224, 1/2

The day passed quickly. Breakfast had been a working breakfast, with Vanya speaking of dungeon plans and floating lightward diagrams into the air as they all ate fancy, little bacon quiches. The Maryols asked questions, and Vanya gave answers. Soltic had to actually glare at Vanya a few times when she started talking about things such as Elemental Death, and how it related to the coral wyrm.

For Jarod and Glariol were way too interested in that.

“So they’re using Elemental Death in the dungeon?” Jarod asked, nonchalantly. “I had heard you needed to be dead to use that without killing yourself. That to use Death inside a dungeon was to kill everyone who walked inside.”

“That’s not the case at all,” Vanya said, happy to explain and barely acknowledging Soltic’s look at all. “Dungeons can use all manner of Elements safely, as long as they are sequenced correctly. In this case, using Death in a dungeon is as easy as having a Rule where the only magic that can affect delvers will be from an approved list, and then you can keep Elemental Death off of that list and you’re free to use Death anywhere you want in a dungeon at all.”

With raised eyebrows, Glariol stated, “I was unaware that you could do that with a core.”

“You can do practically anything with a dungeon core. They’re less like an extension of the current reality into another, and more like the instantiation of a reality all its own.”

Soltic cleared his throat.

Vanya went on to simpler topics.

They continued to talk for a while, but Jarod and Glariol were already completely convinced of Vanya’s knowledge as of yesterday.

Knowing what Erick now knew about Everbless and Sininindi and Quilatalap, and how an ‘Intervention’ prevented Quilatalap from knowing about how the tentacle-thing was, in fact, Everbless, the entire shape of Sininindi’s plan was rather evident. Evident to Erick, anyway. The goddess of Storm and Sea wanted to have personal tutoring for her son, done by one of the most knowledgeable persons in the world. Her plan was the plan of tens of thousands of others, over the course of Veird’s long history; whenever anyone went into Ar’Kendrithyst searching out the Archlich, this is what they wanted. This personal tutoring.

The morning talking and breakfast spilled over into lunch with Nero and surprisingly, with Barda, too. There was much joy among the family that Barda was back in the fold, though she was uncomfortable the entire time. Perhaps she was more uncomfortable due to Vanya speaking of her deeper plans for a Grand Dungeon, or maybe she was still deeply uncomfortable with the whole ‘cultist of Melemizargo’ thing that the Maryols had going on. Soltic suspected there were a whole host of other problems between Barda and Nero and the Maryols, too, but Barda didn’t speak of those problems, and no one poked at her too hard.

And now they were here, walking into Regency Castle.

Barda and Nero did not join them, though.

The castle was stunning in the way that all the grand architecture of the world was stunning, for Veird was a world of magic, and when that magic was maintained, that magic allowed for impossible architecture. Since the advent of the Node Network spellwork and of [Renew], maintaining that impossible architecture was incredibly easy.

The original castle had been a simple thing of a few keeps and towers on a simple cliff, jutting out over the southern part of the city of Storm’s Edge. Since the Node Network came about, that cliff had been expanded outward, and tens of new structures had been piled onto the cliff and the castle. It all should have crashed down into the lake below the castle, long before now, but the pile of white stone buildings and blue roofs were as sturdy as adamantium, upon that cliff.

The cliff kinda looked like a ship, crashing out of the wave of the mountain, and piled high with shipping boxes. It had no real sails, though they could have easily added that part, if they wanted. Soltic assumed that they had discussed sails and decided against them, for whatever reason. Probably because it was too on-the-nose.

“They certainly went for the ‘ship’ look, though,” Soltic said, as he stepped out of the carriage that brought them here, to the back of the castle. “I kinda like it.”

Jarod said, “It’s a controversial design, but Regent Augustive Glorious Tidewalker loves it this way, and so it is this way.”

“Will we be meeting the Regent?” Vanya asked, as she stepped out of the carriage.

“Likely not,” Gloria said. “He’s a busy man, though we might see Archmage Wiloza in the meeting with Aroido. She’s less busy these days with the Node Network making everyone’s lives easier, so she’s been dipping her hands into a lot of different duties, and dungeon overseeing is one of the circles she controls.”

Ahead of them lay a grand road made of lapis lazuli, with trees sculpted into fish lining both sides. An open gate of gold lay ahead of them, with guards on both sides of the gate. Beyond that lay the first of the white castle buildings. A pair of massive fountains rose from blue flower gardens to the left and the right. The fountains were as impressive as all the rest, for they were sculptures of oceanic beasts, spinning into each other as water poured out of tens of mouths and blowholes, to cascade down into large pools. White salt had crystallized over some of the calmer parts of those fountains, which added a sort of ‘foamy’ look. The scene caused Soltic to stop for a moment, as they walked past all that, and into the towering castle beyond.

But soon enough they were inside the first part of the castle, facing down yet another obstacle. They would have been stopped long before they got to this location, were it not for Jarod and Gloria, their escorts. But here they were, now.

A series of arches stood to the side of the main entryway, and they might prove the end of this little experiment in subterfuge. Erick had actually invented those archways himself, as a part of his anti-facestealer programs, and they were devilishly simple in their actions, and effectiveness.

A person simply walked through the five-meter corridor, calmly and solidly, and the ‘machine’ checked to see if the mana was controlled —at all— as one passed through. They were adjustable to allow certain, specific magics through; usually the ones worn by royalty or whatever. But even those spellworks were noticed by the checking magic. Erick could have made the machine only require a single step through the space, but that would mean that someone could take their spellwork off and then put it right back on. The 5 meter distance was so that a person actually had to walk the 5 meters fully exposed, while guards watched the whole time.

Vanya and Soltic both wore permanent spellwork, and they were required to remove all of that spellwork before they entered the building proper. This would be a problem for many different reasons, and there was no real easy way to get through this check without fucking it up somehow. But Erick had [Return], and so—

A high-ranking guard cleared his throat to the side of the check in station, his eyes shimmering a little with Sight spells—

“Just pass right on through, Wizard Flatt. We’ll spoof the check for you and Q.”

Erick’s heart beat hard—

And then he noticed the hundreds of tendrils of magic coming off of the head guard; he had been hiding them until this moment. He was a Mind Mage.

“Mind Mage Rodrygo, at your service. Please head on through; no one will know this happened.”

Erick chuckled a little. “Well all right then.”

And then Soltic walked through the tunnel of arches, with Vanya right behind him. No one had noticed Soltic’s hesitation, or otherwise, as he set off every single archway with his active spellwork. Vanya set off the machine, too. No one cared about either of them, though.

Aside from temporarily hiding them from all nearby viewers, Erick suspected that the guard also had some sort of circumvention against the machine sending a ‘magic detected’ signal to the places where such a spell would be received, though he couldn’t see into all the Privacy spellwork and anti-magic magics layered across the ground, and elsewhere. Whatever the case, Soltic and Vanya went through just fine.

Jarod had an issue.

As the machine beeped, the Mind Mage guard said, “Please remove your spellwork and pass through again.”

Jarod sputtered, “Ah, I had forgotten about that one,” before moving through the machine again, this time silently.

Glariol smirked and passed through without giving the machine any problems at all.

The four of them strode across the ocean-blue marble floor under salt-lamp lighting, to the designated meeting room deeper in the building. Jarod lightly spoke of what they were seeing, of the various parts of the castle, and greeted a few different people and invited them to see the presentation. The hallways were not exactly crowded, but this was a castle filled with people of all kinds, and many of them would be a part of the systems of Vanya’s Grand Dungeon when it was completed. No one accepted the invitation to see the presentation, though. Glariol eventually whispered what Soltic had already guessed; that none of these people believed that Vanya would actually be allowed to change the dungeons. Mostly, it was an uneventful walk.

And then Everbless’s tentacle [Familiar] rounded a corner in the hallway and flickered out as his eye appeared. He had found Soltic and Vanya, and he instantly began poking at the unfeeling, unseeing Soltic, thinking he could get through Soltic’s defenses.

He was almost sad when tentacle after tentacle deflected.

– – – –

Soltic stood at the side of the room, while Vanya spoke of her dungeon presentation.

Everbless had stopped trying to poke him after that first time, which Soltic was glad for. Now, Everbless hovered behind Aroido, watching Vanya’s presentation alongside the lord.

A few others were in attendance.

The Regency Archmage, Lady Wiloza Tidewalker, sat a few seats from Aroido, calmly regarding the much younger woman on stage. She hadn’t said anything aside from a casual greeting at the beginning, but she had taken notice when Soltic was introduced as a Stone Warrior. She didn’t seem to care about Vanya’s Elementalist Class, though. From those facts, it didn’t take long for Erick to remember that Wiloza was a Stone archmage. Hopefully she wouldn’t be bothering Soltic with too much of an inquisition, but Soltic could tell that she probably would. She was becoming more and more interested in Vanya’s presentation, but more so in Vanya and Soltic, than in Vanya’s words, and that meant questions of all sorts.

The other person sitting on Aroido’s other side was the Dungeon Guildmaster; an incani by the name of Larro Tizet. From his tiny grin, his happy heartbeat, and how he had spoken to Jarod earlier about ‘looks like you got a good one’, Soltic could tell that Larro was already on their side.

Aroido looked on in reluctant approval; he was ready to run Vanya through the wringer before he agreed to anything. The fact that he was willing to have a small inquisition was good news, though. Maybe.

Vanya finished with her presentation, and in the end, the room was filled with lightwards. Vanya’s main image floated in the front of the room; a top down look at the overall map of her plan for the dungeons. A few more images held to the sides, detailing the general overhead layout and depth layout of the various ‘Elemental Dungeons’ around the ‘Central City Dungeon’. All of them had empty spots for growth and for the additions of others, but the main floor plan was set.

After an hour, Vanya ended with, “I look forward to working with you, if you should all choose to accept me as a dungeon master. I thank you for your time, and I thank Sininindi for her Call to action.”

Guildmaster Larro Tizet had been waiting for a while to speak, and now he did, “I approve of her. Put her in a smaller dungeon and see what she can do. Maybe #6; that one is always near breaking.”

Archmage Wiloza ignored Larro, and asked, “Where did you learn your spellwork, Miss Vanya?”

“All over the place. Primarily in the dungeons. I do not have a formal arcanaeum accreditation, but I do have enough experience to cast almost any spell of under fourth tier.”

Wiloza’s disapproval was written upon her scrunched face. “I will be withholding my acceptance for several days while we research your public dungeons and do a thorough background check.” She pointed at the floating wardlights. “If I can find proof that you can actually do as you say, then perhaps we’ll speak again.” She got up. “I have no time for any further questions. Till another time, Aroido.” And then she left.

Aroido nodded to the archmage, and when the door had shut behind the archmage, Aroido turned back to Vanya. “The purpose of the dungeons here at Storm’s Edge are to take the Dark for all he is worth, using his spellworks to [Grow] gold and other useful items. Are you comfortable with that? Because that is the major reason for allowing the dungeons in our lands at all. It seems, to me, that you are perhaps too enamored with the learning opportunities inside dungeons.”

“I am more than capable of working with the needs of the governing land in order to make a dungeon all that it can be. Allow me, please, to guess a few things, based on what I have seen of this land.

“From my public ability to estimate how much money comes out of the dungeons, I guess that it’s maybe 9,000 gold per day, per dungeon, meaning around 38,000 per day, for all of them. You might do more at night, or you might not, but I do not know. The Regency takes 30,000 of that gold, which is a good sum, but it likely pales in comparison to a single day at the market, either lower or upper, which likely pulls in multiple millions per day, of which you take a constant, smaller amount. Still hundreds of thousands of gold per day, though. The dungeons, right now, are a minor thing.

“I can increase the production of those dungeons up to a hundred thousand gold per day, at least.

“When we get it up and running, having a False Society on Storm’s Edge’s border will be like adding another major harbor to this land.

“But let us not dismiss the learning opportunities, either; for you are correct that I appreciate those a lot more than I care for the money aspect of all of this. The Water Dungeon I plan to make will teach people how to navigate oceans and survive underwater. True [Waterbreathing] could become a commonplace spell; and I don’t mean the one where people put a bubble of air around their head and keep it [Cleanse]d, but one where people can naturally breathe water with just a bit of aura control and proper Elemental Air and Water usage. Particle Magic is also a possibility for learning [Waterbreathing], too, for the Goddess Sininindi desired that I make this dungeon a place where people can learn to truly defend themselves from whatever might come in 90 years, or more.

“For instance, the vast majority of the world still doesn’t know about aura control, and that is another thing I wish to fix. While your current Force-aspect dungeons are doing their most to make that happen, they could be doing more. I would help them do more, as a dungeon master.”

Soltic watched as Aroido almost had a rebuttal—

But Everbless’s tentacle [Familiar] poked at Aroido’s head, and became visible to mana sense. It was a thought tendril. Everbless was speaking with Aroido right now, and everyone could see that, if they bothered to look. Most people bothered to look.

Aroido said, “Pardon me, I must accept this call.” He looked to the air and started talking to Everbless. Soltic tried to catch his half of the conversation, but the man employed some sort of throat-aura-control magic, so his natural vocalizations when mentally talking were simply not there; it was almost the same thing Soltic did. Aroido’s eyes did go wide, though, in some sort of surprise by what Everbless was telling him. And then he spoke more to Everbless, with the [Scry]-eye/[Familiar] of the world tree growing agitated and relaxed and giddy and hateful, and then back to simply talking, in turns. After a full minute of talking, Everbless’s tendril retreated, and Aroido turned his attention back to the room, to Vanya. “You’ve been approved for the change of Dungeon 6. You’ll be read in on how the dungeon functions properly in the next few hours. We can begin work sometime tomorrow.”

Vanya breathed deep, smiling brightly as she said, “Thank you, sir!”

“Yes yes. Maybe when you see how unstable the whole system currently is, then you will not be thanking me so profusely.” Aroido explained, “The first thing you should know is that the 80% tax we put on the dungeons is there because we recycle that material back into the dungeon, in order to increase the number of delvers with promises of big money. We’re only able to actually support people taking maybe 50 gold per delve.”

Jarod, Glariol, Guildmaster Larro, and Soltic were still in the room, so perhaps this wasn’t that big of a deal for them all to know? Seemed like a big deal to Soltic, though. According to the faces of Jarod and Glariol, they somewhat guessed at this reality, though they were not sure until just then. Larro knew, but the guildmaster had hopes for the future.

Vanya softly exclaimed, “That’s somewhat believable… Now that you have said it and based on what I have seen.”

Aroido huffed a laugh. “Most places subsidize their dungeons due to how they rid our world of monsters, but the rate at which Storm’s Edge does it is a poorly kept secret. Maybe you can change all that Miss Vanya.” He stood. “Now! Everyone out! Except for Miss Vanya and I. The rest of the secrets to speak of are for her ears only.”

“I would ask for my man, Soltic, to remain,” Vanya said, “He would be helping me with some of the dungeon work.”

Aroido looked to Soltic, then said to Vanya, “He can come back into the room in ten minutes. This first part is for your ears only.” He shook his hand at the door. “Everyone else out! No need to wait around, either. This is going to take hours. Mister Cross, please remain outside the door.”

Larro stood first, saying, “Welcome aboard, Miss Silver. I’ll be looking forward to speaking with you about specific additions to the dungeons later.”

Jarod and Glariol left next, the two of them saying a few small words of encouragement, and then Soltic left. They closed the door behind them, and the nobles bid Soltic farewell, and he did the same to them.

And then Soltic waited outside the [Privacy]-shielded door, hoping that he wouldn’t need to do anything drastic to salvage whatever might be happening behind that door. Time slowly ticked on, and Soltic’s mind filled with worst-case scenarios, of needing to kill and evaporate and change the nation of Storm’s Edge, if they did even the smallest thing against—

The door opened.

Vanya was alive, and safe, and she was inviting him back into the room.

Aroido stood where he had been standing before. Everbless hovered behind the man like he usually did. And as the door closed behind Soltic, Everbless changed. He became visible. Red tentacles, red eyes, a wet sort of look to him.

Soltic stared at the floating thing.

Everbless said, “Hello.”

Soltic said, “… Hello. Uh. Archmage?”

Since archmages were the ones with [Familiar]s, Soltic felt his words were adequate for his cover.

Everbless chuckled. “I’m not archmage! Not yet!”

Aroido smiled a little, saying, “This is Gold Taker. He’s also the dungeon master for the dungeons. He’s also Everbless, but that last little bit of information will leak away from your minds, thanks to the Intervention on both of you.”

He said the secret so casually that Soltic didn’t have to fake his bewildered reaction.

Vanya recovered faster, saying, “This is my coworker.”

“Hello!” Everbless said, again, and even more brightly.

Soltic almost wanted to laugh. He did not, though. He feigned ignorance, saying, “Uh. The Gold Taker, eh? The one who ensures money goes back to the dungeons?”

“One and the same,” Aroido said.

Vanya said, “He’s usually invisible and intangible, but you should be able to see him if you do some Ethereal, Intangible Force-type Sight magics. I figured it out fast enough, and you already know how because of—”

“Your [Personal Ward]!” Everbless said, his tendrils spinning around his body, “It stopped me!”

“Uh. Yeah,” Soltic said, “I had problems with Ethereal, Intangible enemies before. So. Yeah. Uh.”

Everbless went ethereal and moved around the room to the other side, though a single tendril remained where he had been. He spoke through that stretched tentacle, “See me?”

“Yes,” Soltic said, his eyes tracking Everbless’s main body.

Everbless came back to this side of reality. “You see me!”

An uncomfortable question centered within Soltic’s mind. He decided to ask it, and damn the consequences. “Does this mean that you pulled people under the waves inside the dungeons and killed them?”

“Yes! They broke the rules, so I do everything against them!”

Soltic froze a little bit, unsure what to do with that information right this moment.

Vanya was serene, though. Possibly because she agreed with Everbless? But even she agreed that children shouldn’t be killing other people… And yet, Erick used Ophiel to kill other people. Ugh. This was a mess, and Soltic would be a hypocrite to say anything more than he already had.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

So he would say those words later, to Vanya, in private.

Aroido was clearly uncomfortable with Everbless killing people, though, so perhaps Soltic could say those words— No wait. ‘Gold Taker’ is not ‘Everbless’. Right.

So Soltic politely asked, “Gold Taker? How old are you?”

Excitedly, Everbless said, “I am 12—”

“That is…” Aroido had begun to say, fast as he could, but not fast enough. “That is an unimportant question, Soltic. The power to work the dungeon as it should be worked is there, as is the skill, and the ability to follow the rules. Gold Taker will be our main dungeon master going forward, but he is not actually connected to the dungeons. We tried that. Him putting a repro into the dungeons was a complete disaster. The current dungeon master is me, and has always been me, from the very first year that the dungeons came into being on this land. And I mean that in a very real way. I am a reproduction of the original Aroido who died a while ago due to an assassination. My fellow repros and I have been keeping up appearances ever since.”

Soltic looked to Aroido, now, his eyes going a little wider.

Aroido was worried, embarrassed, relegated, and a whole host of other, tired emotions that he had been wearing for a long time. “I am technically both 50, and 12. Age is unimportant right now. What is more important, is that I believe that you two are also repros. Are you?”

Vanya answered for both of them, “We’re immortals trying out new lives, in this new world. That’s the only answer you’re getting out of us for that question.”

As Aroido relegated himself to that answer, and found it not a bad answer at all—

“Who were you before?!” Everbless asked, too excited by half.

“Feel free to ignore the child in all questions that are too personal,” Aroido easily said, and then he demanded, “But I will know your full allegiances.”

“No you won’t,” Vanya said, “But you can be allowed to know that I am here to make this dungeon work as well as I possibly can. I want a Grand Dungeon, Lord Aroido. I want to make that happen.”

“Are you a Shade?” Aroido asked, even though he did not want to. “Either of you?”

Everbless suddenly shrunk away, his eyes going wide. He had never considered that possibility, and now, he was, and it scared him.

Vanya said, “We are about the furthest you can get from Shades.”

Soltic pointed at himself. “Not a Shade.”

Everbless came forward a little bit, his eyes narrowing on Soltic and Vanya. “Not a Shade?”

“Not Shades at all,” Soltic said.

Aroido regarded them for a quiet moment. Then he said, “For now, that answer will suffice. If, and hopefully when, this whole arrangement seems to be working well, the Regency will have clearer answers. Even if you have to leave those answers with Archmage Wiloza Tidewalker, or with the Regent himself. FOR NOW… For now, this is acceptable.” He gestured back to the diagrams. “Tomorrow, after we clear away some morning business, we will all journey into Dungeon 6 and we will have you look over the current state of affairs. From there, we will discuss alterations and priorities, and…”

They spoke for a little over an hour, with Everble— Gold Taker offering enthusiastic, childlike, horrific additions to all the various floors and puzzles and otherwise that Vanya had already carefully planned.

More than once, Aroido said some polite thing like, “That’s not what we’re trying to do here, Gold Taker. We want the people to learn proper aura control and altering for Water. Not have them try to turn themselves into fish, to be able to solve the puzzle.”

“But fish are fun! I’ve turned people fishy and it was fun!”

Vanya carefully asked, “Did you turn them back?”

“If they complete puzzle! It’s Rules! They did not complete puzzle so they die.”