Dungeon Core: Bugged Ascension

As we soar together, I think deeply about what he’s saying, trying to really fix it in my mind, “I agree. I just don’t really know where to start. When Dreams was born, it was just a visualization I was doing. I had mapped out this sort of self-image where I incorporated Gnat, Thing and Cutest in a way that my mind could grasp.”

He takes us even higher, his control of heat allows him to generate his own thermals to soar without the reliance on natural currents, “All of my Scions are what make up this sort of body I use. But while I can move, speak and even touch to a degree, I don’t understand how I’m doing it, it just happens.”

“[Not many dungeons use Avatars. Most of them appoint or puppet a Scion or a {Contract} if they even bother dealing with beings outside of Challenges. Considering the sorts of power a dungeon actually wields, your accomplishments aren’t that far-fetched. If one ignores the pace involved or recognizes that some part of your ‘you-ness’ is responsible. War’s Myth was said to start when she was just a child.]”

I shake my head, “If it was just a ‘me’ thing, I could accept and deal with that. I could push and work towards better exercising those pillars of absurdity, or maybe at least recognizing them beforehand and offering warning,” I sigh out and show the fear I’ve been holding back, “But it’s not happening with just me. Even setting aside what happened with Gnat, the situation that started it, the catalyst for what drove her to that choice?”

He starts a lazy circling to give me his full attention, “It was my words that caused Life to change into a {Realm Woods}, but it was not my voice that spoke them. I didn’t infuse that sort of power in the conversation we were having, and neither did Life. Both of us had passion and an immense wealth of power at our disposal, but neither of us injected that level of Meaning into what we said.”

His countenance is contemplative as we soar in those spirals of his creation or discovery. After a while of us just drifting together he calls my gaze back to him, “[You truly are a marvel, DNA. It is perhaps not the sort of answer that either of us are satisfied by, but it is an honest Truth.]”

I scoff and wave those words away, “I’d rather have safety and quiet rather than be the kind of dangerous marvel events seem to be conspiring me to become.”

He just morosely shakes his head at that, “[Look around, DNA. Tell me what your eyes see. Give me the details that seem relevant.]”

I raise my eyebrow at him incredulously, but shift my gaze down below, “Uh, well. Over there is Life and Dreams, I can see their membrane that flexes in time with my breathing. That’s your cliffside home, the engravings to match the hexagonal aesthetic you’ve adopted recently sort of buzz and pulse, though their rhythm is far more gradual.”

I shift my gaze around, looking for more points of interest, “I mean, there’s woods and prairies and stuff. Oh! There’s that group of delvers that left a few hours ago. I’d guess they’re heading back towards town, which means…”

I squint my eyes as I cast my vision into the distance, “Yeah, I think I can kind of make out the town from here. It’s too far away to get much detail. Although. There’s something weird over there too.”

When I glance back at him he’s just chuckling quietly to himself and gently shaking his head. At my questioning glance he draws forth his magic and concentrates it into his eyes, before looking where I’m pointing, “[The frontier town is in that direction, yes. Though I’m not sure what sort of… Hmm. I think I recognize that creature. If I’m not mistaken, because it does look a bit different than when last I saw it. That might be Ruth’Moor returning with some of her people.]”

He looks back to me, “[She mentioned wanting to bring some others to investigate and barter with you when she came back. Your spokesman, Cutest, informed her of some {Edicts} that she wasn’t familiar with and she wanted to ensure that her people knew of them, to try and solve their population woes.]”

I think back and review some of the shared memories of those interactions, “Yeah, I guess that might be it. Not having seen her with my own eyes, I’m not sure exactly of what part I’m seeing over there that stands out to me. Also, what’s with the smirk?”

“[That you don’t even recognize where we are is just amusing to me is all.]”

I roll my eyes, “And where are we, oh wise and shiny chicken? I’ve not gone flying with you before, so without peaking in on Gnat’s memories, how could I recognize it.”

He chortles at my flippant response and points me to look below, away from town and closer to our homes, “[Considering how your sight seems to work, do you see a vague sort of fault line, right around there?]”

I look at it for a moment before I can see, “Looks somewhat like a fogbank almost? Like condensation in the air. Woah, that extends for a ways, doesn’t it?”

“[Yes. That’s the demarcation of my Lair. And we’ve been soaring not just beyond its borders, but also far above them for quite a while. And yet, you’re just as ‘solid’ as you ever are. My guess is that you’ve sort of latched onto my aura to maintain your connection back with your domain. The Leyline being shared by the Alliance tied our territories, and I suppose the two of us, more tightly together than I imagined as well.]”

I’m sure my shock is clear on my face, “I can pass beyond our territories? But… I’m just a projection, this isn’t really me, and there are bunches of other me’s still walking through my Domain. Even if most of me are just looking our way at the moment.”

He nods and gestures for me to hold even as he shifts our course, “[There’s much I need to say, and I’d ask you to let me finish. First, let me actually address your proclaimed goals of safety and quiet. To be safe requires one of two things, complete anonymity and isolation, or the strength to claim and protect what belongs to you. You came into this world without much, but one of your first real decisions was to forge a vulnerable relationship.]”

I whisper, “Gnat.”

He glances off into my distant lands, “[Just so. Since then, each step has been growing your own family, so anonymity was never a real option for safety. As for quiet? It comes in waves and stages. You’ve had plenty of quiet moments, days, weeks. It’s just that the big events stick out more distinctly in the memory. But one solution for making things seem quieter? To grow so large and powerful that more and more things become mundane.]”

As we make our way above where the fog is really churning down below us, “[With the upgrade to the Leyline, my Lair is expanding. Even as Life takes a significant portion, most of his usage is interweaving himself with the area beyond Dream’s more limited horizon, all of which is currently already part of my Lair. Which is to say, that my Lair isn’t expanding on all sides equally with my mountain grotto as its center point.]”

As he gestures to the frothing Mana and Mako beneath us, “[More and more that center point is shifting towards Life. I expect that there won’t be so much of an equilibrium reached between the two, so much as his complete domination of it. Even if the physicality of the Leyline remains unchanged, with the impromptu ritual Gnat and I performed with your Liver, Life has all the connection he needs to completely take over in time.]”

I start to protest but he shifts his wing and looks at me with calm eyes, “[I understand that he wouldn’t mean to, but he’s a class of {World Tree} now. It’s just part of what they do, they dominate their local space. Becoming a {Realm Woods} gives him a greater variety of ways to express and indulge in how that territory will look, but inevitably it will all belong to him.]”

He gazes out into the far distance, “[I suppose that’s another reason I sought your permission to court Gnat. If I take too long, I won’t even have a dowry worthy to grant her.]”

I float along with him and just listen to the wind as we cruise in silence for a while, “[I’ve taken another look at the {Alliance} that I drafted and am once again struck by the serendipity of the wording I chose. Though Cutest was the one to first say it, I knew that I would become a lesser portion of the greater whole when I made it. In it, I placed you above your Scions and myself as your equal. A reality that is steadily slipping away from me.]”

I close my eyes as I try and consider his position, “But if you were bound closer to Gnat. If the two of you were a couple, instead of peers, the Alliance and even my strange, unknown, reactive power might latch onto you as well. Change you. Empower you.”

He refuses to meet my gaze as we change course, heading back towards Life, “[If it were only a matter of more and more adventurers coming to test and advance under your power, I would not care. If it were only the case that demons will hunt you, /because you can see them, kill them, eat them.\ I could accept that my strength would advance enough on its own.]”

He has us descend long before we arrive at our destination. After we land, he paces around on the earth before finally drawing and channeling his power into his form, feather sharpening and a blast wave of blistering heat, “[But then Pestilence arose within my sanctum, and then you grabbed Her. There is no chance that an event like that won’t have consequences.]”

He pulls back his forge and dulls his feathers as he droops down in defeat, “[I was never so conceited to believe I could hold my own if a Myth were to challenge me. And I’m not so self-indulgent to believe that my own strength and drive will carry me to be able to survive something involving those even further beyond the Myths I know.]”

He looks at me with harrowed eyes, “[The truth is… I’m not worthy of your daughter. Not for who she was, and far less than who she’s now set to become. I’m not even as daring as that first party that came through your dungeon. To have Thing and Helix operate on them when they didn’t truly know you and yours; to take that kind of leap of faith.]”

I feel a strange sort of resonance when I place my left hand on his shoulder. An instinct and a call from Thing, Cutest, Life, Leo, Helix, Dream and eventually an answering ping from Gnat. There in that clearing I feel myself changing shape, growing larger and thinking further, wider somehow.

After a few moments I look down at myself and see that invisible outline of my body, my soul, has reformed into a great bird and though I know this change isn’t permanent, and distantly that perhaps I should question this more, I’m already committed to what I want to say, “It is not for you or I to say whether you are worthy. She’s the one who decides that. And while I will not unduly influence her choice, I can make you a promise.”

As he rises out of his funk, I pull back my wing and spread both of them in an instinctive display, “If she does pick you as her mate, I will not leave you as Other. But know this, if this is the Thermal upon which you will soar, the commitment to my Family is all or nothing-“

I take a breath and undo the transformation, walking forward I extend out my hand, “So, before you commit, be sure. You’re both adults, so this can just be something fun to explore.” He reaches out with his wing and places it against my hand, “But know yourselves and each other before taking that last step. Because there’s no turning back later. Once you’ve been changed and been fully brought into my Kingdom, I don’t think I could release you for anything short of… Death.”