I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

David stood in front of him, before he could get close enough. "Who are you?"

"I’m Felix. Lord Hakimi remembers me pretty well." He spoke, trembling with both hands wringing together.

"You know this peasant?" David looked back over his shoulder.

Hakimi frowned, taking him into account. Never saw this guy in his whole life.

"Did you forget already?" Felix continued nodding. "You asked me for that specific item a while back, wanting to boost your Numen control. Said your core’s been giving you trouble lately."

Hakimi looked down at Felix’s clasped and trembling hands, then back up and his expression changed as the greed kicked in where his suspicion should have. "Yes, yes, of course. I remember now. You took far longer than I gave you."

"I apologize deeply, mighty one." Felix bowed slightly. "It’s been extremely hard to obtain. Capital’s supply is completely depleted in the last month. I’m sure you understand the reason."

"Of course I do." Hakimi held his head even higher, not being willing to admit anything else. "Just hand it over and you’re free to go."

"I can’t bring it out here in the open, not with how much Aura it carries. I mean, we don’t want any trouble in broad daylight, do we?" He shrugged his shoulders. "It’s stored in my storage house about a few blocks away from here. I suggest you come and pick it up yourself at the price we agreed upon."

The price. No matter what, I’m not going to pay this man a single coin.

Hakimi cleared his throat, calculating. Whatever this object is, it must be worth its weight in gold. Just taking it will be easier.

"Andrew, stand guard here. David, William, you are with me." He pointed at Felix with his chin.

"Let us go. Now."

Felix led the way and kept talking whatever came to his mind.

"You have to be careful when handling it, the residual charge tends to jump if you aren’t grounded properly. I had this client who lost half of his eyebrows on the first try, it was pretty unfortunate, took months to grow back evenly."

"How grounded?" David frowned.

"Copper, always copper. The iron reacts really badly with the frequency of the core, making the whole thing unstable," Felix stated with absolute certainty. "That’s why it’s so rare, because most artificers won’t have anything to do with its raw form unless there are some serious protective measures taken."

"Not too far." Felix waved his hand. "We just need to go past this turn."

Felix went down a side street that was more quiet than the market itself, and houses instead of shops started to be seen around. He intentionally walked slower and even allowed the other three guys to get closer to him so that when he stopped before an ordinary little wooden house between two other bigger houses with shutters closed, no one suspected anything valuable to be in there.

"This is our place." Felix went for the door handle and looked back with a nervous smile on his face. "The storage is just through the back door. So, please, stay right behind me."

Felix opened the door and went inside. Hakimi followed him immediately, already thinking of several different ways to put Felix out of consciousness. David went right behind them, and William looked back before going inside.

"Why is it so dark in here?" Hakimi took each step carefully, getting used to the darkness slowly.

Felix faced the three of them and noticed how David and William tried to figure out what was happening in the room and decided to smile slightly. "Because this is not actually a storage house."

"What?"

"Yep." Felix sent the card flying to the side with a quick snap of his wrist. The rope, hanging high near the ceiling, was cut cleanly in half, sending two barrels falling down from above to land heavily on David and William.

"Bastard!" Hakimi went for Felix. He had moved out of reach already, as he had expected, one hand delving into the inside pocket and taking out a small glass vial.

"Calm down for just a moment." Felix uncorked it and tossed the contents of the vial right into Hakimi’s face.

Hakimi’s eyes snapped shut immediately, his head feeling heavy, as if weighted down, and his heart beating violently against his ribs.

"What have you—" His voice began to slur, the room spinning around him and then going black.

Felix didn’t even give him a backward glance as he strode past to kneel beside David and William, who were moaning where they lay on the floor with their hands pressed to their heads. He took out another vial and tipped their heads back to pour a small dose into each mouth.

"Now go to sleep."

...

Hakimi shook his head vigorously, eyes slowly coming to focus as his brain tried to work through the cloud of confusion. He tried to raise his hand but felt the rope biting into his wrists. Tied up. He was seated cross-legged on the floor, his back leaning against the wall, and a soft yellow glow emanating from ahead of him.

I was kidnapped.

His head darted towards the right. David and William were sitting slumped against the same wall, their hands tied and heads bowed.

"That bitch, Felix."

Hakimi turned his head forward and noticed Felix sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him, a small lantern sat by his side, illuminating the array of cards laid out in his lap. He stared at them intently, laid one set of cards down gently and then took the other from his left, adjusting the order as he went along, according to the logic of some game only known to him. There was also a small pile of cookies on his thighs, and once in a while he would pick up one cookie and munch it while continuing to stare at the cards.

"Hey!" Hakimi bellowed loudly.

Felix raised his head slightly. "Oh, you’re awake. Just a minute, I’ll be done here shortly."

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