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“You… want me to go with you?”
Normally, Terra doesn’t make a habit of taking people exploring with her. Even though those who are Blessed can’t technically die--at least, not easily--they can still get hurt. Badly so. All of Terra’s excursions underground into the vast caverns beneath the earth have been done, largely, on her own.
So when she strolls up to Conner a day after defeating Skeletron, asking for his help, he’s certainly surprised.
“Yes,” Terra says, resting her sword on the ground. “You told me that the Dungeon is dangerous, even with Skeletron gone. I don’t want to go down there alone, and I’d like for you to be my backup.”
It was, objectively, sound reasoning. Most of the monsters Terra has fought so far have acted primarily on instinct rather than any sound logic or reasoning. But the inhabitants of the dungeon were, for the most part, human. Or human enough, at least, to be concerned.
Terra, though, was growing into her own as a skilled fighter. Conner had a suspicion that soon enough, with Skeletron gone, she’d be ready to face… Though, he knows her reasons for taking on the Dungeon first. And it’d be a fool’s errand to take it on alone.
“Alright,” he agrees, glancing to where his quiver sits by the front door. “When do you want to go?”
Thanks to a careful application of one of her few potions of return, the two of them make their way to the imposing fortress nestled just beyond the Northern Mountains. The location alone deterred people from visiting it, and the rumors of the calamity that had occurred within its walls lead to total avoidance.
Conner had seen it a few times, from a distance, during his travels. It had been around longer than even he had--which was saying something--and made a point of never straying too close. Now, as they reach its blackened walls, it makes even him shiver.
With Skeletron defeated, the major hurdle to getting inside was gone. But the Dungeon was deep and massive and filled with ancient magic, so finding the long-lost mechanic would take considerable effort. Certainly not an excursion that could be completed alone, especially if Terra had wanted to find her friend before the cultists who took her got any bright ideas about moving her, even if Conner wished she was taking him along for his mere company.
Conner makes sure to stamp out any water candles they find on their way down, watching Terra’s shoulders grow tense with every flight of stairs downwards. Considering the first time she had tried to storm the Dungeon, soon after discovering the whereabouts of her friend, she had the unpleasant experience of getting beaned by the Dungeon’s defense systems. Although Skeletron was defeated, perhaps she was still worried about such a possibility occurring, especially considering how long it would take to come back if she died.
But they go down under the earth without any incidents, and soon find themselves in the midst of the ancient city. Terra tosses him a dangersense potion and Conner makes himself useful, shooting any of the undead army attempting to knock Terra off her ropes as she tries to take down the numerous spiked wires nailed to the walls. All the while, he shivers in his skin; the entity he shares his existence with doesn’t like the magic flowing through here.
When not ripping out wires, Terra’s single-mindedly focusing on plowing through the hordes of undead that attempt to block their way into the depths of the Dungeon. Her Beekeeper sword slices through the exposed spines and necks of the undead, and the accompanying bees deal with what she can’t. It’s brutal in its efficiency, though Conner thinks that has more to do with the feelings behind it than the sword’s actual power.
Rash, Conner thinks idly to himself, watching her get pushed back into a spiked wall as he shoots an arrow through the head of the skeleton that pushed her. It was very unlike her.
For better or for worse, though, they don’t run into any of the lunatic cultists while in the area. Conner chooses to believe that it’s because they’ve abandoned their hideout now that Skeletron was defeated, but it still makes him uneasy.
After they’ve been down in the Dungeon for maybe five hours, according to Conner’s watch, they reach another locked door. Half the enemies they’ve fought have keys for any number of locked chests, drawers and doors, so it takes a few minutes of fumbling with the keychain Terra made out of her bracelet before she finds the key for it.
What he sees on the other side is… somewhat unexpected.
Conner was the Guide. It was his duty to know about things in Terraria, including the presence of a kidnapped young woman locked away and forced to work on bringing back the Moon Lord before Terra herself ever showed up at his tent flap. Still, the dungeon was massive, sprawlingly so, the kind of area that would take days to explore in its entirety.
So, seeing the young woman laying on a prison-like bed, shackles around her ankles, her bright yellow overalls the only pop of color in the otherwise mostly monochrome adjacent place, is somewhat surprising.
That’s all Conner gets to see before Terra gasps out a name--”Amy!”--and shoves past him, rushing into the room.
He glances over his shoulder to make sure there were no enemies behind them, before quietly following Terra into the room and shutting the door behind him. Already, the black-haired girl is kneeling at the edge of the cot-like bed bolted to the wall with chains.
This must be her room, Conner thinks, though ‘room’ is perhaps a bit too generous. The only things in it are the bed and a singular dresser, presumably for whatever rags she’s been given over the years. It makes him grimace. It’s more akin to a cell, really.
“Is she conscious?” He asks, quickly rushing over to Terra’s side at the cot, allowing Conner his first proper view of her. She’s a ginger, with redder hair than his own rust-red, and a pale, sunken face evident of too many days without food. Her overalls are battered, dirty and bloodstained, with a worn and ragged blue shirt underneath.
“Amy?” Terra says again, her voice softer this time, as Conner scans her over, checking for any obvious wounds. Though, even from here, he can see a myriad of wounds and bruises in various stages of healing, coating her face and her pale arms, with more likely hiding underneath her clothes. So, something that is very evidently either Terra or Heather’s problem, and not Conner’s, once they get her out of here. “Amy, come on, wake up.”
She shakes her once, twice, as Conner places a hand to her neck. Breathing good, pulse slow but there, and--
“I think she’s under some sort of sleeping spell,” Conner tells her, sensing the hint of magic tracing over Amy’s body. “It might break once we get her away from here, though. Do any of those keys unlocked these shackles?”
“Gimme a second,” Terra says, flipping through the myriad keys and trying each one in the locks.
Terra nods, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her magic mirror, which she passes to Conner in order to pick up the mechanic. Conner waits until the mechanic is safely bundled in Terra’s arms before grabbing her shoulder, holding the mirror up.
When the two of them look into it together, the world spins in a blur of color and light, and in the blink of an eye, they’ve traveled from the Dungeon back to her house.
That was… suspiciously easy, Conner finds himself thinking as Terra, without a word, moves towards her bedroom, likely to set the mechanic down. Terra had spent the past four months preparing herself to face off against Skeletron, and Conner suspected they would be spending at least a day in the Dungeon, if not more, searching for her friend. Being able to find her within a handful of hours and then just teleport home without any trouble or interference seems… fishy.
Part of Conner figures that, by the rule of Murphy’s Law, something bad will happen in the next few days. But, for now, he follows Terra to the bedroom, where she’s already getting her friend comfortable on her bed.
“Could you go get Heather, please?” Terra asks as she sets Amy down, her voice quiet. “I… she’ll be better equipped to deal with any… well. She’s the Nurse.”
Conner nods. He doesn’t know the precise details of what happened to the Mechanic down in the Dungeon, but he can only imagine it wasn’t anything good. They can treat the physical wounds easily enough, but the mental and emotional wounds are something Amy herself will have to deal with.
“Yeah. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He sets his hand on Terra’s shoulder, basking in the warmth of her skin for a brief moment before he stands.