I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

It was late in the afternoon when Felix managed to get home. He put the fish into the clay pot, added some water despite them having died long ago, put the pot near the counter and went upstairs. Dune was standing on the balcony when he found her there, still, staring at something beyond the roofs.

"You’re doing a great job," he said, leaning against the doorframe.

"You’re back. Where have you been?"

"Just outside the town," Felix replied. His gaze lingered on the dark bags under her eyes. "Have you seen someone suspicious while I was away?"

"Yes. There was a man called Bilgram yelling, selling some clay figures to children. I heard he was asking for one silver for each, but that was not true, because I saw the same figures sold for thirty bronze elsewhere. I wanted to tell him about it, but you said I should just observe."

"Ah, okay," Felix said with a shake of the head, massaging his temple. "At night then. Have you seen anyone suspicious carrying weapons and wearing masks, trying to look sneakily each time you looked at them?"

"Yes. Early this morning I saw three such men. One of them had the same face as that man who tried to kill you at Sterling’s manor."

"Kill me?" Felix thought, processing the information, and the face of that frustrated man came into his mind. "This man. I remember him well." He nodded to himself. "Marcus really did send his men after all."

He flicked his fingers and the card came out. Jack of spades. He turned it over and glanced at Dune again. "Do you know where Kite’s house is?"

"Yes."

"Then go there and observe the house. Do not go inside, only observe."

"I understand," she answered him.

"I will be going to Sterling’s manor." Felix was already turning and going out of the room. "Actually, I would like to wait a little bit more, but Marcus doesn’t joke now."

It felt like the hundredth time Felix showed up to Sterling Manor that week and the guard at the entrance was still able to fit in five different death threats before letting him in with a muttered remark about broke punks and manners. Felix ignored him and walked to the manicured path leading into the house and saw a young girl run up the stairs to go inside.

"Who’s she?"

"Young Lady Grace," the maid answered without even lifting her eyes.

This information was filed away and Felix made his way into the lounge room where Marcus was sitting exactly the same place he remembered seeing him last, sunk into the same sofa, while Fiona stood attentively right behind him.

"I’d like a private word," he said, addressing Marcus.

Marcus watched him with his cold look for a moment, then nodded to Fiona. She bowed slightly and disappeared quietly, closing the door behind her without saying anything. Afternoon light came through the big windows, catching slowly floating particles of dust, and some bird outside chirped twice and became silent again.

Felix relaxed on the sofa across from Marcus. "Where have you hidden Marisol?"

"What do you mean by that?" Marcus asked with surprise. "Are you experiencing any problems with memory? I’ve told you already, we are searching for her ourselves. We don’t have her."

"Don’t try to play dumb with me," Felix said, leaning forward. "I already knew that you have lied all this time. Your wife’s words told me everything in my last visit; she had no idea what the necklace looked like and that there was no pair for it to begin with. You have lied to her and made her lie to me."

"I did no such thing," Marcus growled, his fingers squeezing his knees.

"Marisol discovered something, didn’t she? Something a maid shouldn’t have ever been able to witness." Felix kept his tone matter-of-fact, almost carefree. "At the very moment you knew it, you put that disappearance in the market on the stage, invented that whole story of a missing necklace just to mask your actions. And, I bet, you already knew everything about her husband, Mateo, and used that information to your benefit, made your goons show up at her door the very next day, taught every servant here to repeat the exact same words to me."

He spread out both hands before himself, shook his head. "You were afraid I might find out what it is she found out, hired goons to watch my house."

"What garbage are you spouting?" Marcus’s palm slammed flat against the glass table between them, a spiderweb of cracks spreading out from the impact.

"What did Marisol uncover? I don’t know anything about her husband, nothing at all. She disappeared at that market all by herself, and every servant has told you exactly what they saw. It wasn’t staged."

Felix ran his fingers through his hair. "Then what about that red stone in the earring? You knew what that was clearly."

"Speak clearly."

"Fifty miles to the north, past Death Forest. There is a mine cut deep into the earth there, dozens of men extracting the ore from it every second. It is the same red stone which makes that earring."

"So what?" Marcus’s lips curled into a thin line. "Everyone knows that the land belongs to me."

"Sure. But everyone knows that you are exporting that ore straight to the Kingdom of Tomorrow?" Felix tapped on his chin thoughtfully. "That is treason, isn’t it? How do you think the Duke would like to learn about that?"

For a minute Marcus was silent, and then burst out in a dry laugh. "Duke Osbel won’t raise an eyebrow. I’ve been given that land by him many years ago. He knows exactly what I am doing with that ore, who gets it and who doesn’t. No need to worry about someone finding out about that."

"No, he doesn’t know." Felix laced his fingers together. "Men from the Kingdom of Tomorrow have been meeting your people at the Saynok river. Everything you’re moving to them, that’s entirely your own arrangement. I know enough about Duke Osbel to say with certainty he’d never sanction something that breaks his own kingdom’s laws so plainly."

Marcus visibly lost control of himself now, his anger showing through in everything he did. He put two fingers tightly against his temple. "That is what you believe. And you are sure that Duke would never permit it. Speculations still. You have no proof of anything."

Felix’s mouth curved into a slow smirk, one hand slipping into his coat pocket. "I’ve got plenty. And you might not want to bet against me walking straight up to the Duke’s palace within the hour."

"I would love to see it happen." Marcus’s voice became sharp like a knife and his eyes stared at Felix from behind the cracked glass of the table.

"You talk awfully big for a broke adventurer scraping together two meals a day. You think you know my business? I know plenty about you too." He clicked his fingers one by one. "You will be slit open here and now, you and that girl that follows you everywhere."

Felix did not say anything.

Marcus scoffed, disgust twisting his mouth. "You’re nothing. Nobody who tells me what I can or can’t do. Get out of my sight, now. I shouldn’t have to explain twice what happens if you breathe a word of this to anyone."

Felix’s eyes moved to the windows behind him, their drapes rustling slightly in a wind that should not have blown through here. Slowly getting to his feet, he didn’t mind at all and moved toward the exit.

Marcus observed as he crossed the room, relaxing onto the sofa again, a little of the strain in his body released now that the confrontation was over.

"And if you discover anything about Marisol’s whereabouts. You’ll come to me first."

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