As the hours dragged on and the herbs burned, a voice came to me. It seemed like one voice, but it also was almost two. The voice or voices were synced in such a way that it was as if it was a voice speaking in a cord. Her voice, or their voices, were airy and almost mystical. “You have at last come back to pray. I thought you might not return to us.”

My voice caught for a moment before I found myself. The Sisters were speaking. I was talking to a god, well, goddesses. “I have returned for a time. I seem to have gone the wrong way in setting up a path for the faithful.”

The sisters laughed. It was at this point that I could tell there were two. The laughter wasn’t in sync, but rather one was a jingle of bells high and light, and the other was dry and cutting like I had my head on a block. “No, dear Arn, that is not why you came back. You returned because you got lost and didn’t know how to find your bonded.”

I gulped. I had hoped that they wouldn’t know and that I could pass myself off as doing what they wanted. I tried to figure out what to say and went with honesty. “Yes, I need to find her as I am bonded to her and need to protect her but in doing so I can also fill the requirements that you have given me.”

The light, happy voice laughed while the other spoke, “We will be happy to help you. You are our shaman in this realm. We need you to not only make the path but find us the faithful. There are some who in whispers still worship us. We can feel it but they are hidden.”

The light and happy voice picked up, “The line of my priestess still is here. I hear her voice echo in the realm. She knows me not but you must find her.”

The other joined in, and in unison, they spoke, “We will guide you, our power is weak in this place but the door must be opened to us again so that we may stand opposed to the Dark ones. Serve us willingly, speak to us and gather others and we will not fail you.”

My heart clenched when they said they wouldn’t fail me. The only ones who hadn’t failed me so far had been my pets. People always let me down, and I knew that the Sisters would too. It was the way of things, but I would do what I always did. I would give them a chance that I knew they would blow. “I will serve you just tell me how.”

The light and airy voice spoke again. “First you must raise your faith with us. To do so pray and work with the gifts of ours which have been entrusted to you. Once your faith reaches 150 we will show you the way.”

“So do more work and then you will help?” I muttered.

The sharp voice laughed and answered, “If that is how you wish to look at it. Then yes.”

The whole experience faded away, or more perhaps, it was that the room cleared up. I had moved from standing between the two stone alters to laying spread eagle between them, looking toward Order’s side and my head near the door. As I stood, I felt the unmistakable slimy moisture of drool that had pooled and run down my face gluing my beard to itself.

“At least talking to them like this is more restful than anyone else has been,” I said as I cracked my back and headed out of the shrine.

The whole day had passed with me in the shrine, and the sun was already setting. Lizard girl Blink was sitting near the fire, roasting up fresh fish. She looked up from the fire as I came out.

“Daddy! Yous were in theres a long time. Did theys tell you anything?”

I chuckled dryly. “Yeah, they are willing to show me how to get to Lannah but first I need to get my faith in them up to 150 by praying and working with the gifts they have given to me. I am not sure what they mean by the gifts but I know how to pray.”

“What’s your faith at right now?”

“Give me a moment to check.”

Faith

Order: 50

Chaos: 50

Bards and Summer Beer: 17

Treants and Dryads: 3

Redacted: Redacted

“Well it looks like my faith has gone down since I set out and I figured out who my unknown was and added Ni’Bish. Which is kind of odd because I thought that he died when he gave me the quest.”

Blink pulled her sticks with a fish on them out of the fire and looked over at me. “Look, I mades fish sticks!”

I laughed a little as I moved over to my seat. “That’s not what I call a fish stick but I can see why you would call it that.”

She passed me one, and at that point, I realized just how hungry I was. I had spent all day in the shrine with the chanting and the smoke. I felt like I had a bad case of the munchies as I started to eat.

“So how was the dungeon?”

“About the sames the levels laid outs different than befores but the first three are still the same monsters. No mimic thoughs.”

As I finished the fish, I asked. “How was the fourth level?”

“Bads. Its was mostly magics goblins and ats the end were two orcs.”

“I figured that would be easy for you.”

Blink sighed as she started two more fish cooking. “Twos easy! Thats whys I changed. Tomorrows I ams going to try its like this and sees if I can gets through!”

“Do you have any combat skills in that form?”

“I haves your heals and your fires spells and also my claws. I wants crossbow toos” She said, passing me a second fish.

We ate for a few minutes, just enjoying the fish and the cooling night.

“Do you have a crossbow that you can use?” I asked as I finished my fourth fish.

“Nopes but wes cans buy one from Dave!” Blink said as she smiled.

“Let’s go see Dave. You would think that the dungeon master wouldn’t have to buy things from the dungeon.”

A few minutes later, Blink, and I strolled into the safe room through the Dungeon Master’s passages. I hadn’t done much with the dungeon after setting and didn’t even know what floor opened up to my camp.

“Dave!” I called out as we came out of the end room above the bar.

“What’cha want!” The bartender called out from below.

“Buying stuff!” I replied as we headed down the stairs.

Blink jumped up on the barstool furthest away from the stairs and pointed behind the bar at the weapons rack.

“So looks like Blink wants a weapon is that what your buying?” The barman asked.

He set down the glass that he always had in his hands and walked down the length of the bar to the weapons racks.

“What is it going to be? Daggers? Throwing axes? Blowgun?”

“The little girl wants a crossbow, and I figure you can tell me why as the master of the place I have to pay?” I said.

Dave, for his part, didn’t even try not to laugh. He just rolled his head back and grabbed his belly, and gave a nice hardy laugh. Then once he got control of himself, he looked at me, smiled, and almost lost it again.

Dave said, “So to start with, I can give you all of the cheap and trash items that you want. I can also give you common expendables. However, the goal of this place is training, and it does a better job at training the larger it gets so. The energy used to create better items has to be replaced somehow. That is done through the payment.”

“But, doesn’t the dungeon also give out money that is used to buy the items?”

“Yes, but that is reward for a job well done. That reward is used to encourage people to train better so that they can more easily fight the dark ones.”

“Next question is where did the weapons come from? When last I was in here you just had some basic gear nothing that I even wanted except for the potions.”

“Well you are the dungeon master and so I am able to sell you anything that would come from a dungeon that is up to 5 times the level of your dungeon.”

“Why just 5 times the level?”

“The mana cost is too great to go any higher. That is going to be part of the cost of whatever you get.”

“Still seems odd to me…. Let’s see the crossbows that you got.” I said.

Dave rolled out a rack that was filled top to bottom with crossbows. Then he opened up the bar top and rolled the rack out. He went back in and brought out two more racks.

“Okay since this is for Blink, all the crossbows here are light enough for her to use. Most of them have something to help her cock the thing. I have a few light weight ones that she might can do by hand with just sitting but I think her best bet if this is what she wants is going to be on the expensive end.”

“Okay so what are we looking at for cost that is on the expensive end? Well our best is going to be a magically cranked crossbow. So that is going to be 8 platinum coins.”

“What? Why does it cost so much?”

“Remember the magic used to make the item is needed to be recaptured somehow and so to make the crossbow the dungeon needs to get the energy back.”

I rolled my eyes and started to walk around the bows. We didn’t really need her to get something. She just wanted it so that she could have fun in the dungeon on her own. The bow would give her a better chance in this form by giving her range. So it made some sense, and if the bow would go with her when she changed, then it would be even better.

“Okay so I have some items that I might could trade with you if that would do for the crossbow.”

“We can strike a trade deal but once again I want to remind you at dungeon master that this takes power to create the bow and so will need to be replaced. You will likely be able to sell you items for more out of the dungeon and buy a better item out there for the same cost.”

Just as I was about to ask about which crossbows were the ones that magically cocked themselves, Blink came around from the back, holding a pair of tiny crossbows. Her hands were on the triggers, and she had them both pointing up in the air. Over her shoulders, a pair of quivers that looked like they would easily fit on my hip. In her tiny 4-foot frame, she was channeling every 80s action star.

“Daddy! I founds the ones I wants!” she belted out in her high-pitched lizard voice.

“Okay Blink. Why do you want those two crossbows? I thought the idea was to get you some range.”

“They shoots 50 feets which is all I needs ands I can cock them!”

“Well let me take a look.” I said as I reached out to take the bows.

The two crossbows were a matching pair of pistol-sized bows with a screwing spanner. The spanner would come up from the bottom and hook the string pulling it back as the screw was twisted on the back. It worked much like the reverse of a woodworking C-clamp. To reset the screw once fired, there was just a button to press, and the whole screw would slide back down where it could reengage with the string.

Dave smiled, “Those pack a punch for their size but are much better with poison bolts or even magically treated ones. As they have problems with armor because of the weight of the bolt. Also they take about 30 second to cock and load each shot. They might be good for a single attack but they just take too long for a second one. I would suggest a large single bow for you that you could do damage to something armored.”

Blink looked up at Dave and gave him a very slow double-eye blink, where she shook her head at the end. Then she looked over at me and said.

“Daddy! Can you fix them so that they shoot better for me? I like how they feel to hold and are light enough that I think I can learn to shoot from both hands!”

I sighed, “Okay Dave how much for the two bows and quivers?”

Dave smiled and held up four fingers, “Four gold will get them for you. They are well-made but not magical. So they are much easier for the dungeon to make.

“Well I guess I have a project for a while.” I said.

Dave and I spent the next thirty minutes haggling over the prices that he was going to give me on the items that we brought back from our trip south. The crossbows and quivers ended up costing me the necromancy cane that I didn’t want to use and the two control wands that I had gotten from the last fight I had been in.

* * *