Saga of the Soul Dungeon

What money can buy, the absence of money can take away. Savor what life gives you beyond the reach of money, for such can also outlast it.

-Advice from Trafiz Tacak, merchant prince, to his son.

==Sevso==

The city of Eutomne was mostly contained within an enormous sea cave, the cavern entrance directly toward the west and the ending light of day. The pathway into the city had slowly lifted us up high enough that the full breadth of the city was apparent.

At the center, waves rolled into a tranquil bay, before crashing against beaches of black sand. The water was practically glowing in the light of the setting sun, like someone had replaced the water with molten bronze.

Even in the slums, people needed things repaired. Perhaps even more, there. I had seen metal casting occasionally, huddling up near the rundown forges of the slums. They seemed palatial, at the time. The light of the liquid metal was only matched by the hypnotic intensity of the glowing forge. The same intensity made the heat force its way out through the cracks, like snakes with fangs of fire. The heat was practically scalding against partially frozen skin.

I shook my head at the thought.

It had been a risk, lingering outside the forges, but so had everything. One of my fellow thieves, and presumably orphans, had managed to get an apprenticeship at one of the forges, catching the eye of the smith. Even though he paid for his apprentice in other coin, I don't think there was even one of us who didn't envy him.

For a time, our lives had been easier, the heat of the forge freely given for an entire Freeze. However, his master's tolerance would not extend another year, and we had already begun to grow apart.

Just another risk I survived.

Just surviving to adulthood was an accomplishment. An endless parade of dead orphans filled my memories, the streets full with the overlapping weight of years surviving on my own, the few chance companions mostly falling to one misfortune or another. In death left bare, each scrap of cloth torn away into the hands of other orphans. Each scrap was a greater chance of survival. I had stripped the barest vestiges away myself, plenty of times.

I'm not there.

I focused on the few chunks of ice in the waters. Each caught the light like a particularly vibrant coal, crystallized fire. Far above, chunks of actual crystal caught the light as well, like sparks of fire amidst the smoky darkness of the stone.

I survived another Freeze.

As a street tough, my odds had been a lot better. The slum lords ensured their own ate, even if it wasn't the best fare. Like I cared. It was food. Still, as the betrayal had so clearly reminded me, I was hardly safe. The guards mostly didn't bother us, staying out of the slums. It was other toughs, those from opposing gangs, that were the real danger. Occasionally we would deal with an attack by someone desperate too, but they generally chose weaker prey.

Gnaeus frowned at me.

"Are you alright, Sevso?" he asked.

I shook my head again.

"Yeah," I had to clear my throat and start again. "Yeah, just…" I trailed off for a moment, unsure what to say. "Just memories," I finally finished.

I hadn't dwelt on any of this in years. There was no time, no space, to remember all of this.

Why in the frozen hells is it coming out now?

Gnaeus looked at me, a bit too much understanding and pity in his gaze.

I looked away, looking back out over the city.

To either side of us, the streets swept away, framing the waters in a crescent of rising stone. Each street slightly higher above the water, until they reached up to where we stood. Behind us, on each side, further streets rose up, and only hints of what those layers might contain were visible.

Hartang had been silent, up til now, though whether that was so we could absorb the view or a keen ability to read the mood, I couldn't say.

"It's beautiful like this, as Shurum sets, but it's even better at night-"

"Don't give away the surprise," Gnaeus cut in. "Show him later, if you like." Gnaeus flashed a grin at me. "Some things are better experienced without having them spoiled."

"Yes, Sire," Hartang said quickly.

I didn't bother to protest. I just sighed and followed Hartang as he started to guide us away. I did my best to ignore Gnaeus' smug grin.

Besides, following Hartang is quite pleasant.

If anything, Gnaeus' smile only got wider and more self-satisfied when he noticed me looking.

Yeah, yeah, you managed to figure out I'm horny and dangled a fine piece of ass in front of me. Hardly the greatest accomplishment.

I was tempted to say something to that effect out loud, but I knew I would regret it.

If nothing else he could start regaling me with some of his own sexual history.

Already had more of that than I ever wanted, thank you very much.

It didn't take us long to get to the inn, though calling it that seemed a vast disservice. Either to other inns, which could hardly compare, or to this one, which seemed like it should have some new title.

The 'inn' took up a large section of street.

A large building was at the center, and the smell of food permeated the air long before we reached it. Around it pathways, and manicured gardens, lead both to a large carriage house situated mostly out of sight, the interior digging deeper into the cavern walls, and to smaller buildings similarly set flush with the walls, each apparently an isolated dwelling and where we would be staying as guests.

The innkeeper was a man who was practically made of smiles. I would normally have found his simpering adoration quite off-putting, but he managed to make it charming. Skill, maybe? I had little doubt that someone who owned, or merely ran, something on this scale had the skills to ensure it functioned properly.

He was trailed by an army of servants, and promptly picked out two to act as our personal retinue. The two he chose were an elegant older lady and a very fit young man. Definitely some skills.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Gnaeus certainly seemed happy enough to chat up the lady as we made our way toward our own private villa, the front a profusion of pillars and balconies, even while everything behind the facade retreated into the stone.

Not that I minded the addition to the view, either.

Hartang and the servant were ahead of us, the servant losing his overly formal posture at a few quiet words. Then they spent time whispering together, the servant briefly blushing at something Hartang said.

What's that about? Well, I'm sure he knows what Hartang is here for.

Entirely possible they were talking about Gnaeus' overly frank discussion earlier, too.

I looked at the two servants and how enthusiastically Gnaeus was talking… or they offer the same service.

Do the rich just expect sex to get thrown at them?

I took the time to think it over a bit more, thinking about how guards, the various toughs, and others had leveraged their positions to get sex.

Nope, just a human thing I guess.

Oddly, I thought the wealthy and powerful might actually be more honest about the whole situation. Money or favors were offered for sex, with no lies about feelings, entanglements, or commitments.

Is this better or worse than trading an apprenticeship for sex?

I didn't know. Something about the lingering commitment felt better. My eyes wandered over to Gnaeus.

Still wondering why he cares so much.

I shrugged it off.

He was powerful enough to do whatever he pleased.

For a moment my thoughts went back to empty streets, frozen and filled with the killing cold. I shivered, though the air wasn't cold. My cold resistance had long since eclipsed the need, anyway.

My gaze flickered over Gnaeus again, before settling back onto the servant and Hartang.

Power has its uses. Best to enjoy the warmth while I can.

I slept with Hartang that first night, between sheets that were gossamer. Smooth, slick, and lighter than air, like someone had taken starlight and made it into cloth.

I recognized Caden's familiar hunger, and made a note to get a sample later. I was too lost in the moment to deal with it then.

After my passions had faded and the world sunk down into the warmth of afterglow, Hartang had taken me out on to the balcony.

There, I saw what Gnaeus hadn't wanted to be spoiled.

It had been completely covered by the burning light of sunset. Now, absent the overwhelming fire of Otga and Shuram, the waters of the bay glowed with pearlescent light. It was strongest in the center, a pure soft white that then faded out in mother of pearl shimmers of color. The ceiling of the caves was mostly dark, but the occasional embedded crystals threw back the light as specs of phantasmal fire. The sparks of light constantly shifting between pale hues. Above the water, some of the light seemed to effervesce into the air, forming a pale mist of rainbow colors.

"What makes it do that?" I asked, slightly breathless.

"The city was founded, because of it," Hartang said. "It's a wellspring, under the bay. The water is imbued with elemental light. You know what that is?"

I nodded.

"I've seen elemental water, before," I said smiling, "it was bound up in actual water."

"Yeah. So the city used to be a much smaller cove. It was excavated when they found it. This Freeze…" Hartang trailed off, his eyes distant. "It was exceptional. The bay was lower than I've ever seen it, and what water remained had turned to ice. The light spread through the ice." He pointed. "You see the ice there?"

I looked where he pointed, catching how one of the residual ice fragments glowed more brightly than the surrounding waters. I nodded as I caught sight of it.

"Ice, it acts differently than the water. The water," he waved toward the bay," it spreads it all out, makes it diffuse, right? The ice, it's more vibrant. Most years it doesn't get much brighter than godfire. It never gets as bright as a rainbow, but it was getting close this year. This pit of vibrant ice crystals with a haze of light mist over the top." He smiled at me. "I've been in some noble's houses. Some of them will have crystals with concentrated elemental light in them. Looks like somebody froze a rainbow inside, swirling back and forth, almost like liquid."

Hartang spoke with the servant and food was arranged for. We ate it together as we watched the iridescence shimmer over the city, and each other.

In the end, Hartang had to leave, and I went to sleep.

It had been a week since then, and I had seen Hartang again a few times, taking trips down to marketplaces and coming back to spend intimate time together.

Eutomne was both strange and familiar. I was used to the valley, to the city of Allalus, and Pluvia plunging downwards the entire year.

With the arrival of Thaw, entire sections of ice would be crashing down, sending plumes of water up as they hit the lake below, the cracking noises of the ice echoing back and forth across the valley floor.

As a child, I had gone to watch it sometimes. The relief of Thaw had given me time to spend on things besides base survival. Even when a chunk of ice didn't fall, you could hear the groaning crack of the ice rumbling as cracks ran through it. And, as Thaw continued, the waterfall would grow and grow, until it was a vast curtain of shimmering water, reflecting the light in shades of gold and crimson. At sunset, the entire curtain of water could catch the light in its own display of molten bronze, the glow slowly dimming down like cooling metal, shifting from burning white down to oranges and reds, finally finishing off with the dusky purple of twilight.

When you could see it through the fog.

Eutomne, at least, had that in common.

Indeed, much of the coast had that, according to Gnaeus, though Freeze killed it before too long, like it kills so much else. It had been too cold for fog, even at the start of Thaw. Not the air, but rather the sea itself, its surface still covered in layers of ice. Gradually, the ice had been cracking and breaking, producing a sound that was both nostalgic and wrong with the lack of time between echoes.

Eutomne got that right at least. Sound echoed within the cavern and the roar of the waves rushed by and built upon itself in fading cascades that created a single omnipresent roar over the entire city. A roar that was ignored amidst the clamor of throngs of people, the merchants shouting out the quality of their wares with unearned confidence.

Not that I hadn't spent plenty, here. Between my own eagerness to experience so many new foods, and Caden's seeming desire for everything, I spent vast sums at the markets. I even took a tour with Hartang, the two of us escorted by a water mage. Together we walked along steps set into the bottom of the bay, a bubble of air surrounding the three of us as we stepped into a world of shimmering light.

Everything glowed down there, or so I thought at first, marveling at the profusion of bright green plants, neon fish, and a host of crabs and shellfish. As we continued I saw a few fish with different tactics, one surrounded by obscuring shadows, and another shining like a mirror, casting all the light back.

The light grew brighter, until I stood right against where the elemental fountain entered the bay. The water a brilliant, coruscating white that hinted at hidden depths of color. Despite the light, the water was icy cold. A whirlpool of swirling light rushed around my hand, pushed through the edge of the bubble, as it vanished into my storage for Caden.

Swear he is as hungry as Otga.

The mage started to say something in protest when I started, but Hartang said something to them. I didn't catch whatever it was, but the mage looked considerably paler afterwards. After that, the mage's attitude was excessively deferential.

The power of Gnaeus, I suppose.

I could see why he didn't bother with it, much of the time. It could smooth some paths, but it made people act differently. Like the normal street toughs when the real enforcers came down, they got skittish and deferential.

We were leaving the city soon, however.

Gnaeus had bemoaned the wait, occasionally muttering something about how he should have gone east. Apparently he had some imperial teleporters who owed him some favors. Of course he does.

Of course, apparently the journey overland there would have taken at least as long as the entire trip to the Western Continent, so it was just empty grumbling.

I didn't understand the exact nature of the problem, but apparently since Freeze had lasted longer, there would be larger chunks of ice floating in deep waters. Apparently they could be almost as dangerous as the monsters, and couldn't be as effectively warded away.

Eventually, however, with excessive amounts of money and some promises of assistance should it be needed, Gnaeus had managed to badger a captain into setting sail.

My goodbye with Hartang had been bittersweet. I hadn't allowed myself the delusion of a true relationship. Even if I had been able to leverage the power of my mentor and bring him with me… it wouldn't have been what I wanted. That would have made it solidly a matter of employment and the power dynamic would have strangled anything real. I could have asked, I supposed, but for all that I believed that Hartang actually would miss me, I didn't think I was enough for him to leave. And, even if I was… my future was uncertain.

The ship slowly left the safe harbor of the secluded bay, sailing out through an almost invisible barrier covering the mouth of the cave.

The horizon lay before us, our destination beyond it, and still unknown.