"They do nothing to bind us?" Rubines asked, as Urimae led him through the dungeon's crimson-lit passages. "Don't they fear you escaping?"

"There is no escape." Urimae spoke softly, almost a whisper, as though afraid of being overheard. "This is the deepest layer of the dungeon. Though most of its monsters are away at the moment, it would take but a thought for it to bring one back and slaughter us all."

Rubines lowered his voice to match. "Why hasn't it? Why is it taking prisoners?"

Urimae shook her head. "It wants us for something, wants us alive and at least nominally healthy. It speaks to us, sometimes." She shivered, and her voice nearly broke. "I think it is using us to learn our people's secrets."

Rubines suddenly understood the haunted look, the emptiness of so many of the prisoners back in the first room. They knew they shouldn't permit this to happen, and yet they chose to live on in the vain hope that someone would rescue them.

"At first, it spoke in nonsense," Urimae continued. "Words that didn't go together. Sounds that held no meaning at all. But more and more, it--"

Her voice cut off abruptly as she fell to the floor, shaking all over, her eyes rolling up in her head.

Rubines watched, unable to think of what to do, then she fell still. Her head lolled and her eyes gradually refocused, meeting Rubines' concerned gaze with a vacant one that gradually sharpened.

"She says you're the one she was waiting for," Urimae whispered hoarsely. "We should hurry."

Rubines felt a chill down his spine, but there was nothing else to do but continue to follow.

Urimae led him through several more rooms and halls, then pointed to a pale grey door lit up from within in jagged lines of crimson light. "She waits for you there." She hung back, her eyes pleading.

"I will do whatever I can," Rubines promised, knowing the words were empty even as he spoke them.

Urimae nodded, then sat down against the wall opposite the door. "I'll wait for you."

Rubines pushed the door open and stepped into the dungeon's core.

Join me.

The words slammed through Rubines's mind like thunder on a clear day. He staggered with the force of it, the mental voice tearing through his shredded mental defences as he was assaulted for the third time in less than a week. He felt the presence withdraw a moment later just as he felt he would break from the strain. Instinctively he knew that it had taken something from him in the brief exchange, though he could not guess what.

"Who are you?" His voice sounded weak and uncertain even to himself.

I am Ninate Forseven. Serve me and you will live.

Rubines looked up, his vision blurred by the force of the words echoing and resounding within him. This time, instead of taking from him, it pushed something into him. Memories, knowledge, information. Scraps of a foreign language.

And beneath it all, a burning hunger, a drive to consume and grow and conquer and fight and prove once and for all who was the strongest daughter and deserved to rule this new world.

He felt that same desire echoing in himself. It would be so easy to forget the stupid council and their lies, forget Delarin and his unreasonable demands.

I can give you power like nothing you'd imagine.

This being was more like a god than like an elf. A god offering Rubines power and safety and guidance.

He didn't need to go through all this.

What were the chances Delarin's scheme would even work? No one created a whole new planet. Delarin had always been ambitious, always overestimated himself. Rubines let himself get swept up in yet another of his schemes, too desperate to even stop and think whether it was even possible.

Join me and live.

Rubines felt his resolve crumbling. The visions that accompanied the words promised life and a future. To become part of something greater than himself, to follow someone whose goals he understood intimately and perfectly.

Not freedom, but everyone ultimately served someone. He wouldn't be free whatever he chose. His only choice was which master he wanted.

Something tugged at his wrist, but the sensations and impressions pouring into him were overpowering.

COME.

Rubines crawled forward to the center of the room where a single tile lay slightly off center. He shoved it out of the way, revealing the pulsing crystal dungeon heart beneath. Wide like a plate but as thick as his fist, the faceted gem glowed crimson in bloody reflection of its mother the Dungeon Queen far above.

Become mine...

Rubines reached out a hand, hovering above the crystal. All he needed to do was assent, and he could leave his troubles behind. Forget the world that rejected him.

He very nearly agreed.

But...

"I already have a master," Rubines spoke softly, yet the dungeon's whispers of promise broke apart and fled before the deep surety in his quiet voice. "My soul is spoken for."

In a single quick motion, he drew the silver nail free and stabbed it into the dungeon's heart.

The ground screamed and shuddered, the very stone twisting and warping around them as the pulsing beat of the crystal heart flickered frantically.

Rubines grabbed the crystal, tugging with both hands to drag it from where it rested. For a moment it shifted, but then it settled, bound to the stone and he could not pull it free.

He slammed his fist on the nail, driving it further in, and as the crystal shuddered he yanked it free of the stone before it could regain its grip.

The earth bucked and twisted. Rubines clutched the dungeon heart to his chest and ran blindly as the dungeon collapsed around him.

Following the flickering echo of a phantom silver thread, he ran.

Ignoring the screams of panic and the roars of beasts, he ran.

Leaving Urimae and the other prisoners behind, he ran.