“I’m sure I have no idea—” Lynnria yelled, then stopped to calm herself. “Look, what do you want, anyway?”
She blanched, immediately regretting the question.
“Sorry. Oh… okay, it’s right here.”
Leaning forward, she touched the lid just above the seam. “It’s right here,” she said. Then a moment later, she began dragging her finger to the left.
“Like this?”
She twitched.
“Uh huh…”
There was a pause.
“I think it stops here. Okay.”
Her finger retraced its path, moving right until she got nearly to the edge of the box. “And that’s the other end of it.”
She sat listening for a while, her tail swishing back and forth idly. It was cat-like in a way. Or perhaps a lion.
I quirked an eyebrow. You know… if you tied a bow on the end, it would look kind of like that one character from ‘The Littles.’ Only with purple hair on the end. What was her name? The one with the pig-tails… Geez, I haven’t thought of that show in ages.
That random thought inexplicably lead me to another much more salient one.
Mia’s explanation had definitely had a few holes in it, but she had not been pretending otherwise. There were things at play which neither of us had any explanation for.
However…
If Mia really was some sort of piece of Bline that had been grafted onto me—whatever the hell that was supposed to mean—and she could now jump back and forth between my mind and Lynnria’s… and Lynnria was now exhibiting certain traits…
I could not see how the two could possibly be unrelated.
But why would my… essence—or however that was manifesting within Mia—cause Lynnria to grow a tail? Obviously, there were quite a few parallels between all of this and the lilim, but it was all messed up! And what was with the teeth? Twice now, I had seen them mysteriously sharpen only to return to their natural shapes. But the tail had stayed? And she believed she had always had it.
I shook my head. None of this makes any sense.
“Okay, that makes sense,” Lynnria said, the coincidental phrasing breaking my chain of thought. “But why—uh, that is… I don’t understand why it would need so many Words just for a lock.”
There was another pause for the unheard explanation.
“It has to be that specific?”
She flinched then sighed.
“Okay, okay…”
Leaning forward again, she found the other spot she had mentioned on the lid. “It’s here.”
Slowly, the two of them went over the second engraving until Mia was satisfied. Finally, Lynnria looked back up at me again.
“Mia says it’s definitely a riddle of some kind. The box is… Hmm… how did she say it? ‘Primed to listen?’” she explained uncertainly, cocking her head for confirmation. Nodding, she continued, “There’s some kind of key word, I think. Then it should pop open. But the answer is being… suspended? I don’t understand that part, Mia.”
There was a moment of silence before she glanced up at me again.
“She says its some kind of trick you can use to hide the answer in case the person who finds the lock can read.”
She blinked.
“That’s what I said—I did so! What other way can you pronounce it?”
The left side of her face twitched.
“What does capitalization have to do with anything?”
Ignoring the rest of the ongoing one-sided conversation, I instead turned my attention back to the riddle itself.
“A bargain struck ‘tween Great and Low,” I murmured softly. “Hmm… no idea there. Maybe… king to subject? God to man?” It might have even been in reference to some legend or fairy tale I had never heard of.
I glanced to Lynnria for help but, as she was still arguing with Mia, I decided to skip that part for now.
“Of shattered soul to guard.” Hmm… shattered soul, eh?
That line would have been a complete mystery to me had Mia not just explained what Faen were. If a portion of a Goddess’ essence could be separated out and given form, then I had to suppose ‘shattered soul’ was a reasonable—if poetic—description.
But to guard? Why would Faen need to be guarded?
I frowned. Maybe I’m off-base here.
Deciding to move on, I muttered out the rest of the riddle to myself, “Why for should I then gifts bestow with bargain’s spirit marred?”
I stared at the line for some seconds before carefully rereading the whole of the riddle again. Overall, it felt like someone complaining about having to do a job when the entire reason they were doing it had been compromised by a broken deal. But I had no context to work with.
And weirdly, I had the strangest impression that this message was meant for me. Specifically. Which made the lack of context all the more bizarre.
I crossed my arms while I considered the problem, gently tapping my fingers along my elbow. There was something bothering me about all this, as if there was something in the back of my mind tickling me. Somehow, seemingly disparate events along the timeline of the last month or so had been scattered as breadcrumbs for me to pick out and follow. Except some birds had come along and snatched up several of the most crucial of morsels.
And strange as that metaphor was, that was what made it click.
Dreams! Ah hell…
At some point, I had to have been visited in a dream, unknowingly made a deal of some kind, and now I had broken the deal because—of course—I had no fucking clue I had even made the thing in the first place. I did not even know when it might have happened.
For all I knew, it could have been the very reason I had been summoned to this world at all!
Well, that’s just great. Now what am I going to do?
The only perpetrator I could think of had to be one of the goddesses. It did seem like Bline was a little pissed at me, for whatever reason, but if something like this had gone down, Mia surely would have said so by now. Especially after reading that message.
As for Ahnbe… I had to suppose it was possible. The entire reason She had come after me in the first place had to do with some offering I had made. And during a dream, no less. Although… we had not ended up making anything like a bargain until after the fact.
Hmm… more like a pact, really. And what a strange thing that had been. Some goddess gets a little randy, and now I have to get good for Her sake?
It kind of made me envious of the old Greek myths. At least when Zeus needed to get his rocks off, he did not need his mortal trysts to go on epic quests of self-improvement. He would just turn into a duck or something and Bob’s your uncle. Although, then they would have to deal with Hera getting pissy about it.
So not a total loss.
The only other goddess I had any dealings with was this Xhinn. Though, whether She was angry or not was a toss-up. She had certainly sounded angry the last time I had heard Her voice, but then She had left me that strangely formal and exceedingly polite letter… after having devoured an entire town to get to me.
Yeah… it’s probably Her. So, I’ve broken some kind of bargain, have I? I glanced once more at the locked chest. And now She’s withholding treasure? Or… no. She’s asking a question. With an answer.
For a moment, I thought back to that letter. She had been very exacting on a couple of points. She could not just summon me directly to talk. I had to first go through the hardship of the Dungeon.
Because it was Her nature. And… if it was Her nature.
She… can’t withhold treasure. Not when it was justly gained.
Not even when She Herself had been wronged.
It was a sad realization. Despite everything She had done and likely would do in the future, this Demon Queen was like a prisoner here. Forced to be the eternal dungeon master for an entire population, who themselves were the unwitting and often unwilling players in some grand game of D&D.
And now I’m trapped here, too.
But at least I now knew the answer.
“Because it is your Purpose,” I whispered.
With a soft, almost morose click, the lid—itself scratched and worn like the prisoner whose message it bore—popped open.
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
“I’m sure I have no idea—” Lynnria yelled, then stopped to calm herself. “Look, what do you want, anyway?”
She blanched, immediately regretting the question.
“Sorry. Oh… okay, it’s right here.”
Leaning forward, she touched the lid just above the seam. “It’s right here,” she said. Then a moment later, she began dragging her finger to the left.
“Like this?”
She twitched.
“Uh huh…”
There was a pause.
“I think it stops here. Okay.”
Her finger retraced its path, moving right until she got nearly to the edge of the box. “And that’s the other end of it.”
She sat listening for a while, her tail swishing back and forth idly. It was cat-like in a way. Or perhaps a lion.
I quirked an eyebrow. You know… if you tied a bow on the end, it would look kind of like that one character from ‘The Littles.’ Only with purple hair on the end. What was her name? The one with the pig-tails… Geez, I haven’t thought of that show in ages.
That random thought inexplicably lead me to another much more salient one.
Mia’s explanation had definitely had a few holes in it, but she had not been pretending otherwise. There were things at play which neither of us had any explanation for.
However…
If Mia really was some sort of piece of Bline that had been grafted onto me—whatever the hell that was supposed to mean—and she could now jump back and forth between my mind and Lynnria’s… and Lynnria was now exhibiting certain traits…
I could not see how the two could possibly be unrelated.
But why would my… essence—or however that was manifesting within Mia—cause Lynnria to grow a tail? Obviously, there were quite a few parallels between all of this and the lilim, but it was all messed up! And what was with the teeth? Twice now, I had seen them mysteriously sharpen only to return to their natural shapes. But the tail had stayed? And she believed she had always had it.
I shook my head. None of this makes any sense.
“Okay, that makes sense,” Lynnria said, the coincidental phrasing breaking my chain of thought. “But why—uh, that is… I don’t understand why it would need so many Words just for a lock.”
There was another pause for the unheard explanation.
“It has to be that specific?”
She flinched then sighed.
“Okay, okay…”
Leaning forward again, she found the other spot she had mentioned on the lid. “It’s here.”
Slowly, the two of them went over the second engraving until Mia was satisfied. Finally, Lynnria looked back up at me again.
“Mia says it’s definitely a riddle of some kind. The box is… Hmm… how did she say it? ‘Primed to listen?’” she explained uncertainly, cocking her head for confirmation. Nodding, she continued, “There’s some kind of key word, I think. Then it should pop open. But the answer is being… suspended? I don’t understand that part, Mia.”
There was a moment of silence before she glanced up at me again.
“She says its some kind of trick you can use to hide the answer in case the person who finds the lock can read.”
She blinked.
“That’s what I said—I did so! What other way can you pronounce it?”
The left side of her face twitched.
“What does capitalization have to do with anything?”
Ignoring the rest of the ongoing one-sided conversation, I instead turned my attention back to the riddle itself.
“A bargain struck ‘tween Great and Low,” I murmured softly. “Hmm… no idea there. Maybe… king to subject? God to man?” It might have even been in reference to some legend or fairy tale I had never heard of.
I glanced to Lynnria for help but, as she was still arguing with Mia, I decided to skip that part for now.
“Of shattered soul to guard.” Hmm… shattered soul, eh?
That line would have been a complete mystery to me had Mia not just explained what Faen were. If a portion of a Goddess’ essence could be separated out and given form, then I had to suppose ‘shattered soul’ was a reasonable—if poetic—description.
But to guard? Why would Faen need to be guarded?
I frowned. Maybe I’m off-base here.
Deciding to move on, I muttered out the rest of the riddle to myself, “Why for should I then gifts bestow with bargain’s spirit marred?”
I stared at the line for some seconds before carefully rereading the whole of the riddle again. Overall, it felt like someone complaining about having to do a job when the entire reason they were doing it had been compromised by a broken deal. But I had no context to work with.
And weirdly, I had the strangest impression that this message was meant for me. Specifically. Which made the lack of context all the more bizarre.
I crossed my arms while I considered the problem, gently tapping my fingers along my elbow. There was something bothering me about all this, as if there was something in the back of my mind tickling me. Somehow, seemingly disparate events along the timeline of the last month or so had been scattered as breadcrumbs for me to pick out and follow. Except some birds had come along and snatched up several of the most crucial of morsels.
And strange as that metaphor was, that was what made it click.
Dreams! Ah hell…
At some point, I had to have been visited in a dream, unknowingly made a deal of some kind, and now I had broken the deal because—of course—I had no fucking clue I had even made the thing in the first place. I did not even know when it might have happened.
For all I knew, it could have been the very reason I had been summoned to this world at all!
Well, that’s just great. Now what am I going to do?
The only perpetrator I could think of had to be one of the goddesses. It did seem like Bline was a little pissed at me, for whatever reason, but if something like this had gone down, Mia surely would have said so by now. Especially after reading that message.
As for Ahnbe… I had to suppose it was possible. The entire reason She had come after me in the first place had to do with some offering I had made. And during a dream, no less. Although… we had not ended up making anything like a bargain until after the fact.
Hmm… more like a pact, really. And what a strange thing that had been. Some goddess gets a little randy, and now I have to get good for Her sake?
It kind of made me envious of the old Greek myths. At least when Zeus needed to get his rocks off, he did not need his mortal trysts to go on epic quests of self-improvement. He would just turn into a duck or something and Bob’s your uncle. Although, then they would have to deal with Hera getting pissy about it.
So not a total loss.
The only other goddess I had any dealings with was this Xhinn. Though, whether She was angry or not was a toss-up. She had certainly sounded angry the last time I had heard Her voice, but then She had left me that strangely formal and exceedingly polite letter… after having devoured an entire town to get to me.
Yeah… it’s probably Her. So, I’ve broken some kind of bargain, have I? I glanced once more at the locked chest. And now She’s withholding treasure? Or… no. She’s asking a question. With an answer.
For a moment, I thought back to that letter. She had been very exacting on a couple of points. She could not just summon me directly to talk. I had to first go through the hardship of the Dungeon.
Because it was Her nature. And… if it was Her nature.
She… can’t withhold treasure. Not when it was justly gained.
Not even when She Herself had been wronged.
It was a sad realization. Despite everything She had done and likely would do in the future, this Demon Queen was like a prisoner here. Forced to be the eternal dungeon master for an entire population, who themselves were the unwitting and often unwilling players in some grand game of D&D.
And now I’m trapped here, too.
But at least I now knew the answer.
“Because it is your Purpose,” I whispered.
With a soft, almost morose click, the lid—itself scratched and worn like the prisoner whose message it bore—popped open.
Seleroan
Hey there, gentle reader.
Enjoying the content? Well, why not drop by my Patreon? It helps me keep this show running, and allows me to afford great things like editors, cover artists, and food!
Each chapter is now being personalized with some... passable chapter-inspired AI generated art. I try. But it gives things a bit of color. And you can read ahead!
Come on down! We'd love to see you.
