I Hate Dungeon School

"Hey? You ok?" I felt a hand on my shoulder, which shook me from the thoughts running through my head.

I nearly jumped out of my skin, so deep was my introspection that I hadn't even noticed Eira come outside.

"Yeah, sorry! Was thinking about the trip here, and you know. Everything." I couldn't hide the downcast turn of my tone.

She pulled me into an embrace, which was a bit uncomfortable, as she had a bag containing the bounty of our shopping trip in it, plus something hard poking my stomach.

"Eira, what in the hells below is poking me?" I grumbled but didn't fight against the embrace.

"Oh right! Little extra for us. I'll show you in the room. Which I'd like to go back to. It's gonna get warmer soon, and I'd rather be in the shade where cold water is freely available." She said, taking my hand in hers.

We took our time walking back to the inn, and she pointed out a few sights to me. Architecture, artistic displays, street performers, and we even grabbed some fascinating fruits on the way. I was looking forward to trying them.

After we made it back, Crilsha, the orc woman, welcomed us back and said she would have cold water and ice brought to us.

I realized I had gotten warmer, and far thirstier, than I had thought I was.

The idea of a nice rest in the cool shade of our room sounded absolutely delightful.

As we entered our room, I made way to the bed to flop on its delightful and hopefully cool sheets. Before I performed said flop, I noticed an envelope on the sheets. I picked it up and turned it over a few times.

"What's up, dearest one?" Eira said, pulling her sundress off, apparently opting to spend the rest of the day in her underclothes, such as they were.

"Envelope on the bed. No name, or anything. Just a wax seal with a symbol on it. An hourglass, I think. Should I open it?" I asked, holding it up for her.

She sighed. "I had hoped to get a little more time here in the port, but I guess there's no helping it. Let's just take a rest, drink some water, and then we have to get packing."

"What's going on?" I asked, confused. So many things around Eira had been very strange today, and if I was being honest, I was getting tired of it, but I also didn't want to pressure her into telling me something before she was ready. I had to be patient, I reminded myself.

She took it from my hand, cracked the seal, and opened the envelope. It was empty save for what looked like a drawing of three nails, of the sort used in construction.

She nodded to herself, rubbing her chin in thought, staring at it intently. I decided I wouldn't be of any use till she was done with whatever she was doing, so I decided to change into my own underclothes. I stopped and looked at the mirror.

The wound had completely healed up, a testament to the healer's magic and the alchemist who made the medicine. It was still scarred, though, and I felt a bang of shamed vanity looking at it. I was proud of myself at how few scars I had after all the dungeon delving and monster fighting I had done.

It was inevitable, though, I supposed. Scars happened in a dangerous business like dungeoneering. Vanity was likely to get me killed if I wasn't careful.

I really hoped that didn't extend to my hair. I really liked my hair. Even then, I had to admit it was perhaps getting too long. Even braided or in my usual high tail, it was threatening to get in the way. The mental image of a monster grabbing my hair made me shudder.

I wandered back to see Eira, standing on the balcony, and setting the envelope on fire.

"Bad news? Good news? Sudden pyromania?" I asked, pouring myself some ice water, and savoring the cooling effect as I drank it.

"News about our ride to the island. We've got a pickup appointment tonight." She sighs, a deep, tired sound. She walks back into the room and flops unceremoniously onto the bed with a grunt.

I sit next to her, offering her some water. She sits up and drains the cup in a single swig.

"Listen, Alta. I'm so sorry for all the secrecy and weirdness since we've been here. I want to explain everything, but I don't trust this place. Porthynys Harbor is a rough town under the surface. You only see that surface. Years of living with my family's background make the dark underbelly too obvious to me, and I can't stand the idea of you getting involved. And if I say too much, even in this inn, word might get back to the wrong people, and we could be in trouble." She put her head in her hands and groaned, sounding more exhausted than I had heard her in a long time.

"Listen, I want to be able to help you, Eira. I really do. But I also understand not wanting to get others involved. My whole nonsense with the noble factions in Burgotova, the whole ptarm-shit with the Knights and Mages, and the City Lord, is something I really didn't want to get you involved in, but because I didn't know what the hells below and above I was doing, we had...all that. So don't be afraid to drag me in if you need me." I wrapped my arms around her shoulders and rested her head on mine, wincing a bit as I realized I had put her head on the scarred area. Ouch.

"It's just a lot, Alta. And this whole thing with our relationship finally gave me the strength to leave this all behind. I just want to be with you, explore dungeons, get old together, live in a house somewhere. I don't know, get a pet or something. But we have to go through this crap, which I can't talk about right now, first. When we're on the island, we can go more into it." She nuzzled her face against me.

"Is that what the whole thing with the swimsuit lady with the horn was? I saw you do something with your hand, and her attitude changed a bit." I asked.

"Ah. You caught that. That was me calling in a favor. Normally, you can't just buy those kinds of swimsuits. There are permits from the dungeoneering guilds, the bounty house, and so on and so on. Dungeoneering is a bit complicated here. They're technically legal, though. Technically." She coughed nervously after she spoke.

"One of those things, I probably shouldn't know?" I ask wryly.

"Yeah. Pretty much. But I did get the charms completely legitimately. Like the swimsuit enchantments, they only work in seawater." She sat up, leaned over to grab the bag, and rummaged through it.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to NovelPhoenix for the genuine story.

She handed me three little items and set them in my hand. They were interesting little things. They were made of what looked like shells of some kind, plus little glass beads with small runes etched into them, all attached to a silvery cord.

"These are lovely, Eira! Are these those charm things that the special swimsuits can have?" I asked, feeling a surge of delight seeing how they shined. I wasn't normally a jewelry gal, but even I could appreciate some nice accessories.

"That's right. You clip them onto the swimsuit, and the magic in the suit works alongside the charms. You can only have three on at a time, or there's some kind of weird magic reaction, and it kills all the enchantments on the suit. Or explodes. I can't remember which it is. Anyway! These are the ones that we're most likely to need."

"I feel like there was something important in what you just said, and we're just blowing past it." I scowled at her.

"Don't worry about it. This one here is Aqua Lung, which lets you go underwater for around thirty minutes before you need to surface for air. This one is Aqua Sight, which allows you to see underwater, and this one is Heavy Soul, which helps you sink if you push some mana into it." She explained, holding each one up in turn.

"Ok, I think I got it. And I put two on the bottoms, and one on my top? Where?" I asked.

"There are two spots on your hips, and the third one kind of sort of is supposed to clip between the chest cups." She said, pointing at a spot on my chest.

"Wow. I guess that's fine. I kind of expected some folks would stare anyway. Why not add some flair?" I sighed gently as I held the things up in the light.

"Yes indeed. Adventurers and dungeoneers who do the aquatic dungeons tend to be a show-offish bunch. Style over practicality is the best way to put it." Eira shrugged.

"So, how long do we have till we have to be wherever we need to be?" I asked, changing the subject back to more pressing matters.

"Third bell after midnight. Real late. We'll take our stuff and just take off. I prepaid everything when I made the reservations, so they won't ask questions.

"So we got a little time, yes?" I asked.

"I don't know that I'm in the mood for that tonight, Alta." She cocked an eyebrow at me.

"Get your mind out of the gutter, woman. I want to take a nap and eat food. I have no idea how long all of this is going to take, and I want some energy just in case something stupid happens, and I have to physically exert myself. We save the gutter stuff for when we get there." I said, ruffling her hair.

"And how! Setting that aside, let's dig into that fruit we bought!" She said, pulling them out of a bag.

"I thought you'd never ask!" I laughed, taking one from her hand.

After a meal, a nap, and a mad dash to make sure we packed everything, we disappeared into the cooler, but still warm night, the saltiness of the sea air still ever present.

I followed Eira's lead as we worked our way through the alleys. There were a few unsavory-looking characters who began to move our way, but Eira made some kind of hand motion at them, and they held their hands up and slunk back into the shadows from whence they crawled.

I began to wonder what kind of magic pirates and their kin had to keep such nere-do-wells at bay, but that was one of those questions for later. Just another one on the pile for when we were on this island of Eira's family.

We soon came to a shop near the waterfront, under a bridge. It had a symbol of a nail and an anvil. A blacksmith? No, I looked at the sign more closely. A nail-smith. The image on the letter suddenly made total sense to me. It was some kind of code. I figured it was a location and time, perhaps?

Eira looked around and made a strange knocking pattern on the door of the shop. Five knocks in an odd rhythm. Two knocks answered back, followed by the door unlocking, which took what felt like an absurd amount of time. Even in a questionable town, in a possibly criminal-connected business, that seemed like a ludicrous amount of locks and latches.

The door opened, and a masked figure answered. They said nothing to us, just nodded and ushered us in. They pointed to a hatch in the floor, opened it for us, and hurried us both down as quickly as possible. I wasn't entirely unfamiliar with floor hatches, and I doubt this one had a secret dungeon in it. Eira seemed confident in any case. That was good enough for me.

In the pitch darkness, Eira whistled a quiet tune, which summoned the barest wisp of light before her, revealing a narrow passage that reeked of ash and mildew. I looked at Eira, and she quickly shook her head. She held up a finger in front of her mouth as she saw me begin to say something, silencing me immediately. She stood there quietly, craning her head as if she were listening for something, and then motioned for me to follow her.

We made our way through the inky darkness, turning in one direction, and then the next. It felt like being lost in a labyrinth dungeon, and I felt oddly claustrophobic, which didn't happen often. The walls were narrower than most dungeons, and it was throwing off my sense of space. If something attacked us, I wasn't sure what to do.

That worry left me, for soon I felt the sensation of wind and the smell of the sea in my nostrils once again. Soon, I even saw pale light ahead of us. Moonlight, if my guess was correct.

We soon came out to what looked like a cavern that opened out onto the Swordwind Sea itself, the moon hanging in the sky through an opening, looking like the eye of some horrible sea beast older than creation itself. Other than the rocks and water, there was a small dock, looking every bit as though it had seen a score of years submerged in brine, home to nothing but barnacles.

Gads, I was in a poetic mindset tonight. Maybe I could take up poetry as a hobby after I graduate. Or not. Probably not.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a rhythmic splashing sound from the dark water. It got closer and closer, and soon the source of the sound appeared.

It was a boat. A rowboat specifically. In the boat were two individuals, wearing masks like the person above. They wore black clothing, which made their forms hard to discern, except for a green symbol of an hourglass on their chests, just above their hearts. At the sides were blades, curved ones. I had seen a few students using something like those, but I never investigated them.

I was mentally kicking myself for my incuriosity towards my fellow students.

One of them stood in the boat and waved towards us before pulling down their mask.

They had a fair face. Emerald green eyes. Elven ears but with rounded tips. Black facial hair that at once looked trimmed and wild. My immediate impression was that this is what Eira would look like as a man.

"Sister Eira has returned to us for the first time in far too long! A day of celebration is called for!" He said jubilantly in an accent I couldn't quite place, a wide, eager smile complementing a certain twinkle in his eyes that shone even in the moonlit darkness.

"Hello Rhys. As much as I would love to banter, my girlfriend and I would like to get the hells out of here. I hate the Harbor." She said, mirroring the very same accent.

"Girlfriend? The redhead? Ahhhhhhh I see I see. Well, come aboard. I Rhys Medwin, captain of the Rowboat Gillman, welcome my sister by blood, and with the god Peloras' own favor, a future sister as well." Rhys said with an overly dramatic flourish and a bow.

Eira groaned and looked at me. "I'm really sorry, Alta. They sent the most dramatic of my siblings."

"It's fine. What's a family without at least one overly dramatic relative? In my family, that was me, I suppose. Had to make something interesting. Now let's get on the boat before I start growing barnacles or whatever." I made towards the boat.

"Ha! I like this one!" Rhys laughed loudly, his voice echoing off the cavern walls. We all shushed him immediately.

Rhys and his companion helped us aboard, taking our bags and then offering us a hand, making sure we got aboard safely.

"Now then, let's get underway! The rest of the family is waiting for you two." He said, before pushing us away from the dock.

"Everyone?" Eira said, with an audible hitch in her voice.

"Everyone, sister. The whole clan. All 11 siblings. Mother, father, other mother. Second father." Rhys nodded, his tone shifting to one of deep seriousness. Eira visibly cringed at his words before looking towards me.

"Wait. You have how many siblings? And other what? Second what?" I asked, my eyes blinking in the gloom out of bewilderment.

"Um. Yeah. So, you know how I said my family was complicated? It's perhaps a bit more complicated than I let on." She managed to look bashful and ashamed in my direction.

"Other than being pirates?" I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Yeaaah. Way more complicated than being pirates." Eira slumped into the rowboat seat.

"We got time. Explain." I said, parking on the seat across from her, folding my arms in front of me.

Eira looked at Rhys, who only responded with a shrug.

"Yeah, I guess we do have time. Get ready, Alta. This is going to get a bit odd." She sighed.

"I'm good with odd."

"I certainly hope so."