Sworded Affair

Emma wasn't sure what she was expecting on the other side of the door; a Roman banquet hall perhaps, or maybe a recreation of their family home? She certainly hadn't anticipated finding herself in a lifeless black desert, stretching beyond the horizon as far as the eye could see. The sole source of illumination was a massive pillar of light, extending from the center of a ritual circle that burned Emma's eyes to look at, stretching all the way to the distant stars adorning the midnight sky.

So much power, Emma marveled, spellbound by the magical display as the arcanivore within her urged her onward, to devour the pillar in its entirety and wield that power to reshape the world in her image, never mind the dangers of consuming an energy field larger than her head.

"Wonderful, isn't it?" Felix's voice snapped Emma out of her daydreaming. "A single spark of humanity's True Will; a fathomless force for change in a world left stagnant for far too long, now repurposed to power the Dungeon as its Core. You're the first living human to see this in centuries; for a given value of living, at least."

"Where are you?" Emma asked, looking around in vain to try and spot Felix; his voice offered no hints, appearing seemingly equidistant from every direction.

"I'm all around you, big sis. In the sand beneath your feet and the stars on high; in the crowds of the arena and the theater alike. There's no divisibility once the contract is signed between Dungeon and Master. I simply am."

"Yeah, about that, mind filling in the gaps for me?" Emma requested, gesturing to her armor-clad form. "As you can see, I've had some experience with unusual powers too, but nothing at all like what you're describing."

"Hmm. Ah, I had so many ways to explain lined up in my head, but now that you're actually here I find myself tongue-tied. Just like blanking after studying so hard for a test, how frustrating…"

Emma kept quiet, used to her brother's idiosyncrasies and knowing he gathered his thoughts fastest in silence.

"So, you know how you're pretty bad at languages?"

"English is the only language I need." Emma responded automatically, annoyed that Felix had chosen to begin by poking at an old sore spot.

"Not the point, sis," Felix chuckled. "Remember how you used to complain about my grades? How did I always get top scores in Spanish without ever seeming to try, even if my grades in math and science left a lot to be desired?"

"That does sound somewhat familiar," Emma admitted. "But I grew out of it right? People are good at different things; you had sports, languages and history, while I was better at anything involving numbers or chemicals."

"Yeah, but that's the thing, I wasn't better at languages. I'm not better at picking things up, pronunciation or grammar or any of that. Whenever I read a book, it just looks like plain English to me, and whenever I speak there's a toggle in my head where I can choose which language to use, and it's been like that for my entire life."

"What," Emma deadpanned. "You never mentioned any of this before."

"Of course I didn't. I might not have been the smartest kid on the block, but even I knew showing that off meant a one-way trip to some government lab. Anyway, we're getting off track here. The point is, I can read anything put in front of me, and that includes documents written in languages that supposedly died out around the time George Washington was born. Strangely, both our parents had plenty of such documents in their file cabinets."

You broke into our parents' rooms? Emma almost blurted out, before she processed the rest of what Felix said.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"What did those documents contain?"

"Dad's were full of meticulous notes; detailing paranormal activity that bedeviled British colonists all throughout their journey to the New World and back. Monsters, demonic possession and the rites used to repel them; not just holy water and a bible either, though that did work if the wielder believed strongly enough. No; what I read was far closer to a science journal than the old fairy tales we were told at bedtime, but there were enough similarities for me to connect the dots. Course, I didn't think too much of it at the time; dad never mentioned what he did at work so maybe he was a historian or archaeologist? Now, after everything's happened? I think his interest leans a bit heavier than just academic."

"What about mom's notes?" Emma asked, now thoroughly confused.

"I dunno; I was never able to make sense of them," Emma could hear frustration bleeding into Felix's tone. "Whenever I turned a page, the words would scramble themselves as I watched. Like those examples in the PowerPoint slides, that one time the nurse came to explain to our class what dyslexia is. The only words not distorted were in the margins, and they'd say stuff like 'insufficient insight' or 'not enough potential, try again later', it was the weirdest thing."

[Sounds like a ward to me.]

"A ward?" Felix echoed once Emma had repeated the System's words. "Like in bad Harry Potter fan fiction? But mom isn't a witch… Is she?"

"I'm not ruling anything out anymore at this point," Emma shook her head. "If anything, this does explain why we had so many lessons about family heritage, the importance of being noble at heart, all of that stuff that never made sense to me. None of my friends ever had to deal with that, even those from supposedly similar backgrounds to us. Man, the more I learn, the less I feel I know; I have a lot of questions for mom and dad when I find them."

"I know the feeling," Felix agreed with a sigh. "Anyway, that's all I wanted to tell you, since I might not have gotten the chance if you ran off right after your third and final trial. I can't leave the Dungeon anymore, so you'll have to find the answers for both of us. I'm sure you'll succeed; you've defeated the beast, the man and even the hero already, though the latter was a bit broken, so your final opponent will be a being from myth."

"That's only three trials though?" Emma pointed out. "What about the fourth?"

"The fourth is just for the Imperator to deem the aspirant worthy, so you get a freebie there."

"Thanks, I think."

"You're welcome," Felix replied, a lot less begrudgingly than Emma was used to hearing. "Is there anything else you wanted to ask, while you have the chance?"

"Yes," Emma replied immediately. "We got off-topic, which was very informative, but the original question still stands; why this Dungeon? Why all the trials and the attacks on the townsfolk, and why are you the Imperator?"

"Because I was the only one to meet the qualifications when death came for us. Because our bloodline has potential; not much, but enough for me to take the wheel absent anyone better suited. This Dungeon exists to test mankind by saving the worthy and culling the weak. I can't change the core premise or functions, not even as its Master; the most I can do is a bit of thematic tweaking, and to make the lives of those deemed worthy as comfortable as possible. You've heard them talking in the theater, haven't you? Even those unable to leave agree that whilst not ideal, this is overall a pretty good fate, considering the apocalypse outside."

"If I win, what happens to you?" Emma responded eventually, unable to deny the truth of Felix's words and choosing to switch subjects.

"Then you get a key to enter or leave at your leisure, and your journey continues. You're surprisingly strong and growing quickly, but you're still a long way off from being able to challenge the Dungeon for ownership. Anyway, I think that's enough for today, my throat is parched. Take this as a parting gift, enjoy your twelve hours off and get some sleep."

Emma was back in her bedroom before she could reply, a newfound weight nestled in her hand.

[When in Rome - Bonus Objective: Deal with Imperator Felix Knight complete!

Reward: First Hint (The Apocalypse) obtained.

Main Quest has updated!

When In Rome

Objective: Defeat Academia Mortalis

-Clear the First Trial [X]

-Clear the Second Trial [X]

-Clear the Third Trial

-Clear the Fourth Trial [X]

Reward: Key to the Dungeon

Side Quest complete!

High School Musical

Objective: Find a working digital music player [X]

Reward: Built-in song library

Integrating library please stand by...]

Emma lay down on her bed as she stared at the battered iPod Classic in her hand, already starting to dissolve as the System devoured its contents (literally and metaphorically). All the while, the contents of the previous conversation played in her head, contextualizing an entire lifetime as many events from her childhood took on a strange new light. Despite her brother's words, Emma didn't end up getting much sleep at all that night.