No Need for a Core?

As the princess told her tale, Moriko sat quietly in a stew of emotions she didn’t really want to have. One of them was guilt, and twofold at that. She felt bad about having teamed up with Kazue in getting upset about Mordecai not always being timely about information, but in some ways worse was the guilt she felt about her wandering thoughts. Not so much about noticing that the three men were attractive, but in how she’d let herself start to speculate. It didn’t help that she’d been shown a tasty variety in the forms of the pretty boy Takehiko, the calmly composed Paltira, and the powerfully built Xarlug. Bah, she’d even just thought of them as ‘tasty’.

Moriko also knew that she’d already been forgiven for all of that, and she also knew that what she was doing was supposed to take time. The Lady of Passion made sure her priests and monks were taught all about choosing and channeling their passions carefully, and Moriko had only recently decided to put aside more self-indulgent pleasures to pursue the passions of love and romance, but that did not make her feel better about even that little slip of the mind. As ridiculous and irrational as it was, she wanted all of her self-decided changes to unfold immediately.

On top of that, she was feeling a tad redundant at the moment. She knew that this was just as irrational, as a contractor her entire ‘job’ was support, and as a wife she knew damn well that she was in equal partnership when it came to decisions about them as people and as a relationship. But she did not like that she couldn’t just do as much for their home as her partners could. Maybe this is part of what her mother was worried about?

Well, Moriko was just going to have to figure it out herself. But she really needed to take some alone time soon to just sit down and meditate for a while. She even had an idea of a quiet place to do it, if they didn’t mind. But she was also pretty certain that she wasn’t going to have the time for another day or so.

The end of Orchid’s explanation brought Moriko out of her self-reflection, as she’d never known that the royalty trained by the clan became kitsune themselves. Huh. So given their potentially long life spans, just how many princesses and princes were still running around in different kitsune guises?

But now Matriarch Aia had a question for them. “I noticed the lovely artwork at the entrance, and the style is rather familiar. Kazue, would that be your work?” Moriko snorted mentally. Oh, she wasn’t wrong, Kazue made some very pretty art, but even a brawler like Moriko could see that was a soft question intended to warm the atmosphere.

The question caught the attention of the matriarch’s companions, Takehiko and Shizoku perking up to pay more attention, as they had both been feeding their respective familiars.

Kazue’s reaction was fairly predictable, and Moriko was amused as the younger woman blushed with happiness. “Oh, yes! I wanted to make things look nice, so when I had some downtime I did some extra work. That reminds me, the religious texts will be useful for finishing up the shrines, I couldn’t remember all the gods for other pantheons.” Her tails swished excitedly. “When we’re all done here, I’d love to show anyone interested around, I’m proud of the library I made.”

Shizoku looked thoughtful at this information. “Grandmother, for some time-intensive projects, what do you think the costs would look like to ship larger sculptures on commission?” The girl might be barely thirteen, but she was sharp.

Matriarch Aia smiled slightly. “That’ll be part of a later discussion dear, but very good catch.”

Akahana looked bemused, proud, and a little bit sad as she patted her daughter’s hand. “I’d love to see everything you’ve made. I,” the woman swallowed, “I have to admit, I was still hoping that there was a way to bring you home. But, you’re not just trapped here, are you? You’ve really made a home for yourself, and you seem so happy. Bah, don’t mind me, just a mother missing her daughter. But you’ve grown up.” Akahana was wiping her eyes as she tried to retain her composure, and Moriko could feel the mixed flood of emotions from Kazue as she hugged her mother.

Kazue hugged her mother tightly to try and comfort her, it hurt to see her mom sad like this, but she truly was happy here. Gah. Her head was starting to get fuzzy again. She couldn’t afford to not be at her best, so she pulled her Core’s attention away from the dungeon and focused all of herself here.

“Love, I can’t monitor anything right now, please let me know if there is anything I have to pay attention to.”

She felt Mordecai’s curious puzzlement, and Moriko’s somewhat deeper confusion, but also a surge of support and comfort from both of them. That helped, and now she could keep her head clear for the rest of this meeting. “It’s okay mom, you can always come to visit as much as you like. And, well, eventually I’ll be able to send a part of myself out into the world. So I can come to visit. But I’ll be traveling when I do that, so it’ll just be a visit.”

She was tired of having her head fuzz like that. Even when something managed to keep her focused for a long time, it left her exhausted afterward. Kazue had no idea what to do about it though. That thought had brought up something else, however. After calming her mother down, she turned towards the leader of her clan who held both executive and religious power, when she chose to wield it.

“Matriarch Aia, I have a request.” She tried not to swallow when those sharp eyes turned her way. The woman had always kind of terrified Kazue, even when Aia was being kind. But things were different now, and she was going to be different dammit. Still, the topic required a touch of delicacy. “As I did die, I am certain many of my less sentimental things in my room at the temple were redistributed among the other shrine maidens. However, there are a few books that I would like to re-collect if possible, and if it did not inconvenience the other shrine maidens too much. I don’t wish to be demanding, so I would appreciate it if you could just let them know I am interested in some of my old books, and leave the decisions as to which ones to them.”

There. That danced around the nature of the books nicely. There were a few things in some of her books that she was not confident in recreating without double-checking the description. And she’d managed to not stutter or blush or anything. So why was the matriarch staring into her soul while looking amused? “I think I understand.” Aia finally said. “And I’ll see what I can do.” While the second part made her relax a little, the first part of that response left Kazue feeling a little worried that perhaps the matriarch had understood a bit more than Kazue wanted her to.

On the plus side, Moriko had made a certain connection and Kazue was delighted to see a rare blush on her wife’s face. Mordecai also seemed to have picked up what was going on and was more amused. Hmm, maybe they could gang up on him later, he was entirely too smug. In the meantime, Kazue resolutely ignored her mother’s confused look and was quite relieved when the Matriarch moved the conversation on. “I have another small question, though I suspect I know part of the answer. Mordecai, when you transformed, you showed a shadowy form of foxfire? I’ve not heard of the like before.”

Mordecai shifted his attention from the byplay between his wives and back to their guests. “Yes, shadow is an appropriate description. In my previous incarnation, I was a devotee and priest of Ozuran’s for a long time, and it’s a uni-” he coughed suddenly, as he found the word hard to say. Experience helped him figure it out quickly. “Err, rare? Okay, a rare blessing that Ozuran gave me.” He smiled slightly at all the puzzled stares. “It seems things have changed while I was asleep. And the Lord of Shadows does like to be open about things where possible.” Ozuran had no prohibition against lying specifically, but Mordecai and other priests had found themselves with similar verbal stumbles before when discussing something related to their god that was no longer quite true. It seemed to be a more automatic thing than something that required the god’s actual attention.

“As I suspected. Well then, does anyone have any more questions to make sure we are all on the same page?” She asked. Mordecai was slightly amused that she was taking charge of this part of the conversation, but had no problems with it. No one spoke up, so the matriarch continued. “Excellent. So, I understand that trade with living dungeons can be quite profitable for everyone, such as the option my granddaughter noted. We’ve given a selection of small samples as a gift, but what would you like more of, and what can you offer us?”

Straight to the point. Technically revealing what he wanted before she did put him at a disadvantage, but as what he also wanted was friends and allies, he was willing to be put into that position. He quickly checked in with Kazue and Moriko to get their opinions and any specific requests, then replied. “As with your gifts, variety has great value to me. But as I believe you already know, we only need a single small sample to analyze it, and expand upon it.” He waved his hand and several large, perfect, colored gems appeared in the center of the table, then another set appeared, this time of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds with the particular rare faults that created a star pattern in their center. “Which means trading such samples to us enables getting more back in return in the long run.”

He had everyone’s attention now, even Xarlug’s. The fiend-touched orc had looked more than a little bored through everything so far, but the taciturn warrior’s eyes still lit up at the sudden appearance of so much wealth. “So clearly anything that will be new to us is quite useful. We aren’t quite ready to take full advantage of the mithral you gifted us this morning, but within a few weeks, we should be able to trade equipment made out of the metal. Additionally, for us in particular books of all sorts are good. Kazue’s library needs a little more variety still.”

The redheaded kitsune was doing her best to look entirely nonchalant, but he could feel her inner excitement at the idea of loads of books. “Additionally, equipment. As Kazue mentioned, she will be able to send a form of herself out of the dungeon eventually,” they were deliberately keeping the timeline vague to not raise anyone’s expectation too much, “But none of us can take any of the equipment we make out of the dungeon, so we’d be best off if there was a nice variety to select from and bring with us.” His own ability to depart was even further away, but there was no need to mention that here. Mordecai had briefly considered teasing Kazue with a line about not letting her walk out of the dungeon naked, but decided that would be a touch mean.

“But our ability is not limited to raw materials and copies of items. You may have noted the unique scent of the table’s wood, and perhaps tasted the vibrancy of the honey? We are experimenting with new life and interesting hybrids that are generally not possible, or at least not feasible, to create outside of a dungeon. So we can become a source of materials and food not available elsewhere. Additionally, as dungeon magic enables creating things as a single piece even if composed of different materials, we can provide specialty items that can not otherwise be crafted even with the correct materials.”

While he’d not been able to work with the mithral fast enough to include it in the table, he’d had the entire conversation to date to work on a variation of the staff he’d shown Traxalim. Now he created a staff next to each of his guests, carefully woven of two kinds of wood and two metals each, with rings of offset knobs at the end to bring every material into contact on a solid hit. “Thanks to the saplings Akahana brought to us, I was able to create these out of both rowan and wisteria for the wood, while the two ribbons of metal are mithral and cold iron.” It had taken a lot of work to balance four materials, and the mithral itself was stretching their ability to materialize at all, but it was a suitable substitute for silver to ward off certain creatures, and superior in every other property. But once he’d finalized the designs, replicating was relatively easy.

“And I have a way for some of you to walk out with these or similar gifts, if you are up for it.” It was amazing how solidly he had everyone’s attention now. “I want the five of you,” instead of pointing, he simply adjusted the lighting to highlight Orchid, Paltira, Xarlug, Takehiko, and Shizoku. “To challenge my combat path. Little witch,” he smirked as Shizoku started then frowned at him, “I assume at least some of your alchemical reagents can be used for healing? I recommend that you play support. Your only other healer is also one of your two front-liners.” He might not be familiar with that peculiar type of slime as a familiar, but his dungeon senses picked up the aura of a familiar granted by a patron, rather than one formed or bonded by a mage. He assumed it was some entity of the forest given that the matriarch was considering naming Shizoku as her heir. As for the other healer, that was Paltira. He had a holy symbol representing both of the twins, his aura was a bit different than the one Moriko had cultivated, and Orchid had mentioned him being a priest earlier.

“Of course, it is dangerous. While all of our inhabitants will avoid a fallen or badly injured challenger and honor any form of surrender, accidents can happen, so I understand if you are reluctant to take up the challenge. But it would be a shame if my newest dungeon level went untested. I just finished it up yesterday.” Mordecai’s bait was not subtle, but that did not mean it was not effective. He had them hooked. Well, Orchid was not quite as enthused or eager to prove herself, but Mordecai was pretty certain she’d go along with the others. Once he was sure he had them, he then moved to increase anticipation. “After lunch, however. We wouldn’t want anyone to be faint from hunger after all.” And they were a dungeon. They needed delvers.

Also, it would be a good time to talk with Aia alone. He’d have to send everything along to Kazue so she could keep her mother occupied, but Moriko at least could join hi- “Hey!” Mordecai blinked at the interjection and looked at Akahana. “I am not just a gardener. I settled down to raise my daughter, but I am a fully vested and experienced druid.” Now she gave him a fierce grin. “And I didn’t leave my companion behind, I just let her roam about rather than make her sit in an unknown cave. Her name is Casey, and she’s a cassowary.”

“I,” Mordecai was stunned, in part by the image of one of those terrifying birds enhanced by bonding to a druid, then he started laughing. “I am sorry, I did indeed assume too much.” She didn’t present herself as a potential threat, so he hadn’t examined her aura or he might have caught that she was a spell caster at least. “I take it you wish to win a staff, too? I would be honored, Mother. Maybe you can keep these kids out of too much trouble.” He deliberately dropped the ‘in-law’ part, which both mollified and slightly flustered the woman.