Don't Die in my Dungeon - part 1: Breaking the Drought

 

"Don’t Die in My Dungeon”

Breaking the Drought

“Don’t Die in My Dungeon”

Waru stared down from his parapet, watching the line of adventurers milling about, just beyond the range of his lowest lieutenants. They’d eye them warily, come slightly closer, maybe even bang a pan or hit a shield, then run back as his foolish front-line guards slowly shambled forward to be dispatched one at a time.

“Stupid undead…” he muttered. “Stupid adventurers…”

He ran a hand down through his long, pin-like beard, watching the few forward guards slowly creep forward and get eliminated by the adventurers. Small gems dropped from them - mana globules, the power of this place - apparently of great value to anyone outside it. He sighed.

“Stupid adventurers…”

One, wearing strange copper-colored armor, raised the gem above his head and apparently crushed it. It dissipated down over the adventurer, making him glow momentarily. He cheered, drawing the attention of a few more of Waru’s lieutenants, who shambled toward him.

He darted back toward the camp. The lieutenants were rapidly dispatched by the small mob.

Mana globules were dispersed, crushed, the glowing happened.

“Glad to know you’ll all be bound to this place from now on. Enjoy doing nothing but focusing on my castle for the rest of your pathetic lives.”

He stared down into his own orb - a large translucent ball made of solid crystal. It opened up a small communication between him and one of his generals.

“Yes, m’lord?”

“Remove this rabble from my doorstep, please.”

“As you will.”

The courtyard far below them turned red as a strange inky smoke poured out from the main entrance of the citadel. Waru watched with half-disinterest. His general, a large Oni with bat wings, sweeping horns running back from his red-scaled forehead, and six arms, each wielding a different spiked weapon, strode forward, glowing slightly. Three mana globules hovered around his horns, swirling in a strange, spinning halo.

Waru gazed down, watching as a crowd of cowards slowly began to array themselves before his champion, as if they’d been expecting this. He leaned forward, letting his long beard hang down from the railing, watching as the reddish glow spread out in a perfect circle from his champion.

Then a powerful bolt of energy show from his Oni’s mouth, catching the foremost adventurer in the chest, flinging him back into the tents far behind. His body seemingly vaporized, a small puff of mana all that remained. If floated off toward the dark forest beyond and vanished from sight.

An arrow shot from the crowd of survivors, clinking harmlessly off the Oni’s shoulder. The red-scaled beast roared, bringing a huge war axe down on the assembly. Several blasted back, hitting the low wall that ringed the courtyard, some rebounding off it while others were thrown clear over, landing in the tents, which rapidly collapsed under their weight.

Several began to flee, screaming back out of the entrance to the fortress’s courtyard, thinking they were safe among the tents and other supplies they had trekked through the forest. Waru smiled. The Oni would finish them as soon as this current aggression ended.

And it did, soon enough. The adventurers among the tents screamed as bolts of energy shot out, sweeping across tents, anvils, chairs, and tables. The blacksmiths screamed, the barmaids vanished into clouds of mana, and the tents whiffed into nonexistence. It was a complete rout. All that remained were the glowing clouds of ashen mana, which soon coalesced into small globes and vanished back into the forest.

All except one body.

This adventurer lay in a strange greenish chainmail armor that clung just a little too tightly around her top to be feasible. It seemed she’d chosen it more for style than for practicality. She lay on the ground, her red hair splayed out around her head like a puddle of blood.

The Oni stalked around the campsite, bashing everything into oblivion before stalking toward the forest. An adventurer had reappeared, seeking to hide his presence among the trees. With a quick blast, the Oni dispatched him, leaving him a cloud of mana particles on the wind.

Waru gazed down at the courtyard. The girl was gone. Apparently she’d finally expired, and her essence had wafted off into the furnaces of the citadel, feeding the endless army of abominations.

“I grow stronger with every defeat you suffer,” he laughed, watching as his general stalked calmly back into the castle. “Come, bring me more souls.”

With that, he turned and strode into the depths of his fortress.

A strange hissing sibbilance seemed to rise up to meet him. He turned and averted his gaze just in time. “Medu, I thought I asked you to keep your face covered at all times.”

“Sorry, Master,” she apologized, each hissing “s” seemingly accentuated by the ring of serpentine forms rising up off her scalp. “I did not think you’d be back in so soon. General Oni made short work of them today.”

Waru nodded. “Yes,” he slipped a gaze at her serpentine form to assure that her blindfold had been securely fastened. Her snake-like lower body slithered along, the hiss of dry scales against stone, keeping pace with his booted stride.

“Do you ever tire of that form?” He asked.

“I could do without the blindfold,” she replied with a shrug of her humanlike shoulders - humanlike save for the small patches of shedding snakeskin that dotted her like freckles on a redhead’s face.

“A regrettable side-effect,” he replied. “All great magic has its cost.”

She nodded, several of the serpentine heads staring at him in place of her physical eyes. “And I guess it’s better than dying at the hands of those brutal clods they call ‘adventurers.’”

Waru nodded in return. “Yes, indeed. I did warn you before you took the Stoneskin Potion that I was unsure of its effects on one such as you.”

She shrugged. “It’s fine. These snakes have acted as extra eyes for as long as I can remember anyway. I just enjoy seeing colors every now and then, rather than heat signatures. You seem cold, by the way. Are you well?”

Waru nodded. “Yes. I’ve just exhausted more than my normal share of mana driving off those adventurers. They’re becoming more daring - even setting up a little tent city outside my gate. If I could maintain the mana pools, I’d expand out beyond into that clearing as well, but alas, my powers are not as they used to be since I’ve had to waste so much mana creating these mindless drones.”

“You could just pull them all back into the fortress? Maybe even trash them?”

Waru shook his head. “No, they stall long enough for my other commanders to get in position. It’s too tiresome to always be on guard.”

“Yes, but they’re so mindless and oblivious.”

Waru smiled at the thought. “They are, but they take such delight in their work, I just don’t have the heart to criticize them for how oblivious they are… and in their defense, the mana levels have been rather low lately - I think it’s take its toll on them.”

“You’ve been taking too many of us in.”

“Someone’s got to do it.”

“Yes, but the adventurers keep showing up here trying to kill you.”

“They haven’t made it past the front door.”

“They will, though, unless we find a better source of mana.”

Waru gazed down the long stone hallway. How he wished he could manipulate it all into something more luxurious, but with the mana drought and the number of refugees showing up through the lower tunnels every day, it was all he could do to keep the current structure from collapsing. As it was, some of the lower levels had already been abandoned by all but the undead - mainly because if they fell through an open hole into some exposed construction material, they’d stand the best chance of reassembling and crawling their way back out - or just become some might bone amalgamation over time - then that one would crawl free.

“The slimes are back.”

Waru groaned. “Now I understand the lower levels…”

Medu nodded, her serpentine hair sweeping up to seemingly examine the arch. A few gazed off behind her. “The splintering is reaching all the way up here.”

“Thank you for noticing,” replied Waru sarcastically. He reached up with a long fingernail and lightly probed at the plaster. Small fragments toppled down, leading the snakes to hiss irritably. “Sorry!”  He petted them gently. One gave an irritated nip at his hand. He pulled back just in time. “Don’t need to waste any more mana healing myself,” he spat playfully.

“Boys! Be nice!”

The waving tendrils of hair slowly settled down.

“I’m sorry, they’ve been frayed a bit lately.”

“Haven’t we all?”

Something rumbled ahead of them.

“General, you did well.”

The large red oni rounded the corner, thundering as he came. “Thank you, m’lord. Drove ‘em away like you said.”

Waru nodded. “Good. What brings you to the higher levels?”

“Smelled something… followed. Door too small.”

“Door?”

“Come, something here…”

Waru nodded to his snake-haired companion. “I’ll catch up with you later,” he said, then followed the general back down the hallway, around the corner, down several flights of stairs, and to a broad dining hall.

“Could not go farther…” Oni muttered around his fangs.

“And the skeletons couldn’t make it?”

“Cannot leave lower floors anymore.”

“Really?” Waru asked. “That’s strange. Surely the drought isn’t that bad.”

“Must go back down,” Oni muttered, the reddish glow fading from his eyes. “Strange presence your problem now…”

Waru’s eyebrow crooked. He’d never been addressed such by a minion before. He looked around. All over the dungeon was crumbling, pieces of moulding falling free, stonework shifting loose with every thundering step. The plaster he’d ordered to cover all surfaces had started to peel and chip, giving an overwhelming sense of dread and abandonment to everything.

Too much of his mana was going to the refugees. He needed to find another way to care for everyone. He needed to protect this place.

Maybe a relocation was in order?

No, he couldn’t possibly find enough power to disenchant his entire fortress. Besides, where would have move all the inhabitants? Some couldn’t go out into sunlight.

He’d solve that problem soon enough…

“One thing at a time…” He muttered, stepping into the broad dining hall. It had been too long since he’d been able to throw so much as a luncheon, much less a banquet. He strolled through the broad stone pillars, hearing his heels clatter against the once-marble floor. Moldy food still sat on the broad tables. Melted candles drooped into the woodwork. Forks and knifes and spoons lay scattered. “Once all this is over, the cleaning crew will hear about this,” he muttered, running a slender finger through a layer of dust. “Ridiculous…”

He strode down the grand hall, righting a toppled chair.

He remembered this banquet - it was during the first raid when the first band of refugees had arrived. Of course he’d welcomed them in with open arms, given them food and shelter - but in a rush to accommodate them all, the meal had been forgotten - and it had been endless siege since.

He sighed and strode through a doorway at the far end.

It was silent.

It wasn’t just silent… it was as if all noise were being actively directed around a place. He sniffed. Something on the wind… he sniffed again, then squinted. Something clattered in the corner.

“Who’s there?” He asked. Again, something drew his eye to the other end of the room, as if something was willing him to look there. But the noise had come from this corner. He ignored his instincts and stepped over to a cabinet.

This is where he’d heard the noise. He reached out a graceful hand, wrapped his long fingers around the handle, and pulled it open with a sudden jerk.

Nothing. An abandoned jacket and a magic ring, but other than that, nothing.

The noise again - or rather, the distinct lack of noise.

He turned slowly to gaze across the room.

Something was… off… about the whole ordeal.

He muttered a sequence of words, running his finger along the gem in his ring, and immediately the entire room burst to light. Strange motes began to flit, settling on all sources of mana. One landed on a small animal, which gaze up at him with wide eyes before scampering off in panic. Another followed a small swarm of gnats. Then something began to glow from behind a barrel.

No. It was the barrel.

“Illusion…” Waru muttered, “What’re you hiding…”

He dispersed the spell, and immediately the room vanished beneath a cloud of brilliant particles. The rat from earlier lay dazed. The swarm of flies immediately dropped dead to the floor. And there, crouched with an arrow nocked, was the redheaded warrior from earlier.

“So you weren’t dead.”

“Surprise, evil tyrant!” cried the girl, releasing the arrow.

Waru dodged slightly. The shaft shot past his ear, burying itself in the wood of the cabinet with a resounding THOK. It vibrated slightly as the energy dissipated.

“Not bad,” Waru replied, easily dodging a second shot, which sailed out into the great hall, skittering along a table, sending bowls of long-rotten soup splashing to the floor. “I don’t appreciate the mess of the place you’ve made, nor that you’ve interrupted my meetings.”

“Die, monster!”

Waru sighed, holding up his hand and deflecting a new shot straight up into the ceiling. Small fragments of dust and mortar dropped down on them. “How tiresome…” he muttered.

A dagger appeared in her hand, and she lunged forward.

He answered with a magical blade of his own, deflecting her strike, then parrying another. He swept in for the kill, scoring a deep gash along her neck and toward her clavicle with surgical precision. The blade caught on the edge of her collarbone and popped free, leaving his hand and vanishing into a puff of mana. He clenched his fist and brought it around, snagging her in the chin and laying her flat.

She hit the ground with a spray of crimson that blossomed out of her throat like the first flower of spring. She coughed slightly, holding a hand to the side of her wound.

“Where I fail… another will take my place. They all know… of this place now. They’ll be coming…”

Waru gazed down at her piercing eyes - they were a grassy field touched by the slightest rays of golden sunset, flecked here and there with that auric glory that only comes just before the red of sunset washes over the land. Fitting, as hers were now slowly rising with the crimson as well. She choked, a line of red trickling from the side of her mouth. It matched the ruby shimmer of her now-matted hair as she pulled her helmet free.

“They’ll… find you…” she muttered heroically.

“Monologues…” groaned Waru, turning.

A dagger bounced harmlessly off the wall beside his face, taking another chip out of the plaster.

“Really?” He asked, turning.

She was now propped up slightly on an elbow, defiant despite her weakening state.

“Resistance to Incurable Poison?” He replied, “Well, I’m impressed, little one.” He gazed back at the chip in the plaster, then followed the path of the thrown dagger to where it lay on the floor. “The blade’s chipped,” he observed, picking it up and gazing at it. “No doubt the cheapest thing you could find at those blacksmiths in town? They sold you this with the promise that it would hold up against the great wizard of the tower?”

He could see it in her bloodshot eyes. He was right. He’d heard enough stories…

The dagger spun in his fingers, then began to glow slightly.

“If you enchant it with a resurrection spell,” he mused, watching the blade shimmer and quiver, “and then use it in a way that doesn’t destroy the plaster,” he said. His gaze shifted off to a nearby window and the forest beyond, thinking of the wafting motes of mana drifting out there - were they the souls of the slain?

Something stung him in the foot. He winked and dropped the blade. It cracked against the floor, and the magic immediately dissipated. He scowled and gazed down at the girl. She held the broken tip of an arrow in her clenched hand, which she’d just used to stab him through the foot.

He held his foot there for a moment longer, watching the blood pool through his shoes.

She was too weak to hold the broken arrow there any longer. He kicked it free and knelt, hand idly reaching for the now-broken dagger he’d just dropped on the cobbles, then picked up her bleeding face, cradling it almost gently. He gazed into her blood-red eyes, then raised the shattered blade and brought it stabbing down onto the back of her neck.

He eyes gaped in shock and her body went limp.

Waru let her corpse drop to the floor. He pulled the blade free, twirling it once before hurling it from the window. He channeled a bit of mana into his foot, feeling the wound heal and watching as the leather of his shoe slowly knitted back together.

He didn’t feel as drained as he normally would.

He actually felt refreshed. His body nearly tingled with energy. He turned, watching as bits of plaster began to seal back against the wall, cracks slowly repairing themselves. It was as if he were exuding a cloud of energy.

He gazed down, waiting for her bloodied body to vanish in a puff of mana.

But her body stayed there.

He gazed at his hand. It veritably glowed with power.

Something scratched behind him. He turned.

“Medu! What are you doing down here?”

“I heard the commotion! I came as quickly as I cou– what’s that?”

He turned. “An adventurer.”

“They’ve broken in? We must warn the guards, we have to begin preparations!”

“Hold a moment,” he said, holding out a hand. “Just wait… something… something’s changed.” He held a glowing hand open to her. Two orbs rested in his palms. “Here, take these.”

She reached out hesitantly and took them. “What are they?”

“New eyes.”

She held them in her own palm for a moment.

“Go ahead,” he said, “I wanted to see if I could make them work - I’ve been thinking of them for a long time, just didn’t have the power to do so. Put them in.”

She turned and lifted her blindfold. He saw her fiddling with something, then she slowly turned.

“Take it off.” He commanded.

“Master, I…”

“Medu, take it off.”

She nodded, then slowly bowed her head and slid the fabric free.

“Look at me.”

She shook her head. “No. The poison.”

“It’s still there, but it won’t work on me.”

“You’re sure.”

“Yes, look up.”

She did.

He froze in place.

“Waru!” She screamed, sliding toward him, her golden-yellow eyes wide and rimmed with tears. “Waru! I told you this was a bad idea. Waru!”

He began to laugh, slowly sliding out of his frozen pose, letting his beard droop almost to the floor.

“You’re real funny!” She cried, sluggin him. Her snakes reared around her head like a green and black halo. “Funny indeed!”

Waru chuckled, wiping a tear of mirth from his own eye. “I knew it would work!”

“You thought it would work.”

“I was pretty sure,” he replied with a smile.

“Don’t take a risk like that again!” Medu cried, then she sat back on her snake-like coils, burying her face in her hands. “I don’t know what I’d do without you…”

Waru placed a comforting hand on her lightly-scaled shoulder. “You’d survive, just like you’ve always done.”

“I - I just don’t want to lose you.” She said, wrapping him in a cool hug.

“And I you,” he said, returning it.

They held for a moment longer, then he pulled away. 

“I’ve always wondered something.”

“Yes?”

“Are you warm blooded, or cold blooded?”

Everything went dark.

When he awoke, he was lying on his back in his chambers. Rich tapestries hung from the walls, thick crimson fabric that complemented the rugged stone, bringing out a regal, yet austere feeling that fit him perfectly. His vision swam into focus and he slowly sat up. A dark beard hung to his stomach - he was still alive and still in his normal body. He gazed at his long fingers, flexing them open and closed. His parts were all still functional

“So far, so good.”

He gazed around. How’d he get back here?”

“Waru!”

His vision spiked for a moment, blurring and coming into strange focus. The door was open. “Come in.”

“Waru?”

He heard the sliding sound of Medu’s scales as she rounded the corner. She was wearing a long gown that hung down to the middle of her snake-like lower half, her long tail extending back through the open door. “I’m so sorry!”

He blinked a few times. “What happened?”

She paused, her hands slowly clenching and unclenching. “I… I may have hit you.”

“Hit me?”

She nodded. “Yeah…”

“You hit me so hard you knocked me out…”

“...for a week, yeah.”

“For a WEEK!” He cried, “What on earth, Medu? What did I say?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Whatever the last thing I remember saying was, I don’t want to repeat it. I can’t afford to lose too many more days, not with these adventurers creeping up on us.”

“Oh, but there’s good news!”

“What?”

“The mana drought is over! And we’ve been able to reclaim the forest. We haven’t even seen an adventurer since you killed that one in the kitchens. I think the mana drought is finally over!”

His head swam. “Wait… I’m sorry…” he sat up. “Say that one more time. The mana drought…”

“It’s over.”

He nodded. “Okay, I thought that’s what you said. And…”

He blinked a few times.

“... you retook the forest? How is that even possible?”

“Well,” Medu replied with an excited shrug, as if playing it off as no big deal, “there were a group of slimes and lesser undead - you know, zombies, skeletons, and the like. They had to move out of the basements so we could repair all those collapsing floors, so they went to explore the front courtyard. They actually came across a band of adventurers attempting to sneak into the castle through a secret door on the side of the staircase - and we were able to pursue them all the way past the gatehouse and out into the fields. Adventurers kept running, and General Oni and his men just kept following. So… we have control of the whole forest now.”

“But… how…?”

Medu shrugged. “Maybe my blow reset your mana?”

“That’s not how that works,” he replied… “and no, you don’t get to try again.” He swung his legs over the edge of his bedside. “Okay… what else happened about the time I passed out.”

“Well, you asked a very insensitive question that no man should ever ask a lady…”

“Besides that!” He said, waving his hand with a note of desperation. “What else happened while I was out?”

“Well, besides the adventurers gaining knowledge of the castle because of that adventurer you killed.”

He nodded. “Regrettable, but yeah… that doesn’t explain the mana, though.”

“Maybe…” Medu thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Honestly, it was as if knocking you out just reset the castle.”

He frowned and slowly lowered his feet to the floor. He pulled his robe shut around him, tying it off with a fabric belt. “Well, let’s go back to the scene of the crime.”

“Where you killed the girl?”

“Where you hit me…” he corrected.

“Good thing they both happened at the same place,” she replied.

They strode through the castle - or better yet, he strode, she slithered, her mighty coils flexing and tensing their way through the corridor. She sat nearly as tall as he was, yet her mighty roiling tail spanned out nearly twice that distance behind them, shimmering dully in the dim flickering torchlight.

“So the castle just… reawoke?”

“About a week ago.”

“The same time she died.”

Medu nodded. “It’s as if you stabbing her released a wave of pent up mana. General Oni told me about this one time he got something stuck in his gums…”

Waru winced at the thought, imagining where this conversation might be headed.

“... it built up over weeks, getting all nasty and raw.”

He was already really hating where this was going.

“... and there was this pustule that began to form…”

He never wanted to hear the words “pustule” and “General Oni” in the same story, much less when it involved an infectious wound in the mouth. His mind was already conjuring up the conclusion to the story, his fingers already twitching slightly as his own jaw clenched.

“... until he couldn’t bear it anymore, and so he took one of his claws and…”

He popped it - that’s really the only place this story could go…

“And the release he felt! He said it was an almost spiritual event.”

Waru’s lips drew into a straight line. He’d dealt with slimes and zombies, all manner of vampiric horrors, creatures from the eldritch realm - he wasn’t squeamish about slime and grotesque fluids. But something about General Oni causing a spray of pus from an infected tooth just pushed past a line in his brain he’d never wanted to cross. He nodded slightly.

“Thank you for that… stirring illustration.”

“But don’t you see?”

“Oh, I see too much.”

“No, it’s you!”

He’d been called a lot of things, but never an Oni’s tooth pus. He was at a loss on how to take that. “Not sure I’m following,” was all he could reply.

“What I mean is that whatever happened when you killed that girl was like popping that inflammation - it burst all the energy back out into our dungeon.”

“Humans have been known to leak mana when they die,” he agreed with a shrug, “but she appeared unbelievably plain. I don’t think…”

“Or maybe my smacking you unconscious broke whatever mental wards you have in place?”

 

They finally arrived at the entrance to the great hall. Waru pushed it open and stepped inside. It was pristine - night and day difference since the last time he’d entered.

Waru gazed at the long tables, stretching from door to door, room to seat hundreds. Food steamed slightly as all manner of refugees tucked in, gazing up at him in reverence before averting their eyes from Medu, more out of habit than actual danger. Her new eyes seemed to truly be working splendidly.

She gazed at him, a look of concern crossing her features.

“What?”

 “I thought I killed you.”

He chuckled. “I’ve lost my head before - pretty sure a hearty smack isn’t enough to put me under permanently.”

“You must have some weakness, though. I would hate it if I accidentally found it.”

He smirked. “I have one known weakness,” he replied. “And I keep it locked up in the heart of the dungeon, where no one could ever find it.” He tapped his chest. “I don’t even tell you so that you never have to bear that burden.”

She smiled, then seemed to relax.

“Besides, no one can even find the room unless they know it’s there. So I never share that location, either. Double safe,” he said, placing a reassuring hand on hers.

They stepped from the great hall and into one of the kitchens. It was more of a pantry than anything now that he got a good look at it. The dresser he’d searched was still slightly open, the window’s glass had been restored, but there was something… 

He bent and examined the spot on the floor.

“What is it?” Medu asked.

“The blood stain,” he replied, “still here.”

“Lots of blood,” Medu agreed. “Almost pretty.”

He nodded, running his finger along the crimson mark. “The staff hasn’t cleaned it?”

“They didn’t have to clean any of it. The entire castle began to repair itself. Trash began to vanish, walls uncrumbled. It was as if the decay just… reversed.”

He licked a thumb and rubbed it at the bloodstain. It didn’t budge. “It hasn’t even faded,” he observed. “It won’t smear in the least. What about her body, did it vanish soon after I passed out.”

“Well,” Medu replied, hesitating.

“What?”

“Her body never vanished… at least not in that sense.”

Waru slowly stood, rubbing his fingers together as if the blood had stained them. He wiped his dry fingertips on his robe. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Her body stayed on the floor where you’d killed her,” Medu explained, gesturing to the floor. “Stayed there for a day or two before some of the kitchen staff complained and asked us to move it.”

“And did you?”

She nodded. “Yes. We moved it to one of the crypts in the lower levels.”

Waru frowned. “I trust you sealed it?”

She nodded, “Of course. It made everyone nervous.”

“Makes sense. Let me see her.”

“I’ll send word to the crypts to make sure they clear out the draugr. They’ve been acting up lately. Oh, look! There are some adventurers now!”

Waru and Medu stepped up to the broad windows overlooking the distant mountains. Through the shimmering hues of the stained glass, they could see dozens of small dark shapes approaching from the distant forest. Oni’s forces were already arraying to engage them. It wouldn’t be long.

“You said that we have control of the forest?”

Medu nodded. “These must be some of the new guilds that have started to form.”

“Guilds?”

“Little clubs the humans form - they organize in town and send out their members to perform ‘quests’ in the forest - some are funny, like collecting a certain number of shin bones or those little bottles some of the spectres carry…”

“Their phylacteries?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Not sure. Apparently they think it holds a piece of their soul or something.”

“The spectre is all soul, though.”

Medu shrugged. “You never know what information they’re working with. They collect them and give out gold and other supplies in exchange.”

“Do they know that the spectre’s just reform?”

Medu laughed, “apparently, they all look alike to humans.”

Waru laughed, “and let me guess, you’ve been initiating some of these quests?”

Medu smiled back, “why, how could I possibly?” she said with hurt dignity, “It’s not like I don’t have dozens of agents with high levels of illusion that can come and go as they please and may or may not trick the humans into doing things just to see what happens.”

Waru smiled. “Just don’t get them too riled up.”

Medu. “I’ve been thinking.”

“About Oni’s tooth?”

“Well, what if that’s the truth.”

“She was so mundane,” he began.

“No, what if it was her humanity?”

“Humanity?”

“Yes. What if her very soul is an unbelievable power source?”

Far below, the humans were being reduced into the little clouds of mana that they became when they died. Puffs of energy and light that vanished back into the forest. Where they went from there, he was never sure. Did they become the spectres or did they coalesce back into a future child or did they just vent off into the wind? They turned away from the window and began toward the crypts.

“You’ve seen the mana orbs,” Medu observed, “what happens if a human is killed in the dungeon?”

“Their mana is absorbed by the dungeon.”

“Are you sure?”

Waru shrugged. “Theoretically, unless something else interrupted the absorption.”

“Like what?”

“I assume a powerful enough ring or amulet might allow the mana essence to escape and perhaps dissipate back to the connection point. That still doesn’t explain the girl. She wasn’t wearing any amulets or rings.”

“Maybe enchanted armor?”

They continued deeper into the depths of the dungeon.

The depths of the castle were cool. The dampness of the caverns seemed quite the contrast to the warmth of the upper floors, especially coming from the kitchen. Waru shivered slightly.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t go by and find you some warmer clothes?”

“It’s fine,” he replied, dismissing her concern with a wave of his hand. “I figured you’d be cold, too.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Nothing.” He said quickly, imagining what it would be like to lose another week of his life. He’d died before and it hadn’t been that strange. His finger ran the line at his neck, as if to make sure his head was still attached. “I just thought… you know… being a woman and all, and since you don’t wear a lot of…” he coughed slightly.

She gazed down. Her gown was plunging to be sure, showing off more skin and scales than most would consider modest, but it was verifiably monastic compared to what some of the others wore around the castle. “Have you seen what the succubi are wearing this season?” She said, defensively.

“Anyway…” Waru said, trying to shift the conversation. “I just thought maybe you’d be cold. I noticed your hair’s not as… active as usual.”

“Oh, they sleep in the dark, especially with my new eyes.” She replied.

Waru felt as if he’s woken in an entirely different world. He paused at the door to the mausoleum. “Okay, you’ve told the wights and draugr we’re coming?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, and they’ve agreed to leave us alone?”

“The spectres managed to distract them with reports of adventurers deeper in the tombs. We should have about half an hour.”

“Good,” Waru replied, thinking back to the first time he’d walked in unannounced. That had almost killed him. He pushed open the double doors that led into this section of the crypts. A quivering spectre in the shape of a dapper-dressed middle-aged man met them, rubbing his ghostly hands together.

“M-my gracious lord! How good i-it is to see you u-up and a-b-out.”

“Thank you for your kind words, Horatio.” Waru attempted to step past him, instinctively moving around his body rather than walking through it. Even though spectres like this had no corporeal form if they did not choose to, it was considered rude to walk through another person, especially when first meeting. A simple bow in greeting and walking around them was considered a polite greeting if one was too busy to have a discussion.

And that’s exactly what Waru was attempting to do right now…

… and failing.

Horatio moved to block Waru’s way. “I w-was so worried. The s-sisters and I… w-we kept vigil. The Banshees would n-not s-stop c-crying… it was s-so sad! W-we thought w-we had l-lost y-you!” His stutter was accelerating, as if every single word was now repeating.

Waru groaned and closed his eyes. “Horatio, please let me pass.”

“M-my L-lord…” his stuttering praise continued until Waru sighed, took in a deep breath, clenched his eyes, and pushed through the spectre, feeling that blood-chilling ice, the crystallization of the beads of sweat and any moisture still clinging to the outside of his body.

He popped out the other side with a gasp and a full-body quiver.

“Ugh! Ugh!” he protested, “worse that walking through a slime! Horatio… please, next time get out of the way!” He shook his fingers, knocking free a few sparkling gem-like crystals of ice, which clattered to the floor like shards of broken glass.

Horatio hovered his way toward the corner, where a spectral desk sat - hovered. Sitting in a drifting chair, he pulled up a series of similar paper - all see-through and eerie - and began to write.

“M-my L-lord. Miss M-med-du said y-you w-were l-looking f-for a c-corpse?”

“Yes, an adventurer that would have been brought down her in the past week at some point.”

“R-right t-this way…” he hovered up out of his chair and began to float off down a side tunnel, leaving a wake of cold air behind him as he went.

“Still warm enough?” Waru asked.

Medu pulled her top tightly closed and wrapped her arms around her front. “Shut up.”

He gazed at her.

“S-sorry… b-...” she trailed off, chagrined.

They continued for a short while and he broke the silence. “First you literally smack me into next week, now you’re telling me to shut up. I’ll be honest, I actually like this spirited you.”

“Y-you do?” she said, quivering as she pushed a stray snake off her face.

He nodded. “Just not around others. Heaven help us if General Oni gets it in his head to be defiant.”

“I doubt he’d know t-the meaning of the word,” she replied with a quivering laugh.

“H-here sh-she is…” Horation announced. He flipped a small transparent seal, cutting off the barrier charm.  “A-afraid I c-can’t help remove the l-lid. Miss Medu, w-would you do the honors?”

She laughed. “Of course,” and with a heave, she pushed open the sarcophagus.

A layer of gravedust stirred, wafting into a convenient shaft of light that traced in from somewhere high overhead, somehow glinting through at a perfect forty-five degree angle, bathing the interior in harsh white light.

Waru stepped forward and peered over. The redhaired girl lay in state. She wore a light green tunic, stained with blood around the collar. Her similarly-green armor lay beside her, glinting dully in the light. Waru reached down and poked at the armor. It was entirely ordinary.

“What’s wrong?”

“No spells, no enchantments - absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. How did she think she’d actually succeed?”

Medu gazed down at the girl. “So pretty. Why throw her life away on a fools’ errand?”

Waru gently lowered the pile of chainmail. He bloodstained shift lay across her chest, bunched awkwardly as if they’d tried to clean her up and dress her. It snagged awkwardly here and there. He straightened the fabric, noting that they’d folded her hands across her chest, just above her heart. She looked almost…

“Peaceful…”

Waru nodded. “Yes, she does.”

The girls legs were clad in black leather pants of some sort, studded here and there with some sort of velvety armor - for added stealth or for some strange villager conception of style, he couldn’t tell. Her feet were bare.

“Had she been wearing shoes before?” He mused aloud.

“I never pay attention to feet - I actually forget you humans have them.”

“You had them once.” 

“Illusion of them, yes. I never actually had feet - it just looked that way. I couldn’t get used to actually walking on two legs. I’d feel like I was falling over all the time.”

“So where are her shoes?”

“Maybe she didn’t have any?”

Waru turned. “Horatio? Where are this girl’s shoe– Horatio?”

The hallways was empty.

“Horatio?”

Something creaked. Waru looked down at the girl. Her neck had been cleaned of most the blood, and the large gash he’d opened near her throat still looked ragged and raw. He knew that somewhere, on the back of her neck, would be his finishing blow. The blade had pierced through the front of her throat, leaving a strange hole.

She was as dead as anything could be, yet… something…

Waru felt his heart skip a beat.

There was a burst of power. The room flooded with a strange, ethereal glow - like that of the will o’ wisps. It was a mana globule.

No, it was a shade.

Her shade.

Bursting through the far wall, a shade in the exact shape of the girl swept into the room, casting an ethereal blue glow from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Her eyes blazed with an icy white-blue fire as she shot across the room toward her body. With more wit and speed that she normally expressed, Medu swept over the crypt, shoving the coffin lid back over the body and sliding the spectral seal back in place. The girl’s shade screamed as it struck the tomb, exploding into a nova of spectral energy that caused the torches to flare and wink out, as if blown by a mighty wind.

Waru paused, blinking at the darkness, then summoned a small light. Its shadowless glow filled the tunnels.

A girl stood at the tomb, her hand placed gently on the seal, which glowed red-hot under her touch. Her hand blazed, illuminating what looked like bones. They flared as if made of super-heated metal. She pulled her hand back and watched as it slowly cooled, fading back to the ethereal clarity of a normal shade.

“What are you?” Waru asked.

She gazed at him. “I’m human. I’m trapped here as long as my body is here.”

“Why didn’t you vanish into mana?”

“Something is keeping me trapped…”

“How? Why can’t you leave?”

“I can,” she replied sadly, “but I cannot reconstitute. My body is trapped here, and so am I.”

Waru began weaving a spell.

“What are you doing?”

“She’s been throughout the entire castle. We cannot allow here to leave.”

“You cannot stop me,” the girl replied, her ghostly form taking on a slightly reddish hue. She almost appeared as she had been the day he’d killed her. “I can come and go as I please.”

“I can’t allow that.”

She began to sweep toward the distant door.

“Spectral Chains!” He cried, and strange glowing shapes burst from the walls. They snaked their way around her, holding her hovering form in place. She growled and spun, piercing him with her angry, glowing eyes.

“Release me. Have you not made me suffer enough?”

“I haven’t even begun to make you suffer for invading my home.”

“Play nice,” Medu whispered.

“She could reveal the secrets of the whole place,” Waru replied, “I can’t allow her to leave.”

“But you can’t destroy her. What if she really is the cause of our surplus of mana?”

Waru groaned. She was right. The shade before them might be harmless, might be completely unrelated to this in its entirety - but he couldn’t take that risk. But Medu was also right in that… he couldn’t risk destroying her or letting her escape. Binding Chains would only hold her for so long…

“We could just let her go? As long as her body’s still here, the link would persist, wouldn’t it?”

“No, she knows too much.” 

“You cannot bind me here forever!” The girl shouted, her once-red hair taking on a purplish hue as she found against the restraints. One hand broke free.

He had to act fast.

“Medu, cover your ears.”

She obeyed. He began to channel the spell, one that only he and the girl would hear. “Lingua Linka!” Something snapped. He felt a strange feedback run through the base of his skull, as if someone had just stabbed a frozen icepick up inside. His eyes flashed open, and he was looking upon his own, frozen body. His long beard hung down nearly to the middle of his stomach, long and pointed. The mustaches followed, nearly as long. His eyebrows, thick and bushy in their own right, were buried under a matt of long, scraggly black hair. He watched as each strand aged, starting whitish gray at the base and slowly moving downward. He was watching himself age as the spell took effect.

Then it stopped, and he was gazing upon the ghostly shade once more.

She stood still, slightly hovering above the floor.

“What did you do?” she spat.

“We are bound, you and I.”

“You look terrible,” she replied, slowly raising her hands. “You old fool. You released me.”

Medu’s hands were still covering her ears. “May I listen? Where’s she go?”

Waru turned, “Yes, it’s safe now. What do you mean ‘where is she?’ She’s right there.”

“Oh, I see her now. You freed her?”

“Not exactly,” Waru replied, gazing back at the girl. She glared back at him.

“What did you do?” the shade asked.

“Why isn’t she speaking?”

“She is, but we’re now linked so only I can understand her.”

The shade seethed with rage, glowing redhot.

“I hope you like playing charades,” Waru mocked, “because if you want to share any information, that’ll be the only way.”

“I’ll kill you for this…” she swore.

Waru shrugged, “I doubt it. You’ll find you can only manipulate the smallest of items, so unless you trigger a series of events, I won’t lose too much sleep worrying about it.”

The raging inferno that was the girl exploded, and she swept out of the room with a burst of power that caused the small shadowless orb to shake as if caught in a mighty wind.

“Are you sure that was wise?”

Waru shrugged. “Didn’t have much of an option otherwise. If she can go free, at least she can’t talk or write.”

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll just haunt you from now on?”

“I think she’d get bored.”

“But if she finds a way around the curse.”

Waru shrugged, “she won’t. She heard my oath, and thus we are bound. I am the only one she can speak to now. If I’m correct, she won’t even be able to write.”

It was pristine - night and day difference since the last time he’d entered.

Waru gazed at the long tables, stretching from door to door, room to seat hundreds. Food steamed slightly as all manner of refugees tucked in, gazing up at him in reverence before averting their eyes from Medu, more out of habit than actual danger. Her new eyes seemed to truly be working splendidly.

She gazed at him, a look of concern crossing her features.

“What?”

 “I thought I killed you.”

He chuckled. “I’ve lost my head before - pretty sure a hearty smack isn’t enough to put me under permanently.”

“You must have some weakness, though. I would hate it if I accidentally found it.”

He smirked. “I have one known weakness,” he replied. “And I keep it locked up in the heart of the dungeon, where no one could ever find it.” He tapped his chest. “I don’t even tell you so that you never have to bear that burden.”

She smiled, then seemed to relax.

“Besides, no one can even find the room unless they know it’s there. So I never share that location, either. Double safe,” he said, placing a reassuring hand on hers.

They stepped from the great hall and into one of the kitchens. It was more of a pantry than anything now that he got a good look at it. The dresser he’d searched was still slightly open, the window’s glass had been restored, but there was something… 

He bent and examined the spot on the floor.

“What is it?” Medu asked.

“The blood stain,” he replied, “still here.”

“Lots of blood,” Medu agreed. “Almost pretty.”

He nodded, running his finger along the crimson mark. “The staff hasn’t cleaned it?”

“They didn’t have to clean any of it. The entire castle began to repair itself. Trash began to vanish, walls uncrumbled. It was as if the decay just… reversed.”

He licked a thumb and rubbed it at the bloodstain. It didn’t budge. “It hasn’t even faded,” he observed. “It won’t smear in the least. What about her body, did it vanish soon after I passed out.”

“Well,” Medu replied, hesitating.

“What?”

“Her body never vanished… at least not in that sense.”

Waru slowly stood, rubbing his fingers together as if the blood had stained them. He wiped his dry fingertips on his robe. “I’m not sure what you mean?”

“Her body stayed on the floor where you’d killed her,” Medu explained, gesturing to the floor. “Stayed there for a day or two before some of the kitchen staff complained and asked us to move it.”

“And did you?”

She nodded. “Yes. We moved it to one of the crypts in the lower levels.”

Waru frowned. “I trust you sealed it?”

She nodded, “Of course. It made everyone nervous.”

“Makes sense. Let me see her.”

“I’ll send word to the crypts to make sure they clear out the draugr. They’ve been acting up lately. Oh, look! There are some adventurers now!”

Waru and Medu stepped up to the broad windows overlooking the distant mountains. Through the shimmering hues of the stained glass, they could see dozens of small dark shapes approaching from the distant forest. Oni’s forces were already arraying to engage them. It wouldn’t be long.

“You said that we have control of the forest?”

Medu nodded. “These must be some of the new guilds that have started to form.”

“Guilds?”

“Little clubs the humans form - they organize in town and send out their members to perform ‘quests’ in the forest - some are funny, like collecting a certain number of shin bones or those little bottles some of the spectres carry…”

“Their phylacteries?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Not sure. Apparently they think it holds a piece of their soul or something.”

“The spectre is all soul, though.”

Medu shrugged. “You never know what information they’re working with. They collect them and give out gold and other supplies in exchange.”

“Do they know that the spectre’s just reform?”

Medu laughed, “apparently, they all look alike to humans.”

Waru laughed, “and let me guess, you’ve been initiating some of these quests?”

Medu smiled back, “why, how could I possibly?” she said with hurt dignity, “It’s not like I don’t have dozens of agents with high levels of illusion that can come and go as they please and may or may not trick the humans into doing things just to see what happens.”

Waru smiled. “Just don’t get them too riled up.”

Medu. “I’ve been thinking.”

“About Oni’s tooth?”

“Well, what if that’s the truth.”

“She was so mundane,” he began.

“No, what if it was her humanity?”

“Humanity?”

“Yes. What if her very soul is an unbelievable power source?”

Far below, the humans were being reduced into the little clouds of mana that they became when they died. Puffs of energy and light that vanished back into the forest. Where they went from there, he was never sure. Did they become the spectres or did they coalesce back into a future child or did they just vent off into the wind? They turned away from the window and began toward the crypts.

“You’ve seen the mana orbs,” Medu observed, “what happens if a human is killed in the dungeon?”

“Their mana is absorbed by the dungeon.”

“Are you sure?”

Waru shrugged. “Theoretically, unless something else interrupted the absorption.”

“Like what?”

“I assume a powerful enough ring or amulet might allow the mana essence to escape and perhaps dissipate back to the connection point. That still doesn’t explain the girl. She wasn’t wearing any amulets or rings.”

“Maybe enchanted armor?”

They continued deeper into the depths of the dungeon.

The depths of the castle were cool. The dampness of the caverns seemed quite the contrast to the warmth of the upper floors, especially coming from the kitchen. Waru shivered slightly.

“Are you sure we shouldn’t go by and find you some warmer clothes?”

“It’s fine,” he replied, dismissing her concern with a wave of his hand. “I figured you’d be cold, too.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Nothing.” He said quickly, imagining what it would be like to lose another week of his life. He’d died before and it hadn’t been that strange. His finger ran the line at his neck, as if to make sure his head was still attached. “I just thought… you know… being a woman and all, and since you don’t wear a lot of…” he coughed slightly.

She gazed down. Her gown was plunging to be sure, showing off more skin and scales than most would consider modest, but it was verifiably monastic compared to what some of the others wore around the castle. “Have you seen what the succubi are wearing this season?” She said, defensively.

“Anyway…” Waru said, trying to shift the conversation. “I just thought maybe you’d be cold. I noticed your hair’s not as… active as usual.”

“Oh, they sleep in the dark, especially with my new eyes.” She replied.

Waru felt as if he’s woken in an entirely different world. He paused at the door to the mausoleum. “Okay, you’ve told the wights and draugr we’re coming?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, and they’ve agreed to leave us alone?”

“The spectres managed to distract them with reports of adventurers deeper in the tombs. We should have about half an hour.”

“Good,” Waru replied, thinking back to the first time he’d walked in unannounced. That had almost killed him. He pushed open the double doors that led into this section of the crypts. A quivering spectre in the shape of a dapper-dressed middle-aged man met them, rubbing his ghostly hands together.

“M-my gracious lord! How good i-it is to see you u-up and a-b-out.”

“Thank you for your kind words, Horatio.” Waru attempted to step past him, instinctively moving around his body rather than walking through it. Even though spectres like this had no corporeal form if they did not choose to, it was considered rude to walk through another person, especially when first meeting. A simple bow in greeting and walking around them was considered a polite greeting if one was too busy to have a discussion.

And that’s exactly what Waru was attempting to do right now…

… and failing.

Horatio moved to block Waru’s way. “I w-was so worried. The s-sisters and I… w-we kept vigil. The Banshees would n-not s-stop c-crying… it was s-so sad! W-we thought w-we had l-lost y-you!” His stutter was accelerating, as if every single word was now repeating.

Waru groaned and closed his eyes. “Horatio, please let me pass.”

“M-my L-lord…” his stuttering praise continued until Waru sighed, took in a deep breath, clenched his eyes, and pushed through the spectre, feeling that blood-chilling ice, the crystallization of the beads of sweat and any moisture still clinging to the outside of his body.

He popped out the other side with a gasp and a full-body quiver.

“Ugh! Ugh!” he protested, “worse that walking through a slime! Horatio… please, next time get out of the way!” He shook his fingers, knocking free a few sparkling gem-like crystals of ice, which clattered to the floor like shards of broken glass.

Horatio hovered his way toward the corner, where a spectral desk sat - hovered. Sitting in a drifting chair, he pulled up a series of similar paper - all see-through and eerie - and began to write.

“M-my L-lord. Miss M-med-du said y-you w-were l-looking f-for a c-corpse?”

“Yes, an adventurer that would have been brought down her in the past week at some point.”

“R-right t-this way…” he hovered up out of his chair and began to float off down a side tunnel, leaving a wake of cold air behind him as he went.

“Still warm enough?” Waru asked.

Medu pulled her top tightly closed and wrapped her arms around her front. “Shut up.”

He gazed at her.

“S-sorry… b-...” she trailed off, chagrined.

They continued for a short while and he broke the silence. “First you literally smack me into next week, now you’re telling me to shut up. I’ll be honest, I actually like this spirited you.”

“Y-you do?” she said, quivering as she pushed a stray snake off her face.

He nodded. “Just not around others. Heaven help us if General Oni gets it in his head to be defiant.”

“I doubt he’d know t-the meaning of the word,” she replied with a quivering laugh.

“H-here sh-she is…” Horation announced. He flipped a small transparent seal, cutting off the barrier charm.  “A-afraid I c-can’t help remove the l-lid. Miss Medu, w-would you do the honors?”

She laughed. “Of course,” and with a heave, she pushed open the sarcophagus.

A layer of gravedust stirred, wafting into a convenient shaft of light that traced in from somewhere high overhead, somehow glinting through at a perfect forty-five degree angle, bathing the interior in harsh white light.

Waru stepped forward and peered over. The redhaired girl lay in state. She wore a light green tunic, stained with blood around the collar. Her similarly-green armor lay beside her, glinting dully in the light. Waru reached down and poked at the armor. It was entirely ordinary.

“What’s wrong?”

“No spells, no enchantments - absolutely nothing out of the ordinary. How did she think she’d actually succeed?”

Medu gazed down at the girl. “So pretty. Why throw her life away on a fools’ errand?”

Waru gently lowered the pile of chainmail. He bloodstained shift lay across her chest, bunched awkwardly as if they’d tried to clean her up and dress her. It snagged awkwardly here and there. He straightened the fabric, noting that they’d folded her hands across her chest, just above her heart. She looked almost…

“Peaceful…”

Waru nodded. “Yes, she does.”

The girls legs were clad in black leather pants of some sort, studded here and there with some sort of velvety armor - for added stealth or for some strange villager conception of style, he couldn’t tell. Her feet were bare.

“Had she been wearing shoes before?” He mused aloud.

“I never pay attention to feet - I actually forget you humans have them.”

“You had them once.” 

“Illusion of them, yes. I never actually had feet - it just looked that way. I couldn’t get used to actually walking on two legs. I’d feel like I was falling over all the time.”

“So where are her shoes?”

“Maybe she didn’t have any?”

Waru turned. “Horatio? Where are this girl’s shoe– Horatio?”

The hallways was empty.

“Horatio?”

Something creaked. Waru looked down at the girl. Her neck had been cleaned of most the blood, and the large gash he’d opened near her throat still looked ragged and raw. He knew that somewhere, on the back of her neck, would be his finishing blow. The blade had pierced through the front of her throat, leaving a strange hole.

She was as dead as anything could be, yet… something…

Waru felt his heart skip a beat.

There was a burst of power. The room flooded with a strange, ethereal glow - like that of the will o’ wisps. It was a mana globule.

No, it was a shade.

Her shade.

Bursting through the far wall, a shade in the exact shape of the girl swept into the room, casting an ethereal blue glow from wall to wall, floor to ceiling. Her eyes blazed with an icy white-blue fire as she shot across the room toward her body. With more wit and speed that she normally expressed, Medu swept over the crypt, shoving the coffin lid back over the body and sliding the spectral seal back in place. The girl’s shade screamed as it struck the tomb, exploding into a nova of spectral energy that caused the torches to flare and wink out, as if blown by a mighty wind.

Waru paused, blinking at the darkness, then summoned a small light. Its shadowless glow filled the tunnels.

A girl stood at the tomb, her hand placed gently on the seal, which glowed red-hot under her touch. Her hand blazed, illuminating what looked like bones. They flared as if made of super-heated metal. She pulled her hand back and watched as it slowly cooled, fading back to the ethereal clarity of a normal shade.

“What are you?” Waru asked.

She gazed at him. “I’m human. I’m trapped here as long as my body is here.”

“Why didn’t you vanish into mana?”

“Something is keeping me trapped…”

“How? Why can’t you leave?”

“I can,” she replied sadly, “but I cannot reconstitute. My body is trapped here, and so am I.”

Waru began weaving a spell.

“What are you doing?”

“She’s been throughout the entire castle. We cannot allow here to leave.”

“You cannot stop me,” the girl replied, her ghostly form taking on a slightly reddish hue. She almost appeared as she had been the day he’d killed her. “I can come and go as I please.”

“I can’t allow that.”

She began to sweep toward the distant door.

“Spectral Chains!” He cried, and strange glowing shapes burst from the walls. They snaked their way around her, holding her hovering form in place. She growled and spun, piercing him with her angry, glowing eyes.

“Release me. Have you not made me suffer enough?”

“I haven’t even begun to make you suffer for invading my home.”

“Play nice,” Medu whispered.

“She could reveal the secrets of the whole place,” Waru replied, “I can’t allow her to leave.”

“But you can’t destroy her. What if she really is the cause of our surplus of mana?”

Waru groaned. She was right. The shade before them might be harmless, might be completely unrelated to this in its entirety - but he couldn’t take that risk. But Medu was also right in that… he couldn’t risk destroying her or letting her escape. Binding Chains would only hold her for so long…

“We could just let her go? As long as her body’s still here, the link would persist, wouldn’t it?”

“No, she knows too much.” 

“You cannot bind me here forever!” The girl shouted, her once-red hair taking on a purplish hue as she found against the restraints. One hand broke free.

He had to act fast.

“Medu, cover your ears.”

She obeyed. He began to channel the spell, one that only he and the girl would hear. “Lingua Linka!” Something snapped. He felt a strange feedback run through the base of his skull, as if someone had just stabbed a frozen icepick up inside. His eyes flashed open, and he was looking upon his own, frozen body. His long beard hung down nearly to the middle of his stomach, long and pointed. The mustaches followed, nearly as long. His eyebrows, thick and bushy in their own right, were buried under a matt of long, scraggly black hair. He watched as each strand aged, starting whitish gray at the base and slowly moving downward. He was watching himself age as the spell took effect.

Then it stopped, and he was gazing upon the ghostly shade once more.

She stood still, slightly hovering above the floor.

“What did you do?” she spat.

“We are bound, you and I.”

“You look terrible,” she replied, slowly raising her hands. “You old fool. You released me.”

Medu’s hands were still covering her ears. “May I listen? Where’s she go?”

Waru turned, “Yes, it’s safe now. What do you mean ‘where is she?’ She’s right there.”

“Oh, I see her now. You freed her?”

“Not exactly,” Waru replied, gazing back at the girl. She glared back at him.

“What did you do?” the shade asked.

“Why isn’t she speaking?”

“She is, but we’re now linked so only I can understand her.”

The shade seethed with rage, glowing redhot.

“I hope you like playing charades,” Waru mocked, “because if you want to share any information, that’ll be the only way.”

“I’ll kill you for this…” she swore.

Waru shrugged, “I doubt it. You’ll find you can only manipulate the smallest of items, so unless you trigger a series of events, I won’t lose too much sleep worrying about it.”

The raging inferno that was the girl exploded, and she swept out of the room with a burst of power that caused the small shadowless orb to shake as if caught in a mighty wind.

“Are you sure that was wise?”

Waru shrugged. “Didn’t have much of an option otherwise. If she can go free, at least she can’t talk or write.”

“Aren’t you afraid she’ll just haunt you from now on?”

“I think she’d get bored.”

“But if she finds a way around the curse.”

Waru shrugged, “she won’t. She heard my oath, and thus we are bound. I am the only one she can speak to now. If I’m correct, she won’t even be able to write.”