No Need for a Core?

The examination of Bip went smoother than Mordecai had initially feared, it seems that Shizoku was embarrassed by her crush and was grateful to have Kazue to talk to. It was also the opportune time to verify his suspicion about her having a forest guardian spirit as her patron, as the slime was the conduit the spirit used to communicate and teach. Shizoku didn’t know the name of the spirit, it seems that no one did, and it took many shapes, but there was a particular grove one went to if one wanted to try to initiate conversation, though in Shizoku’s case it was the spirit who had approached her.

As for the slime itself, it had a minor affinity for eating magic. Mordecai considered it minor as the creature used it as a supplement rather than to sustain itself entirely, as Bip still needed to eat regular food too, and it was insufficient to entirely absorb spells. Interestingly Bip showed no inclination towards growing bigger, and it had nothing to do with being a familiar, nor did he seem likely to replicate quickly.

Most rare familiars provided some sort of special benefit to their master or have a unique ability they can use. In Bip’s case, it provided its master with some of its magic-eating affinity, but it translated more into a magic-keeping ability, allowing Shizoku to resist any effects that tried to disrupt or steal her spells. The slime in turn fed on the trace amount of magic that a spellcaster leaked, and could turn his attention on any magics negatively affecting Shizoku and shorten their duration. Also, they discovered that he loved candied honey, but that wasn’t much of a surprise.

For Shizoku’s time, Mordecai settled on a scroll with a spell that created a shard of purifying ice, in addition to some of the candied honey for her of course. It was not a particularly complicated spell, there was simply a different philosophical approach compared to most combat-oriented purification spells, which normally used fire, and thus was of interest without being too valuable.

“Thank you Shizoku. That was very useful, and Bip is a very well-behaved slime. Adorable too.” He gave the little green blob a gentle poke, making it jiggle a moment before he handed Bip back to Shizoku. “If you want to see the results, come back in a few months, if you dare.” Mordecai smiled with a challenge in his expression. “I have already suggested to your grandmother that she arrange training teams to come visit.” Mordecai was thinking about once a week or so would be good to have a fighting team visit from Azeria, and the same with Riverbridge. Both communities were a bit small to have large numbers of freelance warriors, but that rate would be maintainable if they rotated out guards and the like.

His dungeon would also take less of a beating now that the semi-elites of each community had a chance to test him out. Traxalim and Aia were still a tier above, and teamed up would be a force to reckon with, but shy of some great wyrm taking offense at their existence it was extremely unlikely that he’d face any individuals stronger than those two. Oh, there were probably a couple of individuals in each group between his descendants and the ones who’d run the dungeon, but now that a measure had been taken there would be little reason to send those individuals his way until the dungeon had a chance to get much stronger, they would find little challenge yet.

Kazue added her own invitation. “Oh, and you guys haven’t had a chance to check out my puzzle path! Now that I have a bunch of interesting plants from mother, it should be even more rewarding, at least for those with a keen eye. I’m making sure to intersperse the levels with various useful herbs and rare flowers.”

“Hehe, that would be cheaper than getting them from your mom. Akahana knows the value of the stuff she grows, doesn’t haggle, and the only time she gives credit is in an emergency.” Shizoku glanced at him briefly, then down. “Um, but yeah. I’ll come back eventually I guess. And you won’t catch me off guard so easily next time!” The little kitsune waved at them as she turned towards the corridor leading to the guest rooms.

Mordecai gave her words a moment of thought, then looked to Kazue. “How much does the idea of haggling hurt your head? And can you imagine having to keep track of constantly changing credit for a lot of people?” Everyone else had already headed off, so he felt free to talk about it with her here in the hall.

The redhead sighed. “Yeah, I see what you are saying. Mom and I already kind of exchanged some hints about what we are going to be talking about.” She smiled up at him. “And neither one of us ever considered bringing up our troubles with each other. Thank you for helping this happen, even if it wasn’t what you were planning on.” Kazue shook her head in amusement at both herself and Akahana. “Of course, Mother wouldn’t want to worry her child over such things. While she was always happy to try and teach me her business, she was always careful to not try and burden me with ‘adult’ stuff.” She snorted. “Her and dad each, I think they’ve both been overcautious about overburdening others, especially each other. And as for me, I didn’t realize that there was something I should talk about. I always thought everyone felt like that, and I was just bad at dealing with it.”

Mordecai leaned down to kiss her, then just held her for a little while before Kazue pulled back. “Alright, I’m going to go talk with her now. Off with you, go do your meditation.” Moriko had already gone off to get ready for hers, she’d wanted to take a bath and make a slow ritual of preparing herself.

Mordecai nodded and gave Kazue a final kiss on her forehead. “Have fun love.” Then they headed their separate ways for the moment.

There wasn’t a lot to get ready for his meditation, Mordecai just simply had to get ready for bed like he was going to go to sleep, which he sort of would. While physically visiting Ozuran’s realm would involve being strong enough to step directly into the shadow world and make a potentially dangerous trek, being a devotee of a god who had dominion over dreams had its advantages when one wanted to commune. No complicated ritual, just the right mindset when entering a dream state. It was a little bit harder for him than most others, as he had to work a bit to put himself into a sleeping state, but that is still far away from being hard.

Once he was ready, Mordecai laid down and closed his eyes, settling his mind into the right state to drift off into dreams.

Ozuran pinched the bridge of his nose and tried not to sigh too loudly. The two young women in front of him were supposed to be here to study, there had only been time to give them and their compatriots a relatively brief overview of what he expected of his church, but instead they were bickering. Again.

“Zelda, you have to let me dye your wings blue! They’d look so awesome like that! You could swoop in all cool like, a shadowy angel of death!” That overly enthusiastic voice belonged to Tsukiko, a seventeen-year-old, dark-haired kitsune whose ideas of helping were often concerning to her friends.

“Oh, absolutely not! You made my hair blue by accident, I don’t trust you to manage the same shade on purpose. And besides which, I have to conjure them, which you know I hate doing, and it’s not like the dye would stick anyway when they dissipate.” Zelda’s natural hair color was a slightly metallic platinum blonde, a result of her nephilim heritage and one of the many signs of that celestial bloodline the eighteen-year-old did her best to hide. Of course the girl’s obsession with how much she didn’t want to develop powers like manifesting a halo or wings are exactly why the power of her heritage was showing in that way, but it would do little good to inform the stubborn young woman of that.

“Hmmph. you should listen to the Saintess of your god more! Obviously I carry his wisdom!”

“Oh lord, not that stupid made-up title again. I’ve told you, Saintess is an awful, cringy title! No one is going to take you seriously like that.”

Tsukiko grinned impishly. “That’s what you think! I am also going to be the Seer of the Shadows! And I am sure I can think of even more awesome titles for me! After all, I was the one he made the first contract with!”

“Only because you were the last one standing and the demon was going to eat you! His connection to our world was through me!” Zelda retorted. “And there is no way you are cool enough to deserve a title like Seer of the Shadows. Denied!”

Had he told his family 50 years? Maybe a hundred or two would be better for Tsukiko. There were nights when Ozuran second-guessed the value of having decided to establish his presence in the new realm that he’d discovered through someone else’s accident, especially given how small a group he’d had to select from to make contracts with and start building his connections to that world. But it didn’t matter now, he was bound to the contract as they were.

Then he felt a different sort of connection being made, a visitor he’d not had in a long time, and Ozuran was about to split another sliver of himself off when he decided that there was a better idea. An interruption here would be more useful.

Ozuran clapped his hands sharply, making both girls jump a little in surprise. “I apologize for interrupting your conversation so suddenly,” which was not the same as saying he was sorry, “But I have another guest coming, and I would like you both to meet him.”