All four of us strode into the room together, and I swivelled around as I heard the entrance we’d come through snap closed. I looked around for whatever threat was in this room that we were now locked in. It wasn’t the biggest of rooms, and I could see instantly that there was nobody in here except the four of us. Seabird pet slime, this teeny creature that she’d for some reason decided to name Raspberry, immediately became agitated, as though it could sense something that I couldn’t....

We were all quiet as we walked. Seabird and Hawthorn seemed a little shocked by their first foray into the Dungeons, and Cal was once again lost in thought. This time I was too. I kept turning over in my mind what Spot and Meloc had told me when they were here visiting. Something about Cal's dad and "the state" Cal had been in when they'd helped him get out? I'd refused to let them tell me more because it was Cal's story to share, but everytime I thought about it I felt sick to my stomach. I ...