Chapter 30

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[Sigurd]

The blood drained from Jason’s face in an instant, soon matching the sickly pallor of his son on the doorstep below. He fell against the door frame, the strong walls of his house the only thing keeping him up.

“Oh god…” he whispered to himself. “No, no no no no no. Ardoi! My boy!”

Tears fell freely now, and Jason made no effort to hide it.

I crouched down and looked Indry in the eyes.

“Dungeon?” I whispered, knowing the answer before I asked it. He nodded.

Goddamn! I thought to myself.

Despite all my warnings to the boys, despite it all, they just had to go and look. Delving required training, dedication, and luck, and still you would get surprised, caught off guard. Heck I’d just gone for a delve with the best team I’d ever encountered, and we’d nearly lost one. Why? Why did they have to go?

I sighed. I knew the answer. Gold, silver, and riches. For all the good it does for the dead! I thought bitterly.

Jane came to the door and I closed my eyes. Knowing the next minutes were going to suck.

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[Friar]

The friar clenched his sweaty hands, nervous as always. Devor was off pursuing the young girls of the town, and that meant an opportunity to contact master. He had found nothing, Curate Lucilla had proven useless, and so too had all the others. And though he hadn’t failed his task - which was to search for information – he felt like he had, and that was not a good feeling when contacting the master. No, no, no, no, no, it was not a good feeling at all.

As he cast the scroll, he dug his nails into his palm. With a crackling surge the scroll combusted, and the pale white face of the master appeared.

“Friar… how nice to see you” the master crooned, his raspy voice unnerving the friar. “I hope you have good news?”

“I’m afraid not master, it appears he failed, Curates Lucilla, Averly, Brickhaus, Martes and Rhanel had no-one turning up for healing. It seems safe to conclude that he has perished.”

“So it would appear” he commented. “Acceptable work friar, keep looking into it in case he appears, but I think I’ll have to send another to complete the job.”

“Of course, master, is there anything else I should be doing?” the friar asked.

“No, for now, just keep looking into it.”

Friar cancelled the spell, smiling, for once the master had not ended with a death threat. Perhaps he was warming to him. Friar snorted at the ridiculousness of the thought. No, that would never happen. Master had ice flowing through his veins.

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[Sigurd]

*** 9 Hours later ***

The town meeting had just finished, and though there were lots of tears from the three families who had lost loved ones, the story had come out.

The boys had tracked up to the mountain in the evening and entered the dungeon around the time we were starting the last floor. Apparently that day was cursed after all. For they didn’t make it far, the trees having taken two of them and an eagle the third. It was news to me, having not seen the eagle in the four times I had been in the first floor and I was surprised there was such a supposedly dangerous creature up there. Though when it came to dungeons there was no rule book. Each and everyone one was different and there were plenty that were nigh on impossible to delve, the first floor being too dangerous for anyone.

And though I thought the first floor relatively tame, it had taken three lives. And what was once a coming boon to the town would now be marred in the minds of the villagers.

I sighed, sitting down in the pews of the church. It was where we had all our town meetings. Littlebrook being far to small for a town building, and so we clustered amongst the pews and talked for happy and for sad. More sad this time though.

Of course I felt bad for the families, but it was John who had my sympathy. I knew his pain after all, having lost plenty of team members and friends in dungeons throughout my life. It was part of delving, the loss, and you grew to accept it and cherish the time you had with people.

From what he had told me, John hadn’t wanted to go. Had known it was a bad idea, but he felt he couldn’t let them go alone. He knew the most about dungeons, he’d been at my door for the longest time, asking questions, stories, anything he could coax out of me. So, to not give his knowledge to his friends was unthinkable, no matter how stupid an idea he thought it was.

I could understand it, had experienced similar things and I knew how it hurt. I’d known since the first time he told me about the dungeon that he would be going inside it, I’d just hoped it would be after the guild was brought in and he had had some proper training. For all his badgering, I hadn’t trained him. He had wanted me to, had begged for it, but I’d always told him no. Hoping to prevent him from running off and doing something stupid. How well had that turned out? I thought sarcastically to myself.

I sighed before lapsing into silence to say my prayers to the goddess.

Standing, I stretched my back out and turned to walk home, the morning light showing me my way. As I shuffled along, I felt numb, and soon I reached the door, pushing it open and locking it with the ease of someone who had done it countless times. I walked my familiar path to my bed, slipped in and fell asleep, the weight of the nights’ events pushing my head firmly into the pillow.

The next day, I awoke late, as one might expect for someone who had been up so late the night before. Getting into bed a scant few hours before noon meant waking up in time for a late lunch. A very late lunch, almost dinner in fact.

Jenna and the others were awake, helping themselves to some food from the pantry. Jenna must have woken sometime around noon.

“Hey, good to see you’re awake, Jenna. I see the rest of you found my food ok. That’s good, I was worried.” I commented sarcastically.

“What’s mine is yours and vice versa mi amigo, I’m just glad its all yours and not mine” Kael replied laughing as he took a big bite of food.

“You’re such an asshole Kael” I said laughing too.

“You’re just catching on now? My god you’re slow” Lore muttered with a snort.

“Fuck off” I replied with mock indignancy.

“So, what’s up?” Sebastien asked, sincerely.

“A group of the boys went up last night, entered the dungeon.”

“Oh dear”

“Yep, went as well as you’d expect. Three dead.”

“Three? Shit!” Kael commented. His compassion evident.

“Fancy going up again to help search for their bodies before we head back?” I asked.

“Sure, least I could do for raiding your food my man”

“Thanks Kael” I replied with a laugh. “The villagers would like to give them a proper burial. Would make them much more kindly to you if you wanted to make this dungeon, you’re main”

“I guess, we’re going, since Kael volunteered us and all.” Sebastien replied with a straight face. Unfortunately, he cracked a smile half-way through letting us know he was cool with it.

“Nice, I guess we’ll go after I eat some of my food, you didn’t prep me any by any chance?” I asked.

“Nope, what do you take me for, your servant” Kael responded laughing.

I just shook my head and walked into my stripped pantry, sighing as I went.