There is more treasure, power, and knowledge to be found hiding in the darkness where lesser minds fear to look.

  - Nevyn Eld [Guardian of the Realm], Professor of Domain Magiiversity of Dal’mohra.

  Aliandra

  Ali sat at the desk, heart pounding in her chest, staring at it in trepidation. She had spent the st couple of days reading and studying everything Ryn had found on dungeons, and still, she had made absolutely nress on figuring out how to make boss monsters.

  But there was one resource she hadn’t tried, and that was because it terrified her. The heavy bck book y closed on the walnut table, filling her with an irrational dread. The steel-edged bindings gleamed dully despite the ample lighting, and the potent silver runes glowed with a powerful mana, but Ali wanted nothing to do with it.

  Dungeons and Domains: A plete Referenevyn Eld.

  The st, and only, time she had ope, it had firmed she was a dungeon, and the shock of that realization ing on top of her frantic flight that culminated in her killing a person for the first time came back full force to haunt her.

  Don’t be stupid, Ali. She knew her fear was not rational – it wasn’t like opening the book would summon the Lich – a she couldn’t quieten her heart. I love books… but this was so different.

  “What’s wrong, child?”

  Ali startled at the sudden sound of Lira’s void let out a squeak. It was an embarrassing sound and she blushed bright red.

  “I’m scared,” she said, dropping her head and finally aowledging the fear in her heart. She – Aliandra Amariel – was afraid of a book. It was the silliest thing she could imagine, but there it was.

  “You are wise to be cautious of the Blind Lich’s writings,” Lira said, demonstrating that she knew more about the problem than Ali had guessed. “If you’d like, I will make us some tea and I sit with you while you study.”

  “Thank you,” she said. She would be forever grateful that Lira did not make fun of her in that moment, and she waited till she had a few sips of tea warmiomach before she finally found the ce to open the book.

  I his knowledge, she told herself, fighting against her trepidation.

  She read the book cover-to-cover first, not trusting it with her study trance before she knew what was tained within it. Even so, her Sage of Learning drew deeply from her mana during the process. When she was finally done, she took a deep breath, and activated her skill, beginniudy in ear.

  When she finally came out of her trance, she found Lira still sitting there, watg over her with her third – or perhaps twenty-third – cup of tea, showing no signs of annoya the passing of time.

  “How were your studies?” Lira asked softly.

  “Safe, thank you,” she answered, truly grateful for her aunt’s support. “And I finally found what I needed.” She k without even cheg her notifications, a fual depth of uanding having been reached. In the end, the cept was closely reted to what she did wheached her runic circles to her domain or empowered her barrier magic with her domain mana. The same structural flow of mana could be adapted to support her minions.

  It still felt wrong to be learning from the Lich, but she grudgingly had to admit his research was inspired. Warily, she ied the notifications.

  Reading has reached level 12.Domain Mastery has reached level 20.

  Requirements met for skill adva.

  Domain Mastery has reached at least level 20.Have uood at least six Domain Magic spells.Studied or uood the theory of domain attat.Studied at least three dungeon domains.Have manually attached a Shrio your domain.Have manually attached various magical formations to your domain.

  Domain Mastery gains Domain Respawn.Domain Mastery gains Domain Enha.Domain Mastery – level 20You manipute the structure and mana of your domain. All yic within your domain is empowered by the domain itself. Mana: Adjust the shape and position of any non-living material that is part of your domain. Range: Domain.Mana: Permaly attaything you have made to your domain. Its mana signature is imprinted onto the domain, allowing it to be automatically respawned when killed or destroyed. Domain-attached minions may not leave the area of attat and may be further enhanced with Domain Magic. Raouhas: Domain, Boss, Raid.Nature, Are, Mastery, Domain, Intelligenbsp;Accept these advas?

  A double adva? And I don’t have to choose?

  Domain Respawn seemed to be the part where she could support her minions with domain mana gaining an automatic respawn, which would make maintaining her sewers vastly easier. It seemed her studies had beeraordinarily productive, however, the requirements strongly implied that her personal experiences with her magid having explored both the Ruins of Dal’mohra and Naia’s dungeon had tributed signifitly to her adva.

  Domain Enha was finally a way for her to make the powerful monsters adventurers called bosses. It hadn’t escaped her notice that the surge of analysis from Sage of Learning every time she had destructed a boss monster had been called a ‘Domain Magic’ also. She had required at least six of them to unlock this advahree she recalled learning from the Skeletal Wyvern, two from the Piercer Scorpion, and three from the Twin Wights. Which makes eight. It was the Domain Magic skills, and the enha of her minions’ power from the domain itself, that Nevyn Eld cimed was how bosses were created.

  Am I finally going to figure out how to use those? It was with no small amount of excitement and anticipation that she accepted the new advances.

  Css Domain Magic acquired.You have learhe Domain Magic: Attribute Enha (Intelligence).You have learhe Domain Magic: Attribute Enha (Wisdom).You have learhe Domain Magic: Minions.

  Accepting the advas instantly triggered her css to add three new Domain Magic skills, and after studying them for a moment, she realized that they aligned favorably with the major traits of her css.

  Hadn’t Lyeneru said something about that? The skills triggered a memory from studying the Elven Pathfinder’s ats of dungeons, and she quickly retrieved the book, paging through it to refresh her memory.

  “Most dungeons with more than a few bosses tend to have a theme or a set of favored skills, so you might find yourself describing a dungeon as a stealth dungeon, fire dungeon, flying dungeon, poison dungeon, or a critical damage dungeon because many of the bosses share simir abilities, have simir magical affinities, and use the same moypes.”

  That’s what that meant. Fical affinities, it made more sense, but for boss skills, if most dungeons earheir domain skills acc to the traits of their css, then they would almost certainly have to reuse the same Domain Magic every time. If she hadn’t learned hers with Destru and Sage, she would have only the three she had just acquired from her css.

  A quick puff of gold and violet mana alerted her to Ryn’s arrival in the library. “Hi, Ali! Gotta run, but here are a few new books I found.” She dropped the books oable and vanished in a shower of glittery magic.

  “Thanks,” Ali said to her departing trail and turo examihe new books. “Why is her are mana golden like mine?” Ali wondered aloud. She had noticed it from the first day Ryn had unlocked her affi the shrine and just chalked it up to ce. But other than her mother and herself, nobody else had the same mana – nearly always, are mana was some shade of purple in her mana sight.

  “I have wohe same thing,” Lira said, another cup of tea and wearing a strangely serious expression on her face.

  “What is it, Aunt Lira?” Ali asked when she fell silent without eborating.

  “Perhaps you should know,” Lira said, her eyes filling with an old pain. “It is a sad story. A story about your mother and her challenging bloodline. A story about you… and the Lich.”

  A chill settled into Ali’s bo the sound of her words. “The Lich?” she croaked.

  “The same,” Lira said. “Are you certain you wish to hear it?”

  Ali opened her mouth and then shut it again. She did not want to hear a story about him. But how could she ignore a story about her mother? The fact that it was about both of them, and ed her, filled her with dread a her spiraling into terrifying nightmares of the imagination. “I… please tell me,” she whispered. I must know.

  “Very well,” Lira said, taking a deep breath as if brag herself. “It was a long time before you were born – before he had been unmasked for the evil he truly is. Your mother had been struggling for years to have a child, but the magic of the Fae ran to in her veins. The potency of her mana caused far too many plications, and all her pregnancies were… not viable.”

  Ali shivered, not liking where this story was going. Not o.

  Lira winced, sharing her anguish, and said, “Unbeknownst to all of us, Nevyn Eld had developed an obsession with Elowynn’s magider the guise of helping with her problem, he vinced her to share some of her blood.”

  Ali gasped, c her mouth with her hand.

  “It is as you fear,” Lira said. “He never inteo help her. He wanted her blood for his own research. The experiments he did… oh, they were awful.”

  “What… did… ?”

  “He attempted to introduce the bloodlio Elves and Humans. But the mana created such horrific deformities… most of his experiments died mercifully quickly.”

  “That’s awful,” Ali said, clutg her arms around her chest, shuddering.

  “When we fronted him, he admitted no fault, insisting he be allowed to tinue his experiments ‘for the greater good’. Artur Dragonsworn banished him, and Nevyn Eld was not seen or heard from in decades. We all thought he was gone food. When your mother recovered, Thaldorien Stormshaper invited a Troll Seeker named Val’korr – a soul magic specialist from Aman Rak – and Elowynn was finally able to give birth to a healthy child.”

  “Me?” Ali asked.

  “Yes. As, even with you, the mana had left its mark,” Lira said, “When your wings failed to develop, your mother was devastated and vowed ain.”

  “Mom…” Ali whispered. The fact that her existence had been a heartbreak for her mother was almost too much for her fragile heart. “I’m… so sorry.”

  “Do not bme yourself, dear,” Lira said, taking her hands. “It was your love of the magic you ied from her that finally allowed her to heal.”

  “It was?” Ali sniffed.

  “Do you remember the day you cast your first are trip in the Grove? Do you remember what you said?”

  It had been a sunny day, and their little family had been having a piic by the ke. She’d been sitting on her dad’s p watg her mother make golden mana butterflies while Lira had been sipping oea. She had felt her mana move that day and, without even thinking, she had summoned a tiny butterfly of her own. She recalled it so clearly – like it was yesterday – everyone had stopped and stared at her juration. Her eight-year-old self had leapt to her feet iement.

  “Yay! Now I be just like mommy…” Ali whispered, eg her happy memory, now steeped in mencholy sadness.

  “Your mother loved you dearly,” Lira said.

  “I know,” Ali answered, wiping the wetness from her eyes with the back of her hand. “That was the st thing she told me.” I haven’t fotten, Mom.

  They fell silent for a while, Ali taking deep fort from holding Lira’s hand.

  “So… you think Ryn might be…”

  “I ’t know for certain, but yes. There is a ce she may be a desdent of one of Nevyn Eld’s failed experiments.”

  “She’s family?”

  sulted the written dires he had gotten from the receptionist at the guild. The teleportation service he had been directed to was not at the same location as the Ciradyl city locus – if it had been, he would have had no trouble finding it with his skill-enhanced sense of dire. He had already built a mental map of the three-dimensional tree city – at least, the parts he had visited or seen so far.

  No, it was the descriptions of where to go that had him stumped – some dires could only have made sense if one were born here. He struggled with assed for a map and the words expining where to go, half of which were written in Elvish, and suddenly realized where he had gone wrong. He was oire branch too high, and the tree highway he was looking for actually y below him.

  It’s a good thing I fly, he thought, and he was about to take off when his attention was caught by a rather strange sight. It was a hair salon, but the ehing seemed to have been grown out of the side of the branch, making an open-air ptform, upon which the various chairs, basins, mirrors, and strange devices he couldn’t name – requirements for proper hairstyling – were id out for passing travelers to see. There were several patrons already waiting, and for a hair salon, it seemed to be rather popur.

  Maybe I should get a haircut… Lyeneru’s simple advice about fiden himself and his heritage had been filtering through his mind over the time he had spent here in Ciradyl. Ever since he could remember, he had been embarrassed or ashamed of his half-elveage, and the father he had never met. When he was a lot younger, he had decided that if he kept his hair long, people wouldn’t see his ears, not fully realizing that most people had the Identify skill – and as he had grown up it had somehow e to represent the barrier proteg himself from the judgment of others, as if he could somehow hide behind it.

  It was impulsive, but before he could ge his mind, he walked up the wooden stairs, requested a haircut from the reception desk, and took a seat in the waiting area. He sat quietly for a few minutes and by the time the Elven woman came to get him, he was already having sed thoughts, but by then it was too te to back out without making an embarrassing se.

  “What would you like?” she asked, running her fihrough his thick shaggy silver hair in the familiar way he was certain only hairdressers could get away with.

  “Short, I think,” he answered, a little more hesitantly thaended.

  “Ooh, good choice,” she smiled, and dove into a flurry of questions aails.

  ’s mind swirled with dizzying plexity, but he agreed to let her leave it a little longer on top but crop the sides and back quite tight. At least, I think that’s what she said.

  She worked quickly, her skills making the scissors blur with speed and precision, all the while plimenting him on his appearan what he thought was a rather forward fashioainly, he was blushing fiercely by the time she was done.

  But when she jured a mirror, the face that stared back at him seemed a little angur, more mature than he had expected. The hairstyle was modern, and far outside his fort zone, but he had to admit she had done an incredible job. His mother was most certainly going to die from sheer happiness – she had beeering him about his hair for years.

  ***

  The thrum of pripped him in a sudden disorienting lurd felt momentarily weightless amid a bright fsh of light. When his vision cleared, he found himself standing on the familiar polished bck marble of the Novaspark Academy of Magi the ter of the teleportation locus.

  “Wele, Pathfinder, your passage is free of charge.”

  blinked, shaking his head to clear the aftereffects of the powerful, le teleportation spell, and stared at the official in surprise. He was aced to having to pay mana for using teleportation services, but the official sitting at the table ined his head respectfully. He’s waiving the fee because I’m wearing the cloak? Nibsp;Betedly remembering his manners, bowed his head slightly in a gesture of thanks before leaving the circle, heading out into the te m sun and bustling streets of Myrin’s Keep’s artisan and crafting district.

  It was not just the official in the academy. As walked the streets, he felt the curious gazes following him – and not in the normal disapproving way he was used to.

  “Pathfinder…” the whispers reached his ears as he went by a fruit stand.

  People walking by him oreet reacted in surprise when they noticed him, moving out of his way, nodding respectfully, reeting him. It was nothing particurly overt, and nobody made a big deal about it, but he found it to be a sistent and profound ge – and surprisingly uling. He had grown up in this town and had always known the disfort and disapproval of the general townsfolk toward a half-breed – an attitude so pervasive that he barely noticed it in the same way as he seldom noticed the air he breathed. An underlying axiom in his world that was now called starkly into focus by its abrupt and shog absence. With nothing more than a good haircut and a Pathfinder cloak, he was being treated with casual respect by total strangers.

  He ehe unfortable tension that had settled in on his walk through the town till he reached the storefront of his mother’s shop. He opehe door to the wele sound of the familiar chimes, and the tension suddenly faded.

  His mnced up from her work as he entered and she let out a squeal of joy, dropping the fabrid rushing over to hug him.

  “You’re back!” At the smile and the happiness he saw on her face, the st remaining traces of his ay vanished.

  “Mom, you’re squashing me.”

  “Nonsense, you’re so big now, let me see you!” She stepped baire his new haircut. He had known that would get her attention first, especially sidering how much she had always wanted him to do it.

  “What is this?” she asked, toug the cloak, feeling the weave of the expensive fabric. “A Pathfinder Guild cloak?”

  “Yes, Lyeneru signed me up as an Initiate. Mom, I went to Ciradyl!”

  “No!” she gasped, and though he knew she was half pying along and half genuinely curious, he loved her the more for her rea. “Tell me everything! Tea?”

  “Would I ever turn down your tea?”

  “ wouldn’t, but this handsome stranger?” She wi him.

  “Mom!”

  He spent the hour or so reting his ret adventures with her over tea. He described Lyeneru Silverleaf, the fight with the Death Knight – which she wasn’t very excited about – and his subsequent impromptu trip to Ciradyl, the astonishing forest city of the Wood Elves. “It was so beautiful!” he said, finishing up with a description of the Well of Souls.

  ***

  dropped down into the sewer from above, fring his wings briefly to nd gracefully orash-strewn moss below.

  [Explorer] You have entered a dungeon.A Grove – level 50Affinity: Nature, Are.Age: New.Knowures: Kobold, Goblin, Ooze, Wolf, Bat, Pnt, Elemental.Known Bosses: --Dungeon

  Ali added a new monster, he thought, his eyes notig the addition of bats to the list as he dismissed the notification. And she hit fifty.

  His trip had been undeniably productive, aing, and he felt he had grown immensely, but he had sorely missed his friends and he sprinted down the sewer tunnels, cloaking his presence from the low-level monsters, eager to see them all again.

  Ali must have recimed the sewer level, turning it into an ingruously beautiful maze of verdant moss, golden glowing mushrooms, and surprisingly pure flowing els of water. Everywhere, he found slimes or very low-level Kobolds and Goblins. They were too weak to detect his presence.

  And traps. Ali’s been busy. Good. While he couldn’t see them, his Explave him an uny sense of where the traps were – and there were many. He eveed them to figure out what they did, finding most to be the Grasping Roots he was familiar with, but some nered clouds of green poison to billow out into the sewer el – a rather impressively effective trap in the restricted space – but they only tripped if he walked over them several times.

  I’m not the only one who earned some new skills. He was happy to see the evidence of Ali’s growth. As he tinued down the passage, he began to find several corpses of Kobolds, ripped to shreds, and, after turning the er, he heard the sounds of battle ringing out in the close tunnels.

  He kept his Eclipse running, cloaking his presence, and he approached in sileh the magic of his Explorer skill. As he gnced around the er, he found the source of the ringing steel on armor and shouts of bat.

  Undead! His bow was in his hand, arrow nocked faster than thought. Out in the sewer, the small group of novice adveangled with skeletons, zombies, and Kobolds. As he watched, a figure reached down, and a skeleton ripped its way free of a dead Goblin and joihe fight.

  What the… a Neancer? But he stayed his hand as his sharp eyes picked out the details. He knew several of the adventurers. Basil was hiding in a recess at the back, making a potion. Teagan was healing. And the archer, Willow – who often asked him for archery tips when he was at the guild – seemed happy to have her back to the Neancer. It was then that he noticed the guild emblem on the shirt of the boy who had raised the skeleton, and he slowly lowered his bow, though his hands shook.

  He studied the group for a while, trying to figure out what was going on. But it was abundantly clear that the Neancer art of their group, and they were all w together – quite effectively too.

  Well, now… that’s new. He shook his head, leaving them to their fight, and headed onward, his head buzzing with unanswered questions.

  “!” As he ehe library, Ali’s excited shout greeted him, clearly notig him even before he had released his stealth. He let it drop, striding up to where she and Ryn were p over some books oable, notes and pens strewn across its surface.

  “Nice haircut!” Ali said.

  “You got a Pathfinder cloak?” Ryn gasped.

  took a deep breath, finding himself uedly nervous and shy of his friends’ reas. What he saw in their eyes reassured him, however. Clearing his throat, he smiled, “What are you doing?” He g the books.

  Making an invitiure, Ryn said, “Pull up a chair.”

  “I’m just teag Ryn Elvish,” Ali answered. “Never mind that, tell us what happened? Is there something – or someone – we should know about?”

  Elvish… The nguage of his absent father. It was that thought that had always disced him from being curious enough to learn it. However, his ck of knowledge of the nguage had been a signifit disadvantage in his Pathfinder csses. Perhaps it’s time I ged that too? He decided he would ask Ali to teach him ter.

  “I did it for my mother,” he chuckled, and ughed harder at their disbelieving snorts. “Are Mato and Malika around? I got a couple of things from the Pathfinder Guild store.”

  “Mato is out sing the nd of blight with his Tree Form. He usually es back around diime – you know him, he runs on stomach-time. Malika is in Kezda rec from her bloodline going crazy,” Ali said.

  Kezda? He didn’t even know where that was, nor what had happeo his friends. Bloodli seemed that there would be a lot to catch up on. “Here, Ali, I got you something, too,” he said, retrieving the Forest Band of the Perceptive he had bought in Ciradyl.

  “Oh, wow, that’s so thoughtful, , thank you!” Ali said, slipping the wooden band onto her fi once. Her eyes glimmered slightly as she must have identified the object, and then suddenly, they were glistening around the ers. “Oh – vitality? And perception, too? … I…” She reached out.

  “Yes,” he answered, squeezing her fingers gently before releasing them.

  Sing stories took quite some time – especially as wao share everything he had heard and seen. Lira even joihem halfway through, tea.

  “She said that about Vivian?” Ali asked, her brows furrowed in thought. “That expins… a lot. That means the guild is in a very precarious position, doesn’t it?”

  “That’s what I thought too,” said.

  Looking up, Ali said, “Oh, and don’t worry about the cost. If you find Lyeneru’s crafter, we’ll get you that bracer.”

  “Thanks, Ali,” said, drawing a deep breath of relief. Then he shifted topics. “So, I saw a level five neancer in the sewer, fighting with Teagan’s team of novices.”

  “I’m gd the boy is growing,” Lira said.

  She knows him? Somehow the idea of the a serene dryad supp a neancer refused to e his brain. “What?”

  “That would be Seth,” Ali answered. “He just joihe guild. He was the boy who saved Lira’s as. One of Alexander Gray’s sacrifices.”

  ’s mind caught up, eg all the pieces. Alexander Gray had brought several people with him under a foul pulsion, and in the chaos of the Death Knight and Lyeneru’s dramatic appearance, he had fotten that one of them had survived and run off. Was that him? He was gd that one of them had survived.

  But, a neahat would certainly take some getting used to. Poor fellow. That’s a harsh fate.

  ----------

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