Dungeon Runner
The Tiger Writes
sciencefiction
sciencefiction
31K5
Tibs survived by picking pockets; until he's caught.
Instead of losing a hand, he's sent away and told he must now survive a dungeon.
How is a kid who knew nothing more than his ...Bottom Rung, Chapter 20
"Can my problem with the water essence cause me to hear things," Tibs asked as he followed Alistair. When he'd met him at the training tent, Alistair and told him they were going to a different location and hadn't elaborated.
Tibs had hoped to head into the guild house; he wanted a sense of the building now that he was trying to plan something. He could enter whenever he wanted, but he didn't want to attract any attention doing it. Instead they headed away from it.
"What are you hearing?" the older rogue asked.
"Sort of like scratching. At first, I thought it was rats because I heard it in the boulder room, but I hear it in the trap room too, and I know there's nothing there. I thought it might be the traps resetting, but I played with the ones we train with, and nothing sounds like it. The teacher said that the dungeon only resets the traps when we're outside, but he couldn't tell me why. And..." he trailed off, "now I'm not sure what I heard."
"Do you hear it all the time?" Alistair asked, but he didn't sound worried.
Tibs thought about it. He hadn't considered that before. "Just in the dungeon."
"Then it may be related to your essence, but not how you fear," he added as Tibs began to worry. "The dungeon is the only place you have to strain yourself to use your water essence because your life depends on it. It's a strain that has been known to cause people to hear, see or think something unusual was happening. You don't need to worry about it, as you gain experience, and you catch up with where you should be with your essence, the noises will go away."
Tibs saw the platform, with the long line of people waiting to step on it; and like before, Alistair stepped up, ignoring everyone who came before him. He stopped before the circle on the platform since a family, along with one of the attendants in the golden robe, were already within it. Tibs studied the woman as she gestured, noting her eyes matched the gold of her robe. If he understood what she did, and could recreate it, he'd be able to leave if he needed to.
"Watching won't help," Alistair said as they disappeared in a glow of multiple colors. "She doesn't need to do the motions. They just act as a mnemonic system to create the right mindset. It's like the exercise of drawing your knife as you channel the essence through it. Once you're skilled enough, you no longer have to do it that way, you can simply hold the knife and create the right mindset."
Alistair stepped on and a different attendant joined them, standing next to the rogue. "If you watch, you'll see I don't use the same motions." As he said, his motions were different, and then they were in the cavern with the falling water in the distance and the heavy humidity.
"I don't know what that Mnem word means." Tibs turned once they were off the platform and the attendant simply vanished in a glow of color. He hadn't made any motions, only smiled at Tibs as if he was making a point.
"It's just another word for remembering." Alistair had kept going down the large hall and Tibs caught up with him.
"Am I getting another audience?" he asked hopefully. If he could speak with water again, maybe she could explain how to contact the other essences.
Alistair shook his head. "As I said. You only get one audience. We're trying something different today."
"But what if water wants to talk to me?"
Alistair looked at Tibs. "The elements aren't like us. They don't want to do, with us or anything else. They simply are what they represent. So water doesn't want to see you now that he's accepted you."
"Why do you say he?"
"Water sounded like a man to me. Like my father, actually. I can't tell you why. But you're sidetracking us with your curiosity." Alistair chuckled. "I'm going to teach you something you wouldn't normally learn until Rho, but I think that it's going to help you compensate for your lack of a reserve." He turned into an opening that had been closed before, but it was a hall instead of a room. Tibs noticed most of the rooms were open this time, maybe they only closed them when someone used it for an audience, and every runner had their essence now? Then why were a few of them still closed?