No Need for a Core?

The next morning, Moriko hopped out of bed with a full day scheduled for herself. Breakfast, a little practice, work on some ideas for helping others with their passions, meet up with Ricardo and some other merchants he was going to pull in for trade deals, and then she’d have some free time.

Her plans managed to last all the way through breakfast and part way into her self-training routine. That was when a runner came up to tell her that Master Theodoric wished to see her. Moriko only took long enough to splash some water on her face to clean off any dust, then made her way to his chambers.

Like most High Masters, Theodoric had a small office for the first of his two rooms, giving him the space to do work as well as entertain occasional guests. His door was open when she arrived, so Moriko knocked lightly on the frame as she stepped inside, and then bowed in greeting. “You wished to see me, Master?”

“Yes. Close the door and sit.” Theodoric waited until she was done before he began. “I’ve gotten word of the investigation. It looks like little lord Antoine Demidov may indeed have been involved with that bandit you had to deal with, Akuma.”

It took Moriko a few moments to put the name with the person, she had barely remembered his name long enough for that trial. “Oh, that dumb ass. Yeah, we were already pretty certain of that.” She frowned a little. “Though I just realized that the timing doesn’t work, from what we were told about how far north they were.”

“Oh, it does if he sent the message before your trial. Mind, we don’t know this for sure, but he did send a messenger north right after the trial was scheduled. Speculation is that he knew that he wasn’t going to win the trial and was delaying to make sure he had people in place to ‘punish’ you and gave them last-minute instructions on his way out of the city.” Theodoric was frowning as he spoke. “Nobody local was involved in anything specific, the best we have is piecing together what various people saw and heard, and none of it is enough to be conclusive. And of course Lord Demidov has already left the country with his retinue, so there is no one we can grab to verify anything.”

Moriko made an annoyed sound as she considered the situation. “He’s a baron’s son, right? How much weight does his family carry?”

Master Theodoric shrugged. “Compared to the empire as a whole, not a lot, but certainly more than one of our barons would, and his father's barony contains a moderately large city. We respect our nobility, but there is an expectation that each generation continues to earn that respect. The Trionean Empire grew from cultures we would consider regressive, even oppressive. They hold their noble families in high regard just for being noble. He and his family may well consider it a matter of honor to ‘put you in your place’ or some such nonsense.”

She wanted to punch something. That trial had been such a pain in the ass, despite all the officials doing their best to make things easy while they followed the rule of law. One of the more annoying bits had been Antoine trying to insist on his full title, His Honorableness Lord Demidov, or some such crap. Kuiccihan didn’t recognize those sorts of titles, it had been codified into law at the foundation of the kingdom even. ‘Lord’ was the most he got, he wasn’t even the Baron’s heir apparent. “What can we do?”

“Not much, I’m afraid,” he replied with a sigh. “His offense against you has been dealt with, and all else is too circumstantial to press without there being a significant political reason to do so, and at this point there is no reason to. All I can say is be on guard.”

Moriko nodded thoughtfully as she passed on the information back to her spouses, then smiled slightly at a request she got back. “Master, could you get me a copy of his likeness? While I’d probably recognize him if I saw him, I don’t think I could describe him very well or anything, and it seems my husband and wife would both like to make sure they know exactly who to look out for.”

He peered at her for a moment as he considered her words. “So they are always right there in the back of your head?”

“Eh, yes and no. We always have a vague sense of each other, and I could point towards the dungeon from probably anywhere, but we can also always spend some effort to reduce the strength of the feeling. I felt it appropriate to send them an update, and they requested a better description. Thus my request for a drawing or something.”

“Well, I will see what I can do. I wish I could help more, but we don’t have much to go on and no specific threat, just knowledge that you have earned the hatred of an egotistical noble from the empire, and he is willing to buy violence to use against you.”

Moriko nodded. “I understand. Is there anything else, Master?”

“No, you may go,” Theodoric responded with a smile.

Moriko rose and bowed, then left with her head full of a new set of worries. Worries that she did her best to set aside as she set about trying to work on beginning her path to earning Sakiya’s blessing. Admittedly there was a bit of a conundrum to work her way through, after all, was it not a bit self-serving to try and help others for the sake of earning her goddess’s favor? But it didn’t seem particularly onerous either. She had not spent much effort on looking for people to help, but neither had she ever begrudged helping someone out. It was mostly about taking that extra step to proactively look for people who could use her help in fulfilling their passions.

She was starting with baby steps for the moment, she knew where to find some people she could help on their path. Moriko had no obligations at the moment, she’d been given all the time she needed to set her affairs in order before she left, so she was deliberately taking some of that free time to find students she could help. Specifically, she was looking for those who were reaching for the skies like she was. The half-elf might only be able to take to the air for a few seconds at a time so far, but that was enough to help others on their way.

For this Moriko was focusing on those who needed to feel the differences in their chi, to be able to focus on the flow of wind and air. Every teacher here could teach the first steps, but there were fewer available for any given focus or specialization.

Many of these she started with Breathing. All forms of martial training required proper breathing techniques, but many martial forms made use of specific breathing techniques. For touching the element of air properly, it helped to be able to breathe deeply, starting with breaths that were far too deep to be taken in combat. Filling your lungs with air until your body ached was hard, but it helped fill you with chi that was tuned to it.

Doing so while standing on top of a tall tower with the wind whipping around you could help some, others needed to feel their bodies working with air chi. For the early stages of training, they had the tools to help with that, heavier versions of pinwheels that would be harder to turn with one’s breath. They could also be used to gauge how much wind one was beginning to generate when practicing other techniques as well, such as the early stages of a wind strike. She also reminded them that any who were still having trouble when next a storm came by should get an instructor to supervise while they exposed themselves to the harsher storm winds. It was hard to always know what stimulation would be the breakthrough point.

When there were only a couple of hours left until she needed to rendezvous with Ricardo, Moriko ended her impromptu tutoring and headed off for a quick bath and to change into her uniform. She wanted to make a good impression after all, and it seemed more likely to help her be taken seriously by merchants she didn’t know, even with Ricardo’s good word. This schedule left her at the private residence early, but fortunately Ricardo had arrived early as well and was able to introduce her to their host, a human woman named Brianna. She was part of an established merchant family and was hoping to one-up her siblings by securing part of this trade deal for her family.

Brianna simply played host and refused to let anyone talk business until all her guests had arrived. Once everyone was present and had been served some refreshments, she tapped a bell to gather everyone’s attention. “Alright everyone, our special guest here is Moriko, and she is here by Ricardo’s invitation to offer access to a special deal. This gives you the chance to get on the ground floor of a new trade route, and as usual I am activating our standard confidentiality agreement. Please give her the chance to say her piece before you ask any questions. Moriko? The floor is all yours.”

Moriko rose and gave a bow to her audience before she began her prepared speech, crafted with the help of Ricardo, Mordecai, and Kazue. She had done a little bit to help at her parent’s business, but this was on a different scale and she had never been a negotiator. “Hello, as some of you may know I am the contractor for a new dungeon born near my hometown of Riverbridge, though the word ‘new’ is complicated as the dungeon has two cores merged together and neither of them is actually newborn. One is the reincarnation of Ricardo’s daughter Kazue, by the grace of Lady Mericume, and the other is an older, once-sealed dungeon who had been on the edge of extinction, named Mordecai.”

She shook her head then, anticipating the obvious questions. “No, that story is not going to be told, it’s time-consuming and personal to him. Yes, I am married to both of them, and I am not going to tell that story either. I am here to represent their business interests, you don’t need to know our private life, and those who do need to know details already do know, to the point that the government has worked with the churches to appoint a champion of Amirume to be their official liaison, though the newly marked Guardian is about to be sent off for some special training first. I am a member of the monastery dedicated to Lady Sakiya, though I am about to officially retire as my focus has shifted. Please feel free to verify with the Church of Passions.”

She smiled at the gathered merchants. “With that said, down to business. Ricardo has a short write-up of what a living dungeon can do that will be of interest to traders of all sorts that he will pass around, but the basics are that a dungeon can produce an almost endless amount of any material or product they have a sample of, with the limitation of a daily amount of production. So this get-together is in part to arrange a staggered schedule, as only so many people can complete a trade in a day. I have direct communication with them, so I can affirm bargains and sign contracts on their behalf right now. Any questions?”

There were many of course, and she ignored any that were off-topic. There were fortunately few of those, these people were here to make money. It did take them a bit to start getting creative, but a young man helped light that off when he came to a realization. “Wait, this means that your dungeon can replicate guns? Can they modify designs too? How many can they make?” The knowledge and skills to create their own guns were present in the kingdom, but the founding arrangement with the Azeria clan and the churches of Amirume and Mericume had included provisions for balancing the needs of a growing civilization with the needs of wild nature. Normal smithies already had to deal with regulations and upkeep of enchantments to keep the air and water clean, gunsmiths had even more to deal with, making gunsmithing inside of Kuiccihan prohibitively expensive for most, and there were only so many available for import.

“Yes they can, and modifications can also be done with sufficient time for experimentation after they have a sample. Several guns can be made each day, with numbers varying on the exact details of the gun, but stockpiling can be difficult until you have been there in person. The details are complicated, but Mordecai is a priest of Ozuran, and taking a promise allows them to do more than they could otherwise. So depending on circumstances you may have to keep a wagon there for several days to complete the trade in stages.” Moriko answered the questions easily with Mordecai’s and Kazue’s voices in her head to guide her, making her feel more confident than she otherwise would have. It was almost like having a cheat sheet for an exam.

Now the bargaining and arguing really took off, and Moriko was able to step back to let Ricardo handle most of it. He had first dibs, but the rest were negotiating with each other as much as with her and Ricardo to arrange who would focus on what markets and in what order they would get to conduct their trades. She took the time to enjoy the differences in the responses of her spouses. Kazue was interested of course, and was looking forward to new books especially, but Mordecai was practically salivating at the influx headed their way.