A problem shared is a problem halved. Sabrina and Jade had a good long talk. A weight was lifted from Sabrina when she shared her burden with her partner. Jade, like always, had advice that completely flipped Sabrina’s perspective.

  One part of it really stuck with Sabrina. It started when Jade said, “The overall concept is like solipsism or Last-Thursdayism, yeah? Basically, it’s impossible to disprove. You can’t know that you’re really you, or that the Dungeoneer’s or Oneira’s intentions are what they seem? So let me ask you this. How do I know that you love me?”

  Sabrina was taken aback by this. “Because I do love you. What do you mean?”

  “How do I know for certain that your thoughts and feelings are what you portray? How do I know I’m not in a Truman Show or Chris Chan situation?”

  “Chris Chan?” Sabrina asked.

  “Yes. What if, like Chris Chan, everyone around me who seemingly likes or loves me is actually just making fun of me? Thinking you’re being gang-stalked is beyond paranoid, for sure, but Chris-Chan and other ‘lolcows’ are prime examples of it happening in real life.”

  Sabrina shrugged, saying, “I don’t know. That’s not what’s happening, though. You can trust me.”

  Jade pointed at Sabrina once she said that st phrase. “Exactly! I trust you! I can’t know that everything you’ve ever said to me isn’t a lie, so that leaves me with a choice. I can put up walls and live in constant fear that the other shoe is always about to drop, or I can take a risk and choose to trust you. Being hyper-vigint will protect me from getting hurt, but also incapable of experiencing happiness or intimacy. Being vulnerable means I might get hurt, but it’s my only chance of happiness. That’s not even to mention that if I choose to believe something that turns out to be a delusion, it’s a one-way ticket to crazy town. Out of those two options, I choose to trust you. My heart is in your hands, to love or to break.”

  Sabrina thought about that as the night went on. Maybe it was really that simple. Maybe a leap of faith was all she needed.

  Eventually, the dive had to go on. As they’d noticed on the way to the safe room, this hall’s doors all had four- or five-digit numbers on them. That meant they could either go all the way back to the lobby and return to the hall they’d been working on earlier or start over here without any keys.

  Except, Jade spotted a problem with the first option. “Hey, wait— which way is back to the lobby?”

  When the party first found the safe room, the door was on their left side. Thus, Sabrina turned to put the door on her right, pointed forward, and said, “That… way.”

  The certainty immediately left her voice before she finished answering.

  “Right,” Jade said. “But the way to get here was to take nine left-turns.”

  Sabrina swallowed dryly. In that direction, the hall only turned left. She began to doubt her own common sense. Maybe a left turn is left in both directions?

  Sloan butted in. “Okay, then obviously it’s,” she began saying, before turning and seeing in the opposite direction, the hall also took a left-turn. “Oh god damn it.”

  “Don’t panic,” Alice warned. “Obviously, it’s just some kind of puzzle. We’ll figure it out. We’ve got plenty of time, there’s still days before sunrise.”

  >One day ter:

  “This is so fucked,” Sabrina groaned, trying to turn her thousandth locked doorknob in a row. There was nothing. No hope, no clues, no puzzles. The doors and walls were unbeatable. There were no hidden passageways. The map was useless, and only lied about the yout. After a few turns, the yout would completely change, so they couldn’t even backtrack to the safe room.

  The only silver-lining was that Sabrina’s human form recharged. Not only did this give her the peace-of-mind that came with having an extra life, but it returned her behavior to a more human state. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop her from being grouchy after a full day of hopelessness and monotony.

  About six hours in, Alice excitedly proposed a solution. According to her, there was a very simir puzzle in a video game. In the game, the solution was to listen to Finnish death metal. After twenty minutes of that not working, she turned it off under threat of violence.

  “Guess this is less like Control, and more like PT,” she grumbled grimly.

  After around eighteen hours, Sloan got quiet. She stopped engaging, or trying doorknobs, or even teasing Alice. She simply shuffled at the back of the party.

  For Sabrina and Jade, the only thing that broke up the monotony was how needy their dicks were. Once or twice every hour, they’d spring up and demand attention like needy puppies. By now, Sabrina was getting sick of orgasms, though. That realization was crushing.

  “It’s a metaphor for life,” Jade groaned, trying another knob. “It just goes on and on and on and on and on and then one day you die.”

  “It’s,” Sabrina started, but then forgot where she was going with that thought. The doorknob turned. After more than twenty-four sleepless hours of the exact same thing over and over again, this was unthinkable.

  Everyone froze and stared at Sabrina. Before getting her hopes up, Sabrina double checked the bel to make sure she hadn’t circled back around to the safe room. Even that would be preferable to growing old in this godforsaken hallway, but no. It was something new. This door was beled, “1351.062.”

  “Open it,” Alice begged.

  Sabrina did so. For a moment, she thought it really was the safe room after all. That was because it wasn’t a basic hotel room. Like the safe room, this was a massive penthouse suite. Its design and décor was different though. Animal-skin were strewn about the floor and furniture, acting as rugs and bnkets. It was cavelike, with the floor and walls made from one solid piece of dark-gray stone. Veins of gold branched out in fractals throughout the room.

  The party eagerly stepped inside, uncaring of potential danger. They desperately needed a change of setting, no matter the cost. Sabrina felt small in this room. The ceilings and furniture were massive, almost twice was they should have been.

  The reason for this quickly presented itself— or, herself. Sabrina became aware of an incoming object whipping through the air. Her she turned, seeing it was an oversized battle axe flying right at her. In a fsh, she pulled her sword from her inventory and put it up to block.

  With a hard clunk it smacked hard against the ft of Sabrina’s sword, knocking her in her ass. She’d forgotten that her knew parrying ability was exclusive to her human form. She was gd that she’d at least managed to block it, though.

  “I told you assholes to stay out of my territory!” came a booming voice. Its source stomped heavily around a corner and into this central living room.

  The woman mostly looked human, aside from being fourteen-feet-tall. She had tanned skin and golden-blonde hair. Her physique was like a scaled-up version of Sloan’s muscur build, but with more exaggerated curves. One of this woman’s breasts was rger than two of Jade’s.

  The rge woman stormed in, marching towards Sabrina. When her eyes caught the rest of the party, she stopped in her tracks. The woman wore a skirt fashioned from a por bear’s pelt, and from here, Sabrina could see right into it. “Wait… humans?”

  Hesitantly, Jade answered, “Y-yeah.”

  Gesturing the Sabrina, the woman asked Jade, “Is this creature your quarry? Or perhaps a familiar?”

  “Um… neither?” Jade answered. “She’s my girlfriend. She’s human, too.” Looking at Sabrina’s demonic form, she qualified, “Mostly.”

  The huge woman stared at Sabrina with intensity. In a reverent hush, she uttered, “A demigod.” She offered Sabrina and enormous hand, pulling her to her feet. Sabrina’s hand was like a child’s, fitting entirely inside of the rger woman’s palm. “Please forgive me for attacking. I did not know.”

  Unlike other dungeon life, this woman manner of speaking sounded like Hollywood’s vaguely British gdiator accent. “That’s okay,” Sabrina told her, still wary. “I’m not a demigod, though. My parents were both human.”

  “The parents from your first birth were human, of course. Presumably a god or, more likely goddess, granted you a second birth, am I correct?”

  Sabrina thought a moment, before correcting, “I don’t think Oneira is technically a goddess.”

  “This dungeon can call use whatever terminology it likes. If she has a sphere of magical influence, immense power, and reshaped a mortal in her image, she’s a goddess.”

  The rge woman crossed the room in just a few strides, picked up an armful of throw pillows, and returned. She one pillow in front of each diver. At their scale, the pillows were more like beanbag chairs. “Sit,” the woman instructed. “We have much to discuss.”

  The four friends sat, not wanting to argue with someone they came less than waist-high to. Perhaps to reduce the height-difference, Tessa sat directly in the floor, cross-legged. Being so tall, it was easy to see up her skirt when she stood. With her legs spyed out, her crotch stared Sabrina in the face. Her golden-haired pussy lips were practically the size of a person’s butt cheeks. Above eye-level, were the giant's enormous breasts, stuffed into a leather belt that covered only her nipples.

  “Death by snu-snu,” Jade whispered.

  “Shut up,” Sabrina hissed back. Turning to the stranger, Sabrina asked, “Are you a demigod, too?”

  “No,” the woman answered calmly. “I am a giant. My kind have been given many names, like Amazons or J?tunn, but giant is and good a name as any. My name is Tessa.”

  The four girls meekly introduced themselves.

  “By the way you spoke of the dungeon earlier, I’m guessing you’re not from here?” Alice prodded.

  “You are correct; I am not of this pce. That is the essence of what I would like to speak with you about. I hail from another realm— what you would call a dungeon. It’s exceedingly difficult for dungeon-natives to leave their dungeons. Your world is devoid of magic, and such a low magical saturation is toxic to us. Low-level monsters may become familiars to breach a barrier, but they must return to a magically saturated sanctuary at least daily. At higher levels, even adventurers like yourselves cannot spend too much time away from sanctuaries or dungeons.”

  This was somewhat disturbing news. Why had this never come up before? What would this mean for all of the people that Sabrina and her friends had already given jellies to?

  Tessa continued, “Periodically, cataclysms leak magic into your world, allowing time for dungeon-life to pass from one dungeon to another. These events mark periods of great change in the dungeons themselves, like the cycle of seasons. Prior to one of these cataclysms, nearly one hundred years ago, an invitation went out. A kind of worlds’ fair would take pce, and representatives from all dungeons were invited for a cultural exchange. Such fairs have happened, although scarcely, throughout the ages. Legend had it that they were spectacur, and that the resulting trade marked eras of great growth to all participating dungeons.”

  Tessa stared ahead, lost in a memory for a moment. “As a princess, I was chosen to represent the giants.”

  “You’re a princess?” Jade asked excitedly.

  “Yes,” Tessa answered curtly. “I was meant to bring a posse of other giants along for support. When the cataclysm came, however, the resulting magic was much thinner than anticipated. The crossing would require a major reduction in my power. My people were in dire straits and were counting on the fair’s trade to survive. I decided to proceed. The ritual required me to excise a small piece of my home, something of sentimental significance. I chose my beloved tavern.”

  Tessa stood, restless, and meandered to a shelf. She returned and retook her seat on the floor, having brought an object in her hand. Tessa handed it over to Sabrina. About the size of a grapefruit, it was a detailed model of a fantasy tavern.

  “That is my tavern,” Tessa said.

  “It seems… kind of small for you,” Sabrina joked.

  “It gets bigger when I need it too,” she expined. “I reduced myself to level seven. Any lower would be too crippling to be practical. During my journey, I took breaks, using my tavern as a sanctuary. There are others here who made themselves even weaker than I did, and did not need sanctuaries.”

  “Wait, are?” Sabrina asked. “They’re still here?”

  “Yes,” Tessa answered solemnly. “One attendant of the fair was a minor deity called Missy the Magnificent. Her home could hardly even be called a dungeon. It was a traveling circus. It was minuscule, cking much in depth or power. Like her, the circus was predatory, and opportunistic. She had no interest in the traditional dungeon exchange, wherein divers may have power and a life of adventure, at the risk of dying and being absorbed. Her tent would simply appear in a small town, put on a show, steal a few victims from the audience to devour, and then move on to the next town. Being so small and petty, the circus rgely flew under the radar and got away with what others could not.”

  That raised a million questions. All four of the girls sputtered to interrupt, but Tessa put up a hand signaling that she had more to say before questions would be asked.

  “Despite being retively weak and insignificant, Missy was the ruler of her own tiny realm. With her ego, taking any kind of power-reduction was out of the question. Instead, she demolished her own dungeon, stripping it to its raw elements. I don’t understand how it works, but it allowed her to pass through your world long enough to reach this dungeon.”

  Tessa paused to collect herself. Sabrina was dying with anticipation.

  “I’m unsure what exact form this floor took before the fair, but it was likely simir. It functions as and internal hospitality level. Monsters of different floors come here to rex. When this dungeon was chosen to host the fair, it took advantage of the malleable state it was in, due to the cataclysm, and added new elements to this floor. It added a wing with rge rooms, to host the attendants. Attached to this wing, was a rge open space, left bare and malleable. This would be where the fair itself was held. This was so that attendants would be able to reshape it and create small samples of their homes. It was meant to create a melting pot of cultures and styles, and it would remain afterwards to commemorate the event.”

  “It was a perfect storm,” Tessa said, shaking her head regretfully. “Missy went from being a nobody to the most powerful entity in a whole conference of magical entities. She used her colpsed dungeon to cim a sphere of influence in this floor while it was still changeable. She turned the area meant for the worlds’ fair into her casino, her own little realm. She turned this hall into a constantly shifting byrinth. I’ve been trapped here ever since. I’ve tried leaving- I’m sure many others have tried as well. The furthest I’ve been able to get is the casino. That pce is… hell. It’s pure chaos. There’s a door into the lobby in there. That is how you can escape.”

  “Why didn’t you escape?” Sabrina asked.

  Tessa sighed, mournfully. “A deity has a lot of power over dungeon life that inhabits their sphere of influence. They can’t make ws that inhabitants must obey. Prohibiting the exit is a common one, and Missy made it a very strict one. The casino was just another trap for me. Worse— the longer I spent in there, the more influence Missy had over me. If I’d stayed much longer, I would have been corrupted, like her gray minions. I left while I still had the willpower to. Finding my room again took months. I don’t leave anymore.”

  “Wow,” Sabrina said. “That’s truly awful.”

  “Yeah, that sucks ass,” Jade agreed. “Want us to kick her ass for you?”

  “Yes, actually,” Tessa said. “All these decades, or centuries thanks to the stretched time, I’ve been waiting for a band of heroes, true of heart and mighty in battle. I left my door unlocked for precisely that reason. Now, you have finally arrived, and I offer you this quest,” Tessa expined, but was interrupted by Jade, who was too excited to sit by.

  “No fricking way!”

  “Jade I swear to god,” Sabrina chastised.

  “So you’re saying… you’re holding out for a hero?”

  “I… yes. That’s what I just said,” Tessa answered, puzzled.

  “You need a hero?” Jade continued to crify. “You’re… holding out for a hero till the end of the night?”

  Sloan buried her face in her hands, Alice smirked, and Sabrina scowled. “And moreover, you’re saying he’s gotta be strong and he’s gotta be fast, and he’s gotta be fresh from the fight?”

  “Are you done?” Sabrina asked, her tone making it clear that it wasn’t a question.

  “Yeah, I’m good.”

  “Right,” Tessa said. “Where was I?”

  “Quest,” Sabrina reminded.

  “Yes. I offer you a quest, and my only hope is that you will accept. Leave this pce and bide time. Grow in power. Attend the casino and learn its rules and weaknesses. When a way presents itself, kill Missy the Magnificent and free those of us trapped here. Do this, and I shall reward you greatly.”

  Briefly looking at her teammates to confirm, Sabrina said, “We accept.”

  “Stupendous,” Tessa praised. She stood and bent to shake Sabrina’s hand. Sabrina was reminded of how tiny she was in comparison to this giant. So why, she wondered, could she not stop fantasizing about Tessa sitting on her face? It would certainly be deadly.

  Tessa grabbed objects from another high shelf, and then crouched down to hand them to Sabrina. First, she handed her a felt bag. “These are chips for the casino. They can be gambled for more, or exchanged for prizes. Missy is a predator and a scoundrel, but it is her nature to entertain and entice. You should abuse that in any way you can.”

  Second, she handed her a paper flyer. “This is my invitation to the worlds’ fair. As if blown by the breeze, it will always bend in the direction of the fair’s intended location. As the halls rearrange, this will keep you moving in the right direction.”

  Finally, she once again handed her the miniature tavern. “I am pcing a lot of trust in you. It is of the utmost importance that you keep this safe. It is unlikely that we shall meet again before your quest is complete. Once Missy is dead, and the curse on this hall is lifted, leave the dungeon at once. Once in your world, set this down in the center of an empty lot and walk away from it. Allow me some time to make arrangements, a day at most, and then return to where you left it. I will meet you there and reward you handsomely.”

  Sabrina accepted. She thought of putting the tavern in her inventory but then thought better of it. She puts herself at risk, and if she were to die permanently, she couldn’t let Tessa pay for her mistake.

  The one thing Sabrina knew for certain was that she would never allow harm to befall Jade, so leaving it with her seemed safest. She told Jade to keep it in her inventory. Jade was confused, but accepted.

  With their new quest bestowed, the party left, in search of the casino.

  >Jade is pying: Holding Out For a Hero — Bonnie Tyler