Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 23

Tibs sat by the room’s entrance and now had a sense of how Jackal felt each time they’d encountered a new puzzle he had to work out, and there was nothing for anyone else to do, or at least the fighter. He’d often had Carina or Don help, and even Khumdar, with his broad knowledge of the world, had been able to assist at times. Jackal was smart, smarter than he let people know. But he had the kind of smarts that excelled in a fight or on the street, not at puzzling out how a lock needed to be manipulated to open a door, or how to know where triggers were.

Or, as was the case now, how to go about moving beams so the rest remained standing.

Over the last three days, and more attempts than Tibs could keep track of, Heather had worked out how to read what she sensed for them to remove and place beams in such ways that the others were always supported. They’d made it roughly halfway through, but each time they set a new beam, she took the time to study everything before deciding on their next move.

It meant that there hadn’t been one collapse at all since the start of this run, but also that he had nothing to do until she worked out what to do. It now felt like she was taking far too long making the decisions, and he fought the urge to have her hurry.

“We need to place one here,” she said, and he took a beam from the stack by the wall and brought it. She positioned it, finishing by banging her fist against the top lightly.

The first time, Tibs had hurried away, expecting the beams to come falling down. When they didn’t she’d explained that by anchoring it like that, it shifted Force away from the beam she wanted to then remove.

“This one.”

Tibs held it while she used a foot to tap the bottom away, watching the top after each one. The first time, that had caused the cascade, and they’d barely made it out of the room unscathed.

She nodded, and he moved it away completely. The beams stayed in place, and he brought it to the pile, then sat and waited, while she sensed for the next move.

“Ruppert,” Karliak said, and the squirrel curled up in Tibs’s lap opened an eye. “You are a dungeon, correct?”

“Yes,” he replied, the one word carrying annoyance.

“Where’s your helper?”

Ruppert closed his muzzle, then groomed.

“Ruppert?”

Tibs watched. He understood the squirrel’s reluctance, but not why he was grooming.

“Tibs?” Karliak asked. “What is Ruppert doing?”

He glanced at Heather to get a sense of how she was progressing, but Ruppert spoke.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Why not?”

“Because I just don’t.” The squirrel kept grooming. More forcefully, he thought. Ruppert wasn’t vocalizing, so they wouldn’t disturb Heather.

“Did your helper have to remain behind when Tibs put you in the creature? Simtor,” the dungeon called. “Can you travel outside my influence? Can a helper leave a dungeon.”

“They didn’t stay behind,” Ruppert snapped.

“Why would I want to leave?” Simtor said.

“I’m curious,” Karliak said. “Ruppert doesn’t have helper, so where are they?”

“I don’t—” Ruppert cut himself off.

It was odd seeing the glow appear around nothing. Tibs was used to seeing it around the speaker’s mouth when they said the lies, but the squirrel was speaking the way a person would. So the glow was just…there. Or at least his mind interpreted it that way. He didn’t actually see essence the way he saw the objects around him.

“You don’t what?” the dungeon asked, tone quizzical.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“I can go beyond your influence,” Simtor said, “but I can’t tell where anything is, so I don’t see why I’d go.”

Something else Tibs hadn’t known. A Helper’s senses were linked to the dungeon’s influence. What did that mean for when the helpers were being trained? It happened inside a dungeon? Did dungeons train helpers who went out to help dungeons? How had that started?

“Why isn’t the helper there, then?” Karliak asked. “Or is it because Ruppert doesn’t have an influence? Why don’t you have an influence? You’re a dungeon.”

Ruppert buried his face in the folds of Tibs’s vest. “That isn’t why.”

“Then why?”

“Stop.”

“I’m just curious. I couldn’t think of being without Simtor, so how can you be without you—”

“I killed them!” The squirrel whimpered in the vest.

“Why would you do that?” Simtor asked, sounding worried.

“I—” again, Ruppert stopped the lie before it was out. “I was hungry,” he admitted softly. “I didn’t know what they were.”

“Didn’t your helper tell you? I was scared when Simtor appeared, but they explained, and things have been much better since.”

Ruppert too long enough to answer Tibs thought Karliak would prod him again.

“I didn’t listen. I didn’t care. All I wanted was to eat them. They weren’t someone, they were just food.”

The silence stretched.

Heather looked at him, but he shook his head. He thought Ruppert needed to see this to its conclusion, whatever it was.

“If you try to eat Simtor,” Karliak said, voice growing hard. “I will end you.”

“I won’t.” Ruppert’s voice was weak. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I did it. I wish I hadn’t. I wish I’d been a good dungeon. I want to be a good dungeon. I’m sorry.” He curled into a ball.

“Doesn’t eating your helper break rules?” Karliak asked.

“I don’t know,” Simtor answered. “No one ever talked about that happening.”

“Tibs?”

“I know less about that than Simtor. I think it’s wrong. Especially because of why Ruppert did it. And I’ve explained how I feel about what he did then. Why he’s traveling with me as a squirrel. But no one had come to punish him before I found him, so I don’t know.” He placed his vest on the ground, then placed Ruppert on it. He then moved both outside the room. He didn’t know if Ruppert would be crushed to death under the beams, being a dungeon, but he wasn’t risking it.

“What’s going on?” Heather asked.

“Karliak asked about Ruppert’s lack of a helper, and it’s put him in a bad mental place. He can tell you, if he feels like it.”

She looked at the vest, then pointed to a beam. “We need to support that one.”

He brought the beam. She secured it, then they removed another one, and he sat. He just made out the whisper of the conversation between Ruppert, the dungeon and helper, and figured that if he tried, he could listen in, but decided to let them have their privacy.

Three beams later, Ruppert pulled his vest back to him, and curled onto his lap. Tibs petted him while watching Heather.

“Will I get another helper when I return to my dungeon?”

“I don’t know. That’s a part of dungeons no one told me about.”

“I hope I’ll be a good enough dungeon, I’ll get one.”

“I hope so too.”

When Heather motioned to a new beam, he put his vest on, and Ruppert in the pocket, then helped her.

*

Tibs looked back at the tunnel through the beams. It was almost a maze of them, as they supported those around them, but they’d made it through and could move on to the next—

“I can’t do this,” Heather said, looking at the animals in the room.

“The runs, or just this fight?”

“I can’t do puzzles like that again.”

“You won’t. I’ll handle the other ones.”

“How would you have done it?”

“As an Omega? The way you did, but I’d have had to try every beam until I worked out a way to support them. Once I had my element. I’d ice the whole thing and not bother.”

“The dungeon was okay with you using your element.”

“But you needed the training.”

“That was torture.”

“But now you know what it means when you sense Force on an object.”

“You have me do that again, and you’re going to feel Force on your head.”

“Lets go by to our room. We’ll continue tomorrow.”

*

“To confirm, Karliak,” Tibs said. “You’re okay with me using Water to hold the beams in place?”

“If you had as much essence as Heather does, you wouldn’t be able to ice all of them,” the dungeon replied.

“No icing all of them. I think we can work with that. Heather, tell me which beams to ice so we can make a path.”

With her pointing them out, and him icing them in place, they were quickly through.

The combat room looked the same as the previous time. The deer in the center of the room, with three raccoons, four foxes, and six rabbits surrounding it.

“How do you feel about taking them on?” he asked.

“Oh, I feel good.”

“Just remember, I can’t heal you unless you make it back to me. Don’t be overconfident. If you don’t win this fight, you can try again.”

“My dad didn’t train me to take stupid risks.”

“He should have taught you not to take risks at all.”

“He tried. He was hoping I’d be happy to stay in the city, help him manage the compound.” She grinned. “I have too much of my mother in me, and just enough of him, he knew he couldn’t force me to stay.”

“Just be careful.”

She drew her sword, stepped into the room, and the animals moved.

As before, the foxes attacked first, but she wasn’t surprised by their speed or leaping. She cut two before one was able to scratch her armor. When a raccoon reached her, its leap was redirected, letting her stab one. The rabbits nearly overwhelmed her, scratching her armor and face until when sent them flying. Then the remaining foxes and raccoons harassed her, leaving her bloody before the rabbits returned to the fight.

She backed until she was out of the room.

She leaned against the wall, panting. “The dungeon make it harder.”

“Or you don’t remember how much they hurt you last time.”

“I made it to the deer last time.”

He nodded. “And it nearly killed you. This time, you were smart enough to get out before you were too hurt. Sit down, I’ll heal you.”

“Use Purity. I want a rest, and then I’m going back into the fight.”

“We need to exit and reenter for Karliak to reset the rooms.”

“I’m sure it can just remake them. We’re not there right now.”

“They can, but I’m not asking them to bend the rules. I’ll heal you, we exit, then come back.”

“Fine.”

*

She killed the foxes, raccoons and rabbits with a minimum of injuries this time, deflecting nearly all leap attacks with the use of Force. When the deer reared, she stepped back, drawing the fight closer to the entrance. She managed a few cuts, one deep, before the deer opened her side, and the proximity to the exit saved her life.

Tibs healed her, and once outside the dungeon, he used fever and metal to repair her armor while she rested.

Another fight with the deer nearly killing her again, and Tibs called an end to the day.

*

Two foxes were dead, along with one rabbit, but the rest were overwhelming her now that she hardly had any essence left. She barely made it out of the room with an exasperated cry.

“I can’t refill my reserve fast enough!”

Tibs nodded. Even with the tricks he’d given her, Force wasn’t an element as abundant as water, or air, or Earth, or most of the other. He could think of one way to help her, but there was a risk.

“Do you want to try again without your element?”

She glared at him, but he waited her out. She sighed, then shook her head. “I barely managed with what I had left. I’m going to need days of rest to refill it enough.”

“Let’s head back, then.” He stopped once they exited the beam room, and unlaced a bracer

“What are you doing?” she asked.

He removed it without answering, and returned into the room, placing it on the floor

“Karliak?”

“Yes?”

“I’m letting you absorb my bracer so you can remake the reserves inside.” He swallowed. “Please return it to me.” He stepped away.

It remained.

“Why are you doing this?” the dungeon asked.

There were so many lies he could tell, and Karliak would never know. “More than one reason. One of which is that Heather could use an amulet for her element. It’s a reserve made of the crystals in my bracers.”

“So you want me to make something to help her.”

“No, I want you to add amulets to your loot list. It’s something all dungeons end up giving as reward in time. Sto learned about them because the guild sells them to sorcerers, who died, and he absorbed them. This is the only way I can think of giving you a way to include them.”

“So you don’t expect me to make one specifically for her?”

“Only if you think it’s a fair exchange.”

The bracer melted into the floor, and Tibs was intensely aware of his bare arm. He waited. Karliak didn’t have to remake it. They could decide to punish Tibs for trying to— It reformed, and he hurried to take it, relief filling him when he felt the reserves within it.

“That is…complex,” Karliak said, awed.

“It was a gift.”

“The reserves are deep.”

“You should be able to change them. Make them smaller. Something you feel will be fair.”

The bracer laced in place, he ignored Heather’s quizzical expression as they exited the dungeon.

“Tibs,” Karliak said, when they were outside. They had to be close to the end of the dungeon’s influence. “Come back with Heather tomorrow.”

“She isn’t going to have enough essence for a fight.”

“That’s okay. I have another reason.”

He told Heather, and she was fine returning.

*

The beam room had been altered.

“The red path,” Karliak said, “leads to the cache containing Heather’s reserve.”

“Isn’t that breaking rules?” Tibs asked.

“It’s a special reward for a special test. The catch is that she can’t have help. This is a test for her and her alone. I will reset the room as often as she wants. All she needs to do is step outside of it, and she can retry. But she only has today to succeed. I’m calling this a pressure test.”

Tibs explained it to her.

“What qualifies as today?” she asked, then had to elaborate as Tibs told her of Karliak’s confusion. “Are you thinking of it ending when we leave? When Claria and Torus become visible? The sun sets?”

“Karliak doesn’t know about Claria or Torus,” he said.

“A day,” the dungeon said, “is from when I feel the sun’s light essence first, through it intensifying, going away, and returning. That’s how you explained it to me, Tibs.”

“A full day and night cycle,” he translated.

She nodded. “So I can keep trying all night if I have to?”

“We have to leave when Karliak closes it door.”

“What door?” the dungeon asked.

“Don’t you close your doors after the sun sets, to make sure no one enters while you’re making changes?”

“There are no one here when the sun is away.”

“So, you’re okay if Heather stays through the night?”

“She has the day. It’s her decision if she abandons the test early or not.”

He told her, and she nodded, stepping to where the path reached the beams.

Tibs contemplated what to do while he waited. Even if she managed it on the first try, this would take a while. “I’m going to be outside,” he said. Ruppert jumped down and ran to sit on Heather’s shoulder.

He sat against the tree that made one of the pillars marking the entrance.

“Why are you doing this, Karliak? It’s borderline breaking a rule.”

“No, it is breaking it.”

“Then why? You made it clear you weren’t going to break rules for me.”

“And you didn’t ask me to. You made sure you did everything by the rules I set. You limited how much essence you used. You tested every paver, even if you can sense which are the ones you or Heather would fall through. You forced Heather to reach you before healing her.”

“So, this is my reward for following your rules?”

“If you’d asked me to do this for you, I’d have said no. I am giving Heather a chance because you did this for her. Because you’re helping Ruppert, even if I am certain that what he did should have resulted in him being destroyed. People are complex. My runners baffle me most of the time, but I listen to them. And I learn about people through them. I don’t like that you taught me rules, then asked me to break them without even worrying how I felt about it. But I recognize you aren’t a bad person, Tibs. So I’m giving your friend a chance.”

Tibs wasn’t sure how to respond.

“You done?” Simtor asked.

Karliak sighed. “Yes.”

“And Karliak is doing this because your bracer is going to give us so much to work with that I wanted you thanked in some way. I wasn’t going to speak until it was done.”

Tibs chuckled. “Thank you. Both of you.”

He practiced his etching while he waited, fighting the urge to expand his sense to know how Heather was progressing.

The sun was slightly past zenith when she ran out of the dungeon, grinning. “I did it!” she showed him the medallion with the small crystal in its center. It was smaller than he’d expected, but this was based on what Sto had put in his bracers, not the large ones the guild sold.

“Congratulation. Does it have any essence in it?”

“No.”

“Put some in, so it’ll be primed, that way it’ll absorb it by itself, and I’ll teach you how to help it along when we—”

He stared at the group of people stepping out of the trees into the clearing.

“What are the two of you doing here?” Rachel demanded.