Ruinous Return

Volio's heart sank. He had just been brought back to consciousness by this Duskari woman Lyn had called Vael. And the first sight he saw was Lyn, kissing the Duskari man. Oh…He turned to face the woman tending him.

And that's when he smelled it. Her scent was the same as the clothes Lyn had given him. Volio was not a dumb man. Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he knew when he had been tricked. And Lyn had tricked him. Manipulated him. Gave him the garments of this bodyguard. Lied to him. Used him as an errand boy. It all rushed to him with perfect clarity. He'd been played.

His beloved, the woman he wanted to spend eternity with. Betrayed him. He didn't feel anger or rage. All he felt was…hollow. I've spent ten years chasing your ghost…and you're finally back. He had the chance to serve her. To be with her. He had the rings in his hip pouch. He wanted to propose, to make her his. But now…she lied to me.

He felt the blood rush to his temples. The absolute outrage at the betrayal of trust filling the hollow void where longing for Lyn and a hole set aside for her once sat. Now he only felt the tempest of rage.

Lyn pushed Gael off and shouted something in Arinol, pointing at his chest and screaming at him. He remained stoic, but Volio knew what a scolding looked and felt like. Gael replied to her in the same language, pointing at Volio and gesticulating with his other hand. Lyn crossed her arms and huffed before nodding. She walked over to him, "Sorry, he crossed a line," she said in English. Volio knew, though, that it wasn't sincere. It was complete bullshit.

I'm already here. Might as well clear the dungeon and then I can…What would he do? Lyn had been his whole life for the past ten years. His whole drive was to be with her. They had a connection. But she had betrayed that connection, and he was so mad that he could just kill her right there. But he couldn't do that to her. He loved her too much, even now, despite the betrayal. Just finish the dungeon then figure out what you'll do. He pushed the Duskari woman – Vael – away and stood up. "All good," he muttered.

Lyn looked at the gateway behind her, "The most boring type of dungeon," she muttered. "Logistics and management."

Volio heaved a sigh of relief. Those dungeons were easy. Normally, the person inside would have to manage a business of some type for the full seven-day period and would need to meet some type of quota to 'pass' the dungeon trial and earn the reward. It meant that he had plenty of time to sort out what he was going to do about this situation. And, more importantly, more time to talk to Lyn as a plan began to formulate in his mind.

She turned around and walked through the purple film. Gael followed her, but Vael stood behind Volio, and spoke in Khrelardian. "You go through first."

He stomped over to the purple film and pushed through. He emerged inside a warehouse with stacks of trade goods on shelves all around. Lyn and Gael were further ahead, walking through another door, and Volio followed with Vael on his heels.

They emerged on the sales floor. Lyn walked over to an inscribed board, spoke to Gael in Arinol, and then switched to Khrelardian. "We'll stick to this language while we are here." She pointed at the board which Volio knew from prior experience laid out the rules of the challenge. It was written in Elenthir, and without Lyn here, he would have been taking guesses at what it said. "We have to run a general store. Only the products already existing can be used in sales." She groaned and held her head in her hands. "Why couldn't it have been a fight? Hell, I'd even take more puzzles or riddles."

Vael closed the warehouse door behind Volio, "I believe," she said, "we should scout the rest of the building."

Lyn nodded, gestured, and the twins split off to explore and report back. Lyn sat behind the counter and began looking over the variety of items on display. All manner of expedition gear was in this front room, and the facility was set up to have a showroom floor, and then have the employees – Volio and these three – go back to the warehouse to put orders together. "Fucking grocery store stocking all over again," Lyn muttered.

Volio leaned over the counter, resting on his forearms. The way Lyn sorted through the items and began to take meticulous notes was very much like her cataloguing and organizing of bands she loved to talk about. She was always making lists of her favorite songs, and he began to hum the melody to one of the tunes.

She paused what she was doing and looked at him, "Like a Stone." Volio nodded and Lyn smiled. "You remembered."

Volio nodded, "It was…your favorite." He stared into her eyes, trying to discern the truth behind her words. The intentions that were veiled behind the gorgeous blue spheres. You're mine, and yet you lied to me. Used me. Why? He searched for an answer but found naught but the flickering flames behind her iris.

"Yeah. It was." She stood up, "Look…Volio. I know you are really, really into me. But I'm not the same Lyn. I'm not Lyn from school, Lyn the Scout-"

"Lyn the Destroyer…I heard…the convo with Misty."

"So, you know the woman you had a crush on isn't the same person."

Volio shrugged, "You're still…" he paused. He was about to say, 'my Lyn', but she had lied to him. Tricked him. He stood up and left the counter. Walking outside the building, he saw a nondescript stone road leading in both directions, and vast wilderness surrounding them. If this is like those other dungeons…he began walking down the road, and as soon as the building had fallen away behind him, he saw it in front of him on the horizon once more. Yup.

He returned inside and saw Vael and Gael drawing a map on the counter with Lyn looking down at it. "Right so we have four bedrooms, kitchen, outhouses, a basement cellar with plenty of provisions, the store front, and the warehouse." She looked up to Gael, "Let's take an inventory of the warehouse." She then looked to Vael, "Get some rest. You're going to be the night shift."

Volio walked over as the twins left. "Three during the day?"

Lyn nodded, "The last two times I did dungeons with this type of trial most of the customers showed up during the day with only a few at night. We almost failed the first one because we didn't realize that we had night customers. They don't make any noise, either. So someone has to be at the desk at all times."

I…Volio nodded and walked to a side of the storefront, looking at the objects on the wall as he lost himself in thought. She's not my Lyn. Not the one I fell in love with. This wasn't his dark angel who protected him at school from Kory and Darius. This wasn't the woman he spent hours of his life pining over and watching at the skate park. This wasn't the object of his affections that he delivered hand-crafted gifts to.

And that thought gave him a weird mix of emotions. He felt calm and enraged at the same time. Calm because he knew this Lyn was a fresh, new take on the woman he loved so dearly. But enraged that she had betrayed him and used him. He wanted to confront her, to yell at her, to give her a piece of his mind. To pin her down and tear off her clothing and dominate her in the way he always wanted to do to the past Lyn. To claim her as his. To make her his.

But he hated confrontation. Every time he thought of confronting someone, his memories would come flooding back.

"Man up!" his dad yelled at him as he pointed to the shattered plates. "Your sister told us this was you! Now man up and admit it!"

"It…wasn't me…" Volio muttered. His younger sister always was a blameless child. The one who could do no wrong. The one his parents doted on.

"Bullshit! You're going to clean up this mess, and then you're grounded for a month!"

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Volio nodded numbly and went to grab the broom and dustpan. "Yes, sir."

He shook his head clear of those memories. Fuck that noise. I'm a goddamn hero. A hero. He had helped kill a tyrant. He had saved a rebellion from collapsing. He fought against the Demonic Dragon. My Lyn died fighting that thing. This new Lyn… he smiled and chuckled. This new Lyn is my reward.

Yeah. That was it. Someone had heard his prayers. For years, night after night, he whispered prayers to whoever would listen that he would find Lyn so they could be together. And finally, his prayers were answered. This Lyn may have tricked him, but that didn't matter.

This Lyn would be his. His reward for coming to this world and helping to save it. His reward for the undying devotion to her. She was his and no one else's. He slipped his hand into the pouch with the rings and clutched them in his fist. I'll make her mine. His mind flashed with visions of what he would do to her body once she was his. And she'll love me with everything she has.

That fucking guy, Lyn thought as she finished tabulating the store's list of products and prices, pushing any thought of Volio out of her head. She had worked in retail before, part-time after classes to make some money. Trying to build up a fund to move away from her abusive home. She had a good grasp on the concept of supply and demand. Walking to the warehouse, she scanned the parchment that Gael was writing on. We have plenty of inventory. I can probably mark a bunch of prices down to reach the goal required.

There was something akin to a cash register up front that was some type of inscribed item built into the trial. It would track monies in and out to make sure that no manipulation was going on. Lyn couldn't, say, pull out a thousand Gold Eagles from the treasury back at Lynhold and then put them into the register. It had to be monies from the created 'fake people' who would be shopping there. Gael looked over at her and switched to Arinol, "I'm not sorry for what I did."

Lyn nodded, "I know." She replayed that moment in the cave over in her head. Gael had leaned in to kiss her, did kiss her, and she pushed him away, screaming at him "What the fuck!" in Arinol to make sure Volio didn't know what was being said.

"It was just a gesture. I want to see what his reaction is," Gael replied as he pointed at Volio. "He does not treat you with reverence like Bolvon does, so we know he is not a fanatic worshipper of your godliness. Based on your 'picnic' as you called it where you were flaunting your assets, you know more about why he is enamored with you."

Lyn sighed and pointed at Volio as well, "This creep has been interested in me. Romantically, sexually, whatever ways you can think of I'm sure have gone through his perverted little brain. I'm playing him. As long as I can keep him wound up-"

"Eventually he'll figure out you're manipulating him. When he finds out, how will he act?"

Lyn had been mulling that question over. She put a hand on Gael's shoulder in the present and squeezed it gently. "Just so we are clear, I don't view you or your sister in a romantic sense. Kissing while fucking? Sure."

Gael smirked and kept cataloguing the goods in the warehouse, "I know. I love Bolvon. You're just a good lay, Lady Rivers."

She gently smacked him on the back of the head, and they shared a brief laugh.

Volio was listening at the door. He didn't understand what they were saying, but the tone was jovial. She's just loving her time with him. He stepped away from the door and paced around the shop, lost in thought. She was his prize. His Lyn. But he would have to be careful when he made his move. He rifled through his hip pouch and pulled out the book of external spells he had kept since first arriving on Ghomar. He never had the best memory, hence why he kept this log of verses.

He flipped to a page with spells he had never wanted to use, because they seemed…wrong. Mind spells. The type of stuff that would be akin to slipping someone a roofie, blitzing someone out of their brain and preventing them from reacting or doing things against you. The heroes were warned about mind spells in general. They were taboo except when investigating a crime and trying to determine the truth. Using a spell in that way would be just as bad as the physical act of raping someone. And it was criminalized in most civilizations.

And yet Volio didn't care. She's mine. She's my reward for all the bullshit I've put up with. I found her, didn't I? Without me, the other heroes wouldn't know she's back. The least she can do is give me some gratification.

And, with this type of spell, he wouldn't have to worry about confrontation or conflict. It wouldn't be like trying to confront his dad. No yelling, no shouting, no violence. He could take what he was owed. His Lyn. Force her to submit fully to him. He could take out his anger and rage for her betrayal while at the same time finally taking the satisfied gratification that he had sought for so many years.

He just had to bide his time. Slowly layer spells, one at a time, in such a minor way that she wouldn't notice. When he was done, to her perspective, she would be in love with him. It wasn't wrong. It couldn't be wrong; he was sure of that. They were meant to be together. She just forgot that we were supposed to be together. Yeah, that was it. She forgot. He had to remind her.

The first few hours passed uneventfully as Lyn and Gael rearranged the shop. Then, the customers started coming in. They were all manner of races from across Ghomar, and they all spoke with the same monotone, bland voice. It was rote, repetitive work. Take an order, grab the supplies from the warehouse, try to upsell them on other products, and then process the payment. Rinse and repeat. Hour after hour.

To Lyn, the work was mind-numbing. It felt like she was in a constant mental fog. And it only got worse every time Volio had to walk by the front desk where she was working. He was muttering something to himself that even her Duskari hearing couldn't pick up. It's this retail bullshit, she thought. The monotony of just running a store, taking orders, filling orders. It drained her like nothing else could.

Vael came downstairs as the day concluded, and Lyn went to the kitchen. Thankfully, these dungeon-challenges that required the person to stay for a lengthy period had plentiful resources, so she threw together a sandwich before heading upstairs, eating, and crashing on the bed.

Volio was in the room opposite the hall from Lyn's room. Gael's room was adjacent to his, and Vael's was adjacent to Lyn's. He flipped through the spell book and made some minor adjustments to the verses, switching around a few words here or there. He wasn't the best at Elenthir – the language was maddeningly difficult to understand and comprehend, but some words were consistent in verses, so they could be shifted around without much risk.

Phase one is complete, he thought as he chuckled to himself with glee. Mind spells that wear down the person's defenses. Every person had a level of resistance to mental influence, often that was more potent the more egotistical they were. The more highly they thought of themselves, the harder they would be to wear down. It's why mind spells never worked on a battlefield. It took hours, sometimes days or even months of consistent, slow wearing down.

But he only had a week, at the most. Six more days. He could sacrifice some sleep. Getting up quietly, he crept into the hallway, and laid down on the floor so that he could talk under Lyn's door. He muttered the next set of spells in her direction.

Soon…you'll be all mine.

Gael woke up and went downstairs. Vael looked tired, having stayed up all night, and she gave him a groggy smile. "Oh, already morning?" she asked.

"Yes. Go get some sleep," Gael told her, giving her a quick pat on the shoulder.

"First, food." Vael left as Lyn came downstairs.

The Destroyer yawned and nodded at Gael, "Morning."

"Did you sleep well?"

"Sort of? I had a weird dream." She suddenly stood upright, all trace of her tiredness vanishing. Her eyes narrowed and she whispered in Arinol, "Gael, I don't dream. I've never dreamed. I just go to sleep, then wake up the next morning." She lowered her voice even further and moved next to him, barely breathing loud enough for him to hear. "Something weird is going on. I don't know if he's doing it, or if it's just this dungeon…keep an eye on him."

Gael nodded and stepped away from her as he spied the Archer hero descending the stairs. He waved silently and muttered, "Good morning," as he went to the kitchen.

Volio had to be cautious. Gael was working in close proximity, so when he passed by Lyn, he would only just barely whisper a tiny part of the verse. Innocuous word fragments. He knew that if he said nothing else in the interim, he could separate out the words and ensure that he was undetected. The Duskari male appeared none the wiser, and by the end of the day, as they retired once more, he could tell Lyn was walking slightly differently. Her gait suggested sluggishness. The type of tiredness from a long day of work. Nothing suspicious at all.

His plan was working perfectly. And despite the male Duskari shadowing him, he was sure he remained undetected.

Vael stood at the desk during the night shift. A few of the unremarkable shoppers came in, and she took their orders, went to the warehouse, and then brought their order out. Checking the register, she was quite pleased that they were ahead of schedule. Maybe…two more days if this keeps up.

Lyn had explained the dungeon's win condition for the trial over the shift-change breakfast. "We'll be considered winners once the register fills up with Gold Eagles. We just have to keep an eye on that. The whole 'shop' and warehouse will vanish, and we'll be in the final chamber with the reward altar once it fills up."

She was quite bored in between customers and paced the shop floor. Her ears picked up on something – a scraping noise coming from upstairs. Strange. She knew Lyn slept like a rock – unmoving once she fell asleep. Gael didn't fuss about either. She slowly and quietly ascended the stairs, heard more scuffling noises, and then a very, very faint sound of a blanket shifting.

Staring down the hallway, she saw nothing out of place. A singular moon was gleaming through the window at the end of the hall, and she heard the door open downstairs. It was nothing, she thought.

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