No Need for a Core?

Moriko ignored the faint tremors of fading adrenaline as she gingerly took Mordecai's core into her arms. Her pacing had burned off most of her nervous energy, and she needed to meditate anyway to restore herself. She'd already taken a quick inventory of her light pack and had found every vial of restorative potion broken. Some of the less thoroughly destroyed ones still had a few drops, but it wasn't worth the risk of glass dust.

She carefully settled onto the ground with what was essentially a giant crystal ball in her lap. Her exhaustion left her more open to the energies of the world, and she could feel the faint hum of the crystal vibrating through her spirit. It wasn’t exactly the same as a normal crystal; in addition to it actually being a living entity its apparent temperature was uneven and changed over time. There was a sort of rhythm to it and a faint vibration as well. She began to harmonize the rhythm of her body to that of the core, using that as the base of her meditation cycle, and almost immediately felt a change in the flow of her chi.

Normally this sort of channeling involved drawing the free chi of the environment into one’s self. In areas with overflowing natural energy, it was easier than normal. But here, as soon as she opened herself up, the pressure of the chi was practically pouring into her. Moriko's current state left her spirit eager to replenish itself, but this was far too much to be the result of her deprivation, was this Mordeci's doing? It was intense enough that she had to focus on regulating that flow and channeling it through her body before she could think about that question. She decided the answer had to be yes.

Her entire being ached more than a little from letting it flow into her this quickly, stretching her capacity to process and distribute the energy, allowing it to reinforce both body and soul; but she understood that there was a time limit. Mordecai hadn’t seemed panicked, but it was clear that they were going to probably have only one shot at whatever he was planning to do. So it behooved both her growth as a martial disciple and the probability that they could escape to take in as much as she could handle.

But doing so came with the awareness that she was taking in chi that had belonged to her host moments ago, and for a creature whose life was tied to magic so intricately, that was practically the same as draining his life energy directly. She tried to not think of how vampiric that was.

It didn’t take Moriko too long to fall into the new rhythm, and practicing a new sort of control was a useful experience. Normally she would create a routine of switching between purely internal meditation and active meditation where she would go through her stances. In this circumstance, however, that would break her contact with the core and leave her with less chi to work with while repairing her body and reinforcing her spiritual energy, so she let herself indulge in the calm portion of her routine.

Hours passed quickly as she focused on regulating this influx, and her meditation remained uninterrupted until Mordecai spoke. “Moriko, I am almost ready to start the final part of designing the ritual, but I need your input.” She opened her eyes to look at him, then stared at the intricate diagram.

“Oh?” She asked, arching a brow. Moriko was still a little uncertain about how she felt about him, he was taking control of the situation without much asking. But she also understood that he had a lot of knowledge and experience, and that time was an issue. So she presumed that his taking the time to ask for her input meant that he needed to decide on something that was going to directly affect her, and this made her somewhat nervous.

“Well, to cover the basics of what I have been able to work out: In order for me to leave, my core and my avatar will both need to be abandoned. I can only leave with my mind and soul, which means I need a new vessel. Namely, you. I could possibly entangle myself into a magical object, but I've always existed with a physical brain, whether crystal or organic, so I am not confident I could do that well. In order to borrow you as a vessel I’d have to do a kind of ride-along-possession, for lack of a better phrase. I’d be living in your head. And it would tangle our souls. Whatever the long-term outcome, getting us both out will leave us connected for the rest of our lives, and possibly a little beyond. And to be clear: I’m pretty certain I can enhance you to get you out alone, but I wouldn’t have much time left after that. And I don’t particularly want to die either. Still, if it is not something you can deal with, I will do my best to get you out at least.”

She pondered that for a bit, considering all the implications. Being a bit selfish in this situation seemed reasonable of him, but the idea of having some guy living in her head for an indefinite time wasn’t exactly the most appealing. Still, she didn’t exactly want to leave him to die, especially if he was helping her to get out. He had already saved her life once when he'd caught her with that burst of air, even if it had been a reflex. And having that reflex did say good things about his character. Well, she could probably live with it?

“Okay, I’m not saying no, but that doesn’t sound like what you need my opinion on. I mean, other than saying yes or no. So, what else is there?” Mordecai gave her a warm smile that felt approving for having figured that part out, but the look in his eyes made her feel a touch nervous.

“Well, anyway you look at it, this is going to take a lot of trust on your part. I’m going to be invading your soul and making a place for myself there. You’re going to have to surrender yourself to it even when it feels uncomfortable, maybe even painful. If you can’t keep yourself from struggling in response, then one or both of us may die. So you have to be very, very certain before you agree to the ritual. However, there is another ritual I can weave in that might make that easier. It would strengthen some of the other bonds tying the network of our spirits and souls together, and let me take along some more mana. Normally, it would require some well-built ties of deeper affection, but I can partially replace that prerequisite with the other bonds the ritual would be forging. As for the rest of the prerequisite,” Mordecai hesitated, then shrugged. “Well, it helps that you apparently think I’m cute.”

Moriko stared at him for a long moment in silence. "You have got to be kidding me. You are propositioning me right here and now? Seriously?"

Mordecai couldn't help a small laugh. "Oh, it's worse than that, I'm technically proposing. And I admit that it sounds ridiculous, but the full marriage ceremony includes the enchantment of rings and another layer of bonding." He held up a newly formed ring of purple crystal. "This is made of the same matrix as my core but does not carry my energy signature. I can pack a good chunk of my memories into it, and access them later if circumstances change, but I have to have a connection to make it happen. This means I can use less energy to hold those memories in an intangible state, and our additional bond layer would allow me to pack more energy into it temporarily." He glanced up, eyeing the hole. "Hmm, if I were to give the unmodified ritual about a ninety percent chance to escape and complete the ascent, then I would say that adding this layer would increase it to about ninety-five percent. Not huge, but not insignificant."

His tone became very somber as he looked at the woman staring at him with her eyes narrowed. "A marriage of convenience in exchange for an increased chance of survival for both of us. I wouldn't hold you to the normal conventions of marriage of course; we wouldn't be forming this bond from pure emotion and neither do we have some legacy to uphold through inheritance. However, it would need consummating as part of the ritual." He paused a moment before adding, "Though I must acknowledge that if we do this, I would prefer marital commitment, I just don't think it would be fair to you to insist."

Moriko sighed, then contemplated the orb in her lap for a while before looking back up at him. "I admit that I do not exactly hate the idea of bedding you, and in another time and place I might have contemplated hitting on you in a bar, especially if I knew you were a dungeon avatar, just to see what it would be like. And I am not foolish enough to let my pride stand in the way of my survival over something like this. But why exactly does it need to be consummated here and now?"

"First, we're at the low end of emotional connection, and need to build up positive emotions to finish the link quickly; and second, I won't have a body afterward to consummate with later. Missing both the emotional connection and the intimate connection would make for a weak bond. I don't really want to find out what happens if a link in my hacked ritual breaks." The ritual was really meant for bonding people with deep love and affection for each other. Using it for things like political marriages only worked if the couple at least didn't hate each other and were willing to commit to the relationship. Physical intimacy with mutual engagement was less than ideal, but it's not like he had the time to romance her.

The half-elf made a face. "I hate that it's such a cold proposition though." A glint of humor and mischief appeared in her eyes, despite the circumstances. "Prove to me that it's worth it then. Warm me up to the idea without removing any clothing or touching the obvious areas, and I'll say yes."

Oh, he liked her. Sexual drive wasn't a deep-rooted need for a dungeon core, but he had been around long enough to learn some things. He started finalizing the adjustments to the ritual, then rose to approach her.

Ideal accommodations would be too wasteful, however, he did start by forming a simple bedroll as he knelt down next to her. A soft kiss to start off with, then he took his core from her and set it aside before he began to explore her skin with light touches, finding where her nerves responded happily, and drawing her slowly into the mood. No rush, no urgency, just the mutual entertainment of getting to know her. And while his avatar had her distracted, his core started spending power to etch arcane symbols in an intricate pattern centered on them.

When she said "Yes", more power started flowing from the core and charged the inscriptions while running patterns to replace the normal words, chants, materials, and actions, paying a price in power spent to make up for some of the missing pieces. When the time was right, at the pitch of heightened emotion, he asked for her to be his and him to be hers as every level of the bond formed in glowing lines, ready but holding back for this second yes, then snapped fully into place.

Sometime later, Moriko angrily pulled herself together while swearing silently. What the hell had she been thinking? Oh wait, had she been thinking? A pretty pair of golden eyes, a convenient excuse about bonding them more strongly together, and she’d let that bastard…

"Ahem, I’m in here you know. When you are thinking that loudly, I can’t not hear it."

“Shut up you. Let me grump and vent. Hey, wait a second, what did you do to my dress?” She stared suspiciously at the knee-length garment. At first, she had been distracted by the fact that the entire area was covered in purple dust from when his core had basically exploded, but it felt like there was something different about the cloth.

"Once I knew how much magic I could bring with us, and how much I needed for the ritual, I used as much as I could to upgrade your gear. Your dress will now act like lightweight armor, and your bracers and boots have new enchantments too."

She grunted in response. She had been planning to change into her gi to attempt the ascent. And while she was happy the tears to her favorite dress had been repaired, she hadn’t chosen the dress expecting to need to fight, or climb, in it. And it flowed well enough that if push came to shove it wouldn’t hinder her; so it wouldn’t compromise her fighting style for it to protect like armor as well. Just, well, she’d chosen it to be pretty when she got home, not to be a combat outfit. “Fine, whatever.” She paused when she heard the ground shift and looked up at the hole she had come through earlier. “Um, is it just me, or…”

"No, you are correct. It is closer. The wards are eating the last traces of my energy, and the earth is shifting back into place. You should probably hurry."

The monk swung on her backpack then jumped up onto the small boulder that had preceded her entry into this lair and crouched, preparing herself for the leap. Mordecai pulled together a weave of elemental chi and handed control of it over. As she leapt the air-aspected chi surged around her, helping launch her upwards and into the small void beyond the chamber.

Another pattern of magic was handed to her, and she let it activate as she grabbed for a rock surface. Her fingers and nails shifted into dragon-like claws to gouge the rock, and she felt the enchantment on her boots give her more traction than the material alone should have been able to provide.

All the power surging through Moriko made her entire body ache in a deeper and more profound way than did the myriad of bruises, hunger, and lack of sleep together. Her partner had brought along a lot more mana than they could actually hold on to, and it was leaking out through her flesh. Combined with the rapid-fire magics she was not used to channeling, it made for an extremely unpleasant experience. Her mood was not helped by the sounds of earth and rock slowly crushing closed below her.

Moriko began swearing again, venting her frustrations at everything as she continued the climb. A stupid baby dungeon with its stupid cute rabbit monsters. A blasted deep hole in the ground that shouldn’t be here. Bloody ancient old pervert. This did not slow her down in the least, however, as the entire time she was continuing to climb and leap, accepting the spells being handed to her from inside her head by the creature she’d let possess her. All the while her flesh strained and tore under the combined pressures, and almost immediately healed. Not that the healing was a pleasant sensation either, a burning itch as a raw overflow of energy was used to accelerate some processes while simultaneously reversing the creation of toxins and other waste products. It fueled both her strength and hastened the healing, but it was not a nice experience at all. At least her new friend kept his mouth shut and did his job smoothly.

Eventually, she reached a point where she could pause on a ledge and catch her breath. Okay, she didn’t exactly need to catch her breath with all that chi surging through her, but she just needed a break from both the monotony and the awful sensations. She had been climbing for hours, and probably had hours ahead of her. This would have been impossible without the power she was getting from Mordecai.

“Look, sorry about being so angry earlier. It has been a very long day, and having your core kind of explode right after and then seeing you turn into little motes of energy was not the best ending to a good lay. I mean, I should have figured out something was going to happen, your body had to die somehow as part of the ritual, but since I didn’t think to ask, you could have given me a bit more detailed of a warning, you know?”

"I’m sorry as well. I have to admit, I was a little worried about how you’d react if I gave too much detail, and, well, I hadn’t realized the reaction with my core was going to be quite that thorough. But if you had asked for more detail, I would have told you. I just didn’t want to volunteer it." That last part had just a hint of guilt in its tone.

She frowned for a moment, not entirely pleased. But, well, “Eh, I guess I kind of get it. Maybe it was best that I wasn’t distracted in any other ways, but it doesn’t sit very well. I’ll get over it, just, don’t do anything like that again, got it?” Moriko felt his agreement and was satisfied with that for now.

The rest of the climb was much more pleasant. Not only was there a lot less overflow leaking out through her flesh, but she was in a better mood and the two of them could talk. Most of it was just an exchange of information; she learned a lot more about living dungeons, and Mordecai learned a bit about the modern world, especially the Kuiccihan Kingdom that the little dungeon far above had appeared on the outskirts of. Finally, they reached the end of their journey. The narrowing vertical tunnel she’d been climbing ended in a smooth ‘roof’, and he’d already pointed out the sensation that indicated she’d reached the edge of a dungeon’s territory.

There really wasn’t the leverage to try anything fancy with popping the trapdoor open, so Moriko called out “Sorry about this, kind of in a bad situation here. Coming through!”