I looked at the fairy, or Fay I guess, who was hovering in front of me as her soaked dress dripped red water onto the stone floor.

“You’re a fairy… named Fay?”

Fay’s face scrunched up for a moment before it returned to its prior excited smile.

“Look, I was named by a badger spirit ok. Badgers aren’t known for their immense sense of creativity… Anyway, that’s not the point. I’m going to be your temporary guide, I’ll help you figure out the basics of what it means to be a dungeon and then…”

The Fairy trailed off as her face took on an expression of longing.

“Then I’ll go be with Cal again…”

I had a moment of confusion, I had no idea what badgers had to do with anything. I could only assume that Cal was the name of her dungeon and her last words were reminding me she wanted to die. It was a strange thing to want, but I guess everyone had different desires. I guess I had no right to judge her for her own desire, after all it wasn’t like she would be hurting anyone. Well, anyone other than herself. Even still I didn’t like thinking that Fay wanted to die. I could understand it, I would respect it, but I didn’t like it.

“Alright, so as my guide you’ll help me and answer my questions?”

Fay nodded with an energetic bob of the head, it was a movement that seemed almost forced.

“Yep, I’ll do my best to help you work things out.”

Alright, time to finally address the main issue then…

“Great, then I’m really going to need you to give me your opinion on a name. Personally, I like Rock. But then again Stone is growing on me… Either way I’m not favoring Drop much anymore, just seems kind of silly now in hindsight…”

***

Fay was banging her head softly against one of the barrels.

“…So maybe Pebble could work, but it just doesn’t convey the right air I’m trying to get. I just can’t see anyone being awed or intimidated by a dungeon called Pebble... Although maybe that would be a good thing. It could get challengers to lower their guard and get caught up in a trap or ambush, so maybe it would be worth having the name just to weed out challengers. But then again names are important and deeply personal things, so I really don’t think I want mine to be Pebble. It doesn’t even sound better in draconic and EVERYTHING sounds better in draconic… Huh, I guess that just leaves Rock, Stone, Dark, Wood, Stalag, Scale, and Float. Oh, and Drop too I guess…”

I looked at Fay wondering if her head hitting the wood of the barrel helped her think. Normally I would think that it would actually be a detriment to thinking and maybe actually cause pain, but she had been doing it for quite a while now. Maybe it was some custom I didn’t absorb from the dragon’s gifted knowledge or maybe it was just some weird fairy thing even the dragon didn’t know.

Fay stopped for a moment and looked back at me, her forehead was red.

“Is that everything? You’re completely done now?”

I nodded before I remembered Fay couldn’t tell anything from nonexistent movements, which was honestly sort of disappointing given she had been the one to encourage me to continue making such nonexistent movements. Something about it being helpful with reestablishing muscle movement and function later on in my life.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much everything I’ve considered so far and why. So what do you think?”

Fay smiled with what looks like relief.

“I think that it’s important you know that the entrance to your dungeon should be given special attention. It’s the first part of your dungeon people will see, so it will be a major factor in how they judge and describe your dungeon amongst themselves. You’ll want your entrance to be grand, imposing, intimidating, captivating, and welcoming in equal parts. I know, it’ll be a hard balance to meet, but your real fairy should be able to help you and maybe even give you some ideas…”

I shook my head, not that I had one.

“No, I meant about the names…”

“I also think you should remember that while you generate mana at insane rates you can still run out if you do too much at once, I don’t advise you do that. From what I understand it is very unpleasant for a dungeon and if you use too much in too short a time span you can even make yourself sick or stunt your development and growth…”

“Fay…”

“Oh, and when you begin shaping your dungeon this’ll be really obvious, but I should still tell you… The expansion of your dungeon is directly equivalent to the expansion of your aura, or the force of your soul. To drastically understate things aura is what is formed from the sum of your mana, life energy, and spirit. Think of it as a sort of field or maybe shield would be a better analogy… Anyway your soul protects itself with aura, so by spreading your aura to expand the dungeon you actually strengthen the dungeon, your aura, and even your soul. To grossly simplify, the bigger your dungeon the stronger you and it are…”

“Fay!”

“Now, you may be wondering why spreading your aura everywhere a good idea, well the answer to that is: because you’re a dungeon. Your species has the unique ability to create on a nearly divine level, but that is only true so long as it is contained within yourself. The second you try to enact change outside of yourself the laws of the world itself get in the way, after all the great Mother can’t have you mucking up the world she personally crafted, that’s why you couldn’t do anything until I released your core’s aura before. Instead the great Mother gave dungeons near unlimited control and influence over themselves alongside an unprecedented ability to grow their very souls. Now there is a fixed limit to how much you can grow, but that limit only applies on Eden. Since you have a space alignment to your mana you can kinda cheat that limit… Don’t worry it isn’t against the great Mother’s will, in fact pretty much all the big dungeons do it. You just need to figure out how to create your own subspace outside of Eden, then you’ll have an infinite, or at least something close enough to infinite that it won’t matter, amount of space to work with. I don’t know a lot about this trick because neither my or my mother’s dungeon had the space alignment to their mana, but you should make sure that the fairy you eventually take as your life partner does know…”

Fay took a deep panting breath, it finally gave me an opining to grab her attention.

“FAY!”

I had shouted to ensure she would hear me and wouldn’t ignore me, it didn’t seem to work.

“Hah, hah, hah… Ok, so that’s the next thing, your fairy. You my friend have the unique opportunity to choose your own life partner. Now it may seem strange since it’s coming from someone who’s a fairy herself, but trust me when I say you should heavily vet your life partner. And when I say heavily I mean HEAVILY. You should be turning fairies away for every and any flaw you might find. You my friend are a catch and any fairy would be lucky to have you, but that doesn’t mean you should accept just any fairy. If you pick someone who doesn’t know what you need or one who can’t help you realize your full potential and then create the bond with them, well then you both will be stuck together forever. Worse yet will be that while you might be able to escape the worst case scenario by taking on another fairy later on, by the very nature of the bond you’ll not want to. It’s better to just save yourself and your prospective fairy the heartbreak and stress by turning down those who don’t fit. Don’t feel too bad about it either, we fairies do the exact same thing to dungeons before we bond ourselves. When you’re dealing with a relationship that could potentially be for eternity it’s better to be as picky as you can, you want to be sure that the one you pick in the end is the ONE…”

“I just wanted to hear your opinion on my names…”

“In fact, I’m going to give you a list of things that I think should be a necessity for your true fairy to know. Better yet, let me make a test! Yeah, a test where every answer has to be right before they can even be considered! Hey, do you have anything to write on? Or anything to write with for that matter? Never mind, I’m sure your grey mage “Friend” or one of her flunkies can get something…”

Is she even listening?

I practically boomed out my next call, it even seemed to resonate around the cavern.

“FAAAYYY!!!”

The fairy winced and shook her head.

“Ow, no need to be so loud…”

“Names. I want your opinion on potential NAMES!”

The fairy just moved to sit on the edge of an open crate.

“Look buddy, I’ve already said that it’s important for your true fairy to give you a TRUE name during the bond. It’s just how things work. It wouldn’t be right for me, someone who is not and will never be your real fairy to name you. It would be wrong in one of the worst ways for me to even offer, it would cheat your real fairy out of a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

I guess that sort of made sense. I didn’t like it, but it made sense. Yet and still, I had been having an identity crisis for who knew how long so screw making sense.

“Ok, then think of it as a nickname. Something to call me besides “hey you” or “dungeon”.”

Fay tilted her head at that, she seemed to think over the idea for a moment before her eyes began to squint at the edges.

“How do you even know the concept behind a nickname? No, never mind. Weird dungeon with true dragon gifted knowledge, right…”

Fay nodded at that.

“Alright, if it’s just a nickname I guess it’s ok…”

I smiled, not that I had a mouth to smile with.

“So, what are your thoughts on a nickname?”

Fay looked at me for a moment before nodding her head.

“Well, your core kind of looks like the night sky, so how about Night?”

If I had a jaw it would have dropped. Night was a lot more impressive sounding than Rock, and it even had more dignity behind it than Stone. For a moment I wondered how I could’ve overlooked such a wonderful option in my quest for a name, but then again I had never actually seen a night sky. I had a vague understanding of what it was supposed to look like, black with lots of bright stars, but even that was just second hand knowledge from a dragon.

Fay seemed to not notice my awe at her sheer divine abilities to name things because she continued talking.

“No, I mean that’s just a bit too on the nose. Although dungeons do like to have names that reflect who or what they are in some way, we can do better than just Night. Maybe something in the old tongue? That always seems to sound impressive and dignified. Hmm, what was Rock in old tongue again? Petrim? Petram? Huh, not too sure about that one… I know stone is Lapis, that would be good if you were female but… Hmm… I guess night in old tongue will work, though it is kind of simple…”

I was flabbergasted. She just kept throwing out options I couldn’t even have considered.

“Hey, how does Nox sound? It means night in the old tongue, and I think it also means fair in old elvish…”

I could only nod my nonexistent head and bow down to her clearly omnipotent naming sense.

“Yeah… Yeah, Nox is good. I like it. Nox. Nox… I am Nox. Nox is me. Noooooooox... Nox.”

Fay shook her head.

“Ok, enough of that now. So did you hear any of what I was telling you about dungeons?”

I nodded my nonexistent head again.

“Nope, I was more focused on getting a name.”

Fay just stared. She got up from where she sat, turned around, and crouched while grabbing her hair.

“Damnit… Why did I do this to myself…? Just want to hurry up and die already… Stupid aggravating dungeon…”

***

I looked down at the words I had carved into the floor. It had been a very strange sensation to expand my dungeon into the surrounding cavern, it had been along the lines of stretching out only to find out that I could constantly stretch further than I thought. It was actually sort of comfortable, but also pleasantly tiring if I kept it up for too long. My dungeon now encompassed the entire cavern, or maybe it was better to call it a room now.

It had been easy to change the room once it was mine, it was like stone was happy to flow, shift, and shape itself however I desired. All it took was a little bit of concentration and a clear image of what I wanted to happen in my mind, or my personal guidance via my aura if I wanted to do fine work like with carving out the words. That had been a pleasant discovery, my aura wasn’t just a marker of the border to my dungeon it also allowed me to personally exert and enact change within my dungeon. It was simple really, everything within my aura was just an extended part of me in the first place so I could control and change it by a huge degree by utilizing the aura that connected me to the dungeon.

Though if Fay hadn’t told me that, I’d probably never have figured it out on my own…

I tried not to think about that too much, it was terrifying to consider how much I might be capable of but unable to do out of ignorance. It was like never knowing you could walk until someone pointed out you could, or maybe that wasn’t quite right. Regardless it was a fact that scared me deeply and made me worry for the time Fay would leave me.

“Well, it’s not the best handwriting, but I guess I have to give you a pass given your complete lack of hands…”

Fay stared down at the questions I had carved into the floor from where she hovered next to my core.

“Thanks…”

I wasn’t sure what else to say, actually I wasn’t even sure if I understood the ten questions. I guess that wasn’t a good sign, especially given that I had the answers already. I couldn’t see how any fairy would figure this out on her own, but Fay assured me that plenty would.

“Alrighty then, I think that about covers things. Besides there should be fairies coming by soon, it never takes more than a few months before those out searching pick up on the aura of an unbound dungeon. Given that you’ve already expanded yours while being unbound, well I wouldn’t doubt it if fairies on the other side of the continent will pick up on it once my presence stops masking it…”

I froze, those sounded a lot like parting words. I wasn’t ready to let my friend leave just yet, I still needed Fay to tell me all about myself and the things I could do.

“Ok, final lesson time. Listen up Nox, because this is probably the most important thing. After you have a bonded fairy they can help you bring out the possibilities of your dungeon with their inherent racial magic, they’ll be able to help you unlock aspects and powers within yourself that would otherwise would remain dormant. That includes things like the creation of dungeons, the use of magic, forming unbreakable laws inside the dungeon, and all sorts of other things. But that’s not the only way a dungeon can grow more powerful or gain options, in fact it’s actually the slowest way. The main way of doing things is for a fairy or monster or even sometimes a respectful challenger to sacrifice a living being or intact item within your core room, or occasionally on an alter but you don’t need to worry about alters right now. Typically if something is placed or killed close to your core you’ll be able to pick up the pattern of creation for that thing. That’ll let you make more of them, though they won’t be EXACTLY the same. So if for instance I were to kill myself in this room…”

Fay had a strangely bright smile on her face as she spoke, it was an expression that practically radiated joy. I felt a sinking sensation weigh down on me deep inside as Fay continued speaking.

“You’d be able to make a race similar to but not exactly dungeon fairies. But that’s only half of it, by having the pattern for a race or item you can make changes to it and possibly create a whole new pattern. You could potentially end up with thousands of new variants from just one base pattern, though usually it only ends up as two or three even after tons of work and dedication. Turns out things are the way they are because if you change them to much they just can’t exist, I suppose the great Mother knew what she was doing when she made everything…”

Fay hovered over to her favorite crate to perch on, landing on the lip of the crate and pending down to dig inside it she pulled out a ring with a softly glowing blue stone.

“Anyway, you can basically fiddle around with a pattern to your hearts content once you have one. And somehow you’ll always remember viable patterns of creation, how that actually works is beyond me… Well, beyond all dungeon fairies really, but hey it works so whatever. Then once you empower the pattern with some mana, aura, or any other viable energy really the thing that the pattern will create will pop into being. Huh, that’s not very clear is it? Let’s say you randomly have a dungeon fairy pattern, once you empower it out will pop a dungeon fairy. You’ll get some control over the finer details like appearance or gender, but in general you’ll just get something random that matches the pattern.”

Fay pulled the ring around her hand until it became fixed on her wrist, with an almost relieved expression she sat down with a sigh. I watched in muted horror as the green mana Fay had given off was sucked up by the stone in the ring and slowly turned to blue.

“Oh, and I suppose I should add that any living thing you create within inside your aura won’t have an aura of its own. It’ll be something like a husk with all the trappings of a normal being, but internally they will be empty and they’ll only be able to survive within your own aura. Over time an individual can develop its own soul and aura or you can try your hand at adding one yourself, but either way it will take time and will prove to be difficult. Giving names helps as does regular interaction with the individual, but in general it’s a pretty rare occurrence. It’s worth it though, because as long as those individuals die within your own aura you can sort of catch their soul and just stick them into a new pattern… I suppose you could even call it reviving them.”

I shook my nonexistent head as I saw the last little bits of green flow towards the now shining blue light of the ring’s blue stone. I had known what Fay had wanted, she had made it obvious for as long as I had known her, but it was still hard to watch.

“And that’s about it, that’s all the basics I really feel comfortable with sharing. For anything else, well, I’m sure your real fairy would be more than happy to explain it to you. Hell, they might even be pissed at me for teaching you so much on my own… Oh well, hindsight and all that…”

Fay was smiling at me, it wasn’t the forced cheerfulness she had shown ever since she had appointed herself as my “Temporary Guide”. There was real joy in her expression, joy and clear relief. Looking at the fairy in the yellow dress I had befriended and come to know I realized something that should have been obvious, living had been a burden for her. Every moment she was alive had been a moment of quiet suffering for her, the mere act of living was painful for her. This was her release.

Fay…

I had to swallow something down my throat, even though I had none of the parts for that to work, before I could say anything.

“Goodbye Fay, you were a good friend. I won’t forget you, or what you taught me. I hope you meet you who you’re looking for…”

I almost cringed at my own words, they felt so forced and flat. I didn’t know how to do this, I didn’t have any idea what I was supposed to do or say in a situation like this. Hell, I had never even had to say goodbye to someone before, how would I know what to say when someone dies. Death is like the ultimate goodbye imaginable.

My friend just winked at me while wearing a mischievous smile.

“Seeya Nox, try not to miss me too much. Might make your real fairy jealous if you dwell on some homewrecker she’s never met before. Oh, and don’t let that damn grey mage push you around. If she tries hitting you with some weird soul crushing magic show her the full force of your will, that’ll knock the bitch on her ass!”

With that Fay closed her eyes and laid back. I watched as her chest moved up and down. Up and down. Up and down.

Until it stopped.

I felt numb as the swirling distortion shot from my friend’s melting form into my core. A part of me idly wondered if it could be called crying when there were no tears as another part of me gained a new understanding of itself. I knew on some deep and fundamental level that I could now create a fairy, I knew it would only require a little effort and concentration on my part. The pattern was clear, it was indelibly etched into my very being.

All it had cost me was the life of my friend.

***

POV: Fay

I felt light, lighter than I had in years.

Everything was awash in color and light, at one point I even felt like I had been welcomed into a warm embrace but I couldn’t be sure.

I looked around myself, something tickled at the back of my mind.

There was something nearby, something familiar.

“My little Fay…”

I felt the words resonate deep in my heart, pulling at everything that made me who I was.

I turned to find a beautiful badge face staring back at me with a crooked smile.

“What took you so long? Were you that offended I didn’t ravish you?”

The mocking voice was like honey to my very soul, it soothed me in a way nothing else could.

“I’m sorry I’m late Cally…”

“Ugh… I told you not to call me that! Berries and nuts, Fay! I swear it’s like you just try to set me off! Three years I missed… er… No… I mean… I didn’t really miss you, but you know… It was kinda weird you weren’t here, I guess… But just a LITTLE bit weird! Ahem. Anyway, three years without you and the first thing you do is use a pet name you know I hate! Why do you always have to…”

I was home.

END POV

***

I had worked on autopilot. My actions were unconscious while I mindlessly let instinct guide my nonexistent hand. Power flowed through the pattern, aura flooding through the lines and nodes that were the blueprints to create the fairy.

As my power finished filling out the pattern exactly as it had appeared an image flashed into my mind. I saw a small woman with glossy clear butterfly wings coming out of her back. She had long black hair that was highlighted by long strands of silver at the ends, clear and expressive grey eyes, and neat even features that skirted the line between cute and beautiful. She looked nothing like Fay.

As my nonexistent eyes closed tiredly I felt a flux and pop of energy and displaced air in front of my core.

Opening my eyes I saw the nude fairy looking around itself in curiosity. I felt empty inside.

“I name you Fay.”

The little fairy simply nodded before it wordlessly went off to investigate the crates and barrels by the passage out of my room.

I miss her…