Alex

  “Are you sure they’re in here?” Mel had led us to a strange-looking building. One half was suspended in the air, floating above the other. I supposed that alone did make it a likely destination, but there was an odd force about the house that seemed to repel my core.

  It was the first time I had felt anything like it. And as I examined the feeling deeper, I realized it wasn’t my core that was being repelled. The tropical rainforest mana orb seemed to have an odd interaction with the magics coming from within.

  “Yeah, he’s somewhere inside. He’s pretty easy to track, though something changed about him,” Mel answered.

  “Uh, that’s old Dane’s place. I don’t know if we should go inside,” Vrilk said as Mel bobbed toward the door. So far, the kid had stuck with us on the walk, but I wasn’t sure Mel’s choice to bring him along had been the best idea, morally right or not.

  “Mel, I kind of agree with Vrilk, there’s a weird push against me here. I don’t really like the feel of it at all,” I added, unsure of what it meant.

  “Sorry, yeah, I feel the same thing. It’s got something ta do with our mana orbs. Don’t think much of the magic ‘round here places too nice with ‘em,” Mel replied. It hadn’t done much to ease the nagging worry, but at least it was somewhat of an explanation.

  “Hey, wait up!” a cheery voice called from the distance. Spinning my head, I spotted the owner of the voice. Maud, my sister-in-law, had apparently also found her way here.

  “Kind of assumed ya’d be inside with ‘em!” Mel bellowed back to the quickly approaching woman.

  “Yeah, no, had to do some Inheritor stuff. I met Daisy, and I think I’m officially an Inheritor now. Isn’t that cool? Oh, and Dave has the soul chat working again. Lots of stuff is happening back home.” Maud was speaking even faster than her usual rapid-fire, excited words.

  “Wait, you’re connected to Dad again?” I said, suddenly processing everything she had said. I didn’t think he could help with anything at the moment, but at least if he knew everything going on, he could pick up where we left off if anything happened to us. William’s life was the important thing here.

  “Yep, need me to pass along any messages?” Maud asked, finally catching up to us. “Who’s the new person? You’re a Vulterian, right?”

  “He is. It’s a weird story we can explain later. And no, nothing for Dad just yet. But once we are back on the ship, I want to give him a complete report of everything. Get him entirely up to date.” Hopefully, being up to date would include good news for Sanquar. Otherwise, this pit stop would have been another waste of time.

  We likely could have long had the supplies loaded and back into the chase if it weren’t for the sapient black hole chasing him. That still didn’t make a lot of sense to me, no matter how many times it had been explained. But with the existence of magic, I had to stop expecting to understand things in the usual rational sense.

  “Glad ta see ya, but Alex is right. Gotta check on the bird, and then we can fill Dave in. I wanna hear all about what ya unlocked in yer class too when we’re back on the ship,” Mel said as he opened the door.

  The feeling of repulsion hit me all the harder as I pushed through the doorway. Once inside, it felt like an oppressive force weighing me down. Every step was met with a pushback from the unseen energy. I trudged forward despite that. It was just another obstacle to overcome.

  “Whoa, don’t like that feeling at all,” Maud said as she joined them inside the building.

  “Ignore it best ya can. I think Sanquar is through there,” Mel said, pointing at one of the doors down a nearby hallway.

  “I don’t think the moose likes it. He doesn’t look happy,” Maud added.

  She was right. The moose looked almost annoyed. I wasn’t sure I had ever seen him like this personally. What was setting him off?

  “Rstay!” A strange, almost word-like sound came out of the moose’s mouth, catching me entirely by surprise.

  “Did he just say stay?” Maud asked, turning back toward the moose.

  “Maybe? I don’t know, but he sure as hell don’t seem happy about moving from the room,” Mel replied.

  “Better listen to him, too. He’s got the right idea of it. Who knows where the lot of you will end up if you enter these halls?” a strange figure said, exiting a door from one side of the hall. They reminded Alex of a yeti of all things.

  “They don’t know any better, Dane. Please don’t hurt ‘em. They promised me a good meal,” Vrilk said, fear in his voice.

  “Huh, well, that might just solve one of the problems I was worried about. Hey Squidlen, how do you feel about a new deck hand?” Dane called.

  “I don’t know, there’s a giant furball blocking my sight. How about you move a little faster, and I can have any idea what you’re yammering on about,” Squidlen replied from somewhere behind the large figure.

  “Y’all okay back there?” Mel yelled.

  “We’re fine. Well, mostly fine. I feel a bit strange, but thanks to Dane, I was able to find a new power source for my core. I owe him a great debt, even if he refuses to accept it,” Sanquar answered.

  “Wait, really? That’s great! Just think how much Sanquar is going to wipe the floor with those jesters when we catch up to them!” Maud was jubilant in her cheers.

  “You’re after jesters? You didn’t mention that little fact, Squidlen,” Dane said, stepping out of the hall, revealing Yorela, Squidlen, and Sanquar behind him.

  “Did it really matter who we were chasing? No matter what, we needed to deal with Sanquar’s problem, and I agreed to your terms to do it. Didn’t I?” Squidlen narrowed his eyes at the yeti as he spoke.

  “It only mattered because if you’re after a jester, I might have some extra information that could help, but I suppose if you’d rather old Dane just get back to usual business and let you all be on your way…”

  “Dammit, Dane, do you always have to be like this?” Yorela said, a bit of anger in her tone.

  “Probably, you ever known me to be any different?” A grin spread across the Yeti’s face as he asked this. “But since I’m such a nice guy, and you’re going to do me a favor of taking the kid with you…”

  “What? No, I don’t want to go with them!” Vrilk yelled.

  “Well, that’s too damn bad. I’m tired of dealing with your idiocy. Let me guess, he tried to rob you and couldn’t even manage that?” Dane said, turning to look at me.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  “More or less. His cards didn’t seem to work the way he expected,” I answered, not sure we actually wanted to take the kid, but that wasn’t my call to make. It wasn’t my ship, and Mel was the one who had already half-adopted him.

  I caught myself on those last thoughts, as a quick reflection had hit me of how I was thinking and treating Vrilk. He was just a kid after all, stupid or not, he was a child. I couldn’t let the jesters make me this cold. I wouldn’t let my own hatred stop me from helping those who needed help. Suddenly, I was very glad Mel had been with me today.

  “I said I was sorry!” Vrilk whined.

  “Good, and now you can really repay them. Squidlen here is gonna need someone who has any clue on how card magic works, and while you barely qualify, that’s better than nothing. So congratulations, you’re getting off this world and getting a chance to make something of yourself.” Dane’s eyes had moved to a glare, staring deep into Vrilk’s eyes.

  Vrilk gulped loudly before replying. “Okay…”

  “Great, another mouth to feed. Just what I needed. Now what else do you know about the damn jesters? We need to get going.” Squidlen’s annoyance was plain as he spoke.

  “There’s a chaos dungeon in the nearby asteroid field. Been growing for a while, so I sent some of my contacts to take a look at it a few years back, see if it would be an issue in the future. The answer was yes, but not for the reasons you’d expect. Seems the jesters are using it as a sort of gate network within chaotic space. I don’t know the real details, but somehow they have the dungeon connecting to other points. That’s likely where your quarry is headed,” Dane answered.

  “Hrm, that could work. They won’t be able to take their ship into one. They will have to fight through anything that’s started prowling around since the last time they were through. Might be able to catch them in a fight if we get real lucky,” Squidlen replied, his glare morphing into a half-smile.

  “What makes a chaos dungeon different from a Spiral dungeon?” Maud asked.

  I was considering the same question, but as I barely knew much about Spiral dungeons, I wasn’t sure asking would help me. While I knew the cores that had joined our city rather well, especially Alpha. I didn’t know a lot about their lives within the dungeons. I had always gotten the feeling it was made up of memories they’d prefer not to remember.

  It was somewhat hard for me to believe that Alpha had previously been a blood thirsty monster in any way. They were so gentle, always watching the birds. I had even once seen the core quickly rescue a baby bird that had fallen out of its nest, and carefully heal it back up before returning it to its siblings.

  That made it hard for me to wrap my head around Alpha coming from a place where they were a large wasp, attacking anything that came into their vicinity. But everyone, Alpha included, had made it clear that was exactly what their old life was, even if the full details of it were never spoken.

  “A lot less predictable. Squiddy may like the idea of catching the jester in there, and I won’t argue that it’s probably our best shot. But I don’t like it. Dungeon cores in chaotic space are not the same thing you’re used to in the Spiral. I don’t know if it’s just because it’s so hard to find a dungeon before it’s already massive out here or not, but they are always meaner, and some of them are pretty cunning too. I wouldn’t be surprised if the jesters have a deal with the core to make this all work,” Yorela answered, not looking nearly as happy as Squidlen at the news.

  “Yeah, this is why I’d such a bad opinion of cores when I first met Corey. Only real intelligent ones I’d heard about were the ones working with bad actors,” Mel added.

  “How dangerous are we talking here? I mean, I’ve done a lot of things people call super dangerous now, so my scale has gotten kind of strange. Wasn’t it dangerous for me to go off alone and talk to Daisy after all?” Maud asked.

  “You talked to Daisy? Archmage Daisy?” Dane asked incredulously.

  “Oh yeah, she was nice. Helped me figure out some stuff with my Inheritor class. Gave the moose a pep talk. Great lady all around,” Maud answered.

  “You’ve got Sanquar, and a new Inheritor on your ship, and you still put up a fight about taking me to see the children in the future? Squidlen, you’ve got some strange ideas of what to be afraid of,” Dane said, letting out a burst of laughter after he finished.

  “Every time the children are involved, everything goes to shit. And I’m tired of shit. You should be tired of shit, you’re older than I am,” Squidlen replied.

  “What did I say about calling me old?”

  “You just called yourself old, so how about shutting up with that routine anyway. Is the kid really going to be any use to Sanquar, or are you just pawning off a problem on us?” Squidlen asked.

  “Calm down, I never answered the Inheritor’s question, so her first. Chaos dungeons, especially the big ones, are hard to classify in terms of danger. I don’t have a good read on what’s inside because of the jesters, and if you’re expecting some letter category system like the Spiral uses, don’t. Those are barely applicable inside Spiral space. They sure as hell aren’t out here,” Dane replied.

  “Yeah, never thought much of the way things are classified in the Spiral myself. Shit never fits where ya’d expect it to,” Mel added.

  “No, it doesn’t, part of why I never liked visiting. As for Vrilk, he’s wasted here. I don’t have the time or energy to train him like he deserves. He’s got a lot of potential, but he’s also got a lot of built-up resentment. Life hasn’t been kind to him,” Dane continued.

  “Hey, I don’t need help training, I can do it myself. ‘Sides, what if my dad comes back while I’m gone?” Vrilk asked.

  “Kid, you and I both know that isn’t gonna happen. Guy was a deadbeat long before you were hatched. Nothing’s changed since. Your mother was a saint, though. So do her memory a favor and get your ass off this planet and make something of yourself. This is a better chance than you understand. That Cloudform you undoubtedly thought was easy prey? That’s Melhelm of the Halberd. So go with them, teach Sanquar what you can and then learn from everyone else. On the off chance your dad makes an appearance, I’ll find a way to get ahold of you, I promise,” Dane said, his voice kinder than it had been moments ago.

  “…fine,” Vrilk replied, not looking happy with the decision.

  “Vrilk, I’ll make ya a deal. Ya help my friend learn everything he can, and I’ll do what I can ta help ya track down yer dad once you’re ready fer that kind of experience,” Mel said, floating near the kid’s head.

  “Alright, alright, I’ll go.” This time, he sounded more determined.

  “Any other strays we need to collect before we head out? Or can we get off this damned card planet already?” Squidlen asked, his eyes scanning the group.

  “I have nothing else for you at least, so get gone. You’ve got work to do,” Dane replied.

  While I didn’t voice it, I was glad this diversion was over. I wasn’t willing to let myself be upset about Vrilk anymore, but that didn’t mean I wanted to waste any more time. Especially as we now had a destination in mind. No dungeon would stand between me and my son, chaos or not.

  “Good, let’s get back to the ship then. Your brother and the rest of the crew are already back aboard. Shouldn’t take me long to plot our course for the dungeon either,” Squidlen said as he gave a nod to Dane and started for the door.

  Moose

  There had been something else in Daisy’s words when she had spoken to him. He had focused on the feeling behind them the whole way back to Alex. Daisy had been right about the connection between himself and the baby, though he still didn’t understand why that had formed.

  It was harder for him to process those early memories, which in turn made it all the harder to understand that bond. It wasn’t until William was born that he had started thinking in words at all, and the fact that he had come so close to warning his friends about the hall had surprised him. He had just been glad they listened, and that the hairy man had appeared when he did.

  While the people talked, he had again tried to explore the channels inside of himself. His core was the same, mostly, but there was something new connecting to it. That mana orb he swallowed had more lines to it now, too. Did that mean he could use it more easily? It had taken a lot of concentration every time before.

  He wished he could remember why he had swallowed it. But the only memory attached to it was a tasty smell. He was pretty sure that shouldn’t have been enough alone, but again, things were different before his mind started to really think, so he couldn’t be sure.

  Ah, there it was. He found the new change. Daisy had somehow opened up a connection to a class orb for him, and there was one inside the socket already. What would an Unbridled Berserker class let him do anyway?

  Smash, punch, bite, kick, rend, charge, rip, repeat. That was the mantra of the Berserkers of Quiyp. They didn’t believe in the idea of retreat. To them, the only way to win a battle was forward, over the bodies of their own comrades if the need arose. They were terrifying in their blood rages, but they were one of the most effective mercenary forces the Spiral had ever seen.

  Their specialized berserker classes allowed for them to keep moving long after their body should have, and would the moment the battle was over, failed. Somehow, the pure rage within them held their cells together, and as long as that rage held, they were nigh unbeatable. It was one of their greatest strengths, as well as their greatest weakness. A single powerful bard could be their undoing.

  Distasteful Classes Volume 1 by Zolinjar

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