Mind Your Step, Draft 1, CH 21

Tibs looked over the beams leaning against each other, while Ruppert moved among the top. He murmured comments to himself, that Tibs heard in his mind, and which Karliak also heard, since they complained about the noise.

“And?” Tibs asked.

“It’s like I thought,” the squirrel replied. “They’re leaning against each other exactly the same way as yesterday.”

“We didn’t move them,” Heather said. “That makes sense.”

“I’d change them,” Ruppert replied.

“You try anything,” Karliak said, “and I’m throwing you out.”

“If I was making this puzzle, I’d change it each time, no matter how the Runners solved it.”

“If you were a dungeon, you wouldn’t be here. And I wouldn’t have to deal with you. How about you leave and go make yourself one? As far from here as possible?”

“I’m not going to do anything,” Ruppert insisted.

“You talk. That’s doing something.”

“I have to talk with my team. You don’t complain about them talking.”

Karliak didn’t reply.

“Like I was saying,” Ruppert picked up. “They haven’t changed.”

“Can you find those we can move without causing others to fall?” Heather asked.

“There’s a few, but not enough to get across.”

“We’re going to have to use those we can more to shore up the beams as we can take the pressure off.”

“How are we going to do that?” she asked. “It’s just the two of us.”

“Three,” Ruppert said.

“Knowing which ones to take out,” she continued, “doesn’t tell us where to place them.”

One problem at a time. “Karliak, you agree that teams should be five people, right?”

“I do,” the dungeon hesitatingly replied.

“Then, how about you allow me to use my essence to recreate what three other Runners could do?”

“There are three of you already.”

“Ruppert isn’t much of a Runner,” Simtor said.

“Hey! Do I go insulting you?”

“They insisted he’s part of the team,” the dungeon replied. “It’s why I let him help them.”

“Two other Runners, then,” Tibs said.

“What are those Runners going to do? And you can’t do anything with them that an Omega Runner can’t do. Heather is the only exception I’m allowing.”

“Alright. I’ll only use essence to hold two beams in place. We need to move them ourselves.”

“You can’t keep them in place if the shifting would bring them down.”

“A Runner could.”

“No, they can’t. They tried it. Anytime they cause the beams to shift and one of them tries to hold it, they fail the test.”

“You kill them,” Ruppert said. “Call it what it is.”

“They fail the test!”

“You kill them!”

“What the fuck is your problem?” Karliak yelled.

Ruppert ran out from the beams, and into Tibs’s vest, trembling.

“Ruppert broke rules,” Tibs said, once it was clear he wouldn’t speak. “He treated the people as nothing more than food. I impressed on him that was wrong.”

“Well, I’m not Ruppert,” Karliak snapped. “I don’t mistreat my runners. I am a good dungeon.”

“Karliak,” Tibs said.

“So he doesn’t get to come here and tell me how I need to do things.”

“Karliak,” he tried again.

“I don’t need any of you coming here and trying to get me to change how I do things!”

He waited for the silence to stretch. “Karliak, please calm down.”

“Why? So you can tell me another way I should do things against the rules?”

“I’m not—”

“Teams are five Runners. And you show up with only one other. And then ask to be allowed to do things no team can do.”

“He’s just—”

“Don’t take his side, Simtor,” Karliak snapped. “He’s not a dungeon. He’s not a helper. He’s not one of those who should have trained you. He’s a Rogue. And Rogue break the rules. Fuck this.”

In the silence, Tibs tried to process the dungeon’s anger.

“Things aren’t going well, I take it?” Heather asked.

“I’m sorry about Karliak’s behavior,” Simtor said, before Tibs could answer. Without the dungeon commenting, it meant they’d moved away.

“He’s right. I’m not someone you have to agree with.”

“But you make sense. You know more than we do.”

“I don’t know everything. You’re there to help him. Not me.”

“I’ll go talk with Karliak. Explain things.”

“Give them some time. When we get angry, we’re not good at listening.”

“It’s the first time Karliak’s been like that,” Simtor said.

He looked over the beams, considering their options.

“What do we do?” Heather asked. “You aren’t looking like the conversation went well.”

“It didn’t. Karliak stormed off. As for what we do. We try to pass the room with just the three of us, no essence use on my part. He’s agreed to you having your element.”

He opened his vest. “It’s okay to come out Ruppert.”

“I’m sorry,” the squirrel whimpered. “I’m sorry for having been a bad dungeon.”

“Karliak isn’t angry at you, but me. You’re just someone caught in their anger. And you’re learning. That’s what’s important.”

The squirrel slowly uncurled. “I want to be a good dungeon.”

“I know. And you will be. Do you want to be a Runner for now? We can use a view within the beams.”

Ruppert ran out and vanished among the beams.

“How are we going to do it?” she asked. “He can tell us what beams we can remove, but not where to place them.” She raised her voice. “Unless you can know that too, Ruppert?”

“No, I don’t know where to put them.”

“We have your element, so we try to use that. With all the beams pressing against each other, some are going to want to move, while others keep them in place. I know they don’t actually want anything. It’s just an expression.”

She chuckled. “I know what you mean.”

“Sorry.”

“How do we use my element with that?”

“I’m not sure. Can you sense Force on the beams?”

“They aren’t moving.”

“But they want to move. If I kick one out, others will fall. That should mean force is already accumulating. Just not enough to overcome the element holding them together.”

“Binding,” Ruppert said.

“Can you sense it?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell which beams have more than the others?”

“They all have the same.”

Tibs nodded. “From what I read, Binding doesn’t change in objects. If those were natural, it would be slightly different between them, but Karliak made them all the same.”
He frowned. “If you can sense Binding, can’t you sense Force?”

“On the beams I touch, but…. Karliak said I’m just a Runner, and that only Heather can have an element. Runners can’t sense how much essence something has.”

He chuckled. Not bending the rules would make the runs interesting. “We only have your sense to go by, Heather. Try to sense Force, and we’ll go from there.”

“I did not get into this for lessons,” Heather grumbled, closing her eyes.

“A dungeon is all about the lessons,” Tibs said. “Especially if you want to survive the tests.”

She frowned, her brow creasing ever more.

“Relax, Heather. Tensing isn’t trying harder. You were able to sense Force on the leave. You can do it here too.”

“You don’t know that.”

“But it makes sense. Breathes. Focus on that while paying attention to your essence. Breathe in and out. Slowly. Use that to let go of the tension.”

“You a follower of that Oneness thing?”

“No. Why?”

“This sounds a lot like what my dad said when he tried it. He thought it would help him deal with my mom. It didn’t.”

Tibs chuckled. “A friend taught me a bit of it when I had to learn to deal with my elements. Every so often I fall back on it. But I never stick with it. Too much to do, in the end.”

“My dad couldn’t do the sitting down breathing thing. It left him annoyed more than relaxed. I think I sense something. It’s really faint. At the top and the bottom of some beams.”

“The bottom?” he looked at the floor, trying to find indications beams pressed against each other.

“It’s fainter there all across. At the top, it varies. It must mean what beams are pressing harder against the others.”

“Ruppert. Run up and down the beam you’re on.”

She chuckled. “I see him.”

“Now, we have way to identify specific beams, and you can sense what they want to do.”

“I don’t know if that helps. The way the essence is accumulating doesn’t make much sense. It’s where multiple beams are pressing against each other.”

“Can you tell if one beam presses more than the others?”

“No.”

“Okay, then that’s for later. Ruppert, find a beam that you think we can move without causing any others to fall.”

The squirrel ran out of the beams and leaned against one on the outside.

“Heather, what do you sense for that beam?”

She cracked an eye open. “The little Force I sense is toward the inside.”

“Any of the other beams press against it?”

“I don’t think so.”

“Okay, then help me remove it.”

The beam wasn’t as heavy as Tibs expected, and together, they pulled it away, then rested it against the wall.

“Find us another one, Ruppert.”

Heather confirmed it didn’t hold other beams, and they brought it against the wall.

They couldn’t reach the tenth without removing a beam that would bring everything falling.

“Now, we need to figure out how to use those beams to anchor the others so we can remove more.”

“We’re never managing it.”

“I’ll say this feel too complex for a first floor, but the other teams made it through.” Or had they? “Karliak? Simtor?”

“Yes, Tibs?” Karliak answered, sounding close and calmer.

“Has any team made it through this room?”

“Yes. One team made it to my fifth room.”

With the dungeon calmer, Tibs had to fight the urge to address the earlier outburst.

“It can be done without essence,” he said. “With the town building up, they’ll have carpenters. They might have a better sense of what beams will do.”

“And,” Ruppert said hesitatingly. “If Karliak doesn’t change how the beams are placed, they’ll learn which one to work with over multiple runs.”

“That’s a good point.” Tibs had the feeling Ruppert wanted to add more, but didn’t. “We don’t need to get through it on this run. So long as we don’t die here, we can come back tomorrow and advance.”

“Okay. Then how do we do this?”

“We need to place a beam so it can take the weight of others, but in a way we can then remove one of the other beams and not bring everything down. Can you focus on your sense while we move the beams?”

“I’m going to have to try it. I wasn’t focusing on that part when we moved them.”

They took one they’d removed and brought it to the wall of beams, gently setting it against them. They did it three times before Heather was able to tell him how the essence shifted when they placed it. He also learned why force accumulated at the bottom when he needed to slide it closer so the beam would press more at the top.

“If we’re not careful,” Heather said, “I think it might slide.”

He studied the angle of the beam. “You think Binding’s acting to keep it in place? And so long as there’s not enough Force, it’ll remain there?” He looked up at her looking back at him, smirking.

“Do I look like someone who reads a lot?”

“I’ll have to find a scholar who has theories about how those two elements interact.” He went to take another beam resting against the wall, but Heather didn’t follow him.

“I think we need to stop,” she said. “All this focusing is tiring. This isn’t something I want to make a stupid mistake with.”

“Okay. Ruppert, we’re done.”

“I expected you to argue,” she said, as the squirrel ran up to her shoulder. “Getting me to push harder, or something.”

“That’s a fighter’s mindset. If the puzzle wasn’t a deadly one, I might have insisted on one more beam, but a mistake here comes with a serious risk of injury. High potential for death since you don’t have enough essence to protect yourself against all that falling on you.”

“You could,” she said.

“But I won’t. Karliak’s made it clear I’m not getting away with bending the rules.”

“Can it stop you?”

“No. But there would be consequences. And I don’t want to. You need to train here, and getting the dungeon angry at me isn’t helping that.” Tibs was surprised to find the tubers still by the paver room’s entrance. With a bag.

“Thank you.”

“You did the run by the rules,” Karliak said. “It felt fair to reward you in a small way.”

“Is the exchange we talked about something you’re comfortable with, or should I forget about bringing you the bear?”

Heather stared at him.

“Do you have any idea how badly I want it?”

“But is that breaking rules?”

The sigh surprised Tibs. Dungeons didn’t breathe. “I don’t know. You’re the one who told me what the rules are.”

“I just told you those I know about. After that, you’re the one who needs to set them. Like you’re setting those telling me what I can’t do.”

“Then, I’m saying that you get the equivalent essence in those tubers to what the bear will have.”

Tibs smiled. “We have a deal.”

“You’re smiling, Tibs,” Karliak said.

He smiled more. “You’re going to call me an asshole tomorrow.”

*

Tibs gathered more Tubers on the walk back, only grinning when Heather asked about the bear.

The sun was still high when they reached the Runner’s Tavern. It had no actual name, as far as Tibs knew. But it was how he thought of it. The guards hadn’t commented when they’d arrived at the gate, confirming Lian had explained things.

They attracted the attention of the people in the dining room again, but they returned to their conversations quickly. A count gave him twenty-eight people, all Runners. And no more than five to a table. Korl sat alone at his team’s table. Three other tables had incomplete teams, one of three, and two with two.

The barkeep was no happier to see them than he’d been the day before, even with Tibs giving him the bags of tubers. But he gave each a tankard of ale, which they took to Korl’s table.

“Can we sit?” he asked, and the fighter motioned to two chairs. “Where are the others?”

“Rach’s out hunting, Darna’s in her office. Lian’s….” He shrugged.

Tibs remembered how Korl felt about his team’s rogue now.

“What do you do in the town?” Heather asked.

He chuckled. “Mostly guard stuff that needs guarding. Stand at the gate sometimes.”

“A lot of things need guarding?” she asked.

“More now that the city knows about us. We get people sneaking in, and stuff keeps vanishing.”

“How sure are you they’re from the city?” Tibs asked.

“Where else would they be from? People here don’t steal from each other.”

Unless they needed to train so they could survive the dungeon. He tried to sense Lian, but couldn’t tell him apart from the other runners. He didn’t want to go looking. He might find Lian with someone else, having sex.

He stood. “I’m going to walk about the town, familiarize myself with it.” What he couldn’t do was look for the rogue in buildings. Eventually, Lian would be outside, and Tibs could ask around. The town wasn’t so large he couldn’t find someone who knew where he’d be.

*

He found Lian with children, walking on his hands, much to their laughter. He tumbled and rolled to his feet to their applause.

“Ty,” Lian exclaimed. “Come to entertain the kids?”

He shook his head. “Can we talk?”

“You sound too serious. I don’t do serious talk.”

“This is important.”

Lian frowned. “I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere,” he told the children. “What is this about?” he asked Tibs as they walked away.

He waited until there was no one else on the street. “Have you been stealing?”

“Ty, come on. Why would I—”

“I’m a thief, Lian. I can recognize another thief when I see him. Korl said things have gone missing. He thinks it’s thieves from the city.”

Lian sighed. “I need to keep my fingers working. And I have to practice my locks. I know you probably think it’s stupid, me feeling like I need to steal but—”

“I don’t question why a thief does what he does, Lian. But is it just training, or do you need the things you took?”

The man shrugged.

“Tell your team.”

“My team?” Lian asked with a chuckle.

“Your friends,” Tibs corrected, silently cursing himself for the slip. One day in the town, and he already thought in terms of teams and Runners. “Tell them. This is where you live. You can’t go around taking from the people here. What are you going to do after a…. A hard day when no one trusts you around them? If you have to take something for your training to feel like it matters. Take something small, something insignificant to the people living there. You could start by returning what you already took.”

“What do you take?”

“A copper. But I practice against noble’s homes. The common folk have enough to worry about already.”

“Korl isn’t going to be happy with me.”

Tibs chuckled. “Considering how he feels about you, once you explain your reasons, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

Lian gave him a sideways glance, and Tibs chuckled again.

“My brother and his man got together with me watching. I know what love looks like. Don’t abuse that.”

“Rachel is going to be pissed.”

“I’m sure she’ll understand your need to stay practiced. Just make sure no one has a reason to complain about it. And if you happen to know others who are also training like you. Teach them to respect your town. You’ll all need it there when you come home.”