The Dungeon Fairy: A Dungeon Core Escapade (The Hapless Dungeon Fairy Book 1) by Jonathan Brooks (great novels to read txt) 📗

trip and I don’t particularly want to hire anyone to help me haul it away…it looks like I’m going to have to destroy the Core, because I don’t want to have to fight my way back into here when I come back,” he mumbled, talking to himself.

“NOOO!  Fairy – help me! You’re supposed to be my Assistant, so Assist me!” Darlene shouted through their bond.

Tacca couldn’t even respond as tears ran down her face and she retreated to the previous room, knowing that there wasn’t anything she could do.  Not only did she not have any offensive capabilities but Marvus was already slowly pulling his dagger from his belt, turning it around so that he was holding it by the blade; as she settled down in one of the alcoves the Panthers had dropped down from – safe from searching eyes – she heard the Core shatter as the dagger was likely expertly thrown, and she felt the unbelievable pain of her Bond being forcibly broken.

As she writhed in agony, she somehow had enough of her mind to wonder why she didn’t ask for Darlene to break the Bond – because it was obviously easy for the Core to dissolve it.  The only explanation her pain-wracked mind could come up with was that Tacca didn’t want to abandon the Core in her time of need, even if there was nothing she could do to save her.  The torture she was currently enduring was a minor price to pay, and it was the only way she could think of to honor that connection.

It was silly, of course, but that was just who she was; she wasn’t one to give up even in the darkest moments, and she just couldn’t be like the other Dungeon Assistants that forced the Bond to be dissolved because it wasn’t working out the way they wanted it to.  She felt a strange connection between herself and these misfit Cores and staying with them to the end not only seemed right but was the only thing that made sense.

She just hoped there weren’t any more of these Cores, because the pain was incredible…

Chapter 7

Tacca waited until the Raider was gone with his first haul before she Translocated back to the DPRC; it wasn’t long to wait, in fact, because when the agony of her broken Bond finally faded to a dull ache, Marvus was already getting ready to leave.  She barely registered it, however, because she was basically just numb throughout her mind and body from the ordeal she had gone through – though she couldn’t really complain because she was still alive.  While it sounded callous to dismiss the destruction of another Dungeon Core that she was Bonded to, there was nothing she could do.  She tortured herself with more “What ifs” afterward, but by the time she was ready to go she couldn’t seem to justify her self-persecution.

The only thing that really stuck in her mind was how sudden everything had happened.  Every dungeon she has thus far visited had been destroyed a short time later; the incident with her Mentor may have been devastating and horrible, but it may have also been coincidence.  When Jeremy had been destroyed within an hour or so of her appearance there, that could also be put down to unfortunate circumstances.  But when Darlene, who had been safely hiding out inside her Core Room for months was invaded so soon after Tacca arrived, something didn’t quite add up.

She wasn’t at all superstitious – unlike almost every other Fairy in the world, apparently – but the newly “available” Dungeon Assistant was starting to wonder.  Am I really bad luck?  Are they all correct about my birth being a bad omen?  Nothing had really happened while I was growing up or during my schooling, but what if I’m not bad luck to Fairies…but to Dungeon Cores?  She had no answer to that, mainly because it was impossible to be sure; Tacca decided to consider everything that had happened a complete coincidence and move on.

It seemed as though Lily, her contact at the DPRC agreed with her.  “It’s unfortunate, but we’re required to try to help them however we can.  That’s what we do, you know; Assisting Dungeon Cores is our duty, and one that we don’t take lightly.  We try to give them every advantage we can provide so that they succeed, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out.  I appreciate you trying, and I know the others on the Council are thankful for your dedication and determination,” the much older Fairy told her with an extremely fake smile on her face.  Tacca didn’t know how she knew it was fake, but it screamed falsehood even if her words weren’t untrue; she really believed that Lily was telling the truth: the Council really was appreciative of what she was doing…for some reason the young Dungeon Assistant didn’t understand.

“You’re not…disappointed—?”

“Of course not, I can’t fault you for doing as much or more than any other Assistant would’ve done considering the circumstances.”  Now that is hard to believe – I didn’t really do anything!  “Anyway, I have your next Placement all lined up…”

*          *          *

As she had done before Translocating to Darlene’s dungeon, Tacca took some time to herself before she went to her new assignment.  Lily hadn’t said anything about her previous delay, which the young Assistant had definitely informed her of, so she figured that it was fine; besides, the exhausted Fairy found that she needed another long nap, because the horrific events of the last few days were catching up with her.  She slept another night away down in the Giant Lilies below the DPRC mountain entrance, before waking up the next morning and Translocating to her new dungeon with the hope that things would be different.

Unfortunately, from the moment she arrived – to approximately six months later – her life was a