I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

Felix double-tapped his temple with two fingers. A small draw from his Numen core, directed upward, filling behind his eyes until the world in front of him shifted. The street took on a faint bluish cast, like looking through smoke that wasn’t there.

The white glow was already moving, faint but readable, threading away through the crowd.

He closed his eyes and followed it inward. The track moved fast. Alleys, storefronts, a caravan crossing an intersection, the glow weaving through all of it without slowing. It stopped at a two-story building on the far end of the district. The building was old, with faded paint and mismatched windows from different renovations.

Felix opened his eyes.

"They covered that distance fast," he muttered. "Must be in a hurry."

He turned to find Dune watching a horse-drawn caravan roll past, her eyes following it from one end of the street to the other.

"Let’s move."

"Yes." She fell into step beside him without looking away from the horses until they’d passed. "Can we not use one of those?"

"You mean the horse."

"I mean the horse."

"We don’t have money for that. Use your legs." He picked up his pace. "Or stay here."

"We will go together." She matched his stride without effort. "You didn’t say where we’re going."

"You saw the four men at the perfume store."

"Yes."

"They took money from the owner. We’re going to get it back."

Dune considered this for a moment. "Isn’t that the owner’s responsibility?"

"Sure. But he can’t handle it himself. That’s where we come in." Felix kept his eyes on the street ahead. "We get his money back, he pays us. That’s a job."

"Understood." She nodded seriously. "Help others and they give you money. One silver buys two butter breads."

"That’s basically it."

Felix started running numbers in his head as they walked. Whatever the thugs had taken, his cut, whether it would cover Alam’s debt before the merchants arrived. He was halfway through the calculation when a question came out before he’d fully decided to ask it.

"Are you strong?"

Dune considered this for a moment. Then she stepped toward the alley wall on their left and drove her fist into it.

"Sto—" Felix’s mouth stayed open.

She pulled her hand back and looked at him. The wall was intact. Not a crack or a mark. "Weak," she said.

Felix stared at the wall for a moment, then at her, then at the wall again. He’d genuinely expected to be standing in front of a hole in the building. Or rubble. Or both.

Guess she’s not physically strong either. That saves some trouble.

He shook his head and kept walking. The building was coming into view at the end of the street now, two stories, shutters drawn on the upper floor.

"Here’s how this goes," Felix said. "I get inside, find what they took, and come back out."

"We should go together."

"No."

Felix pulled a small square of black cloth from his pocket and tied it across the lower half of his face. They stopped at the corner of the building, just inside the shadow of the wall.

"Wait here," he said. "Watch for anyone moving toward the building. Act natural."

"Yes."

He stepped out from the wall and moved two paces before he stopped.

Dune was directly behind him.

He turned around. She was standing exactly where she’d been, expression unchanged, as if she hadn’t moved at all.

"I told you to wait."

"Yes."

He looked at her for a moment. "I’ll come back. Alright?"

"Yes." She nodded once, then stepped forward and pressed her lips to his forehead. Pulled back. "I will be here."

Felix stood there for a second.

"Alright," he said. "I guess."

He turned and walked toward the building, mask up, eyes forward, his thoughts still understand why she did that.

Was that a goodbye kiss? How does she know that and not how doors work?

He glanced back once, quickly. Dune was standing exactly where he’d left her, watching him go.

What were people doing inside that dungeon?

He filed the question away and focused on the building in front of him.

Two stories. The shutters were closed on the second floor meaning that there was no one there or that no one wished to be visible. The front door would have been pointless and he walked along the side of the building without pausing, assessing the situation. There was a window on the ground floor, closed. Then there was an iron drainpipe up the back of the building.

He moved to the back of the building and gave the pipe a test with both hands. It supported his weight well and he started climbing rapidly, holding on with both his hands and feet, finding the mortar gaps between the stones since the pipe could not support him. The shutter at the top floor was locked from within but old wooden shutters move when pressed.

He used his fingers to manipulate the mechanism until it opened just wide enough to allow him through.

The room was bare. Exposed brick where the plaster had fallen away, dust thick enough that his boots left clear prints across the floor. Felix moved slowly, keeping his weight toward the edges where the boards were less likely to shift.

The sound of laughter drifted up from below. Whoever was down there had no reason to be cautious. They certainly weren’t expecting visitors.

He stepped into the hallway and turned right. Stairs at the far end, light coming up from the lower floor. He started toward them.

A door opened halfway down the hall.

Felix’s hand went into his pocket.

The man who stepped out saw him a half second later. "Who the—"

Felix threw the card.

It cut through the air and slapped across the man’s mouth, sitting perfectly flat against his face.

Three of Spades.

The man grabbed at it with both hands. It didn’t move.

Felix was already sprinting forward. The man turned to run, made it one step, and felt Felix’s hand close on the back of his collar.

"Slow down," Felix said quietly, and stepped around in front of him.

The man’s eyes went wide, sweat already on his forehead, chest heaving around the card covering his mouth.

"Don’t panic. I’m not going to hurt you." Felix kept his voice low and even, one hand steady on the man’s shoulder until the shaking settled. "I’m just doing a job. That’s all this is."

The man’s breathing slowed slightly.

"Are the others on the lower floor?"

The man nodded.

"Four of you total, including you?"

The man shook his head.

Felix frowned. "How many then?"

The man raised his hand, fingers spread against his chest.

"Five." Felix exhaled softly. "Alright. I’m going to put you to sleep for a bit."

The man shook his head hard, eyes going wide again.

"It won’t hurt," Felix said. "You’ll feel a small shock and that’s the end of it." He moved his hand to the side of the man’s neck and took a moment to sense the Numen current running through him, finding the flow and the volume of it.

"Ready?"

He didn’t wait for the answer. A short, precise hit, Numen channeled into the contact point, just enough to thin the supply reaching the man’s brain.

The man’s head tilted. His eyes went unfocused, then closed.

Felix caught him on the way down and eased him against the wall, sitting him upright with his back to the brick.

Outside the building, a man in loose clothes walked toward the building. His eyes drifted to the girl standing nearby, motionless, her gaze fixed on the building ahead.