Chapter 166: Chapter 100

Jackal hurried to open the chest, looked in, and frowned. He reached for the content, but stopped. “If it’s for Kroseph, can I touch it?”

Sto laughed. “He can think! Yes, he can touch it. I didn’t expect you’d bring his man to me, so I had to make the ring like your old pouch, instead of these items. Any adventurer touching it will sense the weave in it.”

“It’s safe,” Tibs told his friend.

Jackal took a simply golden ring out of the chest.

“I’ve worked out how special Kroseph is from the way you guys talk about him,” Sto said. “To Jackal and the rest of you. I’ve also picked up that adventurers live longer than other people, if they aren’t killed. And I’ve seen from you, Tibs, how having some you know die hurts you. I didn’t make this connection as quickly as I’d like, but people growing older leads to them dying. That seems wrong to me, but Ganny tells me that’s how things are. Kroseph is going to get older faster than Jackal. That’s not fair to them. Now, I don’t know if the ring is going to match how Jackal ages, because I still don’t understand how him having essence changes that aspect, but it’s going to give you time to figure it out. When you do, you can explain it to me and I’ll make Kroseph a new ring.”

Tibs swallowed the lump in his throat and wiped at his eyes.

“Tibs?” Jackal asked cautiously. “You’re making me want to put it back.”

“You keep it,” Tibs said, and smiled. “And you make sure you live, okay?” He wiped at his eyes again. “Sto made the ring so Kroseph can be with you for a long time. He’s not going to get old like townsfolk, but like adventurers.”

Jackal stared at him. When he spoke, his voice cracked. “I can’t, Tibs. I can’t ask him to live so long when I’m going to die.”

“You aren’t dying!” Tibs ordered.

“I’m a runner!” Jackal snapped. “If I survive this, and don’t you dare go easy on me because of my man,” he told the ceiling, “I’m going to be indentured to the guild. I’m not one of those heroes the bards sing about. I’m the kind of adventurer the guild throws at monsters to slow them down while those heroes get ready. I’m the kind that gets eaten.”

“Then you get better,” Tibs said, glaring at him. “You stop playing at being an idiot so the guild knows to keep you alive.”

“I’m not—” Jackal started, sounded exasperated.

“Stop! Stop thinking that. You start thinking more. You do that for Kroseph. You do that, so you come back to him every time.”

“I don’t know how, Tibs,” Jackal replied, sounding lost. “I’ve fought against that for so long I don’t know how to be that anymore. That’s who my father wants me to be. He wanted me to learn and to do and to rule. I fought all of that because it was the only way I knew to hurt him.”

“He doesn’t matter anymore,” Tibs said. “This is for Kroseph. I’m going to help you.”

Mez placed a hand on the fighter’s shoulder. “We’re all going to help.”

* * * * *

Convincing Jackal to leave most of the loot out of his pouch, for the guild to get, proved to be easy. The only things that went in were the ring and Mez’s quiver, because all it would take was for the person behind the table to take an arrow out and they would notice something odd about it. Jackal only took his eyes off the ring once it was away, but still looked lost as he helped repack the rest of the items. Tibs changed into his new, worn looking armor, as did Carina and Khumdar, leaving the old ones behind.

It was a man behind the table this time, young looking, but tired. His ash gray eyes looked less full than many. As with just about every one of them, he barely glanced away from the items they placed on the table to look at them. Anything without essence was theirs to keep, and they didn’t need anything Sto had given out as loot that had essence.

Tibs was worried that if they no longer needed to keep anything the guild would get suspicious, but that was a problem for their next runs. Right now, his pressing concern was Jackal and how un-Jackal he was, being so subdued. As soon as they were away from the table, he took he ring out of his pouch and turned it in his fingers. He only put it away again as Tibs opened the door to the inn.

“Can you…” Jackal trailed off. Tibs wasn’t sure he’d ever seen his friend looking this uncomfortable. “Can you all wait out here?”

They agreed, but Tibs kept the door open, watching as Jackal spoke with Kroseph. The server glanced in Tibs’s direction, looking worried. Tibs wished he knew why neither looked happy. Jackal returned alone, and Kroseph looked confused.

“I need a drink,” the fighter said, and walked away from the inn.

Tibs opened his mouth, but Khumdar placed a hand on his shoulder. Tibs looked at him, expecting an explanation, but the cleric was watching Jackal. Only when he entered the Cracked Tankard tavern, did he speak. “He needs time.”

“Time for what?” Tibs asked. “And the ale there’s horrible. Why does he look like he’s about to tell Harry about the pit, and why did he leave Kroseph behind?”

“Because, Tibs, it is my belief that our esteemed leader is doing something he has never done in his life.”

Tibs waited, and waited and as he opened his mouth to tell the cleric what he thought of his games. Khumdar said.

“Jackal is considering the consequence of his actions.”

* * * * *

“Okay,” Kroseph demanded as he slammed the door to the warehouse shut. “What the fuck is going on?” The anger on his face turned to confusion as he watched them.

Tibs couldn’t muster the enthusiasm he had earlier now that he understood some of Jackal’s concerns. Tibs hadn’t considered all the consequences of giving Kroseph the ring. None of them had, except Jackal.

He couldn’t claim it was a lucky find, not with his man. That meant he had to tell him about the dungeon and how Tibs could talk with him. How Sto had made the ring for him specifically.

Kroseph knew about Tibs elements, since he’d been key in helping him learn to handle them, but Sto had never come up among that. It had always only been about Tibs.

“Look,” Kroseph said, worry mixing with annoyance in his voice. “No one died. So unless you’re about to tell me Tibs can’t fix what’s in the process of killing you right now, you better start talking, because that be patient speech you gave me earlier has just stopped working on me.” The server was glaring at Jackal, fists shaking.

The fighter took one of them in his hand and led Kroseph to a crate he’d arranged earlier. He sat on the one facing it. Tibs stood on Jackal’s right, with Carina, Mez and Khundar were on his left. Kroseph looked at each of them before focusing on Jackal again.

“Something’s happened,” Jackal said, then faltered. He swallowed. “I wanted Tibs to be the one to tell you because he’s better at talking than I am. But a certain someone put her foot down and said I had to be the one to do this.” Carina rolled her eyes at the accusation. “There’s things you need to know, but you won’t be able to talk about them with anyone but us.”

“I know about Tibs’s elements, Jackal,” Kroseph said with a forced chuckle, which immediately died. “So this is something else.” The next chuckle was nervous and went on too long. “Are you about to tell me you took over the guild and you want me to give up working at the inn?”

“I’d never ask you to give that up, Kro. You know that.”

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Kroseph took Jackal’s hand in his. “Then what is it? You know you can tell me anything, right?”

Jackal’s nod was unsure. “It’s about Tibs. And the dungeon. And us too, really. It’s complicated.”

Kroseph’s smile was simple and sweet. “Tell me and I’ll do what I can to uncomplicate it.”

“I love you so much,” Jackal whispered.

“That I know,” Kroseph replied.

Jackal let out a breath. “Tibs talks to the dungeon.”

Kroseph took a few seconds to process that. “You mean like he talks to your sister’s dogs?”

“Abyss no. Those are just beasts. The dungeon, it can think. Like you and me. Well, you, anyway. We all know how great I am at the thinking thing. But the dungeon, it can think, and it has a name. And it’s a person. No matter what the guild or the bards claim, it’s a person, Kro, with feelings and rules and things it wants. It’s not an animal.”

“And you can talk with it?” Kroseph asked Tibs.

“It’s my element. It lets me do that. We don’t know why.”

Kroseph nodded. “So you’ve been able to do that for a while.” He looked at Jackal. “You didn’t tell me that when you told me the rest. If you’re telling me now, something changed.”

“We didn’t mean to keep it from you,” Jackal said defensively. “We just never thought to do it.”

“It’s okay,” Kroseph replied reassuringly. “I knew there’d be stuff you wouldn’t be able, or want, to tell me about. I mean, you did tell me a lot the guild can’t want you to.”

Jackal forced a smile. “You remember that day I came back from the run all pissed and I didn’t want to talk about it?”

Kroseph nodded. “It’s the one time you looked like you didn’t have fun on your run.”

“The dungeon, Sto, that’s its name. It did something hurtful. Not just try to kill us, but something that hurt us here.” Jackal tapped his heart. “It didn’t mean to, but that didn’t help. On the next run, it and Tibs had a talk. I can’t hear it. Only Tibs does, but Tibs told us. The dungeon was hurt that it had hurt us. It kind of likes Tibs, and us too, by association. So after Tibs explained why it hurt, it didn’t know how to keep the… we call them people golems, and not have it hurt us again like that.” He chuckled. “Tibs said I can tell you everything we talked about then, but it can wait. What you have to know is that as a result, Me and Carina helped it come up with a way to do it.”

“I thought you can’t talk with it,” Kroseph said.

“It hears what we say. We’re inside it. The inside of the mountain is like its body and it can change it. When it pays attention to a place inside, it sees and hears what happens. It likes watching Tibs a lot because of how clever he is. It keeps trying to stump him. It likes watching me, too.” Jackal straightened as he said that, and his smile turned silly. “But for other reasons.”

Kroseph narrowed his eyes, but before the accusation Tibs expected came out, it turned into a frown. “It likes watching you destroy its creature?”

“It likes trying to kill me,” Jackal replied, puffing his chest out. He leaned in and lowered his voice. “I got to fight it.”

“Aren’t you always fighting it? It’s its creatures you’re beating.”

“No, I got to fight it directly. It made a golem, and it put itself in it and—” Jackal shook his head and smiled ruefully. “I’ll tell you later. But yeah, me and Carina helped it and it promised us a reward in return.”

“That’s the day you were so happy coming back from your run.” Kroseph grinned.

Jackal mirrored it. “Yeah. Don’t tell Tibs all the things I did to you because of it.”

“Oh, I know better than to start talking about what you can do with that tongue of yours, and—”

“I’m leaving,” Tibs announced with a groan.

“No, you’re not,” Jackal replied with a chuckle. “We got our reward today. The dungeon made something for you, too.”

Kroseph stared at him blankly. “Why me? I’ve done nothing for the dungeon.”

“You look after us. Me, Tibs, the team, the other Runners. You’re part of the town and one of the reasons we can go on our runs confident we’ll have a place to come back.” He smiled. “But that isn’t why it made it. Like I said, it listens to us when we’re inside, and we talk about you.” He nodded to Mez and Khumdar. “These guys just can’t stop taking about how lucky I am that, for some reason, you’ve yet to kick me out of your bed and who am I to disagree, right? The dungeon’s smart, so it got how important you are to me. That’s why it made this.”

Jackal reached into his pouch and his hand was in a fist when he took it out. His expression grew serious. “The thing is, this comes with consequences. Not from the dungeon,” he hurried to add as Kroseph’s expression darkened. “It wouldn’t do that. It’s about us. If you accept this, Kro, things are going to be different between us. I’m going to have to make changes.”

“I don’t need you to change, Jackal. You know that, right? If whatever you’re holding is going to force that, then I don’t want it.”

“It’s not forcing it. Not the way you mean, at least. I love you, Kroseph. You helped give me a reason to fight the dungeon hard. To not let the mess I made of myself drag me down. But I never made you a promise because deep down, I knew something I don’t think you’ve realized.”

Jackal took a breath and let it out slowly. “I’m a Runner. I’m going to be an adventurer. I talked with those who guarded us when we arrived, to my instructors and some who work at the guild building. The one thing I got from all those talks is that what we have, you and me, it never survives. You’re going to grow old and I’m not; at least, not like you. Unless the dungeon kills me, or one of the creatures the guild sends me to fight does, I’m going to live decades more than you, maybe centuries. You’ve heard the bards and their stories of adventurers fighting for always. They aren’t all made up. Knowing that, I decided I was going to be the one to die first, while you were in my life. I know it would hurt you, but you don’t know what losing you will do to me, Kro. My family’s real small. You’re the only one in it that’s not going to be killed by some creature or the dungeon. So I was going to enjoy my time with you as hard as I could, because it wasn’t going to last long.”

Kroseph placed a hand on Jackal’s fist. “This changes that?”

Jackal hesitate, then opened it, revealing the golden band. “The dungeon doesn’t know how long it’s going to be, but if you wear this, you’re going to live a long time. You’re going to be like an adventurer that way. If you take it, I’m going to have to stop thinking about dying, and start thinking about winning all my runs. It’s going to have to be about more than just proving I’m better than the dungeon or about all the wonderful loot I can get out of it. Kro, if you take this, I’m going to have to start fighting for you.”

Kroseph looked at the ring for a long time. “Are you sure?” he finally asked.

Jackal snorted. “This is me, Kro. I only do sure if my fist is about to hit something. But I don’t care about being sure. I care about you being in my life. If you take this, I promise I will do everything in my power to come back to you every time.”

Kroseph gingerly took the ring. “Then, Jackal, I accept.”

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