No Need for a Core?

Mordecai had a moment of bemusement as his attention was split between their entrance and a very excited Kazue. Up at the entrance to their dungeon, three people had entered. One was a 6-tailed kitsune woman with dark hair and almond-shaped eyes like Moriko's, though her skin was a bit paler, wearing flowing robes that did not quite hide the presence of leather armor from Mordecai's senses. In front of her as a vanguard were two men: one a celestial-touched human monk wearing the holy symbol of the Twins and wielding a Bo Staff, with a Temple Sword at his side; the other a fiend-touched orc with a red hue to his skin, wielding a naginata and wearing a breastplate as well as having a heavy-duty longbow currently strapped to his back. It was interesting to see nephilim of both celestial and fiendish heritage working together like that. The woman turned to call out from the entrance, “It looks clear, but give us a moment more.”

Down in their private chambers, Mordecai and Moriko were looking at Kazue, who had jumped off her stool. “It’s Princess Orchid! And Paltira! Um, I don’t know who the orc guy is, but I guess he’s a friend? Oh, Mom must have gotten my letter! Is she here too?” And the excited kitsune discorporated her avatar, which sent Mordecai’s mind racing as he swiftly followed her.

“Moriko, meet us up top!”

Kazue appeared almost directly in front of the other kitsune, and the bundle of energetic red hair and tails launched herself into the princess’s arms. The two of them were nearly the same height, the princess scant inches taller than Kazue. This set off a series of events, as the orc turned towards the potential threat, bringing the sword-spear to bear. Paltira had evidently recognized the fuzzy red blur and was stepping in to intercept his orc companion, which left him in a perfect position to see Mordecai materialize.

Mordecai had appeared ten feet away with his nine-ring blade in hand, but his body and core were in perfect coordination and he'd appeared with enough momentum to almost instantly land him behind his target, sword poised threateningly a short distance from the orc nephilim's neck. The man had started to turn in response to the shift in Paltira's focus, but it had taken him too long to pull his attention away from the pair of kitsune and he found himself dangerously out of position to act in any manner while that sword hovered so near.

There was a heated glow coming from Mordecai's golden eyes as he growled, “First of all, I recommend you don’t turn your weapon against my wife, especially in our home. Second of all, I think you need some training on how to actually protect a target. We can talk about that later though, if you’ll just relax your grip and take a step away from the women, yes?” He did note with approval that Paltira had stayed near Orchid and with his back turned to her, keeping himself facing possible threats and not letting even the danger to Xarlug move him away from the target of his protection. The monk's actions also denoted a certain confidence in Orchid's ability to handle a single threat if his evaluation of Kazue turned out to be wrong.

Kazue and Orchid had interrupted their excited greetings and turned towards the confrontation. Kazue’s eyes widened briefly at Mordecai’s expression, but recovered quickly, while Orchid’s attention focused on her tiefling companion. “Xarlug, I told you I was coming here to hopefully meet a friend. It’s okay, this is who I am here to meet.”

That was odd, her tone was almost that of gently chiding a younger person who was still learning, but Mordecai’s feeling was that this orc was a fully trained and experienced warrior. And his dungeon senses were saying something else entirely about their auras. It only took a brief consideration to decide that he should just not ask, it wasn’t something he needed to know. “Very well,” Mordecai began as he dispersed the blade and stepped back. “Perhaps we can start over with some introduc-”

He was cut off as another, female, voice called from outside the entrance. “What happened? Did I just hear Kazue?!” A kitsune rushed in wearing a green tunic and brown leather pants, weighed down by a heavy backpack. Though she was in the more fox-like form common to most kitsune, the reddish color of her fur and her recent words gave a hint as to who she might be, shortly confirmed by “Kazue! Oh thank the goddess, it’s true!” the woman was practically sobbing as she opened her arms.

“Mother!” Kazue called, and the crimson projectile threw herself at the newest visitor in a solid collision, and the joyful tears of reunion mingled the outflow of parental grief and words of reassurance. The rest of them just glanced at each other, not really willing to interrupt this moment, and he wasn’t certain how long it would have lasted if someone else wasn’t more willing to do so.

“This is a touching reunion child, but perhaps you could move further in so that everyone else can enter?” Another voice from outside the dungeon. His senses were weaker and of limited range outside the entrance, but he could see that there were three more kitsune visitors. It was going to be quite a busy day.

Both of the weeping kitsune started, with Kazue letting out a distinct “Eeep!” as her mother grabbed her arm and practically sprinted to clear the path, calling out, “I’m sorry Matriarch!” as she went. Ah. Also, he had a feeling he now knew where Kazue got some of her personality from. Hmm, and he had an idea how she was going to react in a moment more.

Moriko finally arrived through the shortcut, immediately pausing to take in the tableau and then moving to match Mordecai as he strode towards Kazue. This gave them just enough time to be near her and to get a suspicious look from her mother before their final set of guests walked in. The brief pause made Mordecai suspect a bit of diplomacy was at play to give them the time to settle into place.

A tall kitsune woman swept in wearing vivid blue robes trimmed in gold, the bright colors contrasting against the flow of her dark hair and a full set of nine tails. The matriarch was trailed by a young man and a girl who looked barely to be in her teens. The young man had purple hair and tails, five of them, which was a rather unusual color for most races let alone a kitsune, and the girl was only slightly less unusual, her hair and tails being a dazzling platinum blonde, but with dark tips on her ears and at the end of her three tails. Which was a rather impressive number for someone her age.

Each of these younger folk also had a companion. Upon the girl’s shoulder rested a shimmering little green slime that seemed quite content to cling there, while some sort of pixie-like fey creature fluttered a little behind the young man, peeking around his head shyly.

“M-Matriarch!” Kazue greeted nervously, and just as she was about to bow deeply, Mordecai sent a gathered burst of thought at her.

“Calm. This is our domain. Here we meet her as equals.”

Even at full strength and intent, the burst couldn’t do more than make her hesitate slightly, but that was enough for her to gather her thoughts and correct her bow to that of an equal greeting another, which Mordecai also matched. Moriko took only a brief moment to decide and bowed slightly lower.

“Greetings Matriarch of the Azeria Clan,” Mordecai said as the woman returned their bows, a slightly amused expression on her face. “It is a pleasure to meet you and yours, though I would ask that you not call my wife ‘child’. I am Mordecai, half of the dungeon you have entered, along with my wife, Kazue. And this is our wife and contractor, Moriko.” Kazue’s mother was now definitely giving him a gimlet eye.

“I apologize if any habits of mine caused offense.” The matriarch replied smoothly. “I greet you Mordecai,” honored ancestor, “Kazue, Moriko.” Mordecai managed to not react to the smoothly woven telepathic message, and took a moment to wonder if Traxalim had taken the initiative in contacting her ahead of time. “Kazue, you will forever be a welcome and honored guest of the clan, but I suppose it would be appropriate to recognize that you are officially no longer a full member, though I extend the title of honorary clan member to you and yours.”

“Wait! Matriarch, how-” Kazue’s mother began, but was cut off by the slight raising of an eyebrow, and she subsided for the moment.

“Now, let me make my introductions. I am Aia, Matriarch of clan Azeria. Next to you is Akahana, the mother of Kazue. This is Princess Orchid Apifera, the youngest daughter of the current king of Kuiccihan. With her is her consort Lord Paltira Tenohira, a young noble of the same kingdom, and her companion Xarlug.” She turned to the young people who had followed her in. “The young man who is too pretty for his own good is my grandson Takehiko, by my second youngest daughter. The little protege here is my granddaughter Shizoku, the youngest of my grandchildren and by my youngest daughter. Assuming I don’t strangle her before she turns one hundred, she will probably become my heir.”

While Shizoku frowned slightly at her description, Takehiko ignored the byplay and glided forward to bow in front of them, giving Kazue his best winsome smile. “I was saddened by your death my little flame, but the news of your resurrection was glad tidings indeed. Alas, it seems I am too late to have a chance to finally win your heart.”

Kazue rolled her eyes, then shifted into giving him a viciously sweet smile. “Takehiko, while I admit your flirtations did fluster me, I was well aware of your honeyed tongue. I wanted a chance at romance and love, not a fling. And I am also well aware that the princess has turned you down, repeatedly.”

Takehiko was taken aback at Kazue’s reaction as she so cleanly told him off, and while Orchid managed to only briefly let her lips twitch, Shizoku’s mood turned cheerful as she laughed. “Oh, she had your number all along cousin!” The girl was grinning at Kazue. “I don’t know if it was becoming a dungeon spirit or getting married, but you’ve grown some spine. I like it. And here I had been assuming you were just going to forever be a little one-tail at the shrine and grow old before you even hit a hundred. Now you have more tails than I do!”

That response caused Kazue to blink, then sweep her tails around in front of her. Yep, four. “I have four tails! Yes!” and she spun around to show them off to her mother, who was looking bemused but happy for her daughter.

Takehiko had managed to annoy Mordecai with his approach towards Kazue, and that part of his mood had not been helped by feeling a flicker of wandering attention from Moriko before she guiltily suppressed old habits. “Ah, if we’re counting tails, I do believe our recent growth helped me as well.” A brief aside to his wives: “Remember, I told you I had combined all my other avatars into this one.” He had been practicing his own shape-changing, which had been what had caused him to suggest Kazue practice her own, and now he selected just part of the features available to him. 7 tails bloomed behind him as he used dungeon magic to adjust his clothing.

One appeared to be made of shadows, and the others were gold, silver, dark blue, red, purple, and a more normal black. Along the tips danced four balls of foxfire, consisting of flame, cold, lighting, and a dark ball of shadow. He was showing off, it was about as subtle as flexing his muscles, and he didn’t care at the moment.

Takehiko looked irritated as he was alternatively dismissed and overshadowed, then plastered a smile on his face as he stepped back from Kazue. Kazue on the other hand was gaping at him. “No fair! Our cores are the same strength, how do you have more tails and multiple fox fires?”

Mordecai had manifested ears when he’d brought out kitsune tails, and he twitched one in amusement at her. “I told you I combined my previous avatars. While I am now using a human base, I have been various sorts of elves, dwarves, gnomes, kitsunes, tengu, orcs, and a whole lot more, some of which didn’t even have an organic body. Just, well, I needed practice and our cores to improve before I was willing to change shape. My conglomerate form was hastily put together for its features, they don’t all go together well.”

The more detailed explanation was for everyone present to a certain extent. It also suggested more power than he actually held in some ways. Yes, he could do more diverse things than a real kitsune should be able to do, having access to more than one form of foxfire amongst them, but a true seven-tail kitsune, or even a five-tail, would beat him out in raw power. But it was probably best to not push his luck, and he transformed back to his normal form.

As he did, Akahana overcame her shock and stepped closer to him with a frown. “Alright mister fancy-pants dungeon, that’s a nice show and all, but what is this about marrying my little girl?” Her narrowed eyes shifted to Moriko as well. “And don’t think you get out of this either young lady. Her letter called you wife. My sweet Kazue hadn’t even been on a proper date yet, and now the two of you are claiming to have married her? By what authority do you think you can get away with that?”

Mordecai cleared his throat slightly as he reached into his shirt to pull out his necklace bearing Ozuran’s holy symbol. “I am a priest of Ozuran, and bound us by ritual, and not just words, though I admit that circumstances dictated it not be a normal ritual. That ritual has been acknowledged to the extent that Ozuran gave his blessings to each of my wives, and named them wedding presents.”

Well, that certainly brought a moment of stunned silence, which was broken by the matriarch. “I also spent some time communing at the temple, while The Twins were not quite so explicit they did acknowledge the circumstances. This was part of my verifying that the letter was indeed from Kazue’s reincarnation.” Mordecai gave his descendant a little bit of side-eye there, he was pretty certain she’d heard from Traxalim before the letter arrived, but knowing kitsune she was probably technically telling the truth.

Akahana looked between them, clearly frustrated but finding herself lacking arguments against them. Kazue stepped up beside her, resting a hand on her mother’s arm. “Mom, it’s OK. We, well, as I said in the letter, it started as something for everyone’s benefit. But it’s grown so much beyond that. I love them both.”

Mordecai took this change of pace to bow to Akahana, just slightly lower than he’d bowed to Aia. “Mother-in-law,” he ignored the slight eep from the kitsune, “As your daughter said, she and Moriko were both kind enough to bind themselves to me in my time of need, with Moriko providing me the opportunity to live, and Kazue the opportunity to exist as more than a creature of spirit. We have grown beyond that, however, and I love both of them dearly. And I am happy to meet the mother of my wife, just as I have already met Moriko’s parents. But please, this meeting has been hectic for everyone, and I think it might be best if we all retired someplace more comfortable.”

He turned to face everyone, projecting his voice to cut through the other conversations. “I would like to welcome everyone as our Guests. Normally I would also invite people to take part in either of our available challenges, but given the circumstances, I believe it best if we escort you to our hall where we can provide you with refreshments.”

Matriarch Aia spoke up before anyone else could reply. “I accept on everyone’s behalf,” Mordecai was pretty certain that was an order to everyone else, “However, first we have gifts, both to welcome a new dungeon and as wedding gifts. Akahana, perhaps you should begin?”

The woman looked abashed as she turned to her daughter and carefully took off her heavy backpack. “Here, be careful with these, I brought you seeds, saplings, and cuttings from my garden. I don’t know if you can grow them here, but I wanted to bring you something to make it more like home.”

“Oh, mother, thank you so much.” Kazue accepted the backpack gently and gave her mother a smile before the pack suddenly disappeared. “And there, I’ve put everything somewhere safe – oh! You shouldn’t have! I know how hard it was for you to get those to bloom! Please don’t tell me you brought all your seeds for those!”

“I,” Akahana blinked, then sniffed as she held back tears. “Oh, Kazue, you really are a dungeon core now. I mean, I knew, but I was still hoping there was a way to bring you back home.” She shook her head, then cleared her throat. “But to answer your question, no dear. I love you to death, but I know better than to risk my entire seed stock. Um, you do have someplace to grow them?”

“Yes mother, we can create sunshine and have a bunch of ways for growing different plants. Oh! Some of these will go great with the library!” Kazue was very excited, and Mordecai spent a bit of time getting familiar with the new inventory. Their options for growing food had gone up, which would certainly make it easier to supply food that needed to leave the dungeon, and there were a lot of flowers and herbs, and some of the trees he’d been hoping for. He wasn’t certain which ones were difficult to grow, but he was going to make sure they had a true line of everything before there were any experiments, and maybe they could help Akahana out later.

While that was going on, the others had reacted to the matriarch’s promptings and began placing various containers on the tables, which was especially nice as some of them had spacial enchantments. Their contents for the library had essentially just doubled, if a bit heavy on the religious texts, and there were several dozen small gems and crystals of various types and their first sample of mithral. There were some enchantment runes along with a nice set of single-use minor magic items too, copying those would come in handy for both equipping their inhabitants and for creating rewards.

“Oh, thank you Matriarch!” Kazue exclaimed while Mordecai was still sorting everything in his head. “Everyone, really, thank you, we love them all. Oh! Are those runes for Moriko?”

“We were less than certain about what exactly would be useful for whom, so we brought what we could, so that you can all decide on exact distribution.” replied Aia.

Moriko had perked up at the mention of runes, and Mordecai noted to set aside some time to go over the options with her later. But first, “Thank you again. Now, please, let us escort you all downstairs. Moriko, if you could open the shortcut, we can guide them through.” Letting designated guests use the shortcuts took a bit more attention but wasn’t difficult.