At first, Unferth paid to heed to the calls for help echoing from the cavern walls. If the lost courser was strong and cunning enough to deserve it, they would find their way to safety. If not – their spoils would be hers, should she find the poor soul’s skeleton on her next delve into the dungeon. Perhaps, then, it would be wise to know the careless courser’s location. Keeping to the shadows, Unferth crept along the path laid by each plea. The area was marked by unstable ground,...

Unferth would not be so bold as to call herself a devotee of art, but even she could tell there was something unusual about the painting before her. Aged tapestries, paintings and carvings dotted the walls of the dungeon, but even behind centuries of decay and lichen, there were hints of past glory: crowns, swords, great battles lined in bits of gold still clinging to stone. This one, though, lacked such pretentions. Stretching up along the rocky wall was a herd of painted courses, all...

Unless one traveled in a party, a courser could expect to encounter no other sentient beings in the overgrown caverns. Rock, moss, and beasts would be the only companions for much of a dungeon delve. The caverns snaked and twisted through the earth for countless miles, room enough to maintain one’s solitude no matter how many foolhardy coursers plumbed its depths. Hence, hearing the muffled sounds of speech, hushed and conspiratorial, emanating from a moss-covered passage made Unferth pause...