Blue Core Week Twelve (Patreon)

Day 99 - Ansae

She had expected Blue would make her cool her heels for a while. She would have, in his place. Even though Powers weren’t all equal, they had their own dignity and it would never do to underestimate one. Though admittedly Blue was very strange even among the Powers that she knew.

Mostly, he was a dungeon, and dungeons were created subservient. The Great Dungeons were subservient to the gods, the Red Cores to the mage-kings, and the Green Cores that drifted in the molten rock below the ken of most mortals were subservient to their attendant spirits. But Blue clearly was not subservient to anyone, and to be a Power, couldn’t be.

Not to mention that so far as she knew dungeons were about as intelligent as mana-springs or Source rocks. Which was to say, not at all. Oh, they were clever in very specific ways. But so were fire ants, and nobody was about to believe they could rise to become a threat. Let alone a Power.

He was also simultaneously more and less powerful than he should have been. Compared to the last time she had been inside, he’d progressed at a prodigious rate and the amount of mana circulating through his interior rivaled most mana springs. But he didn’t seem to be doing anything with it. There were no defenses, aside from the [Warding] which, she had to admit, was pretty good. No shields, no monsters - and with this much mana, he could be spawning some pretty effective guardians.

She expended a little bit of stamina to sharpen her senses. Given that Depletion had dropped her regeneration to effectively zero, she hated to do it, but given the negotiations she was here for it might be worth it. And what she saw just made him even weirder. He was hosting people.

Actually hosting them. She could see his core, too, and while he seemed to have set up habitation there too, it was probably for his voice, that Shayma. But it was empty at the moment, with nobody there forcing him to grant the humans and demihumans space, so he was doing it of his own accord. Incredibly strange, but he’d bribed her with a place to stay too, so maybe it was a way of paying for something he wanted.

Not all his guests were staying in their space though. There seemed to be an adventuring party trying to delve deeper, which was a profoundly stupid idea for more reasons than she could readily count. It rather reminded her of how, ages and ages ago, greedy fools would occasionally try and plunder her horde. Not that much of her horde was even accessible to anyone but herself, but even a fraction of it was enough to register to some types of divination. Rather nostalgic, really.

She leaned back in her chair, watching them creep along. She could see straight through all the walls with her current stamina consumption, so she knew there was nothing around, and it was pretty amusing to see them ready to fend off nothing in particular.

Also nostalgic, that. Playing with mortals was one of the classical pastimes of Powers.

She did wonder what Blue was going to do to stop them, though. His Core was walled off so they didn’t have a direct line in, but the [Earth Invoker] could probably punch through given enough time and incentive. Even as she watched, Blue’s corridors twisted around to lead them on a convoluted circle. They were already cut off from the habitat above, with no way back other than digging through stone.

Speaking of which, it seemed the [Earth Invoker] noticed the serpentine paths, bending a wall inward for the group to take a shortcut. Great idea in a normal dungeon, but if she were Blue she’d be pretty annoyed. And indeed, he was making changes near their exit point, though the details escaped her. He had an astounding degree of finesse over the physical form of his structure, all the more impressive because his mana control was so sloppy.

They emerged from the artificial cross-corridor and she had an intuitive flash of danger a fraction before the [Blade Bulwark] brought his swords up to deflect...something. Mist erupted from the blades he held out to either side, and flying spray gouged fragments from the walls. In fact, whatever it was cut deep grooves in the swords themselves, which was impressive considering they were Bilib Ivory. The stuff was far tougher than steel, though it couldn’t be sharpened to much of an edge, which made using it for a sword questionable at best.

She pursed her lips. That was very interesting. There hadn’t been so much as a flicker of mana, yet whatever Blue had done held enough force that even the shrapnel from the wall inflicted injuries. Nothing fatal, but blood dripped from torn clothes and armor. “Godshit,” the [Blade Bulwark] swore. “Look what that did to my swords!”

The others consulted as they withdrew to a safe distance. Or what they thought was a safe distance, but this wasn’t an ordinary dungeon. She could see Blue altering the walls all around them even as they decided on their best route forward. Again there were levels of detail she couldn’t discern from where she sat, but the working was larger in scale than the first one. She imagined it’d be entertaining.

This time it was the [Heartfire Protector] who noticed something was happening. “There’s something hot in the walls, it -”

That was as much as he managed before the entire passage exploded. Still with no hint of mana use, and without any trace of fire or smoke. The [Blade Bulwark] couldn’t hope to stop it, and didn’t. She had to resist the urge to clap as the party was reduced to torn corpses amidst the rubble. Not only had the trap, if that was even the correct word for it, been entirely effective, it had been performed without any actual mana. Oh, there was mana about, as there was everywhere the dungeon extended its reach, but none of it was spent in the attack itself.

Now, she could easily wipe out such a party on strength alone, but for a dungeon to do so was something else entirely. Almost everything they could do required an expenditure of mana, aside from the most basic functions of their biology. They could move their own features, and dig through stone, though slowly. But for Blue, slowly didn’t seem to apply at all. “I like it,” she said to the room at large. “Playful, but effective. I’d be interested to know how you did that!”

There wasn’t a response, of course. There couldn’t be. But she knew he was listening and, since she wanted to speak as equals, there was no harm in speaking to him directly.

It was amazing how even Powers were vulnerable to flattery.

Blue removed the corpses but only to relocate them to one of the fields of ice, above the habitat. She could even guess why. Until Shayma arrived, casting the bloodied corpses at the collective feet of the inhabitants was an extraordinarily blunt message without context. She should know, since she’d used that precise technique to good effect more than once.

After that, she settled in to wait. There didn’t seem to be any other entertainment brewing and all the reasons he had to ignore her still existed, so she expected it might take a few weeks or months. But she was very patient. It was something she’d learned after her first millenium.

So she was actually quite surprised when not long after there was a flash of black and a piece of paper - not parchment, actual paper - appeared on the table. Not actual teleportation, but some sort of well-practiced dungeon function. Exactly the same technique Shayma had used to materialize the Status sigil, in fact.

Lady Ziir, it read, in rather unpracticed handwriting. Still, it was better than the impossibly ornate calligraphy some people had used in the past.

Blue wants me to tell you that I’m in Wildwood Retreat and will be for some time. Probably another week. He is willing to discuss things with you but it will have to wait until I’m back and we can talk properly. Also he asks if you’d leave the guests alone, especially since they don’t know you’re down there.

Thank you,

Shayma Ell, for Blue.

It was the most casual note she’d gotten for a long, long time. It was actually a little endearing, and clearly Shayma still had no idea who she was. Actually, it seemed unlikely Blue did, either. He knew her name, somehow, but not the history associated with it. Admittedly, most of the people who knew that history were long dead, though some remnants of it remained. She was pretty sure they still called that particular moon Dragon’s Eye.

Day 100 - Annit

“Annie!” Keri more or less launched herself across the room for a hug, barely giving Annit enough time to brace herself before impact. She was never comfortable in the clinic, feeling like a crow in snow, all tall and dark and dour amid the white. Keri was small and pale and cheery and matched quite well, so she just let Keri’s happiness infect her instead of moping.

“Oof! Good to see you too, Ker.” She grinned down at the [Cleric] who barely reached her chin, despite standing on tiptoes. “It’s been all of, what, three hours?”

“Three hours of this,” Keri pouted, waving at a ward of bandage-swathed patients.

“What happened? Was there a monster attack?” Shayma slipped into the room from behind her, looking over the beds with concern.

“No, a fourth-tier Classer’s shower broke and she thought she’d do it herself. The water pressure was...high.” Keri shrugged, while still latched onto Annit. “I think they expect to have the inn repaired by tonight? Who are you anyway?”

Annit grimaced. She’d wanted to introduce them in a more...controlled manner. But given Keri, there’d never been much hope of that.

“I’m Shayma Ell,” the fox-girl replied. “Pleased to -” She was interrupted by Keri transferring her leech-like hold from Annit to her.

“Eee! You’re the one who sold us the healing focus! Thank you!”

“Mmph?” Shayma looked over at Annit, barely able to breathe for the embrace. It was easy to forget Keri’s level was near to thirty. It was easy for Keri to forget it, and the strength that came along with it.

“...she’s also the representative of a Power, Keri, and she wants to talk with you.”

“Aw, c’mon, she’s way too young for that. And, and she smells like vanilla! Scary people can’t smell like vanilla.”

“Keri.”

Keri rolled her eyes at Annit and disengaged herself from the, for some reason, furiously blushing Shayma. “Pleased to meet you, Miss Shayma,” she said, now somewhat more sober. “I would be honored to discuss business with the Power you represent. Shall we retire to a more formal setting?”

“Ah! Um, no need.” Shayma still seemed flustered by Keri - she did have that effect on people - and scrambled to remember what she was there for. “Annit told me that it was difficult for healers to break through and evolve their Class without a Source for it, so Blue wanted to see if this would work too.”

She held out her hand and produced a gem, holding it between her fingertips. It was smaller than the healing Source she'd provided Annit, and was now hanging around Keri's neck. But it was also something rather different than that one.

It was variegated green-and-white like the other one, but this one seemed alive. The colors swirled and moved under the surface, layers deep enough to make it seem like a view into a well rather than a small jewel.

"Ooh." Keri's eyes lit up, but Annit was doubtful. She didn't trust equipment that gaudy. In her opinion, if something was glowing it was just wasting Mana. Give her plain but functional any day.

“This is a Primal Source gem,” Shayma said. “Blue isn’t sure if you can use it, or if it’s any better than a normal Source gem. But he thought it’d be better to ask a healer to try it out than someone likely to blow up a room with their Skill.”

“So it’s probably dangerous,” Annit said, reaching out to stop Keri from plucking the thing from Shayma’s hand. “I don’t think you should, Ker.”

“Blue says it’s still just a Source gem. But it might be useless. Regardless, we can compensate you for trying it out if it causes any sort of harm.” She produced, almost inconceivably, a second normal healing Source gem, identical to the one she’d paid Annit with.

“I’ll do it,” Keri said stoutly, pushing Annit’s arm aside. “It’s just healing, and I’m good at healing. All I have to do is see if I can channel my Skill through it, anyway.”

Shayma handed over the Primal Source, and Keri took off the one she’d been using, handing it to Annit. She took it with some misgivings, fingers itching to snatch the thing away. Keri was not taking the fact that this was a Power they were dealing with seriously. Even if they dealt in good faith, it was playing with fire.

The [Healer] narrowed her eyes at the gem, which suddenly flashed. Then it flickered, turning from mossy green and white to the soothing golden-green of Keri’s magic.

“Um,” said Shayma, stepping back a pace, and then Annit saw that Keri’s eyes were glowing too, wisps of mana visible to the naked eye as they cycled between source and Keri and back again.

“No!” Annit reached out to try and wrench the gem from Keri’s hand, mana feedback be damned. But her fingers slipped right through the radiant Source as if it were mere illusion, off-balancing herself enough that she needed to exert her Skills to keep from toppling over.

“Maybe Blue can -”

Keri blinked, finally, her eyelids glowing from within. “No,” she said, sounding very far away. “I just need to…[HEAL]”

Golden-green exploded outward. Aches and pains that she didn’t realize she had vanished in a shock of warmth, while patients woke one after another as the light spun about them and sank into them. It rebounded off the far side of the room and flowed, liquid, back out the door to flood other rooms. Among sounds of confusion, Keri wobbled and slumped as Annit caught her.

“Ker, how do you feel? Are you okay?” Power or not, she’d kick Blue’s head in if Keri was hurt.

“Nng?” She blinked blearily up at Annit.

“...Blue says she’s got a different Class now.” Shayma put in quietly. “[Primal Healer]. And she spent all her mana at once, which is probably why she’s so out of it?”

Only then, relieved that Keri was okay, did she realize what had just happened. “Wait,” she said. “There are no area heals.”

Annit barely noticed as the owner of the clinic bustled them into a break room, happy but very confused, and far too busy with a large number of recovered patients to delve into exactly what happened. No, she was too busy fretting over the muddled Keri and the fact that yes, Blue actually was a Power. It had been sort of a half-realized thing, a high-level Classer of sorts, distant and vague. But now?

Now she knew Blue could do impossible things. Now she knew he could bestow incredible gifts. And if he were so inclined, he could make her beg for death and there would be none to lift a finger. It wasn’t even that she was scared, it was just that she felt utterly dwarfed by the thing that saw her through Shayma’s eyes. It wasn’t a god, but by all accounts Powers did not fall far short.

Keri came to the same conclusion about the time she became coherent, slithering out of her grasp to kneel before a bemused Shayma. “Great Power, I humbly apologize for treating your Emissary with so little respect, and I thank you greatly for the gift you have given me. I beg you to show mercy on myself and Annit, and I pledge I will repay the debt that I owe you.”

Annit had never heard Keri be so somber before, but it was enough to stir her out of her own seat and join her. Not that Annit had any experience in begging for her life and future but...she couldn’t think what else to do. She opened her mouth, then closed it again, trying to figure out how to say that she really wouldn’t have been so flip if she’d believed Shayma represented someone like Blue. Only respectfully. “Oh, Great, um, Blue…” Her mind locked up and refused to present her with any further words.

“Blue says he appreciates the level of groveling. I think he’s joking?” Shayma sounded doubtful. “But he does agree that you owe a debt for that gem. He’s pretty sure nobody else can use it now.”

Keri glanced down at the golden-green sphere she was still clutching. “Yes, of course. What do you desire of me?”

“Of us.” Annit emphasized. “I share whatever debt she has.”

“Great! Because there is something he does need that he’d need both of you for.”

“...yes?” The two of them shared a glance. That was ominous.

“I need a party. I’m level one, well, going on seven now, but I still don’t have any real adventuring or combat experience.”

Annit snuck a glance up at Shayma, finding the fox-girl had a wry twist to her mouth. “He says I need some powerleveling.”

“That is...unexpectedly generous.” There had to be a catch.

“Mm. Blue says that once you’re roped in it’s not likely you’ll be able to leave without consequence. Associate with Powers long enough and your business becomes theirs; theirs becomes yours.”

“Forgive me,” Keri said hesitantly. “But that seems…”

“Blunt,” Annit finished for her. “Begging your pardon.”

“He says he’d rather be honest with you. Even if that’s not what he intends, it will probably happen, and it’d be better you know now than think he’s trying to cheat you. He does say that he is not going to enslave you.” Shayma paused. “Though I haven’t found it to be such a bad thing, myself.”

Annit stared at her, and Shayma abruptly flushed. “Anyway! It’s not like you need to drop everything right away. I have business here in Wildwood first, recruiting people for Queen Iniri. Then I need to go represent Blue to someone else...you’ll probably want to come too. You can meet Blue officially! Sort of."

Both she and Keri had intended to move on to full-time adventuring once Keri had managed a Class evolution. They hadn't known how long that would take, since healing Sources came up so rarely and even then they'd have to outbid other parties. They had quite a bit saved up, but none of that was necessary now thanks to Blue. Even though Keri was overdue for such an evolution it might have taken months of exercising her skills with the Source, and a good opportunity, to manage it.

Now they were unexpectedly ready, but not free. Though it was nice that adventuring was in fact what Blue wanted from them. Keri's Skills would have gotten them into any number of second-tier parties, despite Annit's Class being relatively lackluster, but she doubted Blue would go for that now. Three people was a party, at least, and she admitted it'd be slightly more relaxing with just one woman as the extra. Too many girls gloried in the attention they got as adventurers, since there were so few of them.

For her and Keri, that attention would just be a chore.

“I mean...I got an evolved Class and new Skills just from one thing from him,” Keri said. “Just think how amazing we might be with help from a Power!”

“I don’t think we have a choice, but...have you thought about what it means to be bound to something...someone like Blue?” She glanced up at Shayma, finding that the fox-girl was patiently waiting for them for them to reach a consensus.

“It means we don’t have to worry about parties, or politics! Okay, Annie, I know it might be a little, you know, big, but I’d rather deal with one problem of substance than a bunch of annoying adventurers or merchants or kings or queens.” Impeccable and completely nonsensical logic, as usual from Keri. How could she argue with that? “Who...what is Blue, anyway?” Keri looked up at Shayma as well. “Is he a dragon, or…?”

“Oh, he’s a dungeon.”

For the first time, Keri flinched. So did Annit. Even before the mage-kings had arrived on the coast, their expansion on the islands across the sea had carried with it news of the invidious appetites of the dungeons that granted them power. “Is...is he going to want…?”

For a minute Shayma clearly didn’t understand what Keri was too shy to hint at, then she did, eyes widening. “Oh, no, Blue is a perfect gentleman. Mostly. He won’t force himself on you like that.”

“...oh.”

“Anyway, get up!” She reached her hands down to pull them to their feet. “That can’t be comfortable. Plus, I mean, Blue may find it amusing but it’s a little embarrassing for me to have people kneel!”

“Thank you,” Keri said, rising to her feet. Annit followed suit, hastily steadying the smaller woman as she wobbled. “I...I hate to say this but...what was your name again? It’s gone right out of my head with all this.” She gestured vaguely.

“I understand, it was a lot of excitement. My name is Shayma Ell,” she introduced herself again, smiling brilliantly. “Blue’s Emissary, Iniri’s messenger, all that sort of thing.” A vague wave of her hand dismissed it. “Also, level one [Trickster] but I’ll level up once I get back to Blue.”

“You should see her Skills,” Annit muttered. “Her Class is absurd.”

But Keri was distracted. “Wait, I think...I think I know someone you know. A couple came by a few weeks back, fox-kin like you, a...Sienne and Giorn?”

“Wait.” Shayma stared. “You met my parents?”

Day 100 - Blue

It was an incredible relief to know her parents were still fine. Very little dampened Shayma’s spirit but her worry over them definitely had, the last time we discussed it. So it was good to know that, at last sighting, they were perfectly okay and still traveling and adventuring together. Plus it gave Shayma something to talk about with her new party members.

I was particularly proud of that bit of thinking. The reaction to the primal Source gem had been a lot more dramatic than I was expecting, and I could hardly let them have it for free, but it wasn’t like they were exactly rich. And from what I’d seen, the two of them were good people.

But I was only half-listening to their conversation, because I was hearing another one, and not one from the refugees living in their habitats. It actually took me a little bit to figure out what was going on, because it was the first time the perk had activated. Someone who wasn’t already inside [Genius Loci] was using my name.

It was Thul Monat, [Grandmaster of the Fist].

He was sitting on the porch of his cabin, reclining in his hand-carved chair and facing a small gathering of other people who all looked quite impressive. The perspective I had was like a tiny mote of [Genius Loci], hanging in the middle of all of them, but it didn’t come with the attendant overlay bonuses of being able to appraise people. I still got names and classes, which was good, because it’d be pretty useless to know some random person somewhere was saying something, but no stats and no view outside of the speck of presence.

“And according to the Queen, this dungeon is a Power that goes by ‘Blue.’ Which is disturbing in a number of ways, but according to her it’s fulfilled all the agreements they’ve made without issue.”

“If it’s not a Great Dungeon, it’s one of the mage-king pet cores,” said Yamal Gen, a grey-bearded man with a huge sword slung over his back. He bore the impressive-sounding Class of [Sovereign of the Thousand-Blessed Blade]. “That means that someone’s controlling it. If not Queen Iniri, who?”

“If it’s actually a Power it may not be constrained by those rules,” the [Theurge Of Purifying Flame] cautioned. He had a robe that seemed to be actually on fire, tiny flames licking along it and threatening a neatly-trimmed goatee, and the overlay told me his name was, improbably, Liril Lirilson.

“Yeah but I doubt it is.” Yamal scowled. “We should find out.”

“It is a significant claim, I agree,” Monat said. “But the girl that claimed to be its Emissary was neither monster nor demihuman. She was something else, which makes me think we ought to be careful. Even fourth-tiers like ourselves shouldn’t mess with a real Power.”

Yamal still looked pretty set on finding me out and since they were all fourth-tiers, that meant he was north of level seventy. Not that the numbers alone described the power of a fourth tier class. It was the third class evolution, and people at the fourth tier had powerful Skills and potent stats to refine their lifetime of experience into incredible power. I had heard one of the Classers in the inn say that Monat had leveled a mountain with his bare fists. And he wasn’t joking.

I was glad I’d already started improving my defenses after that incident with the idiot adventures trying to get ahold of my core. They had been relatively low-level, second-tier types, and I’d still had to fiddle with things to get rid of them. A group of high level people? I probably wouldn’t stand a chance without something more robust.

Which is why while Shayma chatted and the fourth-tiers debated, I was expanding and improving the tunnels that led through and around my interior. Even now I didn’t have enough resource generation to turn them all into stonesteel right away, especially since a number of them were being graced with Spatial Control fields. Earth mages still worried me, given how the [Earth Invoker] had managed to shortcut through my walls. Though it took more effort than the stone between, and judging by his mana he couldn’t have done it too many times. But a fourth tier could probably just dig straight to my Core if they wanted

So I was taking steps there, too. Since I could just teleport Shayma to my core room, I created a shell around it. I had to run threads of my own dungeon-stone through it, since I couldn’t disconnect myself from the rest of the dungeon, but that was fine. I could make hundreds, thousands of thin stonesteel strands and it was a better use of the material than hallways. Because I filled the shell with layers of magma and ice to keep the elementalists out.

I wished I could run myself through strands of metal, but I still hadn’t managed to unlock the use of metals for my own structure. The stuff was just sitting in my inventory in raw form, interesting but useless. I could spit it out like I could the stone or biomass, into loose stuff lying on the floor, but it wasn’t part of me and I couldn’t manipulate it. I couldn’t even manage to finagle it with mana flows the way I had with the flower bouquet. Clearly I was missing something, but I had no idea what. Maybe I’d have to see if I could use [Assimilation] on some sort of metallic structure.

For the moment, I just kept the stone threads thin and Spatially Controlled the shell from a respectable ten-meter gap to a massive hundred meters, then for the heck of it used that same control to compress the angular direction, which actually resulted in a confusing distortion that I was pretty sure meant the core room was effectively smaller from the outside, but it wasn’t quite clear. But if I was hazy on how it worked, so would everyone else be, and I kept it.

Then I started filling up the shell. Layer of magma, twenty meters thick. Inner shell of stone, revised to glass. Ten meter air gap, filled with the [Darkness] field. Another shell, this one of ice, encased by glass and likewise filled with [Darkness]. Then more magma, air, ice, [Darkness]. The resulting layer-cake took its own tithe of my mana income, but it would, I hope, be a difficult and painstaking process to penetrate.

New defense created! Calculating rewards…

16,000 experience granted.

Then, after a moment of reflection, I saturated the whole thing with [Warding]. The Skill was too mana-intensive to keep active over my whole volume, but my interior seemed to have a natural defense against outside divination so I mostly only kept it up on the surface, so my guests could hunt in peace. But it definitely worked in some manner, given that twice people had used scrying crystals to track things down.

It seemed that no matter how much mana income I managed to create, it got eaten up again pretty rapidly.

Ansae made a few comments as I constructed my shield layers, mentioning poison and acid and making me wonder why I didn't have either of those things. I had kind of assumed that the boring tendrils used acid, but a closer look revealed that they used brute force and a touch of mana to break down and intake stone.

I had magma, and I knew volcanoes were usually a source of all kinds of nasty chemicals, but mine just seemed to generate heat. But then, it was just heating up my stone...which as far as I could tell was the blandest, most inoffensive feldspar to exist so I didn’t have any nifty impurities like sulfur or chlorine that would offgas from it. And the surrounding stone seemed to be mostly granite, which made finding iron ore in it maybe a little weird but nevermind.

I’d have to find some other source of rock or mineral to melt before I could kill people that way, it seemed.

I wasn’t just working on defending my core. I couldn’t really obfuscate the tunnel between the habitat and the surface, but I could and did layer in my various trap ideas. Not the useless sticky and spear traps, but things with lava and steam and water under tremendous hydraulic pressure. Even if that one guy had blunted it with his swords, the however many billion pascal water stream was one of the few home-grown traps that didn’t rely on heat.

Honestly, I had way too many weaknesses when I thought about it. Or rather, I didn’t have enough approaches. I seemed to be mostly stuck in earth-magma-water, and given that I had access to mana and a pretty reasonable knowledge of technology I really ought to be doing better.

Speaking of mana, I was running into an impasse there, too. I understood how the shower worked, but it needed something I didn’t yet know how to do. Which was twist mana into actual Affinities. The dynamo only sort-of had Affinities - now that I was actually trying to work with it I could tell it was subtly different than the mana people used, like it wasn’t quite fully realized. So trying to turn the flow from the ice flowers into an air conditioner...didn’t work.

I was hoping that once I talked with Ansae directly I could figure it out. It had to be a simple thing. And given that Ansae seemed to actually be able to see my weird mana, surely she had some idea of how to apply it. Actually, I was frustratingly limited despite being terribly busy.

The discussion between fourth-tiers wrapped up without anyone actually agreeing they should try and get rid of me, which was nice, but Yamal did say he’d go join Iniri, which was less nice. Well, good for her, but I didn’t want the guy around.

My awareness of the meeting faded when they dropped me as a topic of conversation, moving onto matters of Wildwood administration that I was just as happy to not have to listen to. It was a pretty spectacular ability though, to just hear and see whatever, and made me feel like a bit of a bogeyman. Speak of my name and I shall appear! Virtually appear, anyway.

It was something to keep secret, though. From everyone but Shayma, at least. Even Iniri couldn’t really be trusted with the knowledge. She had her own loyalties and a whole kingdom to worry about. When she took it back, anyway.

“Looks like Monat is going to track you down in a little bit here,” I warned Shayma. “He’s going to start sending people over.”

“Great!” She said, confusing Keri for a moment. Those two seemed to get along pretty well. Keri was pretty adorable, actually, being so ridiculously cheerful, though Annit was somewhat more reserved. Which I understood, since in her position I wouldn’t have trusted me either.

“Blue says that some people are ready to go join Iniri,” she explained, and Keri glanced around as if expecting them to burst through the door.

“Is...is he spying on the whole city?” She asked, eyes wide.

“Not the whole city,” Shayma said, a little bit impishly. “Anyway, they’ll probably need me to set up the teleporter in a little bit. When we’re wrapped up here...Blue, do you think you could make them their own cottage or something?”

“Since you’re asking, of course. I could even set up a training room if they tell you what they want in it. I don’t have monsters, but I can make a parkour course?”

“Parkour?”

“Oh, ah, obstacle course type of thing. I could also make open areas for sparring. That kind of thing.”

“He says that won’t be any problem and he can set up training areas if you have anything in mind.” Shayma relayed back to them.

“Well, it’s always best to start with low-level monsters,” Annit said with a frown.

“Blue doesn’t do monsters. We’ll have to use the borderlands until we teleport back? Then I suppose we’ll have to find something near him.”

“What sort of dungeon doesn’t have monsters?” Keri asked, fingers playing idly with the primal Source. She hadn’t let go of it since it had changed color, her mana flowing through it and back into her body even without using any Skills.

“The Blue kind,” Shayma grinned. “He’s in nearly mana-dead area but I’m sure there will be somewhere closer than Wildwood you can train me. Not to mention Vok Nal’s lesser forces.”

Annit and Keri exchanged glances at that. “We’ve been out on the borderlands here since before the invasion,” Annit said. “How bad is it?”

“Pretty bad,” Shayma admitted. “Tor Kot has Taere, Invin, Duenn, and Laeer.” She listed off four of the five major cities, holding up her fingers. “And Vok Nal took over Meil about six months ago. They aren’t expanding anymore, just raiding the countryside for slaves and such, but that’s bad enough. I passed a number of ruined villages on the way here.”

“That’s why I wanted to stay out here,” Annit sighed. “Give me monsters any day over wars.”

“But we can help there too, and adventure!” Keri was not at all daunted. “And I bet we can level up faster there, too. You’ve always said you get more experience from being outnumbered or endangered.”

“That doesn’t mean that you should be endangered. You’re a [Healer]!”

“I can’t stay inside the city walls forever, Annie.” Keri’s narrowed her eyes at Annit. “You promised we’d go adventuring when I evolved my Class and we could actually get a party together. You promised. And this is definitely an adventure!”

Annit sighed. “You’re right. And I suppose we can’t start out in Wildwood anyway. We’ll come by the Flowering Branch tomorrow probably? How are you giving out these teleports, anyway?”

“Blue does it. He’ll have to take over some part of the street temporarily, probably.”

“I’m not sure the Grandmaster will like that,” Annit said doubtfully.

“It’s the Queen who’s asking, and anyway I’m pretty sure nobody else can teleport inside me now.”

“We should still warn him ahead of time. I know you like being dramatic and all, but that might not go over so well here.”

“Aw, but that’s the best part.”

“Hey, I thought I was the best part.”

“Um. Well, yes. But not in public...usually.”

Shayma giggled, while Keri and Annit stared. “Wait.” Keri said after a moment. “Are...are you flirting with Blue?”

“Um. A little bit?” This time it was my turn to laugh as Shayma answered, a touch flustered to be called on it.

“Oh my gods.” Keri turned to Annit. “Why can’t we do that?”

Annit was speechless.

The pair were going to be really fun when they actually did go adventuring, I could tell. I had no regrets about putting Shayma with them. It didn’t even matter if they weren’t as high level as they could be, since it wasn’t like Shayma was some powerhouse either. Yet. And it didn’t matter that apparently Annit’s [Wind Hunter] was a pretty lackluster Class. Once I figured out how to make an air Source I could give her something to buff her up, and probably give her a huge boost for her next Class evolution.

“Well, I’ll leave you two so you can figure out what you’re going to do. I’m probably going to have work soon and then...probably going to see if I can track down mom and dad, if they’re still here!”

“It was good to meet you Shayma!” Keri waved vigorously, seizing the hand of a still-poleaxed Annit. “We’ll catch up with you later!”

Shayma was barely holding back laughter as she escaped the room, emerging back into the clean-swept streets of Wildwood Reserve. No sooner had she exited the clinic than the rainbow-ribbon form of Lockert dove from the sky. “Oi,” he called. “Grandmaster wants to speak with you!”

“Yes, I imagine so. Let’s go.” She adopted her more official mein, slightly cool and aloof, as Lockert flew a circle around her and lifted her into the sky. Looking out at the city spread below, I had a sudden thought.

“Hey, Shayma? If your parents are still in Wildwood...uh, how are you going to introduce me to them?”

“Um.”