We shambled our way after the others. It took far too long to catch up, and along the way, we walked past two dead drakes. Several elves as well. I decided I didn’t care enough to count those. When we did arrive Dragon Smith was already there, massive hammer in hand to smite anyone who would threaten his charges.

He looked terrible. Arrows protruded from his body, cuts, and gashes all over him. Yet he continued to stand as a testament to what it meant to be sturdy. His harsh glare softened as he recognized us and set his hammer down, a semblance of his fatigue floating onto his face.

“How did things go over here?” I asked feeling like the situation called for a bit of levity.

Dragon Smith chuckled a few times until it turned into a cough, “Been better, but not bad. You… Did you become a high priestess when I wasn’t looking?”

“I guess?” I asked stumbling over towards the man.

“Gold… That's Jerome…” Dragon Smith said practically dumbfounded.

I noticed little black veins in his skin, they didn’t look like they were penetrating as badly as Aquina’s attack on Devin had, but they were there nonetheless.

I place my hand on him, “Jerome’s blessing upon you.” I repeated the words that had worked the last time. Just like the last time, I could feel a sense of rightness assert itself around us, and Dragon Smith stood a bit straighter.

“Thanks… I was a bit worried about that curse.” He said before pulling the arrows free.

I winced at each one. But his body didn’t seem to really bleed from the wounds. They almost seemed to be scarred already. His body didn't make much sense to me.

“You’ll have to tell me about how you, managed this one.” He said emphasized the “you” extra hard. I knew what he meant of course, how did a succubus, and a dungeon become a high priestess to the god of order? Utter nonsense.

I barely felt like it was real.

“Alright, let's get going. Now that your back we should hopefully be able to avoid any more groups, we should be outside of their range at some point, but we’ll need to press as hard as we can before nightfall.” Dragon Smith insisted.

We followed along after him. I could hear whispers among the townspeople. Mostly wondering if I was the same person.

Oh right… I didn’t change back to my human persona because the archers were with us. I guess it was a lost cause at this point.

“Naan?” I asked.

The word came slowly, almost in slow motion, “Yes…?”

I tried to release my grip on things, I banished my sense of the cords, of the souls inside of me, of the rest of it. Or at least I did as best I could.

I knew the truth now. I wasn't sure why it had come on so strong, whether it was my realization, a god's words, or maybe it had something to do with Jerome's connection to me, or through me. It could have been anything, and the truth was, that the why didn't matter.

I knew that Naan was dead. I'd killed it. The voice in my head was nothing but some strange shadow of the dungeon created by me, or my mind, or maybe some part of Naan's mind as it fused with me. None of that mattered, what mattered is that now that I had admitted it on some level, truth asserted itself.

"I didn't expect this to end so abruptly." The voice cleared up bit by bit and became more real, more tangible to me.

I took a deep breath and nodded, “Just a bit longer.” Tears streaked down my cheek.

“As you say...” Naan replied.

On some level I didn't want it to end, I didn't want to let go of the delusion. But I couldn't run away any longer, not now. Just a bit longer...

As Dragon Smith stated we kept marching. We didn’t even stop to eat, instead, towns folk with food and soldiers gave what they could, and we ate while he marched.

One more drake came after us, a group of three elves on its back. Dragon Smith however didn’t need help with it. One swing of his hammer and the thing's head was a disgusting mess. The elves practically shat their pants and tried to run. It was honestly ridiculous.

The day drew on, and by the time the sun set everyone's legs were killing them. We had left the forest behind and were now in a wide-open field. The whole group gathered up in a circle, as usual, I stayed with my goblins who were forced out from the rest. Gerl and Devin sat on either side of the group.

“I’ll help keep watch.” Gerl offered.

“Thanks.” Devin said as he laid down, resting his head on his arm.

I nodded, “Good night everyone.”

The goblins did little more than grunt. Except for Kosue who replied, “Sleep!” obviously she was eager to find rest.

I was honestly the same. Though for very different reasons I imagined. I lay on my back staring up at the starry sky, and before I knew it, I was out.

When I opened my eyes I found myself back in the cavern below the old church. A soft glow everywhere so nothing was complete darkness.

I glanced around a bit confused as to how I got here.

“Anna.” Naan’s voice reached me.

“Naan?” I asked.

“You’ve realized the truth. It's time.” Naan continued.

I frowned, and it intensified as it started to become real once more. “Wasn’t it fine? Wasn’t it fine if we just kept pretending?” I asked.

“It was bound to happen sooner or later.” Naan stated instead.

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have touched your abilities! We had rules and I broke them.” I insisted.

“I have been falling apart… Slowing down, and having issues. Regardless, what you set in motion in this place could only end one of two ways.”

“But why? Why couldn’t we stay together? Sure we had a fight… but… but…” I sobbed.

“I am to blame.” Naan stated.

“No!” I insisted.

“Listen.” Naan cut in firmly.

I went quiet even as I continued my tears.

“If one of us is to blame for ruining this balance, it isn’t you. It’s me. It's in my nature to expand, to try and claim territory. But where our minds are concerned is more complex. We aren't talking about caves, or fields. Lost and gained ground isn’t a tug of war game which parts are mine, and which parts are yours. When I reach, your mind instinctively resists, slowly grinding away at my strength.”

Had I been somewhat wrong in my assertion? or was it that Naan itself didn't realize? Or maybe this was all just the end of a terrible joke? Or were we just playing out the end of a story that had to be told?

“But… shouldn’t that mean we both get weaker?” I asked going along with it for now.

“The mind is a strange thing… and I can admit that yours is simply far more developed than mine. Perhaps if I had not weakened myself so, we could have found a stable equilibrium. But that is no longer an option.”

“I didn’t even notice though…” I replied.

Naan chuckled, “Must you rub it in?”

I sobbed, realizing the weight of what I'd said. “Sorry…”

“It is I who should apologize. You tried to understand me, tried to work with me. I barely thought of you as anything but a tool until it was too late.”

“Then what now?” I asked.

“You are asking me?” Naan chuckled.

“I don’t know…” I offered.

“I suppose I should thank you.” Naan said.

“For what?” I asked somewhat horrified by that. What did I do for Naan to be thanked?

“It doesn't matter. It just needs to be said.” Naan insisted.

I sobbed, and sobbed.

When my eyes opened the next day I was greeted with the dim light of predawn. Yet the darkness was irrelevant.

I glanced around, seeing the cords, and contracts that bound me and connected us. I felt the two souls snugly resting within me until I could bring them back into this world. Yet more, the thought of creating a mana body under the sun, what a stupid idea, so wasteful. Yet it had worked… I held up my hand, and with a tiny force of will, I claimed the air over my hand as part of my dungeon. Utter nonsense, I could practically feel an instinct inside of me wanting to clobber me over the head for doing it.

It just felt like it needed doing, now that I could do it. Or rather now that I admitted that I could... I expected it to just go away. Just like I’d expected that Emmett would eventually break down.

But sitting there watching it not degrade, not decay away. I could practically feel the resilience of the mana inside the tiny dungeon body. It only then occurred to me, why that might be. A dungeon of order it would seem was just sturdy enough to resist complete breakdown in the sun. How long would it last? I didn’t know, I doubted it would be permanent. But since it was here anyway, I guess I should do something.

My mind, abilities, and hands worked in unison as I created a chunk of stone in my grasp, just a thick tablet really, cutting away at it here and there until it had a curved top, and the markings I wanted in it. As much as I could find myself able to read the words of this world, and thought that I could maybe write them too, I chose the letters that came to my fingers naturally. They might have been strange, entirely foreign to this world, but I felt like it was somehow fitting to use letters from another world for this task. Representative of the words I choose to write, or perhaps as a bridge between my two lives. I suppose it didn't much matter in the end why I picked what I did.

When I was done I claimed a bit of the ground, turning some of the dirt into dust so I could grow stone in the hole, and fuse my stone creation to it.

More tears were shed, and I wiped my cheeks and took a breath. I could hear the rest of the people stirring, getting ready to move. I didn’t expect we would stick around much longer, after all, who knew how far we’d pulled ahead?

I glanced over to find Devin watching me, “You alright?” He asked.

“No… But I’ll manage.” I said, before standing up.

He picked himself up and hugged me, “Hey… What is it? Was it a bad dream? A sad memory?”

I shook my head, “Just saying goodbye to a friend.” Sure Naan hadn’t been a great friend, but it had been a friend. No matter what Naan itself thought, how it felt about our partnership. As short as it might have been in truth, I had my own thoughts, and feelings on the matter, and those were what mattered in the end.

Devin glanced over at my small gravestone. “What’s it say?” He asked.

“I’ll tell you later.” I replied, “When I’m ready to talk about it.”

Devin gave me a squeeze and nodded, “Alright, take your time.”

I nodded and I saw Dragon Smith in the distance. In the meantime, I was going to have to learn to multitask better and hope that I could get over my motion sickness. But I’d manage, I was nothing if not consistent at forging ahead, regardless of my safety.

When we were all gathered up and ready to leave, I shifted my gaze from my body back to where I’d woken, and un-claiming the tiny bits of dungeon body that were still actively resisting their disintegration. That done, we left, even as my eyes glanced back, and read the words engraved in stone one last time.

"Goodbye Naan, Thank you for giving me this second chance."

The End

Part 2 - Before editing: ~118,384 words, after editing: ~142,292, Discarded ~42,923 words.