Tibs’s slash missed Alistair again, even if, as far as Tibs could tell, his teacher hadn’t moved.

Alistair had been impressed with Tibs’s ice sword, but he pointed out a flaw with it by placing a finger on the jagged blade and shattering it with a thought. Tibs had felt his control ripped away, but couldn’t do anything against it. He comforted himself knowing that only another water adventurer could disrupt his control and that unless that adventurer was much more skilled or powerful than Tibs; he had his core reserve to use in such a contest.

His next attack almost connected, maybe. Tibs couldn’t tell.

His teacher wasn’t trying hard, Tibs was certain of that. He didn’t have to; he had decades of experience over Tibs and he wasn’t the one practicing something. Tibs was the one who had to keep his body suffused with water as he fought.

And Tibs now understood why his initial fights while keeping his body suffused with Water hadn’t shown much results. He hadn’t kept his body suffused.

He could suffuse his body with only thought under ordinary circumstances. Even walking didn’t strain him. Fighting, on the other hand, posed multiple problems he hadn’t considered. He could suffuse himself with essence with a thought, but he needed that thought to keep it suffused.

Fighting required him to use all his thoughts. He wasn’t sure why he didn’t notice he was no longer suffused at the end of a fight, but considering he’d tried it in the dungeon, in larger fights, exhaustion could be the answer.

He didn’t have that problem with his shield and sword, because he couldn’t not think about them as he fought. They were there; they were how he survived, so they were always in his thoughts. Other water essence-based attacks and defenses were instant, done, and over with.

“I think this is enough,” Alistair said, as Tibs missed him again. This time, it had been Tibs’s aim that had been horrible.

Tibs let go of his sword and it splashed to the floor as he put his hands on his knees and focused on breathing.

“How are you feeling?”

Tibs glared at his teacher. He wanted to switch elements. Purity would take away all his aches, wouldn’t it? Make breathing simple again?

“Were you able to keep your body suffused?”

Tibs shook his head.

“Your fighting form is good. Did you get one of the fighting teachers to train you?”

Tibs shook his head again. “Another Runner,” he wheezed out. “A convict.”

“Ah. Yes, they are older so some of them would have proper training. Please reform your blade.”

His breathing came in smoother, enough that he could stop thinking about it. He extended his shaking hand and his jagged sword reformed. It was more jagged than while he’d been trying to hit Alistair. His teacher studied it. “The jaggedness concerns me. You should be able to make a smooth blade with the level of control you demonstrate. That you can’t, tells me you are deeply angry about something.”

Tibs snorted. “I think the guild’s given me plenty to be angry about.”

“Anger and water are not—”

“That’s bullshit,” Tibs snapped. “Water doesn’t care how I feel. Water’s who is about soothing and making nice. I’m me. I’m a kid who got pulled here instead of losing a hand. And that I’m grateful for. But the rest? Everything since I got here? Being treated like food for the dungeon? Like some commodity the guild’s already made plans for once I’m strong enough. And that was before I realized the guild doesn’t care enough about the town and the people here to stick to the agreement it used to get them to come. That fucking guild of yours left us to die!” He waited for Alistair to snap at him angrily. To offer a defense for the guild’s action. To say something.

When he finally did, his tone was sad, matching his expression. “You have to let it go, Tibs. Anger at something you can’t do anything against will only lead you to make mistakes you’ll regret.” Alistair rubbed his left wrist. It had been a while since Tibs had seen the motion, and it took him a few seconds to remember Alistair’s admission at having once worn the black band of an adventurer who broke the guild’s rules.

“I’m not going to do anything to the guild,” Tibs said, letting water calm him. “I want to, but I know my limitation. I’m just a kid. Taking charge of the town’s survival is how I’m getting back at them.”

Alistair smiled. “Harry told me to get you to stop that.”

Tibs absorbed his sword as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going to listen to you either.”

His teacher nodded. “Be careful that protecting the town doesn’t become turning it against the guild. You saw what it can let happen when it doesn’t care about something. So consider what it could do, should it want that thing removed.”

“This is just about protecting the townsfolk.”

Alistair studied him silently for quite a long time.

* * * * *

Tibs stopped as he and his team stepped onto the clearing. He realized that this was the first time, since he had his team, that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to do the run. And this time, it had nothing to do with what the dungeon could do to him and his friends.

Yes, Sto had hurt him, his feelings. But Sto wasn’t human. He didn’t think like them, didn’t understand things the same way. He’d seen what he did as a nice gesture and a way to have fun. Tibs had been justified in walking out, in hurting him then and there.

The staying away all this time?

If Tibs got angry at one of his friends, he yelled at them, he kick their chins and then they talked. Tibs hadn’t done that last one with Sto. He didn’t even know why. He’d kept himself so busy he hadn’t had the time to think about it.

No, he’d kept himself busy so he wouldn’t think about it. Purity was good for that, giving him reasons to do instead of think.

And now that he no longer had a choice about speaking with Sto, he realized he was afraid of what the dungeon would tell him. Or maybe Sto would just remain silent the entire run. And he didn’t know which was worse.

Why hadn’t he come sooner and talked? Gotten Sto to apologize for what he did so that Tibs wouldn’t now feel like he was the one who’d done something wrong by remaining away all this time.

Carina had told Jackal, what felt like a long time ago, to give Kroseph some leeway on account that one was street and the other a city folk. Tibs understood now why the two continued having arguments over those differences afterward. Knowing you were different didn’t help. Tibs still wanted Sto to just know why he’d hurt him.

“Tibs?” Jackal asked.

He shook himself and moved again.

Sto was silent as he arrived at the stairs, and still as he climbed them.

At the entrance, the cleric frowned as he looked at Tibs, and Tibs returned it. The man was old, but the concentration of his essence marked him as no more than Rho.

“Is there a problem?” the guard asked, her tone disinterested. The guards had settled into a state of not particularly caring what the Runners got up to unless they broke the rules. Or at least that was how it seemed to Tibs. They no longer flinched when they realized one was nearby, or watched in awe unless they were brand new.

“No…” the cleric hesitated, still watching Tibs. Did he sense how Tibs had healed himself this morning?

Tibs had discovered that suffusing his body with Purity healed him. It wasn’t fast, but it was constant healing. He’d also realized, after being attacked late in the night after his roof running, that it removed his tiredness.

Carina had forbidden him from using it to avoid losing time to sleep after she found out he’d been doing just that, so he now stayed up far too long, slept a little, and suffused himself for a few minutes as soon as he woke up.

It left him feeling as if he’d had a long night of sleep.

“Then let them through,” she said.

Tibs felt the cleric’s eyes on him until he was far enough inside he was out of sight.

“Are we heading to the third floor by the doorway?” Mez asked.

Tibs looked up as the silence stretched. His friends glanced at him and that annoyed him. Why were they waiting on him? He wasn’t the leader.

“Tibs—” Jackal closed his mouth at the glare Tibs gave him. He was the leader, he should decide, and Tibs had to go along with it.

“We’re heading to the third floor,” Carina said, sending essence into the closed doorway. “We’re dealing with this right now.” It shimmered, then showed the bridge over the pool. She stepped through before anyone commented, and stepped to the side, where the other doorway was.

Tibs was through the doorway with only Khumdar behind him. The cleric had looked at him impassively as Tibs glared at him to go first, then he stepped through the doorway to the third floor.

“Is it my imagination, or does this feel more ominous than the last time?” Mez asked.

Again, his friends looked at Tibs.

“What?” he snapped.

“You’re being quiet,” Jackal replied.

“I believe the word you wish to use is brooding,” Khumdar offered.

“I’m not brooding,” Tibs replied, “I’m—” he snapped his mouth shut. He was scared. He was worried. He wanted to scream at Sto to say something, but he was terrified of what the dungeon had to say. “Sto isn’t saying anything,” he admitted.

Wasn’t that enough of a signal he wanted Sto to talk?

“Which passage are we taking?” Mez asked.

“Same as last time,” Jackal said after glancing at Tibs. “Like Carina said. We’re going to ‘deal with it’. So that’s where we need to go. Tibs?” Jackal stepped to the side and motioned to the floor.

Tibs thought about coating the floor with water to bypass whatever triggers were on this part of the hall, but decided against it. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe there was any more than the one Jackal triggered the last time. Even along the other halls there weren’t many triggers as Sto had put in the first trap room, so they could have missed them.

It was that rushing through felt like he’d insult her.

Yes, Ganny had also played a part in how Sto had hurt him. But could he hope to have a conversation with either of them if he just ignored the work they put in making the floor? Maybe if he showed them he still took this seriously, Sto would talk to him.

“Tibs?” Jackal whispered. “I don’t think you’re going to find the traps just by looking ahead.”

“Actually,” Tibs said, chuckling, then shook his head at Jackal’s surprised expression. “Maybe next time.” He crouched and proceeded forward. With the floor not perfectly flat, and with the occasional unrelated cracks, identifying each trigger without using his water took time. When he found one, he sensed the mechanism. This close to it, the saturation Ganny maintained on this floor didn’t prevent him from telling some of the essences that were part of the triggers, but he couldn’t follow where they went beyond a couple of paces.

“Tibs?” Jackal asked. “Wasn’t there three branches here last time?”

Tibs looked up. Ahead, where the hall had split into three, there was now a branch going to the left, one going to the right, and a flat wall between them.

“That wall wasn’t there,” Mez said.

Tibs confirmed there were no triggers the rest of the way, and they approached the intersection.

Tibs tapped it, then studied it, then sensed it.

“It’s stone,” he said, looking at Jackal.

“It goes on deeper than I can sense,” the fighter said, hand on the wall.

The essence was tight, but Earth and Corruption was all there was. It went on further than he could sense, but it had to open up to a hall again, so Tibs should be able to undo the wall until he reached it. But it would take time, even without considering how slow he was when channeling Earth. And because this was Ganny’s floor, there might be nothing there.

And he realized that there might be something else, a trickier way she’d arranged it. He looked over his shoulder the way they’d come.

“Is that his ‘we need to worry’ smile?” Mez asked.

“No,” Carina replied. “That’s the ‘he’s figured something out’ one.”

“I don’t have different smiles,” Tibs protested.

“Oh, you definitely have a ‘I’m going to enjoy this a lot more than you will’ one,” Jackal said, rubbing the leg Tibs had practiced his healing on.”

“So, what did you figure out?” Mez asked before Tibs could protest again that he hadn’t enjoyed it… much.

“I don’t think the triggers I had us avoid were traps, or at least not all of them. Remember how the one you stepped on didn’t seem to do anything?” He pointed to the wall before them. “What if it opened this?”

“So we’d have to find all the triggers that open walls to find all the ways to we can go?” Carina asked, dubious.

“That would seem excessively dangerous,” Khumdar said.

“There’s a way to tell the ones that open walls from the ones that will kill us,” Tibs replied, turning to go study the triggers.

Jackal stopped him. “Next time. Right now, we’re going that way.”

Tibs smiled at Jackal. “But there could be loot behind this wall if I open it properly.”

“And that’s your ‘look at me, I’m too innocent to be planning anything’ smile. Next time Tibs.”

“Maybe the hall won’t lead there unless I—”

“Tibs, I only stepped on that one trigger,” Jackal said, “and that is what it seems to have done. I’m sure that we’re going to—that Sto will—it won’t—” He let out an exasperated sigh.

Tibs bit his lower lip. He’d been looking for a way not to go forward again. He wished Sto said something, anything at this point, so Tibs had an idea where his…friend stood. With a resigned nod, he headed in the direction Jackal nudged him into.

Without the creatures to fight, they reach where they had encountered the—

They stopped and waited.

The silence stretched. No scraping of stone, no approaching…thing.

“Are we sure this is the right place?” Carina asked, studying the walls.

“Yeah,” Jackal replied. “Tibs?”

He sensed ahead for anything, but the hall was still saturated, so he went to the bend from which Sto had come that last time wearing—

Nothing waited there to ambush them.

“Okay, is anyone else crept out by this?” Mez asked.

“Tibs, what’s going on?” Carina asked.

He glared at her, how did she expect him to know? Only, that wasn’t what she meant, and his cheeks burned at the realization. He was the only one who could find out.

He let out a breath. “Sto?”

Silence.

“Sto,” he demanded. “Come on,” he said, the lack of responses angering him. “Don’t be a baby. Talk to me.”

“Maybe,” Ganny replied, her tone gentle, “you are the one who should say something?”

“What are you talking about?” he demanded and immediately regretted his tone, but couldn’t stop himself. “He’s the one who started it when he brought—” Fuck, breathing was difficult. Had Sto done something to the air?

“But you’re the one who walked out, Tibs,” she replied in the same gentle tone. Why couldn’t she be angry at him for how he talked to her? He didn’t want to be the only one angry. “Who stayed away.”

“I’m here now,” he snapped.

“Because it’s your run. You didn’t even come—”

“I’m sorry, okay?” he yelled. “I’m sorry I just left. I’m sorry I didn’t come and talk.” He wiped at his eyes. “It hurt too much. Then I was busy with the town, then I use that not to think about how much it had hurt, then to not think about how ashamed I felt for not talking about it with you. Then I was scared you wouldn’t want to talk to me. Then I was angry again because I didn’t want this to be my fault and…” he lost the words in how he felt.

“I’m sorry I hurt you,” Sto said softly, and Tibs found he breathed easier. “I thought you’d—”

Tibs tried to say something, to think of something to say as Sto stammered into silence.

Sto sighed. “I don’t understand people very well.”

“I know,” Tibs said. “I should have given you leeway because you’re a dungeon and not a human. But seeing—” He swallowed and forced himself to say it as calmly as he could. “Seeing Pyan again, it hurt too much. We aren’t like your creatures,” he continued before he could find out Sto had nothing to respond with. “We don’t exist to do just one thing. When we leave you, we still have lives, we still exist. And those lives happen with the people around us, beyond our team. You said that you heard how she enjoyed fighting with Jackal, but that meant more than fighting. We shared ales and meals. We helped each other. When someone like that dies, that stays with us. The pain diminishes in time, but it never goes entirely away.” He thought of Mama, and those times when he missed feeling her arms around him.

“Seeing her like that. It reminded me of the friendship I lost. That hurts Sto, being reminded she’s gone. I didn’t want her to die, but after Geoff did, I shouldn’t have been surprised.” He looked at Jackal. “That’s why I’ll never have a special someone. No one will ever feel that kind of pain because I’ve died.”

The look Jackal gave him was… odd. Sadness and amusement.

“Are we good?” Mez asked before Tibs could ask what that was about. “I mean, is the dungeon—Fuck, this is too weird.” He ran a hand over his face. “We shouldn’t be able to have a conversation with it, but to only hear one side of it just…”

“I don’t know how to go from here, Tibs,” Sto said while Tibs tried to come up with an answer for the archer. “If making a Runner is going to hurt you each time, how am I…”

There were plenty of Runners Sto could use Tibs wouldn’t care about, but what about Carina and Jackal? What about the other Runners? Everyone had lost teammates here. Mez had lost an entire team to the dungeon. Or Khumdar who… Tibs realized he had no idea if the cleric had lost friends here. Or if he had friends outside the team at all.

“He doesn’t know what to do if he can’t create Runners,” Tibs told them.

“He can just make more creatures,” Mez said. “Those work fine.”

Sto snorted. “Have you seen how easily you go through them? I haven’t cracked what’s needed to improve them to the same level as…” he paused. “People are… I don’t know how to explain it, but it’s like they’re made for this. They move faster, easier, they’re just plain…”

“Yes?” Tibs prodded as the silence stretched.

“I don’t want to hurt you again, Tibs.”

Tibs nodded and readied himself. “Just say it.”

“People are just plain fun. I can talk when I’m in one of them. It’s easy to move them, to fight. I didn’t realize how slow and lumbering the brutes are, even the one I made just to fight Jackal, until I was in…. I think I could win a fight against him using a person.” The eagerness died off. “But not if that means causing you pain.”

Tibs chuckled.

The idea Sto didn’t want to hurt him when he existed to test them to the point they’d die was nearly funny. That he said he wouldn’t use someone Tibs knew because it would hurt him, at the same time as saying he could use them to kill Jackal would be funny, if the idea of losing his friend didn’t hurt so much.

He told the others what Sto said.

Jackal stepped forward. “Dun—Sto. First off. I don’t care who or what you use; you aren’t beating me. I’m the best fighter you’ll ever meet.” He looked at Tibs.

“He’s waiting for whatever else you have to say.”

“Second.” Jackal sounded miffed at not getting a comeback. “I demand payment for the help I’m about to give you.”

“Jackal!” Carina snapped. “You don’t make demands of a dungeon.”

“Already have.” Jackal looked at the ceiling. “So?”

“I will…consider it,” Sto replied. “Based on how helpful it actually is.”

“He’ll think about it,” Tibs said.

“Fine. I’ll take what I can,” he said, annoyed. “Put a helmet on their heads so we can’t see their faces. Have them wear armor so we can’t recognize their body, there’s that fixes the problem.”

“Helmets don’t cover faces,” Sto said. “Did I miss one that does that?”

“No, but that’s an easy enough change to make,” Ganny said. “And you don’t need to worry about holes for the eyes. And you can make it part of them, so it doesn’t fly off when hit. The Runners move well enough when wearing armor, so you’ll do too.”

“They like the idea,” Tibs said, smiling at the excitement in Ganny’s voice.

“Can I offer an alternative?” Carina said as Jackal rubbed his hand together eagerly. She glared at him. “Without needing to be paid for it.”

Sto chuckled. “I’ll listen, then decide on the payment.”

“You’re going to enjoy pitting them against each other, aren’t you?” Ganny asked.

“Yes, but this would be so much more fun if they knew that.”

Tibs sighed. “I am getting tired of being stuck in the middle of these.”

“The price of being special,” Ganny replied, chuckling.

She was so lucky she wasn’t someone he could glare at. “Whoever has the better idea wins,” he told them.

“Then it’s easy.” Jackal grinned. “I always win.”

“Do you need me to blast you all the way to the entrance?” Carina asked, and Jackal winced.

“I do not believe you currently possess the control needed that will let you navigate him around the bends between here and there,” Khumdar said.

She grinned at him. “He’s stubborn enough. His head can survive a direct line through the stone.”

“It’s the rest of him that’s going to need the cleric when he lands outside,” Mez said, chuckling.

“I hear a lot of boasting,” Jackal said, “and no actual idea.”

Carina stepped to his side. “Do you have to make them identical to who they were?” She grinned at Jackal, and his confidence cracked.

“What does she mean?” Sto asked, and Tibs relayed the question.

“I noticed all our creatures are kind of the same,” she said. “You have groups, but within that, there isn’t a lot of variety. Maybe the Ratlings and Bunnylings use different weapons and some will wear better armor, but they all look the same. Same with your golems. You have the Whippers, the Brutes, and the Bigger Brute, but other than what needs to be different for what they do, they’re the same too. The one time one was different is when you fought Jackal. Is that a choice you make when creating them, or a limitation you have to work within?”

“I…I don’t know. I just make them until they worked fine for what I needed them to do. Ganny, can I change them beyond that?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I mean, everything in here is part of you, so yes, you can change anything you want. It just never occurred to me to suggest it. Like you said, they worked fine.”

“Can you try it now?” Tibs offered.

“I don’t know how much concentration it’s going to take,” Sto replied. “I’m going to start on it once you’ve ended your run, but I think it’s something I’m going to have to work on for a while until I get it right. People are more…complex to make than the stone creatures.” He paused. “ Tibs, do you think the other teams are going to react like you did if they confront other Runners? Having people as creatures is the entirety of my contribution to this floor, and if I can’t do that, it’s going to diminish the experience.”

The idea others might go through what he had made Tibs sick. He wanted to forbid Sto from doing it outright, regardless of how Sto felt about it. But he needed to keep in mind that Sto wasn’t a human; he was a dungeon. He needed to do the things he had to. The guild had been worried when he’d been eating nearly everyone who went in. How would they react if they thought he didn’t do everything he could to test the Runners? Would they think he was sick?

What did people do with sick animals?

Instead of deciding, he told his team about it.

“What about my reward?” Jackal asked.

“He didn’t pick your idea,” Carina countered.

“He didn’t pick yours, so clearly mine is better.”

Sto and Ganny chuckled.

“We can deal with that afterward,” Tibs stated. “Should Sto use the people creatures with the other teams even if they look like dead Runners?”

“Why does he care?” Mez asked and immediately raised a hand as Tibs was about to protest. “I get why what happened with us is a problem. He likes you, and hurting you caused you to not talk to him, and that hurt him. But unless he likes someone on another team, what does he care what they’ll think?”

“It is not what they will think that worries it, is it?” Khumdar asked.

“Who else would it…” Mez looked at Tibs. “Oh.”

And Tibs was stuck in the middle again. Would Sto keep protesting if Ganny called him out for being sweet on Tibs?

Everyone was looking at him.

“Alright,” he said, sighing. “I don’t like it, but,” he hurried to continue, “you have to do what a dungeon does. It’s what you are. And,” he added because otherwise, it wouldn’t be fair to the other teams, “if you can’t use either of Jackal’s or Carina’s idea, you can do it with us, too.”

“Are you sure?” Sto asked. “I don’t want to hurt you like that again.”

“You test us. That’s just another test. Who knows, maybe it’ll teach me how to stop caring so much.”

“Don’t say that, Tibs,” Jackal ordered.

“Fuck off, Jackal. You don’t know how much it hurts to care about all this.” He rubbed his face. “Sorry. You don’t deserve this. I’m just…”

“You’re you,” Ganny said. “I’m pretty sure that’s a big part of what makes you special.”

Tibs rolled his eyes. “So, this is done? We can go on with this run?”

“Before you do,” Sto said, tone serious. “I have to render my verdict as to who gets the reward.”

“Stone Mountain Crevice,” Ganny warned. “Don’t you even think about it.”