After some lavender and hakir salt rub and a nice searing bath, Rhen’s head was clear, as was his next move; he needed to get into the new realm and explore that first dungeon. Jakira was down to bruise, and they picked up a new mule, Gabrielle, and her husband Paul, a mage.

They grabbed the portable Orbeye and headed topside for their descent into the Nexus.

Rhen was wishing he’d installed a back door to get into the Nexus chamber from the water. It was such a chore to go all the way topside, then all the way back down. Maybe a private entrance from the Inn for raid teams.

The elevator doors began to close when Rhen heard a jingle-jangle making its way through the building. “Wait for me!”

Rhen halted the door and Tsu’me jumped through with a lute in her hands. She was panting, having run the whole way from wherever she’d been, it seemed.

“Don’t you still have raid rotation management for this week?” Jakira asked.

“Yes, but I can’t look at the pages for one more second. Can’t we just reuse last week’s schedule?”

Jakira pursed her lips thoughtfully and looked at Rhen. The orbeye focused in on him, circling the pair.

“Please! I need a break.” Tsu’me put her hands together in prayer.

Rhen completely understood the need to escape something he couldn’t stand—even if it would delay things a little. They didn’t have to be perfect, good enough would be good enough right now while they waited for Arannet to return.

He chuckled and shook his head, then motioned for her to take a seat. “Get in here.”

“Thank you, thank you!” She tip-toed across the metal floor and tucked her tail around her side as she took a seat, then strapped her lute into the seat next to her.

“Oh, and I think I figured out a solution for the fruit flinging trees,” she added as the doors closed.

Rhen took his seat. “A non-destructive solution?”

There had been many suggestions to burn the forest down, which was completely out of the question. No wonder so many dungeons collapsed with ideas like that. They were completely innocent, of course. The delvers wanted to help Rhen get deeper into the new dungeon, and most people didn’t believe in the Tree of Being, or that the dungeons eco-chambers were symbiotic. But Rhen was teaching them and would hopefully get a chance to teach the damn Nexus Protectorate board, too.

“Completely non-destructive,” Tsu’me said, patting the lute. “I’m going to put them in a vibe.”

“A vibe?” Jakira asked incredulously.

“You’ll see.” Tsu’me smiled smugly and closed her eyes, then leaned back into the chair.

The elevator jostled and they moved into the stream leading down to the Nexus. Tsu’me was resistant to revealing any more of her secrets, so they spent the trip down discussing how they would manage the fruit flingers if that didn’t work—

“It will work,” Tsu’me interrupted, and Rhen could tell her pride was a little hurt.

Jakira mock rolled her eyes the way Tsu’me always did. “Well, in the very unlikely chance that it doesn’t work, I think we should see how long we can maintain Blubberific to dampen the bludgeoning damage the fruit does. Then, once the ground is slippery enough, I’ll transform into a nautilus and we’ll slide past the forest with you guys hidden in my shell.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Rhen said, squeezing her hand.

“Unnecessary plan,” Tsu’me mumbled.

They disembarked and made their way to the Nexus node on top of the cool, metal platform. They’d recently installed strips of textured rock on all the steps, because of how many times they’d slipped in fruit guts on the way back from getting pummeled. Rhen thought it added to the recycled material look, and liked it a lot.

He placed his hand on the Nexus node first, and when prompted, accepted the Anima cost to teleport. White light flashed around him in a blink, and then he was under water. Oh right! He triggered Amphibian Lung and swam toward the dungeon entrance behind the towering waterfall. They’d still need to figure out a solution for teleporting underwater in the new realm, but that problem was still a good four months out and wouldn’t be nearly as troublesome as anything else they still had to do.

Rhen surfaced on the other side of the long, submerged tunnel entrance, and switched back to atmospheric breathing. The eco-chamber opening was marked by a big red sign that said, “WARNING: Flying Fruit Past This Point!” He chuckled to himself at the thought of bananas and grapes zipping through the air.

Jakira surfaced and shook herself off, followed by Tsu’me, Gabrielle, and Paul.

Jakira wrung out her braid that wetly flopped around her armor as she tried to dry off.

Paul twisted the water out of his baggy sleeves and whipped his short hair around. “Boy, this used to be a lot easier with Aki around,” he said with a chuckle.

Rhen inhaled sharply at the pain in his heart.

Gabrielle smacked Paul’s elbow, and whispered, “Insensitive!”

Paul winced. “Sorry.”

“He’ll come home.” Jakira gripped Rhen’s shoulder with an encouraging nod.

Rhen shrugged it off and plastered on his best Dungeon Owner’s smile. “Yeah, of course. Without a doubt. Come on, this dungeon needs a walloping.”

He headed into the darkness, shrouded in Caress of Night. His eyes adjusted quickly, and soon he saw towering trunks of glowing electric blue topped by wide, hot-pink leaves. Dangly purple vines coming from right under the canopy wriggled slowly, but Rhen didn’t see any fruit. He looked back at the rest of the team.

Jakira had pulled a wide wooden shield from her enon syntial bag and was leading the way for the others, her cheeks cutely round and chubby from Blubberific. Rhen waited to activate his chubbification. It was hot enough in the cavern as it was, and he was really hopeful Tsu’me’s solution would work.

The bard swallowed hard and pulled her flute to her lips with two hands, and strummed her lute with the other two. The moment the first discordant tune rang out, the trees sprung into action. Their long purple vines bloated with growths at the end, and they whipped through the air, launching the glowing purple fruit at the team with incredible accuracy.

Jakira blocked the first head-sized fruit. It exploded on impact, showering Rhen in tasty blue gore. Tsu’me tooted the flute at an ear-splitting range with no rhythm or reason, and strummed the lute harder. Two different syntials on each of her left hands came to life and pinkish-green mist surrounded her.

The trees threw fruit at an alarmingly quick rate, and soon, the ground was covered in a slick later of fragrant guts and seeds.

“It’s not working!” Jakira yelled over the bangs of fruit against her shield.

“It’ll work!” Tsu’me hissed, then sucked down a deep breath and changed up her sound just slightly. She beat her hand against the lute’s wooden side then strummed hard, sending the colorful mist out from her in all directions.

The sound of her playing rippled over the dungeon cavern and puffed up against the trees. Their whipping vines slowed, then stopped, becoming completely immobilized. One last fruit smacked against the shield, then Jakira peered over the top.

“Huh. It worked.”

The music continued to echo distantly, as if stuck on repeat inside the mist.

Tsu’me swaggered forward. “Told ya.”

“How long will this last?” Rhen asked.

Tsu’me shrugged her shoulders and hissed. “Ten minutes, ten seconds? Not really sure. Depends on how much they like the vibes.”

“The what now?”

“The vibes, it’s a mental state you get into when you really enjoy the music you’re hearing. It can calm you down, amp you up, make you cry, it just depends on the message in the music.”

“Is it a cebrum spell?” Gabrielle asked.

“No, it’s more inherent than syntials and magic. The capacity to vibe out is within all beings, just gotta tap into it.”

Jakira led the way down the slimy path between the trees. “Path” was a bit generous. They wove between the trees, trying not to touch the dangling vines as the trees got smaller and smaller. This seemed like a good sign, so they pushed onward. Tsu’me re-upped her vibes every few minutes with an additional burst of mist to be sure they didn’t get slaughtered, and finally, they made it to a new opening.

They entered the barren between-chamber tunnel, Jakira in the lead with Gabrielle, then Paul holding up his staff in the middle to light the way for those who couldn’t see in the dark—like the orbeye, which stuck close by him. Something about what Tsu’me said about the vibes stuck with Rhen, so he pulled up next to her at the back of the pack.

“What did you mean by message in the music?”

She raised a hairless eyebrow. “Why do you want to know?”

“I’m not trying to steal your bardly secrets… we’re struggling to communicate with the Hexmothers, but I did notice that they could sing, sort of. If you could—”

She clapped her hands and cut him off. “I could communicate through music!”

“If what you say is true.”

“Well, yeah, I mean, most of my songs have lyrics and that’s where some of the meaning is derived, but a lot of it is in the tones and the tempo, the weaving of sounds. But I don’t think my music could do what Aki was doing…”

Rhen smiled as he envisioned flicking hands and fingers conveying complex messages without a single spoken word. “No, I think it can do exactly that. It might take a little time to develop a vocabulary, but I think we can use images and symbols combined with specific tones strung together to create meaning, using the common language as a base.”

Tsu’me scowled, her mouth agape. “That’s actually kinda brilliant. It’s a long game play, but really smart.”

They walked in silence for a moment, then Tsu’me hissed an annoyed sigh.

“What is it?”

She crossed all her arms. “I wish I’d thought of it.”

Rhen looked to the front, watching Jakira and Gabrielle chat. “You can have all the credit if it works.”

She harrumphed. “But I’ll always know the truth. I’m not a musical smarty smarterson like Rhen Zephitz.” She gave him a sidelong smirk that revealed sharp teeth.

“Head’s up, dim the light,” Jakira called from the front and the party gathered up.

Paul extinguished the lamp-like syntial on his staff, dropping them into near total darkness. Rhen could see faint white outlines on the rocky wall ahead. The angle of the shadow looked as though it was coming from below.

“Spelunking gear,” Jakira whispered.

Gabrielle took off her backpack and opened the enon infused cinch, then reached inside. She pulled out a tightly woven rope and a hip harness, then passed them to Jakira.

“Let me scout,” Rhen offered, reaching for the gear.

Jakira made a face. “You really expect your delvers to follow the “bruiser first” rule if you’re breaking it all the time?”

Rhen grunted, disappointed.

Gabrielle moved to the wall next to the precipitous drop and drilled in a quick support loop. She pushed the rope through and got her belay harness on while Jakira strapped into her descending harness. Gabrielle slipped on a pair of enon gravity boots that hooked into her harness, increasing her weight by three times and making her an anchor.

“On belay?” Jakira asked as she stepped to the edge.

“Belay on,” Gabrielle replied.

Jakira turned and gave a little hop off the edge. The metal hook in the wall whispered as the rope slipped through; she was descending quickly. Show off…

There was a clunk and then Jakira called up the tunnel, “Slack!”

Gabrielle held the rope tight in her grip, but reduced the tension on the hook. She let out hands of rope at a time until all three hundred feet were used. After a minute, Jakira shouted up again, “Send ‘em down!”

Paul went next, then Tsu’me, then Rhen. The tunnel was wide, and a gentle breeze ruffled his hair as he dropped. The light was anima crystals embedded in the walls the farther down he dropped. Soon, it was bright enough that he could easily see the others at the bottom.

He touched down and disconnected from the rope, then gave it a firm tug. A second later, Gabrielle came whizzing down in a near free-fall, both sides of the rope in her hands. The orbeye chased her down, and at the last thirty feet, her repel harness kicked in to slow her descent. She touched down with a broad, shit-eating grin. Paul gave her a well-worn glare, then lit up his staff with two quick stomps on the ground. They followed Jakira into the next tunnel, the orbeye staying just ahead of the light.

Rhen nodded for Tsu’me to follow while he took up the rear in stealth. The anima crystals in the walls grew brighter with a hint of blue as they followed the tunnel. Finally, they came to a wide-open cavern with walls dripping in neon blue goop. It was bowl-shaped, and at the bottom was a chaotic garden of flourishing plants.

The blue seeped through tiny holes in the ceiling around the edges, and oozed down the walls into a stream that flowed around the outside of the bowl. Tiny streams laced with blue carved through the plants, making them glow white, and grow.

“Just like the trees in our rainforest,” Jakira said as she watched in awe.

“Yeah, except they didn’t murder the tallest tree next to them,” Rhen whispered back.

There was an other-worldly howl and Paul dimmed his staff as they all went on alert. Snaking roots poked through the holes in the ceiling as the last bits of the blue goo dripped down. The roots stretched down to the water below, trailing just a bit along the surface.

Another howl pierced the air, and then a hundred whooping replies filled the cavern. From one of the goo-covered walls emerged a long-armed, long-legged beast with curved claws. Its neck protruded not from between it’s shoulders, but mid-way down it’s stomach, on attached to that neck was a broad-mouthed, round face.

The creature leapt from the wall to the hanging roots, swinging like an acrobat and dropping toward the growing garden. Dozens more of the beasts poured out of the walls after it from all around the cavern. Rhen leaned out past the opening and looked left and right to see more of the creatures streaming out and latching onto the roots.

Behind them came a sharp scream and Rhen whirled on his heels. Three of the gangly monsters were standing in the path behind them, claws bared and huge faces ready to chomp. They charged all at once, screaming angry war cries.

Jakira slammed her shoulder into the first monster, impaling it with her pauldron spike. Rhen whipped out his blades and dashed forward with Swift Twitch, catching the second attacker with a slice across its neck. The third monster leapt for Tsu’me and Paul intercepted it with a gust of wind that splatted it against the wall.

Jakira whirled and smacked her bone club into the third one’s head-stomach. A surprise fourth beast jumped from nowhere and latched onto Rhen’s arm. It sunk its teeth into his leather bracer and Rhen cried out, dropping his blade. With a thought, he triggered Infernal Armor. The beast wasn’t very hairy but the burning in its mouth was enough to get it to detach and drop to the ground in pain. Rhen stomped his foot down on the monster’s arm and gave it a quick slash through the throat like the other.

“There’s too many of them!” Tsu’me declared, two of the howling ganglers hanging off her. Three more joined the fray, but Rhen couldn’t see where they were coming from. It was as if they were coming out of the walls themselves!

“Retreat!” Jakira yelled as she bashed another one’s skull in.

Rhen fired off precise Tremor Blasts, hitting the howling ganglers hard enough to dislodge them from the delvers without hurting them. He dragged Tsu’me toward the exit, blasting monsters left and right. Paul whirled his staff overhead and fired a whipping tornado just past Rhen’s head, blasting everything back down toward the bowl garden.

Gabrielle hooked into the rope and turned on her auto-belay. She ran up the side of the wall at high speed, but the orbeye stayed behind to watch the incoming horde. Rhen pulled his bow from over his shoulder and dropped into stealth, then launched a bevvy of anima rot arrows. The spells detonated against the walls, illuminating the dark ganglers and their bloodthirsty grins.

Tsu’me strummed her lute in a wicked death ballad and Rhen felt the same thirst for blood enter his body. He dropped his bow and took up his blades again, then buffed his Infernal Armor twice more. The heat on his face was almost unpleasant as he charged into the fray.

The beasts all groped at him, and then howled in pain. He slashed through their burning bodies, then inhaled a deeply.

“Fire!” He blew out his breath in a wide arc, blocking the end of the exit tunnel from the ganglers. The beasts whooped and howled, but didn’t back off a measure. Rhen grabbed one of the dead ones and tossed it back to Jakira.

“Core it!”

The ganglers were growing in numbers until all he saw were long arms and legs climbing over each other to get to them. Rhen blew fire again to keep them back, but they were getting bold. Three bum-rushed him. Rhen swiped and slashed, cutting reaching arms and chomping faces. Four more charged, laying hands on him.

Rhen’s armor detonated against them, throwing the bodies back a few feet, but more kept coming. He used Tremor Blast on a group to the left and shot them back a few feet, but the right side surged forward. The drain on his anima was becoming too much.

“Rhen! Time to go!” Jakira yelled.

He blew one last gout of flames, then turned on his heel and ran for Jakira. She was partway up the wall, the rope lifting her quickly.

She stretched her hand out for him. “Jump!”

Rhen slipped his blades into their sheath and used a final Tremor Blast to fly the distance. He grasped her hand firmly and they ascended. The howling ganglers took to the walls, climbing vertically just as easily as they walked on the ground. One leapt for Rhen and he kicked it against the wall. He didn’t have any anima left for spells, and his body was getting weak.

Another two of the bastards screamed toward him and latched onto his feet. The rope slowed at the added weight. Rhen thrashed and stomped, the creeps locked their jaws on his legs. Two more jumped onto them and started climbing the others, slowing Jakira’s ascent to a crawl.

Rhen looked up at Jakira, knowing his fate was sealed… but hers wasn’t. He unhooked his belt that carried his weapons and slung it around her neck.

“Don’t you dare!”

“Sorry my love.”

“No! Rhen!”

He loosened his grip and slid from her fingers, tumbling down into the howling pit of gangly monsters.

Damn fluffers. He’d gettem next time.