No Need for a Core?

Moriko did not get to leave quite as early as she wanted. Her original intention had been to leave shortly after all of their guests left, but she became somewhat delayed when Kazue glommed onto her arm with an adorable pout, saying she didn’t want Moriko to go.

She realized too late that this was a clever distraction technique that also kept her physically hindered, enabling Mordecai to get a hold of Moriko before the monk could get away. Once the two of them had captured their prey, they proceeded to exact their revenge for her tickling of their core the night before. They even found a couple of spots Moriko didn’t know could be ticklish, though she was still nowhere as vulnerable as Kazue.

During a brief breather, the two women decided to team up to attack Mordecai instead, though they found that quite unfairly his avatar was not ticklish at all. They did get him to ‘confess’ to having long ago learned to weed out autonomous reflexes from his avatar designs that he did not feel were necessary for someone who did not need to suffer through infancy and childhood. Very rarely do such reactions prove more advantageous to an adult than the ability to control one's own body.

Privately Moriko agreed with him, and in fact her own training allowed her to ignore most of the same, normally involuntary, reflexes. But she wasn’t inclined to do so during play, and chose to support Kazue in ‘denouncing’ Mordecai for his unfair advantage.

After they’d all had their fun and recovered, Moriko went to put a small travel kit together, though she invited them both to join her, because there was something else she wanted to talk about. “So, Mordecai, when you described your visit with Ozuran, you seemed to be getting along, but, well, did he say anything about that oath?” Kazue winced guiltily and looked down. There was only one oath Moriko was likely to be referencing.

Mordecai sighed and gave a small shake of his head. “No, nor did I expect him to. He might at some point officially rescind it, but it won’t be any time soon. And that’s OK. The conversation gave me some more insight into why he took that action. Remember what he said about it being difficult for a deity to directly interfere with the dungeon territory of a large dungeon? At least, not without a lot of destructive backlash?” Moriko and Kazue nodded.

“Well, I am suspicious our dual-core will reach that state faster than normal, I am officially on the bad boy list of most deities whatever their personal feelings might be, and as a priest of Ozuran, I am very much a representative of him. That oath gave him a path to act within his dominion, and secure a link. My knowledge of the intricacies of power interactions is not as in-depth as it once was, but I am willing to bet that the link entirely bypasses that concern. It’s a leash of sorts, and as dangerous as those conditions are, there are also exactly two people who are in a position to judge me for it.” Mordecai glanced at Kazue with a smile. “And I think Ozuran would find Kazue’s judgment rather suspect, given the punishment conditions.”

Moriko frowned. “You still seem rather comfortable about the whole thing. I don’t get it.” And this oath was also the only thing Kazue had done that actually made Moriko angry. Which she intended to talk to the little kitsune about eventually, but that conversation was going to wait for a while yet.

“My loves,” Mordecai started, then hesitated before continuing in a soft tone. “I don’t mind because as much as I want to and intend to continue living, I feel less certain that I entirely deserve it. You two felt a touch of my rage, but I don’t think you fully understand what I did. I hate to send you off with a story like this, but it seems this is the time.”

He started pacing as he gathered his thoughts. “I don’t recall the details, I only kept enough to make sure that I knew what I’d done and not to ever do that again. But I can give you examples of what I probably did. I specialized in dragons, but I was also old and deep. I would have had samples of all sorts of life forms to create from and modify them with. Imagine entire flights composed of different species of dragons, and every single individual was imbued with all the magical essence I could cram into them. Without even trying to be creative I find celestial, fiendish, fey, and the elemental energies come to mind. Power, knowledge, and will. I had all of them.”

That was a rather terrifying image Moriko had to admit. A single adult dragon on a rampage was difficult for non-dragons to cope with, though fortunately such events were exceedingly rare. Mordecai continued. “Now imagine the first few flights were sent out with a mission to destroy all cities in a given area, namely the small empire that existed in this area at the time. After the defenses of the empire were scattered, the next few flights were each aimed at a specific large city. After that, keep a flight in reserve to provide extra protection to my dungeon entrance, and send the rest after the capital. And consider all the powers involved, dragons of earth, air, and water attacking from every direction. Destructive energy raining down of every conceivable type. Esoteric dragons trying to breach your perimeters via shadows and the astral plane, while others reach through the dreams of your citizens to twist nightmares into physical reality. And the gods only know what else I came up with when I was in my rage, I’m just hoping I didn’t feel desperate enough to create undead.”

Her husband’s pace had gained energy as he talked, his voice building with the sound of anger and disgust at his own actions, but she felt nothing at all across the link. Which told her how very much he was feeling, if he needed to hold everything back. “Every city that the flights found that lacked permanently entrenched magical fortifications backed by high priests would have been annihilated in minutes. There wouldn’t be a city left, just a distorted crater filled with a chaotic mess of overwhelming magic. And the directed onslaught would have continued until I had breached enough barriers and assassinated enough people to fulfill my vengeance. But do you think that would make things better? No.”

“This part I remember in more than enough detail, I made sure I would know why people might react to me. All those dragons I described? I betrayed them. I betrayed them the moment I created them, because all of them were created with the excess power of my breach status. I did not send a single one of my normal inhabitants out, for I knew if they died outside my territory, I would not be able to reclaim their souls. They would be lost to me. So I was greedy, and instead created and sent out weapons of war, made for no other purpose. And when I was done with them, I discarded them. I retreated my avatars back to my territory, and let go of my breach powers. They were immediately cut off from me, they were no longer mine. And they had no direction, knew nothing but war and death, and would have been desperately hungry for energy, being cut off from me like that. And their creator had abandoned them, discarded them. Can you imagine how they felt, what this did to them? And what they’d have done in turn with their pain, rage, and hunger?”

Mordecai was practically glaring at them now. “So no, Moriko, Kazue. I do not resent the deadly leash my god put on me. I have proven how dangerous and destructive I can be, if provoked, and I made an oath that Ozuran could take advantage of to get a handle on me in case it ever happened again. I trust his judgment. He is the god people turn to when contracts and promises are being abused, he seeks to have fair bargains. I have faith that should events ever conspire to push me to actions that he has to take effort to judge, he will be fair in his judgment of me, my intent, my options, my choices, and the results of my choices. Now,” He took a deep breath, “I rather dislike having brought those memories to the front. I need a break. Moriko, I will see you off, please, just give me a little bit of time.”

And he disappeared. Moriko looked at Kazue, who just gestured in the direction of the core. Mordecai had despawned his avatar entirely and was taking advantage of the less volatile emotions of his crystal mind to compose himself. She didn’t blame him and was silent while she finished packing. This was not the note she wanted to leave on, especially after such a good start to the day. When she was done, she took her time wandering up to the first floor, and then visited the shrine. Kazue wasn’t feeling talkative either but accompanied her at least.

She was lost in thought when she felt him restoring his avatar right next to her, and she didn’t have time to react before he pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed her. Moriko sank into that embrace, clinging to him as she entrusted her balance to his strength, surrendering to that surge of emotion. When they finally broke the kiss, she had to catch her breath and found him smiling down at her. “Moriko, I love you. I am not and was not angry at you, I was angry at my past self. Describing that moment like that was rough. I wanted to make sure I reassured you before you left.” He let go slowly to let her regain her footing, then looked over to Kazue. “And don’t worry, you’ll get your comforting in a moment. Now, before you go Moriko, I do have one thing I wanted to ask you.”

Mordecai produced an envelope sealed with wax. “I was hoping you would be willing to extend your trip by visiting your parents. This is a request and invitation to trade, in regards to their specialty.”

Moriko took the envelope but frowned slightly. “This is the fine paper you two created, won’t it disappear? I can’t claim it or anything.”

Now Mordecai took on a crafty look. “Ah, but it is very specifically an inducement to trade, and the value of the materials produced by dungeon magic is negligible in both relative and absolute terms, and any such costs can be considered subsumed into the results of the trade. Thus, it is intended to fulfill one of the purposes of being a dungeon. So it might violate the technicality of the rule, but it fits within the reason and purpose of the rule. The spirit, not the letter.”

Which she took to also be a reminder about what Mordecai had said earlier with regard to trusting Ozuran’s judgment. And she had to admit, it did make her feel a bit better. “Alright then. I was planning on running anyway, so it would only add about half a day’s travel total. Since we’ve already lost half a day or so, I’ll just stay the night there and set off for the capital in the morning.”

Kazue had a request to make as well, "Oh, Moriko, if you're going to be heading to the capital and stuff, um, if you run into a merchant named Ricardo, and my mom isn't with him yet, can you try and get him into contact with her or send him this way or something? Mom said she was going to try and catch up with him like a 'normal' person after she gets everything settled with the garden and our stuff, but if we can make it easier, I'd appreciate it."

"Of course love. If I see your dad I'll make sure to just tell him 'By the way, your daughter is reincarnated as a dungeon, you should head home and go visit her!' " Moriko laughed and hugged Kazue when the kitsune stuck her tongue out at her in response. "I am sure I can come up with something gentler than that if I run into him." A bit more time was lost to enthusiastic parting kisses with both of them, but she did have to go. Moriko made her way down to the main path, and then she started running.