The Battle of Dungeontown, as it came to be known, only lasted a few hours, but all levels of the dungeon would soon feel its effects. More on that later.

My companions and I returned to find the goblins continuing to blast their way through the gravel corridor barricade. Some made it through and flew above the town, dropping their magical firebombs. But this time, the gnomes were ready with their bucket brigades and could immediately put out new fires. And any goblins who did get into the air were eventually fried by gnomish electrical gloves. The gnomes had adjusted their firing so that only two or three shot at each goblin attacker, rather than the overkill tactic of an entire squad.

A few goblins did reach the ground, ready to fight, which thrilled Sonja.

We killed about ten goblins before the rest—lacking Trox’s whip at their backs and any innate bravery—fled back down the gravel corridor. A squad of gnomes chased them, shooting forks of lightning at their backs and taking out another ten. When the gnomes returned, they reported that the goblins were so terrified of the gnomes that they ran into the river below. Most drowned or were mauled by the creepy river monsters that had attacked me. Maybe two or three goblins managed to escape.

Trox’s goblin tribe was no more.

The goblins had indeed attacked the town’s main electric generators, which disrupted power to the village and all the communities in the lower levels that depended on it. Gnomes with lightning weapons fought off those goblins too, but the damage to the generators would take time to fix. In the meantime, Dungeontown would have to rely on old-fashioned oil lanterns at night.

Nissa and her gnomes were joyously grateful to us for killing Trox and promised to show us the way to Level Two the following morning. Despite their horrible losses, the gnomes resolved to celebrate their victory. I certainly wasn’t in the mood for a party and couldn’t imagine how the gnomes were. But they went ahead with it anyway. After tending to their wounded and dead, they shot off fireworks and brought out their best smoked and salted fish. They rolled out kegs of a thick mead they bought from “a decent sort of Lowdweller tribe.” I figured that meant the people who lived on The Tomb’s Level Two and beyond.

Despite myself, the joy and celebration of the gnomes' victory wore down my concerted effort to be a downer. I soon found myself drinking mead and learning gnomish songs. They even had a proto-karaoke system where singers shouted into a funnel that amplified their voices while reading song lyrics from a rolled scroll that another gnome cranked upward. Stephen, Constantine, and I attempted a gnomish song about an inventor who accidentally discovers steam power and heroically blows himself up in the process. Alec, Tom, and Chris were a legendary karaoke trio back in college, and just like in college, we succeeded in making fools of ourselves. Which was the point.

I learned that day that not everyone experiences grief the same way. The gnomes chose to celebrate the lives they’d saved by winning, whereas I’d been dwelling on what they’d lost.

Kind of like I’d been doing in my own life since the traffic accident I caused that had killed my rookie partner.

After Stephen and I tried teaching the gnomes “Sweet Caroline” with mixed results, I went by myself to sit near the still lake waters near the party area. The mirrors above the lake reflected the moon and starlight upon the water. I brought with me a peculiar mushroom cake that wasn’t as bad as it sounds.

As I wondered about the cake’s ingredients, Sonja sat down next to me. Constantine had healed her nose, and she no longer looked monstrous with a blood-smeared face. Like me, she had cleaned the battle dirt, sweat, and blood off herself in a gnome bathhouse. We had bathed in different locations at different times. With Melony no longer in the driver’s seat, so to speak, I could’ve bathed right next to Sonja and not felt the same desire I had when I’d seen her naked after we emerged from the waterfall.

She nodded to me when she sat down, and I nodded back. We sat in silence as I continued to eat my mushroom cake.

After I finished, I asked, “Did Melony leave the torch and dagger for me at the bottom of the gravel corridor? And the Crimson Leaf signs?”

She gave me a confused look.

I sighed. “That’s what I thought.”

Had The Tomb given me a deus ex machina moment? If none of my friends had left the torch, dagger, and symbols, then who did?

As I wondered about that, Sonja said, “That song you sang. Is Caroline someone you knew in your world?”

I smiled. “No. It’s just a song.”

Sonja nodded. She stared at the dark lake and then said, “I think Melony is still here.”

I looked at her. “How do you know?”

“Does ‘Summer Nights’ mean anything to you?”

My breath caught in my throat, and my eyes moistened. “Yeah. It was the first karaoke song Melony and I sang together as a duet. Years ago.”

Sonja nodded. “I just kept hearing those words over and over as I watched you, Constantine, and Stephen sing that song about Caroline. I felt this…compulsion to sing ‘Summer Nights’ with you. Even though I’ve never heard it.”

I thought about that for a few moments. “Maybe she hasn’t gone anywhere. Maybe you two just switched places.”

“That’s what I’d like to think.” She sighed and then looked back out at the lake. “And I don’t think it’s supposed to be this way. It doesn’t feel…natural. At first, when I came back to my body, I thought that I should be in control and do what I wanted without her interference. But now, I feel like I need her in control. That I’m the one who is supposed to be helping her. Does that make sense?”

I nodded slowly. When I thought back to my conversation with Mace, I had wondered how I had bent him to my will when it seemed that his will would be stronger than mine. At least it should have been given how risk-averse I’d been for the past five years. Maybe he also knew that I was the one who had to make the choices and that it was his purpose to give me the skills I needed to accomplish my goal.

To defeat Angelus and go home.

“Can you, I don’t know, switch back with her?”

She gave me a helpless look, which frightened me coming from her. “If I can, I don’t know how.”

“We’ll figure this out,” I said, trying to instill as much confidence in my voice as I could. “We'll get you back the way you’re supposed to be. I swear it.”

She nodded slowly. “She cares about you a lot.”

I felt a flutter in my chest and then said, “And Mace feels the same for you.”

She quickly turned to stare back at the lake. However, I did notice her ears turning red.

I smiled and looked back out at the dark waters and tried to enjoy this moment of peace. I tried not to wonder how the hell I would keep my promise and get Melony and Sonja switched back. I tried not to think about the possibility that Barney was the one who helped Trox create an illusion of Jack. And I didn’t even want to dwell on the feeling that we’d lucked out defeating Trox and his goblin clan; if that were true, how were we supposed to defeat a god-like being to get home?

Tomorrow we would enter Level Two of The Tomb. That was something I’d let “future me” worry about. It took a massive amount of will from both Mace and me to push those problems out of my mind, enjoy looking at the calm lake waters with a new friend, and listen to the gnomes singing behind us.

It was the last moment of peace we’d enjoy for a long time.