Duelling Dungeons

“I guess we didn’t have to rush…” Calliope muttered as we entered the cafeteria.

Over the last few months, the kitchen staff had grown accustomed to George being a menace, rushing into the cafeteria and causing a commotion whenever he was hungry. After spending a full day hunkered down in the lounge with me, he must have been ravenous.

After taking a few extra minutes to make an announcement, I’d half expected to find George behind the counter performing a full-blown raid on the kitchen. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

Instead, Calliope and I found him sitting at the end of the counter calmly eating a haunch of meat, with Myra standing over him.

“There you are, lass,” the halfling said, hopping up on the counter and putting her hands on her hips. “Please don’t tell me you make a habit of disappearing for a whole day, and starving both yourself and this big fella!”

“It wasn’t intentional!” I explained hurriedly. “I was working on something important and lost track of time, that’s all.”

“That’s not an excuse!” Myra snapped. “Everyone needs to eat, even when they’re busy. I'd better not catch you skipping meals again, or it’ll be you getting the flat end of my frying pan instead of our fuzzy, headstrong friend. Got it?”

My eyes migrated to the massive cast-iron pan in Myra’s hands, one that was nearly as wide as she was tall, and I swallowed nervously. “Yes, ma’am.”

“Good!” the motherly halfling declared. “Now head over to your regular booth, and I’ll whip up something to satisfy that appetite of yours.”

As I slowly shuffled towards the booth, giving the counter a wide berth, Calliope laughed. “I’ll have to tell Kass about this. The next time she goes out, she should ask that halfling to look in on you, instead of me.”

“Myra wouldn’t actually come out and hunt me down just for missing a few meals,” I declared, collapsing onto the long bench that curved around the corner booth. “At least… I don’t think so.”

“She doesn’t have to go through with it, as long as the threat puts you on edge, and makes you think twice about disappearing again,” Calliope replied. Toto waddled up to the other side of the booth, then crouched down, allowing the girl to slide off. Once she was seated across from me, the giant crab took a couple of steps away before lying flat. Within seconds, he was snoring, sending off a small stream of bubbles every time he breathed out.

“Soooo… now that you’ve finished analysing the rules, what are your plans? You’re not going to skitter away, find another place to hide, and disappear until you can adjust our lineups, are you?” Calliope asked suspiciously. “Because I really don’t want to tell Kass that I had to hunt you down twice.”

“Now that everyone has access to the rules and my preliminary notes, I shouldn’t have to disappear again,” I told her. “Besides, I included a breakdown of the recommended lineup changes with that initial draft.”

“Of course you did,” Calliope sighed. She poured herself a large mug of water from the pitcher on the table and took a couple of sips. As she did, her skin slowly shifted from pale white to a lighter blue-green.

While we were waiting for whatever Myra was cooking up, I glanced around the area. The cafeteria was buzzing after my announcement, and most people were checking out the documents on their tablets. I could feel the excitement in the air; the feeling was almost infectious.

As I drank in the festive atmosphere, I saw Bea fly in, zipping between the tables excitedly.

“Talia! Finally, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” she exclaimed as she came to stop next to the table.

“Yeah, sorry, I’ve been working on something,” I muttered.

“I know, I heard the announcement,” she said. “I need your help with something!”

“Alright… You want to sit down?” I asked.

Bea’s antenna twitched, and her wings flickered as she bounced in place. “No, no time for that,” the Anthophilan said. “I need to get back soon!”

“Get back to what?” Calliope asked. “What’s going on?”

“The others are on the brink of evolving!” Bea explained excitedly. “They’re so close, we can all feel it; they just need one last push.”

“So… how can I help?” I asked carefully. “I may be good at planning, but I don’t know much about evolution. Wouldn’t it be smarter to ask Lanivia or Voss? They’ve been around for a long time, and they probably have a much better idea of the mechanics behind it.”

“I understand the basics. To kick off the process, you have to push yourself beyond your previous limits. Force yourself to get better,” Bea explained. “For me, that involved directing everyone while I was at the heart of battle.”

“And your family?”

“They’re becoming soldiers,” Bea said. “I suspect they need to be pressured, have both their martial skills and their coordination tested.”

“That makes sense,” I admitted, “but I’m still a little confused. Why do you need me? Don’t you hold regular skirmishes with the other floors?”

“We do, but many of those skirmishes are straightforward. We either face a squad in straightforward combat or have to deal with someone trying to sneak around and ambush us. The girls have to work together, but the skirmishes are not challenging them,” Bea said. “They need more.”

“So you want me to arrange a scenario that’ll really test their skills,” I muttered. “Do they have to survive the conflict?”

“What kind of question is that?” Calliope exclaimed. “Of course, they need to survive!”

“Well, according to Lanivia, the most reliable way to get someone to evolve is to put someone in a life-or-death situation. Force them to adapt and overcome or die,” Bea said. “Since we can’t actually die in the dungeon, you could arrange a scenario where you don’t expect them to survive. Push them to the very brink.”

“Alright… I think I can do that,” I said. “I’ll probably have to ask Rembrandt and the Revenants for help. Since they’re all weapon masters and used to fighting one-on-one, I can coordinate their attacks to try and disrupt you and your girls.”

“Wait, you’re going to direct them yourself?” Be asked. “Why?”

“You want to test their teamwork, don’t you? Then I’m the best person to try and pick apart their formation,” I replied. “You should do whatever you can to prepare yourselves. I’m not going to go easy on you.”

“We will!” Bea said, nodding vigorously. “When should we expect you?”

“I still have to talk to Rembrandt to see if he and his team are available. If they are, I can probably hash out a preliminary plan in a couple of hours, so… Tomorrow? If that’s okay,” I said after a minute.

“That’s absolutely fine,” Bea replied, hovering in excitement. “We were prepared to spend weeks trying to figure out the best way to kickstart the process, so if you can help us out, we’d appreciate it. Thanks, Talia! I can’t wait to let the girls know!”

Today was the first time I’d seen Bea fly around the dungeon. Even though she was young, she usually walked about trying to maintain a somewhat regal air. The fact that she’d dropped all that today showed just how excited she was.

“Guess excitement is everywhere today,” I muttered.

“Do you honestly think you can help them evolve?” Calliope asked once the girl was gone.

“I have no idea,” I admitted. “I’m just going off what Bea told me. Assuming she’s right about the requirements, I’m sure I can come up with a proper scenario.”

“Do you think you could help me and the other sirens with that, too?” Calliope asked.

“Maybe? Are you close to evolving, too?”

She shook her head. “No… but I feel like when you hear about someone else evolving, achieving a new, stronger form, it puts a fire in your chest. It makes you wonder if you can achieve it too…” she said longingly.

“Well, like I said, I don’t know much about the mechanics, but if you're set on investigating further, we could go talk to Voss together in a couple of days. I’d be interested in finding out more, I just have something else to deal with first,” I said.

“I’d appreciate it,” the siren replied quietly.

I nodded lightly before leaning back and sinking into the plush bench cushions. I had a lot to plan if I was going to disrupt the notoriously tight-knit Anthophilan squad. Before I could get too far, however, Myra came over and placed a massive plate of food down in front of me. It was so heavy that it made an audible thump when it hit the table.

“This is a little too much for me,” I said.

“You need food to function,” Myra snapped. “I expect you to finish that entire thing before you go!”

I watched as she placed a much more reasonable portion before Calliope, then looked back at me, made a ‘I’m watching you’ gesture, and headed back to the counter.

My stomach growled, not out of hunger but distress, as I eyed up the mountain of food. The sound was echoed by a similar growl beside the table.

Glancing down, I found George, chewing on what remained of his meal. A bone stripped bare. After confirming that Myra was occupied with something els,e I took the massive set of sausage links off my plate and slipped them under the table. The giant spider was on them in seconds.

“Don’t say I don’t do anything for you,” I mumbled.