The room was pale beige or creamy white in places. Large windows let a lot of light in, and the whole room felt calm and peaceful. For some reason he could not explain, Comus hated it.

  He was sitting up in the bed he had been in for the last two weeks, leaning against the bedrest, propped up with many pillows. He felt exhausted, and even turning his head to look around the room was a nearly epic task of physical exertion.

  The healers had been fussing over him for the last day as she had finally woken up. He had been trying to make sense of everything that happened, but his mind was a jumbled haze of flashes of confusion and madness. They had given him various tonics that he had identified as he drank them, meant to calm his nerves and mind. He often made them as an apprentice.

  Selmum, the high healer of this church, had been a constant visitor to his room since he had woken. He had been so tired that he had hardly been able to speak, so his questions were unanswered. Today, he was going to get visitors and was preparing himself.

  The last few months were like a fever dream, and he was still shocked by how much time had truly passed. So much had happened or he had done, yet he could not remember or understand any of it. This frightened him in a way that he could not articulate just yet, as he was a man of science and reason, and the loss of his mental faculties was something truly terrifying to him.

  There was a knock at the door, and several people entered.

  Ranus, Elian, Albrot and Selmum Came into the room. Selmum just rode in, but the other three were much more hesitant. From what Comus could make out, they might have had a good reason to be.

  "Comus, we are here to see how you are," Elian spoke as she sat down next to his bed on the only chair in the room. "High Healer Selmum Believes that you are now well enough spoken to."

  "What happened?" Comus croaked out, his throat still dry. Selmum was on the other side of the bed and supplied him with a drink of water from a wooden mug.

  "We believe you were under the effects of the corruption that creates the twisted." Selmum was gentle as she spoke. "We have thoroughly checked you over and can no longer find any signs of it."

  "How?" He asked.

  "We think it happened during the explosion at your lab when the corruption overwhelmed your wards." Albrot supplied.

  Comus closed his eyes and thought back. That made sense to him. Before then, his mind seemed clear and focused, but after that, things started to change.

  "Might be right." Just speaking a few words was taxing to him. He could have ended the conversation right there, but he wanted to have this now, as not having it was driving him mad.

  "We have informed The Alchemist Guild of your awakening and expect you to recover fully," Selmum continued. We think you will be leaving us within the month. We could release you earlier, but the strain your body has gone through has made us keep you here that long."

  "What did I do?" Comus said after a few moments.

  "How much do you remember?" Ranus asked.

  "Little," Comus confessed.

  "Well, after the accident at the Guild, you became far more withdrawn. You continued to do your job but became obsessed with studying the corruption. It got so bad that it affected your health, and we were close to intervening. You seem to understand that and have become far more stable, but we now understand that you were just hiding the problem. It all came to a head when you went into the dungeon." Ranus explained to him. "Something happened to you in there. We don't know what, but the corruption in your body was removed but left you severely weakened and injured. I hate to press, but is there anything you can remember about what happened?"

  A flood of disjointed images, feelings, and terrible pain suddenly hit Comus. It was all too confusing for him to make sense of, but he knew on some instinctual level that something had happened to him there. Something had…… entered him….. no, something had been taken from him. Yes, that was what had happened. Something had reached into him and taken something from him.

  "Remember…. Pain…... Confusion…… something is taken." It was the best he could get out to explain what was in his mind.

  "Breathe, Comus. What you went through was an intense mental, physical, and spiritual event." Selmum sought to soothe him as his breathing had spiked.

  "Take a few moments, Comus and tell us everything you can remember," Albrot spoke.

  Comus did as he wanted…. no need to understand what had happened to him. He felt somehow violated and liberated at the same time. On some level, he understood that he had been saved by something in the dungeon.

  "Remember…. Pull. A call?" Comus tried to explain. "It was coming from the Dungeon."

  "A call?" Elian asked.

  Comus nodded slightly. "Always there. Got stronger as things got stranger."

  He found it frustrating not being able to communicate what he wanted to say entirely, but his mind and body were exhausted and out of sync. He realised it was something more than just physical and mental exhaustion; he was somehow tired in a way he had never experienced before. It was then that he remembered the part about a spiritual impact.

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  "Are you saying that something was drawing you to the dungeon?" Albrot was at the foot of his bed, looking at him intensely.

  Comus just nodded as he was tired and gathering himself for the next words he was going to speak.

  "Always there. Always calling."

  "Take a few moments, and then tell us what happened from your recollections of the day you went into the dungeon." Albrot Was rather scary when he was intense, Comus realised as he looked at him.

  Comus did as he was asked. The more he tried to focus on his last memories, the harder it was, as they were the most chaotic.

  "The call was too strong…... I needed to go in…... Did I get ready? I snuck in…… went downstairs…... Then the pain." It was the best he could do, as everything was impossible to understand.

  "I'm going to say that is enough." Selmum suddenly spoke with an authoritative tone. "He is still too weak for much more than this, and I will not jeopardise his recovery."

  Albrot looked like he was going to argue, but the glare from Selmum silenced any argument she was about to make. She ushered the three out of the room after they had said their goodbyes and promised to return to see how he was in later days.

  The door closed with the four leaving.

  Comus was left in this room once again, but now he had even more questions than answers. What had happened to him in the dungeon? Everything came down to this question; he felt the answer was vital for his sanity and possibly something greater.

  He remembered some of his research into the corruption affecting the world around them. He recalled that it was far more dangerous than anyone realised, even him, as he had been affected by it. He needed to understand what had happened and watch what the future held.

  ## ## ## ## ##

  The three visitors left the House of Healing and returned to Ranu's office. Once there, Albrot set up anti-scrying wards. Comus had not picked up on the tension between Albrot and Ranus. The revelation of the speaking crystal, especially attuned to the Dungeon Core, had not gone down well between them, straining their relationship more.

  "He looks better, at least," Elian spoke, hoping to head off any arguments between the two men.

  "Yes, he does." Ranus agreed.

  "Even though he did not say much, we learned some very important things." Albrot mused.

  "We did. Our theory that the twisted are somehow being drawn here is now confirmed." Elian agreed. "It also seems that the dungeon can somehow remove or deal with the corruption that is creating the twisted."

  "Have you spoken to the core again?" Albrot suddenly asked Ranus.

  "No. I have attempted over the last few days, but I seem to be being ignored at the moment."

  "From now on, an Adventurer Guild representative should be with you when you attempt that," Albrot said.

  Ranus bristled at the tone. "Actually, I will not. If one is present when I attempt, so be it, but I will not be ordered in this by you."

  "Enough!" Elian snapped out to head off another argument. "There is too much happening here that we do not understand to argue amongst ourselves. We need to stay on course and share information. Something is happening here that we must be focused on, or it may doom us all."

  Both men turned and glared at her, but their looks softened as they realised she was right.

  "How much of the list of what you owed to the dungeon has been supplied?" She sought to steer the conversation away from the more controversial aspects of what had happened recently.

  "Several of the required mana stones have been sourced, and I will be dropping them off tonight," Ranus told her.

  "And the rest?" She asked.

  "They are still a few weeks away from arriving, but I got everything."

  "You know, when you supply everything to the dungeon, it will start to make it exponentially more dangerous." Albrot pointed out.

  "A deal was struck, and I intend to honour it. Anyway, I am only doing a task with this dungeon as we both know it was becoming far more dangerous every time a new floor appeared." Ranus counted.

  That was a point that they could not argue, as this dungeon was now becoming legendary for its ability to surprise and ignore conventions.

  "There are two things you should be aware of, Lord Goldwind." Albrot started. "The adventurers Guild is sending someone to oversee things here who is higher ranked than I. The second is that the adventurer Doltum will be returning to the city within a few days."

  Ranus blinked in surprise at this news. "Who is coming to oversee the city then?"

  "Avernace."

  Ranus started choking in surprise and then coughing.

  "Avernace! She runs the adventurers Guild on this continent," he spluttered.

  "Yes, she does. Your humble city and its dungeon has attracted the most powerful adventurers on this continent to it. I don't know whether to be surprised or horrified, but your life is about to change." Albrot seemed honest in his assessment.

  "When should she arrive?" Ranus demanded.

  "That's the thing with the boss. She comes and goes when she decides and tells no one. She is a power onto herself that few dare challenge. The stories you have heard probably don't even come close to what she can do."

  "Is there anything we can do to prepare?" Ranus asked.

  "Not a thing. When she reveals herself, she will tell us what we need to know or do." Albrot said. "Prepare yourself, Lord Ranus, prepare yourself."

  ## ## ## ## ##

  Outside the building, a slightly built woman was leaning against a wall. She appeared to be in her late 30s but somehow gave the impression of being older. She was wearing nondescript clothing that had to blend in with the bulk of the people around her. Her features spoke of being from the far West, but her eyes were a deep Violet. She carried no open weapons but had a satchel flung across her chest.

  Her attention was focused on the building in front of her where the local Lord lived and ran his city from. Albrot's anti-scrying wards were good but not good enough to stop her abilities.

  "I am going to have to speak to that boy." She muttered to herself.

  She had arrived three days ago and spent the time wandering the city. She had seen far better, but she had seen far worse. What had impressed her was the energy within the city and its potential to become so much more. It had been centuries since she had last seen such a sight.

  She remembered the old empire and the numerous cities that were similar to this one when they were younger. She thought her people had lost the ability to surprise her, but this city was full of them.

  "What will it be, I wonder?" She muttered to herself.

  She had avoided going to the Guild or revealing herself to anyone else within the city as she wanted to get a feel for it before her presence was known. This also involved going to the dungeon, but she was going to have to change that very soon. Too many questions needed answers, and she wanted to see this core causing such concern among her peers and underlings.

  She suspected that some within the city had hints of her presence, but she knew she could hide even from them. If the divine got involved, things would change, but they seemed more interested in maintaining the status quo here.

  "Balance between the pantheon. What strange times indeed."

  She pushed herself slightly off the wall and started walking towards the market. Around here, the city was alive and bustling, like so many others, but the big difference was the number of non-humans she saw wandering the streets. She had not seen numbers like this before the old empire fell or along the coastal cities with extensive trade or dungeons.

  "The dungeon is up to something. I will wait until it's finished and then pop in and say hello."

  The nondescript woman disappeared into the crowds.