A trickle of sweat ran down Robin’s brow as he studied the puzzle embedded into the stone door created by a living dungeon. It was trick and trap both, but Robin went over it carefully nonetheless. Doing so would give him more insight into the way the dungeon thought, and after four frustrating days down here, insight was what he desperately needed.

They had to get though to the inner ring of the dungeon. They’d figured that much out after days of traversing endlessly looping and coiling corridors, fighting all manner of shapeshifting monsters and mimics—actual, treasure-chest-impersonating, teeth-like-knives, sprouting-random-legs-and-a-tongue mimics. Robin was both delighted and horrified.

‘How much longer?’ Khavren demanded.

The knight bored easily, and his constant push was one reason it was taking Robin so long to riddle out the secret to this dungeon. The party was never able to stay in one place long enough to do any real research or evaluation. Khavren kept pushing them to search and fight and explore.

Which, yes, nothing wrong with that in theory. But this dungeon was clever. There was a trick that was hiding the passage to the inner section, and Robin didn’t think they’d be able to figure it out just running, running, running.

‘Let me see that map again,’ he said to Jhess.

The rogue passed him the sheet of parchment. Robin studied it carefully. It had been drawn as well as he could do, but he knew it was still an imperfect representation. The edges of the map were all labyrinth, and though the inner section they now occupied was more traditional rooms and corridors, he still felt they were missing something.

‘Have you figured it out yet, bard?’ Khavren boomed. ‘I tire of constantly walking in circles.’

‘Not ye—’. Circles. They were going around in literal circles. ‘Maybe. Hang on.’

‘Wha—’ the knight began to ask.

‘Quiet!’ Robin shushed him. ‘I need quiet to think.’

The knight looked offended but didn’t say anything further.

‘This door isn’t going to take us through to the inner section of the dungeon,’ Robin said, after twisting the map gently in his hands. ‘It’s going to open on a new corridor which is probably going to lead us slowly back toward the labyrinthine outer ring. Because this dungeon isn’t in squares. It’s a circle. Maybe even a sphere.’

‘That would make sense with what I know of living dungeons,’ Drev said thoughtfully. ‘Their influence extends outwards from them in a set radius. A sphere would be the most effective and efficient use of that, barring environmental constraints.’

I don’t like that one. He knows too much.

The dungeon spoke again. Robin kept his face impassive but internally celebrated the confirmation of his theory.

Though something still wasn’t quite adding up. He frowned at the map. There were some very odd blank spaces, if he’d drawn things correctly. So either he’d made a mistake or there was something hidden in those sections. Possibly by secret doors or—

Robin looked back at the puzzle. He reached out and slid the tiles on it around. They moved smoothly, shifting on almost invisible tracks.

If he were a living dungeon and he needed to protect his inner sanctum while simultaneously keeping pathways throughout the dungeon open for the proper flow of energies, he would almost certainly eventually set up a system that would isolate adventuring parties and keep them moving in the wrong direction.

Robin glanced back at the map and the strange empty sections on it. This puzzle was a distraction. There was probably something behind it, maybe even some treasure to make them feel like they were making progress, but it was a distraction.

In fact there had always been an attack near one of these blank spaces on the map. An attack or an unexpected clue that led to treasure. Always a distraction. Something to lead them on in a very specific direction.

In circles.

‘We need to go back,’ he said, looking at the map. ‘We have been going in circles, and I think the way out of this might be behind us.’

‘Might be? I mislike retracing our steps on a hunch.’ Khavren looked rebellious.

‘The bard speaks true,’ Savra said suddenly. ‘Though it was your wise words that gave him the insight, he has uncovered the way forward for us…and that way is back.’

Robin could have done without splitting credit with the knight, but if it made him agree to backtrack, fine.

‘We’ve already killed the things behind us. Most of the tunnels should be safe enough,’ Jhess added.

‘Don’t discount the dungeon taking action to surprise us,’ Drev said. ‘Our presence here disrupts the flow of energies to an extent, but there are still things it can do to renew the hazards we might face.’

‘Like move creatures between rooms, using hidden passages,’ Robin said.

That one is too smart for his own good. Too bad the tentacites didn’t take care of him.

It was an unnerving kind of compliment, but Robin would take it. Especially as it reinforced his conviction that he was finally on the right track here. Back was the way forward.

He conjured an illusory message for Jhess’s eyes.

Look for scratch marks or grooves on the floor near the bend in the tunnel where the mimics ambushed us.

The rogue flashed him a glance and nodded, slightly.

Robin wasn’t certain if the dungeon could see and read his illusions, but he was fairly certain it had an easier time hearing them than seeing them. It fit with some of the other things the dungeon had—and hadn’t—responded to throughout the delve.

He almost missed the bend he was talking about when they came to it. The place had become suspiciously spotless in the intervening period of time. Unnaturally fast and unnaturally clean.

Robin might have put it down to natural dungeon processes had he not caught the edges of a grumble just as he realised his mistake and called for the party to pause so he could examine the spot more carefully. The dungeon was clearly trying to throw him off the scent.

‘What, precisely, are we looking for?’ Drev asked.

Khavren looked bored and Savra maintained an air of serene expectation. She didn’t make a move to help, but at least she had expressed confidence that Robin would figure the matter out.

She’d probably take credit for predicting it when he did find the way, too.

‘I think we’re being herded past the secret doors that would lead us deeper into the dungeon,’ Robin said. It was a simplification but it would do. ‘If I’ve drawn the map correctly—’

Khavren didn’t quite snort, but the sceptical look on his face said he was not far from it.

‘—then there are whole sections of this dungeon we’re missing, skipping over.’

‘Could it not be just empty space? Solid rock that is there for support purposes or the like?’ Drev tapped the walls with his knuckles, head cocked to the side to listen as he did so.

‘Could be,’ Robin said, ‘but that doesn’t fit with the supports we have seen. So, look for cracks, scratches, anything that might indicate there is a hidden door around here, somewhere. And we should be quick.’

‘Why?’

‘Because if I’m right the dungeon isn’t going to like us being here, and I think there’s a chance it might do something to try and stop us if we get too close to finding a way deeper in.’

‘Ha!’ Khavren boomed. ‘Let it try! We have vanquished everything it has thrown at us so far!’

Robin sensed a rumble of annoyance. Oh yeah. They were definitely going to get ambushed at this rate.

‘That’s an excellent idea,’ he said. ‘You should take that end of the corridor and watch for any incoming monsters. Dee—’ Robin used Drev’s fake name, as the last thing they needed was Khavren finding out another of his party members was deceiving him and had a decidedly less-than-honourable past, ‘can guard the other. Wulfram can keep him company.’

‘I will stand guard with Khavren,’ Savra announced.

Robin had been hoping the seeress would have some insight into hidden doors and other such dungeon mysteries, but it seemed her visions were mostly silent on this front. Or perhaps she just felt the need to keep a close eye on Khavren so the knight didn’t charge off and leave them exposed.

It wouldn’t be surprising. Honestly, if Khavren hadn’t already begun fulfilling Savra’s vision of inadvertently showing them the way to the prize they were all after, Robin might be tempted to let him go charging off alone into the dark, possibly never again to return.

But he had sparked Robin’s insight. And he had first fallen down the sinkhole that led them to the dungeon proper. He had his uses.

For now.

‘I need more light,’ Jhess complained.

Savra sent several more globes of magelight drifting out from her outstretched palm. The tunnel brightened considerably. Robin winced at the brightness. Not only did it irritate his eyes slightly, but he didn’t like how it would be a beacon for anything still living down here in the dark.

It did throw the stone all around them into sharp relief, though. Several times he had to ask Savra to provide more light. When too many of the globes failed, shadows cut across the floor and walls from the interplay of lights, small thin ones too easily confused with the cracks or tracks he and Jhess were looking for.

Robin moved slowly back and forth along the stretch of tunnel, taking care to keep an eye out for shapeshifting threats. There was just enough bend to the tunnel to mess with his sight lines. And, if he was correct, just enough bend to disguise some kind of massive switch mechanism. Like the wedge that shifted when an engineer pulled the right lever and smoothly transferred a train from one set of parallel tracks to another.

Except in this case, the adventuring party was the train, and the tunnels they had been delving through were the tracks.

This guy is like a dog after a bone.

The dungeon was complaining about him again.

Who does he think he is with this search for clues? Sherlock Holmes?

Robin slipped and almost landed face-first. Sherlock Holmes!? How did the dungeon know that name?

He wracked his brain, focusing on his [Bardic Lore]. Maybe it was a coincidence and there was also a character by that name in the annals of this world’s ballads and pop culture? Maybe there was a real person coincidentally by the same name that was also incredibly insightful?

The library in his head came up empty.

No. No it didn’t seem like a coincidence. The dungeon had knowledge of Earth!

But how?

Before Robin could puzzle out the possibilities, however, the dungeon spoke again, and the bard suddenly had a much more pressing issue to worry about.

They’re getting too close. I’m going to send something in to distract them.