Erick stood in front of a mirror, looking over—

Quilatalap sighed, as ‘he’ stood in the doorway to the room. “You look fine!”

“You might have done this many times, Quilatalap, but this is my second major attempt at going incognito and if I’m going to wear this form for a while then I want it to look…” Erick looked at himself in the mirror. “I’m not sure.” Then he looked to Quilatalap. “You look great, though.”

Quilatalap was a comfortable-looking human woman a few centimeters shorter than Erick’s current height, wearing brown traveling clothes. Black hair, black eyes, pale skin and softer-than-your-average adventurer, Quilatalap did not look like he was ready for a big trip into dangerous territory, but that’s because he was so very good at this. He looked the part of a mage who could get around a battlefield well enough, but who chose to use overwhelming magic to solve all of their problems. All of his magic was either hidden or muted to acceptable levels for a slight-above-average mage.

Erick, on the other hand, had gone for a handsome-viking-look, which was more like a ‘Underworlder look’, when translated to Veird sensibilities. Specifically, the part of the Underworld deep under Nelboor, near Geode Bluite. His long blond hair mostly fell free, but a few braids kept it out of his face, while his trimmed blonde beard was thick on his face. He was bulky, with a strong body, and clear blue eyes. He was warrior-shaped, for sure. A rather stark contrast to his old self, which was rather similar in size, but not in color or shape at all.

His voice was also deeper, coming out like a proper rumble as he asked, “Picked out a name, yet?”

Quilatalap walked into the room, smirking as he said, “Vanya Silver. ‘She’. 31. From the outskirts of Blueite, like you. Got tired of the dungeons down there, so I’m out exploring the Surface with my boyfriend, whatever your name is.”

Erick smiled. “Clark Fitte, or Celtik Raft. ‘He’, 31.”

‘Vanya’ looked at Erick for a moment, her expression was rather unsettled for a moment. “… Are these names connected to your own?” Knowingly, she added, “Are they anagrams.”

Erick easily explained, “No one should be able to figure them out without first knowing English, and knowing my whole name, and that’s a tall order. There’re some other connections that are possible to figure out, but they’re only connections based on knowing Earth History, and that’s even more obscure.”

“So a scholar of Erick Flatt with the appropriate Book Magic might be able to figure you out.”

“… No. They’re more obscure than that.” Erick relented, “Okay fine! I’ll change them up some. But I really like the idea of ‘Clark’ or ‘Celtik’. The first one more than the second one.”

Vanya shrugged her shoulders. “ ‘Clark’ is a good name… But you’re smiling too much.”

Erick had to explain. “The name ‘Clark’ is the name of a fictional... archwarrior’s mundane self, while the archwarrior’s public self is named ‘Superman’.”

“Ah.” Vanya declared, “Nope. Don’t like those comparisons; the right Book Magic will ping your name as odd, even if the caster doesn’t know the reason for the oddity. Go with the other one. ‘Seltic’.”

“How about ‘Chris’? That’s completely unrelated. ‘Chris Celtic’?” Erick had a sudden second thought. “No wait. ‘Chris’ is too close to ‘Christ’, and I don’t want that at all. Jane would make fun of me forever if I picked that one… She’d make fun of ‘Clark’, too, now that I think about it… I’ll go with Soltic Cross? That meaning is a lot more nuanced, and I’m not even spelling the word right in my head.”

“I picked my name out of a jumble of tiles in a bag and then arranged them till they sounded right, using an Undersea naming convention. It is a traditional way to name a child in certain parts of the Underworld, though that way of naming has fallen in and out of fashion for the last thousand years. My name won’t be picked up by any Book Magic at all. Yours still might.” Vanya added, “Also, your everything is too perfect. Perfect hair, perfect face, perfect ass. I’ll be amazed if someone doesn’t pick you out of a crowd instantly as either reincarnated by the Wizard, or some conceited Polymage.”

“You don’t like my ass?”

“I love your ass, but it’ll be hard enough staying undercover with you looking like that.”

‘Soltic’ smiled, saying, “The hardest part about this will be making sure Ophiel stays incognito.”

Ophiel fluffed out from his hidden perch atop the mirror, saying, “I’m here!”

Soltic chuckled. “Yes you are, Ophiel, but you’re supposed to be hiding, even if someone calls your name.”

Ophiel chirped then flickered back into invisible, intangibility. Any potential onlooker would need to have very specific spellwork to be able to see him when he didn’t want to be seen, but where they were going, someone would likely have that spellwork. Erick could make Ophiel completely unnoticeable if he were actually concentrating on that action, but Ophiel had yet to do this on his own for overlong, so Erick suspected he would have to maintain a modicum of concentration on the little guy for a while, at first.

It’d get easier with time, though. Erick hadn’t done this whole ‘incognito’ thing for more than an hour or four here or there over the years, so it would take Ophiel a little while to understand what was happening, but he’d get there. Erick had faith.

Soltic looked at himself in the mirror, and changed a few things around. A notch across his left ear, as though he had narrowly avoided a soul-carving blade. One eye gained a small stripe of hazel in his otherwise-blue irises. And then he fucked his teeth up, just a little, so his smile wasn’t quite perfect. He kept the ass, though.

Vanya laughed, then said, “I think the eye-thing made you prettier.”

Soltic changed his hair. Dirty-blonde.

… And then he gave himself a few more indelible scars across the left of his chest, as though he had gotten as good of healing as he could get, but some things could not be fully healed away.

“Better. Now you just need to put on clothes.” Vanya waggled her eyes. “Or we could… ?”

Soltic smiled wide, showing off a good, but imperfect smile, as he turned around and took in the sight of his girlfriend, Vanya.

Vanya giggled at the look he gave her, saying, “You should be a little taller.”

Soltic did so. He was now over two meters tall, and Vanya was decidedly not. Soltic tried out a combative tone, “Anything else, princess?”

“Oh. I like that.” Vanya looked Soltic up and down, and then haughtily proclaimed, “Acceptable.”

“I’ll show you ‘acceptable’,” Soltic said, advancing.

Vanya giggled even more.

They were delayed from departure by an hour. Neither minded.

- - - -

Preparing for actual travel through the Network was difficult, but doable, because Erick had instituted a host of measures across the entire Gate Network to combat face stealers. Most of those measures were [Cascade Imaging] based, and emplaced there through runic devices. A decade ago those measures were catching immortals-through-[Polymorph] every other day, along with even more face stealers than Erick thought possible, but these days an actual notification-of-impostor was a rarity. People had figured out how to circumvent the system, and Erick had left certain loopholes open for those types of immortals.

Erick and Quilatalap would not be using those loopholes today.

They’d be using completely different loopholes. The largest defensive measures that were likely to trigger an alarm were the ones for wrong names, but—

Vanya tapped Soltic on the arm, saying, “You’re too tense. It’s just a trip through the Gate Network.”

Soltic sighed. “We’re only halfway through the trip and I already miss [Teleport].”

“Don’t we all!” said the guy behind them in line.

Grumbling filled the air from others in front of Vanya, or behind Soltic.

The younger people in the line just looked at the older ones like they were crazy. They might have experienced a [Teleport] from a trip with a parent or something when they were children, but they never got to use the spell themselves.

Erick’s thoughts traveled back to his preparations for this trip...

Vanya and Soltic had started off their trip at House Benevolence, joining the throng of people who daily passed through the area, headed off this way or that. It was exceedingly difficult for anyone to get anything through any Gate without being thoroughly investigated with a dozen different magics, and being held up by at least a few checkpoints. But Erick cheated. Or, more appropriately, Zolan cheated, providing Erick with some fake bank accounts, but which were completely legit, and various Guild registrations which were also technically fake, but also legit. Getting that paperwork finally filled out with their chosen names had only taken a half hour.

Soltic now wore a standard Adventurer's Guild badge on a necklace that would serve as an international identification, underneath some sturdy brown and tan traveling clothes. Vanya had a Mage Guild badge that she wore as a ring. Both of them had Dungeon Guild certification, too. A backpack slung over Soltic’s shoulders held exactly the sorts of things that Soltic would normally have, along with a secondary bag that held Vanya’s stuff. It was just some clothes, both vacation and formal, some extra money, and a few minor magical items.

Ophiel held on top of the backpack, silent and unknowable as he could manage, and Erick hoped it remained that way.

They had just left House Benevolence’s Gate Network, passing the easy part of the trip.

Now, they stood under the bright blue sky, down at the coast of Glaquin, in the city of Pearl.

Soltic breathed in the salty air and allowed himself to relax a fraction, and to only use his own, current senses, which meant no Ophiel.

There had been a question of if he should use his mana senses, or not. Most people didn’t have mana senses, and for those who had mana senses, it was easy to spot if others had a mana sense. It was all in the little looks. Subtle elevations in heart-rate, when nothing should be elevating any heart rates. Also, if someone was too schooled with their natural reactions to nearby stimuli, it proved they were either a highly skilled mana senser, psychotic, nobility, in law enforcement, or some combination.

Normal people always had normal reactions, and with his mana senses up and active, ‘Soltic’ would not be having normal reactions… But Erick could fake that well enough.

He had learned a lot of good tricks over the years.

The fact was that Erick simply did not want to turn off his mana senses. In the end, they decided that Soltic was born with a good mana sense. ‘Wandering Soul’, they called the affliction over in Songli. They had also decided to never explain his mana sense if it came up, unless the question was asked by someone who actually deserved to have their question answered.

Quilatalap, however, just went without his mana sense. Erick was slightly jealous of that calmness; that capability to just… ‘turn off his worries’. Or at least ignore them. Anyway...

Soltic stepped forward a single space, following the line to the Gate, a fist clenched tight on one strap of his backpack as he and Vanya waited alongside everyone else. He was nervous, and for his background, it was perfectly normal for him to be nervous. If anyone was looking, they would just get the wrong impression about what he was nervous about.

Which was fine.

The guy ahead of them noticed Soltic’s nervousness. He was a shorter, portly incani man with dark features. “Have you been living under a rock, or something? It’s just a Gate.”

Vanya said, “We have, actually. Underworld.”

“Oh!” With actual remorse, the incani man said, “Pardon my ignorance. Is this your first time on the Surface?”

“Not exactly,” Soltic said, grumbling.

“The last time we were on the Surface we had access to [Teleport], and the Wizard wasn’t here either.” Vanya shrugged. “But I wanted a vacation up here and I didn’t want to travel the harder way to get up to the beaches of Archipelago Nergal.”

The man brightened. “Oh! The beaches are wonderful this time of year, if you’re fine with a bit of cold. I imagine you are. You two should get some good color if you spend enough time out there under the proper sun.”

Vanya smiled. “That’s the hope.”

Soltic grumbled, and the incani man retreated a fraction, reconsidering if he wanted to continue this interaction.

There were 10 groups of people between Soltic and the front of the line, here under the bright sun, but the line was going at a quick pace, with tellers calling out ‘Next!’ and people walking forward rather fast. Soltic was glad for that. The less time spent here under scrutiny the better.

Traveling out of the Gate Network at Candlepoint had been easy enough, but here, at Portal, at this Local Area Gate Network…

This was the first true test of their covers.

The incani man eyed Soltic for a moment, asking, “Are you two going into the dungeons down there?”

“Oh yes,” Vanya said, “I suspect we’ll be spending a long time in those, but based on what I have heard already… I’m not sure what to expect. What brings you down there?”

“Weekly dinner with the family, and then I might go to the dungeons, too.” The incani man brightened, as he smiled softly. “My little girls are growing up fast, and if it wasn’t for the Gate Network I would have missed watching them grow; [Teleport] was always too expensive for me, either in distance, or opportunity cost. But I’ve been using the Network for the last decade and it’s been great!”

Soltic softened at that. “What brings a man like you into the dungeons?”

The man brightened. “Every dungeon is worth something, though I find the cultivated dungeons to be mostly terrible— Except for the Grand Dungeons, of course. The cultivated dungeons down in the Archipelago are almost universally worthless; good for some quick yellow if you have the time, but they’re too delineated by far. I tried to get the dungeons near home made properly, but I was butted out of all that for various reasons. I spend most of my time over on Dungeon Island these days.”

Vanya’s eyebrows went up. “Are you a dungeon master, by chance?”

The man smiled. “I am!” He held up his hand, showing off a Dungeoneer Guild badge that was in the shape of a bulky silver ring. “You noticed.”

“Maybe,” Vanya demurred. “I’ve tried my hand at those things, too; Delving, mostly.” She held up her Mage Guild ring. “I’m Mage Guild, primarily, but the dungeons are rather great.”

The man’s eyebrows went up. “Have you tried any of the Grand Dungeons? They’re—”

A teller called out for the next person in line, which was the man in front of Soltic and Vanya.

“—OH! That’s me.” The man walked forward, saying to Vanya, “The name is Golariz Poloi. It was nice to meet you…?”

“Vanya Silver.” Vanya gestured to Soltic. “And the silent one is Soltic.”

Soltic nodded. “Goodbye.”

Golariz smiled a little as he turned and walked away to the teller, his bag floating at his side.

A teller called out for the next group.

Soltic and Vanya found themselves standing before a goldscale dragonkin with a book sitting in front of him that was not a book at all. It was more a sculpture of a book, made out of base iron, with a bunch of runic letters on it, and enchanted with a bunch of normal enchantments that were all fed by the local Node Network. You couldn’t tell that from the outside, though. Back in Candlepoint, Erick had strung his Node Network through the sky, but here at Portal the Node Network was buried in the walls and the ground.

With his fingers hovering over the runic book, with little rubber stoppers on his talons, the goldscale asked in a dispassionate voice, “Spell your names, please, and state your purpose of visit.”

“Vanya Silver. Soltic Cross.” Vanya spelled their names, then added, “Pleasure and Delving.”

A tiny light flickered blue above the iron book; the truthstone returned ‘true’.

Vanya could fool a truthstone. Soltic could, too, but Vanya was more comfortable with lying, so Vanya took the lead.

The teller barely cared. He tapped away at his book, lights flickering upon every rune as it was touched, magic filtering through the local system and then all the way back to all the rest of the Network, checking their names against established files. And then the teller flicked a button at the side of the iron book, and the light came on again, turning blue.

Now that whole thing right there was a rather insidious travel safety mechanism.

All names were logged in the Gate Network, through the Node Network, and if ever a dangerous name popped up then the system would get a log, and that log would be reported to House Benevolence itself. The light would turn red if it was a minor infraction that needed clarification. If there was a major problem, then the light would remain blue, but someone at the House would be alerted. Or, since this was Portal’s Local Area Gate Network, someone here in Portal would be alerted.

They’d also be alerted if this were the very first time that Soltic or Vanya used the system, but since they had used the system over in Candlepoint, that particular foible of security didn’t touch them. Still, though, there were so many ways to evade this system. This way of doing things didn’t catch everyone, but it did catch most normal people, and that was enough to scare away most everyone from trying shit. If Vanya had spelled their names differently, for instance, then that’d warrant a look-see from the local powers.

There was an easy solution to all that, though; a way for someone to evade the system and go unnoticed. But it required the inside help of someone from House Benevolence, which wasn’t that hard to achieve. Bribes, coercion. Whatever.

The system was a sieve, and Erick hated that for so many different reasons. Mostly, he hated that he needed to make the sieve at all.

It wasn’t that difficult for Soltic to look like the disgruntled man he was.

All this security was absolutely necessary for the safety of the system, but it smacked of Big Brother. Erick did not like that this was his life now; that he had made this happen this way. Even years later, he still didn’t see any other alternatives to this system, though. They had tried so many different ways, and when the system had been completely open… Bad things had happened.

And so, they had adopted this system that the various Guilds and both Geode and Mage Bank used to keep things in order, though their systems were considerably more secure. All in all, this way of doing things was probably fine.

… Probably.

Right on cue, Erick’s paranoia sprung up, demanding he check over himself and his surroundings and go over every possible way in which he could be discovered, and all the ways in which he had secured himself.

The first layer of defense was simply not being ‘Erick Flatt’, in Form. ‘Soltic’ was a solid Form, rather well-removed from his usual human form. Erick had even run through a few different cleaning situations, while he also kept his Forms separate, so DNA evidence wouldn’t get cross contamination’d from either of his Forms. All the rest of Erick’s defenses were conscious choices to leave behind all the truly magical things he usually carried around with him, that usually provided some modicum of defense but which stood out like beacons to any proper mana sense. All he really had on him right now were his dual [Personal Ward]s; the normal one that provided absolute damage reduction, and a secondary one around his core, which hid his core from all observers, among other things.

‘Soltic’ mentally came back to the moment—

“Anything to declare?” asked the teller, giving a half-bored glance to Soltic.

Soltic ignored it, and let Vanya speak.

“Just personal stuff; no goods for sale, or stuff like that,” Vanya said.

“Two silver,” said the teller, as he tapped the hole in the stone counter in front of him. “Right there.”

Vanya put two silver down into the coin slot. The silver coins rolled down the internal tubes, down into the counting systems of this LAGN, and a green light flickered on; they were good coinage.

“Proceed to Gate Left, inside Departure Square,” said the teller.

Vanya led the way and Soltic followed, as the teller called out ‘Next!’ to the people standing in line.

Soltic frowned a little, and not for any reason he could really discern; Soltic was simply a dour sort of guy.

They stepped into the Departure Square, where 3 different Gates sat around the courtyard-like space like, each of them 5-meter-sized glowing-white squares, each with a different sky beyond. Rain fell heavily atop a [Weather Ward] beyond the right-side Gate, as lightning crashed overhead. The middle Gate held storm clouds. Gate Left, their destination, held a cloudy sky and a sparse courtyard in front of a city filled with people.

A few [Force Wall]s held in front of every single [Gate], though, preventing anyone from leaving until they were called to leave. That calling would come from the guards at a central control room, in the middle of the Departure Square.

Vanya led the way to the center of the courtyard, to the control room, which was basically a squat tower with three different runic controls and people operating those controls. She stepped up to the teller which controlled Gate Left and began to open her mouth—

The teller simply pointed over to Gate Left.

Vanya and Soltic saw glowing letters holding above Gate Left, saying ‘Storm’s Edge’.

Vanya smiled brightly, Soltic was stoic, and the two of them walked over to Gate Left, where the sky beyond was full of white clouds, and the land beyond looked like a city. The [Force Wall] in front of the Gate temporarily went intangible.

And they went through.

Just like that.

Easy as could be.

Behind them, they saw Departure Square briefly, before the connection between their lands flickered, and vanished. The people over at Portal’s control bank had switched the Gate to another location, severing Portal’s connection to Storm’s Edge as the [Gate] moved to some other destination; some other Local Area Gate Network. Portal actually had a whole collection of LAGNs these days.

Ophiel had not followed them through, though. He had taken off of Soltic’s backpack. He would rejoin them somewhere up ahead, because the Gates had ways of counting people and [Familiar]s, even if those [Familiar]s were invisible and intangible.

Soltic turned his sights back to Storm’s Edge.

The sky stretched overhead like it was Rozeta’s domain. The courtyard had dozens of other people walking through, coming in from other Gates, hurried on by a few guards in the center of the space, saying for everyone to move along.

Vanya led the way through the Arrival Square, into the city of Storm’s Edge, right into the tourist trap.

People came out of the Gate Network in one location, and so the people of Storm’s Edge had built the surrounding lands into one of absolute security, and also sales.

Everywhere people spoke of sales on jewelry or clothes or fruits, or to call out for tours of Everbless, or other places. ‘Buy this!’ ‘Buy this’! ‘Island tours here!’ ‘Hotel rentals here! Cheap!’

The air smelled of salt, but also of barely-[Cleanse]d life, and with a whole lot of spices thrown in for good measure. Cumin and turmeric. The colors were stone-brown and blue and white, with oranges and reds in smaller measures. Kids ran around everywhere, laughing and playing, with a few of them trying to steal from the newly-arrived. One of them even tried to steal from Soltic, and though Erick would have allowed it, Soltic gently grabbed the kid's hand as it darted into his pocket. The kid was absolutely terrified for a brief moment, but then Soltic narrowed his eyebrows at the kid and let him go.

The kid ran off, cursing all travelers, before Soltic could even say a word, not that he was saying many words these days.

Vanya did speak, but she had to talk loud to make her voice heard over the crowd. “Should have let him take it!”

“We need the money, too, Vanya.”

“We can make more!”

Vanya laughed loud, but it wasn’t nearly as loud as the crowds, as she led the way forward, into the dense streets of Storm’s Edge, here at the central ‘edge’ of Archipelago Nergal.

The Archipelago was roughly divided into East and West, where a major water channel flowed between two of the largest islands in the chain. The East side was anchored to the continent of Nergal by Eidolon, while the West side was anchored to Nergal by the Freelands. Storm’s Edge was on the Eastern half of the Archipelago, right at the dividing channel, where storms played havoc above the waves, and the waves themselves crested a hundred meters high on Sininindi’s more stormy days. There was a sister city on the other side of the channel, but it wasn’t anything special.

This land held some of the best fishing in the world, and if you could withstand the storms, it was damned safe living, for storms and lightning had a way of affecting the monsters in this land a lot more than the people. That was Sininindi’s blessing, of course. Back when there were lots and lots of monsters in the world, for a good 1440 years until Melemizargo made the dungeons, the Goddess of Storm and Sea brought a great deal of protection to her people in the form of lightning and rain.

Now, though, with most of the monsters inside dungeons, Soltic would have thought Sininindi’s worship would have stalled out a little, since a great deal of her worship had been people asking for safety from the monsters at sea, but from what Soltic was seeing, he worship had only grown. Probably because now she and her clergy could truly control the weather, through Everbless. Before now, Sininindi would have overstepped the God Pact if she were to directly control the weather all the time, for that would be her interacting too heavily in the world, and giving out too much magic. She, like Atunir with [Exalted Rain], had been able to go around the God Pact, thanks to Erick Flatt’s donated magic.

And Storm’s Edge had thrived for that. A million people lived in this mountainous land of stone and rain and dense rainforest. Even more lived on the surrounding islands.

As Vanya walked down a slightly less-dense road, onto a main thoroughfare, Soltic saw, for not the first time, the bounty of Sininindi, growing on the horizon.

Everbless was a grey tree, with a canopy of storm clouds and a crown of lightning. He was kinda small, though. He barely poked up above the buildings ahead, and once Vanya and Soltic walked down the road, into the main city, they wouldn’t be able to see him at all.

They’d get there soon enough, though.

As Soltic held the straps of his backpack, he followed alongside Vanya, down a nicer street, down to the wharf. The smell of salt intensified, and with it came the scent of fish and the sounds of sailors—

And finally Ophiel fluttered down from the sky, to land invisibly and intangibly onto Soltic’s backpack.

Erick felt himself relax a little. A quick check through Ophiel showed him that nothing was on fire here, and nothing was exploding back at the House, though a lot of people were freaking out in a lot of ways back there at Candlepoint.

The news of Erick’s actual absence would be getting around due to him missing some meetings and Kiri showing up in his place, but most people would assume he was off doing something important and that he would show when he needed to show. Kiri hadn’t taken her chair up to sit on the throne-dais of the House yet, but that was only days away, once Zolan and the other Overseers couldn’t hide the truth any longer and answers were demanded by allies and others. Erick hoped to have at least a week before—

Vanya glanced backward to Soltic and saw that he was worrying over everything. Instantly, he was more embarrassed than anything. He was the Apparent King, dammit. He shouldn’t be this nervous about anything.

But he was.

She didn’t say a word as she took his hand into hers.

That simple connection was divine. It was more than enough. Soltic let himself enjoy the simple warmth of Vanya’s hand, the sun on his face, and the freeing experience of simply being a person in the crowd. This was what he wanted by being incognito, wasn’t it? To get lost in the world. To just be himself for a little while.

Eventually he would go back to being the person that a lot of people the world over needed him to be.

But for now, he was just here, simply being ‘Soltic’, while Quilatalap was ‘Vanya’, and…

And Erick was happy.

- - - -

Soltic lost the sun beyond the clouds, past the tall buildings all around, as he stepped into cool shadow, and the wardlight that was there to keep those shadows at bay. The sounds of city life filled the air. Apartments, financial places, restaurants, and small corner stores stocked with anything anyone might need, but not as much as most people would want. Storm’s Edge was a cacophony of life on narrow streets, but also inside courtyards here and there, out of sight of the public. A child laughed somewhere nearby, and an argument took place between two men on a roof over there, while some old women talked about plants on the other side of the street.

Balconies and overhangs crowded out the sky. Soltic could barely see the clouds in some places, where riotous greenery grew and overflowed overhead, between the cracks of houses. Vanya led the way down a known path, following little metal signs shaped like storm clouds affixed to walls here or there. They weren’t the only ones going this way, following the stormy path from the harbor to elsewhere, for this, too, was a touristy part of town. One of many.

Soon enough the streets carved back and forth, and up. Soltic and Vanya left the city behind, headed north, following a road that ran along a cliffside. It was one of many small roads that came this way, all of them emptying onto this single path.

It was a populated path to the north, but it wasn’t like a major road. It was for pilgrimage.

On the left was a sheer drop down to a rocky beach. Soon, the beach was left behind, and the cliffside rapidly gave way to deeper drops into the ocean itself. Waves crashed upon that cliffside, sending up plumes of saltwater, or carving deep holes into the mountain below. On the right side of the path was a windswept plain with hardy grasses, layered with little white and grey flowers that almost looked like snow, from a certain angle. Sheep, all fluffy white, grazed upon that field, while a herder stood under a distant rocky outcropping. The man fiddled with a knife and a piece of wood, more than he watched his sheep.

There wasn’t much to watch for these days.

Even the walls of Storm’s Edge had become unmanned in the years following the Dungeon Exodus; Soltic and Vanya had gone through a checkpoint back there, but the checkpoint had been empty, the walls open and free, for there was no need to guard the city from this approach anymore.

In certain, easy to corral places like Storm’s Edge, almost every single monster that appeared on this island was only trying to get to one of the dungeons. Now those places were well-guarded, and well-tended. Monster highways, they were calling them. Or monster roads, or thoroughfares. ‘Whirlpools’, in some places, and amongst some academic texts.

Walls on most sides, and then great big thoroughfares that only allowed things to go in one direction; inward. Monsters flowed inward, but so did mana, into each dungeon. It was that flow which ensured that monsters moving in from the ocean, or out from the interior jungles of the island, would not meet a single person on their way to the dungeon; they would simply follow the mana, and leave the people alone.

If a dungeon was tuned right, then there was very little outflow, for the production of mana actually occurred in the Core of Veird, and from there it was given back into the bodies of every single sapient that used mana under the Script.

Still, though, even the most well-made of dungeons produced some sort of off-gassing, usually in the form of thick air, like from a [Cleanse].

Soltic raised his mana sense a little more, to see if he could spot the local highway, or sense any nearby dungeons…

And no. He could not.

Mana moved with the wind and the waves, crashing against the rock underneath, and trickling through the grasses to the side. The current was strong here. Even inside the stone, and inside the water, the current of mana was quick and solid. But it was natural. Not a dungeon nearby at all.

Soltic mana sensed the people on the path with them. Inside those few souls and bodies, the mana flowed just the same as it did around all normal people. The other pilgrims to the Blue Temple weren’t wearing any magic at all, which was normal. They were also talking softly about this or that, which was also normal. Soltic and Vanya both had incredibly strong mana on them, but even Soltic couldn’t see that spellwork because it was so well made.

Soltic and Vanya, like everyone else on the path, were just walking along, companionably. Normally.

Nothing to see here.

Soltic ventured to speak, “Where’s the Highway, you figure?”

Vanya shot Soltic a beaming smile, then she turned back forward. She had been waiting for him to talk, it seemed. She said, “I hear it’s on the other side of Everbless, along with all the dungeons on the island. There’s about 7 of them, all within a kilometer of each other.”

Erick had done some research before he came here, but it had honestly been the last thing on his list before he and Quilatalap left for Storm’s Edge. He was a busy guy, and he would learn everything he really needed to know on the ground.

Plus, knowing too much would make it harder to act out like ‘Soltic’ would act, when confronted by new information.

Soltic had to do a bit of acting now, because the shape of the dungeons of Storm’s Edge wasn’t that widely known outside of the Dungeon Guild, or other in-the-know polities. Like, for example, a bumpkin warrior from the Underworld, out with his girlfriend of several years on the Surface for the first time.

“… That doesn’t seem right?”

“Correct! It’s not very good for the dungeons at all.” Vanya gazed ahead, at the ‘cloud’ hanging low on the horizon, and not moving at all. “They shouldn’t be that close to each other, because once they are, you sacrifice possible depth and richness of each dungeon for the safety of the exterior world, and even that’s not that safe, for you get breaks every other week.”

The two people ahead of them, an old human man and old human woman, were going a bit slow, so Vanya and Soltic had gotten close enough for them to overhear Vanya’s words. The old man turned around suddenly and glared, but his probably-wife stiffened. She reached out for her husband, to calm—

The old man wasn’t having it, though, because he spoke up, “Dungeons are tools of the Darkness; not something you should ever try to use. I bet you two are delvers, aren’t you!”

Vanya smiled, saying, “We are delvers.”

“How many times you been brought back by the Darkness? Are you even you anymore?”

The wife grabbed the old man by the shoulder, saying, “Stop it, Lou.”

The two old timers stepped to the side of the path and stopped, the old woman whispering for the old man to calm down, and to think about what they were doing here, on pilgrimage.

Soltic walked past them, while Vanya stepped past, but she stopped, and turned.

She said, “I’ve died more times than I could ever count, and I’m still me.”

The old man frowned in a sad, angry sort of way. “I pray for your wholeness, then, young woman.”

“My all the gods smile upon your life, as well,” Vanya said.

The old man stiffened, and then the old woman reciprocated Vanya’s blessing.

Vanya caught up to Soltic.

Soltic whispered, “I think I see the shape of our first difficulty with the dungeons.”

“Oh yes,” Vanya said, “I’m prepared for it, but first comes finding out what the duty actually is.”

“Did you try a prayer again?”

“Still no answer.”

Soltic had nothing to say to that, so he just hoisted his backpack into a better position on his back, and kept on walking with Vanya, toward the north. Their destination lay beyond the path, but they could already see the first major sight of the trip, hovering far beyond the next rise in the mountainous path.

Soltic and Vanya crested the hill, and they could finally see Everbless, Yggdrasil’s twin, sitting inside his goddess-made home.

Beyond a long cliffside trail, down the mountain, kilometers still away, there lay the start of a wide, wide, crescent harbor, sized even larger than the massive city behind Soltic. Rocky and vast was that watery space, and inside there, there grew a tree superficially like any other. It was all variations of white and blue, and it was also a kilometer and a half tall. It was massive, but it was also undersized, when compared to the harbor. Everbless almost looked like a single planting inside a garden of water that had yet to be filled with anything else. Eventually, though, Everbless would fill that space, and then some.

Where Yggdrasil had been oak-like, with roots that arced in and out of his various lakes, Everbless was more a mangrove, or a banyan, with a grandeur of arcing anchor roots reaching out of a multitudinous trunk, and a plethora of roots reaching down from a canopy made of fiery grey leaves that resembled a storm. And then there was the lightning crown.

He was a perpetual storm, and also a peaceful tree, growing tall in saltwater.

Erick had never seen Everbless in person like this before. He almost dropped his disguise, to go to the twin of Yggdrasil that the gods had made, and then taken from him. It was a fatherly instinct, Erick knew, so he crushed that down. Everbless was not his son. He was the son of Sininindi. The Goddess of Storm and Sea had made that clear a few times over the years.

Soltic breathed deep the stormy air, felt the brush of saltwater upon his face, and took another step forward, down the path, to the crescent harbor of Everbless, and the large Blue Church of Storm’s edge, located on the western edge of that crescent harbor. From this far away, Soltic thought that the church was decent looking. He appreciated Everbless more, though.

He must have been standing there too long. Vanya was smiling softly at his side.

And the old man and woman from before had caught up.

The old woman smiled softly, too, saying to Soltic, “I was just telling my husband that you two were good people, and see! Here you are, looking all Storm-struck. You don’t get that look in your eyes when you take in Everbless unless you’re a good person.”

Soltic gave a rare smile— And then he crushed that smile away. “Ah. Hmm.” He faked a cough. “… Yeah.”

Vanya wrapped her arm around Soltic’s arm, saying to the older woman, “He’s scary sometimes, but he’s also a good guy most of the time.”

Soltic felt his face flush red.

The older woman smiled brightly, chuckling a little, as she led her husband toward a bench set to the side. “You two youngsters go get some blessings! Us old folks have a harder time going all the way, so we stop up here.”

Soltic nodded, and he and Vanya continued down the path, toward the Blue Church of Sininindi.

- - - -

Soltic walked across salt-crusted rocks, following the path to the Blue Church, as waves crashed on the breaker wall to the left, far out into the rough ocean waters. To the right, the crescent harbor offered some protection from the greater ocean, but not really, but then again it didn’t need to; Everbless was the storm. All the grey stone in sight was crusted in white salt, just a little, making this spit of land look almost cloud-like, but not at all.

The Blue Church itself loomed ahead, like a grey stone edifice of protection against the roughness of the world beyond. The largest parts were massive; fifty meters tall in some places. The smallest parts were so short that the waves lapped over them, endlessly. The main structures actually looked like they might be below the waterline.

Soltic could see the design of it all from where he stood.

It was like a stone building had splashed down, creating concentric walls of uneven stone waves, spreading away from the building itself. Further out, the walls were short enough for waves of water to crash over them, while closer, those walls were tall enough to form true fortifications. The actual church was solid; made of thick grey stone, and composed of several towers and several keeps. The main structure was half as big as House Benevolence, while the outermost walls extended at least a kilometer out there, into the waves, breaking those waves before the waves could break them.

Not much about it was ‘blue’, but Soltic guessed it was called ‘The Blue Church’ because, when he looked closely, he saw a blue shimmer in the air over the concentric walls. And if he looked with mana sense, the whole place was thick with Elemental Water, like it was at the bottom of the ocean. As Vanya and Soltic got closer, it was easy to see what all that Water did, for Soltic breathed easier, as though he had [Water Breathing] active. Which he probably did. It did a lot more than that, though.

It was quite an ingenious, yet simple design as far as defensive measures against the strength of the seas; Soltic suspected that this place likely went underwater in big storms, but if you could breathe underwater, then everything was probably fine. Just had to try not to get dragged away by the waves. But then again, the whole place looked like it could fill with water and then you’d be safe from getting washed away because of all the concentric walls.

A weird thought occurred. What about documents? Furniture? Stuff? And then that thought completed. Soltic doubted that there were very many important documents here, or anything like that. Maybe there were, though? And they were kept dry through other types of magic—

Soltic emptied his head of magical thoughts. He was under cover; not here to investigate magic…

But he could probably break that self-imposed restriction if he saw something really interesting.

Anyway. ‘Soltic’ turned his attentions back to his surroundings.

Several ships were docked on the crescent harbor side, with two of them being tended by clergy members, two of them headed out, and a few more ships already out there, on the calm-ish waters of the harbor, floating toward Everbless. Soltic was pretty sure it was part of the tour of the place, for many pilgrims came this way, just like he and Vanya were doing, right now.

Salt crunched underfoot as they walked atop the barely-dry road, and the crowd began to thicken.

People of all kinds were here, moving to pray or give thanks to the Goddess of Storm and Sea. A lot of people were here to see Everbless, though. Ever since Yggdrasil had gone up, and things had calmed down after the Teleport Exodus, a lot of people started to go on a world-wide tour to see all of the Wizard’s largest [Familiar]. Other people just wanted to see really big, magical trees. Orcols were the larger portion of that last group, and a group of those people had come down here to see Everbless, too.

A whole group of orcols, tall and strong, with most of the women veiled and some of the men, too, stood as a group, up ahead, getting onto one of those boats. They were undoubtedly Treehome natives.

Just up ahead, above the path, a priest in ocean-blue robes with white trim stood on the edge of a wall, and only a few meters above the crowds. He held out a censer that trailed a cloud, speaking in a forgotten language, while an acolyte sprinkled salt on any who stepped close; a benediction for the parishioners. Soltic and Vanya passed by, but most people stepped off of the path to take a benediction.

Vanya led the way, beyond a great open archway of grey stone, covered in salt-crystal, into an open cathedral that was riven in half, with the ocean flowing left to right, through the center of the room. Water crashed and salt sprayed onto people who kneeled near the waters, praying. It was an austere cathedral. Utilitarian. Scary, really. All that power, all that rushing water, right there in the middle of everything.

But it was also beautiful.

A song of saltwater flowed through the space, gushing here and there, crashing back down. It almost sounded like an ever-singing song.

It was magnificent.

It was also a tourist attraction.

The main church of Sininindi was actually back at Storm’s Edge, at the harbor, at the end of the piers, where sailors gave a quick prayer to the Storm Goddess for a good harvest, or for easy transport at sea. This place was where land-livers came to commune with the Sea, and the Storm.

With that thought in mind, Soltic suspected that, even with the lack of monsters on the ocean, Sininindi’s worship had probably grown a lot due to the Teleport Exodus, even with the Gate Network up and running. The ‘Last Mile’ problem remained firmly in the hands of people outside of House Benevolence, and that meant sailors and other ocean-goers still cared for her benedictions quite a lot. Ships plied the nearby waters of Archipelago Nergal just as much now as they always had, and sailors wished for good travels now, just as they always had.

And the wives and husbands of sailors continued to wish for the safe return of their loved ones.

Soltic breathed a little, taking it all in, and then he pretended to be slightly surprised when an important-looking priest came out from a hidden-ish side passage in the main cathedral, and headed right for him and Vanya. The man was an older sort, with salt and pepper hair and deeply tanned skin. He looked human, but his eyes were pale red, so maybe he had some incani ancestry somewhere deep in his family tree.

The man whispered, “I have been informed by Her Most Holy that you are here at Her request.”

The man was not disturbed by who he was talking to. He looked a little miffed, actually. Soltic could easily believe that he was completely unaware that he was speaking to Erick Flatt, and Quilatalap. That much was expected. Sininindi seemed to be playing this whole thing, whatever it was, rather quiet, so… That was fine with Soltic.

It was fine with Vanya, too. She did a small curtsy, then said, “This is somewhat correct, priest. There wasn’t an official Quest, though I had expected there to be one. I haven’t been able to get a second audience, either.”

Looking slightly less miffed, the man said, “Please follow me, so we might talk in an easier location.”

Without waiting for confirmation, the priest led the way back to where he had come.

Vanya and Soltic followed.

- - - -

“I’m Sailor Asmus,” said the priest, Sailor Asmus. “And you two have been sent by Sininindi to deal with the dungeon problem we’ve been having. How much do you know of the issue?”

Soltic and Vanya had been taken to an upper room which was almost as austere as the cathedral down below, but it did have a nice view of Everbless to the east, the ocean to the west, and a small collection of personal stuff set upon a shelf, and the desk which separated Soltic and Vanya from Sailor Asmus. The desk looked like it was carved from coral, and it had some paperwork inside of some of its drawers. All in all, the Blue Temple was either suffering through hard times, freshly recovering from hard times, or they liked it this plain.

But really though… This place had to flood every so often, and until recently there were likely monsters everywhere out there, so they likely kept nothing of true value at this location.

“We’ve only just arrived and haven’t done much in the way of research. We haven’t even been to the local Dungeoneer’s Guild. We are aware there is some sort of issue, but we have no specifics.” Vanya asked, “Have there been many people to respond to Sininindi’s Quest?”

For a moment, Sailor Asmus looked uncomfortable, then he said, “The problem has been years in the making, but it’s not the most pressing problem for a great many people, because the dungeons are mostly doing what they’re supposed to be doing; they’re taking in monsters and leaving the rest of us out of it. But they’re doing a shit job. We get dungeon breaks every other week, and every few months the break is actually bad. The problem is the Dungeoneer’s Guild— Or Dungeon Guild. Whatever they want to call it these days. I take it they call it Dungeoneer’s Guild… Wherever you are from?”

“Underworld, near Bluite,” Vanya said, “Some people just call it the Adventurer’s Guild.”

Asmus nodded, then continued, “We call it the Dungeon Guild here, and yes, we have had a few people come in off the streets, sent here by Sininindi over the years. They’ve mostly met the same ends: dead in the dungeons, revived a few times, and then kicked out of town by the Storm Priests of Storm’s Edge, or the Dungeon’s Guild, or the Adventurer’s Guild, or the Regency. There are a lot of different factors at play here, miss…?”

“Vanya Silver; sorry, Priest Asmus.” Vanya gestured to Soltic. “And my boyfriend, Soltic Cross.”

Asmus nodded, then said, “You likely won’t deal with me much going forward, for we here at the Blue Temple try to be neutral in this situation, but I will act as a keystone for you. If you get in trouble, bring up my name with any people you talk with, and it might open doors that were otherwise shut. It’s ‘Sailor Asmus’, though, not ‘priest’. We’re Sailors here at the Blue Temple; the practical arm of the Church of Sininindi. The Storm Priests are at the temple at Storm’s Edge, to the south. A lot of people get us confused, but we’re not the same; sailors are a lot calmer.” He stood, saying, “A pleasure to meet you, Miss Silver, Mister Cross. Do you need directions to the dungeons, or anything like that?”

Vanya and Soltic stood, as Vanya asked, “Down the crescent harbor, and off the other side, right?”

“That’s correct. Takes you a couple of hours to hike there unless you [Fly] or something similar, but politeness demands you do your magic outside of public places.”

Soltic asked, “People we should watch out for?”

Asmus eyed Soltic for a fraction of a moment, then rattled off, “Storm Priestess Tiza Nindi is an owl shifter who is generally in power among the storm priests, though you’ll probably end up dealing with some rambunctious acolyte until they catch wind that you’re here under Sininindi’s request, then you’ll move up the chain. I suggest you try to keep out of the storm priests’ sights as long as you can.

“The Dungeon Guild has their guildmaster Larro Tizet, and he’s a decent incani man. A former adventurer, that one, but most delvers are former adventurers, or at least the overlap is rather large.

“The Regency will likely remain uninvolved unless you try to do something as crazy as install a new dungeon master in any of the seven dungeons, but considering the shape of your probable goal, the Regency will get involved. That’s a whole thing, but you’ll likely deal with a human man by the name of Aroido Tidewalker; he’s a part of the main family of Tidewalkers.” Asmus asked, “Any other questions?”

“The quest was rather light on details, in that we don’t even have a blue box for it, so it’s not even a Quest.” Vanya asked, “Is there anything specific we’re supposed to actually be doing, here?”

Reluctantly, and hiding that reluctance rather well, Asmus said, “Sininindi rarely talks to any of us directly unless there’s a big problem, so it’s enough that you’re here and pointed in a direction, and that you don’t have some overly-preconceived notions of what you need to do. I suggest you ride this storm to wherever it takes you, and make the most of what you find; it’s the best way I have found to live, and this quest given to you is no exception to that guidance.”

Vanya nodded, grinning softly. “Fair enough. I can work with that.”

“Why are you so eager to get us out of here, Sailor Asmus?” Soltic asked, turning a minimally-polite conversation suddenly cold.

The three of them were all standing because Sailor Asmus had stood a few minutes ago, and not even a few minutes into the meeting. He wanted them gone, and Soltic needed to know why.

Vanya’s smile grew strained.

Asmus frowned. Without rancor, he said, “Ever since That Damned Wizard upended the world a lot of people have gained a lot of different ideas about the best ways to protect Storm’s Edge from all the new threats and changes sweeping our way. Things have mostly settled down, but a lot of conflicts just got buried, to fester. The Blue Temple wishes to remain neutral in that conflict, and so I’m rushing you out of here before I accidentally chum the waters and get involved in whatever new-catastrophe your arrival heralds. I’m sure I’ll get involved soon enough, though.” He looked like he really wanted to say something, and he was having second thoughts, but he decided to speak anyway. “The last time someone tried messing with the dungeons we had a break that cost the lives of 76 people. If the damned fool hadn’t been killed in that break, then he would have been killed for gross negligence. It’d take a trial to figure out if he was actually guilty, though we all knew how that trial was going to go anyway. Whatever you do, don’t go making changes without clearing it with everyone else...” Asmus paused. He decided he had said enough. “Begone, and may waves carry you to good harbor.”

Soltic did a small bow, Vanya did a curtsy, then they left.

- - - -

Rocks shifted under Soltic’s shoes as he walked along the coast, with Vanya at his side. They had left the Blue Temple and Sailor Asmus behind five minutes ago and now they were on a mostly empty stretch of harbor beach, south of Everbless. The beach was rocky and absent of almost all people, though a painter stood further inland, alone upon a hill, painting Everbless to the north.

The air was breezy and laden with moisture, and the sun was somewhere far beyond the stacked clouds overhead. It would have been a dreary setting, except the sun shone upon every horizon, beyond the clouds, except where the clouds touched the inland mountains and rainforests. Up ahead, the edge of the crescent harbor stretched out north, curving all the way around to the other side of Everbless, before the rocky crescent dove under the Letri Ocean.

Erick had almost reached his senses out through Ophiel to check on everything he had heard about from Sailor Asmus, but Soltic refrained. Instead, Soltic allowed himself to get lost in the simple joy of walking along the beach, and using only the senses he personally had to go over everything he had heard back there, in the Blue Temple.

Vanya seemed to be having a lot of thoughts, too, because she wasn’t speaking, either.

Soltic said, “It seems we both decided that walking to the dungeon road was what we’re going to do, but it appears we don’t have to do that right away. We could go back and check out the Storm Priests. We could go to the Regency public offices. Check out the Adventurer’s Guild in town, and find out where the Dungeon Guild offices are.”

Vanya thought as Soltic spoke, and then she said, “I want to go see the lay of the land. I want to see the dungeons first. Where do you want to go first?”

Erick’s eyes turned toward Everbless. “A tour?”

“… Better not.” Quilatalap said, “We’re here for a mission and I would like it if we stick to that mission.”

Erick felt the weight of responsibility press upon him. Sininindi had specifically told him years and years ago that he was not to have any contact with Everbless; that Everbless was not his son, and that Everbless was wholly and fully Sininindi’s joy.

Erick had needed to remind himself of that several times today. He would likely need to remind himself that fact several dozen more times before he was done here, at Storm’s Edge.

“I really want to see him closer, though,” Erick said, “I feel like I should. That I need to.”

“We’ve had this talk before.” Quilatalap asked, “Do you actually need? Or do you want?”

“… I’m not sure.” Erick frowned. “All I really know is that I expected some sort of direct contact back there at the Blue Temple… Some sort of actual word and actual instruction, and not that vaguery.” Erick retreated, and Soltic came out. “Less mystery, more doing.”

Vanya smiled a little. She shrugged. “I think it’s fine. We’ve got lots and lots of time, Soltic. Lots of time.”

Soltic felt his heart skip a beat. “… Yeah. I suppose we do.” He smiled, plucking Sailor Asmus’s words and using them as his own, as he said, “Especially if ‘That Damned Wizard’ keeps up his [Reincarnation]s going for the next 40 years.” He held up an arm, showing off a big bicep and shoulder, playfully asking, “I could go for some more mass, ya think?”

Vanya laughed. “What! You’d have to be an orcol to get bigger.”

“I could do that. Would you be an orcol with me?”

Vanya shook her head. “No way. That sort of pretty is too pretty. I like normal people's looks, thank-you-very-much.”

“You’d make a beautiful orcol.”

Vanya chuckled, her small, happy sounds carrying away in the wind.

With a dejected air, Soltic sarcastically bemoaned, “I suppose you’re good enough as a human woman. SIGH.”

Vanya laughed louder.

Soltic couldn’t help himself; he grabbed Vanya and lifted her up, spinning her around, smiling as he listened to the beautiful sounds of happy laughter that only increased as she giggled under his grip. He set her back down and kissed her deeply.

Vanya pulled away all too quickly, smiling brightly, a tease in her eyes as she hopped forward, and then took off at a little jog, calling out, “Catch me if you can!”

For a brief moment, Erick marveled at his life. Two days ago he had been swamped with last-day work, turning a single day into over a week of final preparations. And now he was here, in a body of his own making that was not his original Form, on a beach with Quilatalap while he wore a body that was not his original, too. It was a working vacation, but all they had to solve was one problem. Sure, it had all turned into a mess of intrigue well before they actually got to the dungeons, and Sininindi wasn’t speaking to them, but then again, Erick hadn’t called out to the Goddess of Storm and Sea yet, and it was still just one problem.

Last week, Erick had solved a thousand problems in a single day. Of course, he barely remembered all those problems (a lie told to himself; he remembered them all) so being on the ground, here at the area that needed help, with Quilatalap at his side and all his worries delayed by months…

It was nice.

Soltic smiled as he gave a halfhearted chase, easily catching up to Vanya and taking her hand into his. They walked together till it was hard to walk on the rocky beach side by side, and then Vanya led the way, over boulder-strewn hills, and onto cliffside paths.

Soltic asked, “Do you think the goddess will give us actual instruction?”

“Only if we’re fucking up,” Vanya easily added, “Or maybe in our dreams. Probably your dreams; not mine.”

- - - -

The ‘monster highway’ had signage posted kilometers before they could actually see the highway. All Soltic could really see was more cliffside paths ahead of them, the ocean to the north, and dense rainforest to the south, where the trees fully covered the mountains. Mana sensing was a different story, though.

All along the paths, Soltic had been sensing the flow of the unseen world. The world was twisted near Everbless, in some sort of funneling that made the mana near Storm’s Edge rather calm and boring, but swirling and denser near Yggdrasil’s little brother. Here, closer to the monster road, that flow had become a true current.

The manasphere flowed eastward, unnaturally, tainted by Elemental Rain, and Storm, and even a bit of Lightning. Elemental Cloud was the only one truly visible to the naked eye, though, for the clouds flowed from Everbless, to here, and then further on.

Eventually Soltic and Vanya reached a final warning sign, set to the edge of the disused cliffside path.

- -

ATTENTION: MONSTERS AHEAD

You have been warned

- -

Beyond that sign lay another cliff.

All this way, Soltic and Vanya had been steadily climbing, neither of them wanting to speed up the process with spellwork, for both of them were likely going to be [Witness]ed eventually. And so, they had been going along as mundanely as possible, leaving behind the ocean and the sounds of surf far below, both of them sweating a little as they crested the path.

The mountain dropped away in a hard slope, a few hundred meters down and away and secured in stonework to ensure the cliff remained strong in the face of disaster. A few kilometers away, further east, the cliffside came back up, almost all the way to the level which Soltic and Vanya stood upon.

Between those two worked-stone cliffs lay a long stretch of beach, far below, that stretched out to the north by another kilometer and a half. That beach continued inland by several kilometers, the two cliffs forming walls, with nothing but sands between them.

Sands, and monsters.

It was a highway of death.

Currently, that death was four flying whales, strewn out across the lands, looking like they had been fleeing, or fighting, but they had lost, for a whole school of longscale toothers had taken down the whales. Those long, barracuda-like fish feasted on the corpses, flying through the air and through the blubbery bodies to get at the organs inside.

There were lots of flying fish on Veird, but the monstrous ones flew most of all.

Vanya said, “Looks like we missed the action by a few minutes.”

“They can’t have been dead long,” Soltic agreed. “Lotta skeletons in those sands, too.”

Vanya took a moment to look at the path leading down into the monster highway, and then across to the other side of the place. “I’m [Scry]ing the other side. There’s a watchtower on the other side. Looks like a lot of people.” She turned back to Soltic. “I’m pretty sure the Dungeon Guild is down the monster road, near the dungeons, but that place over there looks happening.”

“Let’s go to the dungeons; we don’t need to talk to the people at the watchtower.” Soltic looked south, to where the monster road led deep into a canyon that had been carved between the mountains, while the mountains themselves had been altered in what had to have been some truly massive landshaping. And then he looked up and around, at the mana in the air, and how it flowed in the sky, and then down the monster road. It turned thick down there. Almost as thick as from a [Cleanse]. Soltic gave himself a little [Cleanse]. A bit of sweat and dirt turned into thick air and rapidly flowed down into the artificial valley. “That is some well controlled mana flow.”

Vanya began heading south, alongside the cliff of the monster road, saying, “Everbless does a good job of controlling the flow. I wonder if that’s a new development, or was he doing that ten years ago? Back when he was still a baby tree?”

Soltic followed Vanya, saying. “No idea.”

- - - -

An hour later, and several kilometers further inland, Erick finally felt safe enough to speak, in code, of what they had seen back there, and more importantly, what they had not seen. Quilatalap had mentioned that Everbless must be the one controlling the flow, but was that the full story? Probably not. He had surely seen what Erick had seen.

For floating above the artificial canyon, back there at the coast, had been something untoward.

Something made of a thousand tendrils and even more eyes. Ophiel had almost come out of his hiding when he saw that, for the thing sitting high in the air, above where water met land, had almost touched Erick and Quilatalap. Its tendrils had been kilometers long, and it certainly could have touched them, if it wanted to. But it had not. It had certainly looked at them, and gotten near them, its tendrils floating around both Erick and Quilatalap as though it was checking them out, testing and tasting without doing either of those actions at all. It was just there, hanging out, thinking itself invisible and intangible, and yet to the Wizard and the Archlich, it had been none of that at all.

“So the mana flows back there were pretty well done,” Erick started. “But the mana flows here seem more wild.” And that was true. Here, deeper in the valley, the mana flows were almost natural, but thick air still flowed across the sandy ground in the canyon down below, collecting on boulders or inside craters. “The thick air isn’t actually going into the ground like it should, though.”

Quilatalap nodded, saying, “I think Everbless’s roots are much larger than his upper body. He probably has magic hidden everywhere around here.”

“… I guess that could explain it?”

Quilatalap shrugged.

Erick saw that Quilatalap wasn’t really worried…

So Soltic wasn’t worried, either.

- - - -

It was an empty, desert-like canyon, tens of kilometers across, with low stonework divisions and canals that acted as funneling systems for the mana, and for the monsters. Within seven nodes of the canyon— six all around and one in the center— lay the open, black-ringed portals that were the dungeons.

The dungeons were far away from every inhabited part of the island.

Beyond the canyon, two more monster roads led in from the south, and the east, though the northern route they had just come in on and the southern route were both angled closer to northwest, and south-southwest, than straight cardinal directions. The northern route had wound back and forth in the mountains, too, to account for varied geography.

All of the construction was purposefully made to avoid the majority of civilization on the western edge of the island.

It was, perhaps…

“It’s just the oddest damned way to do this, isn’t it?” Vanya asked, rhetorically. “This monster funneling.”

She knew a lot more about this dungeon stuff than Soltic, but only because she had been making these things work all across the world for the last 11 years, and hands-on experience was worth a lot more than ‘read it in a book’ or ‘watched it happened’ experience. Vanya was up to 27 dungeons at the moment.

Soltic and Vanya stood upon the crest of a hill, overlooking ‘dungeon valley’, according to the sign posted at the edge of the walking road they had taken to get here. They were technically outside of the monster-traveling zones, but Soltic imagined that that would change, soon enough.

Vanya stood beside him, surveying the land ahead just like he was, adding, “It’s what they do over at Dungeon Island.” It was not a satisfied sort of statement, or really an explanation. It was more of an ‘It’s not wrong, but not what I would do.’ “We should be seeing people walk toward those dungeons.” Vanya frowned. “I see monsters down there… But no people entering or leaving the dungeons?”

“There’s a few people further away.” Soltic offered, “Maybe they have set schedules? No people lining up outside, waiting to be let in? They might line up elsewhere, too.”

“… I suppose they could also have people just entering and exiting as they are wont, but the number of people going in and out might simply be low...” Vanya’s frown remained strong. “Something weird is happening here. This is not what I expected to find at all.”

“Should we go and check out a dungeon? Flight spells and armor? Or—” Soltic gestured across the land, pointing toward the southern edge of the artificial canyon, where sparse greenery turned into denser greenery, and the mountains turned natural and rainforested again. “I think I see buildings in that mountain forest.”

Vanya huffed, and started walking along the edge of the canyon, headed around toward the southern side. “Let’s go see the guildhouse. We’ll fly once we’re not over the dungeon canyon itself.”

And so they did.

Along the way they spotted two more of those eldritch, invisible, intangible tentacle monsters, flying in the sky, directing the mana. Both monsters were too far away to interact with them at all, and Soltic and Vanya didn’t really look at them too much, lest they draw the monsters’ attentions.

And they were monsters. They were not [Familiar]s. Soltic could tell that much. They had real biology in them, though that biology was rather arcane in nature, it did exist.

Ophiel was a little freaked out the whole time, though, so Erick sent a lot of good thoughts Ophiel’s way; the little guy was being exceedingly good about hiding even though he did not want to hide in the face of oddities.

- - - -

The path leading into the guildhouse was a lot more apparent by the time Soltic and Vanya flew over the separating monster road, and stepped foot at the edge of the forested mountain.

Here and there, stone towers stood at the edge of the land, offering good views over the dungeon canyon down below. People populated those towers; either adventurers or delvers, or simple guards paid by the city to watch over the lands below, and to report if the flow of monsters changed. Probably the latter.

… Separating out what Soltic would gain from a casual overview of a situation, versus what Erick would gain from the same look, was a lot harder than Erick thought it would be. He knew those people were guards, solidly, based on several small factors, but some of them were dressed in civilian clothes, and looked almost like civilians. Or delvers.

Whatever was going on here was a situation that Soltic would handle one way, and Erick would handle very differently.

Which was probably why Sininindi had wanted ‘not-Erick’ and ‘not-Quilatalap’ to do this task.

As they walked into the edge of the sparse forest, Soltic and Vanya finally saw other people who truly weren’t guards. As Soltic and Vanya went deeper, following a stone path, they passed people going the other direction, out toward the dungeon canyon. Those people didn’t speak at all, and Soltic and Vanya didn’t break that silence. Those others looked ready for war, though, with their [Conjure Armor] and other magic clinging to them, fully kitted out with rings and wands at their belts, and with potions in their bags. They did not look excited about their upcoming task, either, which was either because it was rote work, or because… who knew! They were certainly adventurers or delvers, though. 

Most of those people had feet in both circles these days, though there was a distinct difference developing between the two organizations. The Dungeon Guild was rather new, and it was an offshoot of the Adventurer’s Guild, so one had to be an adventurer before they allowed you to be a delver in the Dungeon Guild. Most delvers were veterans in the Adventurer’s Guild, so they knew what they were doing, but that wasn’t always the case.

All Soltic had right now were educated guesses. He’d have to see more to make better guesses, which would happen soon enough. 

Here, under the cover of trees and all up the mountainside, was a small city of scattered buildings. People went about their lives, hidden in the shadows, so that the various monsters that might fly in or look this way from the bottom of the dungeon canyon could not see them. Soltic and Vanya had had no difficulty with the monsters in the dungeon canyon looking their way and charging up at them, though, so Soltic thought the whole ‘hidden city under the canopy’ was rather more protection than they needed.

And it was also not much protection at all.

There was a wall, but it was a short thing, easily hoppable, and without any guard stations.

The protections must have been magical, though, because passing through the gap in that wall was like stepping into a land of sudden noise, because it was; they had passed a silencing [Ward].

People spoke loudly at a commissary to the right, while blacksmith hammers struck iron and other metals further in, and laughter drifted out from what appeared to be barracks on the left. Soltic easily estimated that, if what he was seeing in the barracks and other nearby buildings was correct, that there were maybe a thousand people in this under-canopy town. As they walked into the city, and got a few odd looks from the other people but were mostly ignored, Soltic guessed that 75% of those present were warriors of some sort, if their builds were anything to go by. 10% were mages, based on their active [Personal Ward]s. The rest were civilians, or paper shapers. No children; this was a land of war. His mana sense didn’t reach the entire land, but Soltic felt his guesses were correct.

Probably 75% of them were soldiers of the state, though, but you couldn’t tell that just by looking. This was a land fully under control of the Regency of Storm’s Edge.

… Nothing untoward with that, though, because Soltic rapidly realized that this was an army town. They catered to delvers only as much as they needed to.

Vanya led the way to what was a paired Adventurer’s/Dungeon Guildhouse. It was a rather standard 2-story affair that opted to go wide rather than tall, since they had more than enough space for it. The front doors were open, and though they got a few more looks their way, the other people in the grand entranceway went back to playing Wizard’s Towers or other card games.

To the left was a large blackboard with time slots and dungeon appointments.

“I guessed right.” Soltic said, “Looks like they have schedules instead of lines.”

Vanya’s frown deepened. All the way here, everything she saw only made her slightly more miffed. The dungeon scheduling board cemented that frown. With a quiet tone, she almost spat, “That means that the dungeons are set, with expected rates for completion and times. It’s… It’s not right.”

Soltic smiled a little bit, adopting a nicer tone to try and make Vanya happier, “I think we’ve found our goal, then.”

Vanya put her hands on her hips, breathed, then said, “I suppose we need to sign up for a slot.”

And then she walked over to a bored teller.

The guy was a human wearing a black-trimmed, brown uniform, sitting behind a counter and reading a book, his eyes rapidly darting back and forth. He was fully engrossed in… Soltic read the cover. ‘A Tale of Two Wizards, Volume 4’. Soltic maintained his facade.

Erick, though, cringed, and then he couldn’t help himself but read a little bit of the book… And yup. It was about Wizards, and one of them was an Erick-allegory.

Vanya stood there, on the customer side of the counter, waiting for the man to recognize her presence.

He did not.

Vanya said, “Hello. I’d like a slot in the dungeons.”

Without looking up the man picked up a slip of paper and set it on the counter, but he held onto that paper as he continued to read his book— He suddenly smiled wide, and then he set down the book, and looked at Vanya and Soltic. His eyes went wide as he let go of the paper. “Oh! Sorry about that.” He said, “I thought you were a regular and I… sort of got carried away with the book.”

Vanya was already reading over the paper, but she came to the same rapid conclusion that Soltic had, based on the paper, and the sign-up board over there, and a few other facts around the room. With an almost-angry tone, she asked, “No delving past 4 pm?”

It was nearly that already.

Soltic said, “That team we passed coming in must have been the last team of the day.”

The teller put on a professional, attempting-to-disarm smile, saying, “Apologies, but while the dungeons are public, the public hours are set. Since we use natural monsters here, we risk depopulating the dungeons otherwise.”

Soltic asked about a different part of the paperwork, “What’s this I see about ‘80% of resources gained are to be turned over to Storm’s Edge’? The common rate is 10%.”

A few locals were watching Soltic and Vanya, and had been ever since Vanya spoke of wanting a slot in the dungeons. It was obvious that Soltic and Vanya were new, and the onlookers took no small amount of joy in watching as Soltic spoke of common rates, and then—

The teller’s response was obviously something he said a hundred times already, “Due to the nature of the cultivated dungeons of Storm’s Edge, and the fact that a delver will always get something if they delve here, what you harvest was only harvestable because of us, and so we will take what we are owed for our services as dungeon masters.”

Vanya took that personally. “Are they public dungeons, or not?”

“I advise you not to try to circumvent our rules,” the teller said, without any anger or threatening tone, and not directly answering Vanya’s question at all. “People found in violation of curfew will be tried as trespassers and fined a thousand gold. Inability to pay means conscription into guard duty or exile from the dungeons of Storm’s Edge, along with demerits against your Adventurer’s or Dungeon Guild badge number. Much heavier fines are levied against those who try to break any of our dungeons, and those who kill a dungeon in some misguided attempt to harm us and our rules are severely prosecuted. We have agreements with House Benevolence to enforce our rules across the Gate Network, and we will see them enforced.”

Vanya relented, “Fine. When is the next available slot?”

“For residents of Storm’s Edge, the dungeons are available on a first come first served basis, every morning. For non-residents, you have to check in at noon to see if there are any slots left. Most people wait around here in the guildhouse to see if there are any no-shows, for there are often no slots left by noon.”

Vanya scowled—

Soltic laughed, a deep booming thing that turned into a menacing chuckle soon enough, and then he sighed. “You guys got a fucked up system here.”

In a calm, practiced way, the teller said, “We understand that our system is not for everyone. Please delve elsewhere if you don’t like the guaranteed income of our cultivated dungeons. The Gate Network can take you anywhere you want, for cheap. May I suggest the new dungeons of the Freelands? They’re quite popular.”

Vanya almost said something angry, and Soltic almost spoke about breaking the curfew openly and in direct defiance of the local laws—

But a burly woman spoke up from where she and her skinny male friend were drinking at a table by the guild bar, “Shit-heel Daron’s just giving you trouble! Out-of-towners often get a spot, so sign up for whatever and let me buy you two some drinks.”

She seemed like good people.

Soltic said to Vanya, “Let’s do that.”

Vanya rapidly filled out the paperwork with a precise application of aura control and then shoved it across the desk at the teller, and then she stepped away, toward the drinkers. Soltic happily followed.

“I’m Barda and this is my partner, Nero,” said the strong-looking woman, who had already gotten two more beers out of the barkeep and handed them over, smiling. “Welcome to the Pit, where we delvers do all the work and Storm’s Edge takes all the money.”

A few other bar-goers must have felt the same, for they raised a toast at Barda’s proclamation.

Vanya took her beer and waterfalled it, much to the widening, happy eyes of Barda and Nero, and a few other patrons. She finished with a delightful sigh, then said, “Looks like I’m gonna need a lot more of those.”

Barda laughed loud, then said, “Another round for my new friend here!”

Vanya said, “Vanya,” then she pointed to Soltic. “Soltic. A pleasure to meet you, Barda. Nero.”

Soltic nodded, and sipped his beer, as the barkeep handed another beer over to Vanya.

It was a pretty good evening, all things considered. They didn’t get a chance to actually go into the dungeons, but they did get pretty damned drunk, which was rather great. Soltic couldn’t remember the last time he had gotten drunk in a bar with new friends… Well that was untrue. It was six years ago, and he had needed to [Return] ten minutes earlier halfway through the night, ruining the evening, just so he could have that little bit of extra time to solve a crisis of assassination over in the Freelands.

So far Poi hadn’t called him in any sort of emergency, though, so…

The House was probably fine.

… Erick checked. The House was mostly fine. People were running around and worrying about stuff, and Erick ended up solving a few problems that Kiri wasn’t acting on quite fast enough—

Which earned him a message from Poi, ‘I thought you were on sabbatical.’

‘Okay okay!’ Erick relented, pulling Ophiels back from all over the world. ‘I’m stepping back.’

With mirth in his voice, Poi simply said, ‘Have fun,’ and then he cut their connection.

Meanwhile, Soltic listened to exactly how poorly Storm’s Edge was managing their dungeons.

Barda met Vanya beer for beer, and now they were both halfway taken by the wind, as Barda sloshed her half-full mug, saying, “And another thing! They’re all the same damned dungeon! Every one a copy of the others, and nothing is allowed to change! To grow properly.”

Nero sipped his beer politely, smiling as he said, “You said that already, shield-of-my-life.”

Barda gasped as she looked at her boyfriend. And then she got close to him, saying, “You always talk so good when you’re drunk.”

Nero giggled.

Barda looked off to the windows, where the night was coming on strong and daylight fled from the world. They were inside a deep canyon, so perhaps it wasn’t actually that late at all, but it was getting a little late. Soltic was getting hungry, but Barda was looking at Nero and those two clearly weren’t going to stick around for dinner.

Barda took her boyfriend’s hand, and told Vanya, “Great to meet you but we’re done being in public for a while. Enjoy your vacation, Vanya. Maybe we’ll see you in the dining room for dinner later!” She added with a nod, “Soltic.”

As they departed, Soltic watched them giggle at each other…

Soltic turned to Vanya, “Time for us to find a room, too?”

For a moment, Quilatalap was on the exact same wavelength as Erick.

And then Vanya leveled a glare at him, full of airs. She deigned to say, “I suppose I will allow it,” in the most princess-voice she could muster, even though her eyes continued to tell a very different emotion.

They got a room. The room was overpriced, for sure, just like the beers had been, but the entire economy around ‘The Pit’ was based around Storm’s Edge getting all the money they could out of the place, without regard for the people running the dungeons. Or at least that’s what Barda had said, and neither Soltic nor Vanya had seen anything to disprove this assertion.

After a bit of sweaty fun in their own rooms, Vanya lay beside Soltic in bed, her gaze fixed on the ceiling, her mind rapidly turning over every problem she had seen and then trying to figure out how to make it all better.

Soltic watched her as she thought, a smile upon his face, hidden behind his thick beard except for where it showed in his eyes.

Vanya turned to him. Their simple shared look dispelled most of her reasserted frown, and then a certain heat returned to her face, and probably to Soltic’s, too. And then Vanya looked away, as though she was somehow shy. Soltic knew she was not shy at all, but she was very good at pretending. She probably just wanted to think more on the current situation, though, instead of anything else they could be doing.

After a moment, Vanya said, “This place is fucked up. I had heard stories and done some investigation before I came here, but it’s worse than I thought.”

Soltic lay back on the bed and put his arms behind his head. “Assuming that she wants it to change, then this is going to either take a reveal, or some subterfuge, or something else to disturb this place and make it how I know you want to make it.”

“It could be so much better!” Vanya blurted. More calmly, she said, “With Everbless controlling the mana all around the island and shoving monsters along corridors… I don’t really agree with how they’re doing this, but it works over at Dungeon Island, and they don’t have an Everbless over there to make it work this well.” She turned and faced Soltic. “You know those dungeons are cramped on the other sides of those portals.”

“You’d know more about that than I would.”

Vanya went, “Bah! You know how this all works just as well as I do.”

“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” Soltic said, grinning under his beard, which he was just now realizing hid his smile rather well. Maybe he didn’t have to pretend to be such a dour guy after all. He could allow himself to smile more, and if people saw, then that was fine. “I theoretically know how they operate, but you’re the one with dungeon creation experience.”

“… How would you ‘theoretically’ go about changing what you see?”

Soltic gazed at Vanya, and easily said, “I would delegate the job to you.”

Vanya slapped him with a pillow.

Soltic laughed.

And Vanya gave an easy smile. “You’re a lot more relaxed about this trip than I thought you would be.”

“Oh, don’t mistake the facade for relaxation. I’m freaking out internally, but I’m also letting go of expectations.” Soltic asked, “You want to delve the dungeons at midnight, or something?”

Vanya thought for a moment, then she got up and out of bed, saying, “Nope. Let’s go have dinner. Or whatever passes for dinner around here.”

- - - -

The beer flowed like water down at the guild bar and restaurant. Soltic and Vanya ran into Barda and Nero again, and though dinner was priced in gold or rads, it was good food, almost worthy of the price. Seared local fish, thick and flaky and brilliant white, rice imported from Alaralti in the Songli Highlands, which was rather cheap thanks to the Gate Network, and fried banana-like things taken from one island over that added a perfect sweetness to the meal.

Spearing a fried banana slice with her fork, Barda said, “I’ve been to a hundred dungeons so far, but Nero and I keep coming back to this place because he’s a local and we can get in easily, and it’s a good life. Soon as we get enough savings and innate mana generation, we’re thinking of relocating to some place like Dungeon Island, or maybe…” She looked to Nero, and tried out the word, “Candlepoint.”

Nero almost spat out his beer. “You want to go there?!”

Obviously Candlepoint was a point of contention amongst them.

Pretty normal, really.

Barda shrugged. “I hear they have good dungeons.”

Vanya easily said, “They’re good, but they’re busy. Much busier than here. The Archlich’s Grand Dungeon is for high-veteran delvers only, but you can get to anywhere through Candlepoint, so a lot of people make Candlepoint their base, wait for a turn at the Grand Dungeon, but delve elsewhere the world over. The Highlands have a lot of good mid-level dungeons, if you want another step before taking on the Grand Dungeons.”

Nero looked at her. “I thought this was your first trip to the Surface?”

“We’ve been…” Vanya glanced to Soltic.

Soltic gave her a look and a shrug, which was what she wanted him to do.

And then Vanya said to Nero, “We’ve been looking to relocate in any number of different areas, actually. Candlepoint is on the list.”

Barda focused. “So you’ve been to the Grand Dungeon?”

“A few times.” Vanya said, “It’s dangerous. You’re going to die at least once in there. I know I did.”

Soltic nodded, adding his silent weight to the conversation.

Nero scowled. It was the first negative emotion Soltic had seen on the guy. “I would prefer not to die at all.” He looked at Barda, saying, “I came close three times, and that’s when I decided not to do the dangerous dungeons anymore. That’s why we're here, back at my homeland.”

Barda took a moment, holding back her words, before blurting, “It’s not a big deal, right? To die?”

Nero looked ready to explode in anger—

But Vanya instantly said, “You’re wrong, Barda. Death is a horror, each and every time. The pain of having your head ripped off by a giant crab. Feeling your insides slip away to be gorged on by rats closing in on all sides. Burning alive. Even the lesser deaths of blood loss in a warm ocean, dying before the sharks could close in… They’re all horrible. Some people become numb to the pain, or they learn how to heal themselves exceedingly quickly. But sometimes people get sensitized to the pain, and they can’t ever go into a dungeon ever again.”

A few people at the nearby tables stopped what they were doing. They listened.

Barda and Nero were already absolutely focused on Vanya’s words.

Vanya continued, “I learned to heal fast, so that’s me, but others have different experiences. Those places with those dangerous dungeons have therapists ready to talk, but besides that, there are plenty of other people who have gone through the same things in those places, so you can always find someone in a bar or otherwise who might have gone through what you went through. Death is not something to normalize, but the Grand Dungeons can and do bring people back from death as a matter of routine.” She added, “The real danger is how it makes you feel, to go through death like it’s a normal thing. Like: ‘if healing is so easy, then what’s the point of being careful?’ That sort of thinking is the real danger.”

Erick loved to hear Quilatalap, the teacher, so it was kinda nice to know that ‘Vanya’ shared at least that part of his real personality. And the topic was pretty interesting, too. But ‘Soltic’ wouldn’t engage with this sort of conversation; he was more dour than that, unfortunately…

But maybe he could be less dour around friends? Sure. Why not.

It didn’t look like Barda or Nero were ready to talk, anyway.

Soltic said, “I try not to die in the first place; it’s worked out mostly, but I’ve had a lot of close shaves. Scares the shit out of you, every time.”

Barda and Nero went wide-eyed.

And then Barda decided that was enough talk of dour things, and said, “I never got to cleave a real wyrm in half back when wyrm season was a thing in Glaquin, but I managed the feat not two months ago in the Pit!” She smiled. “Sheared it right from nose to ass, I did! Now that was some scary shit!”

Nero smiled softly, then said to Vanya and Soltic, “You heard the full Pit-dungeon layout, yet? It’s not too scary at all, except for that final boss.”

“I’ve gotten much better about cleaving wyrms in half,” Barda said, smiling.

“I don’t know much about the dungeon, but I assume there’s a wyrm involved,” Vanya said, “I don’t need to know more, though. I’d prefer to go in blind.” 

Barda and Nero went a little wide-eyed at that, but Barda was impressed, while Nero was vaguely judgemental and trying not to be. 

Vanya changed the subject, “It’s just you two that go in yourselves, right? I assume warrior and mage?”

Barda smiled. “Nero here has gotten a lot better magery through practical learning than he could get through an Arcanaeum. I think the whole arcanaeum shit is on the outs, soon enough.”

Nero said, “I dabble in whatever passes for magic these days. Hard to know, with every dungeon system out there being different from each other. I do have an aura, though.”

Vanya said, “Soltic and I got our auras a while ago. Whatever the dungeons can throw at you, they can’t really restrict basic magics.”

“You two are big-city delvers, aren’t you?” Nero asked.

“Something like that,” Vanya said. “Storm’s Edge should be a big city delver location, too. You got the people, and the manasphere control thanks to Everbless. There really should be a Grand Dungeon here, but it’s all normal, small dungeons, that break all the time. Why is that?”

“Politics,” Barda said, scowling.

Nero explained, “The Church of Sininindi has their World Tree move the mana around, so they’re the first hurdle to overcome when it comes to changing the way this place works… or maybe they’re not. Not like Everbless would cause dungeons to spawn inside the city; his mommy is raising that ‘kid’ right, far as any locals can tell. The Regency is the real problem; they try to control everything.”

“Everyone is worried about the shifting world,” Barda said, “They want things to stay the same, but it can’t.”

Nero said, “It’s the problem of obsolescence. Monsters don’t assail the walls, or climb up from the depths of the sewers, or swim in from the ocean; not anymore. People don’t [Teleport] attack anymore; not even for burglary or smaller thefts. This means that life is better than ever, but it also means everything is so much easier to control, but a lot of us grew up listening to stories about how it used to be, and we want that freedom. Sininindi is all about freedom of movement, too. But the Regency wants to keep the dungeons small and useless except for money, and in doing so, they gradually weaken the power of those growing up in this new age. This is what they want to happen. They want to make us obsolescent. I’m not even level 50… Not that it would do me much good in a dungeon, anyway.

“Like, I’m only 26 years old. I wasn’t even matriculated back when the Exoduses happened. My father and grandfather, though, talk about so many things that I’ll never do, and that’s what drove me to become a delver; it’s the only way to live that sort of life.” With a finality, Nero said, “I’m not going to settle down like some baker, or accountant. That’s just not me. I doubt my kids would want that sort of life, either.”

“And we’ve gotta be ready for the dungeon breaks,” Barda added.

“And that!” Nero said, excitedly. “The danger is never going away. The monsters are not gone. They’ve just been corralled into dark holes in the world for a little while. I think the Regency is cutting off a hand to [Cleanse] the slime. If they don’t put in better dungeons, then when some dungeon in another part of the Archipelago breaks, how are we going to defend ourselves from the real ‘Trials of the Dark’?”

For a moment, their part of the eatery was quiet.

Soltic asked, “Is that a common sentiment around here, among the locals?”

“Ehhh…” Barda waffled. She wasn’t sure how to deal with Soltic asking the question, for he had kept quiet most of the night except for here, where actual conflict might arise. Soltic and Vanya had agreed on the general shape of their roles days before coming here, and one of those shapes was that Vanya would be the talker, since she would be directly involved with whatever was to come, while Soltic would only get involved if something looked to go dangerous. And so, he had gotten involved here. After a moment, Barda decided to say, “Nero’s view is rather common, but no one talks about it because it’s bordering on Cultism.”

Soltic leaned back in his chair a little. “Ahhh.”

Nero turned a little red. “I’m not a— One of those.”

Vanya chuckled, saying, “Cultists aren’t so bad, though a lot of them go way too hard on the anti-Pantheon rhetoric.”

Barda smirked a little, while Nero paled. Barda said, “Now that’s bordering on Cultism, for sure.”

Vanya easily defended herself, “The Cult has always been about personal preparation for danger, and learning true magic to combat that danger. It’s not an inherently wrong idea, but that’s how they get you. They make you think that since they’re reasonable in one way, that all the rest of their ideas are reasonable, too. And they’re not.”

Like a light had gone off behind his eyes, Nero said, “Yes! That. I’m going to steal that phrase there, if you don’t mind.”

“Not a problem,” Vanya said, smiling, “Steal away.”

Soltic said, “They have a lot of anti-Cult things happening around here?”

“Yes. Automatically banned from almost everything,” Nero said. “If you stick around with the dungeons then you’ll get a visit from the Regency soon enough and you’ll have to defend your desire to enter the dungeons. Vacationers are usually exempt, though.”

Barda smiled. “Now that’s a better topic! What sort of vacation have you two planned?”

Vanya said, “Wherever the storm and seas blow us, we’ll be there. Might even stick around for a while; not sure. Actual settling locations might be Candlepoint, or Alaralti in the Highlands, or maybe Dungeon Island, but probably not that last one.”

Soltic simply nodded.

Nero and Barda grinned, both of them seeming to relax. The beer helped.

Mostly, though, they were glad that their light interrogation had gone well. Soltic didn’t think Barda or Nero were actually an organized part of the various spy networks situated around the space, but they certainly knew what they were doing with their small questions. Perhaps they were being spied on as well, and making a more secure cover for themselves? Hard to tell. Maybe they were just friendly, and they knew that if newcomers came in, looking suspicious, that those newcomers would get driven out.

… or something.

Hopefully the spies sitting around the guildhouse had gotten enough information out of Soltic and Vanya to prevent an actual confrontation until they were ready for that confrontation. The teller over at the counter, burning the near-midnight oil, was the same guy pretending to read a book whom Soltic and Vanya had dealt with earlier. He seemed to dismiss them again, just like he had before.

Another guy was not so dismissive at all. That other man sat behind a desk in a building about 250 meters away, well outside of the range of most every normal person’s mana sense, watching them with his mana sense and taking general notes. He had not dismissed Soltic and Vanya nearly as easily as the teller. Not only had he marked down everything that the two of them had said, he was marking down new information in a thick file he already had on Barda and Nero.

He also had a bunch of magic all around him that had hidden him from view. Or at least he did, until Erick sent a covert Ophiel over there to stick his wing inside the protected space. Erick had seen the space well before now and had decided to ignore it. But here at dinner, he could not; not when Barda and Nero were doing such a polite interrogation, and certainly not once he got the impression that he was actively being spied upon. Checking out that otherwise-hidden space was, perhaps, a violation of Erick’s personal decision not to do too much, and to absolutely not do anything that would out him as a spy, or a plant, or whatever.

But when people spied on others in a routine, business-sort-of-way, simply collecting information on everyone who was present in a public location, it felt like a violation.

Of course, the people spying were from the Regency, and this was their nation, and this type of spying wasn’t abnormal at all when those things were considered, so…

Erick did what he had to do to make himself feel a little safer.

Eventually, their little group was the last little group in the restaurant.

As the four of them walked away to the hotel side of the guildhouse, Barda said, “With any luck at all you should get a dungeon slot tomorrow. Show up at noon; only the soldiers actually wake up early around here.”

“Then that is what we’ll do,” Vanya said, then she wished them good night.

Soltic crashed into bed and got to work trying to fall asleep, because he was full, and safe, and he needed to have a dream-talk with Sininindi. Vanya followed Soltic into bed, and soon they were laying together, warm against one another, and drifting off to elsewhere.

- - - -

Erick stood upon the surface of a stormy ocean. Mountainous waves undulated across the world, coming Erick’s way, while the depths of a True Abyss held below his wet feet. The sky was a riot of black and endless rain and brilliant, shattering lightning, with hurricane gusts that tore at his clothes and mangled his hair.

But it was a dream. All of it certainly felt real, but Erick had been through enough of these things to know the difference. And then, just like that, Erick was a calm point in the storm. The wind did not touch him, and the mountainous waves did not crash upon him; it all went still.

The storm still raged, but it was a quiet thing, made even more quieter as a sudden voice filled the sky, “Ah! Finally. Thought you’d never fall asleep.”

The storm rained and the ocean went flat as a distant cloud tumbled into the shape of a tree’s canopy, and lightning became a crown. Everbless was much larger in the dream, yet he was still so very far away.

Sininindi stepped onto the ocean’s surface next to Erick, matching him for height. She looked as she usually did. Her sail-cloth dress wrapped around her strong body, and aside from having an ephemeral, divine-gold look to her edges, she seemed as normal as any other shipwreck survivor might look.

Gone were the days of antagonism between her and Erick; more than a decade gone, actually. She smiled upon seeing him up close, her stormy eyes filling with joy.

“I’m so glad you have a good cover. I was worried about that, but obviously I should not have been. I asked for subterfuge and I got it.” Sininindi said, “And you’re already on the task. It’s wonderful.”

Her joy was infectious.

Erick couldn’t help but grin, as he asked, “Got any specifics you desire?”

“Yes! It’s all rather simple, and you’re well positioned to do it, too. ‘Soltic’ and ‘Vanya’ can stick around as long as necessary for Vanya to be allowed to create a Grand Dungeon, and then Vanya makes that Grand Dungeon. Ideally no one finds out about either of you two, ever, but I know that once the Grand Dungeon gets up and running, that someone is going to figure out something, and then they’ll probably attack the Grand Dungeon. By that time it will be too late to usurp Quilatalap’s control. If Quilatalap serves as I desire, then everyone gets what they want. If not, then I expect you to come in and annihilate his dangerous dungeon. I doubt that caveat is necessary to say, but I am saying it anyway.” Sininindi said, “Furthermore: I appreciate that you have taken my warning not to get involved with Everbless to heart, but I need more assurances, so as soon as the Grand Dungeon reaches a tipping point and it will be created, you need to leave.

“Quilatalap must stay for 5 years to ensure it remains steady. But you need to leave, and then not come back. No direct contact, either. For 5 years. The longer you’re around Storm’s Edge the more chances my baby has to see you, and Everbless is too young to get confused about his parentage right now. Soon as Storm’s Edge is on its way to getting a Grand Dungeon made by the Archlich, Quilatalap gets a pass from me for his various crimes over the years, and I will remove my part of Yggdrasil’s seal.”

Sininindi stood in front of Erick, knowing what she had said, and what it all meant.

Erick stood stunned.

Suddenly, he hated Sininindi all over again.

He wasn’t sure where to start.

Sininindi knew this would happen though, which is probably why she repeated a few facts in her spiel and then stared him down like she was preparing to be punched in the face.

Erick very nearly did punch her in the face. She was close enough. His fist could reach. If she tried to run, then he would chase her down and punch her anyway. He was a fucking Wizard and he would punch a god if they deserved it, and right now, Sininindi deserved a good punch!

And then Erick had a second thought. He needed to understand… He needed to know if he was understanding her correctly. Maybe she had misspoke?

“… You want me to abandon Quilatalap to you?”

“Essentially, yes. I would prefer no-contact at all, and for your and his presence here to never be remarked upon at all, but [Telepathy] is acceptable.”

Erick rapidly complained, “[Telepathy] doesn’t work that well when a recipient is inside a dungeon. Quilatalap will be inside the dungeon, almost all the time.”

“I am aware.”

Erick put away his fury.

He became the Apparent King.

“… This is an unenviable position you have put me into, Sininindi.”

“I am aware of that, too. But it’s only 5 years.”

Erick had a lot of rejoinders to that. Everything from ‘that’s 5 years I will never get back’ to ‘what the fuck is wrong with you’. But he rapidly realized that 5 years was nothing to Quilatalap, and that the Archlich of Necromancy Itself would take this deal.

Though most of the Pantheon hated Quilatalap, Koyabez vouched for him, and to a certain extent, so did Rozeta. Having another vote for him among the Pantheon meant that he might be able to walk around openly. The Pantheon was different from the Relevant Entities, though, of whom Quilatalap likely had no chance of ever being forgiven, since those forces included the Angels and the Demons. But the Pantheon was a start, and Quilatalap could deal with angels and demons easily enough. Priests and otherwise were harder to deal with, by far.

Atunir, Goddess of Field and Fertility still absolutely hated the man for very, very old wounds caused by the Rage Wars at the start of the Script. The spread of necromancy was also something that Atunir abhorred, but not for any real reason, except for personal reasons.

Aloethag, Goddess of Beauty and Brutality, and to a lesser extent blood, had a tenuous relationship with Quilatalap, but that was mostly due to pre-Sundering problems. Back when Aloethag was Aloeth, Goddess of Elves and Blood, the elves were among the largest warmongers of the Old Cosmology, and in direct opposition/competition with many orcs, like Quilatalap. Quilatalap didn’t like Aloethag for a bunch of very personal reasons that basically did not exist here on Veird anymore. Aloethag didn’t really care about Quilatalap at all, but sometimes other orcols did, and so Aloethag sent priests after him sometimes, for whatever sorts of reasons there happened to be. One time, Quilatalap had spat on an effigy of Aloethag, and then Aloethag had sprayed blood on him, and then it was a whole thing; petty, to look back on, but at the time it was serious.

And then there was war. Sumtir, God of Righteous War, who had been ‘God of War’ before the Sundering, similarly hated Quilatalap, or at least the remnant ‘Church of True War’ hated him. The current incarnation of the God of War still sent people after Quilatalap occasionally, but only when Quilatalap remained in a known, vulnerable location for a while, and usually only because Sumtir’s clergy got tons of requests from other people to track down and kill Quilatalap, or to thieve from him whatever they could get.

Lotta people tried to steal from him all the time.

If someone neutral-ish like Sininindi stepped onto Quilatalap’s side…

Erick had no choice but to accept what was happening here, for Quilatalap would take this offer; no doubt. With a heavy voice, Erick asked, “Will you support him, when he chooses to accept this task? Keep him as safe as I have? And if his cover should fail, will you bring him back to me, safely?”

“Yes,” Sininindi said, without hesitation.

Erick breathed. “Okay.”

And then he woke up.

- - - -

Erick woke up on the bed, in the body of Soltic.

Quilatalap sat on a chair on the other side of the room, looking distraught yet solid, in the body of Vanya.

Erick sat up.

Quilatalap said, “I’m taking the offer.”

“… It’s the smart thing to do, and I would have called you a fool if you had passed it up, and you’re no fool at all.” With a heavy heart, Erick said, “I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you, too. Since she wants no-contact, though… Do you want to talk about us?”

Erick had known that that was coming, too, but he had hoped…

He had hoped for a lot of things.

“… Some other day. After the dungeon run tomorrow, if we can get one.” Soltic asked, “Come back to bed?”

Vanya got back in bed.