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.

something like this could exist?"

fact I specifically remember being told such

was looking at it,

It was a city.

In the Dungeon.

buildings covered the bottom of the cavern and then extended up the walls, carved into the rock face. A gigantic glowstone at the top of the space provided illumination in the day and faded at night, regulating the time for the thousands of citizens here

was no risk of monsters spawning within the city itself. Such safety within the Dungeon felt

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

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. Not the trainees actually… Full Legionaries

longed for

your hand?" Donnelan

the heavy bandages that wrapped her forearms all

but they're worried about damage to the bone so I'll be under wraps for a

curiosity he eventually asked "Is

you hear?"

the commander

her shoulders

cannot even imagine

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 the man that she'd trusted so much, almost like a father, who had done such an unspeakable

it at first… what would

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

awoken they could tell that something was different. Their bodies were absorbing mana out of the air,