Dungeon Runner (Book 1 and 2)

Stepping Up, Chapter 62

"That might be the least dignified arrival I have witnessed," a woman said.

Tibs untangled himself, groaning as he opened an eye. How was he still alive? That fall had to have been—

The form looking down on him straightened. "Good, you are all here. You had me concerned for an instant."

Tibs sat. Of course, his audience.

He looked around and was surprised at the banality of the space. A stone room with a stone table and two stone chairs. Shouldn't Purity be more... he searched for the word.

"Yes?" she asked.

He stood. "Sorry, I was just expecting..." he motioned to the only things beside them.

"More what?" her tone was... he wasn't offended, or even amused, more like... nothing? She sounded bored was the best Tibs could come up with.

She shrugged. As with her voice, her form was feminine, but plain, like the room they were in. With the other element, there had been a sense of vastness. He had been in their presence, in what felt like a place, but there had also been the sense they weren't limited by it, or by anything.

"Your mind seems to have trouble staying still." She motioned for the chair opposite hers. "Sit." He did. "Now, please find that thought again and complete it. More what?"

"I'm not sure." He tried to sound confident, but she could see his thoughts, so she knew the truth. "I guess the plainness makes sense now that I think about it. Everything in the city is plain."

"And you believe they are such because it is what I am."

He couldn't tell if she was making a statement, she sound so bored the question didn't make it to her voice.

"The other elements were more..." he hesitated. He didn't want to offend her, then remembered she heard his thoughts. "They had stronger personalities, is the best way I can put it."

"And you believe that makes them more."

"I don't know," he said after thinking about it. "I don't know a lot."

"Few of your kind do, as much as they delude themselves otherwise."

"It was like there was more to them if that makes sense," he continued, then shook his head at what he'd said. "That's not right. Like they had concentrated a small part to speak with me." He motioned around the room. "This feels like that is all there is." He hesitated. "Shouldn't there be more?"

She shrugged. "We are what we are. What we are not is not a responsibility of yours. Despite what it may seem; what you have undertaken. You need not concern yourself with my state."

"You know who I am."

She nodded. "You are a child of humans. One who has set himself on a journey that will see you dead should try to reach its end. You should not have done this. Your kind is too fragile. And yet." She paused. "You do not fear that outcome. That is interesting."

"I was going to die before I came to the dungeon. No one lives long on my street unless they're willing to kill without thinking about it. I can't do that. Then the dungeon was going to eat me. I know that's not true, but I didn't know that then, and..."

"Please say it."

He nodded. "I want to make the men who hurt Mama pay for what they did. That's going to help." He motioned for her torso. Unlike the other element, the shadow was there, plain to see.

"It won't if you are dead."

He shrugged. "At least I'll die trying. I'm okay with that. It's not like even with it I know where they are. It's accepting they won't be punished that I don't want."