I Hate Dungeon School

Myth sat across from me and stirred her tea. Her gaze was focused on it like it was the single most important thing in the scope of creation. I could tell it was less about attention to the tea and more nervousness about making eye contact with me.

We sat there in that silence, the awkwardness becoming damn near palpable. I guess, as the offending party, I should go first. I really didn't want to, as I'm not the best at this sort of thing. Eira is the only one I really felt safe baring my emotions to, and emotion-baring was exactly what was going to happen here, whether I liked it or not.

"So," I said, the brilliant conversationalist I am.

"Yeah. So." She said, looking up at me finally. I mentally winced at her expression. I was a mix of anger, sadness, nervousness, and other emotions I wasn't entirely sure of.

I just had to suck it up and make the first move.

"I'm just gonna cut to the chase, I guess. I'm really sorry I sprung that on you so suddenly. And I agreed to what I did. I knew you weren't going to like it, and I did it anyway, and I'm sorry." I said the words stumbling out of my mouth, and I tensed for the angry barrage from her.

She sat there for a moment and took a long sip from her tea. She set the cup down gently and looked me dead in the eye.

"I was mad. I am mad, honestly. But...but I talked to Cori and Smitty, and they told me what was on offer from the School and the City Lord, and I admit, I'd be hard pressed not to take it, even with all my misgivings and...history, I guess I could say. It's a great opportunity for a dungeoneer." She said with a sigh.

"I'm sensing a 'but' hiding at the end there, Myth," I said, gently pressing her.

"After I found out, I did a lot of soul searching. Well, as much as one can do after smoking an absurd amount of herbs and passing out. I thought about a lot of things. All the times you, Cori, and Smitty have nearly died. Shit, how many times I've nearly died. Every time we do a dungeon, even a simulated one, I'm scared out of my damn mind. Even going to class these days takes more and more willpower." She explained, continuing to look down into her cup.

"But you seemed to be doing better! You were so put together after the training the other day." I remarked, finding her revelation surprising.

"That's me trying my best to pretend. Ever since you basically died on top of that mountain, I've been having nightmares every night. I barely sleep. I'm surviving off a cocktail of potions and herbs of increasingly questionable legality and quality. And...and I just can't do it anymore, Alta. I just can't do it." Myth's voice began to quaver.

"But what about School? You worked hard to get here?" I asked, shocked.

"I'm not quitting Dungeon School. I refuse to give up on that. But I can't continue to do dungeoneering. I'm switching programs. I'm never going into a dungeon again." She said, her voice still quavering, and I saw a small tear run down her face.

I knew that took a lot to admit, and it hurt me too. We had done our first dungeons together. We studied magic together, and we scaled a mountain and dealt with monsters and more side by side.

But even I had to admit that this business wasn't for everyone. Dungeoneering is hard, it's dangerous, and many people can't cut it. You had to have a certain lack of personal preservation to make it, and a strong nerve to boot. Myth, my dear sweet blissed-out elven friend, Myth, I had to admit, didn't have either.

"I...I'm sorry to hear that, Myth, but I think it might be for the best. Ever since I had to break your nose to get you out of a panic attack, I kind of suspected this might not be a good fit for you, but I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want you to lose your will to try. I'm sorry if the whole thing with the knights pushed you over the edge into quitting the dungeoneering." I said with legitimate regret.

"I had started thinking about quitting all the way back in the Tower of Ash and Blood. Every time we did a simulator, I thought about it more and more. Every class, every test, I hated this more and more and more. The knight thing...well, yeah, I'm pissed about it, but it gave me a good excuse. Thank you for apologizing, though." Her face brightened a little bit, and she finished off her tea. I realized mine was starting to get cold, so I took a sip myself.

Good gods above and below, this was good tea.

"So what are you going to do then? Is switching programs going to be a problem?" I asked, genuinely curious. I'd never even considered the possibility of anything but dungeoneering, so it wasn't something I had considered.

"Support course. Specifically, potions and other medicines. It means I'll be working the bathing facilities a lot since they have the healing services there too. Turns out, everything I was doing to get the most out of my smoking habit was actually helping. Mixed with my particular type of wood elf magic, with stuff I learned with my parents, I'm actually pretty good!" Her eyes lit up with the kind of excitement I rarely saw from her.

"Sounds great! Are they going to make you move out to another dorm or something? I've never been clear on how that all works." I continued.

"Nah, they're not going to bother. I'm just gonna stay there. I'm just not going to go into dungeons with you all. I'll probably be doing homework elsewhere, though. Don't need to turn the place into any more of a hazard lab." She laughed. It was true. Despite being four ladies, we were kind of messy at times. Many times. Most times.

"Sounds good then. Well, I for one will miss you in the dungeons. Your magic will be missed!" I said, lifting the tea cup in a sort of salute.

"Yeah, you'll really have to double down on learning your magic. You're going to be the main spellcaster now, sword-witch." She said as she stood, clearing the table.

Her words hit me like a brick across the face. While I was trained in magic, and if I were being a bit prideful, I'd say I wasn't too bad at it. I wasn't at Myth's level, though. With Smitty being our melee fighter, Cori being ranged and utility, and Mariana quickly becoming our healer, we needed someone who could do combat magic.

My magic studies and skills had taken a hit after the incident with the dungeon core that had bonded to me, and my focus had been on improving my sword work to compensate. Now that I could do magic again, and my mana reserves were better, I still never really tried to get back on my feet, magically speaking.

Which was not ideal, as the magic training was boring to me, and I didn't quite take to it as well as swordplay. I had a bad habit of slacking off if I found something too hard. My brain began running through everything I would have to do now that Myth wasn't handling the bulk of the magic side of things anymore.

I leaned back and groaned.

"Great, now I have to actually put in effort."

"It'll be good for you. Probably." She laughed.

I started to say something, and I descended into a sneezing fit that had me seeing stars.

"Ugh, stupid hay fever is driving me insane! My nose won't stop running!" I moaned and wiped my nose.

"That's been happening a lot to folks in town. Way worse than I've seen in a long time. Not since I left Middenveldt. That was a bad time." She said with concern in her voice.

"What happened?" I asked nasally, as my sinus threatened to drown me.

"Dryad migration. They don't happen often, but sometimes the dryads of Middenveldt move to a different area for breeding season, and the pollen is so thick it's like walking through a yellow fog. Which can be bad for a lot of reasons." She explained.

"Oh?"

"Yeah. It depends a lot on the subspecies, but sometimes, something called the Dryad Queen forms in their population, and their pollen can have a mild euphoric effect that makes people a bit more open to suggestion. If a person has a particularly bad reaction to it, it's almost like their minds are being controlled. The dryads use that to...how to put this delicately...feed on them?" She winced as she said it.

"Feed how? What level of euphemism are we working with here?" I was getting concerned as she continued. I didn't like any of the possible options for the interpretation of the word feed.

"Not in like a, you know, sexual way. I know there are lots of legends about that, but they're not true. They literally drain the blood out of a person and use it to nourish more dryad saplings. They usually go for animals, but during a Dryad Queen year? They get aggressive. Anyway, that's what hay fever spikes remind me of." Myth said with a shrug as she absently wiped down a counter.

"Do we have to worry about that here? I really don't like the idea of being eaten by a vampiric tree with boobs." In all honesty, that sounds pretty high up on my list of ways I'd rather not die.

"Oh no! Definitely not. Revenstahd is too dry and too cold for Dryads. They need the humidity and the rain to grow properly. If one showed up here, it likely wouldn't survive a season. Even a Dryad Queen would be hard-pressed to survive." She said with a laugh after she saw my nervous expression. "Please clean yourself up a bit, Alta. You look ridiculous with a runny nose."

I grumbled as I wiped my nose yet again.

But overall, I felt better. Myth and I were on talking terms, and I had learned that being killed by a dryad was very low on the likelihood of things to kill me.

Yet I felt nervous all the same. Something was tickling the back of my mind, like a warning, but I couldn't quite pin down what it was.

No matter. Probably just paranoia. I hope it was just paranoia.

Great, now I'm paranoid about my paranoia.

I sighed, shook my head to clear my thoughts, and stood to leave.

I bought some of the delicious tea that Myth had given me, and went on my way. Before I left, I looked at the timepiece on the wall.

Plenty of time before I met with Farina. Time to figure out how to make it back to campus, and get some snuggle time in the Eira. I needed those snuggles as a mental shield against whatever shenanigans were going to be inflicted on me.

"Is your transfer out of dungeoneering official yet, Myth?" I asked over my shoulder as I opened the door.

"Not yet. Just gotta get the paperwork all done tomorrow and they'll change me over. I have a bit of catch-up to do, though." She said with a resigned sigh.

"Well, let us know when it's official. The girls and I will throw you a party!" I smiled at her.

Myth chuckled and shot me a thumbs-up. "Deal. I'm going to hold you to that, Marchesi!"

I waved goodbye and left. However, I saw I wasn't the only one on this street this time. I saw a face, hiding under a travel cloak, that I never wanted to see again. Thankfully, they didn't seem to pay me any mind, as they ducked down an alleyway.

I couldn't hide my anger, mixed with no small amount of fear.

Carter. Captain Carter of the Knights of the Obsidian Gauntlet was in Revenstahd. Where he most definitely was not supposed to be.

"Well, this is definitely not good."