"Watch your step. Pressure plate."
Scarlett froze mid-stride, one foot hovering over a slightly discolored stone.
"How do you keep doing that?" she asked, carefully stepping around it.
"Pattern recognition." [And the fact that I died to this exact trap about forty tis during my first playthrough.] "The builders were consistent. Discolored stone, pressure trigger, sothing unpleasant happens."
"Unpleasant how?"
As if in answer, Kanna nudged a loose rock onto the plate with her boot. A volley of darts shot from the wall, embedding themselves in the opposite stone with a series of sharp thunks.
"Poison-tipped," Kanna observed, examining one. "Fast-acting, judging by the residue. You’d be dead in minutes."
"Okay... That kind of unpleasant," Scarlett agreed.
They pressed deeper into the ruins.
The architecture shifted as they descended. The upper levels had been functional. Storage rooms, barracks. But down here, things got older. More ornate. Pre-Unification nobility hadn’t believed in subtle wealth displays.
Aegis led the way, glowstone in one hand, ntal map in the other. The ga’s dungeon layout had been straightforward, but reality had a way of adding complications. Collapsed passages. Flooded corridors. And, of course, the traps.
So many traps.
"Left here," she said, turning down a narrow corridor. "Then right at the—"
Sothing clicked under her foot.
[Oh fuck.]
She threw herself sideways on instinct, but not fast enough. A dart whistled past her ear, close enough to feel the wind of its passage.
Then Scarlett’s arm was around her waist, yanking her back, spinning them both against the wall as two more darts shot through the space where Aegis’s head had been.
For a mont, neither of them moved.
"You okay?" Scarlett’s voice was strained, her breath hot against Aegis’s ear.
"Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine." Aegis’s heart was hamring. "Thanks."
"Don’t ntion it." Scarlett released her, but her hand lingered on Aegis’s hip. Her expression was caught sowhere between stressed and exhilarated. "Maybe let go first from now on?"
"I’m the one who knows where the traps are."
"Clearly not all of them."
[... Fair.]
Kanna appeared beside them, studying the wall chanism with obvious interest.
"Fascinating construction," she murmured, poking at the dart launcher. "The spring tension is still functional after centuries. Whatever alloy they used for the chanism..."
"Kanna."
"Hm?"
"You’re nerding out over the thing that almost killed our employer."
"I... I can appreciate craftsmanship and be concerned simultaneously."
Aegis laughed, pushing off the wall.
"Co on. We’re close."
---
The vault door was massive.
Ten feet of solid stone, covered in Pre-Unification script, sealed with three separate locking chanisms. In the ga, you needed a specific key for each one. In reality...
"Scarlett, can you—"
"On it."
Scarlett rolled her shoulders, walked up to the door, and punched it.
The stone cracked. She punched it again. And again. On the fourth hit, the entire door crumbled inward, showering the chamber beyond with rubble.
"...Or we could do that," Aegis said.
"Doors," she grinned, "are just suggestions."
They stepped through.
The vault was smaller than Aegis expected, but what it lacked in size it made up for in contents. Stone pedestals lined the walls, each holding sothing that made her pulse quicken. Weapons. Armor. Jewelry. And in the center of the room, a massive iron chest.
[Jackpot.]
Kanna moved to examine the weapons while Scarlett checked the armor. Aegis went straight for the chest.
It wasn’t locked. The lid lifted easily, revealing stacks of gold coins stamped with unfamiliar faces. Pre-Unification currency, valuable as antiques even beyond their raw gold content.
She started counting.
"Ten thousand. Twenty thousand. Thirty..." She sat back on her heels. "Thirty thousand gold. Give or take."
"Thirty thousand?" Scarlett’s head snapped around. "That’s—"
"A lot. Yeah." Aegis grinned. "We’re doing pretty well today."
But the gold wasn’t the real prize.
She dug deeper into the chest, past the coins, until her fingers closed around a small velvet box. Inside, resting on faded silk, was a ring.
Gold band. Deep red gemstone. And carved into the setting, the royal crest of Pre-Unification Valdria.
New Item Acquired: Valdria Sigil Ring
Description: "Worn by Queen Rosanna’s inner circle. Its power recognizes those destined to reshape the kingdom."
Effect: 30% Reputation Gains with Nobility
Aegis slipped it onto her finger.
It fit perfectly.
"What’s that?" Scarlett asked, coming over.
"Old jewelry. Might be valuable." [Definitely valuable. Just not in the way she’s thinking.] "I’ll have soone appraise it later."
Scarlett shrugged and went back to examining a truly massive greataxe that was sohow too big for her but that she was clearly considering anyway.
Kanna appeared at Aegis’s elbow.
"There’s sothing else," she said quietly. "A sealed chamber in the back. The door’s different from the others."
"Different how?"
"Warded. Magically reinforced. Whatever’s in there, the original builders wanted it contained."
[Ah, the cursed chamber. The one with the respawning monsters.]
This was the part she’d wanted to use to help Scarlett and Kanna train.
Aegis followed Kanna to the back of the vault, where a smaller door sat recessed into the stone. Runes covered its surface.
"Can we open it?" Aegis asked, trying to sound as ignorant as possible.
"I believe so. The wards are containnt-focused, not exclusionary. They’re designed to keep sothing in, not people out."
"Then let’s see what we’re dealing with."
Kanna pressed her palm against the door. The runes flared, then dimd. The door swung open.
Beyond was a circular chamber, maybe thirty feet across. The walls were covered in more runes, these ones actively glowing. And in the center of the room, a stone circle was carved into the floor, thrumming with ambient mana.
As they watched, energy gathered in the circle. Coalesced. Took shape.
A creature ford from the mana. Vaguely humanoid, made of shadow and stone, with burning eyes and claws that looked very, very sharp.
"What the hell is that?" Scarlett drew her sword.
"So kind of summoned construct," Kanna said, blade already in hand. "The circle must be cursed. Drawing ambient mana and shaping it into—"
The construct lunged.
Kanna intercepted it, blade flashing. Two strikes, precise and brutal, and the thing dissolved back into mana.
For a mont, silence.
Then the circle pulsed. Energy gathered again. Another construct began forming.
"It’s not stopping," Scarlett said.
"The curse must be self-sustaining." Aegis took a step back toward the door. "Every ti you kill one, the circle just makes another. That’s why they sealed it."
A second construct took shape. Then a third.
"We should go," Kanna said.
They retreated through the door, slamming it shut behind them. The runes flared, resealing the chamber.
"I really think we could have taken them," Scarlett said, still gripping her sword.
"Yeah?" Aegis shrugged. "Go ahead, then, but leave out of it. Feel free to co back down here on your own ti. Seems like good practice."
She glanced at her retainers.
Yeah. They were definitely coming back.
They made their way to the surface, pockets heavy with gold and heads full of plans.
---
That night, Aegis celebrated properly.
[Fuck, fuck, fuck!]
She rode Nazraya slowly, savoring the stretch, the fullness, the way Nazraya’s hands gripped her hips hard enough to bruise. The professor was sprawled beneath her, black hair fanned across the pillows, red eyes half-lidded with pleasure.
"You’re in a good mood," Nazraya murmured, rolling her hips up to et Aegis’s rhythm.
"Found so interesting things today."
"Mmm. So I heard. Evelyn ntioned sothing about ancient ruins and a small fortune in—"
She stopped.
Her eyes had found Aegis’s hand, braced against her stomach for leverage. More specifically, the ring on Aegis’s finger.
"Is that..."
Aegis grinned and kept moving, grinding down harder.
"Is that what?"
Nazraya’s breath hitched—half arousal, half scholarly excitent.
"Pre-Unification craftsmanship. That setting, those runes..." She grabbed Aegis’s hand, pulling it closer to examine even as her hips kept moving beneath her. "Where did you find this?"
"The ruins. Under the manor."
"This is—do you have any idea what this is?"
[Of course.]
"Old ring. Looks fancy."
"It’s a Valdria Sigil Ring." Nazraya’s voice had taken on that breathless quality she got when discussing magical history. "There were only a dozen ever made. Queen Rosanna herself commissioned them for her inner circle. Most were lost during the Unification Wars."
[I know. That’s why I grabbed it.]
"Huh." Aegis rolled her hips in a slow circle, making Nazraya gasp. "Interesting."
"Interesting? It’s—ah—it’s priceless. The historical significance alone—ngh—"
"Are you going to keep talking about jewelry, or are you going to fuck properly?"
Nazraya’s eyes flashed. In one smooth motion, she flipped them, pinning Aegis to the mattress. Her cock was still buried deep, and from this angle, she could thrust harder, faster, exactly the way Aegis liked.
"Perhaps," Nazraya purred, snapping her hips forward, "I should take a look at those ruins myself."
"You’re welco to—ah, fuck, right there—"
"Tomorrow." Another thrust. "Tonight, I’m busy."
Aegis wrapped her legs around Nazraya’s waist and stopped thinking about ancient history.
Tomorrow could wait.
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