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Erick almost woke naturally, with twilight filling the world beyond the windows, sunrise not too far away. It was the sort of morning that he had not experienced in a long time. Usually there was some twitter from Ophiel, signaling a new day, or a message from Poi, signaling some disaster. Today was different, though. Today, Erick had woken to the sounds of people moving around outside the room.

It was almost panic-inducing, for the sounds of unknown people outside of his room usually presaged assassination. But. No. No one was coming to kill him. Some guys next door were getting their armor on and getting ready to go out to the dungeons, or something; that’s all the noise was. Most other people in the hotel were asleep—

Erick’s stomach dropped as he remembered last night’s disaster, and realized the other half of the bed was empty; a lingering warmth already fading in the gentle purple light of morning. Quilatalap was gone.

But not really.

Erick glanced further through the mana, down the wooden hallways, through the guildhouse hotel, to the main room. People milled around, noisily and pushy, at least 50 of them, all standing around the chalkboard and the people working that chalkboard. An assistant telekinetically flicked chalk across the big board, while a teller called out names he had drawn from a box, and groups either cheered or moaned that they weren’t the ones put up there first. Every slot that was claimed was one less that they could claim for themselves.

There were not enough slots for everyone there, and all the people waiting in the wings, waiting for their turn. There were 7 dungeons, and each of them were being run every 2 hours, but since the day started at 7 and ended at 4, it meant there were only 35 slots per day.

And some groups had signed up multiple times; the slots were filling up fast.

Erick spotted Quilatalap, as Vanya, next to Barda, both of them hanging far, far back from the group, near hundreds of others, all of them there for the morning rush. Most of them looked like soldiers, but there were a few clearly-adventurers among the crowd, like Vanya and Barda. Nero was inside the crowd of people holding up his adventuring badge and another, local-made badge that indicated he was a local—

The teller called out his name, and he got dungeon 5, 11:30. Nero cheered.

… And Erick thought back to what they had said yesterday. He had thought that Barda and Nero were going for a later time slot. They had told Vanya and Soltic not to bother waking up before noon. Erick had assumed that Barda and Nero wouldn’t be waking up this early, either.

For a long moment, Erick simply lay in bed, thinking about everything.

He went over last night’s revelation from Sininindi. Five years away from Quilatalap; no contact.

He did not like that.

‘Soltic’ got out of bed, and decided on a few things. The only real decision he could make, himself, was that this ‘no-contact’ shit simply was not going to happen. Maybe they’d do letters, or something. But then there was the other realization. He would probably be splitting from Quilatalap, since that is what Quilatalap seemed to want.

Erick was finally confronting some uncomfortable truths about his relationship with the Archlich of Necromancy Itself.

Chief among those truths was that Quilatalap was perfectly fine with being whoever he needed to be to ensure his own safety in the world. Erick was pretty sure that ‘whoever he needed to be’ had been, for a while, ‘Erick’s Boyfriend’. Erick had almost spoken to Quilatalap about getting married years ago, but then…

Well. A lot had happened, and Quilatalap had sort of…

He’d not been interested in having that conversation, or having any sort of conversation anywhere near that sort of commitment. He didn’t even want to move in with Erick to the cloud castle. He preferred being alone in his dungeon, but not really alone; he loved when Erick was there every few days. Quilatalap had said that he loved Erick, but he just didn’t like being around anyone that much, and so, Erick had respected that… Strangeness.

Or at least it was strange to him.

Mortals, when the stars aligned and circumstances were favorable, lived and died together.

Immortals moved in and out of relationships like the tides coming and going from harbor.

According to Quilatalap, in an abandoned conversation they had had a long time ago, sometimes immortal relationships were like mortal relationships, but even the long ones usually broke up for whatever reason, because people grew, even when they did not age. And so, Erick had accepted that their relationship was one of the ocean meeting the land when the moons were overhead…

The moons had been overhead for a while, but they looked to be heading out.

But Erick wasn’t ready to give up without a fight. Some conversations needed to be had.

Soltic went to the bathroom, did his morning routine, took a really nice hot shower, and he came out with his beard shaved and his braids freshly woven, and not a hair out of place. Erick never was one for beards, anyway; they hid the face, and ‘Soltic’ did not want his face hidden at all for the conversations that were to come.

As he stepped out of his room, ready for what may come, the sun was rising, and the hubbub in the front room had died down to people waiting for their turn at lines for food inside the cafeteria. Breakfast was in full swing, and Soltic’s stomach grumbled at him.

He was glad that he had waited several hours to talk to Quilatalap about whatever was to happen next, for if he had spoken about everything right after it had happened, he likely would have said something he did not wish to say. Quilatalap might have done the same.

- - - -

Soltic walked into the cafeteria, grabbed some food, and headed over to the four-top table where Vanya, Barda, and Nero sat, eating breakfast together.

There was a space reserved for him, and so, Soltic sat down, saying, “Good morning!”

Barda and Nero were surprised at seeing new-mood Soltic, for the Soltic of yesterday had been a dour sort of guy. Now he was freshly shaved and looking a bit pretty, with a small sort of happiness on his face. It was mostly a facade, though.

Vanya looked at Soltic and saw the facade. She eyed him a little, going quiet in that moment; she had been the one talking about something or other, and now she was not. She did manage to say, “I wasn’t sure if you wanted to sleep in, or not.”

Quilatalap was worried. A lot.

And that broke Erick’s heart all over again.

“I was more exhausted than I thought I was,” Soltic said, “But now I’m not.”

Barda and Nero noticed the tension—

And Nero spoke first, “We got you two a morning delve on our timecard.” He smiled, forcing some happiness into the moment, trying to stop whatever social disaster he imagined happening before him. “Barda and I are going into the city for the day anyway, so we cleared it with the guild and there shouldn’t be any trouble.”

Well that neatly explained what Soltic had seen earlier. Vanya must have spoken to them between then and now… or something. He was pretty sure that what he had seen was Nero and Barda getting a timeslot for themselves. Admittedly, though, he did not look too closely at whatever conversations had passed around before or after the signup, for he didn’t want to spy on Vanya like that; not before he was actually ready to come out here.

Soltic smiled. “That’s great! Thank you.”

“You’re a lot different than you were yesterday,” Barda said, unsure, but liking Soltic’s sunshine.

Soltic said, “Had a good dream last night—”

Vanya whipped a glare at Soltic.

Soltic gave a light glare in response. Did she really think that he was going to blurt out godly business here before she was ready for all that avalanche of events? Of course not. Soltic shrugged. “And I decided to shave the beard. It was getting scraggly.”

Nero and Barda glanced between them. Neither wanted to step into whatever was happening there.

So Nero said, “You two will enjoy the dungeon, but it’s no doubt simpler than what you’re used to delving. Should only take an hour for any decent pair to clear the place. Larger personal take that way, too, than if you’re going in as a full group.”

Barda said, “Still gotta give up 80% of that take to the Regency, and they’re very good about taking their cut.”

Nero let a little bit of disgust show. “They really could lower the taxes on that, but they won’t.”

At the mention of current Storm’s Edge policy again, Soltic almost directly asked them what their deal was. They didn’t seem like a plant from the Regency. In fact, they seemed like a part of an outreach program to assist people coming in looking for some dungeon delving, but who would find nothing available for them due to the way the system here was set up. Perhaps they were a direct counterpoint to the established system—

Ah.

If people weren’t allowed in the local dungeons then the Dark sometimes spawned dungeons for those people. Wild dungeons, filled with random assortments of challenge-appropriate problems. Sometimes a black [Gate] opened up that led to a dungeon that was much, much further away than the local dungeons. That was pretty rare, though. Certainly wouldn’t happen here; not so close to open, public dungeons.

The Dark didn’t give a shit about how much governments took from the dungeons, as long as people got to experience dungeons if they wanted to.

Soltic went back to Barda’s words, saying, “Vanya and I passed by the Pit on the way here, and we didn’t see any spotters at all. Are they hidden, or something?”

“Very well hidden.” Nero stuck a fork into his pancake, saying, “You enter the dungeons with whatever you have, and then when you come out, but before you’ve taken a few steps, 80% of what you’ve gained is gone. Some people call it the Gold Taker, and we still don’t know how the Regency does it. They might have a tamed reacher monster, but that’s… Probably not what is happening here.”

“Probably just [Sneak]ing veteran mages or whatever,” Barda said.

Soltic suddenly knew the purpose of those long-tendril creatures in the sky. He also realized that Nero and Barda didn’t know about the creatures in the air, and that all but confirmed that he was not a Regency plant, here to spy on any newcomers to the Dungeon Guild.

He allowed a bit of surprise to show on his face.

Nero misattributed Soltic’s surprise, saying, “Yup! They just take your gold, without you being able to stop them.”

Barda smirked. “At least it’s good that you don’t have to spend all the time counting everything, right?”

Vanya ventured, “Has to be some sort of monster plucking the things off of you as you leave.”

Nero might have offered the moon reacher variant option, but even he didn’t believe that a monster could actually do what the Gold Taker did. All he said, though, was, “Doubtful.”

Barda scrunched her face. “A group of people with special spellwork, or something. Elemental Bodies and such, no doubt.”

Nero ventured, “Maybe even that Fae Magic.”

Vanya shivered, and it was mostly an act.

“Might be a summoned thing,” Soltic asked, “Those things are pretty autonomous, right? Some sort of summoned [Familiar], like the Wizard’s.”

Ophiel almost popped up, but Erick had good control on that. As it was, he just fluffed himself up on the rafters overhead and continued his silent, unknowable and unseen watch.

“Whatever it is, it’s one of the things I don’t like about delving here. If something is that close and able to do that sort of stuff without you knowing?” With a bit of anger, Nero said, “I don’t like it.”

“Bah. Nero.” Barda said, “It’s not that bad. It’s less to carry!” She looked to Soltic and Vanya, adding, “And if you want, you can just have the Gold Taker take everything, and leave you with a little note saying how much has been added to your bank.”

“Ah!” Soltic chuckled. “I was wondering where the outprocessing was, or whatever you call it around here. We had a branch of Geode Bank located at the entrance to town; we’d leave for the depths and then come back and drop stuff off there.”

Nero’s eyes widened.

“Ahh! Holy shit.” Barda laughed a little. “ ‘The Depths’. You two really are big leagues.”

“What sort of dungeons did you guys do?” Nero asked.

Soltic looked to Vanya. He wondered if it was time to reveal the ‘Dungeon Master’ thing. This seemed like a good time to get that information out there. He said nothing, though.

Vanya decided to go for it. “I’m sort of a dungeon master for a few dungeons. So… We’ve done all kinds of dungeons, actually. Mostly very involved ones with a great deal of exports, but… Also hidden ones. I’m looking to go legit, though, in an expansive sort of way.”

Nero and Barda both went wide-eyed, then the two of them gave each other a quick look. They didn’t speak anymore on the subject, though, for it was obvious that Vanya had some secrets, and Nero and Barda had some secrets, and what had been said was enough for now.

The spy guy in the hut, 250 meters away from the guildhouse and taking notes through his mana sense, suddenly started writing down more things about Vanya, noting that she and Soltic were both necessary to investigate. Not all dungeon masters were listed on the Dungeon Guild rosters, for not every dungeon in the world was cataloged, and nor would such a thing even be possible. Quilatalap was listed on that roster, but Vanya probably had at least one or two dungeons to her fake Guild accounts. If people went searching, they might even find them… On paper, anyway.

Vanya’s words were enough to set off the appropriate alarm bells over in that hidden hut, as planned.

“Well you probably don’t want to move here,” Barda said, “It’s a wonderful town and the people are wonderful in most ways, but the dungeons are pitiful. And forget trying to change them. This whole place is stopped up more than me when I eat too much cheese.”

Soltic burst a laugh at the unexpected toilet humor. Vanya smirked. Nero smiled briefly, and so did Barda.

“Anyway,” Nero said, “The Gold Taker is not real outprocessing; that’s at ‘The Exit’, which is on the right hand side as you’re walking into this little delver’s city. Whoever the Gold Taker is, they’re good at their job, but if you don’t make their job easy then the guard comes out to find you. So it’s suggested you let the Taking happen.”

Barda asked, “Why do you say it’s a monster, Vanya?”

“Because it seems like it would be easy to make a monster that could do that,” Vanya said.

Barda’s eyes went a bit wide again.

Nero seriously asked, “Would it be easy?”

“Well.” Vanya hemmed, “Not ‘easy’. Not something I would want to actually make, either.” She changed the subject, “What are you two doing in town, if you’re not delving today? What’s there to see in the city?”

Nero easily took to the change in subject, “Storm’s Edge is wonderful. You must try the bakeries…”

They spoke for a while, long after the breakfast hour was up and done. Eventually, though, they separated. Breakfast had been great, and so had the people.

It had allowed Soltic to put off his talk with Vanya, but the tension remained, and soon… They’d talk about it.

- - - -

Soltic waited till they were back in their room and the door was shut, to say, “I thought about what happened last night and I cannot do ‘no contact’. I want another way.”

Quilatalap took one look at Erick, and said, “We’ll both be alive five years from now, and then for many more years after that. I ask you not to make this emotional and difficult. I still love you. You still love me, right? Could we simply enjoy our time here? Instead of worrying about the future?”

Erick paused, wondering if he should say what he really wanted to say. If it was smart, or good, or whatever you wanted to call the tangle of emotions that were crushing his heart right now.

He decided he did want to continue.

“I love you, too, but I am not sure you actually love me, or if you were just using me for the protection I could provide, and if that difference even matters.”

Okay.

Shit.

He had said it.

Fuck.

Quilatalap froze. And then he thawed in small parts. In the shoulders of his current body, and then in his breath, and then in his eyes. A deep sadness seemed to envelop the room, centered on Quilatalap.

Erick waited.

In a slow, perfect sort of way, Quilatalap cast a spell that enveloped the room, tendrils of power slowly taking over the space, as he said, “This is a spell that will fool all onlookers into seeing us talk about things that don’t matter.”

To distract himself, Erick wondered why he didn’t have that spell yet. Perhaps he would have that spell if he had bothered to keep up with his magic as much as he should have, but he had had a nation to run…

And silence was stretching, because Quilatalap didn’t know what to say, either.

And then Quilatalap looked directly at Erick, and spoke softly, “I don’t love like normal people. My emotions are not natural. I am a lich. My emotions are the product of inscribing those emotions into my being, and creating a body to house and more easily enable those emotions. Nothing about me is natural. I do a decent job faking most of the time, and relations of all sorts help to solidify those emotions as real, for if I don’t have any normal relationships then I start to get weird. It’s a problem that all liches suffer from.

“About ten days into our relationship, back at the overtaking of the Sovereign Cities, I decided to make myself love you. And so I did.

“I have not regretted this decision. I still love you, in all the ways I can.

“And I have chosen to keep loving you, because I have decided that I enjoy you, as a person. And yes, you have given me an opportunity… Safety. All of that. But if I did not like you, then I would have simply left. You are not the only person in this world who I can ally myself with, but you are the one I choose to continue with, into this great big future that The Wizard of Benevolence is creating for us all. I’m very glad that you’re still just Erick to me, though.

“Are you okay with that? With how I am? If you are not… then…” His voice trailed away.

Erick had a minor whirlwind of thoughts.

Erick had tried a phylactery experiment with Quilatalap years ago, back when he was still going for Full Wizard accretion, and there had been a lot of focus on creating the brain properly, and using various bits of Book Magic and Mind Magic and the study of living subjects and quite a lot of pure artistry. Erick hadn’t been able to do the Mind Magic, though, so the project was mostly halted there.

“I thought that liches created bodies and the bodies held emotions, because that is what biology does, with serotonin and other chemicals and pathways in the brain.” Erick looked to Quilatalap. “But you changed yourself in your soul.”

An accusation. A change that Erick had not known.

A self-made soul-mutilation, in order to make all the rest of what was to come easier?

“I did,” Quilatalap said, without remorse. “And I kept that love strong because of many different reasons. Primarily that I like who you are, and you fit well with every part of me. Your love of magic, your ability to stand on your own. Your power.”

They hadn’t ever had this conversation before, but they had had shades of this conversation. Glimpses in the dark. But now, the truth of Quilatalap stood out there. He was a self-constructed person, who chose who to love, and then made that love happen.

Erick had known that Quilatalap made himself, but the depth of that creation had been talked around; obfuscated until now.

Was he any better, though, for his own reasons for loving Quilatalap? No. What a weird thought. ‘Better than’. Bah! Power was a perfectly reasonable reason to love someone—

Oh.

Holy shit.

Why had Erick even brought this up.

He loved Quilatalap because Quilatalap was capable of defending himself from anything and everything. He had survived an attack by Melemizargo's Champion. He had survived the Sundering. He was powerful, and that was the only real thing that made this relationship work between them.

So what if he made himself love Erick after only… A couple of weeks, most spent in a [Hasted Shelter].

Erick’s face flushed red in embarrassment. “I did not know you changed yourself that early in our relationship. I love you, too. I’m… Sorry that I brought it up.”

Quilatalap grinned a little, in a sad sort of way. “I’m sorry that this is happening, Erick. That we’re being separated like this. But I want to walk openly, all around the world. I don’t want to upset the offer on the table, either.”

“Of course. Of course. I’m an idiot. Sorry. Yes, you want this… I know that— I’m just worried. Worried about a lot. Worried… Just worried.” He strongly added, “And I don’t like that Sininindi simply doesn’t want me around Everbless, so that’s why I can’t be around here. That particular fact has always been annoying, but acceptable.” He looked at Quilatalap, at ‘Vanya’. “It’s not really acceptable anymore, and I’m not sure how to fight that without ruining this for you… or for Yggdrasil.”

Quilatalap said, “It’s only 5 years. I’m not going to change myself in that much time.” And then, scared yet hiding it, he asked, “Are you?”

“I might!” Erick blurted.

Quilatalap just stood there.

“I’m supposed to become a Full Wizard at the end of this and there’s surely going to be some big shit happening when I free Yggdrasil, and I want you there by my side, Quilatalap. Not just because you’re you, but because I want you there.”

Quilatalap straightened. “Ah.”

“Yes! ‘Ah’.” Erick relaxed. “So I’m worried.”

Quilatalap instantly said, “Tell Sininindi that you’re not going to do this without being allowed to visit.”

Ah.

He reversed that…

That quick?

“… You’re okay with potentially ruining this? Or having her request even more from you than she already has? Because that’s the impression I got from her when we spoke.” And you have that impression, too.

“I am not okay with ruining this, but… Maybe it won’t be ruined if you ask to change some small things. Maybe letters?” Quilatalap decided, “Letters would be good. What did she say to you? Exactly?”

“To stay away. No contact, 5 years. Bare contact through [Telepathy]. It was rather sparse, but repeated a few different ways; she made herself clear. What did she tell you?”

Quilatalap wasn’t sure where to begin, so he started with, “I must embody ‘Vanya’ for 5 years, or until my cover is blown by someone else, and if that should happen then I should continue my work anyway, and the problem will be resolved through… Well. She wants you to solve that political issue if politics should happen.”

“And I will. Gladly.”

Quilatalap smiled a little. “She wants me to become a part of the community here; hopefully as Vanya, but if my cover is blown, then I will be a part of the community as Quilatalap, and she will protect me as long as I operate within her requirements. I don’t foresee that being a problem. But until my cover is blown, even inside the dungeon I cannot be myself until I can create a Grand Dungeon space. According to what she wants, I expect it will likely take me and a repro about a year of work to get the dungeon operational and the Second Script worked out properly. The dungeon she wants is extensive and I’m looking forward to it, because she wants to make extensive use of the False Society option, so I know I’m going to miss any sort of weekly checkup though [Telepathy].” He added, “But… You should be able to visit. Maybe not every night, but… More than a 5 year wait. Letters, at least.”

Erick realized a current truth.

Even if contact was allowed, Quilatalap would want to call off 9 out of every 10 dates, and he’d be working overtime. He’d barely be a part of anyone’s lives, except for the life of the dungeon he wanted to create.

“You’re really interested in the project.”

“Yes. A lot.” Quilatalap grinned. And then his grin faltered. “It’s. Uh. A big project. I’m pretty sure that you’d have to personally barge into my life to bring me out of working-mode like you have a few times before.” He rapidly added, “Nothing is going to happen to my love for you, but I understand that you’re going to be going through a lot, so if something should happen, and if you need me, I’ll be there for you. But also… I know how pure-biologic emotions work, and last night when I asked if you wanted to talk about our relationship, I was worried that maybe you'd think that you were going to fall out of love with me… If you were away for 5 years, or more like 10 or even 20, with Time Magic and becoming a pure Paradox Wizard.” Quilatalap stated, “You’re the one much more likely to fall out of love here.”

Erick’s heart skipped several beats. He wanted to decry Quilatalap’s theory. But…

Quilatalap was the 3000 year old immortal. He had been through this sort of thing several times before.

Quilatalap breathed deep, then looked straight at Erick, and said, “We’ve never really talked about that, but I think it’s time.”

Neither of them had sat down yet. They were both standing in the center of the room, both of them moving around a little as they spoke. Both of them were still looking like Soltic and Vanya. But now, Quilatalap sat down in one of two chairs by the wall. He gestured to the other.

Erick sat down across from Quilatalap.

Quilatalap said, “I’ve known Paradox Wizards before. I am a follower of Phagar, and I have known a lot of Paradox Wizards. I think you’ll make a good one when it finally happens. But there’s something about all that which you don’t realize. Something that maybe only I or Melemizargo or Phagar could ever really talk about with you.

“You’re going to live forever, Erick.

“But more than that: You’re going to travel through time and back again. You probably already have, and you don’t know it yet, and I mean more than a [Return] or whatever. Much more. From one chronologically-connected day to the next, you might have lived a thousand years in another time. Another place. And then you will have come back to wherever you were before, and you will be changed in ways that no one else has been changed.

“It’s going to be lonely. You’re going to have to ensure you remain sane, all on your own. You will see worlds crumble and rise, and civilizations fall and be born again from books left over and then found in an excavation, a hundred years later. More than an immortal, you will become unbound by causality.

“And I’ll be here.

“Just being myself, living through life at a normal pace, accidentally teaching someone something they shouldn’t know, probably trying to clean up a mess or ten. People think that as an archlich I’m some amazing person, or some horror from beyond the Dark, but the truth is I’m just a guy who chooses how he wants to be, and my life is much, much smaller than everyone thinks. I’ll be here, and you’ll be elsewhere, and that’s okay.

“I’m okay with not seeing you for a hundred years, and then picking up right where we left off. I can do that. I have done that. There have been others before you, that I have loved, and been loved in return.” With dry eyes, because he wouldn’t allow himself to shed a tear, he said, “If one of them should show up miraculously then I’d hope we could all get along together. But they won’t...

“I don’t want to say their names because that hurts, but I have done the disjointed relationship thing with others. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes because we go our separate ways and then meet later and take up where we left off because we want to.

“But time makes a mockery of relationships, and the need for comfort causes all sorts of problems that are best headed off before they happen. To that end, most people like me, like you, have had relations outside of each other, because sometimes that’s just what happens.

“I haven’t done that with you, though, because we had that talk early on, and we agreed on a closed relationship.” Quilatalap said, “But once you become a Full Paradox Wizard, things are going to change. If you should find yourself stranded a thousand years in the future, and you can’t come back, but I’m still there? In that future? I’ll pick up right where I left with you, or I might have moved on, and we’ll make some decisions at that time. But it’s good to know, now, the shape of what might happen there in the future. Or even in the past.

“Paradox Wizards often go both ways, and sometimes even sideways, and there’s no telling what sort of people you will meet, or where Time will take you.

“This five year thing happening right now is not a big deal to me, except that it is a big deal to you.” Quilatalap said, “How big of a deal it is, is completely dependent on your feelings and what you want, Erick. I’m not going to stop loving you; that part of me will always be part of my soul.”

Too many thoughts. Too many spiraling futures.

All that really mattered, though, was that Quilatalap loved Erick, and Erick loved Quilatalap. The exact nature of that love was barely a concern.

Erick rose from his chair, took Quilatalap’s hands into his own, and felt the quickening pulse of their beating hearts in his hands. “I love you. Change back to Quilatalap please.” Erick changed back, too, turning his full height as his crown of black horns came out.

Quilatalap smiled, chuckled, changed, and stood eye-level with Erick, his green skin radiant as the rest of him. His soul revealed itself next. That tooth-lined maw might be the last time Erick got to see him, as he truly was, for a while. Because Quilatalap wasn’t really his body. Quilatalap was his soul.

Erick wasn’t at that stage quite yet, but eventually, he would be a crystal pretending to be a person. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was similar. In the coming centuries… Well. Those would happen as they happened, and all that time was far, far away.

Five years was nothing.

But five years was still five years.

“Ophiel is going to miss you, too,” Erick said.

The little guy dropped down from overhead, unfurling into a ball of wings and eyes, to land atop Erick’s head. He held onto Erick’s black horns as he twittered in happy notes. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he knew enough to ask, “Quilatalap hiding?”

“For a little while,” Quilatalap said.

“Okay!” Ophiel said, and then he hopped off of Erick’s head, and went back to hiding in the mana. “I hide, too!”

“You’re very good at hiding, Ophiel,” Quilatalap said, holding Erick’s hands. “But could you give your father and I a little while alone?”

Ophiel turned his many eyes away, and that was enough.

Erick asked Quilatalap a quiet question about the strength of the hiding magics. Quilatalap said they were strong enough for the next hour, for whatever they wanted to do, for all intruding sounds and sights and mana sense would all be fooled while this magic held well, and it was holding very well.

They made that hour count.

- - - -

Soltic stepped to the edge of the kilometers-wide, open air Pit.

Storm’s Edge’s dungeons rested like black holes-in-the-world, hovering above channels Shaped into what had been a natural, central valley 15 years ago. Before that, it had been a land of rainforest, dense with whatever monsters Storm’s Edge couldn’t clear from the trees fast enough. Now it was a place of bare rock, craters, landshaping, and yes, monsters. Right now some monsters were even floating up the southern monster road, headed up from the southeastern side of the island. They had been flying for a while, probably, guided by the thick mana that held upon the Shaped road, a hundred meters down from where Soltic stood, with Vanya.

These particular monsters were floating whales, 5 of them. Small ones, too. Streamlined and about 4 meters long, they were bright black and the air around them seemed saturated with some sort of unknown power. They floated in perfect formation, too, which was another oddity.

Soltic pointed to the ‘whales’ hovering atop the road, so far below. “Don’t think I’ve seen that type before.” He looked back to Vanya, and felt his heart buoy with a small surety of joy. “Any idea what they are?”

With bright eyes, Vanya said, “The common name is shadow whales. Rather rare, actually! They’re a hive-type, all one monster, which starts from a single whale which soaks in the shadows long enough to produce a second whale. They have a whole life cycle of making many of themselves and then making one large enough to produce live births. That one looks like an adult which has lost its birther.” She said to Erick, “Five whales is about as large as a normal pod gets.”

“Dangerous?”

“I’d rate it at about a 5 star threat; any veteran adventurer could handle a smaller group like that. The non-flying version is much more common, and that’s only a 4 star threat. A pod with a birther in it is a 6 star threat. They were made by the Shades of Ar’Kendrithyst about 800 years ago in an effort to produce a smart predator into the oceans. The non-monster variant is grey dolphin, which came about later due to some necromancers of Quintlan messing with the base monster.”

Soltic smiled as he listened to Vanya. “You’re amazing.”

“Ehhh! You know all of this stuff, too.”

Soltic laughed. “I most certainly do not!”

“Well... Maybe not the deeper history.” Vanya demurred, “Let’s suit up.”

Both of them were in their adventuring clothes; comfortable pants, long sleeve shirts, small backpacks filled with a few essentials but not much at all. No gloves. Decent boots, but not solid boots, made to take real abuse. It was a standard delver’s outfit, all the better to wrap themselves in [Conjure Armor] and to grasp [Conjure Weapon]s with, for those would provide the actual defenses; the clothes were just for comfort.

They cast those defensive spells now.

Soltic swirled with shadows, wrapping himself in metallic black armor; the same color as his magic. It was utilitarian and smooth, able to provide some protection from glancing blows, without providing places for claws to find purchase. The helmet fully covered his head and would provide safe air for breathing for as long as they didn’t piss off the dungeon. If they did that, then the controlling force behind the dungeon might just [Dispel] his armor, and he’d be back to simply wearing his adventuring outfit.

The dungeon should play nice with them, though, since their plan was to play nice with it.

Vanya covered herself with the same shape of armor, but hers was purple.

They were each a 7-Star rated adventurer, and both of them could be relied upon to kill a rampaging wyrm or two on their own, and they certainly looked the part. Mostly. But even fully kitted out, they were still considered naked in some circles. Years ago, before the dungeons had come about, a standard adventuring team of Soltic and Vanya’s star rating would have each worn a bandolier of wands of various flavor, from [Force Bolt] to [Treat Wounds] if they were really rich; magic to test out various dangerous looking things without needing to expend their own mana, and magic to heal, when they got fucked up.

But now, with the dungeons, things had changed.

Because most Script spellwork didn’t work on the other side of those [Gate]s to Darkness (unless someone knew the trick and had a core to utilize the trick) wands and other Script-supported magic items were useless. Some dungeons allowed for some Script magics, but not here, not at the Pit of Storm’s Edge. Healing Magic was almost universally disallowed inside every dungeon, with few exceptions, but Healing Magic wasn’t truly necessary inside a dungeon like it was out here in the real world. When people died in a dungeon, as they often did, they were brought back through a [True Resurrection], and either thrown outside or deposited in a safe area. For the Pit, they were deposited near the entrance.

Erick hoped he wouldn’t need to experience that phenomenon. He hadn’t been in many dungeons except for Quilatalap’s, and that was on purpose. These places were very capable of killing a person. Quilatalap died regularly when he went inside unknown dungeons and poked around.

If necessary, Erick still had all of his power to draw upon, if he wished, but a manual [Witness] was still possible inside a dungeon space; a dungeon couldn’t stop normal magic from working. It couldn’t stop aura control, and elemental bodies, and various baser, more personal magics, like one’s draconic nature. So, if necessary, Erick could [Luminous Beam] whatever lay inside, but that would give away the game to whoever might be inside, watching, be they dungeon master or someone else...

“What’s the dungeon master look like again?” Soltic asked. “I know almost nothing about this dungeon and I know you don’t either, but... What are we not supposed to kill?”

Vanya hopped into the air, the world fracturing under her purple Force boots and along her edges as she held herself aloft on basic Force Magic, to float past the lip of the Pit. “I’m sure it’ll be obvious!” she said, perhaps a bit too happy about the unknown awaiting them. “Let’s just tackle it like any old unknown dungeon!”

Soltic held himself back from complaining about that.

Vanya seemed happy.

So Soltic stepped into the air, like he was stepping upon stone; the wind turning solid underfoot, and that patch of [Stone Air] turning controllable at his whim. He was a Stone Warrior, and so that all made sense. Not as versatile as a Stone Mage, but he got by with the few tricks he was capable of casting himself. He allowed one of those tricks to show now; With a flick of his hand, he summoned a standard-shaped longsword in his right hand, but that sword shimmered with Force and Metal Magic. Soltic dabbled in Metalwork, too.

Erick had chosen this ‘Stone Warrior’ facade because almost everything about his natural durability was explained by the durability of properly cast Stone Magic. Erick, of course, still had access to every single Elemental Body, but for now, as Soltic, the only ones he would be using were [Stone Body], and some aura control. Primarily aura control, though, because [Stone Body]… Well. Stone Magic might fail altogether inside the dungeon.

And sometimes diving into the stone was like diving into an open maw.

Soltic and Vanya descended from the lip of the Pit, down onto the walkway that led to Dungeon 5 about 500 meters away.

Soltic asked, “How much of our kits can we expect to have access to?”

“A good amount!” Vanya said, smiling as she stepped down onto the ground of the Pit. She led the way forward, a conjured shield of Force appearing at her right, hovering at her command. She looked around as she walked, saying, “Now when is that Gold Taker going to show… Or has it already. Hmm.”

The ‘Gold Taker’ had already touched them and acknowledged them as they were descending; the invisible, ethereal, kilometers-wide tentacle monster tapped them with the very tips of its tendrils, paying special attention to the rings and badges that identified them, before moving on. Neither of them had felt the touch at all, and the Gold Taker hadn’t felt out Ophiel, either, who hung out in the air around Soltic and Vanya. Ophiel kept back on purpose, though, so there was no chance of him being found.

Probably.

He wouldn’t be going in the dungeon, either.

Everything was going well, really. Both of them knew that they would be scrutinized by people with [Witness] once it became clear that Vanya was here to change the dungeons, so it was best to pretend for a longer con.

Soltic waved his sword back and forth as he walked, as though he was fending away some invisible thing— And then he stopped that, and said, “Ah. We’re not supposed to engage with the Gold Taker, are we?”

Vanya smiled as she briefly turned back toward Soltic. “Best not.”

Soltic held his sword at the ready, but not actively.

They encountered nothing untoward as they made it all the way to the dungeon entrance, where a black ring hung in the air like a gaping hole in the world. Beyond that space was a land of open air and stone roads.

Vanya went first. Soltic went second.

Ophiel flitted away, off to have an adventure of his own, no doubt, while his father was busy inside the Domain of the Dark.

- - - -

Soltic got to take in the full breadth of the open-air dungeon floor plan moments before their magic cut out entirely, their conjured armor breaking into glittering motes and their flight spells ending prematurely. Soltic’s outer [Personal Ward]s broke, stripping him of his usual double cast of [Unbreakable Form], worth 500 absolute damage reduction. And then his secondary [Personal Ward] broke. His [Illusionary Soul].

- -

Illusionary Soul, instant, self, 2500 mana

Cloak your truth in lies and falsehoods. Let none know your core.

Permanent until dismissed.

- -

For the briefest of moments, Erick was exposed inside the dungeon, his core on full display inside his chest, for all of those who knew how to see. Quilatalap was exposed, too, his tooth-lined soul showing just underneath his skin.

And then Erick and Quilatalap both manually recast that innermost magic, hiding themselves from whatever might be looking. Both of them had been exceedingly quick with that action, so their covers were probably fine, especially if the dungeon master here wasn’t a real person, capable of maintaining cohesive thought patterns.

… It was what it was. They both looked at each other and decided that if a problem developed from this, then they would handle it. Recasting their hiding magics had erased the manasphere’s history, anyway, so a [Witness], manual or otherwise, wouldn’t be able to see them.

Erick could have used a Familiar Form without the core. But the core was necessary for holding onto and casting more difficult magics while inside other realities, like the reality inside a dungeon, or, more realistically, the reality over in Fairie, in Ar’Cosmos. Quilatalap had his own tricks for escaping Fairie if he wanted, but Erick had to deal with that place now and again, and he made sure to always have his core with him, no matter what.

For it was the core that allowed a person to hold onto mana, and cast magic.

The Script was just an assistant so that the average person didn’t have to use a core at all.

Erick relaxed a fraction, hoping that he hadn’t accidentally fucked up Yggdrasil’s future with the accidental reveal of his core. Dungeons weren’t supposed to erase all spellwork the very second you dropped into them… But this one had. He took a moment to ensure his core-hiding magics were secure; he’d get to the rest of the delve in due time.

[Illusionary Soul] was a truly basic Illusion Magic that most dragons got a natural feel for as soon as they matured enough to know to hide themselves. Erick’s journey to that magic had been a bit different, since he usually acted through the proxy of Ophiel. He had needed to first actually think to make such a magic, and then have a single conversation with Quilatalap in order to get it right. Quilatalap used this very same magic to hide himself from the world, and it worked quite well.

Soltic breathed.

A bare second had passed since they entered the zone.

“So that’s weird,” Soltic said, standing there in his normal clothes, looking at himself. With a flick of his hand he conjured another sword. This time his sword remained. “You got dispelled, too.”

“This dungeon must be set to rather high standards.” With a flick of her hand, which was completely superfluous, Vanya conjured another floating shield. This time the shield remained. She even moved it around a bit at her command. “Seems to be in working order, though.”

Soltic turned his attention back to the dungeon.

A subtle ring of shadows surrounded the land on this side of the [Gate], denoting a safe space, so there had been no worry of some sort of attack right away. The larger dungeons often had multiple safe spaces here and there, as emplaced by the dungeon master, but since the dungeon master of this dungeon was a simple monster (they guessed), most of the dungeon would be wild. Probably no more safe spaces anywhere else inside.

It was a small enough dungeon that it didn’t need any more rest areas.

The dungeon floor almost looked like The Pit, back there on the other side of the [Gate], but where the land over there was carved into mana-funneling channels, the land here was a switchback series of raised stone roads, set atop an ocean. There was no sea floor down there. These roads were almost like barges, or floating bridges.

Actually… Exactly like floating bridges.

Solid, though; they didn’t move underfoot at all.

“Kinda like standing on the top of a wall of a maze filled with water,” Soltic said, looking over the edge of the ‘wall’, down into abyssal depths. His mana sense cut out at around five meters out, which meant that the space down there was probably filled with killer monsters, but his mana sense otherwise was restricted to about 25 meters out, so there were lots of semi-abnormal restrictions happening all over the place. Soltic glanced up, and looked to the coral growths sticking up here and there, both from the road, and from the waters. Most of the corals were near the roads, though, like white cancers growing on the grey-white road. “The corals sort of mar the view, but they’re rather pretty, too.” Everything about the dungeon was fully open, except for those coral growths; they had to be the hiding spots for the treasure. “I bet they’re our targets.”

The whole dungeon was rather beautiful, in an austere sort of way. The sky was an undulating crisscross of white light and liquid blue, as though they were at the bottom of a pool, and the sun was bright and shining far out of reach. The land was a place of grey-white stone ‘barge roads’. Iridescent white coral treasure grew here and there. The coral was a nice touch, Soltic thought, since coral grew slowly, and that matched with the [Duplicate]-properties of a dungeon. These places didn’t spit out 10,000 gold every half hour, or something like that; the gold and other things had to grow.

… Soltic realized that he had no idea how much money they would get today.

He had respected Vanya’s desire to go in blind, but for his own peace of mind, maybe he should have cheated, and looked up this place in its entirety. But… No.

Vanya looked upward. “I like how it looks like we’re at the bottom of an ocean.” Then she looked down. “It’s death to land in the actual water, though.” She judged, “That abyss is too dangerous to have so close to the entrance.”

“I’ve seen you put spears just outside of a dungeon entrance.”

“That’s different. Bladed weapons are clear threats… And I don’t do that often. Usually it’s a nice, peaceful meadow, or a stone room. Anyway! I count 27 coral growths, and not much else, before the dungeon ends. There might be something else inside the water, but I can check that out myself; you don’t have to risk yourself.”

Soltic felt a chill ripple up his spine. He shivered, saying, “The casual disregard you have for your own life continues to amaze me.”

Vanya smiled wide. “Not like it’s going to perma-kill me.”

Soltic grumbled—

And then he banished his inconvenient emotion over the differences between them. One of them was not scared of death at all, for they had long overcome the problem of mortality, while the other would likely never overcome his innate fear of death.

And dungeons were certainly a place of death.

“Magic tests?” Soltic reached down with his aura, into the stone, and pushed at the bedrock. A ripple appeared, and that was it. As soon as he took his power away, the ripple flattened out. “This place restricts Stone rather tightly, and seems to repair minor damage.”

Vanya agreed, and reached up into the air and began plucking her spellwork; faint bits of illumination and power flowed into the air… Dimly. Barely working at all, actually.

Soltic ripped his own aura through the air, too, manually Mana Altering his mana into other forms of possibility. Along with Vanya’s experiments, Soltic came to a few conclusions of his own rather fast. Fire failed inside this land, as did most forms of heat-based magic. Particle-created heat, as from friction, worked fine. Particle Magic was really just advanced [Telekinesis], though, so that tracked. Pretty much all Stone-adjacent conjuring, from Magma to Swamp, Ooze and Crystal, and of course, Stone and Metal, barely worked. Soltic had to work hard to conjure a Stone, as for a [Stone Bolt].

And he, the Apparent King, actually did have to work hard on those particular spells. Dungeons were alternative realities inside the Dark, functioning almost like a Domain, but not. Trying to act against a dungeon, while inside the dungeon, was worse than trying to break the Domain of another caster. It was like trying to break the Script. It was easier than working magic past the Edge of the Script, though.

Erick had tried that once with the Anarchy Wizard and he hoped to never be caught outside of the density of mana that was Veird ever again.

… Soltic moved on to Water and Air magics and found them slightly easier, but still restricted. Light and Shadow magics barely worked. Blood, Ash, Gloom, Star, Void, Mercy, Healing; all of it was barely functional, though, perhaps, as Soltic tested out the difference between Water and Blood a few times, it was possible that the Esoteric Elements were less locked-down than the Original Six. Illusion worked well enough to hide their true selves from the world, but not much more than that. Benevolence worked a little, but Soltic would not be using that at all.

Force worked exceedingly well, though. Stable. Easy to make. Simple Force was the order of the day. Soltic conjured Force, tinged with Metal, or Stone, or other Elements, and found it workable. But it was dull metal and crumbly stone. Sooo… Maybe he would stick to pure Force. Pure Force worked the best.

Vanya came to the same conclusion fast enough, with a shield of Force hovering at her side. “Force dungeon.”

Soltic agreed, “Force dungeon. Ar’Cosmos rules, too; Clarity doesn’t seem to work, but it looks like we have the mana we came in here with. Have to use Elemental Mystical to cut down on mana costs, though that’s kinda difficult to do.”

Vanya said, “Looks like Statuses don’t work in here, so we can assume that we have the mana we came in with and whatever our natural generation gives us, but with a constantly decreasing cap.”

“No core means no holding onto the mana,” Soltic said.

Both of them would have a near-normal mana generation, though; they were just talking like this for the [Witness] that was to come. Erick had a core, and could hold onto his mana all he wanted to, and though Quilatalap didn’t even have a core, he did have a phylactery, which was almost the same.

Vanya nodded as she reconjured her armor, using manual aura control, once again donning her layered, purple Force armor. The armor settled, and remained; unbroken. The dungeon couldn’t break spellwork cast inside of it, but it could easily break spellwork cast outside and then brought in.

Soltic followed Vanya’s lead, conjuring his own armor with his own aura control, shaping Force into a facsimile of the layered, spidersilk style that Jane Flatt had popularized among certain circles of delvers, because it was strong and easy and somewhat comfortable. Smooth, black Force soon hugged most of his body, with a few solid parts here and there to form a greater bulwark against big weapon attacks.

Vanya glanced at him, grinning. “I like the manual-cast look better than the Script-spell look.”

Soltic moved a little, shrugging and pulling at his armor, stretching and selectively dispelling and then remaking pieces that stuck together, or which didn’t have enough flexibility. “I like the Script-cast spell better; that one has air-conditioning.”

Vanya smirked, behind her full-face helmet.

Soltic breathed out, looked down at the ring of subtle darkness that encircled the entrance like a warning [Ward], then he looked out, at the corals. He remade his helmet in order to have some better visibility. “Let’s go hunt some coral.”

Vanya stepped forward without hesitation, disturbing the ethereal ring of darkness. Nothing happened. She took a few more steps down the wide, floating stone road, saying, “It appears that exiting the rest area isn’t a trigger, but I suspect that disturbing a coral will cause monsters to rise from the depths.” Vanya giggled. “I’m looking forward to it.”

And then she stopped her giggle, and Soltic soldiered on.

It was time to work.

The stone ‘barge’ road did not move as they walked across it; the whole thing was flat and solid, with roads stretching off into every distance, to vanish at the dark, foggy edges of the dungeon space. The footing was good. Soltic had been worried about that.

The first coral sat about 30 meters in front of the dungeon entrance. It grew out of the waters, latching onto the edge of the stone walkway like a thousand fingers of iridescent white porous bone, curling together and then splaying outward and upward. It was the size of an orcol, and watery sunlight danced upon that coral, and upon the road.

Vanya stopped 5 meters from the coral, saying, “I guess the treasure is… Little bits of gold? In the very center?”

Soltic mana sensed into the coral, and guessed at the whole rest of the nature of the dungeon from that simple look. An empty space held in the center of the twisting coral. Within that space grew a little filament of gold, looking like someone had made a minuscule tree out of gold wire. It didn’t even have leaves; just the bare, hovering ‘trunk’ and a few ‘branches’ and ‘roots’ to go with it.

“Maybe 7 gold per coral?” Soltic guessed. “Or maybe 8?”

Vanya counted up the whole dungeon. “27 growths at a conservative 5 gold per growth, means a dungeon run is worth 135 gold— If all the other corals have the same thing inside them. That’s not counting the monsters that are sure to come about as soon as we break a coral. They’re probably hiding out in the waters beyond the edge of this space.”

“Maybe down below, too?”

“No doubt.” With a flicker of purple magic, Vanya conjured a mono-wire cheese-slicer a few meters long. She sliced through the top half of the coral. Another flicker of power popped off top, sending a mess of coral and fragments up into the air, revealing a depression in the center of the coral, where motes of light glowed and a tiny gold tree grew. Another bit of spellwork plucked the tree from its place of hiding. Vanya stowed the ‘treasure’ into a conjured bag before the top half of the coral landed in the waters, sending up a great splash. “And now, we see what happens—”

A low rumble filled the dungeon space, vibrating the road underfoot.

Where the coral landed in the waters, the waters boiled. Great rushes of overly-large bubbles flew into the air—

The bubbles popped, and monsters spilled into the dungeon. Ten fishes, each of them as colorful as a parade float and filled to the gills with sharp teeth—

Vanya cut them down with overwhelming Force, sending bits of blood into the water while she also plucked out small rads from a few of the monsters in the same action. When it was over, blood marred the nearby road, a red slickness that spread out into the blue waters, clouding the abyss with even more darkness. Some of those monster parts and blood began to wisp away, showing themselves as copied monsters, which was rather obvious based on how many rads Vanya had taken from the school of 10 monsters.

Three rads —two worth 5 gold, one worth 3 gold— joined the tiny gold tree inside the loot bag. An estimated 18 to 20 gold per coral. If that held true for the rest of the dungeon, then this single run would net a team a little over 500 gold. Half a grand rad. That was gross profit, though. With the Regency taking 80% of that, it meant that a team made around 100 gold per run.

“More than a hundred gold per run,” Soltic said, “If you include monster meat and specialty items— Ah. But…” Soltic took another look at a flank of a fish laying in a pool of blood on the ground. It was mostly bone and rather skinny, and while the scales were colorful, they were actually quite dull. “Looks underfed, actually. And only a few were real?”

“Looks like a combination of real monster and copy monster, and the real ones were rather skinny, so I wouldn’t eat the monsters in here…” Her voice trailed off as she stared down at the fish bits, floating, and then sinking in the waters.

Soltic watched the fish bits, too, as meat and bone sunk down into the waters, blood swirling into the depths on unseen whirlpools. That whirlpool hadn’t been there before. The water dragged the body parts down, below the black layer of the abyss...

Soltic had a question. “Is this a ‘monster pot’ situation? Bunch of monsters just out of sight we cannot see?”

“Probably; I bet that area below the blackness is a free-for-all zone of predation and the extra fish get shoved up and out of the area, for us to kill. It might barely function as an ecosystem.” She gestured at the roads and water and corals ahead. “This is probably just the top part of the dungeon; the part we’re allowed to visit.”

“The dungeon breaks must be a result of a failure of cultivation.”

“It’s probably months between breaks for any individual dungeon, but since there’s 7 of them here, and they’re all the same, then it’s no surprise that they have regular breaks.” Vanya looked out across the land again. “Considering the same failed-state dungeon is merely duplicated across all of them.”

Soltic gestured toward the next coral, about 20 meters away, past a few bends in the floating stone walkway. As the two of them headed in that direction, Soltic said, “I bet the wyrm boss doesn’t help. Wyrms are not smart things.” With a bit of anger showing, Soltic wondered, “Did some dragon just… abandon their eggs here? For them to hatch, turn to wyrms for lack of mana, and then get turned into dungeon core guardians for Sininindi?”

“Hard to say the exact order of events. Maybe the eggs were donated, maybe they were bought, maybe they were stolen. I assume we’ll see the wyrm soon as we break enough corals. That’ll only be one data point, though, and we’ll need a few data points to see what’s going on there. And the wyrm is the boss, but it might not be the dungeon master; they’re not always the same thing.” As they reached the next coral, Vanya gestured to it. “Your turn?”

Soltic let his dark aura flow down the length of his black sword, coating the cutting surface in a molecular edge that gave his two-meter long sword a third meter of length. With a grip honed by practicing where no one was watching, and with a few experts in the field who were well compensated for their silence and their expertise, ‘Soltic’ carved an easy, quick line through the bone-like coral, lopping off a few dozen branches of fingerling-thick bone growths and opening the central hiding space. Tendrils of hard coral crashed all around, some breaking on stone, others plopping into the waters.

For a moment, Soltic stood there, holding his extended sword at the ready, waiting for the monsters to appear. His gaze flickered to the glinting gold hovering in the middle of the coral ‘treasure chest’. Another small tree of gold filament, awash with almost-liquid light. That light clung loosely to the gold filaments, almost like a fog, before it washed away on unseen currents.

And no monsters appeared.

“They probably appear when the treasure is plucked,” Soltic said, using a bit of manual telekinesis to grab the loot and—

A single eel slithered out of the abyss below the floating stone roads, a good hundred meters away, near one of the coral growths. Soltic easily saw the eel the very second it shifted into sight, but the damned thing was also radiant, and probably Elemental Radiant, too, since it was almost bright enough to blind, even through Soltic’s full-face helm. Soltic easily shrugged off the status effect and watched as the eel, located over at least three open water areas and two more roads, wrapped around the entire coral, and the coral came alive, grabbing the eel in turn. In one flashing instant, the coral had become school of bone-like fish, each of them subtly glowing, and the eel swam back down, carrying the golden wires in its jaws.

“… Huh,” Soltic said. “Are we on a time limit?”

Vanya smiled a little bit. “That would explain why the dungeon only lasts an hour— Ah. Reinforcements.”

As she said that, the water directly nearby began to boil with great big bubbles. Three translucent spheres lifted up from the waters, and then popped, each one disgorging a floating squid, each a meter wide. The single real monster and the two fakes each targeted Soltic, their fanged tentacles suddenly expanding outward, transforming the beasts from small things, into wide monsters, capable of swallowing a man whole.

Soltic slashed his sword and felt surprising resistance as he cleaved them all through their brain-areas. Even with that resistance they weren’t much for Soltic’s strength and speed. Two squid became dispersing spellwork. The third lay on the ground, sprawled into three pieces and dying fast, and then dead—

Suddenly, another fanged tentacle appeared out of the abyss, thick as an orcol’s arm and many meters long. Soltic stepped back as the new arrival slapped the remains of the monster, and then dragged it back under the waves, the myriad fangs of its tentacle-length leaving deep gouges in the stone.

A silent moment passed as the waters calmed again, and neither Soltic nor Vanya said a word.

“… So that’s unexpected, too,” Soltic said. “I feel I must revise my earlier estimate of the take. Maybe not a hundred gold. After taxes we’ll be lucky to get 25, or 50.”

Vanya was gently smiling, her earlier displeasure turning into a bit of excitement. “Okay! So. If that was planned— If that is how this dungeon normally works, and we’re not simply seeing a particularly awesome instantiation of the usual order, then my estimation that it is a bad dungeon might be an error. Death is a lot closer than I thought, and I approve. It’s not really a learning dungeon, though, but it is certainly a working dungeon.” She looked around. She pointed at a distant coral, which was about the furthest one she could have pointed at. “I want to pluck that one next—” She paused. “Well...”

While Vanya thought, Soltic did a rough calculation of what he was seeing out there, among the paths of stone among the water. “We’ll have to jump some water. That part of the dungeon isn’t even connected to this part of the dungeon. Based on what I’m seeing…” He pointed a rough path among the land. “The dungeon would naturally take us this way, then that way, then over there, and then we’d be done. We’d have to cross the waters to get to the other half of the space.”

Vanya reconsidered her earlier proposal. “Let’s continue on the normal path, as outlined by the dungeon floor plan. Normal run for now; tomorrow, we’ll try to break it.”

Soltic took a step toward the next—

A thick tentacle slipped out of the water, onto land, back near the very first coral pillar. They had left bits of bloody fish scattered on the stone there, and the tentacle searched for those fish bits like they were trying to find a lost coin behind some couch cushions. The tentacle found the fish parts fast enough. They were exceedingly quiet about the whole operation, too.

As the tentacles left with their prize, Soltic almost said something, but then the water over there suddenly burbled. Waves crashed over the walkway. Blood washed away under saltwater, and then, the monster was gone.

Soltic and Vanya watched to see if the thing appeared again. It did not.

Soltic broke the silence, “I wouldn’t have noticed that if I hadn’t been looking.”

“Ten gold says that the octopus is the dungeon master.”

Soltic burst a laugh, his mirth filling the dungeon with a sudden noise. “Sure; I’ll take that bet. How about we wager what’s for dinner, instead?”

“You’re on. But what’s your guess at the dungeon master?”

“Literally anything else except the tentacle thing; I claim all other options as my guess.”

Vanya laughed. “I suppose I can give you that much of an advantage.”

“Damn straight,” Soltic said, smiling. “Your guess is probably the correct one anyway, so where do you want to have dinner tonight?”

Vanya smirked. “Let’s figure that out after we see how much gold we get from this dungeon.”

They walked to the next coral growth—

On the other side of the dungeon, another radiant eel appeared from the waters and grabbed another coral spire. It turned the white, living rock into swirling fishes, and then grabbed the golden wires before it descended into the depths, taking the loot with it.

“That’s another 8-ish gold gone,” Vanya said, turning her eyes away from the vanishing fish, back to the road ahead. She picked up the pace. “Let’s hurry.”

Soltic kept right up. “That was a minute? Or was that 2 minutes?” He added, “Between thefts?”

“Felt like 2:30, maybe three.” Vanya carved up the second twisting pillar of coral, revealing a small tangle of gold wires and liquid light that splashed away like an egg breaking underwater. She snatched the wires. “Might not be time based—”

An assortment of bubbles blopped up from the waterways and then popped, revealing a malnourished swarm of toothers. Vanya waved her hand, and a semi-invisible mono-wire Force net wrapped her and Soltic. The toothers, crazed as they were whenever they saw fresh meat, struck forward, heedless of the danger, killing themselves trying to rush their new prey from every side at once. In less than a second, the battle was over.

Eight of the fish had been real. Vanya plucked those rads out with practiced, telekinetic ease. With the same sort of ease, she flicked the fish parts into the dark water. With a secondary motion of Force, she brushed the blood into the water, too. The red stain spread out into the deeper darkness. The tentacle beast appeared almost instantly this time, but it did not breach the surface. It reached up into the shallows to grab the fish bits and drag them all the way down into the inscrutable depths—

Another radiant eel captured another coral mass on the other side of the dungeon. Too far away to reach in time, unless Soltic and Vanya exposed themselves to danger.

Vanya turned away from the disappearing mass of illuminated coral, saying, “Might not be time based; might be treasure-taking based. Or both. Actually. It’s probably both.”

Soltic shivered, and it was not involuntary. This whole place had a trick to it. As he led the way to the next coral growth, he said, “The only dungeon I like is the one you made back home. I don’t feel safe inside these things.”

Vanya smiled a little, walking beside him, saying, “They’re not safe, so it’s good that you don’t feel safe. These places are learning experiences, though. This one only really allows Force magic so it’s a bit simple, but the strength of that conviction toward Force shows that the mind controlling the dungeon knows what they’re doing. If they didn’t have that sort of conviction in the rules, they couldn’t create resources.”

They reached the next coral.

Soltic severed the coral in half, carving it from the top to the bottom right edge, missing the illuminated divot in the middle by the perfect amount. That severed edge of coral slipped down into the water beside the road, sending up a minor plume of water, and one very large translucent bubble.

The bubble popped, releasing a great black shark, all teeth and jagged edges and snarling mouth opened wide, pointed right at Soltic only a meter away. It was already charging. For almost everyone else in the world, it would have been a terrifying sight.

But Soltic salivated.

He carved the beast in several parts, knowing exactly how to move his sword to kill the thing quickly and then shave it up into wonderful flanks. Not a single bit was wasted as flesh fell to the floor of the dungeon, organized into long cuts of dense white meat and chewy fins and even the head, set aside and ready for crunching down. The jaws had to be removed, though, which Soltic did with a practiced cut-n-tug—

“The octopus is going to take it,” Vanya said near the end, almost ruining the moment.

Soltic paused. He looked over his kill.

… He almost whined.

Erick absolutely loved a few different types of food as a dragon. Scarlet kings; a big tuna-like fish from the Forest of Glaquin, near Yggdrasil and Treehome. Bread with butter and sugar, perhaps surprisingly or perhaps not. Bread with sauces was good too, like noodles and such. Cows of all kinds; any hoofed animal, really. Fish, generally… Okay. Well. Dragons loved food of all kinds. Maybe Erick didn’t have any particularly favorite food at all. Scarlet kings ranked high, though, and so did great black sharks.

He had shared a meal of great black sharks with Kirginatharp and Bright Smile one time, as a part of some general treaty talks, and then again a few more times with just Kirginatharp. Great black shark was wonderful, and you only needed one in order to feel full.

They were utterly disgusting to eat as a person, though.

Soltic looked at his meal, and realized that he wasn’t going to get to enjoy it. He’d have to transform in order to enjoy it, and that wasn’t happening, but more than that...

Soltic watched as a tentacle slipped out of the water’s edge, questing for food, following the blood trail toward its meal. The octopus’s arm found the 3-meter-long flank of white meat, ready for eating. Like a cat testing if it was okay to take this food off this plate, the octopus decided that it must be okay, and then it hooked the edge with a single fanged sucker and dragged the food down into the depths.

Soltic watched it go.

He watched more tentacles quest out of the water and grab all the rest of his nicely-cut meal.

Finally, the only thing that remained was the offal and the spine, along with its collection of bones. The tentacle touched that denuded bone as though it wasn’t sure it wanted this thing, either, but then, almost reluctantly, it grabbed that part and dragged it down into the waters.

A gush of ocean surged over the walkway, washing away the blood and splashing up Soltic’s and Vanya’s legs.

Perhaps alarmingly, the blood and fish butchery and all that… It all smelled great.

“… I’m more hungry than I thought,” Soltic said.

Vanya was focused on something else entirely, already casting several small spells in sequence. Soltic almost asked her what was going on, but she raised her hand, asking for silence, her eyes focused on the horizon; at the other coral growths.

Silence grew. Time ticked on. She repeated her diagnostic spells a few times.

Soltic waited a full three minutes and four iterations to interrupt, “What?”

Vanya suddenly realized where she was and what she was doing. “Sorry. I was distracted. We’ll get you food, and soon. First—” She rattled off, “A few things. First, you should actually make a dungeon one day. Not only because it’d be a fantastic source of food, but you can finally put up your own idea of what a Script should be. You should have done this long before now just so that you could put out your idea of a new version of a Script, but maybe you’ll get some time while we’re on vacation. And what’s more! You don’t even have to put a repro inside of it. You can do what they did here: you can find a cooperative, naturally-born dungeon master from some other dungeon, and have them copy themselves into many different dungeons of your choice.” She gestured to where the tentacles had vanished, saying, “That octopus is the dungeon master, for sure. That we didn’t attack it, and now that you’ve gifted it food, it is playing nice, for it is a rather unusually cooperative version of a prismatic octopus. The radiant eel hasn’t taken away another coral and it’s been about 6 minutes now.”

Erick knew about prismatic octopuses. Jane had a prismatic octopus Familiar Form. They were supposed to be smart, yet short-lived creatures.

Smart enough to work with, in a dungeon?

Well maybe. Dungeon cores created dungeon master slimes, and those slimes copied real things, and those dungeon masters were often much smarter than the creature they copied, usually turning semi-sapient (if not outright sapient) in the process.

Soltic offered, “Or maybe they introduced a prismatic octopus variant to these dungeons, and those copies became rather cooperative. No idea what happened to the original, though.”

“It’s a Variant, for sure; too big and no signs of expert, non-magical camouflage. But you’re mistaken about them taking a prismatic octopus and having the monster repro itself… or however you want to consider such a thing as possible.” Vanya offered, “Perhaps they took the core of a prismatic octopus and gave it over to the dungeon master slime? But no. I don’t think they did. I think they just used the interface options anyone can use, when it comes to a dungeon core. Some conquering force found the core, and told it to spawn someone capable of following instructions, and so the dungeon core spat out this octopus here. From there, the octopus became a real being with a real core, eventually, and then they repro’d that octopus across all the other dungeons… Maybe.” She said, “They’re all supposed to be the same, after all.”

“No way to know for sure without delving the other dungeons, but I suppose you could ask everyone back at the guildhouse now that you know what to look for.”

“There’s so many different ways it could have happened.” Vanya smiled brightly. “Let’s take apart the rest of the fish into proper meals for our dungeon master; maybe they can even answer some questions for us!”

Vanya reached the next coral quickly, sliced off the top, and then took the goods. Five bubbles spawned from the waters, releasing five near-invisible jellyfish-like things, each of them trailing tendrils off into the air. They were monsters, for they had rather visible rads in their centers, but they were little more than slimes in temperament. None of them attacked. Vanya didn’t attack, either. She had been prepared to gift the dungeon freshly-filleted fish, but since that did not happen, she was testing the dungeon in another way; taking the non-violent approach.

Nothing happened for four minutes, except for the gentle ascent of the jellyfish toward the ocean-like surface at the roof of the dungeon. Soon, the jellyfish reached that surface, and their trailing filaments and translucent bodies added a bit more refraction to the sunlight that streamed through the gentle waves. Those filaments were at least 20 meters away from reaching here, at the floor, where coral grew at the edges of stone barges, atop an abyss; they weren’t a danger at all.

“… I don’t think anything is going to happen,” Soltic eventually said.

Vanya agreed.

They moved on to the next treasure coral. Soltic broke it apart and another great big bubble appeared, releasing a very plump tuna-like racerjack; a bright blue and yellow sport fish found here in the Archipelago. It wasn’t a monster at all, which is why it instantly flopped out of the air and landed in the waters, where it raced away—

The racerjack thrashed under the water, ten meters away, and suddenly the blue foam turned red. The octopus had gotten its fill, in its own way.

The next nine corals each released a real fish or some non-threatening monster life. Jellyfish sometimes, but also some actual slimes twice more. The octopus ignored the jellyfish, for those things either floated up and away, or drifted on the air down here, but the dungeon master feasted on the fish, which, since they were not monsters, always flopped into the darker waters and then met a quick end.

Eventually, Soltic and Vanya reached the end of the easily-reached corals. They had been here an hour already, and they only had a 2 hour time-slot. They stood at the edge of the road; It was time to make a decision.

“Do we try flying across the waters?” Soltic asked, “Or leave?”

Vanya instantly conjured a bridge made of Force, and began walking across, saying, “We go get the rest of the—”

Tentacles sprouted out of the water, instantly wrapping around Vanya, breaking her spellwork and all her secondary attempts to save herself as it dragged her down into the depths. It had taken literally less than a half-second for her to die, ripped apart by flensing tentacles.

Soltic did not panic. He did not pause.

But it did take him several moments to manually cast [Return], pushing his core much harder than he should, working in Elemental Mystical in order to twist that much mana into a proper working of the spell he needed to cast.

[Return].

- - 

Return, instant, self, 10,000 mana + Variable

Rewind your time by at least 10 Script seconds.

- -

Suddenly, Soltic stood near Vanya, on the edge of the roadway. Vanya conjured a bridge—

And Soltic put a hand on her shoulder, stopping her. He frowned. “It doesn’t work.”

Vanya’s eyebrows creased together. She huffed. “Well that’s unexpected. I assume it just… Took me, without me able to stop it?”

“Correct,” Soltic said, “You mounted a small defense, but it restricted the dungeon more and more, and collapsed your death into an absolute outcome. Or something. I’m sure you’ll experience it on your own. Later.” He looked up. “Or we could build a very tall bridge, but I assume that’s not going to work, either. Let’s leave.”

Vanya frowned a little bit at everything except Soltic. “… Fine, fine. We can leave. I’m low on my own mana anyway.” She lamented, but also exulted, “Every single dungeon is almost like a micro-cosmology all its own, with its own rules and its own terrible dangers. We truly are at the Edge of Everything when we’re inside one of these, so I suppose… we should… Go slower.” She looked to Soltic, adding, “Even if [True Resurrection] is folded into this particular micro-cosmology at the start.”

“I’m not watching you die.”

“Yes, yes,” Vanya said with a small grin, “Death is pretty shitty for me, too.”

Soltic and Vanya turned around and headed toward the exit. They were not accosted on their way out.

Though once they stepped through the black [Gate], the Gold Taker was waiting for them in the sky above, like a thousand-tentacled invisible, unknowable octopus. It reached into their bags and suddenly, 80% of everything they had taken from the dungeon was gone.

- - - -

Vanya laughed as she announced, “29 gold! That’s all we got to keep!”

On the other side of the dinner table, Barda and Nero chuckled.

Vanya and Soltic had gone to dinner at the guild restaurant and had just ordered their appetizers when their new friends showed up. Vanya invited them to join and talk about the dungeon.

Nero, smiling, asked, “You didn’t manage to make it to the other side of the dungeon, did you?”

Vanya thumbed at Soltic, saying, “I wanted to go for it but he doesn’t like to see me die.”

Barda happily asked, “Did you get to see the wyrm?”

“Nope!” Vanya began, “We got in there with all our gear and spellwork active, as you do, and then it all got stripped away…”

Barda and Nero nodded along as Vanya went through the story of their first delve into the local dungeons, both of the locals nodding along and smirking.

Nero had to stop the story when Vanya got to the part about appeasing the octopus, though, “You did it wrong, there! Sure, it makes for an easy dungeon to appease the master, but you don’t get anything out of it. What you gotta do next time is attack the tentacles.”

“The octopus will kill you, and the danger goes up,” Barda continued, “But more danger means more rads and gold, and when you piss off the master enough then he’ll send the wyrm after you. That wyrm will break the ground, and when it reforms, you’ll be able to get to the other side without venturing over the water itself.”

Nero said, “The radiant eel is a constant thief, but if you can inflict any real damage onto it at all it’ll stop showing up.” He smiled wide. “Whoever went into the dungeon after you probably got a big haul from all your missed loot.”

Vanya sat back in her chair, thinking deeply, as the waiter dropped off drinks. “I can see the value in doing that sort of dungeon— It’s actually a lot more well-made than I thought it would be.”

Barda and Nero both eyed her. Barda asked, “Is it, though?”

“Oh yes.” Vanya said, “The idea of a Force Dungeon is simple enough to do in concept, but in execution, there is a certain art to it. Now that you’ve spelled it out fully… It’s a Force dungeon, so the idea is that you gotta use Force, and force, to get through as quickly as you can. Force is not subtle, except in the viewing. It’s the easiest Element to make [Invisible], like how the octopus is invisible below the abyss, but it’s the hardest to damage... Like the hidden octopus which never fully shows. It’s a simple dungeon, yes, but it is done well. Especially if the dungeon master is an octopus. Prismatic octopus, I assume?”

Nero said, “That’s a bit of a question for most of us lay-folk. Most money is on the octopus being the master, yes. Some people think it’s just a hidden boss. No one has ever managed to kill it, though, so we don’t know.”

“There’s also the radiant eel,” Barda said. “Now that thing is smart, and it’s also the thing that puts the corals back together when people leave. The eel very well could be the master.”

“More of a time-gate, though,” Soltic asked, “Right?”

“Probably,” Nero said, unsure.

“It’s definitely a time-gate,” Barda said.

Vanya and Soltic had decided earlier to do some pushing with the appropriate people, to see what came out of a certain kind of talking, if the opportunity should present itself. This, here, was a good opportunity.

So Vanya said, “These dungeons could do a lot more, though. A lot more. You wouldn’t even have to change much about them, either, except spread them out so they had room to grow properly and put a human repro inside— Well. Human, incani, whatever.”

Vanya had set the hook.

For the rest of dinner, Nero and Barda danced around that hook, but they did not openly take the bite.

- - - -

In the morning, Soltic and Vanya went to breakfast, both of them avoiding the mad dash for dungeon spots happening two rooms over. Barda and Nero greeted them before they entered the dining hall. Both the strong woman and the skinny man were wearing nicer-than-usual clothes, their emotions more solid on their face than they had been; they had decided something.

Barda began, “I’m afraid we haven’t been truly honest with you two, and I think you two know this, somehow.”

“We’re not only normal delvers for here at the Pit.” Nero said, “We represent a group of concerned citizens, worried over interlopers coming into these lands to disturb what we’ve got going on, but who also want all of this disturbed a great deal in order to get a Grand Dungeon in this land. We want a Grand Dungeon like the ones they have over in Candlepoint, and the Freelands, and Songli, and all the other places.”

“We checked up on you in the guild registry.” Barda said, “We liked what we saw, Vanya Silver.”

Nero asked, “Would you two be interested in accompanying us to town? To speak to some people? To maybe get a job here, and to make this land truly resourceful?”

Vanya took it all in, pretended to be slightly surprised, then strongly said, “I would like that meeting. Why are we meeting?”

And Soltic played his part, too, looking concerned, and asking, “Are you really considering this?”

Vanya acted, “We’re thinking of settling down on the Surface anyway?”

“Yes. But here? This is… This is work without advancement— No offense meant, Nero, Barda. But Storm’s Edge is not Candlepoint, or the surrounding lands.”

Nero spoke up, “We want it to be, though.”

Soltic looked at Nero for a moment longer, then he turned to Vanya. “You could do so much more at the Crystal Forest, near the main Network.”

“It’s just a talk?” Vanya asked.

Nero supplied, “A simple discussion! No promises yet.”

“But there could be a lot of money in it for you, and the weight of a major city in order to bring your ideas to fruition,” Barda added.

“I’m going to take that discussion, Soltic,” Vanya said.

“… Okay. Whatever you want,” Soltic said, pretending not to be too happy about it.

But inwardly he was thrilled.

This was a lot different than being the Apparent King. He hadn’t needed to turn one day into four. He hadn’t needed to wake up early because of some emergency. He hadn’t needed to kill anyone, or upend a city’s entire way of life, or give any sort of unilateral decree as the Apparent King. This was how normal people did normal business, and it was great.

This was all going so well!

… So why did he feel like shit?

- - - -

They had to fly to get to Storm’s Edge in any reasonable amount of time, but Vanya had a good Platform spell, so they rode that Platform through the forest until they popped up above the treeline a few kilometers from the city. From there, Nero pointed to a line of traffic flying through the sky, where people floated past wardlight markers, following along to designated landing spots in the city proper. Vanya joined the flow.

The city of Storm’s Edge sprawled out below them, a mess of humanity and incani and demi, mostly, but there were dragonkin districts as well, and a large shifter community, all organized into off-white stone buildings, with bright, colorful roofs. The land was a rainbow from this angle, and Soltic smiled as he looked down upon the world. This was his usual perspective, and he missed it a little bit. Paradoxically, he also missed just living among people; being there on the ground with everyone else. Simply going to a restaurant and not being stared at or, in some cases, screamed at, for what he had done in one part of the world or another…

He liked this simpler kind of life as ‘Soltic’, and whatever he was doing here with ‘Vanya’, and all of that.

He missed helping people, though.

It hadn’t even been three full days since he adopted this ‘Soltic’ persona, and Erick was already ready to do something drastic. Right now he was helping to cement Quilatalap in the area, and to get Yggdrasil’s seal weakened, but later he would be… He wasn’t quite sure.

He had not had multiple days off of work in a decade, though calling being a ‘king’ something as simple as ‘work’ was completely missing the realities of the ‘job’. That was his Earth-sensibilities talking again, he thought, as Vanya landed the Platform in the designated unloading square, and the four of them walked toward the noble district, under Nero’s guidance. As they passed a checkpoint easily, for the guards knew Nero personally, Erick wondered at what the rest of his life would bring him, and the world.

Up until two weeks ago he had known the shape of his life.

Now, things were different. Now, Yggdrasil wanted to be free, and Erick had to give that to him.

Erick’s repro, Ezekiel, was good with developing Earth technology for the common people, and that seemed to be a great idea… which is probably why Ezekiel chose to do that—

Erick wasn’t even sure where his thoughts were going at the moment. He knew his future. Soon, Yggdrasil would separate, and Ophiel would too, and then Erick would spend time with them, and eventually go back to House Benevolence and take on a much smaller role in the world as he raised his kids. Casting his sight through Ophiel (and realizing, all over again, that Ophiel wouldn’t be a part of him in a few months) Erick saw that Kiri was doing fine. Mostly. The Gate Network was operational, but Kiri was running herself ragged trying to keep it all together. Erick would probably help with that when he got back, and that’d be fine.

Yes.

That was the rest of his life, then.

Go back home eventually; and to take up a smaller mantle in the House. All this here was a trial run to see how the House got along without him, which was rather necessary, really. There would be problems made apparent through his absence. He would fix those problems when he got back, and ensure the system wouldn’t break in those ways ever again.

So for now, he’d enjoy himself.

Maybe he could do some fun things with some esoteric magics, actually— Oh! He was pretending to be a warrior right now, but he had never gone very far with the warrior-side of magic, so perhaps he could actually do some of that… That all seemed boring, though, now that Erick actually considered the option. What was there to being a warrior, anyway, aside from using a weapon to hit things harder, and learning how to move faster and shrug off damage?

That’s all a mage did, and mages had many more tools than warriors.

But as far as Esoteric spellwork went; Erick had never done as much with Book Magic as he could have. Or with Destruction, or Chaos, or Order. There was lots of spellwork that was simply too far out of his scope of power, or time, to learn. Mind Magic in particular was outside of his capabilities—

He could learn some Mind Magic! Spend a good hundred years trying to ‘awaken his mind slime’.

… Doing some fun things with Book Magic seemed better.

The diagnostic spells Quilatalap used to interface with a dungeon directly were Book Magic. Erick did not know those specific spells yet. But he felt like he should. They weren’t perfect interfaces, but they helped a lot, and would allow him to check out a dungeon in better ways than performing tests or asking a dungeon master about their abode.

Erick decided; He’d ask Quilatalap about those diagnostic spells when they were done here.

As Nero led them to a mansion on a hill, surrounded by gardens and overlooking the city, Erick imagined that he would have his hands full in the coming years with actually raising Ophiel and Yggdrasil into proper adults. But it might be nice to test out his ideas for a new Script, inside a dungeon. Ezekiel was probably doing something to that effect inside the Grand Dungeon at Candlepoint, but Erick doubted that they would come up with the same idea for Script 2.0. Erick had thought about Script 2.0 at least ten thousand times, and each time his thoughts had shifted a little bit on what sort of system would be best.

Sininindi had a clear idea of what she wanted her Script 2.0 to look like, though, for Vanya was speaking tentatively on that right now, to the people that Nero and Barda had brought them to see. Those people weren’t being very solid with any answers, though. They were dancing around the subject of Storm’s Edge’s dungeons doing more than they were like Nero and Barda had danced around the subject at dinner last night.

Lord Jarod Maryol and Lady Glariol Maryol. Both of them were human, in their 60s, and vaguely known to Erick before this meeting. He recalled something about them and a connection to the Dungeon Guild, and a family history of being adventurers. From the grand look of their estate on a hill and their maintained physiques, that information seemed plausible. Also, their names were in the collected folder of the Regency spy over at the dungeon town, among the information on Barda Highstaff and Nero Maryol. Nero was a cousin, though; not a direct descendant, as confirmed by Jarod himself when Vanya brought up the name over tea and cookies. Nero didn’t like that he was ‘just a cousin’, but he hid that expression rather well; he had a lot of experience hiding that expression, based on what Soltic was seeing.

It seemed that pleasantries were over, and now they were on to the verbal jousting part of it all.

Soltic had seen no reason to get involved prior to now beyond the simple ‘hellos’ and ‘nice house you have here’, and ‘Oh, you two were adventurers?’, for he could do these sorts of pleasantries while wasted-drunk and running on ten minutes of sleep in the past week; and he had. But at the first sign of some sort of tension, Soltic decided to get on with it. He spoke up, “I appreciate the history of your family, stretching back hundreds of years, but I thought we were here to discuss the betterment of Storm’s Edge’s dungeons, Lord Jarod.”

The room came to order as Jarod and the rest of the people in the room eyed Soltic, as though he was a quiet wolf who had grumbled a small growl.

Lord Jarod decided to get on with it. “I will be open. The Goddess Sininindi has cast a wide net and trawled for whoever she felt might be receptive to her desires, bringing an eclectic collection of souls to this land, to work in her name. We’re rather certain that you’re here at her command.”

Vanya and Soltic showed no surprise at the accusation, and that told the lord and lady all they needed to know; they were right on the money.

Nero and Barda both went a little wide-eyed, and then they looked to Soltic and Vanya as though they had lied to them. Which Soltic and Vanya had, sort of, by acting as though they weren’t here for exactly this reason. And then Nero smirked a little, and looked to Barda, who mouthed to her man, ‘Yes; you were right. Shut up about it.’

Lord Jarod continued, “The problem with remaking the dungeons as she has asked you, is that she is as inscrutable as the seas sometimes, and many people here have many different ideas of how best to enact her will. Quite a few others are fine with the dungeons we have, for they were the result of Sininindi’s will made manifest through a few sailors and storm priests working together, several years back.”

“But she wants a Grand Dungeon now.” Lady Glariol asked, “Which I assume is why you are here, Miss Silver? Mister Cross? Assuming is in poor taste, though. So I would have a real answer.”

Soltic said, “Vanya more than I; she was Called, I'm merely here to see her safe.”

Vanya explained, “We’ve had contact with one person already; Sailor Asmus at the Blue Temple. We have been warned to keep our heads down until we’re ready to tackle the issue of constructing a Grand Dungeon for Storm’s Edge.”

Lord Jarod seemed pleased by that, but he held back his full judgment as he said, “We have done a little investigation, and what we suspect is that you’re using false names, but that you have been using these names for a while. Years. You’ve even made lives under these names, and the dungeons you have registered with the Guild are well made. Profitable and educational.”

Now it was Soltic’s turn to be a little surprised. Jarod wasn’t testing the waters with a spurious claim, that ‘Soltic’ and ‘Vanya’ were fake; he had done the research, or his people had done the research, and they had come across the obvious end of the realities of Soltic and Vanya’s lives.

There were several general kinds of nobles, according to Erick’s experience. There were the ones who did the bare minimum and lived life on the laurels of their properties and investments. There were ones who squandered everything and were soon reduced to commoners. There were the ones who moved in their own circles and never left those lofty palaces. And then there were the ones who worked whatever systems they could work in order to acquire and grow whatever power they could get their hands on.

Lord and Lady Maryol seemed that final type.

Vanya denied nothing, “Fake names; lived for a while. Is that a problem?”

There were a lot of different ways for that news to be understood. Immortals, from Benevolence dragon to otherwise, hiding out as someone else. Face stealers, but probably not, considering Soltic and Vanya weren’t under sudden attack right now. Spies, appointed by whoever.

But a certain tension bled out of the room, because Vanya had not denied it.

And everything else was lining up well for everyone here.

“Not a problem,” Lord Jarod said, his voice easier than it had been. “I don’t care about your specific history, for Sininindi’s word is enough, but I am glad you have not denied it. It will make working with you a lot easier, if you are willing.”

“I would need to be informed of who, exactly, I am working with,” Vanya said, “If you please.”

Jarod said, “We’re former adventurers who are keen on ensuring that a greatness takes hold in this land; a true teaching of magic and a readying for whatever will come next. We might not be able to benefit from it ourselves when the new worlds open up, but we want our children to know how to cast magic in a land completely devoid of the Script.”

Ah.

Soltic suddenly understood.

Lord Jarod was not exactly lying, but he wasn’t telling the full truth. And since Vanya wanted the truth, and because Lord Jarod was dancing around that truth, and he would continue to dance around that truth—

“Oh! I get it now.” Soltic exclaimed, “You’re all cultists.”

Vanya breathed out a little; yup, she saw it now, too.

Jarod, Glariol, and Nero, all had a very practiced, ‘I’m not a cultist of Melemizargo’ face, which they readily employed. Anger, disbelief. The frustration that they had been found out was barely there. Nero almost got the chance to say something, too, no doubt to speak of his innocence. And he was kinda innocent, but not really. He was innocent of the ‘crime’ of existing. It had been a decade since cultists were executed out of hand for the crime of simply being and thinking of Melemizargo as the only real god. He was not innocent of lying to her.

And Soltic was embarrassed he had not seen that particular foible until right now. He had assumed they were all cultists of Melemizargo.

Barda spoke first, anger showing on her face, as she said, “What the fuck, Soltic? That is the rudest—” She was apoplectic, her words cut off to one final statement, “What the FUCK?”

“Well you’re not a cultist,” Soltic rapidly said, “Sorry for making that mistake. Anyway! Vanya here is something of a cultist, and so are all the Maryols. I’m not, though. I’m more of a ‘follower’ of the Wizard; welcoming to all faiths, long as they’re decent people who do no harm and work toward the common good.”

Vanya simply watched the Maryols, her eyes focused on the most dangerous people in the room.

Barda stammered, unsure what to say to that. So she glanced at Nero and the Maryols and saw something there that she did not want to see; three cultists conversing through telepathic tendrils of thought, trying to get their story straight.

A few moments passed, quick as three blinks—

Nero quietly turned to Barda, whispering, “We should talk in the other room,” as he reached for her arm—

Barda yanked herself away, her eyes going wild, her voice low, “What the fuck.”

And then Barda shot to her feet and went for the door, almost ripping it off its hinges in her haste to escape. Nero rapidly followed, quietly asking her to slow down and to talk—

Vanya said to the other cultists in the room, “In the Dark of this new information, I would like to discuss the shape of our partnership going forward.”

Jarod and Glariol both inhaled softly.

“Implying a partnership before we’ve agreed to anything is a bold move, Miss Silver,” Jarod said.

And then Glariol got up, saying, “I need to attend to Barda, and do a few other things.” She looked to her husband, and then she left, closing the Barda-broken door and [Mend]ing it back into position as she rushed away, to solve a possible problem with words.

Soltic said, “Apologies again. I thought that all of you were in on it.”

Jarod sighed a little. “Barda needed to be brought into the Dark eventually, but you do understand that airing this Gloom will likely see us driven from town, and if that happens, then I will do my utmost to ensure that whatever fate you meet is similarly awful.”

It was a casual threat, meant in the way that one can hope that the house of another burns down unexpectedly, or that all the milk touched by an enemy turns sour. Simple threats. There was no real wish for death behind any of Jarod’s words, and so, Erick felt rather happy about this whole thing. It was probably going to work out well.

It was delightful, really, to be part of casually-threatening negotiations that didn’t have the ‘bad end’ be something like attempted murder.

“I would expect nothing less.” Soltic said, “But we’re all a little bit close to the Dark here, and summary execution of a known cultist is no longer lawful in any Gate Network land, so I just wanted to get the [Sneak]ing out of the way. It never occurred to me that Barda might not be in on it; for that, I apologize again.”

“… I suppose they do things differently where you’re from.”

“There is a Church of Melemizargo right up the street, so… Yes. A bit different.”

Jarod judged Soltic for a moment longer, then he looked to Vanya. “Miss Silver? May I know your real qualifications?”

Vanya smiled a friendly smile, then began, “I know, theoretically, how to make a Grand Dungeon, but I have heard that every single one is different, and it takes a certain set of powers working outside the dungeon and inside the dungeon in order to give it the colloquial designation of ‘Grand’. The magical definition is only the start of such a thing, for a Grand Dungeon is more than putting together ten [Fireball]s into a single Grand spell; it is a multiplicative undertaking, where one dungeon makes another better, which makes another better, and so on. Ideally, I will be putting a repro in the dungeon in order to create it right, but before that, I have several diagnostic and interface-type spells that will allow me a modicum of general control, without me needing to be anywhere in direct control of the dungeon.” She said, “This particular skill of mine, developed through assistance with the Dark, will allow us to create and control a dungeon, triggering proper growth, without any public suspecting that we are doing much more than what it appears we are doing. It should allow you to work with the locals in whatever manner you deem proper.”

Jarod’s eyes went a little wide, and then he gained a glimmer of hope. He saw a gift given to him by the Dark, here in Vanya. And then he schooled himself, and gave a small joke, “Since we don’t have a team of Benevolence agents suddenly breaking into our house for future crimes, then I have good hopes for our partnership, Miss Vanya Silver.”

Erick said, “That rarely happens,” and then he realized he was trying not to be the Apparent King who reigned above all, as some detractors and supporters both said sometimes, each with very different meanings behind those sayings. So Soltic said, “I mean… That’s just a rumor, right? It doesn’t actually happen all that often? At least not in the Underworld.”

“Quite wrong, Mister Cross,” Jarod said, his countenance subtly turning from shaken-but-hiding-it, to time-to-counterattack. “The Wizard and the winged one are everywhere they need to be in order to carve out whatever problems the Wizard deems as problems. But. Ahh? I would have thought you would have known that, considering your earlier words, calling yourself a follower of his. While we’re airing stories, I think you might be a Xoatist, not merely a ‘follower’.”

Soltic flinched, for any of a dozen different reasons.

Vanya lightly chuckled.

Jarod smirked. “I tell you now that being a Xoatist around here is barely better than being a cultist. But enough of that. Vanya. I am gladdened to hear of your qualifications. Let us speak of your real ideas regarding a Grand Dungeon of Storm’s Edge.”

Vanya smiled a little bit, then began, “To start with, whatever sort of octopus master inside the dungeons already is rather cognizant and friendly, so I would retain them, and link all seven dungeons through a Ritual To The Dark. I have done such a thing a few times already...”

As Vanya spoke of spellwork to use and what she wanted the dungeon to teach, and of a basic Script interface and designs, most of them derived from requests from Sininindi, Jarod’s earlier hope once again shone forth, taking hold in the subtly-widening pupils of his eyes his eyes like a radiant darkness. He was still slightly skeptical of both Vanya and Soltic, but he was convinced rather quickly that this, here, was his current purpose in life. The gods rarely spoke to anyone, directly, so to hear Vanya speak of godly desires so openly and to not be struck down by lightning —or a sudden inquisition from any number of forces, spying through any number of nonstandard means— helped prove Vanya’s veracity rather well.

There was a reason this house was [Ward]ed very well against spying, and it wasn’t just so that people could have sex behind closed doors without being spied upon by other nobles.

Halfway through Vanya’s presentation Glariol came back, without Nero or Barda. Vanya began explaining again, and soon, Glariol was as excited as her husband. Both of them were doing a very good job of hiding that excitement, though; they were still nobles. Both of them were still worried about Barda, too, but they did not speak on that and no one questioned them about that, either.

Soltic was pretty sure that Barda and Nero would be fine, and that Jarod and Glariol were a good kind of people, even if they were cultists of Melemizargo.

Some of Erick’s best friends were cultists.