Dungeon Robotics 124

Nothing much from me today. Other than Book 5 hit #1 new release in Military fantasy from 2-4th. Really thank you all!




 

Louella

The village was welcoming for most of the party we were traveling with. Many of them didn’t bother to hide their looks of disgust and annoyance at the dark elves in the party’s midst. I figured when there had been a war going on for who knows how many centuries it was hard to bury the hatch. 

The lords didn’t plan to stay here for long. They just wanted to ask the village if they knew of any paths to the surface given their location. I wanted to ask why they just didn’t have their high race beastkin like Yuno find the path, but the few that were with us didn’t seem to have his ability.

The second day after we had been at the village, we were in our accommodations talking. “I feel like something is wrong down here,” I said taking a sip of my tea. “I mean other than the blood hate, seemingly Beneath encompassing war, and the flame army that marches further by the day.”

“I agree. It might have been a while, but I don’t remember the high races being this… weak,” Nero said from his spot next to the window. He was looking out watching the few people that lived in the large cavern of a village.

“The people in the Lords’ party seem to be decently powerful,” Yuno commented. He was sitting next to Sera dabbing a wet cloth on her forehead. She had taken a fever last night but he said it was common for her. I had wondered when they said she had some sort of sickness. The girl was quite durable from the few days I had traveled with them.

“I doubt they would tell us what is wrong with their society. If what you say is true, I am a foreign nations queen. If I found a weakness we could exploit, it would be disastrous for them.”

“Fair point,” Yuno said. Silence lapsed over the group with only Sera’s panting filling the air. Looking at the girl, I thought she was in incredible pain. She was normally pale, but her skin was almost red from how flushed she had grown. Sweat sprang up on her forehead even as Yuno wiped it off.

“Is she going to okay?” I asked. Concerned that by coming to help me, her own fate might have been changed in some way.

“I want to say yes, but this is the worst I’ve seen it since she was a child.” I noticed that Yuno sent a glare at Nero but couldn’t be sure of the reason. From what I understood, it was Nero’s fault they came after me, but the glare seemed to speak volumes more than that.

Nero stood up from his spot and walked over to the man giving him a pat on the shoulder. I thought he actually looked bothered by the Sera’s suffering. “I will go find the village healer. They may have some medicine that could help the girl.”

“How did you three meet?”

“I stole something. We would have died if not for him.”

“Was it that valuable?” I asked. Street urchins were part of life. They weren’t normally killed for their actions. 

“It belonged to a necromancer,” he replied with a shrug. 

When he mentioned necromancers, my head throbbed painfully. The image of two individuals wearing strange white masks following me around at the orders of the metal man. One of them like to eat while the other had a strange obsession with Regan. The pain grew as I tried to watch more of the memories.

I didn’t want to let it go. I knew this was truly part of myself and I wanted it back. My hands were on my temples before I even realized it. The world wobbled and I fell face first into the floor as black wrapped around my vision.

~~~

A noise roused me from a dream about a floating little girl that seemed to defy gravity. I knew the girl but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t think of her name. 

“What has this girl been through to have had this done to her?” 

“She was Glorious’s prisoner for a few days. He changed her in some way.” 

The conversation pulled me from my thoughts and I tried to crack my eyes open. A bright light made me force them shut as it stung my eyes. I attempted to open them again and the light was greatly reduced. An old man stood next to me with his hands glowing as they rested on my head.

“What’s going on?” I asked considering it was my head he was using magic on. I didn’t need something else breaking in there.

“You fainted while we talked. I worried something was wrong and ran after Nero to bring the healer if he found one,” Yuno explained from his place next to his sister.

“Child. Do you know you are more elemental then mortal?” 

“Elemen… what?” 

“Elemental. A primal force of the world. A very powerful primal force of the world. They are usually mindless but Greater elementals could wipe out continents if they wanted to. Just look at Glorious.”

“Okay. What does that mean for me exactly?” Glorious had messed with my head. I wasn’t sure I wanted to turn into something like him. Not that I remember exactly how powerful he was. Everything before I met Yuno and them was a sort of gray blur when I tried to think about it.

“That depends. The lightning and fire elements are fighting over you. I’m sure you’ve saw the scene in your mana pool.”

“Yes. I had noticed a few interesting things taking place last time I looked.”

“My professional advice is to not use any mana for the foreseeable future. That and you need to decide with path you want to walk. Depending on that, find a great source of fire or lightning and finish the transformation.”

“Is there nothing else that can be done? Both of those require places that I’m not sure exist in easily accessible locations,” Nero said from a corner in which I hadn’t noticed he was leaning. 

“Sadly, that is all I can say. My advice. Find a dungeon and convince them to help you,” the healer replied. For some reason, I found that incredibly ironic. 

“And if I want to stay a mortal?” I asked since I didn’t like the fact that my mortality was already a forgone thing.

“Impossible. Your body will the ripped apart eventually. No matter how much healing you get. It won’t help.”

“Lovely.”

The healer patted my shoulder then moved over to Sera. He pulled a few herbs out of his pack and handed them to Yuno. “Grind these into a paste. Apply a drop once every hour and the symptoms will be reduced. Sadly, there is no cure for the Lumos curse. I am amazed she has lived as long as she has.” 

“Thank you,” Yuno replied taking the herbs, but I didn’t miss the hard face he made. I was sure he’d heard that from many healers over the years. 

The healer left after that. While I felt better after the healing light, I also felt numb. What did that mean for me to become a full elemental? Was that really the only path for me to take? I took a deep breath and rolled over. Maybe sleeping would take my mind off it all for a few hours.

~~

I looked around as I found myself in a cavern I’d never seen before. While I instinctively knew I was underground, there appeared to be a sun in the center of the cavern. Roots the size of mountains grew from the ceiling that was shrouded by clouds and extended along the walls. For some reason they reminded me of a cell.

“Child…” 

I jumped as I heard the voice. It sounded ancient. Older than the planet itself. I looked around and found the eye of a creature that would have dwarfed the mountains on the surface staring at me. It resembled a dragon, but for some reason I felt that was wrong. The roots weren’t crawling along the wall. They were bound around the creature. 

“What?” I asked carefully.

“You smell… Delicious!”

“Um… Thank you?” I said deciding I should try to find a way to leave.

“You… resonated with me. I couldn’t help myself and… answered.”

“I’m sorry to have bothered you,” I said bowing my head. Better to be polite to something that could crush me just by accidently stretching. 

“When you haven’t… talked to anyone in almost fifty thousand years. You welcome the interruption every now and then.”

“I see. What do you want to talk about then?” 

“Freedom. Don’t you think it is a wonderful word?” The eye narrowed as the creature focused on me.

“I suppose. I would hate to be imprisoned unless I did something to deserve it,” I said tapping my fingers together.

The ground started to shake and blouders began to fall from the ceiling through the clouds. I realized that the creature was laughing after a second. He looked at me for a few more seconds. “The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you,” He said then closed his eye. 

“And what truth would that be?” I asked but got no reply. I started to say something again when I found myself sitting up in my bed back at the village. “That was an interesting dream.”