When Thesa awoke again in Zynchra’s chamber far beneath the earth, Merijest’s hand was running through her hair.

  “H-huh…” Thesa tried to speak but her throat was like a rusted hinge and her mind was still surfacing from the well of unconsciousness.

  “Shhh,” Merijest said. She put a cool hand on Thesa’s warm cheek. “It’s ok.”

  Beneath Thesa’s neck, Frostbite was curled up and radiating cold for Thesa’s sake.

  To one side, Witmie and Durn sat close by holding hands and observing Thesa. On the other side, Zynchra sat with the Bronze Motif in their lap.

  “Did I interrupt something?” Thesa asked.

  Merijest chuckled. “We were just discussing our next move in a [Party Message] so we wouldn’t wake you.”

  Thesa nodded softly. Her head was still a little cloudy, but she asked to be let into the conversation regardless.

  “When we get to the castle on the other end of the labyrinth,” Witmie recounted, “we will head to the shipwreck [Dungeon] in the next [Hex] and hopefully find a boat to take us out to sea.”

  “I’m still worried,” Thesa admitted. “Beautuk’s mother, Owtem, has an affinity with the ocean. It might not be safe.”

  “Nowhere in ItherBeau is safe either,” Merijest shrugged. “I’m still not sure why Beautuk hasn’t attacked us more directly when we’ve been on the surface. That’s why speed might be our highest priority in this instance. We have no idea what is holding Beautuk back or how much longer it will.”

  Thesa nodded then began coughing again.

  “The last thing I want is to rush you now,” Merijest said softly. “But the Solstice is only 11 days off. My powers will be at their weakest and Beautuk will be at his strongest. We need to get out of this region before then. Durn and I will give you another pass of healing magic before we head out.”

  Thesa closed her eyes and nodded. “And what will Zynchra do?” She asked before turning to Zynchra and restating the question. “What will you do?”

  “Stay and protect bodies,” Zynchra [Messaged]. “Perhaps with the Bronze Motif?”

  “That might be for the best,” Merijest sighed. She glanced over at Frostbite. The tiny Peppermint Wyrm was a source of fear for the Bronze Motif. They might have learned to co-exist but the Bronze Motif was quite jumpy and would probably do better in an environment free of the fear of predation.

  “I think we should keep in mind my other idea,” Witmie said, resuming discussion about the plan. “If we are able to take a hostage, we would get a bargaining chip and a source of what’s been going on throughout ItherBeau.”

  “It’s not a bad idea,” Merijest replied. “But we can’t guarantee that opportunity will come up. If it does, we should be careful not to take their word at face value.”

  ***

  The path to the far castle was a learning experience. Thesa’s [Corvoid] form proved a slightly more reliable way to move without the use of both legs. Still, adjusting to the change in balance was its own challenge and holding the form for too long would be exhausting.

  “Don’t look at me!” Thesa cried as she accidentally reverted to her half-elf form a few meters ahead of the party. Yabba was kind enough to charge up and place its bulky wooden body in front of Thesa to maintain her modesty while Merijest delivered her clothes.

  Everyone refrained from teasing Thesa in this instant, which almost made her feel more uncomfortable.

  Thesa also tried to lean on Merijest’s shoulder with her halberd used for additional balance. That approach was too slow for moving through potentially hostile areas.

  In the end, Thesa found herself piggybacking on Merijest’s back. It was relaxing and as proud as Thesa was she needed it. Reluctantly and for the first time, she simply allowed herself to enjoy (just a little!) the feeling of her demoness’s torso against her inner thighs.

  Still recovering and tired yet again, she buried her face in Merijest’s feathers and closed her eyes.

  ***

  The castle on the other end– Gorklin Castle according to both Witmie’s map and Zynchra– differed minimally from the previous castle. They emerged into the back of a nook off of a hallway adjacent to the ballroom. The banners were silver and green. The building itself was longer and thinner than the almost circular arrangement seen before.

  As far as Zynchra could recall, there weren’t any old prosthetics (not that they would fit) or wheelchairs in the castle. Anything special or unique like that was probably looted some time ago. While Quelic Castle on the other side had seen limited exploration and disruption due to the monsters crawling around its exterior and the broken mechanisms, this one had been mostly gutted.

  Thesa remained on Merijest’s back. Her arms and legs clung tightly.

  ***

  The wreck of the St. Creer was further inland than one might expect owing to changes in the coastline over the years since the vessel first washed ashore. Off the center of a circle of sand, the shipwreck-turned-entrance was the size of a large cabin. A large split in the hull served as the way into the [Dungeon] below. Thesa wondered if the structure had actually ever been used by [Pirates] or other seafaring adventurers, or if it was all for show.

  Witmie and Durn followed at the back of the party while The Foxtapus covered the front, ready to summon psychic defenses whenever necessary. Yabba followed close behind Merijest who still had Thesa on her back. She had regained some of her energy, and Merijest’s healing magic made for a quicker recovery, but the demoness still worried about her [Witch] overdoing it.

  As the party approached the wreck of the St. Creer, the ground shook and a Bone Medley emerged with a large crack in its face. The party took a defensive stance but the Bone Medley shook its head. Before it, a line of three barrels emerged from the sand as well. The Bone Medley lifted the middle barrel to show a draconic creature painted on its underside. Then it placed the barrel back in the line. With a clattery clap of its bony hands, the barrels began to move around one another as if the sand itself were pushing them. After a few seconds, the movement stopped and the Bone Medley shrugged its shoulders to imply the question at hand.

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  “I think I saw it land on the right,” Thesa [Messaged]. The rest of the party nodded in agreement, so she pointed over Merijest’s shoulder. “It’s on the right.”

  The Bone Medley gave a clattery applause, then lifted the rightmost barrel to reveal the painted underside. With that it stepped to the side and nodded.

  “That was fun,” Thesa said. “More [Dungeon] encounters should be like that.”

  “Almost too fun,” Witmie said through an anxious smile. “Hopefully this doesn’t turn out to be like the Candy Mantis all over again…”

  ***

  ***

  The party proceeded to the first [Floor] of the small [Dungeon]. The first chamber after the stairs was small with a raised pedestal in the middle where a partially rolled parchment map laid ready for the taking.

  “Does this feel like a trap to anyone else?” Thesa [Messaged].

  “We probably shouldn’t touch the map directly,” Merijest nodded.

  “Let me just copy it down in case,” Witmie interjected. “Even if we touch it from afar it could disintegrate or something. Remember when that happened?”

  Everyone looked confused.

  “Durn, you know, in that one cave [Dungeon] with the AntLion?”

  Durn nodded. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that. What a rough day.”

  As Witmie scribbled in her notebook, she and Durn reminisced about some prior adventure.

  Yabba was happy to play a game of ‘catch the dead bird’ with the Foxtapus.

  Thesa took the opportunity to sit against the wall.

  Merijest stood beside her. From the floor, the demoness’s height was only further emphasized and her tail draped playfully on the back of Thesa’s neck. Thesa found herself looking at Merijest’s legs. At first, she’d been thinking about how clean the healing looked. The faintest line of discoloration bordered the regrown limb and the rest of Merijest’s body. Thesa was overwhelmed by the closeness she felt to the demoness. In a way, that was Thesa’s own leg. Then Thesa’s attention drifted to the intricate layering of Merijest’s leg scales. Merijest really was enchanting down to the last detail.

  On the one hand, Thesa admonished herself as usual, but she tried to push that aside.

  This is ok…maybe.

  But after a minute or so, she had to look away with warm cheeks. Her thoughts were…getting away from her.

  When Witmie finished copying it all down, everyone backed up into the stairwell and Thesa tossed a pebble onto the map. Instantly, the parchment rolled itself up like a tongue and then, finding no meal but the pebble, unfurled itself panting. It was a Map Mimic.

  ***

  ***

  The paper hands of the Map Mimic were grabby, but its reach was short, so everyone carefully shimmied around it one-by-one. Thesa crawled quickly to the other side before getting back onto Merijest’s back.

  In the next room, Room F according to Witmie’s labelling, a half-dozen Bone Medlies in worn-out [Pirate] gear were littered throughout the room, dead.

  “What happened here?” Thesa [Messaged] the group.

  “There must be a party of adventurers ahead of us,” Witmie replied. The rest of the party nodded.

  They made their way to the entrance of chamber A where they saw a key hooked to the wall behind a line of cannons. The cannons fired on a regular interval, although there was no obvious mechanism for reloading and when the cannonballs collided with the far wall they dissipated into magic energy.

  “I can handle this,” Thesa said. She quickly took on her [Corvoid] form. From the ground, she fluttered her wings and lifted herself awkwardly onto one talon before taking to the air and flying above the line of fire. Key-in-talon she returned to the party, but found herself at a loss as to how she should land without a free leg. She probably should have held it in her beak, but that would have been gross.

  As Thesa tried to decide on a solution, Merijest approached with her hands out to take the key. Startled out of contemplation, Thesa dropped the key with a squawk and found herself starting to revert from her [Corvoid] form in mid-air. As her consciousness floated up, Thesa realized the potential consequences of becoming an air-born, naked half-elf again. She willed the transformation to stop and found herself returning to her [Corvoid] body, but the whole ordeal had thrown her off balance and she nearly fell to the ground if not for Merijest catching her.

  Thesa reverted to her half-elf form and climbed back onto Merijest’s back.

  ***

  In Room H, a gap in the floor separated the east side of the room from a pressure plate on the west side. Merijest flew over to investigate and Thesa joined her, again in her [Corvoid] form. Merijest pressed on the plate. As it sank, the door to Room I slowly lifted. But when the plate mechanism stopped, the door had barely lifted.

  “I think it’s stuck on something,” Merijest said.

  Thesa, being at that moment a small bird, clung to the side of the pressure plate’s platform and peered inside. Half-flaps of her wings maintained her balance. With her beak, she fished out a small dagger someone had crammed into the machine. After that, Merijest carried Yabba over to the plate and the Nest Walker began spitting bird corpses onto the plate. Every few corpses, the southern door lifted another smidge.

  Thesa joined Witmie and Durn, who were seated on the east side of the room, petting the Foxtapus.

  “How did a dagger get in there?” Durn asked. “It would have to really be in there to stop the pressure plate.”

  Thesa placed the dagger on the ground, then with an empty beak she squawked, “Maybe a party of adventurers put it there? The design on the handle looks familiar, but I can’t place it.”

  “But why go to all the trouble? If they wanted to go ahead, they’d need to find a way to jam the dagger in after they exited the room,” Witmie said. She lifted the dagger and turned it over a few times.

  “Maybe they didn’t want to go forward,” Thesa replied. The squawkiness of her [Corvoid] voice only furthered as she hesitated through describing an unlikely scenario. “Maybe they needed to leave for something but didn’t want anybody else passing them up while they were gone?”

  In Room I, everyone in the party had to spread out so that each could press down a different weighted tile switch.

  Thesa plopped on her stomach in the tent. “Gah! My body is so tired…” she moaned. She was ready to pass out for a few hours.

  Merijest climbing into the tent behind her.

  “Take it easy, kitten,” Merijest said with a chuckle. “How about I give you a massage?”

  Thesa suddenly felt wide awake. “I– uh– you don’t have to– ohhhhh.” Thesa’s stammering was interrupted by the smooth hands of her demoness. She traced her claws lightly across Thesa’s skin and worked her fingers into her neck muscles.

  “That armor of yours is getting in the way,” Merijest purred. “How about you take it off so I can get you comfortable?”

  Thanks again to everyone for your patience! I ended up getting the art finalized on Saturday and didn't want to put the chapter up on Sunday. Plus I realized it might be nice to have a little more time to work on final edits of the last arc (this volume is separated into arcs by the Lelly Chapters) since I'm having trouble with some elements and the arc beginning with this chapter is on the shorter side.

  My question for this week is: what are some of your favorite RPGs (video games, table top, live action, etc)?

  ***

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