“And your dungeon core uses ants for building?” Asked Garry. He couldn’t wrap his mind around little ants being efficient builders.

“They are upgraded to builder ants. They are as big as a dog. A small one. And they are really fast.” Said Diana.

The other three were stuck in the library pouring over books on the forest of plenty. Most of the books here were old. Earlier editions and dusty. Still, the forest couldn’t have changed so much in the time when they were new. Could it?

“Do you think your nymph will sell me some ants? I need to build tunnels to a nearby cave. The inn needs expanding.” Said Garry. Diana pulled out a sheet of paper and a quill and nodded.

“Theanore sells them even to violent dungeons. She would be happy to sell to a peaceful core like you.” Said Diana, and she began to write.

Dear Thea,

There is a new dungeon, a peaceful one, in the forest of plenty that needs your assistance. Garry the gnome would like to purchase some builder ants. He would like…

Diana paused and looked up at Garry.

“How many would you like to start with?” Asked Diana.

“Well, a hundred will be good.” Said Garry.

A hundred ants to start with. Please deliver them as soon as possible. Have Luca teleport them to the Swamp Heaven inn. The inn doesn’t have a teleport.

Love,

Diana Raskovic.

Then Diana pulled out a black mana crystal and send the letter. They waited for about 15 minutes and the ants appeared in the inn, barely fitting in the communal area. One of them had a not strapped on its back.

Dear Di,

Here are the ants. They weren’t happy that they are going to a peaceful core, but I said they will get extra sugar syrup to get them moving. Don’t make me a liar and give it to them. Tell Garry that he has to pay me a hundred gold coins. Please and thank you.

Hugs,

Theanore the nymph.

Diana smiled at the note and then relayed to Garry the price. He grumbled at the among, but he fished out the coins from a coin purse, and then they send them back in an envelope.

That done, Garry watched at the ants. One of them began sniffing a plate with the special that was on the table. Garry took it and held it up. The ant clicked its antennas angrily.

“You get food after you have earned your keep! Now, come with me and I will show you where to start digging.” Said Garry and the ants followed him.

Diana noticed that the ant who had stood out took a bite out of the ginger bread of one of the guests. Garry didn’t see it, and the guests were amused at the giant ant. Diana decided not to give the ant away.

With nothing better to do, she went up to the library and took out a book from the shelves. She saw it was full of fairy tales. Theanore would love it, but she doubted that Aleida would let her send it to the nymph.

And so, Diana went back to the table and began copying the fairy tales. There were some classics, like Zippy the elf. But there were some weird ones in there too.

She had never heard of The Ogre that rolled down a hill. Or The wolf with the ten tails. She stopped copying to read them and found they were too realistic to be fairy tales. Too morbid too. Come to think of it, Zippy’s retelling was different from the one she knew, too.

Could these be true stories? She took the book and went to the bar, where Gretta was pouring a glass of water to a guest.

“Hey, Gretta. Can you tell me something about this book?” Asked Diana, and she placed the book on the counter.

“Where did you get this? We burned it just before you four got here.” Said Gretta. There was terror in her voice, and Diana didn’t understand why. This was just a book. Besides, it didn’t have burn marks on it.

“It was on a shelf in the library. What is so special about it?” Asked Diana. Gretta shuddered and stopped pouring just as the glass was about to overflow. The guest grumbled, but he bends down so that he could drink without spilling the water.

“This is a cursed artifact. It updates itself. In it there is only truth. One of the stories is the Goblin and the Gnome and the fire fiend. It is about Aleida and Garry. We thought that if we burned the book, it won’t come to pass. But the book is whole now. Oh, no. The inn is going to go down in a blaze in the middle of the rainy season!” Whispered Gretta, more to herself than to Diana.

Diana began leafing through the pages and found the story. She began to read. In it, Garry, and he was mentioned with his name, so there was no way to think it was about something else, tried to cure his mother of a curse. It appears that she made the special only because she was cursed to do so, not because she couldn’t cook other things.

Well, Garry summoned a demon accidentally. A fire one. And when the demon saw the inn and the rain outside, he decided to burn the building to the ground.

Within a day, everyone was dead because of the swelling sickness. And that was the end of the story. But there was one thing missing. The four of them, herself, Dereck, Elmar and Lucius were not in the story.

And that was weird, as most of the guests were mentioned in the death count at the end of the story, if not all. Diana did not know all their names. Could the book not have accounted for the four of them? Or, did they run away and left the people of the inn to die?

“We will stop this, Gretta.” Said Diana, closing the book. Had she kept it open, she would have seen the pages of the story going black and then rewriting themselves with a much grimmer story than before.