A warm summer wind blew in between the dense forest trees, carrying the hum of cicada's nightmarish screams of wanting to fuck. It was a nice distraction to the pair of adventurer's long trek for work, after all, a ruined magic tower in the middle of the forest wasn't the easiest thing to find. The duo, an orc sorceress and an elf mechanic, were thankfully running into minimal resistance.
"So..." the elf said, idly tinkering with her compass. "We should still be going the right direction." Her companion looked unimpressed at the assurance. "Oh, come on, I know I've said that before."
"Oh, I trust you," the larger woman sighed, mostly just exhausted at the hours of hiking. "It's just that we only know the direction, not anything else like what to look for. So, for all we know we may have already passed it."
"Can't you use magic to sense it?"
"Only if there's active magic around, which is why your tools are more reliable nowadays."
Magic had been falling out of favor in terms of casual navigation since it was always reliant on signposting spells to guide people. Larger cities would naturally have this, but smaller and more rural areas wouldn't and instead had cartographers plan out routes and encourage tools like maps and compasses.
"I'm just tired," the orc woman sighed, not missing her companions blush at the slight praise. "If we need to, we can set a marker and teleport somewhere to rest for the night."
"It is getting hot..." the elf admitted as she noticed the visible sweat markers on their clothes. The cicadas were getting louder, becoming an almost deafening mental block. "Don't you have some water magic or something, Ariandel?"
"If you wanted to use it to drink, you'd regret it." The orc sighed, grabbing her canteen. "Water magic I use is really just teleporting things from the ocean, so unless you want to drink fish shit, I don't use it for drinking."
"Fair enough," the elf winced, not wanting the salt water or fish shit. "Ice then?"
"Same situation, different temperature."
"Wow, how convenient."
"It is when you need to cool off, not hydrate."
"So, what, do you make fire magic when you need to hydrate?"
"Wind, actually."
"...I'll stick with technology for now, at least I can read the manual for that stuff." The elf laughed, looking at the sorceress. She cracked a smile and kept moving.
"It's not that complicated, Leyn." She said, carefully stepping over a log. "Your machines are far more complex than magical elements."
"Says the nerd who has a personal magic hat." The elf countered, trying to stay serious with the jab but faltering as another round of Cicadas began their fuck song. "Man, mood killer much?"
"Quite, and here we were on our nice romantic half day hike to find a magical tower we don't know the location of."
"Romantic?"
"Adventure, you know, romance, the spirit of adventure and exploration."
"Sapphic orc says what?"
"What?"
"Wait really?"
"No, something else." Ariandel said, not realizing what the elf was playing at. Her eyes narrowed as she grabbed her wand. "I think we're close."
"So, you finally picked something up?" the elf said, trying to hide her minor embarrassment at the flirting. Her companion was already picking up the pace, almost ignoring the hours of walking they'd done. A few cut bushes here, a gravity lifted and replanted tree there, and they finally made it to the ruins.
To say it was dilapidated was an under exaggeration of the highest degree. What might have been a mighty spire was obliterated by time, leaving only half a staircase visible and a series of bricks covering what appeared to be part of a basement. The only signs it was used within living memory was the fact that there was a bookshelf with slightly less dust and leaves on it.
"Well," the orc sighed, relieved they finally were approaching the end of this quest. "We made it. Despite the lack of directions."
"Yeah, now we just..." the elf panted, the hike suddenly hitting her like a boulder punched by a linebacker. "Make sure it's empty? Right?" her companion nodded, visibly more relieved that now they could actually rest and prepare to go back.
"We don't have to worry about the tower at least," Ariandel laughed, since even from a cursory glance and birds flying over the ruins there were no illusions at work. "Now we just have to hope whatever's down there is manageable."
"Well, if half the basement is buried in rocks, we should be done quickly." The elf sighed, looking around. The heat from the sun was now hitting them directly due to the lack of foliage canopy. Naturally they both knew speaking that phrase aloud would curse them. It seemed to be a rule that instead of anything useful, gods of luck loved being shitheads.
Also known as the pair being very susceptible to jinxes, which neither of them knew how it would manifest whenever they were near the end of a job. Sometimes it was a mechanical dragon, other times it was a hot spring that for one reason or another they just couldn't bring themselves to leave. So naturally, what would it be this time?
A bear? A bear riding another bear? A squirrel that's a bear in disguise? Only fate would know. And with a quiet breeze that spoke volumes of intimidation. There was a pause as the two carefully walked towards the ruined staircase, somewhat disappointed that they could see a path through the collapsed building.
"Great... guess we're going in?" Leyn sighed, not really looking forward to a potentially active magic ridden ruin. "You first or me?"
"It's magic so, probably me?" Ariandel chuckled, moving forward as carefully as she could. The first step of run exploration is always to confirm the exit strategy. They'd both done it hundreds of times, sometimes multiple at the same location. So naturally they had thought they'd seen every trick and trap in the book. "Though, the ruined part of this place hopefully set everything off years ago."
"So, how many traps do you think there will be?"
"Probably all of them."
"Fun!"
"You signed up for this," the orc woman laughed as she squeezed through a gap. Their only known way out, a gap barely big enough for one person to squeeze through, so they hoped they didn't need to start an excavation. "Just... be careful. There's, definitely, active magic in here."
"Well, you have counter spells, right?" the elf said, finding a bit of relief in the basement looking like just a few rooms, nothing too egregious. "So, if we just move carefully we'll be fine."
"Yeah," Ariandel said, taking a moment to try and enjoy the cooler temperature. "We just-" As if on cue, a sigil glowed around her foot and visibly jolted up her body. "Fuck."
"Okay, what type of magic is it and is this one that if you move, you're going to need a new leg? Again?" Leyn sighed, knowing that she wasn't the expert in magic here and had to stand by to help. There was no response from her partner though. "Uhhh, Ari? Helloooo? Big A?"
No response, but she wasn't turned to stone so that was a plus. The elf nervously shifted around her companion, using tiny mechanical spiders to avoid setting off any other spells in the area. After all, it wouldn't do either of them good if they both got trapped.
So, when her companion was staring blankly into space with her jaw slack, there was a problem. Not just from the lack of other magical booby traps around the area, but how the orc woman's eyes followed Leyns' movement.
"Can you hear me?" she said, admittedly nervous. No response, other than the slow tracking of her hand's movement. "Ariandel? What the hell is going on?"
"Sp...ell..." the sorceress managed to mumble out, clearly fighting back against whatever she was experiencing.
"I know that! But what kind of spell!"
"Control... spell..."
