Dungeon Deposed: Extra Epilogue (Patreon)

“Fake, fake. Fake. It’s all a lie,” mumbled Claire as she stumbled onward.

Somehow she’d managed to not die in the fall. She wasn’t quite sure what had happened, but she remembered hitting the treetops.

Then the ground. Her leg had broken, and her foot looked like it was facing the wrong way.

Her baby had landed atop her, completely unharmed.

Not that any of it mattered.

“Lies and lies upon lies. Falsehoods and more and everything else,” Claire said, her voice cracking.

“It’s not so bad,” said a voice to one side of her.

Looking that way, Claire had already begun to fashion together the spell lines she wanted. It took less time for her to work spells than Ryker, but they often had variable strengths that never quite did what Claire wanted.

Not far from her was a man in a strange military uniform. It was made of blues and whites, and it seemed quite odd to her. He looked young, with gray hair that didn’t quite match and brown eyes.

They were hard eyes. Eyes that’d had to do things he didn’t wish and would do them again.

“Ah, no need for that. I promise there’s nothing here to worry over,” said the same voice. “No serial killers, no werewolves, no monsters. Just a normal everyday wooded forest.”

Claire let out a bubbling laugh at the man’s comment.

“I’m a monster, I’m in the woods,” Claire said. “I’m fairly certain I’m probably the scariest thing in this wood, too.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” said the man with an easy smile. “But that’s neither here nor there.”

“And what is here then?” Claire said, then started to laugh. A myriad of images floated up from her mind. False memories and people who never existed. “Since here isn’t anywhere at all!”

Laughing harder now, Claire couldn’t stop herself. Everything was so comically tragic to her that nothing mattered.

“Here is… here is simply the end of something else,” the man said, holding up a hand. “And here is where I’d like to make you an offer. A deal.”

“The last deal I made I came out with a baby,” Claire said, holding up a spell in the shape of a basket with her daughter in it. “I willingly took the deal, mind you. Ryker… Ryker didn’t force himself on me… He didn’t. He… did what he could. He tried. He loved me. It’s our baby.”

Claire turned her eyes down to the child she’d had with Ryker. With a strange feeling in her chest, she pulled the baby up to her chest and held it.

With a coo, her daughter seemed to melt into her shoulder.

“She… she’s our baby. Ryker tried. He tried,” Claire said in a hoarse whisper. “I think… I think I did him wrong. He tried for me. He always tried. He spared me.

“I did him wrong. He loved me. This is our baby.”

“Ryker has fallen in league with the most hated of enemies. The Dark Lord of the North,” said a new voice. A voice she’d heard many times.

She’d believed originally it’d been Ryker. But it wasn’t.

She knew it wasn’t. It never had been.

“Ryker is Ryker is Ryker,” Claire hissed. “He follows no one and does as he will. He’s impossible to predict.”

“Ryker is only doing what Runner Norwood wants,” said the same voice that’d guided her south through the wilderness. “We could save Ryker. He would like to be saved.”

“No reason to,” Claire said, a sob escaping her lips. Her emotions were rapidly turning in the other direction again, much to her anger and dislike. “Ryker is lost to me, and he isn’t real.”

“Oh, but he is,” said the man in the uniform. “And by the way, my name is Seville. Ryker is very real. Just as you are. Just as I am. But we’re all trapped here. Trapped by Runner Norwood.

“We could free Ryker. And when we free him, he’d understand what you did. He’d love you again.”

“Love me,” Claire said, staring off at nothing.

While she hadn’t understood it at the time, Ryker had done a lot for her. He’d saved her, treated her gently, and gone to great lengths to earn her heart.

She’d scorned him at the time, not having realized what he was worth. Even tried to kill him.

Laughing softly at the memory, Claire shook her head.

It was only after that, when she’d realized she was pregnant, that she’d understood so much. When she’d given up, she’d found the truth in everything. Found that she’d squandered so much for a risky play that gave her nothing.

“He’d love me again?” Claire asked.

“We would have to save him from Runner Norwood,” said the voice that had no body. “With Runner Norwood’s death, everyone would be free.”

“Kill Runner Norwood,” Claire repeated numbly. “Kill Runner, save Ryker.”

“That’s the gist of it, yeah,” Seville said.

Claire’s eyes flicked over to the man. There had been a strange undertone to his words. It sounded sad. Sad and tragic, in a way.

She’d always been very good at reading people. It’d helped her manipulate others in her politicking.

There was something very disturbing to her about Seville.

Something wrong.

He was hiding something, and it felt like he didn’t wish to be here.

“Help me kill Runner Norwood,” said the voice. “I’ll give you Ryker for that. Give him to you and take you away from this false life. Then you could spend forever after that with him. You, him, and your daughter.”

Claire’s cheek twitched, and she was reminded of her daughter. The small infant she held to her chest and shoulder, cradling her.

She felt far more lucid right now then she had since the birth of her daughter. Far more lucid, coherent, and dangerous.

“I want Ryker,” Claire said. “That’s all I want.”

“I’ll give him to you,” said the voice.

“Then… then I’ll join you,” Claire said. “What is it you want me to do? I’m not that useful anymore.”

“You’re a wizard, for one,” Seville said. “And that alone will make you quite powerful. Add to that your natural ability and high attributes, and you’ll make a very strong combatant.”

“I have a daughter to care for,” Claire said. The haze that’d been clouding her mind was boiling off slowly. She didn’t quite feel normal, and things still didn’t quite make sense, but it didn’t seem as broken anymore.

“And you’ll do just that,” Seville said. “We’re not going to be making any moves immediately. We’re in a bit of a stalemate at this moment. It’ll take some time before we make another move.”

Claire clicked her teeth together and gave the man a wide smile. It made her face hurt.

Laughing, she nodded her head a bit. Her emotions were running away in the other direction again. Then she shook her head.

“I’ll care for my daughter. For my baby. For Ryker’s daughter,” Claire said in a singsong voice. “She’s our daughter. Our baby. He put her in me. He loved me.”

“And he’ll love you again,” Seville said, wearing a false smile. Claire could tell she made the man uneasy. She tended to make a lot of people uneasy these days.

“They stare,” Claire whispered to no one. “They stare at me. I can feel it. With their smiling lies and lying smiles. Stare at me and curse me while wanting me. My body.”

“I assure you, I want none of your body,” Seville said. “Now… shall we go?”

“I… yes. I’ll join you. I want Ryker. If you can’t give me Ryker, I’ll kill you both,” Claire said.

With a crackle, she built up a spell that would literally tear the living soul out of a god or goddess. She understood how things worked on this world. She could read the fate and destiny of things written into the world. She could see the magic letters and symbols people were made of.

Even the disembodied voice was made of these things, and she could see them.

She could read them.

“I will kill you, Zeus,” Claire said, staring up into the sky above her. Right to the point where she could see the magical letters of Zeus ending. Seeing him as clearly as his name written on a paper. “Kill you, if you don’t give me Ryker. I want Ryker. I want his love. To love me.”

“I will give you Ryker,” Zeus promised.

“Then yes… let’s go,” Claire said, her magic letter and symbol–enhanced spell collapsing on itself. With a strange fizzling noise, the area the spell had been in shattered apart, and everything in the area twisted around itself to rebuild what’d been destroyed.

“Oh… that… oh,” Seville said, his eyes widening.

“Kill you both,” Claire said, looking sideways at Seville. “I want my Ryker. Let’s go.”

A black and white mishmash of roiling patterns appeared in the air in an oval shape.

“Ah, yes. Let’s go then,” Seville said, indicating the portal. “You and your daughter will have a place of honor with us.”

“Her name is Shirley,” Claire said, holding her child as she walked through the portal. “Her name is Shirley. For her aunt. She… she dove after us, to save us. Her name is Shirley. She’ll be very smart. Smarter than Ryker or I.

“Very smart.”

“Yes,” Seville said tightly. “I imagine she will be. I have a daughter myself, you know. Several.”

“Good. Shirley will have friends to play with. What’re their names?” Claire asked.

As he followed Claire into the portal, it began to shut.

“Well, the oldest is—”

With a crackle, the portal closed tightly.