I Stopped Simping and the Heroines Lost Their Minds

Arthur woke facedown on the mattress with sunlight coming through the cabin window.

Rhea was already dressing near the foot of the bed. She pulled on the rest of her hunting clothes, fastened her belt, and checked the pouches while Arthur watched from behind her.

When she turned for the bracer on the table, her tail swept past the bed.

Arthur caught it.

Rhea turned immediately and grabbed his wrist before his thumb could reach the base. She pulled her tail free and threw his shirt at him.

Arthur dragged the shirt off his face and sat up laughing. While pulling it on, he noticed the dark bite marks scattered across his shoulder and collarbone.

”You know these don’t disappear overnight.”

”Good.” Rhea fastened the bracer.

She reached for her spear, but Arthur caught her around the waist and pulled her back between his knees. Rhea turned into him and kissed him without hesitation, one hand sliding into his hair.

Arthur’s hand wandered from her waist toward her tail.

Rhea caught it, put it back where it had been, and broke the kiss.

”Garr’s waiting.”

Rauk Hollow was already busy outside. Red cord still blocked the eastern paths, while families queued around the western well with buckets and jugs.

Garr’s group had most of their gear spread around a handcart near the eastern gate. Derren was checking a coil of rope, Lysa had two packs open beside her, and Kara was passing over the last of the iron spikes and tools.

Halden had found his way out there too, sitting on a crate with his splinted leg stretched in front of him.

Arthur took the rope from Derren while Rhea joined Lysa at the cart to check the lantern.

Mara came out of the clinic with a box tucked under one arm and pushed a small healing potion into Arthur’s hand as she passed.

Her eyes caught on the marks above his collar.

Mara touched one with her thumb and glanced toward the handcart.

”Mara,” Rhea called without turning around.

Mara laughed under her breath, caught Arthur by the shirt for a quick kiss, and moved on when one of the hunters called for bandages.

A canvas pack hit Arthur in the chest a moment later.

Rhea pointed toward the gate. ”Carry that.”

Arthur helped Lysa sort the heavier gear. She handed him a rusted iron wedge, then bent into the open pack for another.

Arthur took the opportunity to look.

Lysa caught him when she straightened, took the wedge back, and dropped it into a side pouch.

”Stakes underneath.”

Arthur reached for the bundle just as Rhea tossed another coil of rope across the cart. He caught that too.

Garr mentioned putting the slab back where they’d found it, and Halden cut in from his crate.

”That’s not the part Marl broke.”

Garr looked over. ”Which part?”

”The deeper slab. It was already leaning outward when we found it. We figured roots or shifting dirt had moved it.” Halden rubbed his injured leg. ”Marl broke the stone around it because he thought there was another chamber behind the gap.”

Arthur tied the last of the rope around the pack. So whatever had gone wrong down there had started before the prospectors arrived.

Halden warned Garr about the water rising without much notice, then showed him roughly where the crew had been standing when it happened.

Garr slung his spear over his shoulder. ”Let’s go.”

They made good time through trails Arthur was starting to recognize.

At one of the shallow streams, Rhea stopped beside a fresh deer track pressed into the mud. She crouched, touched the edge of it, and listened to the brush for a moment before getting up again.

Arthur noticed several more tracks farther along the bank.

On the other side of a fallen pine, he put a hand against Rhea’s lower back while they picked their way through the roots. She kept walking.

Farther down the trail, her tail bumped his leg when the path narrowed between the trees.

Hati was lying on a rocky rise above the old cistern.

Rhea left the trail immediately, climbing the rocks while Garr and Lysa headed down toward the basin to secure the ropes.

The dark veins were still visible through the fur along Hati’s neck, but his breathing had settled and the violent twitching from yesterday had stopped.

Hati’s head came up when Rhea climbed toward him. She crouched beside him and worked her fingers into the thick fur behind one ear.

Arthur walked past carrying the heavy canvas pack.

Hati leveled his clear eye on him and let out a low, vibrating growl.

Arthur stopped. ”You still look like shit.”

Hati growled louder, baring his yellowed canines.

”Less shit,” Arthur corrected.

Rhea pointed down the slope. ”Go help Garr.”

Arthur left Whisperwind with Derren at the ridge. There wasn’t enough room below to use the bow properly, so he took out the Necrotic Dagger instead.

Garr fed the rope into the opening, then climbed down with Arthur, Rhea, and Lysa behind him.

The cavity beneath the basin was narrow and wet. Old stonework disappeared into natural rock on either side, with roots forcing their way through the gaps and broken prospecting tools half-buried in the mud.

Black residue covered the stone around the displaced slab.

Lysa wiped mud from one of the blocks and uncovered another worn wolf-head carving. Rhea crouched beside it and traced what remained of the lines.

”I’ve seen marks like this farther east.”

Arthur moved toward the black crust around the seep.

The closer he got, the more familiar that wrong feeling became.

Iron-Vein.

[Abyssal Signal Detected.]

Arthur went still.

Rhea raised the lantern toward him. ”What?”

”I’ve seen this before.”

He told them about the Cave Spider Matriarch in Iron-Vein and the black corruption they’d found inside it.

Garr looked from Arthur to the stain around the slab. ”That was inside a dungeon.”

”Yeah.” Arthur watched the black water creep through the stone. ”This isn’t.”

Garr crouched beside the slab. ”Then let’s keep it out of the basin.”

Arthur got both hands into the gap and pushed.

He drew on Ironblood and leaned into the stone with Garr. The slab scraped through the mud and shifted a little.

Black water immediately started pouring harder around the other side.

”Stop,” Lysa said.

Arthur held the stone where it was while she leaned down beside the gap. Rhea brought the lantern closer, revealing a narrow cut in the rock behind a knot of pale roots.

Lysa followed it with her fingers.

”That’s where the water used to go.”

Garr crouched beside her.

”The slab wasn’t blocking it,” Lysa said. ”It was keeping the water pointed into this channel.”

Garr looked back at the shifted stone. ”And Marl knocked it farther out of place.”

Arthur and Lysa pulled loose stones from the old channel while Rhea tore away the roots blocking the opening.

Something thrashed in the stagnant water behind them.

A pale cave animal burst through the roots and snapped at Lysa.

Rhea caught it across the side with her spear before it reached her. The creature hit the wall, twisted loose, and came back clawing through the mud while Garr forced it away from the rope.

Arthur stepped in close and drove the Necrotic Dagger into its neck.

It thrashed once more and went still.

Black growths ran beneath the pale skin along its flank.

Arthur recognized them immediately.

Garr hooked the dead creature with his spear. ”Help me get this thing out of the channel.”

Derren shouted from above.

”Water!”

A rushing sound came through the rock behind the slab, and the muddy water around their boots started rising.

”Up,” Garr called.

They grabbed the rope and climbed. Dark water pushed through the lower opening behind them and spread into the basin before they were all clear.

Arthur dropped onto a flat rock above the slope and wiped mud from his face.

Rhea sat beside him and caught his arm to look at the scratch from the cave animal. Arthur rested a hand on her thigh while she cleaned the blood away.

One of the bite marks near his collarbone had split open again too. Rhea wiped the thin streak of blood from it with her thumb.

Hati shoved his enormous head between them and nearly knocked Arthur off the rock.

Arthur pushed his muzzle away. ”Fuck off.”

Rhea laughed.

They stayed there until the rushing below finally quieted and the water began dropping again.

Once the water dropped far enough, they climbed back down.

Arthur held the slab while Lysa watched the bottom edge, Rhea cleared the remaining roots from the channel, and Garr hammered the iron wedges into place.

Mud sucked at Arthur’s boots every time he shifted his footing. By the time they had the stone moving again, his arms were burning.

Lysa crouched beside the slab to check the bottom edge, and Arthur’s attention dropped with her.

”Hold it,” she said, still watching the stone.

Arthur tightened his grip and pushed until the slab finally settled back into its old track.

The black seep ran along the side channel and disappeared deeper into the rock instead of spilling toward the basin.

Garr watched it for a while.

”That’ll do.”

Before they climbed out, Arthur chipped a small piece of the black crust from the wall, wrapped it in cloth, and put it in his inventory.

Elena needed to see it.

Hati was still waiting when they came back over the ridge.

Rhea went to him first. His head stayed up this time, and his clear eye followed everyone moving around him.

Arthur came over and studied the dark veins along his neck. Hati let him get close.

Then the wolf licked him from chin to forehead.

Arthur stumbled back, wiping his face. ”What the fuck?”

Rhea bent over laughing while Hati sat there as though nothing had happened.

Derren started complaining about food before they’d gone very far, and Garr reminded everyone that the eastern water was staying closed until Mara was satisfied nothing else was getting sick.

Rhea walked beside Arthur for most of the way back. When he caught her tail and started moving his hand toward the base, she caught his wrist, shifted his grip farther down, and released him.

Arthur left his hand there.

The piece of black crust in his inventory kept bringing Iron-Vein back to mind. He’d been able to blame that corruption on a dungeon, but there was no dungeon beneath Rauk Hollow.

And the old stonework made it worse. Somebody had known about that seep long before Halden’s crew ever found it.

Whatever the Abyss was, it was already out here in the world.

They reached Rauk Hollow late in the afternoon.

People started gathering as soon as Garr came through the gate. He took the questions himself, telling everyone that the eastern water stayed off-limits for now.

Mara was checking the returning group outside the clinic. When Arthur reached her, she took one look at the mud covering him and grabbed his arm.

”You’re filthy.”

”Hati helped.”

Mara cleaned the scratch on his forearm, checked the bite mark that had opened again, then gave his side a familiar squeeze and sent him on.

Arthur found Lysa putting away the ropes and picked up the loose end to help her finish.

Arthur finally got something to eat and stood outside the lodge tearing pieces from a strip of roasted meat.

Hati had followed them all the way back and was now crossing the yard toward him with his eye fixed on the food.

”No.”

Hati kept coming.

Arthur moved the meat away from him. ”Don’t even—”

Hati took it from his hand and continued toward the clinic.

Arthur looked at his empty fingers, then at the enormous wolf walking away with his dinner.

Rhea’s laugh carried across the yard.

Arthur gave Hati the finger.