[Edited] Chapter 31 - Dervish

Look for ch 32 here in an hour or two. It's done, but I need to do a quick review. And If I make it, ch 10 of The Human Experiment should drop today. Getting pretty tired though.

===========

Lynnria peered around the corner cautiously.

All around us, there was nothing but black and the glowing outlines of a seemingly endless maze. With my dark-vision spell, the place sort of reminded me of one of those early 3d video games where they only had the one color to work with, and the graphics engine struggled to produce even the simplest of geometric shapes. Sort of like the computer simulations in the original Star Wars trilogy.

Mostly, it was quiet—still to the point of being creepy. No wind. No moving air of any kind. Just our own breath to keep us company. But then, every once in a while, we would hear some sort of creaking noise in the distance. Like an old house settling. Or a pirate ship rolling in on a fog. But most likely, there was something out there, roaming the maze in search of intruders like the Minotaur of Greek legend.

Because, of course there would be.

Lynnria eventually deemed the passage safe and wordlessly slipped forward. Just as silent, I followed close on her heels. We were not speaking at the moment. Partially because we did not want to attract attention, but also because our most recent conversation had gotten a little strained.

Weirdly, it had not been the possibility of gradually turning into ‘something else’ that had bothered her. I mean… it did, but once I had described what a lilim generally looked like, she seemed to relax about it to a degree. According to her, it sounded a lot like a laoi with some extra flavor, so nothing much to worry about, and the added natural weapons—namely claws, teeth, and horns—would only be beneficial to her goal of becoming a great warrior.

And a hellacious game-ball player, but that went without saying.

I had to suppose that was all true enough from a certain point of view. However, to my mind, the response was level-headed and stoic to the point of being unreasonable. I mean… she should have been freaking out at least a little. But no. I was just being silly. Apparently.

No, what bothered her was the possibility of losing parts of her memory. That at least she was keenly disturbed by—to my relief. However, as to the specifics, I could only answer her questions in the most roundabout sort of way. I still did not have a complete picture as to what sorts of memories might be targeted. From what I had seen, some might be altered, others left alone, and still others erased entirely, so I could not predict the end result. All I could tell her was that it would happen.

Hell, some of it was happening to me. I could not even tell you what my name used to be! Nor Arx’s, for that matter. I suspected there might have been other things, too, but I could not point a definitive finger at any one thing. How can you tell someone that your memory has been altered if you do not know what has been altered? You just… remember what you remember.

But despite all that, she had not walked away. Instead, she had given the matter some thought and announced with a stiff formality that we had already exchanged vows—something she seemed to hold as highly important—and thus far she had only benefited from our relationship. Moreover, I had maintained a levelheadedness and dignity she claimed to be sorely lacking in most of her peers, which… I mean, yeah?

She was nineteen. Of course, her peers would be a bunch of flaky ass-hats. It came with the territory. Not that I considered myself particularly levelheaded or dignified. Sure, I tried to keep my best foot forward and my nose clean, but most of the time, I was doing good just to survive through the end of the day.

Anyway, aside from my tendency to tease her a bit, I seemed to care a great deal for her continued welfare, which spoke to my character far more than anything else. Had I not, I would have never divulged these secrets until it was far too late to turn back.

Of course, after receiving such an appraisal, I had been struck a tad speechless. Most people I know do not just go around making long-winded assessments of their friends to their face. But that was beside the point. She was taking the whole thing far too lightly.

I had seen a flash of fangs after she had bitten my tongue. They might not have lasted long, but I would bet my last gold coin that I was the cause of it. That ritual? Maybe a simple buildup of influence? The combination of the two? Maybe some… magical interference from staying inside my aura too long? It was difficult to pinpoint the exact cause. Regardless, I had not bound her, even by accident. That much I did know. Mia had even shown me my status sheet as proof.

Lynnria was not on it.

So for the time being, she had decided to remain with me at least until we rescued my girls. She wanted to have a conversation with them. About what, she would not say, but I had little doubt that their answers would greatly affect whatever eventual decision she made.

Personally… well, I suppose I would have to admit to mixed feelings. I knew I had agreed to this whole thing, and already done more than a few things that would leave lasting scars on the girl. And there was the whole issue with the Clan and the were-either-of-us-actually-serious marriage proposal. But… I still felt that Lynnria was too young, and the danger I was putting her in—both from myself and the Dungeon… and the lilim themselves—ate at me. So for her own sake, I rather hoped she did the sensible thing, found her grandfather, and went on her way.

But…

I would miss her.

Somehow, the girl had managed to worm her way into my heart, despite my best efforts. Sure, she had her flaws. She could be demanding and overbearing when she felt confident, or awkward and bumbling when she was not. She had a rather high opinion of herself and was quick to tout her achievements. And the tendency to treat me as a notch on her belt was not doing her any favors.

Plus, she was… well, I hated to think it of her. It made me feel shallow and callus to regard someone I rather liked in those terms. But she was a bit plain.

In my defense, my other companions had become quite the specimens of womanhood over the course of our travels, and compared to them, Lynnria just did not stack up. I could not fault her for that. She was only just starting out. Plus, the lilim had quite literally grown into their forms. So it was hardly fair.

But it is one thing to understand something like that on an intellectual level and quite another to convince one’s animal instincts not to be too dismissive. I was becoming used to a certain standard, and when a prospective mate does not live up to it—unrealistic though it might be—that… spark just refuses to ignite.

And that probably would have been the end of it had Lynnria not constantly been marching up and setting me ablaze through the application of sheer will. Somehow, that combination of frank sexual interest and no-nonsense, dogged pursuit had pierced through my shallow armor of disinterest. She had planted her flag, and that was the end of it. How could I resist something like that?

“Blast,” Lynnria muttered quietly from just ahead of me, finally breaking the long hours of silence. To my relief. “Now what?”

I cautiously closed the distance between us, but it only took stepping into the room with her to see what she was on about. We had arrived at a circular area, intersecting some eight to ten pathways leading off in all directions. Thus far, the maze had only presented us with two options at a time, left or right. We had been following the old maze-runners trick of sticking to the one direction for all such decisions, and it had worked well. Even when arriving at a dead end, it had not taken us long to double back. The maze design had, up to this point, regarded such setbacks as more a matter of inconvenience than anything else.

The darkness was our main obstacle. I could hold my spell for quite a while now, somewhere around half an hour by my estimation. But that was still a limitation. And the long and tense minutes of rest in between castings were each an exercise in holding back the ever creeping panic and mounting terror of the unknown. Those minutes of sitting quietly in the dark, still air. The ever-present feeling of being watched—real or imagined. The occasional squeak of… of floorboards off in the distance? Perhaps from some creature stalking about? Except the floor was stone… None of it were doing great things for our continued well-being.

Of course, most of that was because of the traps. Of those, there were plenty.

To be sure, none had proven overwhelmingly dangerous. No, they seemed to be simple little things. Dart traps. The occasional block from a ceiling or a wall to pummel you. Shallow pits. Catch boards to twist an ankle on. They were all minor inconveniences, but together they added up.

I was close to shaking from hunger by that point. And because I could only heal myself when it was absolutely necessary—reserving most of my Energy for Lynnria’s sake—I was also more than a little wounded. If we did not find some sort of sustenance soon, I would be forced to eat Gems of Power just to remain upright.

“Maybe try your new skill,” I suggested with a quiet and distracted air. I was on edge from being surrounded by so many points of ingress. Still, and despite the mood, I was grateful to have an excuse to end the silence between us. Even if it was over something impersonal. “We could use a bit of luck right now.”

“I’ve been trying it,” she replied, clearly frustrated but still keeping her voice down. “It keeps fizzling.”

I started to answer, but that strange creaking sounded again from… somewhere. The two of us sat in near perfect stillness, eyes skipping from one path to the next for quite a while. Another of the strange quirks of this place was that sound seemed to bounce about at random and erratic intervals, leaving you wondering where the source had originated from. Even our own voices would jump about, sounding at times like a second pair of us was out there, rehashing our own conversations in apparent mockery. However, as the silence returned we eventually allowed ourselves to relax. Somewhat.

“Let me see what you’re doing,” I suggested finally, my voice so low as to be near inaudible. Yet in this place, I still felt as if I were yelling. “Maybe I can give you some tips.”

The outline of her shoulders bunched upward in a shrug, though they stayed there perhaps a half-second too long. She was tense. “May as well.”

Then she lifted her hand with her thumb and first two fingers extended. What followed was a fairly slow yet complex series of finger twitches culminating in a brief and very dim sputtering of light. If it had not been so dark, I would never have noticed it.

“That was it?” I asked after a moment.

She nodded. “Yeah. And it didn’t work. I don’t know how I know that… but I do.”

I pursed my lips in thought. “Okay… and what were you trying to accomplish?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging a bit more dramatically this time. “Something lucky? Like… a way out of this place? Or maybe stumble onto some treasure? I could sure use something more than this little dagger. Whatever is stalking us out there is starting to fray my nerves. I feel like I’ve been walking on eggshells for hours.”

“Same,” I said. “And maybe add a nice sandwich to that luck order.”

She chuckled before giving me a concerned look over. “You’re sure you can’t afford to heal yourself? That last flying block trap hit your shoulder pretty hard.”

I waved her off, though I was very much putting on a brave face. In reality, my shoulder was absolutely throbbing. And that was hardly my only injury. I felt like I had been going through the world’s slowest boxing match. And losing. “Ah, that one was already wounded anyway. Besides, I’m a mage. I don’t need arms.”

A reluctant sort of smile twitched at the corners of her lips, then she glanced away, apparently unable to find much levity in my suffering.

I cleared my throat. “Anyway, the charm is supposed to impose your Will onto the fate of an outcome, right?”

“That… sounds correct,” she affirmed after a moment. Then she glanced up at me out of the corner of her eye. “You must have a pretty high Intelligence to remember that so exactly after having heard it just the once. The wording is a fog for me, and it’s my skill.”

“It’s only so-so,” I said with perhaps a touch of false humility. “But don’t change the subject. I think the charm would have a hard time working without some sort of established scenario to work off of. I mean we’re just sitting here. What outcome is it supposed to affect? And how do you expect the charm to know exactly what it is you want?”

“I dunno. Magic?” She huffed. “None of this makes any sense. All the magic I’ve ever seen is… well, like yours. You say the Words, and then whatever the spell does… just happens! The way you talk, you’d think the spell was some kind of… of conscious thing. It’s ludicrous.”

“That’s because yours seems to involve Will.” I flattened my lips into a line. “Mia, did you not explain any of this to her?”

“Of course not, horse cock! I want to watch you fffuh—“ She grunted with effort, only just managing to rein in the tic. “That is… why would I explain something that you already know? Haven’t you been paying attention? That’s the whole point behind my affliction! You’re supposed to be the ones who teach one another. Besides, I’m not her Faen, now am I? I’m not about to start offering information to people when you’re in the middle of an argument with them. Imagine! Getting all upset just because you start flashing a bit of fang… As far as I’m concerned, the girl needs a reminder as to just where her loyalties lie.”

I quirked an eyebrow. Loyalties? She was upset that Lynnria was having some doubts about the situation? How could she not be? I did not understand, but I decided to hold off from commenting. I was already in the middle of one difficult conversation.

“Ah, whatever,” I muttered before turning back. “Look. I’m not going to claim to have this all figured out, but from what I know, you have to find a way of expressing your Will. So maybe…” I waved my hands vaguely through the air. “I don’t know. Just try saying what it is you want. Like… specifically. And out loud.”

That part was important. Of course, I was assuming her skill worked in a way similar to the ritual I had performed to grant her a Class. Back then, I had been trying to get Lynnria to allow my spell to work on her. In this case, I had no idea who or what might be listening. But it was worth a shot.

“Okay…” she said gamely then began slowly working her way through the charm again. “Which… way… to… treasure?”

The charm culminated in another of those little sputtering lights.

“I’m guessing that didn’t work?”

“No.”

Frustrated, she began working the frazzled braid out of her hair and redoing it into a high ponytail. Since her dunking into the ocean some hours ago, it had dried into a bit of a mess. Not that it mattered. Neither of us were exactly fit to attend a social gathering at the moment, but she seemed to find some relief in busying her hands. I could respect that.

And while she fiddled with it, it gave me time to think.

This was supposed to be a luck charm, and as her first skill, it would likely be a fairly low-powered one at that. Plus, she had only just gotten the thing, meaning her skill level would be practically nonexistent. So there was no way the thing was going to drop a random treasure chest at our feet out of the clear blue sky. That seemed far too improbable. We needed to introduce something simple into the equation for the charm to affect. Like a coin flip.

Or…

“Try once more,” I began, “but this time, take out your dagger and hold it upright by the tip. When the charm completes let the dagger fall. Whichever direction the blade points, we go.”

She stared at me blankly for a moment before eventually bobbing her head. “You mean… try to luck into some kind of… of divination? That’s… pretty clever, actually. And even if it doesn’t work, we have a direction to try first.”

“That’s the spirit,” I said with an easy smile and patted her back. At which she stiffened.

“You too,” she said quickly. Then grimaced. “I-I mean, thank you. O-or no, I mean… uh…”

Flummoxed, she abandoned whatever it was she was trying to say in favor of hastily drawing her dagger and once more working her way through the motions of the little ritual. And, I had no doubt, blushing furiously.

You too? Ha!

“A-alright little knife,” she whispered, “lead us to a proper weapon.”

“We’d also accept a discarded bag of peanuts,” I said, half serious, but mostly just to ease her embarrassment. Then my stomach loudly seconded my plea.

Lynnria shot me a somewhat confused yet grateful little smile before completing the charm and letting the dagger fall. This time, I saw nothing whatsoever out of the ordinary. It just looked like a knife dropping to the ground and only consequently pointing directly at the second to the left-most passage.

“I think it worked that time,” Lynnria exclaimed, excitedly hopping in place a few times before folding herself smoothly into my chest, as if expecting an embrace… and perhaps more.

Then, she seemed to realize what she had just done and jumped back. Hastily, she fled but only managed a few paces toward the indicated direction before she realized she had forgotten something and froze. A second later, she took three steps backward and, assuming an aloof manner, squatted down and snatched up the dagger.

As she scurried away, I quickly limped after her. “What’s got you all out of sorts?”

“Out of sorts? Who’s out of sorts? Not me, I’ll tell you that,” she replied primly. “And I’ll thankyou to keep that smile to yourself! How is a girl supposed to stay upset when—“

Abruptly, there was that creaking sound again, as though from a boat straining at its moorings—but much louder and present than before. I had just enough time to see a huge and strangely bulbous-looking man step into view directly in front of us before his entire upper torso twirled in place, swinging a heavy arm at Lynnria’s head.

She only just managed to duck out of the way, and it was a good thing, too. The arm impacted the wall with enough force to leave a neat spiderweb of cracks and a near perfect arm-shaped dent in its wake.

Despite being caught so off-guard, she was quick to retaliate, and before I could even process what was going on, she had thrust her dagger right at the man’s exposed armpit. The blade sank home with a dull thuck just below the joint.

And then stuck there.

Lynnria grunted in surprise. “What the—!“

Unable to free her weapon, she was forced to abandon it when the man’s arm reversed direction, again attempting to remove her head with nothing more than sheer inertial force. Whoever this guy was, he was clearly wearing some kind of armor and wielded his arms like they were baseball bats.

The two of us backpedaled hastily as the man approached, and I got a better look at him. His top half looked to be little more than some sort of barrel with holes cut out for his arms which themselves looked encased in ill-fitting cylinders. Atop it, a smaller one was settled over his head with a long groove cut out for his eyes. Meanwhile, his legs were so skinny, they might as well have been dowel rods.

In fact, his legs looked like they were only just barely managing to hold up his bulk, which was startling given how much power he was putting into his blows.

As soon as the man had completely rounded the corner, he assumed a T-pose, leaned forward, and began rotating his torso completely around like some demented fan motor with clubs attached. And so fast, the arms began to thrum through the air.

“Shit!” I yelled. “It’s some kind of robot.”

“A what?”

I did not have time to answer, though. The windmilling automaton was clearly gearing up to charge us.

We only had a split second to make a decision. We could run, likely driven into every trap along the way as the robot chased us down. And worse, getting lost and possibly separated as we fled. Or we could fight. Somehow.

It was Lynnria who made the decision for us.

In the same instant the mechanical horror surged forward, she ran to meet it.

“Lynnria, no!” I yelled, terrified. I knew we had to fight, but head-on and with our bare fists was not what I had in mind.

However, just before she met the oncoming meat-grinder, she slid under it, landing a solid drop-kick at its knee. The robot instantly twirled off-balance, hitting the ground like a crashing airplane propeller, and as if in slow-motion, spun its way up the wall. It then tumbled up and over, clearing my head by a half dozen cubits or so, before crashing to the ground in a heap behind me.

“Hot damn!” I yelled, both a little shocked and quite impressed. “That was awesome.”

Lynnria dusted herself off and swaggered over to me, preening a bit at my enthusiasm. “What did I tell you?” she said then gave her chest a solid thump. “I’m a trained warrior!”

I was about to congratulate her further, but the robot was already starting to show signs of reviving.

“Let’s get moving,” I suggested instead, and quickly began putting actions to words. “I don’t think we have the tools to deal with this yet.”

“But you’re a mage,” she argued, close at my heels. “Can’t you do something? Like blow it up?”

“I’m… uh, not that kind of mage,” I replied. But then I hesitated. Technically, I could, but it would take some prep. And we had neither the resources nor the time. The robot had sucked its legs into its torso and begun rolling itself upright again. “I’ll explain later. Let’s get out of here.”

She nodded. “Alright. This way, then.”

Jogging ahead of me, she rounded the corner the robot had initially appeared from. A moment later, I heard a distinct thwick followed by an startled yelp of pain.

“Thrice… blasted… traps!”

My stomach gurgled in protest before I could say a word.

*****

In the half-hour since encountering the robot, our situation had not improved over much. Or at all.

The pair of us were hobbling along the dark corridors as quickly as we could, though with the dart Lynnria had taken through the calf, that was far slower than we would have liked. I had only been able to spare enough Life Energy for a rough patch job, sealing the wound while leaving the internal injury all but untouched. The latest Renewal of Consumption had pushed me as close to the edge as I dared go.

I was now officially tapped and so hungry I felt physically ill. I had experienced hunger before, of course. Who hasn’t? Waiting in line at the drive-thru after a long day of work? Perhaps even going so far as to skip lunch on Thanksgiving so as to save room for that epic meal at the end of the day?

My more recent experiences had introduced me to the experience on a far more intimate level, of course, but not to this degree. No, this was something else entirely. My muscles kept twitching randomly. And I felt cold for some reason. If it were not for the driving need to keep moving forward, I would have been tempted to curl into a ball and shiver like a lost foal.

But that would have been foolish. Just as I had feared, the strange robot had begun pursuing us as soon as it had regained its feet, driving us before it through the trap-filled corridors. We could still clearly hear it lumbering along out there, its steps oddly punctuated by that peculiar wooden creaking.

Worse, thanks to the unpredictable acoustics, we had no idea how far ahead we even were. One minute, it would sound as if we had finally outdistanced it, and the next, it would seem to have teleported directly in front of us.

As a result, our nerves were about as shot as my Life Energy.

“What are we going to do, Donum?” Lynnria asked, panting as we hobbled along. She was badly out of breath from all the running, and since we only had the two good legs between us, we had ended up supporting each other’s weight. “You seem to know what this thing is. How do we beat it?”

How do you defeat a robot?

In the games I had played, these sorts of enemies were usually sensitive to electromagnetism, which is a little odd considering that most enemies worked off of elemental opposites. Fire opposed water. Wind opposed earth. That sort of thing. Mechanical enemies on the other hand were both electrical and also weak to it.

But then, elemental weaknesses tend to break down when you think about them too hard. I mean, when you ask the question seriously as to what sort of element a computer is weak to, the answer is yes. All of them. Too much electricity? Yeah. Hosing it down with water? Oh yeah. Fire? Bro, don’t even. Hell, even dust can be catastrophic if you let it build up too much. And you did not even need elements! Just handing the thing over to a determined monkey with a pair of boxing gloves would do the job.

But that was assuming a great deal.

“Normally, I’d say electricity, but—“

“Electricity?”

“Oh, uh… lightning,” I clarified quickly, “but—“

“Lightning!?” she interrupted again. “How do you expect to manage that? I may have the one skill point left, but even if I could buy it, we’re indoors! There’s no way we could summon a lightning strike from in here.”

I glanced down at her in confusion. “What? No, not from the sky. I meant like… shooting it out of your hands or something.”

“Hmm…” She fell silent momentarily, considering the idea. “That sounds intriguing. I’ll confess, the only sorts of spells I’m really familiar with are all related to fire builds. Spark. Bolt of Fire. Rain of Embers. That sort of thing. Even so… I can’t imagine that I could buy it yet.”

“No way of knowing unless you try,” I quipped as we rounded yet another corner. We had yet to find another intersection, but then… our pace was hampered rather considerably.

Abruptly, there was a click, followed immediately by something streaking past my eyes. The two of us spared half a second to stare at the short spear still quivering in the wall before shuffling on.

“Anyway,” I continued, unperturbed, “I don’t know that it would help. This thing might be a golem or some other magical thing… which now that I say it out loud sounds far more likely. So, there’s no telling what its weakness might be.”

Lynnria sighed. “I can tell you one thing. Whatever kind of armor it’s wearing, it’s not metal. It felt like I was stabbing a tree.”

“That would explain the sounds it makes,” I mused. “If that’s the case, I would be inclined to suggest fire.”

“No.”

There was an absoluteness to that denial. From her tone, I intuitively knew that any further arguments would be useless. I might have been able to make her into some sort of mage against her wishes, but on this point, she would brook no inroads. Fire magic was out. Still, I felt a little probing was warranted.

“That seems a bit… short-sighted,” I said carefully. “Fire can be quite useful.”

She tilted her nose up in disdain. “Like Grandfather always says, ‘Fancy weapons are all well and good, but even the sturdiest of armors can be crushed by a big enough rock.’ ”

“I suppose that’s true,” I admitted. Though I was having a bit of trouble working out how it was relevant.

About then, we rounded yet another corner only to be confronted by a sudden dead end.

“What the…?” Lynnria quickly swiveled to look back the way we had come. “Did we miss a turn? This was the way the dagger pointed, wasn’t it?”

“Pretty sure,” I affirmed. Curious now, I limped closer to the blank surface in front of us. As far as I could see, it was just a perfectly smooth wall. Not even a single blemish marred its surface. “You’re certain the charm worked?”

“Not… totally,” she admitted. “But it didn’t fizzle. I know that much.”

“Maybe—“

The creaking of an old ship at sea sounded in the distance. That thing out there might have been slow on its feet, but it was inexorably closing whatever distance we might have gained in our flight. And with that realization came another.

We had passed no intersections at all since that fight. We were trapped.

“Do the charm again,” I said quickly. “But this time look for a secret door or a hidden tunnel. We might have passed one somewhere.”

“What about the treasure?”

“Treasure won’t do us any good if we’re dead!” I snapped. “Now hurry.”

She nodded, then began scrabbling at her sheath for the dagger. But of course, there was nothing for her hand to find. “Donum…” she breathed.

I could only wilt at the obvious realization. She had left it buried in our pursuer’s thick carapace.

As if on cue, that was when the barrel-golem strode into view. It paused for just a moment on seeing us, then began to slowly march forward.

I swore violently. We had perhaps a minute at best before it was on us. “Quick! Start looking for a hidden catch or a button.”

“Where?” she shot back. “We don’t even know if there’s one to find!”

“I don’t know!” I yelled. “What else are we going to do? Punch it? And keep spamming that charm while you’re at it. We could sure use some luck right now.”

She nodded and quickly began twitching her fingers. Then she grimaced. “Blast! I can’t concentrate like this.”

I knew the feeling.

“Just keep trying,” I yelled over a shoulder.

Then, I turned and hurriedly began running my hands over the walls, hoping to find anything to help us. But as far as I could tell, they might as well have been a single, continuous slab of polished granite. There was not even a hint of texture to them. Never mind a hidden lever, I could not even see myself climbing out of here.

Maybe I can fly out?

The walls were at least three times my own height up on all sides, but with only my dark-vision spell to go off of, I could not tell whether there was a ceiling capping it off or if it was open. But then even if I could, what of Lynnria? There was no way I would have enough time to get us both out.

I risked a glance back. The golem was perhaps forty seconds away.

Shit!

“Donum!” Lynnria shouted. “I don’t know if it’s working, but I’ve found something!”

“What?”

I spun in place and quickly hobbled over. She was frantically patting at what looked to me like just another section of smooth wall.

“I don’t see anything.”

“I don’t know!” she yelled, frantic. “There’s some kind of texture here. See? Feel.”

She grabbed my palm and slapped it down next to hers, but the wall seemed just as smooth as all the others.

I shook my head in confusion. “Are you sure? I don’t—“

<ding!>

Mia abruptly jumped in front of my eyes, clutching a small pile of books. In her hurry, most of them slipped out of her arms and fell to the floor.

“Oh, for the… Argh!”

“Not now, Mia!” I hissed.

“Yes, now,” she snapped. Looking hard at me, she held up one of the books. “What is this?”

“Mia—”

“Answer me, Donum!” she yelled. “Please.”

I glanced over my shoulder. Thirty seconds. “Mia, we’re about to die, here.”

She gritted her teeth and took a long and agonizingly slow breath. “Master…”

A shiver seemed to roll down her spine as that word left her lips. Then faint sparks of light crawled up her horns from her scalp, almost like embers dancing and twirling their way to the sky. And in their wake, the horns grew, lengthening and branching into razor sharp yet still adolescent antlers. Then a faint echo of that sparkling light fluttered within her eyes.

“Answer. I beg you.”

I blinked uncertainly. Something… important had just happened. It was not just her looks. Even her voice had just changed. There was something more to it now. More primal. Untamed and erotic. But I did not have the time to worry about it.

“It’s… one of the Word-books,” I said, quite baffled. Then I glanced at the title. “Silver.”

Instantly, she tossed it aside in favor of another. “And this?”

“Lift.”

Lynnria glanced at me, askance. “Donum, what—?”

Mia ignored her. Though she had been mildly swearing under her breath anyway. Again, she tossed the book away. “This?”

Still perplexed, but at least taking up the pattern, I replied, “Labia.”

She nodded. “That’ll work.”

“Labia?! Donum, what are you talking about?” Lynnria yelled, close to a panic now. “That thing is almost on us!”

I turned to look once more. The golem had taken its time to approach. For all that its expression was as unchanging as stone, it might as well have been gloating. Confident in its kill. There was nowhere for us to escape.

It paused then, once more assuming a T-pose to slowly spin up its whirling cyclone of death. Though, this time, it kept much closer to the ground. Even if she could have attempted her earlier maneuver with her injured leg, in that moment I knew Lynnria would not catch it unaware again.

“Here!” Mia shouted, jiggling the book in my face. She had opened the pages and was pointing frantically at one specific symbol. I did not recognize it. However, she seemed to have a vacant look in her eyes—as though she was looking at something else. Blind to the world around her. “You need to find this rune! Now, kiss the girl!”

“What?!”

“No time! Do it!”

I jerked at the command and hastily grabbed Lynnria by the shoulders. “Sorry!”

“Donum, what do you—!“

My lips silenced her. I had no idea why I was doing this, but Mia seemed to at least have something in mind. And if I was going to die anyway, this would at least be a good way to do it.

As Lynnria melted into me, ecstatically moaning in delight despite the immanent danger, so in turn did I melt into her. And through her.

Her mind opened to me once more. Like a sea, I floated atop it. Fear, confusion, and ecstasy warred within her in a simmering cauldron of forbidden debauchery, clouding all but the surface-most thoughts. But that was enough.

Through her… somehow… I could feel the textures on the wall. And I recognized them. They were much the same as the symbols Mia had just shown me. Lynnria’s hand was resting atop an engraving. A permanent magic worked into solid rock. She could sense them somehow through touch alone.

“Good.” Mia’s voice shot through my consciousness like a lance. Here I was, drifting through another person’s mind, and someone entirely different had just spoken into my own. It was beyond disorienting. “Now, you must find the symbol, and command it to… to… hnn… damn it all! T-to do like a labia does!”

Do like a labia does? That was open to some interpretation, but given the situation…

The whirling hum of the golem’s swinging fists began to stir the air, slowly picking up into a horrific wind that plastered our clothes against us and beat against our skin. And just as slowly, the automaton began to shuffle forward.

Without breaking the kiss, I moved my hand over Lynnria’s and began gently passing her fingers over the engraving. There were a series of different symbols, some large and seemingly important, others smaller. Punctuation, perhaps? Or—

Wait. I know this one.

I would know it anywhere. It had been etched into my mind by the searing light of that other place between the Dungeon and the outer world, forever a part of me just as much as a hand or even my own heart.

Conceal?

These were Words. Invisible to the naked eye, yet in written form, all the same.

But that would mean—

“Hurry, Master!” Mia shouted. “There’s no time!”

I quickly suppressed my innate tendency to overthink everything and instead focused only on the one symbol I had been looking for. I had no idea how Words were supposed to be organized within a magical construct like this, but it did not take me long to realize this one was arranged into a square just large enough to envelop a person’s hand. Almost like a palm print reader.

And right in the center of where the palm would rest was the symbol.

“Here!” I said urgently, breaking the kiss. “This one!”

“Hwah?” Lynnria looked up at me in a daze. She did not even look like she knew where she was.

But the pulsating wind inching closer to us snapped her back to reality in a hurry.

With a strangled scream, she yelled, “What do we do?!”

“We have to focus on this symbol!” I yelled back, struggling to be heard over the cacophonous chopping. “I think it’s a magical lock for a secret door. We have to use our Will! With me. Command it to let us in!”

She shot me an uncertain look. But then her expression firmed. And with barely a nod, she told me all she needed to.

She trusted me.

We would do this. Now and without failure. Or we would die.

As one, we faced the wall, hands outstretched. One over the other.

“Open!”

There was a pregnant pause of nothing save the ever encroaching thumps of wind beating against our backs.

With my heart in my throat, I added a strangled little, “Please?”

At that, there was a flash of light, and the wall in front of us simply vanished. In its place, there was some sort of dimly lit room with a scattering of basic furnishings and a doorway beyond, but I did not have the time to take in the details.

Sensing its quarry about to escape, the whirling dervish of fists surged forward. We did not waste even a second, and the two of us sprinted for the revealed door. However, about mid-way through the room, some sort of siren blared and the two of us were hit by a distortion wave rising from the ground.

It felt like my guts had turned themselves inside out, but before I could understand what had happened, my back crashed against the ceiling. There I remained as though glued.

A moment later, something slammed into place and silence descended.

The two of us blinked in confusion for some minutes, uncertain as to what had just happened. But we were not being pulped into so much hamburger. So that was a marked improvement.

Grunting with effort, I slowly turned my head to look over at Lynnria. She was cemented to the ceiling just as I was, about an arm’s length away.

But more importantly, there was no sign of the robot.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

She replied with a pained wheeze.

“Yeah…” I grunted sympathetically. “You get used to that, too.”