No Need for a Core?

Ricardo looked rather discombobulated at discovering that his attempt to not tie Akahana down to his traveling self had never worked, the only person he’d been fooling had been himself. As Moriko helped him right their table, she did have a piece of advice to give. “Assuming you have already found a perfect ring somewhere and have kept it someplace safe, I’d go fetch it before you next hit the road. If not, I recommend finding one soon. Akahana is prepping her garden to hand over to someone, dropping off some samples with both the dungeon and my parents in Riverbridge, and then she plans to ride your caravan for the rest of your life. You might as well be prepared.”

He shook his head with a smile as he bent down to collect spilled tableware. “She’s already decided this is going to happen, without asking? Guess she’s as stubborn as me. Don’t know how our girl turned out to be such a softie.”

Moriko’s mind drifted back to their library date and tried not to blush. “Oh, I’d feel safe to say that she’s got a will of her own. She just needed the right push.”

Based on Ricardo’s expression, she had not been entirely successful. “I don’t think I want to know.” He said. “But, um, I take it the marriage is mutual, not co-wives?” He looked amusingly uncomfortable asking even that.

“Yes, partly at Mordecai’s insistence, which is part of why I accepted including Kazue.” Ricardo grunted an acknowledgment, then turned to pay for replacement food and drink and an extra round for everyone, plus gave the staff who had to clean up the food mess an extra tip of a gold piece each. “Oh, my father-in-law is rich! Maybe I should call you Daddy?” Moriko laughed as she sat down to enjoy her new dinner, amused at Ricardo’s wince.

And that was when the two orc women she’d noticed earlier were now approaching their table. The younger of the pair spoke first. “Ah, based on the other names I heard while you two were having your, um, ‘discussion’, I take it you would be Moriko?”

Moriko frowned slightly at the two women, she remembered them looking at each other earlier when she mentioned Kazue’s name. “Yes?” Ricardo pressed a palm against his temple, probably realizing he’d forgotten to ask her name, which was okay as in the mess she’d never thought to give it.

The younger woman nodded. “My name is Bellona. This is my cousin Kansif. I have, mmm, well, future business with you and yours, and thought I’d take a moment to introduce myself since we’ve stumbled into each other. Kansif is privy to at least as much as I know, so feel free to talk in front of her. Um, That sounds a bit too serious. Well, it comes down to me being assigned to become a liaison to your spouses. Though it’s going to be a while before I can go there, I just picked up a new training duty.” Bellona finished with a slight grimace and lifted her left hand to show the back, where a mark showing a shield surrounded by symbols for the four elements was clear.

Moriko blinked in surprise. “Oh, well, that is, um, yeah, not something I was expecting. Okay, Ricardo, I think they should join us, this involves part of what I haven’t had a chance to discuss with you. Do you have any issues with that?”

The man frowned slightly, probably confused as to why his daughter would need a liaison, but he nodded slowly. “Alright, I guess.”

The little table was getting crowded, so they took a few minutes to find a large table and get everyone settled. “I guess I should begin so that Ricardo is up to date with what happened,” Moriko said once everyone was ready. “To start with, I need to be clear that there was no mistake, Kazue did die. Due to the circumstances, Lady Mericume took pity on her and reincarnated her. There was a,” she paused and double-checked with Mordecai and Kazue, as they had more exact memories of that conversation, then tweaked it a little to spread out the information, “potential for a rare sort of creature to come into existence soon, she made it happen sooner by having it form around Kazue’s soul.” Ricardo was looking puzzled, and she didn’t blame him, it was a lot to take it. “Kazue was reborn as a living dungeon, situated about halfway between Clan Azeria and Riverbridge.”

Ricardo just looked at her for a long moment before he processed that enough to start asking questions. “Wait, my daughter is now a crystal sitting in a cave? And how does that work with being married?”

“That sort of needs to start with Mordecai and me, then we come to Kazue.” For most others, she’d have started there to begin with, but it made sense to begin with Kazue for her father. Moriko skimmed over many of the details, especially Mordecai’s past and how directly involved some of the gods had gotten, but brought him up to date generally.

By the time she was done, Ricardo was a lot more relaxed. “Really? She went all out like that in a dungeon with only five floors?” Ricardo chuckled. “I guess that shows what experience can do. Well, that and you had double capacity, numbers do count for a lot.” He sighed softly. “I am happy my girl is safe. Well, I understand what’s going on now, so maybe our two new friends can tell us more about what’s going on with them?”

Moriko and Ricardo both turned to look at Bellona, who nodded. “Yes. And thank you for your story, I haven’t been given a full report yet as I need to do my Guardian training, so they wanted me to concentrate on that first. But as for how I got involved, I had an encounter with an old kitsune who seems like he might have been a sage. He gave some rather mysterious advice about visiting a new dungeon, if I wanted any chance at all of catching a minor criminal, and I decided that combination of the encounter and the news of the new dungeon warranted me making a detailed report. My superiors sort of ran me through the wringer in questioning me, and just the other day was the last set of questioning. Seems they had already been considering that they might want to make me the liaison since they wanted one anyway, and that was when my Mark manifested, which sealed the deal.” She made a face. “I get to go and train with the Jinn tribe.”

Kansif laughed at the younger woman’s clear discomfiture and slapped her on the back. “Come on cousin, you’re plenty tough, I am sure you’ll do fine. And now our family has two people raised to minor nobility! It will do great for everyone’s reputation!” That didn’t seem to make Bellona feel any better, and Moriko couldn’t blame her. Neither of the two women had said anything about calling them ‘Lady’, so Moriko wasn’t going to start unless someone said something, but technically all of the Guardians were automatically raised to the status of a minor Lord. The title meant a little less than it did in many other nations, but it was still an official title.

Of course, being Marked was more common in noble houses, especially ones that already had Marks, but it made sense. Though no one knew the exact criteria for who was marked, the general requirements were known: Loyalty and either Ability or Competence, but then it takes Serendipity to be actually selected. Noble houses with strong traditions focused on serving the kingdom and training deeply in whatever the person was good at were setting themselves up for success, and were more likely to have been active in putting themselves into positions where they might be useful, as no one is ever given a Mark unless doing so will help the kingdom, no matter how much they might otherwise deserve it.

But being Marked as a Guardian was also dangerous work. While it wasn’t completely unheard of for someone with no combat ability to get marked, it was relatively rare. The couple of stories she’d heard along those lines had generally been about someone who had stumbled upon information that they were desperate to report but didn’t have the ability to escape. Using the powers a mark can bestow without proper training was dangerous at best, and would always be less effective than when that ability had been properly awakened, but being able to be less noticeable or just barely able to teleport past a closed gate could be life savers.

Moriko’s musings were interrupted when the two women finished verbally sparring and Bellona turned to Moriko again. “I was given a general idea of how to set a good impression, but this seemed like a prime opportunity to ask directly if there is anything that the dungeon would like me to try and get during my trip? I’ll be heading into the mountains.”

She sent the query on to Mordecai and Kazue, then nodded at the response. “Well, it seems that any materials with a natural elemental affinity would be good, and given who you are training with I can see why they think it’s likely you might encounter some. In general, the rarer a thing is, the more it is valued, but quantity is far less important than quality for a given sample. Hmm, Mordecai has a specific request for any plant samples that might match a jungle or swamp? Oh, yeah, I haven’t gotten them a map yet, so he doesn’t know the terrain in the area very well. There are some wetlands along the coast, but I don’t think you are headed that way.”

Bellona nodded. “I was planning on renting a horse or catching a ride on a merchant caravan or such, and diverting to the coast would take me a fair bit out of the way. It doesn’t sound like those sorts of reeds are what he wants anyway. But I’ll see what I can do about the rest.”

The four of them talked for a little while more before the two women bade them goodnight, and when they were gone Moriko focused on Ricardo. She’d had an idea forming in her head for a bit, but it hadn’t involved the others. “So, as Bellona pointed out, dungeons are very grateful for gifts, but they also make good trade partners.” She grinned as she felt Mordecai and Kazue shift their full attention her way again. “And you are a well-traveled merchant, in the capital city of a reasonably wealthy nation. I am sure you can find a way to cut a good deal for your daughter and son-in-law, right?” Oh, this was a way she could help them out more too. She could arrange deals with other merchants for them remotely and actually confirm the deals directly.

“Ozuran! Check this out!” He’d felt his sister’s approach only a moment before, and braced himself as he was impacted by his sister throwing herself at him in a greeting glomp. “I started paying more attention to Moriko after she met with her Master yesterday, since she’s thinking about how she can expand her devotion, and so I caught this little meeting.” Her words drew a piece of his focus to the tavern where Moriko ran into Ricardo and Bellona.

“That is interesting.” He checked the web of potentials he’d been guided by when he’d nudged Bellona’s path, and the future knot looked more like a clean pattern. This was a good thing, but he still couldn’t tell what it actually represented. The future was never set until it was the present, his father had seen to that when he’d set the rules for this universe, and Ozuran agreed with Zagaroth’s decision. From what he’d seen of other realms, trying to enforce Fate was a good way for a backlash to develop. Freewill and Fate were not concepts that coexisted well in the same reality, and conflict always arose.

“Hmm, it doesn’t look like this was pushed by anything specific, just the general balance tilt that Father implemented. Though Kuiccihan placing that mark on Bellona certainly enabled this confluence to happen. She probably wouldn’t have been there otherwise, even if she had still been selected to become their liaison.”

Sakiya sighed slightly. “I wish I had gotten some of Father’s ability to see potentials like you did. I have to do more blind guessing and hoping for the best.” Ozuran very rarely tried to give his family advice based on the patterns he saw, he’d learned early on that it was messy and inexact. If he felt action was needed, he generally had to set it in motion himself.

“We each got our own gifts and influences. You are a much stronger warrior than myself, there’s a reason your monastery is favored above even those of our mothers in nations where we all have one established.” Overall, Mericume and Amirume had stronger churches, but he and his sister had their own specialties.

“Yes yes, but I hardly ever get to actually do anything beyond spar. Anyway, I thought you’d want to see the results of your little touch.” Sakiya tapped her chin thoughtfully. “I am excited to see Moriko looking to walk this path too, and she moved a little towards it here, but a lot of what she did also overlapped with her own self-interest. Well, let’s see what comes her way!”

Ozuran smiled as his sister kissed his cheek and hopped back out of his realm. Despite the fact that they were born on the same day, he often felt like the older sibling. Well, time to turn his attention back to that knot of potentials and see what else had changed. Hmm. There was a thin thread over here that looked interesting. Oh, that was delicate, he couldn’t pull on it directly. He’d need a child, but getting a child involved wouldn’t be right, and the only children who could be in the right place were in someone else’s influence anyway, so that would be a problem too. This was going to be tricky, but a few ideas were coming to mind. It was going to take a while, and even if the choice he was hoping for was made, this one's path was going to be a lot more dangerous.