The sight of Daywark isn't one I've ever been too fond of. The rather small backwater city is more of a footnote in my routes than a proper stop. The view of it is partly obscured by dark clouds at the moment. Today, I've come here at the request of Lord Fredrick, city lord of Daywark.

  "So, you said you had something to show me?"

  Lord Fredrick is busying himself behind his desk. The man is rifling through drawers, pulling out odd pieces of paper and some sort of knick knacks. He always was eccentric, but this is a tad ridiculous to behold.

  "Lord Fredrick?"

  "My apologies, Miss Hawthorne. I was just procuring some things relevant to our discussion."

  "To our discussion?"

  I ask this, keenly aware of how we have yet to really exchange more than simple greetings. He has all but ignored me whilst muttering about increasingly strange things. Now he says we're having a conversation.

  "Yes! Our discussion. You see, Miss Hawthorne, I have a proposal for you."

  "You have a proposal."

  I can hardly take this fool seriously at this point. He's still fiddling with some silly paperweights while acting as if he's in a position to talk business. This is a waste of time.

  "Lord Fredrick, I don't know who you think you are, but-"

  Lord Fredrick casually reaches out and places an object on the table between us. My eyes narrow as I inspect it, realizing it's just a small block of stone. It's a nice white hue, but otherwise unremarkable. I sigh, voicing my confusion.

  "I don't see what you're playing at."

  "Let me show you..."

  Lord Fredrick rises from his chair. The odd man moves to the large window behind his desk--the one I was staring at the cloudy city through--and draws the curtain closed. The muted sunlight is blocked out. A lack of candles and lanterns mean the room should be dark, yet a brilliant white glow suffuses Lord Fredrick's study.

  Sitting in the center of his desk is that unremarkable block of stone. Except it isn't just a rock, but a light source. The cubed rock is glowing brighter and more steadily than any torch. There's no smoke, nor is there any heat coming off the little block. It's like something out of a fairy tale.

  "So, Miss Hawthorne. This is a lantern stone. It may not look like much-"

  "You have yourself a deal, Lord Fredrick."

  "I-I beg your pardon?"

  Lord Fredrick is the one on the back foot now. He has to close his mouth after it gapes in surprise. Watching him intently, I lean forward. The lantern stone's light casts eerie shadows across my face.

  "I want exclusive rights to purchase these from you. All of them. I'll pay whatever amount you want."

  "But, Miss Hawthorne, I haven't even given you my terms!"

  "You may not see it, but this is far more valuable than gold."

  This nifty light isn't just a simple lantern replacement. This could save money on candles, oil, torches, and firewood. There is no need to spend on burnable lights when you can simply keep a stone like this one in your pocket. Portable, reliable, cost free lighting. It's worth more than diamonds!

  "I'll have to draw up a proper contract, but I believe I can sell you roughly ten of these lantern stones at the moment."

  "Ten of them? Fantastic!"

  My fist slams into the table, my excitement getting the better of me. The sound of the door behind us opening is accompanied by the light from the hall spilling into the room. I turn to look at who's interrupted this very important discussion, seeing a stoic man in armor. He's holding a wooden cage under one arm. Inside, a pile of rocks. Lord Fredrick seems ecstatic.

  "My god, you've done it, Dirk! Truly remarkable!"

  Lord Fredrick is quick to leave me where I sit. He hurries over to this Dirk fellow, but attention is focused purely on the wooden cage. I watch this bizarre encounter with mild irritation.

  "We captured one so far, Lord Fredrick."

  "Only one? Unfortunate."

  "They... have proven far more elusive than we anticipated."

  Lord Fredrick reaches into the cage as if to touch the oddly shaped cluster of rocks. It's then that I realize the cage isn't full of rocks at all! Two eyes open, staring up at Lord Fredrick as he gently pets the bulbous head of the strange stone skinned creature. The reptile is as big as your average dog, and lets out a soft irritated hissing noise. It thumps its sturdy looking head against the wooden cage, but can't get enough momentum to break the thing open.

  "What is that?!" I blurt out.

  Glaring at me, the soldier hides the cage behind him like it's something not meant for my eyes. Lord Fredrick waves him off and chuckles. He's clearly less concerned with me seeing it than his subordinate.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  "Something like that lantern stone. For now, you don't need to concern yourself with it."

  "But I will in the future?"

  Lord Fredrick nods, smiling smugly.

  "In the very near future you just might have a few of your own."

  ~

  The spiral staircase leading down into the bottom of the dungeon is much the same as I remember it. Since catching the first bullhead gecko, I've approved patrols led by my second in command to visit the dungeon in my absence. My second in command himself leads me, his body language conveying just how anxious he is.

  "Tell me, Henry, what did you find? Was it Daniel, perhaps?"

  Henry shakes his head. He continues leading me down, until we've hit the bottom of the stairs. The underground cathedral is ahead of us. He turns to glance at me. The man is clearly struggling for words.

  "I tried to tell you before, Captain Dirk. You won't believe it unless you see it yourself."

  "Damn it, man! That isn't how we do things in Daywark, and you know it!"

  "Please. Just trust me on this, Captain."

  Sighing, I relent. Whatever Henry saw down here with the men has them all spooked. None of them will say anything concrete, always muttering about magic and other such nonsense. Henry leads me--alongside the soldiers--through the cathedral.

  It isn't until we're standing right in front of the big stone mural at the back that I see it isn't just a mural anymore. The thing is opened like a door, pushed outwards slightly to allow a person to squeeze through. My brows furrow as I touch the chunk of carved stone.

  "How did you move this? This stone is... massive."

  "We didn't, Captain Dirk. It was like this when we found it."

  My eyes trace the edges of the carved stone. I glance between the huge hunk of rock and the open doorway where it was sitting prior. The massive thing was clearly pushed out of the wall from behind, impossible from this side.

  I don't ask Henry any other questions. Stepping forward cautiously, I look into the space behind the carved door. It's similar to the rest of the dungeon. Lantern stones behind rock cages, and a spiral staircase at the end of the relatively short corridor. I keep my eyes peeled for any bullhead geckos, but find none. The men file into the passage one by one behind me. We march through the corridor and to the spiral staircase.

  Something is a bit different about this staircase. It's cut from the same rock, and carved the same way, but the lighting is off. We climb the stairs up--going only about a quarter up from the depth we've descended--and find ourselves standing in a stone gazebo.

  This can't be right?

  The gazebo we're standing in is in the center of a wide grassy field. Rabbits bound through the grasses, evading the eyes of hawks overhead. Beyond the edge of the field is a dense forested area, and the a greenish blue lake. Sheer high cliff walls form a bowl surrounding the area in its entirety. Above, a clear blue sky, with the sun shining.

  "Henry. Wasn't it raining?"

  Henry is too busy gawking at our surroundings to respond to me. I grab his shoulder, shaking it to get his attention on me.

  "S-Sorry, what?"

  "It was raining, wasn't it?"

  "Oh, yes it was. Why?"

  I curse under my breath as I look at the clear pleasant blue sky overhead. The warm breeze here makes it feel like summer, while on the surface we're experiencing some rather unpleasant autumn rain. There's no way that storm cleared up in the brief time we've been down here.

  No, we're not outside, at least not anywhere near Daywark.

  My eyes narrow as I turn to face my soldiers. None of them are paying attention. Their eyes are too full of wonder and awe. No discipline to be seen in their postures, just awkward nervousness and curiosity. I stomp my foot, calling out to them.

  "Men, wake up!"

  The soldiers all straighten up at the harsh sound of my voice. They turn to face me, their postures stiffening to an appropriate degree.

  "This is not Daywark. This isn't even the woods. This place feels like summer while it is autumn. The sky is clear despite it storming fiercely. Most strange of all, we descended many storeys beneath the earth, yet we only rose a couple. How are we outside?"

  My barrage of observations and final question makes the men properly uneasy. They're not looking at our surroundings with awe, but with suspicion. This is how we have to treat this place--whatever it is--not as the outdoors, but as a part of the dungeon.

  "We're returning to camp! We'll be reporting everything to Lord Fredrick, and preparing supplies for an expedition to explore this place in the future. Is that clear?!"

  "Yes, Captain Dirk!"

  ~

  Watching those soldiers leave right after getting a look at Green Valley is a bit disappointing. Still, their faces were fun to watch! The whole army was rendered speechless just from the sight of the valley. I designed it to shock them.

  After populating Green Valley I had to create an entrance connecting the upper portion of my dungeon to it, and a place for the great hawks to nest. I solved both problems with one stone gazebo. The open air building's roof serves as a great nesting spot for birds while housing the stairs leading into the dungeon's upper section.

  Of course it isn't so simple. I didn't dig a tunnel connecting the two areas directly. Instead, I used an abundance of mana to connect the door in the cathedral to a tunnel within Fair Plateau itself. The seamless connection between the two spaces is like something out of science fiction--a perfect portal.

  I'm not sure what I'm going to use these portals for in the future, but they're very handy for connecting disjointed spaces together.

  My attention moves back to the soldiers. They're filing one by one through the narrow opening I gave them in the cathedral. The big carved stone door will be quite a chore for them to move if they want the entrance fully open. Seeing the door reminds me of something I've yet to do.

  When I want to add more to my dungeon, how will I do that? There's always the possibility the soldiers will linger too close to the edges of Green Valley, making it impossible for me to expand and give them new areas to explore.

  Now that's where the doors come in. Much like the door in the cathedral, I want to create several stone doors depicting murals on their surfaces. In the future I'll be able to simply attach something to the tunnel behind the door and open it.

  With a plan in mind, I add a pair of stone doors to Green Valley.

  The first one is in Swarm Forest. Before I can actually make the door, I have to give it somewhere to sit. This door rests in a small stone building buried beneath a gnarled oak. I'm able to make the gnarled oak particularly massive by feeding it additional mana. Now, I have a sealed stone door hidden amongst the roots of a huge tree.

  The second door is much harder to find. I create another small stone building, except this one is at the bottom of Toad Lake. The door is buried under thick layers of algae and caked with mud. The structure is impossible to spot from the surface, as the murky lake water obscures it completely. I'll probably need to give the soldiers something to help them reach it when I'm ready for them to find it.

  Now the question is, what will these doors lead to?