One thing became increasingly clear as Argin kept talking. She was lying. I wasn't exactly sure what the lie was, but after observing her doting over her grandfather for the last day, she sure had a lot of pent-up complaints. To be fair, I'd be pretty annoyed if he'd left me to die in a dungeon too.

  Oh wait.

  "So you're saying he left you here to take Tandy because of old Iron Lung here? That somehow Tandy is worth more to him than his own granddaughter?" Meredeath didn’t hide her disgust or skepticism. It sounded like she didn't believe Argin either. Nothing Argin had said had made me particularly sympathetic to the old man.

  I kept one eye on the monster circling the enclosure during the conversation. The long-necked pincher looked like it could reach the campfire, and if the dungeon had taught me anything, it was that you were the least safe as soon as you let your guard down.

  "I can't believe you don't understand the significance of what she did." She ran her hand through her wavy brown hair, gazing off into the distance as though she were seeing a reality we weren't. Argin wasn't dressed like she was from some rich family of mages, she wore the plain tan wraps of someone who traveled for a living.

  "They're dust eaters." Leyla said. ‘Dust eaters’ seemed to be just another way of calling us idiots. There were no bounds to the woman’s lack of common courtesy. I found it ironic that Leyla had an unlimited number of insults for the ever-decreasing number of people trying to save her life. "I still can't believe it, and I saw it with my own eyes."

  "Explain it to us real slow, like we're idiots." I didn't bother hiding irritation in my voice. " We're not [Mages] and we're not from around here." I paused, my frustration bubbling out of me. "Freaking Tandy, why didn't she tell us what was going on?"

  "I don't know why anyone would hide secrets about their class in our group," Meredeath said in a low monotone, giving me side-eye.

  Touche.

  We sat there quietly for a moment, the slow drip of water from the top of the bubble hitting the haunch of the ox's hip.

  "That drip's new," I said, trying to save face. I refused to meet Meredeath's eyes, as my shame burned in my cheeks.

  Ash stood, as though his five-foot-three frame would get him close enough to the drip to help his analysis.

  Argin watched our short maganical king for a moment, shaking her head, before explaining.

  "She cast a new spell. There have been no new spells in five-hundred years. Every [Spellcrafter] was killed during the cataclysm, and with them, the ability to make new magic. We’ve just been recycling the same two hundred spells since. I'm not sure how she did it, or why someone with so much talent is..." At least she had enough sense to stop herself from finishing the sentence.

  I had seen plenty of magical acts in my short stint of being an [Adventurer], I just didn't see what the big deal was.

  "They've been only using... templates for magic?" Ash said the words slowly, still looking at the ceiling.

  "Yes! Finally, you understand!" Ash’s follow-up cut Argin’s elation short.

  "Why not just sketch a new circuit for the magic to flow through?" The innocence of his question stopped Argin’s arrogance in its tracks like nothing Cole could have said. Ash rifled around in his pocket for his ever-present pencil. Upon finding it, he held his now glowing pencil out. Quickly, he began sketching in the air a glowing geometric sigil that rotated before him.

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  "Wh-what is that?" Argin stuttered her question out completely astounded. Personally, I hadn't seen Ash create a rotating glowing diagram before, but it wasn't completely revolutionary. I'd seen him sketch diagrams on napkins as long as I'd known him.

  "Got this skill upgrade after the bombs!" Ash flashed me a grin. I'd been wondering who got the credit for those kills. He waved at his diagram. "This is what I've worked out so far about his lung." Ash's forehead wrinkled in concentration. His voice came out slowly as he used two fingers to twist the diagram. He squinted at me, flipped his pencil and erased a section. "Maganically, anyway. No doubt it's impressive, but I'll figure it out. The real mystery is how she powered it. Anything I would have put in his chest would have exploded by now."

  I looked down at the glowing chunk shivering, wondering if I had a doomsday timer hidden in my chest.

  Argin stood studying the diagram. Her lips pursed as she reached out a tentative finger. With a nod from Ash, she traced the lines with her finger, all the frustration on her face dropping away for a childlike wonder. I could tell she was experiencing the type of breakthrough that Leo and I had only dreamed of as kids.

  I caught a motion and twisted my head. The sea monster's wide-set eyes looked at me unblinking, its neck bent as though preparing to strike.

  I stared it down, letting it know that the ambush it'd been planning had failed. I dared the beast to attack. It might have been complete bravado, but the best bluffs were. Besides, we had killed all of its friends. The dead carcass of the Mosas bobbed in the surf above us, even as a school of smaller fish took turns pulling at its flesh.

  The creature blinked, snapping its jaw in frustration, and turned its back to us for a moment as it did a wide circle. [Animal Intention] told me this was a power move. That it was posturing, trying to show me it didn't consider me a threat. Even though its ambush had been forestalled. I used [Analyze].

  [Tuli Monster - This is the alpha of the deep. It sees all and reaches most. With an elongated neck and pincer-based mouth, few prey are out of its reach. However, physical attacks are merely half of this powerful psychic creature's attack profile.]

  Argin and Ash were talking animatedly. Meredeath monitored the Tuli Monster. She'd caught its attempted ambush as well. Leyla'd done nothing but pout the entire time.

  I watched the beast. Powerful psychic. I'd never seen a creature described as such. The closest the Heltenic forest around Woodsten had was a mushroom that sprung up at the end of winter, the Purple Eclipse. It sent mental waves out to the unsuspecting that would induce sleep. Every once in a while it'd catch an ignorant traveler within its psychic reach and they'd be found, body shriveled in the mushroom's mycelium.

  The drip at the top of the enclosure had increased in volume.

  Richard still hadn't woken up.

  The creature winked at me. It was a slow, purposeful wink accented by a swivel of its neck giving me a toothy grin.

  The creature was toying with us.

  I glanced down at Richard's curled form next to the fire and back to the Tuli Monster. It was keeping him down. Leyla scooted back to the ox carcass, using the mostly whole haunch as a backrest for a couch. She slumped against it, yawning.

  It took everything in me not to mimic her yawn. I was tired. Surviving the tornado of killer leaves, the descent into the dungeon, fighting two giant sea monsters and being eaten by an oversized bitey tuna had taken its toll. I just needed a nap. It was as though a fog had descended on my consciousness. Part of me knew it was a psychic trap, that I'd fallen under its spell the moment I’d made direct eye contact. But I found myself sitting in the sand, next to Meredeath.

  Her face also locked onto the creature.

  She whispered, the loudest she could manage.

  "It's got us, hasn’t it?"

  I slumped against her, my body relaxing as I nodded, not even able to bring myself to answer.

  Ash and Argin talked on, lost in their own fog of maganical diagrams.

  The deep kills in multiple ways. It might be the sharp bite of the tooth, or conversely the slow sink into the mind numbing cold voice of the deep.

  I always thought I'd go out fighting, but in hindsight, this was a lot more enjoyable.

  My eyes closed as I listened to the comforting sound of Ash explaining magic flow dynamics in a reverse osmosis filtration system.

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