Duskbound

Chapter 26

10 years ago...

"My feet hurt. Can we take a break?"

"We're almost there! Come on, another five minutes."

Velik scowled at Chalin. "You've said that four times now."

They'd been exploring the forest regularly all summer, oftentimes going on overnight camping trips so they could push deeper. At first, it had just been to see what was out there and because they didn't have a lot of responsibilities at home yet. Their parents had encouraged them, hoping it would lead to an uncommon or even rare hunter-type class when they got older.

Then Chalin had come up with what had seemed like a good idea at first, but which Velik was rapidly becoming less and less enthused about. Chalin had revealed his master plan last night: to go see the ruins of the old dungeon for themselves. The reality of that had turned out to be just endless walking, with no idea how far they had to go or even if they were going in the right direction.

Just as Velik was about to open his mouth to demand a break this time, no more excuses, Chalin let out an excited yell and surged through the brush. A branch snapped back behind him, almost striking Velik across the face and causing him to let out an annoyed huff. That was forgotten a moment later when he saw what had gotten his friend so excited.

"There it is!" Chalin said, practically dancing in place as he gestured wildly ahead. A whole town was sitting ahead of them, but one made of stone instead of wood. A slope ran down a hundred feet to the edge of the first moss-stained building, one of a dozen that they could see from their vantage point.

Exhaustion forgotten, Velik jumped ahead and started running down the hill. "Hey!" Chalin yelped as he scrambled to catch up. "Don't go in without me!"

* * *

The upper ruins looked just like Velik remembered, except with another decade's worth of moss coating them. That didn't really make much of a difference, considering they'd had fifty years of growth before he'd seen them as a child.

Somehow, no trees or bushes grew between those houses, though the old cobblestone streets had long since been lost under a layer of dirt. The streets had been cleaner in the middle of the ruins when he'd been young, but time continued to bury the place. He imagined that one day the buildings would fall down or the dirt would pile up so high that the whole thing would be just another large hill covered in trees.

Today was not that day, however, so Velik started down the hill to begin his search for Torwin. He'd been hoping to avoid the conversation, but bringing the mana compass to the dungeon hadn't done anything except change which direction the arrow pointed – away from the dungeon, for whatever that was worth.

The dungeon was a lot bigger than the buildings on the surface. Velik actually wasn't entirely clear on why they were considered part of the whole thing, but everyone agreed that they were. Apparently, they'd been alive back before the core was broken. Monsters had spawned in the buildings, woven out of dungeon magic and ready to tear would-be hunters apart. Maybe that's all it takes. But then, isn't the whole forest basically one big dungeon if the only criteria is 'makes monsters?'

Whatever the reason, the dungeon was weirdly empty. It was supposed to be dead, but not even animals made their homes in the ruins. Velik walked through it, heading for the well in the middle of town, and peered at the moss. It was whole, completely untouched by human hands. He paused to peer briefly at the open doorway of the nearest building, as empty of anything except for dust as it had always been.

* * *

Velik scraped off a chunk of moss from the wall next to the door. "This one's empty, too," he yelled out. Chalin was in one of the other houses, looking for any sort of treasure they could take home with them. They probably wouldn't find anything, but it was still fun to search.

"What happened here?" Velik asked in a hushed whisper as he surveyed the hall. At fifty feet long, maybe more, and half as wide, it was the biggest single room he'd ever seen. A series of pillars ran down the length of the hall on either side, each one thick enough that he couldn't have gotten his arms around them if he'd tried.

It was also completely wrecked. Half the pillars had been knocked down and now resembled nothing so much as a line of crooked, jagged teeth. The ones that were still upright had chunks missing from them and a spider web of cracks covering their surface. He was sure that a single good shove was all it would take to tip them over.

"Guardian chamber," Chalin said with a grin. "There must have been an epic battle in here. That means the core is nearby."

"Was nearby. It's dead now."

"Right. It should still be here, right? They're too big to haul away."

Velik shrugged. "I guess? That's what Dad said when I asked him."

They held the torches up, really just sticks that were burning faster than Velik liked. But they had a whole bundle of them and plenty of time to get back up to the bonfire they'd built at the exit, so it was fine. Even if they somehow lost their light, they could get back by touch now that they'd explored the tunnels.

The far end of the room had another doorway, similar to the one they'd just opened, except it was two doors set into one frame this time. A line of symbols had been carved across their surface, smoothly transitioning from one door to the other at the seam.

"Magic letters," Chalin said. "This has to be the place."

"How do you know they're magic?"

"How do you know they're not?"

They pried the doors open and walked into the core room. Just like they'd expected, it was an inert pillar with a huge slice missing from it. The stories said that a living dungeon core was a brilliant glowing gem the size of a tree, filled to the brim with magic, but once they were destroyed, they turned to rock.

"This is a lot less exciting than I was expecting," Velik said.

"Yeah." Chalin sighed and peered around. "What a letdown. But, hey, what's that over there?"

* * *

Velik heard soft snoring in the core room and spotted the tripwire strung across the floor halfway through, just a simple, hair-thin cord wrapped around two pillars with a tiny bell hanging from it off to the side. He stepped over the tripwire with a slight smile, not that it mattered. Even with the [Silent] enchantment on his boots and his [Stealth] skill, somebody heard him coming.

"Was wondering if I'd see you here," Torwin said as he stepped through the door. "Thought maybe not after you ran off the other way in the forest last week, but I guess I was wrong."