"So explain to me again why you needed to come along, Farina." I whispered as we crouched in the shrubbery at the edge of the old villa.

"I need to see this with my own eyes Alta." Farina whispered back as she stared into the darkness with me.

"I'm going to be charitable and assume this isn't some sort of trust thing, right?" I didn't know Farina that well, beyond her name, her penchant for tiny hats, and her weird teleporting act, but she didn't seem the paranoid type.

Either that or I was a rubbish judge of character. Which could be true for all I knew.

"I definitely do trust you. You're record so far as been very exemplary in regards to dungeons and other assignments. Walther speaks highly of you, despite the rather underwhelming auto-map you brought back." She had a little lilt of disappointment there.

Wasn't my fault the dungeon was basically one room.

"So, why then?" I tried steering the conversation back to the subject at hand.

"This used to be my family's land. Sure it was lost to us before I was born, but I might see something you would miss. My parents drilled a lot of our history in to me." I could hear the grimace in her voice.

"Makes sense, but why do you need me, then?"

"If there is something here I'm going to need you to do what you do to it. I'm no slouch as a mage, but I'm, how did Kugarth put it? 'Soft, squishy, and likely to hurt myself in an actual fight.' Which is quite rude, but I can't say he's entirely wrong." She sighed.

"Lost your dungeoneering spirit over the years eh?" I asked, glad my smirk wasn't visible in the dark.

"Never was a dungeoneer. Scrivener's Guilder. Picked up magic out of curiosity and to have some kind of self defense that didn't risk my hands getting broken. Got hired by the school to help with documents, and they bought out my guild contracts." She shrugged.

Oh gods above and below, she was a dyed in the wool paper pusher, through and through.

I was thinking she needed backup, but she needed a bodyguard. No wonder the pay was so good. I swore at myself for not asking more questions.

No time for that, it was time to focus on the issue at hand. The ancient villa.

Despite having been abandoned for gods above knows how long, it wasn't in as bad of condition as I would have thought. The buildings were overgrown, and nature had certainly done more than its fair share reclaiming the place.

It was dark and cold, with the last vestiges of winter's chill hanging on just to spite me. To make matters worse there was a low fog starting to roll in. As if the scene need to look more like a tawdry horror tale.

As I looked out, with nothing but the sound of our breathing, a slight wind, and the sounds of night creatures to keep my mind occupied, I looked for anything out of place. Which is hard to do when it is dark and you have no idea what to compare it against.

It was a nice enough villa, or at least I imagined it was once. The manor house was a decent enough size, still visible despite the trees and vines that strangled it. The only other structure of note that caught my eye was a glass and metal structure. Farina said it had been a greenhouse, used for plants for potions and the like.

I had heard of them of course, but they never really caught on in Burgotova, for reasons I had no clue about. It never really mattered much to me, and really it still didn't. I knew the barest basics of potion creations and the associated disciplines around it. I didn't plan on going into that part of the dungeoneering business, so it just wasn't something I cared about. As long as they worked, did it matter how you got there?

Probably, but that was none of my business.

This was starting to feel like a wasted effort. That was until I saw a light moving around just outside the greenhouse. It was barely visible. I wouldn't have caught it if it hadn't moved. It wasn't the right time of year for the glowing insects to be out, so it couldn't be that.

I nudged Farina and drew her attention to it.

"Mage light." She hissed under her breath. That confirmed her suspicions I supposed. Which sadly meant I was going to have to work for money tonight it seemed.

"What's the call, Farina. This is your mission." I whispered. Best to let her take charge here. She had a better idea of what might be going on that I did.

"We need to get closer. We need to figure out who it is and why they're poking around the greenhouse of all places. None of the valuable plants should still be viable after all this time. There was a fair amount of salting and burning if I remember the stories correctly." She said.

I nodded. I focused for a moment and searched my memory for an appropriate spell poem.

"Be soft my step like silken night, hide my form from watcher's sight!" I said softly as I felt our forms shimmer and fade. It wasn't the best invisibility spell, but it was the best I could manage. It should last us long enough to get to the greenhouse.

We moved quickly, dodging between what little cover we could find between us and our goal. Even though we had the invisibility spell up, it was better safe than sorry.

Soon we were right up to the green house, just as the spell gave up. I'd have to work on keeping that up longer. I gave Farina a chance to catch her breath as I tried to peer through the glass, to no avail. The years hadn't been side and the filth was too thick.

I looked to Farina for guidance and she was panting and sweating. She really was not used to this kind of exercise.

"You really should consider jogging or something. Get that stamina up. It'll help with spell casting." I hissed at her. She shot me a glare that shut me right up.

We took a few more moments while she composed her self. Just as she was about to speak, the light went out. I ducked down, and put my hand on my dagger. I didn't bring my sword as I wanted to be more mobile, but now I was wondering if that had been a mistake. I left my sturdier armor behind too.

No time for second guessing myself.

"You want to go in?" I asked Farina.

"We have to. I need to know who is poking around and what they want." She responded. She looked scared and nervous. Understandable, all things considered.

"Ok then. Then lets do this slowly." I nodded firmly. She returned the gesture. I saw her pull a glove on one hand. It looked like it had some kind of ornamentation, gems maybe, on it, but I didn't look too closely.

I drew my dagger slowly and we creeped our way to the nearest entrance. The door had fallen off ages ago and was gods above knew where.

As I peered around the corner the strange light was nowhere to be seen. We sat there in the evening stillness for a long moment waiting for any sign of the light or movement of any kind. We were greeted by the sound of wind and nothing more.

"Just confirming, we both did in fact see a moving light, right?" I whispered into the silence.

"Definitely. Either someone is very good at hiding, or something extra strange is going on." Farina said, and even in the darkness I could feel her scowl.

"I don't like either of those options." I ducked low, and made my way slowly inside, dagger at the ready. I motioned for her to stay put while I scouted. No need to get her in more danger than she was already in.

The room was musty, from ages of wild growth, mildew, mold. The few broken windows, and even the missing door didn't seem to help the airflow enough. I wanted to gag or cough, but I resisted with all my might. It would be embarassing to get a knife in the guts because of something like that.

I lay down to get a look underneath all the elevated racks that made up the sum of the contents of the greenhouse. I couldn't get a perfect view due to the hanging vines and roots and such, but I was able to confirm no one was ducking under one.

I listened to the dirt to see if I could here any footsteps. Even if a person was invisible due to magic, you couldn't fully hide the sound of movement.

So why was I hearing machinery? Dirt shouldn't have machines in it. I didn't know enough about machines to know exactly what I was hearing, but an abandoned villa like this shouldn't have anything active underneath. A greenhouse especially. I slowly made my way back to Farina, choosing a different route to continue my scouting when the dirt beneath my feet creaked. A distinctly wooden creak. I stopped cold.

I gingerly reached down and brushed away some of the door. A seam. A door seam no less. Dirt floors weren't supposed to have doors in them. There was a gentle waft of air from the miniscule crack in the door.

That little bit of air caused my mana reservoir to tingle. Not the most apt word for the feeling, buts its as close as I could come. There was a fragment, a tiny little sliver of mana from the dungeon core I had bonded with after my first foray into the Corridor Dungeons, and it reacted strangely from time to time.

Usually in the presence of Dungeon Mana. Which is exactly what I was sensing right now coming from this incongruous door. This was going for annoying and strange straight to bad.

I moved quietly back to Farina.

"What did you see?" She asked.

"We have to get out of here right now. We'll talk when we're safe. Is there anywhere closer than the city we can get to?" I hissed at her, failing to keep my nervousness hidden.

"There's a road hostel nearby. Should be sparse this time of year." She pointed in a direction.

"Good enough. Lets go. Quietly till we get to the tree line and then we run. Don't ask questions, just do it." Farina just nodded and followed my lead.

We crept along from cover to cover till we hit the forest, and I nearly breathed a sigh of relief. I was tired of the slow and sneaky route. I knew Farina wouldn't be able to keep up with me at a full run, so I grabbed her hand and moved as quickly as we could. Didn't want to lose her in our haste, as that meant I not only would lose the rest of my payday, but also lose a perfectly good administrator who was on my side at the school.

"Alta, can. We. Please. Slow. Down. I'm. Going. To. Die." Farina panted behind me. I stopped and sweat was flowing down her face, and was bent over trying her best to catch her breath.

"Good gods above and below Farina, you really need to work out more. Don't you get time off? Hit up the training hall or something!" I said, catching my own breath.

"I haven't had a proper day off in 6 years, and I doubt that's going to change. What the hells below was all that?" She took out a handkerchief and wiped her brow.

"It's a lot, and I want to make sure we're safe and not followed before I tell you. Something weird and probably bad is going on in that villa." I looked back the way we came to check for any signs of pursuit.

"Dammit. I was right then. I hate it when I'm right about this kind of thing." She sighed, and straightened up. "Let's go then. I need to know what you found."

She continued walking, and this time, I followed her.