Gray is from the novel Shadows of Old Town by T. Olsen. References to, or interactions with, other characters are merely interdimensional, and constitute no assumption of canon or ownership of intellectual property.
Shadows of Old Town can be purchased here: https://books2read.com/u/m27XdR
T. Olsen can be found here: https://linktr.ee/tamiolsen
I ducked around the corner of an underground building and pressed my back against the decorative metal wall that made up one side of what I could only describe as an alley, trying to catch my breath as quietly as I could. The black leather armor didn’t help, and I loosened the straps so it hung open in the front and allowed my chest to move more freely.
It was late in day five of this nightmare convention. The last day, according to the dungeon trio. They’d assured me someone would be able to get me home by the end of the day, and I’d resisted the urge to go back to the dungeon looking for the fog-filled corridor myself, but now I wasn’t sure it hadn’t followed me topside.
My ears were still ringing from the music being played by a group of bards calling themselves Thomas and the Soul Smashers. The deep parts of the songs had shaken the entire square and thumped harder in my chest than my own heartbeat. Despite the volume, I liked it.
Then the boxes spewing smoke had filled the place with a low-hanging fog, very much like what I’d experienced in the dungeon, and the tentacles had lashed out. The band on stage had started fighting them, and the audience had panicked and began to stampede out of the area. I’d stood firm, unsure whether this was my chance to go home or something I should also run from.
In the end I hung back, knives in hand, making sure the audience got out okay. Very few of them were armed, and these tentacles seemed to be vulnerable to my regular steel, thank the Six. When the smoke cleared and the danger had passed, I was still here.
My breathing was leveling out now, and I slid down the wall to sit on the unnaturally clean floor. The entire day had been crazy. Something that looked like a scaly blue cat had walked past me and swiveled its head fully around to stare as it kept going. Later I’d stepped out of a room to find the street filled with floating red balloons dragging their strings across the floor.
In another part of town I bumped into a woman with stubby fairy wings and a small tentacle whipped out of her backpack and tried to grab me, but she didn’t hear me call out and slipped into Dave’s D&D Cavern & Watering Hole, so I let her go.
In the afternoon I’d nearly been trampled by a crowd fleeing a room labeled Auditorium, and then ran after them when I saw the monstrosities chasing behind them. It was a slew of wet, slime-covered, fleshy appendages melded into insect-like bodies, with the whirring sound of wings and the slapping sound of crawling things making me glad I hadn’t eaten anything for lunch. They were letting out a high-pitched mewling noise that set my teeth on edge. I had slipped away from both the crowd and the monsters.
Now it was nearly evening and I was no closer to going home.
I leaned over and peered around the corner of the building, but the rotting corpse that had greeted me outside the concert must have taken a wrong turn. I sighed in relief and pulled myself to my feet, dusting off the armor even though there was no dust in this place.
A voice from the street startled me, and I had a knife in my hand before I managed to spin to face it, but it was only one of the librarians I’d glimpsed here and there over the last couple of days. I relaxed a little, scanning the street behind him.
“Are you here to tell me to get inside and hunker down? Because most of what terrifies me right now seems to be coming from inside these buildings.”
The librarian set his stack of books on the floor and pushed his glasses up his nose. “Ah… no.” He dug around in his pockets for a moment, then pulled out what looked like a shard of crystal, holding it up to the false lighting coming from the ceiling. “You’re a character, right?”
I raised an eyebrow, slipping the knife back into the sheath at my back. “I’ve been called worse.”
“I mean, you’re not from this universe. You’re from the literary universes.”
“If you’re asking if I’m here by mistake, then yes. Can you send me home?”
The man nodded and held up the crystal.
I stared at it warily, as he started mumbling under his breath. A light built within it, sparkling like a hundred tiny stars and getting brighter. Along with the light I could feel the buildup of magic and glanced back at the man’s face uneasily. “Are you sure this is safe?”
He didn’t respond. The crystal in his hand was glowing so brightly now that it was hard to look at, and then it let out a flash of targeted light and a portal appeared in front of us, up against the side of a building.
The librarian sighed and gestured weakly at the glowing white disc.
I glanced from him to the portal and took a few steps closer. It wasn’t like the portals I was familiar with. For one thing I couldn’t see through it, and it didn’t burn like blue fire. This was a smooth white glowing disc standing on end.
“Are you sure this will take me home? To the home I left?”
The man nodded. “Thank you for attending Rinthcon. Next year if you plan to return, please fill out the appropriate registration forms and pay the attendance fee. Keep an eye on our website for details as the date draws closer.”
I frowned and glanced back at him from the edge of the portal. “What?”
He shook his head and sighed again. “Nothing. Good luck.”
I looked at the portal again, the sensation of magic crawling across my body. It couldn’t get much worse than it already was, right? This whole place was falling into chaos.
I took one more deep breath, thought of Deidre and Ruena, of Sans back at the Throat, of May, and Senyr… I could do this.
I closed my eyes and stepped forward.
It didn’t wring me up and spit me out like the portals of the Night of Shadows had. I merely stepped into Sangarie as one would step into another room. Two more steps and I was out of an alley and into the bright noon sun, standing still in a sea of shoppers and stall merchants. I breathed in the smells of fish and garbage, chuckling a little.
“Thank the Six.”
“Gray!”
I turned and saw Diedre coming toward me, her brows creasing and her gaze wandering down my frame.
“What are you wearing?”
I raised my hands to my chest where the black leather hung open and snorted a little. “A costume. Let’s go home and I’ll change out of it.”
She snaked her arm under mine and let me lead her toward the closest entrance to the underground—the true underground—and home.
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