I quelled my anticipatory nerves and sent the surviving Slammer and Pikeman in first. Alexia paused by some of Creep blood on the floor. The black ichor leaped into her hands and took on the telltale sheen of magic. Selene and Alexia joined my side as I followed the homunculi down another flight of shallow steps. The Archer nocked another arrow to his bow and brought up the rear.

“My magic doesn’t work against these creatures,” Selene told me. “I think it’s the geometry and the power in the air. I can’t seem to focus my magic onto a target properly.”

“Then it’s a good thing you brought me to protect you,” Alexia said.

“Your spells seem more powerful when you use Creep blood,” I observed.

Alexia nodded and glanced at the black ribbons of energy around her hands. “It’s easier, somehow. I don’t know why. Did Jamin create me to dive Eldritch Dungeons?”

“Wish I knew,” I said. “But I’m getting the feeling he wasn’t planning on turning you over to Longhorn.”

We reached the bottom of the stairs. A long hallway stretched out in front of us and the dizzying patterns on the walls glittered with more veins of amethyst ore. I slowed the homunculi and scanned the ceiling for more Creeps. Nothing stirred above us, but I didn’t let down my guard as I turned to Selene.

“Is the dungeon stopping you from sensing magic?” I asked.

“No, but it’s not exactly helping, either. This whole place is drenched in it. Why?”

“Because I doubt this hallway is as unassuming as it looks,” I said.

Alexia wandered over to a nearby wall and examined one of the designs. “Maybe the dungeon heard you, and is giving you an easy way to meet it.”

She reached out to touch one of the gems, but Selene pounced and caught her wrist before Alexia’s fingertips could brush the surface of the wall.

“Don’t,” Selene said quickly. “Master’s right. This hallway is trapped.”

Selene narrowed her eyes at the wall and held out her hand toward it. Hazy magic gathered around her fingertips and flashed a bright violet as it touched the wall. A spiral of runes appeared in a ripple of light. Alexia hastily backed away as Selene curled her fingers. A bead of sweat slipped down Selene’s face as she focused.

The purple runes vanished with a sudden pop and Selene breathed a sigh of relief.

“I disarmed it,” she said. “At least temporarily. You’ll have to be careful with your homunculi here, Master. Make sure they don’t touch the walls or the floor until I’ve been past them.”

Fall back behind us. Stay away from the walls and follow in our exact footsteps, I told the homunculi.

The Slammer and Piercer stepped past us and the Duelists followed them with quick, flowing strides. I turned my attention back to Selene as she crept forward with her hands outstretched. Tendrils of her translucent power crept from her fingertips and brushed the intricate designs inscribed on the walls and floor around us.

“How do you do that?” Alexia asked. “Sense magic like this? You’ve never told me about it before. Can any mage learn it, or are you special?”

“It can be learned, it just takes years to become proficient,” Selene said. “And these runes aren’t dissimilar to what I’ve used myself to trap Underrealm creatures.” Another magic trap appeared by her feet and Selene focused on it for a moment. “But they’re far more powerful and intricate. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“Still think that the dungeon is a simple product of wild magic?” I asked her.

Selene paused. “It would take the better part of a month to construct something this complex, Master. But I doubt any mage in their right mind would come down here to create these traps.” She bit her lip. “This Von D. may very well be right.”

“These traps remind me of that adventurer,” Alexia commented. “The leader of that little band that were speaking ill of homunculi. Is it a similar spell?”

“If a masterwork of painting can be compared to a child’s scrawl in the dirt, then yes,” Selene said. “They work on the same principles of magic.”

I digested the information as I watched Selene work. Her fingers trembled as she started to disable the fifth trap in the hallway. Selene was still surprising me, even after last night’s revelation. Her breadth of knowledge about magic was truly something to behold. I doubted that there were many sorcerers or mages in the North who would’ve joined me on a venture into an Eldritch Dungeon, let alone be able to disable its magical defenses.

Selene took another few minutes to bypass the runic traps throughout the dungeon’s corridor. Another set of massive stone doors barred our progress as we reached the end of the hallway. I squeezed Selene’s shoulder appreciatively as I stepped up beside her and glanced over at the homunculi. My remaining seven units waited for orders with impassive faces.

“Will you allow us to proceed?” I asked the door. “We’ve come a long way to meet with you, Master Dungeon. Time is pressing and we’ve matters to discuss.”

The doors scraped open in answer and revealed yet another chamber ahead. I readied my arbalest and scanned the space quickly. A stone table flanked by benches stood in the center of the room. Four fireplaces of purple flame roared in the corners of the space and reminded me of a sitting room in a manor house. No sign of an exit presented itself before us, I checked the ceiling again, mindful of the Creeps from our first encounter. I couldn’t see any of the creatures clinging to the roof. I led the way into the dungeon’s strange parlor at a careful pace and ordered my homunculi to fan out in front of me in a rough semicircle.

“I don’t like this,” Selene whispered.

Her face shone with an eerie paleness in the purple light and I realized that her work with the traps had drained her energy reserves. I motioned for Alexia to follow me and we took up a position in front of Selene to protect her from the dungeon’s next threat.

“We’ll protect you, Selene,” Alexia said firmly. “No matter what.”

“Your work is always appreciated,” I supplied. “Catch your breath.”

Selene nodded with a sigh of relief. “This looks like a dead end.”

“And perhaps it is,” an echoing voice said.

I tensed at the sound. A figure materialized from the shadows underneath the table and stood up with a grin of fanged teeth. I brushed off my surprise at his strange entry and focused on the details that leaped out at me as I analyzed our visitor. He stood tall at a lean six and a half feet, and the sable cloak cascading over his shoulders only drew more attention to his size. Deep purple skin shone in the firelight as he offered us a courteous bow. I caught a flash of pointed ears through his mane of black hair.

He was an elf, but not like any I’d ever seen before.

“Greeting, sir,” I said politely. “I take it you’re the master of the dungeon?”

“In a manner of speaking,” the elf said, amused. “You’ve shown a surprising amount of promise, adventurers. None have delved this deep and survived before.”

“We’re not adventurers,” I told him, “and something tells me that you haven’t brought your full forces to bear down on us. The Creeps and traps were simply a test, weren’t they?”

The tall elf laughed in a deep bass tone. “Very perceptive for one who claims not to be an adventurer. But you’ve not yet proven yourselves worthy of a bargain. Not yet, not yet.”

I didn’t like the implication in his voice. “Then how should we proceed?”

“Your objective is simple,” the elf said. “Survive.”

He unclasped his cloak. It fell from the elf’s broad shoulders in a mass of silk as violet energy gathered around his hands. The elf stepped off the table and two enormous scythes rippling with purple flame appeared in his hands. I drew a bead on the elf’s throat and readied myself for a fight.

“Before we begin,” I called, “could I have the pleasure of your name?”

The elf advanced with a long, easy stride. “How courteous. I am known as Ryth.”

“Nice to meet you. I’m Caleb,” I replied, and fired my arbalest.

The bolt slammed into Ryth’s throat and spun away from his skin as if I’d just fired at a brick wall. I reached out to my homunculi and sent the Slammer and Piercer forward with everything they had. White light flashed around the Slammer’s tower shield as he body-checked the Elf. Ryth took a single step back, sliced off one of the Slammer’s legs, and then decapitated it with his other scythe. The Piercer’s speartip rammed into Ryth’s ribs a second later, but the elf simply snorted in amusement and tore the Piercer in half with a single sweep of his weapons.

Duelists, forward, I growled. Stay on your toes and keep your distance.

I turned the hand-crank rapidly on my arbalest to reload it as the Duelists carried out my will. They danced just outside of range of the elf’s long weapons, darted in and out with daring strikes, and ducked around the elf’s crushing counter-blows. Ryth quirked an eyebrow in appreciation as I backed away and considered my options.

“I can strike him down from here,” Alexia urged me. “Just say the word.”

“I want to see what he can do,” I told her quickly. “Selene, can you unbalance him without using your magic on him directly?”

Selene raised her hands. “I can try.”

I raced toward the nearest fireplace and ordered the Archer to follow me. Ryth’s rolling laugh echoed from the walls as he missed one of the Duelists by a hair. The elf spun his scythes easily in his hands, parried a rapier strike, and his face lit up with an eerie smile.

“Yes, yes! You fight well, underlings! Come, bring me more!”

A wave of hazy magic blasted through the chamber and found the ceiling above Ryth’s head. Selene planted her feet, curled her hands into fists, and then brought them together with a vicious gesture. The ceiling vibrated crazily at the touch of her magic and the elf paused. Rapiers scraped off his skin as the Duelists took advantage of the opening.

“Now that is interesting, little one,” Ryth mused. “What are you trying to accomplish?”

A smile flittered across Selene’s face. “Just a distraction.”

Retreat, I told the Duelists. “Alexia!”

I pushed the end of my arbalest into the violet embers of the fire behind me. They engulfed the head of my loaded bolt greedily and I winced at the strange coldness of the fire. Alexia sprinted in toward the huge elf and the black energy around her hands lengthened into barbed whip of energy. She sliced at him and Ryth caught the blow on a scythe blade. Alexia’s magic fractured into shards, but she didn’t stop there. Alexia dived away from a sweeping blow, dipped her hands into the blood of the dead Piercer, and came up in a crouch with two orbs of power around her hands.

I pulled my crossbow from the flames and inspected the head of the bolt. Cold flame chewed greedily on the steel-tipped quarrel and I directed the Archer to do the same with his loaded arrow. Ryth laughed again as Alexia cut at him with tiny daggers of blood magic.

“So fierce, little one! You fight with such passion and skill!” The tall elf glanced down at a small cut on his arm and chuckled. “Why, I haven’t seen such a marvellous creature in more than a century!”

“Delighted to meet you too,” Alexia growled.

She hurled an exploding orb into Ryth’s chest. Her magic detonated and the dungeon’s creature shot backward into the nearest wall. Ryth pushed off it, spun his scythes appreciatively, and fixed his black eyes onto Alexia.

“Blood magic is the hardest of the arts, little one. You acquit yourself well.”

“Then you haven’t met my Master yet,” she replied fiercely.

I raised my crossbow, braced it against my shoulder, and fired. The bolt rocketed free in a flash of purple flames and buried itself into Ryth’s right tricep. As I’d suspected, the Eldritch fire was enough to puncture the elf’s nigh-impenetrable skin. Ryth roared with laughter and let one of his scythes drop to the ground.

“Poetry!” Ryth exclaimed. “Pure poetry in motion. You acquit yourself well, Caleb!”

A streak of blonde hair and black leather raced in from Ryth’s right. Selene closed her hands around the elf’s massive scythe, gave it an experimental heft, and then delivered a spinning slash. Ryth parried the blow easily and his grin widened. Small blades of scarlet magic ripped across his chest as Alexia kept up her barrage of blood magic.

I reloaded my arbalest. Eye of the Hawk!

The Yeoman Archer by my side pulled his arrow from the fireplace and drew back the string of his longbow. White light exploded around the shaft, blended with the purple flame, and then streaked away. The arrow slammed into Ryth’s left eye and the elf staggered backward with a grunt of appreciation.

Alexia and Selene pressed the advantage as I lit up yet another bolt. But Ryth’s skill, even one-handed and half-blinded, kept the two of them at bay. He parried a blow from Selene, trapped the blade of her scythe with his own, and ripped it out of her hands with a deft twist of his arm. I pulled my arbalest out of the Eldritch fire, drew a bead on the elf, and fired again. My shot smashed into his gut and Ryth staggered. One of his legs gave out and he dropped to one knee. He swiped viciously at Alexia, but she ducked under the blow and grabbed his blood-soaked chest. Black energy spun around her hands as Alexia skidded past Selene to avoid another blow. Selene scooped up her fallen scythe from the floor and slashed downward. Ryth’s good arm fell to the ground in a shower of dark ichor. The elf didn’t even blink as he got to his feet. He slammed a kick into Selene’s gut and slid her toward Alexia. Alexia leaped over her mentor, shaped her magic into another barbed whip, and flicked it toward Ryth.

The huge elf closed his eyes with another contented chuckle.

Alexia’s magic tore through Ryth like a hot knife through butter. The dungeon creature’s halves hit the ground with a splatter of grey viscera. I reloaded my arbalest, called my homunculi forward, and raced over to Selene.

“I’m fine,”she gasped. “Just winded.”

“Then catch your breath,” I said. “Here.”

I slung my crossbow over my shoulder and caught her under the arm. Selene muttered a curse as I hauled her up. The scythes vanished into the dungeon’s purple smoke. Ryth’s steaming corpse dissipated into a larger cloud of magical residue, and left us alone in the dungeon’s parlor. Selene straightened up after a minute and took a deep breath.

“I’m proud of you, Lexie,” she said. “Your magic’s never been better.”

A fierce glint touched Alexia’s eyes. “He didn’t expect me to use his own blood against him. I’ll make sure to remember that for later.”

Alexia yelped as the floor under her feet shifted. She dived to find solid ground again as black stone screeched on hidden hinges and formed itself into a neat set of stairs. I checked the entrance behind us, but there wasn’t any sign of an ambush from behind. The women turned to face me and I grinned at them.

“How do you feel about sentient dungeons now, Selene?”

“Please don’t, Master,” she said. “I’ll admit it. You were right.”

“Do you think Ryth was the dungeon’s spirit?” Alexia asked me as we descended the stairs. “He certainly looked like he belonged here. And he was powerful enough to kill any adventurer I’ve ever seen.”

I shook my head. “He was just another test.”