***** Amandine’s POV 3:20 PM *****

The kobold led us towards a door on the far side of the room from where we entered, then stomped on something on the floor directly in front of the door. A pedestal rose out of the floor with a 10 cm long key hovering over it similar to the one at the end of the room with the spiral thing.

“Here, you’ll need this key later on in the dungeon. Since you’re the party leader you should carry it.”

“Ok,” I said grabbing the key and causing the pedestal to retract back into the floor. Then there was a brief pulse of magic from the key which promptly turned into a bracelet on the outside of my armor that was just tight enough that it barely moved.

“Wait, what just happened?”

“Relax, the key is now in its travel form so that you don’t lose it by accident while you’re fighting or something. As long as it stays inside of the dungeon it cannot be damaged.”

“That’s great, but the last time I saw a magic item behave like this it was cursed and I don’t want to relive those nightmares again.”

This time when the kobold spoke there was an echo that accompanied it, almost as if someone else was speaking through the kobold, which I presumed was the dungeon.

“I swear on my honor that there will be no adverse effects from the key bracelet other than the current weight of the bracelet.”

“Since when do kobolds or dungeons have honor?” muttered someone behind me, followed immediately by a slapping sound and a whispered “Not while we’re still in the dungeon you idiot!” from Billodon.

Meanwhile, I closed my eyes as the sincerity behind the dungeon’s oath triggered a power that I had been granted long ago and mostly forgotten about. Because of this, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that the dungeon spoke the truth, that he would stand by his word. Having found a person of such honor, this power would not let me remain silent.

“Rejoice, for this day we have found one who will Honor their word in spirit and in truth,” I said as the power carried my words far beyond the walls of this dungeon so that anyone who had the ears to hear and the will to listen might hear my words, that they would know of the honor that I had found.

Normally, such a statement would be accompanied by a medallion as proof that it was their honor that we had recognized, but unfortunately, I had lost my last medallion years ago when The Order– Whoop, can’t think about them while I’m cursed less Lord Ubaro learn something about them.

I was on the verge of panicking as there was no way that the power would let me get away with not giving him some proof and it was known for reacting strongly when there was no medallion. In one memorable instance, the power had been triggered by a couple of our initiates when they said their wedding vows and neither of them had medallions. How could they when traditional wedding garments have no pockets? So instead of giving each other medallions, they ended up with the seal imprinted into their foreheads.

That was much better than those who routinely forgot to have a blank medallion with them, as the power tended to burn out their magic due to their failure to let it function properly.

Fortunately, the power decided to burn a 1.5-meter diameter copy of the seal into the wall.

“If you want the adventurers to trust your word, I’d recommend sticking that seal somewhere it will be seen in the entrance hall,” I said as the power started to fade away, disappearing into the depths of my soul where it had lain dormant for so long.

Then I had another realization: Lord Ubaro’s curse was sending me to kill the person that I had just recognized, which is also something that the power would not allow. While the curse might not have been happy when I recognized the dungeon’s honor, I hadn’t felt it try to stop me.

“Relax my child, that curse cannot stand up to even the minuscule fraction of my power that resides in you.” whispered the voice of the one who’s power I had been granted, “Fear not for I have a plan. You just keep going as best you can and I will take care of the rest. I say again, fear not for I am with you.”

At this point, the power was mostly gone again, but there was still a bit of it lingering. Then it became clear to me that the curse was deeply displeased with me and trying to hurt me as much as it could, had been in fact the entire time that the power was active. But even now, when I could just barely feel a trickle of the power that is still active in me, the curse could not truly hurt me in a way that mattered. It still hurt, but the pain was a shadow of its former self.

Focusing on the task at hand, I gestured for the kobold to lead the way, not trusting myself to speak after the emotional upheaval I’d just been through.

He led us down the hallway for several minutes until we reached what looked to be a dead-end until the kobold did something to the wall in front of us causing it to retract into the ceiling. On the other side of what used to be a wall was now a four-way intersection, with what appeared to be identical hallways leading off to the left, right and straight ahead. The kobold stepped aside so that he could close the door behind us.

As the last of our group was stepping through the door, a loud roar echoed down the hallway behind us, followed by a continuous humming noise and a rhythmic clanking.

The kobold immediately shoved his helmet back on and pulled what looked to be a weapon of some kind from somewhere. It consisted of two straight pieces of metal that were parallel to each other and half again the length of my forearm held together by a pair of handles, one in the middle and the other closer to the front, as well as a slightly curved piece that was held against his shoulder. For some reason, he was now wearing a backpack of some kind, but I didn’t see any seams or openings on it.

“Grahhh! I was hoping we’d get farther than this before they sent a heavy unit after us. Do any of you refugees know how to operate one of our holographic maps?”

“I know a bit of the basics,” offered someone from the middle of the group.

“Great!” he said as he pulled a palm-sized cube out of a pocket and tossed it to them. “Here’s a map of the ship, we’re in subsection A5-h1 next to the blast door on deck 3. You’re looking for room 5672 up on deck 5. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten around to getting the automatic update function fixed, so the map won’t show you any enemy forces or damage that has been sustained, so you might have to backtrack a bit from time to time. Good luck! I’ll hold them off as long as I can.”

“Wait, we can help you fight–”

“No you can’t, you don’t have anything that can hurt them. This baby, on the other hand, can kill them just fine,” he said as he patted his weapon. “The only reason I stand a chance is they don’t really fit in these hallways very well and they only have melee weapons. Good luck!” As he spoke, he had been slowly inching back towards where we came from such that he cleared the space where the wall had been as he finished talking, at which point the wall fell back into place with a muted thump.

This produced some grumbling from my troops which was quickly silenced by the squad leaders.

Ignoring the byplay, I turned to the person with the map who was messing around with a complicated 3D structure that was floating in front of them and glowing a peaceful blue color. As I watched, the illusion zoomed in on a specific section of the structure until it was clearly visible as a collection of rooms and hallways.

“So where are we?” I asked.

“We’re right here at the orange dot. The room that he told us to go to is the green rectangle up here.”

“Alright then, where is the nearest staircase?”

“This is a Shihoth built ship, there are no staircases. They use gravity lifts instead, the nearest of which is that way.”

“Okaaay… Why? And what is a Shihoth?”

“I don’t know why they don’t use stairs, that’s just the way the Shihoth have always been. They’re a six-limbed race that looks vaguely like a large bear with a very weird head.”

“Oh, like that statue we saw in the room with all the plants.”

“Probably? I’ve never seen that room so I can’t say for sure.”

“Alright then. Keep your heads on a swivel people, we don’t know what’s in front of us. Let’s move out!”