Lilian had woken up from all the noise the fight had created and was aiming her hand at me as I made it into the hut carrying Lezuz, no doubt she had a spell ready to fly at whatever intruder came through. It was only me though, and she lowered her hand after a moment when she noticed, squinting her eyes in the darkness trying to make me out.

“Eshanai, it’s you,” she said sighing in relief. “What happened out there? Who is this?” I laid Lezuz down on the animal furs I had been sleeping on and covered her in a pelt. I could hear her breathing and whimpering as I sat her down but otherwise she was completely still. “She’s hurt, what happened to her?” I finally looked at Lilian, thinking of how I should explain this, in the end, I decided to go with the truth.

“This is Lezuz, a Naga as you might have seen,” Lilian nodded at this, and I continued. “There was a bunch of goblins outside, they were using some sort of red gem to make her do things against her own will,” Lilian gasped at this, was that recognition I saw in her eyes? It was hard to tell, but I decided to ignore it for now and continue explaining. “I had to use my venom on her to keep her from attacking me, but I fear I might have aggravated her injuries in the process,” I was interrupted by a sharp grunt from Lezuz followed by more whimpering. I turned to her and leaned down to whisper in her ear, in our own language I said.

“I am back sister, and I have brought allies and new knowledge we can use to punish these monsters for what they have done, trust me,” my mother tongue was familiar in my mouth, it felt like coming home. It seemed to work as Lezuz calmed down, I rose up to look at her, she looked at me with something akin to adoration. “Rest now, and tomorrow you can tell me what has happened while I’ve been gone,” I spoke in a normal tone, still in the Naga language.

“That was beautiful, although I didn’t understand a thing,” I turned to look at Lilian to see her shrug her shoulders.

“You might have to learn some if you want to be understood, I could teach you once we get out of the jungle,” Lilian nodded eagerly at this idea, but her mood turned somber as her eyes fell on Lezuz.

“Is there anything we could do for her?”

“What she needs now is rest, we need to let the venom lose its grip on her body,” Lilian’s face lit up at those words as she said.

“I can help with that,” and hurried over to where Lezuz lay and placed a hand on her forehead. Lilian got a look of concentration on her face, and soon Lezuz’ eyes drooped shut, and her breathing slowed in the way of sleep.

“When did you learn that?” I asked, this girl seemed to be learning new spells all the time, I need to catch up.

“Tonight, if I can master it a bit better I think I could put someone to sleep at a distance, but as of right now I have to touch my intended target,” she answered, and I rubbed her head in pride.

“Good job Lilian, you have really been working hard in there haven’t you?” I said and poked her in the forehead, referring to her dreams.

“Yes, I have,” Lilian said and beamed at me, “it isn’t easy without a dream magic teacher, I’m still grateful towards you and Lubus. I wouldn’t learn anything if it weren’t for you two,” I smiled at that and rubbed her hair again. “Are we safe here though? Now that the goblin’s know we are here,” she suddenly sounded nervous, her shoulders bunching up as she asked the question.

“We are as safe as we can get in this forest, Lubus still has his wards set up, so we’ll know if anything comes. Besides, I’m pretty much out of mana, and I don’t want to move in the dark without being able to regenerate,” I was still gaining mana I could feel, but it was coming in at a trickle compared to during the day. It came from the residual energy in the soil, that had been absorbed from the sun. Strangely enough, I could feel power flowing in from the moon of all places. It felt like sun mana to me, but somehow more diluted, like it was a weaker version of the same energy. I might be able to conjure a fireball or two, but I would be much more comfortable with a full mana pool, who knew what new monsters we would run into on our way to the home cave. Lilian’s anxiety seemed to ease a bit at my words, she went to lay down again to get some sleep, when I suddenly remembered her reaction from before.

“By the way,” I said, and Lilian popped herself up in her furs, looking at me expectantly. “When I told you about the goblins controlling Lezuz,” she nodded at my words before I continued. “Like you remembered something, what was it?” She looked a bit guilty but shook it off quickly as she spoke.

“I almost forgot, well there are two things really, it occurred to me that you also have a red gem,” she was right, but the core was a bit different.

“That’s not the same, the goblins rock were more jagged and uneven, it pulsed constantly. My gem is smooth and symmetrical, besides it helps me all the time, and it has never tried to control me,” that wasn’t the whole truth, if Red had managed to form a full bond with me I was pretty sure I would be little more than a slave for the core to order around. I shivered at the thought, luckily Red and I had come to an understanding I felt. Lilian nodded her agreement and held up her hands as if to appease me.

“If you say so, the other thing is mostly legends and stories, about slaver’s in the old empire, used red gems to enslave people. Whether it is true or not is hard to tell, knowledge of ancient times are few and far between. Slavery has been outlawed on the mainland for as long as anyone can remember.”

“Thanks for telling me Lilian, it’s something to ponder at least,” I said, and she nodded before laying down again, quickly falling asleep. I didn’t think I would be able to fall asleep again now, so I might as well stay up and keep watch. Lezuz wounds might need tending to, but I had no bandages or supplies to treat injuries. Red or Lubus might be able to help, They had both healed me before, but I was pretty sure that was due to their direct connections to me. At least the bond made it easier for them to heal me, they had helped Lilian well enough when we rescued her from the wolf spider’s. I conveyed my wishes to Red and hurried over to where Lezuz was laying, I removed the fur covering her and examined her tail, remembering that she seemed to have trouble putting weight on it. What I found was gruesome, I had missed it before in the dark and because of the way I had been carrying her. A patch of scales had fallen away or been removed, revealing the flesh beneath. No wonder she had trouble moving, the flesh would be scraping against the ground wherever she went. The tissue was red and bleeding from several jagged wounds. None of them looked to deep, but it was in danger of getting infected if I didn’t do something about it. I placed my hand on Lezuz’ bare skin above her scales and waited for Red to do its thing.

Deal broken

Unable to heal target without proper compensation

“What do you mean, what deal are you talking about?” I said quietly in confusion towards the floating words in my vision. They flashed and were replaced by an unusual message. It seemed like an actual conversation, not Red’s usually short and clipped sentences.

It is as stated, you haven’t been keeping to the deal we made to my satisfaction

Now I remembered, I had promised to let Red absorbed all my fallen foes after it had agreed to help Lilian. But it had done that right? It had absorbed the Treskle’s easily enough. Red heard my thoughts and responded.

The Treskles were good, but they are already stored in my databases, and while the mana from those goblins was nice it’s knowledge I seek. It is hard for me to glean some information from a pile of ashes

So the core had been gathering mana from my kills, it said nothing about that in our deal.

Exactly, not in our deal, I’m a dungeon, absorbing mana is what I do. I am not the one in breach here, but you.

I suppose that was true, I had to be more careful with how I made my deals in the future, so what did this actually mean.

It means that I will cease providing further assistance henceforth until I deem that I have been adequately compensated

Meaning I would have to let Red absorb all the monster’s we killed, wait, what about my weapons and armor, I had allowed Red absorb them. Did this mean that I wouldn’t have access to my gear? There was no response from red after that, and I seriously considered ripping the core from my body. But no, I needed the little gem to help my people. I swore to myself, now I had a dungeon which refused to cooperate, and no weapons to kill the monster’s it demanded to be agreeable, well I still had my magic, but I would need to use less destructive spells from now on, and I’m not sure I am skilled enough to do that at the moment.

Don’t worry, Eshanai, I will help you heal the girl if Red is being stubborn. It won’t be as easy without the cores help, but I have learned a few tricks of my own. Lubus interrupted my thought’s, presumably having only been privy to Red’s part of the conversation. I rejoiced at his words, I still had an ally I could count on.

Ok, Lubus, I said in happiness, Lubus did the equivalent of blushing in my thoughts. What do I do? Lubus didn’t answer, but power flowed slowly through my arm and out of my hand that was pressed against Lezuz’ skin.

Nothing, just keep your hand pressed firmly against her, and so I did. It took quite some time, but I watched as the flesh gained a healthy color and the cuts closed themselves. New paler scales were growing in from the edges looking like a light purple patch amongst her darker scales. By the time Lezuz was fully healed morning had come, and with it, the jungle came alive with sound.

Thank you Lubus, you might have saved her in the long run, I made sure that he felt my gratitude through our bond. He grew embarrassed again and brushed it aside like it was no big thing. I told him about my armor being stuch in Red, and Lubus and I started making plans of how we should proceed before the others woke up. I would never again forget who my real friends were.