...Danger Lurks in Deeper Floors.

If we thought the small traps of glue and cauldrons that awaited us on the first floor of the basement of the tower were the worst that we would find, we were greatly mistaken. Other things waited for us as we continued through two floors, bogarts, traps, and other horrors. The second floor proved much the same as the first, small traps that we could easily fall into, hidden instructions written in invisible ink. Nothing odd was presented to us until the room full of metal. That room tested my patience.
 
A brownie was hidden there, invisible to the bogarts and those that passed through there. A trick of the light must have revealed him to my eye since I stopped and spoke with him. He told us of the cube that had once lived in the pit used as a disposal, but as we had seen earlier, the cube no longer lay in his pit. That fact worried me greatly. A gelatinous cube was no small thing to fight if it came to combat, and I very much knew it would have to. But as we sat in that room, looking around for anything that would help us in a future battle, the gleam of curiosity in the eyes of the alchemist worried me more than anything in the dungeon could.
 
The room we rested and planned in was full of flare and zap steel, a lethal combination, even when used separately. Father had always warned us of the volatility of the metals, even though most of the Knights' weapons were made with frost steel instead of either of these. The alchemist wanted to carry a bucket of slag around or throw mixed pieces together, a dangerous feat for someone actually trained, let alone a cat that I was sure could not land of his feet if he tried.
 
Squall and I talked sense into the tabaxi but I realized much later that those I was surrounded with were not prepared for battle. Their inexperience and lack of discipline would honestly make my brothers sick. When we entered the final level of the dungeon, full well knowing that the cube was somewhere on the floor, everyone was on the edge, ready for a hint of battle. But when they were presented with the cube itself, they wished to tuck their tails like children and run. As a fey knight, I would never even think of doing something so fearful. I grasp my lance and threw us into the fray.
 
The battle against the cube was the first time since I left Yllvalion that I could use the things that made me a paladin. My faith and my oath bring power, but it has not been necessary to use. As I've led the others, I've let them deal with things, hoping they would find the confidence in battle that I have known since I was a child. But this time, there was no waiting for the others to engage. I was going to be the leader and the warrior that my father had wanted me to be, I was going to show the others what it meant to be confident in battle.
 
I used the divine power coursing through me and smite the creatures, cube and bogart alike. I moved with the grace and purpose that I had been taught to, doing the things that I had trained nearly two hundred years for. My only mistake was allowing my strike to be pushed away by the larger bogart. I harmed a friend because of the creature's actions, and it only fueled my anger and my power more. When the battle ended and I looked back at the group, I saw people that had just been given their first taste of actual battle. Most of them looked uncomfortable, like the feeling did not fit them, but the battle we faced in the dungeon was the first of many we would face as we left Stronghold. We needed to be ready, or the wilderness would win the battle.