I Hate Dungeon School

"So I kind of understand swimsuits on a conceptual level, though I never really used one, I don't think, but what makes the Hastera ones so special?" I ask as Eira led me through the crowded streets.

"Oh, lots of things! Also, what do you mean, you've never used one?" She said, stopping suddenly and turning towards me. "Please tell me you can swim."

"Of course I can swim! Sometimes, I'd sneak out and swim in the pond at the manor. A river once or twice on the way to Revenstahd. And and and took the basic water training for flooded dungeons! And I never drowned!" I huffed indignantly.

Eira let out a sigh of relief.

"Oh, good. Teaching martial arts is one thing; teaching swimming is a whole other thing entirely. Wait, so what did you go swimming in when you went in the pond or river?" She said, her eyes narrowing. "You didn't skinny dip, did you?"

"What? No. Once. But usually underclothes! And the flooded dungeon training they made me keep my armor on." I explained, trying to get her to keep going and stop interrogating me about my attire choices. "So! Swimsuits! Why are they special again?"

She narrowed her eyes at me, as though she knew exactly what I was doing. "I know what you're doing, but I'm going to ignore it for now. Anyway! Swimsuits! Easier to just show you."

She pulled me along again until we came across a shop called 'Sea-Spider Threads and Accessories', and it was unassuming but nice enough. I wasn't entirely keen on sea-spiders as a concept, the idea making my skin crawl, but I noted it as something to look up later.

"This is my favorite swimsuit place! Though I haven't been here in a while. I kind of had to sell my old swimsuits for travel money. Real shame too. Lovely things. Let's go in!" She dashed forward, holding the door for me as it opened with a little jingle of an unseen bell. She gave me a dramatic bow, "After you, my lady."

I giggled, rolled my eyes with a smile, and walked in.

As for what I saw when I walked in, it was startling. There were all kinds of outfits, of various materials and styles. Bright colors, dark colors, matte, glossy, shiny, glittery, everything in between.

Many covered most of the body, save legs and arms, and some barely qualified as clothing; they were so slight.

"Eira, do... do people actually wear these? In public? Where can others see them? This isn't just lingerie?" I held up a golden thing that was practically two strips of cloth with a string connecting them.

"Oh yeah, definitely. Some folks like to flaunt what they've got, you know? Also, it makes it easier to swim. " Eira said with a shrug, as she looked at a black one in a similar cut.

Part of me was deeply scandalized by this, but part of me really desperately wanted to know what Eira would look like in that. I had to push that thought out of my mind, or we'd never get anything done today.

My finger ran over the fabric absently, and I paused, feeling it closer. The material felt familiar. Very familiar.

"Mageweave? This is mageweave!" I gasped, looking at it more closely. The dress I had been given by Lord for my sister's wedding was the most mageweave I had ever seen in my life, and here I was in a store full of it. What in all the hells above and below was Hastera keeping from the rest of the world?

Or more accurately, why in those very same hells did I not know about all this? Damn my sheltered upbringing!

"That's correct! Durable, enchantable, yet light and waterproof! You can look sexy and still be protected! Can I help you ladies choose anything today?" A middle-aged-looking woman approached us, with tan skin, long blonde hair, and what looked like face tattoos under her eyes and chin. Her ears were elven, almost. In fact, I thought she was an elf until I noticed the singular horn emerging from her forehead.

I searched my mind for what she could be, but I was drawing a blank. I really had so many questions for Eira later. She was probably going to get extremely annoyed with me.

"My wife and I are looking for some swimsuits. We might be taking a little day trip out into the free waters, if you get my drift, and we want something suitable." Eira said, making a strange hand gesture to the woman.

"Ah! I understand completely. If you'll kindly follow me." The woman led us on. I noted her top had no back save for a tie, and her tattoos continued on to her back. Eira didn't seem to pay them much mind, so I figured I'd ask her later.

So many new things, and not enough time to take them all in.

We were led to a side room with even more swimsuits.

"This is our dungeon wear collection. Mageweave swimsuits with specially treated fibers made from a blend of sea-spider silk and thinly spun mithraline fibers to keep the straps from ever risking breaking, so you never have to worry about wardrobe malfunctions. Each suit comes with enough enchantments to support the addition of three accessory charms, two on the bottoms at the hip, and one on the chest piece. Functional and draws the eyes to an adventurer's best attributes." The blonde woman said, showing us all the options.

"We'll take a moment to look around, if that's alright?" Eira asked.

"Certainly. Take your time! Just ring the little bell by the doorway, and I'll be right with you." She bowed slightly and left us alone.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

I was a bit overwhelmed, not only with what I was looking at, but with everything I was just told. Mageweave was one thing, but mithraline? That stuff was hard to get, and here it was. Mixed with sea-spider silk, whatever the hell that was. Enchantments? Accessory charms? What?

"So you look like a ptarm caught in the middle of the woods by a rampaging wagon. Are you ok?" Eira asked.

"Eira, I've never seen such things, and I grew up as a noblewoman! And not a low-ranked one either! What the hells?! How have I not seen or heard of stuff like this? This is amazing!" I gasped and pointed at everything.

Eira stared at me for a long moment and rubbed her chin in thought. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself, as I was certain at this point I was making an absolute fool of myself. I was a noblewoman, and I was losing my mind like some country bumpkin! Gods above and below, this was sad.

"I knew Burgotova was isolationist compared to the other parts of the alliance, but I didn't realize it was this bad. To be fair, though, Hastera is a bit more, how to say, permissive compared to the others, I guess." She said, holding up one suit after another in front of me.

"I thought Revenstahd would be more, I don't know, cosmopolitan? But compared to what I've seen in Hastera, it's barely less backwards than Burgotova!" I huffed before shaking my head at a very revealing outfit Eira had in her hand. She pouted and put it back.

"Revenstahd is pretty old-fashioned in a lot of ways. It also focuses on practicality over all else. A holdover from its mercenary years, I think. Hastera is old. A lot of history that honestly would take the better part of a day to even scratch the surface. Oooh, how about this one?" She held up a blue and white striped suit. It left a bit more midriff exposed than I would like, but it was cute enough, with a little frilled thing on the bottoms. I nodded my agreement.

"Let's put all that aside right now. Why are we looking at, of all things, dungeon swimsuits? What is the deal with that anyway?" I asked, reconsidering some of the more daring options. I mean, it was a romantic vacation after all. Why shouldn't I?

"So the island we're going to sometimes has beasties in the water, and there may or may not be some subaquatic dungeons, and some of them are really pretty, and I wanted to show some of them off, but going into a dungeon without protection is dumb. But swimming in armor is also dumb." Eira explained casually as she held up a suit for my appraisal. A green piece similar to the blue one I chose. Very nice indeed.

"I like that one! But anyway, so despite being on vacation from dungeoneering, we're going into a dungeon anyway? I'm not sure if I'm ok with that." I sighed and shook my head.

I was lying to myself, of course. A subaquatic dungeon sounded amazing. I hadn't studied those at all, and it would likely be a great experience.

"Ah! I see that twinkle in your eye. You do want to see them, don't you?" She gave me the smuggest grin I had ever seen on her face.

I couldn't help but smile and blush. "Yeah, you got me. That said, this is still just fabric. Amazing fabric but still."

"So here's the deal." She pulled apart some of the fabric layers making up a swimsuit. Inside was a series of runes, like the ones I used to see Danica work with in her shop, and like I studied on occasion for traps and such.

I stared at them, trying to remember which runes were what.

"Physical Defense, Magical Defense, Barrier. And given the modifier marks on each of them, and the mana flow I can feel... holy hells below, this has enough defensive enchantment to be equivalent to full armor! How is the rest of the mortal kingdoms not flooded with this stuff?!" I gasped.

"Oh, simple. It's too expensive for most people, and nowhere else really has subaquatic dungeons. The only place that did was Tarkota in the Godsea, but they destroyed all their dungeons ages ago. So there's really no point to owning these anywhere else. Also, you see this rune here?" She pointed to a very ornate one in the chest cups of the suit top.

"Yeah, I don't recognize that one," I confessed.

"Only activates in sea water. Cool stuff, huh?" She smiled at me.

"Cool stuff indeed!" I said.

"Also, the other nations of the Alliance don't allow transport of magical items like this across borders. That's why we had to leave all our good gear in lockup at the school. Don't ask me about smuggling, please. That gets into stuff I don't want to think about." She held up a hand as though blocking the thought as it formed in my head.

"Deal. I don't really want to know either. Anyway, I like this blue and white striped one. This is nice." I said, looking at it again.

"Ok, let's get these, and a couple of regular ones just for playing around in." She said, ringing the bell. The attendant arrived in short order, took the suits from us, and guided us back.

We shopped a bit longer, and I picked out a simple one-piece and one very daring piece in a shiny gold, just because I wanted to. It left nothing to the imagination, but given I had a very specific audience of one in mind, I didn't much care. She'd seen me in less.

"Would you ladies like to try them on before you buy them?" The blonde woman asked us.

"Absolutely," Eira said, perhaps too eagerly.

The woman smiled and nodded. "Understood. We have some private booths in the back."

She pointed towards the back, and Eira began to lead me that way.

The blonde woman waved at us, "Have fun! But not too much fun!"

It didn't take us long to try on the outfits, as we were trying very hard not to 'have too much fun,' to use the store owner's words. They fit like a dream, though.

As we went to pay for them, Eira turned to me.

"You want to wait outside? You look a bit flushed. Get some air." She said, her facial expression belying that she was hiding something.

"Eira. Sweetie. Lovely. Are you hiding something?" I scowled slightly, looking up at her, narrowing my eyes in suspicion.

"Yes, and I'll tell you about it later. Please, Alta. Just for me?" She begged.

I sighed dramatically and shrugged, likewise dramatically. "For you, my lovely, anything."

"And don't wander off! Remember what I said earlier! Just pick a spot right outside and stay put!" She added sternly.

I rolled my eyes and made an affirmative grunt before blowing her a kiss.

I turned and walked out of the shop, opening the door, enjoying the rush of warmer air that blew into me, though I didn't much care for the air attempting to lift my sundress.

I walked out, closed the door, and found a nice place in the shade to sit.

The warm sun of Hastera was lovely, but it was also hot. Burgotova was a cold place, even in summer, so I wasn't quite used to this.

I looked around at the people. Hastera really was a mix of folk. Elves, Humans, Dwarves, more of those shorter catfolk. Caitsith? Something like that. There were even more species and peoples than I recognized.

It was amazing, really. Revenstahd was a foreign world to me, more diverse than anything I had ever experienced in my homeland, and even that paled to Hastera. It was a lot to take in, and I would be a liar if I didn't say it made me nervous. But it was the nervousness of unfamiliarity. My mind wandered to the theoretical expressions of my family, but I pushed those out of my mind.

I leaned back and breathed in the warm, salty sea air as I people-watched.

As I did so, I saw a tall but familiar shape. A pale and slender one, of no determinate gender. It was a flash, a brief glimpse, and it was gone as soon as I tried to focus my eyes.

That couldn't have been Caru. Caru was dead. Surely they were dead.

Finally being alone with my thoughts must have been pulling trauma to the forefront of my mind. I needed food, and probably water and sleep. It had been a busy day.

There was a tiny part of my brain that kept saying one thing, over and over.

'They never did find a body, did they?'