223, 2/2

Soltic strode into the garden party from the side entrance, linking House Maryol with House Stormson. He was wearing clothes that were not his own, but which had been [Adjust]ed to him well enough. He looked like a rough sort of gentleman, while Vanya looked like a rough sort of gentlewoman.

Jarod was literally a step ahead of Vanya, and already showing off Vanya to some other noble from Storm’s Edge; one of the hosts of this outdoor gathering. Lord Faar Stormson. Faar was among a good 50 other nobles of various power and influence, and already engaged with three other people when Jarod butted into the conversation with Vanya, but based on Faar’s easy acceptance of Jarod’s interruption, they seemed like good friends. They were neighbors with an entrance between their two properties, so they probably were actually good friends.

Soltic was not invited into that discussion. He just held back for now, though. A few people glanced his way, but they ignored him as Jarod had.

It was a nice sort of event, Soltic figured. Food was in abundance on a long table, with cut fresh fruit arranged on platters, spiral-cut ham in an artful pile, and a bunch of other finger foods along with small breads with which to make sandwiches, if one so desired. Servants were on hand to make sandwiches for those people who couldn’t be arsed to make them themselves. It was probably 11:00 PM, or close to there, so to see this many nobles still out and about was rather odd, but no more odd than anything else Soltic had ever seen.

Maybe they had late parties all the time?

Probably.

Another servant came up to Jarod and handed him a mixed drink on a silver plate, which the lord easily took. Jarod thanked the host for the refill, as he continued to talk up Vanya. Finally, Jarod introduced Soltic, as a matter of politeness, but Soltic didn’t say anything except for ‘Greetings’, along with a little, polite bow. He was playing the part of bodyguard boyfriend; Vanya was the one on display. Soltic was perfectly happy with that, because it wasn’t too long before another servant came by with a pair of glasses of red wine; one for Vanya, and then a second for Soltic.

It was a pretty good vintage.

Soltic smiled a little as he sipped a wine he knew all too well, as evident by the wine bottle, sitting behind the open bar a good ten meters away. This wine was from House Benevolence’s time-enhanced vineyard, and according to the host, he had ‘finally been able to purchase’ some of the ‘300 year old wine’. This was something of a joke of some sorts, apparently, and there was much polite laughter to be had by all. As Soltic listened to Vanya speak to the host about their time in the dungeon, with Jarod interjecting every now and then, Soltic sipped his wine.

… It was really good wine, actually. Before Soltic knew it, he was done with his first glass, and the host encouraged Soltic to have another. The host was trying to distance the brooding, silent Soltic from the bubbly Vanya, and since the separation was fine with Vanya, Soltic walked over and got himself another glass. There wasn’t much else to do, anyway.

The plan was simple, and Jarod and Vanya were already doing the plan, with Lord Faar joining in on the plan rapidly enough, but the target, Aroido Tidewalker, had yet to appear. According to their host, Aroido was inside the house, called away to business. With any luck, he would be back soon enough.

“A refill on the time wine, please,” Soltic asked the barkeep.

The man pouring drinks was a stout young person, dressed in normal finery for nobles, and not at all in the uniform of the servants walking around and handing out drinks and food. He was probably some young son of the house here. Maybe a cousin of this noble family, like how Nero was a cousin in employment of House Maryol.

The barkeep took a look at Soltic. “… Should you be here?”

Soltic smiled a little. “I’ve been to more parties like this than I could count. Right now I’m just playing bodyguard for a potential new dungeon master, if my girlfriend gets her way.”

The barkeep relaxed then refilled Soltic’s wine, saying, “Good luck to her; she’ll need it.”

“Ha! I was all for us moving to Candlepoint, or somewhere around there, but there’s something about Storm’s Edge that captured her attention. I heard that this happens to a lot of dungeon masters, and some more than others.”

The barkeep regarded Soltic a bit stronger than before. “Most dungeon masters that pass through here get a feeling and decide to check out that feeling. Dreams of the Goddess, sometimes. Did your woman have a dream like that?”

“Well…” Soltic played at being reluctant, and then decided to not do that anymore. He asked, “Does she actually talk to people sometimes? Solid talk, I mean.”

The barkeep was quietly triumphant in his successful assessment of Soltic and Vanya. Without betraying that emotion at all, he said, “There’s been solid talk in every direction you can think of, except from Her, and that’s fine; the gods are not here to live our lives for us. The real problem is that everyone wants different things out of the dungeons, and the few people who have tried to change the dungeons always cause some sort of small-scale disaster. The Lords and Ladies all desire the dungeons to be more profitable, though, so they keep trying, and that includes Lord Aroido. He’s probably not coming back to the party, though.”

“Ah… Dammit. He’s why we came over here at Lord Jarod’s request.”

The barkeep smirked. “Lady Glariol brought up the topic of dungeons about twenty minutes ago, probably because she knew her husband was bringing in a dungeon master, so Aroido took a bottle of wine and left. I don’t think he’s ready for the next disaster quite yet.”

“I heard it was like 80 dead. Not too sure how long ago it happened, though.”

“Seven months ago. A guy from some small spit of a town on northern Nelboor by the name of Jenkins. The man was a devout follower of Sininindi; a Beastmaster who brought with him that radiant eel which has now been copied into every dungeon we have. It was the only addition of his we kept. Everything else was [Cleanse]d, as far as I’ve heard.”

Soltic reached out his hand for a shake, saying, “I’m Soltic Cross, from down by Geode Bluite.”

“An Underworlder?” The barkeep smiled as he shook Soltic’s hand, saying, “Terop Stormson.”

Soltic paused, as he allowed realization to show on his face. Terop’s smile turned a bit more mirthful. Soltic let go of the noble’s hand, saying, “Ah. Stormson, of the—” He gestured to the party. “Of the Stormsons.”

Terop refilled Soltic’s glass as he asked, “So what can your girl do with a dungeon?”

“Practically everything,” Soltic said, rolling with the conversation. “She’s versed in all magic and most every monster out there. I’m sure if she had the support of a major city, she could make a Grand Dungeon.”

“Sounds great,” Terop said, without meaning it much at all. Then he asked, “Why don’t I know of her?”

Soltic laughed. “Do you know of every dungeon master the world over?”

Terop gave an easy nod, saying, “You’re not new to this at all. Huh. Vanya is likely the same. Good to see.”

“What do you mean?” Soltic asked, mocking offense. “We’re just some delvers.”

“You seem right at home here, and that’s not normal for most delvers.”

Soltic smiled. “What advice would you give someone trying to make a Grand Dungeon out of the Pit?”

“Trying to appease too many people at once collapsed the last dungeon alteration, so don’t do that. All you really need is the Regency and the nobility at your back; the priests of Sininindi will fall in line if you’ve got us, and the Sailors are rather neutral…” Terop’s eyes went west, to the garden entrance. “Ah. Looks like Aroido is coming back after all. My mistake.”

Terop had a rather good mana sense, it seemed. Not nearly as good as Soltic’s, but Terop could see around a hundred meters away, over by the mansion, where a man was walking down the hallway inside the house, headed toward the garden. Though it had been hard to see past some of the Privacy spells layered inside House Stormson, Soltic had noticed the man long before Terop had noticed him.

The man was Aroido Tidewalker, for sure. He was also drunk, in his 40s, dressed in a shimmery dark blue suit, and wearing an expression of sorrow on his face. He held an empty bottle of wine for a moment longer as he walked toward the garden door, and then he realized he was holding an empty bottle. It was the ‘Wizard Wine’, so it wasn’t the cheap stuff, either. He had gotten wasted, for he did not want to be here, but he was here anyway. It was his job. So to do that job, he [Cleanse]d himself. He remained standing even as he winced at the pain of sudden alcohol loss and the resultant dehydration. A flicker of some Healing Magic fixed his dehydration well enough, and a glass of water from a nearby server ensured that the problem remained fixed.

“He’s coming back?” Soltic asked, looking over by the garden door, pretending not to believe Terop.

Terop chuckled once, then said, “Come now, Soltic! Your mana sense is good enough to see him already.”

Soltic’s eyebrows raised as genuine surprise came over him. “And here I was thinking I was being covert.”

“So maybe you’re not that used to noble circles; I spotted you from kilometers away.”

“I can tell you right now, that what you just did was a lot more of an accomplishment than what you believe.”

Terop gave a gentle smile. “Why thank you, Mister Cross, if that is your real name. So what is it, Vanya Silver and Soltic Cross? Silver Cross? Like the Avowed Pacifists use?”

Soltic froze. “Oh. I never noticed that.” He played it off, “… In all these years.” He smiled. “I like it.”

Terop raised an eyebrow. “Huh. So—”

He cut himself short.

For Soltic didn’t manage to hide his surprise as Aroido came out of the mansion with an unexpected guest hanging over his shoulder; an ethereal, many-tentacled thing, invisible to almost all senses, and yet decidedly there, like a [Familiar]. It was hidden almost as well as Ophiel, too, who had remained above and beyond the party, watching quietly with his many eyes. It was very well hidden to mana sense, too; Soltic hadn’t noticed it until he set his actual eyes upon it.

Terop asked, “Or maybe you didn’t see him? For it looks like you know him? Did I overestimate your mana sensing capability, Mister Cross?”

Soltic looked to Terop, and made a snap judgment. “Can you see the thing floating on Aroido’s shoulder? Visually. Not with a mana sense.”

“… What an odd thing to say. No, I cannot.” Terop looked with his actual eyes to make sure. “No?”

Soltic saw that he had made a social blunder of an unknowable sort, and so, as he often did when he made these sorts of mistakes, he thought about reversing time. Once again, he came to the same conclusion he always had; he would not reverse time to undo this faux pas. Magic was fine for solving every single problem in life, except social problems.

“Must be my imagination.” Soltic sipped his wine as he watched Aroido walk across the yard, toward Lord Faar Stormson, Lord Jarod Maryol, and Vanya Silver. The maybe-[Familiar] trailed along near its maybe-maker, undulating a bit like a cross between a pufferfish and a jellyfish, looking like a very small version of the Gold Taker, that hovered above the dungeons of the Pit. Soltic watched from afar, as he asked Terop, “Have you ever been in the dungeon—”

A few things happened fast.

Jarod introduced Vanya to Aroido as a visiting dungeon master. It was a pleasant enough introduction, with a few small smiles and a joyful tone. Aroido froze a little; barely perceptible. But the tentacle-[Familiar] expanded, a great central eye developing in the middle of the creature as it stared down at Vanya.

And Vanya looked at the thing, then turned back to Aroido. It was barely a sight; almost not a real look at all. It was enough to let the thing know that it had been seen; that it was witnessed. Erick had no idea why Quilatalap had done that. Maybe he had seen something he didn’t want to see? Who knew.

The tentacle thing attacked.

Vanya was half-unwoven in front of Soltic’s eyes, before Quilatalap stopped the action and controlled the situation. But the damage had been done. Vanya stood as a creature of bloody bone, with flesh missing from half of her body, while those kilos of viscera had been spread around the area in an explosion of gore. His true nature as Quilatalap wasn’t exactly revealed, but it was surely compromised, and his fanged soul was on full display, so some of the smarter people here would know who he was.

Terop instantly knew who he was, gasping, “Quila—”

Erick did not waste a moment. It was a lot easier to dump well over a quarter-million effective mana on the appropriate spell here, under the power of the Script, than it was in the dungeon. His Intelligence Stat was the only reason he could do this at all, at this level of not-real-Wizardry power.

[Return].

Soltic once again stood beside the bar, holding his wine. He had just given Terop a compliment.

Terop gave a gentle smile. “Why thank you, Mister Cross—”

Soltic set down his drink, saying, “Thanks for the talk, Terop. Gotta be closer to this.”

Terop responded behind him, giving an approving comment about how comfortable Soltic was butting into noble talks, but Soltic was already focused on Vanya ahead of him. Quickly, he mana sensed the recent past, reacquainting himself with the full breadth of the conversation between Vanya, Jarod, Lord Faar Stormson, and the incoming Lord Aroido Tidewalker. He also gave a direct, surreptitious glare at the thing hovering above Aroido’s shoulder, as Aroido was walking his way.

Vanya was a bit weirded out by the sudden inclusion of her boyfriend into a conversation that did not include him, and so were the other two, especially here at the introduction to the target, but Vanya easily recovered as she saw the look on Soltic’s face. She said, “Ah. It appears Soltic is here to talk me up to the Dungeon Lord.”

Lord Faar judged Vanya poorly for Soltic’s introduction, and for Vanya’s own words on the subject, but he kept his comment short, “Another person to speak for you is a good idea, for half of what you suggest seems impossible.”

The conversation rapidly closed ranks, back to normal, as Vanya easily said, “Nothing I have suggested is impossible, Lord Faar. One only has to look at the Grand Dungeon of Dungeon Island, or the Grand Dungeon of Benevolence, or the one at Bluite, or at the Highlands. All of them work on the same principles.”

Soltic listened to Vanya, but he also paid special attention to the thing floating behind Aroido, and how Aroido’s once-dutiful stride across the lawn had turned into something less sure; more cautious. That was because the thing hovering behind him was freaking out. It had seen when Soltic had seen it, and now, tentacles came out, and so did eyes.

And then the thing fled, vanishing entirely as it disappeared into the wind. Aroido resumed walking as though nothing had happened, though everyone had seen the unnatural pause in his stride. No one except for Soltic and Vanya had seen the creature, and—

Vanya said to Erick, “Reverse it again. Tell me what you saw afterward.”

Quilatalap could sense when Time Magic was used around him, though he had no idea the reasons for that use unless he had been brought into the fold in that use. He could even reverse time himself, a little, but Erick was just so, so much better at it.

[Return].

This time Soltic walked over to Vanya, sending to her, ‘Do not be alarmed, but I had to reverse time twice now. Don’t look at the tentacle thing. Don’t acknowledge it at all. The first time it tried to kill you for talking about being a dungeon master. The second time it ran off terrified that we both had seen it. I can reverse smaller times again, but the first one took a lot out of me. We’re here at this juncture now.’

‘Understood,’ Vanya sent, as she continued to talk to Faar and Jarod, betraying nothing untoward at all, as she casually ignored Soltic’s physical presence.

Both Faar and Jarod ignored his presence, too, though Faar had a flicker of concern pass across his unassuming face as he glanced at Soltic. He was worried about why Vanya’s boyfriend appeared when the Tidewalker came out. When Vanya was done saying her current words, and as Ariodo was walking down the garden path toward them, Faar said, “Another person to speak on your capabilities will be good, but this [Telepathy] during a polite conversation is a bad look.”

Vanya said, “Apologies, Lord Faar.”

Aroido walked across the lawn, his passenger following along dutifully as though it was his [Familiar]. But it wasn’t… Probably. Erick couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he knew that the tentacle thing was something other, and that Ariodo suffered its presence because of some unknown necessity. Duty, perhaps, but to whom? There was really only one answer there; duty to the Regency.

If it weren’t for how the tentacle-thing acted when it saw Vanya, and then how it acted when it saw that two people could see it, then Soltic would have dismissed his concerns over the thing like he had dismissed all the bigger versions of it, hovering above the monster road and the Pit, where people called it the Gold Taker, and yet… it oversaw all of… The dungeons.

… Wait.

Was it Everbless?

He was too young to be making [Familiar]s though, wasn’t he? Well. No. Maybe not.

Ah.

Shit.

This could get bad.

‘I think the tentacle thing is Everbless,’ Soltic sent to Vanya.

Before Faar got upset at the overt [Telepathy], before Jarod joined him, Vanya easily whispered to him, “Now now, Soltic. We’ve had enough of that—” Her words cut off, and then she cut off the [Telepathy] connection from her end, severing the connection like she had given Soltic a small slap across the face.

It was the right thing for her to do, socially, and Soltic accepted the reprimand with dignity.

For Lord Faar put on a gentle smile, as he extended a hand out and open, to greet Lord Tidewalker, “Welcome back to the party, Aroido.”

Aroido steeled himself, “Yes yes. Lovely party. Please get on with the sales pitch for the dungeon idea. Miss Vanya Silver, if I have been informed correctly? Get on with it.”

Vanya took center stage as she did a small curtsy. “Greetings, Lord Tidewalker. I’m a dungeon master from near Geode Bluite, with a few dungeons to my name, and a few more out in the depths. My partner Soltic Cross and I were journeying to Candlepoint and maybe Dungeon Island to see about getting into the Grand Dungeon creation business on the Surface, where all the real action is, but I had a dream of storms, and so we sojourned here, to see about plying our trade at Storm’s Edge. I am fully capable of working with the needs of a large city and the assorted people therein to bring prosperity and true magics to a great many people. My initial idea is to start with the seven dungeons you already have and join them together, reusing most of the resources I have been able to see there as a public delver. The octopus and the coral wyrm are wonderful, and the current public areas will work well for a first floor. From there, I would create a False Society in the center dungeon with six Primary Element dungeons all around the central one. Delvers would come in from the outside to farm the dungeons, and trade with the people of the False Society, while the people of the False Society work from the inside outward to become real people, and to bring their gold, knowledge, and themselves, out into the real world.”

The tentacle thing had been surreptitiously gazing around until Aroido had said ‘dungeon idea’, and then it focused; It opened its central eye and stared down at the petite woman standing before Aroido, its tentacles whipping around for a moment before it settled down, and listened.

It poked at her with a tentacle.

The tentacle passed right through Vanya’s head, twisted around a bit, and then pulled back. There was no blood. No gore. Nothing happened. Vanya did not flinch at all as she spoke her speech. The tentacle was completely ethereal and intangible, so it didn’t do anything, but it was still a violent-seeming action.

Soltic managed to delay his own flinching for a moment after the poking, so that he could play off his flinch as a worry over Vanya’s words, when she spoke of the ‘dream of storms’ part. Aroido’s eyes turned to him when he flinched, but then went right back to staring down Vanya, trying to judge her on every word spoken. Soltic would have been able to gauge whatever was happening there if he had had some more time to see and think—

But then the tentacle thing poked him next, going for his heart.

And Erick flexed a Force spell on his chest. It was instinctive. It was maybe the wrong move. But it had been done, and Erick had done it, and now they were here.

The tentacle deflected.

Like a completely weightless thing, the invisible, intangible thing had struck Soltic’s chest, and the strike went wide, like a stream of mana hitting lead. Soltic had not expected that, but he betrayed nothing on his face, or in the steady beat of his heart.

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He had gotten used to controlling his physiological reactions these days; he was very good at that when he wasn’t surprised too badly.

While Vanya continued to speak, the tentacle thing jerked back, surprised at Soltic’s power, and then it paused. It focused a hundred eyes on Soltic. It grew in size and concern behind Aroido, thicker tentacles spilling out into the empty air. Soltic didn’t even look at it— Ah. He could play off the deflection as a permanent spell reacting to the attack, couldn’t he? Soltic felt secure in that idea, for there has been no Force at all behind the tentacle’s touch—

The tentacle-thing poked at Soltic’s chest with a wrist-thick spike.

Soltic reinforced his ethereal Force.

The tentacle was like an improbable object meeting a Juggernaut who had decided to stand Unwavering. The tentacle-creature ended up moving backward instead. It did not like this. Like a monster roaring in rage, but on a muted television, out came more tentacles, writhing and whipping, while Aroido, Faar, and Jarod remained completely unaware of the tentacle-thing and Soltic’s interaction.

Aroido gauged Vanya’s speech, then asked, “You would attempt a False Society? Here? You would have us all fall to a ‘slave revolt’, then, and they would be right to revolt.”

“They would not be slaves,” Vanya instantly said, her expression turning harder. “I would not let them be treated as slaves, either.”

“Hmm!” Aroido said, “Easily said by some untested dungeon maker from some simple part of the world where the Geodes solve all your greater problems for you.”

“If that is what you think the Geodes do, then perhaps you know nothing about them, as well.”

Aroido smirked, his combative stance and tone vanishing as he said, “Who doesn’t love a stormy woman—”

Meanwhile, Soltic had just deflected twenty tentacle stabs, each of those stabs going wide after hitting, each of them passing through the other people near Soltic without so much as ruffling hair. Soltic’s mana wasn’t draining that hard, either; ethereal, intangible Force was rather easy to protect against once you—

A tentacle went for his left eye, filling Soltic’s vision with a heat-mirage weapon of slender destruction. He flinched at that attack. He couldn’t help it—

He rubbed that eye, and played off the flinch as something must have gotten in there, or something. The tentacle thing seemed to find great joy in this, for it puffed up and spun around and flexed happily, just like how Yggdrasil sometimes acted out with his [Scry] eyes, but without the tentacles…

And now that the tentacle thing was doing that, there was absolutely no doubt in Soltic’s mind that the tentacle thing was Everbless.

“—So I’ll tell you what.” Aroido said, “You’ve been Called, according to Jarod and Faar over here, and that is the only reason I entertained this conversation at all, but since you speak well enough I suppose I should fully entertain these ideas of yours. Come to the Castle tomorrow, Miss Silver. Mid afternoon, Dungeon Office; you’ll find it well enough. Bring every idea you have, as well as copies of your previous dungeon work, as well as locations. We’ll be checking on those dungeons to make sure you are who you say you are, and if everything goes well, I suspect you’ll get a chance to show your stuff. We’ll go from there, if we get there.” He didn’t bother with Vanya a second longer, as he turned toward Lord Faar and Jarod, saying, “It is getting late, and I must be off. Good night, good sirs.”

Faar and Jarod saw the man off, walking back through the house at Aroido’s side, talking of this and that.

And for a moment, Vanya just stood there, looking appropriately happy at the turn of events.

The tentacle thing had stopped its assault for a while as Aroido spoke of Vanya being ‘Called’, and now it simply looked at Soltic and Vanya, as though it wanted to stick around and investigate. But it couldn’t. The thing— Everbless, for sure. Everbless bounced and fidgeted in the air, his tentacles buzzing outward in clear distress as he turned back and forth, flicking his sight from Soltic to Aroido and back, before turning back to Aroido and hurrying to catch up with the rapidly disappearing man, and the accompanying fellow lords.

Vanya played the part of a happy girlfriend and Soltic played his part, too, as she pulled him down for a quick kiss, and he lifted her up into the air, for a longer one; a celebration of getting their foot in the door on this whole Grand-Dungeon-thing. In the moment, it was only partially an act; Erick was truly happy for Quilatalap, and Quilatalap was truly happy that he would finally get to work on a False Society dungeon. He hadn’t gotten the chance to do that at Candlepoint, or anywhere else, actually.

No wonder he was thrilled about this opportunity.

It wasn’t thirty seconds past the good news when Glariol and Nero came over, and began speaking about dungeon creation with Vanya. From there, Vanya went over to the other noble families, in order to speak with them about her ideas.

Soltic got to hang back and drink wine at the bar with Terop.

As he refilled Soltic’s glass, Terop said, “That’s about as good of a first impression as you can make with Aroido.”

Soltic smiled. “Was it?”

“Oh yes. He’s hooked. He wants to know more. Congratulations on your move to Storm’s Edge.”

Soltic chuckled a little. “I guess so, eh?”