangerous for them, that is always something good to know.”

Aden nodded along with her words. “How about we declare it water under the bridge this time and move on with the understanding that it won’t happen again.”

Everyone shifted their gaze to Jace, who swallowed uncomfortably before nodding once with a snarl. His blazing, angry eyes were locked onto Nate’s and held a promise of retribution for what had taken place that day.

It was readily apparent the other boy had no intention of letting Angie go, no matter what his parents said. At the same time, it looked as though he blamed Nate for all their current problems. It was an utterly ridiculous idea, if more correct than he would ever realize.

For the moment, Nate ignored the other boy’s glare and focused on the conversation happening around them. He wouldn’t forget him though. That would be foolish. No matter what happened today, he would need to watch out for Jace. There was no doubt in his mind that the prideful brat would eventually try something.

Angie’s father waved the kids away and leaned back into the couch with a sigh. “Send the papers to dissolve the engagement agreement through tonight and then come back tomorrow with a proposal. As long as it is something reasonable and that we can help you with, I see no problem that we can’t make a deal then.”

Nate slipped out of the room with the two girls with a mutual sigh of relief. “That was different than I was expecting.”

Angie nodded silently, a thoughtful expression on her face.

Lindsay, meanwhile, was glaring at the door. “Can you believe her? Your mother made it sound like she didn’t expect me to stand by you for something like this. I mean, sure, I may trip you and then run ahead of you if a monster attacks, but for everything else, I’m with you.” She finished with a glimmer of a smile.

Angie snorted and bumped shoulders with her friend. “Whatever, I’d trip you first and you know it.” She exhaled and pulled her close for a hug. “I’m sorry. I know my mom’s attitude is draining. I wish our parents would just move past whatever differences they have already.”

They could work together and still be at odds. Things had gotten better recently. However, as he had seen, they still weren’t great.

“Have they ever even told you why they don’t get along or like each other?” Nate asked a few moments later as Angie led them through the halls of her large house.

“I’ve gotten a few different reasons when I’ve asked them. None of which I believe.” Lindsay replied, spinning to face him while moonwalking backward.

“Same, all I can figure out is it’s something from their past, which I suppose is rather obvious.” Angie grabbed Lindsay’s arm and pulled her away from a table she would have run into.

She turned back around and faced the proper direction as they neared Angie’s room.

“Well, whatever it was, they must be slowly moving past it to some degree. You mentioned that they’re working together on something soon, right?”

“I did?” Angie stared at him in perplexion as she opened the door to her room. “Oh, wait, you mean the hunting team for after Lindsay and I form our cores?”

He shrugged. That sounded right, but couldn’t be entirely sure. It hadn’t been a conversational detail that he purposefully memorized, simply one that vaguely stuck around.

“Eh, that has less to do with them working through their issues and more about me and Angie.” Lindsay flopped onto the giant bed near the back wall of the room.

“She’s right.” Angie walked over to her computer and sat down. “Nate, can I have you look at this for me?”

The computer was connected to the local internet and was displaying a search term on the screen. ‘What is Anime?’

He mentally cursed himself for his earlier slip of the tongue. He had known it would come back to bite him in the butt at some point.

“What seems to be the problem?” He asked her, forcing himself to stay as natural as possible.

“I just wonder why you would know what the plot of an anime is like when they apparently only exist as rumors here. The information we get from Japan and the other Asian countries has mentioned it once or twice, but no one knows what it actually is. So why would you?” She spun her chair around to glare at him suspiciously.

He raised his hands and took a step back from her. “Woah, what’s with the third degree all of the sudden? It’s just a saying, nothing more. I have no idea where it comes from or what it really means. It probably just seemed appropriate whenever I said it, that’s all.”

Beads of sweat dotted his brow as he lied to her face.