Duelling Dungeons

“Do you think she’ll accept the offer?” I asked Kass wearily as we took the carriage home.

Once we’d finished lunch with Sylvia Kass had transformed back to her full Naga form. Our plan had been to explore the rest of the dungeon district, and check out the other dungeons before heading home. Things did not go as planned.

As soon as we left Cassy’s place we were swarmed by fans. I guess when I tucked my arachnid legs close to my torso, and Kass was in her human form, we didn’t stand out that much.

We’d been stopped by one or two people when we were browsing before lunch, but not like this. This was on a completely different level. We only made it as far as the Infested Undercroft before we had to give up on the tour and have an impromptu autograph session.

Thankfully the staff of the Undercroft were good sports, and supplied us with a table and a couple chairs. Some of the bosses even participated in the session. When the line finally thinned out, over an hour later, I immediately made a break for the carriage. I’m sure both Kass and George could have continued exploring, but after all the socializing I was far too tired.

“I’m not quite sure,” Kass replied. “You presented an enticing offer, but I know Sylvia also has a very shrewd mind, and is always looking for the best deal. She usually takes as many high risk, high paying jobs as she can, just so she can stuff herself so full that the feeling of starvation abates for a few hours.”

“That’s a hard way to live,” I muttered. “I can’t believe there’s an entire race who’s metabolism is so fast they constantly feel like they’re starving.”

“The world’s a mysterious place,” Kass replied, looking out the window. “I suspect part of the reason that Windegos are so rare is that unless they’re extremely well off, and can afford to gorge themselves, they don’t want to subject a child to the same intense hunger that they suffer from.”

“Where did you meet her anyways? I checked the records, and she’s never participated in a delve in the manor.”

“Didn’t I tell you?” Kass asked, turning to me in surprise. When I shook my head she smiled. “My mother hired her as my bodyguard for a couple weeks when I was younger.”

“I knew your mother was protective, but I never imagined she would go as far as hiring a bodyguard to shadow you,” I muttered.

“Oh, she had a good reason,” Kass said, running her hand idly through her turquoise hair. “The Scyllans raided a black market in their territory and found evidence that someone was planning to kidnap me.”

“What? Why?”

Kass sighed. “I don’t know. They never told me who was behind it. All I know is that they arrested someone a couple weeks after the raid, and my mother dropped the protection detail.”

“Scary,” I mumbled. “I can’t believe we still have to deal with that sort of thing in this day and age.”

“I doubt we’ll ever completely get rid of the criminal elements, there’ll always be desperate, unscrupulous people willing to do anything for money,” Kass replied. “At least we’re not warring with each other over territory anymore.”

“So… what did happen? With Sylvia I mean,” I asked awkwardly.

“Not much honestly. Sylvia and I are about the same age, so when she first showed up I didn’t think my mother was taking the situation seriously. For the first few days she just followed me, looming over me like a bad smell. I was seriously thinking about asking my mother to fire her until one day, on the way to the temple, I was accosted by a bunch of drunk adventurers,” Kass explained.

“Professional level or…”

“No, just a bunch of amateur level schmucks who went on delves for drinking money,” Kass said. “They were nothing more than a bunch of thugs. I could easily have dispatched them with my magic, but I panicked when one of them grabbed me.”

“So, what happened then?” I prompted.

“Sylvia intervened. She rushed in, grabbed the bugbear with one hand and slammed him into the wall so hard that it cracked. When the elf stabbed her in the back, trying to get her to release his friend, Sylvia didn’t even flinch. She just turned slowly to the man, reached down, and crushed his hand. That’s when their buddies decided their little escapade wasn’t worth the effort, and ran off. When the security team arrived they found Sylvia dragging both men around by the scruffs of the neck, grumbling about how incompetent they were.”

I snorted. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t laugh, but with everything you told me about her I can totally see her dragging a bunch of drunks across a busy street, drawing the attention of everyone, only to drop them at the feet of the nearest guard.”

“She’s not the subtle type, that’s for sure,” Kass agreed. “After that I completely forgot about asking my mother to let her go, and actually took some time to get to know her. We hung out, talked a bunch, and went to a lot of restaurants. She had a massive appetite, even back then.”

“What happened to the adventurers?” I asked.

“Not sure… I heard the adventurer review board gave everyone involved permanent demerits, and they demoted the team to the beginner level. I never bothered following up after that, I didn’t think they were worth my time.”

“Fair enough,” I muttered. “And what happened with Sylvia?”

“Once the contract was finished, she had to move on. I made her promise to keep in touch before she left,” Kass explained, before pausing. “Well, I say promise, but the truth is I bribed her. I promised to pay for dinner every time we met going forward.”

“Whatever works,” I laughed. “It sounds like she’s been a good friend to you over the years.”

“One of the best,” Kass grinned. “I’m glad you like her, and I really hope she takes us up on the job offer. I’d like to see her have a little bit of stability.”

“All we can do now is wait and see,” I sighed.

We spent the rest of the trip home making small talk. Discussing Kass’ plans for her trip home, and my lack of plans for the days off. When we finally pulled into the staff entrance of the Manor, the sun was just starting to go down. Since Kass had introduced me to Sylvia I no longer had to hold back on my analysis, and I was really looking forward to a nice, calm night curled up with a tablet. With a little luck I might even be able to get all my ideas down in only a couple hours, and still manage to get a couple hours sleep.

As soon as the carriage came to a stop the carriage door was wrenched open.

“Talia! I’m so glad I found you! I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Bella exclaimed excitedly as she clamoured into the cab.

“Really? Cause it looks like you were waiting to ambush us as soon as we got back,” Kass smirked.

“Only for the last hour or so, after Calliope mentioned she saw you going out,” Bella replied cooly, before turning back to me.

“What’s the big emergency? The spiders can’t be spawning again, can they? Abyss stalkers are only supposed to reproduce once a year,” I wrinkled my nose. “And dealing with the last spawning was bad enough.”

“No no no, nothing like that,” Bella replied excitedly. “This is far more important.”

“So, what is it?” I asked.

“The rule changes came in shortly after you left,” Bella explained, leaning in close. “A special delivery straight from Lanivia at the Confrontation council meeting to you.”

“That’s great…” I replied. “That doesn’t explain why you’re out here waiting for me though.”

“The tablet is locked to your unique magical signature, so no one has been able to get a sneak peek,” Bella exclaimed, “and everyone is dying to know! When we couldn’t find you, Jenkins even asked if she could take the tablet down to her workshop to see if she could crack it open!”

“That would be… bad,” I muttered.

“It would be disastrous! Just think about it, if she damaged the tablet it would probably take another couple days to get a replacement! I couldn’t wait that long,” Bella wailed.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” I sighed. “I thought I was the only one that was excited to find out about the rule changes.”

“Nope, pretty much everyone is dying to know. A major change could force us to make major changes to our lineups, and force people to sit out. No one wants that. I expect you’ll have people dropping by the office every few minutes once they hear you’re back.”

“Just like old times then,” I laughed, pushing myself to my feet. “Guess I know what I’m doing for the next few hours.”

“Don’t forget to sleep,” Kass muttered. “You know how you can get once you get dirstracted.”

“Don’t worry… I’m sure that I’ll have a basic handle on the rules in a couple hours, then I can make an announcement tomorrow morning. It’ll be no problem,” I replied.

“Yeah, well… we’ll see,” Kass replied. “We’ll see.”