Chapter 3: Time waits for no woman

In no time at all, I was clean, took a short nap, had a snack, and now I was having my hair done. It was so nice being back in civilization or close enough to it in this world.

Realizing I had no idea how much was left until the meeting with the Captain, I started to look around the room then stopped. "Right, no clock."

Something else I missed from my world, unfortunately, I couldn’t even enable the one available in Magic-Life with my Administration Tab missing. In-game, it would hover right below your health and mana bar. Most of the beta-testers hid it, though, as it was just another distraction.

"Lady Eleanor?"

God, I'm such an idiot. Two hours, really? "When is the next bell? Actually, what is the next bell?"

"Fifth, my lady, although you still have time before your meeting with the Captain if that is what you're asking. When Master Thomasyn heard when you wanted to meet, he lit a candle clock."

A candle clock, huh. My knowledge of the history of timekeeping was somewhat hazy. The Greeks used sundials, the Chinese incense, and I think I remember reading that Big Ben was finished during Queen Victoria's reign. Oh, and the Arabs and the Romans used different methods to tell time, I think.

"Have you ever heard of water or mechanical clocks, Rosalyn?"

"A mechanical clock? No, my lady, although perhaps a follower of Savaro, might have heard of one." She paused for a moment. "However, in the port city of Rartham, there is a water clock at the Shrine of Ler. It's supposed to be very beautiful."

That got me curious about magical clocks. I wondered if this world had such a thing.

--0--

At the appointed time, the two of us entered the meeting room, and for a moment, I thought I heard a gasp before everyone came to their feet. They all appeared to be a little more rested and except for Captain Conrad had gotten out of their armor.

Karin and Leo gave me a warm smile looking comfortable in their light linen tunics. Iona wore the same dress she was wearing the first day we met. The others, too, had changed into well not exactly clean garments but cleaner than what they had been wearing. Warin, of course, was absent sleeping soundly upstairs.

I decided to wear my Black Lily dress so named because of its little black fleur-de-lis’ decorating the sleeves and skirt. The white nightweave outfit, like most of my clothing, was made for me by one of my guildmates who knew that I had a lily as part of my Mage’s Sigil.

Captain Conrad was present in his usual arming coat. However, I didn’t know the swarthy looking gentleman dressed in a blue and red houppelande along with a rather lovely tall-crowned chaperon.

“Master Jeffery of Harmon, let me introduce you to Lady Eleanor of House Reine.”

House Reine?

“My lady.” He took off his hat sweeping before him as he bowed.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Master Jeffery.“ I give the man a smile before taking a seat. Everyone soon followed, making themselves comfortable.

“My lady, I will be taking notes and passing them on to Guildmaster Stephen,” he began to explain as I watched him pull out a box setting it aside, an inkwell and a stack of parchment.

"Is Guildmaster Stephen the head of the guild in Harmon or the kingdom as a whole?" I asked.

Leo answered, "Harmon, my lady."

"Thank you. Captain, perhaps we should begin with Myra's band and let them report on their journey."

On our way back to Wyndemere, we only managed to get part of the story from Iona's sister. It would be a good place to start.

"Master Jeffery?" queried the Captain.

"Excellent suggestion, my lady." Picking up the quill, he looked across the table. "State your name."

At that very moment, I had a strong sense of déjà vu that left me breathless. Everything suddenly changed replaced by the conference room in the Prometheus' main office. Our Friday afternoon meetings where we went over the week's beta-testing problems occurred around a similar looking table.

Mark and Kathy took the place of Leo and Karin. The other members of my guild now sat next to me instead of Myra's party, and even the lead developers swapped places with Captain Conrad and Master Jeffery. It was so real. If I reached out, I could almost take Kathy's hand.

"Lady Eleanor?"

Then the world crashed around me. "Sorry Karin, what did you say?"

"You were concerned about the rock formation at the entrance to the labyrinth?"

Oh, it seems I missed part of the story.

Waving off the worry I could see in Karin's face, I replied, "Yes, most of the lower half was unstable. Either the entrance needs to be reinforced or that whole rock face removed."

The Captain looked confused but nodded. They must not have gotten to the part where we decided it was a living labyrinth.

Myra continued described how her party entered the dungeon and began exploring. They were thorough, searching every room, and examining every corridor. Her group also encountered a lot more monsters then we had during our short time on the first floor.

When she was finished, Jeffery looked at the copy of the map in front of him and began to ask about things that she had glossed over. From his questions, I could tell he must have been an adventurer himself.

"Do you think the spiders have an exit out of the labyrinth?"

Myra's party didn’t seem to know, so Leo offered up a response. "Although we didn’t encounter any of the creatures outside, we do believe that through the large web filled chamber, there might be a way to the surface."

Karin looked towards me, "Lady Eleanor searched the caves at the top of the hill after we exited the labyrinth."

"Although I didn’t go far, Master Jeffrey, the cave system seemed fairly complex." I explained further, "And from the tools scattered about, we believe that the goblyns were actively expanding it."

"That’s why we're confident that they unintentionally caused the rockslide by undermining the cliff face," Leo remarked. "It might have blocked the spiders' exit, but we just don’t know."

"I see," Master Jeffrey made a note on another piece of parchment. "And it's not unknown for the two groups to work together."

Some goblyns lived in a symbiotic relationship with certain types of spiders. Their dead, sick and wounded were fed to the arachnids, and in turn, they harvested the webs for all sorts of things and even rode on the larger ones into battle. I had read about similar monsters riding giant wolves but spiders!

Thankfully we took a small break. While Rosalyn set down a cup of Mulberry wine in front of me, I could see that the next part of the story was going to be hard on Myra's party.

Once everyone returned, Amice picked up the narrative describing how their band traveled downstairs to find the way forward blocked. It was only after Argus couldn’t remove the magical lock on the door at the entrance that the group decided to take the stairs. Not being able to dispel the enchantment should have raised a red flag, but then again, I probably wouldn’t have stopped either.

"So, your mage Argus was able to remove the enchantment on the door?" Master Jeffrey pointed to the map.

"At that time, yes."

Nodding, he made a notation on the parchment, and in his notes, "Continue."

Much like the first floor, Myra's party was thorough, finding several rooms and passageways we missed. They also decided to leave the antlion's nest alone. When Amice got to the point where they entered the corridor with the glowing gems, the guild's representative raised his hand.

Looking worried, he then directed his next question towards Iona's Aunt and Uncle, "A floor guardian?"

"Yes, we believe so," Leo confirmed what I believe was worrying Master Jeffrey.

"Sweet merciful Dinya," he whispered in shock.

"Floor guardian?" Captain Conrad asked.

"In living labyrinths," the Captain's intake of breath caused Leo to pause for a moment. "In living labyrinths, certain monsters must be defeated before you can advance."

"It's also normally a much more difficult opponent to face than the rest of the creatures on that floor," Master Jeffrey explained further.

Amice hesitated then looked to the others. "The door was magically locked, but Argus easily disenchanted it. Unfortunately, as soon as our band entered the room, we could hardly see. It was if someone had thrown a blanket over the magic lamps."

"Argus thought it was some sort of magical darkness," Myra added.

Katilia nodded, "It was at that point that the floor guardian or whatever it was dropped from the ceiling and attacked. Poor Denis didn’t even see it coming."

"With his throat slashed, his death must have been almost instantaneous," Amice sadly added. "Warin seeing his friend fall, immediately charged forward."

"But he couldn’t touch her; it was as if she was made of shadows. The creature was also very beautiful but in a horrible mockery of beauty," Myra commented with a frown.

"She?" The Captain asked.

Katilia shrugged. "It was humanoid fought on two feet, but it was so sodding fast. It wielded no weapons, just razor-sharp claws that chewed through Warin's shield like parchment. Argus' magic did little to it; in fact, we couldn't harm it."

"Were any of your weapons enchanted?"

Myra answered, "Only Denis's sword, Master Jeffrey, but we had to leave it behind."

"Enchanted weapons only then," I commented. Normal weapons might be able to do it but would have to be able to get past the creature's physical resistance.

"I agree, my lady. Could also be the reason why he was targeted first," Jeffrey acknowledged and then wrote a few sentences for his report. "C-rank or better, although once the floor is cleared, it should be reevaluated."

"We knew this was a fight we couldn't win, so we retreated. Well, after Warin tossed his now useless shield at the monster."

"We ran Katilia," Myra whispered.

"We did, and that is why we're still alive!" the scout pointed out forcefully. She then took a deep breath. "When the doors closed behind us, we discovered that the creature didn’t follow."

"Thank Dinya," Amice said.

Katilia continued, "Most of us at that point were wounded. Amice was thankfully able to heal us, but it didn’t change our decision to leave the labyrinth."

"But she wouldn’t allow us." Myra then explained how Argus was unable to remove the enchantment on the exit.

Iona reached over and held her sister's hand.

Jeffry frowned. "That’s an unusual requirement for a floor guardian, although I've heard that the Ingsmouth labyrinth has something similar."

"Yes," Karin replied. "In the marble chamber on the third floor, you have to defeat the stone sentinels to be able to leave the citadel."

"Since Argus couldn’t open the door to the stairs, we began searching for another way out. Maybe a secret passageway or hidden doorway we missed." Katilia recalled, "To our surprise, there were bodies on the floor in a chamber near the exit."

Myra looked towards the others. "We should have been more careful but with Denis's death."

"Which should have made us more cautious, not stupid," Katilia sighed.

The three went over the fight with the wights, Argus's death, and the long retreat back to the waterfall chamber, ending with how the four became trapped by the ratkins.

Iona asked, "Lady Eleanor, you called the again-walkers something else?"

"Wights or lesser wights and the heavily armored one with the ax was a barrow-wight."

"Thank you, my lady." Jeffrey wrote it down. "It's not unheard of for different countries to have their own names for the same creatures Mage Iona. I heard that in the far north, the again-walkers are called vaettrr."

After a few more questions from Master Jeffrey, we took another break. Amice immediately excused herself and went to check on Warin.

"You don’t have to remain, Myra. If the three of you want to rest, maybe get something to eat?" Karin offered. She looked towards the guild representative who nodded.

"No, that’s OK, Auntie. I'll stay."

"I will too, Mistress Karin."

Once Amice returned, she informed us that Warin was doing well. The two had spoken for a few minutes while he was busy having something to eat. She also thanked Captain Conrad for getting one of the village's healers to watch her fiancé while she was in the meeting.

"Iona, why don’t you start? You have most of the background of what went on before the two of us were acquainted."

"Yes, my lady," she nervously replied then went directly into the tale of what happened after her sister left her back in Harmon.

She got sidetracked a few times where Karin had to step in, but finally, Iona got us to the meeting the night before we left.

Captain Conrad then interrupted her. "Lady Eleanor, I would like to thank you for escorting my guardsmen through the Forest Road. They were able to meet with the Glendale caravan and return safely with them."

Although I vaguely remembered they were escorting us at first, I replied, "You're welcome, Captain, and it's good to hear everything turned out alright."

Karin then described the encounters on the road. When she got to the point where I killed the guru with a single strike to the back of the ear, Jeffery gave me a strange look but went back to writing.

"Lady Eleanor, were those the Godstones that you traveled through to end up in our Kingdom?" Jeffrey inquired.

I am not sure I traveled through anything, but that’s where I landed. Thankfully he seemed to know the story, so I didn’t have to tell it again. "Yes."

"Thank you, my lady."

Leo picked up the story with our party leaving the guardsmen then the encounters with the spiders and the basilisk. As he started to explain how his wife was knocked off her feet and covered by the basilisk's breath weapon, the guild representative started to laugh. Captain Conrad, however, didn’t seem as amused.

"A basilisk, Leo?" Jeffrey chuckled. "Absurd, your wife should have been slain. I don’t doubt your martial prowess, my lady, but even you…"

He seemed a nice enough man, but I hated it when someone called me a liar. The sound of something heavy clattering on the table stopped him short.

"Lady Eleanor?" Captain Conrad looked at me, concerned.

"Karin, if you would be so kind as to give this to your guild representative, perhaps he recognizes the tooth."

It even had a bit of flesh left on it. I then took out a second to have her hand it to the Captain.

"I collected most of them since I thought I could find some other uses for basilisk teeth."

With wide eyes, Jeffry looked at the ten-inch long fang then hesitantly asked, "My lady are you perhaps an alchemist or an enchantress?"

I shrugged, "I dabble."

Nodding, he stood then gave me a deep bow. "I apologize, Lady Eleanor, if I have offended you."

I waved off his concern. "It's fine, Master Jeffrey."

Passing the fangs back to me, Karin tried to hide her shit-eating grin while her husband continued with the rest of the story. The guild representative, however, had taken his seat but hadn’t picked up his quill. It didn’t matter as this part of the journey was mostly covered by Myra, or well, I think it was, as I missed most of it.

Once we got into the dungeon, Master Jeffrey picked up his pen but only wrote a few notes. He did seem interested when we discussed how the bodies disappeared the next day, confirming or at least hinting at that this might be a living labyrinth. The fight, however, with the wights had him sitting forward in his seat. Captain Conrad seemed just as interested.

"And this ax that the…what was the name you called it? Oh yes, barrow-wight. You retrieved it?"

"We did," Leo replied then looked at me.

"It's in my possession." As much as it would amuse me, I wasn’t going to take it out of my inventory and toss it on the table.

"Would it be possible for someone in the guild to examine it, my lady?" Master Jeffrey respectfully asked.

"Unless anyone has any objections, I have no issues with it."

"Thank you, my lady." And of course, he noted it in his report.

Leo continued with finding the gem lit corridor, then the encounter with the ratkin, and rescuing Myra's party. Captain Conrad seemed more interested in the fight than our guild representative did.

"Lady Eleanor, can I ask you about these wards you placed on the entrances into the Waterfall chamber?"

"Of course."

"Are they permanent?" Master Jeffrey seemed somewhat concerned.

"No, as I didn’t carve them into the stone. I very much doubt the fire runes much less the alarm wards were still active once we left the labyrinth," I assured him.

Although the developers hadn't implemented a full PvP system yet, in a future release, there was supposed to be a battleground in which players could invade other guildhalls. So, we tested and retested the creation of traps and wards inside our hall. Once we were finished, they looked a lot like carved runes.

Since I was the guildmaster, I set up the initial wards, and then Minerva added the rest. She even set up numerous magical traps to deal with any uninvited guests. The developers amused themselves for most of a week afterward by having all the players try to conquer each other guildhalls.

"Can you please mark them on the map?"

"Of course," I picked up the offered quill dipped it in the inkwell and wrote with my now very feminine script that I had added both alarm wards and fire runes.

"Oh?"

"Is there something wrong, my lady?" Karin asked.

"It's nothing," I smiled and handed the map and quill back to Master Jeffrey.

Besides my sudden quill mastery, I had just written in the language used in the southern kingdom. I could only assume my writing language prowess was part of the whole language package I picked up.

Leo finished the story with both our groups returning to Wyndemere. The Captain had a couple of questions about the monsters we encountered, especially the two-headed dogs. It only confirmed how dangerous the Pale Hills were getting.

"I am hesitant about setting the difficulty of the first floor right now, but between the again walkers, the antlion nest, and the floor guardian, we are most definitely looking at a rating of C-rank at the minimum for the second floor."

"The three of us also came to that conclusion, Jeffrey," Leo concurred. "Note in your report that the ratkins came in numbers. That’s going to an issue even with a C-ranked party."

"That’s all well and good, Master Jeffrey." Captain Conrad said, sounding a little frustrated. "Sweet Dinya, a living labyrinth. Are you sure you aren’t mistaken?"

Leo looked apologetic. "Captain, my wife and I both have been in Ingsmouth. And from what we have seen, we think that it’s a living labyrinth."

"Lady Eleanor." He looked at me expectantly. Shame, I was going to have to dash his hopes.

"I have to agree with Leo and Karin. That place has a certain intelligence."

Master Jeffrey nodded, "It's not uncommon for higher-ranked adventurers to have those feelings inside a living labyrinth."

"And as you say, Captain Conrad, traveling the Forest Road has also become much more dangerous." Karin pointed out.

"This will have to be reported to the Baroness and eventually His Majesty." The Captain frowned. "The Merchant Guild isn’t going to be happy either."

Iona looked a little confused. "Why?"

"It's going to cost more for the caravans to use the Albanese Way due to the need to increase their caravan guards," Leo explained. "Thankfully, the labyrinth is in the Pale Hills and not next to the village, like Ingsgate."

"Well, having a living labyrinth in this kingdom will be a great boon to us," the guild representative chirped.

I could tell Captain Conrad was trying to hide a scowl. Instead, he asked, "Master Jeffrey, I will also need you to speak with your Guildmaster. I need two more adventuring bands besides the ones I have already requested to clear out the forests around the village."

The guild representative nodded then wrote down what the Captain asked for. Master Jeffrey then sighed, his cheerfulness dampened quite a bit, "I will have to hand this report to the Guildmaster personally. He will also have questions, oh so many questions."

He then looked up to me hopefully, "Lady Eleanor, it might be a bit presumptuous of me to ask but is it possible for you to accompany me to Harmon. And the others too, as they also might have information that the Guildmaster might find useful."

I gave the man a sympathetic smile, "Master Jeffrey, I understand the need to return with this information in a timely manner. However, you must understand that we have only just returned to Wyndemere from the labyrinth. Some of us are in no position to travel further."

I could see him deflate. "However, may I suggest that you start the journey? I believe in a couple of days, some of us will be able to follow, although Amice and her betrothed will most likely remain here."

The young healer gave me a grateful smile. Warin was doing better, but from what I was told, he wasn't going to be fit to travel for at least a week.

"I will also send a message to Sir Eric at the castle, Master Jeffrey. He will want to be at the meeting as well." The Captain then turned to me, "Lady Eleanor, if you don’t mind traveling by river. I am sure one of the returning supply boats can take your band to Harmon."

Captain Conrad thankfully ended the discussion there. It had been a rather long day. After telling everyone that I would be available tomorrow if they needed to speak to me further, I left the room, followed by Rosalyn.

I tried not to let it show, but the vision or whatever it was had rattled me. I wanted nothing more than to crawl into bed.

Of course, I couldn’t fool my Lady's Maid as she helped me undress, "Are you sure you don’t want something to eat, Lady Eleanor?"

"No, thank you, Rosalyn, I just want to go to sleep. Though if you could please inform Master Leo and his wife that I would be happy to meet with them sometime tomorrow to continue our discussion about Iona?"

"Of course, my lady," she replied, setting down my outer dress over one of the chairs.

"I'm sorry." Wiping tears from my eyes, I tried to give Rosalyn a smile, "I'm just tired."

"I understand, my lady," she replied softly.

As soon as the bedroom door closed, the tears came again and wouldn’t stop until I drifted off to sleep.

--0--

Deep in the Dry Hill, a half a dozen riders increased their pace when the afternoon sky began to darken, threatening rain. Normally those who travel through the dusty land welcomed what relief the afternoon showers would bring, but it would only slow them down. Their early morning departure from the caravan had not been noticed, but a prolonged absence would not.

Such was the life of those who lived in two worlds.

If anyone told the well-dressed horsemen that they would be in danger from the Dal Riata, the group would nod sagely and then laugh among themselves. So it came as no surprise to their leader when suddenly surrounded by raiders, it did not come to blows.

"You’re a long way from your caravan, cath fach!" A rather tall catkin called out much to the amusement of his dozen or so mounted companions.

With a long-suffering sigh, the one he called cath fach, pulled off her rose-colored hood, and said, "I need to see my grandmother Drog."

"Oh, and I thought the two of you weren’t speaking to one another."

The cinnamon-colored cat woman gave the rider a hard look. "Do you think I would be out here if it wasn’t important?"

"Maybe you got lost!" Another catkin called out, causing the raiders to roar with laughter.

"I have no time for this," she whispered fiercely.

"Oh, let her through cousins," another beastman rode through the group. "How are you, Opal, growing soft in the cities?"

"I'll show you soft, Pendrin, if I wasn’t in such a hurry," she greeted him warmly, "How's Shryan?"

"Beautiful as always and as big as a horse," the catkin laughed.

Opal sighed and shook her head, "Pregnant again?"

"Of course." He then motioned the others to move back and leaned forward. "I take that whatever news you have is urgent."

"It is. Please, Pendrin, I can't be away from the caravan long."

"Alright, Opal, don’t blame me if you lose your head. Your grandmother wasn’t happy when you left. Come, I'll escort you. The others will have to remain here. You can tell me about your family on the way."

He then turned his horse around and started to ride off towards a large group of tents. Motioning to her guards to stay, Opal followed the younger beast-man into the Dal Riata camp.