Hi, all!
I hope you made it through the holiday season okay! I got to spend mine with family, friends, in-laws, and nearly every illness you could catch this winter.
New readers? Welcome! Totally don't start here. This is a sequel to a spin-off about a dude who found a house full of horny monsters. None of it will make sense. But you do you.
Returning readers? Welcome back! I've got a special surprise for you all with this chapter, because we're going to revisit a character who hasn't gotten much screentime as well as...well, you'll see.
As always, thank you all so much for indulging me in my side story hobbies. I know that many of you are far hungrier for the main storyline, but I'm working real hard to (hopefully) get back to writing three chapters a month again by the end of the year. That'll make my side projects a little less impactful.
Regardless, your ratings, comments, and feedback go a long way toward keeping this story moving! I couldn't do this without my readers here on Lit, and that means you!
Make sure you check my bio to see when next chapters pop, I try hard to keep to the schedule. I'd really hate to misinform you, because you might end up in a
Sticky Situation
The Labyrinth beneath the Radley home was far larger than the plot of land above it. From a rocky ridge that overlooked the subterranean structure, Dana contemplated the new configuration. At the center of the Labyrinth was Ratu's lair, and the naga was constantly shifting the stone walls around to protect against intruders.
Dana found the behavior a little odd, honestly. With so many protections external to the Labyrinth, it was strange for the naga to maintain such a high level of security. Then again, the last time an intruder had made it in here, Ratu had almost been killed.
After adjusting her shoelaces, Dana walked down the winding trail that would take her to the Labyrinth gates, pondering the interdimensional nature of the massive cavern beneath the house. Was it merely an expansion of the enchanted home, or was it an entirely separate dimension that had been grafted on after the fact? Reggie had once explained to her that it was simply another space between spaces that had been utilized to its fullest, but she wasn't sure she agreed with his explanation. She was curious about why the Labyrinth obeyed different rules than the greenhouse or the tower world, and strongly suspected that only Ratu knew the answer.
Dana approached the massive iron gates of the Labyrinth and stopped. Usually someone would be ready to greet her, but the entryway was quiet. She activated the mechanism that opened the gate. As she entered, a pair of rats appeared shortly after on the wall above. The rats used small hidden portals around the Labyrinth to act as sentries and had come to see what was happening. She gave them a wave. One of the rats waved back before disappearing from sight.
Once inside, she paused and looked to the left, then to the right. Recently, Ratu had started doing themes in the Labyrinth at Yuki's insistence. The kitsune had been spending more time with the naga ever since Ratu's near-death experience. Dana chalked it up to the reclusive naga facing her own mortality. Yuki and Ratu had a lot in common and had become fast friends. They could both shape shift, and while Ratu was a demigod, Yuki could become one someday. Their shared love of magic gave them plenty to talk about, and it wasn't uncommon to discover that Yuki had snuck away to hang out in the Labyrinth all day.
This month's theme was sandstone with glowing hieroglyphics carved into them. Jungle vines draped over the walls further in, and she could hear running water somewhere up ahead.
Dana waited a couple of minutes. It was strange that nobody had shown up by now to guide her. Usually it was Asterion, but he had been absent recently, spending the majority of his time with Beth in Oregon. Dana had heard through the rumor mill that Beth was focusing much of her energy on mastering her new nymph-granted magic, which apparently necessitated having sexy monster men around.
Naturally, that rumor mill was Lily. According to the succubus, Beth was getting so much man meat this summer that she could start her own sausage company.
The stray thought made Dana snort, and she covered her mouth as a relentless barrage of giggles escaped her. She eventually pinched her lips shut, rolling her eyes as she waited for her brain to reconnect to her mouth.
After five more minutes, Dana decided to start exploring. Whoever was supposed to meet her would find her eventually. Typically, the labyrinth was full of traps, but Dana had learned how to spot and recognize most of them. In fact, she had actually helped Ratu develop some newer traps that were more modern in design. For example, one of the Ratu's favorites was a trigger in the middle of a hallway that would initiate streams of fire that came from the walls.
With Dana's help, Ratu now had an obvious floor panel that activated poorly hidden fire geysers. The trap was psychological in nature, because if you tried to go around the panel in the floor, you triggered the smashing plates that crushed you into jelly. The only way to bypass the new trap was to deliberately step on the panel itself, which would create a burst of fire in the hopes of startling you onto the hidden triggers.
There were a few other traps Dana had helped build. Her personal favorite was a section of wall that looked roughly like a hidden doorway. The stone was a shade lighter than the rest, and an unnecessary torch hung nearby. It was meant to lure people into messing with the torch, which would open a pit full of spikes while bathing the area in flames.
Ratu
really
liked her fire traps.
While Dana navigated the initial hallways of the maze, a flickering blue light came down from above and hovered in her field of vision.
"Cerulea, is that you?" Dana watched the light transform into a tiny fairy with a blue body.
"Hi!" Cerulea waved excitedly at Dana. The fairy was a cross between a human and a blue beetle. The curviest of her siblings, little blue wings clicked behind Cerulea as she hovered, making the fairy sound like a cicada. "I didn't know you were coming today."
"Unplanned visit is all," Dana replied. "I need to talk to Ratu about tracking a demon. Who was supposed to be watching the front?"
"Uhhhhh..." Cerulea made a face. "That was supposed to be us, but we got distracted."
"You don't say." Dana didn't bother chastising the fairy. The fairy sisters were sweet, but struggled to concentrate on any task for a long period of time. Well, with the exception of Daisy. If Ratu had put them in charge of the entrance, it was likely that the naga had been trying to get the fairies out of her hair. "Can you lead me to the center?"
"Sure!" Obviously excited not to be in trouble, Cerulea turned into a blue ball of light and zoomed along the hallway. Dana jogged behind the fairy, who sped up until the zombie was running at a sprint.
At top speed, the trip through the labyrinth wouldn't be very long. Cerulea guided Dana through unseen shortcuts, many that seemed nonsensical. Dana's heightened strength and reflexes allowed her to easily hop low walls and swing across a small gorge. She had actually spent part of late spring taking private free-running lessons at a local gym. Her thirty-something instructor had been nice enough, though it was clear he thought she was into him. It wasn't his fault that he mistook her longing looks for lust--the guy had smelled like fresh grilled steak and his muscles looked delicious.
Her progress in the class had been fast enough that her instructor had eventually suggested she begin training with a more experienced female instructor who worked there. Dana figured that her accelerated learning coupled with the hungry looks she kept throwing his way had become red flags for him. She agreed to the transfer, but then quit the gym entirely before drawing any more attention to herself.
While running, she thought about her meeting with the Oracle. The enigmatic being had become a riddle for her to unravel, and she replayed their conversation in her head over and over, convinced that he had left a trail of crumbs for her to follow.
To begin with, what sort of being was the Oracle? She was fairly certain it was eldritch in nature, related to the ancient being she had the misfortune of encountering the previous fall. That one had dreamed up a monstrosity that had swallowed her and Lily whole, then barfed them up a week into the past. Creatures who didn't obey the rules of time and space were extremely dangerous, and she wasn't keen to interact with another.
The Oracle had been far friendlier than the creature in the Pit, which made her worry that the danger it presented was far more subtle. Would taking advice from such a creature lead her to ruin? Or maybe she could take the Oracle at face value, she had no good way of telling.
Cerulea led Dana across a rickety rope bridge that swayed over what could have been Class 4 rapids. There was a fairly large river that ran through the Labyrinth, eventually terminating in a large lake. Dana wondered if Ratu had gotten around to installing the glass ribbons in this section of the river, but had no desire to find out on her own. It had been another idea Dana had given the naga, a way to build a defense into the river without importing and feeding piranhas.
She had found Ratu a razor sharp material that shared the same index of refraction as water, meaning it was essentially invisible while immersed. Anyone who chanced a swim risked being shredded apart by unseen blades. Ratu had seemed particularly interested in this defensive measure when first mentioned, as the river was a bit of a weak point.
The trip to the center of the Labyrinth took nearly thirty minutes, and Dana wondered if Cerulea had taken them on a longer path by accident. When they arrived, Dana was greeted by the sight of a large chamber with walls piled high with treasure. Gold, silver, and gems of varying value had been shoved into one corner while magical artifacts that had been scattered around the lair, were laid out on clearly marked tables and shelves.
Dana looked around the chamber for any sign of Ratu. She was a powerful sorceress with an expertise in the transfer and infusion of magical objects. Some day, Dana hoped that this knowledge would include reversing her undead condition. When she had been killed, a necromancer had bound her soul to her body, meaning that she could never properly cross over into the afterlife.
Ratu was fairly certain she could figure out a way to fix Dana, but Dana wasn't sure how much of that was optimism. Last fall, Dana had gone on a trip across the United States trying to track down magical objects. According to Ratu, the combined enchantments of these items could theoretically unlock Dana's soul from her physical body.
It was kind of silly that all Dana wanted in life was death, the same thing that every other creature had a natural right to. The thought of being trapped in a decaying body as the universe went cold and dark was a terrifying proposition. Luckily, Dana only experienced that particular terror during her random outbursts. It was usually mixed in with everything else, so got lost in the shuffle.
