Chrysalis

Her hands hurt like hell.

Mirryn leaned against the parapet of the Legion HQ and took in the view, resting her forearms on the stone.

"How are you holding up?" a voice came nearby.

Mirryn turned to see Donnelan approaching from along the wall.

"Couldn't sleep either, huh?" she asked him.

"Not a chance in hell" he muttered.

Neither of them wanted to talk about their baptism but they couldn't help thinking about it. When they had finally been taken out of the basin the trainees had immediately lost consciousness, their minds longer supported by the complex enchantments that had surrounded them.

Upon awakening they learned that three of their friends had died.

All things considered it wasn't a bad number. Below average. She could see the relief in the officers faces that they hadn't lost more. It seemed stupid, to be thankful of only three deaths but she understood their logic. Would the situation be somehow better if four had died?

No.

The commander and the rest of the Legionaries had been past to visit them in the days since. The trainees had been placed in a convalescence unit, comfy beds, good food, medical staff around the clock, counselling specialists, the works.

On the surface Mirryn would have been shocked to think of the cost of the lavish treatment, the Legion was legendarily thrifty, they made most of their own equipment, ate nutritious but brutally unflavoured food. It was a regular sight for the trainees to be seen cleaning their leathers and polishing their swords outside the barracks in the dawn light right next to their officers.

The trainees were learning just how many things they had thought they'd known had been an elaborate deception. The Abyssal Legion they thought they'd known, the Dungeon they'd thought they'd known, indeed, the world they thought they had lived in were so far from the truth.

could exist?" Mirryn asked Donnelan as

flatly, "In fact I specifically remember

it, Mirryn still thought

It was a city.

In the Dungeon.

cavern and then extended up the walls, carved into

she couldn't imagine the cavernous space managed to keep the Dungeon veins out. There was no risk of monsters spawning within the city itself. Such safety within the Dungeon felt weird to her. She'd spent every moment underground up to this point being completely alert. To be this relaxed down here

in the cramped streets below. Even now the light of thousands of lamps lit the

halfway up, a citadel that occupied a position of great standing, looking down over the rest of the city. She hadn't been able to explore much yet, the trainees were basically confined to recovery.

for

hand?" Donnelan

heavy bandages that wrapped her forearms all the way to the tip

damage to the bone so I'll be under wraps for a few

twisted a little. Unable to contain his curiosity he eventually asked

you

punched the commander

shrugged her shoulders uncomfortably.

"I can't… I cannot even imagine

hadn't. The commander had visited each trainee personally upon their wakening. When she'd finally opened her eyes and got her bearings he'd already been there. He didn't explain, or justify. He just sat there. On seeing

contain it at first… what

the face with both hands. He hadn't resisted in anyway, willingly accepting her strikes, but, the end result was she

some of her fellow trainees, especially Donnelan. There were feelings of anger, of betrayal and of fear. Fear of the pain that kept them awake at night, fear of the never ending horror of it and deep down, fear that

Ever since they'd awoken they could tell that something was different. Their bodies were absorbing mana out of the air, breathing